Exploring Life & Business with Kari Lu Cowell of Kari Lu Coaching

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kari Lu Cowell.

Hi Kari, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Holding space for others is my superpower! It’s always come easy to me, so when I moved to Los Angeles at 17 for acting, with no emotional or financial support, I freaked out and needed something safe to do as a career. Since holding space and listening to people was so natural for me, I decided to go into psychology.

Honestly, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life upon graduating college, so I spent a year volunteering with Americorps. After my time volunteering, I was presented with an opportunity to work as a children’s behavioral therapist. Working with these kids, I wanted to have more power to help them, and I decided to get my Doctorate in Clinical Psychology with a specialization in play therapy. I chose to work with incarcerated youth and wanted to see if play therapy could help them more than traditional therapy. However, working with kids (and people in general in my opinion) requires all systems and structures to openly communicate and be aligned with treatment plans, and unfortunately, that is not how things worked back in the day. (This was 2007ish.) I was burnt out and depressed, so I quit my Doc program and took six months to rest and digest and figure out where I wanted to go next.

Before I left my program, a colleague of mine had asked if I wanted to audition for the local theatre with her, so I thought, “Why not? I miss acting and being creative.” And that was what brought me back to acting. My passion for creation never left, and I was much more grounded in myself at 27 than I was at 17. It was great to be back, and I ended up being nominated for an Irene Ryan award and accepted into an acting conservatory! Fast forward about 4 years later, and I ended up back in LA because I was more marketable in the film than theatre at the time. I knew I would need a “day job” while working on my acting career, and I decided I wanted to be a yoga instructor and Reiki Master. I thought it would be about five years before I got my yoga teaching certificate, but as fate would have it, I ended up getting certified about 1 year after my move back to LA. Since then, I have had an incredible career working full-time in the yoga space. I taught studio classes and privates full time the first three years after obtaining my certificate, and now I spend most of my time developing and mentoring new yoga instructors and leading yoga teacher training.

All of this experience is brought into my coaching business, which I started in 2020. Even before the pandemic happened, I said to myself at the beginning of 2020, “I’m going to be my own boss by the end of the year.” I had no idea how that was going to happen, but I knew it was. Of course, lockdown threw all of us for a loop, but around June of 2020, I decided it was time to start looking into how to run a business and be a successful entrepreneur, so I started taking marketing classes, and the first class I took I was told to pick one thing to focus on, and I heard a voice in my head that said, “You’re going to be a dating coach for nerds!” And that’s how I started my business. Things in my business have shifted and changed since 2020. I am no longer niching around romance and dating, but everything still comes through a lens of love – self-love, friend love, romantic love, love for the world. Everything is love and love is everything.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
OMG! ha ha ha ha It has NOT been a smooth road. I actually think I get a little afraid when things are smooth because I am more used to struggle. (I’m working on that. LOL) Honestly, I think one of the biggest struggles has been this idea we have in the general culture that we should have things figured out. The older I get and the more I live, I realize I will never have anything figured out, and the best thing I can do is follow my intuition and accept that I am a person that changes all the time. I used to envy my friends who knew what they wanted to do with their lives. It seemed like such a simple path and they definitely had a plan to follow. I am not that person. I wind and detour and am constantly changing. Once I accepted that about me though, I had way less existential crises.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Kari Lu Coaching?
I created my business to help people. I have always loved helping people. Originally I was focusing on helping people with dating and relationships. I love love! I still help people with dating and relationships, but 2023 is about expanding my business to include all of the healing modalities I offer – yoga, coaching, reiki, mentorship, etc. It’s kind of like a buffet where you can choose what you need and I’ll create a customized offering just for you.

I am most proud of creating a business through an anti-colonial, anti-capitalist lens that helps people be the most authentic selves they can be.

I think the thing that sets me apart from others is my story. I have so much life experience that many other people don’t have, and the way I view things is outside of the norm. I am a transracial, transnational adoptee, I worked as a stripper for four years, I lived out of my car. All of that gets brought into my coaching and mentorship and helps me see things in a different and creative way. That’s why I’m expanding my business this year. I want to mentor adoptees and yoga instructors, I want to help people create safe, seen, and sovereign relationships, I want to offer reiki and private yoga sessions, etc. Focusing on just one aspect when I can offer a multitude of services would be a disservice to myself and to the world. At the end of the day, whatever service you choose, I want you to fall so deeply in love with yourself it doesn’t feel uncomfortable to say, “I’m great!” and actually mean it.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Be patient. Balance work and play. You don’t have to be hyperproductive. Working on yourself takes time. Working on a business takes time. Show yourself as much grace as you would your best friend.

Pricing:

• Mentorship/Coaching – sliding scale, please reach out!
• Private Yoga – $150 for 60 mins, can be split between up to 5 people
• Reiki (In Person or Distant) – $75/session
• Pre-Recorded Workshops – $25 and up

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bookme.name/antisoulmatelove
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/karilucoaching
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kari-lu-cowell-3518167/
• Other: https://antisoulmatelove.wixsite.com/antisoulmatelove

Image Credits
Jenny Rolapp Photography David Sidwell