Why Kat Hurd Left a Dream Job to Help Women Thrive in MedTech
What happens when you walk away from a thriving career to bet on yourself?
For Kat Hurd, it meant leaving a high-profile role in medical device sales to coach and empower women in the same industry. In this episode, she opens up about the boldest decision of her life—and why it changed everything.
Kat shares what it takes to thrive in spaces not built for you, from building systems that simplify success to expanding your influence through intentional connection. Whether you’re in the thick of reinvention or standing at a career crossroads, this episode delivers clarity and courage.
We talk failure, fear, and freedom—and the tools Kat used to turn an 18% performance low into a multi-million dollar rebound. This one’s for anyone ready to redefine what success looks like and who it’s really for.
Must-Hear Insights and Key Moments
Kat’s 15-year journey through medical device sales and leadership
The “18% to plan” story that sparked her systems-based comeback
Her boldest move: betting on future self and leaving corporate
How to build strong community connections outside your company
The difference between networking and building true community
Why systems free up your brain to focus on what really matters
What she’d tell her 18-year-old, perfectionist self
How exploration and curiosity fuel sustainable career growth
Words of Wisdom: Standout Quotes from This Episode
“Be willing to bet on future you—even when no one else understands the play.” – Kat Hurd
“Confidence isn’t just earned—it’s built through community and action.” – Courtney Turich
“Your success is not company dependent. It’s you dependent.” – Kat Hurd
“A system isn’t boring—it’s the structure that lets you thrive on chaos.” – Kat Hurd
“Fall down, spring up, and don’t run the same play again.” – Courtney Turich
About Kat Hurd
Kat Hurd is a leadership coach and former medical device executive with nearly 20 years of experience in the industry. Known for her people-first approach and trailblazing career, Kat went from Clinical Specialist to Rep of the Year, growing a $500K territory into $6.5M and earning four President’s Club awards along the way. As a Regional Director, she led a $25M portfolio and built award-winning, gender-equitable teams while launching mentorship and development programs for women and Black professionals in med device sales. Today, Kat helps women in medical device sales gain the confidence, skills, and strategy to lead boldly and grow careers they love.
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A Team Dklutr Production
BLOG TRANSCRIPT
Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies
Courtney Turich: Hey everyone, it's your friend and host, Courtney Turich, and welcome to Bold Moves, confident Choices, the podcast where we own our path, make fearless decisions, and get real about what it takes to turn bold ideas into reality. today's episode, we're chatting with Kat Hurd, who's made bold moves and confident choices to build something incredible.
A little bit about our trailblazing guest, Kat Heard is rewriting the rules of medical device sales. After 15 years of climbing the corporate ladder and smashing into mini glass ceilings, she decided it was time for a new game plan. Now she's a powerhouse career and leadership coach helping women in med tech.
Rise, lead and thrive, and rooms that weren't built for them from confidence building to boundary setting. She's on a mission to help women create careers that look good and feel better. Get ready to take notes, so. Kat welcome and thank you for being on Bold Moves, confident Choices.
Kat Hurd: Thank you Courtney, and thank you for that lovely introduction because you summed it up so perfectly, especially that last line of just the idea of making, careers that look good, of course, that are of, you know, great growth opportunities, but that feel really good too.
So thank you.
Courtney Turich: I'm excited to be here. You are. You are so welcome. I'm thrilled to have you, and when I call you a trailblazer, I really mean that from the bottom of my heart, you are helping women. In so many ways and the past year you've been putting yourself out there to help women. It's really incredible.
Kat Hurd: Yeah,
Courtney Turich: thanks.
Kat Hurd: It's definitely met with, um, a little bit of, you know, anxiety. I would say, you know, the trailblazing path. I think so much of what you focus on in the idea of bold moves, it's um, you know, I've made a lot of bold moves in my career, but probably none is. Bigger than the idea of betting on yourself.
And what I recognized this past weekend, because I had the opportunity to see a lot of my former customers, physician customers, there was a, a lab in town here in Scottsdale, and what I recognized is, because it's. Such a different path that I'm headed on now. And there really hasn't been anyone who's focused just on women in medical device.
There are definitely a few, you know, career coaches out there, leadership coaches for medical device, that's, that's a known entity, but because it's such a different path that it actually really makes other people nervous too. And so that was an interesting revelation to have and be able to talk with them and help them understand, you know, what I'm doing, not just to help.
Women in medical device sales, but to really help advance the space as well, because I'm focusing on focusing on sales, focusing on leadership, and then of course focusing on how we support the ecosystem that is the interventional pain and all of those different industries that medical device supports.
Courtney Turich: I love how you just said the whole ecosystem, it's just not one component. Women. It is our entire system.
Kat Hurd: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And it's the idea of this ripple effect. So last June when I kicked off my business, so I guess I should pause and say, you did a great job with my introduction, but just share. So I had 15 years of experience in the medical device industry, so I started as a clinical specialist.
I grew my career into sales very quickly. Had some tremendous. Sales year is finished first in the company and then probably that first really bold move, oh, that's not true. One of one of the middle career bold moves was moving into leadership, so leaving this very prolific, very successful, very high paying sales career to go help other people build their business, build their careers.
And when I made that move, it was this opportunity to really start to influence this space, the industry. And what I recognized really quickly was that to be able to make a bigger impact, you move to a smaller company and helped grow that company. So after 11 years at Boston Scientific, I moved to a small startup, saluta Medical, helps them commercialize, and then I left.
As you shared, I left the corporate world last January to start my own business. And really focusing on helping women. And I, I coach some very brave men who are, you know, interested in exploring their thought processes, their ideas, how they integrate into, you know, a really healthy work and leadership environment from a medical device standpoint.
Systems That Empower—Strategy, Structure & Confidence
And, um, so now really what I focus on is helping within that ecosystem, not just pushing to say, oh, women should have, you know, additional opportunities because they're women and they should just be given this like leg up. That's not the case at all. This is about looking at the systems that we work and live in, um, helping women work.
Strongly and more, um, aligned in those systems because that's a really important part. And then also advancing the systems as a whole. So giving the women the skills to work within the systems as they're built today, but then making changes that have this broader ripple effect. Ecosystem. Um, and where it started last year was actually in June in Chicago, the Women Innovators in Pain Medicine, which is a Society for Female Physicians in Interventional Pain.
I actually hosted the first ever industry event, so it was an an event for women in industry and we had. Just a quick little session, 90 minutes in the afternoon. But that was really the kickoff of this ripple effect of change because for this society of female physicians, they wanna help create additional opportunities for female physicians.
And in order to do that, you have to have people on the inside that help grow those opportunities. Right? So all of that to say that it's not just a singular person's career that I'm impacting, it's all the little spiderwebs that come from it.
Courtney Turich: So you jumped into your story. Thank you for sharing that with us because that was gonna be my next question for you.
What is your story? You talk about systems, Kat, can you elaborate? That's a very vague word. Can you share what you mean by systems?
Kat Hurd: Yeah, so systems you can calm, systems, you can call 'em processes, you can call 'em, SOPs, whatever word aligns with. You know how your brain works, but the idea is you create these steps and it's steps that you take that help you get where you want to go.
And being really clear, you know, we talk about strategy and strategies like the overarching umbrella. I. But in order to support strategy, you have to have the systems within that help you do what you need to do. So a super basic example would be like, what are the steps you take in the morning when you get up, right?
Do you snooze your alarm when you get up and your feet hit the grounds? Are you taking the dog out first after you take the dog? Do you come home and brush your teeth, start your coffee, right? It's all of those little steps that you take that help get you to your desk. In the morning and be ready to work on a high level.
So I work with women on building out those systems and also not just building systems from square one. They don't have to reinvent the wheel. I've built a lot of those systems in my career, and so it's sharing how you use those systems in the professional world to be really successful.
Courtney Turich: So what I'm hearing you say, Kat, is really, it comes down to your strategy.
We all have to have a strategy in place in many ways, right? Mm-hmm. Like, let's break it down, make it simple, actionable steps that can help us to deliver what we wanna deliver.
Kat Hurd: Yeah, it is. It's the strategy and knowing what strategies to take. I'm sure you've had experiences in your life court where, you know, getting into a new role or being in a role and being successful and not knowing what's next.
Then, unless you have someone next to you who has parallel experience or above you that you can watch and follow, it's cha, it can be really challenging to figure out what, you know, what you. What your options are for where you go next. And so that's a lot of what working with a coach. You know, I do group coaching, I do one-on-one coaching, um, and a lot of what we focus on are the, um, the tools and skills to build those strategies and then go execute on them with the systems that will support them.
Courtney Turich: Which is so great. I have to admit to everybody. I used to be a fly by the sea of my pants, girl. I think we are. Okay, good. Because it hasn't been until I, you know, I've matured a little that. Mm-hmm. I am so structured. It's almost crazy. I still love change, but my systems, as you call them, are very regimented.
Kat Hurd: Yeah. Yeah, and what that does, the beauty of a system is it also frees up brain power because then you're not thinking because girl, let me admit, I am, I still love a little fly by the seat of my pants moment. Like I thrive on adrenaline. I am this airport challenge of like getting to the airport 15 minutes beforehand to see if you can make your flight.
Like I accepted that like 15 years ago. Like I, I love those moments, but what happens is when you create. Systems, those processes that you follow, your brain become habits, right? And they become routine, and that frees up your processing power to focus on the things that really matter.
Courtney Turich: Yeah. Okay. Kat, we could talk about this aspect all day, but I, I really wanna get to what was your big, bold, or confident move in life that took you to the next level, personally or professionally?
The Boldest Leap—Trusting “Future You”
Kat Hurd: Oh man. Um, I love this question, but it also, as I was reflecting, 'cause I love listening to your podcast and hearing other people's bold, confident moves. Um, and then now sitting in this seat and having this conversation with you, I reflect and realize, man, it has to be so hard for those people to pick just one.
Uh, because when I look at my career, each moment has been defined by a big, bold move. Like, I moved, I got into med device because I was willing to move. Anywhere. And so I graduated grad school, hopped on an airplane a week later and moved to Arizona knowing no one, not even really, you know, I was, I was starting with Boston Scientific as a clinical specialist.
I had two suitcases. I had no co I ca I came to Arizona and literally acquired everything I needed to live. And so if I look at it, there's these big moments throughout my life where I've had that. Um, but none of them have been more influential. I think there's, there's two. I'm gonna go part A in part A 0.5 or 1.5.
One and 1.5. Um, but I, you know, it was that first move, right? Being willing to just like. Say, I don't know where I'm gonna be living. I don't know what I'm gonna be doing other than working for this company, but I'm gonna go make it work because I was so passionate about getting into medical device. Um, but really if I look at where I am now, that big, bold move was the shift I.
That I had in making my company change and recognizing that I could bet on future me because I think so often we have this fear of what's to come and will we still be successful? Will be we be able to make the money that we made, will we be able to have the success that we've had? Are we sure it wasn't luck?
Are we sure it just wasn't, you know, great timing and conditions. And when I made that move from my, the company I'd been with for 11 years to say, no, I'm betting on future me. I'm not just betting. I'm confident in my ability to figure it out and grow. And that's also what allowed me that power move, gave me this broad national opportunity to build influence and empowered me to make the move I made last year to be sitting here with you.
Courtney Turich: So what did it feel like? And just to be clear with everybody, that big move for clarity was leaving corporate America, essentially. Mm-hmm. Betting on yourself, Kat Hurd, and seeing what this world has to offer for you and many others.
Kat Hurd: Yeah. Um, and thank you for clarifying. 'cause I actually would say, you know, as I hear you roll it back, I think what I, what I wanna highlight was, is it was actually that first move, um, from Boston Scientific to Saluta in saying, I don't, my success wasn't company dependent, that I could go be successful anywhere that I went.
Right? And that did enable me to then be sitting here with you. Um, but that, that's the thing. I would encourage everyone to find your power. That was a really powerful and also very scary move for me because I spent the entirety of my career at one company. I. In the medical device world and saying that I was gonna go out and branch into this new venture and be confident that I could scale my skills, my strategies, my systems into success in another format.
It was that first proof of concept that felt like the biggest, scariest, boldest move.
Courtney Turich: Okay.
Kat Hurd: Yeah,
Courtney Turich: I can relate a lot. And thank you for clarifying that, Kat. I'm doing something very similar right now. You know, I've st I'm stepping into that raw startup starting from scratch. Mm-hmm. It is very scary. The unknowns.
How did you feel and how did you, what did you do for yourself to make sure Kat was moving in the right direction? Taking the right str steps and the right leaps.
Building Confidence Through Connection
Kat Hurd: It was, it was really a lot of both soul searching and, um, and people searching in a way. So finding the right mentors and connections in the community.
And what, what that experience allowed me to do was take the success I'd had in a small region, in a small corner of the southwestern United States and expand it broadly. And so that three. Three, three and a half years for me was all about networking. And not just networking for, you know, like for business growth, but really learning from those around me.
Because what I've found in my experience is the fastest way to debunk fear is to build confidence by building connection. By being so grounded in the community around you that you look at it, and not only do you become better because of those connections, but you, you integrate yourself into the community in a way that your success becomes inherent and inevitable
Courtney Turich: and they lift you up that community, right?
They make you wanna take the big important step with the action, take action. Like fear is also about taking action, but mm-hmm. You have to have community surrounding you. I love that. Yeah. So when you found this community cat, did you find it within Saluta? Did you find it outside? How did you go about starting this process?
Because I know there's many people out there that are wondering how to do this very. Exact thing.
Kat Hurd: Yeah. For me, community building wasn't just tied to one vertical of my world. Right. It wasn't just, um, the organization at Saluda now admittedly, because when I joined Saluda, I think I was, um, we were still smaller than like 30 people in the US so, um, I definitely built community there.
But that community, you know, I connected with all of them pretty quickly. It was about. Not just connecting with future customers. Um, it was about connecting with people that, so the physicians, the decision makers, um, the key industry people in all of the companies that touch the world that I was working in.
Um, so if. You know, I co I know we haven't ever gotten to meet in person, which is wild. But, um, those, you know, my, my colleagues and my friends will say that I'm the person at like an event who will go up to everyone, talk to any, you know, talk to everything including the brick walls, um, and just really start those conversations.
And so the recommendation, I would have to go back to your question of how do you start? You have to start small. And really recognize that in the start of building your community. So it's different than networking for a job. Building your community at the start is being curious about who's around you and building connections to explore.
I. To understand. So it's different than this purpose of I'm going to grow my bus, my business, or I'm going to go get my next job, but being curious about what's around you and that, that's, you know, when I think about the thing that's been transformational for me, it's being willing to experiment and understand new ideas, and that's come from those community connections.
Courtney Turich: So to dig deeper, when you say small, can you give us some examples because that's still hard for many of us to wrap our mind around. Is that small within your company?
Kat Hurd: Mm-hmm. Is
Courtney Turich: that small? Outside of your company? Can you show us, talk about how you layered the small ones and then moving out to the bigger.
Kat Hurd: Yeah. So I'll go outside of the company. 'cause I would say this, if you aren't making basic connections in your company, um. Then you, you need to start there, right? You have to be connected within your company unless you know that you're gonna be leaving, right? And so those basic company connections, depending on the size of the company are, um.
Things that you should be strategic about as they align to your role. But when you think about building your community for curiosity's sake, that's gonna be moving outside of your organization. Because what I do see as a risk for most professionals that I work with is they have a wonderful community within their organization, but they don't have any brand or awareness of who they are outside of their own company.
So to get really granular what that would look like when you go to a society meeting, that's you, even if it's a local society meeting, that's you making that intentional decision to connect with five new people. And I would encourage you to be really strategic about who those people are at the start to say, who, who do I admire?
Who do I aspire to be? And then making that introduction, or here's another one. Who's doing something really interesting? I think so much of what our networking becomes is who has something that, um, that I want or who can do something for me? We really have to move away from this transactional piece because when, when it's transactional, the person on the other side can feel that.
And now naturally as you build relationship and rapport, there will become this synergistic. Like, how can I help you? How can I help you? But my recommendation is not to start there. So when you start small, it's five folks at the next society meeting or conference or local rep meetup even, right? Meeting the local managers, getting to understand their perspective.
But the next time you go somewhere that isn't just a your branded company event, you find five folks. You build that initial in-person introduction, and then this is key. You have to follow up on that connection. I. Because if you don't do anything, then they aren't going to really remember who you are or be, um, inspired to deepen that connection.
Courtney Turich: Follow up, Kat. It makes me pause because I can't tell you how many times lately I have encountered, encountered situations where follow up has fell short. And to your point, there's no way to deepen the connection if you don't do the backend work. To the process. Yeah,
Kat Hurd: it's
Courtney Turich: so true. So Kat, you shared this great pivotal move for yourself.
What would, if we went back to Kat Hurd today, what would you tell your 18-year-old self?
Don't Be Afraid To Skin Your Knees
Kat Hurd: Oh, that, I love that question because it just is, it's this moment of. I think in some ways humility, right? To think of, gosh, where I was in my freshman year of college at 18, and man, um, I, I thought I was on top of the world then, right?
Uh, but it's so inspiring, I think, to look back at what's happened. You know, I just turned 40, so over the last 22 years, but what I would tell my 18-year-old self is to just. Be, be willing to experiment and explore so much wonderful, wonderful things can come out of exploration, that not getting so tied to an idea or a career or a specific thing that you lose the forest for the trees.
You know, it's, it's so important to be motivated, but it's also so important to keep that agility. So really it's that exploration. And not to be afraid to fail because, uh, my 18-year-old self was this, it was perfectionism At its core. It was, I was gonna be good at everything always. But you and I both know that, especially in the professional world, but even in your personal world, those growth moments really come when you skin your knees.
Fall flat on your face, pick yourself back up and learn from those moments. And they can be some of your best teachers in your quickest lessons, even faster than if you were doing everything that you wanted to do and doing it well. So
Courtney Turich: Kat, you talk about those moments of falling flat on your face. I'm gonna challenge you.
Is there one you would just be willing to share with us?
Kat Hurd: Oh my gosh. I'm, Hey, I love talking about failure. This actually used to be when I was, um, a hiring manager in medical device. I asked this question in every interview, uh, you know, what's your biggest failure and what did you learn from it? Because I do feel so strongly that those are our best teachers.
I'll start with one of my early failures. You know, I was a salesperson and as a salesperson. Um, well, I started as a clinical. And then moved into the sales role, and I was given a big opportunity from a business standpoint, but customers that had said they weren't gonna work with us and my first quarter, I had a massive number and I finished, I, I can't believe I'm gonna admit this on the internet to all of our new friends, 18 one 8% to plan.
Like holy kick in the pants that, I mean, yeah, I laugh. I, I still like, I, I always share it, but then I'm also like, oh my God, what are people gonna think of me now? That was a pivotal moment for me because the lessons I learned and how I had to control the business, not let the business, the cadence of our product and patient orders and the cadence of our customers, I could not let that dictate the momentum that we had.
So then why do I talk about systems? 'cause I went in and I built all these systems for how the business ran, right? Yeah. And then what happens? Well, I went from a million, the three years following, I went from. A million and a half to 3 million to 6.5 million. Incredible. So, so if you are really struggling, just know that that doesn't mean it's not the right role for you, because it would've been so easy in that moment of failure that my 18-year-old self probably would've looked at that and packed up their bag.
And hit the road and found a new job. But by not doing that, when you have those really tough moments, you teach yourself that you can navigate anything and you learn in those moments what you need to do differently to come out on the other end.
Courtney Turich: So before we go to the my, the next thing I wanna touch on, Kat, how did it feel when you were.
18 per 18th. Little louder. How did you, how, how long did it take you to snap outta that and be like, Kat, you got this? Um,
Kat Hurd: you know, gosh, that was so long ago. That was over 10 years ago, and so it's a little hard to put myself back in that moment. Um, it did not take me as long as you would expect to snap out of it.
I think because I, I got lucky. Not lucky, um, my background, right? My, um, my training, my abilities. And Courtney, I know we've talked about this before, but I grew up dancing, dance competitively for a very long time, and challenges in failure in that. Arena are very common and and needing to have that resilience.
And so when you fall down on stage, you don't just stay down on stage. And for me, so that was a fall down moment, but that was a moment I got right back up. I will say the thing that made was the key difference maker was that I didn't just get back up and decide to run the same plays again. I got back up, I went straight to my manager and said.
This can never happen again. I need your support to dive deeper into my business. I started pulling additional resources in the company, people I really admired, people whose work I wanted to emulate. I. And started working with them to say, okay, what do you do that's really successful? What, what do I need to refine?
And so I didn't stay down very long, and I will recommend to anyone when you get down, the faster you can spring up, the more likely you are to use that to build momentum. It, it truly is just like, it's like the physics of it. A body in motion stays in motion. So if you go down and come up, then it becomes like a springboard. But if you go down and stay down, it's really hard to build momentum after that.
Courtney Turich: So, good to hear, because to your point, people could go either way.
Kat Hurd: Mm-hmm. Yeah,
Courtney Turich: and I, I've never thought of it and the way you just explained it, but makes complete sense. So ka, we've talked a lot today and the takeaways that I'm soaking in from this conversation are to have a system in place.
Kat Hurd: Mm-hmm. A
Courtney Turich: process, you can create it. Anybody out there can create this while you can also help people create this because you've gone through it multiple times. Yeah, yeah. Number two is stay curious, go out there. Your network has power. Community. It's okay to start small. Yeah. But make sure when you meet those people in your community, you have the conversation, you follow up.
So you really start the engagement and start to create that, that unity with them. And last but not least, is explore, which also goes into curiosity with me. It is a form of curiosity, but don't be afraid. Don't let your fear hold you back. Yeah.
Kat Hurd: Yeah,
Courtney Turich: and as we bring this to an end, which I can't believe, it's always a whirlwind, and time flies when I'm talking to you, Kat.
What would you like to leave everyone with today?
Kat Hurd: Oh, there's so many things I would love to say in court. Thank you for summing it up so wonderfully because it really is that curiosity and exploration and resilience. I'll tie that in. Um, but the thing that I want to close with is that if I can inspire you to do anything, it's have confidence and.
Belief, profound belief in future you, because you have figured out 100% of the situations that you've been in that have led up to where you are right now. Sitting here and listening to this podcast. You have always figured it out. It may not have always been pretty, but know that you will. And then the other caveat I'll say to that is know that you don't have to do it alone.
And in that, not doing it alone is recognizing that you have the support, the systems and the resource, the resources to go out there and be successful by building that strong community, finding those mentors, finding those coaches, and not reinventing the wheel. That's the key piece here too, is being resilient, exploring, you know, having confidence in yourself, but know that you can find the cheat code and do things faster and even bigger than those around you.
Courtney Turich: Thank you so much, Kat. Now if people need to find you, where can they find you? Where can they find Kat Hurd?
Kat Hurd: Oh, yes. Uh, come hang out with me on LinkedIn. That is my biggest social platform. I'm also, um, you know, of course you can find me on the web kat Hurd.com. If you wanna hear a little bit more about my story, I share that on my website.
Um, and I'm actually court, I'll say, I don't know when this is going live, but I have some really fun group coaching and masterclass work that's coming up. So please, uh, find me on LinkedIn. If you listen to this, pop in the dms, I'd love to hear about you and your. Moment of exploration in your career and your moment of failure and, um, cheer you along in your journey.
Courtney Turich: Well, Kat, thank you so much for being here today. It's been an honor to have you keep being a trailblazer and I'm gonna keep following your journey and thanks. Great being a friend For sure.
Kat Hurd: Very grateful for you court. Thank you so much for the conversation today. I enjoyed it.
Courtney Turich: Thank you. And to all my listeners out there, if you like this episode, please download, share, leave a comment to be much appreciated.
Welcome again to Bold Moves, confident choices. Be bold, be confident, and more importantly be you. Thanks. I just threw that last thing in out of the blue. Oh, it
Kat Hurd: was great. I was like, I mean, I.
