Women in Business Luncheon Keynote Speaker: Kati LeBreton

Women in BusinessLuncheon Keynote Speaker: Kati LeBreton

Ferris Bueller would agree with Kati LeBreton that “life moves pretty fast.” But he would also share a word or two of caution: “If you don’t stop and look around every once in a while, you could miss it.”

For Kati, life balance is much better described as perpetual motion. Perhaps best measured with those “weigh-in-motion” scales you see by truck stops on the interstate since she reports her normal cruising speed as about 1,000 miles per hour.

As for those stops to look around every once in a while, she credits her husband Michael with being the perfect ying to her yang who helps her downshift from time to time.

“I don’t do well sitting still,” says the red-headed thirty-something former Division I student-athlete and self-proclaimed professional yapper and purveyor of girl power. “For me, life doesn’t balance unless I’m moving at a fairly fast clip.”

When asked what exactly it is that she does for a living, Kati says her new favorite way to describe herself is as a portfolio professional. She explains that when she encountered the term, she found it a great way to describe how all the parts and pieces of her career, side hustles and passion projects overlap, fit alongside each other and align at times.

As vice president and director of the women-owned business development program P.O.W.E.R. with Fidelity Bank, Kati’s day job allows her to help women achieve their business goals and dreams. A viral post about Harambe the gorilla’s death turned her into a social media sensation. This led to her first foray into the world of digital education and consulting through establishment of The Redhead Method. Her latest endeavor puts her personality and passion for history and true crime in the spotlight. Kati and her little brother Caleb have launched “The Big Bad Boot” podcast to rave reviews and crazy impressive download numbers.

Such pursuits are a far cry from what she declared as her future profession back in kindergarten.

“My parents love to tell the story of how I announced that I wanted to be a taxi driver when I grew up,” she says laughing. “The fact that I’m a terrible driver and that I tend to get carsick makes it even funnier.”

Fast forward a few years and the results of her careeraptitude test results in high school suggested a role as tour guide at a museum or historical site.

“That actually makes much more sense. I would get to make people excited about things that I’m excited about. That’s what I do now in terms of business success, smart digital habits or quirky Louisiana history.”

If the whole banking/consulting/public speaking/ podcasting thing doesn’t work out, Kati has a few other career options in mind for down the road.

“If I could clone myself, I’d like to be a yoga instructor, and I’ve always wanted to work at Disney World. I’d love to be a professional sports team mascot, too” she says with a grin. “After all, I’m tall enough to fit in the costume.”

In the meantime, she’ll have to settle for helping business women achieve their goals, helping steer people toward the positive utility of social media and helping put smiles on peoples’ faces with Caleb as the sibling duo continue to grow their podcast purview. That last point comes with a bit of local celebrity, too.

“We’re far from famous,” she says laughing. “Pretty sure it doesn’t count when you’re spotted at restaurants in your own hometown or your favorite local watering hole.”

However, she added that it is gratifying to feel that all their hard work is paying off when someone approaches them to chat about an episode or tell them that they’re “fans” of theirs.

“I honestly can’t believe people think of us that way,” she says.

From an external viewpoint it’s easy to see exactly why people would feel that way about Kati. Most impressively, she’s just getting started. There’s no telling what pages she’ll add to her portfolio next.

As she continues to assist others in achieving their professional and personal goals, she’ll no doubt knock a few of her own out of the park, too. It’s second nature for the former Southeastern Louisiana University student-athlete who honed her leadership skills on the softball pitching mound for the Lady Lions.

Since then, she’s earned a master’s degree in organizational communication from her alma mater and worked at Tulane University’s Athletics Department, the Hammond Downtown Development District and Southeastern Alumni Association before landing at what she calls her perfect fit of a dream job with Fidelity Bank.

She serves as a Girl Scouts Louisiana East board member and enjoys performing in musical theater with recent roles as Miss Lynch in “Grease,” a magical singing cypress tree in “The Wizard of Oz” and Carla Phillips in Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts’ production of “The War of the Worlds” by Orson Welles.

Kati was named one of Northshore Media Group’s “40 Under 40” in 2022. She is also an alumnus of Leadership Tangipahoa, graduating in 2022.

In between the speaking engagements and podcast recording sessions, the couple who managed to pull off a mid-Covid marriage are enjoying the home they recently bought and every once in a while, Kati gives herself time to read, listen to podcasts and watch some true crime shows.

“I do not do non-fiction or self-help books. I want all the fairy tales and stories that provide a brief escape,” says the collector of Steven King novels with a goal to one day own everything King has ever written in print. “I’d say I’m about 1/3 of the way there. I own all the classics – ‘Misery,’ ‘It,’ ‘Salem’s Lot’ and ‘Pet Sematary’ – but there are a whole lot more out there that most people don’t know about like ‘Bazaar of Bad Dreams’ and ‘You Like It Darker.’”

What advice might she give younger Kati?

“I’d tell her to chill out!” she says without hesitation. “Just like the lyrics in Billy Joel’s new song Vienna: ‘Slow down. You’re doing fine.’ I’d tell myself over and over again that even if it looks like it’s not working out; it most definitely is.”

The words of the man who made playing hooky an artform resonate once again in relation to Kati and her approach to life: As Ferris Bueller put it so succinctly, “The question isn’t ‘what are we going to do’, the question is ‘what aren’t we going to do?’”