August 24, 2025 • 23 mins
In this inspiring episode of Conversations with Kris, Kayla Heard opens up about authenticity, intention, and creating beauty from the inside out—and we dive into Convergence Wellness Campout, an immersive weekend gathering focused on whole-human renewal. Think sunrise yoga and breathwork, mindful workshops, community circles, cold plunges, live music, and fireside conversations under the stars—designed to help you reset, connect, and expand.
Kayla shares the mindset shifts that changed her life, how she blends spirituality with entrepreneurship, and why small daily practices create massive transformation. If you’re craving alignment, real connection, and a space to recharge with your people, this conversation (and this campout) is for you.
FOLLOW FOR MORE:
@convergence.wellness.campout
@heard_mama
www.convegencecampout.com
@kristopherpace
www.kristopherpace.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
I am positively Chris Pace and you are actively listening to
conversations with Chris. All right, everybody, it's
Chris. Guess what?
You guessed. Yeah, you guessed the
conversations with Chris. Always having conversations with
the best people possible. So today I have Kayla Hurd, who
is the founder and creator of Convergence Productions, which
(00:32):
also just happens to be holding Convergence Wellness Camp out
this year, which I'll be teaching at on Sunday morning.
So you guys are going to want tohear this because this is a
great story. I want to hear it because I know
she's very interesting and in the short time that I've spoken
with her, I'm very excited aboutthis interview.
So, Kayla, how are you now? I am wonderful, Chris, thank you
(00:52):
so much for that flattering introduction to what we've got
going on this year. And I'm excited to have you out
to the event. So I know you're teaching on
Sunday, but you're going to be hanging out with people all
weekend. And so I'm excited for that.
Yeah, hopefully I'll meet some, no doubt that I'll meet some
really amazing people and maybe get some new podcast guests,
might even get my bus tagged up.And it's going to be so much
(01:14):
fun. I'm very excited.
Thank you for inviting me and having me out there.
So tell us about you and how Kayla became who you are today
and how the company became Convergence Productions as well
as the festival creation which started last year.
Is that correct? Yeah, that is correct.
And I guess the back story couldgo back as far as we wanna take
(01:38):
it. So we'll, yeah, we'll keep it
somewhat brief. You know, with Convergence
Productions, I've been producingevents as a consultant for other
people. I had KH Consulting for years
and was producing large conferences and helping bring
the hemp industry online, which was and is a huge passion of
(01:59):
mine. Just regenerative building
materials. It's like a plus.
And I saw an opportunity to haveevents be more focused on
healing. And I started as a life coach
again almost a decade ago and wanted to take that life
coaching practice and the retreat ceremonies and the
(02:20):
things that we were doing to a larger audience.
So I took KH Productions and in order to turn it into a format
that could actually be also downthe road employee owned, I
converted it into Convergence Productions and am setting it up
now in a format that it will eventually be an employee owned
organization and hopefully within the next couple of years,
(02:43):
sooner rather than later is the goal for that one.
And so with that last year Convergence Wellness Festival
was born and we realized that with the festival name, you
still get a lot more of that party format.
And this year we decided to completely change the format, go
with different partners, rebrandunder Convergence Productions
(03:06):
and call it Convergence WellnessCamp out.
And so for this year, we're really focusing on that retreat
format of sunrise yoga followed by somatic ceremony and moving
into the different types of trauma processing that someone
who's lived a life might need toreceive.
I I think none of us escaped ourchildhood unscathed.
(03:29):
That's for sure. And a lot of us haven't escaped
our adulthood unscathed either. So sharing these stories of
empowerment through our Empowerment Hour, which is our
lunch break every day, people will get to know more about each
other's stories and how they gotwhere they are today.
And you know, the reason I'm personally so passionate about
(03:51):
this, no alcohol sober support space being a part of our events
is because they do come from a home that was riddled with
addiction. And my father was extremely
abusive due to his addiction andactually attempted to take his
life in front of me when I was 8years old.
And so working through that trauma, never receiving support
(04:14):
for it as a child, you know, just kind of it was like mom
buried her head in the sand. I basically started raising
myself and my younger brother when I was 8.
And so looking at like, well, what do, what did I need to
become the person I am today? What empowerments did I receive?
What, what empowerments did I arm myself with?
(04:35):
Like what information did I comeacross that allowed me to step
into my power and step out of a victimhood mentality and out of
that victim mindset? And so that's a lot of how the
program around Convergence this year was created was how do we
empower people who've been through it, You know, whether
that's as a child or as an adultand honoring that.
(04:58):
We have all been through both sides of it.
Some of us have been the addict and some of us have been the
survivor of an addict. Some of us have been through
trauma. Some of us have been the
perpetrator of others trauma andhave wanted to change, you know,
change the lives of ourselves and others because of that.
And so empowerment and unconditional Love's the name of
(05:19):
the game here. Right.
And that's 100% in the live witheverything that I am about.
So I love that. I love this festival, I love the
IKEA, I love the concept. Everything about it just looks
amazing. Let's back up a little bit
though. Wow, what an incredible
childhood. I mean, that had been
challenging, obviously, facing kind of scenario where you're
(05:42):
literally watching your father not just metaphorically, but
trying to take his own life. Yeah.
So, you know, extreme poverty and a lot of it, I guess was
overly normalized because they didn't realize, because there
was not therapy involved in those types of things.
They didn't realize until I was an adult that the resolve I made
at 8 years old of like, I will never be like my father and I
(06:05):
will be way stronger than my mother.
Like for an 8 year old to make that very resilient claim, not
realizing kind of the impact of that until adulthood.
And like also the impact of not having therapy or any kind of
support after all of those traumatic events.
(06:27):
It's, it's been eye opening as an adult, but it was difficult
as a child. You know, when I was actually,
my father was in prison until I was 3 due to his addiction.
So I didn't meet him. He was in prison when I was
born, got out when I was 3 and immediately became extremely
violent. And that all escalated into
living in a, you know, women andchildren's shelter and then
(06:50):
culminated into my father actually moving in next door.
Where into the trailer house next door where the abuse
continued. And so through broken bones,
through, you know, attempted murder on his children and
eventually his own suicide attempt.
He did end up back in prison andthen got back out when I was 12
(07:13):
and started a whole nother cycleof abuse through trafficking me
for drugs. And so that was a whole other
experience in and of itself thatagain, I didn't even realize the
full scope of, you know what, mydad taking me and leaving me
alone with these people so he could get drugs really meant,
(07:33):
right? Like it took me talking to a
therapist and then being like, you realize you were trafficked,
right? And I was like, huh?
Because you. Think yeah.
You know, you tell, you tell a trusted adult about these things
as a kid and it's like, oh, shush, shush, because they're
going to take you away. If you talk about this or I'm,
I'm, you know, you're going to lose your mom or whatever.
(07:54):
And I was raised in a very strict religious household.
So then that created a lot of religious trauma for me that
I've had to work through to reach my spirituality.
Like I have had to let go of theanger and the angst and the
feeling like I was lied to aboutcertain things to reach my
connection to that source energyor what some call God, you know?
And so releasing all of that is,I think what's empowered me and
(08:17):
a lot of others who have been able to work through what
they've been able to work through is finding that
connection to their highest source and self through
forgiveness and letting go of anger and the grief associated
with a childhood they may have wished they could have had.
And instead finding the power and what they you know can
(08:37):
create with with the finding thepower and the purpose, right?
Yeah, absolutely, 100%. I mean, becoming grateful for
all those things that are tragically terrible that
happened to you and to me as child is really the key to
finding peace in life. Because once you understand that
collectively, you couldn't be who you are today if you didn't
go through every single thing you've been through in your
(08:59):
life. And so I love who I am today.
I'm great with who I am today. And so that means that I've made
peace and not only peace, I'm grateful for every single thing
that's happened to me and my mind is aligns with yours very
much so in almost every way in shape and form.
So, you know, the father and then two piece of stepfathers,
(09:19):
my mother who's that I haven't spoken to since I was 17 years
old, the whole 9, you know, outside of me being trafficking
drugs, I've done all the same stuff, but it's just been a
crazy ride. But at the same time, it gave me
so much strength. It gave me a lot of things that
I can offer other people and relatability to people.
So it's kind of giving me not only who I am, but a purpose in
(09:42):
life to basically be able to go help others just like what
you're doing up there. So I understand and I empathize,
but also have respect for where you're at because it certainly
did take all those things to make you who you are today.
And that's a beautiful thing. And now you're creating an
opportunity for other people to heal, which is beautiful, even
more beautiful. Same thing with me.
(10:02):
That's the whole point of my podcast.
That that is beautiful. And you're completely right with
finding gratitude. I mean, finding starting every
day with thank you and ending every day with thank you.
I don't even have to know for exactly the what I'm, you know,
being grateful for, but being grateful for what's to come and
(10:23):
what has been and what is in each moment.
And you know, that we find that that also I find personally that
that allows me to honor my innerchild because finding gratitude
for the strength that I was ableto find and the fact that I'm
still on this earth through multiple suicide attempts as a
teenager, because at that point,I couldn't process and handle.
(10:44):
I wasn't given the tools. And like how grateful I am that
I didn't succeed and that I'm able to sit here in my mid 30s
and have multiple young women that look up to me as a mentor
and women that are older than me.
That and, and in my same age bracket that I look up to as
mentors. And that I'm able to find peers
that we find empowerment and supporting each other.
(11:06):
And then take that out to the collective because we're
creating more of that ripple effect and inspiring more people
to share their stories, which then inspires more people to
either become healers or share their stories.
And it really becomes this beautiful cycle that all starts
in gratitude. They, they say grateful people
(11:27):
are happy people, right? Attitude to gratitude.
It's not about finding happiness, it's about finding
gratitude. And once you find gratitude,
everything else kind of falls into place.
When you're grateful for things that happen that are less than
ideal, then you've pretty much mastered the the art of peace.
Like that's one of those things that is very difficult people to
find. But I look at everything in
(11:48):
terms of healthy and unhealthy, not good and bad.
Obviously, like the Chinese farmer story, which I'm sure
you've heard, you know, maybe, maybe, maybe we never know.
So you can't really say this is good or bad.
So I'm always just like educational or it's fun.
Those are the two options I giveit.
It sounds like our educational experiences are going to lead us
(12:09):
to a lot of fun coming up in a couple weeks, which I'm very
excited about at the festival, which by the way, this place
looks amazing. Astral Valley Art Park.
Incredible, incredible. I mean, absolutely beautiful.
Like, wow. I'm obsessed with what they
built here. I mean Astral Valley Art Park,
it is next level. Sheena, the owner in her family.
(12:32):
It's a owner own like family owned venue.
I stayed there for almost the entire month of June.
I went for a festival and then it ended up renting a camping
spot afterwards because it is open as a year round campground
with hiking, rock climbing, caveexploring, Creek stompin and
(12:52):
spring soaking. It is truly magic in the
Missouri Ozarks and on top of the beautiful campground that
they've built, there's this phenomenal stage, hundreds of
acres to explore and the most beautiful water, like healing
water I've ever experienced in this venue.
(13:13):
This Aquaphor that creates thesesprings have had people going to
it for thousands of years beforewe we started going here.
And so we really work on honoring that land and honoring
the water and honoring the people who came here way before
us and the people who steward that land.
Gina and her family are really, really good about honoring that
(13:36):
and it feels really impactful. That's amazing.
I can't wait to meet them and see the place.
I mean, online it's probably doesn't even come close to doing
it justice as it is. When you're there, I'm sure the
energy is amazing. Now, how cold is it going to be?
What kind of temperature school can we expect?
Because I'm a Florida boy, I like the warm weather, so I need
the jackets. And all that.
(13:57):
It'll be a little chilly at night, definitely dressed for
layers. It'll be warm during the day, a
little chilly at night as we go into that fall weather, but also
not anticipating anything too cold.
Like low 50s at the chilliest iswhat we're looking like, and
like 70s to 80s during the day. So we're anticipating some
pretty sorry for weather, yeah. Good.
(14:20):
That's Yeah, I think that soundsamazing.
I've not spent a lot of time in Missouri, but obviously the show
Ozarks has made the place famous, right?
So now. It's not bad.
I've never seen the Ozarks play.I've heard it's not a good
reputation. Go watch it.
Yeah, well, you know, it's less than ideal, but if you're from
Daytona Beach, FL, it's not so bad because it's exactly about
(14:41):
the same, you know, it's, you know, transient type of place.
But yeah, I know the show's, I'msure dramatic for obvious
reasons, to bring the theatricalaspects into it.
But the Astral Valley Park just looks unbelievable.
And the festival's got such a light up this year.
I mean, you got me on there, yougot all these incredible
(15:02):
musicians. You've got, I mean, just cool
people all the way around. So I mean, that's just exciting.
It really is exciting. So between you and our other
amazing facilitators that we have, the daily lineups are next
level and then you add in our evening lineups and.
(15:24):
Here we go. So we're talking about Missouri,
the Ozarks and the amazing festival that's coming up.
And so tell us why we we know that you the purpose of why you
put this together. But really, I mean, you've got a
lot of people that are really talented involved in this
festival and it seems like people are already signed up by
the bunches and people are responding really well to it.
(15:45):
So clearly something we need in this society and clearly
something that's very helpful for everybody that's going to be
attending. And those.
Is there any tickets available still?
People can still sign up and still get into it.
There are, yeah, there are. Tickets are still available,
four day, three day, 2 day, and we just released single day
tickets for those who can only make it in on Sunday.
(16:06):
However, this program is designed to be enjoyed in its
entirety, just like you would with a retreat.
So we encourage people, if you can make it for the four days,
to get that four day ticket. Get in early.
Join us for welcoming ceremony, which will be hosted by Sarah
Clover, who's just a phenomenal presence in bringing us together
and honoring the land that we'reworking on there.
(16:27):
And then we'll have our potluck dinner to get everybody welcomed
into that space. And then we're going to throw
down with some fun music Thursday night, and then we get
started with the retreat programon Friday morning and run that
through Sunday. So a lot of really exciting
daytime fun. And then also in our children's
Meadow, it is designed for children, but it's also designed
(16:49):
for the inner child within each of us.
So we encourage people to go over into our children's Meadow
and interact, do some of the artinstallation activities.
We have some artists that are going to be doing performances
for the children and children 12and under Duke it in free and
there's extremely discounted tickets for ages 13 to 17.
That way the parents and adults can do their drop in and go
(17:13):
enjoy the activities from 8:00 AM till 4 while their children
are having fun with the full line up in the children's
Meadow. But our inner children sometimes
feel called to participate in some of those activities.
So we're going to, we're going to keep that open for her, for
the inner child, all of us. And these tickets can be
obtained at the website convergencecampout.com.
(17:35):
And I know for people coming to see you Sunday, sunrise Yoga,
they're going to want to make sure they're in early for that.
But we also have sunrise yoga onThursday or sorry, Friday and
Saturday mornings. So we want people to participate
in those as well. 100% and I'm actually giving away 2 VIP
tickets right now on social media which thank you for that.
I love the opportunity to give away to my people some love and
(18:00):
some appreciation so that all the rules are on my Instagram.
You guys check it out. You're going to want to be
there. This is going to be amazing.
I'm going to be in the kids areabecause I'm still a kid at
heart. I'm the Toys-R-Us kid.
You know, I never want to grow up.
I just want to be a Toys-R-Us kid.
You put the kids part in there, I'm in.
I'm all about it. So if you're looking for me,
good chance I'm going to be in the children's play area because
(18:21):
it sounds amazing. Well, make sure you don't miss
the workshops by Sierra, Miss Lonman because she is doing the
three day integration called Playground and it's 3 days worth
of grounding into your present self, but honoring that your
inner child is who you are now as well, not something separate
from you. So being present and playing as
(18:43):
well as grounding in. So it's a really fun three day.
You're going to have to check that out, get out in the crowd,
participate in that one. We also have a water balloon
fight at the end of her Sunday workshop.
We're going to be using some reusable water balloons and
having a lot of fun for everyonethere.
So that'll give you another opportunity to let that inner
(19:03):
child shine. Absolutely.
That's amazing. And man, the artists I've been
listening to, the artists that are going to be there, you've
got an incredible lineup. I mean, so many talented people
on the schedule I don't have, it's going to be difficult to
choose who to listen to. Is it one stage or multiple
stages? Are we going to everybody lines
up in one place or are we going to be able to hear everybody?
I made it easy for you guys or you did everything from the
(19:25):
mainstage. Now there are some alternate
integration spaces. So for people who need support
from the daytime activities, maybe they need some additional
emotional support. We have some different spaces
designed for that as well as some alternative workshop
options during the day. But but once that night time
hits, we really encourage everybody to head over to the
(19:45):
mainstage and all of our music is performed from that mainstage
so you'll you'll get a chance tosee everyone.
Nice, excellent. I like that a lot.
I hate when you're all spread out everywhere and you can't get
to everybody. And most importantly, alcohol
free, family friendly, which to me is that's what festival
should be and that's the way we should be doing it.
Obviously for me it's a very personal thing, seeing as how I
(20:07):
just lost my brother to alcoholism a couple weeks ago.
So you inviting me to come be a part of this really means a lot
to me and it's really something that's it's close to home and
I'm elated and ecstatic to come be a part of anything I can do
to help. Happy to help.
Looking forward to meeting you in person.
Looking forward to seeing this place and can't wait to play on
the kids area. I know, absolutely.
(20:29):
And I'm so grateful for support from people like you and your
organizations and that we can, you know, give to each other.
The support that you give us andthe support that we can give
back is paramount. Same with our other sponsors.
Devi Beauty is coming in. They create some all natural
skin care. That's next level.
You know, I personally struggle with using the stuff off the
shelf from the store because it causes me to like turn a weird
(20:51):
red color. But her products I can use
without any of that itchiness orirritation that I've.
I guess I lived in nature too long because I came back and all
said my shampoo made me itchy. I've been able to use her
different products. She doesn't necessarily have
shampoo, but she has a body product that I able to use as a
cleanser that works phenomenal. And then we have like within by
(21:11):
Jen, who does the spiritual work.
And then we have you who helps us with our body and help
support our veterans who are an underserved community.
We are all about taking care of these underserved communities
and across the board. So I just want to give a huge
thank you to you and our other sponsors as others that I didn't
get a chance to to mention. But if you check out our
website, go to that and sponsor tab, there's some phenomenal
(21:33):
partners that can help people sustain this growth after the
event or support each other in these synergistic ways.
So I just want to encourage thatcollaboration as well. 100% I we
have to give it up to the sponsors.
They are the people that make ithappen and you know, can't wait
till the till this is year 2, but really year one for the
(21:54):
start of the every year at the place that it's being held,
right, It's not accurate. So we're just beginning.
This is technically the first year.
Last year was a trial. Exactly.
Yeah, this is our first year with this leadership team.
The first year, well, we have a lot of our support staff coming
back, which is phenomenal. We it's really been a huge help
(22:16):
to have a lot of that staff because they're who make it
happen and the community as well.
But this is our first year at Astral Valley, our first time
serving the Midwest community. Last year it was a lot of our
Colorado friends and family and our known, our Wellness
community that already kind of existed.
So the opportunity to step out and and serve a community that
really doesn't see a lot of stuff like this feels really
(22:38):
impactful. So I appreciate you bringing
these talents to this Midwest region.
It's it's really important. My pleasure.
I think it's going to be an awesome experience actually.
I know it's going to be an awesome experience and there's
so many people that are coming that I can't wait to meet.
And hopefully we can do some live podcasting at the event and
get some more people involved and visibility.
(23:00):
Maybe if they're already there and they haven't got the whole
week passed, they can come get the two day or the one day and
still be a part of it in some way or shape or form.
So we'll we'll have to keep promoting and keep doing this.
Maybe another podcast as well before to get some more people
on here. Maybe the sponsors would like to
be on the podcast. Oh, absolutely.
I know that we, Ashley, would bethrilled to have a conversation
(23:22):
with you. She's with which company?
She's with Debbie Debbie Beauty,she's the founder and is a next
level goddess. We're definitely going to have
to have her on then for sure. We need those guys talking it
up. So thank you so much, Kayla.
I love your story, you're amazing and inspiring and all
the things that I strive to be in life.
So Namaste to you and I look forward to seeing you soon.
(23:45):
Thanks brother, talk soon. Bye, bye, bye.
I am positively Chris Pace and you are actively listening to
conversations with Chris. All right, everybody, it's
Chris. Guess what?
You guessed. Yeah, you guessed the
conversations with Chris. Always having conversations with
the best people possible. So today I have Kayla Hurd, who
is the founder and creator of Convergence Productions, which
(00:32):
also just happens to be holding Convergence Wellness Camp out
this year, which I'll be teaching at on Sunday morning.
So you guys are going to want tohear this because this is a
great story. I want to hear it because I know
she's very interesting and in the short time that I've spoken
with her, I'm very excited aboutthis interview.
So, Kayla, how are you now? I am wonderful, Chris, thank you
(00:52):
so much for that flattering introduction to what we've got
going on this year. And I'm excited to have you out
to the event. So I know you're teaching on
Sunday, but you're going to be hanging out with people all
weekend. And so I'm excited for that.
Yeah, hopefully I'll meet some, no doubt that I'll meet some
really amazing people and maybe get some new podcast guests,
might even get my bus tagged up.And it's going to be so much
(01:14):
fun. I'm very excited.
Thank you for inviting me and having me out there.
So tell us about you and how Kayla became who you are today
and how the company became Convergence Productions as well
as the festival creation which started last year.
Is that correct? Yeah, that is correct.
And I guess the back story couldgo back as far as we wanna take
(01:38):
it. So we'll, yeah, we'll keep it
somewhat brief. You know, with Convergence
Productions, I've been producingevents as a consultant for other
people. I had KH Consulting for years
and was producing large conferences and helping bring
the hemp industry online, which was and is a huge passion of
(01:59):
mine. Just regenerative building
materials. It's like a plus.
And I saw an opportunity to haveevents be more focused on
healing. And I started as a life coach
again almost a decade ago and wanted to take that life
coaching practice and the retreat ceremonies and the
(02:20):
things that we were doing to a larger audience.
So I took KH Productions and in order to turn it into a format
that could actually be also downthe road employee owned, I
converted it into Convergence Productions and am setting it up
now in a format that it will eventually be an employee owned
organization and hopefully within the next couple of years,
(02:43):
sooner rather than later is the goal for that one.
And so with that last year Convergence Wellness Festival
was born and we realized that with the festival name, you
still get a lot more of that party format.
And this year we decided to completely change the format, go
with different partners, rebrandunder Convergence Productions
(03:06):
and call it Convergence WellnessCamp out.
And so for this year, we're really focusing on that retreat
format of sunrise yoga followed by somatic ceremony and moving
into the different types of trauma processing that someone
who's lived a life might need toreceive.
I I think none of us escaped ourchildhood unscathed.
(03:29):
That's for sure. And a lot of us haven't escaped
our adulthood unscathed either. So sharing these stories of
empowerment through our Empowerment Hour, which is our
lunch break every day, people will get to know more about each
other's stories and how they gotwhere they are today.
And you know, the reason I'm personally so passionate about
(03:51):
this, no alcohol sober support space being a part of our events
is because they do come from a home that was riddled with
addiction. And my father was extremely
abusive due to his addiction andactually attempted to take his
life in front of me when I was 8years old.
And so working through that trauma, never receiving support
(04:14):
for it as a child, you know, just kind of it was like mom
buried her head in the sand. I basically started raising
myself and my younger brother when I was 8.
And so looking at like, well, what do, what did I need to
become the person I am today? What empowerments did I receive?
What, what empowerments did I arm myself with?
(04:35):
Like what information did I comeacross that allowed me to step
into my power and step out of a victimhood mentality and out of
that victim mindset? And so that's a lot of how the
program around Convergence this year was created was how do we
empower people who've been through it, You know, whether
that's as a child or as an adultand honoring that.
(04:58):
We have all been through both sides of it.
Some of us have been the addict and some of us have been the
survivor of an addict. Some of us have been through
trauma. Some of us have been the
perpetrator of others trauma andhave wanted to change, you know,
change the lives of ourselves and others because of that.
And so empowerment and unconditional Love's the name of
(05:19):
the game here. Right.
And that's 100% in the live witheverything that I am about.
So I love that. I love this festival, I love the
IKEA, I love the concept. Everything about it just looks
amazing. Let's back up a little bit
though. Wow, what an incredible
childhood. I mean, that had been
challenging, obviously, facing kind of scenario where you're
(05:42):
literally watching your father not just metaphorically, but
trying to take his own life. Yeah.
So, you know, extreme poverty and a lot of it, I guess was
overly normalized because they didn't realize, because there
was not therapy involved in those types of things.
They didn't realize until I was an adult that the resolve I made
at 8 years old of like, I will never be like my father and I
(06:05):
will be way stronger than my mother.
Like for an 8 year old to make that very resilient claim, not
realizing kind of the impact of that until adulthood.
And like also the impact of not having therapy or any kind of
support after all of those traumatic events.
(06:27):
It's, it's been eye opening as an adult, but it was difficult
as a child. You know, when I was actually,
my father was in prison until I was 3 due to his addiction.
So I didn't meet him. He was in prison when I was
born, got out when I was 3 and immediately became extremely
violent. And that all escalated into
living in a, you know, women andchildren's shelter and then
(06:50):
culminated into my father actually moving in next door.
Where into the trailer house next door where the abuse
continued. And so through broken bones,
through, you know, attempted murder on his children and
eventually his own suicide attempt.
He did end up back in prison andthen got back out when I was 12
(07:13):
and started a whole nother cycleof abuse through trafficking me
for drugs. And so that was a whole other
experience in and of itself thatagain, I didn't even realize the
full scope of, you know what, mydad taking me and leaving me
alone with these people so he could get drugs really meant,
(07:33):
right? Like it took me talking to a
therapist and then being like, you realize you were trafficked,
right? And I was like, huh?
Because you. Think yeah.
You know, you tell, you tell a trusted adult about these things
as a kid and it's like, oh, shush, shush, because they're
going to take you away. If you talk about this or I'm,
I'm, you know, you're going to lose your mom or whatever.
(07:54):
And I was raised in a very strict religious household.
So then that created a lot of religious trauma for me that
I've had to work through to reach my spirituality.
Like I have had to let go of theanger and the angst and the
feeling like I was lied to aboutcertain things to reach my
connection to that source energyor what some call God, you know?
And so releasing all of that is,I think what's empowered me and
(08:17):
a lot of others who have been able to work through what
they've been able to work through is finding that
connection to their highest source and self through
forgiveness and letting go of anger and the grief associated
with a childhood they may have wished they could have had.
And instead finding the power and what they you know can
(08:37):
create with with the finding thepower and the purpose, right?
Yeah, absolutely, 100%. I mean, becoming grateful for
all those things that are tragically terrible that
happened to you and to me as child is really the key to
finding peace in life. Because once you understand that
collectively, you couldn't be who you are today if you didn't
go through every single thing you've been through in your
(08:59):
life. And so I love who I am today.
I'm great with who I am today. And so that means that I've made
peace and not only peace, I'm grateful for every single thing
that's happened to me and my mind is aligns with yours very
much so in almost every way in shape and form.
So, you know, the father and then two piece of stepfathers,
(09:19):
my mother who's that I haven't spoken to since I was 17 years
old, the whole 9, you know, outside of me being trafficking
drugs, I've done all the same stuff, but it's just been a
crazy ride. But at the same time, it gave me
so much strength. It gave me a lot of things that
I can offer other people and relatability to people.
So it's kind of giving me not only who I am, but a purpose in
(09:42):
life to basically be able to go help others just like what
you're doing up there. So I understand and I empathize,
but also have respect for where you're at because it certainly
did take all those things to make you who you are today.
And that's a beautiful thing. And now you're creating an
opportunity for other people to heal, which is beautiful, even
more beautiful. Same thing with me.
(10:02):
That's the whole point of my podcast.
That that is beautiful. And you're completely right with
finding gratitude. I mean, finding starting every
day with thank you and ending every day with thank you.
I don't even have to know for exactly the what I'm, you know,
being grateful for, but being grateful for what's to come and
(10:23):
what has been and what is in each moment.
And you know, that we find that that also I find personally that
that allows me to honor my innerchild because finding gratitude
for the strength that I was ableto find and the fact that I'm
still on this earth through multiple suicide attempts as a
teenager, because at that point,I couldn't process and handle.
(10:44):
I wasn't given the tools. And like how grateful I am that
I didn't succeed and that I'm able to sit here in my mid 30s
and have multiple young women that look up to me as a mentor
and women that are older than me.
That and, and in my same age bracket that I look up to as
mentors. And that I'm able to find peers
that we find empowerment and supporting each other.
(11:06):
And then take that out to the collective because we're
creating more of that ripple effect and inspiring more people
to share their stories, which then inspires more people to
either become healers or share their stories.
And it really becomes this beautiful cycle that all starts
in gratitude. They, they say grateful people
(11:27):
are happy people, right? Attitude to gratitude.
It's not about finding happiness, it's about finding
gratitude. And once you find gratitude,
everything else kind of falls into place.
When you're grateful for things that happen that are less than
ideal, then you've pretty much mastered the the art of peace.
Like that's one of those things that is very difficult people to
find. But I look at everything in
(11:48):
terms of healthy and unhealthy, not good and bad.
Obviously, like the Chinese farmer story, which I'm sure
you've heard, you know, maybe, maybe, maybe we never know.
So you can't really say this is good or bad.
So I'm always just like educational or it's fun.
Those are the two options I giveit.
It sounds like our educational experiences are going to lead us
(12:09):
to a lot of fun coming up in a couple weeks, which I'm very
excited about at the festival, which by the way, this place
looks amazing. Astral Valley Art Park.
Incredible, incredible. I mean, absolutely beautiful.
Like, wow. I'm obsessed with what they
built here. I mean Astral Valley Art Park,
it is next level. Sheena, the owner in her family.
(12:32):
It's a owner own like family owned venue.
I stayed there for almost the entire month of June.
I went for a festival and then it ended up renting a camping
spot afterwards because it is open as a year round campground
with hiking, rock climbing, caveexploring, Creek stompin and
(12:52):
spring soaking. It is truly magic in the
Missouri Ozarks and on top of the beautiful campground that
they've built, there's this phenomenal stage, hundreds of
acres to explore and the most beautiful water, like healing
water I've ever experienced in this venue.
(13:13):
This Aquaphor that creates thesesprings have had people going to
it for thousands of years beforewe we started going here.
And so we really work on honoring that land and honoring
the water and honoring the people who came here way before
us and the people who steward that land.
Gina and her family are really, really good about honoring that
(13:36):
and it feels really impactful. That's amazing.
I can't wait to meet them and see the place.
I mean, online it's probably doesn't even come close to doing
it justice as it is. When you're there, I'm sure the
energy is amazing. Now, how cold is it going to be?
What kind of temperature school can we expect?
Because I'm a Florida boy, I like the warm weather, so I need
the jackets. And all that.
(13:57):
It'll be a little chilly at night, definitely dressed for
layers. It'll be warm during the day, a
little chilly at night as we go into that fall weather, but also
not anticipating anything too cold.
Like low 50s at the chilliest iswhat we're looking like, and
like 70s to 80s during the day. So we're anticipating some
pretty sorry for weather, yeah. Good.
(14:20):
That's Yeah, I think that soundsamazing.
I've not spent a lot of time in Missouri, but obviously the show
Ozarks has made the place famous, right?
So now. It's not bad.
I've never seen the Ozarks play.I've heard it's not a good
reputation. Go watch it.
Yeah, well, you know, it's less than ideal, but if you're from
Daytona Beach, FL, it's not so bad because it's exactly about
(14:41):
the same, you know, it's, you know, transient type of place.
But yeah, I know the show's, I'msure dramatic for obvious
reasons, to bring the theatricalaspects into it.
But the Astral Valley Park just looks unbelievable.
And the festival's got such a light up this year.
I mean, you got me on there, yougot all these incredible
(15:02):
musicians. You've got, I mean, just cool
people all the way around. So I mean, that's just exciting.
It really is exciting. So between you and our other
amazing facilitators that we have, the daily lineups are next
level and then you add in our evening lineups and.
(15:24):
Here we go. So we're talking about Missouri,
the Ozarks and the amazing festival that's coming up.
And so tell us why we we know that you the purpose of why you
put this together. But really, I mean, you've got a
lot of people that are really talented involved in this
festival and it seems like people are already signed up by
the bunches and people are responding really well to it.
(15:45):
So clearly something we need in this society and clearly
something that's very helpful for everybody that's going to be
attending. And those.
Is there any tickets available still?
People can still sign up and still get into it.
There are, yeah, there are. Tickets are still available,
four day, three day, 2 day, and we just released single day
tickets for those who can only make it in on Sunday.
(16:06):
However, this program is designed to be enjoyed in its
entirety, just like you would with a retreat.
So we encourage people, if you can make it for the four days,
to get that four day ticket. Get in early.
Join us for welcoming ceremony, which will be hosted by Sarah
Clover, who's just a phenomenal presence in bringing us together
and honoring the land that we'reworking on there.
(16:27):
And then we'll have our potluck dinner to get everybody welcomed
into that space. And then we're going to throw
down with some fun music Thursday night, and then we get
started with the retreat programon Friday morning and run that
through Sunday. So a lot of really exciting
daytime fun. And then also in our children's
Meadow, it is designed for children, but it's also designed
(16:49):
for the inner child within each of us.
So we encourage people to go over into our children's Meadow
and interact, do some of the artinstallation activities.
We have some artists that are going to be doing performances
for the children and children 12and under Duke it in free and
there's extremely discounted tickets for ages 13 to 17.
That way the parents and adults can do their drop in and go
(17:13):
enjoy the activities from 8:00 AM till 4 while their children
are having fun with the full line up in the children's
Meadow. But our inner children sometimes
feel called to participate in some of those activities.
So we're going to, we're going to keep that open for her, for
the inner child, all of us. And these tickets can be
obtained at the website convergencecampout.com.
(17:35):
And I know for people coming to see you Sunday, sunrise Yoga,
they're going to want to make sure they're in early for that.
But we also have sunrise yoga onThursday or sorry, Friday and
Saturday mornings. So we want people to participate
in those as well. 100% and I'm actually giving away 2 VIP
tickets right now on social media which thank you for that.
I love the opportunity to give away to my people some love and
(18:00):
some appreciation so that all the rules are on my Instagram.
You guys check it out. You're going to want to be
there. This is going to be amazing.
I'm going to be in the kids areabecause I'm still a kid at
heart. I'm the Toys-R-Us kid.
You know, I never want to grow up.
I just want to be a Toys-R-Us kid.
You put the kids part in there, I'm in.
I'm all about it. So if you're looking for me,
good chance I'm going to be in the children's play area because
(18:21):
it sounds amazing. Well, make sure you don't miss
the workshops by Sierra, Miss Lonman because she is doing the
three day integration called Playground and it's 3 days worth
of grounding into your present self, but honoring that your
inner child is who you are now as well, not something separate
from you. So being present and playing as
(18:43):
well as grounding in. So it's a really fun three day.
You're going to have to check that out, get out in the crowd,
participate in that one. We also have a water balloon
fight at the end of her Sunday workshop.
We're going to be using some reusable water balloons and
having a lot of fun for everyonethere.
So that'll give you another opportunity to let that inner
(19:03):
child shine. Absolutely.
That's amazing. And man, the artists I've been
listening to, the artists that are going to be there, you've
got an incredible lineup. I mean, so many talented people
on the schedule I don't have, it's going to be difficult to
choose who to listen to. Is it one stage or multiple
stages? Are we going to everybody lines
up in one place or are we going to be able to hear everybody?
I made it easy for you guys or you did everything from the
(19:25):
mainstage. Now there are some alternate
integration spaces. So for people who need support
from the daytime activities, maybe they need some additional
emotional support. We have some different spaces
designed for that as well as some alternative workshop
options during the day. But but once that night time
hits, we really encourage everybody to head over to the
(19:45):
mainstage and all of our music is performed from that mainstage
so you'll you'll get a chance tosee everyone.
Nice, excellent. I like that a lot.
I hate when you're all spread out everywhere and you can't get
to everybody. And most importantly, alcohol
free, family friendly, which to me is that's what festival
should be and that's the way we should be doing it.
Obviously for me it's a very personal thing, seeing as how I
(20:07):
just lost my brother to alcoholism a couple weeks ago.
So you inviting me to come be a part of this really means a lot
to me and it's really something that's it's close to home and
I'm elated and ecstatic to come be a part of anything I can do
to help. Happy to help.
Looking forward to meeting you in person.
Looking forward to seeing this place and can't wait to play on
the kids area. I know, absolutely.
(20:29):
And I'm so grateful for support from people like you and your
organizations and that we can, you know, give to each other.
The support that you give us andthe support that we can give
back is paramount. Same with our other sponsors.
Devi Beauty is coming in. They create some all natural
skin care. That's next level.
You know, I personally struggle with using the stuff off the
shelf from the store because it causes me to like turn a weird
(20:51):
red color. But her products I can use
without any of that itchiness orirritation that I've.
I guess I lived in nature too long because I came back and all
said my shampoo made me itchy. I've been able to use her
different products. She doesn't necessarily have
shampoo, but she has a body product that I able to use as a
cleanser that works phenomenal. And then we have like within by
(21:11):
Jen, who does the spiritual work.
And then we have you who helps us with our body and help
support our veterans who are an underserved community.
We are all about taking care of these underserved communities
and across the board. So I just want to give a huge
thank you to you and our other sponsors as others that I didn't
get a chance to to mention. But if you check out our
website, go to that and sponsor tab, there's some phenomenal
(21:33):
partners that can help people sustain this growth after the
event or support each other in these synergistic ways.
So I just want to encourage thatcollaboration as well. 100% I we
have to give it up to the sponsors.
They are the people that make ithappen and you know, can't wait
till the till this is year 2, but really year one for the
(21:54):
start of the every year at the place that it's being held,
right, It's not accurate. So we're just beginning.
This is technically the first year.
Last year was a trial. Exactly.
Yeah, this is our first year with this leadership team.
The first year, well, we have a lot of our support staff coming
back, which is phenomenal. We it's really been a huge help
(22:16):
to have a lot of that staff because they're who make it
happen and the community as well.
But this is our first year at Astral Valley, our first time
serving the Midwest community. Last year it was a lot of our
Colorado friends and family and our known, our Wellness
community that already kind of existed.
So the opportunity to step out and and serve a community that
really doesn't see a lot of stuff like this feels really
(22:38):
impactful. So I appreciate you bringing
these talents to this Midwest region.
It's it's really important. My pleasure.
I think it's going to be an awesome experience actually.
I know it's going to be an awesome experience and there's
so many people that are coming that I can't wait to meet.
And hopefully we can do some live podcasting at the event and
get some more people involved and visibility.
(23:00):
Maybe if they're already there and they haven't got the whole
week passed, they can come get the two day or the one day and
still be a part of it in some way or shape or form.
So we'll we'll have to keep promoting and keep doing this.
Maybe another podcast as well before to get some more people
on here. Maybe the sponsors would like to
be on the podcast. Oh, absolutely.
I know that we, Ashley, would bethrilled to have a conversation
(23:22):
with you. She's with which company?
She's with Debbie Debbie Beauty,she's the founder and is a next
level goddess. We're definitely going to have
to have her on then for sure. We need those guys talking it
up. So thank you so much, Kayla.
I love your story, you're amazing and inspiring and all
the things that I strive to be in life.
So Namaste to you and I look forward to seeing you soon.
(23:45):
Thanks brother, talk soon. Bye, bye, bye.
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