Kate is a Qualified Mindfulness Consultant, International Speaker, and Global Brand Executive who helps teams build resilience and presence—without sacrificing performance.

She helps organizations reconnect their people to purpose through mindfulness-based workshops, retreats, and resilience training—designed for real-world teams navigating pressure, change, and burnout.

Before founding Wake Up Kate, she spent 19 years leading brand strategy for global companies like Mars, McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, and Kraft. She knows what it takes to lead high-performing teams—and what happens when we push past our limits for too long. A personal wake-up call led her to redefine success and devote her work to something deeper.

Since 2011, Kate has immersed herself in the science and practice of mindfulness and interpersonal neurobiology. She’s trained in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) through the University of Massachusetts Medical School and completed intensive study with renowned teachers including Shinzen Young, Saki Santorelli, Florence Meleo-Meyer, and Judson Brewer.

She doesn’t just teach mindfulness—she lives it. As co-founder of Presently, a purpose-led branding and design agency, Kate has brought mindfulness into the heart of her own team, introducing practices that support creativity, resilience, and well-being. It’s this integrated, lived approach that makes her work so powerful.

“I thought stress was the price of success—until it nearly cost me everything.”

For a good portion of my career, I let stress dictate my actions. I burned out at least three times. Most of the time, I either wasn’t aware of how stress was affecting me—or I ignored it because I was ‘too busy’ to pay attention. When work or life felt overwhelming, I’d make external changes in an attempt to find balance—taking sabbaticals, even moving to a new country. But eventually, I’d default back to old behaviours. I couldn’t bounce back because my mental resilience was completely depleted.

It was a wake-up call that got my full attention: I was diagnosed with cancer. That moment set me on a path to empower myself—and others—with tools to reframe stress. Along the way, I made some eye-opening discoveries.

First, I saw how often I raced through my day on autopilot. (Research shows the average person is in autopilot 47% of the time.) It’s like driving somewhere and realizing you don’t remember a single part of the journey. Or finishing a bag of nuts without even noticing you were eating them. I became aware of just how much time I spent in distraction, stuck in ‘doing’ and ‘striving,’ rather than fully living.

As I began training in mindfulness, meditation, and interpersonal neurobiology, I experienced—through direct practice—how much our communication, presence, and self-awareness are shaped by physical sensation, emotion, and thought. I had always assumed the mind and body were separate. They’re not. They’re completely integrated.

That shift in understanding has profound implications for how we work, lead, and live.

Kate’s talks inspire meaningful change and offer practical tools teams can use right away.
Looking for a keynote or workshop for your next conference or internal event? Here are four of Kate’s most requested sessions:

1

Mindfulness, Made Simple: Practical ways to bring it into your day—anytime, anywhere.

Description: What do a toothbrush and a cell phone have to do with meditation?
More than you think. This high-energy talk shows how everyday objects—and everyday moments—can become powerful cues to press pause and reboot—right in the middle of a busy day. With zero jargon, Kate shares real-life stories and science-backed tools anyone can use. Your team will leave with everything they need to start being more present—immediately.

Audience: Everyone

Length: 60-90 minutes, Q&A

What you’ll learn:

• What mindfulness is and isn't

• The neuroscience behind it

• Compelling case studies which show the benefits

• Experiential guided practices which you can apply immediately in your work and life

• Easy to use handouts with techniques taught and Kate's go-to resources

2

3

Winning at Work-Life Flow: How mindfulness helps you lead without burning out

Description: A surprising, thought-provoking look at how work-life integration is the new work-life balance and why mindfulness is the key to positive change

Audience: Anyone interested in supporting colleagues, co-workers and teams to reduce stress, strengthen resilience and improve work-life

Length: 1-2 hours, Q&A

What you'll learn: 

• How our fast paced digital world is leading to alarming increases in stress, anxiety and depression 

• Why striving to achieve the perfect balance does more harm than good

• How to leverage mindfulness and present moment awareness to work smarter, not harder

• How to make time to eliminate tasks with limited productivity value

• Experiential practices you can introduce into the organization

Description: In this candid talk you'll discover why stress isn't what you think it is, how mindfulness is a skill which teaches us to become more comfortable with adversity and how to build unshakable resilience

Audience: This talk is for everyone, but especially those who recognize it's becoming harder to bounce back from health stress, job stress and people stress

Length: 1-2 hours, Q&A

What you'll learn: 

• Why you may not be as resilient and stress hardy as you think you are

• The cost of stress on you and your organization 

• How to bounce back quicker after organizational change

• How to see failure as an opportunity

• How to thrive in a stressful environment