Plenty with Kate Northrup

Ever find yourself getting all fired up about something and loving the part of yourself that you access when you get all feisty? I have found myself in this place A LOT lately, and based on our sudden spike in podcast downloads and Facebook live views, you’re on board, too. Thank you for being my feisty friends who are ready to shake sh*t up with me. I’ve always been a stationery enthusiast. Blank...

One night last week after I’d gotten the girls to bed and washed the 350 dishes piled beside the sink (why did I decide to make a dinner requiring like 6 different bowls when Mike was out of town and it was just me and the girls - and they ate virtually nothing, I might add?), I put my sweats on and cozied up by myself in the basement to do something I’ve never done before: Record a solo episode o...

It was a sleepy Monday in a sleepy town in Maine. We had our panties in a wrinkle because we found ourselves feeling short on time and long on pressure. And yet again, because old habits die hard, we realized we didn’t need to push so hard. We could give ourselves more space. Then we walked into a random restaurant and...BOOM. There she was. One of the most iconic people in the world. In Maine. 20...

It was March in Boston. The weather sucked, as it does in New England that time of year. This thing that happened had happened to me only one time before. I saw a woman I hadn’t seen in years for the first time, and without much warm-up or fanfare, something inside me knew I had to hire her. It was as though my body said, "She’s what’s next for you." It happened with the coach I worked with in 201...

When I was a senior in college, Tim Ferriss came out with the first edition of The 4-Hour Work Weekand I was fascinated. As a productivity junkie since the age of 14, I couldn’t get enough. I devoured it. One of the concepts in particular changed something in me forever. The school system had taught me to become well-rounded. The college application process had groomed me to fill in all of the are...

Have you ever had something about yourself that you don’t think is that big of deal, but when you share it, everyone else seems to think it is a big deal? That’s Mike and me with drinking. Or not drinking, as the case may be. Our most popular episode of The Kate & Mike Show of 2019 BY FAR was the one we did about Sobriety, Substances, and Choosing to Live Awake (episode 137) in which Mike shar...

Wondering if you have a drinking problem? Yeah, I know. That first line is intense. Well, here’s what: Today is the first day of a new year. The first day of a new decade, in fact. Can you think of a better time to talk about the most widely-used, (abused), and normalized drug on the planet (responsible for more deaths than all of the other drugs combined) and your relationship with it? I can’t. I...

You’re out there serving your people (your clients, community, kids, family, etc.) and making sure they’re living their best lives...but there’s also you. How are you taking care of you? One of my favorite things to learn about leaders is how they take care of themselves because I get inspired with new ideas to enhance my own wellbeing, capacity, and performance. This week on the podcast, we have...

Last June I had the absolute pleasure of standing in the back of the room watching my husband Mike share his heart and wisdom on a panel of incredible men at the BirthFit Summit. I was so freaking proud of him. Mike shared the stage with a man who spoke about something that really touched me. This man was raised as a woman and transitioned to being a man in his early twenties. He shared that he wa...

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 turbulen...

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 shoul...

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 deadl...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 learn...

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 though...

Until quite recently I was firmly in the camp of: Any amount of screen time my kids have is not optimal. I’m not a purist when it comes to parenting, and Penelope can watch a show on the weekends and on the days of the week that she’s home. Even with that small amount, I’ve found myself feeling guilty and like maybe we should be a no-screens-at-any-time house. Until I was introduced to the book Th...

When you're operating your business under the belief that the right answers lie outside of you, there's a lot of wasted time and energy, and it's nearly impossible to find your center. That makes things feel chaotic and confusing for your customers, too, and it's hard to get traction. Alex Hughes is a Life Coach committed to helping busy mothers carve out headspace and optimize their creative soul...

While I love sharing ideas that are against the grain, I rarely go full-on controversial. But today, I am. To be honest, I’m squirming as I write this because my central nervous system has trouble with the inner explosion that happens when someone has been offended by something I’ve said or an idea I’ve shared. My husband, on the other hand, is built differently. With Scorpio rising, he goes right...

Like most entrepreneurs, Beth thought that what she needed to reach the next level in her business was nitty-gritty strategies and marketing plans. It turned out, she needed something far more powerful that she never would have never sought out but she's so grateful she found. Listen in to hear how this videographer, editor, and online business owner cleared her blind spots, pivoted her business,...

Years ago I sat in a beautiful theater in Downtown Salt Lake City and was swept away by the stories the energetic woman was telling from stage. I walked out of the session and immediately texted the conference organizer, letting her know that this woman needed to be keynoting on the mainstage next time. Little did I know, when I had the honor of getting all fired up by her captivating brand of sto...

Everyone growing a business is going to fail along the way. What Dr. Cleopatra Abdou-Kamperveen realized is that she wanted to fail as soon as possible, so she could get on the right path even more quickly. As a newly tenured Professor with a proven pre-conception and fertility protocol that has a 97% success rate, Dr. Cleopatra was ready to get the word out there in a bigger way. Listen in to how...