Catalytic Leadership

Hosted by Dr. William Attaway

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Episodes

306

Latest episode

Aug 2026

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EN-US

About the show

Feeling overwhelmed by the daily grind and craving a breakthrough for your business? Tune in to the Catalytic Leadership Podcast with Dr. William Attaway, where we dive into the authentic stories of business leaders who’ve turned their toughest challenges into game-changing successes. Each episode brings you real conversations with high-performing entrepreneurs and agency owners, sharing their personal experiences and valuable lessons. From overcoming stress and chaos to elevating team performance and achieving ambitious goals, discover practical strategies that you can apply to your own leadership journey. Dr. Attaway, an Executive Coach specializing in Mindset, Leadership, and and Productivity, provides clear, actionable insights to help you lead with confidence and clarity. Join us for inspiring stories and expert advice that will ignite your leadership potential and drive your business forward. Subscribe to the Catalytic Leadership Podcast and start transforming your approach today. For more resources and exclusive content, visit CatalyticLeadership.net. ** Catalytic Leadership is ranked among the top 1.5% of podcasts globally on ListenNotes, thanks to our incredible listeners. Your support has made us one of the most popular shows out of over 3.4 million podcasts worldwide. Thank you for tuning in and being part of our journey! **

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60 recent

August 18, 2026Episode 30830 min

How to Build an Exit Ready Agency That Runs Without You (with Damiano Raveenthiran)

Send us Fan Mail You scaled past seven figures. The revenue is real. So is the exhaustion. In this episode, I sit down with Damiano Raveenthiran, founder of The Agency Business and an operator who built a 75-person, $8.4M agency, exited three companies, and now runs a portfolio of seven. He did what so many agency founders dream about: he removed himself from the center of his own business and turned it into an exit ready agency. Damiano shares the moment his son's health crisis forced him to step away, what he rebuilt on the other side, and the enterprise sales strategies that helped him close $25M in deals. He breaks down the shift from freelancer to CEO, the role AI automation plays in agency operations today, and why clarity on your purpose changes every decision you make. Connect with Damiano Raveenthiran: Website: theagency.business Instagram: @DamianoR YouTube: The Agency Business Books Mentioned: Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blount I want to invite you to check out the Committed Mastermind, a community I help lead along with world-class leaders like JC and Karen Hite, Vinnie Fisher, and Jonathan Mast, plus incredible mentors like Dr. Gary Chapman, author of The 5 Love Languages, and many others. This is for entrepreneurs who want to build a thriving business without sacrificing their faith, their family, or their health. Check out the Committed Mastermind at https://committedmastermind.com/ ---- Check out Dr. William Attaway's new show, The Appreciation at Work Podcast ! Join Dr. William Attaway on the Catalytic Leadership podcast as he shares transformative insights to help high-performance entrepreneurs and agency owners achieve Clear-Minded Focus, Calm Control, and Confidence. Free 30-Minute Discovery Call: Ready to elevate your business? Book a free 30-minute discovery call with Dr. William Attaway and start your journey to success. Connect with Dr. William Attaway: Website LinkedIn Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube

August 11, 2026Episode 5135 min

Are Your Values Real? The Leadership Pressure Test (with Jon Sheldon)

Send us Fan Mail The leadership pressure test reveals what a leader has already practiced. In this episode, I sit down with Jon Sheldon, founder of BelleauWood Coaching, to explore the leadership pressure test through lessons he learned as a Marine squad leader and Fortune 500 sales executive. Jon explains why clear decisions begin with knowing yourself. His professional blueprint centers on purpose, vision, the environment where you thrive, and what motivates you. Then he pressure-tests those answers against real behavior. Courage is more than a value on paper. A leader has to show where courage held and where it gave way. We also talk about radical honesty, the cost of making firm calls, and the discipline of keeping the mission in view when emotion runs high. Jon shares a simple framework for those moments: define the mission, name the obstacle, and choose the first action. If you lead a team through growth or uncertainty, this conversation offers a grounded way to respond with clarity. Chapter Breakdown 00:00 Meet Jon Sheldon: Marine Leader and Executive Coach 02:29 How Responsibility Forged a Leader 05:12 Why Mistakes Are Inevitable Under Pressure 06:40 Learning to Think 13 Moves Ahead 08:54 The Mission, Obstacle, Actions Framework 10:06 Build Your Professional Leadership Blueprint 13:33 Pressure-Test the Leader You Claim to Be 15:26 Why a Four-Hour Seminar Cannot Build a Leader 17:49 Radical Honesty and the Courage to Be Unpopular 20:35 The Cost and Loneliness of Leadership 24:20 Protect Time to Keep Growing as a Leader 29:19 Books That Make Leadership Practical Books Mentioned The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday Leadership Strategy and Tactics: Field Manual by Jocko Willink Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss Because I Said I Would by Alex Sheen Your Desired Future by Dr. Henry Cloud A Return on Failure by John C. Maxwell Connect with Jon Sheldon Visit BelleauWood Coaching , connect with Jon on LinkedIn , or follow @belleauwood_coaching on Instagram. I want to invite you to check out the Committed Mastermind, a community I help lead along with world-class leaders like JC and Karen Hite, Vinnie Fisher, and Jonathan Mast, plus incredible mentors like Dr. Gary Chapman, author of The 5 Love Languages, and many others. This is for entrepreneurs who want to build a thriving business without sacrificing their faith, their family, or their health. Check out the Committed Mastermind at https://committedmastermind.com/ ---- Check out Dr. William Attaway's new show, The Appreciation at Work Podcast ! Join Dr. William Attaway on the Catalytic Leadership podcast as he shares transformative insights to help high-performance entrepreneurs and agency owners achieve Clear-Minded Focus, Calm Control, and Confidence. Free 30-Minute Discovery Call: Ready to elevate your business? Book a free 30-minute discovery call with Dr. William Attaway and start your journey to success. Connect with Dr. William Attaway: Website LinkedIn Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube

August 4, 2026Episode 5015 min

Bouncing Client to Client? Delegation for Agency Owners (with Landon Gatliff)

Send us Fan Mail If your week feels like bouncing client to client with no room left to work on the business itself, this one will land. My guest, Landon Gatliff , is the founder of Gatliff Marketing Consultants, a marketing agency in rural Arkansas serving businesses and organizations both locally and out of state. Landon started the agency as a junior in high school building websites. He now runs it full time, covering brand, ads, commercials, and billboards, while finishing his degree online. What makes this worth your time is how early he learned something that costs founders years. Delegation for agency owners is not a reward you earn at scale. It is the thing that creates it. When his own company needed a commercial, he hired an outside crew rather than working both sides of the camera. The result beat anything he would have made alone. We get into the tension you know well: staying visible while staying booked, using AI without letting it become your voice, and choosing the right clients instead of every client. Books Mentioned The Bible How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie Guest CTA Want to connect with Landon? Visit gatliffmarketingconsultants.com to book a consultation or run his marketing assessment, and follow him on Facebook and Instagram at Landon Gatliff. I want to invite you to check out the Committed Mastermind, a community I help lead along with world-class leaders like JC and Karen Hite, Vinnie Fisher, and Jonathan Mast, plus incredible mentors like Dr. Gary Chapman, author of The 5 Love Languages, and many others. This is for entrepreneurs who want to build a thriving business without sacrificing their faith, their family, or their health. Check out the Committed Mastermind at https://committedmastermind.com/ ---- Join Dr. William Attaway on the Catalytic Leadership podcast as he shares transformative insights to help high-performance entrepreneurs and agency owners achieve Clear-Minded Focus, Calm Control, and Confidence. Free 30-Minute Discovery Call: Ready to elevate your business? Book a free 30-minute discovery call with Dr. William Attaway and start your journey to success. Connect with Dr. William Attaway: Website LinkedIn Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube

July 28, 2026Episode 4933 min

Owner Not Operator: Why He Said No to $6 Million (with Steve Rolle)

Send us Fan Mail If you built your business but still feel like everything runs through you, this episode will change how you see your role. My guest, Steve Rolle , a serial entrepreneur and investor whose businesses have generated over $100 million in combined sales, breaks down the exact shift from owner not operator that let him turn down a $6 million acquisition offer just two years into the business he built. Steve walks us through his four-part framework for understanding the real levers of growth: product, profit margin, distribution, and customer acquisition, and why most business owners stay trapped under the hood instead of getting behind the wheel. If you're ready to stop being the bottleneck and start owning the business you built, this conversation hands you the mindset and the math to get there. Books Mentioned The Almanac of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgensen. Guest CTA Connect with Steve at steverolle.com , where you can pre-order or order his new book, The Future You Choose, or find him on social channels as @RollewithSteve. I want to invite you to check out the Committed Mastermind, a community I help lead along with world-class leaders like JC and Karen Hite, Vinnie Fisher, and Jonathan Mast, plus incredible mentors like Dr. Gary Chapman, author of The 5 Love Languages, and many others. This is for entrepreneurs who want to build a thriving business without sacrificing their faith, their family, or their health. Check out the Committed Mastermind at https://committedmastermind.com/ ---- Check out Dr. William Attaway's new show, The Appreciation at Work Podcast ! Join Dr. William Attaway on the Catalytic Leadership podcast as he shares transformative insights to help high-performance entrepreneurs and agency owners achieve Clear-Minded Focus, Calm Control, and Confidence. Free 30-Minute Discovery Call: Ready to elevate your business? Book a free 30-minute discovery call with Dr. William Attaway and start your journey to success. Connect with Dr. William Attaway: Website LinkedIn Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube

July 21, 2026Episode 4839 min

200% Growth Every Year, And She Still Scaled Without Burnout (with Houlie Duque)

Send us Fan Mail If you're scaling fast and quietly wondering what it's costing your family, this episode will change how you think about growth. My guest this week, Houlie Duque , founder and CEO of Homeschool2Go Genius Lab, built the only personalized, fully bilingual education program of its kind and grew it by over 200% every year for five years straight. In this conversation, Houlie shows exactly how to scale without burnout: building systems that adapt to people instead of forcing people into rigid systems, rejecting the false sense of rush most founders accept as normal, and using AI to sharpen critical thinking instead of replacing it. If you're building something ambitious and refuse to trade away what matters most to get there, this episode hands you a real blueprint. Head over to homeschool2go.org (soon redirecting to homeschoolgeniuslab.com) for Houlie's free masterclass, or apply for a one-on-one with her team. I want to invite you to check out the Committed Mastermind, a community I help lead along with world-class leaders like JC and Karen Hite, Vinnie Fisher, and Jonathan Mast, plus incredible mentors like Dr. Gary Chapman, author of The 5 Love Languages, and many others. This is for entrepreneurs who want to build a thriving business without sacrificing their faith, their family, or their health. Check out the Committed Mastermind at https://committedmastermind.com/ ---- Check out Dr. William Attaway's new show, The Appreciation at Work Podcast ! Join Dr. William Attaway on the Catalytic Leadership podcast as he shares transformative insights to help high-performance entrepreneurs and agency owners achieve Clear-Minded Focus, Calm Control, and Confidence. Free 30-Minute Discovery Call: Ready to elevate your business? Book a free 30-minute discovery call with Dr. William Attaway and start your journey to success. Connect with Dr. William Attaway: Website LinkedIn Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube

July 14, 2026Episode 4733 min

Why Your Mindset Is Blocking You From Getting Unstuck (with Melanie Cox)

Send us Fan Mail What if the only thing standing between you and freedom is the story you keep telling yourself? My guest this week, Melanie Cox — CEO of EMC Property, founder of Blue Oak Rescue, and Amazon #1 bestselling author of You Have to Know — spent over a year in bed, convinced she wasn't enough. Today she leads a real estate business spanning 4,000+ acres, veteran housing, and multifamily development, and she's been married 31 years. If you feel stuck in your leadership or your own head, this conversation will help you get unstuck. Melanie shares the daily choice that moved her from depression to unstoppable, the delegation approach that lets her work half the hours she used to, and the boundary she holds when integrity and profit collide. Connect with Melanie at MelanieCox.org, or find her on Instagram as It's Melanie Cox. DM her the word "book" and she'll send you a free digital copy of You Have to Know. ------- I want to invite you to check out the Committed Mastermind, a community I help lead along with world-class leaders like JC and Karen Hite, Vinnie Fisher, and Jonathan Mast, plus incredible mentors like Dr. Gary Chapman, author of The 5 Love Languages, and many others. This is for entrepreneurs who want to build a thriving business without sacrificing their faith, their family, or their health. Check out the Committed Mastermind at https://committedmastermind.com/ ---- Check out Dr. William Attaway's new show, The Appreciation at Work Podcast ! Join Dr. William Attaway on the Catalytic Leadership podcast as he shares transformative insights to help high-performance entrepreneurs and agency owners achieve Clear-Minded Focus, Calm Control, and Confidence. Free 30-Minute Discovery Call: Ready to elevate your business? Book a free 30-minute discovery call with Dr. William Attaway and start your journey to success. Connect with Dr. William Attaway: Website LinkedIn Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube

July 7, 2026Episode 4640 min

The Situational Leadership Model Behind Real Team Trust (with Sam Shriver & Suzie Bishop)

Send us Fan Mail Are you leading every person on your team the exact same way and wondering why it's stopped working? In this episode, I sit down with Sam Shriver and Suzie Bishop of the Center for Leadership Studies, co-authors of a new book applying the situational leadership model to today's fast-changing workplace. Sam brings 45+ years of research into this framework; Suzie leads product innovation at CLS after 15 years of turning research into real-world training. Together, we unpack why one-size-fits-all leadership breaks down during constant change, how the situational leadership model gives you a repeatable way to diagnose exactly what each person needs task by task, and why trust erodes the moment you skip that step. We also dig into Gallup's engagement data and why adaptability, not just intelligence, is becoming the defining leadership skill in the AI era. If you've ever felt like you're leading in the dark, this conversation hands you the lens to lead with clarity again. Books Mentioned Situational Leadership®: The Model for Leading Others, Navigating Change, and Unlocking Performance by Sam Shriver and Suzie Bishop Management of Organizational Behavior by Paul Hersey Connect with Sam Shriver and Suzie Bishop on LinkedIn, explore their work at situational.com , and pick up their new book on the situational leadership model at Barnes & Noble, Amazon , or your favorite retailer. I want to invite you to check out the Committed Mastermind, a community I help lead along with world-class leaders like JC and Karen Hite, Vinnie Fisher, and Jonathan Mast, plus incredible mentors like Dr. Gary Chapman, author of The 5 Love Languages, and many others. This is for entrepreneurs who want to build a thriving business without sacrificing their faith, their family, or their health. Check out the Committed Mastermind at https://committedmastermind.com/ ---- Check out Dr. William Attaway's new show, The Appreciation at Work Podcast ! Join Dr. William Attaway on the Catalytic Leadership podcast as he shares transformative insights to help high-performance entrepreneurs and agency owners achieve Clear-Minded Focus, Calm Control, and Confidence. Free 30-Minute Discovery Call: Ready to elevate your business? Book a free 30-minute discovery call with Dr. William Attaway and start your journey to success. Connect with Dr. William Attaway: Website LinkedIn Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube

June 30, 2026Episode 4531 min

What Breaks When the Pressure's On: Leadership Under Pressure (with Ed Brzychcy)

Send us Fan Mail You know what good leadership looks like. The question is: what happens to it when the pressure hits? This week, I sat down with Ed Brzychcy, Army infantry veteran, former Babson College professor, and organizational culture consultant to mid-market high-growth companies. Ed spent over a decade researching what separates the CEOs of the fastest-growing companies from everyone else, and what he found wasn't what he expected. It wasn't the culture artifacts. It wasn't the perks or the values on the wall. It was how the leaders grew. And there's a specific four-stage journey every one of them walked through, including one stage that Ed says was emotionally harder than anything they faced at the beginning. If you're building a team and wondering why leadership under pressure keeps breaking down, this conversation is going to give you a clear map and the courage to take the next step on it. Books Mentioned Thomas Willing: The Banker Who Made America by George Vague Lost Worlds by Patrick Wyman Connect with Ed on LinkedIn , or visit his website at leadfromthefront.net . I want to invite you to check out the Committed Mastermind, a community I help lead along with world-class leaders like JC and Karen Hite, Vinnie Fisher, and Jonathan Mast, plus incredible mentors like Dr. Gary Chapman, author of The 5 Love Languages, and many others. This is for entrepreneurs who want to build a thriving business without sacrificing their faith, their family, or their health. Check out the Committed Mastermind at https://committedmastermind.com/ ---- Check out Dr. William Attaway's new show, The Appreciation at Work Podcast ! Join Dr. William Attaway on the Catalytic Leadership podcast as he shares transformative insights to help high-performance entrepreneurs and agency owners achieve Clear-Minded Focus, Calm Control, and Confidence. Free 30-Minute Discovery Call: Ready to elevate your business? Book a free 30-minute discovery call with Dr. William Attaway and start your journey to success. Connect with Dr. William Attaway: Website LinkedIn Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube

June 23, 2026Episode 4435 min

Resistance to Change Isn't Rebellion; It's Biology (with Travis Hahler)

Send us Fan Mail You roll out a new system. You cast the vision. You wait for buy-in, and instead you get silence, slow adoption, or quiet workarounds. It is not because your people do not care. My guest this week, Travis Hahler , Senior Director of Global Strategy and Transformation at Salesforce and founder of The Neurological Nomad, has spent his career studying why 70% of organizational transformations fail, and how the other 30% succeed. We unpack why resistance to change is never a character flaw, why every change creates loss (even a promotion), and why the brain weighs that loss roughly ten times heavier than any gain. Travis gives you a way to read resistance to change as information instead of an obstacle, so you can lead your team (and yourself) through it with clarity instead of force. Books Mentioned Rethink Resistance: Embracing Neuroscience to Lead Transformational Change by Travis Hahler (available everywhere books are sold beginning June 23rd) Connect with Travis on LinkedIn or through his website https://linktr.ee/theneurologicalnomad, where you'll find links to his new book, Rethink Resistance, releasing June 23rd. I want to invite you to check out the Committed Mastermind, a community I help lead along with world-class leaders like JC and Karen Hite, Vinnie Fisher, and Jonathan Mast, plus incredible mentors like Dr. Gary Chapman, author of The 5 Love Languages, and many others. This is for entrepreneurs who want to build a thriving business without sacrificing their faith, their family, or their health. Check out the Committed Mastermind at https://committedmastermind.com/ ---- Check out Dr. William Attaway's new show, The Appreciation at Work Podcast ! Join Dr. William Attaway on the Catalytic Leadership podcast as he shares transformative insights to help high-performance entrepreneurs and agency owners achieve Clear-Minded Focus, Calm Control, and Confidence. Free 30-Minute Discovery Call: Ready to elevate your business? Book a free 30-minute discovery call with Dr. William Attaway and start your journey to success. Connect with Dr. William Attaway: Website LinkedIn Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube

June 16, 2026Episode 4335 min

The Team Culture System That Changes Every Metric, with Jenni Catron

Send us Fan Mail Your strategy is solid. Your offer is dialed in. But something inside your growing team is quietly fracturing, and if you can't name it, you can't fix it. In this episode, I sit down with Jenni Catron, bestselling author, speaker, and culture strategist, and founder and CEO of the 4Sight Group, who has spent over 20 years helping leaders in corporate, nonprofit, and ministry environments build the one thing that determines whether everything else works: a real team culture system. Jenni unpacks why the pressure of growth exposes every clarity gap your organization has, and why culture left to chance will always drift toward dysfunction. She shares her five-phase culture framework, the counterintuitive power of building a cross-functional culture team, and why the Gallup data is unambiguous: when your team culture system is healthy, every metric you care about goes the right direction. If you've been putting culture on the back burner while you chase revenue, this episode is your course correction. Books Mentioned The Four Dimensions of Extraordinary Leadership by Jenni Catron Culture Matters by Jenni Catron (USA Today Bestseller) Just Lead by Jenni Catron Connect with Jenni and start with her free Culture Blind Spots Assessment at get4sight.com . It's right at the top of the page and will give you immediate clarity on where your culture may have gaps. You can also find her at @JenniCatron across all social platforms, and I highly recommend her podcast as well. I want to invite you to check out the Committed Mastermind, a community I help lead along with world-class leaders like JC and Karen Hite, Vinnie Fisher, and Jonathan Mast, plus incredible mentors like Dr. Gary Chapman, author of The 5 Love Languages, and many others. This is for entrepreneurs who want to build a thriving business without sacrificing their faith, their family, or their health. Check out the Committed Mastermind at https://committedmastermind.com/ ---- Check out Dr. William Attaway's new show, The Appreciation at Work Podcast ! Join Dr. William Attaway on the Catalytic Leadership podcast as he shares transformative insights to help high-performance entrepreneurs and agency owners achieve Clear-Minded Focus, Calm Control, and Confidence. Free 30-Minute Discovery Call: Ready to elevate your business? Book a free 30-minute discovery call with Dr. William Attaway and start your journey to success. Connect with Dr. William Attaway: Website LinkedIn Facebook Instagram TikTok YouTube

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