We recently connected with Kim Muench and have shared our conversation below.
Kim, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
I was certified as a parent coach through the Jai Institute for Parenting in 2016. Shortly thereafter, my husband left corporate to pursue his passion for adventure and helping others by opening a travel franchise. This required me to find a job that included health benefits for our family. I was fortunate to be hired to a job I loved, while it didn’t involve coaching parents, it did offer me a way to use my skills and learn and grow as a human being.
As I began year two of my job, in tandem with trying to build my parent coaching business, a few things happened. I began to get stressed out trying to juggle the job, the business, my family, the commute… and then I read a book called, “The Top Five Regrets of the Dying” by Bronnie Ware. This book changed my life! Did you know the biggest regret dying people have is that they lived for who everyone else needed or wanted them to be rather than for who they truly were?!?!
After much soul searching, and despite my husband’s protests, at the end of 2020 I quit my job to finish writing my book which I titled, Becoming Me While Raising You, and to pursue my coaching business full-time. Given how heavily impacted the travel industry has been since March of 2020, you can imagine my husband’s dismay. Yet my heart kept telling me this is what I needed to do!
My book got written, published, became an Amazon #1 New Release in the Parent & Adult Child Relationships category! I have a growing presence on TikTok helping parents learn to raising their children peacefully, with intention and without struggle. More important than either of these things is the peace and joy I find in living my life’s purpose!
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 grew up in a very traditional Midwestern home, though at age eighteen I became pregnant with my first child. My parents were not pleased and while my mom did all she could to support and encourage me along, I was faced with becoming a homeless single parent at an early age.
My son’s father was abusive and it took awhile to extricate myself from that relationship. Shortly thereafter I began dating my now husband of thirty years. We married in 1992 and have four additional children together. These “kids” are now age 16-34 years of age, so all of them are taller than me, lol.
In Spring, 2007 my husband’s job brought us to Texas as my eldest was starting college in our home state, so he stayed behind to begin his young adult life. In May, 2008 he called me from across the country to say he’d lost the last 3 days of his life to an alcohol binge, it wasn’t the first time, and he needed help.
That was my parenting wake up call, as well as my personal awakening.
Through a tumultuous series of events helping him find long-term sobriety, I returned to college and eventually decided helping other parents with their teens and young adults is what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. My son is now almost 12 years sober and I am supporting other parents everyday who want to parent differently than they were raised. My goal is to be a safe space of education, encouragement and non-judgment for the evolution in how we raise the next generation.
I offer one-on-one parent coaching via Zoom around issues like creating healthy communication at home, setting boundaries that stick, building trust and respect into the parent/child relationship, knowing when to help your child with their problem and when to allow the natural consequences teach the life lesson that’s needed. The cool thing is that I can help parents no matter where they live! In addition, I facilitate small group classes, a self-paced online class, and I write and speak often on topics related to consciously parenting adolescents.
Because of my life experiences, only a few of which are highlighted here, I serve my clients with intention, compassion, and without judgment as they discover the truly essence of what parenthood is all about.
Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?
Other than training/knowledge, the most helpful character trait for succeeding in my field is persistence! Even when I don’t have any idea how to do something (usually tech oriented), even when I’m tired of marketing myself, even when I have no idea what the next right step is…I keep moving forward. I am being fueled by my passion and life’s purpose.
If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?
If I could go back, I would absolutely choose to become a parent coach, I know that my life path has led me to this calling. I can’t imagine doing anything else, or helping others in a more important way than what I do everyday right now!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://reallifeparentguide.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kimmuenchreallifeparentguide/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kimmuench.reallifeparentguide
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimmuenchreallifeparentguide/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-h2K2Hk_pF521Dyurbee9A
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kimmuenchparentcoach