From Quieted to Clear: Owning the Room After You’ve Been Erased

What happens to your voice when survival requires silence?

Kat Polsinelli stepped onstage at 10… and years later, found herself slowly losing her voice inside a decade-long abusive relationship she never expected to be in. In this intimate conversation, Kat and Lauri explore the invisible architecture of emotional and psychological abuse—how it isolates, rewrites reality, and convinces brilliant people to doubt their own knowing.

Kat doesn’t just talk about her story—she tells it. Fully. Embodied. Unfiltered. As a living, breathing journey of control, awakening, and the moment choice returned.

This episode is a masterclass in how speaking becomes healing—for both the storyteller and the listener—through the power of repetition (“say it again”), the liberation of not overexplaining, and the sacred pause that lets truth land in the room.

If you’ve ever heard a voice inside you whisper share it… this one meets you there—with courage, clarity, and a path forward.

About Kat:
Kat Polsinelli is a sought-after speaker, bestselling co-author, and host of Real Chat with Kat, a top 10% globally ranked podcast airing on four radio stations and two public TV stations. From stepping onto a stage at 10 years old to reclaiming her voice after a decade-long abusive relationship, Kat’s journey is one of resilience and transformation.

A survivor of domestic violence, PTSD, and single motherhood at 16, Kat speaks with grounded honesty about the invisible impact of emotional and psychological abuse, the power of boundaries, and the role self-worth plays in healing. Through her lived experience, she challenges assumptions about abuse and invites deeper understanding of the complexities survivors face.

Connect with Kat:
https://www.facebook.com/katpolsinelli
https://www.linkedin.com/in/thelotuseffect/
https://www.instagram.com/katpolsinelli/

Soul Sucker Quiz

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The Speaker Alter Ego Quiz

Take the Speaker Alter Ego quiz to find out which protective mask hides your natural radiance so you can learn how to get present, connect deeply, and share your vision when it matters most!

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Transcript

Meet Kat Polsinelli: voice, resilience, and purpose

Lauri 0:32

Hello, hello, and welcome back to Soulful Speaking. My guest today is Kat Pulsanelli. From stepping on a stage at 10 years old to stepping out of a decade-long abusive relationship, Kat's journey is one of resilience and transformation. Now, a sought-after speaker, best-selling co-author, and host of Real Chat with Kat, a top 10% globally ranked podcast, she sheds light on the unseen wounds of emotional and psychological abuse while empowering others to reclaim their strength. Welcome, Kat.

Kat 1:09

Thank you, Lori.

Lauri 1:11

I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to have you. Let's go ahead and start at the very beginning. Where did your speaking journey first begin?

Kat 1:24

Ooh, speaking journey. Well, if you want to like really take it back, I mean, I was on stage at the age of 10. That was more for singing, something that I still love to do uh till this day. Um but as far as like really publicly speaking, I mean, I've always had jobs that dealt with handling people or helping people and reading from scripts and stuff like that. Um, but it wasn't until probably five and a half years ago when I really kind of like stepped into the entrepreneurial space. And that was, you know, where I started really having not only conversations with people, but I found podcasting and you know, did a few workshops and really started working with people and their teams. And then it just kind of just kind of snowballed from there.

Lauri 2:19

Love it. And what, if any connection or relationship do you see between the 10-year-old singing on stage and the you that's speaking now?

What purpose feels like in the room

Kat 2:32

Oh goodness. Uh, I definitely am really good at just owning the space. You know, when I was 10 years old, one of the first ones, things that I ever did was I sung, He's got the whole world in his hands, a cappella to a school of like 800 and something kids from kindergarten to eighth grade. Um, and I can definitely say that I feel that same kind of energy standing in the stage now and being able to have that conversation. I feel like I'm supposed to be there. I feel like that's my space in my moment.

Lauri 3:09

What does it feel like to you when you're there?

Why she speaks: leadership, service, and saving others time

Kat 3:14

Hmm. When I am in that space, or you know, if I'm on stage speaking to people, my favorite feeling is the feeling of purpose. Like, take away all the reasons why I do it, or you know, oh, I hope that this message gets across. But it's like as soon as you step out into that space, it's being able to see people in the crowd and saying somebody is going to take home what they are supposed to today. And that means I'm here on the, you know, in the right space. And especially as you are kind of watching people as you are having your talk and um answering questions and things like that. You can just feel if you're really present and focused on that energy, you can feel it in the room, you can kind of feel the energy shift, you can feel when people kind of go along with the emotions of the story, and that's probably the coolest thing to me because that's the connection and that's what I'm wanting. I don't want to speak into a room of empty people or to a wall, right? But I want to know that it's it's hitting in some direction. And so I I love feeling that in that energy.

Lauri 4:26

And when you started speaking about five and a half years ago, why? Like what was it that called you to speak?

Kat 4:35

Ooh, I have always well, I've always been outspoken. Um, no, but I've always had what some would call a big mouth. I love leading people, have since I was, since I was little. And, you know, when I first started speaking, it was more of let me teach you these things that I have learned, right? I have to share this. This is too good to keep to myself. Um, how can I, you know, help others that might be in a similar situation or feeling the way that I do? And maybe their journey can get cut in half, or you know, at least a quarter, something that's going to impact them, just like I've had several people impact me. And I think that that's that has stuck with me. Um, and it's the place that I try to come from anytime that I am speaking to someone to help save them time.

A decade-long abusive relationship that didn’t “look like abuse”

Lauri 5:32

I love that. Yeah. Yeah. And so I'm, you know, I read your bio and I know some parts of your story, and I'm finding myself curious about the the decade-long abusive relationship and how that connects to the speaking that you're doing today. And like, tell us about the resilient, you know, that I've got like 40,000 questions in my head. Yeah. Yeah. Um, what why don't we start with tell us what you want to share right now about the decade-long abusive relationship and the place it holds in your speaking?

Kat 6:21

Okay. So um to quickly kind of fill in the listeners, um, so I was in a decade, decade-long abusive relationship. I got in that relationship when I was 18. Um, so I was in that relationship until I was 28. When I left that relationship, I had two boys at that time. They were 10 and 7. They are now 21 and 17. So I guess they're not boys anymore. Um, and the uh the relationship that I was in is not something that I expected to find myself in. And I know that might sound kind of weird, but for me and my background, and what I always understood was, you know, if you were in a situation like that, it was because you had that in your background. It was part of your family, you know, there was there was something that kind of correlated. And abuse to me in those terms back then meant somebody physically beating you. If you didn't have bruises, if that wasn't what you you know you'd seen on TV, then it wasn't considered abuse. And I was completely outside of all those stigmas. Um, I had a really great childhood. I had really great parents. We didn't have yelling and screaming matches. I never saw my parents fight like that. Um, so I didn't have that background. And I also didn't have a lot of the physical bruises that a lot of people have. I had a lot of emotional and psychological, a lot of control, a lot of feeding me the things that that person wanted me to hear and understand and ultimately end up believing so that I would end up living in their world instead of reality. And that was a completely different place for me to be. And it's been interesting speaking with the people that I have that have found themselves in the same arena, even with, you know, Google and ways to look things up and things like that nowadays. It's interesting how the mind doesn't correlate those pieces together, right? Like it's like they miss each other on the boat. Wee. Um and so speaking about that abuse gives me the opportunity to one share my story, something that I thought I was gonna have to hide for the rest of my life in a very positive light. And it also is helping teach people that are in direct correlation with survivors or anyone in a traumatic experience of how to see another side of something that they probably never have, right? We all as human beings are really great at making assumptions and assessing someone's story based on the 2% of information that we have. And I utilize my story as a way to come in and fill in a lot more of the story, which creates this space of curiosity and understanding and wanting to know more. And that in turn is going to end up helping somebody else who needs it.

Lauri 9:24

The word ringing in my head is demystifying that for everyone, you know, if we're it's one of one of the things in our world that people don't talk about as as much as it probably warrants being talked about. So then our human tendency to make even more assumptions and start categorizing things with the very little that we do know about it just goes up because it's it's being held and not talked about it. So by talking about it, you help create awareness, you help demystify and just kind of blast open if you're holding it in a very narrow, you know. I saw it on a Hallmark movie or an after school special, and then you openly speak about the range of what it can be from what you saw on the after school special is a way these things can happen. And then there's this whole spectrum of very different ways that this can happen to help demystify, create awareness, start dialogue, all of that kind of stuff.

Losing her voice to survive—and what silence costs

Kat 11:45

Yeah, 100%. I I didn't realize the different forms of abuse that there were. And I mean, it's definitely talked about a lot more now. You'll see it on social media and stuff like that a lot more. But I also think that it's very confusing because people still don't associate themselves with it or we don't want to, because we're having to admit that we ended up in a situation we never thought we would be in. You know, I think that that's a lot of the reasons why a lot of people don't share that they have been in situations like that, um, why we don't go to the police or tell a friend. There's obviously a lot of fear and shame and 10,000 layers to undo on that. And there's also a part of admittance when you have to speak it out loud. It's very different when you're living in the world and it's just what you are. But when you actually have to speak it and then your ears hear it again, it's it's a whole nother realm of living in it and being like, oh my gosh, that was my reality. Um, and so it that keeps a lot of us staying small or not admitting to stuff or not talking about stuff. Um, and it's a tough, it's a tough subject, right? We we're used to people judging people, especially nowadays, and shaming people or you know, this, that, and the other. And we just want to be loved and accepted. And that's a huge cloud that hangs over your head that you have to learn to get past um to be okay with getting out of that or talking about it and then sharing it with others.

Lauri 13:26

Yeah. What what what happened to your voice when you were in that decade-long relationship?

Kat 13:40

I definitely lost it completely. I went from being very, this is how I want things to be, this is how I'm doing things, to, well, maybe I just shouldn't say that, or maybe I didn't say that right, or oh, I did do that and that offended you. I'm so sorry. Um, my voice turned into his voice. And whatever came out was a reflection of what he had to say, what he thought, um, you know, or what was put out in front of us. So I went from being my own person and having my own voice to like melding myself to someone else and completely losing a piece of that for such a long time that I forgot what it was like to be able to be different and to speak out. Um, because you get in a cycle of if I do that, this is gonna happen or that's gonna happen, or you know, they're going to hate me. There's all these things that spiral through. And so you just learn to be quiet. Because if you're quiet and you accept, then the problem goes away a lot quicker.

Lauri 14:49

And um what happened to your voice as you started to actually speak it to people to, like you said, say the words, hear yourself say the words. What happened to your voice at that point? It was definitely um not as loud as it is now.

“Say it again”: how speaking transforms the story in the body

Kat 15:11

Uh, I was just it was it was very quiet. It was in a very soft-spoken um, don't feel sorry for me, but please don't ask me certain questions kind of a thing. Um, it was questioning as I'm speaking it of wow, that that just came out. Did that really happen? Like you're almost living a dream and you're speaking the dream or reiterating a story, right, that you saw on TV. And then you're like, wait, did I see that? So it's it's a really interesting space to be in because you know, your brain is in survival mode while you're living in that space, and then you're also trying to recall what's going on, and the brain has shut down a lot of that memory to keep you safe. Um, and then of course you've got all of the emotions that come up with it, reliving the actual space that you're in, um, the panic attacks that come along with that, that there are layers upon layers of things. But I will say that, you know, when I first started kind of talking about it, it was more of a, this is what I have been through, was in it for 10 years, got out, wee, this is where I'm at now. Like I was very quick to, you know, show it so you could be like, oh, look, I've had some hardship, but then let's focus on what I'm doing now. Whereas now I lead with the absolute opposite. This is what I went through, these are the things that happened. There's a there's a confidence, there's an understanding, there's um a moment behind it of the importance of people understanding that and realizing and being able to connect with the words so that they can potentially see how they can shift their future.

Lauri 16:54

Yeah. And there's a um, I had someone on my podcast at the beginning of this year, he and I met when I was doing yoga teacher trainings as the vocal presence person. Um, I am certified as a teacher, never do it, wasn't certified when I met him. Um, and our teacher, when he started doing kind of the work that I do with people, at one point he described it as going through spiritual puberty. And I had this like whole body, whoa, that's what I'm doing. And then a part of me was like, Yes, that is what you're doing. It's not just public speaking coaching. And he started speaking things that he was less confident in. And her advice to him was, and then the thing to do is say it again because it would come out like the inner critics and the protectors of self were holding on and not wanting the words to come out.

Kat 19:06

So it kind of like that.

Lauri 19:09

And then when she said say it again, it would get stronger and stronger. And that combined with I do a storytelling rite of passage in my programs, and several people started kind of commenting on how it almost transforms the story, the act of telling it and going through everything that you're talking about, that you're pulling out details, and now you are choosing which ones to share and how to share them, that it transforms the story and how the story even lives in the body. How does that align with your experience of telling it and it getting stronger and you really sounding like you are in charge of the creative decisions of how you tell it now?

Kat 20:06

Yeah, I definitely think that, you know, as as you continue to repeat, as I continue to tell my story, it went from like sharing bits and broken pieces that I hope made sense to people. But what I also noticed was there was a lot more explaining in what I was telling my story. So now I can tell you how long I was in a relationship, how I got into it, how I got out of it, and I can continue on and then I can fill you in with details as you ask. Before it was as if I needed to validate and explain all the pieces because if I missed anything, they wouldn't understand, and therefore my point wouldn't get across. So there were additional aspects that were always blended in. Well, but I was raised by my parents and we had this, and you would go through this whole long list of why you had a great childhood versus being able to bullet point a couple of items and then move on to the next thing. And that has been a huge shift, which I feel like is also a confidence booster as well, because I realize I don't have to explain every everything. And I can also leave space for people to ask questions, which is what we should do, because that means that they were listening and that they are now curious to understand more, versus feeling like you have to fill the entire space the entire time that you're there. Uh, I've also learned to slow down when I share my story, where before it was a little bit fast-paced, you know, and I could boom, boom, boom through some stuff. But I would get people that say, Man, if you just slow down just a little bit. And it wasn't until I sat through a communications course with Stanford and I had an amazing professor, and we went and we went through this exercise. And that's when I learned about the power of pausing and holding space in the silence, which makes you really uncomfortable at first, but it makes such a difference in the way that you tell your story and in the way that people hear your story.

Kat tells her story

Lauri 22:11

Yeah, in the silences, they have the chance to emotionally digest. And I hear so many people that I've worked with go through the very same stages with speaking and with telling their story that you're talking about, from just the facts. Like, you know, if you were going in to tell the plot points to a Hollywood producer, just this has. And then this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened as fast as you can to get it over with. To the I mean, I I'll just speak for me. I've had moments where I'm speaking and I'm completely overexplaining, particularly in the moment I'm now remembering myself saying this, like particularly for me, I would get into a zone very early when I was serving. But there were times in the early days where it was like I wanted to cram everything I had because the part of me that wasn't sure if I was enough was like, cram it all in there. And then when you would reach the point, if you're doing this kind of a talk, where you invite people to take another step with you, that's when I would really go into that overexplaining state. And yet I've also seen it and felt it with everybody who's sharing their story. There are times where people just give you like six plot points and they're like, How am I gonna fill five to eleven minutes with that? And you start asking questions and they get more comfortable with the sharing of the details. And then sometimes there's the proving time period where it's about eliminating the details that have to do with proving something to yourself through other people. And then there's the real creative ownership where now we're truly serving, where we are sharing it with the pauses that aren't about our own comfort in the pause, they're about the emotional journey that's going over going on over there, the aha moments of like, oh me too, or oh, I think someone in my life might be going through what she's talking about. Yeah, very juicy.

Kat 24:40

It's very interesting how how much it makes a difference. And what's really funny too is you know, when I listen to speakers, if I'm listening to somebody talk or something, I pay attention to that stuff now. And you really can tell and feel the difference in that. And I can say that now that I I feel more comfortable and confident in being able to do it that way, you also get to a moment to read the room as well and really take in what's going on. Um, and for me, I always end my sessions with an open QA. So there needs to be those pauses, and there needs to be that moment of them thinking on it so that when we dive into that space, they're already ready to be curious, they're already ready to know more. You know, they're picking pieces from the story and saying, okay, well, you were saying this, and now I want to know da-da-da-da. And that's probably the coolest thing because then you know that people are not just sitting there and like hearing what you have to say, but they're really listening and they're intaking the information, and now they're making sure they regurgitate it back to you so that it sticks.

Lauri 25:52

Mm-hmm. Oh, so juicy. Um, part of me wants to ask you to share your story now so people can hear it. Um, a, I don't know. I and I'm like, I have no idea. It might be like a 40-minute long story when she speaks in public, or it might be five. I I've listened to the podcast episode where you shared it a while ago. So that they can hear it and feel it. Um is that something that you're willing to do right now?

Kat 26:25

Ooh, on the spot. Oh, yeah, I totally could. What I what I probably would do is I will paraphrase it a little bit shorter because generally it is like a 40-minute conversation, especially when it's law enforcement. There's a lot more detail that needs to be in put into that for them to really hear and understand. Um, for some of my other audiences, not so much, but yeah, we could we could do that.

Lauri 26:53

That uh for whatever reason, I'm having that urge. So it must be that someone is gonna hear it in the future. And we we want them to have the full emotional impact instead of us mostly talking about it. Hmm, okay.

Choosing courage: why sharing your story changes lives

Kat 27:09

I'm I am down. I am I'm all for this. Okay. So thank you all so much for joining me. My name is Kat Pulsanelli. I am a domestic violence survivor. Um, I am also a survivor of stalking, and I want you to understand that that is a part of my story, but that is not who I am as a person. Now, who I am is someone who has seen a lot of dark in this world, the the things that run through your head that say, I don't understand, or is there even a reason to continue? But what I do now is I actually choose to stand in the light. And that is so that I can create a lens for other people to be able to understand the depths of the things that people are going through that you don't understand. And so with that, that comes with my story. But I want to give you a little bit of background first. You see, I grew up in a really loving home. I was the oldest of three girls. I had a wonderful family. I was in all kinds of AP and honors classes. And then came high school. And in the midst of my high school, I decided I wanted what everybody else wanted, which was a boyfriend. And that became my first encounter of not knowing how to set boundaries. Now, this wasn't really a conversation in my household. While my family was there for me, we never really had those conversations. We never really were taught how to say no, um, because it just wasn't something we spoke about. And so my first boyfriend ended up being a little pushy. And because I wanted to be loved and have exactly what my family had, I allowed that to happen. And it put me in uncomfortable situations, which in turn led me to being pregnant at the age of 16. Now, trying to come home and tell your Catholic family that, ooh, that was a whole nother realm of things to face. And at that moment, I felt like I had absolutely shattered everything my family had built for me. And so I became determined to fix what I had screwed up. I left my school and all my friends behind. I went to an alternative school and graduated second in class, president of student council. I graduated away a year early. I took my son to school with me, and I even started a full-time job directly after and put myself through college at night. I checked all the boxes, and I felt like I was doing pretty good. Now, at this point in time, my son's father had left because he graduated and, you know, he had a life to live. And when I thought that I was doing absolutely amazing, my family thought I should be doing better. And so that became the gap between us. Now, in this, of continuing to go to school and do what I thought was absolutely best because I had fixed what I had screwed up, I met another boy. And that boy's perception and family looked absolutely different from mine. You see, he could do whatever he wanted and he could talk back to his parents, and he got his way, and I thought, oh, oh my gosh, this is amazing. And I was magnetized to that. What I didn't realize was in that interim of getting to know him and him loving my son, which wasn't his, was that he was quietly pushing me away from my family. And so at the ripe age of 18, I moved out. I moved directly in with him and I started my life. But quietly behind that journey were all the small little red flags that I wasn't aware of. The things like when I came home from lunch, and he'd be like, but just stay a few minutes longer. And I'm like, but I'm gonna be late. He's like, but I love you. And so I stayed. And then I found myself without a job. And the control continued to tighten. I lost contact with my family to the point where we only really saw them on holidays because you know they were the problem. And I found myself completely isolated. No escape, no way to get away, no one to talk to. Now, fast forward to that, you know, there wasn't a lot of physical abuse in my situation. So there weren't a lot of flags for me to understand. But what we did have was a lot of screaming matches. And it got to the point to where he broke my things and he would make me cry. But if I got upset with him, that's when he flipped the switch. Well, you don't love me. You don't understand. You're being mean to me. And I would pause and think, oh my gosh, is that really who I am? I'm hurting this person that I love. I also got pregnant with my second son at the age of 19. So now we've added a layer onto the reasons why I should be with this person. And all the while, over these few years, you know, he's amazing at saying what we're going to do in the future and playing into everything that I can think of. Now, later on in that relationship, we ended up actually moving out on our own, probably about six years in. And I thought, this is gonna fix it, right? This is gonna make everything be better. Because every time that we had an argument, I felt like I needed to fix it. I had already screwed up once, there was no way I could screw up again. And so that became my belief system, and he latched on to that. So as my kids continue to grow to grow, he continued to tighten his control. And I went from believing what I said to believing what he said, and I found myself living in his world by his rules, trying to survive in something I didn't understand. And this is where abuse gets complicated, is because you see, there's a cycle that goes with this. So while we had bad moments, we also had a lot of good ones, and so it would start that way, but unfortunately, it doesn't work like clockwork. So for several months, you'd have a really great time, and all of a sudden it would switch and everything would cave in. But when it got good again, you forgot all of the bad, and that became the normal. Now, the one time that I did finally decide to reach out to someone ended up being his mother, who I later found out had been in a previous abusive relationship. And her advice to me when I told her what her son was doing was to give me a book on how to be a better wife. And she said, you know, sometimes guys just need a little extra love because they don't understand. So when I began to try and validate his behavior or get rid of the validation of his behavior, she revalidated it. Now I have now made the decision not to tell my family because I've already screwed up once and I don't need them telling me again that I have done worse. And so this continues to play out, which also plays into the statistics as to why it takes someone seven times to leave their abuser. Now, there was one moment in this relationship, six and a half years in. I remember standing in our tiny little house and we were in the living room arguing, and my boys were down the hallway in their bedroom playing. And as we're in the middle of this heated, screaming match, my boys, now five and seven at that time, they come out of their rooms and they stand on either side of him, hands on their hip, and they say, Yeah, mom, this is your fault. You're the bad one. Why are you so mean to daddy? That was my first wake-up call. And in that moment, everything stopped. And I thought, oh my god, I can never let my children think that this is how you love someone. Now I would love to say that that was the end. I made the decision and I left that day, but it took me two and a half years to finally make that call. Because you see, what I experienced was invisible scars, and I didn't know who to go to. I didn't know how to tell someone that he was being mean to me. And so I continued to stay. At the end of that 10-year relationship, it was actually one of the very first times that he had ever put his hands on me and I had instantaneous bruises. And after we had the fight, he drove me to work. I went to the back of the bathroom, I cried, wiped myself down, and I went to work. Now, yes, I did contemplate, but I wasn't sure what I was going to do. However, there was a divine intervention that day. You see, I had a patient of mine that generally came in on a Monday evening. But I knew that he was getting his law degree, and I thought, I'm gonna ask some questions. I wanted to see if I could understand so I could make a plan. Now he came in that morning at eight o'clock in the morning, something he never did. And as I was completing therapy with him, I'd asked a couple of questions, and I cannot tell you what it is that I said to him, but I can tell you that when I got done, he stood up and he said, You have two choices before I leave here today. You can either call the police or I will call them for you. I work in the domestic violence center at the courthouse, and that was my saving grace. Not because I made the actual decision, but because I was teeter-tottering so much that I was given a choice. And so I chose to take that leap. Now, in that instance, I was absolutely terrified. I did have some communication with my family, but I had absolutely no clue where I was going to go from there. But the one thing I did know was that I had my kids and I was gonna be able to start over. Now, it took me five years to realize that I also needed to heal from the things that I had been through. And that's a journey that I still continue today. On top of stalking that continued to happen afterwards, four and a half years of having to retell my story to where I am today, which is here to empower and show you that no matter what you have been through, you can always step into that dark hole that scares you and see what comes out on the other side. We all find ourselves in times of weakness where everybody says, You're so strong, and you're like, No, I'm not. And so when you find yourself in that moment, I ask you to choose courage. Because if you have the willingness to face the adversity, to face the pain, that's all you need to be able to break free from whatever pattern, from whatever cycle, from whatever person, from whatever it is that you are doing or you are going through. And that is the reason why I tell my story. Because you never know what someone is going through behind closed doors. You don't know the invisible scars that are hidden amongst you every single day. But what you can do is learn to lean in, learn to be curious, and learn to act upon that instead of your own judgment. And that is how we begin to change the world.

Pivot Pivot Closing Questions

Lauri 39:18

I'm doing a jazz fingers clapping that we do when we're muted, even though I'm not muted. Thank you, Kat. Thank you so much for sharing your story, for sharing it here, and for sharing it in the world in order to bring the change to the world that, as you said, is part connected to your purpose. I'm also finding myself wanting to say to listeners if there's a voice inside of you that's telling you to share your story, listen to it. Just like for cat, if there's a voice inside of you saying, I feel called to share my story, but listen to everything before the butt. Someone out there needs to hear you. Awesome. Um, where can our listeners find you if they're leaning in and curious and um wanting to go deeper into that conversation? Like you said, when you speak normally, there's a QA after. And there may be listeners who want the QA part or want to see a different version of the speech that's geared to a different audience. Where can they find you? 100%.

Kat 40:41

So I can be found on all the socials, right? Um, if you're really wanting to listen to a little bit more of the QA space, if you want to hear the story in a different capacity or with a different audience, you can also find me um on YouTube. Um, that is gonna be the Lotus Effect, or you can look up Cat Pulsanelli and it shows up everywhere. Um, I share my story on a regular basis, whether it's on my podcasts, other people's podcasts, on the stages that I'm a part of. Um but yeah, I hope that somebody heard that and that gives you that light bulb moment that you needed to take a step in a different direction.

Lauri 41:23

Thank you. And is there anything else that you really want listeners to know? Hmm.

Kat 41:37

We all struggle from time to time. Small hurdles, large hurdles, gigantic hurdles. We all struggle. If you can focus on after the struggle, if you can dream about how things can be different, you start to shrink that struggle down and you make it more achievable to step over it. And if you have stepped over one hurdle, I guarantee you you have the ability inside of you to step over the next.

Lauri 42:19

Beautiful. Thank you. Thank you. And now it's time to slide into our pivot pivot, cat. What is your favorite word? Courage. What is your least favorite word? Ooh, failure. What turns you on creatively, spiritually, or emotionally?

Kat 42:50

Oh, music. Anything with vibration and music.

Lauri 42:58

What turns you off? Ego. What's your favorite cuss word?

Kat 43:11

Fuck.

Lauri 43:18

What sound or noise do you love?

Kat 43:27

I love the sound of rushing water.

Lauri 43:34

What sound or noise do you hate?

Kat 43:40

A very crowded room with a ton of conversations going on all at once.

Lauri 43:47

What profession other than the ones you've already done in your life would be fun to try? Ooh. Theater. And what profession would you not like to do? Attorney. And Kat, what do you hope people say about you on your 100th birthday?

Kat 44:14

Ooh. That she shared a wisdom beyond her years, and because of that, I got out of or shifted XYZ.

Lauri 44:28

I have a very strong feeling that that is happening all the time. You are so on track for that by a hundred. Thank you again for coming on the show, for sharing your story, your heart, your wisdom, and your presence.

Kat 44:44

Thank you so much.

Lauri 44:46

And if you're out there listening and Kat's story touched you today, if this episode brought you heart, wisdom, giggles, empowerment, clarity, demystified something for you, please, please, please take a moment to share this with someone else who might be looking for an episode like this one and uh rate it, review it, do all the things, and then come back again next time.