Elaine Taylor-Klaus: Welcome back, everybody, to another conversation on the Parenting with Impact podcast. I am so excited—we're going to have a fun conversation today; I can already tell because the pre-conversation has been super fun. So, it’s going to be a great time!

Our guest today is Hope Zvara. I’m not exactly sure what we’ll be talking about—I don’t think any of us are! But let’s see where the conversation takes us.

Hope is a fascinating adult with her own experience of neurodivergence, which she has leveraged to create businesses and make an impact. You can find her full bio in the show notes, of course. She’s the founder of Mother Trucker Yoga, a business coach, a speaker, and a creative individual doing some truly interesting things in the world. So, welcome, Hope! It’s great to have you here.

Hope Zvara: Thank you so much for having me on! I think this is going to be an amazing conversation, and I can’t wait to get started.

Diane Dempster: Awesome. Why don’t you start us off by giving us a little bit of your backstory? How did you end up where you are, doing what you’re doing today?

Hope Zvara: Well, for 15 years, I opened, owned, and operated a yoga studio. I really found yoga—or rather, yoga found me—when I was knee-deep in addiction. I was struggling with a plethora of eating disorders, drugs, alcohol, and massive social anxiety. I was also battling depression. I don’t want to say my family gave up on me, but it was as if they didn’t know what else to do.

At the time, I was working as a lifeguard at a rec center. I was probably in my late teens. One of my colleagues looked at me and said, “You look like someone who would practice yoga.” Something about that struck me. I went home—living with my parents at the time—and said, “Hey, I think I want to try yoga.”

Full disclosure: I lived in a small town in Wisconsin, and I don’t think I even knew what yoga really was. But something about it pulled me in. I had been struggling to get into recovery. My primary issue was with food, but the anxiety and depression were very real.

In my first yoga class, I was doing everything wrong—holding my breath and shaking like crazy. But when I rolled up my mat and walked out the door, for the first time in years, I felt clear, calm, and...normal. My Wednesday night yoga class became a weekly ritual of second chances.

Eventually, that led me to yoga teacher training and, later, to opening my own studio. I was searching for a community of people like me and couldn’t find it, so I decided to create my own. That’s why I started my studio.

I didn’t realize at the time that what helped me heal could also help others. On the flip side, I was always looking for something more. Although my studio was successful—I was running trainings, doing some speaking and teaching—it didn’t quite feel like where I truly belonged.

Then, about five years ago, I was at a local business mixer in my hometown. I knew everyone there except for one guy. We started talking at a table. I was trying to pitch him corporate yoga, thinking that might be the next step for my business. He listened and then asked, “Do you have anything for truck drivers? Something they can do in the cab of their truck?”

Thinking I was being funny, I threw up my hands and said, “Mother Trucker Yoga!” I was just trying to lighten the mood. But he didn’t even flinch. He stuck out his hand and said, “That’s brilliant. Do you want to go into business together?”

Four months later, he called me, and we built a business from scratch. A year later, I bought him out. For the past five years, I’ve been helping truck drivers—people living sedentary lifestyles—change lanes in their health and fitness with small, simple changes. Many of these can be done right behind the cab of their truck.

And I’ve been loving it ever since.

Elaine Taylor-Klaus: I love it. There are so many things I would love to talk to you about, Diane. First, I have to share that I used to teach yoga in a previous phase of my life as well. There are a million things I want to discuss with you because I taught pregnancy yoga, and I also taught bed yoga—designed for people on bed rest—as well as chair yoga and other variations. So, lots of synergy there!

Over the years, as I transitioned into coaching, I realized that coaching is, in many ways, the verbalization of yoga. Yoga is about being present—being aware of where you are, in your body and your space—and coaching embodies that same principle. I understand you've also ventured into business coaching as well.

Hope Zvara: Yeah, the involvement of my brand with Mother Trucker Yoga and the work I've done in coaching, speaking, and business development has just kind of manifested and grown naturally. It all started because people would ask me, "Hey, how did you do what you did? Can you help me?" I truly believe that when you're in alignment with the right things and living your purpose, opportunities come to you—of course, with effort and hard work.

For me, the yoga space was pivotal. I spent so many years there, and I really believe it was essential for my own healing. Teaching yoga forced me to show up. For anyone listening who struggles with anxiety, depression, or addiction, you might relate to the tendency to run away from uncomfortable things. I was a professional at running—not literally, but figuratively—because facing things felt uncomfortable.

However, leading a yoga class meant I couldn’t cancel; I had to show up. That commitment forced me to heal and confront the issues I was avoiding. It was big and scary, but I realized there were many others struggling just like I was. Some hid it well, and others hadn’t found the resources they needed. For me, the yoga mat became an incubator for my everyday life. I always say you come to the mat raw, and you rebuild. That’s what I did—I rebuilt myself, piece by piece, because I had perfected the art of not listening to myself for so long.

Now that I’m a parent of three kids, my biggest goal is to ensure they don’t struggle the way I did. I dealt with addiction, depression, and anxiety starting around fifth grade. At the time, I didn’t know what it was, but I knew I was struggling and felt different from everyone else. I didn’t have the resources I needed early in life. So now, I’m on high alert as a parent, doing everything I can to help my kids navigate life with real tools and support.

Elaine Taylor-Klaus: The term you just used really stands out to me—what happens with complex kids, and you were what we call a "complex kid." What she shared with us earlier, which hasn't come up yet, is that she also had dyslexia, right?

This often cascades into other challenges. What happens with these kids is that they become incredibly skilled at denial, disconnection, and avoidance—they are masterful at it. But another key point you made, which I think is so important for these kids, is that it can be harder for them to know themselves.

If their parents don’t necessarily understand them or help them explore who they are, they end up in a place where disconnection or avoidance becomes far easier than the effort of trying to understand themselves.

Diane Dempster: But part of what you're describing is just self-awareness—that we need a toolbox. And part of what we talk about a lot is the fact that not everybody's toolbox is the same. It’s really hard because I can tell you how I did it, I can tell you how I wish my parents had done it for me, but that may not ultimately be the ideal formula for your kids.

So, I’m curious about the conversations. I have this visual of the vinyasa and the yoga flow between you and your kids—the conversation back and forth about the toolbox, the acceptance, the awareness, and all of that. So, the ownership. Right?

Hope Zvara: Well, I think for me, so much of who I am as an adult—living in recovery now and doing well—and also now raising my kids is based in yoga. It’s based on learning to be okay with discomfort, learning how to use your voice, and having those conversations with my kids. Just because someone disagrees with you doesn’t mean they don’t like you. Recognizing that grades are not the only way to measure success and showing them other aspects of life, helping them see how we can determine if we’re doing what we should be doing.

So, that toolbox is really fostered in the yoga of being present, being still, being okay with who we are, breathing practices, tapping—just even little things like stretching and foam rolling. Now, my oldest is almost 15, and having these physical practices has become important. He’s in the weight room, he’s doing football, and I’m like, “Hey, you also need to take care of your body. You need to slow down, you need to breathe, or you’re going to have physical consequences.”

That timeout we’re creating for him at 15, in a culture that’s all about “go, go, go,” where he feels invincible, I feel is really fostering in him a mentality and attitude toward life: that he needs to learn to self-regulate, to know what’s enough for him, to notice what pain feels like, and to slow down when he’s tired. I don’t think I learned those things until my late 20s, if not my 30s. I needed to self-monitor and then take action on it, with a toolbox of things I can do afterward—massage is not foreign to him. I was just doing cupping on him last night because he said, “I can’t get rid of this back pain, and I’m doing all the things you told me, and I went to the chiropractor.” So, practicing these things has helped him realize that he actually can be in the driver’s seat of his life.

He is one of my children who has dyslexia, so I understand that mentality in him, in his struggles. And I don’t see that as a bad thing. I see it as a really positive thing.

Elaine Taylor-Klaus: So, there are other directions I want to go, but could you say a little bit more about seeing dyslexia as a positive for yourself and your kids?

Hope Zvara: Yeah, I didn’t realize this until probably a few years ago, but I’ve connected the dots in my own life, and now I can translate this to my kids. I believe that dyslexia, for me, has afforded me the ability— or should I say, forced me—to look at life differently. Because I couldn’t just show up, let’s say, to school, read the book, close it, and answer all the questions on the worksheet.

That was really hard for me. I couldn’t just take the math test because I was transposing numbers that weren’t there. I couldn’t just show up and meet the status quo and skate by.

I had to find my own processes, my own rhythm. And although I wish it might have been a little easier to do, it has afforded me a very unique perspective on life. I think that’s why my path has been so different from my peers, and maybe why I’m an entrepreneur as well—because I didn’t fit the mold. I didn’t fit the "wake-up, work nine-to-five, go home" structure.

I am a little bit of a squirrel; I’m a little bit of a procrastinator. And I’m starting to believe that some of those traits are actually good things. We tend to look at them as bad things, but I’m thinking they might actually be good. I like to believe they are because they change how I see even the simplest things compared to everyone else. So, how do you do that? It’s just my brain.

I think celebrating neurodiversity is a great thing to do. But quite frankly, I don’t even know if we need a label for it. I’m not sure we need to call it that. It’s just a new perspective on life. And when it comes to parenting, for me, I have one child who struggles academically more than the others, and that’s really taught me and reminded me how I need to look at each of my kids individually. I have to constantly separate them because they’ll look at each other and say, "You don’t do that with Meredith. You don’t do that with Ivan.

Why does Harper always get that?"—those are my three kids. I constantly remind them that their space in this world is very different, how they see the world is very different, their needs are very different, and their paths will be different. It’s about finding the tools that best equip them to handle the challenges they face.

That’s really what I’ve been trying to do for them since birth, and also setting them up for success—whether that means graduating high school, or realizing that college isn’t for everyone, or maybe deciding at 17 that they want to get their GED and go in a different direction. I’m trying to open their eyes to the different paths available.

For me, that’s what being dyslexic has given me: the ability to find the road less traveled, make that my own, and go all in. I don’t know about you, ladies, but when someone tells me I can’t do something, it’s like an instant trigger for me—I have to do it anyway, just to prove that I can.

Diane Dempster: Well, I want to bring in another segment of our audience because part of what you're calling attention to is creativity in parenting. I remember very distinctly reaching a point where I became aware that my kids were learning differently. I have one who's a visual processor and one who's an auditory processor.

I remember the moment when I figured out, "Wait, they have to memorize their spelling words differently." One of them has to write them down, and the other has to recite them in their head. It was just that simple distinction that made such a difference. And I think for me, that's part of this—it's just the acknowledgment as parents that your kids are different.

Your kids may be different from each other, or they may be different from you. There’s this opportunity to be a little creative and a little more aware. I want to talk more about that, but I know we need to take a break first.

Elaine Taylor-Klaus: Great. So, Diane, you just prompted this beautiful question for Hope about speaking to the individual needs of our kids. Hope, what's coming up for you?

Hope Zvara: A couple of things. One, the individuality piece is definitely on point, Diane—treating my kids uniquely is one part of it. But the other part that’s come up for me as a parent, especially as they get older, is explaining to them what’s going on. My middle child, Meredith, is very self-sufficient. I never need to remind her to do her homework, and I don’t really need to ask her if she’s even done it. She’ll come to me naturally if she needs help.

But with my older son, the one who has dyslexia, who’s definitely more of a creative thinker in that way, I need to remind him. I need to set him up with tools and a schedule. On Monday, I have to prep with him about what the week will look like and remind him every single night about what’s coming up, like if he has a test or if something’s due. We need to keep prompting him about it.

It might look like I’m paying more attention to him than my middle child, and that has been the case in the past. So I have to go to Meredith, my middle daughter, and say, “Hey, this is why it’s like this, and this is what you're seeing.” I try to show them the other perspective so they don’t feel left out, isolated, or like I care about him more than them.

It’s about having that open conversation—something my parents never had with me and my sisters growing up. There was never any kind of acknowledgment that we were treated differently. It was always just "we treat you all the same," but even then, that was pretty vague. So I try to help my kids understand why things happen the way they do.

This helps them look at school and say, "That kid's getting more attention because of this," or "Maybe I should advocate for that person at school because it looks like they’re struggling." I think perspective, no matter your age, is such an invaluable tool—it not only cultivates compassion and generosity, but also self-awareness and self-advocacy.

One of the rules we have at my house is that you need to ask more than once to get what you want. My husband and I follow through with that because we all say we want something, but you have to show me that you really want it. So, they might say, “I want to play baseball,” but if I only hear about it once and then nothing after that, I’ll ask, "Do you really want to play baseball, or do your friends want to play?" I love that part of the conversation—deciding and advocating for themselves about what they really want.

Elaine Taylor-Klaus: And what I want to highlight from what you're saying are a couple of things. One is that if we don’t give kids an explanation for what’s going on with themselves, they’re going to make up stories about themselves that are a lot worse. They might think they're lazy, crazy, or stupid.

So I just want to acknowledge what you’re saying, which is that if we’re open and transparent—without blame, shame, or judgment—then our kids can develop the self-awareness needed to move into the self-management you’re talking about.

The other thing that came up as you were saying that, and I think is really powerful, is how important it is for all of our kids to know that their needs will get met, but they’re not always going to be the same. I used to say to my kids all the time, “All of you are going to get your needs met, but they’re not all the same.” What you want and what you need are not the same thing. So giving, right?

Hope Zvara: Not at the same time, either?

Elaine Taylor-Klaus: Right! Giving everyone permission to be their own individual human and to get their needs met and to advocate for themselves is a really powerful message that I’m hearing from you today. I love it. We need to start wrapping up. Go ahead.

Diane Dempster: No, what I was going to say is, tell people how to best connect with you. Where can they find you?

Hope Zvara: Yes, well, you can find me on social media as just Hope Zvara. I often post what I call a "daily dose of hope," where I share about parenting, my kids, and just the life I’m living now. I’m pretty transparent about my struggles and what I’m doing.

I’d love to connect with anyone who’s here in those ways. You can also find me on my website, hopezvara.com. It’s pretty easy to find, and you can check out what I’m up to and maybe even connect over some parenting strategies and tips.

Elaine Taylor-Klaus: Got it. All the information you need will be in the show notes, everyone. We’ll also pull a couple of concepts from this conversation and add extra links for everyone to be able to follow through on anything else. As we wrap up this conversation, is there anything else you’d like to share with our listeners or something you hope parents will take away from today?

Hope Zvara: Yeah, I’ll leave all the listeners with this: You don’t need a label, and you don’t need to have the exact diagnosis for you or your child to be able to serve them. The key is to step back and ask, "What does my child need right now?"

I’m not a therapist, and I’m not a social worker, but I am a parent, just like you, raising three kids and trying to do the best I can, putting my best foot forward.

One of the ways I do that every single day is when I wake up in the morning and my feet hit the ground. Before I get out of bed and wake up my kids, I take a moment to be present, take a breath, and ground myself. This helps me step into the day because, let’s face it—one of them might wake up cranky, or maybe an appointment gets canceled, or whatever else happens.

If I’m not grounded, if I’m not practicing self-care and doing my best, that trickles down to my spouse, my children, and even to my kids at school. The ripple effect is much bigger than we think.

The good news is that practicing self-care and being present doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as taking three deep breaths in the morning when you wake up, or saying an affirmation to yourself, looking at yourself in the mirror.

Mel Robbins says to give yourself a high-five in the mirror every morning and remind yourself, “You are amazing.” Just really advocating for yourself and recognizing that you are worth it. When your kids see you do that, it has an impact on them, too.

Like I told you in the beginning, I’m in recovery, and I don’t want my kids to go through what I went through. So every morning when my feet hit the ground, I take my three deep breaths, remind myself of my “why,” and commit to being present and taking care of myself. I go to yoga, I do whatever I need to do so that I can put my best foot forward.

And that way, they can put their best foot forward too. So, how can you put your best foot forward today so your kids can do the same?

Diane Dempster: I love that you always come back to us, doesn’t it?

Hope Zvara: That totally does, in a selfless way.

Diane Dempster: Yeah. So, Hope, do you have a favorite quote or motto you want to leave our audience with today?

Hope Zvara: I have one thing I’ve said to myself for many years, and it’s: "Stand up for what you believe in, even if you're standing alone." So, what is it that you need to stand up for today—in your personal life, your professional life, with your family, with your friends, with your coworkers?

Be willing to stand up, knowing that it might look a little different to other people. It might even be confusing to them. But if it rings true for you, know that it is enough. And man, if you see it through, get ready and buckle up, because your life is about to change.

Diane Dempster: Love that. Thank you so much, Hope. This has been amazing.

Hope Zvara: You are so fun, and what a great audience to serve. I’m so glad I was able to be on today.

Elaine Taylor-Klaus: Thank you! It was delightful to have you, and we couldn’t agree with you more. We love the audience we get to serve every day. So, to those of you tuning in and listening, we want to invite you to take a moment for yourself.

Think about what you're taking away from today's episode. What's one insight you want to carry forward into the week? What’s coming up for you from all the different pieces of this conversation today—about parenting, neurodivergence, neurospiciness, self-advocacy, and advocacy? What are you taking away that will guide you?

Diane Dempster: And for all of you listening, thank you so much for what you’re doing for yourself and your family. At the end of the day, you make the difference.

Elaine Taylor-Klaus: Take care, everybody, and have a great week.