Simply Healthy You

Interview With A Client & SHA Co-Coach: Kathie Anderson Part 1

• Kacey Kane • Episode 81

Share episode

Kathie Anderson is today’s special guest! A Life Coach and Business Mentor, that is how it all started for Kacey and Kathie in early 2020. A happenstance meeting at a business retreat turned into a three-and-a-half-year working relationship and friendship, Kacey and Kathie dive into it all in this episode.

 

From that first round of Simply Healthy Academy where Kathie enrolled and had a life-changing experience to now having canceled her nutrition coaching program and becoming a co-coach inside SHA, there is so much behind-the-scenes information in this episode as well as Kathie’s health journey, and how Kacey has helped her.

 

Part 1 is chocked full of all the things you’ve ever wanted to know about working with Kacey and the kind of person she is, in general. Stay tuned for part 2!

 

Remember to share this episode if this helped you today and please leave a review!


[00:10] Kacey K: Welcome to the simply healthy You Podcast. Your place for overcoming overwhelm with your health to reach your fullest potential. I'm your host, Kacey Kane and I am so pumped to have you here. I'm a recovering burnt out high achiever who is diagnosed with an autoimmune thy condition by my early thirty s. I.

[00:27] Kacey K: Didn'T realize that running myself ragged in.

[00:29] Kacey K: The name of being superwoman and determined to achieve all the things in life was killing my body. I created this podcast so that you don't have to continue the struggle like I did for over a decade. I sat down, studied the data, and simplified what it means to prioritize your own health needs so that you can be the best for all the things on your to do list. Everything you hear on this podcast, I have tested and implemented in my own super packed life with my family to bring you the tips, tools and strategies that will keep your life simply healthy.

[01:06] Kacey K: Hello and welcome to another episode of Simply Healthy You. I'm your host, Kacey Kane, an integrative health practitioner and certified Holistic nutritionist with a master's in Psychology.

[01:15] Kacey K: I am here to bring you science.

[01:17] Kacey K: Based conversations to help you live a healthier and happier life. This is going to be another special episode interview episode. I hope you are enjoying these. I find these are just so much fun to be interviewing someone else and not being the one talking the entire time on the podcast. I love the podcast and believe me, I mean, you know by now I love talking and I am so passionate about all of these things that I talk about on the podcast. But these interviews have been super fun. This one is extra special as well. I feel like I have a lot of connections like that with my clients like I did with Ashley that I interviewed a couple of weeks ago. But this one is also extra special because Kathie started as my business coach in 2020. I was launching my business at the time that the world was beginning to shut down from the pandemic. And I came to her with a very specific idea of starting simply healthy academy and she helped me nurture it and also pushed my ass out the door and said, listen, you need to get this going in the next month. Because I was letting the perfect be the enemy of the good and wanted all the pieces in place before I put it together. We talk about that a bunch in this episode before I opened it up to the public. And she made it happen and I'm so grateful that she did because we are now three and a half years into running Simply Healthy Academy and she went from being my business coach to enrolling in that first round of Simply Healthy Academy as my business know, to.

[02:44] Kacey K: See what things were like.

[02:46] Kacey K: She talks about that in this episode.

[02:48] Kacey K: And then had a life changing experience.

[02:50] Kacey K: From implementing the things that I was teaching in the program. We continued to work together, her as my business coach. She ended up running into some other health issues. She enrolled in Simply Healthy Academy for a second time, had an equally, if not more life changing experience because of all the things that I had added to the program at that point. And she is now a co coach inside of the program. You might be familiar with her name from that. She is a co coach inside of Simply Healthy Academy and she works a lot with clients on the life and mindset work that comes along with being on this health journey. And it has just been such a fun journey with her. And I had so much fun. I know I said that already during this episode, but also because I really wasn't expecting a lot of her answers. I know that we have had a good working relationship and we are now friends because of it. I went to visit her in Arizona. She gifted me flights to go out and visit her for my birthday this year. And so we have very much become close friends. And I still was blown away by some of her answers to how she has looked at my business, the things that I have done, and why she believes in Simply Healthy Academy just as much as I do.

[03:58] Kacey K: She really does.

[03:59] Kacey K: And that's why she's a co coach inside of the program. So this is part one of what is a two part episode.

[04:05] Kacey K: We are both long winded people, and.

[04:07] Kacey K: So this interview is actually an hour and 25 minutes, I think, before I started editing and I edited it down and took out some of the gaps and things like that.

[04:17] Kacey K: But we have a lot to say.

[04:18] Kacey K: And it's really good information. I can't wait for you to hear this. I hope you enjoy this episode.

[04:24] Kacey K: Okay, I have a super special interview for you today. This is only the third ever interview that I've done on the Simply Healthy You podcast with this person. This is a very special person in my life and no pressure on her, but I was just preparing for this episode and going through some questions that I have for her and what we'll be talking about today. And well, I'll let the story unfold, but it has been quite a three years. That three and a half years at this point that we have been working together. And so I want you all to meet Kathie Anderson.

[05:00] Kathie A: Hi. I just said I'm rusty on podcasts and that's what I came up with.

[05:07] Kacey K: That's okay. I mean, my audience is used to those kinds of things by now. It's totally normal and I think it is a glimpse into what this episode will be like.

[05:16] Kathie A: That's perfect.

[05:17] Kacey K: There's no surprises there. Let's start back at the beginning. Let's start with what it looked like in 2020 when I just said to Kathie before we started recording, when the world was shutting down, we were kicking off and working together. I had officially started my LLC in March of 2020. I was finishing up working with a different business coach at the time and started working with Kathie in June of 2020. And the first round of Simply Healthy Academy launched in July of 2020.

[05:53] Kathie A: Hell yeah, it did.

[05:57] Kacey K: I hired Kathie first as my business coach, and that has been one of our primary relationships, but it has obviously grown into so much more than that. But I want you to tell everyone just a little bit about yourself and how we got to this place of working together from the beginning anyway, the business coaching piece of it.

[06:17] Kathie A: Oh my God, I don't know. That is such a long story. I feel like, I mean, we met at a retreat. A friend, a mutual friend of ours and your business coach at the time was hosting a business coaching retreat, and I was invited on the retreat to be a guest speaker and to help facilitate the retreat. And I love events, I love stuff like that. I love helping make events special for the attendees and things like that. So we met kind of by happenstance. I wasn't originally going to be part of that retreat. It wasn't like she invited me before she designed the retreat. I was kind of a later add on because, I don't know, it just came up in like a random conversation with her. It was all very, like I said, by happenstance. And so that retreat was really fun. And then shortly after it couldn't have been too long after that because that was January 2020, is that right?

[07:10] Kacey K: I think so. It was January or February.

[07:12] Kathie A: Yeah, January, maybe going into February, something like that. And then everything shut down, march of 2020. And then right around then we started working together. And so I guess to back up and introduce myself, which is also really long, I have my hands in so many different things at all times that it's really difficult to quickly tell you who I am. I was nervous you were going to send an email that had like, hey, send us a little intro we could use for you on the podcast. I'm really glad you didn't because I was already thinking about how I wouldn't know what to write anymore.

[07:43] Kacey K: But don't worry, I'll take care of that part for you. I already know.

[07:45] Kathie A: Great fab. Thank you. But currently I'm a business coach and life coach. I did have my own health coaching business program as well, and I ran four gyms and I was a certified personal trainer and I got a bunch of nutrition certifications after that. And so I was running a nutrition program, or I guess a wellness health fitness program. It had a little bit of everything, but the primary focus was nutrition, but it looked totally different than the way you teach nutrition. So I was still running that when we started business coaching together, and I was helping Kacey build her program. When I say help, I mean forced her to start the program. I think we started working together, and she was like, okay, I want to start a group coaching program. I think I could launch it in maybe, I don't know, November or, like, early next year. And I was like, cool. How about July? Kacey thought I was insane. I was like, no, we're doing this. We got to go. People need it. And then that was the start of us working together. Me shoving Kacey out of the nest like I was mama bird on basically our first day of working together. Like, no, you will.

[09:01] Kacey K: Yeah.

[09:01] Kathie A: And then for her first round of the program, I was watching her launch on Instagram. This is her first time really launching. And every day, I would give feedback and say, I love this. Try this, or make sure you say this, or, people need to hear this. And then towards the end of the launch, I told her, listen, I will be enrolling in the program. A as a business coach, I like to know what you're doing. I also think one of my strengths is that in my previous jobs running gyms or running a gymnastics program, I was always a manager. And as a manager, it was my job to get other people to be good trainers or good coaches, good gymnastics coaches. So I feel like I'm good at helping people become really good coaches, too. So I wanted to be inside the program and see Kacey coaching and see if I could give her any advice there beyond just, this is how to launch. This is how to know I'm not a marketing coach. I am a holistic business coach. So I told her, I am going to be enrolling in the program. I plan to be in this program. I think I could benefit from it, but more so, I want to be in it as your business coach. And so far, you have not enticed me through your launch to enroll. This is not a dig. It's not a bad thing, but I just want you to know I already know I'm enrolling, and you haven't convinced me yet. And I just nagged her to get really specific with some marketing changes, and then I enrolled. And then, surprise, surprise, her program changed my life as a client. I wasn't even enrolling for that reason. I didn't have any specific goals on the first call. It was like, what do you want to improve? I was like, I don't know. I guess I ought to eat a little better. And it was, like, very generic. I was not really looking for the outcomes that she had promised. And then a couple of months later, I was like, whoa. I have experienced lots of outcomes I wasn't even looking for. And I think I remember the testimonial I recorded from that round was like my skin had cleared up a ton, I had lost weight, my headaches had improved. There were a bunch of things where I said I didn't even recognize I was having symptoms. Per didn't. I've always had headaches. And like Kacey always says, just because it's common doesn't mean it's normal. But to me that felt really normal and really heavy periods felt normal. I was just very used to that. And I had had bad skin my entire life. I was in my thirty s and had had bad skin since I was maybe eleven. And so I wasn't even in it looking for those outcomes. I just wanted to be a supportive coach. And then she changed my life with nutrition. So fast forward three years. I'm a co coach in the program. I also participated in the program a second time. I made my sister do the program. I recommend it to every past client of mine. I am whole hog full advocate of this program because it is amazing. But I'm sure we'll get there.

[12:01] Kacey K: Yeah, I mean, you just summed up the whole podcast episode in one answer. So like, we're done now. We're good.

[12:06] Kathie A: Okay, bye.

[12:08] Kacey K: And to go back to one point that you had in there when you said Kacey thought I was insane, to clarify, you are insane. You are insane. But that is also what I think made you one of the reasons why you are the best business coach for me. Because I needed that insanity to push me to create this program. Because for the longest time I let the perfect be the enemy of the good. And I wanted everything to be so nicely and neatly organized and tied up in a bow before I was going to release this program. And I think back to that time frequently as I'm talking about this program and enrolling new people in it and just thinking like, wow, if I hadn't kicked it off, if I hadn't started with Kathie at the time that I did, and I hadn't kicked it, like, what would I actually be doing, right? Like, would I have even kept going? Yeah, I mean, it really like I don't know where I would have been with any of that.

[13:01] Kathie A: Yeah. And I just did a question box on my Instagram the other day on my Instagram for my candle company, new company that I've started since we first were working together. And someone asked a question about starting a business or they're wanting to start a side hustle, but they're nervous or something like that. And I said, only half joking, probably 0% joking, if we're being honest. Like, well, hire me as your business coach. I'm really fucking good. Because there's so many coaches who are very specifically they're good at Instagram or they're good at marketing or they're good at email funnels. I feel like I'm actually not phenomenal at any one thing. I think I'm pretty good at a lot of things, but more so similar to how you coach your health coaching clients, right? Like, we just focus on getting people out of their own way. That's the majority. And that's why I'm a business coach but also a life coach, because I will see somebody sitting in fear and waiting. And I think I have a pretty good knack or skill for lovingly shoving people out of the nest and helping them gain enough confidence to take the step, but not enough confidence or not so much where they're like, I feel fully confident doing this. No, you're never going to. But I think I have a pretty good knack for helping people feel enough confidence to at least take that first step or try or start or something, because you're going to learn along the way. And that's also why we have worked so synergistically for so long. Because you coach in a really similar way inside Simply Healthy academy. You are giving people the tools just like I gave you tools for how to launch or what to say on Instagram to enroll people in a new program or what the program would look like, or what tools you needed to get people enrolled. You're giving those same types of tools when it comes to their holistic health and their approach to nutrition. But then when people are sitting in their own way and making their excuses and being fearful, you have a very strong skill set for the same thing, lovingly pushing them and saying, get the fuck out of your own way. I'm here to support you. If you do stumble, I'm your safety net, but I need you to move your ass. And I think people need that as we get older, and you and I both have different backgrounds, but backgrounds in psychology to an extent. And I think that really helps us both as coaches because we know that as you get older, you will always miss to an extent that mothering nurturing experience you may or may not have had as a child. But we all long for that in a way. We want people to tell us what to do. We want people to give us guidance. That's why when you're young, you look up to your teachers so much, you look up to mentors, and then you get into the adult world, and it's really hard to have a mentor sometimes who's guiding you in the right direction, and you feel like, oh, adulting means I have to do everything on my own, and I have to figure everything out. But having that loving, nurturing person who is also pushing you to be better and to do more, it's something we all crave. And it's why when people have a coach, they do so much better. Yes, the coach's expertise, like you are an expert in your field. You are an expert in nutrition. There's no question about that. And people need that. They need your knowledge. But if you had a ton of knowledge but weren't a good coach, it wouldn't serve anyone, right? And I think, again, that's why you and I have worked together so well for so long, because we both understand that and know how our skill set can help people take those steps on their oh.

[16:38] Kacey K: And I think that's a huge part of the reason why Simply Healthy Academy is the powerhouse that it is right now, because now we have our combined coaching inside of that program with both of our areas of expertise. And, I mean, you can see it in how often clients repeat the program, right, how many times they come back. And even after this round, with having Simply Healthy Society the new container for them to go into afterwards, so many of them are having a hard time even leaving Simply Healthy Academy because they have loved that support so much that they have tons of information at this point. If information was the issue, they have it all at this point. But it's that coaching and it's that support that gets them from point A to point B to point C and keeps going with them on their journey that I think makes such a huge difference. And we've definitely had that in our relationship. I have one question from the business standpoint for you. Sometimes when people start working out with a business coach, they don't necessarily know what they want to do. And I came to you very specifically knowing what I wanted to do inside of my group coaching program, even though I hadn't had all of the specific tangible things ironed out yet. What made you as a business coach say, yes, I think that's a good idea, you should move forward with it, right? Because I'm sure you've had clients sometimes where, yeah, that's a great idea, but let's see how we could actually make it fit for what people need right now. We're like, we have ideas sometimes that don't always work out well on paper.

[18:05] Kathie A: Totally.

[18:06] Kacey K: But I really didn't get at least from my side, I didn't get that sense from you, right? You were like, no, this is good. You need to put this out into the world. And I think that's part of the reason why you were like, no, you're doing this next month. You're not doing this in six months from now. You're doing this next month. What was it that made you feel that way about this idea to begin with?

[18:24] Kathie A: I mean, frankly, one the more simple answer, I guess, is any business coaching client who comes to me with an idea, even if I don't think it's necessarily a great idea, I might nudge them in another direction or suggest another avenue or another way to approach that idea. But I want them to explore the idea because it's always going to be in the back of their minds. I have a current business coaching client who was running a membership when she first hired me as her coach, and this membership was really stressing her out. And for a couple of months she was like, I really need to figure out this membership and what to do with it. And I knew this membership is not the bees knees. Like, it's not where she needs to be putting her energy. There was nothing about it that was like, oh, this is going to set the world on fire. Keep doing it. Let's make sure we optimize it. So I just continued on with our coaching and would say, you know what, let's keep sitting on this. When the idea comes to you of what you really want to do with it, let's tackle it. But until then, it ain't broke, so don't fix it. Let's kind of let it ride. And after a few months, she came to me and said, you know, I really feel the membership has run its course. Can you help me figure out how to dissolve it and do something different? And I was like, Hell, yes. Absolutely. I've been waiting for months, but I didn't want to tell her, hey, let's close this down, because I knew it would always fit on her mind as like an unfinished project or something that went unfulfilled. But I also didn't want to pour a ton of her time into optimizing it and growing it and making it bigger and better when I could just tell, based on her mission of what she wants to do with her company, this membership was never going to serve her business in the way that it needed to, right? Or serve the clients in the way that she wanted to. So giving her space to arrive there on her own is important. I do think it's important to let clients explore what they want to explore. That's the kind of general answer. If anybody came to me with an idea, it's very rare that I'm going to be like, hey, that's a shitty idea, don't do that again. I might give some nudges, but with you especially, simply put, I was already running a group coaching program that I thought was really fucking good. Not thought it was really fucking good. People repeated it all the time. We had great results. And you were explaining what you wanted to do with the program and I was sitting there going, this is better than my program. She has to do it immediately. Like, people need this and everyone who's done my program needs this program because it's like the level two. It's so much more advanced, it's so much more in depth. It's going to be so helpful. And every time you and I talked about it, I could just see how passionate you were about it too. There was no question that you were going to have an amazing group coaching program. And again, just basically the way you described it to me, what was going to be in it, what was going to be included, what the structure would look like. Obviously, we worked on that together, and I offered some tweaks or suggestions, but I knew you had to do it immediately, if not sooner, because it just sounded too life changing for people to let it sit on a shelf collecting dust and waiting to come out to the public. And again, the first time you do it, whether it was a week later or a year later, the first time is going to be a little bit messy. You're going to learn things. The second round is going to be stronger. The third round is going to be stronger. A year later, it's going to be stronger. So if you waited a year, there's so many people missing out on the opportunity to work with you and get that experience and the future people are getting, not the elevated version, because you took a year to get to that elevated version. You know what I'm saying? So the shortest version is, again, you pitched a program that I knew was better than my own, and I knew people needed it. So I was like, yes. How do I get her to do this immediately?

[22:11] Kacey K: Well, thank you. I honestly didn't know what the answer was going to be to that question. And you always have wonderful things to say. Of course you're inside this program now, so obviously you wholeheartedly believe in it, like you said. But thank you for that.

[22:24] Kathie A: I ended my program shortly after I ended it for a variety of reasons. I had felt like it had for me personally, not what it was doing for the world. I felt like it had run its course in my life for a while. I kind of knew, but I literally could not bring myself to end it because people kept repeating it, and clients kept coming back, and they were loving it, and they loved the support. They loved the group. And then I did your program once, and I think right after that was the last round of my program I ever ran. And I just started telling people, like, I don't do this anymore. Go do simply healthy Academy. Go join Kacey's program. It's better than mine. You will get even better, longer lasting, more significant, life altering results than you were getting with my program. My program no longer needs to exist because something better is out there that should show how truly, Madly, Deeply that's a 90s song, right? How truly, Madly, deeply I believe in this program. That my own program, which I referenced for years as my baby. I always said that program was my baby, and I was like, all right, this baby's retired. And I think that that speaks volume. Again, there were other factors that played into me ending it. But that was the nail in the coffin. That was the thing that made me feel good about ending my program and not running it any further because I knew that people had a better option available at that point.

[23:53] Kacey K: Yeah. And I mean, since then we've had several of your past clients in Simply Healthy Academy and they have been blown away and they have had wonderful experiences. And I think that your program certainly laid a foundation for that. Right. And that's ultimately why we also ended up bringing you into the program. Why I wanted to bring you into Simply Healthy Academy because I did feel like there was that part of the program that could use your expertise. You had mentioned already I have a background in psychology as well. We both have different ways that we got there. But your knack for the mindset and mental health work is your ability to put things into practice, to give people active exercises for things has just been something that I've always been in awe of because I am such a good teacher of a lot of things. But when it comes to the psychology, I have such an analytical look at things, it is sometimes hard for me to use different exercises. And so I think that's one of the many reasons why we ultimately ended up bringing you on for the program. Before we get into why you are a co coach and what you do inside the program, I want to just get your quick take on what you have seen since you have been here since the birth of this program, right. You've seen the first round, you were in the first round, you experienced it. And now it started off as a twelve week program with just me, right? Nothing fancy, no slides, no modules, no nothing. Just me teaching and helping people implement. And now it is a 20 week long program. There are video modules for every single week, just about of the program. We've got worksheets, we've got tools, we've got all the fancy tech stuff, right? We've got you as a co coach for life and mindset work. We've got Kelsey for strength and conditioning coach. We have breath work sessions happening every month. We have so much stuff in this. How do you look at these three years of transformation of this program and what are your thoughts about all of it and kind of where we've gone in this time?

[26:04] Kathie A: I have so much to say about that. I'll try to keep it concise. It's not really my jam. One the biggest transformation, of course, is watching you. To me, especially having been there like you said at the birth of it, that's been really satisfying for me to watch you grow in your confidence and as a business owner, and in launching and in marketing and in going on instagram and saying this program will change your life. I remember the first time. You were launching it, just being so nervous to make any bold claims and tell people, I will help you. And every new coach has that fear. But watching you over three years completely transform in that way has been so much fun for me. The program itself has obviously evolved. You've also gained additional certification since then. I was going to say there's a lot of coaches who don't necessarily continue their education once they've got a program running, so maybe their program does evolve and they add video modules because it feels more luxe, it feels like a better experience, or maybe they make the program longer because it makes them more money, frankly. But you have evolved your program in a way that I stand behind. I can stand behind so much more than some of the other things I see out there. You evolved your program because you are learning more, so you're adding more to the program. The program didn't get longer because you felt like keeping people around longer and having six month payment plans instead of three or whatever. The program got longer because you had so much information to add to it and people needed the time to absorb the additional information that was being added. So I think that's a huge thing that I don't know if I've ever seen you talk about that. Obviously, I don't know why you would go on Instagram be like, I'm better than other coaches. I mean, you should, I always think you should do that, but I think that that is a really important point, that every change you've made to the program wasn't necessarily like, oh, this is a good business move, or this is the smarter revenue move. You have made changes based on the quality of the program, and I think that speaks volumes about you as a coach. So the very first round was of course, going to be pretty bare bones. It was you on coaching calls. I think you might have recorded them, I don't know. Yes and I don't know, maybe no, that's probably it. We took our own notes and I think that was it. And it was great. I just said I had a ton of results from that first round. It's not like the video modules gave me different or I lacked results because they didn't have video modules or something. But fast forward, like, I don't know. Two years later, I did the program again and it had already transformed so much. I enrolled in it again because I was experiencing specific symptoms and there were things I actually wanted to solve and I also was going to be moving, and I had been working with a naturopath. I just had a lot happening in my world that I could use some support around my nutrition and that would result in my body being better supported and my mind and even that second time of me doing it, there was so much more in the program. There was so much more education to be taken away and so many more tools. So having by then even just worksheets. It sounds so simple. If anyone was like wow, brilliant add worksheets. But again, psychologically having something partially written, you filling in spaces, having a tangible thing to take away from a call, you are going to retain more of it than if you are listening in on a call. But you're making dinner and you're doing this. Having to sit there and fill in a worksheet as you go and have that recall of the information helps a ton. And I felt like the first time I did the program I experienced a lot of change. The second time I experienced a fuck ton of one metric fuck ton of change to be exact. And it changed so much of my health over the following months from there. But yeah, I guess to sum up, I said I would make it short. I totally didn't. To sum up, watching the program evolve and continue to be elevated over and over and over, I am now absolutely awestruck by how much people get from this program. Not just from the tools side like oh, they get this and they get this coach and they get breath work and they get this. That is amazing. But also what they're walking away with is so impactful on their lives because all the pieces you put in there's no extra every time you could put something in if it doesn't have a direct impact, you don't you are good at editing in that way and there's not extras just for extra. We had at some point, maybe two rounds ago, we had extra office hours calls with me because in my old program that was really popular, people loved.

[31:21] Kacey K: To be able to come to that.

[31:22] Kathie A: Get a little extra one on one time. So we added that. We did it for one round. People didn't really use it, so we got rid of it. And I love that. I love that you edit because you're not just throwing everything out there and then letting people be overwhelmed if it's not having a very significant impact on their progress. You take it out and you put something else in its place or swap it or upgrade something else and I think that that is huge. You have never, not one round in three years have you ever rested on your laurels and let it ride. You have continued to change it constantly for the better, which is incredible.

[31:55] Kacey K: I mean, I'm not interested in fluff, I'm definitely not. I think I talk all the time on social media about how I'm no bullshit and I'm straightforward and to the point with those kinds of things and I believe that my program should be the same way. I'm not going to run a whole module on something just because I want to say that I have 20 modules when I don't think I'm actually contributing value. And we have changed stuff every single time. And some people would say that's neurotic. Some people would say, just let it go, like it's a good program and.

[32:24] Kacey K: I'm not changing things because like you.

[32:26] Kacey K: Said, something is necessarily bad. It just hasn't served people in the way that I wanted them to be served. And if there's something that we can be doing better, I'm always going to be doing better. No two rounds of this program have been the same, and I don't know that they ever will be. I think we're always going to grow and adapt and change because people do, and that's who we're trying to serve. I want to go back to one thing that you mentioned from your second round as a client in Simply Healthy Academy where you said you were also working with A Naturopath because you had a lot of things going on. I think that there is possibly a misconception maybe sometimes that when we're working with one practitioner I know I've had conversations with women before who are like, oh, well, I'm working with an endocrinologist on the things that I'm doing. Like, I'll work with you next, or whatever. So can you talk about why you decided to enroll in Simply Healthy Academy again, even though you were already receiving support from A Naturopath? What was the benefit of doing both at the same time?

[33:22] Kathie A: They just complemented one another. I have heard that over the years as well, oh, I'm doing this, I'll do this next, something like that. I think that's a really good point. But for me, why not use multiple tools at the same it's like you're building something and you're like, Well, I'm using a hammer. I can't think about a screwdriver yet. Well, no, maybe you need that for the very next step of putting this thing together and having all of that available to you to use at once. You want a whole toolbox, don't you, when you're building something? And so for me, I was just struggling in 2021. 2020 was great. I know a lot of people had a hard time that first year of everything being shut down, but for a lot of online business owners, a lot of us thrived. And we already knew what it was like to work from home and be around our partners a lot and not have a strict schedule and all of that. And a lot of other people were online more and buying things and enrolling in programs. So I found that a lot of online entrepreneurs really did well in 2020. And then 2021 was like, I don't know, just a ton of bricks. I got hit with a ton of bricks. Everything was bad, and I was severely, severely depressed, had suicidal ideations, and just struggled to get through life. I couldn't get out of bed for most of the year, and it took a while to ask for support, because when you're at your darkest point, even finding support is really hard. It's a chore, it's a project, and you are out of energy and don't have the brain space to work on a project. So it's really difficult. So as soon as it was lifting even a little bit, as soon as I was feeling even a little bit better and could ask for a little bit of support, I was like, give me all the support. Let me find all the ways. So I started working with the Naturopath. We did some blood work, we found out some root causes of things and definitely found out some major things going on with my hormones, basically that they weren't working at all. And I knew that she would be really supportive in a lot of ways. She was suggesting nutrition changes and lifestyle changes. She certainly had put me on a couple of prescription and herbal supplements and things like that, and homeopathy. But I knew that okay, but overall, I need more work on my nutrition to be getting more of these things into my body that are going to support me. A I know. Simply healthy will help with that. B I know that Simply Healthy really helps with hormone imbalance. And I didn't personally focus that hard on the hormone part the first time I had taken the program because I did not know that I was on the path to burning out my hormones. I didn't know that that part was going to be so important to me. So I don't know how much of it I really retained other than having a Brazil nut. I think that stuck from the beginning and probably feed cycling. Maybe I did that in the first round, I can't remember. But I knew that your program did that. But then on top of it, there's a group and there's weekly calls and there's slack, and people are supporting each other throughout the week. And when you're having a hard time taking care of yourself, it's nice to have people around. And especially virtually for me, I don't really want people around, but virtually I want people around. And so it's really nice to have that support around, to bounce ideas up off of, to ask questions. And so again, the work that you do and the work I was doing with the Naturopath work together really well. But the level of support from Simply Healthy, the number of touch points, the number of times I was able to say, like, hey, I'm trying this, it's not really working, what about this is so much higher in something like Simply Healthy? But it doesn't mean what I was doing with the Naturopath wasn't helpful. I just had more limited touch points and she was doing with me, I guess, a less holistic approach. You and Simply Healthy were going to support me every step of the way, every day of the week, basically for however long the program was at the time. The second time I did it might have been four months long. And so to have constant nagging and reminding and support and also building week over week, you teach something one week and the next week we're building on it and building on it, it made it easier to implement as well. So to me, having a whole toolbox full of tools to help me build what I'm trying to build always is going to make more sense to me than using one tool until I've beaten it into the ground and I can't use it anymore and then move on to the next one. I don't know. You want the overlap? I want to be working on what you're telling me while what she's telling me so I can also run into problems and I can run into hiccups and say, oh, sounds like you're saying this and she's saying this. I'm actually noticing a bit of a discrepancy. How do we figure that out? That's helpful. There's so many people who are in maybe working with a coach or they're on some program or something, then the next thing they do, there is some contradictory information because there always will be and then they don't know how to figure that out. They don't know how to make it all make sense. So to be working with both of those people at the same time and say, hey, you guys help me make this make sense. And very often it was a very simple solution.

[38:36] Kacey K: And I think you could have the best practitioner. Right. I worked with her as well, so I know she was very good at what she did. But even sometimes the best practitioners, they're still going to follow a very similar method of care. It was still only meeting with her once a month. And yes, she had some additional things in place because she was helping people virtually. She had some additional things in place where you could get in touch with her or you could add a 15 minutes call or something in an emergency. But like you said, I think there's a big difference between being in a program like Simply Healthy Academy where it's weekly, it's every day. If you need support, you can get it. That's a huge piece of the puzzle and I think it also helps to project you forward that much faster.

[39:21] Kathie A: Totally.

[39:22] Kacey K: If you have a question for the Naturopath, yeah, you can send her a message. You're going to get a pretty quick response because she's not going to spend a ton of time in email. Or you could schedule that 15 minutes call, but then that's it until the next time that you meet with her a month later. Right. And so a whole month is going by where you kind of have this question. And again, I thought she was great, but that's still a similar model of care that you're going to get from most practitioners, right?

[39:46] Kathie A: Well, and similar to what you always say about doctors, right? Like, doctors are trained in prescriptions. That's their job. Like a traditional doctor, you go to your primary care physician, you talk about a symptom, their training is in, what medication matches that symptom? And it's not a dig against doctors. They are very good at what they've been trained in. And when you want more, you want more pieces to support that. A person who's been trained in one area can't always give that additional support. So for me, working with that naturopath again, I think that and I think you think this, too, that my work with her was life changing. She is wonderful. I have nothing but amazing things to say about her and not but and she is trained in a certain way. So I was on quite a few supplements and certainly she did not want me to be on them forever. However, she doesn't work with you in such a way where she's really looking at your nutrition and helping you to get off of those supplements long term, right. And not because she can't, but simply, it's not how her program and her support is set up. Whereas I could be on those supplements and be on I was on hormones for quite a while, but then working with you let me back up a step. She is great about saying, I don't want you to be on this forever. Let's get your body doing what it's supposed to be doing. And the way she has said it to me is like but at this moment, your body is screaming for help. It is drowning. We've got to throw it a life raft. Like, right now, your body just needs a life raft. So we're going to throw some supplements at you. So I was taking supplements, I was on homeopathy, I was taking hormones, and then my work with you was like, okay, how do I get my body really doing what it's supposed to be able to do on its own so that you don't have to rely on supplements? And that's just not what she again, she's going to make suggestions or send you a suggested protocol. But her job is not a nutritionist. Her job is not an accountability coach. Her job is not ongoing support. So she's not making sure or nagging you about how you're eating week to week to make sure that your body is recovering. She really helped out a lot with that life raft. And then you were teaching me how to swim so I wouldn't need a life.

[42:11] Kacey K: I think, you know, even working with her myself, I think that helped me to figure out how I wanted to practice more in Simply Healthy Academy as well, where some people I know that I have listeners and clients who don't have access to that life raft. They don't have access to a practitioner who is willing to do that in a way that aligns with what the client actually wants. Right. They're just only pushing their specific way that they know how to. Right. Like you said, it's not necessarily a dig, it's just, hey, I was trained this way. This is what I'm going to recommend you. If you're looking for something else, I'm not your person. Right. And so now we even have those life rafts, those supplements and things built into Simply Healthy Academy with, like you said, the strategy of how do we build your body back up to a point where you don't need most of these things anymore. I talk all the time about how we can't possibly get everything from our food anymore. It's a broken food system. There's not enough nutrients in our food. No matter what it is that we're eating, there are certain things that we are going to need and also there are certain things we're going to need when our body is more stressed. Right. That was a huge part of the depletion for you is all coming from stress. And now you have the tools. Like if you know you're going to be headed into a stressful time, it's like, well, I know I can rely on that supplement now just to ride through this so I don't get back to that point. But being able to build back up again and not need to be on these things forever. Yeah, like you said, that's not something that most practitioners, it's not a part of their scope. That's not what they design their work to do.

[43:37] Kathie A: Well, and back then too, this is another thing to highlight about Simply Healthy Now and your additional certifications, getting blood work or anything like that through you wasn't an option back then and it's not for most health coaching programs. So it's insane that you have a program now where that is an option. But that was another big part of for me, like I said, having a whole toolbox of support, getting that blood work to know for sure. Because especially and you still teach this way in simply healthy. Now, for, let's say, people who have enrolled and haven't done any blood work yet, you give suggestions that are going to be safe for everyone. Like, you are very careful about making sure you're not making suggestions on supplements that could be detrimental to someone if you were to see their blood work later. Right. You are giving what's safe for everyone. That's phenomenal. It's a great starting point. I think the fact that I already had that foundation helped a lot in making bigger changes down the road. But for me to get that blood work and find out how depleted things really were, that was a huge part for me, was being able to have that more in depth blood work that my primary care physician wasn't going to do. But also is now another reason why working with you is such an incredible opportunity for people. Because I'm not saying no one who works with you would maybe benefit from also working with a Naturopath, but I do think that at this point, you offer so much. It truly is so holistic that people can get a lot, if not all, of what they need in supporting their hormones and their gut health and their holistic health and wellness by working with you. Because now you have so many more tools in your toolkit to be able to help people.

[45:14] Kacey K: What did I tell you?

[45:16] Kacey K: So much amazing information, amazing conversation in there. I hope that this helped you see some of the insight, some of the behind the scenes of the creation of Simply Healthy Academy, really the creation of my business. It started with simply Healthy Academy. That was my baby. I did have a few one on one clients in the very early days when I was just breaking into, you know, that certainly kicked things off. But simply healthy. Academy really has been my baby. And the evolution, and I hope you can see through Kathie's personal journey as well with her health, how Simply Healthy Academy was a tool for her in becoming a better version of herself, in becoming a healthier version of herself and changing her perspective and the way that she looked at her health. And as someone who had a nutrition program that she shut down after realizing that this program was better than what she was offering people, and she had felt that pull that this was, like she said, the nail in the coffin.

[46:10] Kacey K: That made her say, you know what?

[46:11] Kacey K: There's a better program out there and I want people in that program and she shut it down. So I hope that this was really helpful for you in all of those ways. Part two is going to be equally promising with all of the information that we are going to talk about in there because now we really transition the conversation over to after that second round of her being in Simply. Healthy academy and recovering from her health issues, what it looked like becoming a co coach inside of the program and how she views the program now versus before and what she would say to anyone else who is thinking about working inside of Simply Healthy Academy, becoming a client in Simply Healthy Academy and why it is such a valuable part of so many women's lives who have gone through it. So thank you so much. As always, thank you for joining me on this episode of Simply Healthy You. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to this podcast and leave a review. I greatly appreciate your support. Stay curious, stay healthy, and until next time, take care.

[47:14] Kacey K: Thank you so much for listening to the Simply Healthy You podcast. If these episodes are resonating with you, go ahead and click that subscribe button and leave a review with all the great nuggets that you're taking away from today's episode, I promise you I read every single one of them. As your feedback is really valuable to me in creating future episodes. As your host, I look forward to having you join me for the next episode. But in the meantime, remember, keep it simple and eat more plants.