Natalie Ledwell: Hi! I'm Natalie Ledwell and this is the inspiration show. Today my passion peep is Karin Volo. She's an expert in career and personal development and is known as a tough transition specialist and a dream life mentor. She uses her professional skills and draws from her personal experiences to help individuals and companies strive through difficult transitions. Now, Karin's passion is helping people better they're lives through sharing all that she's led on her own journey. And that journey includes an extraordinary story of overcoming the loss of her freedom and separation from her family for nearly 4 years! It's an absolutely inspiring story that's at the sunspace of this forthcoming memoir that she's writing and it's already getting great reviews from people like Jonas Rask, Massy Schimoff, Lisa Sasevich, Peggy McColl and many others. During her 4-year crisis, Karin kept her spirits up by practicing mind, body and spirit techniques with stress management and positive thinking. She also began running a pitch book series featuring a girl named Joy who teaches spiritual lessons about faith, love and forgiveness. And that series is called Bringing Joy to the World and it's launched in November. And Karin is here today to talk about the genesis of the Joy stories as well as how she's helping people to get what they want and to thrive through tough times and to discover their dream lives. And you can absolutely be blown-away with Karin's stories. So no more delay, here it is, enjoy the video.

Natalie Ledwell: Hi Karin! Welcome to the show!

Karin Volo: Hi Natalie! It's great to be here!

Natalie Ledwell: Now, the reason that I've ask you to come to the passion peep segment is because you are someone who has gone through some very extraordinary events. And have a really amazing story and great lesson to share it from that. So, what if we get start with you just sharing out your experiences and your story.

Karin Volo: Sure! That's a pretty wild story actually. You know, I had a great life before; I have lots of wonderful time and then I had some pretty horrific times. And years ago, I had met a man who I thought was the man of my dreams and married him. And it turned out that he was not the man of my dreams and turned into a very abusive person. And then a couple of years later, I thought I was actually in a caught-up so I ended up divorcing him and becoming a single mom with my two young daughters, which really is a major gift from that marriage. And a few years later, I met another man who was just, you know, a wonderful man and turned out to be the most incredible man in my life. And we had started a business together in an executive sort which is my background. And our business was really doing well and we're ready to take off. And we actually came to San Diego to a business conference there that, you know, Jonas Rask was the speaker at that time. So we went to this week with just incredible motivation and love attraction, we have actually see the secret, it was even out, hadn't come out yet. And when we were on the way home at the airport I got a tap on a shoulder and it was a US Marshall and he'd had a warrant of arrest. I didn't know what was going on it was just, I went into this nightmare that turn 180 degrees in my life and I had had no contact with my first husband for six years but they, he had been accused for fraud in Mexico and they are coming after me. And we went to this really legal nightmare situation and it took a very long time to get a result. 3 years and 10 months before the cases were closed and my charges are dropped and I'm free to go home. During that time I didn't see my kids, they were in a different continent and it was a very difficult time of my life. And while the outside of my life was very horrific I really went internally just started immersing myself in what every reading I get my hands on. I get a lot of spiritual studying and lot of studying in the law of attraction and different things I just feel that I got myself through that time by finding that inner core strength and amazing things just happened in the inside that you could tell from the outside and I ended up happy. I'd spend a lot of times visualizing. Every day I went visualizing and see myself walking out the door of that particular building. It was downtown San Diego actually where I was. I'm not far from you. and I just visualize myself going home. Being there to raise my kids and being reunited with them again. It was a choice every day for me: to choose between love and fear. You know, it was the fear of the unknown and the scary situation I was in and what might happen or the love of my family. And that really went in my life that keeps me going. And the interesting thing was that my visualization came true. That's exactly what happened. I walked out the door of that particular building. It was a jail, not a prison, I'm nearly convicted, it was just a holding place. And normally the people there just got free 4, 5 to 6 months max. I was there for 1352 days before I got out. But then I was able to go home. And you know, right now living my dream life with my family and it's just, all the things that I'm visualizing while my life's in a nightmare has come true. it's amazing now to be on the other side of the map.

Natalie Ledwell: So, i mean, I know the jail that you're talking about your in a stray and we call that a remade. It's not like a low security at all. It's like everyone that gets convicted, they actually are some pretty hardcore criminals that they keep there because they set the whole system were you can actually go to the courthouse without actually going outside. It was for really serious and heavy criminals there and you were there for 3 and a half years?

Karin Volo: 3 years and ten months. Yes.

Natalie Ledwell: Ow. Well.

Karin Volo: Yeah, you know, it's, it's, it is high security, you know, I mean you're locked down and you can get 1 hour outside in the roof top to get some fresh air and stuff. I actually started teaching yoga classes. I just barely started yoga myself. But I got yoga books and helped a lot of with the stress. Some people looking like "what are you doing?" and I said this is yoga. After that, like the second day, people are starting asking can I do it too, and I said sure. So I ended up teaching people headstands, taught myself how to to do that. But yeah, I was known as the yoga teacher there.

Natalie Ledwell: So, are you talking about some of your visualizations, I'm not getting you off-track a little bit, you got some interesting story. We're talking about some of your visualizations coming true like what are some of those things now that are coming true for you?

Karin Volo: Just, you know, having trips, going to cheerleading events with my daughter. Taking trips with them. Last year we did a lot of traveling. We went to Italy and Tuscany. It was interesting cause last year, around this time too, Sergio and I, my husband we subsequently met a group of friends there. So that's happening. Next week we're actually leaving, in a couple of days. And some sort of things that I had visualized. One of my little tricks on this, which might be helpful to some people, I'll tell you, is actually making memories. If you want to have something that happened, you want to have something happen in your life, write it down like a story like it was already a memory. So I used to make memories all the time, I couldn't give Sergio any birthday present or anything so i would write memories of this wonderful trips that we would have, of this wonderful experiences that we would have and those did come true. So it's powerful stuff. I know it works. I feel like a walking testimonial for it.

Natalie Ledwell: Yup. And so what are you doing now? What do you do for work or what is your life now?

Karin Volo: Well it?s pretty interesting. That's kind of two-fold, I knew when I was going through, what I was going through that it was happening for some bigger purpose. I didn't know what it was. And basically when I got out I realized I was supposed to work with us in some way. And so now I started a company called Inspiring Your Very Best and I coach and mentor other people. And really help them to get through difficult times and help them create their dream life. So it's a lot of things I've learned out of the last very intense four years of spiritual boot camp or whatever you wanna call it. That I could help people really transform their lives now. And the other part of that is while I was there I was meditating a lot and this spiritual. In the prison, a little girl came to me. Her name was joy. And she started telling me this little stories and I spent hours of writing this stories out drawing little pictures and they became real spiritual picture books and whatever topic I was immersed in, I ended up you know getting a little book about it so I send them home to my kids and they loved them and it helped them to get through because they were going through a difficult time with their mom wasn't home, she just disappeared one day and never came back. And didn't know what's going on and they lived with so much uncertainties. It was just a way that really connected our family very closely cause Sergio will sit down and read this books to them when they get them and they, it just give them tools that they needed to be able to get through what they've been going through. So now I'm publishing this books and I just know that's the gift of this very tough time that we've gone through as a family. This is part of the bigger purpose for what happened.

Natalie Ledwell: Right! Okay! Well, you know, my next question that I'd ask is now tough and fine threads or specific events that gets you from, you know, jail to, you know, being able to produce this books and to coach people and you know I'll have to say if there's anyone that's going through a difficult time I would rather be coached by someone who's actually going through that himself that just someone who has the theory of what, of what should work. How do you, was there one particular moment when you go "this is the reason why I'm here. This is, this is what I?m doing, this is the event that got me to this place?"

Karin Volo: Well you know, I mean, the whole jail thing definitely changed the direction of my life. That was really a major turning point. And I almost feel like everything that happened before then lead me up to prepare to get through this major challenge because I managed to get through the challenge with pretty good grades, if you call it, you know. That now I'm able to do what I'm probably meant to do hear, you know. I feel like I'm living my purpose now. I think a lot of times people struggle with their purpose in life and you know, what's the meaning of their life. It maybe something that they won't discover in years and years, you know. Had I known this when I was 20? absolutely not! You know, but did the things that I, you know, involved when I was 20, everything has made me who I am today. And so, I just really believed that we all have a specific purpose for here. We all have an eight gifts that we're to do. And if you just go inside yourself and find them, you'll figure out the direction you?re suppose to be going.

Natalie Ledwell: Yeah! You know, what I find usually interesting in the way you talk is that, general experience now, you could have that, be the worst experience in your life. And they could judge you for the rest of your life, you know, that marriage, you talk about the gift from the first marriage, and you still have this positive, you still have a positive outlook on even the worst things that happened in your life and I think that's really commendable. Now, my next question is, you know, I only ask people who are living on purpose or, you know, that are successful. It doesn't just happened. And to be in that place and to appreciate it. You need to have certain habits or things that you do in a daily basis to keep you in track. So what are some of the things that you do on a daily basis?

Karin Volo: You know I have always been some of that, has written down my goals. And, I mean, I'm just, a lot of going on right now. That you must have a self-organizer, I write down, you know, every week what I wanna get, break it down everyday, what I wanna get done and I have my monthly goals and I have my yearly goals. I think just the act of writing it down because to me you right down a goal you write down something you want to accomplish. It's like placing an order to the universe and saying this is what I want. it's just need to be more concrete. If I have to say one thing right now, that's a big part of it. And then, see if I can say another thing. Just being very grateful and, you know, just counting my blessings everyday.

Natalie Ledwell: Yup. Yup. Great answer. You know, when I asked that question, nearly every single person includes gratitude in their answer. And you know, I agree. It's such a major, an important part of everyday. Now, my next question which I'm sure you are very well equipped to answer, is that I always got a question that's asked the most, "how do I stay positive when everything else surrounds me is negative or working against me?" So what advice do you have to people who are in that situation?

Karin Volo: You know, focus on love and gratitude. Because, you can be grateful for no matter what your situation is. I mean, you're alive, you're breathing, you can walk, you can talk. You know, everybody has something that you can be grateful for. And when your in that stage of being grateful you raise your energy so that you can attract more things, more positive things on your life. So, Sergio and I really really worked on that everyday while we were separated. Because, you know, we were just focused on that. Okay, think of the kids are healthy, and think of that we have each other. You know, I was just so focused on that love that I had with them.

Natalie Ledwell: Yup.

Karin Volo: And whenever those doubts of fears would come in, I would just stop, I would stop those thoughts and go to the love that I have with them. So it's a combination of focus and love and gratitude. and that's for free. Anybody can do it. That's my situation.

Natalie Ledwell: Absolutely! There is always something to be grateful for. Okay. So, I have one more question. If you could give the people watching this video today one piece of advice, one thing that they could implement today that would facilitate a positive change in their life, what would that one thing be?

Karin Volo: The other thing that helped me a lot too was seeing my life from a higher perspective. I actually call that a stratosphere of you. 'Cause when you lift yourself out of the day to day mud that your dealing and the hard things that you're going through, and you can kinda see the bigger purpose, and realize there's probably a lesson here for me to learn, or you know, you're dealing with a difficult person, what was that person in my life for, what are they trying to teach me. You know, there's a reason for everything that happens in our lives, will you believe that? And so when you can see your life from a higher perspective, you lift yourself out of that suffering and pain and you can really kind of start to accept what is going through, whatever you're going through. Because your gonna see that your gonna get to the other side at some point.

Natalie Ledwell: Yeah.

Karin Volo: Whatever it is, you're gonna get through it, you know. And that was one of the things. To me, it was a long time to be in jail that I knew it have to end at some point.

Natalie Ledwell: Yeah.

Karin Volo: You know, took a long time but I got out of there.

Natalie Ledwell: Just, I can't even imagine, like 1 year is a long time when you're stuck in your cell. But, like 3 years and 10 months, I just, i respect everything that you went through. And thank you so much for being in the show today and sharing this experience. I think there is a lot for people to learn from that. So, if people want to find out more about you, or your work, and the things that you're doing, where's the good website we can send them to?

Karin Volo: The best place right now is the bringingjoytotheworld.com. And that's were I have this books that are coming out. People can sign up and get a free e-book to get a sample of it. And you know, this information about me and everything that's happened and that's the great place to go.

Natalie Ledwell: Awesome! Or guys just click on the banner to the side down and that will take you straight to that site. So thanks again Karin for joining me.

Karin Volo: Well thank you so much Natalie, it was so much fun.

Natalie Ledwell: And everyone, remember, another video coming out in a few days but in the mean time, remember to live large, choose courageously, and love without limits. We'll see you soon.