70. Cathryn Lavery: Transitioning from Employee to Multi-Millionaire Founder

“If everyone did the same thing as everyone else, then no one would be creating an impact.”

It was 2011 when Cathryn Lavery moved from Ireland to New York City to take up a graduate job as an architect. Despite dabbling with an Ebay store while at school, there was no question of her not following a traditional career path. And anyway, she didn’t know any entrepreneurs to guide her.

But life had other plans.

When Cathryn landed in NYC, her employer announced a 25% cut in her pay. Cathryn wasn’t ready to quit or admit to her parents that things weren’t working out as expected, so she launched a side hustle to help make ends meet.

Before long that side hustle generated more money than her full-time job. After reading 23 carefully selected books and completing her ‘personal MBA’, Cathryn quit to become a full-time entrepreneur - and never looked back.

Today, Cathryn is the CEO and creative genius behind BestSelf.Co - a multi-million-dollar ecommerce brand that develops tools (such as the SELF Journal) to help people live their best lives.

With BestSelf.Co, Cathryn won Shopify’s Build a Business and Build a Bigger Business Awards and got mentored by the likes of Tony Robbins and Tim Ferriss. She’s an all-round badass.

So if you’re curious about navigating the journey from employee to entrepreneur, and you want to load up on the practices and mindsets that helped Cathryn succeed, this episode is for you.

“When I get stuck or things aren’t going as well, it’s usually because I got so caught up with the outcome of what I’m looking for that I stopped enjoying the process of doing it.”

Tune into this episode and you’ll hear about:

• Why being an employee first can make you a much better entrepreneur
• How to leverage empathy to attract a kick-ass team
• The reason your relationship with fear evolves as your business grows
• How Cathryn makes great decisions
• The four things Cathryn practices to build her self-awareness
• Why Cathryn’s biggest fear is mediocrity
• Why you must enjoy the process more than the outcome

We also chat about the importance of striking the balance between entrepreneurship and art.

This was a discussion especially close to my heart. As someone who’s shifting the role I play in my companies to create more space for artistic expression, I was keen to learn how Cathryn makes space to create. Her answers blew me away.

So come get inspired and soak up the creative genius that is Cathryn Lavery. 

“I’m comfortable with being uncomfortable when I know it'll get me to the next part of fulfilment or happiness.”

How to contact

• For productivity, business, and product development tips that will help you go from idea to impact, check out Cathryn’s YouTube Channel - Little Might.

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