Radiant Voices interview with Katherine Mackenzie-Smith, Cozy Business Coach
This conversation with my current business mentor Katherine was rich with insight—and these three ideas truly stood out:
1. “If I’m not the good girl anymore, I don’t know who I am” — and that’s exciting.
This was a game-changing reframe of uncertainty.
Instead of meeting the unknown with fear or self-judgment, Katherine invites us to meet it with curiosity, wonder, and engaged presence.
So often, “I don’t know who I am” carries the weight of failure or loss. But what if it’s actually an opening—a door to something new, something not yet defined but full of potential?
Personally, I’ve been feeling the exhaustion of too many unknowns. Right now, clarity and certainty feel like warm shelter. But hearing this perspective reminded me that sometimes, not knowing is a relief from identities that no longer fit. It might just be the space where something new begins to grow.
2. Work with people who are heading where you’re going—
not just those trying to leave where they’ve been. This one lit up my brain.
When you’re traveling alongside people with a shared sense of direction, there’s momentum, intention, and companionship. It feels less like persuading or pulling others along, and more like collaborating on a shared journey.
As a leader, this also shifts how you show up. You’re not trying to convince anyone—they’re already aligned with the vision. Your role becomes one of encouragement, guidance, and shared presence, not persuasion. That’s a very different kind of energy—and it’s sustainable.
3. What if none of that mattered?
This was both bittersweet and profoundly liberating.
A kind of mental and energetic decluttering.
What happens when we let go of everything we’ve learned or absorbed about how we “should” do things—and simply choose our next step from intuitive knowing?
This reminded me of a dance practice I’ve studied with Holly Wodetzki: after layers of technical instruction and partner work, you’re asked to release all of it and just be danced. To move from the kind of embodied permission that trusts what arises.
In cozy business, this invitation is the same: What if none of what you’ve previously learned about business matters right now? What might emerge then?
—
And so we return to that first question:
If I’m not the good girl anymore—then who am I?
Let’s find out, together. In business and in life.
Step by curious step.
✨ What an irresistible invitation.
Learn more about Katherine’s AuDHD-friendly group programs: (affiliate links)
For a Curious Mind: Notice what thoughts and judgments arise as you listen to this interview. What else would you like to know?
For a Connected Heart: Notice what feelings follow each other as Katherine’s story unfolds.
For a Creative Body: Dance it? Emergence – Sleep Token
Navigating life’s glitches
What if the glitches in your life – those unexpected detours, identity wobbles, or moments you can’t explain – were actually guiding you home?
“ I said to her ‘If I’m not the good girl anymore, I don’t know who I am.’ … And I just stopped feeling the need to show up in that way… It was such an illuminating time for me.“
In this heartfelt conversation, Katherine shares how leaving behind the “good girl” script and honoring her neurodivergent rhythm helped her build a business rooted in coziness, culture, and truth. This episode is a warm invitation to listen inward, embrace the detours, and redefine success on your own terms.
Spark up*
Reflection resources to support your embodied transformation story:
- AuDHD LOVE MOVES US: Can you dance with this? Guided and intuitive dance practice to reconnect you with uninhibited flow of expression.
- One step towards the universe: Show up with others heading independently in the same direction. Where your presence is encouragment.
- Becoming the star: Commit to exploring who you are beyond existing identity constraints inside my 1:1 embodiment coaching program. Enrolling now.
Invitation to wonder: As you listen to Katherine’s story, I invite you to become aware of the intriguing parallels between her story and yours.
Is there a subtle invitation here for you?
What song does it call to mind?
Could you play and dance it?
Encouragement for Sensitive Souls:
🌿 If Katherine’s story feels tender or overwhelming, know this:
you don’t have to leap into the unknown all at once.
Even the smallest act of listening inward
—just for a moment
—can be a powerful beginning.
Your pace is valid, and your unfolding is sacred. 💫
or listen, comment and follow on Spotify podcasts
Affirmation for evolving women
You don’t have to know exactly who you are to trust where you’re going.
Many women with AuDHD in their lives love to dive deep, sense patterns, and create meaning from the messy middle.
They are conditioned to perform, please, and prove themselves through being “good” and getting it “right.”
Which undermines our ability to listen to our own rhythm, follow the spark of curiosity, and rest when we need to.
Remember you can let go of roles that no longer fit and still be safe, still be loved, still belong.
I trust you to choose companions who see your direction, not just your past—and to move forward one real, resourced step at a time.
Listening to Radiant Voices stories of transformation, you will find permission to be in process, to embrace your glitches, and to reclaim success on your own terms.
Draft Notes on heading into the unknown
Ok, so let’s catch those other ideas here
I don’t know who I am – and that’s exciting.
This is a game changing attitude to not knowing something .
Excited, engaged, curious, expecting wonder.
What an inspiring mindset!
I don’t know who i am often comes with a sense of fear and failure.
But if current identity is exhausting and draining, if knowing is miserable.
Then not knowing can certainly feel full of possibility.
Whereas at the moment, i am finding not knowing exhausting.
Too many unknowns in my life.
And finding certainty and clarity is heart warming.
Hmmm
Work with people who are heading where I’m going, rather than where I’m coming from.
This is genius, because those people already have momentum and intention aligned.
So much more sense of travelling together as companions.
Rather than convincing people who are running away from something where they should / could be going.
That is very hard work.
There’s no guarantee that they will come round to thinking your destination is right for them.
But if all agreed on destination, then travelling together and helping each other out makes sense.
And as a leader, holding a clear vision/sense of that destination, and encouraging others to continue, offering support when they are doubtful, it all flows readily with practice.
What if none of that mattered?
This is also bittersweet and profoundly liberating. Mental decluttering.
Learning to gain perspective and clarity on what is true for you, now, here.
Also very resonant with the embodied dance practice from one of my other teachers, Holly Wodetzki.
After several steps of following direct instruction, and then guided peer practice, the penultimate step of that methodology is to let go of everything just learned, and move from intuitive expression, being danced, before softening into stillness and reflection.
So this invitation, in the cozy business model, to now choose your next step as if none of what you’ve previously learned about business mattered, is an encouragement to allow that to be a creative, growing and shifting entity as well.
Which brings us back to the original place of if i’m not the good girl – then who am i? And let’s find out, step by prepared, expressed and reflected step of discovery.
What an irresistible invitation!
Learn more about cozy business here
And about sensual embodied dance here
Urgh, feeling stupid and difficult is part of the path too.
Grrrr.
An invitation to kindness and empathy, I would have said,
Not berating and beating.
But who has time for that.
Leave me here if you must, i’ll figure it out.
Something else will come along
Who is going the same way as me, at my pace.
Which also matters.
