Meet Kathleen Ketola

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kathleen Ketola a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kathleen, so great to have you on the platform. There’s so much we want to ask you, but let’s start with the topic of self-care. Do you do anything for self-care and if so, do you think it’s had a meaningful impact on your effectiveness?
I absolutely love health and wellness, so self-care has always been a part of my life. Regular chiropractic adjustments and acupuncture treatments help a lot, but even more important are the small choices I make every day. (Self-care isn’t always fancy!) Staying hydrated, choosing nutritious foods, and getting enough sleep are all priorities, but also important are the random things that I enjoy doing for fun. Gardening, reading mysteries, catching up with friends, and practicing yoga are mainstays, but lately I’ve been trying knitting and photography too.

At Beachside Community Acupuncture, we always encourage our patients to practice self-care so that they may feel and be their best selves. Burnout is inevitable without self-care, and if I didn’t have my foundation of healthy habits and time to recharge, I would not have the mental or physical energy to be there for my community.

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?
When we think of miracles, they seem distant and almost imaginary, like they’re part of a story. Really, though, they happen every day. I have patients who have battled with health conditions for years without any change, and sometimes acupuncture and targeted diet and lifestyle adjustments are all their bodies need to produce its own miracle and heal.

I have always been passionate about health, and my greatest joy is from seeing people make healthy changes in their lives and witnessing these little miracles. Being able to guide my patients and community to feeling whole and well makes me feel like I have an impact in the world.

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?
Being optimistic is key to everything. Stress is a part of life, one that can be compounded when you’re pursuing a dream against the grain. Staying positive despite stress makes a big difference in how much you can handle and how quickly you bounce back from setbacks. Keep a gratitude journal to practice positivity, and always take a deep breath when you hit a snag in your plans before panic sets in.

Being able to adapt will also make life more enjoyable – “the only constant in life is change” – but is arguably the most important trait to have as a business owner. Companies that don’t adapt fail. My clinic easily could have perished during the pandemic lockdowns – our treatment room is an open space with recliners! – but we figured out the changes we needed to make to continue to operate and help our patients during a hugely stressful time. Always be thinking about ways that you can improve yourself and your business.

Being authentic will ensure that you always feel fulfilled. The projects that haven’t worked for me have been the ones where I felt like I had to be something that wasn’t natural to me. People can pick up on genuine compassion and will relate to you when you are yourself. If you don’t know who you are yet, experiment with different hobbies, meditate on what makes you the happiest, and explore your personality in any other way that calls out to you.

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
I wouldn’t say that this book “played a role in my development” but it is my favorite for navigating business and life.

“The Go-Giver” is about a normal man with a typical modern life. He’s worried about not making his quota at work, his marriage is on autopilot, and he feels stressed. He takes a chance in trusting a mentor who introduces him to people who do things differently – following “rules” that may seem counterintuitive – and every aspect of his life becomes immeasurably better because of it.

The book is a short, easy read but packs a powerful punch. Learning the rules as they play out in the story makes them more relatable and applicable than an expert simply telling you what to do in a non-fiction essay.

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Image Credits
Tim Drake Photography

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