Hi I'm Kat. I'm a designer, entrepreneur and mum to 2 little people. I live by the beach in Sumner, Christchurch and love running offroad, eating yummy food and spending time with my partner and kidlets.

What best describes me is a 'heartcore' entrepreneur - I love creating brands that empower women to feel strong and beautiful as well as sharing my own story and unique message to help to you step into your own power and follow your dreams.

Through my jewellery and ceramics brands I hope to shine a little bit of sunshine on your day and create keepsakes that you enjoy time and time again. The combination of jewellery and homewares may seem a little strange but for me jewellery makes you feel fabulous all day everyday and in turn, home is truly where the heart is. So, in essence I create items of beauty and meaning for you to enjoy on your body and also in your environment.

Everything I do, I do it with love and a strong dose of passion. For me, work is truly love made visible. I love what I do and do what I love.

My wish is for you too to live a truly 'Heartcore life' - to follow your heart and live the life that sets your soul on fire. I want to inspire you to step into your own power and reclaim the life you were meant to live.

Living a 'Heartcore life' to me means no longer selling yourself short or betraying yourself. It means doing that thing, that one thing that most makes you feel yourself. The one thing that makes you feel in the flow and where time just seems to stop when you're doing it. Yes it may be scary, yes it may be new and uncomfortable. But yes it will be worth it, so worth it.

So with knees shaking, voice breaking and with a little bit of pee running down your leg - I invite you start living the life you were put here to live.

It means starting now. Yes, like right now...

Lets do this together and look fear square in the eyes and take that first step into the unknown. Life is too short not to.

 

BACKGROUND

I followed my gut instinct at aged just 24 and left my 9-5 design job to start Kagi jewellery. Everyone thought I was crazy... Perhaps I was?! It was a total leap of faith as I knew next to nothing about running a business, making money or even how thread a necklace... However it just felt right. It felt like the right thing to do and sometimes thats the only answer that makes sense.

As I sat on our jetty in the Marlborough sounds I asked myself this simple yet powerful question: 

If I could do anything, be anything what would that be? That is, if I could live a life with no fear what would I do?...

The answer for me was simple - live a sparkling life as a jewellery designer. 

So I started in jewellery night school, quit my job and took a loan from my Dad to buy an existing business. Here I am aged just 24, all fresh faced and ready to set the world on fire!:

To say the learning curve was steep would be an understatement! It was baptism by fire (in the first 6 weeks alone I lost 6 kg!)  I lived by the quote 'how do you know you are swimming unless you are deep water!'.... Over the next 14 years I failed more times that I recall, each time though I would pick myself up off the ground, dust my knees and get back in the game. A great mentor of mine Michael Hill used to say; 'the only difference between a successful entrepreneur and a unsuccessful one is the successful one got up that extra time when they got knocked down.'

Over time (it wasn't overnight thats for sure!) I grew the brand to over 300 locations, 30+ staff and multimillion dollar success. Just when it felt like life was on ticking along nicely it all starting unravelling...

I got burnt out, divorced, knocked up and nearly went broke!

All within a very short period of time. I then had to go back to the drawing board and rethink how I wanted my life to look and what really mattered to me. I have come to realise we all go through the same stuff in life – whether its death, bankruptcy, divorce etc… life will crack you open, there will be rains, there will be storms and it will rock you to your core. But its through these times you find a strength you never had and are truly able to step into the person you were meant to be. To quote Katy Perry – 'after the hurricane comes the rainbow...' 

'The women I love and admire for their strength and grace did not get that way because shit worked out. They got that way because shit went wrong and they handled it. They handled it a thousand different ways on a thousand different days, but they handled it.’ — Elizabeth Gilbert

This is my life & my story. By sharing it I hope to in turn shine a light on your journey and illuminate the path forward for you. I hope to provide you a spark so that you can light from my flame. I will help you to:

• Pinpoint your passion and share your gifts to the world
• Drown out the critics and be unapologetic about the life you want to lead
• Understand your best lessons in life often come wrapped in sandpaper
• Jump NOW and trust in your wings
• Trust the universe truly has your back (even when it seems there's no hope)

Thanks for taking the time to visit my page. I feel like I know you already - you like me are hungry for more. You, like me want to live the life you dream of. You, like me, think there is more to life than living for the weekends and even worse holding out for retirement. 

Its time to take that next step, (or even that first step) and step into the life you were born to live.

Allow me to share with you my story at your next event. I promise to touch, move and inspire your audience towards own greatness.

Please connect with me directly at kat@katgee.com 

 

CREDENTIALS

Here are some of my creditials and achievements over the years:

• KAGI - Fastest growing fashion jewellery brand 3 years in a row - Deloittes Fast 50

• Finalist Entrepreneur of the Year 2012

• NZ Design Ambassador 2003

• Guardian of Hope for Child Cancer Foundation

• First Class honours Degree in Design

• Surviving 2 babies with a 15 month age gap!...

• Navigating life as a working mum and all the juggle that comes with it...

• Being able to walk and hula hoop at the same time! - no joke.. just checking your were still reading! :-0