Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie B. Smith.
Hi Katie, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I am an Executive & Career Coach who focuses on helping business leaders and professionals to successfully navigate change and strengthen communication, leadership skills, emotional intelligence, and career transition while effectively growing their businesses and careers.
I work with senior executives, managers, professionals, and business owners who want to become more productive in their current roles, want to become more inspiring leaders, want to improve their work satisfaction by aligning their work more closely with their values, and want to seek more effective strategies for career navigation and transition.
I believe that seeking to uncover and align with our authentic selves is vital to our becoming the best leaders we can be. My clients often comment on my unique ability to help them identify tangible goals with personal and professional meaning, allowing them to experience more freedom, higher income, greater business results, and greater peace of mind.
EXPERTISE
As a former Executive Recruiter, I spent over 12 years consulting and training professionals on how to hire and retain top talent and providing strategic consulting to increase profitability, reduce costs, build teams, increase accountability, and increase employee morale. I also have the distinction of coaching C-Suite leaders in Fortune 500 companies.
In addition to individual Coaching, I offer Peer Group Coaching to support leadership development and team building. My information is communicated in the language of the business world, but with a Zen twist – from the inside out. My Results-Focused Coaching shines a light on the person, not on issues.
I am trained to observe my client’s inner strengths and help them design actions that produce their desired results. I am the author of Be Happy Now and the Be Happy Playbook which shares strategies to help inspire you to move beyond fear and into fulfillment, love, and happiness in all areas of your life. I have also authored a book called Yoga Moves – simple Kundalini kriyas and meditations for calming your mind and managing your stress. All these can be found on Amazon or my website.
QUALIFICATIONS
• Advanced Corporate Coaching Certification from Coach U.
• Master Coach Certification (MCC) through the International Coach Federation (ICF).
• Skilled Mentor Coach for coaches who want to increase their coaching skills and build their businesses.
• Kundalini Yoga Research (KRI) Certified Meditation Teacher.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
In 1990, I shifted my focus inward with a desire to redefine “success” in light of personal challenges, including raising my severely hearing-impaired daughter. While teaching my daughter to speak and listen, I learned what it means to truly communicate.
During this time, I discovered the power of yoga and meditation to reduce stress and increase creative thinking and communication. This led to me creating a much-needed stress-management course for attorneys. I have since revamped the course and worked nationally with corporations and individuals, to bring awareness to the importance of achieving an integrated and balanced life that allows participants to do their best work.
The next iteration of my career lead to Executive Recruiting and after 12 years I wanted to continue to work with my clientele and have deeper conversations that created more sustainable change in the organizations. So I hired a coach, and this lead me to pursue coaching as the next step in my career iteration.
Marketing was a struggle at the beginning of my career, I networked a lot in the first years of building my business and grew a pipeline, gave presentations, grew my presence, and did good work. Good coaching is what helps clients stay long-term. Wondering how I was going to make this business sustainable. I kept executive recruiting consulting going until my coaching business was able to support me.
This was the biggest struggle, continuing to recruit when my heart was in coaching. Thanks to my Kundalini Yoga & Meditation practice, has always helped me stay on course. I also hired the support I needed and kept putting one foot in front of the other. It has served me well, built the internal infrastructure I needed to get through the rough spots, and supported me in building a sustainable business after 14 years.
We’ve been impressed with Katie B. Smith & Associates, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I am a thought partner with senior executives, managers, professionals, and business owners looking to strengthen their ability to lead and navigate their careers or business. My mission is to support my clients in living into their intuitive brilliance and support shifting the consciousness of our planet. I am MCC certified by the International Coach Federation (ICF) and have accrued more than 5000 coaching hours.
For 14 years, coaching professionals and leaders from Supervisor to CEO. I leverage my experience as a former Director of Recruiting (and retained Executive Recruiter) to coach career and job, search clients. I support clients in becoming more productive in their current roles, inspiring leaders, improving communication skills, expanding their emotional intelligence, increasing work satisfaction by aligning with their values, and creating new opportunities internally and externally.
I am direct and collaborative, and support my clients in uncovering and shifting the mindset and behavior that may be getting in their way to a mindset and behavior that would support what they desire to create. It always amazes me how much is in our way that we are not even conscious of and once we become conscious of it and learn how to shift it we can create whatever we desire. I see it happen over and over again with my clients. And this brings me such joy and awe with the people I work with, they inspire me.
I am proud that I have written a book and playbook to work on the concepts in my book. I am proud that I have published an easy step-by-step guidebook to Kundalini Yoga and meditation. And I am proud of all the people I have worked with and that they are living with more ease. I feel this is my part in helping to create a more peaceful world.
I am also proud of supporting new coaches coming into the industry in their certification process, teaching and mentoring them to build their businesses and be the best coach they can be upholding our industry’s integrity. I also love facilitating peer group coaching because it fuels professional and personal growth by bringing together small groups (6-8) of individuals in an organization, small business owners, or professionals that are interested in building a growth mindset.
Peer Group Coaching combines the power of coaching conversations with the gift of peer support. You experience tremendous insights that can quickly be integrated and practiced. With the support of your Peer Group, you move beyond roadblocks that previously kept you stuck, to catapulting forward toward your goals. It’s more affordable for people, fun, and builds a trusted community that supports each other’s growth. I also offer short audio meditations to create a calm mind on sound-cloud that are free of charge and free resources on my website.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
It is a privilege to do what I do for a living and I am very grateful to be able to support people in crafting the lives they desire and opening their awareness to what they are capable of creating and being in the world. I am a big believer that you cannot escape your destiny, everything we do in our lives is supporting us in living our purpose.
When I moved to coach from headhunting executives it felt like I had moved from my career to my calling. Even after 14 years, I still feel the same way. I started my career as a personal shopper with a fashion merchandising degree, focused on helping people feel better about how they look, Then I studied and began teaching yoga and meditation, helping people focus on what is happening inside them. Then my career led me to the corporate world and supporting people’s career growth.
Now I support people in living deeper and richer in all areas of their lives. I think Howard Thurman’s quote sums it up for me. “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” We are all being shown the direction to go we just have to trust ourselves and the signs and get support in building that muscle.
Pricing:
- I offer 3, 6 months, and 12-month packages because it takes time to shift mindset and behavior and have the change be sustainable.
- 30 min complimentary consultation.
- Individually sponsored peer groups $108/month for a 6-month engagement.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.katiebsmith.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katiebsmithcoach/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katiebsmithexecoach
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiebsmith/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Katiebsmith
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXccQc9PL0jnadWrt2gM4bQ
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/katiebsmith
Image Credits
Taylor Rotge
