Daily Inspiration: Meet Susan Kavanaugh

Today we’d like to introduce you to Susan Kavanaugh.

Hi Susan, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story. 
I was born a logomaniac. When I was only 7 years old, I wrote a play called “A Valentine’s Surprise.” An encouraging 2nd-grade teacher allowed me to round up some kids to act out the play, so we rehearsed during recess breaks and then put the play on for our class. This early memory reflects my personal assuredness that I knew from a very early age that I would be a storyteller.

Throughout the next 11 years, I wrote more plays, poems, short stories, and news stories. My late uncle Donald Harington, an author likened to William Faulkner, was quoted as saying, “If you are destined to become a writer, you can’t help it. If you can help it, you aren’t destined to become a writer.” Life as an ink slinger was as necessary to me as air is to breathe.

My professional career began in high school when I was a reporter for a local community newspaper. I followed the path of journalism through undergraduate school, receiving a degree in communications with an emphasis on broadcast news. As I started graduate school, I pursued a master’s in English. My early career was as a radio news director and then as a regional and later national news anchor.

When I had to become the legal guardian for my youngest brother, requiring I stay in my hometown of Kansas City so he could finish his final years of high school, I continued using my video and audio production skills by going to work as an executive leader and head of the multimedia division for the world headquarters of a nonprofit spiritual organization.

During those years, I decided to obtain a master’s in divinity and become a licensed minister. I was not called to lead a congregation but to focus on healing others with my communication skills. I was guided by a power greater than me to launch KavCom: Conscious Communications, LLC.

KavCom was created as a small public relations and advertising firm for businesses trying to reach mindful markets. Our clients were spiritual, planet-friendly, and people-friendly individuals, companies, and nonprofit organizations. Twenty-seven years later, my business is still thriving and making a valuable impact on individuals, nonprofits, and companies focused on healing world communities.

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?
As a startup, KavCom had some challenges and some good fortune. I quickly gathered a creative collective of writers, graphic artists, videographers, and publicists to execute the contracts KavCom would receive. I also brought on three substantial clients right out of the chute.

We didn’t have a storefront, so there were no costs involved, but I was challenged with balancing my deep desire to create communications materials and alternately serving as the face of the company and generating sales through new contracts. I have always preferred creative expression.

Through deep, inner exploration, I discovered that this didn’t have to be an obstacle if I adhered to my belief that conscious communications could be low-pressure, authentic, and genuinely joy-filled conversations with prospective clients. With that shift in perception, prospective clients turned into prospective friends.

During those years and much of my life, I struggled with mental health issues. I still experience extreme anxiety and sometimes depressive episodes. This may have been the biggest obstacle of all. Moving through mental health struggles would slow me down on occasion but never impeded my creativity or the success KavCom had.

In the late 90s, mental health problems were stigmatized, and no one wanted to admit they lived with them. Mental health was not understood as a chemical and neurological disease. We don’t choose depression or anxiety; they choose us. Whether it impacts a person through genetic predisposition or traumatic stress arising from adverse experiences in life, it is not something you overcome by simply pulling up your bootstraps.

Far more light has been shed on mental health issues today. Now, we know nearly a third of the U.S. population has experienced depression. Other neurodiverse conditions are prevalent. One in every 36 children born are now identified as having autism spectrum disorder. Eight to ten percent of people in the U.S. are impacted by attention deficit disorder.

The media helps showcase the research statistics more often, and more people are willing to openly discuss any diagnosis or similar physical and emotional experience related to mental health issues they may have faced. The challenges and obstacles I’ve discussed are not the kind that entrepreneurs typically mention, such as capital and clients. However, the obstacles I faced and mentioned are possible for leaders of every kind.

Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
KavCom offers conscious writing for:

-Grants
-White papers
-Magazines articles
-Blog articles
-Ghostwriting
-Digital marketing content
-Advertising copy
-Speeches
-Newsletters

I also offer conscious executive business coaching and help individuals break barriers to succeed. Finally, I have transformative workshops and retreats for our clients and educational presentations for businesses and the media.

Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check out?
Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point” and “The Influencers” are on my shelves. I prefer these types of business books over inspirational how-tos. Carolyn Tate’s “Conscious Marketing” and John Mackey and Raj Sisodia’s “Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business” are also on my shelves.

The journey to understanding the authentic self is chronicled in nearly every self-help book out there, but any book by Eckhart Tolle or Jon Kabat-Zinn is helpful to the deep dive inward. I enjoy social media apps but have a few fitness and meditation apps I’m into. “Once an NPR addict, always an NPR addict.” I got hooked on National Public Radio many moons ago. Instead of podcasts, there are specific NPR programs I appreciate. I love the Moth, All Things Considered, and Fresh Air.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kavcomcc.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soozken/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/susan.kavanaugh
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-kavanaugh-4011474/
• Twitter: @sooz4359
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@susankavanaugh2160/videos
• Other: https://mindfuljournalblog.com/

Image Credits
Karianne Munstedt
Barbara Kavanagh
Colleen Katz