Plenty with Kate Northrup

Latest Episodes:

Episode 162: Our Daily Success Habits: Small Things, Big Results Dec 03, 2019

Show notes

At Thanksgiving dinner last week around a big table with chosen and biological family alike, we went around and shared something we were grateful for that we couldn’t have said we were grateful for last year.

At least 50% of us cried. (That’s how I know I spent the holiday with my people.)

A few days later over dinner, my dad noted that almost everyone had gone through some pretty intense turbulence in the last year and that we all somehow seemed to be on the upswing at last.

(If you listen to our podcast, you know that I keep finding myself singing the refrain to Gloria Estefan’s "Coming Out of the Dark" for this very reason.)

Because the folks gathered that night are some of my nearest and dearest, I’m privy to many of the details of their lives, both the exciting and the mundane.

Here’s what I know from knowing them and knowing myself:

The reason we’re on the upswing is not because of some gargantuan opportunity that swept in and changed everything. Yeah, there have been chance meetings that led to lifetime dreams being fulfilled. There have been super-exciting doors opened. There’s been some fairy dust.

But the thing that’s allowed each of the people I adore to not only get on but, more importantly,stay on the upswing are the things that aren’t particularly sexy (and that they sometimes don’t feel like doing) that they do day in and day out, week in and week out.

Another word for these mundane things that seem little but, when done regularly and combined all together, contribute to a beautiful life is: habits.

Your habits matter because they create your life.

Beautiful lives do not happen by accident. They happen because of things that people do (or don’t do) every day to weave a life they want to live.

Mike and I sat down to record an episode of The Kate & Mike Show about our daily, weekly, and monthly habits, and we both chuckled because when we say some of this stuff out loud, it’s actually kind of weird!

But it works, so we’re sticking with it.

Once you’ve listened, we’d love to know which habits we talked about that you’re inspired to incorporate into your own life and what other weird habits you have. Leave us a comment and let us know!

Habits matter. The things you do every day create your life, so choose wisely. (But have fun with it because nothing is worth doing if it feels like punishment!)

You can get your own copy of Do Less and still receive incredible bonuses at http://katenorthrup.com/book! Kate wants to hear from you, and you can post about your #DoLess experiences on Instagram, DM her (@katenorthrup) or email info@katenorthrup.com.

Would you, or a company you know, be a good fit to sponsor The Kate & Mike Show? If so, let’s talk! You can email mike@mikejwatts.com regarding current sponsorship opportunities.

Show notes and links for this episode can be found at http://www.katenorthrup.com/podcast.

Episode 161: How to Live Your Life Without Regret With Bronnie Ware, author of The 5 Top Regrets of the Dying Nov 26, 2019

Show notes

There’s a little trick I started using in my twenties to determine whether or not I should do things, especially things I was afraid of doing:

I would project myself into the future and ask if my 80-year-old self would be happy that I’d done that.

Somehow adopting the mindset and life experience of a well-experienced lady crystallized exactly what my not-so-experienced current self should or shouldn’t do.

This week is Thanksgiving in the USA, and I find this time of year to be incredibly nostalgic as we meander toward the close of one chapter and the opening of a new one with the new year.

There’s a fine line with nostalgia, though.

If our lives aren’t what we’d expected, nostalgia can morph into bitterness or regret really easily.

And honestly, whose life is exactly what they’d expected?

So how do we avoid the spiral of what could have been that tends to stall us out from enjoying the what is that’s right in front of us?

We ask older people, specifically people who are on their way out of this particular lived experience in a human body.

We ask people who are dying.

There’s a woman who has spent a lot of time with people who are dying. She took care of them for 8 years as her career.

Her name is Bronnie Ware and when I spoke with her, I found my entire system slowing to the speed of presence. As someone whose tendency is toward action and the next thing, it’s always wild to be in the presence of someone whose mere way of being shifts my whole vibrational rate.

This week we have Bronnie on The Kate & Mike Show to talk about regret-free living and what she learned about how to live from spending so much time by the side of people who were dying.

She wrote a book about it called The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying, and this feels like the perfect conversation to have as we head toward the close of a decade and prepare to start a new one.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• The critical ingredient you need to alchemize an experience from something you regret into something that you learn from and let go of

• The most helpful way to be around people who are dying

• How to live regret-free so that you’re making the most of your precious time here on Earth

While our culture tends to be really squeamish when it comes to talking about death, I absolutely love how Bronnie teaches us how to live through talking about this subject.

None of us knows how long we have here. You don’t have to have more than one loved one gone too soon to realize this.

I’d love to know what this episode stirred up for you. You can get your own copy of Do Less and still receive incredible bonuses at http://katenorthrup.com/book! Kate wants to hear from you, and you can post about your #DoLess experiences on Instagram, DM her (@katenorthrup) or email info@katenorthrup.com.

Would you, or a company you know, be a good fit to sponsor The Kate & Mike Show? If so, let’s talk! You can email mike@mikejwatts.com regarding current sponsorship opportunities.

Show notes and links for this episode can be found at http://www.katenorthrup.com/podcast.

Episode 160: How We Do Our Year-End Review and Annual Planning Nov 19, 2019

Show notes

I just saw a meme today talking about how November just feels like this crazy month with 13 looming deadlines and holiday family stress and endless to-do lists...plus it’s DARK.

I get that this time of year can be really hard. Maybe you’re approaching the holidays solo for the first time in years after a breakup. Perhaps you’ve overscheduled your promotional calendar, and the pressure of the deadlines is squeezing the joy right out of you. Or maybe there’s a family member who’s incredibly challenging to be around but who you feel like you have to share the holidays with.

I want to offer up another possibility for you. One that can change the way you experience this time of year and ensure that every year starting in 2020 and beyond can be even better than the last in terms of your health, joy, abundance, and impact.

In 2013 Mike and I bought a really big blank book for a practice that we’ve committed to every year since.

We wouldn’t miss this practice for anything, and every year we carve out more and more space for honoring it.

It’s our year-end review and annual planning practice, and this single practice has been responsible for:

• Feeling more connected to one another and falling more and more in love every year

• Buying the home of our dreams with money we earned from sharing our ideas with the world

• Creating a family life and environment to raise our daughters in that we’re incredibly proud of

• Ensuring that we grow our business with the Do Less principles front and center so that as we grow our audience, revenue, profits, and impact, our personal wellbeing and joy doesn’t shrink but instead grows right alongside

This week we’re taking you behind the scenes in our year-end review and annual planning practice and telling you exactly how we do it, step by step.

We’re letting you in on:

• Exactly how we set goals (and the critical second category we outline at the beginning of the year)

• A new practice we’re implementing this year to ensure that reaching our goals becomes inevitable

• The critical step we take to ensure we integrate the lessons from the past year to make the next year even better

• The 10 key categories we’ve identified in our lives that each get airtime during our annual practice

• The single biggest thing we did in 2019 that allowed us to finally break a bad habit that’s haunted us for years, so we’re not carrying it forward into 2020

Whether you already have your year-end review and annual planning time on the calendar for this year, or you don’t even know what I’m talking about, this episode will help you set yourself up for a year that exceeds your wildest expectations.

Once you’ve listened in, we’d love to hear from you.

Do you do year-end reviews and annual planning already? What elements do you include? What did you hear in this episode that you’re going to incorporate moving forward?

Would you, or a company you know, be a good fit to sponsor The Kate & Mike Show? If so, let’s talk! You can email mike@mikejwatts.com regarding current sponsorship opportunities.

Show notes and links for this episode can be found at http://www.katenorthrup.com/podcast.

Episode 159: Behind the Scenes Creating the Do Less Planner Nov 12, 2019

Show notes

I’m the kind of person who sometimes isn’t sure what she thinks until I’m talking to someone else. Not because I’m looking for their opinion or reaction, but because I’m an external processor and there’s something about being witnessed that helps me understand myself better.

Last week Mike and I sat down to talk about something that I’ve been working on since November 2016 that’s finally ready for the world. Until I sat there in our basement with my love and partner in all of the things listening to me, I didn’t really get the magnitude of what I’ve been working on.

I finally realized what a big deal this creation is for me—but also how much potential it has to be a big deal for women all over the world.

Here’s what I’ve found:

When we strike out to make things with the purpose that they become a big deal (or with the purpose that they make us a big deal), they often fall flat or are somehow unsustainable.

When we make the things that are so much an expression of ourselves that we cannot help but make them, even if it’s slowly and quietly in the privacy of our own minds or closets (where I get some of my best ideas), they’re often the things that end up being the biggest deal.

This week on The Kate & Mike Show, we’re taking you behind the scenes in the making of the brand-new Do Less Planner, and in the episode you’ll hear me acknowledge how major this thing that I made for you is.

You’ll also hear:

• The things about producing our first digital product that have been trickier than we expected (nothing is ever all rainbows and unicorns)

• How this planner will change your relationship to time, your body, your work, and your worth (I know it’s a big promise but I stand by it)

• How this planner came to be with some really important nuggets for anyone making anything, digital or physical

• What the elements of my planner system are and how you can use the insights behind them to get better results with less stress

• Why this planner has the potential to revolutionize your experience of life

After you’ve listened in, I’d love to hear from you:

What did you hear in this episode that was a new perspective on time and planning for you? How will you implement it in your life?

I’m not sure I’ve ever been as proud of something that’s come out of me other than my two girls as I am about the Do Less Planner. I couldn’t be more thrilled to be sharing it with you now.

Would you, or a company you know, be a good fit to sponsor The Kate & Mike Show? If so, let’s talk! You can email mike@mikejwatts.com regarding current sponsorship opportunities.

Show notes and links for this episode can be found at http://www.katenorthrup.com/podcast.

Episode 158: How to Use Strategic Planning to Get the Biggest Results with Less Stress in 2020 Nov 05, 2019

Show notes

I love the smell of new office supplies. Going back-to-school shopping at Staples was my heaven. And I love planning so much that I plan my planning.

How about you? Do you use an intersecting system of 3 different color-coded calendars, or are you holding on tenuously to your "keeping it all up here" [points to brain] system?

Either way, I’m glad you’re here.

We officially have 7.5 weeks left, not only in this year but in this decade.

I’m officially naming 2020 the year of clarity because...you know...20/20. 👀

One of my favorite quotes is:

Money loves clarity.

I’m pretty sure my friend Barbara Huson, author of Sacred Success, was the one who coined that phrase. (Although I see it used without credit a lot on the interwebs. Side note: credit your sources folks!)

You know what else loves clarity?

Your goals! Your dreams! Your desires!

And you know what you need for clarity?

A plan.

Mike and I are already doing some strategic planning for 2020 (super exciting things coming down the pike for you!), so we thought we’d let you in on the behind-the-scenes of some of our process.

Today on the podcast we’re sharing 3 ways you can use strategic planning to get the biggest results with the least stress in 2020.

Listen in for:

• The most important question you need to be asking yourself as you plan 2020

• The map we create for the year to ensure we don’t overschedule ourselves

• The formula we use for a pre-launch runway and why it will make all the difference in your launch results

• The exact calendar and planning system I’m using in 2020 to ensure we have the biggest results with the least amount of stress possible.

Once you’ve listened, we’d love to hear from you:

What are your tried-and-true planning practices?

What calendar and/or planning systems do you use?

Which one of the 3 planning tips are you the most excited to implement?

Here’s to making 2020 the best year ever and the start of the most incredible decade so far!

Would you, or a company you know, be a good fit to sponsor The Kate & Mike Show? If so, let’s talk! You can email mike@mikejwatts.com regarding current sponsorship opportunities.

Show notes and links for this episode can be found at http://www.katenorthrup.com/podcast.

Episode 157: Tired of being the smartest person in the room? How to Uplevel Your Business Through Relationships Oct 29, 2019

Show notes

When one of the women who joined our high-level program told me that the reason she’d joined was because she was sick of being the smartest person in the room, I absolutely loved her honesty.

It also made me think of the rooms I’ve been in over the years and the rooms I get on airplanes to be in these days.

Why do I wrangle childcare and leave my family for 4 days to go stay in a hotel across the country in a room of almost all strangers?

Why do I invest money that feels like a lot to work closely with teachers and coaches?

Because expansion.

Because growth.

Because upleveling.

On today’s episode of The Kate & Mike Show, I shared 2 specific things that happened just last week.

Both were insights that I received from people who have knowledge and skill sets beyond those I have in certain areas (which, by the way, doesn’t always have to do with revenue).

Both insights took less than 3 minutes for me to receive but are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars because of what will happen in our business as I implement the shifts.

If you feel stuck, uninspired, or like, "Is this all there is?" I’m going to suggest you get yourself in some new rooms.

Rooms where people are being their true selves, not the selves expected of them.

Rooms where people are unapologetically celebrating their awesomeness.

Rooms where people are taking action according to their dreams, not the normal reality that most people think is possible.

Taking courses and getting new content is one way to uplevel, and I’m a big believer in it.

But even more powerful than that is connection.

Connection with people whose presence calls you to expand is one of the most "do less" ways to uplevel I’ve ever experienced. Getting yourself in a new environment catalyzes growth by osmosis in many cases.

I can’t think of many things better than growing my business by osmosis.

Listen in to the episode to learn how to uplevel through relationships, for behind-the-scenes stories, insights, and some after bedtime hilarity because this was a "late-night" recording (meaning 7:30pm).

Would you, or a company you know, be a good fit to sponsor The Kate & Mike Show? If so, let’s talk! You can email mike@mikejwatts.com regarding current sponsorship opportunities.

Show notes and links for this episode can be found at http://www.katenorthrup.com/podcast.

Episode 156: The Opportunity in Illness Oct 22, 2019

Show notes

If you hang around the planet long enough, you’re going to get sick, and for sure someone you love is going to get sick.

A year ago my husband was so sick that he dropped 40 pounds in a month, his skin kept peeling off repeatedly, his entire head swelled, cracked, and was oozing, and he could do little more than sit in a chair all day.

This is a screenshot I took while we were on FaceTime when he was spending a week at my mom’s because she was away. I couldn’t do anything to help him, and he couldn’t do anything to help me take care of the girls and our business, so it was easier for him to be somewhere else.

I couldn’t allow myself to realize how bad it all was in the moment because I needed to keep it together to take care of our kids and our company, but looking back now, it was really bad.

I’m so happy to say that Mike’s health is 95% better and that the dark period we went through a year ago is becoming more and more of a distant memory.

But here’s what I’m even happier to say: Mike took the assignment.

See, I don’t think illness is simply our bodies needing us to pay attention to something physical going on that needs medication or a procedure.

I believe illness is an opportunity. It’s an opportunity for awakening, growth, repatterning, presence, and expansion.

But only if we’re up for the assignment.

Mike is a different person than he was a year ago. Or, perhaps, he’s actually the person he was always meant to be that was hidden under layers that literally needed to fall off in order to reveal his most beautiful self.

At the one-year anniversary of the sickest Mike got during his 9 months of struggle, we recorded a conversation about The Opportunity in Illness for the podcast to let you in on:

• The surprising way we view illness that helps us embrace it instead of fear it

• The critical switch your body needs to make in order to heal, how the medical system hampers this shift, and what you can do to make sure it happens anyway

• Practical steps for getting your body into a healing state that have nothing to do with what you put in your mouth

• The question that I ask myself every time I get sick that ensures that I uplevel instead of being taken out

Once you’ve listened, I’d love to hear what this episode brings up for you. What did you learn? How can you apply it to your own healing journey? Leave us a comment and let us know.

Here’s to all of our healing journeys, physical and otherwise. You can get your own copy of Do Less and still receive incredible bonuses at http://katenorthrup.com/book!

Kate wants to hear from you, and you can post about your #DoLess experiences on Instagram, DM her (@katenorthrup) or email info@katenorthrup.com. Would you, or a company you know, be a good fit to sponsor The Kate & Mike Show? If so, let’s talk! You can email mike@mikejwatts.com regarding current sponsorship opportunities.

Show notes and links for this episode can be found at http://www.katenorthrup.com/podcast.

The Medicine Is Inside Us: How This Doctor Has Built A Thriving Online Business Teaching Healing Through Mindfulness Oct 17, 2019

Show notes

So many people who are healers go on to medical school because they want to live out their dream of helping people. But then they discover some of the things that are broken about our medical system, and they don't know where to channel their healing passion. That was the case with Sophie Maffolini, who practices medicine for part of the year in the Arctic and lives between Montreal and Brazil the rest of the year. When she discovered mindfulness to heal her eating disorder and anxiety, a whole new world opened up for her, and she knew she needed to bring this healing to others. Harnessing the power of online business, Sophie has created an impressive business online teaching mindfulness, and it's now making as much as her medical practice. Listen in to hear how this 2019 Origin Incubator member learned to tap into her own intuition to grow the business of her dreams and do the true healing work she's come here to do.

Episode 155: Redefining and Shaping Modern Masculinity with Jason Rosario Oct 15, 2019

Show notes

This week we’re bringing you something a little different in our weekly conversation.

Ever since the #metoo movement and the uncovering of the toxic masculinity embedded in almost every layer of our society, masculinity has been up for scrutiny, and rightly so.

Some men feel scared to open their mouths or have meetings with women one on one at the office.

Some are questioning everything they learned about what it is to be a man to decide if they want to carry those beliefs forward or embody something different.

And no matter your gender expression, this conversation affects all of us.

Whether you’re raising boys, you’re a grown man yourself, or you’re simply in relationship with men as a sister, co-worker, partner, or friend, this conversation is one we all need to be engaged in.

What is a version of modern masculinity that we want to be supporting and living into?

We brought Jason Rosario, founder of The Lives of Men and host and executive producer of the Yahoo original show, Dear Men, on The Kate & Mike Show to share his perspective on modern masculinity.

When I was too sick on the day of the recording to be part of the interview, Mike and I both agreed it was a blessing because we knew the conversation about masculinity would be different with two men talking about their lived experience than it would be with me there.

So, we tried something new and had Mike host the episode himself, and after listening to it, I knew we definitely made the right decision.

Listen in to this week’s podcast episode for:

• An incredible piece of wisdom about what to share with our kids (and what not to)

• The one thing we shouldn’t do as co-parents if we want to be supportive of our kids’ journeys

• The critical piece that fathers bring to the table (and it isn’t being around all the time as you might assume)

• How to deal with your partner making more money than you (especially if you’re in a heterosexual relationship and you’re a man)

• An updated concept of masculinity that our world very much needs

After you’ve listened in, Mike, Jason, and I would like to know: What did this episode bring up for you?

What did you learn or are you now considering differently after listening?

Here’s to being, raising, and/or loving great men. You can get your own copy of Do Less and still receive incredible bonuses at http://katenorthrup.com/book! Kate wants to hear from you, and you can post about your #DoLess experiences on Instagram, DM her (@katenorthrup) or email info@katenorthrup.com.

Would you, or a company you know, be a good fit to sponsor The Kate & Mike Show? If so, let’s talk! You can email mike@mikejwatts.com regarding current sponsorship opportunities.

Show notes and links for this episode can be found at http://www.katenorthrup.com/podcast.

How to Take a Thriving Local Business Online to Serve More People While Doing Less Oct 10, 2019

Show notes

Between a full schedule of postpartum doula clients in her thriving 10-year-old practice and kids with very full plates, Darcy Sauers had a lot going on. She craved long expanses of time to complete the projects she wanted to work on to build out the online portion of her business, so she could help even more moms (outside her local area in NH) and make more income while doing less. But she thought her business wasn't big enough to "deserve" hiring an assistant or someone to help her with household tasks or driving her kids around. So instead, she would work for an hour, drop a kid off at soccer, go see a postpartum doula client, go pick up another kid, and then find herself always regrouping and never getting traction on the projects she needed to get out of the loop of trading hours for dollars. Until she made a super important mental shift. She let go of something that was holding her back, and everything opened up. Listen in to find out how The Doula Darcy - who's helped over 1062 new moms through quite possibly the most difficult transition of their lives - learned how to grow her business while doing less.

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