EP 28: Daring to Share Your Gifts with Cathy Heller

Oct 22, 2018

EP 28: Daring to Share Your Gifts with Cathy Heller

Welcome to Do It Scared™ podcast! In every episode of this podcast, we’ll talk about how to face your fears, overcome obstacles, and create a life you love! I’m thrilled to have songwriter and podcaster Cathy Heller on the show today. She’ll help you to realize that you are enough, and to dare to share your gift with the world.

I was honored to be a guest on Cathy’s amazing podcast Don’t Keep Your Day Job a few months ago (you can check out that episode at this link). In that conversation, I shared parts of my story that I’ve never talked about publicly. It was a raw, honest interview, and an incredible experience. Cathy has been there too, and understands how to channel her empathy to create something amazing. I just knew she had to come onto my show too, and I hope you’ll enjoy today’s conversation with her as much as I did!
As you’ll learn today, Cathy grew up not feeling truly seen. Her parents went through a traumatic divorce that left her mom suicidal and paralyzed with depression, and Cathy didn’t have the tools to deal with the situation. She struggled through, barely graduated from high school, and went to college looking for meaning. She ended up going on a free trip to Jerusalem, despite not having any relationship with religion or God. The experience changed her life; she fell in love with God and came to a new understanding of each person’s meaning and significance.

Cathy powerfully points out that the opposite of depression isn’t happiness, but rather a sense of purpose. She emphasizes the importance of being in alignment with their gift or zone of genius. She’ll share her amazing story of how this happened for her, and how trusting the idea that “what you seek is seeking you” and following the yes brought her incredible success.
In our conversation, we’ll take a deep dive into how amazing life can be when you’re willing to share yourself with the world. Cathy will also talk about what she learned in the process of turning a hobby into a business, why it’s so important to push through the sludge or the messy middle, why the greatest commodity you’ll ever have is within yourself, why you really don’t need to have 500,000 followers on Instagram, and much more.

[04:59] – Cathy shares her reaction to having Ruth on her show.
[06:32] – We hear a quick introduction to who Cathy is, where she’s been, and how she’s gotten to where she is now.
[09:44] – Something everyone struggles with is whether they’re enough, or good enough, Cathy points out. She then relates this to her childhood story.
[11:27] – We learn how Cathy ended up in Los Angeles after living in Jerusalem for a few years.
[16:19] – Cathy talks more about the course she offers for songwriters and musicians who want to make a living with their music.
[17:43] – How long did it take Cathy to figure out that she still wanted to do music even after being dropped by two labels?
[20:51] – We hear about what the switch was for Cathy when she realized that she wasn’t living her full life.
[23:17] – Cathy talks about starting where she was, both with her songs and her podcast.
[25:02] – Ruth points out that you have to make it through what she calls the “messy middle.”
[26:26] – Cathy uses Ruth as an example of starting somewhere simple and ending up somewhere amazing.
[29:30] – The clarity follows the action, Cathy points out, meaning you don’t need to have a clear plan figured out.
[33:33] – The more comfortable and settled we get in life, the scarier it can be to take risks, Ruth points out.
[35:17] – Cathy shares her own experience with wanting to enable her husband to quit his job, and the fear that goes with that.
[38:38] – Cathy gets even more tactical for a moment, to ground things in practicalities for listeners who want to understand exactly how to implement these ideas in their lives.
[41:34] – Ruth talks about Elite Blog Academy and how it functions almost as a reverse of the traditional business model.
[43:00] – We hear about how important it is to share your true self and not present yourself as perfect, instead making a genuine connection with your audience.
[45:55] – Cathy shares the story of a guest on her podcast who created an inspirational business making multi six figures with a relatively small audience.
[49:23] – We hear about Cathy’s recent conversation on her podcast with Martha Beck.
[51:43] – Cathy shares more words of wisdom about productivity and getting things done.
[55:41] – If you’re feeling inspired by listening to this right now, use that inspiration as a tool to go do something about it!
[57:07] – How did Cathy cope with her mom telling her that she wasn’t enough as a kid, and how has she moved past it as an adult?
[60:32] – What is Cathy working on right now that has her fired up?
[61:58] – Is there anything else that Cathy would like listeners to know?
[63:08] – Cathy lists some places where listeners can find her online to learn more about what she does.