Kara Snyder is the Strategist over at vital corps, a health + lifestyle studio located at the 3-way intersection of functional health, self-care and strategic action. Additionally, she’s the creator/host of Le vital corps Salon podcast. Serving frazzled, Type-A women since 2009, Kara deconstructs the broken processes in her clients' lives, investigates why they might feel not-so-great, and co-creates actionable steps towards a healthier life – a life spiked with passion and slathered with joy.

Click to tweet: Kara Snyder from @vitalcorps is sharing her story to inspire you on Women Taking the Lead https://womentakingthelead.com/211 #inspiration

Playing Small Moment

Kara has been a health and life strategist since 2009, but after college she was a CPA and helped businesses as they went through bankruptcy. Kara was fortunate and landed a good job with a large accounting firm while she was in her senior year of school. Everyone, including her school advisors, continually exclaimed how lucky she was to have that sort of opportunity. Because of those circumstances, Kara didn’t even consider negotiating during her interview. Years later, she discovered that her male friend that had started at the same time as her was making substantially more money per year. This hit Kara pretty hard, and she realized she was playing small in that interview.

The Wake Up Call

Kara had always this energy that stemmed from scheduling and planning, even as a kid. During the time spent at her first job, Kara was drained of that energy. She spent most of her time traveling for work and spent many nights sleeping on conference room floors. All of the continuous stress and exhaustion lead to a complete break down of her digestive system. Having digestive issues only escalated her stress. Kara had a pretty traumatic event occur in the middle of a plane, after rushing to catch her flight one day for work. The only help Kara was getting for her health issues was in the form of prescription medication, even after asking for alternatives. Kara left her doctor’s office in tears after a disappointing talk and had a sudden realization that if she was going to heal her gut, she had to take it into her own hands. Kara set her mind to helping herself and others heal themselves and her airplane story came out of hiding so she could encourage those around her to address their health head on.

Style of Leadership

Communication and creating a safe place for people to express themselves and their opinions is something that is incredibly important to Kara. Whether it's in the sessions, volunteering, on a board or on a team, its important to recognize the process leading up to when you’re interfacing with her, thinking about when - night time meetings - people are going to be hungry, they’ve been on the go since 8am. analyzing that and working with it. Recognizing, have a snack available, they may be flustered. Give them a couple minutes, coffee or tea. Make it comfortable so everyone can be productive in a little more relaxed way.

What Are You Excited About?

After 7 years of working with clients, Kara noticed that there was either absolute angst or excitement when discussing tasks lists. The struggle between obligatory stuff we need to do, and the stuff we deeply desire but don’t always have the time for, can be overwhelming. Kara’s observance sparked “The 33k Task List Project, where she hopes to collect 33 thousand hand written task lists. The lists will help Kara shift the conversation around obligation and desire and the consequences that occur when balance is not present.

Current Business Challenge

The 33k Task List Project will definitely be a challenge for Kara, given the volume and spreading the word. Behind the scenes, Kara struggles with referrals. Due to her line of work, and the taboo of digestive issues in our society, Kara often find that her clients refer to her as their “secret weapon,” which doesn’t exactly help her marketing.

Leadership Practice

Kara is an avid supporter of meditation.

Advice For Younger Self

“Chillax. Everyone else feels like an imposter too, so stop overthinking, overworking and over planning everything.”

Inspirational Quote

“You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.” ~Colette

Links

http://vitalcorpswellness.com 

https://www.facebook.com/vitalcorps 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/karamartinsnyder 

https://twitter.com/vitalcorps 

https://www.pinterest.com/vitalcorps/ 

https://www.instagram.com/vitalcorps/

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