Episode 891 Impact the World - Interview with Caterine Cantey – Part 4
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining us on episode 890. One of the inspired stewardship podcast.
[00:00:08] Catherine Cantey: [00:00:08] I'm Katherine Kanzi. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to lead yourself and others is key.
[00:00:26] And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Mader.
[00:00:34]Scott. That's only, a hundred years ago we were replacing kerosene lamps with electricity and people are like why can't I get broadband? I'm like you didn't get electricity a hundred years ago overnight. There's got to be infrastructure put in this country. And you're exactly right. So can you only imagine.
[00:00:50]Within the next 50 years, what the infrastructure going to look like? So what her needs are going to be, but for now we need reliable broadband.
[00:00:57] Scott Maderer: [00:00:57] Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the [00:01:00] inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast.
[00:01:14] We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
[00:01:23]And today's interview with leadership coach Catherine Canty. I asked Catherine about why she wants to close the broadband gap in rural communities. Catherine also shares with you her tips on making an impact. And I asked Katherine to share her hopes for the future and her hopes for her legacy. One reason I like to bring you great interviews.
[00:01:45] Like the one you're going to hear today is because of the power in learning from others. Another great way to learn from others is through reading books. But if you're like most people today, you find it hard to find the time to sit down [00:02:00] and read. And that's why today's podcast is brought to you by audible.
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[00:02:32] Catherine Canty is a tenacious connector and a recovering banker. She is a leadership coach helping high potential managers turn into senior leaders. And our sales program for business to business selling is creating exceeding results. Catherine is a wife and a mom and cares about closing the broadband gaps in rural communities.
[00:02:53] Welcome to the show, Katherine,
[00:02:56] Catherine Cantey: [00:02:56] thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate you having me as a guest. Thanks [00:03:00] Scott.
[00:03:01] Scott Maderer: [00:03:01] So Catherine, one of the things that we mentioned in the intro that sort of sounds like an aside is that you have an interesting closing the broadband gap in rural communities. And of course, listeners know I live out in the middle of nowhere.
[00:03:14] I actually have fiber because our electric company brought it in. But previous to that, I had. Much less than high broadband. And my daughter still does not have broadband where she lives and it can create challenges. Would you expand a little bit on why that's important to you and perhaps how anyone listening can help support that work?
[00:03:37] Catherine Cantey: [00:03:37] Closing the broadband gap is going to be huge for what's coming. To America and the rest of the world. So as COVID impact continues to create these ripple effects, we're learning that. Not everybody has reliable broadband throughout the country, much less the world. So let's just talk about America and what we're learning [00:04:00] through kids need to stay at home and study virtually is they don't have reliable broadband.
[00:04:06] And the last thing you want is the parent. And. And the students sitting at the dining room table, filling out papers, and then the parents have to go drop off the papers for the teachers to grade and return the papers back. So what we're learning is we need to provide options and providing these options means that we need to have reliable broadband for the house, for people to be able to educate their kids.
[00:04:29]People need this for home. They need it for their work, even if they want to further their career. They need to be able to take online courses at home. There's some incredible technical colleges, online colleges that are all around us, and if somebody wants to grow themselves, they can take courses at night after they put the kids to bed and be able to further their career and contribute to the community in a whole new way.
[00:04:53]There's opportunities with that. Also with telemedicine, I live in a small community and we have a hospital [00:05:00] here, but we also have hospitals across the state and across the Southeast. And if you need a medical result, you may not have transportation to get there. And maybe you need to see a specialist, but they're two hours away.
[00:05:13] You can't do that unless you have reliable broadband and can provide telemedicine to these folks in need. And then my personal favorite is agriculture. The impact with broadband and agriculture. And I spent a number of years with with a farming bank. And learned about you, not as states.
[00:05:31] Department of agriculture actually had $600 million available for federal grants in 2019. And. It actually was 20, 20, 19 and 2020. And as I learned, when I traveled out to the various farms in these rural communities, there's a lot of talent out there and there's a lot of land that needs to be used for livestock row crop, et cetera.
[00:05:53] And all this food is being used to keep us healthy and happy in America. And they use [00:06:00] an. Unbelievable amount of technology on the farm, and it could just be row crops where they're using GPS systems to be able to know how to put the fertilizer out where the moisture content is in the soil. I've been on a robotic dairy.
[00:06:14]Farm where they had two full-time employees, which means that the owners actually can have a social life because before they're there 24, seven, 365 days a year, and now, which is two full-time employees, they have robotic milkers that can take care of these cows. They know when the cows are sick, they know when to, how to help the cows when they need it.
[00:06:33]When the cows kick the the snacks out of the stall, they've got a little. Roomba vacuum cleaner, except it's huge. And it pushes the feed back in. So you're not paying somebody minimum wage to do that. And but when you go out to a farm, the amount of technology out there is pretty amazing.
[00:06:49] And so with the with the impact of COVID and the. What's happening as a result, we're learning that these rural communities and across America, we don't have reliable [00:07:00] broadband. And I live in one of these communities that we were able to use influence and create a group of community leaders who stepped up and said, despite all of our differences, we want to go after this federal grant and we're going to be a provider friendly community.
[00:07:17] And we put together a map and was able to reach out to a telecommunications provider who was able to apply for this federal grant. And I was told that catching a federal grant is like catching a a unicorn, but we were able to receive it. And so
[00:07:33] Scott Maderer: [00:07:33] maybe a
[00:07:34] leprechaun
[00:07:34] Catherine Cantey: [00:07:34] in this case, it could be a leprechaun.
[00:07:36] Yeah. So we, we're catching leprechauns and Yeah, it's pretty exciting. We see an opportunity. We pulled some people together. I'm oversimplifying this and applied for a grant that's actually gonna result in 256 miles of fiber into our community. That's going to positively impact all these different Parties that are in the community from telemedicine education, workforce development and [00:08:00] agriculture.
[00:08:00] So it's a long answer, but it's near and dear, because you live in a community that has a need. I live in a community that has a need. What's something that we can do. And in curiosity, and following that is, is one thing that we can all step up and do.
[00:08:13] Scott Maderer: [00:08:13] Yeah. And like fiber came into our community because the electric, rural electric cooperative that I'm part of which of course that started back in the day to bring electricity to rural communities because.
[00:08:26]My, again, not that long ago, my mom grew up in a community that didn't have electricity. And then she remembers getting electricity when she was in high school. That's not that long ago, folks,
[00:08:36]Catherine Cantey: [00:08:36] Scott, that's the only, a hundred years ago we were replacing kerosene lamps with electricity and people were like why can't I get broadband?
[00:08:44] I'm like you didn't get electricity a hundred years ago overnight. There's got to be infrastructure put in this country. And you're exactly right. So can you only imagine, within the next 50 years, what the infrastructure's going to look like? So what our needs are going to be, but for now we need reliable broadband.
[00:08:59] Scott Maderer: [00:08:59] So [00:09:00] if somebody really wants to make a dent in the universe, make some sort of impact on the world, what are the top couple of principles that you feel that they really need to focus on first to be able to make that kind of impact?
[00:09:15] Catherine Cantey: [00:09:15] I would suggest identifying what your strengths are and within your community.
[00:09:21] And that could be a church. It could be work. W however you define community look at what their struggles are and bridge what your talents are with those struggles. And. One example I have is I work with my local United way and we, raise money for various events within the community.
[00:09:42] And a lot of people think we just need money. And of course these people can stretch a dollar. Like I can't even begin to imagine. So yeah they're great at maximize on the dollar, but look and see what else do they need if you're not able to give. Financially, what else can you give? And so a lot of the the [00:10:00] yard care services that are around town, they can donate their yard care services to various locations that we have that are in need.
[00:10:08]Plumbers can donate, their services as a pipe breaks because we need to have these people on call. So you're not necessarily giving a flat-out check, but you're able to give your services in different ways. So identify what your strengths are. And then find out what the struggles are within the community that you serve, whether it's at the corporation level or at the nonprofit, and begin to bridge those two together and see what's the minimal viable solution that you can bring to the table to help make a difference.
[00:10:38] Scott Maderer: [00:10:38] So Catherine, we've transitioned to what I always tell people are the easy questions because they usually aren't. If you could travel into the far future and take a look back on your life, what's the impact that you hope that you've had on the world?
[00:10:54] Catherine Cantey: [00:10:54] It's might be really simple, but I do hope when I look back that I've been able to leave it better than when [00:11:00] I found it.
[00:11:01] And. I think a lot of times I think that something big and huge needs to happen and that I need to be the next Steve jobs, or I need to be the, the next big name. And really all I need to do is focus on how I can help locally. And how can I make a difference here? And even how can I make a difference in one person's life, if that is what is needed.
[00:11:22] And we have people that we help along the way and you don't think anything of it, but then they send you notes or they reach back out to you. 10 15 years down the road. And you're like, wow. had no idea that being timed 15 years ago was going to lead to this. So I think we have a bigger opportunity than we realize of ways to be able to leave this planet better than how we found it.
[00:11:45] Scott Maderer: [00:11:45] So what's coming up next for you, as you continue to live out your calling and work now as a coach and work on impacting the world.
[00:11:55] Catherine Cantey: [00:11:55] I am going to continue to focus on my [00:12:00] community this area of the world that I live in. And I love to learn about ways other people within the country are living.
[00:12:08]And can we bring some of those ideas? Back here to my hometown. There's no need in having to recreate the wheel. So if there's a success that's out there, how can we take that and be able to model it to maybe the struggles that we're seeing here? I've got a background in business development and I've got a background in, in leadership coaching, and personally I'd like to bridge those together.
[00:12:30] And so I'm working on how is the best way to communicate and share that with other people. And I think leadership and sales is all about helping other people. And I think there's a way to bridge it. And I'm journaling on that on a regular basis, just to figure out how can I bridge these two things together that might be able to help somebody else down the road.
[00:12:51]And just following my curiosity. So I'm going to continue to lean in to the various books and podcast and learning opportunities that I [00:13:00] have and being selective what I say yes to and selective what I say no to make sure that I can have a bigger impact by being more focused in that way.
[00:13:10]Scott Maderer: [00:13:10] you can find out more about Catherine and get information about what she's doing over on her website. Catherine canty.com. Of course have a link to that over into the show notes as well. Catherine, is there anything else you'd like to share with the listener?
[00:13:25] Catherine Cantey: [00:13:25] Scott. I just want to say thank you for having me on your show.
[00:13:28] I really do appreciate the opportunity and if there's anything I can do to help, just let me know.
[00:13:34] Scott Maderer: [00:13:34] Awesome. Thanks so much for being here.
[00:13:36]thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast. As a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively. Listen. But act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you enjoy this episode please do us a favor. Go over to inspired [00:14:00] stewardship.com/itunes rate.
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