The Positive Habits Podcast

• Strong at Work, Strong at Home: The Habits Behind Katherine’s Success

  This episode is with Kat West who works in the events industry. She talks about how she manages to balance high performance living whilst being a present parent. She shares why maintaining good health and wellness practices are essential in creating and maintaining this balance, as well as why intentional habits create success in professional and family life. KEY TAKEAWAYS Kat maintains consistency in her exercise routine despite her demanding schedule, finding that these small daily habits provide the essential foundation for her work performance and family energy. Rather than viewing children as obstacles to fitness, Kat brings them to CrossFit sessions, creating bonding opportunities while normalising exercise as an a part of family life. Throughout parenting, Kat discovered the importance of building community connections and asking for help without hesitation, something she initially resisted. During her exercise sessions, Kat gains mental clarity that generates innovation and creative problem solving strategies for her leadership role. Kat's early rising habit creates essential prep time before family demands begin, allowing her to shift from reactive to intentional living despite juggling twin toddlers and a six-year-old! Despite her discipline in other areas, Kat acknowledges her ongoing struggle to establish healthier boundaries with technology during family time. This is a challenge which needs continuous conscious effort from many of us. Working within Assemble Group's wellness focused culture has reinforced Kat's personal wellbeing practices through like minded colleagues who share similar values around health. By exposing her children to diverse activities from swimming to CrossFit, Kat deliberately cultivates their adaptability and confidence, qualities she believes will serve them in navigating an uncertain future. BEST MOMENTS "I decided to go back full time because actually I needed that for myself mentally and I needed to be the best version of myself for them." "Sometimes I do feel kind of like a superhero and also that people are coming to you for guidance and expertise, and it's quite a nice position to be in." "I do exercise more for my mental health probably now than I do to lose a few pounds. I like to stay fit and healthy for me, my family, for my work. It's important, that email can wait." "When you are with your children, doing things, be present. One of my bad habits is looking at my work phone weekends and things like that, but I'm really making a conscious effort to put that down." ABOUT THE GUEST With over 15 years of experience in the events industry, specialises in the MICE sector, sourcing exceptional venues for global brands. Katherine’s career began at MCI, a leading global events agency, where she was responsible for sourcing venues for major international clients. Katherine then moved to In2Events, where she established and led the venue sourcing department, developing key procedures and implementing systems such as Venue Directory to streamline sourcing, reporting, and trend analysis. In addition to agency-side expertise, Katherine brings valuable hotel-side experience, having worked both on-property and as an account manager for a luxury hotel brand. Currently, she is heading up Venufindr in partnership with Asembl, overseeing global venue sourcing, building and training a high-performing team, and leading the adoption of platforms like Cvent. Another service Venufindr offers is consulting with hotels and venues, advising on strategy to increase revenue and improve MICE business conversion. Venufindr 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 suffered a severe breakdown and lost everything. In the middle of this she got headhunted for her first CEO role. 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. LinkedIn Instagram

  --------  

  37:53
• Mission impossible : Farming, family and Finding Balance with Nick

  Kat is joined by Nick Grayson, the chair of Future Farmers of Yorkshire, to talk about digital dependency and finding balance. Nick shares his experiences from smartphone addiction and mental health struggles to developing habits that revitalised both his farming business and family life. They discuss how stepping away from screens and prioritising mental wellbeing can dramatically improve productivity, relationships and your life. KEY TAKEAWAYS Nick now has boundaries around phone use, such as no phones at dinner, bedtime or first thing in the morning. He found this has transformed his family relationships and helped him become more present as a Dad to his three sons. By putting down his phone, Nick gained credibility with his children when setting boundaries for their screen time, resolving the contradiction they had previously pointed out in his behaviour. The farming culture often glorifies excessive work hours as a badge of honour, but Nick discovered that stepping back and creating mental space actually improved his clarity and decision making on the farm. Nick transformed his morning routine by replacing social media scrolling with a phone free walk after school drop off, helping him rationalise and prioritise his day without beginning in a negative mindset. Despite the physical demands of farming, Nick found that different types of exercise provided critical mental health benefits that his farm work couldn't offer. Nick broke through isolation by establishing a regular gym routine that created a valuable community outside farming, giving him new energy and perspectives from people from different walks of life. Nick shifted his motivation for exercise from purely aesthetic goals in his youth to primarily mental health benefits in his current life, physical appearance improvements are a bonus! BEST MOMENTS "This toxic mentality in farming where people wear it as a trophy, how many hours they can work... ultimately that's no good. You're sometimes flogging a dead horse, you sometimes need to take a step back." "We are over consuming and under producing and what can happen when you have too much information is you actually don't have any clarity, and you can start to really jump on this bandwagon of negativity." "What if somebody messages me and I don't reply straight away? Well, they can wait, it's not the end of the world if I don't reply within two minutes." "You've got to look at your priorities and you'll find that if you make time to do something that's not involved with your business or your farm, everything else when you get back will seem so much better and more achievable." ABOUT THE GUEST Nick Grayson is a fourth-generation farmer who runs Nether Haugh Farm, located near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, alongside his wife, Carys, and their three sons: Arthur, William, and Thomas. The Grayson family has farmed the 200-acre site since 1939. They operate a mixed farming enterprise, raising Aberdeen Angus cattle, pedigree Saddleback pigs, sheep, and are renowned for their traditional Christmas turkeys, a practice they've maintained for nearly a century. Everything is sold direct from the farm and can be purchased at Nether Haugh Farm Beyond farming, Nick serves as the Chairman of Future Farmers of Yorkshire, an organisation dedicated to supporting the next generation of agricultural professionals through mentorship and networking opportunities.YAS 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 suffered a severe breakdown and lost everything. In the middle of this she got headhunted for her first CEO role. 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. LinkedIn Instagram

  --------  

  33:36
• Should You Try Journalling? Why Writing Down Your Thoughts is Powerful!

  In this solo episode, Kat talks about journalling and why writing down your thoughts and feelings can be powerful. This is something that previously Kat didn’t give much merit to, which can often be the case with popular wellbeing ‘tropes’, but by trying these things, we might find they help us. Kat shares the positives she has found by journalling and why you should try it too. KEY TAKEAWAYS If we can forget negative assumptions about popular things in the mental health and wellbeing space, it gives us the opportunity to try things that might help us. You get 5-10k of thoughts every single day and how you work through these and process them matters. Most people are overconsuming information in life and not producing, largely due to our phones, the internet and an excess of options. If you are trying to find clarity in your thoughts, rather than talking to others, you can put all of these thoughts onto paper. This can stop you from getting into a cycle of negativity. First thing in the morning and last thing at night are great times to journal, keeping a notebook by your bed can help make this a habit. Your experience of life will transform in a positive way when you can control your negative thoughts and journalling is the perfect way to do this. BEST MOMENTS "I think that we have so many thoughts and beliefs and often negative associations with these words that we don’t even give them the time of day” “From the minute you wake up, to the minute you go to sleep, there’s a lot of things going on in that brain of yours” “We are overconsuming and overproducing.” “When I can start to feel myself talking negatively, starting to overthink things I just start to put those thoughts and those words and ideas down on paper” ABOUT THE GUEST 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 suffered a severe breakdown and lost everything. In the middle of this she got headhunted for her first CEO role. 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. LinkedIn Instagram

  --------  

  10:16
• Running Towards Clarity: Building Businesses & Habits with Charlotte Carter

  Kat speaks to entrepreneur Charlotte Carter, who shares how she built multiple businesses, from her successful bag brand Carter Bags to developing a new collagen supplement business. Kat and Charlotte explore entrepreneurship, resilience, mental health and the power of movement, giving advice on creating habits, building confidence, overcoming overwhelm and creating success on your own terms. KEY TAKEAWAYS Charlotte discovered that taking calculated risks and developing positive habits became her route to change. Despite criticism from those around her, she consistently found success by trusting her instincts and embracing uncertainty. Throughout her entrepreneurship, Charlotte learned to recognise when something wasn't serving her anymore. After struggling with mood fluctuations throughout her life, Charlotte sought help and received a PMDD diagnosis. This meant she could address her mental health through proper support, supplements and exercise, dramatically improving her focus and emotional balance. Running has helped Charlotte in many ways, not just physically but for mental clarity too. She discovered that around the 6-7 kilometre mark, her mind finally quieted, allowing her to escape the constant mental load of business and life. Charlotte's approach to managing overwhelm evolved through necessity. She developed a system of creating detailed lists on her phone that help her compartmentalise problems and develop actionable solutions when she feels most stressed. The ripple effect of positive habits became evident in Charlotte's life when she noticed running also decreased her desire for alcohol and improved her nutrition choices, creating a cycle of well being. When launching her bag business, Charlotte faced significant scepticism about entering a competitive market but despite limited resources, she created a unique product that influenced high street designs. Charlotte's experience building multiple businesses taught her that overwhelm cannot be tackled all at once. She learned to prioritise problems, compartmentalise challenges, and create space for clear thinking. BEST MOMENTS "I've always found that being in periods of my life where I found myself being really unhappy is where I've taken the biggest risks and people have said to me, 'You should not be doing that,' and I've totally ignored them and done it and good's always come out of it." "I can overcome everything, but the reason why we feel like we can't is because we get overwhelmed and we get in a state of panic and stress. When you are in that state of stress, you can't think outside the box, you can't look at different solutions." "Your imagination is a preview of life's upcoming attractions... If you can't stop thinking about something, it's this kind of prod to say, look, you need to pay some attention to this." "I think we're not very good at reading those signs. Like if we get a feeling inside of ourselves... my body's been telling me things and I haven't listened to it because I haven't known how to listen to it." "One thing I've noticed, it isn't until I get to about six or seven kilometres that I start to realise my brain's gone quiet and I'm just focused on breathing, and I'm focused on just putting one foot in front of the other." ABOUT THE GUEST Charlotte launched CarterBags.com on shoestring budget and have generated thousands of sales through organic LinkedIn marketing. She started CarterBags.com to solve the age old problem of not being able to find a practical and stylish ladies’ laptop bags which are also chic.Through growing her own business she has developed a wealth of knowledge around digital marketing including personal branding, social media, social selling, SEO, Shopify design & build, product design, analytics and has an extensive background in sales 💖 which naturally led to the launch of MadAsaBoxOfFrogs.co.uk her marketing agency.In my quest to learn more about product based businesses she has launched a product based business podcast called The Obsessed View. You can check it out at TheObsessedView.co.uk 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 suffered a severe breakdown and lost everything. In the middle of this she got headhunted for her first CEO role. 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. LinkedIn Instagram

  --------  

  53:06
• Is Overthinking Sabotaging Your Life?

  Join Kat in this solo episode as she talks about the topic of overthinking and how it may be sabotaging your life. Overthinking comes up in almost every talk that Kat delivers and is something she has suffered with personally for most of her life. Kat shares strategies to help you if you are an overthinker and talks about the impact overconsumption of information, as well as other people, can have on our susceptibility to overthinking. KEY TAKEAWAYS Overthinking is something Kat has struggled with in her own life. It’s not surprising it is so common for many of us as we are consuming more information as humans than ever before. It can be helpful to use the tools on your smartphone that show you how much information you are consuming and see if that correlates to your overthinking and mood. Kat finds that she struggles more with overthinking when she hasn’t been taking care of herself and has been overconsuming information that isn’t helpful to her brain. Human beings love to share problems and most of us love to give advice and help where we can, but this can lead to overthinking and making unhelpful decisions for ourselves. Writing your thoughts down is one of the best ways to deal with your overthinking. Overthinking can lead to feelings of self-doubt and procrastination, so being able to combat it in helpful ways is really important. BEST MOMENTS "Overthinking comes up in pretty much every talk that I deliver” “We are consuming more information than we’ve ever consumed before” “Have a look in your device at the different applications and tools that can show you how much information you are consuming” “As human beings we love to share each other’s problems, we love to give advice” “One of the greatest things you can do for yourself if you find yourself overthinking and experiencing a lot of self-doubt…write your thoughts down” 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 suffered a severe breakdown and lost everything. In the middle of this she got headhunted for her first CEO role. 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. LinkedIn Instagram

  --------  

  10:16

More Education podcasts

Trending Education podcasts

About The Positive Habits Podcast