We recently had the chance to connect with Katie Pritchett Ph.D. and have shared our conversation below.
Katie, a huge thanks to you for investing the time to share your wisdom with those who are seeking it. We think it’s so important for us to share stories with our neighbors, friends and community because knowledge multiples when we share with each other. Let’s jump in: What do you think others are secretly struggling with—but never say?
As a business professor and consultant to hundreds of Fortune 500 leaders, I see the same struggle everywhere. Most people aren’t hiding their challenges; they just don’t realize what’s really running their show. So many leaders and parents are plain exhausted from living on autopilot, stuck in cycles they never chose on purpose. And it’s rarely about weak leadership or doing something wrong. Instead, old habits like people-pleasing, perfectionism, or over-functioning are really just survival patterns from childhood that are now dressed up for work or family life. They once helped us cope, but now they quietly hold us back.
The advice out there is often, “Be resilient, push harder, stay strong.” But under the surface, people are simply tired of surviving. What they really crave is permission to pause, notice what’s truly going on, and start changing the real patterns underneath.
I know that slowing down and looking at these habits can feel risky, like you’re admitting failure or jeopardizing your success. I felt the same way until I faced my own exhaustion and realized that naming my patterns didn’t take away my edge. It finally set me free.
So the thing in my work that I want to no longer be a secret is: Recognizing what drives your mindset and actions, and deciding whether it still serves you, is where real change begins.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Yes, Hi! I’m Dr. Katie Pritchett, founder of KPI Coaching, LLC. I dedicate my work to helping leaders understand their patterns, reclaim their energy, and lead with presence. Before creating KPI Coaching, I spent over 20 years in leadership work, including roles as an award-winning professor at UT Austin teaching thousands of business students, and as Director of Organizational Effectiveness at a global consulting firm.
What I’ve learned across these roles is that real transformation doesn’t happen from reading a book or listening to a podcast. It happens through lived experience. This is true for individuals as well as multi-million dollar companies. My doctoral research focused on learning by doing, and my whole practice is built on this truth: you can’t just think your way into a new way of being—you have to experience and embody it.
That’s what inspired me to create my signature approach to working with leaders and teams: Keynote Labs™. It’s where inspiration meets hands-on practice, so leaders actually feel the change and take it with them, instead of just learning about it.
I am a champion for a new movement in leadership that honors a shift away from autopilot and outdated models, especially in the age of AI. I believe the future belongs to leaders who bring more humanity, empathy, and true connection to their teams and organizations.
On a personal note, being a mom to my wonderful 8-year-old son, Lincoln, reminds me every day that leadership starts at home. In both work and life, I have the choice to notice old patterns and actively decide what I want to pass on to the next generation and to the people I serve.
This is the work that energizes me most: helping leaders get back in the driver’s seat, not just so they can be effective, but so they can truly choose how they want to feel and who they want to become at work, at home, and everywhere in between.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
As a child, I grew up with an unpredictable home life which led me to reading other people’s moods as a survival skill. So I developed a pattern where I believed I had to be perfect to stay safe. If I could just anticipate everyone’s needs and never make a mistake, maybe I wouldn’t be criticized or hurt. I learned early on that being small and agreeable seemed safer, and I honestly believed love had to be earned by getting everything “right.”
What I know now is that those beliefs weren’t truth. They were survival strategies. It was the best my nervous system could do with the information it had at the time.
Thankfully, through leadership coaching and various therapeutic modalities (and a life-changing trip to Greece that reconnected me with my joy), I realized those old strategies weren’t the real me. Underneath it all, I was always that curious, creative little girl who was open, joyful, and deeply loving.
Today, I know my worth isn’t something I have to earn or prove. Being fully seen, messy parts and all, is so much better than chasing perfection. What kept me safe as a child would only keep me small as an adult. I have lived the transformation I now help others find: breaking these old survival cycles brings so much more peace, energy, and joy than I ever thought possible.
When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
After almost four years of battling infertility, my husband and I finally got pregnant with our son, Lincoln, through IVF. We were told we could never naturally conceive, so you can imagine our shock and absolute joy when I got pregnant again when Lincoln was 18 months old. It was one of the happiest moments of my life!
Then I lost her. The miscarriage was traumatic and nearly killed me. I was hemorrhaging at home, and I needed emergency surgery. My life was in jeopardy.
Two days later, I went back to work. I couldn’t talk about it. I stored that trauma in my body, bleeding and cramping while pretending nothing was wrong. I was so alone.
For years, I tried to just push through it. That’s what we’re taught, right? “Be resilient. Bounce back. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” I thought staying stoic was strength. But now I call that toxic resilience– the idea that we should power through unchanged, that we should harden ourselves against pain rather than let it transform us.
Toxic resilience says “just get over it” without processing what happened. It’s individualistic hardening. It builds armor. And I realized that if I kept living that way, I would just be repeating cycles, not breaking them. I’d be teaching my son to hide his pain too.
The turning point came when I understood that the opposite of toxic resilience is Regeneration. Regeneration borrows principles from nature which suggest that our growth is not about bouncing back to your original version, but allowing yourself to be changed by what you go through. Like a forest after a fire doesn’t just return to what it was. It regenerates into something richer, more diverse, more resilient than before.
Regeneration is letting the breakdown become your breakthrough. It’s composting your pain into wisdom. It’s allowing yourself to be transformed through challenges, not despite them.
That’s when I stopped hiding. I started sharing my story. I built community with other women going through infertility and loss. I let the pain change me, soften me, open me. And that’s where the real power was. Not in pretending it didn’t hurt, but in letting it teach me how to grow and change patterns that kept me stuck in adding to my suffering.
Now I help leaders do the same thing. Because real power doesn’t come from hardening against life. It comes from letting life transform you.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What truths are so foundational in your life that you rarely articulate them?
One of the deepest truths guiding my life and work is that everything is energy. People, teams, even entire organizations have a frequency—that unmistakable sense you get when you walk into a room and just feel the vibe.
This isn’t just feel-good language; it’s rooted in physics. What looks solid is really energy vibrating at different speeds, and that vibration shapes how we act and connect with each other.
Over the years, I’ve learned to sense whether I’m resonating with someone, especially in leadership spaces. It’s not about being right or wrong; it’s about being tuned in or tuned out. For example, when I work with a leader who feels misunderstood, often it’s not just a communication issue but a difference in frequency. A leader in fight-or-flight mode will operate very differently than one leading from clarity and presence, and that energetic gap needs to be acknowledged before any real connection or change can happen.
I openly discuss nervous system regulation, psychological safety, and presence in my leadership work with my clients, because even if people aren’t used to talking about energy, they absolutely feel its impact. In corporate settings, I’m able to translate these truths into language that people can not only understand but experience for themselves. Once people begin to sense what it feels like to be in true resonance with each other, everything shifts, ideas flow, trust grows, and solutions seem to appear more easily.
You can’t unsee this once you notice it. The way we show up energetically sets the tone, not just for ourselves, but for everyone around us. For me, real transformation isn’t about new strategies on paper, but about actually embodying a higher frequency and helping others do the same.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. If you laid down your name, role, and possessions—what would remain?
If I laid down my name, my role, and all my possessions, what would remain is energy, love, and the ripples I’ve created in others’ lives.
What truly lasts are the transformations: a leader daring to be vulnerable, a parent breaking a generational cycle, an executive learning that burnout is an invitation to grow. These moments aren’t measured by titles, but by the quiet shifts that change lives.
At home, it’s about sending my son Lincoln into the world with kindness, curiosity, and emotional intelligence. This feels like the legacy that matters most.
There is also the partnership I have built with my husband Paul over 22 years, choosing each other, growing together, and creating something meaningful and lasting.
When everything else is stripped away, what’s left is the love I’ve shared, the spaces I’ve held, and the moments I’ve helped someone see themselves differently. Degrees and credentials fade, but the love and grace we bring to others and the hearts we touch are what endures.
That’s what I hope remains: a life that helps others remember their own light.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://drkatiepritchett.com/
- Instagram: @drkatiepritchett
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drkatiepritchett/
- Facebook: @drkatiepritchett
- Youtube: @drkatiepritchett
- Other: TikTok= @drkatiepritchett
