Bet on Yourself: Family, Identity & Leading Fearlessly with Cathy Carroll
What happens when the business you’re leading is also your family, and the role you’ve built your identity around no longer fits?
Cathy Carroll knows that tension firsthand. After a successful corporate career, she stepped into leadership in her father’s family business and quickly discovered that leading a family enterprise requires a very different mix of courage, self-awareness, love, and logic.
In this episode of Live Fearlessly, Cathy shares how that experience ultimately forced her to question who she was, walk away from an identity she had deeply invested in, and make the decision to bet on herself.
Ben and Cathy explore what makes family business leadership uniquely difficult, why family systems matter, how leaders can balance support with challenge, and what it means to stop letting other people define who you are.
They also discuss:
Why family business leadership is fundamentally different from corporate leadership
The tension between love and logic
The loneliness that can come with leading inside a family system
How identity gets tied to career, family, and leadership roles
What it means to “self-author” your life
Why Cathy decided to bet on herself and become a coach
The role of emotional development in becoming a stronger leader
How to balance support and challenge in coaching and leadership
Why family businesses require a systems perspective
Cathy’s work training coaches to specialize in family business
Cathy Carroll is the Founder and President of Legacy Onward, an internationally recognized family business leadership coach, speaker, and author of Hug of War: How to Lead a Family Business With Both Love and Logic. She is also an ICF Master Certified Coach (MCC).
Learn more about Cathy:
Legacy Onward
https://www.legacyonward.com
Hug of War
https://www.legacyonward.com/hug-of-war