Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Chavez.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Hi! Katie Chavez here, life coach extraordinaire.
Just to share a little of my story and how I got into coaching, it’s interesting to note how different of a person I was when I was younger.
Born and raised in central Minnesooooota and no, I’m not a Viking fan, I grew up in a Christian household with two brothers (one older, one younger than I) and a sister who is the youngest. As any average Christian household probably operates, we attended Sunday school and church Sunday morning, youth group Sunday night, and a version of catechism Wednesday nights. I did all the things a “good” Christian girl should do.
Ironically, I struggled in my teen years finding meaning and purpose for my life. I felt anything but good.
You see, our family homeschooled and I had a difficult time in a few subjects (MATH), which led me to believe I was stupid and would never amount to anything in life.
I felt lonely and worthless, and because I hated school so much and believed I was dumb, I swore off going to college.
That meant I would never get a good job, never leave Minnesota, never get married, never do anything of worth with my life.
Wow, right?
I thought very lowly of myself and didn’t see much of a future worth living for. Today I have a huge heart for people that think they have nothing to live for or that their life is worthless.
In 2008, the year I was graduating high school, our youth group attended a conference that February in Minneapolis, where I learned about a Christian internship with the purpose of helping young adults figure out what they wanted to do with their lives while dedicating a year to the Lord before jumping into college.
After hearing the sister campus was right here in Bloomington, I decided to sign up! I’m not going to college anyway, so this seems like a good next step.
Long story short, the Bloomington campus ended up not launching that fall due to low enrollment. My only option was to move to the other side of the country where the main campus was; EAST TEXAS!
I had hardly ever traveled out of state much less lived away from my family for a year. But I was up for an adventure and didn’t think I had anything to lose.
Turns out I had everything to gain.
I graduated the one-year internship and stayed two more years completing other programs the ministry had to offer.
It was in my final year, 2010-11, that I learned about COACHING!!
Wow. This was it. I always knew I wanted to help people in some capacity. That was my calling in life. I just didn’t know through what avenue. I didn’t want to be a counselor or do psychology; I wasn’t going to be a pastor… coaching was it.
Coaching is working with a functioning individual (dysfunctional individuals may seek therapy) to set their sights on what they want to create or experience in their future and get to work building it.
Coaching looks at what’s possible and helps the individual to pursue their greatest potential. Often times the only thing standing in the way of our dreams is ourselves. Hello, that was me.
Coaching was exactly what I wanted to do.
Coaching and helping others are what got me out of thinking my life had no purpose; working with others to help them achieve their dreams is what I’m here to do.
I was never a dreamer. Dreams were for Disney. I was a Debbie downer. A negative Nancy. A realist.
Everything was awful, and life had no meaning. What was the struggle for. That was my attitude growing up.
Anyway, after changing my life at the academy I came back home in the fall of 2011 and got a job at a YMCA.
There I met Mr. Right and lived happily ever after.
Not so.
Mr. Right turned out to be Mr. Wrong, and I spent 7 years in a relationship that went nowhere. Because I chose to stay even when I knew he was married.
7 years and one abortion later, I completed my bachelors with Metropolitan State University of St. Paul and got a degree in Business Management.
I officially opened shop as a life coach with my company Raise the Bar Life Coaching in March of 2017, but decided I needed a change of scenery the following year.
Now I had big dreams baby! The world was my oyster! I wanted to get OUT and do impossible things, and Texas was calling my name.
I finally left Mr. Wrong and came to Dallas November of 2018 and 8 months later (July 2019), bumped into who was to be my future husband, Aldo.
We dated for maybe 8 months (you guessed it, March of 2020) until the M word (marriage) got tossed around. Should we get married? Is that the next step? Is it too soon? Are we ready?
We sure were. Covid hit but it wouldn’t stop us.
We went back north to Minnesota and had an outdoor wedding in September. It was beautiful.
I’ve been a life coach now for five years, will be married for two this fall, and the world is still my oyster.
I’m completing a certification with The Life Coach School and right now work with clients to want to do big things with their lives.
I weave my faith into what I do because it’s who I am.
If you think your past is too big and hairy-scary to let you succeed in creating your dreams today, then we should talk. Addressing our thoughts and feelings is a lot of the work I do with my clients. Because what you think, generates how you feel, and then the way you feel is what will inspire you to take action or avoid taking action.
And the action you take will or will not create the results you want. It’s that simple. Simple, but not always easy.
Let’s get to work!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I can say first and foremost, the biggest obstacle has been my own attitude.
For a long time, I would just spin out in my victim story of how hard life was, how broke I always was, how nothing ever worked out… but this was just my mind trying to make me feel better by not taking responsibility for my life but rather blame all the challenges on everything outside of myself.
This was before I knew about coaching and how to manage my mind. Instead, I just believed everything my mind threw at me and lived in a constant state of drama and frustration.
If I would have managed my mind and had a different attitude a long time ago, well, who knows where I’d be.
Looking back, I could find things to “blame,” like people not supporting me, not having money for whatever, not having opportunities to succeed, living in a small town, being homeschooled, my upbringing; I could find a zillion things to blame for challenges in my life.
So often it just comes down to my own perception about all these things. Life doesn’t happen TO you, it happens FOR you and when you can see the story of your life as part of a bigger picture, you start to become grateful for the way everything is tied together. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
But that can be so hard to say right here and now in this moment because truth be told we always want here and now to be different than what it is! We don’t tend to look at obstacles and challenges as a teacher but rather a pain in the a$$.
Sure, I’ve had struggles. When I moved to Texas, I had my car, whatever I could fit in my car (plants of course), and my cat. Half of my belongings were shipped in the back of a semi hauling dog food that I had to meet in Denton and retrieve by myself. Thank God my ex had friends in Arlington who were willing to come help me move things I couldn’t carry by myself. See? God provides. I woulda been up a creek without a paddle on that day.
Any “successful” person knows if they want to succeed, they’ve got to do the work. Whether that’s actual literal work, or research, or believing in yourself, you can’t wait or hope for someone else to do it for you.
I had some help signing up for post-Secondary when I was in high school, which led me to taking college classes and getting my AA degree. No one in my family had gone to college, so it was a road unknown.
I took care of the logistics of going to Texas to the internship. My parents supported and helped, of course.
I researched coaching and learned about entrepreneurship.
Don’t let yourself stand in your own way. You need you if you want to succeed.
We’ve been impressed with Raise the Bar Life Coaching, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Raise the Bar Life Coaching is my coaching practice founded in March of 2017. I’d been bouncing the idea of starting a business around for a few years until I finally just decided to pull the trigger.
My rationale was not having all my ducks in a row or landing on the perfect name. So, I thought for maybe one day on what to call my business, and Raise the Bar was enough to suffice. I liked it.
I am a life coach that specialized in helping people see what thoughts are keeping them stuck or in taking action that does not produce their desired result.
I teach a concept that says our thoughts create our emotions, and based on how we feel we take action (or avoid actions), and we all know that what we do and don’t do, creates our results in life.
A lot of times our thoughts are subtle and we don’t think to question them. So we go about our day, working and thinking and feeling, and sometimes after years of this, we wake up one day and look at our lives and go WTF??
How did I get here, how did this happen, this isn’t what I wanted, are some of the thoughts we have when we take inventory of our lives after living unintentionally for a period of time.
I’ve shared my story. Where I grew up, my most practiced beliefs, hurtled I’ve overcome, etc. What sets me apart as a coach is my life experience, coupled with my faith and character. I know what it’s like to think I’m a big bad sinner and my life has no meaning or purpose. I know what it’s like to think God can’t use me, and I don’t have a future or anything to offer the world. I know what it’s like to try and not succeed a billion times at something.
I think that’s one thing I wish I had looking back. Help.
You don’t have to do it alone.
I am proud to be a part of the world’s most elite life coaches through The Life Coach School and am honored to be living out my dream of coaching you.
I work with clients around the world virtually thanks to zoom and offer a 1:1 package of six months of coaching that meets one hour every week.
My slogan is taking life to the next level. When you’re ready to level up and raise the bar on life, let’s connect.
PS, your mind will always offer that you are never ready 😉
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
Ya I guess if there’s anything left unsaid, it’s that life does matter. I never knew how it did or understood it until coaching taught me what’s possible for our lives. If you’ve got nothing to dream for, then there’s little hope for living.
Life goes beyond this world and what we do every day matters for eternity. I know it sounds crazy, but when you decide to live not just for this life but for the next, your perspective changes, and you start to think big picture, not just me and my life.
What you do, what you think, what you say, and how you feel on a day-to-day basis matter for eternity. So that begs the question, how are you living now?
Pricing:
- Six months of 1:1 weekly coaching (1hr sessions) $4,800
- Life Coach School style coaching: 20-minute weekly sessions for six months, $1,800
Contact Info:
- Website: https://msha.ke/rtblifecoaching/
- Instagram: @katie.rtblifecoaching
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ktiechavez/
- Other: https://anchor.fm/amindsetonthingsabove
Image Credits
Emily Theisen Photography
