From the outside looking in, Milwaukee-area native Ben Katt led a good life and carried out worthwhile work during an extended stint in Seattle.
“I was doing really meaningful work and it was impactful and, in a sense, I was helping other people get their hearts back or experience wholeness,” said Katt, a meditation leader and transformational life coach. “But somewhere along the way my soul kind of snuck out the back door. That’s what I really had to examine.”
That examination led Katt back to his home state, where he has found comfort in family, an easier pace of life and the practices he carries out through his business, Mind MKE, through which he teaches meditation and offers services aimed at fostering well-being in the workplace.
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Katt has also authored his first book, The Way Home: Discovering the Hero’s Journey to Wholeness at Midlife, which he describes as a guidebook for people struggling to find their way back to themselves, especially those who have reached middle age.
The chase for achievement, perfection and approval of others caused Katt to feel lost.
“We all have a lot of questions stirring inside us about meaning and purpose and I hope my book can support people in asking and exploring those questions,” Katt said.
He doesn’t plan to have the book be his only endeavor as an author. “I hope this is the first of a few,” he said.
Katt will appear at Boswell Book Co. (2559 N Downer Ave.,) at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 20. He will join Sally Haldorson, managing director of Milwaukee’s Porchlight Book Co. and cohost for the event, for a conversation. A book signing will follow.
Katt, 43, lives in Shorewood with his wife, Cherie, a therapist. The couple has three children – daughters Evie and Zara, and son, Jackson.
He spoke with Milwaukee Magazine about his book and the path he’s taken in life and his career.
MilMag: What brought you back to Milwaukee?
Ben Katt: I was born in Milwaukee then moved to Brookfield, where I mainly grew up. After high school I went to Michigan for a bit then spent 14 years in Seattle. My wife and I had three kids out there and in 2020, during the pandemic and after a few years of thinking about it, we finally took the leap and moved back to the area. My parents are still here. I have a brother here, Dan, who owns Good City Brewing. Family is a big motivation for me, and I was ready for a different pace. My wife’s family is in Ontario, Canada, so we’re a little bit closer to them, too. I also was undergoing a work shift. I had been working with the Minneapolis-based On Being (public broadcasting) podcast with Krista Tippett. This felt like a good time for a transition, so we ended up back here, in Shorewood.
What’s your current line of work?
BK: There’s sort of a few buckets to what I do. I teach meditation courses. I facilitate well-being workshops with companies and organizations, and I do various kinds of coaching. You could put it broadly in that life-coaching category. And I write. As a broader context, for the last 20 years, my work has been at the intersection of spirituality, or inner life, and community and social healing and social change. Many years ago, I was an ordained minister and pastor and started a church in Seattle. I loved that work but in a way sort of outgrew that. I still really care about helping people be fully alive and become more whole and have found another way to do that here.
What was the genesis for the book?
BK: I started writing it in 2020. Partly it was the change of scene, but it was a very clear shift in life. I was looking back at the five or six previous years. I really went on a journey. It was a deep, tumultuous, soulful journey. Shedding things and really trying to find out who I am. A big part of it was separating who I am from what I do. I had been doing really meaningful and impactful work. You could almost say virtuous work, working with people in our community who have mental illness, substance addiction or who were caught up in the sex trade, through this community center we had started in Seattle. But along the way I kind of lost myself in it. In 2014, I realized I was really burned out. I had this epiphany moment one morning while I was out for a run and that really began a whole journey of getting my heart back. When I arrived here, I had emerged from that season, and it was time to reflect on it and write the kind of book I wish I had when I was going through this very disorienting period in life.
Tell me about the book’s title and the message behind it?
BK: The Way Home, being the main title, is this idea of finding a path to get back home to yourself. To really coming back to your true self. The subtitle, Discovering the Hero’s Journey to Wholeness at Midlife, has all kinds of fun stuff. It’s always interesting to see what part captures people’s attention. The hero’s journey was coined by the very famous 20th Century mythologist Joseph Campbell, as he looked at ancient cultures and myths and folktales and fairytales and religion, he found this common pattern that he ended up calling the hero’s journey. This whole journey of how the hero leaves what’s familiar, undergoes all sorts of trials and ultimately claims a treasure or discovers an elixir of life and then brings that back home. I interact with that hero’s journey and use that template as a way to talk about getting your heart back or moving toward wholeness. And I’ll also just say a thing about midlife. I had this burnout moment or awakening that made me realize that I had to change how I was moving through the world. How I was functioning didn’t work anymore. I had outgrown it. For me, it was at the beginning of midlife. It’s kind of like around ages 35 to 55, give or take a few years. I talk about midlife a little. It’s not an analysis of midlife but these deeper questions about identity and purpose tend to surface in midlife. I think there are lots of reasons for that. That’s a key element of the title, as well.
A lot of times when people talk about burnout, sometimes it involves not doing the right type of work or leading the right type of life. Sounds like you were doing meaningful work and living a meaningful life. How do you burn out on that?
BK: I was just at The Vollrath Co. in Sheboygan and in my well-being workshop I was quoting this research that says more than 60% of people that are passionate about their jobs have experienced burnout. You have this thought that if you are passionate about something it will prevent [you] from experiencing burnout. That’s just false. The pace I was going at was not sustainable, this perfectionist streak I had wasn’t sustainable, the achievement orientation was hidden underneath these meaningful, virtuous things. It wasn’t like I was trying to climb the corporate ladder and makes millions and be famous like in culture where we can look at and see ambition very clearly, but I still had my own way in which I was playing that game.
From what did the burnout stem?
BK: The burnout for me stemmed from a deeper sense that I was obsessed with achievement and perfection and trying to seek the approval of others through the work that I did. That’s what I really had to investigate. We all have different things. It could be that or other patterns. Maybe it’s a victim mentality, or being an escapist or maybe we are control freaks. There are all sorts of patterns we show up with that actually have surfaced for a while but ultimately if we want to keep growing and become more authentic, we have to shed those things.
Has your return home helped?
BK: I would say that there’s a sense that the final thing in this constant journey of evolving was that I needed to shed how my identity was wrapped up in Seattle. I love Seattle. It’s a really cool place. It’s got a lot going on. I thought I’d always be there. But when the pandemic happened, I started to take an inventory about whether it was the best fit for me. My wife is a therapist and her work had gone online, so that meant she could move and keep her private practice, which was great. We were ready. Seattle changed a lot in the 14 years we were there. I’m not saying it was sleepy when we got there, but the pace was different. So, coming to Milwaukee has really allowed me to live out the stillness that’s been important to me. There’s an ease of life here. Everything is really close. Communities feel very connected and there’s a chance to make a meaningful contribution. It’s been lovely. We especially love living a half mile from the lake.
