We were lucky to catch up with Kelsey Holmes recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Kelsey thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?
I desire to build a legacy of possibility and empowerment.
As someone who barely graduated high school and really didn’t have any idea what they wanted to do with their life and thus put herself in a small box of what was possible, I desired to be an inspiration of what’s possible for girls and women.
I want people to remember me for seeing the best in them, for seeking the best in them. For helping them see their talents, skills, creativity, and inner empowerment.
I want woman and girls to be able to step out of what is expected and into their joy, impact, fulfillment and creative expression.
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?
Kelsey Holmes is the owner and life coach at Elevate You, empowering ambitious woman to elevate mind, body and energy so they can grow their life and business without anxiety and fear holding them back using mindset, subconscious reprogramming and somatic embodiment. The host of The Magic Is In You podcast.
Kelsey first got into personal development in high school beginning in outdoor education and leadership work, including leading peers on the high ropes course, leading group development workshops and personally facing her fears.
By her early 20’s she was ready for a new adventure. Training and becoming a Licensed Massage Therapist, opening her first private Massage practice and even began teaching Sports Massage at the local massage school.
To keep her body happy and healthy as a LMT, Kelsey began practicing yoga, even though she felt uncomfortable in her body and out of place in the yoga studio. Her yoga practice empowered her to cultivate a deeper connection to her body, bringing in appreciation and acceptance.
Eventually, after she had created profound shifts in her relationship to herself and her body through her yoga practice, she decided to train to become a Certified Yoga Instructor.
While running her successful private massage practice and teaching yoga, she was introduced to mindset work and subconscious reprograming work. She was instantly fascinated and dove deep into learning about the mind and subconscious mind, and began studying Rapid Transformational Therapy (RTT a regression hypnotherapy technique) to eventually transition out of the physically taxing career of massage therapy.
When 2020 gifted her the opportunity to abruptly close her flourishing private massage practice, (abruptly losing her studio space and realizing how much damage her hands had endured over the years), she transitioned.
Along side her husband, Nate Stoltzfus who is a welder by trade, they opened Creative Combinations Montana, creating custom metal and wood furniture, steel wall art and functional steel art work. Kelsey was no stranger to the welding shop, in high school she took all the welding classes in an effort to just graduate. Little did she know over a decade later she would be creating in steel again.
While Kelsey and Nate grew Creative Combinations Montana, Kelsey continued to study RTT as well as studying to become a life coach.
Within a year of abruptly closing her massage practice, Kelsey was flowing their new Creative Combinations Montana metal fabrication business and launching her coaching business, Elevate You.
Now, Kelsey works 1:1 and in small groups with incredible multi passionate woman in Elevate You, empowering them to release subconscious limiting beliefs, create safety and empowerment in their body, and cultivate a positive and empowering mindset, so they can create, expand, explore and live with less anxiety, self sabotage and fear, so they can grow their businesses and lives with more presence, flow and creativity.
Kelsey and Nate create stunning, Montana inspired, metal wall art, functional art, and custom furniture. Kelsey does all the design work for the creations that come out of the Creative Combinations Montana shop, including Glacier National Park peak steel privacy screens, large wall installations, steel wall art plant holders, bunk rooms and more.
In the last couple years, Kelsey and Nate, along side Kelsey’s folks, have converted what was a 2 car garage into a stunning Airbnb and showroom to showcase their metal art work and custom furniture, Inspiration Cabin. Inspiration Cabin provides a unique stay for adventures, creatives and travelers looking for a beautiful basecamp while they explore NW Montana. They are proud super hosts on Airbnb.
Kelsey’s unique and diverse background and experiences, empowers her to help her clients in Elevate You create flow, fulfillment, impact and abundance in their multi passionate life’s.
Kelsey is most proud of being an example of what is possible if you desire it and are willing to put in the energy to make it happen in your life. Including being self employed for nearly a decade, through a number of businesses and careers, growing 2 businesses with her husband and one with her husband and her folks, as well as impacting 1000’s of clients along the way.
Life is the biggest adventure, Kelsey seeks to empower you to grow yourself into the woman who creates and lives the adventures of your biggest dreams!
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
The Life Coach School podcast, by Brooke Castillo changed my life. While I was working with a massage clients in 2018, she off handedly recommended a podcast Brooke was interviewed on. Listening to the podcast after the massage, I was changing the sheets on the table when I heard Brooke describing that our thoughts are what create our feelings, which is what creates our actions, which creates our outcomes, and that we have control over the thoughts we think in our head.
My jaw dropped, as my head whipped around looking at the speaker, mind blown.
Up until that point, I truly did not understand I had control over the thoughts I think in my head. I just thought, my thoughts think me.
I immediately began binging The Life Coach School podcast. Now with over 500 episodes of how to improve thoughts and mindset, it is an absolute gold mine of knowledge and information. It is the podcast that helped empower me to understand, learn and elevate my own thoughts and mindset.
As entrepreneurs, creatives, growth seekers, our thoughts and mindset are at the foundation of everything in our lives.
The Life Coach School podcast is an invaluable and free resource I want everyone to know about.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
When the world shut down in 2020, I was one of the millions that had to pivot. I had been a Licensed Massage Therapist for almost 7 years, and been running my own thriving private massage practice for over 2 years in its last location.
I had know for a little while that massage was not going to be sustainable for many years to come for me, my hands, fingers and knuckles were feeling the repetitive work for so many years.
When I closed my massage practice for Covid, I thought it was just going to be a couple weeks. As the weeks rolled on, while I was at home I was deep in study of Rapid Transformational Therapy (RTT is a regression hypnotherapy), a training I had started a couple months prior.
As I spent more time studying on the computer, I realized I could not type at the computer nearly as quickly as I had used to be able to. I could feel my knuckles and fingers locking up more and more.
Just when I thought I would be able to start seeing clients again, I received a phone call from my studio landlord, telling me the Yoga studio that I taught yoga at and was renting my massage space from was closing.
I had the option to sign a new lease with the greater landlord or move out in 5 days.
With so many unknowns, looking at a higher rent with unknown new neighbors to share the space with, and my hand feeling like crap, I made the decision to not sign a new lease. I looked at a few other studio options in town, all of which rent was over double what I had been paying, still not feeling well in my body with my work and ultimately decided to close my massage practice permanently.
Nate and I had already been planning to open Creative Combinations Montana (CCMT), our steel art work and custom furniture fabrication business, in March of 2020 but when the world shut down, we waited until May when our world looked much different than what we had thought it would look like opening CCMT.
I jumped into learning new things for CCMT, while I continued my studying to become a Rapid Transformational Therapist. During this time, in the in-between and unknown, I experienced my first panic attacks, and ended up going through several months of sever almost daily panic attacks, as I was learning to know myself in a completely new light.
I didn’t realized it at the time, but all of my self worth and self confidence had been rapped up in my identity as a Licensed Massage Therapist, when I finally decided to close my practice permanently, it was like I closed down any self care, self compassion, and self worth with it.
Continuing my training as a RTT therapist, I began to focus on my own healing. One day after a panic attack, sitting on the floor curled up in a panic ball, I looked across the room and saw my yoga mat, and had the realization that I hadn’t practiced yoga once since I closed my massage practice, a practice that before I was doing 4-5 day a week.
In that moment, I committed to myself to shift out of what had become my normal daily panic attacks, and start getting back into my body with just 5 minutes of yoga a day.
That 5 minutes a day empowered me to come back to the present moment, back into my body when it was feeling safe, and back into my power.
I completed my training in RTT and desired to empower my new clients in a deeper way. I began a coach training to complement the work I was doing with my new RTT clients.
At the end of my coaching training I launched Elevate You life coaching. While I was still and am still creating with my husband Nate in Creative Combinations Montana, I desired to help people in a deeper way. Elevate You has been where I get to empower other badass multi passionate women to cultivate true self worth, self confidence and self trust, so that no matter what this wild world has in store, they can come back to themselves, feeling empowered, safe and confident in their ability to create what they desire.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kelseyholmes.com
- Instagram: @kelseytheadventurer https://www.instagram.com/kelseytheadventurer/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kelsey.m.holmes
- Other: The Magic Is In You podcast
Image Credits
Kelsey Holmes