The Positive Habits Podcast

What if one small habit could pull you out of burnout… and completely change the direction of your life?

In this episode, Kat Thorne sits down with Carol Mead, a corporate HR professional turned botanical wellness creator and founder of Elyse. What started as a personal journey through stress, anxiety, and burnout became a powerful discovery - and ultimately, a brand designed to help others reset, rebalance, and perform at their best.

From 3am wake-ups and emotional exhaustion to creating natural scent-based tools used by colleagues in high-pressure environments, Carol shares how she turned her lowest point into something meaningful.

This is a conversation about courage, intuition, and the power of small, simple habits - especially the ones we often overlook.

Burnout doesn’t happen overnight
Stress → anxiety → exhaustion → emotional overwhelm and often we don’t intervene early enough.
One small habit can create a breakthrough
For Carol, it was something simple: inhaling essential oils to regulate stress in the moment she needed it.
Your lowest point can become your purpose
What started as survival became a tool to help others - and eventually, a brand that she is now scaling.
Experience creates belief
Carol’s colleagues didn’t need convincing - they felt the impact immediately and kept coming back.
We’re overlooking simple performance tools
Breath, scent, pauses - the basics that can transform how we feel and perform.

“My husband said: I feel like we’re losing you and that was my wake-up call.”
The moment Carol realised her oils weren’t just helping her… but everyone around her

ABOUT THE GUEST

Carol Mead is the founder of Elyse, a botanical fragrance brand born from her own journey through burnout and anxiety while working in the corporate world. Blending neuroscience, scent, and ritual, she creates plant based fragrances designed to calm the nervous system and shift emotional states. Her work explores how small sensory habits can transform how we feel, think, and show up in the world.

ABOUT THE HOST

Kat started her career as a teacher, before moving into Tech where she worked in different executive roles within teaching and consulting working across the globe, both in the public and private sector. Despite appearing 'successful' on the outside, she paid a heavy ‘life’ price. In 2016, her whole world collapsed.

The reason? The compound effect of years of unhealthy and toxic habits that destroyed her health, relationship, and career.

She rebuilt herself by changing just one small habit and built a series of positive habits which has transformed her professional and personal performance, resulting in becoming the healthiest and happiest version of herself.

She is a positive habits international keynote speaker and teacher, giving talks and delivering high impact programmes to organisations across the globe.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/katthorne 
https://www.instagram.com/the_morning_gamechanger

In this 10-minute solo episode, Kat explores why stepping outside your comfort zone is one of the most powerful things you can do for your personal and professional growth.
From early morning sea dips to speaking on international stages, Kat shares real-life examples of how doing uncomfortable things - consistently - builds confidence, resilience, and momentum.

Because the truth is…

👉 Growth doesn’t happen where things feel easy.

Kat dives into:

Why your brain is wired to keep you safe (and stuck)
How small, uncomfortable actions build real confidence
The power of community when doing hard things
Why you don’t have to “feel like it” to take action
How one small habit can stretch your comfort zone over time

She also shares insights from her experience growing the Women Who PLNGE community - from 4 people to over 60 weekly participants - and what it teaches us about human potential.

Kat started her career as a teacher, before moving into Tech where she worked in different executive roles within teaching and consulting working across the globe, both in the public and private sector. Despite appearing 'successful' on the outside, she paid a heavy ‘life’ price. In 2016, her whole world collapsed.

The reason? The compound effect of years of unhealthy and toxic habits that destroyed her health, relationship, and career.

She rebuilt herself by changing just one small habit and built a series of positive habits which has transformed her professional and personal performance, resulting in becoming the healthiest and happiest version of herself.
She is a positive habits international keynote speaker and teacher, giving talks and delivering high impact programmes to organisations across the globe.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/katthorne 
https://www.instagram.com/the_morning_gamechanger

In this episode of The Positive Habits Podcast, Kat sits down with the brilliant Izzy, founder of Uforma, to talk about the future of fashion, the hidden cost of fast fashion, and why finding clothes that truly fit can completely change how we feel.

After meeting at a recent event hosted by Melinda Palomino, with special guest Roxie Nafousi, Kat knew she had to bring Izzy onto the podcast. At just 21, Izzy is already building a startup with a powerful mission: to make online shopping more accurate, more confident, and far less wasteful.

Together, Kat and Izzy explore the real problem with online fashion today - not just overconsumption, but the fact that so many people are forced to guess their size, order multiple options, and send items back. Izzy shares how Uforma is using AI to help solve that problem by creating a more personalised shopping experience, giving customers a better idea of how clothes will actually fit their body before they buy.

They also unpack the wider conversation around Shein, Temu, TikTok shopping, returns culture, rental fashion, and what needs to change if we want a more sustainable fashion industry.

And of course the conversation ends with habits. Izzy shares the one practice she keeps coming back to in order to manage stress and avoid burnout while building a business: journaling - or as Kat prefers to call it, a good old-fashioned brain dump.

This is a fascinating conversation about confidence, consumer habits, startup life, sustainability, and building something meaningful at a young age.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Izzy Mintus is the Founder of Euforma. Her mission is to reduce online returns and increase conversions for fashion brands by giving their shoppers confidence in the fit of clothing before they buy.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabelmintus?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app

ABOUT THE HOST

Kat started her career as a teacher, before moving into Tech where she worked in different executive roles within teaching and consulting working across the globe, both in the public and private sector. Despite appearing 'successful' on the outside, she paid a heavy ‘life’ price. In 2016, her whole world collapsed.

The reason? The compound effect of years of unhealthy and toxic habits that destroyed her health, relationship, and career.

She rebuilt herself by changing just one small habit and built a series of positive habits which has transformed her professional and personal performance, resulting in becoming the healthiest and happiest version of herself.
She is a positive habits international keynote speaker and teacher, giving talks and delivering high impact programmes to organisations across the globe.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/katthorne 
https://www.instagram.com/the_morning_gamechanger

Overthinking is becoming a global challenge and it’s only getting worse in a world full of noise, information, and constant distraction.

In this short 10 minute solo episode, Kat shares one of the most powerful (and underused) positive habits to combat overthinking, reduce anxiety, and improve performance: journaling - reframed as “brain dumping.”

This simple, low-cost habit can help you regain control of your thoughts, build clarity, and take meaningful action in both your work and personal life.

What You’ll Learn:
Why overthinking is increasing
How your thoughts shape beliefs, behaviours, and habits
Why “journaling” might be putting you offand what to do instead
The power of “brain dumping” to calm your mind and nervous system
How writing helps you challenge unhelpful or untrue thoughts
How this habit creates clarity, confidence, and better decision-making

Through writing regularly, she gained clarity on her career, lifestyle, and relationships leading to meaningful change that she couldn’t access just by thinking or talking.

Key Takeaway:
You don’t need to solve everything in your head.
Get it out of your head and onto paper.
Clarity comes from creating space - not more thinking.

Your Action Step (Start Today):
Grab a plain notebook and pen
Spend 5–10 minutes writing down everything on your mind
No structure. No rules. No pressure.
Just write.

Final Thought:
This is one of the most underutilised habits available to you.
It costs nothing but can change everything.

Connect with Kat:
If you’re curious about bringing simple, high-impact habits into your team or organisation, book a 20-minute virtual coffee with Kat.

In this deeply honest episode of The Positive Habits Podcast, Kat Thorne is joined by Pardeep Gill for a powerful conversation about healing, resilience, and learning to trust yourself again.

Pardeep shares her personal journey of leaving a 14-year abusive marriage, the physical toll trauma took on her body, and how simple habits like walking, reading and slowing down became part of her recovery.

Together, Kat and Pardeep explore why so many people feel constantly busy and disconnected, how stress and trauma can show up physically in the body, and why the answers we are searching for are often already within us.

This episode is a reminder that healing does not always come from doing more. Sometimes it starts with slowing down, being honest with yourself, and paying attention to what your body has been trying to tell you all along.

• Why so many of us feel busy, overwhelmed and disconnected from ourselves
• How stress and trauma can show up in the body
• Why simple habits like walking, slowing down and being honest with yourself can be powerful tools for healing

“Don’t work, live and breathe to impress somebody else. Work, live and breathe to impress yourself.” – Pardeep Gill

ABOUT THE GUEST

Pardeep Gill is Operations Director at Albany Insurance and a passionate leader who brings authenticity, openness and emotional intelligence into the workplace.

ABOUT THE HOST

Kat started her career as a teacher, before moving into Tech where she worked in different executive roles within teaching and consulting working across the globe, both in the public and private sector. Despite appearing 'successful' on the outside, she paid a heavy ‘life’ price. In 2016, her whole world collapsed.

The reason? The compound effect of years of unhealthy and toxic habits that destroyed her health, relationship, and career.

She rebuilt herself by changing just one small habit and built a series of positive habits which has transformed her professional and personal performance, resulting in becoming the healthiest and happiest version of herself. She is a positive habits international keynote speaker and teacher, giving talks and delivering high impact programmes to organisations across the globe.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/katthorne 
https://www.instagram.com/the_morning_gamechanger