IAM929- Yoga and Meditation Instructor Helps Women on Their Fertility Journey

Kate is a Chicago-based Yoga and Meditation instructor, specializing in helping women on the fertility journey find focus, clarity, and connection. After teaching for many years in traditional studios, Kate felt called to serve the communities that have profoundly impacted her life. She now practices Trauma-Informed Care and specializes in the areas of Women’s Wellness and Recovery. Kate studied mindfulness at Chicago State University and completed her 100-hour Meditation teacher training at Chill Meditation Center, in Chicago.

• CEO Hack: Creating Evergreen content
• CEO Nugget: Stand in your confidence, find your niche, and speak from your heart
• CEO Defined: Stepping up and giving to the world

Website: https://www.kateyogaryan.com/

Full Interview:

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[00:00:00.10] – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

[00:00:51.39] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today straight from her Zen Den. I have Kate Ryan of Kate Yoga Ryan dot com. Kate, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:01:02.10] – Kate Ryan

Thank you so much for having me. I'm glad to be here.

[00:01:04.70] – Gresham Harkless

Definitely. Super excited to have you on as well. And before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Kate so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Kate specializes in working with women on their fertility journey. She studied mindfulness at Chicago State University and received her certificate in trauma-informed care from the Institute of Trauma at the University at Buffalo.

Katie has completed John Kvat's Zen's eight-week MBSR course in the hundred-hour meditation teacher training at Chill Chicago, where she also had the privilege of leading workshops and working with their most recent round of teaching trainees. Kate currently works at NAMI Chicago and guides corporate meditations and private sessions in meditation and mindfulness throughout the United States. Kate, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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[00:01:51.70] – Kate Ryan

Yes, sir. Thank you.

[00:01:53.20] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, let's do it then. So to kinda kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about how you got started. Could you take us through what I call your CEO story? We'll let you get to awesome get started with all the awesome work you're doing.

[00:02:03.90] – Kate Ryan

Thank you. Yeah. So I started, I was certified as a yoga teacher in twenty twelve. And right away, back in that time, maybe even so now, it's a little bit prevalent, but it was really popular for yoga to have moved away from where it originated in the West in seated asana practice and a little bit more of an internal work that was done. So here I was teaching in rooms really hot and sweaty and throwing the weights around and the music bumping loud and I knew that my students were burning calories, but I didn't think there was anything in the internal fire that was working. And I didn't necessarily feel that there was a connection that was happening that might purpose their life outside of the place and I wanted more than that.

I wanted more from my students and myself, and I felt like I knew that that was possible. And so I started, because I feel like yoga yoga is, a mirror for the world outside. In other words, we flow through what we go through. Right? So I started teaching my classes based on what I was going through in my life in yoga.

And so if I was having a tough week feeling pulled in a lot of different directions, I would create a flow that would move me to the front and the back of the mat and forwards and backward and all around and focus my students on being surprised and trying new things and working a little bit more internally. And I started to get just more responses from them, more connection from them because it was more coming from me and my personality. So I started to drive my classes in that direction.

And I felt that in the meantime, I was continuing to search for depth within myself. And so went through the meditation teacher training, and continued to find more opportunities through trauma-informed care to speak to communities that had touched my life. In the meantime, my husband and I have been going through the fertility struggle ourselves up and down through failed IVFs and IUIs and the whole process that's so challenging and miscarriage and struggle. At that same time, I was reached out to by a women's wellness community here in Chicago that offers yoga for fertility, specialized. And I thought to myself, I don't know if I can heal this community. I don't know if I can do this. It's too close to me and it might be too painful.

But as a matter of fact, it seems like that's what I knew I was called to do at the same time. Perhaps, you know, a child wasn't in the future for me and my husband, but I certainly have gone through this process in addition to all of the yoga processes and the somatic healing practices that I knew I was just the right person for this group. So now I specialize in women's wellness. I teach yoga for fertility. I do mindfulness practice private meditation and group meditation centered around healing focus and clarity, and my life is so much more enriched than ever before.

[00:05:00.19] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. It sounds like that. I appreciate you so much for sharing that and, of course, you know, giving, you know, your life and your gifts to help out so many other people. And what really kind of, I guess, connected with me was that human aspect of yoga and even business in general in life that we sometimes zoom past. And I love especially, how you say, you know, if you had a you feel like a topsy-turvy day or a back and forth, you decided to showcase that in some of the movements that you did. And I think that's so, I guess, appreciative, I imagine, for the people that are going through it. Because when you have that type of week, you can kind of simulate, I imagine, some of those movements to understand that you can get through it, you can go through it, but sometimes that's just how life goes.

[00:05:42.19] – Kate Ryan

You're right. And I think there's although all of my students in the regular yoga classroom are not struggling necessarily with infertility, and everybody in the meditation room is not suffering from the same thing, suffering is universal. And we are you know, there is compassion that we are finding for one another through the process. Compassion comes from the root word pati, which means to suffer, and the prefix kon, which means with. And so as we find this idea of self-compassion through yoga, through meditation, we get to know ourselves on a deeper level and therefore connect on a deeper level.

And even though I may teach a practice that's about balance, generally, and we're falling over and we're on one foot and we're laughing at each other and ourselves, this is the beautiful grace and humility of everybody can understand that life gets out of balance and everybody can understand that feeling of shakiness and stand on the edge of something. And so there's a possibility in these broad universal themes that everybody can dive into.

[00:06:44.19] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And I think when we do drill down deeper and as you, you know, said so well, you're able to tell your story and talk about maybe some of the struggle things struggle and things that you're going through personally, I think we can, you know, connect with somebody else even though that its trouble may not be the same. The fact that we do have struggles and we do have things that we wish were a certain way and maybe don't go the way we want them to go, we can attach ourselves to that and understand that we can get through it because you've been able to kinda do it yourself.

[00:07:11.30] – Kate Ryan

That's it, Rash. You're exactly right. And I think that that helps to connect us, to see each other for our struggles and what we are going through. We now, I think, more than ever, relate to people who are real and, who are telling their true stories out in the world and being their true selves. And so I think, although you can pop into any yoga class and do a certain kind of flow, I personally, you know, want more than that from my teacher and myself.

[00:07:36.00] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And in true entrepreneurial form, you didn't decide to, tell somebody else to do it. You decided to do it yourself. So I definitely, appreciate you for doing that. It's a great reminder for all of us. And so I know you touched on the different ways that you serve the clients you you work with. Could you tell us a little bit more about that and what you feel might be what I call your secret sauce and what you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

[00:07:56.19] – Kate Ryan

Sure thing. Yeah. So I offer private meditation and private meditation and mindfulness packages so that you could do, for example, a thirty-minute meditation with me where then afterward you receive a follow-up email with lots of action items and things to try during the week that is mindfulness based around the meditation that we did. Before each, initial client, I will have a phone call with them and we'll discuss kinda what what they're going through, what's on their heart and mind and spirit, what they're seeking, so that I can really, gear each of the meditations that way. I also offer private yoga classes and group yoga classes, and it's all through, kate yoga ryan dot com, my website.

I have that same Instagram where I'm, you know, reaching and connecting to people through Kate Yoga Ryan. I have a YouTube channel with lots and lots of videos of meditation and of yoga flows. For now, it is limited in that I have those who buy the one hundred dollar unlimited you prep packages, they get access to everything. Otherwise, I parcel them through emails and to clients specifically based on what they need.

[00:09:02.00] – Gresham Harkless

Nice. Yeah. I appreciate that and the different ways by which, you know, people can take into, you know, all the work that you're doing. But I love, again, how it doesn't become like a one-time class session. It sounds like As you talked about with your goal and your mission of what you wanted to create, it becomes something that you can do additional activities you can implement into your life, it sounds like, and start to not just, you know, do the practices, but also learn the lessons and all the additional things that sometimes we zoom over.

[00:09:29.89] – Kate Ryan

You know what? You're right. And what the beautiful thing that's happened even because I started this, virtual practice during the pandemic, I would have never imagined that I would have a yoga community that knows one another and is bonded with one another and is accountable to one another, but it's there because I teach there's a monthly meditation circle that I offer, and the same group of people with new people coming each week come once a month and share and reflect. And there's I do a sound bath healing as a part of that because I'm a musician in the other part of my life. So I weave that in as well. And there are those opportunities through the monthly meditations and the workshops to see the same group, to be with one another. And I think that community, it's unbelievable that we found it even though we're not face to face right now.

[00:10:18.29] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And it kinda reminds me of something I got as a realization not too, long ago. Like, you almost feel like you can't connect, you know, because we're not, you know, standing face to face. But in reality, the connection might just be different, but it can be just as strong, if not stronger if you're doing it the right way. So I love that you've been able to kinda build that connection, build that community, because I think so many times we think that we can't happen because it's different. In reality, it just might be different, but it still can happen just in a unique way.

[00:10:47.00] – Kate Ryan

It absolutely can happen. And now I've got clients, you know, from all over the place getting to know one another, talking about after this pandemic, we'll do a retreat where we'll all meet up and eventually be able to be practicing in the same space, and how beautiful is that? And touching on what you asked about the special sauce, I think we kinda talked about that earlier. I feel like you are the special sauce. I mean, you are it, and that is the thing. I mean, you as an instructor, you as a thought leader, what you provide is special because it's just you. And so the more you lean away from who you are as a person, the more you'll feel that internal friction and struggle because it doesn't feel right. After all, it isn't you.

And so I certainly discovered that on my journey as I tried to squeeze into through a keyhole of other instructors and try to do what other people did or until I realized, no, this is who I am, and this is what I can provide. And with all of the knowledge that comes behind that, there's just an authenticity. And I believe that people, you know, they're drawn to that and they want that. And there's something really special about every single one of us that draws us to each other. And so just letting more and more of that out.

[00:11:59.89] – Gresham Harkless

Appreciate that. And I wanted to, switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:12:11.70] – Kate Ryan

You know what I just kind of came across lately that I know lots of my, colleagues out there already do, but batch-creating content. And so, you know, using, an app, or, you know, using a platform CRM or something to sit down, you know, on a Sunday or whatever day that I've carved out, create a block of time and put all my content in. You know, my Instagram stories, my this, my that, with evergreen content that, for example, is I'm always gonna say, you know, motivational Monday since post quote. So I can fill my calendar for the whole month with that. And on Thursdays, I'm gonna talk about a yoga pose or a meditation, trick.

[00:12:52.89] – Gresham Harkless

I want to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell your younger business self if you were to tap into a time machine.

[00:13:03.20] – Kate Ryan

Yeah. So what I've kind of figured out and we touched on a little bit before is the market pays for your passion, your drive, your energy. Right? And so is it easy? No. But do you feel called to do it? If you can answer yes to that, then don't stop. Then there is continued growth in every inch of what you do that people are out there, you know, looking for something you're providing. And so standing in your confidence, in your power, and speaking from your heart, teaching what you know, Find your niche, you know, find exactly what it is that you do that's special to you.

[00:13:41.60] – Gresham Harkless

Yes. Absolutely. Good vibes only. And so, now I wanted to, ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO, and we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So, Kate, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:13:54.10] – Kate Ryan

You know, for me, it means standing on the shoulders of giants and doing your truth every day. And so honoring the work of everybody that came before you, as you even mentioned, knowing that as a yoga teacher, I stand, rooted in traditions back to different cultures and different places move and shake your body and get all your muscles moving and warm, and knowing what it means to just sit with yourself. That being a CEO is stepping up and saying, like, I have something to say, I have value and I am here to heal. And so I think as we continue to move through the world, more and more people may step up and say, I have something to give to this world, and I hope they do because I think there's room for everybody.

[00:14:48.20] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. I love that definition and that perspective. I think we all have something to give. And I think that, as we know, we talked about before, the more we do it ourselves, we remind other people, to kinda tap into their genius and tap into what makes them tick and and what is their ultimate gift. So I truly appreciate that Kate and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you could let our readers and listeners know, and, of course, how best they can get ahold of you and to find out about all the awesome things you're working

[00:15:17.70] – Kate Ryan

on. Yes. Thank you. So I appreciate that. I have, as I mentioned, a free meditation ebook and all you need to do is go to my Instagram at kateyogarayan, and there's click the link right there, and you can download it. And that's a nice easy sort of step into what mindfulness and meditation are if you wanna just, like, have a peek and also peek into me and my philosophies and my life. And on my website, you'll find all different types of packages as well as my blog where you can do some reading about my past and my history. And I think in addition to that, it's it's straightforward to find me at kateyoke Ryan dot com. I'm out there.

[00:16:00.10] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much again, Kate. To make it even easier, we'll have the links and information in the show notes. But truly appreciate you for your time, and your work, and for reminding us of how, you know, connected we are, even through the most difficult times. But so I appreciate all the work that you do. Appreciate your time, of course, and I hope you have a great rest of day.

[00:16:17.29] – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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