Ambitious Podcast

Hosted by Kate Perkovic

Business Entrepreneurship

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149

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Oct 2026

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About the show

Welcome to The Ambitious Podcast with Kate Perkovic, a former server turned 7-figure business owner. Join Kate in exploring how unwavering ambition fuels success. Discover insights from a seasoned business coach, delve into pivotal entrepreneurial roles, and embrace ambitious living for holistic growth. Set audacious goals, thrive with experts' breakthroughs, and remember—stay ambitious!

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60 recent

October 22, 2026Episode 14947 min

3 Signs Your Relationship Is Capping Your Success | EP.149

This is the conversation Kate has most often behind closed doors with women in business, and the one almost nobody is having publicly. Because naming it feels disloyal. But if you’ve ever felt like the person sitting across from you at dinner is quietly the ceiling on everything you’re trying to build, this episode is for you. Kate breaks down the three dynamics that show up most when a partner becomes a ceiling for female entrepreneurs: financial tension around investments, emotional disconnection that builds slowly until you stop sharing wins out loud, and fear and risk aversion that isn’t even yours but has become the operating system your business runs on. She shares her own experiences on both sides, walks through what to actually do when you’re in this dynamic, and gets into one of the most important shifts she wishes she had made sooner, which is the difference between a partner witnessing who you’re becoming and actually being invited into the process. This is not a leave your partner episode. It’s a stop pretending nothing is happening episode. And for women in business who are already swimming upstream, it might be one of the most important ones this year. Timestamps: 03:10 Subtle Warning Signs 04:03 Money And Investments 07:54 Emotional Disconnect 13:36 Fear And Risk Aversion 19:24 Why We Minimize It 24:15 Stop Shrinking Goals 27:40 Whose Voice Leads 30:45 Set Non Negotiables 34:20 Grow Together Values 40:06 Build Support Network 44:34 Have The Conversation To join the Ambitious Network for free, click HERE . To connect with Kate on Instagram, click ⁠HERE⁠ . To apply for ITI, click ⁠HERE⁠ . To submit a question to be answered on the podcast, click HERE .

October 15, 2026Episode 14840 min

The Real Reason Your Content Stopped Getting Views | EP.148

You’ve felt it. The content that used to work isn’t working the same way anymore, and nobody has given you a straight answer on why or what to do instead. This episode is that answer. Kate breaks down exactly how online content and marketing changed, why educational content as we knew it is no longer the strategy, and what’s actually winning right now. We cover the shift from follower-based to interest-based algorithms, why AI made information stop being a leverage point, and what the new currency in online marketing actually is: perspective, proof, and specificity. She also gets into the content funnel that’s working right now, why series-based content outperforms one-off posts, how to capture attention in three seconds or less, and why less curated is outperforming polished across both organic and paid. The rules of content marketing changed. This episode is the new rulebook. Timestamps: 02:37 TikTok Changed Discovery 07:17 Raw Beats Polished 09:14 Creator Economy Explosion 11:26 Old Authority Model 13:30 New Value Specificity 16:53 Hooks And Attention 19:47 Go Deep Not Wide 25:11 New Funnel Ladder 29:35 Series Build Warmth 31:56 Receipts And Process 35:08 AI Killed Information Edge To join the Ambitious Network for free, click HERE . To connect with Kate on Instagram, click ⁠HERE⁠ . To apply for ITI, click ⁠HERE⁠ . To submit a question to be answered on the podcast, click HERE .

October 8, 2026Episode 13144 min

How to Plan a Black Friday Promo That Actually Sells Out | EP.147

$6.3 million per minute. That is how much money is being spent during Black Friday. Not per hour. Per minute. And if your business isn't intentionally positioning itself to be one of the options your ideal client is already planning to spend on, you are quite literally leaving money on the table every single November. This episode is the full Black Friday playbook and it's one Kate runs through with her clients every single year. Not because it's a nice to have. Because when it's done right, Black Friday can fund six to twelve months of cash flow, lock in your highest retainer clients for next year, and give you the kind of revenue surge in two weeks that most people spend an entire quarter chasing. We cover everything. Internal versus external promotions and why the hottest leads in your business are already inside your client roster. The four promotion triggers and when to use each one: price going down, price going up, limited spots, and added value that actually means something to them. Why luxury brands cannot discount and what to do instead. The exact three-phase promotional timeline for Black Friday 2026, week by week, from the tease phase to the agitation week to when to open doors and why doing it before the 30th is always the move. The buy now start later strategy and why it closes people who want to invest but aren't ready to begin. The messaging that works in Q4 specifically, including end of year urgency, cost of inaction, identity shift, and the competitor angle that gets people off the fence faster than any discount ever will. And Kate's own DM strategy for Black Friday that keeps her out of a public offer war while converting at a higher rate than most people do with a full public launch. If you have been doing Black Friday by winging it or not doing it at all, this episode is the one that changes that. Timestamps: 01:08 Why Black Friday Matters 05:18 Retention Lock Ins 08:01 Bundles Upsells Add Ons 13:15 Buy Now Start Later 16:10 External Promo Playbook 18:50 Added Value That Sells 21:54 Four Urgency Triggers 27:18 Launch Phases Timeline 36:26 Messaging That Converts To join the Ambitious Network for free, click HERE . To connect with Kate on Instagram, click ⁠HERE⁠ . To apply for ITI, click ⁠HERE⁠ . To submit a question to be answered on the podcast, click HERE .

October 1, 2026Episode 14644 min

EP. 146: The 7 Messages Buyers Need Before They Buy From You

If you've been posting consistently, showing up on stories, putting in the reps, and still feel like your content is going nowhere, this episode is going to be the most useful thing you listen to this month. Not because it tells you what to post. Because it tells you what job every piece of your content is supposed to be doing, and why your marketing is probably missing half of them. Kate thinks about messaging the same way a doctor thinks about diagnosis. You can't prescribe a solution to someone who hasn't been helped to understand their symptoms. You can't post social proof to an audience that doesn't know they have a problem. You can't create urgency with a countdown timer if nobody feels the cost of staying stuck. And if your sales calls are full of objections, it's because your marketing wasn't doing the pre-work. All of it connects. And when one piece is missing, you feel it you just can't always name it. This episode names it. Kate breaks down all seven types of messaging your content needs to move someone from stranger to sold, what each one is designed to do in the sales cycle, and why leaving even one of them out creates a gap your leads fall through every single time. We cover symptomatic messaging and why speaking to what someone thinks and feels on a given Monday morning will always land harder than naming their problem; source messaging and the mistake of using client-level language with a cold audience; support messaging and why your features are basically irrelevant compared to how you do what you do; brand beliefs and values and the difference between attracting an audience and creating believers; solved messaging and why the transformation has to be granular enough that someone can see themselves inside it; cost of inaction and the difference between product urgency and problem urgency; and objection messaging and how to pre-handle resistance before anyone ever gets on a call. She also shares real examples for each type so you're walking away with something to actually apply, not just think about. This one's worth a re-listen. Pull it back up when you're building out a content calendar and use it as a checklist. Timestamps: 00:52 Messaging vs Content 01:56 Signs Your Messaging Is Off 09:30 Message 1 Symptoms 13:07 Message 2 Root Cause 18:22 Message 3 Unique Support 22:43 Message 4 Values Identity 29:47 Message 5 Transformation Proof 35:47 Message 6 Cost of Inaction 39:25 Message 7 Handle Objections To join the Ambitious Network for free, click HERE . To connect with Kate on Instagram, click ⁠HERE⁠ . To apply for ITI, click ⁠HERE⁠ . To submit a question to be answered on the podcast, click HERE .

September 24, 2026Episode 14547 min

EP.145: The Hidden Reason You're Not Attracting Premium Buyers

You might have a premium price. You might even have premium results. But if the people closing into your offers are draining your energy, questioning every boundary, and expecting more than they paid for, you don't have premium buyers. And that's not a leads problem. It's a positioning problem. This episode is the one Kate pulls out when someone tells her they want to level up their clientele, because the answer is almost never "post more" or "raise your price." It's a much more specific set of shifts, and this episode walks through every single one of them. We start with what a premium buyer actually is, and it's not just someone who spends more. It's an entirely different identity, a different psychology, a different way of making decisions. From there Kate breaks down exactly what they're looking for when they consume your marketing: not information, insight. Not pain points and desires, which she calls 2022 marketing, but language so specific it makes them feel like you're in the room with them. She gets into why consistency of message will always outperform intensity of promotion when it comes to this buyer, why fake urgency will cost you their trust faster than almost anything else, and why the moment your brand says one thing and your behavior shows another, premium buyers notice before you do. She also shares her own honest moment of catching that gap in her own business and what she chose to do about it. On the sales side, this episode covers value-based selling and the doctor-patient framework Kate uses on her own calls, why the premium buyer comes to your call to confirm, not to be convinced, how to state your price with the kind of calm certainty that closes a $45K package without flinching, and why your onboarding experience needs to feel like a Tiffany bag, not a grocery bag. The episode closes with five reflection questions to audit your own ecosystem against and find exactly where the disconnect is. Premium buyers are in your audience right now. This episode is how you call them in and keep them. Timestamps: 01:57 Premium Buyer Identity 02:58 Insight Over Information 06:05 They Buy Speed and Ease 09:22 Consistency Builds Trust 16:58 Specificity and Positioning 22:12 Beyond Pain Points Messaging 24:41 High Standards and Edge 27:56 Trust Killers to Avoid 33:38 Sales Calls as Discovery 38:25 State Price With Calm 42:09 Premium Onboarding Experience To join the Ambitious Network for free, click HERE . To connect with Kate on Instagram, click ⁠HERE⁠ . To apply for ITI, click ⁠HERE⁠ . To submit a question to be answered on the podcast, click HERE .

September 17, 2026Episode 14443 min

EP.144: The Soft Skills That Actually Close High-Ticket Sales

You refined the script. You adjusted the wording. You practiced the objection handles. And they still didn't close. If that sounds familiar, this episode is going to change the way you think about sales completely. The script is not the problem. It was never the problem. What's happening on your calls that has nothing to do with what you're saying is what's costing you the close. The energy you walk in with, the way your body is positioned, whether your tone drops the second the pitch comes out of your mouth, whether you're filling silence because sitting in it makes you want to crawl out of your skin. These are the things. And nobody in the sales world is talking about them. Kate comes at this from a place very few coaches can. Before she built her coaching business, she was a high-ticket phone closer, and then a social work student who learned active listening, reflective questioning, and how to make a complete stranger feel safe in under two minutes. She has watched hundreds of consultations at this point and can tell within the first five minutes of a call exactly where the trust is eroding. This episode is her breaking all of it down. We cover energy matching and why a mismatch in pace, volume, or enthusiasm is a silent trust killer, the body language mistakes people make even on Zoom, what your face is saying when you think it's saying nothing, why the sale almost always happens in silence and why filling that silence is one of the most expensive habits in your business, the tone shift at the pitch that tells a prospect everything they need to know about whether you believe in your offer, and why confident and warm together is the actual unlock, not one or the other. The soft skills are not a nice to have. They're the reason your calls are closing or not. This is the episode that finally tells you why. Timestamps 01:16 Why Calls Don’t Close 11:58 Trust and Incongruence 12:59 Soft Skills That Kill Sales 20:12 Energy Matching Deep Dive 24:16 Mirror Pace and Volume 25:27 Calibrate Without Faking 26:14 Posture and Openness 28:12 Facial Cues and Nods 30:46 Eye Contact on Zoom 31:39 Close With Silence 35:11 Tone and Pacing Control 38:31 Active Listening Skills 42:13 Soft Skills Close Deals To join the Ambitious Network for free, click HERE . To connect with Kate on Instagram, click ⁠HERE⁠ . To apply for ITI, click ⁠HERE⁠ . To submit a question to be answered on the podcast, click HERE .

September 10, 2026Episode 14348 min

EP.143: The Daily Habits That Separate Who You Are From Who You Want to Be

You know who she is. The future version of you. You can see how she runs her mornings, how she responds to problems, how she shows up in her business. You've pictured her. You've journaled about her. You've told yourself you're becoming her. And then the alarm goes off, or the client messages, or the brownie is sitting right there, and you choose the old version again. And you have no idea why. This episode is the answer to that question, and it's one of the most tactical, honest conversations Kate has ever recorded. It starts with what her own coach said to her when she was stuck at six figures trying to get to seven: you don't have the business you want because you're not operating like the person who does. Not a funnel problem. Not a strategy problem. A player problem. And the fix is not a morning routine or a vision board. It's a set of structural decisions that make the future version of you inevitable and the old version genuinely inconvenient. Kate walks through the exact framework she uses with clients, starting with the small self and soaring self exercise that turns a vague identity into something you can actually see and measure. From there she breaks down how to build observable rules around your real conflict points, the specific moments you know trip you up every time, and how to create an environment that makes it easy to choose right and genuinely difficult to choose wrong. She gets into pre-commitment over daily decisions, why social accountability is more powerful than self-talk alone, how to track identity evidence the same way you'd track marketing data, and why the motivator you're using to chase your goal might not even be true for you anymore, which is the real reason you keep stopping. This is not about becoming someone new. It's about building a structure that makes the version of you that you already know you are capable of being the obvious choice, every single day. Timestamps: 04:57 Small Self vs Sore Self 12:17 Player Not Playbook 21:36 Design Your Environment 26:40 Boundaries Through Friction 32:05 Precommit Your Schedule 35:15 Track Identity Evidence 36:36 Consistency Beats Goals 39:33 Find The Real Why 42:42 Motivation Alignment Shift To join the Ambitious Network for free, click HERE . To connect with Kate on Instagram, click ⁠HERE⁠ . To apply for ITI, click ⁠HERE⁠ . To submit a question to be answered on the podcast, click HERE .

September 3, 2026Episode 14241 min

EP.142: Successful and Miserable: When Ambition Loses It's Fun

You still love your business. You're not ready to walk away from it. But somewhere between where you started and where you are now, it stopped being fun. The milestones barely register. The creativity feels forced. Your body is exhausted in a way that sleep doesn't fix. And the version of you that used to wake up fired up feels like a different person. This episode is for the entrepreneur who is still in it but is no longer enjoying it, and who needs someone to name what's actually happening before she makes a decision she can't take back. Kate gets honest about her own season of this, including the 30 pounds, the four hours of sleep, the tension headaches, and the moment she sat with her journal genuinely wondering if she wanted to quit a business she had built into something incredible. She walks through the three ways this shows up before most people even recognize it as a problem, emotionally, mentally, and physically, and then gets into the real root causes underneath it all. Why you might have outgrown the structure you built for a version of yourself that no longer exists. Why building from pressure instead of desire creates a business that performs but never fulfills. And why chasing a version of success that was never actually yours will drain you faster than any amount of hard work ever could. From there the episode moves into what actually brings it back. Not a holiday or a rebrand or a new offer. The difference between performance and play, why creativity requires slowness and you can't strategy your way into a flow state, how to hear your intuition again when you've spent months drowning it out, and the one question Kate uses to shift perspective every time she finds herself back in the spiral. Because most people in this place don't need to quit their business. They just need to get back in the game a different way. This episode shows you how. Timestamps: 03:01 Over Strategy Drains Energy 04:14 Emotional Warning Signs 06:00 Mental Chore Spiral 08:00 Physical Burnout Signals 11:12 Root Cause Identity Shift 14:08 Pressure Versus Desire 16:30 Performance Mode Trap 19:58 Permission To Evolve 20:56 Choose Joy And Gratitude 23:53 Creativity Through Slowness 27:50 Silence For Intuition 31:45 Fears About Slowing Down To join the Ambitious Network for free, click HERE . To connect with Kate on Instagram, click ⁠HERE⁠ . To apply for ITI, click ⁠HERE⁠ . To submit a question to be answered on the podcast, click HERE .

August 28, 2026Episode 14136 min

EP.141: The Real Reason Your Team Isn't Giving You Any Relief

More people on payroll. More expenses going out. And somehow, you're still working the same hours you were before any of them existed. If that's where you are right now, this episode is the one that finally explains why. The problem isn't that you hired the wrong people or that you need a better project management tool. The problem is that you delegated tasks but kept all the responsibility yourself. You built a business with hired help, not an actual team. And those are two completely different things. Today Kate breaks down exactly how this happens, why it keeps happening even when business owners know better, and what has to change for you to actually feel the relief that delegation is supposed to create. She gets into the two patterns she sees most often: baking yourself into every decision and process in the business so that nothing can move without you, and assigning people checklists instead of outcomes, which means you're still carrying all the thinking even when someone else is doing all the doing. She also walks through the identity shift that nobody talks about enough, the one where you have to stop being the best person on your team and start building people who are better than you. From there the episode gets tactical: the three revenue stages and what delegation looks like at each one, the three tiers of decision making every business owner needs to know, how to build a feedback loop that develops people instead of creating dependency, the 30-day disappearance test to show you exactly how baked in you currently are, and why only 22% of small business owners have ever received any formal leadership training, which might be the most important stat in this episode. If your team isn't working, the lid is probably you. This episode is how you raise it. DM Kate on Instagram or head to the website if you want support building a team that can actually scale without you in the middle of everything. Timestamps: 02:33 Stop Being the Bottleneck 05:08 Outcomes Not Tasks 09:05 Train Problem Solvers 12:05 Identity and Control 16:42 Standards vs Trust 18:32 Learn to Lead 21:08 Scaling by Revenue Stage 27:11 Delegation Audit Steps 29:58 Decision Making Tiers 32:09 Coach Not Fix To join the Ambitious Network for free, click HERE . To connect with Kate on Instagram, click ⁠HERE⁠ . To apply for ITI, click ⁠HERE⁠ . To submit a question to be answered on the podcast, click HERE .

August 20, 2026Episode 14042 min

EP.140: You Don't Have to Be an Influencer to Build a Personal Brand

You didn't sign up to post your morning coffee. You didn't sign up to document every corner of your house or have strangers know your dog's name. And if building a personal brand means becoming an influencer, you want no part of it. The problem is that's not what a personal brand actually is, and this episode is here to clear that up once and for all. Kate has been in this industry for eight years, and she's watched personal brand go through three completely distinct chapters: the pre-COVID era of authority signalling and low-frequency formality, the COVID era of personality-first documentation culture, and now the AI era, which has changed everything again. Because when AI made information free and infinite overnight, it also made one thing infinitely more valuable: your perspective. That is the entire game right now. Not your lifestyle. Not your hot takes. Not how many platforms you're on. Your point of view. In this episode she draws the clearest line she's ever drawn between what an influencer is and what a personal brand is, and why conflating the two has been keeping a lot of brilliant business owners from showing up online at all. She walks through why depth beats width every time, why you can run a seven-figure business with 5,000 followers, and why someone with 400,000 followers can have nothing to sell. She also gets into the two-platform rule, why consistency will always outperform volume, how to pull perspective out of even the most personal content so it actually builds your business, and what the non-negotiable components of a personal brand actually are. She then walks through some of the best personal brands in the online business space right now including Donald Miller, Mel Robbins, Alex Hormozi, Cody Sanchez, and Gary V, and breaks down exactly what each of them is doing right and why it works. If you've been avoiding personal brand because you think it requires something it doesn't, this is the episode that gives you your own back Timestamps: 01:56 Personal brand vs influencer 02:59 Common misconceptions 05:53 Three eras of branding 12:11 AI makes POV king 16:37 Influence vs trust 20:50 Privacy and BTS content 23:22 Consistency over volume 25:37 Followers and platforms 29:54 Personal brand role models 38:53 Core principles recap To join the Ambitious Network for free, click HERE . To connect with Kate on Instagram, click ⁠HERE⁠ . To apply for ITI, click ⁠HERE⁠ . To submit a question to be answered on the podcast, click HERE .