How Faith Turn a Cancer Diagnosis Into Purpose with Kelley Tyan

Laura, welcome to the Limitless Women podcast. Our mission is to help women business owners like you grow profitable businesses and actualize your opportunities to serve and give to yourself and others. Here's your host, the founder of limitless women. Laura Gisborne,

Welcome back to the Limitless Women Podcast. I'm so excited and honored to have Kelly Tyan with us today. Kelly and I connected. I think that I found you. I was trying to figure out my origin story with you, right like I think I found you on LinkedIn, and I just fell in love with your message, and then I leaned in and I learned more, and the more I learned about you, the more excited I got about your ministry, about who you are as a woman of faith, and who you are as a woman who really leads other women powerfully with your story and your impact. So thank you for being here today. It's really a pleasure to have you and to get to know you a little bit better.

Thank you so much, Laura. I'm honored to be here. Yeah.

So tell us a little bit about where you located. What's kind of going on for you? I know that you're running a podcast now with your daughter, your adult daughter, that's super exciting. So tell me a little bit about you, and what are you up to these days?

Oh my gosh, so much. I feel so blessed. I am in Boston, you will be able to hear it in my accent Boston, where you pack the car. I mean, that's a real thing, and I've been here my whole life, so the accent is staying. But yes, my daughter and I, we launched our podcast this coming February 2026 will be one year. So it's very exciting. Thank you. I grew up as a Christian. I'll just give you a little bit of the backstory how I got here. I grew up as a Christian in a Christian home. I'm an only child, and my mom was so faithful, I watched her, and sometimes it scared me a little bit. I was like, Why does she always talk about Jesus and her faith? But I'm a kid and a teenager, and you have to find this out on your own. Really, faith is such a individual journey. So fast forward in my adulthood, going through real life things and challenges, I really did find my faith and leaned into my faith in such a way that that is who I am, that is what I do today. But I'll take you back. What really triggered me leaning into my faith was many things, one of them being when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, which was 17 years ago. I was opening up a fitness business at that time, very excited, very fired up to lead women in their health and fitness, and here I am being diagnosed with this breast cancer. I mean, it was shocking to my system. Of course, I had the pity part, but that's where my faith really came alive, and I knew I had to show up. That's really what I'm all about. In a nutshell is I'm the girl that will always show up, and no matter what's going on, I will find a way. I'll have my pity party. As I said, I'm a human stop. Yeah. I mean, you know all the things, but I always find a way to get back up and to keep moving. And I learned that because of my mom, that's why I mentioned I was. Grew up watching her. She suffered with the rheumatoid arthritis my whole entire life from when I was born. So I know it's an awful disease to especially watch

someone you love, and she was my bestie. Her physical body was failing, but her mental state was thriving. It was only because of her faith. So that showed me my entire life that nothing, no circumstance, can ever, ever affect you in your life unless you've led it. And that's what I watched. That's what taught me how to be resilient, how to persevere. And so today, my podcast with my daughter, she now watched me do the same thing. It's like a ripple you know, we can create such effects in our lives, positively, negatively, and it's so important that we're aware of that, you know, being moms or leaders in companies, whatever we're doing, the spaces and places that we're in, it's so important and powerful to be aware of how we're leading in the ripple effect that we can really create, whether it's in the home or in the office. So daughter kind of followed in the footsteps. Took her a hot minute. She was teenager. I mean, she was Oh man, I say, you know, we went through to hell and back, if I. Ever been to anal in that it was we're here now in our podcast is called chosen by Jesus, but we really talk about all things and how faith really keeps us grounded, you know, in our relationship together and then separately, with her being 26 and me being 51 you know life is hard, but our faith helps us get through our workouts. It helps us get through a business meeting. Prayer helps us when we fall into temptation with food. So prayer and faith affect every area, and those are the topics that we discuss. We dive deep into real talk, and it's very exciting doing life with her at this point, I agree that that's what happened. So yeah, that's, that's, that's where I'm at right now. I've really been coaching with for 25 years. As I said in fitness network marketing. I've always been in this position of creating and taking forward steps.

Well, I love this piece, too. Kelly, of like, where are all the places that you can have God be in your life, right in your day to day basis? And it's one of the things that we when we have a group of women come together, if it's just the two of us, we don't often pray, but always, if we have three or more, we always have a prayer to say thank you to God and to bring him into our business as CEO. And so there was a book, God is my CEO. And I tried to reach out to the guy that wrote the book, but I could never get through to him. I don't even know if he's still alive. He lives in Minnesota, I think. But we had a conversation in one of our events, probably 2020, it was during covid, and one of our speakers was talking about, she has a $10 million business, talking about God as her CEO. And at the end of that conference was three day conference. There was probably 80 women there. Almost every woman said, Hey, what I'm going to take from this conference is, what does life look like when I make God my CEO? So I think about the idea of how many different places that we can walk in faith and have it not always be something that just happens. On Sunday, we went to a Pentecostal church this Sunday, and it was, it was wild, having a great time. Everybody was it was like, God was definitely the house. You know, you get, oh yeah. We were so welcome. Just guests. They were precious. We were really honored to be there. And one of the things that the minister said is, again, we've all heard this, Kelly, but what does it look like when we remember to have God in our lives every day, that we're never really alone? And I'm curious about when you, if you don't mind, going a little bit deeper into your experience with where you really tapped into your faith, because I think that we have a similar we have a similar story there where I really realized, Hey, God has always been with me. I haven't always recognized that, right? So when you kind of had your diagnosis,

what are the pieces you can share of the journey that had you become more and more aware of how to partner with God.

Oh my gosh. And I've been saying that God is my CEO probably last five years myself, because I did walk with the Lord as I was very faithful all these years, I really wasn't making him the CEO of my entire life. I'd pick and choose areas that I wanted him in, or I'd pray when I was needy or I would, you know, have very vague prayers, general prayers. Now I told you I'd been a Christian my whole life. I've been faithful my whole life, however, stepping deeper, I wanted God to be part of every area, so that when life hits which it has hit me hard in many different ways as all of us, I wanted to be anchored and not sway so long, or stay in those pity parties so long I know they're going to come. I know the waves are going to come crashing, but I wanted God. I knew that partnering with him in every area of my life, my marriage, my relationship with my children, my diet, my fitness life, my business, my podcast, literally all of it, I could have more peace. I knew that partnering with God would give me more courage in my life, more confidence to do the things I want to do, to speak the way I want to speak. Maybe it's just to have hard conversations. So that's where it all shifted for me, making him my CEO. I really have gained so much from doing that. I now I just feel like I have wings. I always say it's I put on my wings in the morning, and I just feel, you know, with the Lord, I can fly, and I don't have to be afraid, because there was so many times in the past where I would be too nervous. I'd think, Oh, they're smarter than me. Oh, these women, I can't get in the room with them. I feel. Well, my thoughts were very limited at certain times in different circles of people, and then I'm like, wait a minute. God made me just like he made them. The way I talk is I gift. I have something that they don't. They have something that I don't. Why am I feeling inferior? So partnering with God just changed everything in my life. And I guess I can relate

it to being, you know, new and reborn like Wonder Woman. I I have little little pieces of Wonder Woman all over my arms. It just reminds me that I don't have to cower. I don't have to feel, you know, inferior in anything I'm doing. You know, like, I It's like betting on yourself. I've always taken a chance, and I now I can really bet on myself, because I know God's got me and he has my back.

Beautiful, so, so sweet and so tell me a little bit about your business. Tell me about what kind of things you're up to. I know you said you have a retreat coming in the spring. You've got an eight week course, if I've got that correctly, obviously, the podcast was a place where women can connect with you and hear your voice and words of inspiration. And again, you're super active on social so tell me a little bit about kind of what's the mission of your work these days? Tell me where you're where you're going with that.

Oh my gosh, my mission has always been for the last 25 years, it's going to sound so simple, but just to enhance and transform one woman's life a day, whether that's in her thinking, in her health, in her marriage, it's really always been that I've never changed the way I think so my content, what I put out, is really to inspire, equip and empower women to really again, get rooted in their faith, lean on their a little, because without faith, we have no hope, and without hope, find women get so stuck and they wake up in five years, goes by 10 years, and they say, How did I get here? What am I doing? And so I feel my job, and I know I was, I've been called to bring my faith to light in my content in groups of women in who I'm leading and serve that way to let them know that with God, all things aren't possible. You know you can break through that limited thinking. You can do all things with him if you believe in you trust in his path for you. So that's really been my mission, and through my coaching, I've been coaching women from one on one. Numerous I've done masterminds with women. I run mentorships right now, my daughter and I, as you know, we're partners, so we run a program called it's really a mentorship for eight weeks, and we run it three times a year. It's called she rises, basically like you. It's about limitless women, and we want women to feel limitless in everything they're trying to do and achieve. And so this mentorship is a beautiful space for them to it's virtual. So we can people we

listening from all over the place, so they can connect with you where they live. They don't have to be in Boston, exactly.

No, this is virtual. However, we do have an also in in person community. We meet once a month. We have a spot you have themes every single month. It's called the CBJ community, chosen by Jesus, is what it stands for. And we have a bunch of women in there, like I said, every, every we meet once a month, third Wednesday of the month. So if you're local in Massachusetts, definitely reach out. I would love to share that with you. So we run those programs. Yes, we have the podcast. I do one on one coaching and I, and I also do speaking events, conferences, whether they're faith based or not, and right now, that's what I'm working on,

beautiful well, it feels like it's just a beautiful opportunity for a woman to tap into a like minded community of other women who are faith based and really looking at how to lift up their Faith, lift up each other, be it a true sisterhood and and now you're multi generational, which is super cool. Yes, super, super fun. Yeah, good. Well, I think it will wrap up with one quick question, which is, if you were to go back in time, Kelly, if you were to say like today, you're in this place on the other side, right? It's been 17 years, if I heard you correctly, since your diagnosis, you've been, you know, through grace, you've been saved, you've been healed, you've had this incredible bonus time. You know, I think your story is similar to many of ours, where we've been told, okay, this is it. And we're like, No, not yet. It's that time, right? If I'm alive and breathing, God's not taking me yet. So when you look back, what do you. Wish you would have known if you were back like even at your daughter's age, what do you wish you would have known then that you know now,

man, I wish, I guess I could say people's opinions are none of your business. That's one of my I love that most of us worry so much, especially when we're young, about what are they going to say? What are they saying? Ooh. And then they stop dead in their traps. They don't move, and they're frozen because of what other people say or think that's really none of our business, if we can just get through that and keep showing up for yourself. That's how you'll thrive and get to the next level, and get to the next level, whether it's mentally, physically and spiritually, that's the only way. So walk out the noise. That's what I would have told myself. And just Yes, you know, most of us are looking around, oh my gosh, I can't post that because maybe no one's gonna like it. Yeah?

What's gonna Yeah? And that's funny when Erica, Erica is our daughter, which she was a little person, and she would have her challenges with the other girls at school, I would say to her, you know, you taking care of you is a full time job. It's really like time and a half. That's how I look at it on my end, because I get to be your mama, but you, but really like you, you doing you is full it's a full time job, and so we can really, I think it's just such wise advice for us at any age. Kelly, especially the world of media, and the more visible you become, the more there's going to be people that have an opinion about what you say. It takes us this act of courage and vulnerability to get out there and share your word it's so just grateful for your power and for your courage and for all the magnificent gifts you're bringing to our community. I really appreciate you.

Thank you so much. Yeah,

such a pleasure. I'll talk to you soon, and we'll make sure that everybody knows how to get in touch with you. You want to just tell us here, then we'll go ahead and do this. What are the best channels to reach you? The best website, the best social handles. Well, how's the best way for us to reach you now,

sure my website has mostly everything. It's just my name, Kelly, tie in.com, I'm very active on LinkedIn, as you know, we met there, and same in, in line, Instagram as well. So that's it, and you can find the podcast on any audio platform in on YouTube, chosen by Jesus CBJ.

So good. All right, my dear. Thank you again for everything you're doing and all that you're being really appreciate

God bless. Thank you.