Part 2: Turn Fear Into Flow: The Power of Brand Storytelling | Cathlyn Melvin

Welcome to Wickedly Branded: Marketing, Magic, and The Messy Middle, the podcast where real conversations meet real strategies. I'm your host, Beverly Cornell, founder and fairy godmother of brand clarity at Wickedly Branded. With over 25 years of experience, I’ve helped hundreds of entrepreneurs awaken their brand magic, attract the right people, and build businesses that light them up.

In Part 2 of this powerful conversation with TEDx coach and copywriter Cathlyn Melvin, we explore what it really takes to build a brand that supports your energy, clarifies your message, and amplifies your impact. From releasing old patterns of overworking to structuring a business that honors neurodivergent needs, Cathlyn shares the real-life systems, boundaries, and mindset shifts that create sustainable visibility.

Three Key  Marketing Topics Discussed:

1. Building a Business That Works With Your Brain, Not Against It: This conversation highlights why clarity and energy-conscious systems are essential for long-term marketing consistency.

2. Creating a Power Idea That Simplifies All Your Marketing: We explore how a single core idea becomes the root of all messaging, from content pillars to blog posts to email sequences. 

3. Visibility, Courage, and Showing Up When It Feels Scary: Cathlyn opens up about the emotional side of visibility, from creating a separate Facebook account early on to navigating the discomfort of sharing personally with people you actually know. 

Follow Cathlyn:
Cathlyn | LinkedIn
RightCat Creative | Instagram
RightCat Creative | Website

Dare to be Wickedly Branded

Transcript

Speaker: 0:11

Welcome back to the Wickedly Branded Marketing podcast and to part two of this very powerful and inspiring conversation. In our last episode, we laid the groundwork and shared insights you won't want to miss, and today we're picking up right where we left off and taking that conversation deeper, unpacking the strategies, the stories, and the inspiration that will help you bring your brand boldly to life. If you haven't listened to part one yet, I recommend starting there. The link is in the description. Uh, so you can follow the full journey. So without further ado, let's jump back into the conversation.

Beverly: 0:47

So good though. If you're listening right now and you're thinking, oh my gosh, I need this power idea. I need to create a strong foundation for my brand. I would love for you to give us a review and let us know this is resonating and connecting with you because I think so many of us do something we truly love. We're brilliant. I know my listeners are brilliant and they're trying so hard to make the world a better place, Cathlyn. And they want to magnify their impact by having a strong brand and marketing, also the tools like a TEDx talk and how that can magnify them, but they don't know how and they sometimes get in their own way and there's all these other external things that are telling them, don't do it that way, do this way. If it's resonating that this has to all start from a foundational place so that you can grow outside of that, continue that ripple effect from it that you talked about with that particular example you gave. It has to be strong enough to handle all of that. And the power idea is huge. We call ours the brand Spark Blueprint. It's the spark. It's this thing that starts it all. We have different language for it, but it's incredibly important and it serves different purposes, but it's incredibly important to get that golden thread to help you go to the next step, whatever that looks like for you. And that's why you need someone like Cathlyn, or you need somebody like me to help you see yourself in a different way. That's the thing is everyone's oh my gosh. You see what's possible? Yeah, I see what's possible because I've been doing this for a long time, but I feel like I didn't think I deserved to know what made me special. I thought that I just did the work. I just was a marketer and I just did the work and the work to speak for itself and all those things. I did not think I had a story to tell. I didn't think that people would listen to my story. I didn't think that I had anything unique to offer the conversation. But I have a lot to add to the conversation. This is so important. I think especially for women and I'm with you. I mostly work with women, and women don't always feel like they have a place at the table. They don't always feel like they have a perspective that needs to be shared, that it is new or different. And I just want you all to listen, you all have something really special to add to the conversation. And it might just take some time with Cathlyn to make it happen. Don't live small, live big, I want you to live as big as possible. Has there been a belief or pattern for you, Cathlyn, that you've had to release in order to finally own your brand's message and what you do?

Cathlyn: 3:09

I had to learn as I was creating this business. My former business was a physical in-person service. We had a team sometimes of up to a co couple dozen educators working under us, plus designers and all of these other artists who were on our team. And my business partner especially at the time, I think she's also gotten better. Since I left the company, but was very go, always on work till your fingers bleed kind of person. And I grew up in a world where, when I was being useful was when I felt most valuable. So I have done a lot of unlearning of the, always working, always doing, always needing to be useful. And in this business, my number one value is cultivating calm. I mentioned earlier, I'm autistic and I have a DHD, I have depression and I have general anxiety. I have social anxiety. I'm an introvert. Like all of these things that mean that life takes more energy for me than it might from other people. And so in order to make this business work and make this business sustainable, I needed to learn how to cultivate calm, how to set that. As the primary building block of my business structure and really my life. And that's taken a lot of work. It's taken, therapy and books and trial and error. Fortunately my cat reminds me that it's very nice to just sit with a purring soft creature. Yeah. So he's part of that too. But yeah, that's probably the biggest sort of mindset shift. That I've had to create for myself.

Beverly: 5:02

It resonates strongly with me. I am also AuDHD, I also have some anxiety. I also have some introverted situation. Most people don't believe me when I say this, but I really do. It's just a challenge. You wanna see me feel like anxiety, put me in a networking event with 200 people. Like, how do I even insert myself and I don't wanna just walk in and be abrupt it's the lack of structure that's really challenging. And my husband's gone a couple times with me and I call him my emotional support husband because he's great at small talk and I'm not. So he can start the conversation and then I'm good.

Cathlyn: 5:38

That's great. I need one of those.

Beverly: 5:41

And he always laughs'cause he is like, Beverly, you were like on stage in school. First of all, I had lines and I had choreography and I had practiced.

Cathlyn: 5:48

Told me where to go, what to say when and how to say it. Yes,

Beverly: 5:54

And my husband's military, so we do like military balls and we do all these different things and I'm like, you really are challenging my neurodivergency here. Like, I have to go and do all these things that I don't wanna do. And I have to dress up and it just feels very performative. In some ways it's exhausting. Exhausting, yes. So there's another question here that's along the same lines. What part of your visibility journey, like being on TEDx and doing these things has required the most courage from you?

Cathlyn: 6:20

This might seem silly to some people, but I think it will resonate with others. When I first started my business, I created a whole other Facebook account. Because I was so afraid of posting about my business. And having my friends and family see it. It's so common, Cathlyn. And just looking back, I'm like, come on, Cathlyn. It would've been fine. It might've been better. Who knows? But I think that at the beginning, I was so much more comfortable and I'm honestly still more comfortable talking to strangers about my business or to people that I've met through business. Than I am to, Susie Q from my freshman year of university.

Beverly: 7:04

Yeah. That's interesting. That is a common thing though. People don't want to. Somehow insert business into their personal lives in some ways. I am not such a free I'm more so the last couple of years I have shared more about what I do with people. But it is, it's a little bit of a difficult thing to navigate for sure. Because you don't wanna be like that. We all know the person, that Swarmy sales person is always Hey, I do this thing and you should hire me. And you're like, whoa.

Cathlyn: 7:34

Like you're coming on real strong.

Beverly: 7:36

I don't wanna ever be that person, so it's like, how do I do this enough?

Cathlyn: 7:39

I like to be invisible. I lived my childhood being invisible. I was very fortunate. Like I wasn't really bullied. I wasn't because nobody knew who I was.

Beverly: 7:48

You were doing the speaking and all those things. That's so interesting. I

Cathlyn: 7:51

was, and in that world, everyone knew who I was on the on the debate circuit. Cause I was going up and getting trophies every weekend. I was a person that you didn't want in your rounds. I was competition. And so in that world. Everyone knew me and that was fine because we were all the same kind of weird. Yeah. I wasn't worried about being judged.

Beverly: 8:11

Yeah. That's the nice thing about theater and drama is like everyone's a little odd. Yeah.

Cathlyn: 8:15

And I'm learning in my years now in online business, I find my odd people

Beverly: 8:21

I find my people for sure.

Cathlyn: 8:23

Yeah. And I love that I have been able to make these connections with people like you and I are both in North Carolina. But there are connections that I have with people across the world who I never would've met Yeah. If I weren't doing this work and who I super vibe with. It's really lovely.

Beverly: 8:41

It is lovely internet also allows us to have this kind of connection no matter where you are. And yes, there is this thing. One of the things you said in the application if I remember this correctly, is that you spoke about needing both synchronous and asynchronous work as a neurodivergent entrepreneur.

Cathlyn: 8:58

Yeah.

Beverly: 8:58

What systems or boundaries have helped you create a business that actually works with your brain, not against it?

Cathlyn: 9:05

So I don't take calls on Mondays or Fridays. Me neither. I only take calls Tuesday through Thursday. I don't take calls before 10:30 AM because I need transition. If you're not neurodivergent or if you're not in this sort of awareness of this world something that neurodivergent people often struggle with is transitions. Getting into the shower is a transition because you're going from dry to wet. Stuff like that doesn't feel for most people. What do you mean you're just getting in the shower? So waking up in the morning, going from sleeping to waking is a transition that I need to take slowly. Otherwise my anxiety spikes. So I don't take calls before 10 30 Eastern time. Mostly every once in a while I'll take like a 10 o'clock call. And it's little stuff like that. I don't know that I would label them systems. But like tactics. Okay. That help me. Make the sustainable for me.

Beverly: 10:07

So one thing that I talk a lot about with my clients is this idea of chunking and stacking things. So it feels like it's very similar to what you're saying, but we have some different terminology and I'm not sure where I heard the chunking and stacking, I don't know if it was Atomic Habits or Mel Robbins or somebody that I heard it from. And so if you do know, forgive me, I'm not giving them attribution for this particular idea, but this idea of chunking and stacking. So Mondays is more of an operational day for me. I work on my business that day. So I do have a coaching call that day, but that's the only call I have is just coaching. That's it. And I might talk to my accountant that day. That is all, Tuesdays and Thursdays are heavy work days. If we have a client, we're working on stuff, we are working on those two days. And that is so I might do some prep on Mondays, but for the most part it's hard work days. Wednesday's my recording and marketing day. So this is my visibility day, so I know I have to put on makeup. I have to maybe do my hair a little bit. I have to wear one of my colors. That's my day. I will show up fully and I'm prepared to show up fully. And all that. And then Friday is my just, I work. Maybe my ideation day, or I'm reading a new business book, or I'm working in a different capacity, ideas, creativity, exploring some of that so that I can have ideas for clients or whatever. Like I need to like, stay attuned to my creativity. The problem I have with the chunking and stacking, and most neuro divergent people will tell you this, is I get in my flow and I do not wanna stop I am writing something and it's brilliant. And I am like, I have so many ideas and if you jerk me out of that, I'm gonna be mad. And I'm lucky. And it probably works for you too with writing. Creative spaces are really good spaces for people who are neurodivergent. It allows us to like just go with our thoughts and and have these abilities to like switch to things and really dive into things that interest us. So I'm so lucky, whether it was me intentionally getting, finding this or not, that I have found a place where I excel because I'm neurodivergent.

Cathlyn: 12:11

Yeah. And that's really hard because the systems aren't. Set up to guide us toward what are your skills? The systems are set up to say, oh, you're a square peg. Let's shave off your side so that you fit into the round hole.

Beverly: 12:27

Yeah. You're really good at English, so you should do this thing.

Cathlyn: 12:30

Yeah. My minor in university was writing, and I remember going up I spoke to two different professors who I loved and was like, look, I'm gonna go be an actor, but I know that actors need survival jobs. I really wanna do something with writing. And this was in the early two thousands the online boom hadn't really happened yet, but their response was most of our students either go into journalism or novels. That's what they offered. I had never heard the word copywriting until I had been writing copy for years.

Beverly: 13:06

Interesting. I didn't think I was a writer. I wrote a lot. I write a lot for my work Until Grammarly said, you wrote 700,000 words last week. And I was like. Huh? Oh I guess I'm a writer. Oh, this is so good.

Cathlyn: 13:20

I know that we had talked about how those of you in the audience might be feeling overwhelmed in your business or over it.

Beverly: 13:27

Overworked, overwhelmed, and over it. Yes.

Cathlyn: 13:29

Overworked, overwhelmed, and over it. Yes. And I just wanted to share that when I'm creating a power idea for my clients, one of the things that ends up being really powerful, it was for me, it has been for my clients, is that it makes content creation and conversation so much easier because. You can go back to your manifesto and you can say, oh, this phrase, let's make a carousel about this phrase. Everything is leading back to that foundation. And so it simplifies absolutely. And reduces that overwhelm. And I just need you to know that is possible.

Beverly: 14:08

It is totally possible We call it the content map because you're mapping do that and we say always, and this is on my blog and you'll see it in a lot of videos that I talk about, that you write your blog post, but your blog post comes from your six content pillars. So for me, we always talk about how to awaken your brand magic. We always talk about confidence. We always talk about activating your brand magic, amplifying your brand magic. These are all core concepts that we talk about. And in there is some confidence issues, there's some mindset issues, that drip into, we start with our six content pillar, four to six key ideas you wanna be known for. And then from there you write a blog post in there. And I'm gonna get a little fancy, but then I'm not gonna be fancy anymore. Okay. In there you can do I want this to be in the awareness side of the funnel or the conversion side of the funnel. Or, okay, so you can be a little more specific of your sales funnel and what the content direction you wanna go in is. Then you have that blog post. Now I'm gonna say this. We do use AI for some of our stuff, and this is where I think it's powerful. I write and I spend my majority of my mental energy on that blog post. I make it so mine, my ideas, my concepts, my phrases, my everything, my stories. And then once the blog is good, then I throw it into chat and I say, Hey, I need three emails from this blog. Give me 10 subject lines for each one. Two should be nurturing and one should be sales. And then I let it do some of the heavy lifting and pull all the stuff out. And then I do some light editing and it's good to go because the blog is so strong

Cathlyn: 15:43

and so you,

Beverly: 15:44

And all AI is doing now is taking bits, the best bits usually. And giving me a little bit of a twist on it for the nurture versus sales or whatever.

Cathlyn: 15:53

And then you put your human eyes on it. AI does not create final drafts. Absolutely. Never ever,

Beverly: 15:59

it helps you flesh some things out and then you can go from there. Then I take the blog post, do the same thing, and I say, Hey, create 10 social media posts. I want them to cross all elements of the funnel. I want them to be a variety of formats. I have very specific prompts. One should be thought leader, one should be authority building, one should be infotainment, make sure it has a strong CTA I like do that and let it spit out the 10 and from the 10, usually five are the best. Yeah. And I tweak those. And now I build a content vault. Now I have. The pillar that goes to the blog, and I'll eventually have probably, I don't know, a hundred blogs on that content pillar, right?

Cathlyn: 16:41

Which is so good for SEO by the way, if you're writing blogs, link them to each other.

Beverly: 16:47

Yes. And outside sources, like you got this statistic from wherever. And now I have the major ideas. I have three blog posts for each. So now I have 300 emails. And then from there I have 500 social posts.

Cathlyn: 17:01

Yeah.

Beverly: 17:02

And it's all from just 100 pieces of content. So in two years you can create a vault that you can repurpose again and again. You may have to tweak it slightly for some trends and whatever, but you are now simplifying this to the, its most basic elements. And you can do that for every piece now. Like it's liberating. That's why I say simplicity is liberating when you do it right? Because instead of waking up at 3:00 AM I'm stressed. I'm waking up with all these ideas of how to develop it out and take it further. And

Cathlyn: 17:30

I'd rather you sleep though honestly, I'd rather you not wake up at 3:00 AM at all.

Beverly: 17:35

I have a child who's never slept, so it doesn't really matter. If you saw as I was talking about it, I got like more and more excited, right? Now you can do this with it, and you can do this with it, and you can do this with it.

Cathlyn: 17:44

And that's what you're gonna feel when you start doing that work, when you create that foundational idea, and then you can see where those pillars are gonna grow up from it. And then the branches out from each of the pillars and then you Exactly. Trees. Yes.

Beverly: 17:59

And that creates the really deep roots in your brand. You become known for those things. You have a reputation for those things. You get more referrals for those things because people know very clearly because you've showed up consistently and persistently with your brand promise around this main idea that they know, oh, if TEDx talk, you have to talk to Cathlyn.

Cathlyn: 18:20

Yep.

Beverly: 18:21

Oh, Branding, you need Beverly.

Cathlyn: 18:23

Thought leaders do not become thought leaders by having a lot to say. Nope. They become thought leaders by having one incredibly powerful thing to say. And saying it over and over and over again. That's what you need to be known for. The thing that you want to. Be known for doing Yes.

Beverly: 18:40

Yes. Yes. Okay. Are we good?

Cathlyn: 18:42

Okay. Yes. The hat, magic hat. I'm ready.

Beverly: 18:45

In the hat, there are several questions in the hat. I just let the universe decide what we're gonna talk about, but this is more rapid fire. So the first question that the universe has asked is, what has been the hardest part about being an entrepreneur?

Cathlyn: 18:58

The hardest part about being an entrepreneur is the uncertainty. I thrive on stability. I thrive on knowing what's next. I thrive on routine and entrepreneurship is inherently changing.

Beverly: 19:12

Chaotic. I would agree. What is the worst advice you've ever received?

Cathlyn: 19:17

Oh this is a cop out, but anytime anyone tells me that this is the capital R right way to do something. There's no one right way to do anything. We all have different brains, we all have different learning styles, we all have different communication styles, and I just like. Roll my eyes automatically if someone is no, this is what you need to do. I'm like, no. Where's my menu of ways to do this? I want to pick,

Beverly: 19:41

I want a rainbow of ways.

Cathlyn: 19:44

Yeah.

Beverly: 19:44

If you could wave a magic wand and solve one current challenge for your business, what would it be?

Cathlyn: 19:51

It would be reaching more of the right people. My TEDx talk isn't about my business. It's totally unrelated. And even though it's totally unrelated, it very much helped me gain more of an audience. But, if I gave a TEDx talk today and I gave it on the power idea, that would be so much more powerful because people would then know me for that. Why aren't you doing that? Several reasons that are too deep to go into on the podcast

Beverly: 20:17

Okay. Fair. What's a decision that completely changed the trajectory of your business?

Cathlyn: 20:22

Creating my TEDx offer, like when people started asking me about that, I knew I could do it, but actually creating the offer and putting it out there and working with my first TEDx client, just like we zoomed off in a direction that I was very happy to follow.

Beverly: 20:38

What's a book, a podcast, or an entrepreneur that has made a lasting impact on your entrepreneurial journey?

Cathlyn: 20:43

Book The Slight Edge, the author's name I think is Jeff Olson. It's about creating new habits, but he talks about it in a way that works for my brain as opposed like a lot of habit building experts, it doesn't work for my brain, but this one does. a podcast that sadly isn't producing anymore, but that I loved and I listened to religiously, is Go-to Gal Jaclyn Mellone was the host. And it was just all different business expert girls who were doing cool things. And I learned something new every time I listened to it.

Beverly: 22:27

We have a lot of really cool women on our podcast. You might learn something from.

Cathlyn: 22:30

Yeah.

Beverly: 22:30

What about an entrepreneur? Has there been somebody who's done business that you've admired or learned something from?

Cathlyn: 22:36

My business mentor Laura Bel Gray, who she has a mastermind that I was part of in 2023. I had followed her been on her email list for a couple of years before I joined her mastermind, and I learned a lot about being your own person. Her whole thing is like getting paid to be you. And I really learned how to step into who I am and use that in a way that propels my business forward and makes me happy doing it.'cause who isn't happy? Just like existing,

Beverly: 23:15

for sure. Yeah. What is one thing you believed about branding or marketing that turned out to be complete tog wash?

Cathlyn: 23:22

Related to my last answer. When I was running my previous business, my arts education business, my business partner, and I believe that we had to be like, buttoned up and quote unquote professional. We started the business when I think I was 23 and she was 24. And we both look a lot younger than we are, or people think we do. So we would go to these conferences and people would ask us if we were interning for the semester, they would ask us if our boss was gonna be at the booth later. So I think we had a little bit of an inferiority, complex.

Beverly: 24:05

Imposter syndrome.

Cathlyn: 24:07

Yeah. We're like, we knew we were really good at what we were doing. We knew we were doing it well and we were changing our industry. Like we changed the landscape of theater education. But we were so often mistaken for students that I think we overcompensated. In our professionalism, in some ways where we could have been more ourselves.

Beverly: 24:33

It makes sense for sure. Okay. So I also have a magic wand. The magic wand helps us go backward into time and forward into time. So when I wave my wand, we're gonna meet 18-year-old Cathlyn. And I would love for you to give her a piece of advice that you so wish you had then that has served you well. Now

Cathlyn: 24:53

I want 18-year-old Cathlyn to know that it's okay to change that. It's okay to make a new choice.

Beverly: 25:01

The brave What was the name of your,

Cathlyn: 25:04

the bravely sideways.

Beverly: 25:05

Bravely. Sideways.

Cathlyn: 25:06

When I was 19, there was a brave leap sideways that I should have taken. And I didn't, and it was a lot harder to deal with a few years later,

Beverly: 25:15

and it might be more than one brave leap. It might be many brave leap sideways, right?

Cathlyn: 25:19

Oh yeah. But one from my college relationship certainly sticks with me.

Beverly: 25:23

So if Cathlyn was to see you now that 18-year-old Cathlyn see where you are right now, what would she say about you? What would she say?

Cathlyn: 25:32

I think she would be surprised and delighted to know that I am safe and that I find joy in so many things so easily.

Beverly: 25:45

It's interesting. It's like one of my favorite questions, Cathlyn, because literally, your body, you were like, like this deep sense of. I don't know if it's accomplishment or awareness or what it is in every single person I ask the question Yeah. Of how far you've come. So it's interesting to me when I watch people answer that question, even my editor always loves the question. She's I cannot wait for them to answer that question. This Deep knowing of how far you've come and trusting of the things that you've accomplished and all the things. So super powerful. So I get to wave the wand again, and we're gonna go forward. We're flying forward in decades and decades.

Cathlyn: 26:25

Ooh.

Beverly: 26:26

Decades and decades. Decades and decades. Are we still alive? That's the whole thing. We're at your eulogy.

Cathlyn: 26:33

Oh, okay.

Beverly: 26:34

And they're talking about the impact you made in the world as Cathlyn, but also as a business owner. What are they saying about you?

Cathlyn: 26:44

One thing that they're saying is how many people felt heard. How many people felt affirmed and supported and guided. And then from a larger business standpoint, all of the points of impact that have been created through my clients over the years, because I really I see myself as a conduit for impact. My clients are ideas people, my clients are visionaries. My clients see the way that the world should be better and how we can go after that. So by working with them on their power idea and on their power talk, whether they give that on the TEDx stage or a different high impact stage, it creates these ripples of impact. And I imagine, like a map of this thing happened and it traces back To this first meeting that Cathlyn had with this client and this thing happened and it traces back.

Beverly: 27:38

So I'm gonna bring us back into present day and I'm gonna ask you like a magical tip. I would love for you to define what you think it means to be wickedly branded and how do you show up as wickedly branded?

Cathlyn: 27:52

When I think about wickedly branded, I think of Boston, wicked, like where it's an amplifier where you can be wicked, anything. And so it's like the most you, the most powerful, the most clear depending on who you are, maybe it's the most fun or the most inspiring. So I think wickedly branded to me means like the amplified version of you leader of your brand.

Beverly: 28:18

I love that. So how do you show up as wickedly branded in your work, Cathlyn?

Cathlyn: 28:21

One thing, if you're not watching this video, if you're just listening to us, you don't know that I have paintings of my cats behind me. So obviously my business is right Cat Creative and I have four different paintings and then one that's not, it only has a background right now, but it will be a giant painting of my Cat Tucker. So one of them is bringing Tucker into a lot of my marketing, like if you end up at a 4 0 4 page on my website, there's a picture of Tucker playing hide and seek. When you make a request to, get a lead magnet or something, you're taken to a confirmation page, it's enjoy this picture of my cat giving himself a bath. He just shows up. And so that's one way that that I'm wickedly branded,

Beverly: 29:06

My son Zeke is on my 4 0 4 page and he's a baby and I don't know if you've seen babies have funny faces and he's going. It's really cute. So I love that little clever ad edition of like uniqueness and personalization for something that you are so passionate about, even on your 4 0 4 page. I love details like that. That is, wow, I love that so much.

Cathlyn: 29:25

Something that people often comment on. That's part of my branding is when you come to join a Zoom with me and you're in the waiting room message reminds you to take a breath. It's Hey, I'm here. I'll be right with you. And I don't remember exactly what the wording is, but people are off and come on and are like, thank you so much for the, thank you for that. That changed the tone of how I was feeling coming into a call.

Beverly: 29:50

Powerful.

Cathlyn: 29:51

That links back to the cultivate calm part of my business.

Beverly: 29:55

Yeah. So what piece of advice would you give to someone to be more wickedly branded, do you think?

Cathlyn: 30:01

I think pay attention to the glimmers in your life. Pay attention to. What makes you feel yourself? What makes you light up and lean into that. If you are a personal brand, and most of us as small team leaders or solopreneurs, we're personal brands. People wanna see who you are. People wanna feel like they know you. We live in a social media world there, we have parasocial relationships with all sorts of people. And as a business leader, I think that's important to lean into so that people feel like they know you.

Beverly: 30:40

So good Cathlyn. So where can our listeners connect with you and your work and learn more about you? Where can they find you?

Cathlyn: 30:48

So one place is at rightcatcreative.com slash links. That's where you can find some freebies and for example, there's one I mentioned earlier, which is my TEDx Demystified live info session. And we're assuming that this episode is going to end up in December. We'll be just a few weeks out from the next one. So go register for that. If you have any questions about TEDx, that's a great place to get them answered. And then if you wanna find me on social media, I am active on Instagram and LinkedIn, and I'm also on Facebook. You can find me there. I'm not as regularly active, but I'm there in all three of those places. So come join me.

Beverly: 31:32

Cathlyn. This has been really fun. Thank you so much for joining me today and coming on and just spending time with me and being vulnerable and sharing. The thing is with. Things that are just as so scary, like TEDx and different things, having guides like you to help them is so incredibly important. And the fact that you've done it and you've been through it and you've survived.

Cathlyn: 31:52

Yeah, I'm here to tell the tale,

Beverly: 31:54

tell the tale. I think it's super powerful. I have personally, I told you at the beginning of the conversation, I was a little greedy about this conversation. I've, personally learned a lot and maybe assuaged a few fears in the process. So thank you so much for sharing your information, your journey with us today.

Cathlyn: 32:12

I'm so happy to, thanks for having me.

Beverly: 32:15

To my listeners, this has been an incredible conversation. I really hope that today's episode helped you think more about your power idea and how that can drive so much of what you do as far as your brand, your messaging, and even the possibility of a talk one day. I hope this episode today, maybe a little bit of a fire underneath you and gave you some new ideas, but most of all, inspired you to take some action toward something new. Because here's the thing, your message matters. Your work matters, and the world needs to hear what you have to say. Marketing is not just about visibility, it's also about impact. Cathlyn talked a lot about the impact and the ripple effects that we have. It's about connecting with the right people in a way that feels completely aligned, completely honest and true to you. So please keep showing up. Keep sharing your brilliance and keep making magic in the world. And hey, if you ever feel stuck, know that you don't have to do this alone. Cathlyn can help you. I can help you. We are here to help turn your spark into a wildfire. But until next time, I want you to dare to be wickedly branded.