We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Leah Kinsella. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Leah below.

Leah , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

Wow! I first thought of The Pregnancy Oracle Deck while I was pregnant with my first child. It was during the global pandemic and we were all home. I was meditating a ton and I enjoy using oracle decks. So, when I searched for one specific to pregnancy and didn’t find one. I decided to try and create my own. The initial idea was fast. I actually wrote the guide book and came up with the images in an hour. the content just poured out of me. But then I had to see what steps I needed to take. So, I literally sat down and researched everything on the internet. From copyright, to best software, to hiring an artist, to printing and design. What I did not realize was how long the actual process would take to move from idea to production. In the beginning I had a huge learning curve because I had no idea how to use the indesign software! Choosing an artist took time as did finding a reasonably priced printer. Copyright submission and registering for an isbn was another learning curve.
At one point there were so many delays that I internally sort of gave up. I just wanted to finish, but I didn’t know that it would really happen. But, I started it and I decided, my goodness! I was going to finish this project whether it was successful or not!
Once we had the samples in hand, I could conceptualize what the launch would look like. However, creating the product is like phase one. Phase two is sharing it with the world and selling it. Once again, I am doing everything myself. I had to decide on a sales platform and build a website, build a instagram presence, learn how to run adds and basically jump into the unknown!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Hi! For those of you that I do not know. My name is Leah Kinsella. I am a long time meditator, yoga teacher, pilates teacher, life coach and student. I started practicing yoga in 2000. I received my first certification in pilates in 2008 and started down the windy introspective road of self discovery as I dove deeper into my certifications with yoga, meditation and coaching over the course of the following decade. I chose this career path partially because I truly enjoy the work and mostly because I know that it makes me a better person! My career led me to teach at luxury resorts such as The Four Seasons and Canyon Ranch as well as The Sedona Yoga Festival. I pride myself on my grounded presence for loyal nature that stands to support my clients when they are navigating transitions in their life. Whether it be by meditation or coaching. My clients will often say that I have a very approachable manner where they feel supported during their sessions.

But what transformed my life the most in the past three years was being pregnant, giving birth and becoming a mother. During this time I have cerated, produced and launched the first oracle deck for pregnant women, The Pregnancy Deck.

Currently I am combining all of my years of teaching and personal development to guide expectant mothers and help them prepare for the transition to family life. I utilize meditation in combination with coaching for mindful clarity.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

My resilience is like a compass. No matter the storm, my resilience seems to guide me home.

I teach meditation, and because I do, everyone assumes that I float around in a veil of peaceful thoughts all of the time.
Well, this is not true! I am self critical and I push myself. I have a very busy mind that preoccupies itself regularly. Luckily meditation helps me navigate which of those thoughts are helpful and or not.

During the final production phase of The Pregnancy Deck. We checked everything and finalized the big order, only to receive 500 wrongly printed booklets. Unfortunately, it was our error and we had to pay out of pocket to reprint everything.
This was a tough blow, especially after months of covid delays in China. and our personal financial overhead. I really lost faith that this project was ever going to launch let alone make profit.
Yet deep down inside of myself, I felt steady. I have waged various storms in my personal life and this almost felt familiar. I just had to steer the course. So, I reached out to an old friend who worked in printing and she was able to walk me through the next steps. I gave myself permission to get angry and then simply got to work to fix the issues and get this project rolling once and for all!
Faith + action = miracles

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

When I started researching printing companies in the US they were either too small or they specialized in playing cards. S0, I took to the website Alibaba and started talking to printing companies in China. I admit it was tough to know which company was good vs another. But I made a contact at one company who seemed nice enough. She sent me a ton of samples, her response time was fast and the price was much less than printing it in this country.

The pros have been fast turn around and cheaper price.
The cons with working with someone half way around the world. The time difference can be a pain. Its tough to create samples and or communicate with the printer in real time. We would print a sample, receive it two weeks later, then through an interpreter revise the edits which would take another two weeks.
Where, I imagine if the printer was a phone call away, it would have been faster.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thepregnancydeck.com/ https://leahkinsella.com
• Instagram: @leahmeditates @thepregnancydeck