Portfolio Career Mastermind · Client Case Study

From burnt-out compliance professional to breathwork business builder.

How Kat used the Portfolio Career Mastermind to design a portfolio career alongside her corporate role - in just four months.

Quick Snapshot

Name: Kat
Previous Career: Compliance, Big Tech
Location: UK
Time in Mastermind: 4 months (joined February 2025)
Portfolio Career: Breathwork practitioner & coach - building a 4-week online course for high-performing professionals, alongside her corporate role

The Challenge Before Joining

Successful on paper. Empty underneath.

Kat had everything that looks impressive on paper: a senior compliance role at one of the world's biggest tech companies, a strong salary, and five years of hard-won expertise. But underneath the success, something wasn't right.

Her nervous system was running on empty. The demands of a high-pressure corporate environment - combined with the looming threat of redundancy - had left her exhausted and disconnected from herself. She knew she wanted out, but she didn't yet know what "out" looked like.

"I was stuck and frustrated. I had real skills and real knowledge, but no idea how to turn that into something that felt like mine. Changes at work made my skill set feel undervalued despite a high salary."

What made Kat's situation even more interesting was how her spark of clarity arrived. During the programme and deep introspective work, combining her love for yoga, she took a short breathwork course - and something clicked. She wasn't just a participant; she wanted to be the one helping others find that same relief. Through a simplified breathwork practice that was accessible but built on neuroscience principles.

What She Wanted

Not a leap. A build.

Kat wasn't looking for a dramatic overnight exit from corporate life. She wanted to build something real, thoughtfully, alongside her day job - so she could eventually transition on her own terms.

Help people who were exactly like her: high-achieving, analytically minded professionals who would never describe themselves as "woo woo", but who were quietly desperate for a way to regulate their nervous systems
Create an accessible, evidence-informed entry point into breathwork - without alienating the sceptics
Build toward multiple income streams: one-to-one coaching, a signature course, and eventually corporate wellness partnerships
Have a portfolio career that gave her security, freedom, and meaning - all at once

The Breakthroughs

Three pillars. All essential.

The Mastermind works across three interconnected pillars - and for Kat, all three were essential to her progress.

Clarity: discovering what she's really good at

A significant part of Kat's early months was spent doing deep clarity work: mapping out what she was genuinely good at, what she loved doing, and where those two things intersected. This wasn't a quick exercise - it took time, reflection, and honest conversation. She had to manage self-doubt within this. But it paid off. Kat stopped trying to appeal to everyone and got specific. Her ideal client is a compliance professional or corporate high-performer whose nervous system is dysregulated - curious about wellness but not yet convinced. That precision came from the work she put into truly understanding herself first.

Confidence & mindset: believing the course could be transformational

One of the most important shifts for Kat was building the belief that what she was creating actually mattered. It's one thing to have an idea; it's another to trust that a 4-week mini course can genuinely change someone's life. Through mindset work and ongoing encouragement, Kat came to see her MVP not as a small first step, but as something with real potential to transform the people who go through it. That confidence is what gave her the courage to build it - and to put it in front of testers.

Strategy: niche, brand pillars, and visibility

With clarity and confidence in place, strategy became possible. Kat worked on homing in on her niche with real precision, identifying her brand pillars, and starting to show up online. She began building her Instagram presence and creating content that speaks directly to her audience - bridging her corporate credibility with her growing breathwork expertise. The strategy wasn't generic; it was built around who she is and who she serves.

"I didn't think I could build something this quickly. But taking the time to get clear on what I'm good at gave me the confidence to put something together and see the potential of what could happen."

Results & Transformation

Four months. Real momentum.

In just four months - with two of those months focused on active building - Kat has:

✔Identified a clear, specific niche that feels genuinely aligned with her background and values
✔Designed and built a 4-week breathwork MVP course
✔Recruited two testers and is gathering real-world feedback
✔Launched her Instagram presence and started creating content consistently
✔Laid the groundwork for future income streams: 1:1 coaching and corporate wellness
✔Shifted from feeling stuck and burnt out to energised and purposeful about what she's building

And she's done all of this while holding down a demanding full-time role.

Favourite Part of the Mastermind

"What I didn't expect was how much the community would matter. Being around other people who are building something intentional - whilst still in corporate - made me feel less alone and far more capable than I felt when I started."

For Kat, the combination of structured support, practical frameworks, and a community of like-minded builders gave her both the tools and the belief to move forward.

Kat's Advice

To someone considering joining.

"Don't wait until you have the perfect idea or the perfect plan. The clarity doesn't come before you start, it comes because you start. Two months ago, whilst I had an established breathwork practice, it had never occurred to me that I could make that useful for others. Now I have a course, testers, and a niche with growth potential I'm genuinely excited about."

If you're sitting in a corporate job feeling like something is missing - but you're not ready to leap - this is where you figure out what you're leaping toward.

Your Turn

Ready to design your portfolio career?

Find out about the Portfolio Career Mastermind or book a complimentary connection call to see if it's the right fit.

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