Catalyst Conversations

hello9p4
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Catalyst Conversations is a podcast for leaders, creators, and visionaries who know they’re here for more—but refuse to burn themselves out getting there. Hosted by Desi Bolin, founder of The Catalyst Collective™, this show explores what it really takes to build a business, career, and life that works with you, not against you. Each episode features honest, grounded conversations with entrepreneurs, speakers, change-makers, and behind-the-scenes leaders who are redefining success through clarity, structure, and soul-aligned growth. This is not hustle culture. This is not performative leadership. This is not surface-level motivation. Inside Catalyst Conversations, you’ll hear real stories, practical insights, and perspective-shifting dialogues around: Soul-aligned leadership and decision-making Building sustainable businesses without burnout Clarity, structure, and systems that actually support your life Identity shifts required for the next level of growth Navigating visibility, expansion, and impact with integrity Leading from alignment—not pressure, chaos, or obligation Whether you’re scaling a business, stepping into greater visibility, or recalibrating how you lead, Catalyst Conversations invites you into deeper conversations that spark transformation—not just inspiration. Because growth shouldn’t cost you your nervous system. And success should feel as good as it looks.

  1. 16h ago ·  Video

    From Survival to Serenity: What Changes When We Learn to Feel Safe in Our Own Bodies with Sharon LaFlamme

    What if the behaviors you've spent years trying to change were actually ways you learned to protect yourself? The need to control everything. The constant overthinking. The inability to rest without guilt. The tendency to put everyone else's needs before your own. Sometimes, what we call personality may have deeper roots in the experiences that shaped our sense of safety. In this episode of Catalyst Conversations, Desi Bolin welcomes Sharon LaFlamme, founder of Creating Serenity Now, for a compassionate exploration of what happens when we begin listening to our bodies instead of constantly pushing through their signals. Drawing from her own experiences growing up in an unsafe environment, Sharon shares how her personal healing journey became a lifelong commitment to helping others experience greater peace, self-trust, and emotional well-being. Together, Desi and Sharon explore the relationship between childhood experiences, nervous system responses, attachment patterns, and the behaviors that often follow us into adulthood. They discuss how perfectionism, people-pleasing, hyper-independence, and overworking can sometimes serve as protective strategies. While these behaviors may help us navigate difficult circumstances, they can eventually limit our ability to experience the very freedom and connection we're working toward. The conversation also explores somatic experiencing, a body-oriented approach to working with trauma and stress, and why intellectual understanding alone doesn't always change how we feel. For entrepreneurs and leaders, this conversation offers another perspective on sustainable success. What happens when the structures we've built to support our lives become armor? When achievement becomes a way to prove our worth? When our ability to keep going comes at the expense of our well-being? Desi and Sharon explore the difference between reacting from protection and responding from awareness, and why genuine resilience isn't about remaining calm all the time. It's about developing the capacity to navigate life's challenges while maintaining a connection with ourselves. Perhaps most importantly, Sharon reminds us that worthiness doesn't have to be earned through performance, productivity, or perfection. You are worthy of care and compassion before you accomplish another thing. This episode is an invitation to become curious about your patterns, develop a more compassionate relationship with your body, and explore what becomes possible when your life is no longer organized entirely around survival. Join us for a conversation about safety, serenity, self-trust, and the freedom to lead and live from a place of deeper alignment. Connect with Sharon LaFlamme Website: https://creatingserenitynow.com Forgiveness resources: https://makingfriendswithforgiveness.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SharonLaflamme Insight Timer: https://insig.ht/IntzUGBds1b Facebook: https://facebook.com/serenityforlife LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-laflamme-a86135317 Connect with Desi Bolin https://talkwithdesi.com

  2. 3d ago ·  Video

    The Hidden Money Blocks Behind Selling, Worthiness & What's Possible with Catherine Clift

    What if the reason you're struggling to sell has very little to do with your sales skills? You know your work has value. You believe in what you're offering. You've invested in strategies, systems, and learning how to grow your business. And yet, when it's time to name your price, make the offer, or receive more money, something inside you hesitates. What if that resistance isn't a lack of discipline or confidence? What if it's connected to beliefs about money, worthiness, and success that you've been carrying for years without even realizing it? In this episode of Catalyst Conversations, Desi Bolin welcomes Catherine Clift, a coach who specializes in helping entrepreneurs uncover subconscious money and worthiness blocks that influence how they sell, receive, and pursue their goals. Together, they explore the deeper relationship between our financial circumstances and the stories we've learned to believe about ourselves. Catherine shares how early family experiences can shape our relationship with money, including beliefs about what we're allowed to earn, whether success feels safe, and what it means to deserve more. One particularly fascinating part of this conversation is Catherine's introduction to the Money Map, an interactive reflection exercise exploring five categories of money: Savings Debt Income Income goals Toxic money Rather than looking only at the numbers, Catherine invites listeners to notice the emotions, internal conversations, and personal experiences associated with each category. Because sometimes the most revealing question isn't how much money we have. It's what we believe that number says about who we are. The conversation also explores family loyalty patterns, the cycle of earning and losing money, and the internal tension between wanting greater success and feeling uncomfortable receiving it. Catherine introduces Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), commonly called tapping, as one of the practices she uses when working with emotionally charged beliefs. And throughout the conversation, an important distinction emerges: becoming aware of a pattern doesn't mean making yourself wrong for having it. It means creating the opportunity to choose differently. Free Companion Resources Catherine has generously provided two resources to accompany this conversation: Money Map Worksheet: A guided reflection tool for exploring the feelings, beliefs, and experiences connected to five different categories of money. EFT Tapping Script: A customizable practice using the emotions and beliefs identified through your Money Map. Download both resources using the attachments accompanying this episode. This conversation is for the entrepreneur who knows what to do and still finds themselves hesitating, overthinking, undercharging, or questioning what's possible. You don't have to turn every moment of resistance into another reason to push harder. Sometimes the next aligned move begins with curiosity. Listen in and explore what your relationship with money might be revealing about your relationship with yourself. Connect with Catherine Website: https://www.catherinecliftcoaching.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-clift-85952492/ Connect with Desi https://talkwithdesi.com

  3. 5d ago ·  Video

    We Lead the Way We Live: Crisis, Values, and the Leader You Become with Doug Babcock

    Who are you as a leader when everything stops going according to plan? It's easy to talk about integrity, compassion, accountability, and trust when circumstances are comfortable. The real question is whether those values show up in our decisions, relationships, and behavior when the pressure rises. In this episode of Catalyst Conversations, I'm joined by Doug Babcock, founder of Counterparts Coaching, whose experience in emergency services, law enforcement, public safety, and leadership has shaped a powerful perspective on what it means to become a crisis-ready leader. And his philosophy begins with one simple truth: We lead the way we live. Doug challenges us to look beyond the values we claim to hold and examine the evidence of how we're actually living. Our calendars, daily decisions, habits, and responses under pressure often reveal more about our priorities than any mission statement ever could. Together, we explore why crisis readiness isn't simply about contingency plans or operational systems. It's about developing the self-awareness, emotional intelligence, trust, and relationships that allow us to respond intentionally when life and leadership become unpredictable. One of the most meaningful parts of our conversation centers on mistakes. Doug shares a personal experience involving a strongly worded email that became an opportunity to choose accountability over ego. Rather than allowing the mistake to define him, he acknowledged it, repaired the relationship, and carried the lesson forward. It's a reminder that growth doesn't require us to carry shame indefinitely. It requires us to take responsibility for what happens next. We also explore the human side of leadership, including why protecting people matters as much as protecting the organization, how everyday habits create crisis-ready teams, and why leaders must model the vulnerability and accountability they expect from others. Perhaps the most powerful invitation in this conversation is to stop waiting for a crisis to become the leader you want to be. Practice the values now. Build the relationships now. Have the conversations now. Because when the difficult moments arrive, we don't suddenly become someone different. We draw upon who we've practiced being. If you're an entrepreneur, executive, or leader navigating responsibility, change, or uncertainty, this conversation offers a thoughtful opportunity to examine how you're leading and who you're becoming. Join Doug and me for a conversation about integrity, humanity, accountability, and the everyday choices that shape extraordinary leadership. Connect with Doug Website: https://counterpartscoaching.com Schedule a conversation: https://calendly.com/doug-counterpartscoaching/30min LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougbabcock802/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556574782210 EveryExpert: https://www.everyexpert.com/dougbabcock Connect with Desi https://talkwithdesi.com

  4. Oct 10 ·  Video

    Emotional Engineering - Using Emotion as a Guide Through Divorce, Leadership, and Life with Dr Brian Paris

    Emotional Engineering — Using Emotion as a Guide Through Divorce, Leadership, and Life Guest: Dr. Brian Paris | Host: Desi Bolin What if the emotion you've been trying hardest to avoid is actually trying to tell you something? We've been conditioned to believe that strength means staying in control, keeping our emotions contained, and pushing through whatever life throws at us. And what happens when everything we've built our identity around suddenly changes? Divorce. Business collapse. Relationship breakdown. A major life transition. These experiences don't simply change our circumstances. They can challenge our understanding of who we are. In this episode of Catalyst Conversations, I'm joined by Dr. Brian Paris, creator of Man Rebuilt, for a powerful exploration of emotional engineering, self-leadership, and what it means to rebuild from the inside out. Drawing from his own experiences navigating divorce, business challenges, fatherhood, and personal transformation, Brian shares why emotional awareness isn't a weakness to overcome. It's a capacity we can develop. Together, we explore how our bodies communicate what our minds sometimes struggle to recognize, why suppressing emotions can keep us trapped in familiar patterns, and how learning to distinguish between feeling something and becoming that feeling creates room for intentional decisions. One of the most meaningful distinctions in our conversation is the difference between reacting to emotion and responding with awareness. Anger doesn't have to dictate our actions. Fear doesn't have to make our decisions. Grief doesn't have to mean we're moving in the wrong direction. Our emotions can provide information without becoming instructions. We also explore the importance of language in shaping identity, the role of emotional safety in relationships and leadership, and what children learn when parents model emotional awareness rather than emotional avoidance. Brian offers practical tools for navigating emotionally charged moments, including breathwork, movement, and supportive relationships. And we go beyond managing difficult emotions to explore something equally important: learning to recognize and intentionally reconnect with joy, peace, and possibility. At the heart of this conversation is a question that extends far beyond divorce: Who are you becoming when the identity you've relied on no longer fits? Because rebuilding your life isn't only about creating different circumstances. It's about developing a different relationship with yourself. Whether you're navigating divorce, leading through uncertainty, rebuilding after loss, or simply questioning the patterns that have shaped your life, this conversation offers an invitation to become curious about what you're feeling. You don't have to silence your emotions to lead yourself forward. Sometimes the most powerful next step is learning to listen. 🎧 Join us for Emotional Engineering — Using Emotion as a Guide Through Divorce, Leadership, and Life. Connect with Dr. Brian Paris: Website: https://drbrianparis.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drbrianparis/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drbrianparis/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@drbrianparis Connect with Desi: https://talkwithdesi.com

  5. Oct 7 ·  Video

    Stop Reacting. Start Creating. with Josselyne Herman-Saccio

    Stop Reacting. Start Creating. | Josselyne Herman-Saccio What if the very thing that made you successful is also the thing keeping you trapped? Many entrepreneurs, founders, and high performers have become incredibly good at reacting. We solve problems. Put out fires. Handle the unexpected. Carry responsibility. Make things work. And because we’re producing results, we rarely stop to ask whether the way we’re producing those results is actually working for us. In this episode of Catalyst Conversations, I sit down with Josselyne Herman-Saccio, creator of the Unmessable With Method and a master coach whose work over four decades has impacted more than 200,000 people. Josselyne challenges the idea that being “unmessable with” means becoming tougher, suppressing emotions, or controlling everything around you. Instead, it’s about developing the ability to stand firmly in what you’re creating without allowing circumstances, expectations, thoughts, feelings, or other people’s demands to continually pull you off course. And this conversation gets incredibly practical. We explore what happens when competence hides misalignment, why successful people can become some of the most accomplished reactors, and how constantly “making it work” can quietly become a prison. Josselyne also shares how she went from working approximately 70 hours a week to 15 while dramatically increasing her revenue—and why creating more space can sometimes produce better results than simply doing more. We talk about auditing your time, designing your calendar around your life instead of everyone else’s priorities, creating boundaries, delegating what doesn’t require you, and intentionally making room for joy, relationships, wellbeing, creativity, and the dreams you keep promising yourself you’ll pursue “someday.” Because someday isn’t actually on the calendar. Perhaps the question isn’t: Can I handle everything coming at me? Perhaps it’s: What am I actually here to create? This conversation is an invitation to stop measuring your leadership by how much you can withstand and start intentionally creating a life, business, and definition of success that actually works for you. Connect with Josselyne: https://beunmessablewith.com Connect with Desi: https://talkwithdesi.com

  6. Oct 5 ·  Video

    Confidence Is an Inside Job: Leadership, Service, and Following the Prompt with Jeanette Deatherage

    What if confidence isn’t something you’re born with—or something you have to wait until you “feel ready” to experience? In this episode of Catalyst Conversations, Desi sits down with Jeanette Deatherage for a deeply human conversation about confidence, connection, consistency, and learning to trust the quiet prompts that move us forward. Jeanette’s story spans more than four decades in Mary Kay, service in the U.S. Air Force, 13 moves, countless new beginnings, and a lifetime of intentionally connecting people. Through it all, she’s discovered that real confidence doesn’t come from titles, appearances, or having everything figured out. It grows from the inside—and sometimes it begins with one very small decision to show up differently. Together, Desi and Jeanette explore what it means to rebuild confidence when life changes, how discipline can become an anchor through uncertainty, and why the people who believe in us before we believe in ourselves can change the trajectory of our lives. Jeanette shares openly about seasons when moving left her feeling disconnected and struggling to find herself again. She also shares the simple practices that helped her begin rebuilding: getting ready for the day, writing affirmations by hand, reaching out to others, finding mentors, and remembering that it really is okay not to be okay. Pasted text They also explore the heart of meaningful leadership. Sometimes leadership looks like believing in someone before they can see their own potential. Sometimes it’s making an introduction that changes two people’s lives. And sometimes it’s simply listening closely enough to hear the whisper telling you what to do next. Jeanette beautifully reminds us that confidence doesn’t have to be loud. It grows through service, showing up, connection, consistency, and the willingness to follow the prompt—even before you know exactly where it’s leading. Pasted text If you’ve been questioning yourself, comparing your path to someone else’s, or waiting to feel completely ready before taking your next step, this conversation is an invitation to trust yourself a little more. Listen in and remember: confidence really is an inside job. Connect with Jeanette: Jeanette’s Mary Kay website Connect with Desi: talkwithdesi.com

  7. Oct 3 ·  Video

    Resilience Isn't Built in Comfort: Breaking the Beliefs That Keep You Small with Ian Bowen

    Sometimes the belief keeping you small doesn’t feel like a belief at all. It feels like a fact. In this episode of Catalyst Conversations, Desi Bolin sits down with Ian Bowen to explore resilience, identity, limiting beliefs, and what happens when life dramatically changes the path you thought you were walking. After surgery left Ian paralyzed from the chest down, he was told he would likely need assistive devices to walk and that running again wasn’t realistic. His internal response? Watch me. That moment became part of a much bigger journey into understanding what resilience actually requires. In this conversation, we explore: Why resilience is built rather than simply inherited Ian’s journey from paralysis to completing marathons The danger of allowing someone else’s perception to become your reality What it means to become a “sidelined achiever” Ian’s RINSE framework for moving through adversity Why small wins matter more than we realize How limiting beliefs disguise themselves as facts The relationship between identity, choice, and resilience Why getting uncomfortable can prepare you for challenges you haven’t encountered yet This episode is for the person who’s been knocked off course and is wondering what comes next. You don’t have to move mountains today. You need to identify the next step forward—and choose to take it. Subscribe for more conversations about clarity, alignment, leadership, growth, and becoming more fully who you’re here to be. And tell us in the comments: What’s one thing you’ve already overcome that reminds you how resilient you really are? Connect with Ian: Watch Me Mindset | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | YouTube | TikTok Connect with Desi: Talk With Desi #CatalystConversations #Resilience #Mindset #LimitingBeliefs #PersonalGrowth #Leadership #WatchMeMindset

  8. Sep 30 ·  Video

    You're Not Stuck - You're In Transition with Deb Woolridge

    What if the season you’ve been calling “stuck” isn’t actually stuck at all? What if you’re in transition? In this episode of Catalyst Conversations, Desi sits down with Deb Woolridge for a deeply human conversation about change, identity, leadership, reinvention, and the uncomfortable space between who you’ve been and who you’re becoming. Deb works at the intersection of people, leadership, and meaningful change. As a fractional HR executive, she supports nonprofits and small businesses in building stronger systems, healthier cultures, and more effective leadership. She also works with professionals—particularly women navigating midlife and career transitions—who know something needs to change, even when they can’t yet see what comes next. Together, Desi and Deb explore why transition can feel so much like being stuck. When the old way no longer fits and the new way hasn’t fully emerged, it’s easy to assume something has gone wrong. And sometimes, that uncomfortable middle is exactly where growth is happening. They talk about the role awareness plays in transformation, why we bring our entire humanity into the workplace, how leadership challenges often sit underneath organizational problems, and why creating safe spaces for change doesn’t mean eliminating discomfort. Deb also shares her Magic Maverick Mindset and the journey from assessment and exploration through courage, commitment, action, and ultimately becoming the next iteration of yourself. One of the most important threads running through this conversation is choice. You may not know exactly what comes next. You may not have the entire path mapped out. And you can begin by noticing what no longer fits, getting curious about what you want, and remembering that you’ve navigated change before. Because clarity doesn’t always arrive as a perfectly mapped path. Sometimes clarity begins with one simple truth: This isn’t working for me anymore. And that may be enough to begin. Connect with Deb: LinkedIn Connect with Desi: talkwithdesi.com Listen to this episode and consider: What if you’re not stuck? What if you’re becoming?

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About

Catalyst Conversations is a podcast for leaders, creators, and visionaries who know they’re here for more—but refuse to burn themselves out getting there. Hosted by Desi Bolin, founder of The Catalyst Collective™, this show explores what it really takes to build a business, career, and life that works with you, not against you. Each episode features honest, grounded conversations with entrepreneurs, speakers, change-makers, and behind-the-scenes leaders who are redefining success through clarity, structure, and soul-aligned growth. This is not hustle culture. This is not performative leadership. This is not surface-level motivation. Inside Catalyst Conversations, you’ll hear real stories, practical insights, and perspective-shifting dialogues around: Soul-aligned leadership and decision-making Building sustainable businesses without burnout Clarity, structure, and systems that actually support your life Identity shifts required for the next level of growth Navigating visibility, expansion, and impact with integrity Leading from alignment—not pressure, chaos, or obligation Whether you’re scaling a business, stepping into greater visibility, or recalibrating how you lead, Catalyst Conversations invites you into deeper conversations that spark transformation—not just inspiration. Because growth shouldn’t cost you your nervous system. And success should feel as good as it looks.

Information

  • Creator
    hello9p4
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    36
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Catalyst Conversations