Meet Hollie Jo Hepler

We recently connected with Hollie Jo Hepler and have shared our conversation below.

Hollie Jo, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

At sixteen, I sat in a doctor’s office and was told I would never have children. That moment split my life in two—before and after. What followed was years of quiet heartbreak, navigating the ache of infertility, the silent question of “why me,” and the long road of IVF and surrogacy which provided a beautiful healthy baby boy! Then my marriage ended. The person I built a future with walked away. I felt unlovable. Empty. Broken beyond repair. But it was in that place—the absolute wreckage of my dreams—that I found the core of my resilience.

Resilience didn’t come wrapped in hope or comfort. It was forged in the fire of loss and unanswered prayers. It came when I had to let go of outcomes I couldn’t control and face a future I hadn’t planned for. My strength was not in clinging tighter it was in surrender. What remained when everything else fell apart was the unshakable truth: my worth is not tied to motherhood, marriage, or anyone else’s love. My value is eternal, rooted in Christ. That’s where my resilience lives, in the deep well of faith that says even if every dream dies, I am still held, still whole.

Resilience isn’t built in comfort. It’s formed in the moments that strip you down to your foundation. But I didn’t just survive—I learned how to think differently. Through that season, I developed a habit that changed everything: I learned how to reframe pain. To see hardship not as punishment, but as an opportunity. To shift my perspective and take every thought captive.

That became my lifeline and eventually, my calling.

What I once saw as the end became a beginning. Now I walk with others through their own valleys, helping them find language for their pain, and teaching them how to flip the narrative. To turn “why me?” into “what now?” To see that resilience isn’t just the ability to endure it’s the ability to transform.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I’m the founder of Align Academy, a virtual coaching community helping female leaders women renew their minds, reframe their pain, and walk in alignment with who they truly are. My approach combines biblical truth, mindset work, and brain science strategies to create real, lasting transformation. We offer monthly subscription membership, private 1:1 coaching, and keynote speaking and workshpops.

In our monthly membership women get live coaching, community and a library of resources to help them shift limiting beliefs, take their thoughts captive, and show up in every part of life with clarity, authority, and peace. We don’t just talk about change, we build it into our nervous systems and daily habits.

I work primarily with female leaders—women juggling influence, responsibility, and often internal battles no one sees. They come in overwhelmed and misaligned, and they leave grounded, bold, and clear on who they are and how to lead with intention.

Outside the membership, I offer 1:1 coaching and speaking engagements for a broader audience: churches, women’s conferences, corporate teams, and organizations hungry for alignment with their values and objectives. My talks fuse storytelling, neuroscience, and spiritual truth to help people stop performing and start living from a place of wholeness. What excites me most is watching women wake up to their own power—not because they’re doing more, but because they’re thinking differently. That’s the heartbeat of Align Academy: inner transformation that creates external alignment.

If there’s one thing I want people to know, it’s this: your life shifts when your thoughts do. You don’t need to hustle harder—you need to align deeper.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Looking back, the three most impactful areas that have shaped my journey are self-awareness, emotional regulation, and resilience.

1. Self-Awareness
Everything changes when you begin to understand why you think, feel, and act the way you do. For me, learning how the brain works, especially around patterns, beliefs, and identity, became a foundation for growth both personally and professionally. My advice is to start paying attention to your inner dialogue. Journal, get feedback, and invest in coaching or mentorship that helps you see your blind spots. Awareness is the first step toward alignment.

2. Emotional Regulation: As a leader, I learned that your nervous system sets the tone for your environment. Whether you’re leading a team, a business, or your family—your ability to stay grounded under pressure determines your impact. My advice for emotional regulation is to learn to pause before you react. Incorporate daily habits that calm and reset your system. Simple things like breathing, movement, prayer, or mindfulness. The more regulated you are, the more resilient your leadership becomes.

3. Resilience: Growth rarely happens without discomfort. From career transitions to personal hardships, I’ve learned that resilience isn’t about never falling, it’s about the quality of your recovery and what you learn from that moment. You build resilience from habits that keep you moving forward even when things feel uncertain. Surround yourself with people who remind you of your potential, not your past. Every challenge is training for the next chapter of your life.

Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?

My ideal client is a female leader (from the remote leader to the CEO) who’s built success on the outside but is ready to experience peace, confidence, and clarity on the inside. She’s ambitious, purpose-driven and often juggling multiple roles and wearing a lot of hats in life but she often finds herself carrying the weight of doing it all alone. She’s not looking for a quick fix, she’s ready for real transformation. She wants to rewire her mindset, regulate her nervous system, and learn the science behind why she thinks, reacts, and leads the way she does so she can finally operate from alignment instead of exhaustion. The women I work with are high-capacity, high-achieving, and have a deep desire to grow — both personally and professionally. They’re the kind of women who are willing to do the inner work so they can build outer alignment.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

A few of the studio professional photos were taken by: Alivia E. (Instagram: @livs_visions_photography_llc)

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