We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Caty Brown a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Caty thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?
I hope my legacy will be a reminder to follow your dreams and commit to yourself and your mission in this world.
Define your success before you start looking for it, what does that look like? The degree of success can be measured in health, wellbeing, peace, a stable home, bills being paid, a supportive community, being able to dedicate time and presence to your passions and your art. You get to define this for yourself. Take the time to ask yourself this question and meditate on it, you may realize you are more successful than you originally thought.
Remember that you in your most authentic form is medicine for the world. With radical authenticity, self love and and presence, you shift the energy in any given space for the better. You allow others to come into themselves and blossom from within. Everything is energy, it’s how we choose to show up that matters and inspires change. And sometimes we are only able to show up at 10%, that is okay, own that, you are still dedicated and trying your best. You in your most authentic form is inspiring to others, it allows others to be at peace with themselves. Give grace to yourself and others and never make assumptions. Hone in and own your own energetic imprint on this world. You are here for a reason.
We all have a purpose, we all have a unique set of skills, talents and points of view which are necessary for the world our evolution. Our greatest achievements come from designing and creating outside of the box. How can we come together, how can we identify different needs? How can you integrate all of these magical pieces of you and create art out of life? Life is a practice, a dance, a journey, a love story, we have many chapters and new stories can always be written. Always try your best, dig deep and love deeper than what you thought was ever possible. Keep trying. Ask for help. Give thanks.
Caty, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a Sound Healer, Reiki practitioner, labor & birth doula and I studied Yin Yoga and anatomy of trauma in the body, all of which are never ending studies of life. I am a student of life and an ally to those who look to serve their community and their people into their highest evolution. I coordinate wellness events and curate heart-focused healing experiences for individuals and groups, individualized by their intentions.
It was through radical self care and holistic therapies that allowed me to heal and align with my Soul’s purpose of creating safe spaces for people to connect, heal, share and grow together. I am currently studying to be an herbalist and I enjoy intuitively connecting with others by supporting self care practices to stimulate growth, inner peace and self acceptance. I have a passion for serving and empowering women, mothers and all people to heal during difficult transitions in their lives.
I moved back to Minneapolis in 2019 to start Soul Body Finesse with a mission to make holistic therapy more accessible to the community and to raise my children in this resilient, beautiful and artistic community as a single mother. Previously, I had traveled around for a decade, living in 8 different states including a Caribbean Island, constantly sampling the yoga and wellness scenes in each community, learning and bringing threads of wisdom from each into new places. I know what it’s like to feel alone in suffering and I know the power of healing in community. The vulnerability and courage it takes to just show up once is it all takes. Breathe and Be.
I am the owner of Soul Body Finesse, a sacred self care and community based wellness studio in Minneapolis, MN. We are a Reiki & Sound Healing studio specializing in self care and group healing experiences to reawaken the soul & senses. We are a place where you can tap in and attune to the unique energy of your soul in a safe and supportive environment. We firmly believe that when you are able to release the weight of what was and shine your own unique light into the world, it’s how we can authentically lead others. We inspire all who come into the space to release the layers and the masks and to come back into their own true, divine frequency of who they are and who they are meant to be. Our intention is to spread waves of peace and authenticity out into the world.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
My social media audience has been entirely word of mouth and community based. When I first started, I had about 60 followers of close friends and family. It was through hosting community pop ups in the park, healings via zoom and collaborating with other local artists and healers that my audience grew. I now have over 2,000 followers- which may not seem like much to some, but they are dedicated, interested and apart of our growing community. There is real engagement and connections being made every day. They follow because they are interested in the real growth, the building of the project and they are searching for opportunities to tap into a heart- centered community that cares. Our followers know that they are the inspiration behind everything. We grow and operate on feedback and community engagement.
My advice to any entrepreneur on social media is to shift the focus from feeling as though posting is your marketing obligation into the action of transparency- it’s an opportunity to share your craft, your style, yourself with the world, further attracting those who truly resonate with your practice. Not everyone needs to be your follower. Treating your audience as if they are all your allies and close friends and not just a consumer of a product. We know running a small business and being an entrepreneur is an emotional labor that we can never quantify because it’s a constant buzz in your mind that always leads and guides, so the more we can release the obligations and “should do’s” and shift into the idea that everything is opportunity, it can become fun and rewarding. Authenticity always wins. Slow growth can mean stable foundation.
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
Keep investing in yourself and your mission. Your biggest ROI is yourself. My passions have always been my side hustles. Anytime I received abundance from a project, I would keep investing it back in to make something else happen. From pop ups, to studio spaces to retreats and back. It’s all a work in motion.
My sound healing practice started with me plugging into other existing communities, I started giving sound baths at local yoga studios and gyms and reaching out to mental health clinics and volunteering in schools. Once covid came through, I shifted into online events. I partnered with other yoga teachers and healing facilitators to provide opportunities to heal from the comfort of your own home. Once covid started to loosen up and the warmer months came through, I would pop up in the park and offer entirely donation based healings, sometimes upwards of 50 people have shown up. This was a catalyst moment for me. I believe through dedication, passion and a desire for something greater other than your own wellbeing is a sure fire way to success. I built trust because I kept showing up. Everything has been a grassroots effort for me. The only funding I ever received was a micro-grant to be able to purchase yoga mats and blankets for my pop up events. I received this grant through a program I was on because I was receiving economic assistance to support my children and I during this time of transition.
During covid, stimulus checks were also my friend, I noticed a lot of people were actually paying and searching for healing, especially outside of the conventional 1:1 psychotherapy talk. We were thirsty for community. In 2020, I used my stimulus check to apply and secure a studio space in Minneapolis so we could consistently have a space to do the work and gather. I shared this space with an artist for 6 months, our paths led us in different directions, so I then moved into a collaborative work space, dialed back my offerings to once a week and shifted into my studies. This gave me time to reassess my vision and the stability of this project. I attracted a business partner and we reopened Soul Body Finesse in a new studio space in spring of 2021. We still have many side hustles that keep everything flowing. For the most part, the studio sustains with healings alone, but there has been months that we’ve had to put money back in. We have a crystal shop in the back of the healing studio, but it’s showing up to other pop up markets where the real magic happens. I also manage my children and my modeling/acting career, which was something that fell into our lap when we were living in LA, this provides me with another income stream and the ability to land work because of my flexible work schedule. We have multiple revenue streams supporting our mission. There may be other ways to do this, we are still learning, but it feels good to work and share a mission for a better, more peace-filled world.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://soulbodyfinesse.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soulbodyfinesse/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/soulbodyfinesse
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soulbodyfinesse/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@soulbodyfinesse2459
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/soul-body-finesse-minneapolis-2?osq=soul+body+finesse
Image Credits
Lydia Smith. Irelynd Williams. Caty Brown