Episode 216: Leading with Resilience, Compassion and Empathy with Catalynt Solutions Owner and CEO Meg Gluth
Release Date: 04/15/2025
Episode 233: The Art of Rising: Finding Resilience Through Creativity with Pia Maillot-Leichter
Brilliantly Resilient
“You have to give yourself permission to suck — that’s how we grow and develop. Resilience is built in the messy middle.” ~ Pia Maillot-Leichter, Founder of The Kolektive Studio and Author of Welcome to the Creative Club Pia Maillot-Leichter, founder of The Kollektive Studio and author of , joins the Brilliantly Resilient Podcast to explore how creativity is one of the most powerful tools for resilience and self-discovery. Pia reminds us that creativity isn’t reserved for artists — it’s a life skill. Whether you’re building a business, solving a problem, or reimagining...
info_outline
Episode 232: Turning Resilience into Action: Introducing the Brilliantly Resilient Mini-Course Series
Brilliantly Resilient
“These courses are a roadmap — they guide you to not only uncover your resilience but to rise, thrive, and ultimately find your brilliance within life’s challenges.” ~ Mary Fran Bontempo, Creator of the Today it's me--sharing the story behind the creation of the Brilliantly Resilient Mini-Course Series — Reset with Resilience, Rise and Thrive, and Reveal Your Brilliance. After years of helping people bounce back from life’s challenges through her books, speaking, and podcast, I wanted to create a hands-on way for anyone to learn and live the Brilliantly Resilient...
info_outline
Episode 231: Building Resilience One Move at a Time with Jake Weiner of Zooz Fitness
Brilliantly Resilient
“Sometimes resilience looks like showing up. That’s it. Just being here, trying again, and refusing to give up.” ~ Jake Weiner--Founder, Everyone knows that exercise and movement are important to health, both mental and physical. But can exercise help build strength in other ways--like resilience? Jake Weiner thinks so. Jake is the founder of Zooz Fitness, an inclusive fitness community in Los Angeles dedicated to making health and movement accessible to individuals of all abilities. Jake has witnessed the transformative power of movement, and shares how...
info_outline
Episode 230: How to Build Resilience By Questioning the Status Quo, with Victoria Lenormand
Brilliantly Resilient
“I realized I was battling in a system that valued the system over the child — and that was a big wake-up call.” ~Victoria Lenormand, Former Police Detective, Founder of Gemini Directions and Author of Have you ever felt like you just didn't fit in? Occasionally, and especially during the teenage years, everyone feels like they don't belong. But how would you manage feeling like that every day? And if you were a parent watching your child struggling with such feelings, how would you help them (and you) through it? Victoria Lenormand is a former police detective from the...
info_outline
Episode 229: How to Make Leadership a Habit, with Habituelle Founder, Jessi Sheridan
Brilliantly Resilient
“Habituelle is rooted in the belief that leadership isn’t a title—it’s how we show up, again and again.” ~ Jessi Sheridan, Founder of Habituelle When you think of habits, what comes to mind? Often, when we think of a habit, it's in a critical way--as in a bad habit we want to break. But Habituelle founder Jessi Sheridan believes that making something a habit is a positive way to create powerful, lasting change. In this episode of the Brilliantly Resilient podcast, Jessi Sheridan shares how her approach to leadership grew from the belief that leadership is a habit--one...
info_outline
Episode 228: Resilience Beyond the Expected: Harnessing Neurodivergent Brilliance with Rita Ramakrishnan
Brilliantly Resilient
"We have to reshape how we talk about neurodivergence in the workplace--shift from it being a disability that needs to be accomodated to a form of cognitive diversity we can cultivate and harness to drive success." Rita Ramakrishnan ~ Founder and CEO of What if the very things you’ve seen as challenges are actually your greatest strengths? Rita Ramakrishnan was diagnosed as neurodivergent and autistic as a young adult, but she always knew she was different. Getting her diagnosis proved to be the proverbial light bulb, explaining much of what made Rita wonder about how she...
info_outline
Episode 227: How Conflict Offers Opportunities to Build Resilience and Growth, with Ursula Taylor
Brilliantly Resilient
“Every disagreement is an invitation to pause, reflect, and reset before we respond.” Ursula Taylor ~ Founder, The legal profession is basically founded on conflict. One side tries to prove the other wrong in order to "win." A former commercial litigator with 17 years of experience, Ursula Taylor has seen her share of conflict, and she's committed to changing the idea of conflict as a battle to be won into an opportunity to clarify values, adjust perspective and focus on solutions instead of blame. By working with corporations and individuals through Conflict Reimagined,...
info_outline
Episode 226: The Power of Sharing Your Story, with Sara Connell
Brilliantly Resilient
“The very thing you’re afraid to say is often what will inspire someone else to keep going.” ~ Sara Connell, Best-selling Author and Founder of Thought Leader Academy Have you ever thought about writing a book but believe you have nothing to say? For those of us living "ordinary" lives, it's easy to feel our stories have little meaning beyond our own lives. Yet Sara Connell holds the opposite to be true. As founder of the Thought Leader Academy and a 5x Bestselling author, Sara knows that even everyday stories can have profound impact. In fact, the experiences that test us...
info_outline
Episode 225: How to Reset When Achievement Feels Empty, with Dr. Toni Warner
Brilliantly Resilient
“We get addicted to achievement because it’s how we prove we matter.” ~ Dr. Toni Warner, Certified Trauma Therapist and Author of Achievement. Do more. Be more. Check off more boxes. UGH. Most women feel the need to achieve, which is not a bad thing in itself. But when that need keeps us spinning, working, accomplishing, but still feeling drained, and unfulfilled, somethin' ain't working. Dr. Toni Warner’s has walked the walk, achieving by all of society's standards but feeling something missing. Her work centers on redefining success for high-achieving women as she...
info_outline
Episode 224: How to "Graduate" into a Joyful, Fulfilling Retirement, with Author and Retirement Expert Elizabeth Zelinka Parsons
Brilliantly Resilient
“The happiest people in retirement are the ones who stay curious.” Elizabeth Zelinka Parsons ~ Retirement Transition Expert, Former Attorney and Author of When you began your work life, do you remember thinking about retirement? For many decades, retirement was the 65-year-old's goal: the end of the "job" and the entry into leisure and relaxation until...um...the end??? Too often, though, the relaxation didn't materialize--at least not in the way it was intended, especially for those who not only enjoyed working, but whose work life seemed to define them. Too many retirements...
info_outline~ Meg Gluth, Owner & CEO, Catalynt Solutions, Inc.
Meg Gluth knows about the "critical importance of compassion, empathy, and resilience" in leadership.
Growing up in poverty in rural Iowa, Meg's challenges eventually drove her to turn to alcohol as an "inappropriate coping mechanism" as she navigated the turbulent waters of young adulthood. Despite her alcohol addiction, Meg finished college after 7 years (she was kicked out of her first college), and was admitted to law school--with no way to pay for it.
A remarkable act of kindness and faith changed Meg's outlook on life when the father of a friend co-signed Meg's loans and allowed her to pursue her goal. Still a functional alcoholic and despite more devastating hardships, Meg got sober in 2011, and began working for the company she would one day own and become CEO. Meg now leads Catalynt Solutions, Inc., one of the largest certified women-owned chemical suppliers in North America.
Meg's experiences taught her that "Life is a full contact sport," but she still believes there is room in leadership for kindness and empathy--along with the necessary accountability. Meg believes that holding her employees accountable while respecting their humanity encourages everyone to not only own their mistakes, but grow into being part of the solution to challenges.
Here at Brilliantly Resilient, we know the importance of accepting responsibility and being accountable for our mistakes, as well claiming our wins. Growth and evolution happen when we realize that as humans, we will always have seasons of success and failure, but we can live and lead with kindness and grace through both.
Check out Meg's website for more and tune into this week's episode of the Brilliantly Resilient podcast to hear more of Meg's wisdom. Be sure to listen for these additional bits of brilliance:
- Life is a full contact sport and our acceptance of that is sort of one of the key defining moments. I accept the full contact nature of the sport and I accept the discomfort.
- We look at people suffering and we don't want them to suffer. But the very suffering, the, the intensity of the suffering is what somebody like me needs in order to get out. Because change and resilience and healing and recovery is an inside job first.
- The start of resilience in a business is to say, OK, I see that you messed this up. I also know that you hold within you and this opportunity holds within it the seeds of some success to come from this failure. And I'm going to ask you to lead us out of it. That is the core of resilience.
- I'm not asking you to be perfect, but I'm asking to be a person that grabs for the rebound after you missed the shot.
- You can be compassionate. You can be kind and hold someone accountable. Accountability is the structure and the discipline and the knowledge for an employee, for a child, for a spouse. This is what it takes. These are my boundaries. This is what it takes to be successful.
- When people know where the bar is and they know where the line is, they feel more comfortable.somehow we've lost the narrative. We've lost the discussion around accountability, being loving.
- You are capable of being up here. You're performing down here? My job is to say to you I'm going to push you. I'm going to stretch you. I'm going to grow you to your capacity because I know when you're standing on the top of that line how good you're going to feel about yourself. And by the way, when you feel good about yourself and you're at your capacity, it turns into real.
- In this business, in life in general, I think it's OK to say I call myself a human centered capitalist because I I am. I don't make any secret of the fact that I want a for profit company that makes money. That's sort of the point. We can also be mindful in that that there is dignity and working hard and going home at the end of the day saying I earned this pay check.
- Where you are is the perfect place to start.
Let's be Brilliantly Resilient together!
(And click here to buy your copy of From Broken to Brilliant: How to Live a Brilliantly Resilient Life, by me!!)
XO,
Mary Fran