From Surviving to Leading with Impact: Why I Started Neurofit Global

Written By Katie Hurd

At 14 I was an incredibly shy bookworm and Sailor Moon nerd, whose main focus in life was to get straight A’s, avoid the spotlight, try to get my cast to handstand on uneven bars, and go on an exciting adventure to Japan someday. 

If you’d told me then that I’d one day found a coaching and training business working with leaders and Global Fortune 500 teams, I probably would’ve laughed.

At any rate, my transition from shy nerd, to English teacher to founder of a coaching and training company didn’t happen overnight. It was a series of transitions, quiet revelations, and hard-earned truths—moments that, in hindsight, shaped everything I now stand for as a coach, trainer, and mother.


My Childhood “Normal” – and Why That Matters

I grew up as the daughter of a doctor, in a home that appeared stable from the outside. But tragedy struck when I was just 6 years old. My youngest sister Ginny was born with microcephaly, a rare birth defect. She never walked or talked, and spent her life in and out of hospitals. Her only clear joy was laughing at the sound of bells.

It must’ve been devastating for my parents and as a mother now, I can’t imagine how they lived through that reality. It’s also surreal looking back to think how “normal” it all felt to me as a child.

But that’s the thing about early experiences–we define “normal” based on what we are shown—and when it comes to a world full of diverse people and experiences there’s no such thing as normal.

At 17, my life was shaken again. My parents divorced, and weeks later, Ginny passed away suddenly.

I didn’t go to therapy. I didn’t realize I was depressed on and off during the following years. My grades went down for a couple of years, then up again. Back to “normal”, right? I just kept going, the way so many people do. 

At times I regretted my Japan dream especially after a fun, but eye opening study abroad experience left me reeling from culture shock. I wished at times I’d pursued something with a better pathway to financial security–a researcher in neuroscience maybe?

Years later, after therapy, advancing in my HR career and wanting to take a masters to support clients that were so often at the brink of burnout, serendipity found me enrolling in the Masters in Science in the Psychology and Neuroscience of Mental Health with King’s College London.

It was during the Adolescent Mental Health module that I reflected upon the ACE Adverse Childhood Experiences criteria and learned that a staggering 64% of adults experienced risk factors in their childhood alone.

I also realized that I was actually part of the statistic of 17.3% of people who have experience 4 criteria or more–my “normal” was actually deeply shaped by trauma, abuse and neglect from one of my parents, and death of a sibling in a household of instability. 

As the eldest daughter of five siblings, growing up with parents who were going through the unthinkable and suffered from poor mental health, I internalized the responsibility of caretaker and high achiever—while compartmentalizing out a whole lot of distress.

From Teaching to Training to Transformation

That disconnect with how stressful experiences affected my physical and mental health showed up again and again in the next phases of my life and career. 

My early career in Japan was a mix of ambition and exhaustion. I graduated in the economic chaos of 2008 with intentions to work in the states and only lasted 3 months of failed job hunting before I broke and applied to jobs in Japan. I had several offers and decided to head back “just for a couple of years.” 

In the following years of early roles, some that aren’t included on my Linkedin, I experienced emotional abuse, power harassment, and normalization of unethical behavior that caused me to quit jobs several times for my mental health within weeks. These experiences made me question if any companies actually provided empowering and psychologically safe work environments.

I passed the Japanese Language Proficiency Test N1, moved between industries and into HR management, and worked with both traditional Japanese firms and multinational companies. Here I experienced the rigidity of rule-based Japanese HR running global leadership training at a top Japanese company, and the chaos and development opportunity of HR in rapid growth cultures—and saw how both environments could burn people out.

At the same time, I was navigating my own life transitions—marriage, motherhood, entrepreneurship, a postpartum sleep disorder–somehow I found myself mostly raising my 3-year old alone while pregnant with my partner never around– “This is Japan” seemed to trump my wishes for compromise and support. I had a cerebral event from stress at 9-months pregnant and was hospitalized, finding myself inside of the same MRI machines I had studied for a reason that should never exist in a 36-year old. I knew this wasn’t a partnership anymore. 

Then, when my second son was just 7 months old, my father passed away suddenly at just 66— of untreated heart failure that we realized he had known about for months and kept a secret. 

My dad’s death especially was a wake up call—he was still going to work everyday up until the week of his death. I think he believed he could “walk off” heart disease and life-long depression by sticking to his routine.

4 months later my eyes were fully open—in so many ways my body had been trying to tell me throughout my life that so many relationships were not healthy for me. Life is short and full of hard choices. After 13 years, my partner and I had grown to have different priorities. I knew from my own experience what would be best for my kids—I pushed through with divorce when my younger son was just 12 months old. 

The Hidden Costs of Stigma and Unhealthy Cultures

Maybe reading my story felt uncomfortable to you, because talking about mental health, childhood trauma, divorce and such might feel far too private to talk openly about on the internet.

If it did, it wouldn’t be unusual—studies show that a significant portion of the population hold stigmatizing beliefs about depression, such as believing it's a sign of weakness or a character flaw, rather than viewing it as just another illness and a disorder of the brain.

Yet statistics also show mental health disorders are incredibly common in the general population and the causes and blocks to treatment are many fold:

We also know of factors that are protective for mental health

  • Organizational cultures that create and sustain psychological safety, where employees feel supported and heard

  • Effective management of workload and capacity

  • Emphasis on recognition and growth

  • Support of employee health and work-life balance

  • A sense of belonging and influence

  • Adequate resources for health and mental health support

Unfortunately, organizations that don't effectively invest in these factors face significant financial and reputational costs. These include reduced productivity, increased absenteeism, higher turnover rates, and a damaged company reputation. The World Health Organization estimates that mental disorders cost the global economy around $1 trillion annually in lost productivity alone. 

Redefining “Normal” at Work

Studying about mental health, coaching and training leaders, and going through my own hardships has been so challenging through the years, but all of these experiences have deepened my empathy, love of this work supporting others, and raised my awareness of:

  1. Just how many people have gone through similar experiences to myself and are out there overcoming challenging experiences, sometimes doing it scared, and being a light to lead change.

  2. That many people struggle to understand the experiences of those who are different to themselves, which may cause them to miss out on opportunities to support and meet their people flexibly where they are at.

After finishing my masters degree, and years of coaching hundreds of professionals around emotional intelligence, cultural differences, and leadership skills with over 60 companies like Coca Cola, SalesForce, and Takeda, I knew I was ready to make a bigger impact.

To help more people to understand that we are shaped by so much more than culture and personality in our lives, and that in an increasingly disconnected world, people require environments that allow them to thrive more than ever before.

So I created Neurofit: to bring visibility and awareness into places where it’s often missing to help people and organizations grow through change. 

What Does It Mean to Be Neurofit?

As the Founder of Neurofit Global, I chose our logo with deep intention:
A brain, with two people growing a tree together, in all sorts of glorious colors.

That image reflects what we believe it takes to truly thrive—not just survive—in leadership, life, and work.

Here’s what being Neurofit means to us:

  • Neurofitness: Neuro, while probably known to be associated with the brain, actually means nerves, or the nervous system. Your brain is your most powerful asset. And your nervous system? It runs through your entire body, affecting how you interpret stress, take initiative, regulate emotion, and respond to challenge. The way each of us is “programmed”—by culture, upbringing, and experience—shapes how we lead and connect. And the best part? That programming can evolve.

  • Connection: Leaders don’t create change alone—diverse people do. Relationships, support systems, trust, and emotional safety are what power high-performing teams. Being Neurofit means knowing when to lean in, when to listen, and how to lead in a way that lifts others.

  • Healthy Cultures: Just like trees, humans are not machines. We are living beings with emotional and physical needs. Performance without sustainability leads to burnout. Healthy cultures, wellbeing, and inclusive systems, lead to results.

Yet, we all carry invisible programming into our careers —beliefs about what leadership “should” look like, how much stress is acceptable, or what counts as success.

  • “Not enough”—Some leaders feel chronically inadequate.

  • “My results should speak for themselves”—Some leaders struggle to build visibility and influence with their team and stakeholders.

  • “They just don’t have it”—Some leaders assume someone is underperforming because they’re incompetent—when really, they may be trying to set unheard of work-life boundaries, feel psychologically unsafe, or be navigating a new-to-them management style.

  • “They can’t do it like I can”—Some leaders’ control or fear of being overshadowed sabotages them from developing and raising their team performance.

  • “Nice leaders don’t perform”—Some learned that leaders can’t be impactful AND empathetic.

What kinds of leadership norms have you experienced in your life?

If any of these aligns with your experience, none of this makes you a bad leader. 

It just makes you human.

If you’ve worked with managers who have these beliefs, what was that like?

At any rate, when people can’t see a problem, they can’t fix it.

And when people normalize chronic stress or unhealthy communication styles, it becomes invisible—until someone breaks.

To truly make a difference, awareness is the first step to making a bigger impact. 

Building Better Futures, Together

At Neurofit Global, we don’t just train people to perform—we help them grow into sustainable and inclusive leaders who thrive in complex global environments.

We support global professionals and multicultural teams to:

  • Communicate with greater clarity and empathy across cultures

  • Raise influence and visibility without losing authenticity

  • Shift from reactive habits to intentional leadership

Because your people are your culture.
And when your culture is healthy, everything comes together.

If you’re navigating change—or leading others through it—know this:


Change is never easy.

But leading change that doesn’t just drive performance, but also leads to more supported, connected, and healthy people, is well worth the effort. 

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. There are certainly so many challenges to organizational development, but so many wins too! I hope you learned something new or were able to refresh your memory on what really matters.

If you’d like to talk about working together and learn more about our training, coaching, and workshop methods, or just collaborate, I’d love to hear from you:

neurofitglobal.com/contact

If you’d like to read more of my blogs, be informed of events, or just keep in touch, give me a follow on your preferred social platform below or join my mailing list for periodic updates throughout the year. 

Katie Hurd