July 2, 2025 • 31 mins
Let's talk about the value of passion and resilience.
Kathy James is a Learning program manager, TEDx speaker, resilience speaker and author, with experience in instructional design, project management, technology training, and associate onboarding.
She is passionate about leveraging technology to simplify process adoption, enhance the learner experience, and drive measurable business outcomes. Kathy thrives in collaborative environments where building strong relationships, influencing change, and driving operational success are valued.
Her newest project is the creation of CatapultU
Check out her book, My Fight Against the Odds
Follow Marci Talks Money (and Life) wherever you get your podcasts to get the episodes as they post.
Visit MoneyMarci.com to check out other financial literacy resources.
Kathy James is a Learning program manager, TEDx speaker, resilience speaker and author, with experience in instructional design, project management, technology training, and associate onboarding.
She is passionate about leveraging technology to simplify process adoption, enhance the learner experience, and drive measurable business outcomes. Kathy thrives in collaborative environments where building strong relationships, influencing change, and driving operational success are valued.
Her newest project is the creation of CatapultU
Check out her book, My Fight Against the Odds
Follow Marci Talks Money (and Life) wherever you get your podcasts to get the episodes as they post.
Visit MoneyMarci.com to check out other financial literacy resources.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Powered by Riverside at n.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Hello, welcome to Marcy talks Money in Life. I'm Money, Marcy.
I'm so pleased to welcome Kathy James. Kathy is a
learning program manager, tedex speaker, resilience speaker, and author with
experience in instructional design, project management, technology training, and associate onboarding.
(00:25):
She is passionate about leveraging technology to simplify process adoption,
enhance the learner experience, and drive measurable business outcomes. Kathy
thrives in collaborative environments where building strong relationships, influencing change,
and driving operational success are valued. Her newest project is
(00:46):
the creation of Catapult You, which we will talk about
a little later on. But first off, welcome Kathy.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Thank you Marcy. I'm really excited about being here.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Before we go into the projects that you're doing, now,
how about you tell me where you came from and
how you got here your interest in all of these projects,
because you're fascinating. We met a few years ago when
I was in that video series you were doing to
help young adults learn. Learning projects are a passion for you,
not just a job.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
I guess I'll back up a little bit because although
I am in corporate learning and development. That was something
that was far out of reach for me. I would
have never imagined that I would be here today where
I am, because I came from a home that was
surrounded by violence, an addiction, severe mental health issues, very unstable.
(01:37):
Majority of our family relied on some sort of government assistance,
whether it's it was food stamps or disability or medical support.
And I started to mirror those behaviors very early on,
becoming a bully teen mother at sixteen, borderline alcoholic by nineteen,
(01:59):
married by twenty, verily financially unstable, and I saw no
end in sight, right. I was just self sabotaging my career,
the lack thereof should I say, jumping from job to job. Yeah,
just making up at every sort of excuse the world
is against me. You know. I had that mentality for many,
(02:22):
many years, and I actually found myself funny fact not
funny fact. How things come full circle? You know, Very
early on, when I was a mother, I found myself
unable to even read a simple children's book like Berenstein
Bears to my toddler son, and all of those insecurities
were weighing down on me pretty heavily.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
That's a lot, but you didn't let that define you.
You used that as a starting point and you pivoted,
but you found ways to get to a better place.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yep. So for the longest time, I pushed any type
of support away. I didn't feel like I needed any
type of change. But I compared my self to my
other family think him that I was better, but I
absolutely was not. I was heading down similar path pretty quickly.
And I remember one of the pivotal moments in my
(03:12):
life was early on in my marriage. My husband and I.
We had this roller coaster relationship. He was an amazing father,
amazing man even but the two of us clash. We
both had our own baggage that we brought into the marriage.
We had both had our own ways of rearing children,
the finances, relationship baggage, you know, family baggage. And I
(03:32):
remember screaming to the top of my lungs one night
at him, you know, and and my mind screaming that
I didn't want to do this anymore, and that I
don't want to do this anymore. It was packed with
all kinds of different things. It was I don't want
to do this anymore. I don't want to be married
to you anymore. I don't want to do this anymore.
I don't want this financial situation anymore. I don't want
(03:53):
to do this anymore. I don't want to live anymore.
There was so much involved that came out of that
that moment. I will say that I have a spiritual moment.
We won't go dive deep into that acces that's not
what we're here for. But I kind of surrendered myself
to a higher power in that moment, and from that
moment on, not to say that everything changed over night,
(04:13):
my mindset changed. I started saying, okay, sorry, I'm actually
getting a little chopped up. In my book, my first book,
my Fight against the Odds, I called this my pajama
pity party moment because I was in my pajamas, the
lights were out, and sulking, and all of a sudden,
I had this, you know, this defining moment for my journey.
(04:35):
And I started embedding myself in a community of individuals
that cared truly about me, and I started actually taking
their help, you know, accepting and embracing their warmth and
their care. And I started to notice that I wanted
something deeper. I felt like they had something that I
didn't in their houms and their families and their careers
(04:57):
and their finances. And I started to thirst for growth,
and eventually even the situation where I found myself unable
to read to my son that happened multiple times, but
there was actually a moment even then that one night,
when I pulled a book from the bookshelf, it was
I had had enough. The next day I was just like,
I'm done, you know. And so I started to grow
(05:20):
and seek out healing mentors that would help me to
heal from the trauma of my past. I took up
financial classes, and I started going to the library because
I realized that I didn't have the finances to be
able to pay for a class, but I needed to
do something. And I really don't know how I got
(05:40):
the idea. Maybe somebody told me, gave me the advice,
or gave me a tip, but I started. I started
going to the library, bought myself a dictionary, and I
started writing writing on flash cards. I'd write like in
elementary school or primary school, where that you would have
a flash card and on the back you would flip
(06:00):
it over and have the definition. I was doing that
that I was twenty two, and so I started building
a foundation and here I am a corporate trainer. It's
mind blowing to me.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
We can go back to let's talk about baseball. The
best coaches are not always the best players. They're the
people who had to work the hardest to get there
because they're the ones who had to learn the fundamentals
step by step, rather than the people that it came
naturally too. When you have to learn something and learning
it at twenty two when you had did you have
one or two kids at that point.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
It was two. My second son was like an infant
by then.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Right, Well, events take up a little bit of time.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Yeah, they do.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
At that point in time, you were like, okay, it
has to change, and you put in the effort and
you made a change. I mean baggage. We all come
in with baggage. No matter where you come from, no
matter how wonderful of a life you've had, you have baggage.
It's the fact of life. It's a matter of being
able to acknowledge it and figuring out how you're going
to step forward from it. That you got that point
(06:58):
where you were able to accept help and find and
accept mentors that's huge. That is as big of a
defining moment in your huge pivot as saying, Okay, I
need to make this change.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
And I didn't even know what the word mentor was.
I just knew i'd needed somebody to help me. And
I started looking for the women. We were going to
church and we'd go to and stay Bible study or whatever.
And I started looking at the women in the room.
Who who might be the sucker that I could you know,
gravitate to and suck the life out of, you know,
so that I could grow. And when I started noticing
(07:31):
little changes, boy, you know, it was just like, oh,
if I could do that, my confidence group. But if
I can do that, I just can surely do this,
you know. And I'd have setbacks on the way. I'd
have moments of where I was stagnant or overwhelmed, but
it felt like I was going backwards rather than ford.
But in all reality, I was constantly able to continue
(07:54):
to grow. Here I am, you know, and I've got
three boys. They're not boys anymore. Two of them decided
to go to college at the same time. Instead of
staggering it like, both of them graduate next year. My
youngest son graduates from high school this year actually June seventh. Well,
he'll be walking across that stage and we'll be celebrating him,
(08:17):
and they are thank you, my nieces, which are actually
my cousins. I was raised with my aunt more so
like a sister, by my grandparents. Her daughter was the
first to graduate high school, was the first to graduate college,
with my oldest son right behind her. And those are
(08:40):
just huge pivots in our family and the generations to come.
It's an amazing feeling. And then to realize because I
talked about my book earlier that I couldn't read a
simple children's book to having published one, and December twenty
twenty three is just by the way, you're the first
to know I'm writing my second now.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Well it's not just me, this is a podcast, so
other people I don't know too. We're all going to
be waiting for it.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Yeah. I have been kind of putting content aside, ideas, stories,
experiences for some time now, but I actually started to
put structure to it. It's around my finance and professional
development today though, oh my gosh, I'm a beast at
managing my budget, and I set a goal to get
(09:29):
myself out of debt and to increase my credit score.
I didn't even think that home ownership was even a
thing for women, much less single women, because obviously, somewhere
along the line I ended up divorcing. Even though he
was an amazing father, amazing individual, we just just kept
going through that same cycle, and we both felt like
(09:50):
we needed a change, and it actually improved our relationship.
I set a goal because I wanted to be one
of the first in the family and to prove to
myself that I could get out of debt, to improve
my credit so that I could buy a home by myself.
I didn't even know that was possible until I met
a girlfriend that had her own home at it for
(10:10):
many years, and I was like, I want to do that.
And so that was a goal that took me three
and a half years, maybe a little bit more than that.
You know, I started talking to a mortgage when my
score was way out of range. I needed to know
what I needed to work towards.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Right, That's how goals work. If you know what you
want and then you get the information you need, then
you can work toward it.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
If it's just I.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Want to house, and then you go about what you
were doing before. Then it's just a dream. You got
to come up with an action plan to make it
a goal and you how to follow it. Then it
becomes a reality.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Yeah, my husband and I had talked about and tried
to do things when we were together, but both of
our credit scores were horrible. We went from paycheck to paycheck.
If a car broke down, there was no way that
we were able to pay for it on less. We
were robbing Peter to pay Paul. And it wasn't until
I started to let me my own skills that I
was able to land a role that I was just like, Okay,
(11:05):
I'm going to stick with this and oh I'm there.
They appreciate me, Oh they value me. Oh this still's good.
Let me keep let me keep repeating that process. That's
how I started my career and started to improve my
financial situation. Dollar here, a dollar there, and then I'm
getting promoted. That's nice, And it's slowly transpired to where
(11:29):
I am today.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
As a learning program, your kids are growing up in
a totally different environment than what you did, seeing options
and realities that you broke a glass ceiling and you're
helping them to break glass ceilings. Of we don't have
to live this way. We have options, we have opportunities,
and we have education.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yes. And it's funny that you say that because I
been having conversations with all three of my boys. They've
all experienced some sort of a different version of mom,
a different version financially, etcetera. Right, So, my oldest, who
was born when I was sixteen years old, he had
a much different experience of mom growing up, right. He
(12:11):
was there when we struggled, really struggled, and then you know,
there was some progression, right. And then my second son
was born, so he got a little different taste of
mom in the finances. But all three of them know
my story and the background, and it was so awesome.
They all do this in different ways. But I got
a message from my middle son the other day, and
(12:33):
I'm going to paraphrase, and he said something about he's
seen so much growth and he's so proud to have
me as his mom. And I'm just like, nine o'clock
in the app in the evening, I'm ready for bed,
but I'm crying and like, but it's just amazing to
be able to hear that in their words and their mouths.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
You need that you know, it matters so much more
when you hear it from yours. I can tell you
you're fabulous, but one of them telling you absolutely means
so much more. And that they got to see the
changes and see the growth over time. I mean, that's
that's huge. That's those are those are lessons learned. They've
(13:16):
they've learned some of the red flags, they've learned some
of the green flags.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Learning it absolutely being able to see them kind of
reach for their own passions in a similar way now
they have their own struggles. Mom. Mom's not going to
dig them out of the hole every single time. I
need them to have some hard lessons of their own.
But I'm also thankful that I have that I'm in
a position where I am able to help them. I
(13:40):
didn't have that same opportunity.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
It's such such a big difference to be able to
know that you can help them and for them to
be able to move forward and know, well, I'm not
going to jump in. You've got to figure this out.
But you're not going on.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
The street right exactly exactly right.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
So I want to talk about Catapult. You. I know
you haven't fully launched it yet, but I think it's
such an exciting project, and I am I am involved
in it as I don't know what you'd call me
as a.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Teacher, creator owner.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yeah, so I'm very excited to participate in this because
I think it's an amazing project. But you can tell
way more about it than I can.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Early on in my twenties, when I first started on
my path of change, of healing, growth, all the things,
I started envisioning myself saying, okay, I started watching evangelists
on TV right and there was one that stuck out,
Joyce Myers, And at that time, she was my first
(14:45):
real experience of something like that, where a woman is
sharing her story so vulnerably in front of the crowd,
and she's helping change lives. And I wanted that, And
I started envisioning myself speaking and having a book, and
not that I had anything to teach then, but teaching.
I started to have that desire to give back in
(15:07):
a real way, and I wasn't sure what that looked like.
And quick story, one of the ways that I started
to do that was I cleared out an entire shelf
in my kitchen and dedicated the empty space to adding
some sort of non perishable items in my pantry, so
because I wanted to say, Okay, even though we weren't
(15:29):
in a place financially, I can put away some items
to help those that are like me. Right, they're in
financial hardships. They can't come up with the funds for
their groceries for one reason or the other. So I
started very early on, but the brander scheme of things
was a lot much larger impact later twenty years later,
(15:52):
and those visions started to become a reality, and started
to share my story more openly, very vulnerable and very purposeful,
and be portions of my story to help others. And
that led me into being able to speak on a
ted X stage and to write my book. But then
(16:17):
it's like, okay, those are amazing things. This last year
I felt like I was going off path and taking
on things that were not necessarily in alignment with what
my passions and my purpose were. But I felt like
I needed to do something right. All of these people
are out here being successful at all of these things.
Surely I can do the same thing. So I started
gravitating to everything, I'm going to do this, I'm going
(16:39):
to do that, and it was just becoming overwhelming. During
a pause to take a step back, reflect, reflect on
my career, reflect on my passions, my purpose. I had
an aha moment. Now I'm in learning and development. I've
been preparing for that third piece, to teach others, to
(17:00):
help instill skills into them. I have been preparing for
that my entire career, right And in my mind, I
felt like I had to be the one to teach them,
and I had to I had to be in person
with them, and I had to do all the things.
And then I had this epiphany that wait a minute,
I can be a resource to individuals experiencing hardships sooner
(17:21):
than later. And so I started researching and strategizing and
catapult You was developed. And basically, catapult You is a
learning management system. It's a platform that will host online courses,
similar to other platforms that you will see that I
will not name because I don't want to get in trouble.
I'm not in competition with these platforms. But they're providing
(17:45):
professional development courses, right, but you have to pay for
them and you have to know where to look for them.
And I wanted to provide a space where individuals that
were similar to me my past, those experiencing financial hardship
and most hardship relationship struggles where they could find education
(18:06):
that might not be traditional, Right, might not be the
way of going to go get your associates or bachelor's degree.
They might not be in a profession where they offer
those types of benefits. Right. I've been very blessed to
have gotten into a company very early on that offers
some sort of online courses for free, and I've been
(18:26):
able to help develop my skills that way in other
untraditional ways. So Catapult you our mission, and I'm going
to read it. I'm going to read it verbatim because
we're still new. Our mission is to empower individuals to
build resilience, overcome life's challenges, achieve their personal and professional
(18:48):
goals through accessible education resources and community driven support. Essentially,
we want a world where every individual, regardless of their
background where they started their circle stances as the tools,
the knowledge, and the launching pad to persevere, grow and thrive.
When I wanted to grow, I had to piece meal
(19:09):
all of the resources and tools together. It was not
easily accessible, It did not land in my lap. It
was very difficult to find the tools that would help
me to develop to get to that next level, and
I just want to make it easier and remove the hurdles,
remove the barriers that would prevent someone from wanting to
(19:35):
develop and grow. You step in in a way that
provides resources that will help someone in the areas of finance.
And for me, way back then, my first experience of
a course was provided for free through my local church.
But that was not a resource that would have just
(19:57):
landed in my lap. I don't want it just to
be love. I want someone to be able to find
the resources easily. And I'm partnering with course creators, individuals
that already own the content. They already own a course,
or they're in the process of developing of course in
the near future, and I offer free hosting to them
in exchange for free access to these individuals. And I'll
(20:20):
work with and partner with nonprofit organizations as well, because
they're in the mont lines. They're dealing with those individuals
on a day to day basis, and they struggle to
get funding, they struggle to get the resources into the
hands of those people that want it the most. There
are going to be individuals that are absolutely not ready
for the support. Right That's where I was at one
(20:41):
point I would just just give me the check and
let me be on my way. Right. I don't want
your warm and fuzzy I don't want your support, I
don't need your advice. Just let me go. Right. There's
going to be those individuals and that's fine. They'll come
around at some point hopefully, right. But for those people
that are thirsty, they're like, I'm ready for change. I'm
going to be working with nonprofits to identify those individuals
(21:02):
to offer the access to these educational pieces, these courses,
whether it's finance, mental health, floral arrangements. It's a skill, right,
who knows someone might if you offer a course in
floral arrangements, that's a that's a career path. If you
are a mechanic and you offer training on how to
(21:23):
change an oil, you know, change out sparkplugs, that is
a career path. It's also a skill that's very valuable
to anyone. So anything that's going to help someone to
thrive and grow and be successful, I want that to
be housed on Catapult use online platform. You know, it's
like everything's for free. We do have we do have
(21:45):
a plan, we do have a model that will help
us to scale and sustain without needing major funding from
external needs. And so I'm super excited about it. And
I'm going to pause because I a lot.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
No, I am really excited to partner with you, because
as money Marcy, what I'm trying to do is put
out their financial tidbits, in manageable bites for people to
find and learn and be able to start taking control
of their money making better decisions. But where money is concerned,
(22:22):
people are like, when I get money, I'll learn about
money that I don't need to know what to do
with it until I have it. Really, with money, if
you have even a little bit and you're making bad
decisions with it, then you have none. But the better
decisions you make, the earlier you can start making that
money do things for.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
You exactly, and I'll tell you. And I took that
first course, and we actually had some mentors come in.
It was a group session, and we had activities involved
and things like that. Some of the activities were very disheartening,
like create a budget out of what this is my negative,
(23:02):
very heartbreaking, but at least we knew at least we
knew what the reality was. And we were like, Okay,
how do we fix it. We were we able to
fix it right away. No, Actually, we stayed in that
kind of state for a long time. And this is
not to talk ill of my ex husband now passed
to cease. But it wasn't until after we separated that
(23:24):
I was and I had a little bit of increase income.
And he always supported us financially that he was never
one to skip out on helping pay the bills or anything.
He worked his tail off to the point where even
his health took a dip because of it. But we did.
We struggled financially. When we were married and I landed
a job, a role, I took a step back in
(23:48):
responsibility actually to work for a larger company, left a
smaller company with way more responsibility, to take a dollar
raise and to be closer to the family. When we divorced,
and I told myself, if I just got my foot
in the door there, I would I would make it
work from there. And within two years I had a
(24:10):
ten thousand dollars annual increase and I was blown away.
I took a position in a management role and was
not expecting that whence she was offering the role to me,
you know, But it took a lot for me to
get there. Even when I took the role as in
the department, I used that two years to learn everything
(24:30):
that I could about the company, to find someone that
could help me to you know, to find the training
that I needed internally and externally for free. I started
seeking out guidance from those that were in the department
that I really wanted to gravitate to, but I didn't
get a role in. It just happened to be better
(24:51):
aligned with this other role that I ended up taking.
But I started sitting in on meetings and learning how
to build my resume and quantify the impact that the
tasks that I was doing had, you know, on the company,
the tasks that I had from the previous role, how
that impacted, and all of those things aligned. I practiced
(25:12):
my tail off with interview questions, and I remember one
particular interview where I actually I had three of my girlfriends.
I went over to their house, checked out a projector,
and I had created a presentation and I was super nervous,
and they sat there and I used my little clicker
(25:33):
in their living room and I practiced with them being
my audience because I knew I had to do that
in one of my interviews. So I took every opportunity
to soak up what others were willing to give to me,
and we found untraditional ways of helping me to grow
and to get to that next level.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
It's amazing what you can learn when you are willing
to learn it, when you are willing to take advantage
of the opportun tunities that people are putting out there
for you. I've had employees that want to learn, and
I've had employees that already know everything give you a
clue they don't. Right, It's amazing what is available if
(26:14):
you are just willing to learn.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
You have to be self aware, reflect often, and don't
be afraid to take that hard advice, even in the
moments where I felt like the individual giving the advice
was very coarse and harsh, take a step back. Is
there some reality to that?
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Right?
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Is there some truth to what they have to say?
No matter how hard it is. Now they might have
been wrong, completely wrong in their delivery, and a lot
of it might have been absolutely far left, but maybe
you can find something in there to say, Okay, I'm
going to learn from that.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
One of the things to be aware of is even
if they're wrong. There's a reason they got there. There
is something that they saw that made them interpret it
that way, and it's just if nothing else, something to
be aware of that sometimes this is how other people perceive,
whether it's your result or your motive or whatever. You
(27:11):
are this huge success story. Who would have thought you'd
have been on a Tedex stage. Who would have thought
you'd be working on of all things education right exactly?
Speaker 1 (27:22):
And being in the role that I've been in has
really truly prepared me to be able to take that on.
And I'm super excited to be able to take that
on with individuals that have the same heart, in the
same mindset, and we can kind of throw that together.
Because I'm not a nonprofit, We've established the structure as
(27:44):
a ULL three S and this is a low profit,
limited liability structure, and it basically says, I'm going to
put purpose and impact before profit, before profit. But I'm
allowed to make a profit as long as you're putting
that rapist first. You're allowed to make a profit, and
you're able to make that profit so you can sustain
(28:05):
the free capabilities but also pay yourself a little bit. Now,
am I going to make rich off of this? No,
I don't want to, right, but it allows me to
continue to sew back into the programs that I want
to develop and sustain the free offerings. And I'm super
excited about it because I can see further down the
line once we've onboarded the courses and we have our
(28:26):
nonprofit partnerships established, and we've created our user base of
Launchpad learners, that we can eventually say to those that
can afford these courses and want to participate, to be
able to offer the courses at a either on a
case by case, course by course basis or through some
sort of subscription. That model will come out later, and
(28:49):
then we can filter that back into sustaining the technology
and the operations piece to you know, but also find
a way that you know, course creators are course authors
can benefit as well with a profit sharing type of model.
So we're super excited about it. I want to incorporate
and I will stand it now. I will interactive e
(29:13):
learnings so clickable and you're not just looking at a video,
you're clicking through through and interacting with the online module.
But then also social learning being able to come into
a group of learners. You know, it might be fifteen,
it might be fifty, but being able to share that
learning experience with one another future catapult you. But being
(29:37):
able to provide that for free to someone that could
barely even think that they would have one course, and
it's just amazing. Now, there's some kinks that we have
to work out, right, but that'll come with time, and
I'm okay with that. I have a solid foundation, i
have a solid strategy. I'm going to continue to stay
lean so that we can sustain and so that over time,
(30:00):
when the time is right, then we can scale and
the can scale a little bit more. And I'm super excited.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Well, my hope is I'll have you back next season
or at some point in the future, and you'll be
able to talk about the successes and how that's working
and where you see further growth with that going. I'm
so excited to watch all these wonderful things that you're
doing that you share your story is so powerful for
people out there who think that these things are out
(30:27):
of reach. It's important to know that if you set
your mind to it, and you work on a plan
for it, you set the goals, and you do the work,
you can change change your path, change your opportunities and
change your future.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Yes, absolutely very much. So I always say this, and
it's going to sound so cliche. It's a and I
I it's a saying that I say, and it's in
my book. I say it often. I want to leave
the audience with this. If I can win my with
(31:01):
the odds stacked against me, and so can you. It
doesn't matter if it's today or tomorrow. Just start, start
and keep starting, Start as many times as you need to.
Just keep going. You could have the crummiest day to
day and have the best day of your life tomorrow.
So don't give up.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
That is like everything that you do, that is just powerful.
I appreciate you spending the time sharing your stories and
sharing your project. I will look forward to having you
on again. Hopefully my listeners are enjoying this and are
as moved by this as I was. I'm going to
have the link to Catapult you in show notes so
(31:41):
that you can check it out and see what Kathy
is up to. Everyone, Thank you for listening. I'm Money
Marcy and this has been Marcie talks money in life.
You got this, see yeah,
Powered by Riverside at n.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Hello, welcome to Marcy talks Money in Life. I'm Money, Marcy.
I'm so pleased to welcome Kathy James. Kathy is a
learning program manager, tedex speaker, resilience speaker, and author with
experience in instructional design, project management, technology training, and associate onboarding.
(00:25):
She is passionate about leveraging technology to simplify process adoption,
enhance the learner experience, and drive measurable business outcomes. Kathy
thrives in collaborative environments where building strong relationships, influencing change,
and driving operational success are valued. Her newest project is
(00:46):
the creation of Catapult You, which we will talk about
a little later on. But first off, welcome Kathy.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Thank you Marcy. I'm really excited about being here.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Before we go into the projects that you're doing, now,
how about you tell me where you came from and
how you got here your interest in all of these projects,
because you're fascinating. We met a few years ago when
I was in that video series you were doing to
help young adults learn. Learning projects are a passion for you,
not just a job.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
I guess I'll back up a little bit because although
I am in corporate learning and development. That was something
that was far out of reach for me. I would
have never imagined that I would be here today where
I am, because I came from a home that was
surrounded by violence, an addiction, severe mental health issues, very unstable.
(01:37):
Majority of our family relied on some sort of government assistance,
whether it's it was food stamps or disability or medical support.
And I started to mirror those behaviors very early on,
becoming a bully teen mother at sixteen, borderline alcoholic by nineteen,
(01:59):
married by twenty, verily financially unstable, and I saw no
end in sight, right. I was just self sabotaging my career,
the lack thereof should I say, jumping from job to job. Yeah,
just making up at every sort of excuse the world
is against me. You know. I had that mentality for many,
(02:22):
many years, and I actually found myself funny fact not
funny fact. How things come full circle? You know, Very
early on, when I was a mother, I found myself
unable to even read a simple children's book like Berenstein
Bears to my toddler son, and all of those insecurities
were weighing down on me pretty heavily.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
That's a lot, but you didn't let that define you.
You used that as a starting point and you pivoted,
but you found ways to get to a better place.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Yep. So for the longest time, I pushed any type
of support away. I didn't feel like I needed any
type of change. But I compared my self to my
other family think him that I was better, but I
absolutely was not. I was heading down similar path pretty quickly.
And I remember one of the pivotal moments in my
(03:12):
life was early on in my marriage. My husband and I.
We had this roller coaster relationship. He was an amazing father,
amazing man even but the two of us clash. We
both had our own baggage that we brought into the marriage.
We had both had our own ways of rearing children,
the finances, relationship baggage, you know, family baggage. And I
(03:32):
remember screaming to the top of my lungs one night
at him, you know, and and my mind screaming that
I didn't want to do this anymore, and that I
don't want to do this anymore. It was packed with
all kinds of different things. It was I don't want
to do this anymore. I don't want to be married
to you anymore. I don't want to do this anymore.
I don't want this financial situation anymore. I don't want
(03:53):
to do this anymore. I don't want to live anymore.
There was so much involved that came out of that
that moment. I will say that I have a spiritual moment.
We won't go dive deep into that acces that's not
what we're here for. But I kind of surrendered myself
to a higher power in that moment, and from that
moment on, not to say that everything changed over night,
(04:13):
my mindset changed. I started saying, okay, sorry, I'm actually
getting a little chopped up. In my book, my first book,
my Fight against the Odds, I called this my pajama
pity party moment because I was in my pajamas, the
lights were out, and sulking, and all of a sudden,
I had this, you know, this defining moment for my journey.
(04:35):
And I started embedding myself in a community of individuals
that cared truly about me, and I started actually taking
their help, you know, accepting and embracing their warmth and
their care. And I started to notice that I wanted
something deeper. I felt like they had something that I
didn't in their houms and their families and their careers
(04:57):
and their finances. And I started to thirst for growth,
and eventually even the situation where I found myself unable
to read to my son that happened multiple times, but
there was actually a moment even then that one night,
when I pulled a book from the bookshelf, it was
I had had enough. The next day I was just like,
I'm done, you know. And so I started to grow
(05:20):
and seek out healing mentors that would help me to
heal from the trauma of my past. I took up
financial classes, and I started going to the library because
I realized that I didn't have the finances to be
able to pay for a class, but I needed to
do something. And I really don't know how I got
(05:40):
the idea. Maybe somebody told me, gave me the advice,
or gave me a tip, but I started. I started
going to the library, bought myself a dictionary, and I
started writing writing on flash cards. I'd write like in
elementary school or primary school, where that you would have
a flash card and on the back you would flip
(06:00):
it over and have the definition. I was doing that
that I was twenty two, and so I started building
a foundation and here I am a corporate trainer. It's
mind blowing to me.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
We can go back to let's talk about baseball. The
best coaches are not always the best players. They're the
people who had to work the hardest to get there
because they're the ones who had to learn the fundamentals
step by step, rather than the people that it came
naturally too. When you have to learn something and learning
it at twenty two when you had did you have
one or two kids at that point.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
It was two. My second son was like an infant
by then.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Right, Well, events take up a little bit of time.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Yeah, they do.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
At that point in time, you were like, okay, it
has to change, and you put in the effort and
you made a change. I mean baggage. We all come
in with baggage. No matter where you come from, no
matter how wonderful of a life you've had, you have baggage.
It's the fact of life. It's a matter of being
able to acknowledge it and figuring out how you're going
to step forward from it. That you got that point
(06:58):
where you were able to accept help and find and
accept mentors that's huge. That is as big of a
defining moment in your huge pivot as saying, Okay, I
need to make this change.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
And I didn't even know what the word mentor was.
I just knew i'd needed somebody to help me. And
I started looking for the women. We were going to
church and we'd go to and stay Bible study or whatever.
And I started looking at the women in the room.
Who who might be the sucker that I could you know,
gravitate to and suck the life out of, you know,
so that I could grow. And when I started noticing
(07:31):
little changes, boy, you know, it was just like, oh,
if I could do that, my confidence group. But if
I can do that, I just can surely do this,
you know. And I'd have setbacks on the way. I'd
have moments of where I was stagnant or overwhelmed, but
it felt like I was going backwards rather than ford.
But in all reality, I was constantly able to continue
(07:54):
to grow. Here I am, you know, and I've got
three boys. They're not boys anymore. Two of them decided
to go to college at the same time. Instead of
staggering it like, both of them graduate next year. My
youngest son graduates from high school this year actually June seventh. Well,
he'll be walking across that stage and we'll be celebrating him,
(08:17):
and they are thank you, my nieces, which are actually
my cousins. I was raised with my aunt more so
like a sister, by my grandparents. Her daughter was the
first to graduate high school, was the first to graduate college,
with my oldest son right behind her. And those are
(08:40):
just huge pivots in our family and the generations to come.
It's an amazing feeling. And then to realize because I
talked about my book earlier that I couldn't read a
simple children's book to having published one, and December twenty
twenty three is just by the way, you're the first
to know I'm writing my second now.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Well it's not just me, this is a podcast, so
other people I don't know too. We're all going to
be waiting for it.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Yeah. I have been kind of putting content aside, ideas, stories,
experiences for some time now, but I actually started to
put structure to it. It's around my finance and professional
development today though, oh my gosh, I'm a beast at
managing my budget, and I set a goal to get
(09:29):
myself out of debt and to increase my credit score.
I didn't even think that home ownership was even a
thing for women, much less single women, because obviously, somewhere
along the line I ended up divorcing. Even though he
was an amazing father, amazing individual, we just just kept
going through that same cycle, and we both felt like
(09:50):
we needed a change, and it actually improved our relationship.
I set a goal because I wanted to be one
of the first in the family and to prove to
myself that I could get out of debt, to improve
my credit so that I could buy a home by myself.
I didn't even know that was possible until I met
a girlfriend that had her own home at it for
(10:10):
many years, and I was like, I want to do that.
And so that was a goal that took me three
and a half years, maybe a little bit more than that.
You know, I started talking to a mortgage when my
score was way out of range. I needed to know
what I needed to work towards.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Right, That's how goals work. If you know what you
want and then you get the information you need, then
you can work toward it.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
If it's just I.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Want to house, and then you go about what you
were doing before. Then it's just a dream. You got
to come up with an action plan to make it
a goal and you how to follow it. Then it
becomes a reality.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Yeah, my husband and I had talked about and tried
to do things when we were together, but both of
our credit scores were horrible. We went from paycheck to paycheck.
If a car broke down, there was no way that
we were able to pay for it on less. We
were robbing Peter to pay Paul. And it wasn't until
I started to let me my own skills that I
was able to land a role that I was just like, Okay,
(11:05):
I'm going to stick with this and oh I'm there.
They appreciate me, Oh they value me. Oh this still's good.
Let me keep let me keep repeating that process. That's
how I started my career and started to improve my
financial situation. Dollar here, a dollar there, and then I'm
getting promoted. That's nice, And it's slowly transpired to where
(11:29):
I am today.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
As a learning program, your kids are growing up in
a totally different environment than what you did, seeing options
and realities that you broke a glass ceiling and you're
helping them to break glass ceilings. Of we don't have
to live this way. We have options, we have opportunities,
and we have education.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yes. And it's funny that you say that because I
been having conversations with all three of my boys. They've
all experienced some sort of a different version of mom,
a different version financially, etcetera. Right, So, my oldest, who
was born when I was sixteen years old, he had
a much different experience of mom growing up, right. He
(12:11):
was there when we struggled, really struggled, and then you know,
there was some progression, right. And then my second son
was born, so he got a little different taste of
mom in the finances. But all three of them know
my story and the background, and it was so awesome.
They all do this in different ways. But I got
a message from my middle son the other day, and
(12:33):
I'm going to paraphrase, and he said something about he's
seen so much growth and he's so proud to have
me as his mom. And I'm just like, nine o'clock
in the app in the evening, I'm ready for bed,
but I'm crying and like, but it's just amazing to
be able to hear that in their words and their mouths.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
You need that you know, it matters so much more
when you hear it from yours. I can tell you
you're fabulous, but one of them telling you absolutely means
so much more. And that they got to see the
changes and see the growth over time. I mean, that's
that's huge. That's those are those are lessons learned. They've
(13:16):
they've learned some of the red flags, they've learned some
of the green flags.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Learning it absolutely being able to see them kind of
reach for their own passions in a similar way now
they have their own struggles. Mom. Mom's not going to
dig them out of the hole every single time. I
need them to have some hard lessons of their own.
But I'm also thankful that I have that I'm in
a position where I am able to help them. I
(13:40):
didn't have that same opportunity.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
It's such such a big difference to be able to
know that you can help them and for them to
be able to move forward and know, well, I'm not
going to jump in. You've got to figure this out.
But you're not going on.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
The street right exactly exactly right.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
So I want to talk about Catapult. You. I know
you haven't fully launched it yet, but I think it's
such an exciting project, and I am I am involved
in it as I don't know what you'd call me
as a.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Teacher, creator owner.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
Yeah, so I'm very excited to participate in this because
I think it's an amazing project. But you can tell
way more about it than I can.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Early on in my twenties, when I first started on
my path of change, of healing, growth, all the things,
I started envisioning myself saying, okay, I started watching evangelists
on TV right and there was one that stuck out,
Joyce Myers, And at that time, she was my first
(14:45):
real experience of something like that, where a woman is
sharing her story so vulnerably in front of the crowd,
and she's helping change lives. And I wanted that, And
I started envisioning myself speaking and having a book, and
not that I had anything to teach then, but teaching.
I started to have that desire to give back in
(15:07):
a real way, and I wasn't sure what that looked like.
And quick story, one of the ways that I started
to do that was I cleared out an entire shelf
in my kitchen and dedicated the empty space to adding
some sort of non perishable items in my pantry, so
because I wanted to say, Okay, even though we weren't
(15:29):
in a place financially, I can put away some items
to help those that are like me. Right, they're in
financial hardships. They can't come up with the funds for
their groceries for one reason or the other. So I
started very early on, but the brander scheme of things
was a lot much larger impact later twenty years later,
(15:52):
and those visions started to become a reality, and started
to share my story more openly, very vulnerable and very purposeful,
and be portions of my story to help others. And
that led me into being able to speak on a
ted X stage and to write my book. But then
(16:17):
it's like, okay, those are amazing things. This last year
I felt like I was going off path and taking
on things that were not necessarily in alignment with what
my passions and my purpose were. But I felt like
I needed to do something right. All of these people
are out here being successful at all of these things.
Surely I can do the same thing. So I started
gravitating to everything, I'm going to do this, I'm going
(16:39):
to do that, and it was just becoming overwhelming. During
a pause to take a step back, reflect, reflect on
my career, reflect on my passions, my purpose. I had
an aha moment. Now I'm in learning and development. I've
been preparing for that third piece, to teach others, to
(17:00):
help instill skills into them. I have been preparing for
that my entire career, right And in my mind, I
felt like I had to be the one to teach them,
and I had to I had to be in person
with them, and I had to do all the things.
And then I had this epiphany that wait a minute,
I can be a resource to individuals experiencing hardships sooner
(17:21):
than later. And so I started researching and strategizing and
catapult You was developed. And basically, catapult You is a
learning management system. It's a platform that will host online courses,
similar to other platforms that you will see that I
will not name because I don't want to get in trouble.
I'm not in competition with these platforms. But they're providing
(17:45):
professional development courses, right, but you have to pay for
them and you have to know where to look for them.
And I wanted to provide a space where individuals that
were similar to me my past, those experiencing financial hardship
and most hardship relationship struggles where they could find education
(18:06):
that might not be traditional, Right, might not be the
way of going to go get your associates or bachelor's degree.
They might not be in a profession where they offer
those types of benefits. Right. I've been very blessed to
have gotten into a company very early on that offers
some sort of online courses for free, and I've been
(18:26):
able to help develop my skills that way in other
untraditional ways. So Catapult you our mission, and I'm going
to read it. I'm going to read it verbatim because
we're still new. Our mission is to empower individuals to
build resilience, overcome life's challenges, achieve their personal and professional
(18:48):
goals through accessible education resources and community driven support. Essentially,
we want a world where every individual, regardless of their
background where they started their circle stances as the tools,
the knowledge, and the launching pad to persevere, grow and thrive.
When I wanted to grow, I had to piece meal
(19:09):
all of the resources and tools together. It was not
easily accessible, It did not land in my lap. It
was very difficult to find the tools that would help
me to develop to get to that next level, and
I just want to make it easier and remove the hurdles,
remove the barriers that would prevent someone from wanting to
(19:35):
develop and grow. You step in in a way that
provides resources that will help someone in the areas of finance.
And for me, way back then, my first experience of
a course was provided for free through my local church.
But that was not a resource that would have just
(19:57):
landed in my lap. I don't want it just to
be love. I want someone to be able to find
the resources easily. And I'm partnering with course creators, individuals
that already own the content. They already own a course,
or they're in the process of developing of course in
the near future, and I offer free hosting to them
in exchange for free access to these individuals. And I'll
(20:20):
work with and partner with nonprofit organizations as well, because
they're in the mont lines. They're dealing with those individuals
on a day to day basis, and they struggle to
get funding, they struggle to get the resources into the
hands of those people that want it the most. There
are going to be individuals that are absolutely not ready
for the support. Right That's where I was at one
(20:41):
point I would just just give me the check and
let me be on my way. Right. I don't want
your warm and fuzzy I don't want your support, I
don't need your advice. Just let me go. Right. There's
going to be those individuals and that's fine. They'll come
around at some point hopefully, right. But for those people
that are thirsty, they're like, I'm ready for change. I'm
going to be working with nonprofits to identify those individuals
(21:02):
to offer the access to these educational pieces, these courses,
whether it's finance, mental health, floral arrangements. It's a skill, right,
who knows someone might if you offer a course in
floral arrangements, that's a that's a career path. If you
are a mechanic and you offer training on how to
(21:23):
change an oil, you know, change out sparkplugs, that is
a career path. It's also a skill that's very valuable
to anyone. So anything that's going to help someone to
thrive and grow and be successful, I want that to
be housed on Catapult use online platform. You know, it's
like everything's for free. We do have we do have
(21:45):
a plan, we do have a model that will help
us to scale and sustain without needing major funding from
external needs. And so I'm super excited about it. And
I'm going to pause because I a lot.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
No, I am really excited to partner with you, because
as money Marcy, what I'm trying to do is put
out their financial tidbits, in manageable bites for people to
find and learn and be able to start taking control
of their money making better decisions. But where money is concerned,
(22:22):
people are like, when I get money, I'll learn about
money that I don't need to know what to do
with it until I have it. Really, with money, if
you have even a little bit and you're making bad
decisions with it, then you have none. But the better
decisions you make, the earlier you can start making that
money do things for.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
You exactly, and I'll tell you. And I took that
first course, and we actually had some mentors come in.
It was a group session, and we had activities involved
and things like that. Some of the activities were very disheartening,
like create a budget out of what this is my negative,
(23:02):
very heartbreaking, but at least we knew at least we
knew what the reality was. And we were like, Okay,
how do we fix it. We were we able to
fix it right away. No, Actually, we stayed in that
kind of state for a long time. And this is
not to talk ill of my ex husband now passed
to cease. But it wasn't until after we separated that
(23:24):
I was and I had a little bit of increase income.
And he always supported us financially that he was never
one to skip out on helping pay the bills or anything.
He worked his tail off to the point where even
his health took a dip because of it. But we did.
We struggled financially. When we were married and I landed
a job, a role, I took a step back in
(23:48):
responsibility actually to work for a larger company, left a
smaller company with way more responsibility, to take a dollar
raise and to be closer to the family. When we divorced,
and I told myself, if I just got my foot
in the door there, I would I would make it
work from there. And within two years I had a
(24:10):
ten thousand dollars annual increase and I was blown away.
I took a position in a management role and was
not expecting that whence she was offering the role to me,
you know, But it took a lot for me to
get there. Even when I took the role as in
the department, I used that two years to learn everything
(24:30):
that I could about the company, to find someone that
could help me to you know, to find the training
that I needed internally and externally for free. I started
seeking out guidance from those that were in the department
that I really wanted to gravitate to, but I didn't
get a role in. It just happened to be better
(24:51):
aligned with this other role that I ended up taking.
But I started sitting in on meetings and learning how
to build my resume and quantify the impact that the
tasks that I was doing had, you know, on the company,
the tasks that I had from the previous role, how
that impacted, and all of those things aligned. I practiced
(25:12):
my tail off with interview questions, and I remember one
particular interview where I actually I had three of my girlfriends.
I went over to their house, checked out a projector,
and I had created a presentation and I was super nervous,
and they sat there and I used my little clicker
(25:33):
in their living room and I practiced with them being
my audience because I knew I had to do that
in one of my interviews. So I took every opportunity
to soak up what others were willing to give to me,
and we found untraditional ways of helping me to grow
and to get to that next level.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
It's amazing what you can learn when you are willing
to learn it, when you are willing to take advantage
of the opportun tunities that people are putting out there
for you. I've had employees that want to learn, and
I've had employees that already know everything give you a
clue they don't. Right, It's amazing what is available if
(26:14):
you are just willing to learn.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
You have to be self aware, reflect often, and don't
be afraid to take that hard advice, even in the
moments where I felt like the individual giving the advice
was very coarse and harsh, take a step back. Is
there some reality to that?
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Right?
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Is there some truth to what they have to say?
No matter how hard it is. Now they might have
been wrong, completely wrong in their delivery, and a lot
of it might have been absolutely far left, but maybe
you can find something in there to say, Okay, I'm
going to learn from that.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
One of the things to be aware of is even
if they're wrong. There's a reason they got there. There
is something that they saw that made them interpret it
that way, and it's just if nothing else, something to
be aware of that sometimes this is how other people perceive,
whether it's your result or your motive or whatever. You
(27:11):
are this huge success story. Who would have thought you'd
have been on a Tedex stage. Who would have thought
you'd be working on of all things education right exactly?
Speaker 1 (27:22):
And being in the role that I've been in has
really truly prepared me to be able to take that on.
And I'm super excited to be able to take that
on with individuals that have the same heart, in the
same mindset, and we can kind of throw that together.
Because I'm not a nonprofit, We've established the structure as
(27:44):
a ULL three S and this is a low profit,
limited liability structure, and it basically says, I'm going to
put purpose and impact before profit, before profit. But I'm
allowed to make a profit as long as you're putting
that rapist first. You're allowed to make a profit, and
you're able to make that profit so you can sustain
(28:05):
the free capabilities but also pay yourself a little bit. Now,
am I going to make rich off of this? No,
I don't want to, right, but it allows me to
continue to sew back into the programs that I want
to develop and sustain the free offerings. And I'm super
excited about it because I can see further down the
line once we've onboarded the courses and we have our
(28:26):
nonprofit partnerships established, and we've created our user base of
Launchpad learners, that we can eventually say to those that
can afford these courses and want to participate, to be
able to offer the courses at a either on a
case by case, course by course basis or through some
sort of subscription. That model will come out later, and
(28:49):
then we can filter that back into sustaining the technology
and the operations piece to you know, but also find
a way that you know, course creators are course authors
can benefit as well with a profit sharing type of model.
So we're super excited about it. I want to incorporate
and I will stand it now. I will interactive e
(29:13):
learnings so clickable and you're not just looking at a video,
you're clicking through through and interacting with the online module.
But then also social learning being able to come into
a group of learners. You know, it might be fifteen,
it might be fifty, but being able to share that
learning experience with one another future catapult you. But being
(29:37):
able to provide that for free to someone that could
barely even think that they would have one course, and
it's just amazing. Now, there's some kinks that we have
to work out, right, but that'll come with time, and
I'm okay with that. I have a solid foundation, i
have a solid strategy. I'm going to continue to stay
lean so that we can sustain and so that over time,
(30:00):
when the time is right, then we can scale and
the can scale a little bit more. And I'm super excited.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Well, my hope is I'll have you back next season
or at some point in the future, and you'll be
able to talk about the successes and how that's working
and where you see further growth with that going. I'm
so excited to watch all these wonderful things that you're
doing that you share your story is so powerful for
people out there who think that these things are out
(30:27):
of reach. It's important to know that if you set
your mind to it, and you work on a plan
for it, you set the goals, and you do the work,
you can change change your path, change your opportunities and
change your future.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Yes, absolutely very much. So I always say this, and
it's going to sound so cliche. It's a and I
I it's a saying that I say, and it's in
my book. I say it often. I want to leave
the audience with this. If I can win my with
(31:01):
the odds stacked against me, and so can you. It
doesn't matter if it's today or tomorrow. Just start, start
and keep starting, Start as many times as you need to.
Just keep going. You could have the crummiest day to
day and have the best day of your life tomorrow.
So don't give up.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
That is like everything that you do, that is just powerful.
I appreciate you spending the time sharing your stories and
sharing your project. I will look forward to having you
on again. Hopefully my listeners are enjoying this and are
as moved by this as I was. I'm going to
have the link to Catapult you in show notes so
(31:41):
that you can check it out and see what Kathy
is up to. Everyone, Thank you for listening. I'm Money
Marcy and this has been Marcie talks money in life.
You got this, see yeah,
Host
Marci Grossman
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