A conversation with Kristin Tomlinson, a clinical nutritionist and holistic coach. Kristin shares her expertise in guiding menopausal and postmenopausal women through transformative health and wellness experiences.
Kristin Tomlinson is a Clinical Nutritionist, Holistic Coach and Certified Big Leap Coach. Kristin's mission is to help you envision a healthier, authentic life by achieving your wellness goals; embrace transformation through nutrition and conscious choices, and address challenges and prioritizing self-care for holistic well-being.
Kristin shared her personal journey from yoga teacher to wellness coach, discussing how she faced uncomfortable truths about her sexuality and how she was guided by an internal unrest to find tools and practices to understand herself and make significant life changes. From yoga to nutrition, Kristen emphasizes the tie between emotional wellness and physical wellbeing.
Our discussion also features insights into her financial journey and how she overcame limited resources in her youth and managed financial obstacles during her divorce and the growth of her business. Kristen shares her perspective on money, revealing how she eventually started to see it as an 'energy exchange', interconnected with the idea of abundance and wellness. Finally, she elaborates on her current roles as a wellness coach and Big Leap coach, helping clients overcome obstacles and achieve their goals.
“I tend to resonate with menopausal and postmenopausal women because it is a very juicy time of life. Weight gain is usually what brings them to the door, but it's all of the other aspects of wellness and well-being that actually gets them to walk through the door, and that is managing stress, that is managing stories that we're telling ourselves, old stories, old personas that are fixed in place. So I'm now able to look at it from lots of different perspectives to help women figure out just who they want to be and where they want to go.” - Kristin Tomlinson
Key takeaways:
- When you begin to follow the stirrings of your heart, the universe will support you. Kristin felt an unrest and a stirring after the birth of her daughter; she felt like she was numb, just going through the motions. She found yoga and began to do some self-exploration, and realized that she had hidden from herself her whole life that she was gay. Once she embraced that fact, the universe, according to Kristin, “just laid out the whole plan” before her.
- When going through a big life transition, find a space, created by a community or a teacher, where you feel safe to explore. Kristin described finding yoga, a practice that helped her learn to self-regulate, and finding a gifted teacher and community to help her express what she was feeling, rather than pushing away emotions of sadness, anger and confusion.
- One thing always leads to the next, so just start where you are. Kristin studied and became a yoga teacher, teaching about eight classes a week at one point. She then began a wellness journey, which led her to massage school, which she loved, but didn’t feel quite right for her. That started her on the journey of nutrition and coaching, which led to her clinical nutrition certification, as she realized that food so often intersects with emotions and stress. Kristin recently became a Big Leap coach, incorporating new practices to help herself as well as others.
About the guest:
Kristin Tomlinson is a Clinical Nutritionist, Holistic Coach and Certified Big Leap Coach specializing in helping women transform their life and health through menopause and beyond. She has a 500-hour Clinical Nutrition certification and trained in a variety of holistic and integral coaching styles, most recently as a Certified Big Leap Coach through the Hendricks Foundation. She is a practitioner for Dr. Wendy Warner, an acknowledged expert in Integrative Functional Medicine. She’s been practicing and teaching yoga for over two decades and is a wife, mom, and lifelong learner.
Website: https://www.coachkristin9.com/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristin-tomlinson-76881142/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/coachkristin9
Email address: coach kristin9@gmail.com
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Kristin Tomlinson
I tend to really resonate with menopausal and postmenopausal women because it is a very juicy time of life. Weight gain is usually what brings them to the door, but it's all of the other aspects of wellness and wellbeing that actually gets them to walk through the door. And that is managing stress.
That is managing stories that we're telling ourselves old stories, old personas that are fixed in place. So, It, I'm now able to look at it from lots of different perspectives to help women figure out just who they want to be and where they want to go.
Narrator
Welcome to making change with your money, a podcast that highlights the stories and strategies of women who experienced a big life transition and overcame challenges as they redefined financial success for themselves. Now here's your host certified financial planner. Laura Rotter.
Laura Rotter
I am so excited to have as my guest today, Kristen Tomlinson.
Kristen is a clinical nutritionist. A holistic coach and a certified big leap coach specializing in helping women transform their life and health through menopause and beyond. She has a 500 hour clinical nutrition certification and is trained in a variety of holistic and integral coaching styles. She herself has been practicing and teaching yoga for over two decades and is a wife, Mom and lifelong learner. So welcome, Kristen, to the making change with your money podcast.
Kristin Tomlinson
Oh, thank you. It is a great pleasure to be here and have this conversation with you, Laura.
Laura Rotter
Really looking forward to it. I'm going to start like I always do, Kristen, which is what was money like in your family growing up?
Kristin Tomlinson
You know, money seemed and was, I would say, scarce. So growing up, I would say lower middle class in the eighties. We pretty much had what we needed, but there was still a sense of penny pinching and scraping by, you know, nothing frivolous at all. You know, we would wait for a birthday or Christmas to, to get some of those, you know, special items that we may have wanted during other times of the year.
But I always have a sense of, you know, my father working very hard as a, as a foreman at a plant. And my mom being stay at home until I was old enough as the youngest of four kids to get a part time job for herself. But I would say we were, we were raised with a sense of money is scarce and you need to penny pinch and not have anything frivolous.
Laura Rotter
And I'm curious, was that actually something your parents communicated verbally or through their actions?
Kristin Tomlinson
That's a great question. It's, it was both. Could definitely see it through their actions. Even my mom's fear of addressing money with my father or seeing something in the store. No, no, that's too much. Or, you know, don't tell your father if we bought something or, so it was definitely, it was definitely communicated in all ways, I would say.
Laura Rotter
What was that impact on you, especially in your younger years? Again, I often take this into whether or not you took it for granted you'd go to college, how you thought about paying for education, that kind of thing.
Kristin Tomlinson
You know, it's funny. I, as I was the only female, the youngest of You know, three brothers, of course, older, so I honestly felt that I was a kind of a trickle down child. You know, I remember my oldest brother going to college, my second brother going to community college, my third brother going to community college, and of me, it wasn't that I wasn't encouraged to go to school, but it wasn't expected of me. It was something that I had to look into. And I ended up leaving home at 18 and going into the music industry at 18. So I went into audio engineering, which was, you know, as the black sheep of the family, I just kind of scurried away from all of that. But it wasn't, there was no expectation of me to go to college.
It wasn't discouraged nor discouraged. It's just kind of, well, what do you want to do?
Laura Rotter
Such an interesting term, Kirsten. Um, trickle down child. You couldn't get hand me downs from your brothers, right? In terms of clothing. Or, you were not going to wear your shoes were there?
Kristin Tomlinson
Not in terms of, maybe a few small items of clothing because I was quite a bit of a tomboy.
But, you know, Some toys were trickled down, but what I mean by trickled down, it's like, you know, they, they had to test everything. They were the oldest, they were the first three to go through anything and everything. So whatever was kind of left, that's why I kind of say trickled down because it wasn't like our family could afford for all four children to, to go to a four year college.
You know, I don't think that was in the realm of possibility. So by the time it got to me, I just felt like, You know, it's like, well, what do you want to do? Do you want to, it wasn't encouraged. So yeah, yeah. Trickle down was the term that came to me in a lot of ways.
Laura Rotter
Interesting. I really, it's an interesting term.
So how did you end up entering the music industry at 18? What impacted that decision as opposed to, you know, working at McDonald's or something?
Kristin Tomlinson
Working at McDonald's was an option. In fact, I think I did that for a very, very short period of time. I felt different and always had small town. I had much more expansive views.
And to my mom's credit, she did as well. She was kind of testing the whole New Age philosophy in the 80s, quietly, so my dad didn't know. He would not have supported that, but I got the good fortune of being around her when she was doing some of those things, and I got Just had an appreciation for kind of, you know, doing what called to me.
So I always loved music, always had. So I thought, all right, I'm going to try, I want to be in the music business. I'm going to go to audio engineering school. And I did, and it was probably one of the first big leaps I ever took in my life. Andprior to that, it's kind of really quiet. Don't rock the boat.
But in the same time, I wanted to express myself, you know, like new wave, punk rock, all of that was, was going on at the time and I wanted to express it. So it was kind of like, yes, I want to do this, but don't look at me. I don't want to cause waves. So I was very much a don't rock the boat kid and I thought that going somewhere like New York would help me expand in some way, be in the music business, how cool would that be?
Laura Rotter
So you didn't go to the West Coast. You, you relocated to New York.
Kristin Tomlinson
Correct. Yep.
Laura Rotter
Just from where, what, what's the, where's the small town that you grew up?
Kristin Tomlinson
It's called Indiana, Pennsylvania. It's in Western part of the States. I, I'd say the biggest claim to fame there is, is the university that's there, Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Laura Rotter
So you got, you did a certificate program, I'm assuming, and became an audio engineer and then got a job in New York.
Kristin Tomlinson
I did. Indeed I did. And it's so funny to look back. It's, it's so long ago. Yeah, I did. I ended up working for, I ended up getting my certificate. I ended up working for. an audio Rental company so we would rent high end audio equipment for studio use and for tours and live shows and all of that Kind of stuff.
So it was pretty cool. I you know mission accomplished I met a lot of cool people did a lot of cool things and just burned out rapidly from it It was uh, it was definitely a small town girl fitting into city life And, and thankfully I didn't embrace things that I could have that would have been, you know, some of the partying and, you know, all of it was there, all of the drugs and the partying and all of that.
But thankfully I always had an angel on my shoulder where I tried to just, you know, do the work and. not get involved in some of the, the things you might imagine are part of the music business. Right.
Laura Rotter
Especially when you're, you're in your twenties, which is I'm assuming how, how old you are in New York.
So I hope there was a balance. I hope you weren't home by six every, every night.
Kristin Tomlinson
Not at all. There, there are ample opportunities. to have fun. And, and I certainly did that.
Laura Rotter
You said burnout actually in a recent podcast interview, that term came up as well. So what did burnout mean to you that you, you didn't enjoy the job or that you were working?
You did, but the hours were too long. What, what about it led to a sense of this isn't working for me?
Kristin Tomlinson
It was stressful. So at a young age, I, I mean, I moved there when I was 18. By the time I was 19, I was helping to manage this company. So it was long hours. Well, I think they also trusted me because I wasn't from New York in a strange way.
I got along well with the owners. They were, they were great people. They kind of took me under their wing. It was. Again, long hours, there were lots of deadlines, a lot of expensive studio time, having to get things to certain places by a certain time and organizing all of that and also living in a city.
Honestly, I feel like I was in fight or flight all the time, just in terms of safety and getting here and there. You know, again, it was this whole, it was a major transition from a small town girl to this city life. And over time I was there for about seven years. By the end of that, literally. I was, I was exhausted.
I was burned out. I wanted to kind of land somewhere because I knew that being in the city the rest of my life wasn't something I wanted to do.
Laura Rotter
And, what was the next step of your journey? The next step was the opposite of the music business. I kind of, I moved to beautiful Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where my brother lived.
And just, you know, I got a, I got an everyday kind of a job just to make money. Within a year, I met my then husband and within a year after that, I was having my two kids. So I really settled down into kind of, I think of what was expected of me to be honest. So, you know, remembering back of the models that I had growing up, it's kind of like very patriarchal and That's exactly what I did.
I'm, I essentially married a man who was exactly like my father and my brothers in
Laura Rotter
In what way in particular?
Kristin Tomlinson
You know, middle class, strong working man, you know, I'll take care of you kind of a thing. I, I, it just felt good at that time. To land and felt quote taken care of and maybe for at the time. It's what I needed, but it again was to me. I almost feel like I just fell back to sleep.
Laura Rotter
I guess, because I feel almost like two emotions as I listen to you, which is as you look back, knowing where you are now. Yes, it does feel Like a step backwards, as you said, like going to sleep. Though, as you described the burnout and being in a culture, if you will, of New York City that wasn't who you were, I could almost hear a sigh when you're in your 20s of like, it's quieter.
I have a relationship that's taking care of me. It's familiar. So in the moment. It sounds like moving forward to recognize what it was that you needed at the time, and, you know, I'm sure that's part of your narrative, that it was what you needed at the time, it was right for you at that time.
Kristin Tomlinson
It was, and I appreciate that reflection.
Laura Rotter
And so what changed, because I know we hear how you look at it now, so what began to change, I guess, in you?
Kristin Tomlinson
What began to change in me is there, there always, always was a stirring. And I think what I went, I went to New York to find something and I didn't quite find it. So I came back and I needed to land a little bit and it felt safe and sound and what I was supposed to do, but there was still this, this unrest and stirring.
And it really started to become more pronounced after my, my daughter was born, my second child. And I needed something for me at that point, because I knew that. I was just going through the motions and I really felt numb. So the first thing that I discovered that I would say in my entire life, that was just my own was, was yoga.
So I developed an interest in yoga and I thought I'm going to go take this. This yoga class. They didn't even call it yoga. They called it stretching. It was in the basement of a church. So I'm like, all right, I'm gonna go take this quote stretching class, but I knew it was yoga and I absolutely loved it.
So I kept going. I found, I knew there was more to it. So then I went and found another teacher who taught out of her private home and she was remarkable. So I went from kind of teacher to teacher. In fact, I found yoga before my dog was born because that teacher I just realized came to her birth. I asked her to come to help me breathe.
So I'd been practicing yoga for quite a while, but after my daughter, that unrest occurred, and I just continued to search for teachers and finally found what I would call the teacher of my heart, began to do teacher trainings, began to do some exploration of myself, doing sadhanas, doing extended practices, deep meditations.
I had come to realize what I'd hidden my whole life was that I was gay. And I had never faced it. In fact, I was able to suck it down so far. I could almost deny its resistance, except my friend at the time who I was starting to confide in. I told her on my wedding day to him, I said, thank God I'm straight.
She goes, how many women get married and say to themselves, thank God I'm straight? She goes, something's not right there. That was quite a few years later, I came to that realization. I'm sorry to interrupt, but
Laura Rotter
So where were you, you described that this started to happen after the birth of your second child. How long were you married? How, how old were you just to situate? The story.
Kristin Tomlinson
Well, I was married to him for 11 years. We got a divorce when the kids were six and nine. So that was back in about 2005. I was in my mid thirties. It was like, you know, when I came to the realization, it was a, it was a somewhat slow process, but when the realization hit, it was like a hammer blow.
It was like, now what are you going to do? And so that just began a series of exploration where I have to say. If I, if I can use the word universe, the universe just laid out the whole plan before me. Because I said, if I'm going to do this, I need this and that would show up. I need more information. I need to meet somebody, meaning someone who could, I could talk to.
So I just gradually started talking to more people. And as an introvert, that was very difficult for me to do is confide in people. So just kind of step by step by step, I came into myself and embrace and embraced it. And at that point, I realized I would need, I would have to get a divorce. And, and with a caveat that, you know, the marriage itself was fairly sleepy.
She was desperate many times. You know, this whole reawakening is, is true, true for me. I, I do see that there was this large part of my life where I was slowly waking up and then I did wake up and that's when, you know, momentum started to build and, and things, I just started to expand my wings and grow.
Laura Rotter
Kirstin, could you describe the role that Mindfulness practices. And I certainly include yoga in those played in this evolution. I know that I've often talked about how discovering yoga and meditation woke me up to the ways I was sleepwalking and choosing to be a victim of my life. You, you, you mentioned briefly this term sadhana, but can you just for our listeners describe how you sense that it contributed to your life change?
Kristin Tomlinson
Absolutely. You know, the thing about yoga is that as a practice is that it really is a way to start to self regulate, right? Regulate our nervous system so we can get out of fight or flight. We can start to actually observe and witness our feelings. And that can be done through, you know, at first the movement was everything to me.
It really released physical tension, trauma, and stress from my body so that I could start to recognize, well, I'm feeling some things here and it's really okay to feel it. You know, it's okay to feel sad or angry or confused. So moving, removing some of the physical tension at first helped me and then working with a very skilled teacher, deeper practices where it was much more targeted, breathing practices, some intense practices through visualizations.
meditations, mantras, and extended practices. You know, I had the ability to go to like a week long intensive sadhana. It was, yeah, it's a deep practice where we studied a deity. We would, we would do visualizations and mantras. I believe it was Chinnamasta sadhana. Chinnamasta is a, is a, is a goddess. And we would do some practices based around visualization and breathing, physical movement.
And the aim there is really to just come into yourself. And that I did. And the community was helpful in that. I felt like for the first time in my life, there was a safe space to communicate. And so I would, you know, clearly there was a couple of practitioners who were, who were out. And you just knew this about their lives.
So I felt safe enough to say, can we go have tea one afternoon? And then I expressed what I was feeling. And there was power in that because then I realized. The cat's out of the bag. Now I have to do something about it. So yoga opened my body, it opened my mind, it gave me safety in my own body, as well as a community to start to move with, get support from, and then find my way.
Laura Rotter
That's really a beautiful description, and it's not, it's not always obvious to people, where yoga Is listed with other, you know, I could go for a run, I could do a strength training, I could practice yoga and it's interesting that there's something unique of the, the linking breath with movement of perhaps more silence than we're used to that creates a space for this self exploration to take place.
Kristin Tomlinson
Any yoga is good yoga, but there is also how far do you want to go with it. And that is. a choice you can make with yoga. There's many deeper practices.
Laura Rotter
Yes. And there's also, you know, many different teachers. You know, I also was lucky enough to find the right yoga teacher who I might've shared with you when I first walked into the class was like, Oh, this is so not going to be for me.
Like I need to sweat. And, you know, it's not, not moving quickly enough for me. I'm not, my heart rate isn't, you know, getting up there. And, and she and the classes really changed my life. So quite aware. So then what was the next step? You said you're in your mid thirties with a six year old and a nine year old and no longer involved in a sleepy marriage.
And what came next?
Kristin Tomlinson
Well, next is I chose to move out. Actually, it was, I think it was an on Easter Sunday. So I rented a small apartment because My ex husband kind of lived in his family home, so I didn't want to, I, it was such a process, I felt so unworthy of anything going through that because I felt I'm doing this to them, to him, and it took me a long time and a lot of therapy to unwind that knot and realize that in a lot of ways There was a number of reasons things weren't working in my life, and I just took all ownership of everything because I didn't feel worthy of what was happening to me.
There was some shame involved in it. So I thought, well, I'm going to go find an apartment. So I found a great place with bedrooms for the kids. And then we started the process of, you know, 50 50 custody. I got a job at an old place I used to work because it felt familiar. And I, again, I felt like. I really, what can I possibly do?
I was just lower than low, but also in having had the support of a great teacher, she told me once, you know, when things are falling apart, sometimes all you can do is, is keep taking the bricks away, get down to the, get to the bottom. I was at the bottom, but I also felt guided in some way, like this is.
Your path, this is what you're supposed to do. And it's what kept me going because there were days I was just on the ground. Sobbing for days. So it was a process of rebuilding.
Laura Rotter
I certainly am interested in exploring how you felt supported by the universe. And before we go there, we started this conversation with you, um, sharing.
Scarce financial resources you grew up with. How did you navigate this transition financially? Kristen, it sounds like you were in a marriage where your husband was the sole breadwinner. So how did you make it work?
Kristin Tomlinson
He was the sole breadwinner. I worked some to a certain extent for the family business.
When the kids were old enough to go to a preschool, I had a part time job. So I did have some, some money, however, you know, having my relationship with money was so wrapped up with how I saw my parents. Experience money. And that was the man pretty much had the money and the woman was support staff, so to speak.
So I was still in that support staff position. So, but I did have part time work. So untangling money was very difficult. I did end up, I did have a settlement. I had limited alimony because again, there was a lot of shame involved and I didn't step into probably what I could have. And I also didn't want to put the kids through it.
So I had some settlement. I had this apartment. I had about a three quarter time job and. Honestly, for a time, I thought, is it, this is going to be as good as it gets. Like what, what could I possibly do? What do I have to offer the world? You know, and I was also teaching probably eight yoga classes a week at that point.
So it was a lot. You can't, you know, yoga is a labor of love in all regards. It's it's, you know, you have to teach a lot of classes to make a living at it or own a studio, but it was a passion and it was something I was not willing to give up because it was my. When I was teaching yoga or taking yoga, I forgot everything.
I just was able to drop down into myself and be completely centered and happy. So I found teaching and taking classes a respite from my unsettled mind and. At any rate that was a part time work. So I pieced work together, but I wanted more and I knew I needed more of a let's say a a larger career So that started me on a wellness journey And the first thing was I went to massage school.
So I did that for a short period of time Loved it, but wasn't quite for me. So that started me on the journey of nutrition and coaching. So i've I've just been lovinglearning about more and more about wellness and well being. And because I was able to pull myself through that, I felt that I had something to offer.
Laura Rotter
First of all, I just love that sense of empowerment that you just had in that last sentence that, that you started to see the value and recognize and appreciate the value of who you are and therefore what you're, you bring. to the teaching, whatever teaching you choose to do. And I'd love to explore what you mentioned just a couple of moments ago, Kristen, of feeling somehow supported or even co creating with the universe.
Can you describe in what ways you felt that?
Kristin Tomlinson
There was, there was always help along the way, and one of which was, even before, on the cusp of my realization, and knowing that I needed to leave the marriage, I, I've just been so blessed with a number of phenomenal people. Thank you. Yoga teachers in my life and one in particular was also a nutritionist.
So I knew that I was unhappy and didn't feel good. So I'm thinking, well, I probably need to eat better because I think I'm having some blood sugar issues. So I went to have a visit with her and she was actually the first person I had said to that, I, you know, I think I might be bisexual so I could approach it that way.
But I felt, I realized that, you know, our, we're such holistic beings. I thought it was food. I wanted to go to feel better. But then over time I said, can I talk to you about something else? And she was very open to that. So that's when it started a journey. It was, it was food. It was my wellbeing. It wasExpressing myself.
It was Learning that I have a voice in a relationship. So it was a it was a nutritionist and coach and yoga teacher Who taught me that and I thought gosh, I would love to be like her one day Lo and behold here it is But but she was one of the first steps That led me to a very great skilled therapist that I worked with for quite a while It led me to a women's group that I was part of and and also started to help facilitating It led me to kind of, you know, a couple of Light relationships when I first left the marriage and then eventually it led me to my current wife So I just constantly asked of the universe if this is to be I need the next thing to show up so I'm also very passionate about manifestation and that whole process really was guided because I was I can't do this.
I need help. And then the next thing would show up. Does that answer your question?Yeah, I mean, what
Laura Rotter
I love that I'm hearing is that yes, there's a sense. That you're being supported and guided by the universe and that also includes relationships with people. It's notdifferent from, it's intertwined. That you're, you're being led to meet people who resonate with you and who help you along.
And of course, who you even marry, which is, is really beautiful because you're a self described introvert. And yet it's so obvious how important people are, you know, I think to all of us, but certainly to you in helping you feel seen, which I. I think also translates into helping you see yourself for who you are and what you have to contribute.
Kristin Tomlinson
Absolutely. That's the beauty of it. We, we really do attract those that are going to best reflect back what we need to see and, and challenge us and, you know, take us to those learning edges and, and just feeling safe to explore. And this. Nutritionist and coach was just mind blowing to me and I, and talking about money, I'm, I'm like, how is she doing it?
I'm like, she has this job that she absolutely loves. She's phenomenal. And how does she make it work? You know, it's like, I want to, I want to be that and do that.
Laura Rotter
So can you share with us where you are now, what it is, who you work with, the kind of work that you do and how you make it work? And, you know, I'm going to.
Tell you the one thing I see is you're, you're not living in a midtown Manhattan, you know, so I would assume where you live, the cost of living helps you make it work. I mean, that's only a piece of it, but I would assume that's part of it. Part of it. I was just reflecting where you're living and how that's, that's cheaper than other places you might have chosen to live, but that's not the question.
The question is what, what now do you provide? Who do you provide it to?
Kristin Tomlinson
So, You know, one thing always leads to the next yoga led to the massage massage led to more of a desire to do coaching coaching nutrition, nutrition courses and working with clients in nutrition led me to realize, Oh, food is really going to intersect with emotions and things going on in your life and stress, which led me to realize I need to expand coaching into not just nutrition, but how do I handle all of these other things people bump up against?
Which then led back to, well, I need a more expanded view of nutrition, which took me to my clinical nutrition certification. As someone who prefers kind of integrative and holistic health, I was seeing a natural functional medicine physician. Her name is Dr. Wendy Warner. And after I graduated from that course, I reached out to her and I said, Hey, I have this certification, any interested in it?
And, and we had a really great conversation. And so she invited me to be a practitioner at her office. I want to say that was about, it's gotta be eight years ago. And I'm also, and now I'm a wellness coach for her. So I do wellness visits for her. So that's basically some new patient onboarding. I get some nice nutrition referrals.
Through her and elsewhere. So I was able to, I was started that part time while I was also working as a wellness coach at a local gym here. And I love that, but again, wasn't quite enough to support myself. So becoming a practitioner with Wendy really helped me see my value. So my wife is a fourth grade teacher.
So we always had her income as a baseline. Thank goodness, as well as insurance and benefits and all of those items. So that I was able to really explore the job that I'm at now. So now I'm since 2018, I've had my own business and doing my own coaching and continuing to work for Dr. Warner as well as seeing my own clients and running workshops and, you know, hopefully making a difference in people's lives through, through my genius and also as a big league coach.
Through the Hendrix Foundation has been my next life changing endeavor that I've, I've been going through. So
Laura Rotter
I was going to ask what wellness coach is, because that sounds like such a broad category. And, but now of course, you've also piqued my interest into what's a big leap coach. So maybe you can address one at a time.
Kristin Tomlinson
You know, everything, we cannot separate any part of ourselves out from the other. Sofood to me is a way in. And then we're going to bump up against all of our issues around food. And we'll, why can't we make steps towards the goals that we want? What comes up for you? So hitting against that more and more, I wanted to do more.
And I'd read a book called the big leap. I think it came out in about 2008 by Gay Hendricks. It's been around a long time. Him and his wife, Kathleen, are really phenomenal human potential psychologists. And they have many, many, many books. But I would always go back to The Big Leap. Like, once a year I would read it.
Like, there's something here. So then I ended up going online. This was, must have been right around COVID. Because they were, previously they would do in person trainings. And then I found they were doing virtual trainings. So I did, I did their trainings and then realized, wow, I want to do this coaching process.
So I did the coaching process, became a Big Leap coach, and now I'm support staff for their calls, which is another way I get to continue to bask in, in their teachings and presence. But a Big Leap coach really is for me, the part that was really missing because it's how I've learned to incorporate practices that can really help myself as well as others.
Start to make those changes that they would continually bump up against, you know One of those is for me was learning what my zone of genius was and it kind of is what I'm doing It took me a while to get here, but I realized this is what I'm meant to do which is basically it serves myself and it serves others and that's kind of how we know we're in our genius and It's just beautiful upward spiral that just continues instead of getting complacent It's continuously learning and growing in this upward spiral as I see it.
So that's kind of the way I kind of visualize being in your, your zone of genius as Gay Hendricks called it.
Laura Rotter
So as a big leap coach, I just want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly. You're helping You know, it sounds like you're helping others make a big leap.So is that specifically for people who have a vision of where they want to be and you're helping them achieve it?
That's what a coach does.
Kristin Tomlinson
Well, exactly. You know, big lead coach, that just means that I'm certified in their, their process. And there's many, there's many. I see. So what that does is it, and when I'm working with clients. It enables me to help them address some of the obstacles they come up against. And like I said, usually food is the best, is the first place that we start.
I tend to really resonate with menopausal and postmenopausal women because it is a very juicy time of life. Weight gain is usually what brings them to the door, but it's all of the other aspects of wellness and wellbeing that actually gets them to walk through the door. And that is managing stress that is managing stories that we're telling ourselves old stories, old personas that are fixed in place.
So I'm now able to look at it from lots of different perspectives to help women figure out just who they want to be and where they want to go. It starts with food because I'm passionate about that, but it leads to many places. So that, that to me is, is kind of wellness. Thank you.
Laura Rotter
That's very helpful. And I think when we spoke previously, it's coming to mind how food can be similar to money, right?
People come to me about, you know, am I taking enough risk in my investments? Well, I have enough money to retire, but there's so much. Behind that in terms of money stories we grow up with and what we've convinced ourselves. I'm good with money. I'm bad with money and so there's so much more to address than just the numbers.
The numbers. I often feel a sort of the scaffolding one needs to understand, right? You need to know how much somebody weighs and how often they do or don't exercise and what they're eating. But. Then do you use that to actually understand the person and the life and what it is they're really coming to you for?
So yeah, I feel like food is a fascinating, fascinating topic.
Kristin Tomlinson
And I love how you equate it with money. It is the, it's the same premise. It, you know, money, you, you, I intersect with self worth and value with money too. You know, that was something that I needed to work through and just valuing. My time at it and seeing money as it's a, it's an important energetic exchange.
It really is. And there's, you know, there, there is the monetary value, but really I see it as. As give and receive. It's it's it's an energy exchange.
Laura Rotter
I'm smiling because I'm also thinking right and it's a money exchange, right? If we just hoard our money, then we're not supporting other businesses and we're not supporting.
I mean, money is meant to be usedas a medium of exchange. I mean, we could just try to. exchange our goods and services, but then somebody who needs your service, you might not need their goods. And so money is that form of exchange and it's meant to circulate in the economy and not just, not only stay in a bank account and save for a rainy day.
So we've learned a lot about your journey, and I'm curious, as we come to the end of our conversation, as you've grown and changed, how has your definition of success shifted? And perhaps also financial success, but success broadly as well.
Kristin Tomlinson
You know, success to me, the way that I understand it now, is doing what you love.
That fulfills you and at the same time it is of service To another human or the world at large That to me is success and from that stems Abundance. I I have a coach. Of course I I need a coach as well And she pointed out to me that a while ago that I would look at I would look at money first money was you know when When you have your own business and you've got the ebb and the flow, you know, when the downshift happens, it's kind of like, Oh, I'm in that downward shift.
Now I got to do something. So then it was, then it becomes in a way, putting money first, chasing the money, pay the bills, do this, do that. And when I actually reverse that and, and start to think of it as how can I serve more? What can I do to be in my genius? That's my focus. The money follows that. So it is the passion.
It is the service and the abundance follows. And that to me is that whole genius spiral. It all works together. And when one part starts to limp, I think the other part gets a little bit wonky. So, you know, even that's part of wellness to me is keeping all of these things in a beautiful flow so that it's, there's less,you know, wobble and wobbles are going to happen.
But if you got the tools to manage the wobbles, awesome.
Laura Rotter
And that leads me to another question that came up as you're speaking, which is what are the tools that you personally use to deal with the inevitable wobbles?
Kristin Tomlinson
Breath work, meditation. Those are givens for me. They, they, they are priorities on a daily basis.
I'm learning better communication within my relationships and especially with my wife. That flow is very important and doing the work myself. So it's, it's very easy to kind of watch practices. And then just say, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I get it. But to actually stop and say, no, I'm going to actually do this practice because I'm feeling something here.
I need to face this. So I'm going to sit with it and do a practice. So I would say, you know, a little bit of walking the talk and.Allowing myself to be coached and to keep learning.
Laura Rotter
I love, love that message, Kristen, too. I love that you're coached. I love that you're a lifelong learner. If somebody listening to this feels like I really need this woman's help, how can they get more information about you?
I'll of course put your website in the show notes.
Kristin Tomlinson
Yeah, that's the best place to find out. CoachKristen9. com Whatever workshops I have or I'm up to, it's on there and they can certainly reach out and I love to just talk to people. So I'm always happy to have a chat and do a little discovery call and to just hear more about somebody's story.
If it's a match, great. If it's not, we had a great conversation. It's wonderful.
Laura Rotter
And you have a YouTube channel? Is that true?
Kristin Tomlinson
Yes.
A colleague of mine, my friend and colleague, Julia, we on a whim, we both love to cook. We both love our banter and exchange. We've known each other for a very long time. She's been through a lot of my journey with me, actually.
We decided to start a YouTube channel. We both love to cook. We're both coaches, so we created the Coaches Wellbeing Kitchen where we just share some of the recipes we like, they're all healthy and delicious, and then we offer some, some fun banter on coaching topics. It's just been, it's a lot, it's just so much fun.
Laura Rotter
It sounds like you guys just have a good time doing it and anybody who watches can get some good ideas both for recipes and for, and for life. Thank you so much for sharing your story. It's really an important story for others to hear and,and you just have such A wonderful vibe, so I encourage anyone who's interested to reach out.
I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Kristen Tomlinson, Holistic Health Coach.And some of my takeaways are, when you begin to follow the stirrings of your heart, the universe will support you.Kristen felt an unrest and a stirring after the birth of her daughter. She felt like she was numb, just going through the motions.
She found yoga and began to do some self exploration and realized that she had hidden from herself her whole life that she was gay. Once she embraced that fact, the universe, according to Kristen, just laid out the whole plan before her. My second takeaway, when going through a big life transition, find a space.
created by a community or a teacher where you feel safe to explore. Kristen described finding yoga, a practice that helped her learn to self regulate, and finding a gifted teacher and community to help her express what she was feeling, rather than pushing away emotions of sadness, anger, and confusion.
And finally, know that one thing always leads to the next. So just start where you are. Kristen studied and became a yoga teacher, teaching about eight classes a week at one. She then began a wellness journey, which led her to massage school, which she loved, but didn't feel quite right for her. That started her on the journey of nutrition and coaching, which led to her clinical nutrition certification as she realized that food so often intersects with emotions and stress.
Kristen recently became a big leap coach, incorporating new practices to help herself as well as others. Are you enjoying this podcast? Don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss next week's episode.And if you love the show, a rating and a review will help. Others just like you to find it and I would so greatly appreciate it.
Thank you so much.
Narrator
Thanks for listening to Making Change With Your Money. Certified Financial Planner Laura Rotter specializes in helping people just like you organized, clarify, and invest their money in order to support a life of purpose and meaning. Go to www. trueabundanceadvisors. com forward slash workbook for a free resource to help you on your journey.
Disclaimer, please remember that the information shared by this podcast does not constitute accounting, legal, tax, investment, or financial advice. It's for information purposes only. You should seek appropriate professional advice for your specific information.