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

Jessica, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I was a child with big emotions. I could feel things and had large emotional outbursts, would push boundaries and made things hard for my parents and teachers. My parents had their own struggles they were navigating and did not have the tools to support me in my big emotions. I struggled with my mental health a lot as a child and young adult. I experienced anxiety and depression and a lot of poor choices made due to this. When I found mindfulness as a young adult, it transformed my life and my mental health. I knew that every child needed access to this from a young age. I started creating fun and accessible ways to share this info with kids and it was working. I watched children in my town applying these tools by sharing their emotions and making choices to best support themselves moving forward using tools that I taught them. I was making an impact in my few classes in my small town and new I needed to make a larger impact so I am continuing to scale.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a children’s yoga and mindfulness teacher trained in making mindfulness accessible to kids of diverse ability levels. I worked as a behavior therapist for many years with kids with autism. I combine the principals of behavior with the philosophy of mindfulness to help support children in navigating life’s stressors. Through The Mindful Toolbox children learn tools to understand their emotions, gain awareness of their body, and utilize their breath to support them in their mental health and regulating their nervous system.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn that no means I should stop. I heard so many no’s when I was first trying to share my idea. It felt discouraging. If I had stopped, I would have never heard a yes and been able to share what is so impactful to me to share. I would not be making such a lathe impact as I currently am.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

I wanted to teach kids yoga. I was passionate about sharing these tools with children to make a broader impact. I had a 40 hour a week as a behavioral therapist with kids with autism as I was competing my yoga teacher training and then going on to my kids yoga teacher training. I started teaching 2 kids yoga classes on the weekends at my local yoga studio. I, then, moved to Crested Butte, CO after quitting my full time job. I was burnt out and wanted a change. I wanted to feel like I was making an impact not lost in a system. So I started teaching yoga in Crested Butte, mainly kids yoga. I started with two classes- one at a preschool and one at the yoga studio. I made $20 a week with one kid in attendance at the yoga studio for almost a year. Then I branched off and started my own kids mindfulness series and it took off. I had so much interest. Those kids had so much fun. They were learning emotional intelligence and applying these tools. I was getting so much positive feedback from parents. Class sizes expanded, I added more classes. I started offering kids yoga camps and parties. It took off without me ever trying to make it happen. It became so successful!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thrive4kids.com
• Instagram: FlowingWithGratitude
• Facebook: Jessica Noll
• Youtube: Jessica Noll
• Other: [email protected]