Today we’d like to introduce you to Katrina Yniguez
Hi Katrina, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Wow, what a loaded question! I have not always been in the health and wellness industry, nor have I always lived a life where I allowed God to lead me. I originally got started in the engineering field after college. I loved everything about it: the drawings, the field verification days, and watching the projects on paper come to life. I did not know then that it would not be my heart and passion until one day, I was working out at the gym in small town Valdez, AK, and the spin class (indoor bike) would be canceled due to an instructor being sick. Seeing a look of disappointment in my friend’s eyes, I said, “Well, if they will let me teach it even though I have never taught a class before, I would be happy to.” To my surprise, they said, “Yes.”
In that moment of teaching my first-ever spin class, a lifelong passion for helping individuals better themselves, be healthy, and have fun doing it was born. So naturally, a year and a half later, when my engineering job wanted me to sell my home, move cities, and take a pay cut to keep my career, I politely declined and instead sold my house, moved states to southern California, and became a personal trainer and aerobics instructor. I quickly fell in love with the industry and the impact I was making on people’s lives. I remember one client spending 2 to 3 hours per day in the gym trying to be pain-free and achieve results when she first came to work with me. After my assessments and initial workouts, we got her pain-free and achieved her desired results in just an hour or less and only 3 to 5 days per week. I had another client struggling in their relationship with their spouse. I taught them my “Regardless Of” principle. It completely shifted their relationship, and they started getting their longed-for support. I was often #1 or #2 in sales every month for training, not because I pushed sales but because I helped my clients see value in what I had to offer and how I could make a difference in their lives. Once they did, they became long-standing clients, month after month, year after year.
I went into business for myself at the age of 30. I enjoyed working with my clients and meeting their needs without the demand for quotas and being in an environment where, in my opinion, the members were considered dollar signs. I could finally give my clients the experience and environment they deserved. However, being a business owner instead of an employee is not free of challenges and obstacles. It will come with some significant challenges, especially in a service-type business. Individual income changes, or they want to purchase a home, they lose their job, etc; they then have to take a step back on their luxury expenses, and personal training and coaching often fall into that category. It’s just the way business is, though. Another challenge I faced was learning to balance work with personal life. Every entrepreneur knows that we often feel we cannot stop working as the owner. So, we do so 24/7, causing relationships with family and friends to suffer while chasing our dreams. Every entrepreneur and business owner will go through ups and downs. Having proper expectations and knowing this allowed me to persevere and continue serving my clients and loving what I did to make a difference in their lives.
That said, it was also in my 30s that I had this tug on my heart that something was missing, though I did not know what exactly. There was some sense of a void. I followed my heart and passions and did whatever I was happy doing, which served me well for the time being. My job was fulfilling. I had choices in life and could move my schedule around to be a present mom. I felt I was living my dream life, so why the void? It took me several years to discover the void was not including God in my plans and decision-making. Not including Him in the direction my life was to go. Growing up in a Christian home and having parents who demonstrated following God’s lead all my life, one would think I would do the same thing. However, as a young adult making decisions independently, I was leading myself down a path that would eventually become unfulfilling if I kept walking down it. In 2017, I decided to surrender my will, plans and desires to wherever God wanted to lead me. It was not an easy thing to do, and it was and remains a struggle to trust where God is leading, but when I follow His lead, He blows me away with the outcome.
Giving God my “Yes” was where business shifted drastically over the coming years, and my impact on people’s lives expanded from what my mind could fathom that, led to a successful and impactful business. Now, I am in awe of where my company is today. Now, I am coaching clients not only physically but relationally, mentally/emotionally, spiritually, nutritionally, and financially. I have tools, such as books and courses, that have given countless people success in becoming the best versions of themselves in all areas of life, not just one. I have clean, natural products that have flipped the switch in people’s bodies, improving overall health and well-being, signaling their bodies to make the things they once did as a child, like anti-oxidants, collagen, GLP-1, to name a few; they can now “Take It To Make It” instead of supplement it. I speak at events, inspiring individuals to watch how their lives will transform when they apply the lessons I learned in my journey and allow God to lead. Only in my wildest dreams could I have ever thought when I said yes to teaching the spin class back in 2001 that my life would lead to such a fulfilled, exciting career where I walk out my daily God-given assignments and impact others’ lives for the better.
Has it been a smooth road? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Becoming an entrepreneur is hard and comes with its own challenges. Now add allowing God to lead you where He wants you to be and ask you to do what He asks you to do—it’s hard! especially when it goes against what experts and industry leaders say you should do for success.
I have had to overcome a lot of neigh-sayers because I felt God leading me down one path or asking me to do one thing. Take my book cover of Obedience Over Fear, for instance. God told me I had all I needed to create my cover and to create it. Mind you, I am no graphic designer, let alone a book cover designer, but I trusted Him and began working on the cover. After getting the basics down, I shared with several experts in the industry for book cover design who told me I could not design it that way; the readers would not understand the symbolism, I couldn’t use that font, etc. It paralyzed me for three months from moving forward, believing I should listen to the experts and hire a cover designer, which had always been my plan until God told me to create it. After three months of doing nothing with the cover, God once again told me, “Katrina, you have all you need to create the cover, so go create it.” I picked it back up and pressed on with so much self-doubt filling my head because of what experts told me several months prior, but I chose to be obedient to God’s lead despite what others thought. Now that my book has launched, one of the most common comments I receive is how much readers love the cover and its symbolism; they feel drawn into it. Who knows what the experts would have drawn up, but it would not look like God’s vision for the cover and created the reaction it has. We must get good as entrepreneurs to block out the noise around us and stay focused on where God is leading us. I promise He will never steer us wrong.
Another time I did things that didn’t make sense to industry leaders or experts was when I felt I was to put a hold on my full-time coaching business and focus all of my attention on a network marketing business that God had led me to kicking and screaming. I had worked 17 years building a coaching business, and God asked me to temporarily put it down to travel and help others grow their own business for an undetermined time frame. Since, at the time, I had not surpassed my coaching income with the income from the network marketing business, even my mentors told me not to do that and to wait until I had doubled my coaching income before putting it on hold. Talk about having to trust in God to provide the finances and the strength to overcome the ridicule I would face.
Stepping away and handing my clients off to other coaches was a difficult one for me because coaching and training were what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. My heart and passion lay with my clients and helping them achieve their results. I cried but responded with a “Yes” to where God was leading. That “Yes” not only grew my income to more than double my coaching business, but it has continually been consistent income coming in month after month that lightens the burden when my “service-based-luxury” business has low months. The other mind-blowing thing that happened since I had put my coaching on hold was meeting so many more people in the US and worldwide. When the pandemic shut businesses down, I took my business online, and I could now help those people from all over. People whom I would have never met had I not given God my “Yes.”
Neigh-sayers will always be in our lives and businesses; we must learn to block them out. Otherwise, we risk never reaching our full potential and living our passions and dreams. I still struggle occasionally, but I will tell you that it has become easier over the years to give God my “Yes” despite what others thought or said. It takes determination, putting your fears aside, and even sometimes putting logic aside.
A struggle that many new entrepreneurs make is being naive to the fact that owning your own business is easy and you can work whenever you want. The expectations of working for ourselves, what it takes to succeed, and its true joy often need to be shared with a new owner, which could lead to many entrepreneurs pressing in and persevering, preventing them from giving up on their dreams or their business going under. I have been very blessed and fortunate enough to have the mindset that all things good take effort. Those who put in the effort often find they are left struggling with balancing work and family life. I know because this was me. I was not afraid of the effort it would take to run not one but two successful businesses, but I was scared of missing out on time spent with family. Let’s face it: when we pour all our time and attention into building a business or chasing a dream or a goal, often the one thing that suffers the most is our relationships. That was me, burning the candle at both ends. I felt guilty that I was working instead of spending it with family or missing out on milestones and memories. The flip side to this was when I would have the time to spend with family, and I was never fully able to enjoy it and rarely fully present. Instead, I would think of everything that needed to get done within my businesses.
I know so many entrepreneurs feel the same way. You can imagine my frustration when God asked me to add more things to my plate. So I prayed for Him to give me a system to do all He asked of me but not take any more time away from my family. When you ask, expect to receive if your heart is in the right place. He gave me my GPS Mastery system and transformed how I do business and plan my day. It has allowed me to be fully present and have the freedom to spend more quality time with my family and friends. I felt a little tricked when all was said and done because I had so many others inspired by my breakthroughs in balancing work and family; they asked me to turn the 6 step system of what God gave me into a course available to others.
I can only coach people from my personal experiences and education. We will face struggles in business and life alike. Instead of longing for a smooth road, embrace the bumps and boulders and expect some curveballs. It makes it easier to find success. Some of my most significant accomplishments and joys in life have come from facing trials and traveling the bumpy road.
What makes you happy? Why?
Every time that I see someone whose health is suffering or they are going through life with so many aches and pains, it breaks my heart because I know so much of it is preventative by applying some fundamental key principles. I often have a solution for them in one or more areas of their life. Not because I am super special but because I take so much pride in educating myself, learning what is out there to help others, and understanding how the body works. So, when I see my clients live proactive, pain-free lives because they apply what I have taught them, it overflows my heart. They have moved from existing to living, bringing me so much joy.
In the same way, I love watching others come to life and be joyful when they begin to give God their “Yes” and be obedient to where He is leading. It is scary sometimes to do things that do not make any sense to our human eyes, so when a friend or a client of mine does the hard thing and overcomes their fear by walking out of obedience, I want to do a happy dance for them because I know from my own experience the freedom one can feel, and the peace in their life they can experience when they take action despite their fears and insecurities.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My business and the services I provide to my clients have expanded over the years. I am excited to offer clients one-on-one coaching in four key areas: my 6-pillar success coaching, personal training, nutritional coaching, and GPS Mastery coaching.
Through my 6-pillar approach, I help clients improve in all areas of life. We cannot focus on improving only one area of life without suffering in another because our primary focus is on one thing. It is crucial to have goals to improve in all areas, even if only a little bit each day. We are not meant to live stagnant lives, and we always need to grow and become better versions of ourselves.
When helping clients achieve their physical goals through personal training, my first priority is to get their bodies aligned and functioning correctly. Once we can do this, the rest, though still requires effort on their part, becomes simple. I have worked with clients with almost every goal imaginable in my 20-plus years of experience, from student-athletes to baby boomers who want to feel better and keep up with their grandchildren. However, my passion will always be to get people out of pain and their bodies functioning properly first and then move to other goals. I am not the quick-fix coach. I am about maintaining a healthy, active, vibrant, and healthy lifestyle. My specialty, though, is rehabilitation and injury prevention. I am very proud of my ability to understand the body and how it functions so well that when given the opportunity and time with a client, I can get them out of pain, moving, and feeling better when doctors, physical therapists, chiropractors only provided temporary relief if any at all. Once we address these primary issues, they often continue toward other goals.
I also take a very different approach to nutritional coaching than many. I do not believe in having my clients live a restrictive lifestyle regarding food. Now, that does not mean they can eat whatever they would like, but what it does mean is that our goal is to create a healthy lifestyle around food that they can maintain and still enjoy the family gathering. Teaching clients to have a better relationship around their food, both from a mental standpoint and physically consuming food is crucial to success. What I have found in the industry, with all the fads and restrictive diets, is most people fail. Why? Because it is not sustainable! Most are doomed to fail from the beginning. What that is doing to the emotional state and the body’s hormonal state becomes this vicious cycle of jumping to the next new thing that will help them eat healthy and achieve their goals. We have to do better for our clients when it comes to teaching them a healthier way of living that they can enjoy and SUSTAIN. Sorry, I will step off my soap box now!
Along with the above coaching, I help my clients succeed by applying the principles and behaviors in my GPS Mastery course. They can do this virtually without me through a video coaching series, or they can work one-on-one with me to coach them through the system. This course helps clients become more productive in a day, know what to do when life throws a rock at them, how they have to pivot, and, most importantly, walk in the freedom of work/life balance.
I also provide free individual consultations on holistic approaches to healthcare for those who would like to shift from a reactive lifestyle to a preventative approach. I teach the importance of activation as a massive key to health longevity, decreasing risks for sickness and disease.
Aside from my services, I am also an author and speaker. I love to travel around teaching people how to walk in obedience to God’s daily call through the many lessons God has taught me over the years. When we can walk in obedience to our daily assignments, a sense of purpose and meaning in our everyday, ordinary life is birthed. It fills the soul in a way nothing else I have experienced can and provides an overwhelming sense of joy, peace, and hope. It allows us to operate each day with the confidence that we are right where we are supposed to be and that our time is focused precisely where it needs to be at that moment.
One of the things I am the most proud of is my desire always to learn. I have a growth mindset and know I can only help my clients thrive if I continue to grow myself. I am not talking just educationally either; each individual has value to add, and we can learn from others and their experiences as well. Though I love attending mentorships, workshops, classes, etc., some of the biggest lessons I have learned that helped my clients the most were digging deeper and asking better questions to get to the root of the issue so I can help them achieve a goal or have a breakthrough.
One of the things that sets me apart in the health and wellness industry is that I do not lump every client into a one-size-fits-all package. Each client’s goals are tailored specifically to the 6 pillars and where we can improve overall. This helps them achieve their main goals faster because they do not feel they are suffering in other areas of their lives or that there is a void.
How do you think about happiness?
There is always a silver lining to everything in life; we sometimes need to dig to find it, but it is there. Being happy is a choice, and what we focus on grows. I focus on the positives in every trial, not the problems or negativity we face. I have not always found the positive in the trial, though. I had to learn how to be happy despite my circumstances. It takes practice and intentionality. I now get to teach others how to do the same thing. It is very freeing and leads to a life full of hope and joy instead of anxiety or depression. I have a free 31-day challenge inside my private Facebook group, http://www.facebook.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ykatrina.life
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ykatrinallc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ykatrina
- Other: https://a.co/d/76r2GeY
Image Credits
Kevin Lopez
Https://www.kevincurbe.com
