Simple questions for one hundred people. I'm Bill Carrell, and this is my
investigation, my research project together data from one hundred beautiful human beings for the
sole purpose to see what actually happens across the interviews. The questions are fixed
and all the interviews will remain consistent, with the variable being the actual participants
themselves and their answers. So it's as if I'm having you come sit on
my porch, Catherine, to share your thoughts, so that I can learn
about people looking forward to what we're going to know after we've conducted this whole
thing. But mostly I'm interested in the people, the process, and of
course your a particular story. So it's my distinct pleasure to introduce. Well,
now I'll let you do that. What is your full name? My
full name, Bill is Catherine Nukeman Nice. Any middle name, yes,
but I don't normally share it publicly. Is that one of those deals where
if you tell me you have to kill me afterwards? I would never kill
you, Phil, because you're lovely to speak with, But it's one of
those things. I don't sign with it. I have one, but I
just never use it. That's very interesting, and I will tell you.
Out of almost forty interviews that we've done sooner or later, almost everybody has
given up the goods on their middle name. Hmmm, that sounds like a
challenge. Yeah, you want to be the first. I might. We'll
see, We'll see how our conversation goes. You can never tell absolutely,
it could voluntarily just slip out at some point. You never know. These
things are the way of you know, taking on their own life, right,
it does. But you know, a lady has to keep some secrets,
some mystery. I like that that line of thinking. You know,
for the most part, I don't do many mysteries. I like to have
a clue anyway. Right, Well, I figure you're going to get a
lot out of me with all these questions, So you know there's that.
I promise, I promise we will have a ball. So let's move on.
What's your favorite nickname that most people don't know. Those closest to me
call me Kat, but with a K, not a C. Right,
And that actually started from a ninth grade geometry teacher. Interestingly enough, Yeah,
yep, he was the first one three of his favorite students. He
shortened our names because I don't know, I guess he thought they were all
too long. But mine became Kat mac, which was a shortened Katherine McMahon,
and one of my good friends started just calling me Kat and it kind
of stuck. And it's what my dad called me, and yeah, so
it kind of stuck after that point, But my ninth grade geometry teacher gets
credit for starting it. Any other at names that somebody might have for you,
or a nickname here and there, No, I tried other nicknames.
My family when I was really young called me Kathy, but I don't really
like that version, although I will say my aunt Jackie, who just was
a lovely human she has passed on now. Despite many years of trying to
get her to stop calling me Kathy, she called me Kathy literally until the
end of her life. It just it was her name for me, and
it's stuck. At some point, it starts to get into that domain of
really not worth the trouble. And by the way, no one else hears
her when she's doing it, So, yeah, the tree falls in the
forest and there's nobody here. Plus she is a lovely human, and you
know, she was always delightfully kind to me, so you know, it
sounds like it was a loving nickname, you know, the term of endearment
as they would say, yes. And there's also something else that's kind of
neat about your name too. There's a lot of different ways to spell Catherine.
I carry relatives that I have, and there's at least four different ways
that I'm aware of. And how do you spell your your Catherine? My
Catherine is actually spelled with a K at the beginning, which C is more
common, and an A in the middle, which is very unusual. So
it's A A T H A R I N E. And even people that
have known me for a very long time still frequently misspell it yeah, And
actually Google likes to correct me when I spell it, which is very annoying.
It's like, that's not a skill check. There are some things where
you know it would be nice. I would just sort of leave it alone.
You ever had that thing where you like, hit the send button,
but then it changes it like in an instant, Absolutely super frustrating And interestingly
enough, back when you would fill out like paper applications for credit card,
you know, like a store charge or something, I would spell it correctly
on the application and they would fix it when they sent me the card.
No kidding. So yes, I had multiple store charges when I was younger
that literally had my name is spelled amazing. So but I will say I've
missed my calling apparently, because there are three very famous Hollywood actresses that spell
their name the same way, Katherine Hepburn, Katherine Graham, and Katherine Ross.
So what I like about what you just said was one of them I
actually had lunch with. Oh really, how cool? I guess which one
it might have been. Well, I'm hoping it was Katherine Hepburn, just
because she's my favorite of the three. But who ding ding ding ding ding?
Tell her what she's won, Johnny. So it actually was. I
went to a restaurant that the two of us frequented at different times, and
at one point she and I were the only two people other than the server
in the bartender that we're in this really nice restaurant. So, of course,
being who I am, I had to go over and ask her if
it would be okay if I could ask her a few questions and would she
like to, you know, share the table, either mine or hers?
And she said, well, of course you can sit down, you know,
Oh yeah, yeah, I mean she's as lovely in person as I
thought she was better, which isn't always true of famous people. She was,
and I think one of her quotes is is that there's only one way
to be, and that's who you are everywhere you are. You know,
She's got dozens and dozens of famous quotes out there, but that that's one
of the ones that I don't know anybody that ever wrote a bad line about
her. Maybe I don't get out enough, but she was one of those
lovable people that you just had to appreciate who they were. Well, I
believe if I'm right. Catherine actually the name meaning is pure heart, and
it sounds like she was living up to her name. That's really cool.
I've met a couple of Catherine files O files in the last week. Another
another gal that I met, you know last week, said that her family
knew the Hepburn family when back before she was born and so they her like
her. Her grandfather went to school with Katherine Hepburn's father. I've not a
small world, too small sometimes, you know, And wouldn't it be cool
if we could just like hear all of those neat stories and get everybody in
the room at the same time and just talk back and forth. What do
you got? What do you got? I don't know, Spencer Tracy,
Oh that's a big one. Yeah. Plus you know, yes, the
world can be strangely small at times, but it, just for me,
always shows us how connected we all are as humans. A lot of times
we focus on the ways we're not connected or disagree, and moments like this,
it's like, no, it is a small world, and we do
have all these connections and commonalities. Yes, And what's really interesting. Back
in the seventies or eighties, I want to say, there was a book
that was written about the six degrees of separation, right that you and I
could be introduced to somebody who could introduce us to somebody who could and so
forth, no more than six people away from us. I think it's even
shorter now with social media and all the rest of that sort of thing.
And you'd be surprised, you know, how open and the neat thing about
meeting somebody. Of Catherine's stature was that she never had a an inflated view
of herself. She always always appreciated getting work and she always appreciated who she
worked with, which is just a lovely viewpoint. Yeah, and one of
my favorite movies was Baby. Do you know that movie? I do,
but I haven't seen it in a very long time. Yes, Carrie Grant
and Catherine with their Panther. My dad and I used to stay up late
watching old movies sometimes, so when I was younger. Yeah, I'm getting
goosebumps. So we'll move on to a digit question here because I have a
feeling we could probably talk about your middle or your your Oh did I I
see what you did there? Bell Twiky interviewer. All right, so when
did you first notice what hair you had? Cat? Oh? Wow,
I'm not sure I fully know first notice. But what comes to mind when
you ask the question is when my hair started to change color. Okay,
so I was actually a blonde, not just as a baby, but I
had blonde hair even, you know, starting to grow up. And when
I even started elementary school my hair was still blonde. But my school picture
for kindergarten I still had long blonde hair, and my first grade picture I
had brown hair. And so I think when I became really aware was when
it was making that transition from blonde to brown. Naturally that was not hair
color, that's funny. And then after that did it kind of summer blonde
on you or lighten up with highlights, and what My hair has a mind
of its own. Sometimes during the summer it would get really light. You
would see a lot of golden highlights. Sometimes it wouldn't. It still does
not stabilize. And I know a lot of women color their hair, and
I have had periods of my life where I did as well. Not currently
in one of those phases, but I notice it just sometimes decides to change
color, or it will look a different color right after a haircut. You
know, if it's a different hairstyle, it will appear to be variant shades
in the brown family. I haven't gone back to blonde since since I was
in first grade. But yeah, it just it has the minds of its
own. That's really cool. And I think the neat part of it is
is that it's so clear where your demarcation was this school picture. I've got
blonde hair. This school picture it's brunette. Yep. It's documented as if
you knew you were going to be on this podcast one of these. Yeah,
exactly. And I will not say how many years ago kindergarten in first
grade was, but let's just say it was a very long time ago.
So apparently I have been preparing for this conversation with you for a very long
time. You were born for it, I can definitely see. So on
to the next question, what is your favorite thing to do to intentionally waste
time? Oh, sit outside in nature. I live in Texas now,
so sitting outside is not always possible because it gets really hot here during the
summer. But sometimes, because I do work from home, sometimes I just
like, I know, I have things to do, but I will go
and just sit out in the sunshine and listen to the wind and the birds
and watch for butterflies fluttering around, just outside in nature. And I used
to live in southern California and one of the things I appreciated most was I
had a gorgeous backyard with lots of flowers. I had a couple of hummingbirds
that lived. They must have had a s somewhere either in my yard or
close by, but they would literally come if I was sitting very still outside
and they would fly right in front of my face, like a foot or
so away, as if they were saying good morning or good day to me.
And it was just and I had lizards out there that would just come
and hang out. I trained my dog at the time not to chase the
lizards, and we would just be sitting there and the lizards would come over
and check us out, and I just yeah, that's my favorite way to
just, I say, waste time. But it's very rejuvenating. But it
is kind of the wasting time not being productive, which our society values so
much. But and the eclipse was a great day for that. I was
on the path of totality, so I literally just sat in my backyard for
like three hours. Yes, it was a work day, but the advantage
of owning your own business is you can kind of choose to take three hours
in the middle of the day to just be in awe of the wonder of
a total eclipse. So yeah, and quite frankly, I heard the rain
day for that eclipse was twenty ninety seven, so it was probably that you've
got it, got it under your I've sat through two, you know,
total eclipses in my life. Well, interestingly and for it worth, the
next total eclipse date in that we would be on the path of totality is
the year two, three four five, so over three hundred years from now.
And yes, I know, science and technology keeps doing wondrous things that
I don't plan to be alive in that year. So this was it.
This was my shot. Yeah, exactly, two, three, four five.
How cool is that? If you're in humerology, you know that that
would be like how many descendants from carry the three? It's a long time.
Yeah, it's a long time. So I agree with you. I
think whenever you can be mindful and present, it's not going to be wasting
time. It's just going to notice that a lot of time went by while
you were having fun, you know, And that's that's a that's a really
cool thing, is to lose yourself in a moment because you're so present,
sort of like good books. I lose myself in books too. Yeah,
read a lot of nonfiction. Less likely to lose myself in those books.
But you know, just reading a well written memoir or non fiction book or
just well crafted story is another one of those moments where all of a sudden
you look up and it's been hours that you've been sitting there reading. So
yes, part of my coaching is to get people in the space where they
can do that because most people have short, little tension spans and really are
not. They can hardly stand the sound of their own voice in their head,
you know what I mean. Yes, I'm familiar with that, okay,
But when you can engage in something that takes your full attention to be
present to and then suddenly two or three hours have gone by, it's it's
really the best. I agree with you, And I wouldn't call that wasting
time either. It's got another name. We'll coin a different word, maybe
something that rhymes with your middle name. That might be a challenge. Oh
oh really? So what is your favorite movie? Cat to watch all by
yourself? Favorite is such a difficult thing to answer because I love watching movies
and I am equally at home watching movies by myself or with friends. But
it would probably be one of the Disney movies. And you said watching by
myself, So I think I would probably pick The Princess and the Frog.
But it's really really hard because there's lots of movies I really love and watch
over and over again. Yeah, so what would be another one? Just
out of curiosity? Under the Tuscan Sun is one that I watch a lot
when I'm by myself and just need to really reconnect. That's very cool.
What is it about that movie that really gets you? Well? I love
the storyline. I loved her sense of discovering who she was because she had
had a major life change. For people that don't know the storyline, it's
about a writer who is recently divorced that through a series of very random seeming
events, ends up restoring a home in Tuscany and just like she thinks,
she's not getting everything she wants and spoiler alert, at the end, somebody
reflects back to her that you know, you said these were the things you
wanted, and he points out how she got him all but she got him
in ways that weren't what matched the picture in her head right. And I
think that's one of the things a lot of us miss is we expect our
dreams or our prayers to be answered in a very specific way, and we
sometimes miss the glory of how they got answered because it doesn't look exactly like
what we thought it would. So, and the scenery is gorgeous. I
happened to Italy, never to Tuscany, but it is on the bucket list,
and the house that they filmed it in is actually on like it's a
rental. You can actually go stay in Brebacelli. So yeah, that's on
the bucket list. I would love to Ascany is on my bucket list as
well, but I don't have a specific destination there. I would probably just
be really happy to go someplace in wine country, you know, where the
rolling hills are and those forty and fifty foot cypress trees from the Da Vinci
paintings and all that sort of right. Yeah, And the other part of
it is is just to eat really really fresh, fresh fresh cheese and fresh
bread and maybe not so fresh wine, but you can wine is generally better
not fresh, unless it's actually called grape juice. Yeah, there has been.
But are you familiar with Beaucholis from France a little bit? I know
it's a very young wine. My dad was more into reds than I am.
But yeah, well, back in the nineteen eighties, there were was
a group of us at a company that I worked at where we actually got
these bottles that were less than five days old that were flown over on the
concord. Wow, that was quite a job. And then the wine was
not for me, okay, but I did get some of it. It
was to impress some pretty important clients and the story is almost as impressive as
the wine. I didn't think there was really all that much about the wine
that was worth talking about, to be honest with you. But it's the
experience, and that's one of the things. It's these moments in time that
just stick with us absolutely, and putting yourself in a position where you get
an opportunity to have a transformational experience, because once you've tasted a Boucheolet wine,
you'll never not know what it tastes like. I mean now it's forty
years later and I can still taste it, so that's very cool. Yeah,
And it's all part of the mindfulness thing. We didn't call it mindfulness
back in those days. We called it paying attention, you know, like
there was a right way to pay attention. So pay attention to this question.
Hey, if you were to have an action figure made of you,
what superpower would it have? And what colors would its uniform be? And
what would its middle name be? I saw you. I snuck that in.
I'm going to do the colors first, because I immediately got a visual
of an action figure of me, and they would it would be like a
deep purple and a silver metallicity. Those would be my colors. There's a
lot of really good superpowers, but I think I would like my superpower to
be and I have to because they related. Oh yeah, I know,
you can have as many as you want to. I want to hear you.
My primary superpower would be empathy and being able to detect when people's hearts
or the invisible things are are broken or need healing, and the secondary superpower
would be to be able to help them heal, because I mean, there's
a lot of obvious things in the world that are broken, Like if you,
I don't know, have a skiing accident and break a limb, that's
obvious. But so many people I meet are hurting in ways that aren't visible.
And it could be an invisible disease because there are plenty of those,
or it could be something just happened in their life and nobody knows and they're
suffering in silence, or they're grieving in silence, and just to have somebody
be able to a superhero come and be able to pick up on that and
help them through that, help them heal, like I think that would be
the ultimate superpower. Not that flying wouldn't also be cool. But I'm kind
of afraid of heights, so I don't think I would want that to be
my superpower. Well that's one way of getting over your fear of heights in
a real short maybe, so clearly you would be an amazingly wonderful and very
special superhero. And that whole notion of empathy and being able to hear what's
not being said. And you know, quite frankly, there are a lot
of people that have upset in their life that they've forgotten why they are,
you know, not everything. Yeah, I mean, and they say,
trauma lives in your body for the rest of your life. It's just a
matter of whether it's going to be at the front or if it's going to
be in the back, or if it's going to be something that kind of
throws you and gives you an emotional reaction, or it's something that you're now
used to and when it comes up, it's go, oh, there it
is again. I actually had that experience many years ago in my twenties with
a therapist where she uncovered something then I had just blocked so deeply that I
literally asked her like, could I make it? We were using a therapeutic
technique similar to hypnosis, and I was like, could I have made that
up? Like I literally did not remember the inciting incident, but it was
still affecting me. That's why like being able to see those hidden hurts and
feel them and sense them is so powerful, because if you don't know it's
there, you can't you can't heal it, you can't fix it, you
can't come to terms with it. So yeah, and sometimes it's really really
empowering for somebody else to just get it, you know. Yeah, it's
like I don't know what it is about you, but I really get how
deep it is. I really get how you know, how interesting it can
be. And at the same time you're okay you know, and you don't,
and when you're not okay, that's okay too, you know. So
yeah, I get it. So the uniform colors were purple and silver,
Right, That's what I was going to say, Is that something that you've
liked for a long time, and like, of course that would be the
combination purple has been although I love it's sort of like movies. Having a
favorite color is hard for me because I like so many colors, but purple
has been a favorite color for at least back since elementary school. I was
never a pink girl. As a matter of fact, for a long time
I disliked pink intensely. Pink and I have made up and we are now
friends and cheap belongs in my wardrobe now too, butlerate each other now,
huh, No, we're actual friends I have. Actually, I still remember
when my ex husband came to visit me several years after we had ended our
marriage and he was surprised because I was wearing hot pink and he's like,
you don't like pink, and I was like, well, I do now.
But purple has always been like, if not number one, always like
tied for number one, So it doesn't surprise me. And even my company
logo has a purple in it. A new thing I'm doing that's a passion
project. Part of its color palette is also purple, So yeah, it
doesn't surprise me. Plus purple for me when you think about the superpowers too,
Purple has a deep connection to spirituality, a deep connection to the divine
or royalty, so having that piece of it too, and I just when
literally when you ask the question, like the purple and silver just put itself
together in my brain. So it was just probably because it means something a
little flashy, you know, we got to have a metallic in there somewhere.
But also I really think the two colors go nicely together. I know
a lot of schools and stuff you purple and gold, but I actually like
purple and silver better. Perfect. So now, what did you want to
grow up to be when you were five years old? A lawyer? Say
some more? I had my first Harvard law t shirt when I was five.
Yeah. I A friend of my family, like they had a little
girl about my same age, was a lawyer that had gone to Harvard,
and I grew up in the Boston area. My grandmother actually lived in Cambridge,
not too far from Harvard, so there was like proximity to Harvard as
well. But yeah, I wanted to grow up and be a lawyer,
And as I continued to grow up, that refined itself to wanting to be
an intellectual property attorney. First a corporate attorney, then intellectuals intellectual property specialization.
Had my whole life planned out around that was what I was going to
be when I grew up. And life is what happens when you're making other
plans. So the plan got derailed after my MBA, I didn't end up
making it to law school. But I still have a deep passion for protecting
people's ideas and that our creative spirit deserves to be protected. So even when
I'm working with like my own clients or friends or whatever, and they have
this great idea or a great name for something, I'm like, you know,
you should take steps to protect it. Even when, like before they
had sites where you would actually like the free sites for images like deposit photos
or things like that. Sure the I would get so frustrated because some of
my friends are just amazing photographers when people didn't understand. I think there's much
more understanding now, but they didn't understand that just because they could find and
save an image on the Internet didn't make it theirs, right, And so
it's still something that like I try to be really protective in my own use
of either quotes or things like that, but just that's our uniqueness. Our
special gift to the world is the things we creatively produce. Yeah, and
that should be protected. We should get credit for the things that we that
God birthed into the world through us. So I still have a passion for
intellectual property, even though that was not what I ended up doing at all.
Well, it's it's wonderful to me that not only did you say something
that's kind of a famous quote that I'm aware of, and then you went
on to talk about how you know, uh, all the other things around
intellectual property and protecting and all that, so that what you said was,
I believe life is uh while you're while you're busy doing other things, are
busy. That is what happens when you're making other plans. Yes, and
do you know where that came from? I do not know the original source,
So please educate me. I will give you a place to go.
Take a look at. Okay, there's this uh, this man named John
Lennon. Okay, he wrote a song. Yeah, he wrote a song
for for for Sean Lennon, his number number two son. Okay, beautiful
beautiful boy. Okay. And it's in there. It's in the lyrics.
Yes, Hey, I did not realize that was the origin. I have
heard it as a colloquialism forever. I think the language he uses in the
lyrics is life is what happy happens while you're busy making other plans. I
will definitely go lick that up weird. I would almost guarantee he stole it
from somewhere. However, it was kind of cool to me because I had
heard it out and about, and then I was listening to Beautiful Boy when
one afternoon about ten fifteen years ago, son of a Gun, I never
realized that was a John Lennon quote. You know, I didn't either,
And there's so many things like I Nelson Mandela gets credit for something that actually
Mary Anne Williamson originally said. So also kind of digging into yeah, that
our deepest sphere is not that we are powerful. I mean that our deepest
sorry, it's okay, our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
It is that we are powerful beyond measure. I believe is the I don't
have it up in front of me because we're just having a conversation. I
believe is the start of it. But it was actually a lot of people
attributed it to Nelson Mandela, but it was actually from Mary Ann Williamson book
originally. So it's fantastic or maybe it's our greatest fear. Anyway, people
can look up the actual quote. But it was when I always thought it
was Nelson Mandela too, because I had heard that I had seen it,
you know, on social media and stuff. And then I was grateful because
somebody pointed out to me one time, no, actually this is the original
source, and I went and looked it up and that was indeed where it
was. So it's hard because we get used to things in conversation and we
just assume it's true. Well yeah, because I mean we've got a pensiant
where it's good to know things right and the truth will set you free,
but first it'll probably tick you off, you know. So, I mean,
who wouldn't want to give Nelson Mandela credit for cool stuff? Well,
and I mean he didn't make a lot of famous speeches, so you know,
a lot of letters to like the Apostles, Yes, he did.
So anyway, it's just one of those things where I'm grateful that you pointed
out that you think it was in the song lyrics. I was never a
huge Beatles John Lennon person, but I'm sure I've heard the song probably along
the way. Yeah, it's in the album. I want to say that
that he really recorded himself after the Beatles broke up, when two of the
Beatles were still performing on the album Ringo Starr and George Harrison. So I
would I would point you in that direction and then you can get a T
shirt with it on it, right, something like that, and listen to
it and hear the melody, because that's that's kind of cool too. Okay,
So a lawyer from age five, and so what happened? Because you're
not a lawyer, right, I am not a lawyer. I God had
other plans for me, actually, I think is what it mostly was.
Because I got my first opportunity in the field that I actually stayed in to
do something in that field when I was eighteen years old for a friend of
my dad's, and I kept getting jobs or internships and things like that along
the way in the field of marketing, and so I went. My plan
was to do my MBA in international management and then go on to law school
because again I wanted to do intellectual property, which protecting things internationally is more
complicated than just filing in the US. Hence the International management MBA. And
I got married right after I finished my graduate degree, and when I let
my new husband at that time know that I was still planning to go to
law school and then I wanted to go to law school at Harvard because I
wanted to go to Harvard since I was little. He wasn't so thrilled about
that plan, right because we did not live in Massachusetts, and so it
just didn't happen. I prioritized my marriage and never made it to law school.
But I really do think it was where I was supposed to be because
I've stayed in the field of mark getting again my first my first marketing job
was when I was eighteen years old, and that was many, many years
ago. Yeah, sometimes there's happy accidents, aren't there There is? And
it uses a lot of my kind of innate talents in a way that I'm
not sure doing. You know, being a intellectual property lawyer would have used
those. So I have a feeling you would have been really good at it,
probably good at anything that you do. But in the meantime, selfishly,
I'm awfully glad you decided not to go to law school because here you
are, because here I am. Although you know, Billie might have been
destined to meet anyway, so who knows exactly I are destined to be in
our lives and our paths are destined to cross regardless of circumstances, So still
to be having this conversation. One hundred percent We are having this conversation,
aren't we? So far, as far as as I'm concerned, everything that
you say is one hundred percent true. I mean, you've never lied to
me, so why start now? You know exactly exactly, So here we
are. Now, here's here. Here's something that I think is going to
be. Okay, what is your greatest accomplishment? Cat that I guess.
I think my greatest accomplishment is the relationships I've built with people, especially.
I mean I can think of work ones, and you know, I did
some really cool things throughout my career, but really being willing to really create
and work on relationships with the people most important to me. Most importantly probably
is my relationship with my dad. And even though I didn't think it was
a big deal because it didn't occur to me to behave differently, I've had
enough people reflect back to me that during his journey with his dementia, like
there just wasn't a choice. I was going to be there. I was
his person. You know, one could argue I was the only remaining member
of his family. So part of it was just I was the person.
But even during his final year, I made a lot of choices to not
do things that would have been in my best interest. I did less on
my business in terms of you know, business development and things like that.
Still took care of clients, but I made choices so that I could spend
more time with him. I could be there to help him with things,
and I was there during his not so delightful final hours. So yeah,
being a good daughter to my dad, that's my I think that's my greatest
accomplishment. I'm trying to be a good daughter to my mom too, but
like, yeah, I think that's my greatest accomplishment. Is being Bob's daughter.
Yes, yes, Bob's daughter. There's something to be said for being
Bob's daughter and then blossoming and growing like a like a weed. It's it's
perfect. So who is your favorite person to listen to? Favorite person to
listen to? Again? Like you asked these tough questions, I stayed up
all night doing this because favorite is one of those Like, technically you're only
supposed to have one favorite, and it's really hard to pick one. Well,
let's keep it under five. Okay, Okay, So my dad was
one of my favorite people. He is no longer with us, but he
was definitely one of my favorite people to listen to because he always had such
wisdom. He just he had a really great view of life in the world.
He was kind of on the he was kind of philosopher in his approach
to things, so he would definitely be up there. I have a couple
of preachers that I really enjoy listening to. One of them is Ron Carpenter.
He actually is a church on both coasts, so he has went in
South Carolina and went in northern California. But I really appreciate the way he
preaches and the way he connects the Word of God to like life and present
day and really creates a way for you to think differently. And that's actually
one of the things that when I think of all the people I really enjoy
listening to, if you're not talking musical artists, which is a whole separate
category, it's people that have a unique few point and are really smart.
And it doesn't necessarily mean smart like high IQ, but just they connect dots.
They they're smarts, maybe street smarts or life smarts, not book smarts,
but they they just have this really unique viewpoint that makes me think more
because I really appreciate people that make me look at life differently, show me
different viewpoints that I might not have considered, but in a way that they're
not creating controversy just to create controversy. They're not. They're kind yes in
their way of presenting, so it's not about making others wrong, but they
have very strong viewpoints as well. Does that make sense? Makes all the
sense in the world anyone, And there's far too much of it. It
turns out just to be noise, you know, people that that throw something
out that's you know, totally confronting, and they're doing it just to get
a reaction and a rise, and it's a it's a cheap trick, Okay.
It's far more interesting to listen to somebody who can communicate a basic human
function or some experience that we all have separately and we're not sure that other
people have it. In that aha moment when it's it's a common thing between
us, it turns out, you know, and just being willing to have
like openness even in strong opinions. Yeah, but to your point, you
and I are of a certain age, So remember like when shock radio put
yourself in my group, I love you. Remember when shock radio was a
first first like a thing, absolutely and it was just that like, it
wasn't good radio. It was just designed to shock and get reaction. And
I think that people that I most enjoy listening to have strong opinions, some
of which may be shocking in the sense they don't fit how my view of
the world is. And yet they're not trying to just shock for the sake
of shock. And if there is any shock going on, it's to make
a point for now, not not you know, not to not to draw
attention to themselves, but just to drive a point home. Yeah, So
anyone in particular you can think of that you would point to that that would
fill that bill. Well. So one of one of my business mentors,
he's not my favorite person to listen to, although I do like listen to
him a lot, is Pedro Adeo and he speaks on some marketing topics.
I'm finance topics. He has a group that's about Kingdom entrepreneurship. But some
of what he says is very it's harsh, but not unkind. He points
out problems in our worldview around finance. The financial industry. He came out
of that world like insurance and things like that, and there's a lot of
deception around what is shared with the general public trying to make decisions. So
he's very harsh and says some things that are kind of shocking, but one
they're truth back, but he's he's being shocking, and he says them in
a way to get you to stop and listen long enough to start thinking and
investigating on your own. Yes, because that's really what he's trying to get
us to do, is to actually open our eyes to something that might be
hidden from us. And he does it. He does it with a lot
of fiery passion. His family of origin is from Portugal, so he has
like this fiery, you know, passion to him when he talks about some
of these topics. And some people, if they're not listening, they're like,
oh, that wasn't very nice, but it was still kind, which
is another kind of important. Like if you're gonna be shocking or you're gonna
call an industry or a person out on something, still having that done in
a way that's kind even if the words don't sound nice. So he's one
who comes to mind when you ask that question. Horrific. Very I had
to pick somebody that people could actually like find. I have people in my
life that are also like that, but somebody that people could find on the
internet as examples. Horrific. So will you please complete this sentence? When
I grow up, I'd like to not grow up. I'm doing with that.
I don't know. I you know, there's a there's a certain amount
of pewter pan in me. What when I grew up? Because I grew
up very fast as a child, Yes, and then kind of recaptured that
child like wonder, And once I finally recaptured it, I really actually didn't
I don't want to lose that again, Like if growing up means that I
can't go to a place like Disney World and get lost in the fun and
wonder and the characters and you know, have conversation like literally Princess Tiana.
I mentioned Princess and the Frog earlier. Princess Tiana is my favorite Disney princess,
which is hard to pick, but she is my favorite there there are
and it was it was Belle because she's a book WHEREM and I can really
appreciate that about her, and she's very kind to somebody that was an outcast
to the world and to others. But I love Princess Tiana, and literally
when I meet her in the parks, like we sit there and talk about
in entrepreneurship and family values and carrying on family legacy, which yes, I
am a rational adult, I understand how those work in case you have children
listening, not going to sing more than that, but like, I love
being able to approach the world with that childlike curiosity and wonder or you know,
the miracle of butterflies fluttering in the yard, or like I don't yeah,
if growing up means I have to lose that, no, thank you,
sorry, yeah, no, I'm going to root for you staying as
childlike in your nature as possible. And there have been some people, including
Catherine that we talked about who that was a major part of her deal too.
Always have the have the the awe of everything that goes on in the
world, you know, through the innocence and the wonder of a child's eyes
and imagination. And so you mentioned going to Disney again. I mean,
I have no idea how old you are, and I'm not going to ask
you, uh, you know, for a number, but you go to
Disney World back when Journey to Imagination was was still there when it was Yep,
my favorite. Ever, I do love that ride, although my favorite
ride at well Disney World, well, I really love Expedition Ever just it's
my favorite roller coaster of any roller coaster I've ever written. But my favorite
ride is actually in the Land Pavilion, right because I love taking that boat
ride through the greenhouse. I've done the behind the scenes tour a bunch of
times and seeing like the hydroponics and all the greenery and the flowers and the
figgies, and so that is like because Disney is one of my favorite places.
And also I am ninety ninth percentile introvert on Myer Spriggs, so I
get exhausted around being around people, and Disney is known for having a lot
of people, So that's like my escape ride. I can go sit on
that boat first of all, usually there's not a super long line for it,
but and just sit there and see the plants and just appreciate that moment
of stillness and quiet. So that's my favorite. But Journey into the Imagination
is also a very fun ride. When it was there, yeah, well
it broke my heart when they when they you know, mothballed it. I
was hoping that someone would buy it and put it up somewhere else in another
theme park. But the song, you know, figment flying around, that,
the dream Catcher, you know, it just was so much going on
there that was so it kind of put into an experience in five or ten
minutes what I would want every human being to go through in terms of creating
that that curiosity, having a curious mind, and being able to come up
with better questions where we're thrown to having answers. You know, the answers
closed down the inquiry. So forget the answers. They're not important. It's
what's the next question after you get that answer? You know what I mean?
And that that you know, that childlike a view of imagination and the
song too, I mean you can hear it in your head. I can
hear it in mind. Thank me for it. You'll be listening to it
the rest of the day. Yeah, well, at least you pick that
and not It's a small World. Oh my god, too far apart melodic.
But yes they're both earworms, Yes they are. And who would want
to shake it? You know? I mean, seriously, it's okay,
we'll leave it there. Okay, So what is the most important thing in
life to you right now? The most important thing in life to me right
now is actually my faith. I mean, I love my dog, my
mom's important, friends are important, but actually the most important thing to me
right now is my faith. And I mean it's always been super important,
but what I found in the last few years. I went on my first
Missions trip a few years ago, walking out my dad's journey with him required
a lot of leaning on my faith. But just like, there's a hunger
inside me that has been amplified in the last few years. And as I
said, part of it I think was my first Missions trip. Part of
it was the journey with my dad. But it's just ignited a deeper craving
for connection to God, my faith, and also community around that faith.
Yeah, that's the most important to me right now. Although my dog is
really really cute. I say, he's like a pretty close second. But
where kids have a special partner, I mean, you know their family,
and they're nice to have around, aren't they they are? Besides, dog
is God, God spells backwards, So you know, there's so Catherine,
what would you like to leave in the world after your life is done.
I would love if, even if it's just one person, if there's a
spark of the curiosity, there's a spark of the faith, there's a spark
of the kindness that I try to show up in if I can pass that
on. I don't have children, so I don't have that kind of legacy.
But if I and I hope this is all of our dreams like that,
when we leave this world, it's it's a better place for us having
been in it. And you know, some people like Mother Teresa, leave
a lot of impact and huge ripple effects, but we don't all have to
be that way. It can start with just the person in front of us.
You know, I have had the privilege of being around somebody that was
contemplating ending in their life before and being able to be there in that moment
right and just be there for them. And that's not about me, that
totally god thing. You know that I just happened to be in the right
place at the right time, ask the right questions. But that person,
and it was a long time ago, so who knows that. You know,
they could be married, they could have kids, but it's that that
butterfly effect, that one opportunity for us to impact the world in a positive
way that could have huge consequences that we don't even know about. And I
used to get real wrapped up in well, you know, I can never
make a huge impact because I'm not a politician. I'm not you know,
a saint. I'm not like you know, I don't have a big stage,
a big platform. But then I realized it's the little things, like
if I make somebody's day brighter because we're having this conversation, if something I
says say to somebody sparks an interest in spending more time outside, which there's
lots of science behind, like time and nature actually helps our nervous system.
And the more stress we are, the more disease we are prone to.
But the less stress and nature can take out stress. Like it could just
be that simple, But that's what I'm hoping to leave behind. Nobody has
to remember my name, that's that's not my thing. Yeah, but if
if I can make those types of impacts every once in a while, that
would be my life would be very happy. I'm going to go out on
a limb here. I believe you do that. Thank you, you certainly
do you do that with me? I can tell you that right now.
It's it's marvelous spending time with you. You do that for me as well
all of our But see, that's really the cool thing. And also from
scriptures from Isaiah, if I remember correctly, you can't tell who's giving and
who's receiving, you know, And and that's where you know, we get
to experience life working no need to keep track or keep score or no need
to balance accounts. But yes, you're you're quite a gal. And shade
the time that we've spent getting to know each other very quickly over the last
couple of days. That's my editorial. So now everybody who goes to a
baker knows that there's something special. If you buy a dozen of anything,
you get a thirteenth for free. Oh do we get a bonus? This
is your baker's question? Are you ready? I love cupcakes, so yes,
I love bakers dozens? All right? So what is the thing that
most people misunderstand about you? Okay, I'm going to give you two answers
again because I can't decide which is the most One thing that used to get
frequently misinterested about me is I'm like, I'm great because you and I are
one on one, but if you were to put me into a party,
because this happens we're in social settings than like business networking, I get very
quiet. People have perceived me as standoffish, and it's really just I am
so overwhelmed because even though it's not superhero level, I am very empathic,
so I pick up a lot. So when I'm in bigger crowds, I
get very withdrawn. I get quiet, and so people perceive that as being
stuck up or I don't want to talk to people. I don't want to
mingle, and it's really just that I am overwhelmed. But the other piece
of feedback that I've gotten that me has made me feel like I people misunderstand
I really try to find the good in people, and especially when I was
in corporate, I don't get this feedback as much when now that I'm on
my own and I hang out with other entrepreneurs mostly, but in corporate,
like I would go out of my way to point out when somebody did a
good job or something like that, and everybody's like, oh, you're just
sucking up, or like they thought there was some ulterior motive right, And
I mean, I guess there is in the sense that I didn't get a
lot of positive reinforcement, especially growing up, And it doesn't take any extra
effort really when somebody like if one of the administrative people booked my travel reservations,
it doesn't take any extra effort to say, I really appreciate that not
only did you book it, but you worked really hard to make sure I'm
on a flight where I can have an aisle seat because I get claustrophobic being
again too many people around me, Like I like the aisle seat, So
going that extra mile to make sure it was a that had an open like,
it doesn't take any extra effort or time, but they I would get
the feedback a lot like oh, you're such a suck up, or you're
brown nosing or and it's like, no, I'm just taking a moment to
express because we all get the negative feedback with impunity. Everybody's more than willing
to tell you everything you do wrong. So yeah, I think that gets
misunderstood about me a lot that it's like some sort of like it's fake when
I'm complimenting somebody and it's like, no, I'm just I'm looking for a
reason to give them a compliment. That's quite a thing to be misunderstood about.
I think that kind of demonstrates how unique that behavior is, such that
people would be skeptical about hearing about it from somebody. But I'm sure getting
to know you for a little while that people will start to see that's just
who you are. Well, it's it's it's not even just about me.
Like, think about news, right, the majority of the news cycle is
people doing bad things, negative things, hate, conflict. So we've culturally
come to expect the negative. Yep. And even if you think about like
the new if the news let off with a positive story instead of like bearying
the good news stuff at the end and little segments, yes, people would
probably complain about that and say, hey, what's going on? Like what
happened to my news program? And I think it's just culturally we've been in
in doctrinated to expect the negative, so when we see the positive, it
feels like something must be fishy about it. And like one of one of
my friends, her name's Tamika Taylor, and her kind of tagline is love
you mean it, I mean it? And I love that about her because
it's totally genuine. But I think a lot of people think it's just like
a marketing ploy or something like that, because she uses it a lot in
her social media, and it's like, No, if you've spent five minutes
with Tamika, you would absolutely know she really does mean it. She's another
person that just constantly reminds me and inspires me to look for the best in
people. And because she does it, Yeah, So I just think of
all of us surrounding ourselves with more people like that, maybe it would be
contagious and my hope it would catch on as much as our negative news cycles
and things like that. In fairness, maybe news has changed. I haven't
actually watched the news deliberately for probably twenty five years or more. I think
you may be maybe a little optimistic. Some would say it's gotten far worse.
So all of that said, you know, you and I we're close
enough to being of a certain age when we used to have, you know,
the experience every evening of someone sitting and reading to us what happened that
day, not trying to tell us what it meant or what we don't know
about it. That's really going on in all the nonsense. There's just far
too many people making money by by by you know, giving opinions that don't
matter. And in many cases they're like they're like that person is just trying
to shock, you know, or they're just not Like journalism back in like
the Walter Cronkite days, like it was well researched, and that's not necessarily
a negative on the journalist. Today, I think our news cycle has just
become so fast. I mean, when you think about the news in the
style you're describing, there was you know, evening news, so they had
a full twenty four hour maybe not a full twenty four hours because it might
have happened in the afternoon, but they had time to go research and get
diverse pieces of information so that they were reporting in a more balanced way.
And I think part of what's gotten off track with news, and again,
you know, full disclosure, I probably shouldn't even be commenting on the news
since I don't watch it, but what I feel like might have happened is
just because of this instant speed, it's also rushed and hurried that even journalists
that really want to give those balanced viewpoints are under pressure to give them so
fast that they are more opinions than facts. I completely agree with you,
and we're at a point where accuracy is not necessary anymore. Yeah. Well,
it's a feelings kind of a thing, you know, and that's dangerous
more than anything else in the world. You know, people want to be
able to trust and mention. Walter Cronkite, I think an average of sixty
to seventy million people an I tuned him in, Okay, big the big
share getters are getting a million, okay, and we've tripled our well we're
at least fifty percent more population than when I was a kid, about two
million. Then we've people we don't know on the upper endbits there are people
who think that we've got close to three hundred and fifty three hundred and sixty
million, one million tunes in and that's enough to keep a you know,
a show on the air. Yeah, there's money. The money that's that's
involved. There has a lot more to do with the interest in educating or
the interest in informing or being a professional means something different today. I think
I think it. I think it has gotten that way. Just makes my
heart sad. However, you just keep being authentically grateful and you know,
keep your your moral compass the direction that it's going. You'll be fine.
I say, I try. I try each and every day. He's more
successfully than others, more successfully than others. But it's something I aspire to.
I like knowing that about you, which basically means that you're going to
have to spend more time with me. You know that, right? That
would be my honor and privileged bill, because I really I was so grateful
to Eric who introduced us, because like, you're just a person that I'm
supposed to have in my world apparently, and I feel the same. I
really do. So with that said, do you have any questions of me?
So, are you going to tell me what your middle name is?
I'll trade with you. Oh okay, I'll do the trade because somebody actually,
interestingly enough, it's so funny that the middle name is is like our
final little thing. It was just on a TV episode I was watching of
something the other day like that. That's kind of like a very personal thing.
You actually get to know somebody when you actually know their middle name,
because when you think about it, well, maybe you're different because you ask
this question, but if you think about the people in your life, I
bet you don't know the majority of their middle names, or how many of
them are actually called by their middle name. Also true, although that's a
little more obvious, I think than the ones that just some of. I
legitimately have a couple of people in my life that I know for a fact
don't have a middle name. But yeah, I can't tell you the middle
name of even some of my close friends. Now I'm going to have to
go ask them, of course, But and you know what, you'll work
a deal with them, I'm sure probably, so I will go trade.
Pardon me, I will trade you. I am a woman of my word.
Well, in the interest of fairness and goodwill, I will tell you
that my middle name is Kenneth. Oh it's a nice middle name. I
like that. And my my my father's name was William Eugene Correll, but
growing up he was Bill and I was Billy, and everyone started calling me
junior, you know, not actually a junior. I'm not a junior.
I was. I was named for my dad's best friend, William Kenneth Merrow.
Very cool. I love that, all right. So in fairness,
my middle name is Michelle. And the other little tidbit is my parents did
not know what gender I was going to be, so they had a boy's
name and a girl's name picked out, and it was going to be the
same initials either way. So if I had been a little boy instead of
a girl, I would have been Kevin Michael instead of Catherine Michelle. How
about that. Now I had a completely different take. I was expected to
be a little girl. They had no way of really knowing what the sexes
were back in nineteen fifty, however, both of my parents were really hoping
for a little girl, and my name would have been Linda Gwen. Gwen
is my aunt and at the time she was my mother's best friend in the
world. My sister Laura, when she came her middle name became Gwen.
But I'm not a Linda for some reason, and almost everybody else in the
world was named Linda that year, so well, I'm glad you're not Alinda.
I had a professor in undergrad who taught history, a male professor whose
first name was It's interesting, and I can only imagine what it was like
growing up for him, like a boy named Sue. Like a boy named
Sue, which actually was one of the things he joked on the first day
of class when I had about like the song a boy named Sue. But
yes, he was a boy named June and great history professor. He actually
worked for LBJ when he was a freshman senator, Like he really knew history.
We called it Uncle June's Story Hour was the student's nickname for our American
civilization went in two with him. But yeah, because he would tell these
rich stories about history. But all I could think of after he introduced himself
with his first name was that must have been really challenging growing now. So
I am glad you were Adelinda. Not because they have anything against the name.
My stepmother was Linda, but just it would have made your life difficult.
We've all known a Carol or two. Also a man named Carol,
So Carol O'Connor. Yes. So our public service message to end this conversation
is, please think through when you're naming your children, how other children are
going to react. And also pick names like they used to do back in
ancient times, and give your kids a strong name. One of my friends
just had a baby and was very intentional and well, his wife had the
baby, but was very intentional in how they named their child, and it
just I could feel the blessing in the name. That's excellent. I was
going to say he didn't have the baby because he was old school, you
know. So now he did not have the baby. His wife did.
But together they had the baby and they named their child Eric Ezekiel, and
Eric is leadership and royalty, and Ezekiel is God's strengthens and they have just
given that child this blessing just in his name. So it's marvelous. It's
wonderful as a matter of fact. So you've given us all sorts of tips.
We're among the first to know what your middle name is, and you're
all sworn to secrecy out there. Okay, yes, please, is there
anything else that you'd like to you know, like a parting gift for all
of our dedicated listeners. Try to be kind every day because our world is
filled with things that are unkind and hateful and not ideal, and it really
does not cost you anything to be kind, even with people that you don't
get along with. There are ways to be kind. Yeah, I have
nothing to add to that whatsoever. Like she said, Okay, well,
it's been a marvelous time with you and I can't tell you how much I
appreciate you spending time with me and getting your energy out there, you know,
to all the people that will listen to this someday. You never know.
This is pretty durable these days. You know, we could have generations
of people that would be able to find these old podcasts and come back and
say, wow, those two were kind of kind of odd, you know,
or that was really cool, or who's done or Walter Cronkite, Walter
Cronkite, that's exactly right. So I want to thank you one more time.
Thank you, Bill. It was my honor and privilege to get to
be one of your one hundred people. Right back at you, and I'll
tell you what since you mentioned it. Yes, we are simple questions for
one hundred people, and I want to just send you out into the world
to do two things. First of all, have the best week ever while
you're being kind, okay. And then second, reach out to somebody in
your world. You know, a friend of yours somewhere. I don't care,
send them a text message, an email, telephone call, go see
them, but just let them know that your world works because they're in it,
that because of them, you have a life that's worth living. That's
all for now. Bye bye, y'all. You've been listening to Simple Questions
for one hundred people, part of the x Audio podcast Network. You can
find every episode at xadio dot com, slash Podcasts, podcast app, Google
Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and wherever you find podcasts.