We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kristina Hoyer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kristina, appreciate you joining us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

A little background on Ken and Kathy Hoyer would bring better vision and context to this story. My father, Ken, grew up in downtown Detroit. He always used to tell me that he was lucky to have made it out alive. My mother, Kathy, grew up in a white glove family in Wisconsin. I love telling stories at length, and am obsessed with extraneous detail, but I will save you from that by telling you that my parents brought the yin and the yang. That is exactly what they did right as parents.

My father Ken is the yang. He has always held incredibly high expectations for me while also charging me with the belief that I can always do better. He raised me to believe that I am incredibly capable. He fought his way out of Detroit, and in such, he was able to pass on resiliency and the willingness to put in the work to create the life you want. One acute memory of mine would be when I brought home a C in advanced algebra. I know, crazy right? This was essentially a cardinal sin in the household. My father was so beyond upset at me, disappointed doesn’t even begin to capture the reaction. At the time I didn’t understand what this meant, how it would carve me for the future. As an adult, I can look back and see that he wanted nothing but the best for me and expected so much because he knew I could do it. He charged me with self-belief. He instilled in me the capability to always do my absolute best and to accept nothing less than that from myself. In time, I have realized that he taught me through moments like that to set the standard for myself. That as long as I set and meet the standard, I will be able to stand firmly on what I create and be proud of it.

My mother Kathy, I always say that she is a saint in the flesh. She is the yin. This is not to say that my mother hasn’t been a hard charger in her life, this is to say that she charged hard and infused everything she did with love. My mother taught me that behind every chest is a heart, and within every set of eyes lies a soul. She taught me that every human here is just doing the best they can with what they have and we don’t get to judge that but we can instead meet them with compassion and empathy. There are many stories where my mother saw the heart of someone when everyone else had given up on them. Many moments Kathy took the time to really SEE someone when the world had already chewed them up and spit them out. I want to tell the stories of these people but in an attempt to protect identities and spare you from extraneous detail, I will just tell you this: my mother taught me how to create the space for someone to arrive exactly as they are. For them to be safe and perfectly RIGHT in doing so. She taught me that people are people, the human journey is rough and we are all in this together. The greatest gift we can often give one another is the chance to really BE, and to not be wrong or broken. To be able to just be as you are and to be seen as such and loved as such. This is a pillar of my work as a coach. My business would not be what it is without the space for each client to arrive exactly are they are and to not be wrong or broken for it. In my container, in my presence, in my spaces, you are not broken, you are HUMAN. That, in and of itself, is beautiful.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I am a Human Performance Coach. One of my favorite things about this title is it is almost always met with a “wow, what’s that” response. I help people move through their human experience in a more connected, embodied way and in such, they are able to perform better across the board. I work mostly with CEOs and entrepreneurs but I have also worked with the single mom who has completely lost herself doing the hard work that is motherhood.

I arrived at this craft through what I would call, “a God thing”. I served for six years in the Navy as a Rescue Swimmer and was madly in love with that career. I wanted nothing more but to continue to serve, but God had different plans. I began to experience severe pelvic pain that eventually became debilitating and immobilizing. Medical found no solution and in such, I was met with discharge. My identity was wrapped up in that career, so deeply, that when I left I didn’t think I would ever find life again. There was no way that I could survive this amount of pain, every day, for the rest of my life.

I spent many many nights crying myself to sleep or sitting awake through the night because the pain was too high. On one specific night, I found myself on the floor in the fetal position and it was there that I heard God. “You either lay on this floor waiting to die or you get up, and go become the woman you know you are.”

There began my journey with myself and eventually, the journey that would birth my coaching business. I wanted to take the high performance concepts I learned and utilized in the military and bring them to my clients alongside deep compassion, self connection and nurturing.

My coaching is a combination of sport psychology, nutrition, mindset, and movement. Our primary goal is to get you back on to your own team, to get you to a point where there isn’t that inner war anymore, but instead it is a united self bolstered by systems and education to help you create a life that you’re in love with. I fall more and more in love with the mastery of coaching every year. To see my clients become the humans they were always made to be, deeply embodied in who they are and falling more in love with that every day is such a gift to witness.

I currently only work in a one on one capacity in my coaching business and I would say that what sets me apart from others is that this is not a templated coaching program. It is a highly individualized approach where there is education, exploration, implementation and integration. My goal is for this to be a place where all the parts of you can land and be explored, and together we can move through your self evolution in the way that best suits you and your process. Cookie cutter approaches never worked for me, if anything they always left me frustrated. I don’t need someone else’s system, I can download that for free on the endless freebie interwebs. What I always needed was someone who had the capacity, tools, wisdom and willingness to meet me where I am, and help lead and guide me to where may be best for me.

This isn’t about me, it’s about you and for me, it is always an honor to be welcomed in with trust as a leader and a guide to walk with you on this path of self evolution and embodiment.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Oh man, ok peers, buckle up for this one…

The lesson I had to unlearn was that there is a “best and only way” to do a business online.

I spent YEARS in resistance to building a business because I didn’t want to do it the way everyone else was. It never felt good or right for me, it never felt like it matched my energy or my flow.

It wasn’t until I let that belief go that I really started to grow.

Figure out what you value, what you’re willing to do, what you want it to look like away from the influence of the world around you, and then build it.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I would say that the biggest thing that has helped me build my reputation, in general and within my market, has been just being vulnerable, honest and 100% me. Even in moments where I felt like I really didn’t fit in, when I let the masks fall away and just settled into who I am, that is when I always experienced the most connection and even the most ROI.

Contact Info:

• Website: kristinahoyercollective.com
• Instagram: @kristinahoyercollective

Image Credits
Jeana Marino @soulfulbrandboutique