The Power One: Person | S2EP15

What if one person's belief in you could completely change the direction of your life?

In this episode of The Power of One: Person, Cathy Tooley sits down with entrepreneur, minister, and longtime friend Terry to explore how a single person can transform another person's confidence, purpose, and future.

Together, they share powerful stories of mentorship, entrepreneurship, faith, and friendship, revealing how one encouraging voice can help someone see possibilities they never imagined for themselves.

From helping a construction worker realize he was capable of becoming a successful business owner to Terry encouraging Cathy to "borrow belief" until she could believe in herself, this conversation demonstrates that belief is one of the greatest gifts we can ever give another person.

The discussion also explores self-worth, identity, entrepreneurship, leadership, and why so many people spend years believing what the world has told them instead of embracing who God created them to be.

Key Takeaways

• One person's belief can change another person's life.
• Sometimes we need to borrow someone else's belief until we develop our own.
• Great mentors see potential before others see it themselves.
• Your identity is not determined by your past or other people's opinions.
• Strong friendships are built on honesty, encouragement, and faith.
• Believing in someone else may become the turning point in their story.
• Your words have the power to change someone's future.

One of the most memorable moments from this conversation comes when Cathy reflects on the advice Terry once gave her:

"Borrow belief from me until you can do it yourself."

Sometimes that's exactly what we need. Someone who believes in us until we're ready to believe in ourselves.

Step into growth and purpose! Discover my books and resources designed to help you lead, learn, and live with impact.

✨ Click here: https://t-sml.mtrbio.com/public/smartlink/toolsforsuccess

//About

Cathy Tooley is the Founder & CEO of Tools for Success and a seasoned educator with over 40 years in K–12 classrooms and school leadership. From high school teacher to principal, Cathy has dedicated her life to supporting educators. In 2014, she launched Tools for Success to provide real, in-person instructional coaching—not just “PD in a box.” She’s the author of The Education System Is Broken, a national speaker, and a fierce advocate for teachers. Through this podcast, she’s spotlighting the ripple effect of great teaching.
🔗 Website | YouTube | Facebook | LinkedIn

Transcript

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Cold Open On Borrowed Belief

Cathy Tooley 0:00

You said borrow belief from me until you can do it yourself. And I never, ever, ever looked at the website again for open positions.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

And he said, You made me see that this was for me. When you broke this down, you showed me contracts are for me. I can do this. People are always looking for like movement. But I really think the power of one person does, it gets overshadowed by all degree, right? I think sometimes people are like, am I enough? This one person.

Cathy Tooley 0:36

It wasn't about people, it was the power of one belief. We are constantly judging. But what puts anyone past that is a belief that they can be different. I wouldn't be sitting here today if not meant for our friendship. Everyone should have in their life someone that believes in them like you believe in me.

Meet Terry And The Series Theme

Cathy Tooley 0:59

Hi, everybody. Thanks for joining our podcast, um, where we are doing the series this time, our season two called The Power of One. And on the podcast today is my very dear friend that I'm struggling to contain, to keep in this podcast. So I'm gonna apologize for what this might turn out to be. My good friend Terry, who we've known each other for years and years, and um, I say to people that she is my sole sister. All joking aside, she is um a very, very, very, very, very dear friend. So I'll let her introduce yours herself and tell you about what she does. Thank you for having me. You're very welcome.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

I have manners. There they were. That was it.

Cathy Tooley 1:41

There they were. That was the manners for the day.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Um I am CEO of the Gideon Group, which is a procurement strategy company. I also own a home care agency and a medical lab. And I'm also a minister and uh a mommy and uh and a wife. Um and I'm excited to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

Cathy Tooley 2:02

You're very welcome. So I when I emailed the guests, I told them um that the overarching theme was the power of one. Now you have to know before we started recording, Terry said she freaked me out for a minute. Because I told none of, I told all of them, don't tell me what your story is, don't tell me what the one is. I'm just gonna let Lauren have it. And then Terry, of all people, says to me, The Power One One. I said, What do you mean the power of one one? You were supposed to pray about that. And and of course she has them. She was just doing what she does. So, Terry, the power of one person.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

The power of one person.

Why One Person Still Matters

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Okay. Yeah. Okay. So I think uh, you know, in our times, we are always like, people are always looking for like movement, you know, like let's galvanize people. But I really think the power of one person does it gets overshadowed by all that. I agree, right? Because it takes one person to start a movement, to make an impact, to is the power of one person. I think sometimes people are like, am I enough? Just one person. And I I think one person can change the world. I mean, we we look at Martin Luther King, we look at Gandhi, we look at Jesus. They were one person at one time. I mean, they galvanize people to come together, but I think that one person can change the the world. I have a

A Classroom Moment That Changed Him

SPEAKER_00 3:20

story. I love a story. So I was teaching at a local CDC, and we were teaching on um the business model canvas, how to form that, and then how we correlate that with going after government contracts, like what your what your BMC needs to be built to have the capacity to take on a government contract. And I'll never forget, like, I mean, let's just keep it 1,000. It was it was uh it was in the hood, you know what I mean? It was but it was a CDC because they were building a new, I think it was library or clinic or something, and they wanted local business owners that lived in the area to be able to go after bids for their construction. And I will tell you, there were some interesting characters in there, some really dope people. And there's this one guy that walked in, he had to be about 6'6. Very, very melanated guy, and he had five to the back. For those of you who don't know what five to the back is five cornrolled braids, five to the back, and he had and he had berrts in them. So I was like, okay, this is gonna be fun. And at times I felt like he would interrupt the class, but the Holy Spirit let me know it was actually him. The topic that we were discussing, it was kind of like nervous energy for him. You know, he was kind of like nervous, and um so I was a little irritated, you know, like can we bring it down? I mean, he wasn't rude, he was just annoying. And so students like that, yeah. Yeah, like they're not bad. It's just like so fingers down a chalkboard. So when everybody left, um the the executive director and I were friends, so she had left, like, hey girl, you wanna walk out? Let's go get something to eat after we'd all eat. Let's go get circumstances organize my life. 360. 360. Um, and I was like, okay, but everybody had left and it was late. So she had gone to her office and we were kind of in the front. So really I was by myself for a little while. And everybody had left, and I thought the door had locked, but he had come back in, and I was like, What's this about? You know, my antennas kind of went up, like, are you good? Or what do we, you know, we can't, we can get into some gangster stuff. We get to, but but he came back and he said, Miss Terry, can I talk to you? I said, sure. Oh wow, I'm about to well up. And uh, you know, tears, like his eyes started welling up. And I was like, what's wrong? And he said, You see me and what I look like. I said, I do. Um, and I said, That doesn't intimidate me. You know, and he said, You made me see that this was for me. And I was like, What do you mean? He said, All that stuff that you were talking about, he said, when I took this class, he was like, I'm going to hear a bunch of stuff where I don't have access to that I don't understand, and they're just telling me this stuff because they got some grant money. And he said, When you broke this down, you showed me contracts are for me. I can do this, I can be a business that goes after these types of things. I can bid on this work. Because he said, I've been um I he tell me a journeyman. I didn't know what that meant. He was like, I've been a journeyman for years, I've been a carpent carpentry apprentice for years. I just infinited.

Cathy Tooley 6:41

Trade, isn't it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

I think journeyman kind of do everything.

Cathy Tooley 6:44

That's what I think so too. So he's like, I sorry for those of us watching the show agreements.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Please forgive our ignorance. Yeah. My gist of it, it was like he was a high-level handyman. Like he could do high-level hands, yeah. He was a contractor, just not maybe not a bonded. You know what I mean? But he he had the skill, natural skill to do it. Right. And he sh was saying, I think these are, now you show me these are for me. Now I went back a couple of months later, they had a um like a how-to-be developer class. Like they had a real estate, real estate agency that had come in and teach some of the folks how to become developers. And I was coming to see my friend again to get lunch. Okay, it's a lot of eating. Um, but uh I saw him and I was like, what's up? What are you doing here? He said, I'm going to the developer class. I said, For real? He was like, I'm leveling up, I'm leveling up. And you you showed me I could. And I was just, you know, oh. You know, he went from looking thuggish, in my own ignorant judgment, but to this guy that said, I'm a I'm gonna play the part because that's what people expect from me, to now he's saying I'm a legit businessman, and now I want to learn how to build

The Shift From Person To Belief

SPEAKER_00 7:59

a building.

Cathy Tooley 7:59

So I'm gonna challenge you to change what we picked as a topic. It wasn't about people, it was the power of one belief.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Okay.

Cathy Tooley 8:06

I'll take that. The power of one belief. You know, we were we talk a lot. And it is so easy in this world. You know, people say all the time, well, I I am the least judgmental person. No, I never judge people.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

You're a liar.

Cathy Tooley 8:25

You're a liar. You're a liar. We we are inundated with images that we are constantly judging. You know, her shoes are too small, that shirt is too tight, it's too pretty. Kathy's too great. Yes, right? Hard things to do. Hard things to do. But we are, you know, with the images that we are constantly given, we are forever immediately thinking, good, bad, right, wrong, good, bad, right, wrong, all the time. But what puts anyone past that is a belief that they can be different. And I think often people like he, he he showed up in that class in the belief that he believed everyone had told him who he was. Not who God created him to be.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

Correct.

Cathy Tooley 9:09

Not not what clearly you saw it, although you saw it and thought, hmm, we'll see how this goes. We'll see how this goes. But it was because of your belief. And you know what I wonder? Um, where would we be in a world today if people saw themselves as Jesus Jesus?

SPEAKER_00 10:07

That that's the whole, Kathy. I really think that's the whole thing, right? I think that's a journey. We say a lot of stuff in church. We do. So, you know, love and your church is the most broken group of people who claim to have it all together.

Cathy Tooley 10:26

Absolutely. There's a word, who is at uh Matthew West that says, shouldn't church look more like a hospital?

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Yes. Yeah. It is we we say a lot of things, I think, that we were taught in Sunday school. Amen. And we just roll with it, like, you know, love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Cathy Tooley 10:43

He just loves everybody.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Yes. Well, but if you break that down, if you don't love yourself truly. And you don't believe it. Right.

Judgment Self Worth And Real Love

SPEAKER_00 10:53

Yeah. You don't love other people. So really you're just pretending to be societally acceptable. But they have damaged you to be, right? And you're you're you don't really. I had just learned recently, I didn't love myself. I love what I could do. Me too. I love how I could perform. I love what the results that I could give.

Cathy Tooley 11:12

And then we got angry when other people loved what we could do, how we could perform.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Yeah.

Cathy Tooley 11:16

When we taught them that's how you loved it.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

We taught them that. They didn't really know who I was. They know if Terry comes in, she's gonna make it great. That's it.

Cathy Tooley 11:23

But they didn't know the world's falling apart, send Kathy in, she'll fix it.

SPEAKER_00 11:27

But they didn't know we had vulnerable moments because we kept that hidden. So, yeah, I think that if if people saw they are the apple of God's eye, that they are a child of God and beyond child of God, because I think unfortunately, because we're in Western society, we don't understand kingdoms. No, we don't understand succession, right? So when you say you're a king's daughter, it's not like being a president's daughter. No, no, being a king's daughter, there's titles and there's responsibilities and there's there's ways of behaving yourself, and there's things you have dominion over. You know, I think I'm just getting to the place to know that I am a queen. I went from being a princess, you know, to a queen. And that's been a journey because as the daughter of a king, that's my ultimate title. Ultimately, gonna be a queen, and what that involved. So can I tell you a belief story?

Cathy Tooley 12:20

Yeah. So wait a minute, because it's my podcast, so we're gonna do it anyway. So there's that. So there's that, because it's my podcast anyway. So so I don't know if you remember way back when you were at a company before you started this one, when I came to you. Um, I had been, what, in the my company at that point eight months floundering. Probably the best words for it, is just floundering. Um, going from networking group to networking group to to meeting after meeting. And um I met you and I began working with you and your partner at the time, and we're working through the steps. And and then as that came to the tail end, I will you probably don't even remember this. I don't know that we've ever even really talked about this, but I have quoted this

Borrow Belief Until You Can Stand

Cathy Tooley 13:05

to so many people. So we were standing in the hallway, uh, our session had ended, and I was down to one of few sessions left. Yeah, yeah. And if you remember, it was falling apart and starting to not work. In our partnership. In our partnership.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

In well, you mean in me and her.

Cathy Tooley 13:21

You and your partner's partnership was falling apart. Yeah. Um, and and you were trying to sweep up and pick up the pieces. But I really was beginning to feel like, see, this is even more of an example that I shouldn't be an entrepreneur. I need to just get my butt back into school and do what I do. Um, uh, whether that's a principal, assistant principal, teacher, it really doesn't matter. Get my butt back to what I know. And I said this to you. I'll never forget this. We were standing up the hallway, and I said, I'm giving this until March, and then I'm gonna start sending out applications. I'm not gonna do another year of risking this. And I you probably don't know what you said. You said, borrow belief from me until you can do it yourself. I say that. You said that because I know that what you're going to do by serving students, because by then you had seen my heart and why I wanted to have this company and what this company was, is far greater than you. And I never, ever, ever looked at the website again for open positions.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Wow.

Cathy Tooley 14:23

I put my nose in the grindstone and I thought if she can have a successful company, and even though you and your partner at the time were that company was falling, it was falling.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

Right.

Cathy Tooley 14:35

Um it was successful. It was. It's and it wasn't anything that it was just an example of sometimes partnerships just don't work. Yep. They just don't work. That doesn't mean that the the the concept that you built or the the construct that you built wasn't successful. Right. Your partnership was no longer successful. Correct, absolutely. And then you broke off and did that on your own. But the the and for me, I remember walking out to the car because I I was truly convinced, um, because you know, obviously, education, I've said this many times on my podcast, that window opens to get a job and then it closes. And I thought, I let one window go by, I won't let a second. Okay, I won't go into another school year without having at least pursued a job.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

Okay.

Cathy Tooley 15:22

When yet I still felt that this company is what the Lord wanted me to do. So it's it's it is, I borrowed, I did.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Wow.

Cathy Tooley 15:31

Because I thought if you can make a company, and I know you and I have talked about this before, where I've said, it's interesting to me now that I see way behind the company. You and I are very good friends. We've shared, I shared that journey with you of parting with your partner and then ultimately starting the Gideon group that is um with me today, and the Gideon group and Tools for Successes have crossed paths and and done some work together. But um I often think, I think had you never split from that partnership and gone out on your own, I would have left you.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Oh, yeah.

Cathy Tooley 16:04

And then we wouldn't be where we were.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

No, you know, that you bring that up is um, you know, we she and I were on really bad terms.

Cathy Tooley 16:14

I mean, we were and I had no idea when I first started, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

I mean, when you first started, we weren't. It was in the midst of you, um, because we if if you recall the story, I saw that thing in you when you spoke. I was like, how much did you get paid?

Cathy Tooley 16:32

You were like, Yeah, because so yeah, I forgot to say that. That's how Terry and I met. I was doing a speech at a pretty large women's event at a very nice at the high-level level club. Yeah. And Terry walked up to me and said, Please tell me you just made a lot of money for doing that speech. And I laughed because I didn't, I did it for free. I was so desperate to be this public speaker, which is what I thought my company that the Lord wanted me to do, instead of creating the company, and then the speaking would come with the book and everything else later. Um, that not only did I laugh because I thought only in my dreams, but I laughed because I thought, was that intended as an insult?

SPEAKER_00 17:15

No.

Know Your Value And Charge For It

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Like what I saw in you, I was like, she is magnanimous, man. Like, because you know, at that time when we had that company, we always looked for people that had problems, if that makes sense. Yeah, yeah. Oh, absolutely. Like, okay, she they might need us. They're broken. Well, yeah, because but now, you know, the higher level of companies I deal with, it's a different come from, but then was like, oh, she, man, like we could really help her because she's dynamic. And let me not even say we, I saw it. And then I said to my partner, she should be a client. And so, like, I I saw like, man, this lady is like a powerhouse. Like, if if she's a client that's gonna help our client portfolio, you know what I mean? If if if if we help her, like I think I really like her, because I mean you were so great. And I was just like that anybody had the audacity not to pay you was crazy. And I mean, I looked at the person after that, like, hey girl, hey. Because I was like, you know what I mean? You you got like Oprah for free.

Cathy Tooley 18:15

And you looked to the person who had me there and said to her, You're lucky you got her for free. But once she works for me, you will never get her for free again. It wasn't. Do you know I've never done a free speech since?

SPEAKER_00 18:25

No lie.

Cathy Tooley 18:26

Never.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

And so it and so in that, as we were watching this podcast. Ah, look at them. Come on, oh, almost shot it. Girl, you almost make me shout. Because look how far we both are. Amen. But in in that, you know, not knowing what was going to happen with the part because God's gift in me is not free. No, no, it's a cost pay for. It's a cost to pay for. And so you have to, it's a cost. My gift and my calling and what I went through is a cost. Technically, on earth, as a client, you really can't pay me what I'm worth. No, absolutely. I can only give you what is marketable, right? But you can't think of the producer sitting behind the camera now. Oh, she's ridiculous.

Cathy Tooley 19:09

Pay her for what she's worth. No, not at all.

SPEAKER_00 19:10

She has a calling to do what she's doing. And even with that, with what's been paid, it's not equitable to what the kid is. You know what I mean?

Cathy Tooley 19:22

No, no.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

But I I I praise God every day for that failed partnership. And my former partner, um, you know, sometimes God will send you buffers. And sometimes we're always, you, you and me, we buffer each other. I do. We have a healthier relationship that we had. But some people don't like buffers. And she was my buffer. She put my boots on, like she strapped my. I didn't know there were people like her in the world.

Cathy Tooley 19:47

I didn't know there were people that because belief doesn't mean saying what people want to hear.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

Yeah.

Cathy Tooley 19:53

It doesn't mean saying what people want to hear.

SPEAKER_00 19:55

Like she's a beautiful person, but there's sometimes where money comes in is people's belief system. Once we started to hit past seven figures, a lot of stuff changed. For

When Partnerships Fail And Still Bless

SPEAKER_00 20:07

both of us. For both of us. And I praise God for her every day because I wouldn't, I wouldn't be here. I learned a lot from her. I think we learned a lot from each other. But most of all, the thing that I learned is the people that I met. I don't know that I would have met you had we not been together. Guaranteed. I don't know if I would have met some of our other people. I don't know if we would have gone through that.

Cathy Tooley 20:26

And had your partnership not fallen apart, we would, I don't think, would have stayed connected. No, I don't think so. No, I don't think so. I would have gone through the the course, the the what I paid for, yeah, and we'd have bid each other ado. Like like a lot of people. Hey Terry, thanks. That's right. But and and I know, I want you to hear this. I wouldn't be sitting here today if not meant for our friendship. That's a fact. That's a fact. Um, I would not have the relationship with Jesus Christ if it weren't for you. That's a fact. That's not a that's not a gloat, that's not a let me stroke Terry's ego. That's a fact. You are, everyone should have in their life someone that believes in them like you believe in me. Everyone.

unknown 21:12

Wow.

Cathy Tooley 21:13

Everyone should have that. I mean that from the most, I'm gonna try to try to think about it, but from the most honest of places that I think, you know, I because as you know, as an entrepreneur, there are hills and there are valleys. There are lap. And sometimes those valleys are dark.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

Very dark.

Cathy Tooley 21:32

Very dark. And lonely. And very lonely. Because as an entrepreneur, unlike as an employee, you could go down the workroom, down the water cooler, down somewhere, at least to have someone to commiserate to um, and what I what I love is our friendship, we don't let each other stay there very long.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

No, we don't. Like, are you done? No. Are you done? And and and I you, you know, you have

Friendship In Dark Valleys And ADHD

SPEAKER_00 21:58

taught me so much about the Lord. Also with with my my diagnosis of ADHD. Like I think um a lot of people don't deal with that with adult diagnosis of ADHD, right? Because you're so organized. And remember, I told you, I try. There's times when I try to be organized, but my brain doesn't work that way.

Cathy Tooley 22:23

Doesn't work that way. And so mine lives that way.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

Right. And so you've helped me in that and accomplishing things, even with high-level things, you know, with with that, a lot of things that we we've taught each other that are that are really deep hard things. Amen. And I I I think I think, well, back back to beliefs. I think we both have helped each other, I think, make our belief system a lot more hardier. You know what I mean? For sure. I think us being friends, I'm I'm way less shallow than I was. For sure. You know what I mean? I think when I had that business, I was about getting my hair done, getting my nails done, looking flashy. Now it's about am I making an impact? And most of all, am I obeying God? Amen. And if I'm doing that, all that other stuff will come. It'll come. You know what I mean? So I I value our friendship. Sometimes you get on my last chocolate nerve. And then there's other times I am so blessed. Because you're you're such a giving person. You know what I mean? Um, I think both of us get misunderstood because we're just direct. I would agree. But you're one of the most given. I know if my house burned down right now and I was like, Kathy, I need 50,000. Right there. Right there. Vice versa. If if you're like, Terry, I don't know if I'm okay, I'm gonna be like, where are you?

Cathy Tooley 23:42

Where are you?

SPEAKER_00 23:43

And I don't I don't have to think about that.

Cathy Tooley 23:45

May everyone who's listening to the podcast know that it's the power of one person's belief. That's good. The one person's belief.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

That's good.

Cathy Tooley 23:56

All right, we gotta wrap this up. Thank you. Thanks for being here. Thanks for being a guest. Thanks for being my friend.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

Your hair looks great.

Cathy Tooley 24:02

It does, doesn't it? Thanks, everybody. We'll see you on the next episode.

SPEAKER_00 24:07

God bless.