In this mini-episode of "Good Ideas + Bad Decisions," Kat and Ellen catch up after a chaotic stretch for both of them. Ellen has been managing family illness, the loss of a pet, and travel prep, while Kat is also dealing with difficult family health news, an exciting but stressful shop project, and pet health scares. Kat and Ellen trade thoughts on AI, weighing concerns about its environmental and cognitive costs against how genuinely useful it's been for their small businesses, from troubleshooting and proofreading to organizing scattered ideas.Don't forget to⁠ submit your business questions⁠ for future episodes! Kat is the Founder of kat&co, a Creative Operations Consultant, and the Co-Owner and Director of Operations at Benchwork Fabrication. She helps interior designers and creatives turn ideas into streamlined, sustainable businesses. With a background in psychology and deep experience in creative business operations, she’s known for navigating the intersection of creativity and systems with both strategy and empathy. Join her newsletter, The kat&co Download.Ellen Hockley is a three-time entrepreneur, small business consultant, community builder, and the founder of Ellen Hockley Consulting and SAGE Women. She guides female founders to build intuitive, values-driven businesses aligned with the life they want for themselves and their families. Join her Substack newsletter, ⁠The Quiet Wins⁠.

In this episode of "Good Ideas + Bad Decisions," Kat hosts solo with Christina Hunt, founder of Haus von Albe and a brand/community strategist who also teaches yoga and human design. Christina shares her winding path from Germany, where she left a long-term relationship and pursued yoga training, to Texas, and eventually into a Meta role that built her paid media skills before she launched her own business. She discusses her evolution from Meta ads into broader marketing strategy and fractional CMO work, the exhaustion of chasing algorithms and inconsistent startup budgets, and her advice for founders: prioritize self-knowledge, set boundaries, and take time to recognize your own accomplishments.With 15 years of experience at the intersection of brand strategy and community building, Christina Hunt believes the best marketing doesn't feel like marketing, it feels like belonging. She has built brand communities at Kit and Ace in London, grown boutique fitness brands in one of the world's most competitive markets, directed strategy for global festivals across four continents, and consulted for founders across the US and UK. She now brings her expertise in marketing strategy to brands through Haus von Albe.Kat is the Founder of kat&co, a Creative Operations Consultant, and the Co-Owner and Director of Operations at Benchwork Fabrication. She helps interior designers and creatives turn ideas into streamlined, sustainable businesses. With a background in psychology and deep experience in creative business operations, she’s known for navigating the intersection of creativity and systems with both strategy and empathy. Join her newsletter, The kat&co Download.Ellen Hockley is a three-time entrepreneur, small business consultant, community builder, and the founder of Ellen Hockley Consulting and SAGE Women. She guides female founders to build intuitive, values-driven businesses aligned with the life they want for themselves and their families. Join her Substack newsletter, ⁠The Quiet Wins⁠.00:00 Podcast Intro00:47 Guest Intro01:28 Local Banter Catch Up03:07 Mercury Direct Updates04:27 Back To Full Time05:00 How We Met07:47 Origin Story Germany10:38 Meta Job And Strategy15:18 Business Evolution Burnout20:29 Community Over Algorithms23:57 Choosing Stability Now25:41 Evolving Past Identity26:43 Autonomy Over Micromanaging28:59 Commute Reality Check31:54 Office Life After COVID33:50 Rethinking Career Loyalty36:22 What’s Next Careerwise38:42 Know Yourself First40:54 Slow Down and Reflect42:53 Where to Find Christina44:15 Duchess Era Goodbye45:30 Episode Wrap and Outro

In this mini-episode of “Good Ideas + Bad Decisions,” Kat and Ellen catch up on extreme summer weather and shifts in working life. Kat shares updates on Benchwork's shop build-out, including new equipment, improved organization, and the realities of investing in a permanent workspace. Ellen discusses summer childcare, basement renovation plans, and potential business changes to better align work with family life. They also answer a community question on marketing, sharing how referrals, LinkedIn, newsletters, Google Business updates, and a current website help support mostly word-of-mouth growth.Don't forget to⁠ submit your business questions⁠ for future episodes! Kat is the Founder of kat&co, a Creative Operations Consultant, and the Co-Owner and Director of Operations at Benchwork Fabrication. She helps interior designers and creatives turn ideas into streamlined, sustainable businesses. With a background in psychology and deep experience in creative business operations, she’s known for navigating the intersection of creativity and systems with both strategy and empathy. Join her newsletter, The kat&co Download.Ellen Hockley is a three-time entrepreneur, small business consultant, community builder, and the founder of Ellen Hockley Consulting and SAGE Women. She guides female founders to build intuitive, values-driven businesses aligned with the life they want for themselves and their families. Join her Substack newsletter, ⁠The Quiet Wins⁠.

In this episode of 'Good Ideas + Bad Decisions,' hosts Kat and Ellen talk to Callie Exas, a women's health registered dietitian and personal trainer supporting women through hormone health, burnout, and strength training, especially from their early 30s into perimenopause and menopause. Callie shares her path from NYC advertising and teaching spin to earning nutrition degrees, RD licensure, and building a PCOS-informed women's health practice. She discusses shifting diet culture to flexibility over restriction, busting fasting and keto myths, and ditching all-or-nothing movement mindsets, plus her tiered business model spanning insurance-based counseling, labs, glucose monitoring, and personal training.Callie Exas is a registered dietitian nutritionist and fitness expert specializing in women's health and wellbeing. Her own struggles with burnout and body image shaped her core belief: you can't hate your way into a body you love. Since founding her practice in 2018, she's guided clients through a holistic, individualized approach to wellness built on four pillars: sleep, stress, physical activity, and nutrition, all grounded in science and mindful eating. Having navigated her own major life changes, including becoming a mother of two, Callie is passionate about helping clients embrace self-care as an active practice and take ownership of their long-term health.  Kat is the Founder of kat&co, a Creative Operations Consultant, and the Co-Owner and Director of Operations at Benchwork Fabrication. She helps interior designers and creatives turn ideas into streamlined, sustainable businesses. With a background in psychology and deep experience in creative business operations, she’s known for navigating the intersection of creativity and systems with both strategy and empathy. Join her newsletter, The kat&co Download.Ellen Hockley is a three-time entrepreneur, small business consultant, community builder, and the founder of Ellen Hockley Consulting and SAGE Women. She guides female founders to build intuitive, values-driven businesses aligned with the life they want for themselves and their families. Join her Substack newsletter, ⁠The Quiet Wins⁠.  00:00 Podcast Intro01:12 Meet Callie02:16 Boxing And Friendship04:41 Callie’s Work08:57 Nonlinear Career Path14:36 Diet Culture Reframe18:20 Teaching Body Trust23:00 All Or Nothing Mindset31:20 Business Model Breakdown37:57 Stress Boundaries Health41:10 Final Advice And Wrap

In this mini-episode of "Good Ideas + Bad Decisions," Kat and Ellen catch up about summer and how it's affecting their lives and businesses. Kat shares news of adopting a senior rescue dog to keep her older dog company, along with the quirks of helping a new pet settle in. Ellen reflects on a hectic start to summer with childcare transitions and shifting routines. They close by discussing how the summer season shapes their businesses, from scheduling around camp hours to planning travel and prioritizing rest. Don't forget to⁠ submit your business questions⁠ for future episodes! Kat is the Founder of kat&co, a Creative Operations Consultant, and the Co-Owner and Director of Operations at Benchwork Fabrication. She helps interior designers and creatives turn ideas into streamlined, sustainable businesses. With a background in psychology and deep experience in creative business operations, she’s known for navigating the intersection of creativity and systems with both strategy and empathy. Join her newsletter, The kat&co Download.Ellen Hockley is a three-time entrepreneur, small business consultant, community builder, and the founder of Ellen Hockley Consulting and SAGE Women. She guides female founders to build intuitive, values-driven businesses aligned with the life they want for themselves and their families. Join her Substack newsletter, ⁠The Quiet Wins⁠.

In this episode of 'Good Ideas + Bad Decisions,' Kat and Ellen talk to Dayna DeStefano, an entrepreneur who has launched and sunset multiple ventures since leaving corporate product leadership in 2019. Dayna shares how that winding path led her to co-own her husband's family commercial cleaning business and now spearhead an acquisition strategy through CleanCo Holdings, buying up complementary building service businesses and integrating them with centralized operations and data. She also offers her advice to founders: design your career around your own blueprint, stay simple and focused, and act on what you feel called to do. Dayna DeStefano has spent nearly 20 years building brands and businesses, from serving as VP of Product at a digital media company acquired by Gary Vaynerchuk to founding multiple ventures, including a branding agency, a consulting company, and a tech literacy media company for women. Today, she splits her time between advising select founders and small business owners on go-to-market strategy and AI implementation, co-owning a portfolio of commercial building services businesses with her husband, and building The Business of Energy, where she writes about using energy as a navigation system for life and work. Kat is the Founder of kat&co, a Creative Operations Consultant, and the Co-Owner and Director of Operations at Benchwork Fabrication. She helps interior designers and creatives turn ideas into streamlined, sustainable businesses. With a background in psychology and deep experience in creative business operations, she’s known for navigating the intersection of creativity and systems with both strategy and empathy. Join her newsletter, The kat&co Download.Ellen Hockley is a three-time entrepreneur, small business consultant, community builder, and the founder of Ellen Hockley Consulting and SAGE Women. She guides female founders to build intuitive, values-driven businesses aligned with the life they want for themselves and their families. Join her Substack newsletter, ⁠The Quiet Wins⁠.00:00 Podcast Welcome01:01 Meet Dayna02:35 Entrepreneur Origin Story03:11 Agency Success and Burnout03:44 Web3 Experiment Unblocked04:43 Co-Founder and New Baby Pivot05:36 Boring Business Big Money06:48 AI for Small Business Ops08:20 Working With Your Spouse10:52 Commercial Cleaning Niches12:19 Recession Proof Lessons13:05 Rinse and Repeat Expansion14:47 Scaling Local vs National17:35 Growth Options Ahead18:14 Roll Up Strategy Focus19:47 Boomer Seller Deals23:54 Integrating Acquisitions28:24 Tech Stack And AI Data32:02 Selling Data To Robotics35:33 What Drives Dayna41:33 Parting Wisdom And Future44:12 Where To Find Dayna45:23 Episode Wrap Up

In this mini-episode of ‘Good Ideas + Bad Decisions,’ Kat and Ellen discuss how small-town dynamics can intensify business relationships and conflicts. Ellen shares a conflict in her business community and she and Kat conclude that Ellen should focus on showing up authentically rather than dwelling on the conflict. Kat also talks about launching her fabrication company Benchwork with two former coworkers and anticipating a difficult reaction from their previous boss, while the episode briefly touches on automation services and Ellen's email and domain forwarding issues. Don't forget to⁠ submit your business questions⁠ for future episodes! Kat is the Founder of kat&co, a Creative Operations Consultant, and the Co-Owner and Director of Operations at Benchwork Fabrication. She helps interior designers and creatives turn ideas into streamlined, sustainable businesses. With a background in psychology and deep experience in creative business operations, she’s known for navigating the intersection of creativity and systems with both strategy and empathy. Join her newsletter, The kat&co Download.Ellen Hockley is a three-time entrepreneur, small business consultant, community builder, and the founder of Ellen Hockley Consulting and SAGE Women. She guides female founders to build intuitive, values-driven businesses aligned with the life they want for themselves and their families. Join her Substack newsletter, ⁠The Quiet Wins⁠.

In this episode of 'Good Ideas + Bad Decisions,' hosts Kat and Ellen talk to Emily Bissen, founder of Blue Heron Business Partners, whose work sits at the intersection of business opportunity strategy and human design. Emily, a self-described 4/1 manifesting generator, explains how discovering her own human design gave language to skills she'd always had: reading people, spotting opportunities, and making the right connections at the right time.The conversation gets into the tension between prescribed entrepreneurial playbooks and trusting a more personalized approach, including the permission it takes to set boundaries, walk away from misaligned work, and build a business around what actually matters.Emily Bissen is a Business Opportunity Strategist and Super Connector who helps talented, driven business owners stop spinning their wheels and start moving. Using each client's unique Human Design, she creates strategies built for how they're wired rather than forcing someone else's playbook.Find Emily on LinkedIn or visit her at blueheronbusinesspartners.com.Kat is the Founder of kat&co, a Creative Operations Consultant, and the Co-Owner and Director of Operations at Benchwork Fabrication. She helps interior designers and creatives turn ideas into streamlined, sustainable businesses. With a background in psychology and deep experience in creative business operations, she’s known for navigating the intersection of creativity and systems with both strategy and empathy. Join her newsletter, The kat&co Download.Ellen Hockley is a three-time entrepreneur, small business consultant, community builder, and the founder of Ellen Hockley Consulting and SAGE Women. She guides female founders to build intuitive, values-driven businesses aligned with the life they want for themselves and their families. Join her Substack newsletter, ⁠The Quiet Wins⁠.00:00 Podcast Welcome01:22 Meet Emily Beeson02:00 Human Design Basics04:25 Retreat Spark Story05:39 Using Design With Clients08:37 Starting Her Business11:05 Ditching Others Playbooks14:25 Offers And Containers18:04 Time Freedom With Kids20:28 Teachers To Entrepreneurs22:53 Ditching the Playbook23:48 Permission to Choose26:20 Boundaries and Availability28:28 Permission to Quit29:01 Human Design Deep Dive30:29 Energy and Grounding34:50 Decision Making Styles40:35 Oldest Daughter Patterns42:56 Building a Support Village44:25 Get Curious Closing46:00 Where to Find Emily46:45 Podcast Sign Off

In this mini-episode of 'Good Ideas + Bad Decisions,' Kat and Ellen discuss a book, "This Story Might Save Your Life," that mirrors their own podcast experience, then debate whether audiobooks count as reading (spoiler: Kat and Ellen agree that they do). They also explore how to make networking feel less awkward through clear purpose, low barriers, casual formats, and community containers where members can genuinely support one another.Don't forget to⁠⁠ submit your business questions⁠⁠ for future episodes! Kat is the Founder of ⁠kat&co⁠, a Creative Operations Consultant, and the Co-Owner and Director of Operations at ⁠Benchwork Fabrication⁠. She helps interior designers and creatives turn ideas into streamlined, sustainable businesses. With a background in psychology and deep experience in creative business operations, she’s known for navigating the intersection of creativity and systems with both strategy and empathy. Join her newsletter, ⁠The kat&co Download⁠.Ellen Hockley is a three-time entrepreneur, small business consultant, community builder, and the founder of ⁠Ellen Hockley Consulting⁠ and ⁠SAGE Women⁠. She guides female founders to build intuitive, values-driven businesses aligned with the life they want for themselves and their families. Join her Substack newsletter,⁠ ⁠The Quiet Wins⁠⁠.

In this episode of 'Good Ideas + Bad Decisions,' hosts Kat and Ellen sit down with Emily Oberman, founder of The Content Atelier, a copywriter and content strategist who built a boutique agency around long-form content, newsletters (including Substack), and podcast support after recognizing a gap in the market for writers who actually understand the nuance of founder-led storytelling. The conversation spans remote work, packaging services as a generalist, navigating AI, a tough 2025 economy, and her advice to founders.Emily Oberman is a copywriter, content strategist, and founder of The Content Atelier, a boutique content marketing agency that focuses on long-form content. She has over 10 years of experience in content and systems strategy and has ghostwritten for over 150 individuals and brands. Her clients consider her their digital Mary Poppins.Kat is the Founder of kat&co, a Creative Operations Consultant, and the Co-Owner and Director of Operations at Benchwork Fabrication. She helps interior designers and creatives turn ideas into streamlined, sustainable businesses. With a background in psychology and deep experience in creative business operations, she’s known for navigating the intersection of creativity and systems with both strategy and empathy. Join her newsletter, The kat&co Download.Ellen Hockley is a three-time entrepreneur, small business consultant, community builder, and the founder of Ellen Hockley Consulting and SAGE Women. She guides female founders to build intuitive, values-driven businesses aligned with the life they want for themselves and their families. Join her Substack newsletter, ⁠The Quiet Wins⁠.00:00 Podcast Welcome00:47 Chaotic Catch Up01:27 Meet Emily Oberman03:11 Long Form Content Focus04:24 Substack Versus Blogs07:06 Podcast Strategy Work07:42 From Corporate To Remote08:27 Commuting And Childcare11:02 Remote Agency To Solo11:55 Imaginary Friends Origin13:35 Digital Mary Poppins Brand16:46 AI And Marketing Ops19:40 Clients Using AI Drafts22:27 Why And Who First24:48 Values Driven Services25:43 Pricing For Small Business27:00 Choosing Tools By Values28:59 Claude Versus ChatGPT30:18 Generalist Boundaries31:53 Intuition And Human Design33:41 Remote Work Setup37:19 Contractors And Volatility41:34 Female Founder Stigma43:50 Advice And Wrap Up