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

Alright, Kylie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

Originally, I was actually a Product Manager. I worked in tech for a number of years after completing my undergrad education, and very invested in my career growth and “climbing the ladder”. Then, I unexpectedly experienced a late miscarriage that really changed my perspective on work and life. I vividly remember sitting in the hospital, waiting for surgery, and realizing that all of the medical professionals around me were taking care of me in a way that I couldn’t take care of myself. In that moment, I knew that I wanted to do work that was more meaningful to me, and find a way to to take care of others. I’m horribly squeamish, so it was never going to be a medical path for me. But in the months after my loss, I went to therapy religiously. As my time in therapy came to an end, I remember looking at my therapist thinking, “Maybe I could do that too. Maybe I could walk people through their darkest moments.” I decided to enroll in a part time program and take a few classes to see where it took me, and it took me to a whole different life.

Kylie, 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’m a therapist (AMFT #136430), and I work with with women and couples as they walk through, pregnancy, infertility, and the postpartum period (up to 3 years after baby).

When I became a therapist, I was dreaming of helping people. While I love 1:1 therapy and consider it transformative, I also realize that there are huge gaps in access to care. Therapy is incredibly expensive and increasingly unaffordable because of our health care system. Because of this, I decided to take the more practical, clear skill building exercises I use with new moms, and put them in courses.

While a course will never be a replacement for therapy, there are evidence-based practices from psychology research that can be easily taught to new moms. My hope is that the moms who aren’t feeling like themselves, but don’t quite have Postpartum Depression (PPD) or Postpartum Anxiety (PPA), can get access to the tools that will help them enjoy motherhood.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

A couple of years ago, my husband and I were planning to move across the country. We were looking at houses several states away, and dreaming about what our lives would look like in a few months when I finished graduate school. We were planning to move to a state where it’s relatively simple to get licensed, more affordable to buy real estate, and a state that’s business-friendly, because my husband and I are both entrepreneurs. At the time, I was dreaming of buying a building and filling it with perinatal practitioners and services (think mental health, pelvic floor therapy, massage, acupuncture, etc.). We lived in California, which tends to be a trickier state, for licensure, real estate, and running a business. Then COVID hit.

My husband’s startup went under when everything shut down, and we were suddenly and unexpectedly pivoting our lives. He ended up getting an incredible job opportunity further north, but still in California. Suddenly, I needed to start a very different licensing process, and needed to begin dreaming new dreams, as a lot of what I had envisioned for the next few years changed on a dime.

From where I stand now, it was an amazing opportunity, and a great choice for our family. But for me, it also came with significant grief. Many of the dreams I had been dreaming no longer felt attainable, at least in the immediate future. With time, the dreams evolved to where I am today. In retrospect, it makes perfect sense that I would end up building courses… they’re a blend of my tech background and my passion and expertise within the mental health world. It was a pivot that I wasn’t happy to make, but I believe that the business that I’m now building has tremendous impact.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I’m a big reader and a podcast junkie, so I always have something in my que, and I love learning from people who are a few steps ahead of me in the areas of life that I’m most interested in growing. Most recently, I started a practice called “Morning Pages”, which is a technique from a book called The Artist’s Way. It sounds fancy, but it’s really an exercise where you brain dump 3 pages of writing at the beginning of the morning.

This habit has been transformative for me – sometimes I’m literally just writing my schedule, other days I’m brainstorming a new course, and other days, I’m reflecting on a conversation that I wouldn’t have made the space to process. The theory is that by making the space for your brain to process first thing in the morning, you are both tapping into creativity at the beginning of the day, and making space to process the most urgent things on your mind, which keeps those things from weighing you down throughout the day. Simply put: this practice takes away distraction and creates more intention.

Contact Info:

• Website: kyliehempy.com
• Instagram: @kyliehempy
• Other: TikTok: _kyliehempy

Image Credits
@kelseygannphoto