Meet Katherine Ferro | Life Coach

We had the good fortune of connecting with Katherine Ferro and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Katherine, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
It’s midnight, and I’m ringing in 2022 on the beach in Brazil praying to God for help. I begged to give me time to quiet the noise in my life and within myself to focus on the things I loved doing the most. Honestly, I hated myself. I hated the way I lived, my character, habits, and who I saw in the mirror. I couldn’t even recognize myself anymore. Sitting on that beach, I swore I wouldn’t go another year carrying all that baggage.

One week later I was laid off from my corporate job. Two weeks later I returned from my trip and was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer and Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

I spent the next year and a half battling two forms of cancer, and just like that… my life was put on pause, and I now had all the time in the world to bring my dream to life.
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Yeay Day Life Coaching became my safe haven. It forced me as a life coach to take years of experiences and turned it into something so intentional & meaningful – in part giving me a purpose to live. I started my business for the first time in 2014 while I was working in fashion because I found myself being pulled into fabric closets for advice, answering calls to help people in distress, and sharing my story so others could learn from my experiences.

Through the years, I worked as a career coach in part with being a director of product development for each company I worked with at the time. The commonality I saw between every professional I coached was they all just wanted to live life on their terms because they were sacrificing their time… but for what? To wait for the moment they would be laid off, or get sick and have to stop working? The funny (not funny) part has to be that this is exactly what happened to me.

It may not have been how I expected it, but I got what I prayed for-time.
Through it all, I came to see this period in my life as a blessing. Ultimately it was a moment of peace I allowed myself to handle with grace (even though it didn’t always feel like that). I knew the only way out of it…was through. Out of cancer, and out of hating the life and person I became.

I mourned my past, discovered myself all over again, and made whole new promises to myself once I was able to move on and start living life again.
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During chemo and recovery – if I was able to get out of bed and had energy to do things, I would brainstorm and map out the million little lessons I learned over a decade that walked me through self-discovery and build not only my life, but my identity over and over again. By the time my doctor told me I was in remission, I had officially finished my curriculum and workbook for my new baby that I believe had a hand in healing me, The Self-Discovery Challenge.

Fast forward three years, I’m in remission from cancer and fully work for myself at Yeay Day Life Coaching. I get the honor of meeting thousands a people a year coaching at rehabs across Los Angeles. All walks of life who struggle with their mental health and addiction, host workshops for women building their confidence, meet with private clients, have four retreats lined up for 2026 I’m hosting, and am preparing to launch a series of lifestyle design e-courses to bring your dreams to life.

At this point, I should make it clear that the people I meet and work with are my purpose and why I started my business. They were with me my entire journey through cancer. So I take celebrating them very seriously when they trust me to walk with them in this phase of their journey.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I help people tap into their imagination and learn how to celebrate themselves. With intentional daily tools, soulful challenges, and immersive retreats, I guide them to create memories that feel cinematic and deeply aligned.

Having tested out many self-help books and programs, I think what sets me apart in my industry is that I don’t want to overload my clients with information. I want them to take what they know, clear the noise and distractions in their lives, create a method to the madness, and feel confident trusting their experience and abilities to create their own transformation. Instead of relying on accolades to connect with my clients (which I have), I find that most people care most about drawing inspiration from my own experiences through life because they can see themselves in me, and I in them.

I’m most excited to launch “Seasons”, a transformational luxury retreat series, crafted to mirror the natural rhythm of the year. Across four breathtaking seasons, participants meet at a dreamy destination and are guided through personal evolution—romanticizing their life, exploring self-empowerment, regulating their nervous system, and realigning with soul. Through luxury experiences and grounded personal work, everyone is guided to build a new relationship with themselves.

When I started coaching, I remember feeling like I wanted to be the person for others I didn’t have. I had to hustle so much to learn what I did in fashion, shook hands, went to events, and overworked to prove a point. But coaching people through life so they could find joy and confidence – no one in my life really knew how to answer any of my questions, let alone guide me through wanting to be an entrepreneur. I was often told to stick to my career I had built fifteen years in, and asked why I would choose to struggle. It did weigh on me being the odd woman out because of my career choice.

When I got laid off and diagnosed with cancer, I had a revelation. If I could spend fifteen years making other companies millions of dollars, I would rather use my skills and intelligence to do it for myself. So I jumped in.

I also decided to make new friends. I was tired of being the token friend or relative with big ideas. Being a big fish in a small pond, I recognised that people who don’t understand the passion and effort it takes to run your own business, would never give me that extra bout of confidence I needed to keep pushing through the past three years.
Now I have a great handful of women and men in my life who I can sit for hours talking about projects and sharing tips so we can hype each other up to live the dream of working for ourselves and succeeding. That’s better than any forced team happy hour or networking event I’ve ever gone to and I refuse to go back.

If I was playing two truths and a lie with you right now, I’d start with a lie. I love the hustle. Truth is no one does, and if they say they do…ask them five years from now when their nervous system is shot. What I do love is that my business is founded on being practical, and wildly happy once you realize most of the things we thought we had to do to feel happy in life, was a lot of noise. Most of it comes from owning our story (tragically messy and all) and celebrating the memories we get the chance to still create. In essence, that is how I live my life. That is why I tell my story and help people live out theirs with Yeay Day Life Coaching. Because the truth is, I don’t know if the cancer I had will ever come back…but man if this is the legacy I get to leave behind… it would have been worth the hours I committed to share what I learned living this poetically wonderful life.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love playing host. I know how heart melting it is when people go out of their way to make me feel special, so I strive to be that auntie that people remember visiting that made every visit magical. I pride myself on my roster of spots to hit up with my guests. I live in Venice, so we start by walking to the beach and down the boardwalk to Santa Monica Pier, ride the ferris wheel and watch the sunset over Malibu. Day two, we hit up Hollywood Park to get a pic with the sign, the Chinese Theatre, some celebrity houses we know of, and then we walk down Main Street in Santa Monica for the perfect end to a busy day. It’s a bit of local small town charm in a busy city. The Warner Brothers tour is always a hit, but my fav is introducing people to Korea Town for some Korean BBQ, pastries, and cafes.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Every time I found myself discovering who I was, in each new phase life tossed me into, I got through it because of my best friend Jessilyn. She taught me that when life looks empty, self-discovery could be the light that makes me celebrate who I’ve become over and over again. Some people go to meetings or support groups, hire mentors, or run home to family for guidance. I have a Jessy.

Website: www.yeaydaylifecoaching.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katherinealexiss/ https://www.instagram.com/yeayday

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherineferro/