Welcome to "The Story in Your Head" podcast with Ron Macklin and Michelle Mosolgo.

In this episode of “The Story in Your Head,” Ron, Michelle, and guest Catherine McCourt, discuss how fear can keep you from discovering your true purpose. They also dive into how truly finding your authentic self can lead to a number of great discoveries that can benefit both your personal and professional life. 

“The Story in Your Head” podcast is about sharing stories through host interactions and interviews with guests so listeners will create space to learn about themselves, build authentic connections, produce opportunities to gain knowledge and get out of their own story to make space for others – no matter someone’s background and experiences.

Episode 31: Discovering Your Purpose with Catherine McCourt

Michelle begins by recognizing that Catherine talks a lot about fear in her work. She asks Catherine what fear she had to overcome to arrive at the place she is in today.

• Catherine talks about how becoming fearless is a large part of her coaching and podcast.
• She continues by discussing the different places that fear stems from, and then says that with her clients the first goal is to always find the root of where that fear originates.
• She details a personal story about how she moved into this line of work, and how she had to not only face her fears, but overcome them as well.
• Eventually, she says, she was able to leave those fears behind as she realized she was also excited.

Ron asks where her purpose and mindset shifted, or how they were connected together.

• Catherine says she has always been an intuitive person in the pursuit of purpose.
• She only discovered the true meaning of living with purpose when she was in her 30s, but in her 20s was still on the pursuit.
• Catherine notes the purpose is the why, or the reasoning behind us doing something, and that if it is truly purposeful to you, you or others will derive some sense of value from it as well.
• She details a personal story of how she found a company that was also driven by a purpose, and her purpose aligned with those purposes, which began her path of living with more purpose.

Michelle asks Catherine how she discovered what her purpose was.

• She details her process she took in order to find her purpose, which included hiring a life coach, but also doing a lot of introspective searching.
• After realizing she loved creating things, conversations with others, learning, and sharing that knowledge with others, she then was able to put the pieces together to figure out what she wanted to do.
• Catherine put these pieces together into being a coach, as she’s able to use pieces of each of the things she truly enjoys in her everyday work.

Ron says that one of the things they hold as important is to build authentic connections. He asks Catherine how authentic connections are to her, how they make a difference for her, and how important it is in her line of work.

• Catherine details what her idea of authenticity is, saying that it begins by understanding and becoming your true authentic self.
• She then says what effects it will have on your relationships, and on your own personal life, knowing that you put your true authentic self out there.
• She notes that as long as you’re authentically you, you should never be disappointed if something doesn’t work out because you know it wasn’t on a lack of you showing up and being who you are.
• Catherine then describes how this can be useful outside of just your personal life, but can have big impacts on your professional life as well.

Michelle asks Catherine what she believes holds people back from finding their authentic selves.

• Catherine describes the different things she has found that cause people to hold back.
• She then describes some of her coaching techniques, and how she helps people get past those barriers to find their true selves, and discover what is truly holding them back.
• She continues, saying that once they discover that, they will focus on what things truly resonate with them.

Ron then asks what story she had to rewrite about herself.

• Catherine describes the story she had to rewrite of not being smart, after realizing that there were more ways to be smart than just being good at school.
• She then discusses some of her life experiences that reinforced that line of thinking.
• Catherine also says that overcoming this story herself also helps when leading her clients through discovering that as well.

Catherine asks Ron and Michelle why they created this podcast and the meaning behind the title.

• Ron discusses what the purpose of the podcast is for him, and hopefully for those who are listening as well.
• He also says how they came to the name of the podcast by recognizing that the stories in our head are what they want to help people overcome.
• Michelle describes her personal story of fear that she constantly works in her position, and Ron responds to that story.
• Catherine discusses how the principles they mentioned are very similar to the tactics she uses in her coaching and podcast as well.

Catherine then asks Ron and Michelle what paths their lives took to creating the podcast in the first place.

• Michelle says her reason was to get this story out to as many people as possible, and that the podcast was a great way to do that. 
• She then also discusses her own stories and fears that she had to overcome in the process of creating the podcast.
• Ron and Michelle then also discuss their relationship, and how they began working together and discovering the processes they wanted to take to get their messaging out to as many people as possible.
• Catherine then adds how she fell into a very similar line of work, and helping people find their purpose and messaging.

Ron asks Catherine where people can find out more about her.

• Visit her website to find different workshops she holds
• Ignite Your Soul – which is about how to find your purpose
• Selling the Soul – for those in sales looking to find a sense of purpose in their sales
• Podcast: Fearless Future with Catherine McCourt
• Where she talks with other leaders, as well as has some coaching to help others

Join us to hear how understanding the idea of “self talk” — and what you can do about it — could change your relationships and life for the better.

Visit www.macklinconnection.com