Catalyst Conversations

What happens when the life you've built begins demanding more from your body than your body seems able to give?
You've worked hard. You've built a career, a business, a family, or a life filled with responsibility. Your ambition hasn't disappeared, and perhaps your energy, strength, and ability to recover don't feel quite the same anymore.
What if your body isn't failing you? What if it's trying to tell you something?
In this episode of Catalyst Conversations, Desi Bolin welcomes Tommy Diependaal, a lifestyle and fitness coach with more than 45 years of experience in health and fitness, for a conversation about what sustainable success actually requires.
Originally from the Netherlands and now living in Laos, Tommy brings a perspective shaped by decades of strength training, martial arts, entrepreneurship, corporate leadership, and coaching busy professionals over 40.
At the center of his philosophy is a concept he calls biological sovereignty.
It's the understanding that your body is your first responsibility and that meaningful, lasting success requires learning to work with your biology rather than constantly pushing against it.
Together, Desi and Tommy explore why exhaustion has become a badge of honor, how our relationship with aging influences our choices, and why doing more isn't always the answer.
They discuss the importance of recovery, mindful movement, nutrition, and the small daily habits that support long-term vitality.
Tommy also challenges the idea that meaningful change requires a complete lifestyle overhaul. Instead, he encourages starting with one manageable adjustment, allowing it to become natural, and building from there.
One particularly meaningful theme emerges throughout the conversation: Your body is not working against you. It's communicating with you.
And learning to listen changes everything.
This episode connects physical well-being with leadership, personal responsibility, and the kind of success that leaves room for the person experiencing it.
Because longevity isn't simply about adding years to your life. It's about having the strength, energy, and presence to participate fully in those years.
If you've been telling yourself you'll focus on your health when things slow down, this conversation offers an invitation to reconsider.
You don't have to wait for your calendar to clear or your next goal to be achieved.
You can begin today.
Connect with Tommy Diependaal
Website: https://twinfit-lifestyle-fitness-coaching.mailchimpsites.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TommyDiependaal.Lifestyle.Fitness.Coach
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tommy_lifestylecoach
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tommydiependaal
Connect with Desi Bolin
https://talkwithdesi.com

Have you ever followed all the advice, done the research, and made what seemed like the right decision, only to discover it didn't produce the results you expected?
Sometimes the problem isn't a lack of information. It's not knowing how to determine what actually fits.
In this episode of Catalyst Conversations, I welcome Jennell Cook, creator of Simple Health Test, for a conversation about moving beyond assumptions, questioning conventional approaches, and developing greater confidence in how we make decisions.
Jennell's journey into wellness began with something deeply personal: watching her mother struggle with ongoing health challenges despite doing everything she was told to do.
That experience sparked decades of exploration into holistic wellness, eventually leading Jennell and her mother to establish a health food store and wellness clinic where they supported thousands of people.
Through those experiences, Jennell developed a body-led verification approach built around a simple philosophy:
When in doubt, test it out.
Throughout this conversation, we explore why even well-intentioned wellness recommendations don't always produce the expected results and why personalization matters when deciding what to try next.
Jennell introduces four questions that guide her approach:
Where do we start?
What supports the desired outcome?
What might be interfering?
What works well together?
And while her work centers on wellness, the conversation reaches far beyond it.
Because how often do we experience the same challenges in business, leadership, and everyday life?
We gather information, seek expert opinions, follow successful people's strategies, and sometimes end up more overwhelmed than when we started.
Jennell and Desi explore the difference between having information and developing discernment, why borrowing someone else's successful formula doesn't guarantee alignment, and how small experiments can create meaningful learning.
You'll also hear Jennell share how she applied her own philosophy to choosing social media platforms rather than simply following what experts recommended.
The deeper lesson?
Confidence doesn't always come from having the answer. Sometimes it comes from having a process for discovering your next step.
This conversation is an invitation to question assumptions, become more intentional with your energy, and recognize that what works beautifully for someone else may not be what works for you.
Whether you're a wellness professional, entrepreneur, leader, or someone navigating a decision with too many possibilities, there's something here worth considering.
Because clarity isn't always about knowing more.
Sometimes it's about knowing what to test next.
🎧 Listen to the conversation:https://hello9p4.podbean.com/e/jennell-cook/
Connect with Jennell Cook:
Website: https://www.simplehealthtest.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@simplehealthtest
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@simplehealthtest
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/simplehealthtest
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennellcook/
Connect with Desi Bolin:
https://talkwithdesi.com

What happens when the business you've worked so hard to build becomes the very thing holding you back from the life you wanted?
Revenue is growing. Your team is expanding. Opportunities keep coming. From the outside, everything looks successful.
And somehow, you're working harder than ever.
In this episode of Catalyst Conversations, I'm joined by David Gilliland of Elite Entrepreneurs for a conversation about leadership, trust, and what it really means to build a business that creates freedom rather than consumes it.
David works with seven-figure business owners who are ready to scale to eight figures and beyond. His philosophy challenges a belief that quietly keeps many founders stuck: that being a great leader means having all the answers, making the important decisions, and remaining involved in everything.
What if the next level of growth requires exactly the opposite?
Through powerful stories from his work with business owners, David explores why financial success doesn't automatically create personal fulfillment. One founder built a business valuable enough to sell for millions, only to discover that the exit he'd worked toward wasn't connected to what truly mattered to him.
Another achieved extraordinary financial growth while losing important relationships along the way.
These stories raise a question worth considering: What are we actually building toward?
We explore David's H.E.A.R.T. approach to scaling:
H — Honor and genuinely care for every individual.
E — Energize everyone in the organization.
A — Anchor the business in a meaningful shared vision.
R — Realize the potential of everyone involved.
T — Tap into the team's power through co-creation.
We also explore the uncomfortable identity shift that happens when founders move from being the person who solves every problem to becoming someone who develops other leaders.
Because sometimes, the greatest barrier to growth isn't your team, your systems, or your opportunities.
It's the belief that everything still needs to go through you.
This conversation brings together clarity that liberates, structure that supports, and soul that sustains.
David reminds us that people are amazing, and we can trust them. Not because they'll never make mistakes, but because meaningful ownership, support, and the opportunity to grow can bring out extraordinary things in people.
If you're ready to build a business that supports your dreams, your people, and your purpose, this conversation is for you.
Connect with David:
Website: https://www.growwithelite.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dgilliland/
Connect with Desi:
https://talkwithdesi.com

What if becoming more authentic isn't about discovering someone new?
What if it's about releasing everything you were never meant to carry?
In this deeply personal episode of Catalyst Conversations, Desi Bolin welcomes Chad Nedland for a powerful exploration of authenticity, identity, servant leadership, and the courage to reveal who we truly are.
Chad works with Christian leaders and entrepreneurs who find themselves caught in confusion, guiding them toward greater clarity, alignment, and connection with their purpose and calling.
His philosophy is rooted in a simple yet profound commitment: to be a servant who amplifies those he serves.
And behind that philosophy is a lifetime of experiences that shaped how he understands leadership, strength, and service.
Chad shares how growing up as the person expected to hold his family together created an identity built around responsibility, emotional restraint, and the belief that he always had to be strong.
He reflects on the moment he decided to stop living behind that mask, and why changing deeply ingrained beliefs requires more than simply deciding to be different.
Together, Desi and Chad explore why authenticity cannot be manufactured, how inherited expectations influence our decisions, and why clarity sometimes comes from removing what no longer belongs rather than adding something new.
They also challenge traditional perspectives on leadership, success, and alignment.
What does it mean to serve others without diminishing yourself?
How do you distinguish authentic storytelling from vulnerability that serves no meaningful purpose?
And what happens when you stop measuring your leadership by how much you accomplish and begin considering who becomes stronger because of your presence?
In one of the conversation's most moving moments, Chad shares the loss of his infant son, Jonathan, and how that experience deepened his commitment to creating meaningful impact.
Through laughter, personal reflection, and deeply human moments, this conversation invites you to reconsider the stories you've inherited about who you're supposed to be.
Because sometimes the greatest transformation isn't becoming someone different. It's finally allowing yourself to be revealed.
Listen in and consider what might become possible when you release the expectations that were never yours to carry.
Connect with Chad Nedland
Website: https://chadnedland.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chadnedland/
Connect with Desi Bolin
Website: https://talkwithdesi.com

What if the behaviors you've spent years trying to change were actually ways you learned to protect yourself?
The need to control everything. The constant overthinking. The inability to rest without guilt. The tendency to put everyone else's needs before your own.
Sometimes, what we call personality may have deeper roots in the experiences that shaped our sense of safety.
In this episode of Catalyst Conversations, Desi Bolin welcomes Sharon LaFlamme, founder of Creating Serenity Now, for a compassionate exploration of what happens when we begin listening to our bodies instead of constantly pushing through their signals.
Drawing from her own experiences growing up in an unsafe environment, Sharon shares how her personal healing journey became a lifelong commitment to helping others experience greater peace, self-trust, and emotional well-being.
Together, Desi and Sharon explore the relationship between childhood experiences, nervous system responses, attachment patterns, and the behaviors that often follow us into adulthood.
They discuss how perfectionism, people-pleasing, hyper-independence, and overworking can sometimes serve as protective strategies. While these behaviors may help us navigate difficult circumstances, they can eventually limit our ability to experience the very freedom and connection we're working toward.
The conversation also explores somatic experiencing, a body-oriented approach to working with trauma and stress, and why intellectual understanding alone doesn't always change how we feel.
For entrepreneurs and leaders, this conversation offers another perspective on sustainable success.
What happens when the structures we've built to support our lives become armor? When achievement becomes a way to prove our worth? When our ability to keep going comes at the expense of our well-being?
Desi and Sharon explore the difference between reacting from protection and responding from awareness, and why genuine resilience isn't about remaining calm all the time. It's about developing the capacity to navigate life's challenges while maintaining a connection with ourselves.
Perhaps most importantly, Sharon reminds us that worthiness doesn't have to be earned through performance, productivity, or perfection.
You are worthy of care and compassion before you accomplish another thing.
This episode is an invitation to become curious about your patterns, develop a more compassionate relationship with your body, and explore what becomes possible when your life is no longer organized entirely around survival.
Join us for a conversation about safety, serenity, self-trust, and the freedom to lead and live from a place of deeper alignment.
Connect with Sharon LaFlamme
Website: https://creatingserenitynow.com
Forgiveness resources: https://makingfriendswithforgiveness.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SharonLaflamme
Insight Timer: https://insig.ht/IntzUGBds1b
Facebook: https://facebook.com/serenityforlife
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-laflamme-a86135317
Connect with Desi Bolin
https://talkwithdesi.com

What if the reason you're struggling to sell has very little to do with your sales skills?
You know your work has value. You believe in what you're offering. You've invested in strategies, systems, and learning how to grow your business.
And yet, when it's time to name your price, make the offer, or receive more money, something inside you hesitates.
What if that resistance isn't a lack of discipline or confidence? What if it's connected to beliefs about money, worthiness, and success that you've been carrying for years without even realizing it?
In this episode of Catalyst Conversations, Desi Bolin welcomes Catherine Clift, a coach who specializes in helping entrepreneurs uncover subconscious money and worthiness blocks that influence how they sell, receive, and pursue their goals.
Together, they explore the deeper relationship between our financial circumstances and the stories we've learned to believe about ourselves.
Catherine shares how early family experiences can shape our relationship with money, including beliefs about what we're allowed to earn, whether success feels safe, and what it means to deserve more.
One particularly fascinating part of this conversation is Catherine's introduction to the Money Map, an interactive reflection exercise exploring five categories of money:
Savings
Debt
Income
Income goals
Toxic money
Rather than looking only at the numbers, Catherine invites listeners to notice the emotions, internal conversations, and personal experiences associated with each category.
Because sometimes the most revealing question isn't how much money we have.
It's what we believe that number says about who we are.
The conversation also explores family loyalty patterns, the cycle of earning and losing money, and the internal tension between wanting greater success and feeling uncomfortable receiving it.
Catherine introduces Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), commonly called tapping, as one of the practices she uses when working with emotionally charged beliefs.
And throughout the conversation, an important distinction emerges: becoming aware of a pattern doesn't mean making yourself wrong for having it.
It means creating the opportunity to choose differently.
Free Companion Resources
Catherine has generously provided two resources to accompany this conversation:
Money Map Worksheet: A guided reflection tool for exploring the feelings, beliefs, and experiences connected to five different categories of money.
EFT Tapping Script: A customizable practice using the emotions and beliefs identified through your Money Map.
Download both resources using the attachments accompanying this episode.
This conversation is for the entrepreneur who knows what to do and still finds themselves hesitating, overthinking, undercharging, or questioning what's possible.
You don't have to turn every moment of resistance into another reason to push harder.
Sometimes the next aligned move begins with curiosity.
Listen in and explore what your relationship with money might be revealing about your relationship with yourself.
Connect with Catherine
Website: https://www.catherinecliftcoaching.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-clift-85952492/
Connect with Desi
https://talkwithdesi.com

Who are you as a leader when everything stops going according to plan?
It's easy to talk about integrity, compassion, accountability, and trust when circumstances are comfortable. The real question is whether those values show up in our decisions, relationships, and behavior when the pressure rises.
In this episode of Catalyst Conversations, I'm joined by Doug Babcock, founder of Counterparts Coaching, whose experience in emergency services, law enforcement, public safety, and leadership has shaped a powerful perspective on what it means to become a crisis-ready leader.
And his philosophy begins with one simple truth: We lead the way we live.
Doug challenges us to look beyond the values we claim to hold and examine the evidence of how we're actually living. Our calendars, daily decisions, habits, and responses under pressure often reveal more about our priorities than any mission statement ever could.
Together, we explore why crisis readiness isn't simply about contingency plans or operational systems. It's about developing the self-awareness, emotional intelligence, trust, and relationships that allow us to respond intentionally when life and leadership become unpredictable.
One of the most meaningful parts of our conversation centers on mistakes.
Doug shares a personal experience involving a strongly worded email that became an opportunity to choose accountability over ego. Rather than allowing the mistake to define him, he acknowledged it, repaired the relationship, and carried the lesson forward.
It's a reminder that growth doesn't require us to carry shame indefinitely. It requires us to take responsibility for what happens next.
We also explore the human side of leadership, including why protecting people matters as much as protecting the organization, how everyday habits create crisis-ready teams, and why leaders must model the vulnerability and accountability they expect from others.
Perhaps the most powerful invitation in this conversation is to stop waiting for a crisis to become the leader you want to be.
Practice the values now. Build the relationships now. Have the conversations now.
Because when the difficult moments arrive, we don't suddenly become someone different. We draw upon who we've practiced being.
If you're an entrepreneur, executive, or leader navigating responsibility, change, or uncertainty, this conversation offers a thoughtful opportunity to examine how you're leading and who you're becoming.
Join Doug and me for a conversation about integrity, humanity, accountability, and the everyday choices that shape extraordinary leadership.
Connect with Doug
Website: https://counterpartscoaching.com
Schedule a conversation: https://calendly.com/doug-counterpartscoaching/30min
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougbabcock802/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556574782210
EveryExpert: https://www.everyexpert.com/dougbabcock
Connect with Desi
https://talkwithdesi.com

Emotional Engineering — Using Emotion as a Guide Through Divorce, Leadership, and Life
Guest: Dr. Brian Paris | Host: Desi Bolin
What if the emotion you've been trying hardest to avoid is actually trying to tell you something?
We've been conditioned to believe that strength means staying in control, keeping our emotions contained, and pushing through whatever life throws at us.
And what happens when everything we've built our identity around suddenly changes?
Divorce. Business collapse. Relationship breakdown. A major life transition.
These experiences don't simply change our circumstances. They can challenge our understanding of who we are.
In this episode of Catalyst Conversations, I'm joined by Dr. Brian Paris, creator of Man Rebuilt, for a powerful exploration of emotional engineering, self-leadership, and what it means to rebuild from the inside out.
Drawing from his own experiences navigating divorce, business challenges, fatherhood, and personal transformation, Brian shares why emotional awareness isn't a weakness to overcome. It's a capacity we can develop.
Together, we explore how our bodies communicate what our minds sometimes struggle to recognize, why suppressing emotions can keep us trapped in familiar patterns, and how learning to distinguish between feeling something and becoming that feeling creates room for intentional decisions.
One of the most meaningful distinctions in our conversation is the difference between reacting to emotion and responding with awareness.
Anger doesn't have to dictate our actions. Fear doesn't have to make our decisions. Grief doesn't have to mean we're moving in the wrong direction.
Our emotions can provide information without becoming instructions.
We also explore the importance of language in shaping identity, the role of emotional safety in relationships and leadership, and what children learn when parents model emotional awareness rather than emotional avoidance.
Brian offers practical tools for navigating emotionally charged moments, including breathwork, movement, and supportive relationships.
And we go beyond managing difficult emotions to explore something equally important: learning to recognize and intentionally reconnect with joy, peace, and possibility.
At the heart of this conversation is a question that extends far beyond divorce:
Who are you becoming when the identity you've relied on no longer fits?
Because rebuilding your life isn't only about creating different circumstances. It's about developing a different relationship with yourself.
Whether you're navigating divorce, leading through uncertainty, rebuilding after loss, or simply questioning the patterns that have shaped your life, this conversation offers an invitation to become curious about what you're feeling.
You don't have to silence your emotions to lead yourself forward.
Sometimes the most powerful next step is learning to listen.
🎧 Join us for Emotional Engineering — Using Emotion as a Guide Through Divorce, Leadership, and Life.
Connect with Dr. Brian Paris:
Website: https://drbrianparis.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drbrianparis/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drbrianparis/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@drbrianparis
Connect with Desi:
https://talkwithdesi.com

Stop Reacting. Start Creating. | Josselyne Herman-Saccio
What if the very thing that made you successful is also the thing keeping you trapped?
Many entrepreneurs, founders, and high performers have become incredibly good at reacting. We solve problems. Put out fires. Handle the unexpected. Carry responsibility. Make things work.
And because we’re producing results, we rarely stop to ask whether the way we’re producing those results is actually working for us.
In this episode of Catalyst Conversations, I sit down with Josselyne Herman-Saccio, creator of the Unmessable With Method and a master coach whose work over four decades has impacted more than 200,000 people.
Josselyne challenges the idea that being “unmessable with” means becoming tougher, suppressing emotions, or controlling everything around you. Instead, it’s about developing the ability to stand firmly in what you’re creating without allowing circumstances, expectations, thoughts, feelings, or other people’s demands to continually pull you off course.
And this conversation gets incredibly practical.
We explore what happens when competence hides misalignment, why successful people can become some of the most accomplished reactors, and how constantly “making it work” can quietly become a prison.
Josselyne also shares how she went from working approximately 70 hours a week to 15 while dramatically increasing her revenue—and why creating more space can sometimes produce better results than simply doing more.
We talk about auditing your time, designing your calendar around your life instead of everyone else’s priorities, creating boundaries, delegating what doesn’t require you, and intentionally making room for joy, relationships, wellbeing, creativity, and the dreams you keep promising yourself you’ll pursue “someday.”
Because someday isn’t actually on the calendar.
Perhaps the question isn’t:
Can I handle everything coming at me?
Perhaps it’s:
What am I actually here to create?
This conversation is an invitation to stop measuring your leadership by how much you can withstand and start intentionally creating a life, business, and definition of success that actually works for you.
Connect with Josselyne:https://beunmessablewith.com
Connect with Desi:https://talkwithdesi.com

What if confidence isn’t something you’re born with—or something you have to wait until you “feel ready” to experience?
In this episode of Catalyst Conversations, Desi sits down with Jeanette Deatherage for a deeply human conversation about confidence, connection, consistency, and learning to trust the quiet prompts that move us forward.
Jeanette’s story spans more than four decades in Mary Kay, service in the U.S. Air Force, 13 moves, countless new beginnings, and a lifetime of intentionally connecting people. Through it all, she’s discovered that real confidence doesn’t come from titles, appearances, or having everything figured out. It grows from the inside—and sometimes it begins with one very small decision to show up differently.
Together, Desi and Jeanette explore what it means to rebuild confidence when life changes, how discipline can become an anchor through uncertainty, and why the people who believe in us before we believe in ourselves can change the trajectory of our lives.
Jeanette shares openly about seasons when moving left her feeling disconnected and struggling to find herself again. She also shares the simple practices that helped her begin rebuilding: getting ready for the day, writing affirmations by hand, reaching out to others, finding mentors, and remembering that it really is okay not to be okay. Pasted text
They also explore the heart of meaningful leadership. Sometimes leadership looks like believing in someone before they can see their own potential. Sometimes it’s making an introduction that changes two people’s lives. And sometimes it’s simply listening closely enough to hear the whisper telling you what to do next.
Jeanette beautifully reminds us that confidence doesn’t have to be loud. It grows through service, showing up, connection, consistency, and the willingness to follow the prompt—even before you know exactly where it’s leading. Pasted text
If you’ve been questioning yourself, comparing your path to someone else’s, or waiting to feel completely ready before taking your next step, this conversation is an invitation to trust yourself a little more.
Listen in and remember: confidence really is an inside job.
Connect with Jeanette:Jeanette’s Mary Kay website
Connect with Desi:talkwithdesi.com