Cathy McKinnon of Wellness Warrior Coaching is helping others awaken their highest potential while consciously creating a life they adore. Ultimately guiding clients through the process of creating a vision for their health and well-being, develop a healthy mindset and variety of healthy habits, and also encouraging them every step of the way whilst they accomplish their goals.
Welcome Cathy, thank you for coming on board with us, can you introduce yourself to us?
First of all, I would like to thank you for having me! I am so excited to join this amazing group of phenomenal women! Having grown up in the Chicagoland area I have to admit geographically I have not wandered too far from home! Physically I am not too far from where I grew up, but I’ve certainly been on a wild ride I never would have imagined as a child!
Growing up I was told that you go to college and get a good job. However, as a strong-willed teenager, I had to put my spin on this advice. As I prepared to go off to college, I wanted to purchase a car so that I could continue my part-time job to help pay for expenses. My parents did not understand taking funding that had been set aside for college tuition to purchase a car.
For a good hour, I listened to the barrage of comments from my parents, “you’ll never go to college if you buy a car, you’ll never make anything of yourself, you’ll never get a good job.” I stood there taking it, listening to them go on and on. My stance got heavier, and my jaw clenched, I would prove them wrong. I knew I had a plan they just were not understanding of it.
I went to college and then went on to get my MBA; I was successful and continued to rise through the ranks of the company I was at. Delving into my work, working long hours, doing what had to be done for my career. I thought I had all the time in the world, I was young, I was invincible.
When I finally thought I was in a position in my career where I was contented to take a step back and start a family, the universe had other plans for me.
The plan I had laid out in my head was thrown out in an instant. After several miscarriages, I lost my drive and found a position where I was just content. I needed to focus on my health and desire to have my baby. I went on a mission to find a doctor that could give me a logical reason for this. I had achieved all my other goals in school and my career; why was this working against me. I had to find a logical answer and I went from doctor to doctor to find that answer.
A received an answer I was not expecting in a cancer diagnosis. I was not yet 30 and it hit me like a ton of bricks.While I was processing this, little to my knowledge my company was going through a restructuring and I was handed my pink slip two weeks after my cancer diagnosis.
While recovering from surgery and subsequent radiation treatment, I did a massive amount of soul searching. I questioned everything from my career path to the habits around my health.
It was then that I started down the path to where I am at today…..
Can you talk us through the path you have pathed to where you are now as the founder of Warrior Wellness Coaching?
Initially starting a business was not even on my radar. As those around me started to notice the changes, they asked how I was doing it. Initially, I started helping a few other women in my close circle and then asked myself why I was playing small. I could help so many more women stop feeling stuck!
The company name was crafted from a nickname I had received over the years. Those closest to me started calling me a warrior for the way I preserved through my challenges and thus it stuck. I want other women to have this awakening and feel this way about life!
Since founding my business I have gained amazing connections, have been offered incredible opportunities and have watched women transform their lives! I see them showing up differently! I see them laughing, showing up with joy in their eyes and creating boundaries that help them on their path to their best life.
Explore how your own cancer diagnosis back in 2008 forced you to immerse yourself into a strategic journey of life transformation through health and fitness.
My cancer diagnosis hit me very hard. I was not yet 30, I had no family history of this type of cancer and at the end of the day, I just wanted to be a mother. No one wants to hear the “C” word, it is scary, the path is unknown, and you question your future.
After my cancer diagnosis, I was on a mission to revamp my lifestyle and be the healthiest version of myself. At that point, it was all about understanding and learning new ways to live. I sought out holistic doctors, spent hours researching and gained coaching certifications. The more I found out how destructive my habits were the more I realised I had to change for the longevity of the life I wanted to live.
How are you aiming to empower others with the valuable knowledge you have learned through my journey and what methods are you using?
My coaching and speaking engagements are a combination of health and life coaching as I strongly believe in the correlation of mind, body, and energy for optimal living. I openly share my story and my tools for navigating this journey we call life. Knowing you are not in this alone, knowing that I see you, feel you and hear you because I am YOU!
I work with busy women who feel trapped in their lives find joy again by establishing healthy habits, accountability, and goals!
My signature program ‘The Warrior Way’ is 90 days of your hardest work and dedication for a lifetime of real benefits for your mind, body, and soul! It can be challenging work however pushing past those limiting beliefs and finding the individual success habits that fit your goals and lifestyle will pay dividends in how you show up in the world!
Life can throw us curveballs that we have no idea how to cope with; this does not mean that you have to spend the rest of your days in despair. It can take time, patience and a lot of internal work; but you owe it to yourself to be the best version of yourself for the rest of your days!
As a certified yoga personal trainer specialising in strength and recovery programs, can you tell us what these programs entail and what does your client take away from each experience with you?
In my 1:1 yoga personal training, I work with clients on their specific goals towards mind and body strength. For those athletes that want to gain flexibility or range of motion, we focus on lengthening and strengthening the muscles while opening the joints. In addition to this, we work on mindfulness as many times the tension that we hold in our minds is what holds back our body. Holding onto stress creates tension and causes a reduced range of motion- our bodies no longer move in ways they used to.
What has been the best client recovery project to date you have worked on?
I have this amazing client, who is pushing past her limiting beliefs, she has maintained her weight loss and is more physically active than she was a year ago. It has transformed from me pushing her in the gym to her pushing herself. She moves so much more confidently through life now! The energy and the glow in her face make me so proud of the work that she has done! That is what makes it all worth it, witnessing that shift happen!
Can you share with us a particular career highlight so far?
I think the top career highlight has been the incredible relationships that I have built with other female entrepreneurs around the globe. The amazing stories of strength, perseverance, and joy bring me such hope that together we can truly make a positive shift in the world.
How are you working towards your own personal development?
I believe in coaching so much that I continue to have a coach myself. My coach has been my accountability partner and has helped me push through my own limiting beliefs that I can’t thank her enough. I believe that you must be willing to invest in yourself if you expect others to invest in you as well!
Number one rule in life you stick by?
Lead with your heart! You have no idea what other people are dealing with! Today’s society can be so full of judgement, comparisons, and criticism lead with kindness, you have no idea what others have endured on their journey.
Everyone has life events that challenge them, no one is better than or worse than others. Everyone has their own unique way to deal, cope and work through these events. Have compassion not only for others but yourself as you work through the challenges you face. Being mean, angry or rude will not change the fact that the event happened, it will only deteriorate your relationship with those around you.
What does #BEYOUROWN mean to you?
To me, #BEYOUROWN means following your own path, your own way while being true to your authentic self. It does not mean this path will not have doubts, hesitations or fears, however, being brave and listening to your own intuition will be your true calling.
Where are you looking to expand to next throughout 2019?
I’ve adding writing to my wheelhouse with coauthor projects due out later this year! The upcoming coauthor projects include habits to help you uplevel your life as well as sharing my infertility journey.
I will be getting over that scary step of speaking my story to a large audience before 2019 is over! I went into 2019 saying I would no longer play small, that I would go all in. I am holding myself to that and enjoying the wild ride!
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