Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kim Marie. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kim, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risk taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

For years I beat myself up for floundering through life, feeling so unsure of what was mine to do and experimenting with so many different things. By the time I came to the work I do now as a Life and Spiritual Coach for holistically empowering women, I realized that I wasn’t floundering at all, but rather taking risks to align with my Soul’s longings. Many reflected back to me how courageous (and sometimes how crazy) I was to do what I did, which helped me to see my path from a new and much more empowering perspective.

I have a very diverse background of skills and experience that I’ve applied to military, government, non-profit, corporate, small business, defense contracting, and education. I have a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics with a minor in Finance and concentration in Economics, along with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior and Environmental Design.

As with most of us, my early education and work compartmentalized everything. It took me some time to realize that my Soul wanted to bring things together and experience the interconnectedness of life, rather than segment and separate life into specialized areas. I’d been trying to fit into the conventional mold, and took a lot of risks (even if it felt like floundering to me at the time) to finally realize I was anything but conventional.

I went into the world as many do, thinking the conventional path of college education would be my “ticket to the good life.” My family could not pay for my continued education, and I was determined to find a way to make it through university on my own. I loved learning, but struggled to know what was truly mine to learn. I was good at math and science, and took the encouraged path toward engineering, eventually settling into mathematics. I put myself through school on an ROTC scholarship, though I had no interest in the military. Nonetheless, I excelled and was named a top leader. I got within months of being commissioned as an officer in the Air Force, and I became so restless. Something deep inside me did not feel right about swearing an oath that I didn’t fully believe in. I’m a peacemaker, not a war participant. I made the very difficult decision to get out of the military with an honorable discharge, and saddle myself with a huge amount of student loan debt.

I went into the work force, getting rave reviews at my jobs with the Federal Reserve and then Lockheed Martin. Yet, again, something wasn’t right. Both sides of my brain craved working together, creatively and intellectually. My work in research, finance and analysis lacked the creativity I craved, so I took another leap and went back to school for a design degree. I loved the creative expression of the program I was in, and graduated Valedictorian. Yet, again, something was missing. By this time I was married, and feeling unsure about the relationship, and also unsure about my future.

I risked moving across the country to work for one of the top interior design firms in the country. I quickly realized that I preferred designing for myself more than for corporate interests that wanted designs that kept employees “happy” to work 80+ hours per week with their fancy game rooms, lactation rooms, nap rooms, snack and rest areas, and sleek designs. This did not fill me up, and I took a chance to start my own design firm with a partner from the firm we were working for.

This is where the entrepreneurial bug really bit me. I loved being in business for myself, and had a lot of fun with what we were doing. Part of my interest in starting a design firm and my own business was to have flexibility when I was ready to raise children. I became pregnant quite soon after starting the business. My husband and I decided to move back east for a new opportunity he had, and I let go of the design business partnership. I was grateful that the new move and opportunity for my husband allowed me to pause for a bit and focus on raising my son. I experimented with an MLM opportunity just for fun and house parties to get to know the neighbors, but mostly enjoyed design work in our new home, and learning more about raising children in alignment with Nature, and of course Soul.

A new opportunity came up for my husband a few years later, and pregnant with our second son, we moved to Colorado. The first couple of years were again focused on creating a home for our growing family and continuing to steep in holistic well-being practices.

I found a deep passion for self mastery, particularly in the realm of feeling empowered to step into my full potential as a human being. I wanted to feel healthy and strong in my body, clear in my thinking, emotionally and mentally equanimous, and spiritually connected. I also wanted these things for my children. Early on in my life, I felt what I now understand to be a deep Spiritual connection, but the religion I was exposed to in my youth didn’t fit my experience of that connection. In fact, I’d grown rather disillusioned by the dogma and hypocrisy of the religion I was born into. I had so many questions, and so many frustrations. I began a deep study that took me down so many new pathways. I enrolled in Yoga Teacher Training and trained in Energetic Healing. I started exploring my Celtic Indigenous roots, and Esoteric Christianity. I fell in love with Archetypal and Eco Psychology, and the power of Nature to heal. And I steeped in the mysteries of the Sacred Feminine and the evolution of human consciousness.

I still often felt like I was “floundering,” loving raising my sons and being a homemaker, but longing for work that felt uniquely mine to do in the greater world. I volunteered, chairing a new campus design committee for the school my older son enrolled in, and ultimately being elected to the school board. I was active, but again restless. My marriage was flatlining, and no amount of new jobs or moving was going to change it. We amicably decided it was time to let go, and I discovered coaching. I enrolled in an Ontological Coach Training program. The entire premise of the training seemed to perfectly align with all of the Spiritual study I was doing, and coaching itself allowed me to have an umbrella under which my diverse experience and learning could have a place to serve. I realized that my experience allowed me to relate to many different types of people in many different situations.

The difficult decision to divorce meant I had to dive into a new career, and coaching would be it. I supplemented my income in various ways over the years with teaching in a kindergarten, and doing administrative work for a non-profit while building my business. I continued to prioritize raising my sons and living our lives in a holistically ensouled way. While there were many smaller risks I took along the way in various domains of my life, the risk to step out on my own as a single mother building a business was probably the biggest of all. Many thought I was insane, and admittedly, it’s not been easy. Yet, without a doubt, I can say that taking these many risks to let go, shift gears, and take leaps toward a new path has allowed me to stay connected with my Soul’s longings and destiny.

I have absolutely no doubt this is my path. I was not floundering. I was following and aligning with my Soul.

My work supporting the awakening of and alignment with the Soul’s Inner Wisdom, particularly for women and through cultivating a greater awareness and understanding of the Sacred Feminine to bring healing and balance to the Sacred Masculine, is exactly what I’m here to do. I would not have known this or found this path if not for the many risks I took.

Risk taking is not the easy path. In fact, for many it is the much more challenging path. Yet there’s something inherent in taking risks to be aligned with your Soul that brings us to life, guides us to a future we feel proud to be a part of, and fulfills us like nothing else. To align with our unique Soul in a world that keeps asking us to conform and do things the “normal” way requires risk. We risk disappointing others and being disappointed. We risk complete dissolution into chaos as we let go of all we thought we knew. We risk stepping into the unknown without all of the answers. Best of all, we risk coming completely alive and being filled with joy in a world that is doing all it can to numb and diminish us.

My mission is to support women to take the risks that align them with their Soul, and navigate the journey with a sense of resilience, passion, and clarity. As more women take this risk, the world will shift toward greater Love and Wisdom, and alignment with our Souls and the Soul of the World.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I took a lot of risky twists and turns (as I shared earlier) to find myself in the business of coaching women to thrive and align with their Soul. My own journey of self discovery and ongoing journey of holistic self mastery and fulfillment sparked the creation of multiple offerings to support women on their unique Soul’s journey.

In order to align with Soul, we need opportunities to listen to Soul, and practices that help us understand the language of Soul. Our Soul communicates through dreams, archetypes, symbols, artistic expression, star wisdom, intuition, and many more ways beyond the realm of the visible and logical.

I found that the deepest, darkest nights of the year, which I’ve come to call the Sacred Nights of Winter, offer a powerful time to turn inward, become still, and listen to what the Soul is longing to express to us. This time just after the Winter Solstice offers us so much insight and even prophetic guidance for the new year if we pause long enough to pay attention. And when we do take time to listen, our whole life begins to align more strongly with Soul. For this reason, I created the Sacred Nights of Winter Journal. I’ve now published 11 years of this journal, in various themes each year, to help us to pause and listen to our Soul. The journaling experience also includes a wonderful community of women on the Soul path, and a full 13 day and night program with nightly guidance and teachings to support the process.

The Sacred Nights of Winter program led to women wanting to do more throughout the year, and support the flourishing of the Spirit Seed planted within them during that time. I taught many programs locally in my living room at first, including courses like Wisdom of Fairy Tales, Sacred Parenting, Inner Gardening, and others. These all eventually fed into my signature Solace membership program, where women are guided and supported on their own unique journey of the Soul to remember who they are, reconnect to their values and sense of purpose, re-envision new Soul-aligned possibilities for their life, and ultimately rebirth themselves into them.

Solace offers a holistic approach to support women to feel empowered in their relationships, work, and well-being in body, mind, emotions and spirit. We explore deeper existential mysteries that guide the Soul along its path of destiny. Solace has become a living sanctuary for women on the path of Soul fulfillment that includes monthly teachings and group coaching, New Moon Intention Circles, monthly Fairy Tale Circles, Quarterly Planning Sessions, a library of learning material, and a beautiful Solace sisterhood of women supporting each other on the path of Soul.

Longing to create more support tools for the spiraling evolutionary path through the years, I created my Sacred Seasons Journals, which offer journaling prompts and contemplations to align with the seasons of the year and the archetypes and rhythm of Nature’s powerful support. I also created The Soul Planner, which offers both the Sacred Masculine form and the Sacred Feminine flow needed to create the most fulfilling, Soul-aligned life. I don’t know of any planner like this that helps women to align with Moon phases, seasonal rhythms, the Sun’s movement through the zodiacal constellations, and the messages of their Soul, all while being held in a solid structure to organize their tasks and intentions, and bring their unique potential to manifestation.

My work is less about “solving a problem,” and more about finding joy, peace and fulfillment on the journey through life, learning to navigate the challenges we face with ease and grace, and ultimately align with what our Soul came here to do.

I believe that we are in an extremely potent time in our human and earth evolution. We are learning to think and practice in new ways that establish us as true co-creators with the Universe. To me, this means creating in alignment with Nature, in generative and regenerative ways that honor the cycle of life and bring Love and Wisdom into the world for the future.

I believe our Soul’s are crying out for new pathways that take us out of the sense of emptiness, bereavement, overwhelm and depletion we’ve been in (something I’ve come to refer to as Soul-sickness) and into a sense of creative fulfillment that brings healing and possibility. Women are stepping out more than ever, particularly in the second half of life, to create new businesses, share their gifts, speak their truth, and bring healing to the world. Solace and the many supportive tools I offer provide inspiration, support, guidance and encouragement to blossom in these years, rather than shrink back as society has historically expected.

When women step into their sense of empowerment, and become clear on the resolve of their Soul, everything will change. My wish is to support this change and growth one woman at a time, and allow healing through all generations past, present and future.

Women working in Solace have not only built a greater sense of confidence, self-worth, emotional stability, clarity, and empowerment, but they’ve also experienced unexpected results like better health and well-being, better relationships, letting go of anxiety or depression medications, starting or expanding a business, and cultivating new friendships with other women expanding and healing in this way. When the Soul is strong and well, everything else heals too.

While every woman’s experience and results will be unique to her, the common thread of Soul-alignment and greater fulfillment is available to all who are willing to commit to the deep healing work that allows the Soul to shine forth. I’m so proud of what we as a community of women can do together, and proud to keep my program affordable for most anyone to participate.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

I sell both digital and hard copy products, and all are sold through my WordPress website using WooCommerce. I have integrations set up to send orders to printers for my hard copy journals and planners, which have worked beautifully. It took some time to find the right printers, and I continue to explore new possibilities. I currently have my journals printed by Vervante, and work with Book Factory to print my Soul Planner. I really love supporting businesses here in the United States, and both of these companies have been willing to not only print, but also ship my items directly to the customer. Vervante can also set up my journals to be sold on Amazon, though I’ve yet to do that. It’s in the works for the future, and I’m exploring some other print-on-demand options that might be more affordable too. However, I love that Vervante seems to be able to print absolutely anything you could imagine, from spiral bound journals, to tabbed planners, to oracle cards, to stickers, to Smyth-sewn lay-flat bound books, to seriously anything you can think of that is paper based.

WooCommerce can be a bit finicky at times because it often requires special plugins to make things work smoothly. I recommend a strong person supporting your website that understands WooCommerce, WordPress, and various plugin options to ensure you keep things backed up and running optimally. For instance, for my Solace membership and coaching programs, I use a plugin to offer paid subscriptions, which integrate with PayPal and Stripe to allow payment processing and orders to happen smoothly right on my website. I also have a learning area built into my website with the LearnDash plugin, though I’m working toward shifting my learning area to be in the same space as my community forum, which is on a platform called Heartbeat. I tried to find an affordable and effective community plugin or setup that would work directly on my website and integrate well with LearnDash, but most of them are quite pricey. Heartbeat is wonderful, and much like Circle, Skool or other similar platforms, but I believe more affordable and easy to use.

To ensure program and product delivery in the community space and to printers, I also integrate my purchases using Pabbly Connect, an affordable alternative to Zapier. Pabbly helps automate notifications to the printers that I have new physical products for them to print and deliver, and helps automate enrollment in the community space for those joining my courses and programs.

Year by year, new things come out. At the end of the day, we only need what is truly required to deliver a quality program and make quality connections with our clients. Certainly many programs offer more “hands off” ways than what I use, but for small businesses who don’t want to or can’t spend a fortune, starting simply is key!

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

Early on in my business, I was teaching courses out of my living room and marketing through my email list and local flyers shared around town. I wanted to grow these programs from having 6 to 8 women to enrolling at least double that many. I invested in an online program that promised I would make all of my money back or they’d work with me until I did, or refund the money. I didn’t have much to invest, and took a chance. I dedicated every waking minute to doing exactly what I was told to do to build an online program and to set up all of the marketing pathways they recommended. Over the 6 week program, I spent about 4 weeks staying up until 3am every night after my sons went to sleep so I could keep up and get all the work done. I was so determined.

It came time to launch the program, and I had everything in place. They recommended a certain number of emails to be sent, and various “tactics” to convince people to buy. I didn’t feel great about many of the tactics, such as pimping people’s pain, false urgency, and a sense of scarcity, nor did I like bombarding my people with so many emails. Still, I figured these folks knew how to make money and were already successful, and I wasn’t. So, I challenged myself to push through the discomfort and see what happened. In the last days of the launch, I sent multiple emails, even sending one at 11pm the last night the offer expired at midnight.

While indeed the “tactics” inspired one person to join at the 11th hour, at the end of my exhausting effort, I had exactly 6 women in the program, and did not make my money back. I had committed to starting my offered program a week after the launch finished. I was devastated that all of this intense effort hadn’t garnered bigger results with more enrollments than what I’d gotten on my own in the past.

I reached out to ask about the support or the refund, and they told me they would work with me to do another launch and work through it again.

What?!?!

There was absolutely no way I was going through all of that all over again when I’d done everything they’d asked, and there was no way I was going to disappoint the women who had committed to the program by postponing it or cancelling it.

This was such a powerful learning that all of the fancy marketing “tactics” in the world don’t matter if you feel like you’re selling your Soul or burning yourself out to practice them. I realized that what really mattered was getting more visible, and doing so steadily and sustainably over time. I’m still working on that.

While working through this program did help me bring my work from my living room to the online space, I already had a great foundation, and since then have grown my program steadily in much more authentic ways. I found other marketing coaches that taught non-sleazy, much more authentic marketing methods, and found community in learning with those people.

I’m learning that connecting with others through my writing, videos, podcast interviews, and interviews like this, as well as being interviewed for and offering online summits, is a much better way to grow authentically, sustainably and steadily without succumbing to the pressure tactics taught in conventional marketing. No amount of hype is worth selling your Soul, and if there’s a lot of hype in a marketing program, promising riches and speed and ease, I’ve found you can be sure you’ll be asked to. I feel like I’ve learned to be a Soul-based marketer over the years, which allows me to encourage my coaching clients who are building businesses to do the same. I love learning to bring Soul to all domains of life, including marketing!

At the end of the day, we are Souls here upon the earth to create and share our gifts. Pausing to ask the question, “Will this nourish my Soul and serve the Soul of the World?” is the best way to ensure we stay aligned with our true path in this life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kimmariecoaching.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimmariecoaching/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kim.marie.3192/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimmariecoaching/
• Twitter: https://x.com/KimMarieCoach
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@KimMarieCoaching/videos
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/KimMarieCoaching/

Image Credits

Kim Marie
Lynn Townsend