The Scent Reset: The Habit That Reduces Stress Instantly
transcript
show notes
What if one small habit could pull you out of burnout… and completely change the direction of your life?
In this episode, Kat Thorne sits down with Carol Mead, a corporate HR professional turned botanical wellness creator and founder of Elyse. What started as a personal journey through stress, anxiety, and burnout became a powerful discovery - and ultimately, a brand designed to help others reset, rebalance, and perform at their best.
From 3am wake-ups and emotional exhaustion to creating natural scent-based tools used by colleagues in high-pressure environments, Carol shares how she turned her lowest point into something meaningful.
This is a conversation about courage, intuition, and the power of small, simple habits - especially the ones we often overlook.
- Burnout doesn’t happen overnight
Stress → anxiety → exhaustion → emotional overwhelm and often we don’t intervene early enough. - One small habit can create a breakthrough
For Carol, it was something simple: inhaling essential oils to regulate stress in the moment she needed it. - Your lowest point can become your purpose
What started as survival became a tool to help others - and eventually, a brand that she is now scaling. - Experience creates belief
Carol’s colleagues didn’t need convincing - they felt the impact immediately and kept coming back. - We’re overlooking simple performance tools
Breath, scent, pauses - the basics that can transform how we feel and perform.
- “My husband said: I feel like we’re losing you and that was my wake-up call.”
- The moment Carol realised her oils weren’t just helping her… but everyone around her
ABOUT THE GUEST
Carol Mead is the founder of Elyse, a botanical fragrance brand born from her own journey through burnout and anxiety while working in the corporate world. Blending neuroscience, scent, and ritual, she creates plant based fragrances designed to calm the nervous system and shift emotional states. Her work explores how small sensory habits can transform how we feel, think, and show up in the world.
ABOUT THE HOST
Kat started her career as a teacher, before moving into Tech where she worked in different executive roles within teaching and consulting working across the globe, both in the public and private sector. Despite appearing 'successful' on the outside, she paid a heavy ‘life’ price. In 2016, her whole world collapsed.
The reason? The compound effect of years of unhealthy and toxic habits that destroyed her health, relationship, and career.
She rebuilt herself by changing just one small habit and built a series of positive habits which has transformed her professional and personal performance, resulting in becoming the healthiest and happiest version of herself.
She is a positive habits international keynote speaker and teacher, giving talks and delivering high impact programmes to organisations across the globe.
