Kimberly Frey Consulting

In my last blog post, I shared about the upcoming women’s event that I was excited to co-host with my friend Chelsea Parker from Love is Key Counseling.

The Start of a Partnership

Back when I was still working my business as a side hustle, Chelsea was one of the first people to support my dream. She and I had a lot in common – we had both worked in service industry for decades, had primary jobs while starting our own businesses, and she had recently shifted into running her own practice. The insights she shared, along with her continual reminders to me to know my value and worth as a coach, were invaluable. One of the first questions she asked me was, “What can I do to support you?” Her enthusiasm for the growth of my business was genuine, and she was an early mentor for me as I attempted to figure out what I was doing.

The UnMother’s Day Experience

As I started planning for my first women’s only event back in the spring of this year, the idea that I had was to create an “UnMother’s Day” experience. This event would be held sometime in May as an opportunity for women from all stages of life to come together. Everyone either has a mother, is a mother, and/or knows a mother. Mother’s Day is a holiday that brings up a deeply wide range of emotions for women. For some, it is a time to celebrate, for others it is a time of sadness or even anger. There are a variety of reasons for this depth of emotions, whether it be the loss of our own mothers or daughters, struggles to become a mother, or estrangement or abandonment of a mother or mother-like figure.

As a mother of adult children, I also understood that often the best gift a mother can receive is time by herself. This doesn’t mean that we don’t love our children or being them. It just means that we also want to love and be with ourselves, without guilt or judgement. I have often said that what many moms want for Mother’s Day is to have some time alone, and the majority of moms I share that statement with tend to agree.

The “UnMother’s Day” event was going to be a summit that brought both of these aspects together. It would focus on nurturing women’s positive mental health, life balance, and healthy relationships while giving attendees a chance to reconnect to themselves. Chelsea had previously shared that she was looking to expand serving the community in different ways and would be interested in hosting an event with me, so I approached her asking if she would be interested in co-hosting with me. Her answer? A very enthusiastic yes.

The Birth of the Women’s Wellness Summit

With Chelsea’s on board, the planning for our first women’s event was an even more positive experience than I could have anticipated. Since we couldn’t find a venue for May, we moved the date for the event to early June. Because this meant that the event would no longer happening around Mother’s Day, we changed the title to simply “Women’s Wellness Summit.” With no idea of what to expect, we started marketing the event, looking for vendors, and collecting raffle prizes.

The final outcome of our efforts was more than anything we had planned for. We met our participant goal, but more importantly, our participants had nothing but positive feedback for their summit experience. One of the most enjoyed elements of the event happened during Chelsea’s workshop, which was the first of the day. In the workshop, participants were encouraged to find ways to cultivate joy in their lives. At the end of the workshop, each woman was able to choose a plant from a wide variety of plant donations we had received from a local, female-owned garden center. They replanted their plants and had a chance to paint their new pots any way they liked. Our hearts were overwhelmed with the messages participants shared about feeling more empowered, connected, and balanced after their time at our event. The feelings of joy and sense of restored balance that we had wanted our participants to have by attending our women’s event ended up being exactly what they shared that they received.

With such a positive outcome, and at the request of several participants, Chelsea and I knew that we wanted to do it again. So, we set off planning for our fall women’s event, using the same format as our first one: three workshops, female vendors, and great raffle prizes.

launching the wonder women coaching group

This time around, the workshop I offered was actually a group coaching session titled Wonder Women Coaching Session. Wonder Woman has always been my favorite superhero. As a member of GenX, strong female role models were not always easy to find. As a girl, Wonder Woman possessed all of the qualities that I myself wanted to have: strength, kindness, empathy, willingness to do the right thing and to fight for what was right. I hoped to grow up and be just like her one day, maybe even with my own invisible plane! Lynda Carter was such an idol of mine that I was definitely one of those skeptics on whether or not Gal Gadot was going to be able to do the role justice. She did, and now I love her in the role just as much as I did Lynda Carter as a child.

With such powerful role model inspirations, I knew that Wonder Women the coaching group needed to bring that same energy to the women who participated. I decided that for this first session we would talk about the importance of honoring values in our lives and spend time having participants identify their own. Values identification is an integral part of the work that I do as a life coach, as the foundation for a healthy life balance is building a life that is centered on our values. Working in partners, participants got to spend time in deep reflection on what was important to them and why. The outcome was empowering and inspiring for women to keep their values at the center of what they do and the decisons they make.

Join us on our journey

Thus, the Wonder Women Coaching Group has been born. Chelsea and I are already planning for our next women’s event. For Chicago area ladies, I encourage you to save April 5th on your calendar as you won’t want to miss our third gathering. There will be another Wonder Women’s Coaching session at this event, but you don’t have to wait until April to start experiencing this powerful community. Join the Wonder Women Coaching Group Facebook group and get a jump start on all of the positivity, encouragement, and empowerment that our events foster. You can also follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok for regular doses of positivity and encouragement and subscribe to my email list to be the first to know about upcoming events.

I am so excited to share this journey of discovery with all of you. Is there a topic you want me to address in an upcoming blog? Be sure to share your thoughts with me in the comments below. And although this partiular post was for the ladies, men – I also want to hear from you! Setting goals, achieving dreams, maintaining life balance are topics that are relevant no matter who you are, so let’s build this community and grow together.

You Can Do It.