Kela Kee

I attribute my success to following God's calling on my life, which started when I discovered my purpose through prison ministry while studying at Bowling Green State University. Even though I was studying graphic design, that moment visiting women in jail showed me this is what I was meant to do. I'm grateful for excellent mentors like Krista, who was a life coach that took me under her wing, showed me the ropes of coaching, and critiqued my early work when I was just starting out with my first clients at Straight Path. She was the one person who gave me the opportunity to be mentored and really taught me what coaching looks like and how to set things up. My faith has always been the foundation - I even got the name Straight Path Coaching from Proverbs, about the Lord making your path straight. The Lord has been operating things and putting me in places throughout my journey. I also learned to pivot as needed, like when I paused Straight Path to spend 7 years at Columbus Works, where I rose from life coach to director of operations, and then relaunched my business in April 2025. My ability to work hard and make an impact in the lives of others, especially the vulnerable population I serve, has been central to everything I do.

You can have a successful career and with Gods calling on your life and excellent mentors like Krista who was the CEO of Columbus Works, you can live out your full potential and be able to grow and inspire others.

You can have a rewarding career helping others

The biggest opportunity in my field right now is growth. We're ready to take on more clients at Straight Path Coaching. Right now we have about 10 to 12 clients, and we're projecting to hopefully by the end of this year get up to 30 to 50 clients. We're constantly at tabling events and out in the community to reach more people. Our hope in the next year is to have our own coaching and counseling company, like an actual building, and we're in talks about that. That will be the last phase of Straight Path and will allow us to grow even more. We want to expand beyond just me doing the coaching full-time to where I can focus more on the operations of the business and allow someone else to do more of the coaching.

The most important thing to me is being a mother - that's my biggest accomplishment and the most rewarding part of who I am. I have three children, two teenagers and a toddler, and everything surrounds that. My profession as a life coach has actually helped me be a better mother. I'm life coaching both adults and youth, and I think to myself, all these practices I need to be doing with my kids too. I need to instill these practices in them. My toddler is teaching me patience because she's very feisty, and it's like working with a difficult customer where you have to meet them where they are. My two teenagers are entering the workforce now, and I'm teaching them the stuff I've learned being a life coach and encouraging them. Being a mom is hard because you're always being watched and critiqued, but it's the most rewarding part of who I am. My faith is also central to everything - it's always been the foundation and the running thing for us. Being able to work hard and make an impact in the lives of others is core to my values. I also value family time - I come from a family of 10 siblings, and we like to get together and have cookouts. I value peace and quiet too, especially my Friday nights when I tell my kids to just give me that night to relax and unwind. And when I can, I love traveling with my family, though I want to do more of it.