The Positive Habits Podcast
Strong at Work, Strong at Home: The Habits Behind Katherine’s Success
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Episode notes
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.
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.