“I’ve been poor before. That doesn’t bother me.” – Cathy Maday

Cathy didn’t grow up around startup jargon or leadership books. She grew up on the Bad River Indian Reservation in northern Wisconsin.

Work wasn’t a phase. It was how you made things possible.

You did chores, took odd jobs, & learned early that no one was coming to rescue you. There was freedom in that.

By 12, Cathy was holding her first paper paycheck.

She hasn’t stopped working since — not always because she had to, but because work meant agency. Motion. A steady sense of “I can handle what’s next.”

That assurance followed her from childhood into college, into technology, & into corporate environments where she saw it clearly: systems weren’t failing. The people inside them were carrying too much, alone.

Eventually, Cathy did what entrepreneurs do. She chose the harder path & built the solution — Wingspan — from the same instinct that had always guided her: if you want options, you create them.

This episode isn’t about hustle or reinvention.
It’s about knowing when the instincts that made you strong are asking for something completely new.

To learn more, connect with her at WingspanPerformance.com.

Entrepreneurship isn’t about escaping where you come from. It’s about carrying what made you — and knowing what to set down.

As Wendell Berry wrote, “It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work.”

162: Behavioral Performance In Business with Cathy Maday