An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Acceptance. No one is perfect. If we were, things might be easier. But, in the meantime, we actively practice accepting who the other person is and where they are at. By accepting these realities, we are able to navigate them confidently. We unconditionally love and accept one another. We know we may be in very different places around different subjects, depending on our past experiences and traumas. Often times when we are in different places we are able to lovingly see through the lens of the experiences of the other, and therefore lovingly accept where things are for them in the moment. We love holding compassion as nothing lasts forever and can change instantaneously. They say change is the only constant, so we pray and continue to devote ourselves to the highest good of all.
As a part of our series about lessons from Thriving Power Couples, I had the pleasure of interviewing Stephanie Lytle & Aaron Douglas, a power couple with an impenetrable bond. Together they launched Sedona’s premier wellness retreat, High Vibe Collective, and are helping guide others through their healing. After losing their baby at birth earlier this year, the two have spent months rediscovering their purpose and the purpose for their bond. Their willingness to be raw, real and intimate with others gives them the special ability to connect with visitors from all over the world who come to Sedona for it’s renowned healing capacities.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you two to your respective career paths?
Early on in our dating days, Aaron was organizing a public event highlighting healing workshops led by local Sedona healing practitioners. With my years of experience throwing client based service events and retreats, I had many ideas that felt aligned that I wanted to contribute. At first, he did not ask me to support or participate in any way, as we were new in our relating to one another romantically and we didn’t want to blur any lines. We had developed our friendship slowly to gain more trust and care for one another over the previous year and a half since having met. Eventually, he invited me to help organize the event with him, which is how we first worked together in community healing. Our inspired drive to organize healing for those around us quickly led to the creation of High Vibe Collective. This business, for me, was a dream come true to help my friends in this incredible, authentic, and integral healing community. Through this business we get to reap the benefit spiritually and financially in what feels like a cosmic, mutually beneficial way of relating with one another. As a business coach of 6 years I felt this to be a very honorable way to highlight the healers in this community who show up in their healing each and every day, thick or thin, in unconditional ways. I see these healers living truth in their day to day lives. Their modalities and teachings are not only displayed in their work, but in their relationships and within the community. These are healers that I am honored to know and call my family and friends. These are the people who saved our lives through their authentic support when they showed up for Aaron and I after our son Ahraya’s death. I feel humbled in this journey that I am on and I am so grateful for the connection that Aaron and I have.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you two got married?
We chose to start a romantic relationship with one another in February of 2021 and began to live together shortly after that. In May of 2021, I found myself in the position of volunteering as sole caregiver for my grandmother, Ethel Mae. The rest of my family chose to put her in a nursing home, but I pulled her out and brought her to Sedona. I loved my Gramma, and had been caregiving for her and Grandpa before I moved to Sedona. My Gramma was one of my best friends. So when the time came, Aaron was in deep support of this decision, and quickly became secondary caregiver to Gramma Ethel as she moved into our home full time. While this was an interesting time in and of itself, one of the funniest moments was when I was out to dinner with some girlfriends. Aaron was at home with Gramma, after dark, and she was doing puzzles in her room. She then chose to go to bed and turn out the light. Aaron got a call from his friend who needed his car pulled out of mud with his Jeep. Not wanting to leave Gramma unattended if she was still awake, Aaron went into her room to see how she was doing. He entered her room to see no Gramma in the bed, and no where visible in the room. The room was dark, with the lights off and the moonlight coming in through her window. She liked to have a salt lamp on at night, but we always found she slept better with all the lights off. Either way, Aaron found himself in her room, calling her name, with no answer. He went out to the street, on the porch, in the bathrooms, and checked the whole house. No Gramma was found anywhere. As he stood in the dark bedroom wondering where she could be his mind turned to the bewildering thought that she could be in the closet, hiding. With nightmarish images running through his head, Aaron opened the closet door. Some of her dresses were hanging up in the closet, but behind them was a little nook with a small chair. This small wooden chair was a childhood chair from my great grandmother, an antique. Well, if you think I’m going to tell you that Aaron slid over the dresses in the closet to reveal Gramma sitting in the chair, in the closet, in the dark… you would be right. She jumped up and forward at him out of the closet with a hand full of photographs (that was her favorite thing was to look through and hold old photographs of her family). She jumped forward pointing and shaking her finger at him. “Shhhhhh” she said. “Don’t tell anybody. Swear it.” She said before shooing him out of the room. Aaron legitimately jumped and felt chills. It was moments like this that I wish I had cameras in the house, because it would have been such a hilarious and scary moment to go back and watch! Ethel passed away just 6 days after her 94th birthday in October of 2021. She said that her 94th birthday was her best birthday ever. She lived her best life the last 5 months with Aaron and I in Sedona. She was a legend in the community here, and still is.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
After just the first few months of launching this business, we realized that our pricing and payout structure was not sustainable. You see, when we first conceptualized this business we wanted to create a business that was less geared around profiting off of someone else’s services and paying out on the low end. We wanted to create a business that would truly honor the practitioner and their time, almost as though representing their private practice out of good will. It was just a few months in business before we realized that this was attainable, but not at the level we expected, as business costs continued to rise as the growth continued. We realized that the sustainability was not going to work, thus not being able to benefit anyone whatsoever! We then quickly called an emergency meeting and brainstormed what we could do to maintain and grow the business instead of run it as a hobby, with no chance of recouping investment costs. We made respectable and subtle shifts that did impact people, but ultimately created a sustainable foundation for growth and continued financial support for our practitioners. While we did correct the pricing and payout mistake that we made in the beginning, it took courage and certainty to instate the changes while still powerfully respecting and valuing our staff. We value them, their work, and our relationship to the highest degree. We learned that valuing ourselves to a high degree first and not shorting ourselves is the foundation to encouraging others to live from that same place. Despite not everyone liking the decisions that we made and had to implement, we learned that staying true to ourselves and our needs is non-negotiable, no matter what others think.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Our mission is to empower local, high integrity healers by aligning them with people seeking the healing results that they facilitate. While there are other companies doing this in Sedona, we stand out by holding high standards in who we work with along with paying our practitioners a fair wage. In this day and age with rapid inflation, wage is a heavily emphasized topic and we stand for optimizing our practitioner’s pay scale so that they can live a stress free life that they deserve as a result of their impact on so many people’s lives. We value the healing work of our practitioners as they are the roots of this business and the motor for the active healing processes that our guests experience. Our hope is that business models like this continue to grow. We believe in a new realm on earth where each of us actively creates our desired reality. In our reality, everyone experiences abundance because it is our birthright… for each and every one of us.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
We are launching our online platform for virtual sessions, online courses, and coaching. This will enable people worldwide to receive the healing modalities and self-development tools to transform their lives and create a better reality in and around them. The energy in Sedona is loud and quite noticeable. This is one of the most powerful vortex energies on the planet. People come from all over the world to experience the energies of this land. Those who reside here full-time are warriors of this ‘Momma Sedona’ energy that we live and breathe with every day. And she doesn’t mess around. Momma Sedona gives you what you need and what you’re asking for, whatever your intention is or your soul needs. She shows you what you get to choose to work through in order to receive at the highest level. Being able to have anyone, anywhere gain access to this healing energy from one of our virtual healing sessions, or a coaching call, or day-to-day-messaging is putting this Sedona healing energy into the hands of everyone. We are excited to show up at the greatest capacity through this most difficult time for so many throughout the world right now.
What advice would you give to other CEOs or founders to help their employees to thrive?
I recommend that they read the book How To Win Friends & Influence People because it shares valuable insight into smoothly navigating challenging situations with other human beings. It is of great importance for us to treat others with respect and create an environment that is healthy and empowering. We found that the tools outlined in this book empower us and our employees to simply thrive with redirection instead of feel emotionally hurt due to plain, misguided criticism. As a CEO or founder, it is often of the utmost importance to maintain a healthy work environment that not only encourages employees to be and do better, but to live the most fulfilling life they can in their personal lives.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I find myself grateful for a young woman named Sarah King. Sarah and I met over the phone as a dog training client back in North Carolina. Her and her husband were moving to town, about to give birth to their first baby girl, and had a neurotic dog. They ended up becoming good friends throughout the client process and we ended up creating a lasting friendship with one another. Through the years I watched Sarah grow from no income, to a massive scale and online business and following. Each step along her growth journey Sarah would reach out to me in encouragement for her growth and skill set in the coaching industry. After hiring Sarah as my coach to learn a new methodology of business, I was able to create an additional income stream and create a mobile lifestyle for myself, which eventually landed me in Sedona. Without Sarah, and her encouragement and consistency in showing up for herself and her future, I may not have taken the path shifting out of ‘Dog Trainer’ to the embodiment of self development and internal betterment in my coaching and in this Sedona Wellness Center.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
The success of our company inherently brings goodness to the world by empowering deep healing and raw transformation in our guests, while simultaneously empowering local healing practitioners to share their gift with the world.
What are the “5 Things You Need To Thrive As A Couple”? Please share a story or example for each.
- Respect. We value each other as powerful people. We see each other as strong individuals who are lucky to have each other. When we see things differently, instead of making the other person wrong for their viewpoint, we genuinely listen in order to learn something new about our partner. With this new information, we agree to be better equipped for when this may arise in any future situation. We hold each other in the highest light possible, which helps us feel worthy in each other’s eyes and creates room for growth. We don’t often feel ill or negatively about the other, or actions of the other. When we do we come to one another to share the thought or feeling aloud and ask for help in processing this negative feeling. This is done in a timely manner, ideally the moment the negative feeling is occurring if appropriate. We shoot for a 24hr timeframe depending on our personal triggers that we may be working through, as to dampen any unnecessary emotional turbulence that does not guide us in the direction of resolve.
- Attention. It is important for us to give undivided attention to one another when we speak. Although life moves quickly and there is often something to be distracted with, there is a different level of respect felt when we give our full attention. If one of us has something to share with the other, whether for fun or for serious reflection, we stop what we are doing and give our attention to the other’s words and needs. Without this respectful attention, there is little room to truly hear each other and feel honored. The eye contact alone in these situations allows for a deepened connection.
- Encouragement. We love supporting each other in being the best versions of ourselves. When we see one another doing something or feeling a certain way that could be disempowering, we gently encourage the other to reframe their actions, mood, or perspective to enable a positive expression. Aaron loves to encourage Stephanie to take a step back and look at the bigger picture when feeling heavy emotions. Stephanie loves to encourage Aaron to get out of his own head and step further into the powerful man that he is. Loving words like “you’re doing great” and “I’m proud of you” truly go a long way when some days feel like an uphill battle. Hearing it, actually hearing it, not texting it can make a world of difference in how we feel inside.
- Shared Values. We both strive every single day to increase our quality of life. We have been this way before we met. We value integrity, responsibility, a healthy lifestyle, and being in the energy of abundance. We get to band together in union with common goals which allows us to live side by side in harmony. We do this by choosing one another each and every day. We choose to be on each others team, always. And we like to say “It’s this or something better”. So, in our choosing of one another we are also choosing our individual betterment. We do not see everything the same way and do have confronting conversations about our differences. We do overall share the same values in which we lead our own lives and which we see our future unfolding.
- Acceptance. No one is perfect. If we were, things might be easier. But, in the meantime, we actively practice accepting who the other person is and where they are at. By accepting these realities, we are able to navigate them confidently. We unconditionally love and accept one another. We know we may be in very different places around different subjects, depending on our past experiences and traumas. Often times when we are in different places we are able to lovingly see through the lens of the experiences of the other, and therefore lovingly accept where things are for them in the moment. We love holding compassion as nothing lasts forever and can change instantaneously. They say change is the only constant, so we pray and continue to devote ourselves to the highest good of all.
You are people of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
We are on a mission to encourage each individual to find their own safe space inside themselves of love, nurture, acceptance, grace, and joy. When this radiates inside of someone, it can be felt by everyone around them, even when simply out grocery shopping. As more and more people develop these qualities inside of themselves, our world will naturally change from the inside out. People who have not cultivated these qualities will easily learn how to by seeing others effortlessly and gracefully express them, and by working through their own blockages and limitations. This is our dream and wish for the world.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Leap and the net will appear”. Both of our lives have consisted of leaping when we felt the push to. By leaping instead of staying safe in the nest, we have created profoundly more satisfying and invigorating lives. Stephanie’s first tattoo, on her forearm says “My fearless freedom lights up the world”, which is from an inspirational card deck by Gabby Bernstein. This really brings us back to our inner knowing. We are always supported, and so when we leap towards our dreams the most magical unknown unfolds.
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
We would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with Dean Graziosi, who has made a large impact on Aaron’s life and decision to serve the world graciously. It was Dean’s Mastermind course with Tony Robbins that lit up Aaron’s mind and opened his potential to give to the world wholeheartedly without holding back. Dean’s magnetism and effect on his customers and the world around him is profound and inspiring. We would love to learn about him on a personal level and hear his feedback about our mission to bring healing to the world.
How can our readers follow your work online?
You can follow our work on Instagram @SedonaHighVibes or on our website www.sedonahighvibes.com
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
Lessons from a Thriving Power Couple, With Stephanie Lytle & Aaron Douglas of High Vibe Collective was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.