Kate Sanner is the CEO and founder of Vivacity. As "Jump Instructor", Kate helps a woman on the verge of doing great things to take the leap into the life she has been dreaming of...whether it's starting a business, writing a book or fulfilling a life long ambition. Once a woman has made the jump, Kate then provides tools and resources so that a woman can continue to take herself to new levels and to maximize and monetize all her efforts for continuous growth, financial gain and success.

Kate is the publisher of the monthly VivaNews™ Ezine. She is also the producer of podcast interviews with national and international experts and the creator of VivaRadio™...Internet Talk Radio for Women. She is the host of her weekly radio show, A Jumping-Off Point™, which provides tools and resources for the woman small business owner and solo-professional.

For almost two decades, Kate has been a psychotherapist serving children and women and is an educator, speaker and entrepreneur. She lives with her husband in the beautiful countryside of Carroll County, Maryland.

My "Jump into Life"™ Story!

My "Jump into Life" ™ moment came after years of slow and effortful progress towards the goals I decided to attain:

• While growing up, I saw my parents - and most of the people in my environment - work very hard all their lives to support their families. For many years, I kept focused on getting a good education so that I could have a better life. I worked hard to put myself through college and then went to graduate school. With 6 credits short of an M.Ed., I let circumstances stop me from finishing my first Masters program.
• Several years later, I went to graduate school to study for a new career as a psychotherapist. I worked full time while going to school and doing my first year internship and only quit working because of the intensity of my second year internship. This now added a dimension of financial struggle to a very busy life. After three and a half years of hard work and perseverance I achieved my goal of a Masters degree, all the while believing it was supposed to be this hard. This is what it took to make a career switch.
• I took a job straight out of graduate school at a non-profit agency. I had to gain experience for two years before becoming fully licensed. It was a shock, at my age, to be making as little money as I was making. But I pressed on through those first few years all the while believing it was supposed to be this hard. This is what it took to get started.
• After a few years at the non-profit agency, I very much wanted to go into private practice because I thought I would make a lot more money and more importantly, I would have more freedom. So, I worked at both the agency and the practice. After almost four years of hard work and perseverance I achieved the goal of being full time in private practice, all the while believing it was supposed to be this hard. This is what it took to move ahead in one's field.
• During this time, I completed an advanced two year post-Masters certification program. I established myself in a niche in my profession. I worked very hard and very diligently, adding post-grad teaching to my repertoire, all the while believing it was supposed to be this hard. This is what it took to make a name for yourself.
• I became co-owner of a group practice and its administrative director (by default). Never mind that it was so not my strong suit - someone had to do it! And through hard work and perseverance I achieved the goal of creating a private group practice all the while believing it was supposed to be this hard. This is what it took to build a business.

Then just a few years ago, after all this striving, hard work and perseverance, I had achieved my goals. But instead of feeling content and satisfied, I found myself exhausted and discouraged. Any wonder? I had kept my head down and plowed through one goal into the next, never giving any thought to what I was doing...I was just doing it. And...now what? It wasn't as if running a business still wasn't a struggle. It was supposed to be, wasn't it?

For years, I had dreamed of being self-employed. I thought being self-employed would give me freedom...but the contrary was true. I can clearly remember reading these words one day: "If you are employed, you have a job; if you are self-employed, you own a job". I remember being stunned...after all I became self-employed to achieve freedom (no more bosses for me mentality)! The truth was that those words made me face what should have been obvious all along...I had no freedom as a self-employed person. The equation when you are self-employed goes like this: WORK = GET PAID, NO WORK = NO PAY. As a private practice clinician, if I didn't work for any reason...sickness, vacation, attending a professional conference, a family emergency...or clients having to cancel for their own reasons - I didn't get paid.. It all added up to ZERO in terms of income. In addition, there were only so many hours I could work in a week and how much I earned was also determined by insurance companies.

Though I enjoyed my clinical work, I began to long even more to do what I wanted to do for several years and that was help women to discover what was truly possible in their lives. I just didn't know how to do it outside of the clinical training I had received. I made a few attempts at it with a colleague of mine, putting on workshops for women in transition and I knew from this experience that I wanted more. I had this vision of standing in front of a large audience of women, speaking on stage to them. I wanted women to be able to discover what was possible for them and to give them a way to play as big in their lives as they wanted to play.

"My moment to "jump into life" came while I was being coached to build my psychotherapy practice. Thankfully, my coach did help me to finally make my practice more successful. And once this was beginning to take shape, I finally got up the courage to share my vision for a new business with her. It would be based on women's strengths and talents, not trying to right what was wrong. My coach asked if I were serious about wanting to create and brand this business. If I were serious, she would put me in touch with someone who could help me put form to this vision. Even though I had no idea what this business would look like, even though I felt that fear we all get when we know we are about to take a huge step...I jumped and said yes. And the rest, as they say, is history.

In the last 3 years since I first put my vision out there, it has become real, multi-faceted and multi-dimensional and the speed at which things began to change in my life was remarkable. Bringing my vision into reality and into the marketplace has taken me places that I never dreamed of going, doing things I never imagined I'd do. I created a new business that has me looking forward to getting up every morning and "leapfrogging" to each new level...and without all that painful effort and struggle. Though I work hard, it never feels like hard work. It has been a joy that keeps unfolding and growing.

I Wish You Much Joy and Success in Your Enterprise!

Turn your own "Jump into Life" Story into a personally designed "Jump Plan" that will provide you the tools and resources to "Think Big" (Mindset) and "Play Big" (Actions) and get you unstuck and to that next level.

Sign up for a FREE Copy of the "The Think and Play Big System"™ and your subscription to the VivaNews™ Ezine which will provide you mindset and action tools on a bi-weekly basis. Once you have written down you "jumping-off points", take action and receive coaching to get your vision out into reality and into the marketplace. Jump Plans Coaching Programs Page