Based in Talent’s Wellington office, Katie Kemp has spent over 14 years building the kind of genuine relationships with her clients, contractors and candidates that sit at the heart of great recruitment. Beyond work, she’s brought that same energy, discipline and willingness to back herself to an entirely new challenge: HYROX.
We caught up with Katie to hear how a quick Google, an impulsive and brave “yes”, and a lot of early mornings took her from a complete newcomer to #2 in the world.
Zero experience looked like having to Google HYROX when our Global CEO, Mark Nielsen, introduced it to us at TalentFest 2024. What made me decide to give it a go was seeing Mark and Simon (Managing Director of Talent Melbourne) smashing it out in HYROX photos shared across the team. It totally inspired me.
I was looking for a new fitness challenge, so I said yes verbally while thinking, ‘No!’ I found a HYROX training gym in Wellington, went along and introduced myself. The hardest part was signing up.
The first event was a wave of emotion, I was terrified while waiting to compete because of the fear of the unknown and then absolutely loving the vibe and energy once I got going.
Afterwards, I was in total disbelief that I had done it, let alone won the Open division for my age group. During the event, I was far too busy doing it to think about being competitive and I had no clue I was winning.
Sharing the fun and our achievements with the Talent team in Sydney, plus that winning feeling, fuelled my fire to set the bar higher and move into the Pro category. The running distances are the same, but the weights take a big step up. That also opened up the opportunity to chase a world-qualification slot.
A huge cheer squad and support team, both at work and at home. The support from the whole company was epic and genuinely felt. I kept thinking: I have all of Talent behind me, cheering for me.
It also took disciplined recovery, and prioritising nutrition and sleep. There wasn’t much life after dark for three months, and there was a lot of rice and chicken.
Then there was the mental game. I had to do a lot of positive self-talk and encouragement to keep turning up to a gruelling training schedule, and to find the courage to step onto that start line on a world stage. I had a few go-to quotes and phrases saved in my phone to deal with the self-doubt when it crept in.
It came down to setting three clear priorities and embracing a lot of very early mornings. After qualifying in February, I made a conscious decision to lock in on this goal until June, when the World Championships were held.
I chose to prioritise family, work and training. If something fell outside those three things, I excused myself, let it go and forgave myself for it. It helped me stay focused on what mattered most.
So yes, I became quite boring! But I kept telling myself that it was only for a short time. If I was going to represent Talent on the world stage, I was going to throw everything at it and make both myself and Talent proud. It was worth every bit of sacrifice.
The biggest support Talent gave me — one I’ll never forget and am so grateful for — was opening the door for me to pursue a sporting goal alongside my career. It gave me the confidence to be bold about my goal: to share it, celebrate it, talk about the hard training days, and have people check in on how I was going.
Talent made me feel that my career and sporting goals were both important, and gave me the support and space to commit time to the training.
HYROX has given me confidence, courage and a greater belief in myself and to back myself. I take that into client meetings and new challenges I encounter in and outside of work.
It has also really helped my productivity and efficiency. While it was a busy period, often fitting in two training sessions a day, it made me prioritise my time and find ways to build efficiencies into my working day.
Some of my best work often came after a hard training session or a quick run at lunchtime. From a personal-development perspective, that time really helped me fine-tune how I work.
There is never a perfect time, and we don’t need to be perfect at something yet. Sometimes, we just need to say yes.
One of my favourite self-belief quotes captures it: no one wants you to fail; people want to see you succeed. Sometimes the best things come from the decisions we make with a little bit of fear.
If it had not been for our Wellington MD, Nik King-Turner, and CEO, Mark Nielsen, telling me to say yes, I would never have had this incredible experience. Imagine that?!
HYROX: Melbourne Pro Solo in December is my next goal, followed by Auckland in January. I want to be stronger and faster, and to keep making my impossible possible.
At Talent: I want to keep pushing myself and growing my career as a Consultant. I genuinely love my job and I love working for Talent. My goals are to grow my portfolio and the value I bring to Talent, through sales and by sharing my goals and journey with the team.
I want to be a key part of our shared vision to make Talent the best recruitment agency in Wellington and New Zealand, and I hope my own experiences encourage others at Talent to keep pushing boundaries, at work and outside it. I’ve seen first-hand how well the two can work together, and how much one can positively influence the other.
If you’re interested in progressing your career with Talent, complete the form here – we’d love to hear from you.