Keya Nkonoki: The Healer

Whenever you can finesse your way onto a Warner Bros. Studio lot with no contacts, evade security, and, in the end, get your first job in the entertainment industry, you must be destined for greatness. 

Fast forward to 2022, that is the same energy that Keya Nkonoki, award-winning Yoga and Doula Facilitator, Trainer, and Founder of WOM (Welcome OM), has used to channel her creativity and build a digital society of healing for caregivers, persons learning to mother themselves, their families, and communities. 

Initially birthed from a hobby and now a thriving business, WOM has manifested into an online platform offering signature healing resources: OM Demand+ Membership, OM 1:1 Yoga Coaching, OM 1:1 Doula Coaching, CAREful Yoga Training, and OM courses. Using the principles of mothering – nourishment, caring, connection and safety – drives the authentic and loving energy that her clients have come to know and trust. "Everyone deserves to feel welcome in their own bodies. One of the benefits of having a complicated childhood, health issues, and having to mother myself…it teaches you compassion… I just want to help people because I've had to heal myself," Keya maintains.

That level of care and integrity has also helped her grow her Tik Tok following to 44K. Although she's had an engaged community since 2013 and opened up a yoga studio in Mar Vista, CA, when the pandemic hit, she quickly pivoted to online offerings. She then took time off to re-access her business model, closed her studio, moved to Alabama, and eventually rebranded (WOM is formerly OM Moms) – all this while going through a divorce. 

In that season, she learned the value of being still but staying consistent in connecting with her clients. "We are in a place where we don't have enough time, so creating concise, high-quality content that adds value and people can use daily was key to my growth."

While her business has seen several iterations, Keya is clear about how she shows up as a leader and a healer. She understands the assignment and how her work is filling a gap in the wellness sector and creating real-time impact. She acknowledges, "There is a lack of representation within the yoga community as well as the doula community. And in both spaces, we need to see each other." Years of mentoring and training have taught her that.

Creating safe spaces is a gift, and one that Keya concedes takes tuning into your passions, giving yourself room to try things, following the path of curiosity, identifying different levels of mentors, and taking messy action, because it's not going to be perfect. These are just some of the foundational blocks that have supported Keya's transformation since she decided that healing others and herself wasn't just a hobby but, instead, a way of coming home.