Some businesses are built from an idea. Others are built from experience, resilience, and a deep calling to serve.
For Kat Knecht, founder of Soul Driven Success, that calling has taken many forms throughout her career. After building several successful coaching businesses—including spending more than a decade as a relationship coach and serving as a coach trainer for the world-renowned Co-Active Training Institute (CTI)—she noticed a recurring pattern.
Brilliant coaches knew how to transform lives, but many struggled to build sustainable businesses.
"I found countless students stymied by business building and not being able to get the help they needed," Kat shares. "The people offering help were often not in integrity or weren't offering strategies that aligned with the kind of businesses these coaches wanted to create."
Rather than accepting the gap, she decided to fill it.
Today, through Soul Driven Success, Kat helps trained coaches combine proven business strategy with soul-centered wisdom, empowering them to build businesses that are not only profitable but deeply fulfilling.
Success with Soul — Kat Knecht of Soul Driven Success
Q: What inspired you to start your business, and how has that inspiration evolved?
Kat:
I've had several iterations of a successful coaching business over the years, including spending more than a decade as a relationship coach. I also train coaches through the Co-Active Training Institute, one of the most respected coaching schools in the world.
Working with aspiring coaches, I kept seeing the same challenge. They were incredibly talented at helping people, but they struggled to build businesses that could sustain them. Many were investing in programs that weren't aligned with their values or the kind of coaching businesses they truly wanted to create.
That inspired me to combine everything I'd learned about coaching, business, and leadership into Soul Driven Success—a business academy designed specifically to help coaches build thriving businesses with integrity, strategy, and soul.
Q: What's the mission behind what you do?
Kat:
My mission is to help trained coaches who are passionate about making a difference in the world succeed in business using both proven strategy and soul wisdom.
I believe coaches have the ability to create incredible change, but too often they struggle to build businesses that allow them to continue doing that work. I want to help them create sustainable success that feels authentic and aligned with who they are.
Q: What transformation do you help others experience through your work?
Kat:
I help people discover and trust their own power.
When coaches learn how to build businesses that reflect their values instead of chasing someone else's formula, everything changes. They create businesses that bring them joy, financial well-being, and the freedom to make a lasting impact.
Watching someone step fully into that confidence is one of the greatest rewards of my work.
Q: What's a recent win or moment you're especially proud of?
Kat:
One of my clients recently reached out after working together for a couple of years to tell me he had just completed his first million-dollar year.
He told me we both knew he wouldn't be where he was without the support and business-building framework we created together.
There are many moments like that which make me proud—not because of the revenue alone, but because my clients are building businesses they genuinely love while becoming more confident in themselves along the way.
Q: What challenges have you overcome in business that have shaped who you are?
Kat:
I've had to pivot more than once because of circumstances completely outside of my control.
During the 2008 recession, much of my coaching business disappeared almost overnight as people became hesitant to invest in themselves. Instead of giving up, I became curious about what people truly needed and created new programs that met them where they were.
The pandemic brought another season of uncertainty. Many of my in-person clients stopped coaching, so I used that time to write a book, redesign my online courses, and create a virtual community.
Those experiences taught me that resilience isn't about resisting change—it's about staying open enough to evolve with it.
Q: What's something you wish more people understood about your industry?
Kat:
Building a business can be both challenging and incredibly fun.
No one succeeds alone. I invest in coaching and support for my own business because I believe we all need guidance as we grow.
Marketing also doesn't have to feel salesy. When you're offering a service that genuinely helps people, sharing it becomes an act of service rather than self-promotion.
“If it's not a Hell Yes, it's a NO.”
— Kat Knecht
Q: What's your current focus in business?
Kat:
Right now I'm focused on expanding my comprehensive business-building program for coaches.
It's a self-paced course that includes one-on-one coaching alongside a thriving, supportive community. Together, those pieces create an experience that helps people build businesses that are sustainable, fulfilling, and uniquely their own.
Q: What do you hope your business is known for in the long run?
Kat:
I'd love to see coaching become as widely recognized and accepted as therapy.
My hope is that Soul Driven Success becomes known as the business that helped coaches build meaningful, successful careers so they could continue changing lives for generations to come.
Q: What's one piece of advice you'd offer someone building a business?
Kat:
Business is a long game.
It takes patience, personal growth, and consistent action. There isn't a shortcut to lasting success, but there is a path—and it starts by building a strong foundation, following proven strategies, and trusting your own wisdom.
Don't skip the steps.
Q: What values guide the way you live and make decisions today?
Kat:
Love, intuition, integrity, inspiration, and remembering that life is meant to be fun.
Those values influence every decision I make—in both business and life.
Q: What's a life experience that shaped how you show up in the world today?
Kat:
As a teenager, I survived being kidnapped, and it completely changed the way I see life.
That experience taught me that no matter what our circumstances are, we always have choices. It also showed me that guidance is always available and that love is one of the most powerful forces we can choose to live from.
Those lessons continue to shape how I lead, coach, and serve others today.
Q: What's something people might not know about you?
Kat:
Many people know I'm a business coach, but I'm also an interfaith minister.
People often assume both are serious professions—but honestly, I laugh my way through most days. I truly believe life is meant to be enjoyed.
Q: How do you care for yourself during difficult seasons?
Kat:
Morning journaling is part of my daily practice. I also work with a somatic therapist, have a coach, take intentional time off to simply play, and occasionally retreat by myself when I need space to think deeply.
I've learned that caring for myself allows me to better care for others.
Q: What are you most proud of in yourself right now?
Kat:
I'm proud that I'm staying true to myself.
I've stopped believing I have to overwork, worry, or constantly push to create success. Instead, I'm embracing a more feminine, spiritual way of leading—one that's rooted in vision, trust, and co-creating with Source.
That feels deeply aligned with who I am.
Connect and Discover More
Kat Knecht | Soul Driven Success
Kat Knecht is building more than successful businesses. Through Soul Driven Success, she is helping coaches lead with confidence, grow with integrity, and create businesses that are both financially sustainable and deeply aligned with who they are. Her work is a reminder that lasting success isn't built overnight—it's built with purpose, patience, and soul.
