It’s the middle of January! How are you doing with New Year’s Resolutions? Need some help?
In celebration of our 5th anniversary, we are offering a TAKE 5. Five Private sessions designed to assist you in having your best year ever.
Before January 31st, schedule five 50 minute sessions weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly to take place before May 31st.
Together we will TAKE 5 to:
I would never be celebrating FIVE years in business with out the help of some significant people in my life. This has been a bigger adventure than I ever dreamed. I didn’t know what an entrepreneur was, let alone how to spell it. I for sure didn’t know what it would take to make this work.
I’ve never been a ‘lone ranger’. I need people to brainstorm with, challenge my thinking, encourage my emotional outbursts, and keep me going when I feel like stopping.
FIVE people I am grateful for:
Five years ago, I sat down with pencil and paper and began to map out a strategy for beginning a new business and opening a coaching practice.
Five years ago, I thought I knew what wanted for my business. I thought I knew what I would be good at and what I needed to do to make that happen. I had a lot to learn!
But this year, I have more clarity about what is important to me, and what steps I need to take to get there. This is not my entire goal list, but here is a glimpse into some of the goals I have set for the new year.
FIVE goals I have for 2016:
Yesterday we celebrated the 5th anniversary of GHC. I admitted that I’m not where I wanted to be in business and in life. But during this journey I have learned a great deal. Some things are brand new to me, others are things I am learning again for the first time.
FIVE things I know with more certainty:
Today is our anniversary! It is the 5th anniversary of the day I declared publicly to the world that I was opening a private coaching practice called GREEN HOPE COACHING.
On 1-11-11, I stepped out into a world I had never even imagined until just weeks before, to do something that I hoped would make a difference in my world, because it is so important to me to be doing something that will truly make a difference in someone else’s life. I just never fathomed the possibility it might have for changing mine.
It is times like this that inspire me to take a step back and look at the progress I’ve made.
TO MY SISTER Business Owners, Speakers, Authors and Entreprenuers in the Lima area! That includes Columbus Grove, Pandora, Ottawa, Leipsic, Ft Jennings, Bluffton, and more!
This is your invitation to join the SO NOW, Lima Chapter of SO NOW PROFESSIONAL NETWORK FOR WOMEN. 
We meet at 6:15pm on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at Sycamore Lake Wine Co. on Mayberry Road, outside of Columbus Grove. Cost is $20 for the evening, includes meal and networking. Your choice of drink is extra. (WANT A CHANCE TO WIN a FREE DINNER REGISTRATION for November 10th? Click here!)
WHY SHOULD YOU COME? Glad you asked! Here are 10 great reasons!
#10 You get to know more about amazing businesses in the area and the incredible women who run them!
#9 You are invited to showcase your business with a table of products or services you provide to your customers.
#8 Together we enjoy great conversation over a delicious meal catered in especially for us!
#7 We hear about opportunities with non-profit organizations in our community is woven into what we do as SO NOW Women!
#6 Each month one HAPPY BOOKER shares from a great read related to our life and business.
#5 Each month, the POST IT board introduces you to ways you can be generous as you help someone else grow their business, even as other women are looking for ways to be generous to you and your business too!
#4 We are privileged to hear from speakers who inspire us to greater things as they share from their journey.
#3 You get to share your special events and snazzy business cards.
#2 Founded by a woman for women, So Now offers an opportunity for you to give, to receive and to grow in a powerful way.
#1 We have the opportunity to partner with Coach, Speaker, Author and Founder of SO NOW, Jennifer Wenzke, in her vision to reach 20,000 women with a message helping women to unite and raise each other up into their unique greatness.
Add to all that some Terrific Girlfriend time and you have a recipe for a night you won’t want to miss. Bring some of your friends who share a passion for personal and professional growth and contribution. They will be glad you did!
For more information, email kathy@greenhopecoaching.com.
Hey girl friends!
In celebration of beginning the new theme of SO NOW: The Year of the DANCE, we are hosting a drawing for a free dinner ticket ($20 value) to our next networking event.
To be entered in the drawing, you must be a first time attender to SO NOW, LIMA and be able to join us on November 10th.
To enter, email kathy@greenhopecoaching.com with I WANT TO COME TO SO NOW in the subject line. Include your name and email address, as well as one reason you would like to network with a community of powerful women growing their businesses.
Send your email by midnight, Monday, November 1st. The winner will be drawn on Tuesday, November 2nd.
If you prefer not to enter the drawing, we would still love to have you join us. You can register by Monday, November 9th at http://sonownetwork.com/registration.html.
So Now has the atmosphere you’ve been searching for in your personal and professional journey. It is an inspired community of women who appreciate the reward that comes from working together.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Please contact Kathy@greenhopecoaching.com for questions, or go to sonownetwork.com to learn more about SO NOW!
On October 14th, twenty-eight SO NOW Professional Women were recognized for their application to the SO NOW Award program. Women from the 4 chapters in the Toledo area, Perrysburg, Bowling Green, Findlay and Lima were to brought together for a delicious buffet and great conversation. 
As part of the award ceremony, 2 college scholarships were presented to young women who exemplify the entrepreneurial spirit and strive to embrace their professional journey.
In addition 2015 Business Awards
• So Now Women in Business Award (up to) $2500
• So Now Women in Business Runner Up Award (up to) $1500
I was thrilled to be awarded the SO NOW Women in Business Award of $2500. 
I applied because it is a tremendous opportunity. I have truly appreciated So Now Network because “So Now offers an opportunity for you to give, to receive and to grow in a powerful way.” I also desire to give generously, receive graciously and grow abundantly.
Jenn Wenzke and SO NOW have been a breath of life to me – and to my business. I had been looking for a networking opportunity to help grow my business that fit me. I am so grateful SO NOW has inspired me to connect as a woman and as a business owner.
From the first SO NOW meeting I attended, I felt life infused into the event. I immediately found my place to serve on the welcome team and over the last few months have thoroughly enjoyed meeting new friends, not just business prospects. I am building relationships that are encouraging, inspiring, and life-giving.
As a business, I have been challenged in my presentation of what I do as I search for ways that I can help others do what they do. It has been a win-win so often.
I will use the award money to complete a book project due to be out by April of 2016. This will help greatly as I work to self-publish a story that was started for me by my then 15 year old daughter shortly before she died called Lovely Traces of Hope. It is my desire to share how hope showed up in the messy places of our life and invite the reader to intentionally design traces of hope in their own story.
I also would not tell the whole truth if I didn’t identify that while I have not known Coach, Author, Speaker, and SO NOW Founder Jennifer Wenzke very long, but Jenn’s story has spoken to me of courage, strength, influence and hope. I see it on her face and in her words when she is able to join us for meetings at SO NOW LIMA. I view it on her Facebook page, podcasts and website. I read about it from others in news articles and testimonials.
Jennifer has not quit because life has gotten hard. Every time I have spoken with her personally, she has reminded me of my value, my worth as a coach, and business owner, but also as a woman.
What Jenn has started continues to influence all of us with life- giving, energizing hope! I want to be part of that business for the rest of my life- whether through SO NOW, Green Hope Coaching or just being Kathy.
Thank you Jenn for daring to dream! For bringing others with you! And reminding us all of the transformation that is possible when we embrace the process.
Special thanks to Debby Peters, Nina Corder and their team for creating a delightful evening!
So what do you think? Does the Bible teach us to be sensuous women? Some of you are thinking Kathy’s talking about sex again. Maybe! But maybe not!
I have had some interesting dialog with women who desire to be all that God has created them to be. But they are not sure what to do with issues of sexuality/ sensuality when they are single and longing to honor the Lord.
I have heard one woman after another share that much of the pain in their life has to do with wrestling with issues related to sexual or sensual issues. There is God’s view to reckon with which has been confusing to women on so many levels. There is the world’s view which seems to indicate to just ‘be free’ sexually. However much of the ache these women now feel is because those behaviors don’t feel free like it does in the movies.
So can we be single and sexual? What does God want from us if he created us to be sexual beings, whether we are married or single, while the Bible teaches that sex is reserved for marriage.
Dr. Juli Slattery of AuthenticIntimacy.com hits the mark as she addresses this topic in her 2 minute Thought called Can I Be Single and Sexual? Juli reminds us that our sexuality is not compartmentalized waiting for marriage, it is integrated into all the aspects of who you are; intellectual, relational and spiritual.
We are geared to immediately associate sexuality with sexual pleasure. But it actually serves a much greater purpose. Juli goes on to say that sexuality is about intimacy and relationship. The core aspect of our sexuality is the yearning to be known and share intimately with another person, which is expressed fully in marriage. My sexuality as a woman deeply impacts how I relate to others- outside the bedroom.
(Be sure you listen in to hear the rest of Juli’s comments. There is a wealth of information for married or single women at authenticintimacy.com.)
As I pondered how we might experience intimacy that was not sexual, especially for the single woman, I dug a little further with a word study on the word SENSUOUS which is defined as “anything that is pleasing to the senses”. In other words, anything that we touch, taste, see, smell and hear. There are many ways we can experience intimacy in
These are examples of sensuous things make our senses happy, but they also nurture us and allow us to know a deep joy and possibly meaningful intimacy with relationships of family and friends.
I understand that many times the effects of past encounters, or abuse related to sexual activity can taint the purity of a sensation. Certain senses can become triggers for memories or behaviors that you are desperately trying to avoid.
So often, rather than risk something “unpleasant” (though it might be much more damaging than that word denotes), we end up closing ourselves off to everything that might stir our senses.
But remember, God is a redeeming God. He created you to be sexual. He gave you your senses to live fully alive. Yes, there is pain! Yes, there is pain that needs healing, and your senses maybe part of that.
But each of our senses are faithful, loving reminders that God is breaking into our world everyday to speak his words of love to us.
What is it that God is inviting you into as you consider how to live sensuously as a sexual being? Maybe you have some questions about what that would look like. I know some women who are making it work. Let’s have that discussion together.
In the mean time, Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Psalm 34:8
Before this weekend, I would have told you:
But after the weekend at the first ever TRIBEWRITER’s Conference, (hence #tribeconf) I came to own I have been on this journey of writing most of my life.
Jeff Goins, founder and host of the TribeWriter Conference, (Superman in another life) spoke directly to me (though he doesn’t know it) on the very first session.
He challenged us to:
While the weekend was full of excellent speakers with very practical resources and action steps for us, I probably could have left after the first speaker and felt like I got what I needed.
I have struggled ever since Leisha died feeling like I need to write to finish her book, but have been in a battle to rediscover who I am really not just as a writer, but as a woman. All I thought about myself had been put into question when my daughter died. I blogged a bit about this during the weekend. You can catch it here.
But Ally Vesterfelt, of Author Launch really spoke to this as she shared her father’s story as he was near death. As a clinical psychologist and marriage counselor, he had worked with all kinds of people. But his first article as he fought to live was “Dying is easy, Life is hard to do!” Yes it is! I can attest to that! I never considered that Leisha had the easy road in dying. The rest of us had to fight to live.
Ally was just getting started with her challenge to me. Her next thoughts made me know I was going the right direction.
Wow! For her to speak directly to the battle I mentioned earlier means she is familiar with the pain of it. I have been there for the last 9 years. Finding my voice by finding myself. I can identify that it must be truth, it will be raw, and it must feel real or it feels disingenuous to the process of healing.
“More than likely you will find your voice on a path you least wanted to go down. Sometimes the sufferings, not the healings, are the source of greatest transformation of our life.”
She was right! I knew she was!
I was being changed through the sufferings. I didn’t want to suffer. I tried to avoid the suffering, but I knew it when I embraced the ache and walked into the darkness that the greatest transformation occurred.
As I work to finish Leisha’s book, I reconnect with many layers of grief in order to share what I have learned from the last 9 years. That has been part of the mess I have felt recently. But I wouldn’t change the process. I am much more aware of who I am and what I was meant to say!
I understand that I must find my own voice before I can truly help someone else find theirs. While I hope that the book will be used to change one person’s life in an effort to change the world, I know that writing this book has and is changing me.
The story I’m getting ready to present to the world in a few months has been in process for most of my life.
I’m a writer! I have been a writer! I need to write if just to change me!
How’s your story coming?
P.S. Thanks Jeff Goins! For letting go, embracing the mess and becoming a more true version of yourself. You have modeled for me and given me courage to do that same.
Thank you Ally Vesterfelt! For sharing out of the raw, real, truth of your own story. I am one who is changed because of it.
Just because I didn’t write life lessons from all the other speakers doesn’t mean I couldn’t have. I am still just processing the first one. Thanks to all of you for your time, availability and genuine support.
I’m already signed up for TribeWriter 2016. Join me?
