Good Neighbor Podcast: Palmer
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Palmer. Good Neighbor Podcast Palmer MA hosted by Liz Lemon helps residents to connection with local doctors, lawyers, financial advisors, insurance agents and other business owners in and around Palmer, and other Massachusetts Communities. Helping neighbors to become friends while introducing them to local businesses and charities is my goal.
With 29+ years of hard work, my career began in Graphic Design. Evolving to TV Production, Newscast Directing, Technical Producing, and Filmmaking. In addition, Sales, Marketing, and Advertising across various platforms, while always exceeding expectations. Then transitioning to the Entertainment and Sports Industries, I specializes in Special Events, Promotions, VIP Services, Live Events and Security, expanding Nationally at various Stadiums, and Concert Venues.
Passionate about learning and diverse topics, I love sports, especially the New England Patriots, the NFL, and NASCAR. An avid outdoors enthusiast, I also enjoy swimming, hiking, and exploring new places while photographing, digitally recording each one . Excited about my new role as PPM Area Media Executive at Podcast Plus Media, I'm ready for this new Adventure of a Lifetime, continuing to connect with people and exceed expectations in the local community.
Is your business serving the residents of Palmer? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpPalmer.com or to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Palmer
EP # 73: Breaking Stagnation: Catherine Duggan's Journey from Special Ed Teacher to Empowering Life and Spiritual Coach
Ever felt stuck in life despite having all the outward signs of success? Meet Catherine Duggan from Finding True North Coaching, who turned her experience as a special education teacher and stay-at-home mom into a journey of life and spiritual coaching. Driven by her passion to help others break free from stagnation, Catherine shares insightful strategies on goal setting, accountability, and establishing positive routines. She debunks the myth that life coaching is only for those with problems, highlighting how even the most accomplished individuals can benefit from a coaching relationship to boost their efficiency and overall well-being.
Our conversation with Catherine also touches on the resilience required to navigate life's challenges. As a military spouse and a parent to a child/children with oppositional behavior, Catherine's story is one of perseverance and finding customized solutions. She emphasizes that spiritual coaching isn't exclusive to the devout but is a guiding light for anyone on their faith journey. Discover more about Catherine's group mentoring, her inspiring podcast "Walk Boldly with Jesus," and how her unique blend of life and spiritual coaching can help you find your true north and lead a more fulfilled life.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Liz Lemon.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of some coaching? Surprisingly, you might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your neighbor, katherine Duggan, with Find True North Coaching. How are you today, katherine? I'm great. How are you Great? We're excited to learn all about you and your business. Please tell us about Finding True North Coaching.
Speaker 3:Finding True North Coaching is a life coaching and spiritual coaching business. For my life coaching clients we meet one-on-one, usually online or over the phone, and I help them assess where they're at and where they want to be, and then we come up with some goals to help them bridge that gap. I help to keep them accountable all along the way as well. They're my spiritual coaching clients. I have a group mentoring program that meets on Tuesday nights at 8 pm on Zoom and that's where I pick a theme mentoring program that meets on Tuesday nights at 8 pm on Zoom and that's where I pick a theme for the month, usually something that someone in the group has requested, and I teach for about 30 minutes on that topic and then I open it up to questions or small group discussions so we can figure out how the members can apply that, what they just learned, to their everyday lives.
Speaker 2:How did you get into the?
Speaker 3:business. I got into the business because I was a special education teacher and then I was raising and then I stayed home to raise my three boys and my boys were challenging, to say the least. And so when they got into school and I was going to go back into teaching, it just didn't work out because their needs were greater and I needed to have the flexibility to go and pick them up from school or take them to appointments. So I was still a stay-at-home mom and I did a lot of personal development and I decided I was going to be the best mom, the best wife, the best Catholic I could be.
Speaker 3:And then, as I was deciding what I wanted to do, now that they were in school and when they started doing a little better at school and I had more time, I started noticing that everybody I was talking to or a lot of people I was talking to felt stuck in their life in some way, like they were stuck in their job or they just didn't seem very happy and also they didn't realize they could do anything about it. They felt like, well, I guess this is my life forever. And so I got into life coaching so that I could help them. See that there's a way out, that you can always change your circumstances, even if you can't change your job, even if you're invested and you have to stay at your job, you can change who you're showing up as in your job, which then will make your day better and it will seem like a different job, because you'll be happier in it if you're happier with yourself.
Speaker 2:It does. It's like art life imitation, Life imitates art. So you go through your day and that where it sets you up for your entire day, Like you're able to get through your entire day because of how your day started.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if you have a really good morning routine, it sets you up for having a good day. And if you know, also, if you set intentions, if you decide in the morning you're going to have a good day, then you'll still run into problems. It's not like your day will be perfect, but your mindset will be more ready and equipped to deal with those difficulties that you run into because you've already decided you're going to have a good day. So you're not going to let every little thing get in the way. You're going to hit traffic and you're going to just attribute it to something everybody has, and so your mindset in the morning can help you throughout the day as well.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. What are the myths and misconceptions within the life coaching industry?
Speaker 3:I think a lot of people think that life coaching is for people who have problems and so successful people don't need life coaching. But it's actually the opposite A lot of successful people have life coaches. I think a coach's job is to take you from where you're at to where you want to be. I remember reading a book by Matthew Kelly and he asked his dad. His dad was always like listen to your coach, listen to your coach. And he said dad, why do you make such a big deal about listening to my coach? I mean I'm going to practice. And his dad said because a coach can make you extraordinary.
Speaker 3:So anybody can be good at baseball by practicing baseball. But when you get a coach, they can help you see what flaws you might have. They can help you overcome the things that you're getting stuck on that you might not even know are a problem. And so I think everybody could benefit from a coach, not just people who are struggling, but successful people too. If they want to be more successful or if they just want to be more efficient and want to have more time, they could meet with a coach to figure out, you know how to be more efficient at what they do.
Speaker 2:Right, it's easier sometimes when you're out of the box, when you're out of the situation and you can come in and look and kind of help people. That's very interesting. What do you do outside of work for fun?
Speaker 3:very often. But I also. My husband was in the military and so we moved around a lot and we lived far away from home a lot. And now my family is just over the border in Connecticut, so I try and spend free time with my brothers and sisters, and two of my siblings have young children One just turned two and one's about to turn five so I try and spend as much time with them as I can as well.
Speaker 2:Great, we want to reach out and say thank you for your service to your husband. We do appreciate all of the men and women service.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Welcome. Let's change gears just for a moment. Can you describe one hardship or life challenges that you rose above and can now say because of it you're better and stronger? What comes to mind?
Speaker 3:Probably my kids and my family life. My kids, my youngest, from a very early age, was very oppositional and it took us a while to figure out how to parent to his style. So I read all the parenting but of course they have explosive anger issues and so it took a long time and a lot of work to overcome that. It took a lot of strength, like perseverance, of not giving up. I mean, how do you give up on your kids? So it's not like giving up was a choice, but but it took a lot of different counselors and therapists and behavior plans and reward systems and pretty much, if there's a parenting book out there, I've read it and tried it, kept what worked for us and just kind of got rid of the rest.
Speaker 3:I'm stronger because I was able to persevere through. I was able to figure out what it is my kids needed and how, how to get that for them so that they could cause. They didn't want to always be in trouble either. They didn't want to be acting out the way they were. They were just trying to get something and so I needed to figure out how to help them get it in a better.
Speaker 2:I needed to figure out how to help them, get it in a better, safer way, and so that definitely made me stronger, absolutely, and you know you stuck with it, obviously, like you said, like you know you're not going to give up on your kids, but you know that's, that's commendable for sure, reaching for. You know what they need, figuring it out and getting it done for sure. What is the one thing you wish our listeners knew about? Finding true North coaching.
Speaker 3:I wish they knew that, like I said, you don't have to be having trouble to see a coach. I also think with spiritual coaching that people think it's for super holy people, it's for people who have their life figured out, who go to church all the time, who are really close with God, and so those are the people I know. For a long time in my spiritual journey I thought like I'm not Catholic enough or holy enough to go to retreats or go to Catholic women groups or whatever, and in all actuality, those are the people that need to go, the people that are already super close with the Lord. They don't need it as much as other people do, but we're never too far away to just grow closer to him, and we don't have to be holy to start getting help. That's how we become holy is to be around people who have like beliefs as we do and help build us up in our faith.
Speaker 2:How can our listeners learn more about Finding True North Coaching?
Speaker 3:They can go to my website, findingtruenorthcoachingcom. I also actually didn't mention that I have a podcast that's called Walk Boldly with Jesus, and so if they want to just grow in their faith without joining a group, just on their own, it's a daily devotional, monday through Friday, that they could just listen to, and that's on my website as well, or they can go to any podcast app and just search for Walk Boldly with Jesus.
Speaker 2:That's great. Do you have a phone number you'd like to share as well?
Speaker 3:Sure, 860-481-0959. Or they could email me at Catherine C-A-T-H-E-R-I-N-E at FindingTrueNorthCoachingcom.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, Catherine. We do appreciate you being on the show today and we wish you and your business the best moving forward.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me on here.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnppalmercom. That's gnppalmercom. That's gnppalmercom, or call 413-414-5940.