Beth Kruger is a girl's girl. For over fifteen years, she’s empowered women through some of the most critical and vulnerable stages of their lives: pregnancy, birth, infertility, miscarriage, and infant loss. What began as a passion for yoga and how the practice made her feel grew into a calling to support women when they often have the least support. Her work has always been real, honest, and grounded in authenticity.
She’s a role model, a friend, a coach, an entrepreneur, and an awesome mom who relentlessly shows up for her daughters.
Beth and fellow Hula member Sarah O’Brien Hammond have launched several highly successful monthly events that speak directly to something women in this community have been craving: connection. Together, they’re an unstoppable force. It’s no wonder that Beth, a natural connector, has found her stride at Hula as an ambassador for so many women in this community.
Q: What do you do?
A: I have spent so much of my life working with women through their pregnancies and new motherhood, and now midlife. This has manifested in what I now do for work, I work as a retreats and wellness consultant for small businesses, and I am still a passionate women’s midlife health educator & advocate.
Q: Do you own your own business? Tell us about it!
A: I do! I started working for myself in 2015 and opened a perinatal space that had prenatal and postnatal yoga and fitness classes, a prenatal yoga teacher training program, and birth education classes for expecting couples. I expanded to offer more classes for all women in things like yoga for fertility, belly dancing, intro to lap dancing, and this dance party style of yoga called Buti Yoga– it was wild! I changed my business name to Women's Room then, and I still run all of my travel consulting services under that umbrella.
Q: What’s a piece of advice you give to other people?
A:
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Stay true to yourself, and to your ideals, keep them in the frame always. Get comfortable with failure if you are going to travel the road of the entrepreneur, work on building up some grit and determination, and practice what it means to be resilient. Make sure you find a way to integrate self-care into your day-to-day — because you can't fill others from an empty cup.
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There is always beauty in the aspects of our lives that seem like a sh*tshow. The thousand-petaled lotus flower grows from the mud at the bottom of the pond. The preciousness and beauty are all around, and they exist simultaneously with the mundane and the ugly. The key is to learn to adjust your focus over and over, and to iterate.
Q: What’s something a mentor or important person has shared that made an impact on your business or career?
A: In college, I studied Fine Arts and was an Art Studio major. I was lucky enough to study under Lance Richbourg and Gregg Blasdel. Lance was rough around the edges and such a character. He encouraged me to make something (my paintings in this case) over and over and over again. Iterating and changing a little bit each time, because being precious and trying to make something perfect would stifle the creativity.
The idea was to create a huge mess. It could even be ugly. The goal wasn't a perfect painting– it was about the process. The process of becoming an artist was about doing the thing, over and over again, and at some point you could step back and think, "Hey, I like that thing I just made, it looks pretty cool".
Gregg was the kindest, gentlest human, and his quiet spirit was inspiring. Both of those men had an impact on my life in so many ways, because the creative spirit they inspired and helped me uncover in my twenties has stayed with me through my whole life thus far.
Q: What role does community play in your career or business?
A: Community is everything in my career. It's what I have built my whole business on, in fact. In my studio, all of our classes were designed to help each of the groups create a sense of belonging and inclusion. There is so much in our lives that happens to us that can leave us feeling isolated and alone. But in reality, we are all more alike than we are different.
Q: What was a pivotal moment or realization in your personal or professional life that has changed your trajectory?
A: I have had the pleasure of having some of the most incredible students and clients through my work. I once received a handwritten letter in the mail from a student thanking me for changing her life. She told me that before she worked with me, she felt broken, and that I helped her to heal. I was so touched. I wasn't even aware that I had affected her so much and it was such a lovely surprise. Making an impact and helping others has always made me feel aligned in my work, so this letter really hit home for me.
I also had a student who had a huge loss many years ago. I was close to her, and so I went to be with her after that loss. I just sat with her, listened to her story, and held her hand. The discomfort and the fear that I felt before I went to her were so real and raw. When I faced it and sat with her in her grief, I knew that I was on the right track. This work made me grow. It pushed my edges and expanded my capacity.
If you aren't feeling fulfilled, you need to figure out why that is and make some shifts.
Q: How do you handle setbacks or failures without losing motivation?
A: If you try something new, you're bound to fail. Failure is okay. It teaches us so much. I surround myself with positive people and invest in maintaining my optimism. I practice what I preach, move my body, eat healthy food, work on good sleep hygiene, and practice mindfulness because I believe that you have to fill your own cup first, before you can fill everyone else's.
Q: What’s a personal habit or mindset shift that significantly improved your business or work life?
A: I try to be authentic and stay true to that.
Q: Is there a transformative book, speech, or presentation that you’d recommend to other aspiring business professionals?
A: Brene Brown's talk on the Power of Vulnerability is one of my favorites. Her message about embracing vulnerability, rather than avoiding it, is essential for living a wholehearted life, building authentic relationships, and experiencing joy and belonging. I love all of her work.
