Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelly Morgan
Hi Kelly, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Originally from the East Coast, my family has had an interest in health & wellness/personal development for as long as I can remember. With a labor and delivery nurse as a mother and an entrepreneur father, heavily interested in Buddhism, art, philosophy, and Tony Robbins, looking back, these influences absolutely helped to shape who I am today. I was always the girl who fit in everywhere, but somehow nowhere. My talents were as an artist, understanding how/why people acted the way they did, and not so much as an athlete.
Born with chronic health conditions, such as a sensitive nervous system, some genetic challenges, and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder made approaching life a bit more different for me than all the other kids. I’ve struggled with regulating my body and my mental health for as long as I can remember. Being aware from a very young age, I noticed how mental and physical health issues plagued almost everyone I knew. Many people would comment that I was “more mature than most at my age” and while this was meant as a compliment, looking back now, I know that was because I had to grow up and take care of myself at a different pace than my peers. Later in my 20’s and early 30’s I would acquire more labels like Fibromyalgia, CPTSD, Major Depressive Disorder, burnout, and honestly, that was with hiding much of my internal world or symptoms from professionals. I was barely keeping my head above water, while projecting an air of “Everything is fine! I’m high performing, and functional, no need to worry about me!”
With one parent who sold their house and moved onto a sailboat, and another who moved to Ireland, I was mostly on my own at 18. I went to college in upstate NY, at Ithaca College, graduating with a BFA in Fine Art, and a minor in Art History. Walking away with unmanageable debt, and no idea what I was going to do. Having managed a bar, during college, I moved to NYC and put that knowledge to use in the service industry.
How I found my way to Michelin Star Restaurants still surprises me. I focused on just paying my bills and working as hard as I could; I worked up from host, server, bartender, up to managing the restaurant in Brooklyn, as well as a sister restaurant & coffee shop next door. Loving structure and chaos made it so I thrived in this industry. These experiences in restaurants, (mixed with studying Museum curation in college), is what I think, informed my understanding of guiding experiences, holding space, and authentic sales. I was never there to ‘convince’ anyone of anything. The guest decides they want our experience and then I was simply in charge of providing the best of what I have to offer them, within our structure. This idea has been crucial moving forward with my current business, as it’s not about me, I have tools and approaches, the client chooses what they need/want. Otherwise it’s just an ego trip for me to “get you to have a breakthrough or cathartic experience.” I trust that they’ll get what they need. This chapter of my life concluded with the 2020 Pandemic. I was already significantly burnt out, traumatized to the point of physical shut down and ticks I couldn’t control, and on the edge of full blown alcoholism to manage my physical and emotional pain. My mind and body were screaming at me to change direction. Then with the April shut down in NYC, I lost my job, my housing and all my savings. Racked up credit card debt and hopped around to North Carolina, landing in Austin, TX after some trying situations and no stable place to live.
The invitation to Austin came from a dear friend and mentor Aurianna Joy. The future co-founder of Trauma & Somatics: Practitioner training, she introduced me to Somatic Experiencing International and the work of Peter Levine in 2019, which is probably when my biggest shifts really started to happen. The Body Keeps the Score, was not yet at the height of popularity as it is now, and people looked at me like I had 3 heads when I hinted at the idea of how to process trauma, and integrating the mind and body as opposed to dominating the body with the mind.
I literally grew up with Life Coaching. I’ve seen how it can help people and I’ve seen the uglier side. I’ve had a massive transformation at life coaching events, and I’ve been traumatized to the point of a 2-3 year shut down because of coaches and facilitators who didn’t know what they didn’t know. I’ve walked on hot coals and been pressured into situations where I felt unsafe. I loved the personal development world, however, it felt like something was missing. Like it has so much power but was only a half-truth and there was something out of alignment for me.
My relentless pursuit in the wellness field was because I was drowning. I was searching for actual relief and healing. There has to be more in life than to grin and bear it. My body was showing the lack of ‘ease’ or alignment in my life through ‘dis-ease’ showing up at every corner. I absorbed books, training, any free content or conversations that could help me heal myself as a whole and complete being.
In 2021 I met my partner Kai Stransky. After decades of an “I’m strong and independent and don’t need no one!” attitude, I shifted my understanding that I was in fact hypervigilant and hyper-independent to my own detriment. Those behaviors are not intrinsically negative, in a world of demonizing everything, I like to remind myself it’s all about survival mechanisms coming from an inherently intelligent place. There’s a lot of healing and development that requires one to go in and do the work themselves, however, there’s a LOT of healing that must be done in connection. (And believe me, younger Kelly would have screamed and run in the other direction, upon hearing this). Kai is a cybersecurity expert, martial artist and the most kind hearted person I’ve ever met. He also had a picture of himself in an ice bath on the dating app – so I knew he was the one for me.
Fast forward to us dating, talking about our love for psychology, him convincing me to start taking Jiu Jitsu classes, (my odd connection to the famous UFC fighter John Bones Jones – I was his bartender in college), and him also on a healing journey of expansion and growth. Burnt out from his corporate job and an incredible drive to share knowledge while helping people, we co-founded Big Wave Industries.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
My journey has been anything but smooth. It’s becoming smoother as I find what’s right for me and do the personal healing work. I’ve struggled with depression, trauma, a short stint of homelessness, financial issues and strained family relations. I’ve been on my own since I was 18 and self medicated for a number of issues, until I found trauma-resolution work. I still struggle now. My experience is that our world/culture isn’t set up for human biology to thrive, as it stands now. I am affected by my environment, as a biological organism, and there’s only so much I can actually “mind over matter” until the body shuts down and says ‘enough’.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Big Wave Industries?
Big Wave is an athletic recovery and health & wellness company that uses a nervous system-first approach. Utilizing cold exposure, sauna, compression, breathwork, Nervous System education and mindset work, our tagline is ‘Where Nature Meets Tech’ and that’s exactly it. Hot, cold, and breathing are older than people, we aren’t creating something new, but bringing a new way to experience them. Taking all of my hard earned knowledge about holistic health practices, life coaching, psychology, and first-hand knowledge of the impact of a spicy nervous system, we are determined to shift the experience. Kai brings in over half a decade of martial arts experience, sports recovery knowledge, bodybuilding, as well as having been a ranch hand, raised & sold goats, and lived in Alaska in his formative years. I am the yin to his yang and our company and life wouldn’t be here without each other. We both say, we’ve lived many lives, and that’s what brings us insight and the ability to understand others.
We’ve ice bathed over 500 people and countless more in our saunas. We had a pop-up location for 6 months in a Jiu Jitsu gym in 2023 and worked closely with athletic goals, recovery, and Pro-MMA athletes for optimization. I take 1:1 clients. We show up to wellness events with our portable ice baths and portable wood-fired saunas, and personally my favorite: we teach. We teach how to guide Trauma-informed Ice baths and basic nervous system education. The results and shifts we have seen, and experienced has been motivating to say the least. It’s more than just bullying someone into an ice bath. From my perspective, that’s an easy way to negate mental health benefits of cold exposure. We like to say we have one foot “in the woo” and one foot “in the science”, because the anecdotal experience is real, and the science is catching up, quickly.
Ice baths, trauma, the nervous system, breathwork, somatics: all these buz words are enticing and seductive, but who you choose to facilitate your experience can sink someone deeper into the mud (insert image from The Never Ending Story where Artex the horse succumbs to despair and begins to sink) or help to heal, lighten the load of life, and bring you back to yourself.
If no one remembers my name or Big Wave Industries, I hope they take away this one piece of curiosity: Before you go sit with a facilitator for sauna, ice bath, coaching, or plant medicine, how do I know this practitioner is the right fit for me? Pause for one moment, and ask in what way do they show up to prove safety and rapport? Is what they’re offering leading me towards myself, or away?
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I am taking on a few new 1:1 clients this summer, and the best way to reach out is through my personal instagram @spiritualsugarmomma
Follow us on our business Instagram @bigwaveindustries and come to our events! Our most fun event recently was a Shuffle & Shiver event with a shuffle dance class and then the plunge! We love collaboration events, as well as bringing our ice baths and saunas to corporate and wellness retreats. We can also be reached through email at support@bigwaveindustries.net.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bigwaveindustries.net
- Instagram: @spiritualsugarmomma
