The BOLD and Brilliant Podcast with Tracie Root

The BOLD and Brilliant Podcast with Tracie Root, w/Guest Kat Mitchell

• Tracie Root • Season 1

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🎧 Episode Summary:
What happens when life asks you to hold everything—a demanding career, caregiving, grief, big transitions—and you finally choose yourself? In this powerful episode, Tracie sits down with Kat Mitchell (Master Transformation Coach, NLP Practitioner, Hypnotherapist, and energy-work guide) to talk about the bold decision that changed her path from corporate tech to deep inner work. Kat shares her origin story, the unexpected “bridge” skills that made her successful in tech, and how her personal journey through loss and caregiving led her into neuroscience, unconscious mindset work, and transformational healing. If you’ve ever felt like you’re carrying too much… this one will meet you right where you are—and help you shift from the inside out.

✨ What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

  • Why “I’m not doing that” can become a self-fulfilling mindset loop (and how to shift it)
  • How Kat accidentally found her way into tech—and why her human skills were the real superpower
  • The bold moment when she realized: “I can’t do it all.”
  • How grief, caregiving, and life pivots can become the catalyst for a new mission
  • What “conscious” vs. “unconscious” coaching really means—and why it matters
  • How neuroscience, NLP, hypnotherapy, reiki, and breathwork can support real change
  • Why willingness is the secret ingredient to inner work (and why “woo” is more science than ever)

🛠️ Actionable Tips from Kat Mitchell:

  • Catch your “I’m not…” statements. They’re often programming your brain more than you realize.
  • Notice where you’re trying to do the impossible. If you’re holding too much, it may be time to choose a new boundary.
  • Try the work before you judge it. A little willingness can create a huge breakthrough.
  • Don’t stop at mindset. If you keep hitting the same wall, you may need unconscious-level support (NLP/hypnotherapy).
  • Build a safe space to practice regulation. Meditation, breathwork, and energy work get easier when you’re supported in community.

🎤 Memorable Quote:
“Whether you say you can or you say you can’t, you’re right.”

🔥 Bold Moment of the Episode:
Kat’s bold decision to step away from a 60-hour/week career after years of caregiving, loss, and family crises—choosing to “walk away and figure it out,” even without a perfectly clear roadmap.

📱 Connect with Kat Mitchell:

  • Membership: Calm, Clarity & Reset
  • Facebook Group: Resilient, Wild & Unstoppable

🚀 Join the Bold and Brilliant Podcast Community:
If this episode hit home, come share your biggest takeaway and tell us: What’s one inner shift you’re ready to make—starting now? Because around here, we don’t just listen… we move with intention.

🌟 Rate & Review:
Loving the show? A quick rating + review helps more bold, brilliant women find these conversations. And it tells us what you want more of—so keep it coming!

Thank you for supporting The Bold and Brilliant Podcast!

Find out what's up with Tracie by connecting on your favorite social media channel, and with The Gather Community by joining us at an upcoming online event or receiving our mailing list. Go to:

https://www.tracieroot.com/links

to find upcoming events, workshops, courses and more!

We're just getting started, so I hope you subscribed, and please leave a review so we can start building some podcast-momentum!

xoxo
Your host,
Tracie Root

Tracie:

Are you ready for bold moves and powerful inner shifts? Welcome to the Bold and Brilliant podcast, where women share the decisions that changed everything. Today's guest is Kat Mitchell, master Transformation Coach, certified NLP, practitioner and hypnotherapist who helps high achieving women release self-doubt, imposter patterns in the hidden stories that keep them playing small. With a deeply intuitive, yet practical approach, Kat blends neuroscience, NLP, hypnotherapy and energy work to create true inner alignment and authentic confidence. In this episode, Kat shares the bold decision that transformed her path and how shifting from the inside out can change everything. Welcome, Kat to the Bold and brilliant podcast. Kat Mitchell, I am so excited that you're here for the podcast. Thanks for joining me. Yay. I'm so glad I'm here too. Yeah. I'm thrilled to find on your podcast after I know. I'm so excited about it because, you know, I'm really doing a push to get a number of episodes out, and those of you who are in the Gather community, I asked way back when, but it just never was the right timing for you and me to get together. So I'm thrilled that we're able to still make it happen in season one. Yay. Yay. All right. So, you know, one of the things that happens here on the podcast is I get to have great conversations with people who I've known for a long time, but I'm always trying to dig for new. Pieces of your story that I might not know already and that maybe our listeners, especially if they're in our community, might not know already. So one thing that I know about you, and we'll talk about that in a bit is, you know that you worked in tech, in corporate, and you know, and then ongoing, and we'll get to that in a minute. But I'd love to hear about you before that happened. Like what were you like? Up growing up that made you decide to go into that kind of a field. Like tell us about your the Cat Mitchell origin story, if you will. So,

Kat:

I'm laughing because the Cat Mitchell origin story says, I am never sitting behind a desk. I am never doing tech. I took a computer class when I first started college and said. Heck no. That is not for me. That is a painful experience.

Tracie:

To sit there at a desk looking at a screen all day long.

Kat:

I,

Tracie:

I walked outta the

Kat:

class and said, just take me out of this class. I need creativity. I need to do something different. And you know, it's weird because back then I didn't know all that mindset stuff. And I continuously had that thought. I'm not going to sit at a desk. I'm not gonna sit behind a computer. I'm not going to and all that. I'm not going to, I'm not going to, I'm not.

Tracie:

Oh, that's so funny. That is really interesting. So, so if you didn't think you wanted to sit behind a desk, or if that was definitely where you didn't want to go, where did you want to go? Like, what were you hoping to accomplish other than everything you told your brain?

Kat:

So. I had this, um, I was one of those kids where when I was growing up, I wanted to be in veterinary medicine. I wanted to help pets.

Tracie:

Yeah.

Kat:

And I had those parents that said, well, there's not gonna be any pets to be a vet when you get older. So that's not probably the path that you wanna go on.

Tracie:

That's a really weird, interesting perspective. Why did they think there weren't going to be any path? I have no idea.

Kat:

I, I have no idea. Nonetheless, I canceled that out of my brain and by the time I got to college, it's like, well, okay, let me figure out what I wanna do. So I was the college experimenter. Let's go into pre-med. Let's try this. Let's try chemistry. Let's try You're so

Tracie:

scientific. Yeah. That's, that's not surprising at this time. But very interesting. Nonetheless, I took

Kat:

psychology, I took sociology. So I was, I was challenging myself in this creative science path, in this, um, biology. Um. Psychology and sociology of the mind, really understanding that. Um, staying completely away from tech after my first experience. So, so coming back to how did I get in tech? I was actually, um. I don't even remember who introduced me to who, but somebody introduced me to the scout who says, I need you to work for me in the insurance industry. And I was working in insurance underwriting policies, and I was working for a company that said, Hey, we wanna write our own software and we need somebody who understands insurance well enough to, you know, build that collaboration between insurance and tech.

Tracie:

Yeah,

Kat:

and I'm like, well, I know the product, but I don't know tech. That's not my thing, right? And so that is, I slowly started helping the tech team understand insurance, and I'm like, all right. Now, because I'm one of those junkie learners, I'm like, all right, now I need to understand. Tech better because they're telling me to do this testing stuff and they're telling me to do development stuff and they're telling me to do this, and I'm like, and I have no idea what that means.

Tracie:

Yeah.

Kat:

I don't understand any of it. It's not, it's not what I do. And so then I, uh, decided to interview for companies, and the only reason why I got into a specific company is because. When I went in for the interview, it wasn't that I had all the skillset, it was that we sat there and cracked jokes and we were laughing so hard. The interviewer and I that he says, crap, you're just hired. We'll figure out how to train you.

Tracie:

I love this. It's so interesting because you know the strengths that you brought to all of that, you're super analytical, very like. Clear-minded, great communication, right? Like those are all the things that they needed for that insurance to tech conversations to happen, right? And and that scientific brain that you had to be able to see things and understand deep ideas and everything was what you were bringing to the table, and you didn't even know that that was where it was gonna be. That makes so much sense.

Kat:

I love it in a weird, yeah. And then after I actually started working in it, then I went back and got my degree in it. Okay. Yeah. So I didn't finish college until 40 when I went back and then the same month I was finally graduating at 40. HP called me and says, Hey, we wanna bring you on as a consultant. I'm like. Why would HP bring me on as a consultant? And so they had heard from people that I had worked with. Yeah. So it was really weird.

Tracie:

Yeah, I love that. Well,'cause you could speak the language, I could speak the language didn't have 20 years of experience. You could speak the language and it's that, you know, I, my husband's an engineer and we talk about, uh, his frustrations as an engineer in talking with the customer, facing people. And it's like they are the bridge. So you were a big bridge, right?'cause you could speak the language even if you weren't the person Right. In every line of code, you knew exactly what the goals were, what the client was trying to have, what the, you know, all of the the pieces. You could bring it all together.

Kat:

Yeah. Yeah. Which is how I ended up in, even when I got into tech. I would not do the development'cause it was, for me, it was really weird. For me, it was like getting in somebody else's dirty laundry. Yeah. Like we're not touching that, but breaking stuff and testing. It was powerful until I started my own business and then somehow breaking stuff.

Tracie:

Now we really don't want our own things to break. We'll break other people's stuff. It still became a gift of mine. I'm like, dang it. Now I'm breaking my own stuff. Breaking your own things. No, don't do that. Okay, so let's talk about that. So you were in tech, HP hired, you finished your career, 40, not career, uh, college at 40, and you were with HP and doing, or not necessarily with them, but doing that work for how long? And then you made another big, bold decision, not just going back to college and finishing at 40, but another one, which was. To say no to the next opportunity and do something else. Yeah.

Kat:

From hp, I ended up at, um, Cox Automotive, which designed all the software for, uh, dealerships. So like when you go in and you. See if you qualify for a loan to purchase a car. That all that software was. Oh, financial software.

Tracie:

Okay. Yeah. Awesome.

Kat:

So we were writing that and I was integrating that. My coaching actually started because all my teams were us, India, other countries. Mm-hmm. And so that, you know, the different cultures, the different speaking, um, communication styles, the different, um. Like,

Tracie:

how do you even man, like the personal, uh, yeah. Personalities and different

Kat:

ways that they, you know, were willing to open up about challenges in software is how I entered the coaching world.

Tracie:

Yeah.

Kat:

Because I had a boss that said, Hey, you need to learn how to get these people to talk to each other. To talk to each other. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's where all that. Where coaching started and where I made that decision, that's where I was working when I made the decision that, all right, I can't do everything. And that decision was based off of the fact that in 2015 I was working 60 hours a week and I was taking care of my cousin, uh, with end stage liver disease, and that required me going into the hospital. Before work at lunchtime, after work, and then, and you're

Tracie:

trying to work 60 hours a week and keep that all going at the same

Kat:

time of, right. And I would hold meetings before I left my house and I would hold meetings after I got home from the hospital. And so how long did

Tracie:

that go on for? Six months. Yeah. That sounds like about the limit because it sounds exhausting.

Kat:

So prior to that, I was a runner, I was fit, and then all of a sudden I tanked. Mm-hmm. And then I started regaining my energy. My dad got sick, and then I slowly started tanking again. And then, you know, my mom started developing dementia and then my brother had the stroke and I'm like, I can't do it all. Here's my resignation. I'm just gonna leave and figure it out.

Tracie:

Yeah. So give us that timeline, right? That your, your cousin got sick, you were working 60 hours a week, he got sick. Then give us like the, the increment timeline. So

Kat:

that was, that was 2015, uh, end of 2015. She passed in 2016. Then end of 2016, my dad got sick and he passed in the beginning of 2017. Um, and then

Tracie:

fast for everyone.

Kat:

Yeah. And then I moved my mom to up here, to Auburn in 2017. And then, uh, 2019, my brother had the stroke. Mm-hmm. Which is when I decided I can't do it all. I'm just gonna walk away and figure it out. Um, and then just as I was starting to figure it out, well, 2020. Yep. 2020. I'm like, January, 2020. It's time. We gotta start making some money because all we're doing, we're just, you know, letting the money go out of the savings, you know, when it's depleting. Yeah. So put that on the calendar, start that business, and then everything shuts down. I'm like, all right, guess we're not starting that business this year.

Tracie:

So did you, was this like a coaching business that was start that you were thinking in January and, and. What, so what were you planning to do that the pandemic prevented you from doing and obviously you had to shift it?

Kat:

Well, I had always been behind a desk. I'd always been, you know, in an office surrounded by the people that I worked with. Mm-hmm. Because I worked in an office. Yeah. So when the world shut down and me starting a coaching business, I had no idea how to reach out to people virtually. That was not my jam. Yeah. I spoke to India teams virtually. But I'd already built that relationship with them. Yeah. They already knew who I was for many years of working together.

Tracie:

Well, and when you're in a corporate environment, like the team is the team, you don't go searching for them. You're not finding the clients. Right. It's a whole different ball wax. Yeah.

Kat:

Yeah. So when the world shut down, I'm like, right, I guess I'm shut down too. It's like, because that was not a language I knew what to, I, I, I didn't know that language. Yeah. Well then 2021 came around January, 2021. Let's try this again. Let's, uh,

Tracie:

let's, so did you spend most of 2020 not, not working, not doing anything like just. Waiting for the, for it to come back. I started

Kat:

taking classes, so I became certified as a team coach through the European mentorship and, um, I forgot EMCC. Uh, mentorship and council.

Tracie:

Yeah, council.

Kat:

So, um, became certified through them as a team coach. Uh, did some other trainings.'cause hey, what do you do? Yeah, you learn more. Um, and then 2021 came around and, um, I decided to try it again. It's like, all right, let's try January, 2021. And then that's when Bud passed away. Hmm. Which then shifted my world again because I was living in his house, uh, which meant, and Bud was your partner, Uhhuh.

Tracie:

Yeah. And it was the podcast. Not everyone knows who that is.

Kat:

Right. So That's true. So Bud and I had been together for 11 years. Mm-hmm. And. Um, he, he passed away suddenly. It wasn't that I was taking care of him and the summer before that he had had like three stents put in, so we thought he was good. Still ended up having a heart attack.

Tracie:

Oh.

Kat:

Um, and so that created a different storm in the fact that I had to move and here I was. I hadn't made any income in two years.

Tracie:

Yeah, so like rental, like income proof for rentals and things like that.

Kat:

Yeah. So it's like, all right, let's, let's see what the world is gonna open up for me now'cause we gotta work some magic.

Tracie:

Yeah. So

Kat:

I ended up actually buying a house through a hard money loan. Hmm. Um, through a friend of mine that was willing to do that. Uh, worked out perfect. Did that for a couple years. Um, still not the easiest thing. And, uh, yeah, so it's been a journey of a lot of twists and turns. Broke my arm, my right arm during the move. Um, oh no. Right. Because apparently when you say, God, I just need a break. And then as I turned around and I tripped on the step to the new house, I broke multiple bones in my arm. Um, just needed a

Tracie:

break. You're killing me. Oh my gosh. So be careful what you ask for. Wow. That's wild. Okay, so. Amazing. And so you had all these certifications, you started your coaching business, bud passed, you're still taking care of your brother, you're taking your mom's in, in, you know, doing, having her own kind of toward the end of life journey as an older lady. And then I know your mom passed away, your brother got better. We like this. And you know, and that's a good thing. And, and then I would say, you know, around. I would say this time last year, but that's too recent. A year and a half ago. Like when did you, when was it that your mom passed away? So my mom passed away in August of 2024. August. Okay. So, yeah, so it's November now. So yeah, about an hour and, uh, an hour and a half, a year and a half ago. Because that was a big, you know, that was you, you were caring for your mom constantly. And then when she passed, you know. Obviously it's very sad, but it was also an opportunity for you to be like, okay, I have some of my life back. Well, and what do you wanna do? Right?

Kat:

With my brother and the stroke impacting three areas of his brain. That led to conversations with doctors on how to build neuropathways. Mm-hmm. We had to do languaging and all that.

Tracie:

Right.

Kat:

And then in addition, it's like, so I got neuropathways here and then I got neuropathways with my mom that were breaking down'cause she had dementia because she had dementia and Alzheimer's. So it's understanding the brain in two different, you know. Two different stages of life. Mm. Mm-hmm. And so those conversations and

Tracie:

kind of decay and repair like both sides of it, right. One was decay. There you go. Decay and repair.

Kat:

I like that.

Tracie:

Yeah.

Kat:

So

Tracie:

you can use that.

Kat:

Understanding that, and then that brain science and conversations with the doctor led me into neuroscience and having to understand it at that level, which then led me to, and I couldn't even tell you how I got on these paths, but then that led me to unconscious mindset work and understanding how. A lot of the coaching that I had learned in corporate was at the conscious level. Mm-hmm. Which is the reason why I wasn't always connecting with everyone that I was speaking to, because a lot of the conversations I needed to be having in those times was at the unconscious level because they had stuff going on from their childhood that we never talked about.

Tracie:

Well, and you're talking about bridging different cultures. Whole different con cu country, you know, setups. And so I am, you know, I'm imagining like, um, you know, again, referring to my husband, right? He has teams in India, there's people in Croatia or, or actually in Ukraine, I mean mm-hmm. And then of course, people here in the States and you know, there is a disconnect between someone in India and someone in the States being able to really connect because there's just like, you just don't talk. It's not only a language, it's like the underlying language, right? The language of respect and how you introduce yourself to someone. One of the things he is always telling me is like they'll send a instant message or a message on teams, and it's just like, hi Tim, and he's like. Hi, what can I do for you? Like, you know, in the hopes that they would say, hi Tim, I have a question for you. And ask the question all in the first message. But that's not how they work, like socially, right? And in their, you know, upbringing. So you were going through all that with your teams, and then you have this whole decay and repair, and that's like, how do those. Areas of life talk to each other. So it's really interesting how you've always been this bridge to understand the different stages of a communication, whether it's people at work or people who are, you know, healing or not,

Kat:

right? Yeah, and it's weird because the, the, the people that I work with that were from India and actually are. Based in the us based on their visas and all that. Yeah. Are the ones that I stay mostly connected to in person and I still go out and have lunch with them and everything else because that's how well we built those relationships. The bridge. Yeah. To build that bridge.

Tracie:

Well, that makes so much sense, right? They relied on you to help the communication happen, and so you made a tighter bond with them mm-hmm. As opposed to people who are already here in the states who they just lived their life Right. And, and showed up. Right. And it's a different, it's a different, different perspective. I love that. That's amazing.

Kat:

Yeah. Which is the reason why now I have this new vision that's blossoming for next year.

Tracie:

Yeah. Anything you're interested in sharing?

Kat:

So this vision that I have blossoming for next year is to actually work with teams and leaders that are in that merger buyout state. Mm-hmm. Because of the fact that communication is so. Different and unique and challenging, and yet that bridge can be so powerful.

Tracie:

Bridge the corporate cultures, bridge the corporate cultures. I love it. I love it. I mean, I, so I was in facilities for 17 years and I did a lot of merging of buildings and moving groups together, right? And. I totally see that the two different companies in a merger or an acquisition, which is almost always an acquisition, that even if they call it a merger, um, yeah, they're not on the same page and someone's feeling resentful and someone's feeling better than the others. And like there's all of those kind of funky dynamics about the two companies. I love that. I think that'll be amazing for,'cause

Kat:

there's so much unknown when that happens.

Tracie:

Mm-hmm. And there's a lot of fear. Yeah. Like, are we gonna all lose our jobs? Yeah. What's gonna happen? Did they buy us so they could put us in the trash can? Like, you know, did they only buy us for our tech and not for our people? Like those are such recurring themes and all of that. I love that. That's amazing. Okay, so how do you use. P reiki and hypnotherapy in that, which I realize was not the plan, but, you know, let's touch on that'cause we're, we're gonna end up like talking way too long, but I wanna make sure to talk about how you, you know, here in the Gather community working with solopreneurs and coaches and the people that you know, that we have in our circles outside of the corporate work. Uh, you know, you're, you're, you've become a master NLP coach, you've become a reiki master, you're doing hypnotherapy, you have a new membership. So talk a little bit about those things, specifically for probably who our audience is, which is typically women leaders and entrepreneurs. So the

Kat:

NLP is all about the mindset. It's all about. Communication. It's all about how our communication is impacted by our, our thoughts, our memories, our beliefs, our experiences from way back when in our childhood and beyond. Um, and so NLP will go, whether it's one-on-one corporate group. All of that. Um, it will go everywhere and anywhere with me. The reiki can be a little different. It's, so what I tell people is I'm science, which, you know, and I'm woo so I'm science and woo.

Tracie:

And there's so much that now though about Woo, being based in science. Like Woo is needs like, I think that term really is gonna go by the wayside before too long because they're finding so much more reality in the things we used to call Woo.

Kat:

So there are hospitals now that bring Reiki healing into the hospital rooms to really build up the energy levels in those that are healing.

Tracie:

Yeah, I love that. I was just talking with another gal who's a hypnotherapist who was talking very similarly about hypnotherapy as well.

Kat:

Yes.

Tracie:

Amazing. So,

Kat:

yeah, so hypnotherapy is. It's like the science and the woo combined. Yeah. Um, and it go, it's really tapping into that unconscious mind because a lot of times we do the conscious work and we don't always do the unconscious work. So the science and the woo and the hypnotherapy help bridge that with, um, in addition to releases and the timeline techniques.

Tracie:

Yeah.

Kat:

Um. At the quantum level for the unconscious mind. So all of that in bringing the alignment in, uh, allows us to really like free up and expand our energy and move forward with this expanded mindset.

Tracie:

Yeah, I love it. I love it. It's, it's incredible. And that, that work for people who haven't experienced it, all it takes is a little willingness. To try it and you, when you're willing to try it, then you're there in a state of willingness. Yeah. And all of a sudden it will like, you feel it, you see how it affects you. It's the people who aren't willing who think it is weird, right? Yeah. But as soon as you are like, you know what, maybe, maybe I should just give it a shot and experience it for myself. As soon as you say that to yourself and try a session or try a group or whatever, it all changes.

Kat:

Right? Which is the reason why I started my membership is so people can ex. Experience, um, meditation and experience reiki and experience breath work and yeah. Group hypnotherapy and tools like that in a safe environment.

Tracie:

Yeah. Where

Kat:

they're not like just me and them and they're like. Yeah, I don't know what to do. Yeah. So it gives them that safe space to experience it at a very low cost.

Tracie:

Yeah. I love it. I love it. And I'm thrilled to be a founding member of your membership because I a hundred percent believe in it. Um, and I'm looking forward to the, I think it's next week where I'm gonna get my first opportunity to be at a thing, so that's gonna be amazing. And yeah, anyone who's listening, you know, if you're. If you tell yourself you can't meditate if you tell yourself, I, I haven't done that, I'm not, you know, whatever. Like give yourself permission to say, I wonder what it would be like. Yeah. And as soon as you open that, then come try it out. Because, because you never know until you try. Just like eating your vegetables. You never know if you like it until you try and we know it's good for us, so give it a try

Kat:

and it tastes good. We all know whether you say you can or you say you can't, you're right. Right. So it just depends on which direction you wanna go.

Tracie:

Yep. Yeah. Be open to it. I love it. Amazing. Okay, Kat, we're gonna make sure to have the info for your membership in the show notes and everything, and. I love this, this whole conversation.'cause it really gave a, a more in depth picture of like, you know, you are a natural like, communication bridge, whether it's between you and someone that, uh, you have met before or just you're, you can hear like the listening, those listening skills that you fostered from the very beginning that got you where you went.

Kat:

Uh,

Tracie:

it's, it's what, that's the value of coaching. It's the value of all of this work is to have someone hear us and see us so that we can then, uh, be understood mm-hmm. And supported to go forward. So, I'm thrilled that you're in this space. I love the, the plan to work towards corporate teams. I love that that's gonna be in a different community, but for us. We're gonna be a part of your, what is it? What's the name of the membership again? Calm, clarity and Reset. Calm Clarity. Reset. For some reason I had like rise resilient. Something. Maybe that was a different thing. Well,

Kat:

because

Tracie:

I have my Facebook

Kat:

group where I do my interviews. My interviews series, that's what it is. A resilient, wild and unstoppable Facebook group.

Tracie:

That's what it was. Okay. So we're gonna make sure to have all of those. And in fact, I need you to send me those because they're not on the original form'cause it's all new, so Right. Thank you so much for all of your time today for sharing your whole story and all of the bold decisions that you made that got you where you are. I appreciate you and everyone. Go visit Kat, get to know her, and we'll talk to you again super soon.

Kat:

Awesome. Thank you

Tracie:

so much. Thanks sweetheart.