Good Ideas + Bad Decisions

Kat Oldershaw and Ellen Hockley

Welcome to Good Ideas + Bad Decisions! Let’s be real - it’s the perfect name for a show hosted by two business owners who have absolutely made both. Between us, we’ve started businesses, burned out, bounced back, and helped other entrepreneurs do the same. We’re here to talk about the messy middle of running a business - entrepreneurship, mental health, and the chaos that comes with making your own path. Join your hosts Ellen and Kat as we candidly share our experiences, answer your burning business questions, and welcome other owners into our emotional support business club.

  1. 4d ago ·  Bonus

    Coffee Chats with Ellen + Kat: Episode 023

    In this mini-episode of ‘Good Ideas + Bad Decisions,’ Kat and Ellen discuss Kat’s first hypnosis session with Kelly Chessen of Hope Rd. Hypnosis that focused on her relationship with money. Kat describes a guided visualization exercise involving inviting past influences on money to a mental table, confronting negative associations, inner-child emotions, and asking money what it needs. Kat feels empowered by her takeaway about using money for creativity, joy, and connection and notes new opportunities arising. They close by discussing how to talk with clients about money, pricing, and boundaries. Don't forget to⁠ submit your business questions⁠ for future episodes!  Kat is the Founder of kat&co, a Creative Operations Consultant, and the Co-Owner and Director of Operations at Benchwork Fabrication. She helps interior designers and creatives turn ideas into streamlined, sustainable businesses. With a background in psychology and deep experience in creative business operations, she’s known for navigating the intersection of creativity and systems with both strategy and empathy. Join her newsletter, The kat&co Download. Ellen Hockley is a three-time entrepreneur, small business consultant, community builder, and the founder of Ellen Hockley Consulting and SAGE Women. She guides female founders to build intuitive, values-driven businesses aligned with the life they want for themselves and their families. Join her Substack newsletter, ⁠The Quiet Wins⁠.

    20 min

  2. May 22

    S2 E5: Finding Your Creative Flow with Wildly Creative Wellness Founder Vicky Winkler

    In this episode of 'Good Ideas + Bad Decisions,' hosts Kat and Ellen welcome Vicky Winkler, founder of Wildly Creative Wellness, an art journaling and creative wellness community. Vicky shares how art journaling helped her move from feeling "only okay" to finding real purpose and fulfillment. She describes art journaling as focused on process over outcome with no perfectionism required, and explains how that mindset can build confidence to experiment in other areas of life too. She outlines her Wildly Creative’s monthly themes, weekly prompts, live creation calls, and co-working sessions, and the group discusses why rigid routines like The Artist's Way can fall short and how to start simply instead. Vicky Winkler is the founder of Wildly Creative Wellness, a space where everyday people discover that creativity has always lived inside them. Through art journaling workshops, online retreats, and one on one support, she helps people slow down, reconnect with themselves, and find fulfillment through self-expression. Her work is rooted in the belief that making art isn’t just for “artists.” It’s for anyone who wants to feel more alive. Kat is the Founder of kat&co, a Creative Operations Consultant, and the Co-Owner and Director of Operations at Benchwork Fabrication. She helps interior designers and creatives turn ideas into streamlined, sustainable businesses. With a background in psychology and deep experience in creative business operations, she’s known for navigating the intersection of creativity and systems with both strategy and empathy. Join her newsletter, The kat&co Download. Ellen Hockley is a three-time entrepreneur, small business consultant, community builder, and the founder of Ellen Hockley Consulting and SAGE Women. She guides female founders to build intuitive, values-driven businesses aligned with the life they want for themselves and their families. Join her Substack newsletter, ⁠The Quiet Wins⁠. 00:00 Podcast Welcome 01:09 Meet Vicky Winkler 02:34 Why Art Journaling 04:59 Perfectionism Blocks 06:26 Journal Not Canvas 08:00 Creative Without Selling 10:36 Membership Breakdown 14:07 Calls And Sanctuary 15:20 Artists Way Debate 20:06 Five Minute Practice 21:17 Tools For Regulation 23:51 No Rules Mindset 25:30 Leap of Faith Art 25:49 Cortisol and Creativity 26:42 Blank Page Tricks 27:27 Five Minute Time Paradox 28:45 Timers Flow and Breaks 32:03 Finding Art Journaling 35:01 Creative Identity Blocks 36:35 Easy Supplies to Start 38:56 Healing Through Drawing 42:18 Try It and Connect 43:38 Episode Wrap Up

    45 min

  3. May 15 ·  Bonus

    Coffee Chats with Ellen + Kat: Episode 022

    In this mini-episode of “Good Ideas + Bad Decisions,” Kat and Ellen dive into the topic of discovery calls and networking. Kat walks through her approach of offering a single free 30-minute call for prospective clients, collaborators, and general connections alike. Kat and Ellen address client fit, barters and trades, and keeping up a connection. The episode also explores the value of maintaining boundaries, being intentional about how time is given, and keeping follow-up communication clear and straightforward. Don't forget to⁠ submit your business questions⁠ for future episodes!  Kat is the Founder of kat&co, a Creative Operations Consultant, and the Co-Owner and Director of Operations at Benchwork Fabrication. She helps interior designers and creatives turn ideas into streamlined, sustainable businesses. With a background in psychology and deep experience in creative business operations, she’s known for navigating the intersection of creativity and systems with both strategy and empathy. Join her newsletter, The kat&co Download. Ellen Hockley is a three-time entrepreneur, small business consultant, community builder, and the founder of Ellen Hockley Consulting and SAGE Women. She guides female founders to build intuitive, values-driven businesses aligned with the life they want for themselves and their families. Join her Substack newsletter, ⁠The Quiet Wins⁠.

    18 min

  4. May 8

    S2 E4: Building an Agency, Battling Cancer, and Becoming a Trauma-Informed Leader with Natasha Golinsky

    In this episode of ‘Good Ideas + Bad Decisions,’ Kat and Ellen talk with Natasha Golinsky, who built a web development agency by hiring a developer despite having no web experience herself. After a stage two breast cancer diagnosis in 2024, she onboarded a trusted former client as project manager, freeing her to focus on business development. Natasha now pursues thought leadership around trauma-informed leadership for female founders, using nervous-system work to overcome personal blocks. She offers her wisdom on entrepreneurship and healing as well as specific advice on how and why to delegate.  Natasha Golinsky has spent over a decade as CEO of On Purpose Projects, a full-stack web development agency. When she returned after chemo, her team was thriving without her, and she finally stepped into what she'd been doing behind the scenes for years. Natasha spent years learning somatic healing and nervous system regulation, tools she'd shared with peers for years before cancer gave her the space to do it professionally. Through her company Never Launch on a Friday, she works with female agency owners and service-based founders on the inner work that strategy alone can't fix. She used to support the web project. Now she supports the woman behind the business. Kat is the Founder of kat&co, a Creative Operations Consultant, and the Co-Owner and Director of Operations at Benchwork Fabrication. She helps interior designers and creatives turn ideas into streamlined, sustainable businesses. With a background in psychology and deep experience in creative business operations, she’s known for navigating the intersection of creativity and systems with both strategy and empathy. Join her newsletter, The kat&co Download. Ellen Hockley is a three-time entrepreneur, small business consultant, community builder, and the founder of Ellen Hockley Consulting and SAGE Women. She guides female founders to build intuitive, values-driven businesses aligned with the life they want for themselves and their families. Join her Substack newsletter, ⁠The Quiet Wins⁠. 00:00 Podcast Welcome 01:15 Meet The Guest 01:56 Coffee And Anxiety 02:40 First Espresso Story 04:52 Agency Origin Story 06:51 Cancer Diagnosis Shock 07:58 Emergency Team Handoff 09:56 Returning To Work 11:18 New Path After Ops 13:47 Trauma Informed Leadership 15:44 Content Creation Breakthrough 20:51 Human Design And Community 24:18 Human Design Validation 24:34 Weekly Structure Planning 25:51 Hunter vs Farmer Marketing 28:18 Delegation and Team Fit 31:16 Simple Systems That Stick 34:23 Vision Board and Next Moves 37:03 Selling the Agency Soon 39:00 Planning in Uncertain Times 42:58 Final Wisdom on Healing

    46 min

  5. May 1 ·  Bonus

    Coffee Chats with Ellen + Kat: Episode 021

    In this mini-episode of 'Good Ideas + Bad Decisions,' Kat and Ellen catch up on Ellen’s recent London trip, where she visited a friend who works at the British Museum, and Kat shares she’s heading to a women’s business retreat in Point Reyes where she’ll lead a workshop on flexible business systems. They then discuss how they handle being out of office: evolving boundaries over time, communicating availability case by case with clients, relying on standard boundaries (like not replying on certain days), remembering most issues aren’t true emergencies, and taking real breaks to avoid burnout. Don't forget to⁠ submit your business questions⁠ for future episodes!  Kat is the Founder of kat&co, a Creative Operations Consultant, and the Co-Owner and Director of Operations at Benchwork Fabrication. She helps interior designers and creatives turn ideas into streamlined, sustainable businesses. With a background in psychology and deep experience in creative business operations, she’s known for navigating the intersection of creativity and systems with both strategy and empathy. Join her newsletter, The kat&co Download. Ellen Hockley is a three-time entrepreneur, small business consultant, community builder, and the founder of Ellen Hockley Consulting and SAGE Women. She guides female founders to build intuitive, values-driven businesses aligned with the life they want for themselves and their families. Join her Substack newsletter, ⁠The Quiet Wins⁠.

    22 min

  6. Apr 24

    S2 E3: Unlearning Invisible Rules and Reclaiming Agency with Lauren Most

    In this episode of ‘Good Ideas + Bad Decisions,’ Kat and Ellen talk with Lauren Most, founder of Mirror Mirror and former Chief People Officer and Fortune 10 Executive, holding HR leadership positions at GE and Walmart. She shares how imposter syndrome and emotional self-abandonment led her to leave corporate leadership and build a coaching practice for high achievers. Lauren explores “invisible rules,” unconscious beliefs, and why traditional therapy often falls short, outlining her somatic and narrative-based approach to helping clients shift patterns and expand capacity. The episode closes with a reminder that we have more agency than we think and growth starts by looking forward, not back. Lauren Most is an executive advisor and founder of Mirror Mirror, an advisory practice focused on helping senior leaders improve decision-making, performance, and leadership under complexity. With over 15 years of experience in high-growth and Fortune 10 environments, she has served as a Chief People Officer and held leadership roles at companies including GE, Walmart, and Roivant Sciences. Lauren specializes in helping high-achieving leaders build sustainable, capacity-driven performance through systems-level thinking and behavioral science. Kat is the Founder of kat&co, a Creative Operations Consultant, and the Co-Owner and Director of Operations at Benchwork Fabrication. She helps interior designers and creatives turn ideas into streamlined, sustainable businesses. With a background in psychology and deep experience in creative business operations, she’s known for navigating the intersection of creativity and systems with both strategy and empathy. Join her newsletter, The kat&co Download. Ellen Hockley is a three-time entrepreneur, small business consultant, community builder, and the founder of Ellen Hockley Consulting and SAGE Women. She guides female founders to build intuitive, values-driven businesses aligned with the life they want for themselves and their families. Join her Substack newsletter, ⁠The Quiet Wins⁠. 00:00 Check-in & guest introduction 02:00 Lauren's background and what Mirror Mirror coaching does 06:00 Shared experiences: intuition, social-emotional learning, imposter syndrome 09:26 Self-sacrifice, self-abandonment & what therapy couldn't fix 13:00 Invisible rules, culture & looking outside ourselves 18:33 Human Design, Reflectors & the name "Mirror Mirror" 24:38 The leap: leaving corporate & founding the business 29:22 Coaching methodology: the 99%, beliefs as roots & modalities 37:45 Stories, states, burnout & growing capacity 51:56 Parting wisdom & where to find Lauren

    49 min

  7. Apr 17 ·  Bonus

    Coffee Chats with Ellen + Kat: Episode 020

    In this mini-episode of “Good Ideas + Bad Decisions,” Ellen and Kat catch up on personal updates and discuss tips for hosting effective workshops or classes online or in person. They note many service-based businesses feel pressure to create workshops or “evergreen” courses as alternative income, but underestimate the time and energy required and the challenge of filling the room. They emphasize building workshops around genuine expertise, clear value, and real audience demand, and suggest partnering with existing communities or events to reduce risk. Kat shares she’s preparing to lead an in-person workshop at a Point Reyes retreat and is adapting her creative operations content for broader business owners.  Don't forget to⁠ submit your business questions⁠ for future episodes!  Kat is the Founder of  kat&co, a Creative Operations Consultant, and the Co-Owner and Director of Operations at Benchwork Fabrication. She helps interior designers and creatives turn ideas into streamlined, sustainable businesses. With a background in psychology and deep experience in creative business operations, she’s known for navigating the intersection of creativity and systems with both strategy and empathy. Join her newsletter, The kat&co Download. Ellen Hockley is a three-time entrepreneur, small business consultant, community builder, and the founder of Ellen Hockley Consulting and SAGE Women. She guides female founders to build intuitive, values-driven businesses aligned with the life they want for themselves and their families. Join her Substack newsletter, ⁠The Quiet Wins⁠.

    18 min

  8. Apr 10

    S2 E2: Borrowing Audiences, Gaining Clarity, and Building Credibility with KJ Blattenbauer

    Kat and Ellen kick off season two of ‘Good Ideas + Bad Decisions’ with PR strategist KJ Blattenbauer, founder of Hearsay PR, who makes a bold case that real PR should cost you nothing because earned media means borrowing audiences, not buying them. KJ breaks down how to spot red flags when vetting PR help (run from anyone promising guaranteed placements) and why a business without clarity or operational readiness isn't PR-ready yet. Drawing from an accidental start in crisis communications, she shares the winding path that led her to entrepreneurship and building her own agency. KJ closes with advice to get clear on what you want to be known for and where your audience is, and protect your mornings from tech. KJ Blattenbauer is a publicist and brand strategist with nearly three decades of experience helping founders, entrepreneurs, and industry leaders move from respected to widely recognized. As the founder of Hearsay PR, she specializes in shaping clear narratives the media actually wants to tell, with a track record spanning consumer brands, sports, and crisis communications, placing clients in Forbes, Architectural Digest, Inc., Fast Company, and beyond. She is the two-time bestselling author of Pitchworthy and Pitchworthy: The Workbook, and her own insights have been featured across business, lifestyle, and design media. Kat is the Founder of kat&co, a Creative Operations Consultant, and the Co-Owner and Director of Operations at Benchwork Fabrication. She helps interior designers and creatives turn ideas into streamlined, sustainable businesses. With a background in psychology and deep experience in creative business operations, she’s known for navigating the intersection of creativity and systems with both strategy and empathy. Join her newsletter, The kat&co Download. Ellen Hockley is a three-time entrepreneur, small business consultant, community builder, and the founder of Ellen Hockley Consulting and SAGE Women. She guides female founders to build intuitive, values-driven businesses aligned with the life they want for themselves and their families. Join her Substack newsletter, ⁠The Quiet Wins⁠. 00:00 Podcast Welcome 00:47 Season Two Kickoff 01:53 Meet KJ Blattenbauer 02:40 PR For Anyone 03:48 Astronaut PR Explained 04:57 Pay To Play Exposed 07:18 Free PR Channels 10:18 Choosing A Publicist 12:29 PR Myths And Red Flags 16:42 When PR Makes Sense 20:09 KJ Origin Story 21:36 Clarity Drives Recognition 22:07 Small Town Reputation Lessons 23:17 Why Some Stars Stick 23:49 Breaking Into PR 25:12 Crisis to Wellness Pivot 26:02 Leaping Into Entrepreneurship 27:01 Mob Wife Loyalty Mindset 28:01 Fear, Regret, and Taking Risks 30:18 Doing It for Younger You 33:42 Two Books and Daily Routine 39:31 Protect Your First Hour 42:45 Parting PR Advice and Wrap

    46 min
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About

Welcome to Good Ideas + Bad Decisions! Let’s be real - it’s the perfect name for a show hosted by two business owners who have absolutely made both. Between us, we’ve started businesses, burned out, bounced back, and helped other entrepreneurs do the same. We’re here to talk about the messy middle of running a business - entrepreneurship, mental health, and the chaos that comes with making your own path. Join your hosts Ellen and Kat as we candidly share our experiences, answer your burning business questions, and welcome other owners into our emotional support business club.

Information

  • Creator
    Kat Oldershaw and Ellen Hockley
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    52
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Kat Oldershaw and Ellen Hockley
  • Show Website
    Good Ideas + Bad Decisions