Meet Kourtney Thomas

Today we’re excited to be connecting with Kourtney Thomas again. If you haven’t already, we suggest you check out our prior conversation with them here.

Kourtney, always such a pleasure connecting with you and thank you for sharing your stories, insights and inspiring messages with our community. We’re looking forward to getting the download and what you have been up to since our last interview, but first can you briefly introduce yourself to folks who might have missed the prior conversation.
I’m Kourtney Thomas, and I’m a coach through and through. For the past nearly 15 years, I’ve coached in varying capacities – from personal training, to self-discovery, and now to coaching my team as a director at a start-up. My brand is all about confidence and self-discovery – uncovering your version of success, health, and balance; unlearning whatever societal or cultural versions of those things may be keeping you stuck or just not thriving; and unleashing the best path to your best self. My approach is direct but supportive, no BS, and usually leads to previously elusive breakthroughs. Combined with smart and efficient tactical next steps and accountability, my coaching strategy becomes unique – personalized, thoughtful, no cookie-cutter systems, just enough to open the doors to your success. A cornerstone of my brand is that there’s no one right way – there’s only the way that’s right for you. That’s what I’m here to help my clients find, rather than tell anyone exactly what to do.

One of the biggest recent highlights in my journey is really taking my own coaching advice and applying it to myself. In 2021, I was feeling stuck and frustrated in my business. I walked through my own coaching process and framework, and ultimately found out that I was ready for a transition back to full-time employment. Again – there’s no one right way to do any of this. I recognized it wasn’t right for me to continue grinding my gears as a full-time entrepreneur. Rather, it was time to let go a little and have a new adventure. Once again, the approach works – in less than three years, I’ve progressed to a director-level role in a field I love – well-aligned with the vision I set out for myself.

I’ve kept my coaching business active in the background, and these days, I’m approximately 1000x better able to coach other professional women struggling to make career moves, build better relationships, and take excellent care of their bodies, minds, and souls. That’s a tough thing to do these days, and going through it myself has allowed me to grow in my coaching approach.

Alright, so our main goal today is to give our audience an update on what you have been up to since our last conversation. We’d love to hear how things are going and what you are most looking forward to or excited about these days.
Things are going well. Every day is a different challenge (#startuplife), but the growth is incredible. I’m pushing myself on every growth edge I have, doing exactly what I always recommend to clients. Sure, it’s scary sometimes, but if you’re not a little nervous, what’s the point? That’s definitely where the growth and possibilities live.

The exciting part lives in two places for me right now – 1) my own personal growth and development, and 2) applying everything I’ve learned in the past three years to refreshed coaching offerings.

The challenging part lives essentially in the same places – it’s difficult to find space to keep supporting myself and my goals, and to get it all out there and coach new clients at the level that needs to happen.

My next next chapter will likely involve building out a group or self-paced program for professional women having these same time and space struggles. But that involves me finding the time and space first! It’s really kind of meta, isn’t it?

We also want to give folks a chance to get to know you a bit better so we’ve prepared a fun lightning round of questions. Ready?

Favorite Movie: Sixteen Candles

Favorite Book: Too many to name – I read A LOT

Favorite TV Show: Grace & Frankie

Favorite Band or Artist: Dolly Parton

Sweet or Savory: Sweet

Mountains or Beach: Mountains

Favorite Sport (to watch): Golf

Favorite Sport (to play): None

Did you play sports growing up (if so which ones): Nope

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up: A singer

French Fries or Onion Rings: Side salad

Chuck Rhodes or Bobby Axelrod: Literally no idea who those people are

Favorite Cartoon growing up: Garfield

Favorite Childhood movie: Home Alone

Favorite Breakfast Food: A really good breakfast sandwich

Life is often about tough choices – can you talk to us about your thought process, strategy or philosophy when it comes to making difficult choices or tradeoffs.
Automatic overthinking?

Just kidding!

Overthinking can be a default state for me, especially in particularly tough situations. I’ve had to adopt a process to overcome it, in life and in business.

I approach tough choices values-first, always. What really matters to me? Does the choice I’m about to make align with that? Does it help me grow? Does it move me toward my vision? Does this choice help me show up as the person I want to be?

Sometimes, I do allow myself to thought-spiral a bit. Then I get it out. Sometimes, that’s writing it out, taking notes on my phone, writing an email and keeping it in drafts. A lot of times it’s talking it out with my partner, typically while moving, taking a walk or a hike (great research behind this, by the way!). At work, I may vent a bit with my boss, but I try to come with solutions right away, ie: “here’s what I’m freaking out about, but here’s what I’m thinking.” More often than not, I already know the right choice, and I know I can trust myself to handle anything that comes out of it.

Because really, every choice we make involves a tradeoff. Even the ones that feel easy often involve some kind of tradeoff, whether we know about it immediately or down the road. The key is to recognize that to avoid overthinking or fear of making the “wrong” choice. Which, reminder: there is no wrong choice. You just choose, and choose again. And going back to my whole overall philosophy – the better you know yourself, the easier it is to figure out the best choice for you in tough situations, or any situation.