Episode 271

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Published on:

20th Nov 2025

Clarify Your Field of Excellence: Leadership Lessons with Katrena Friel

In this episode, host Kim Olver sits down with internationally recognized business mentor Katrena Friel to explore powerful truths about leadership, entrepreneurship, and discovering your unique field of excellence. Known as the “business mentor to the awakened,” Katrena has spent more than 25 years helping entrepreneurs and leaders transform hidden dreams into tangible, income-generating results.

Katrena shares the inspiring origin story behind her signature Done For You program — a 90-day, high-touch process that builds a client’s entire personal brand ecosystem, including their book, website, TEDx message, and high-ticket signature program. Drawing from decades of experience, she explains how she reverse-engineered her own success to create a repeatable pathway to mastery across seven streams of income.

Kim and Katrena also dive into the psychological side of leadership, discussing four common internal barriers that often hold women back: confidence struggles, lack of assertiveness, perfectionism, and people-pleasing. Katrena reveals how she identifies a client’s true field of excellence through her deep-dive discovery sessions — and why clarity is the most valuable asset an entrepreneur can have.

This episode is rich with wisdom, strategy, and empowering insight for anyone ready to elevate their leadership and build a business that reflects their authentic brilliance.

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About the Podcast

Life = Choices; Choices = Life
Practical Conversations About Leadership, Relationships, and Personal Responsibility Through Mental Freedom
Hosted by author, speaker, and coach Kim Olver, Life = Choices; Choices = Life explores how personal responsibility, emotional awareness, and intentional decision-making shape our relationships, leadership, and everyday lives.

Drawing on the principles of Choice Theory® and the framework of Mental Freedom®, Kim has thoughtful conversations with experts, educators, coaches, and leaders about how people can respond to life with greater clarity, connection, and purpose.

Kim Olver is the author of several books on relationships and personal growth, including Mental Freedom®: You Hold the Key, Choosing Me Now, and Secrets of Happy Couples.

Each episode offers practical insights on topics such as:

• Relationships and couples
• Parenting and family dynamics
• Leadership and workplace culture
• coaching and personal development
• Education and human behavior
• Emotional resilience and mental health
• Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging

Through interviews and occasional solo reflections, Kim helps listeners understand how our thinking shapes our actions—and how choosing responsibility over blame can lead to healthier relationships, stronger leadership, and a greater sense of freedom.

If you're interested in personal growth, meaningful conversations, and learning how to respond to life with intention rather than reaction, this podcast offers ideas, tools, and perspectives you can apply right away.

Because ultimately,

Life equals choices… and choices equal life.

About your host

Profile picture for Kim Olver

Kim Olver

Kim Olver's mission is to help people make better choices for a better life. She is a licensed clinical professional counselor, a nationally certified counselor and a board certified coach. She is a world renowned expert in Choice Theory™ , a highly sought after international speaker and an award-winning author. Her books include: Leveraging Diversity at Work with Sylvester Baugh (2006), Secrets of Happy Couples (2010), Choosing Me Now (2019) and A Choice Theory Guide to Relationships (2019). Kim is currently working on the forthcoming books, The Definitive Guide to Coaching and Radical Responsibility and Appreciation. Kim is the author of The Relationship Center blog; creator of Empowerment Parenting, a 25-hour parenting curriculum for court-mandated parents; and owner of Academy of Choice, a BCC (Board Certified Coach) Coaching Program. Kim worked five years as a counselor for schizophrenics in a community-based residential program, 17 years holding various positions with a specialized foster care agency, was Executive Director of Glasser Institute for Choice Theory for nine years and the Executive Director for William Glasser International for eight; and began her own company, Coaching for Excellence, in 2005. She is a model of what she teaches about taking responsibility for the things she can influence and control and finding appreciation for those things she can't. Kim believes radical responsibility and appreciation are the keys to a happy, peaceful, satisfying life.