Katherine Mackenzie-Smith is an award-winning business coach and guide for introverts and highly sensitive souls, an ideas alchemist, energy and soul medicine practitioner, and host of the popular League of Extraordinary Introverts podcast.
Through her 1:1 mentoring, Emerge and Expand business membership, speaking and writing, Katherine supports quiet leaders to create successful, sustainable businesses through their own innate wisdom and strengths, without feeling like they have to change who they are.
Katherine has been named a ‘self help guru’ by Elle Magazine, featured on the covers of Happiness and Wellbeing magazine and Inspired Coach magazine, as well as being featured in a number of publications, podcasts, and websites including Cleo Magazine, Collective Hub, The Introvert Entrepreneur, and Brainz Magazine.
Katherine Mackenzie-Smith, Katherine Mackenzie-Smith
Tell us about what brought you to where you are today in your business.
It’s so funny, I often call myself an ‘accidental entrepreneur’ because I never expected that I would have my own business. Where most entrepreneurial types are often the ones who played up at school and hated it, I was the opposite. I kind of just put my head down and quietly got my work done.
At 15 or 16 when they told us at school that we had to choose our subjects that would determine what we would study at uni and, basically, lead to our career and the rest of our lives, I filled with panic to be hit with such a monumental decision at that age.
But my love of movies and TV led me down a path to studying media, film and television and then pursuing a career in the TV industry. It was only as I came towards the end of my 20s that I realised working in the fast-paced land of television was actually burning me out and not creatively exciting me in the kinds of roles I was working in.
I’d been blogging for a little while (back when blogging was HUGE) and it felt like the right next step as I was starting to see people make money and create businesses online. And I’ve never looked back! Having my own schedule and being able to work as my introverted energy prefers is so much more in alignment than being an employee ever was!
What led you to working with introverts and highly sensitive people, specifically?
Initially, I thought I would be working with clients like me ‒ rapidly moving towards their 30s and realising that their chosen career was no longer lighting them up. And, in my first year as a coach, I didn’t work with one person in that position!
But, as I looked back over all the people I was working with and who were in my community, I realised that every conversation revolved around business and being more introverted in the noisy online space.
It was a no-brainer from there, because I’m an introvert and a highly sensitive person and managing my energy, creating boundaries, and working through all my visibility stuff has been front and centre throughout my whole business journey ‒ so of course it was something I had experience to support others with too!
How does your work with introverts in business relate to your focus on building a ‘Content Ecosystem’?
The kinds of challenges that more introverted types seem to consistently have when it comes to business is promoting ourselves, selling, and talking up how great we are at what we do!
And it makes sense, because of my background in media that content creation comes easy to me.
Because of this, I’ve discovered that content marketing is one of the best ways to not just have your work speak for itself through sharing your knowledge (instead of feeling ‘salesy’) but it also allows introverts to really operate in their zone of genius. Meaningful content gives us a chance to go deep on the topics that we care about, share our passion, and showcase our experience and expertise in a way that feels good for us.
The Content Ecosystem evolved from creating as many ways as possible to share and repurpose our hard work to get it in front of more people, without the overwhelm and burn out that we can sometimes associate with showing up on multiple platforms.
Is there anything you wish that more people talked about when it comes to starting or running a business?
I really wish more people would talk about how the ‘one size fits all’ models that are so prevalent online actually just don’t work for everyone.
I’ve spent so much money over the years trying to squeeze myself into boxes that I think I should fit into, trying strategies and systems that work for other people that just don’t work for me. And yet, we still get drawn in by slick marketing and made to believe that maybe we’re just not working hard enough!
At the end of the day ‒ especially if you aren’t someone who has EVER fit into a box! ‒ it’s about understanding your strengths, how you work best, what you love to do and creating a business that is aligned with that. Not somebody else’s system for success!
How do you support and guide your clients?
My top strengths are ideation, empathy, and strategy, which means that I never try to push someone into MY way of doing things. In fact, quite the opposite. I work with my clients ‒ in my 1:1 and group programs ‒ to make sense of all their ideas, understand where they’re coming from and where they want to go, and helping them to develop a business and content strategy in total alignment with that.
My Emerge and Expand membership was created because I’ve watched so many quiet souls over the year jump from one certification or expensive program to another, thinking they will feel more ‘ready’ when they just have another qualification under their belt. But the reality is, they need a safe space to actually start creating and sharing their work with the world, so that membership is specifically for community and building momentum.
What kind of results do your clients get when they work with you?
The most common results my clients get are a newfound certainty in who they are and what they do. So many introverted folks have been made to feel that who they are isn’t enough or that they need to be more extroverted in order to be successful in business. My favourite thing is when they say they feel like they have permission to not just be exactly who they are, but also embrace that as a part of their business!
On a more tangible side of things, I’ve had clients launch their first businesses, get their first paying clients, their first $10k months, explode from 400 followers to 40,000 on Instagram, completely change their entire business to be more in alignment with their values and strengths, launch programs and products, create more content in a few months than they ever have before. But truly, their success isn’t mine to claim ‒ they wouldn’t have got to where they did if they didn't put the work in themselves!
What would you say is your biggest focus or your next exciting project?
My biggest focus is ALWAYS on supporting quiet, sensitive souls to create introvert-friendly businesses, meaningful content, and success on their terms. And that looks like different things throughout the year.
My newest offer that I’m really excited about is the Emergence Launch Incubator, which kicks off in May. It’s a small group program for introverts who are looking to build out a gentle but effective launch strategy for their next offer.
