Why 100 Coffee Meetings Didn’t Work—And What Kat Halushka Did Instead

My Favorite Mistake: Business Lessons from Failures and Success

My guest for Episode #315 of the My Favorite Mistake podcast is Kat Halushka, a business and visibility strategist for coaches, consultants, and speakers. She’s the founder of Profitable Impact Academy, where she helps entrepreneurs grow their audience, automate marketing, and land clients through speaking and streamlined funnels.

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Kat’s favorite mistake? She followed the classic advice to “go to networking events and have coffee meetings” to get clients—so she did, hundreds of times. But after exhausting herself with back-to-back coffee chats every Friday, she realized the ROI just wasn’t there.

Kat had a breakthrough when she nervously gave a short talk at a networking event—and walked away with two new clients that day. That lightbulb moment launched her on a mission to get in front of the room instead of meeting people one-on-one. Over time, she built her credibility by hosting her own events, attracting hundreds of attendees and growing a thriving business community. This shift helped her discover that strategic speaking, not endless small talk, was the true key to visibility and client conversion.

Today, Kat teaches entrepreneurs to stop chasing every opportunity and instead focus on clarity, messaging, and scalable systems. She shares powerful lessons on why most new speakers fail to connect—and how you can avoid those pitfalls by making offers that speak to your audience’s present-day pain points. Whether you’re brand-new to business or looking to scale with less hustle, Kat’s insights on visibility, messaging, and mistake-making will help light the way forward.

Questions and Topics:

• What’s your favorite mistake?
• How did those endless coffee meetings affect you and your business?
• What changed after that first speaking engagement?
• How did you start landing more speaking opportunities after that breakthrough?
• What was the origin story behind Profitable Impact Academy?
• What are some of the most common mistakes entrepreneurs make when trying to grow through speaking?
• How can business owners get clearer on what their audience really needs?
• Why is it a mistake to create too many offers or talks?
• How do you help clients identify and refine the one talk that drives results?
• What are the differences between speaking as a business vs. speaking to grow a business?
• When offered a speaking fee, how do you decide whether to accept or negotiate for something else?
• Can you explain what you mean by making an “offer from the stage”?
• How do you structure a win-win-win when working with event organizers?
• What’s one way speakers can make a compelling call-to-action without sounding salesy?
• Can you give an example of a “gift” that actually gets audience engagement?
• What’s your final advice for new entrepreneurs or aspiring speakers?