Jolene Atkinson and her daughter, Kate Kruse, speak with Laurie McGraw from the Inspiring Women podcast for a special Mother/Daughter episode of her Mentoring Series. This is also Episode #100 of Inspiring Women. Listen the full episode below or by following this link.
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Laurie:
This is Inspiring Women, and I am Laurie McGraw. Today is a very special day because it is the 100th episode of Inspiring Women, and when I kicked off this series in 2021 on International Women’s Day, episode number one was with my daughter because I really wanted to understand from her, as a young professional, how she was entering into the world of career and what she was thinking about. So, on this special episode, we have a mentoring series, and we are talking with Kate Kruse. Who is Kate Kruse? You know who she is; she is the producer of Inspiring Women. And also her mom, Jolene Atkinson. Jolene is a certified life coach. She has her own business called Lifewell Coaching. She also is a clinical social worker in private practice and practices in Iowa. Kate is the vice president of Executive Podcast Solutions, and she was instrumental in helping me form and shape the ideas for this podcast that has been listened to now by thousands and thousands. And Kate and Jolene, thank you for being on Inspiring Women.
Jolene:
Thank you for having us.
Kate:
Thank you.
Laurie:
All right, Kate, this is going to be such a blast. I’m so excited to have this conversation. Jolene, it’s such a pleasure to meet you and to have been working with your daughter for the past year-plus that we’ve been doing this podcast together. But we always start this podcast in a consistent way and that is: what are you doing right now? What does day-to-day look like professionally for you? So maybe, Jolene, can you tell us about Lifewell Coaching and what you do as a clinical social worker?
Jolene:
Majority of my time right now is spent in my counseling practice as a clinical social worker, and my life coaching practice is officially six months old now, and I dedicate as much time as I can to that. It’s overtime work at this point, but I’m loving it.
Kate:
It’s your side hustle.
Jolene:
It’s my side hustle.
Laurie:
Side hustles are awesome. Kate and I’ve been talking about that with a number of women. So, you are a founder and entrepreneur and a CEO, and as you were talking about earlier, the technical support as well for all your new side hustles. Kate, what do you do day to day? Let me scratch my head on this one.
Kate:
So, with Executive Podcast Solutions I’m the vice president, and we are a startup. And so, I really do a little bit or a lot of everything. A lot of that looks like sitting on these calls with Laurie—on mute most of the time—making sure that recordings go smoothly and then also editing them, getting them onto all the platforms, helping clients market those, and then also just kind of internal business stuff with helping the company grow and all that fun internal stuff that comes with working at a startup. But it’s been a lot of fun because it was my first job out of college, internship going full time, which was a weird transition because I graduated in 2020, but we can talk about that later. And so, I’ve been doing that since 2019; it will be three years in October. I totally got so randomly lucky with a great business partner/boss with Jeremy, and he’s been a great leader and mentor for us, and it’s been a lot of fun.
Laurie:
Well, let’s dive into that a little bit, Kate. And so, we obviously know each other a bit now, having been working together for a while and what started as an internship in college—you’ve got your background in enterprise leadership—turned into something that, one, you’re very good at, but also something that you’ve become instrumental in this business. Jeremy Core, who is the CEO and founder of Executive Podcast Solutions, he describes you as “couldn’t live without,” “instrumental into building the successful business in podcasting,” which is an absolutely exploding area in communications and content creation. So, how did that happen, Kate? And when did it become not just a thing you did during the summer, but something that you’re obviously invested in professionally as you build out your early career?
Kate:
Yeah, so if you go back to me actually being 16, when I got my first job, I have always really loved my jobs. Even growing up with those first few jobs with lifeguarding, I really got into my jobs and kind of found that I do love to work. And so, I think there’s always been that kind of aspect in the background where it’s like, no matter what my job is, I’m going to make myself enjoy it. So then, fast-forward to my senior year of college, the very beginning of it. We were, actually my two roommates and I were moving in, and moving is expensive. And I was realizing how much it was costing, and I’m starting to panic and go through Iowa’s job board, and I’m just browsing for job openings and come across this opening at Executive Podcast Solutions. And it just kind of says—it was a very broad job description—it just said, “If you have any of these skills, you’re welcome to apply.” And so, I did. And surprisingly, a couple of days later, Sunday evening, I get a call from Jeremy, introduced himself, and with it being a startup, I had no idea what I was about to get into. But yeah, ever since then it was just—we had a really good click from the beginning. We have very different experiences that I think we both bring into the company and bounce ideas off each other really well. And so, it started kind of as an internship, just kind of “see where can I help out,” “what can I do?” “We’ll see kind of where things fall naturally,” and then again, when 2020 hit—a lot of our podcasts are actually in the healthcare space, and so, with the pandemic and healthcare podcasts, I became incredibly busy. But also, that was really kind of when I realized that I enjoy doing this, can do it full time and committed, and was like, “All right, here’s what I’m doing after college.” And so, that’s how I fell into this role.
Laurie:
And just so listeners know a couple of things. First of all, Kate is very, very good at what she does. And what we do together is really try to, on this podcast, showcase exceptional women, and what Kate does behind the scenes, for those of you who don’t know what it takes to create a podcast—I’ve certainly learned a lot over this time working together—is quite a bit of editing work just to make sure that the sound and the various interruptions that tend to happen over the course of an interview are worked out. And Kate has also been particularly helpful in finding just excellent, excellent younger guests, which our listeners tell us that they want to hear more from. So, Kate, thank you. I just can’t thank you enough for all that you do to help and support Inspiring Women. And also, for listeners, Kate and Jolene are sitting together, so if you hear a little bit of laughing, I know that’s because Jolene is laughing as she’s listening to Kate tell her story. Now Kate gets the chance to laugh. So, Jolene, let’s hear a little bit about your biosketch. You’ve been doing counseling and social work and helping others in Iowa for a number of years and then decided to pursue something different when you founded Lifewell Coaching six months ago. So, give us a little bit of your background.
Jolene:
Well, as a clinical social worker, my focus has been on providing therapy. There are a lot of different avenues that social workers can take career-wise, but I really enjoyed the counseling aspect of it and started my career, as many social work rookies do, in the non-profit area and worked for five years, I think, before I decided to go back to school and earn my master’s degree. And it was there that I really found that my passion was in continuing to provide therapy to clients. And my practice is primarily a general therapy practice, but I have specialized in working with children. I’m really passionate about helping kids do well and actually in my undergrad trained as a teacher, but I teach a lot, it just isn’t in a school. So, I was really grateful for having that background in development and how to work with children. But I do play therapy in my practice as well and have focused on that. The transition to life coaching really occurred during the pandemic. Before Kate got this job, I had not listened to a single podcast in my life, and I probably had really weird conversations: “So, how does this work?” But I am a huge fan and follow a lot of podcasts religiously for such a rookie and one of the podcasts that I found—so, during the pandemic I still worked full time and did some pivoting, as a lot of people did in their work, and I was listening to a podcast—I found one from the Life Coach School and it focuses a lot on wellness and keeping your mindset in a good place, and it was a really valuable resource for me as I went on walks and tried to take care of my own mental health during that time. And probably after listening maybe four to six months, the host had a panel of therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists on who in their career were also doing life coaching. And I kind of went, “That’s interesting.” And so that sparked the idea that I could do that as well. And actually, as I went through certification, I recognize I do a lot of life coaching in my therapy practice. It’s not a whole lot different; I’ve been using those tools throughout my therapy career. So, in starting my own business, I thought that it would be interesting to learn new things, and I felt really comfortable in the clinical part of the work that I did. And so, why not add on entrepreneurship and growing a business? I’m an independent contractor in my practice, but I really didn’t have any responsibility for marketing other than just doing a good job and word of mouth and referrals, etc. So, this aspect of the business is all very new to me. So, I’m learning a lot. And that’s one area where, in talking about inspiration, I’ve watched Kate and I’ve learned from her and I’ve listened and observed what she is doing. And it’s been a very interesting path, watching what she does and seeking her advice for different things and getting her opinion about especially the marketing and website developments and all of that. So, she’s been a great resource for me.
Laurie:
It’s such an interesting story. First of all, just congratulations on having both the courage or hutzpah or whatever you might want to call it to found your own business but also something that you’re passionate about. And we do a lot of discussion on Inspiring Women, speaking with professionals who are in the space of helping others and particularly in the areas of whether it’s burnout or mental health. And I think we all know the crisis that we are having in terms of the need that is out there. So, I hope it’s already going well. And I appreciate also that, beyond the passion of what you do, the building of a business when that isn’t something that you have background on is new. And it’s great to know that Kate’s a resource for you. Let’s dive into sort of the mother-daughter inspirational mentoring type of relationship. So many of the women that we speak to often cite their first role models as their mothers in their lives. So, Kate, is your mother a role model to you? How would you describe your mother in terms of how it has helped you form your thoughts about your professional journey?
Kate:
I got lucky with a pretty decent mom to be a role model and knowing that what she does for work, how there are actually a lot of kids who don’t have as great of parents as I do. I realize that not everyone is able to call their parents their first mentor, but I’m lucky enough to be able to. But then I was also really thinking about not only her as my mentor, but the other women that she’s introduced me to, her friends that have also kind of become role models to me has been a really cool aspect of—they keep up with my life, and maybe I don’t talk to them every day, but I know that their influence definitely comes through my mom in one way or another and knowing that that has all played a role. But I think it’s also just been really cool to not only have her, and again, as I come into my career—and I feel like college definitely—our relationship changed to where she’s not being so much my mom making sure I’m at home for curfew, but where we do have business conversations or where I’ve had friends in dire mental health crises where I have to text her and be like, “Okay, therapy mode.” And so, it’s definitely been cool to have that extra part of the relationship as I’ve gotten older.
Laurie:
Give us an example, Kate, of a point in time where the relationship of mom-daughter—we all love our mothers—changed into someone that you look to for career advice, professional advice, versus just, “you’re my mom,” and I don’t know, I’d cry on my mom’s shoulder when my mom was here. So, when was there like a moment of change just when you thought about your mom differently professionally?
Kate:
This probably wasn’t like a moment between us, but I remember my freshman year of college, realizing that I was like—I think it was like 1:00 or 2:00 a.m.—and I wanted to go get food. And I had the thought of, like, I need to text mom that I’m going to go grab food, and it was that realization of the freedom that I had, not totally being under her wing, that it was like, okay, maybe it would be nice to have that every once in a while, though. And so, I kind of appreciated the mothering aspect of it a bit more when I had to ask for it rather than it just show up maybe when I didn’t want it as much. So, there wasn’t really like a specific moment. I mean, there are specific moments that I can think of, like sophomore year: I had a friend who, again, just mental health was not well, and it scared a lot of us. And texted my mom, I was like, “What the hell do we do?” So, that was definitely kind of like, in a professional sense, using my mom as a therapist. But just kind of the independence of moving out and being on my own and realizing that I did need her motherly advice was probably the switch for me, I would say.
Laurie:
That’s great. And the story about your friend, that’s difficult. There are so many stories like that. And to be able to have the confidence to reach out to your mom who is a trained professional, to help in an important moment like that must have been comforting during an otherwise very uncomfortable time. Jolene, for you, just as you raised Kate, I’m curious as to your expectations for your daughter, which may be similar or different than the relationship you have with your own mother.
Jolene:
Well, I’ve been thinking about expectations that I have for her, of her, and really, it’s just to do her best and be authentic and genuine as a human being and to be caring and to follow what her passions are. That’s really what I want for her and want her to do.
Kate:
And I’ll add on to that in just the sense that—again, I’m lucky with having good parents—is that they really didn’t put on the pressure to be a straight-A student, it was, “get good grades.” And I think that just kind of really sums it up how they didn’t have specific expectations other than just do your best, like my mom just said. That did come through.
Laurie:
Well, having support is such a great thing. Kate, how does your mom inspire you?
Kate:
Her patience, that’s definitely, I think, one thing that I wish I could have gotten more from her, and it’s inspiring. But I also really like seeing her build the Lifewell Coaching business. That was really cool and was exciting for me to be able to kind of provide feedback and for us just to be discussing the business side of things. And since it is a family-oriented business, it’s different than building EPS with Jeremy. We have a different connection, I feel like, to kind of bounce business ideas off of each other.
Laurie:
That makes a lot of sense. Jolene, does Kate inspire you?
Jolene:
Always, actually, yeah. It is so cool, and I think as a mom, you can relate that you don’t really know how things are going to turn out. You do your best job at being a mom; there’s no manual for that. And we have expectations of ourselves and how we want parenting to go. And so, it’s really awesome to see how it’s unfolding. I enjoy that a lot, and I’m inspired by what I hear other people—how they think, what they think of her. I feel very proud to hear that. I can’t take ownership of it other than, you know, gosh, this started with me, and that’s pretty cool. But really, she inspires me all the time, and I can’t say enough gushy stuff about that. I really appreciate her advice and her opinion, and that is something that I think is very priceless and valuable to me.
Laurie:
Well, I relate to that. I mean, as a mother of a 27-year-old daughter, I look to her for advice on things and respect her opinion. Whether I take it or not is a different story, but the young adult view of the world and experience in the world I find particularly valuable. And in this day and age, there’s just so much change going on and I see just, you know, it’s so important from my perspective and sounds like it is important to you, Jolene, to just respect the lived experience and learn from a very different perspective in terms of our children, in terms of what they’ve grown up with, which is different than yourself. How do you take advice? So, Kate, curious: I know when I give advice to my own children—I think I’m under 50% now in terms of how much they accept it, and I often give it whether they want it or not—how does it work for you and your mom?
Kate:
I ask for it. I think definitely when I know that I need advice from her, I ask for it. I sometimes get grated when just anyone tries to give unsolicited advice. And so, she’s really good at not doing that. I think she’s caught on to that.
Jolene:
I’m really glad that you say that because I try really hard at that. So, I appreciate that.
Laurie:
That sounds like restraint. That sounds excellent.
Kate:
So, it will be funny if Dad can hear this part of the conversation. My dad is out in the living room, but I remember you telling me about a conversation you had with him. And this kind of, I think, goes back to the independence thing where I moved out. Like, you know, if I need advice, I’ll ask. But my mom was like, “Yep, I reminded him that he doesn’t have to tell you to do anything, that he should just suggest something.” And I was like, “Okay, so this is why you’re my translator.”
Jolene:
We have several conversations at my house, not so much anymore but especially initially, about being an advisor rather than a manager. And I heard that advice, thought it was incredibly valuable, and transitioning kids into adulthood is: I’m not here to manage anymore; I’m more of an advisor.
Kate:
I also think it’s kind of funny when—this is probably like a part of being in your young 20s—when I feel like there’s still a lot of adults who ask, like, “Oh, what do your parents think?” or, “Do your parents let you do this?” I’m like, “I’m 23. I didn’t ask my mom before I went and bought this.” But at the same time, I’m still on the back end of things. I’m still asking for their opinion and their feedback, but they haven’t put the pressure on me to. When I was asking about going full time for my job, she was just a listening ear, rather than, “You should go this way or that way,” which was really helpful because I think I really would have taken that into consideration, and not having to do that was good.
Laurie:
Have you had the situation where you needed, Kate, to make a very important decision and you’ve gone against the advice from your mom?
Kate:
Can you think of anything obvious?
Jolene:
Where you’ve gone against my advice? Maybe moving five-and-a-half hours away.
Kate:
Okay.
Jolene:
Maybe not out loud and maybe that’s a thought. No, I’m just joking. Totally. I can’t think of anything huge.
Kate:
I would say my party phase in college. I had fun freshman, sophomore year, and they wanted to make sure my grades were still good, and I still wanted to make sure I had fun.
Jolene:
I would say probably the amount of money spent having fun in college. You cannot take our advice.
Laurie:
Well, one thing that I am hearing, even though you’re not saying, it just seems like there is a healthy respect for boundaries between the advice there and what you’re going to take and not take, as well as respect for when a young daughter turns into a young adult and professional. So, that’s just wonderful to hear. When you have conflict—this is natural between parents and children, adult children—how do you handle the conflict?
Kate:
We really don’t have much, I would say.
Jolene:
I don’t think so either.
Kate:
As an adult—as a kid, you were definitely the calm one. I think that just comes with the career path she chose.
Jolene:
My personality.
Kate:
Yeah. But we’re open about it. I don’t think there’s much we haven’t really been able to—I was grounded as a kid if I really messed up. That’s how that was handled. But yeah, as an adult, we haven’t really had too much, I think just because she does really respect our boundaries, and she just really understands me and how I probably communicate and think, which has helped us avoid any major conflict.
Jolene:
I think the boundaries is—kind of what I was going to comment about that—is trying to toggle back and forth between my mom role and understanding she is a young adult and it’s important for her to make her path. And if I give my opinion, that’s just what it is: it’s my opinion. And she knows best what’s for her and is going to figure that out, and I trust that she will. And if she doesn’t, then I’m there. So, I guess I think the boundaries and understanding that really limits the conflict that we have.
Laurie:
That’s just terrific. So, Jolene, if you could look into the crystal ball and you see sort of how Kate is moving forward in her professional journey, what do you see for Kate ten years from now? What do you think about as a young professional for Kate?
Jolene:
That’s a really good question. I tend to not go really far into the future, to be honest with you. If I were to imagine this trajectory, I see her being a woman who has impact in her world and who goes for what she wants, whatever that might be. And I guess that’s the best way that I could answer that question and may be kind of general, but I really don’t know what her wishes are for ten years from now.
Kate:
Neither do I.
Jolene:
Neither does she! So, we’re on the same page.
Laurie:
So, Kate, now that you’re like helping your mom as she launches her new business, what do you see for her as she looks professionally forward as she builds this new business?
Kate:
Yeah, I know that both my parents would love to have a house with a beautiful front porch that they could just relax on. If my mom is able to do that, I know that she’ll be happy. Yeah, it’ll be fun to see where Lifewell takes her. I think that it’s cool how many new opportunities she has with that since it is 100 percent her own.
Laurie:
Well, as you look forward to that front porch with a beautiful view, that sounds like a fantastic visual. Love it. I always close out Inspiring Women asking for people to comment on their best advice for listeners. I thought we’d turn the tables a little bit here as we close out this particular conversation, and I’d love for each of you to just give—what advice would you give to each other at this point in time as both a young professional and a new entrepreneur in your career journey? So, Jolene, what advice would you give to Kate at this point in time?
Jolene:
Another great question. I think first and foremost would be to continue to trust your instinct and to go for what you want. And secondly, to never hesitate to ask questions and ask for help because I think that’s one of the important pieces about women supporting women, whether it’s your mom or other people, is to not hesitate to reach out and ask if there’s something that you are curious about or help that you need. Because people will be willing to lift you up.
Laurie:
It’s great advice, and it’s so obvious that you will always be there to be that listening ear and support. Kate, what advice would you give to your mom?
Kate:
In general this is not the best advice, but I’d just tell her to keep doing what she’s doing. In my eyes, she’s doing everything right. I’ve gotten some pretty good role models. It would just be to keep doing what you’re doing, and I appreciate it.
Jolene:
Thanks.
Laurie:
Well, this has been a really fun conversation. I don’t know, it’s just warm and wonderful to hear both of you and the relationship that you have. This has been an Inspiring Women conversation. I have been speaking with Jolene Atkinson and Kate Kruse. Jolene, Kate, thank you so much.
Jolene:
Thank you for inviting us on.
Kate:
Thank you, Laurie. It was so much fun being on the other end of the mic.