Reinventing Success: Kathy Binner’s Journey from Corporate Life to Passive Income, Wellness, and Financial Freedom

🎙️ Welcome to a special edition of Pathways Unleashed, recorded at the Unleash Your Superpower conference in Delray Beach, Florida! 🎙️ 

💸 In this inspiring episode, Amber Stitt sits down with the incredible Kathy Binner—passive income coach, best-selling author, educator, entrepreneur, and true mentor—to explore her unique journey from humble beginnings on a dairy farm to multiple business successes and a holistic approach to health and entrepreneurship.

👀 What’s Inside:

🏦 Kathy shares her story of hard work, struggle, and perseverance—and how she reinvented herself multiple times, from working two jobs to owning a salon and finally achieving financial freedom with real estate and passive income.

💪 Learn the truth behind “overnight success,” why your 20s and 30s might just be for learning, and how it's totally normal for success to come later in life.

💼 Discover the vital role of mentorship, gradual transitions (hello, keeping your day job!), and overcoming fear to build something greater on your terms.

🍎 Kathy discusses her wellness transformation, including how fasting and biohacking changed her life after 25 years in the salon industry.

👩‍❤️‍👩 The joy of making an impact—why giving back and helping others is at the heart of Kathy’s entrepreneurial philosophy.

🛫 Hear about global adventures, living a “freestyle life,” and building sustainable income streams that let you live and work anywhere.

💰 Whether you’re just starting your entrepreneurial journey, looking for inspiration to pivot careers, or interested in health and wellness tips from a proven expert, this episode is packed with real talk and actionable wisdom you won’t want to miss.

📽️ To watch this podcast: https://youtu.be/lzSGsjqkhqU

🔗 Connect with Kathy Binner:

📲 Kathy's Linktree: https://linktr.ee/KathyBinner

📲 Kathy's Website: www.kathybinner.com

📲 Kathy's Corporate Website: www.kathybinnercompanies.com

#pathwayswithamberstitt #amberstitt #kathybinner #entrepreneurship #passiveincome #biohacking #financialfreedom #womeninbusiness

📻 Thank you for tuning in to Pathways!

🔗 Connect with Amber on Social Media:

• AMBER’S INSTAGRAM
• AMBER’S LINKEDIN
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📲 Be sure to visit Amber's website:

www.AmberStitt.com

🎬 And remember, let's take action today!!!

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Transcript

Kathy Binner [00:00:00]:
I was just working and trying to pay the bills, and it's the same today. We're all broke at a higher rate. I mean, everything is the same when you look at what rent costs and what purchasing your first house costs. And it's always a sacrifice, I think, that we have to make. And so I just remember working two jobs and trying to pay the bills, and I had a car that just didn't want to run. And so, yeah, it was just a struggle. And it wasn't until I was probably 40 that my story really starts to take a turn and changes for the good.

Amber Stitt [00:00:37]:
Hello and welcome to Pathways Unleashed, a special edition of Pathways with Amber Stitt. The Pathways Unleashed podcasts were recorded with special guests and the authors of "The Unleashed Entrepreneur" and "The Biohacking Entrepreneur", who were celebrating the book launches at the Unleash Your Superpower conference in Delray Beach, Florida, in April 2025. Let's join the conversation.

Amber Stitt [00:01:02]:
In my world, we talk a lot about financial freedom, and I meet you, Kathy, through a community. We've talked about the Unleashed Community through our podcast today, and we've had some projects together. So we are going to be continuously celebrating. So that's been exciting. But we have with us today the passive income...well, you're a passive income coach.

Kathy Binner [00:01:23]:
Correct.

Amber Stitt [00:01:24]:
But you've been an entrepreneur for so long. I have. And with lots of different amazing stories. Yeah.

Kathy Binner [00:01:30]:
And I love to call myself more of a mentor because I have discovered over the years that I love giving it away. So I love mentoring, bringing someone along.

Amber Stitt [00:01:41]:
When I was taking my notes, I mean, I don't want to go back to the dairy farm and talk about all the things in the books because I want people to read about your chapters. But I just feel like this is such a beautiful start and you grew up in this, I don't know, this beautiful, innocent world. But it was hard work from the beginning, and you had that in you. And I don't know if you want to go back in time and talk about more of an origin story, but I guess what I wanted to say is when I meet you and you are having the real estate investing and having the passive income from that, I'm instantly jealous. I mean, this was a couple years back, so I'm like, "I want that." And then learning more about you, I think it's so much of a way to have control and have financial freedom, and you really had to figure it out. Coming from more of a core. You had it in your DNA, but it wasn't easy.

Amber Stitt [00:02:22]:
So do you mind going back a little bit in time?

Kathy Binner [00:02:24]:
Oh, not at all.

Amber Stitt [00:02:26]:
To get to know your story.

Kathy Binner [00:02:27]:
Yeah, I grew up on the back of a dairy farm. My grandparents actually owned the dairy farm. And so I grew up on the farm, basically, and my mother was a factory worker, and my dad had had some major surgery even before I was born to where he was not able to work. So my mother was working all of these crazy extra overtime hours to try to pay the bills. And of course, I was hanging out with my uncles on the farm and seeing the hard work. So I think that work ethic just kind of is in there.

Amber Stitt [00:02:57]:
Everyone was working hard.

Kathy Binner [00:02:59]:
Everyone was working hard. And so by the time I was an adult and out of high school, I just thought, "Well, I gotta get a job." As many of us do. We think that's the next step is to just get the job. And so...

Amber Stitt [00:03:11]:
That traditional route was gonna be for you. But you didn't...

Kathy Binner [00:03:15]:
So I was just working and trying to pay the bills. And it's the same today. We're all broke at a higher rate. I mean, everything is the same when you look at what rent costs and what purchasing your first house costs. And it's always a sacrifice, I think, that we have to make. And so I just remember working two jobs and trying to pay the bills, and I had a car that just didn't want to run. And so, yeah, it was just a struggle. And it wasn't until I was probably 40 that my story really starts to take a turn and changes for the good.

Amber Stitt [00:03:51]:
Okay, so now that you say that, I want to pause for a minute because I feel like there's a new world of wealthier, younger people, because there's really no rules now when you can start a business. We just had those mini-entrepreneurs on here. And then there's some very trendy ways that people have made money. That's not for all. It's like a top 1% type of deal. But I think that when people go through this high school phase, college, and then the things we're supposed to do, it's supposed to connect right away. And you're supposed to make this money because you finished college now. And obviously, now I'm 45, so I can say this with you.

Amber Stitt [00:04:19]:
It's okay that your 30s are a time to dabble and learn. And your early 20s, you might not be making it Instagram, you know, fancy with all the stuff that's out there that supposedly is happening for all these people, there's a world of just seeing all this success out there, but most often the true entrepreneurs, or people just working, it doesn't truly always connect until you're a little bit older and it's okay. And so we don't have to rush to have all the things. And sometimes it's like the vanity items that we kind of go through sometimes when we do make some money, like, "Awesome!" But then there is some, I guess, fun and wisdom with turning a certain age where you're...

Kathy Binner [00:04:55]:
And there's always the exceptions, you know, the young 20 year-old that's making his first million already. But we find that when you're just out there and you're meeting common folks that oftentimes they don't know what they don't know. And so they just don't know how to turn any of their income into passive income.

Amber Stitt [00:05:14]:
Yes.

Kathy Binner [00:05:15]:
And so they just think they have to work more hours. That's what I always thought.

Amber Stitt [00:05:19]:
Well, this is something too, in my notes and not to interrupt, but impact making a difference. You talked about briefly at the beginning, maybe with having more meaningful work, sometimes we have to do more traditional work. But you talk about that in your writing and we haven't talked about the fact that you're a bestseller in the books that you have. And then we're going to continue celebrating throughout the week. That's what I loved pulling out and extracting from your work, is that we might have to go traditional for a moment and it's probably teaching us.

Kathy Binner [00:05:46]:
I learned so many skills in the traditional workplace and I can carry that on through now into my entrepreneurial life. I had beauty salons. That is actually what turned the corner for me when I realized that my nail tech was making more money than I was. And I said, "Oh my goodness, let me take a look at this." And so I went to cosmetology school, came out as a licensed nail tech, and after a year or two in the industry realized that yes, I was making more money than I had made at my corporate job. So I left the corporate job behind.

Amber Stitt [00:06:16]:
That's the thing I think a lot of people want to think about is, "Okay, do I just start a business?" No, you could be corporate and start the side business, then eventually take that. That might be the safer play if you have access to do that. So thanks for saying that. Keep going.

Kathy Binner [00:06:28]:
I've done that all along. So whenever I'm ready to reinvent myself, if you will, I always try to take a couple of years to do that so that I have that foundation, that financial foundation. And again, for me, it wasn't because I was brave, or smart, or all those things. It was because I was scared. I didn't want to let go of that corporate job with the health insurance.

Amber Stitt [00:06:47]:
You've been brave, girl. You've been brave.

Kathy Binner [00:06:48]:
And so I made the jump and I went full time into the salon industry. And then of course, when I realized the potential and my co-workers around me, they were all like, "Oh, you should start a salon. You should be a salon owner." And I'm like, "Oh, my goodness, what does that look like?" So I just had to start. And I say this all the time to my students. Oftentimes they're expecting to get clarity and then they're going to start. And I say, you have to start first and clarity comes second.

Amber Stitt [00:07:13]:
Okay. So it doesn't have to be this perfect, pretty...we had a lot of perfectionists so far today. Can you imagine that?

Amber Stitt [00:07:19]:
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Amber Stitt [00:07:42]:
And you talk about, I wrote this down, fasting, because I don't know, I don't have this crazy fasting schedule. But you talk about health in your books and your writing. Are you still doing that? Still incorporating that into your daily routine?

Kathy Binner [00:07:53]:
Yes, absolutely. The first book was "Called to Speak, Lead, and Impact". And in that book I talked mostly about my story and how I transitioned from corporate into being an entrepreneur. And then the "Impact Entrepreneur" book, which was my second one, I talked more about how you can make an impact not only in your community, but around the world from giving. Cause I was at the place where I could...

Amber Stitt [00:08:15]:
Yeah, you said something about doing things for free early on, but you're talking about the giving, making that impact. So that's from my notes. I wanted to make sure that...it's really neat to see the transitions.

Kathy Binner [00:08:25]:
And then my third book, which is the one coming out this week, is "The Biohacking Entrepreneur". And I see you have a copy here. So that's the third one is "The Biohacking Entrepreneur". And in "The Biohacking..." is where I talk about the fasting because I spent 25 years in the salon industry, and I have to say, it was very good to me. Once I realized that there was lots of money there, it was very good to me. And I was able to, after 25 years, retire. Actually, we just purchased another property, but I've retired with 29 rental doors, which is really quite small in my world. In my world where I hang out with a lot of investors...Doors is each individual unit.

Kathy Binner [00:09:03]:
Individual units. And we hang out with folks that have 500, 250. So my 29 doors is really nothing huge, but it's huge for me.

Amber Stitt [00:09:12]:
When you say retire, see in my industry, I've talked about this a little bit. Retiring at a certain age, that's not what you're talking about. You're talking about...and I don't know if this is a freestyle living part, but financial freedom is coming from you choosing what your day looks like and how that income is being generated. But passive income is helping. Can you talk about retirement from a traditional source, and then what it is for you?

Kathy Binner [00:09:33]:
Yeah, for me, once I was in the salon for 25 years, I had to punch a time clock. I had clients every hour on the hour, and I was breathing a lot of chemicals. I had my hands in a lot of chemicals. And so that's where the biohacking comes in with the 3rd book, is that I knew I needed to stop that.

Amber Stitt [00:09:49]:
Okay.

Kathy Binner [00:09:49]:
And so yet again, at age 60, I was at a spot where I had to reinvent myself, again, or I told myself I needed to, which for health reasons, I did. And so that's where I made the transition and said, "Okay, what do I really want my life to look like? What do I want that freestyle life to look like?" And I said, "I want to be able to work from anywhere in the world. I want to travel. I want to podcast from London," which I did, by the way, just recently. "And I want to podcast from Italy. And I want to do what I want to do and live the life I want to live, but have the financial foundation that allows me to do that and not have to worry if I have to count my pennies to buy pizza on Friday night." And so that's where, over the years, I have just built my entrepreneurial business to where I can look back and say, "I figured it out." I look in the mirror every morning and say, "Kathy, you're smart enough to figure this out.

Kathy Binner [00:10:46]:
There's people that have it figured out. You are smart enough to figure this out."

Amber Stitt [00:10:51]:
So I brought up the fasting part. Talk about your wellness journey, things that had changed for you, and was it different from, like you said, 60? Are you doing things differently?

Kathy Binner [00:11:01]:
Absolutely.

Amber Stitt [00:11:02]:
That are even better now than ever?

Kathy Binner [00:11:03]:
Absolutely. Again, I spent 25 years in the salon business, and I was a licensed nail tech. Because I was age 40 when I got into the salon business, I did not do the full cosmetology program. I just did the nail program because it was faster and cheaper, and that's why I did it. And so I sat behind a nail table for 25 years, and after a while, the doctor was talking about surgery on my shoulder and on my elbow and on my wrist and on my neck and on my back because I was repetitive, sitting at the nail table for 25 years. And so I knew that I needed to make a change. And I again, I was having such a hard time with that because I knew once I left my clients, I couldn't call them up and say, "Oh, I changed my mind." I knew that once they found another place to get their nails done, it was highly unlikely that they would all just go, "Oh, sure, Kathy, we'll come right back."

Kathy Binner [00:11:55]:
Because their thinking is, "Oh, when is she going to do this again? I know she's going to retire someday, so we're just going to stay with the new person." So I knew I had to mean it. And that was hard for me because the business had been so good to me that that was really a tough choice. And so I had to connect with a coach. And my coach helped me draw a line in the sand and pick a date and say, "This is the day you're going to walk out of that salon and never look back." And so I did that. But my biggest fear was not that I would get healthy. My biggest fear was that I didn't know what my life was going to look like, what was I going to do? Because I had spent so many hours there.

Kathy Binner [00:12:34]:
And so during that time, during that 25 years, I had gained up to 200 pounds. And so now I knew that I had a long road back. And I tell Mark all the time, I wish I wouldn't have allowed myself to do that, but yet I struggled to keep it off. And for some reason, I just couldn't.

Amber Stitt [00:12:52]:
But maybe the stress factor.

Kathy Binner [00:12:54]:
Well, I'm sure. And then just sitting for 12 hours a day doesn't help. And eating all the wrong stuff and eating all the wrong things, you're busy. And sometimes I didn't get to eat at all. So I'm like, "How am I gaining this weight?" Well, because when I finally did eat, I would eat the whole bag of chips. I'd be so hungry after not having a decent meal during the day. So anyway, long-term, I decided that once I walked away from that salon, I had to get healthy. That was going to be my number one goal.

Kathy Binner [00:13:22]:
And so with all of my research, I happened across fasting. And I remember thinking to myself, why didn't somebody tell me this earlier and...

Amber Stitt [00:13:31]:
Just graze all day? Right?

Kathy Binner [00:13:33]:
And I have a business partner in one of my coaching programs. And he said, "Oh, I've been doing that for years." I said, "Why didn't you tell me?" He goes, "Why didn't you ask?" I said, "I didn't know."

Amber Stitt [00:13:43]:
I know.

Amber Stitt [00:13:44]:
You're listening to Pathways with Amber Stitt. For more episodes like this, plus so much more, check out the podcast page at: AmberStitt.com Let's take action together! Now, let's get back to our episode.

Amber Stitt [00:13:57]:
Do your thing. But I know I feel better when I give myself some space, get enough rest. There's a different feeling when your body's just kind of going into grabbing all the things that's already sitting in there and not adding more into the system. Too early, too soon.

Kathy Binner [00:14:09]:
Correct. Once I started fasting and what I learned, and again, the times are variable because everybody's different, every body.

Amber Stitt [00:14:17]:
So your like, "I'm not a doctor." So there's certain phases of it. You might be more hardcore than me.

Kathy Binner [00:14:21]:
Well, and every body is different. So your body makeup and your complex and your weight and your height and all of that plays a factor. But generally speaking, when you eat, insulin kicks in. And then you have to wait about 12 to 14 hours before your hormones kick in.

Amber Stitt [00:14:41]:
No kidding.

Kathy Binner [00:14:42]:
And then you have to wait till about 16 hours for ketosis to kick in. Well, ketosis is where the weight loss happens. How many of us wait 16 hours? Most of us eat every 3 to 4 hours and we're constantly kicking that insulin in and we never allow our bodies to get into ketosis. And then at about 18 hours, autophagy kicks in and that's where your good body cells will...

Amber Stitt [00:15:05]:
I've never heard of that phase.

Kathy Binner [00:15:06]:
Attack the bad body cells and your body is self-healing and it will heal a lot of diseases if you just let your body do that. And most folks don't wait that long. So once I learned that, and that's why I said, "Why didn't somebody tell me that?" Yeah, well, I didn't ask because I didn't know what I didn't know. So I Started practicing fasting and I gradually moved into it. And so that is what my new chapter is all about, is how I left all of that chemical lifestyle behind and really focused on fasting and losing the weight. And so I started at 200 pounds and I weighed in yesterday at 130.4.

Kathy Binner [00:15:48]:
So it's been a big weight loss for me. Had to buy all new clothes.

Amber Stitt [00:15:52]:
I know. So there's that budget. But yeah, especially if you're traveling international. You also have those amazing foods over there that are probably okay to eat, but that's whole other chapter. Probably.

Kathy Binner [00:16:03]:
Yes.

Amber Stitt [00:16:03]:
You have to shop for those outfits too, I suppose.

Kathy Binner [00:16:05]:
Yes. We discovered in Italy that I could eat the pasta in Italy because it doesn't have the same chemical makeup that it does in the States.

Amber Stitt [00:16:13]:
Okay, so now you're a biohacker, best selling author...oh, but you're also doing some coaching work.

Kathy Binner [00:16:19]:
Yes.

Amber Stitt [00:16:19]:
And this is important because you wouldn't be here without your own coach. And now you have the solutions that you can provide to others. So I really want to be sure that you can share about how people can work with you and what would be a good person for you to be working with.

Kathy Binner [00:16:33]:
Well, I originally thought that I wanted to work with someone that was basically an earlier version of me. Someone that wanted to retire and needed to reinvent themselves. But I'm discovering that my tribe is all over the map, age-wise. They can be young folks, they could be in the middle of a corporate career, they could be ready to retire. But in every case they're wanting that passive income. They're wanting to take something that they already love and turn it into where it can make money while they're sleeping, or something that they can do entrepreneurial-wise that they can do from anywhere, so that they too can travel.

Amber Stitt [00:17:07]:
Yeah, that's my big goal. So you and Melvina are going to get me there?

Kathy Binner [00:17:11]:
Oh, yes. Malvina and I, we talk probably...oh gosh, maybe even a couple times a day.

Amber Stitt [00:17:16]:
Yeah, that's really neat. So I'm excited to be able to celebrate the rest of the week with you.

Kathy Binner [00:17:19]:
Yes.

Amber Stitt [00:17:20]:
In the show notes after today, we're going to have your information linked up. And so you gave me all those goodies. And then if anyone local in Boca tomorrow, gosh, it's tomorrow for the live book signing. You can meet her and celebrate all these books, but definitely get your book signed by Kathy. So I really appreciate you coming in today. And we're going to keep this party going all week.

Kathy Binner [00:17:40]:
Yes, I love it. Thank you so much.

Amber Stitt [00:17:42]:
So happy to hang out with you today. Thank you.

Kathy Binner [00:17:44]:
Thank you.

Amber Stitt [00:17:45]:
Thank you for joining us for this special edition of Pathways Unleashed, recorded at Owwll headquarters here in Delray Beach, Florida. Join us for more powerful conversations with real people who dare to design life on their own terms. Until next time, keep taking action on your unique path!