In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Katarina Gaborova, founder of KG Psychological Services, a psychologist, coach, TED speaker, and author. Katarina shares a pivotal personal story about her first book publishing attempt in 2013, emphasizing the importance of perseverance when projects are cancelled or delayed. She explains her core expertise in positive psychology, helping clients recognize their own strengths and become the experts of their own lives. Her overarching business advice is to prioritize service quality over financial concerns, trusting word‑of‑mouth advertising to generate growth. She offers advice to her younger self about surrounding oneself with people who uplift and teach you, noting a Slovak saying about choosing relationships wisely. When asked about happiness, she describes it as a continuum from contentment to ecstasy, highlighting gratitude, positive thoughts, and meaningful connections as key contributors. The book that impacted her most is Shawn Achor’s Before Happiness, from which she learned to block external and internal “background noise” to stay focused. Her favorite quote is Martin Luther King Jr.’s “If you can’t fly, then run… but whatever you do, keep moving forward,” which she relates to her coaching philosophy. Finally, she directs listeners to her website www.katarinagaborova.com for more information.
Chapters
Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with the support you need to finish your book. Best part is, after you finish your book, they take care of the entire publishing and marketing process 100% for you. So if you want to become a successful author, make sure to check out authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode. Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Katerina Gaborova. She is the founder of KG Psychology Services where she works as a psychologist and coach in the Hague, Netherlands area. She is a TED speaker and a published author of Viva! Tools for Well-Being products. And a mother of two. So welcome to the show.
Hi Tyler, thank you for connecting with me and greetings to everyone from the Netherlands.
Ah yes, and of course, and thanks for coming on. Very excited to have you here, Katerina. We'll dive into the first one. The first one I got for you is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Well, I'm not sure whether this story is actually the best of my life, but it is certainly the most valuable one because It significantly changed my life, and I'll tell you about it in a moment. First, I would like to perhaps share the most valuable message that I have, and that is, uh, this message keeps repeating itself as a pattern in my life, and it is the urgency to keep going with whatever I'm doing, especially through the most challenging periods. So whenever I'm also reaching the verge of giving up, I have certainly experienced that whenever I was able to get through worries, challenging points, there was a real magic waiting for me on the other side. So I can give you an example. For example, in 2013, I wanted to publish my first book, and at the time I had no idea how the whole publishing business worked. So as you can imagine, I contacted several different publishers around the world with a sample of my book, and this lasted for a couple of weeks. And one day I finally got a reply from one publisher with whom I also signed the contract However, a couple of months later down the track, unexpectedly, I received an email that my project was dropped. So this was my initial publishing experience and I got quite disappointed. And I was at that point when I was actually questioning whether to pursue the publishing or to diverge my focus onto something else. On the other hand, something inside of me kept telling me that if there was someone who liked the project, chances are very high that someone else would pick it up later. So I continued contacting other publishers and only 3 days later I got a reply from another one and it was a great, smooth and very professional experience. So I actually even signed a more convenient deal. So whoever is listening, and as cliché as it may sound, I would say that please keep going on because things in life often get cancelled or rearranged or changed and I truly believe that If we can persevere, we will eventually get wherever we need to, and maybe we get even better off.
Thank you for sharing that with us. Um, the next one I have for you is, what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
I guess that my expertise lies in leading people to realize who they are within themselves. And what this means is that as a psychologist and coach, and I am a complete fan of positive psychology. I assist people in becoming more aware of their own strengths or resources and support, and I really think that people are experts of their own lives because, um, just think about it for a while, no one knows you better than yourself, right? So, uh, after all, you are with yourself all the time. So I just know that occasionally, and especially during the most challenging periods of our lives, we may feel stuck, lost, or not even be aware of what is left there to hold on to. And that is my job, to keep discovering that along with my clients.
And what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific.
Mm-hmm. Okay. I think that occasionally it's actually nice to forget the financial aspect of the business and go back to the core. And don't get me wrong, of course, that we all do our business, that we can make a living out of it. What I meant was more to focus on the service as a priority, and because then the financial aspect comes to us by itself. And I'm realizing that I may be a bit old-fashioned in this, but I still think that the word of mouth is the best kind of advertising for any company. So for example, if our service makes the clients happy, we get a whole network of other clients, and that is a great opportunity to make even more people happy. And for this reason, I actually often when I'm walking to work, I keep asking myself various questions like if I would be my own customer, what would make me happy about my own service? Or I even keep wondering how is my service better from the other services that I have experienced? Or how can I aim that my clients leave with a smile? And I know this may sound also very strange, but psychologically speaking, at the end of the day, people do remember how we made them feel. That's why it's so important to me.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
I would say that there are many wonderful people out there. So direct your energy to those who make you laugh or help you to grow or teach you something and who make you feel yourself. We have a saying actually in Slovakia that goes like this: you cannot choose your family, So you need to make sure to choose your relationships wisely. And I really think that we humans are very social and with others with pride in our environments.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Now, that is actually a tricky question because I've been busy with this question for about 10 years now. And believe it or not, there are thousands of publications on the topic of happiness already. And until today, there is not even a great definition of what it actually is. So, in my opinion, I think of happiness on being on a continuous scale. So, it can range anywhere from a sense of contentment until feeling completely ecstatic. And because of this large scale, there is no one key to happiness. I think that practicing gratitude or positive thoughts, having connections and kindness with others, and anything else that the research suggests truly has an effect on our feelings. But I also think that life comes with the whole beautiful spectrum of ups and downs, and the sense of happiness comes every time we are positioned up because we feel the appreciation, especially when we look back and realize the challenges we were able to resolve or the goals that we achieved. And that feeling is priceless and certainly at least my own key to happiness.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Yeah, I actually read a book a few years ago that really stuck with me, and that was the book by Shawn Achor. It was called Before Happiness, and he talked in his book about boosting the signal for success. And what stood out for me personally was that after reading it, I somehow learned to cancel what he referred to as background noise. So we can have external or internal background noises, things like gossips or complaints or negative news. And that can sometimes truly distract us from making positive changes in life. So once you learn to block it, I think that it's easier to stay more focused.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
I think that would be the one by Martin Luther King Jr., the quote, "If you can't fly, then run. If you can't run, then walk. If you can't walk, then crawl. But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward." And as you can imagine, I think that this quote is very relevant to the work that I do, and it pretty much speaks for itself. It emphasizes the fact that even the smallest steps are still steps forward, and I can see so many wonderful shifts happening in my personal life or with my clients every day. And I found the moves forward in anyone's life truly inspiring.
Thank you so much for coming on. The last one I have for you before we let you go is, where is the best place for people to find you online?
Yeah, sure. It would be www.katarinagaborova.com. Sorry for the long website.
No, all good. Thank you again.
Yeah, thanks for having me. The podcast you just heard was made using Anchor. Ever thought about making your own podcast? Anchor makes it really easy for anyone to get started. It's a one-stop shop for recording, hosting, and distributing podcasts. Best of all, it's 100% free. Sign up now at anchor.fm/new. That's anchor.fm/new to get started.
