Becoming Your Best Self to Create a Lasting Impact with Cathryn Lavery, CEO and Founder of BestSelf Co.
Cathryn Lavery is an entrepreneur, creator, and designer with a mission to help others make an impact by getting clear on their goals and starting meaningful conversations. In an effort to do so, she founded BestSelf Co. and has helped it scale into a large brand. BestSelf Co. has been featured in GMA, GQ, and O! Magazine. She joined us on the show this week to share a bit with us about her journey and some of the lessons she has learned along the way.
Growing up, Cathryn never really planned to be an entrepreneur. Although she always had the entrepreneurial spirit, such as starting her first eBay store at the age of eleven, that wasn’t the path she was set out on. She went to school and studied for six years to be an architect. Following school, she got a job being an architect in New York City, however, she wasn’t so sure this was the path for her. Finally, one day while at work and being asked to design a $60,000 closet for a client, she decided it was time for a career change.
This was a tough decision, as one can imagine, but one she knew she had to make to live a fulfilled life. Cathryn began to receive questions from all those around her about what she was doing and asking if she was really going to throw all those years of school out the window. However, thanks to her positive perspective, she did not view it the same way as those questioning her. Instead, she appreciated all the lessons learned along the way and knew she could apply them to this new venture she would set out upon.
Cathryn decided to take her skills into her own hands and start her own business. Although the process of creating a startup can be filled with imposter syndrome, she was able to push through it and prioritize creating value for others. She recognized the importance of really connecting with and knowing yourself, and she wanted to provide a simple, easy way to help others do exactly that. As a result, she founded BestSelf Co.
Fast forward a bit and the company is now thriving with Cathryn as the CEO. Despite a hiccup with her now ex-business partner, she has overcome the growing pains from that and is now continuing to grow and expand the company to help others make an impact in various areas of their lives. Through all the struggles of building a business, she has learned how to trust herself more and view life’s setbacks not in a negative light, but instead as a gift and a lesson to help make her a better person so that she can continue to help others.
She is also engaged to her partner who she refers to as her “hype-woman” and is planning to get married as soon as COVID-19 will allow for a safe celebration of their marriage. The couple met on Tinder, had their first date at a Women’s March, and practically fell in love right away. They now continue to support each other in their endeavors and are anxiously awaiting their soon-to-be wedding.
In Cathryn’s episode of the Love Intently Podcast, we chat about her story from quitting her architect job in NYC to start her own company and the lessons, struggles, and everything else that comes along with starting a business. Tune in to hear her full story and see below for key topics discussed during this episode with Cathryn Lavery.
In This Episode We Discussed:
- The story of how Cathryn and her partner met and how her partner’s enthusiastic spirit drew her in (“We call her a hype woman”)
- Being intentional with your life (“When I quit certain habits and put structure in place for myself, things started to go better”)
- Why she created the Self Journal (“To be successful you really have to know yourself”)
- Why you should the hard things at the beginning of the day (“Do it first thing in the morning when your willpower is the highest.”)
- How she got into entrepreneurship “I had my own eBay store when I was eleven.”
- How to manage feeling stuck in a path or a relationship “[You] should not feel like you have to put more time in just because you’ve already put however much time in.”
- What inspired her to start taking her skills into her own hands (“It occurred to me that I couldn’t really depend on these people, and I really needed to focus on my own skills and figuring something out.”)
- How she used imposter syndrome to push her when she was getting started (“I just used [imposter syndrome] as a way to...create value and show other people that I’m good at this.”)
- Dealing with her business partnership ending and how it affected her (“100% of business partnerships will end at some point or another so you need to be prepared for that, and we were not.”)
- Advice to her former self: (“Listen to your gut and trust yourself more.”)
- Looking at life’s tough lessons as gifts (“As time passes, you actually look back on it and if you reflect on it, you’ll understand why you had to learn that lesson.”)
- The importance of being present and enjoying the now (“If you’re always living in the ‘next’ you’re never actually present.”)
- How to network as an introvert (“One of the things I’ve learned for myself is to manage my energy and not my time.”)
- Debunking the stereotype that introverted people are antisocial (“I think introverts often get confused with being anti-social, but it’s really just how we relate to stimuli.”)
- How to care for a partner that is introverted (“Just being able to create space for that and not take it personally is a huge deal.”)
What does Love Intently mean to Cathryn: “Loving intently is just being intentional with your relationship. It’s kind of like the rest of your life where things happen when you are intentional with your time and what you want to spend it on.”
Resources
The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
Awaken The Giant Within by Tony Robbins
The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau
The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod