The Gratitude Effect: How Slowing Down Made Me a Stronger Leader

By Kristin Marquet

There was a time when I equated success with speed. The faster I moved, the more clients I signed. The more magazine covers I landed, the more validated I felt. I ran my PR firm like a race, sprinting from one media campaign to the next, collecting achievements the way others might collect souvenirs. From the outside, everything looked glamorous. But behind the scenes, I was exhausted, detached, and dangerously close to burning out.

Gratitude, back then, felt like a luxury I couldn’t afford. My days were built around performance — measuring, producing, delivering, proving. The metrics looked good, but the meaning was missing. And as a leader, that absence rippled outward. I was managing a thriving business but not nurturing the culture that sustained it. I was motivating my clients to be seen everywhere while quietly shrinking behind my own achievements.

Then life forced me to slow down. The turning point wasn’t a dramatic crisis; it was quieter than that — the kind of quiet that demands you finally listen. After years of nonstop growth, I found myself craving something softer, something steadier. When my son was born, it was as though the volume of my life turned down just enough for me to hear my own truth.

In the early days of motherhood, gratitude became my anchor. I learned to appreciate the simplest moments, the stillness of early mornings, the sound of my son’s laugh, the privilege of choosing work that aligns with my values. Gratitude began to change not just my perspective, but my leadership.

It reminded me that strength isn’t about control; it’s about presence.

Now, I see gratitude as both philosophy and framework. It shapes how I lead my team, how I build my companies, and how I define success. At FemFounder, the platform I built to empower women entrepreneurs, gratitude is part of our creative DNA. Every project begins with acknowledgment — of courage, of vision, of the sheer vulnerability it takes to be visible in a world that constantly asks women to prove themselves.

We don’t just talk about visibility in the public-relations sense. We talk about being seen — as whole people. Gratitude allows us to see our clients not just as brands, but as women navigating ambition, identity, and impact all at once.

At Marquet Media, my strategic visibility consultancy, gratitude shows up as trust. We work with high-achieving founders, executives, and creatives — people used to operating at full speed. The first thing I teach them is that sustainable influence starts with reflection. Before we talk about media coverage or messaging frameworks, we talk about appreciation — of the audience, the process, the privilege of leading others. Gratitude, I’ve found, creates clarity. It transforms communication from noise into connection.

I used to think leadership meant being the loudest person in the room. Today, I know it means listening with intention.

Gratitude has made me a more present leader. When my team achieves something, I take the time to celebrate them — not just in meetings, but with handwritten notes or spontaneous messages. When challenges arise, I don’t rush to fix them immediately. I pause, breathe, and ask what this experience might be teaching us. That shift — from reaction to reflection — has changed everything.

It’s easy in entrepreneurship to become obsessed with outcomes: the next launch, the next feature, the next milestone. But gratitude forces you to slow down long enough to see the full picture. It pulls your focus from what’s missing to what’s meaningful.

Gratitude also strengthened my resilience during seasons of uncertainty. When I restructured parts of my business and redefined my personal brand, I could have seen it as loss. Instead, I chose to see it as refinement — a return to alignment. Gratitude turns setbacks into clarity. It transforms the narrative from “What went wrong?” to “What am I learning?”

That mindset helped me rebuild everything from a place of integrity. I stopped chasing visibility for validation and started building platforms that serve a purpose. I learned that gratitude and ambition can coexist — they’re not opposites. One fuels the other.

And perhaps the greatest transformation has been internal. Gratitude has redefined what leadership means to me as a woman, mother, and entrepreneur. It’s no longer about doing more, but it’s about doing what matters most, with presence and intention.

When I reflect on the past few years, the moments I’m most proud of aren’t the glossy magazine covers or the high-profile features. They’re the quiet moments of connection — mentoring another woman through self-doubt, seeing a client’s confidence bloom, watching my son learn something new. Those are the markers of success that gratitude taught me to see.

Leadership rooted in gratitude doesn’t mean you stop striving. It means you start striving with awareness — guided by appreciation instead of anxiety, by service instead of self-comparison. It’s not a soft skill; it’s a strength strategy.

Today, my businesses thrive not because I push harder, but because I lead differently. Gratitude is at the center of every decision, every collaboration, every next step. It keeps me grounded when the world demands more and reminds me that true influence isn’t about being everywhere — it’s about being fully here.

So as I move into this next chapter — balancing motherhood, entrepreneurship, and creative leadership — I’m choosing to lead with gratitude first. Because the truth is, gratitude doesn’t just make us better leaders. It makes us better humans.

And that’s something worth being thankful for.

Connect With Kristin

Marquet.company

www.FemFounder.co