“Don’t propose marriage on the first date.”

Catharine O’Leary might be talking about email marketing… but if you’ve ever sent a “book a call” link to cold subscribers and heard crickets, you already know exactly what she means.

Catharine spent 25+ years doing market research for major brands—helping them understand what people actually want and how they decide. Then she became an entrepreneur… and ran into the same problem so many founders face:

You know you need a list.

But building one (that actually engages) can feel slow, confusing, and painfully techy.

In this episode of Grow Your Impact, Income & Influence, Catharine breaks down what really creates an engaged list—and how to get your first 1,000 subscribers without throwing money at ads or spending years doing it one person at a time.

Steve and Catharine cover:

📩 Why “build your list fast” often builds a list that doesn’t care (and how to avoid the ghost-town list problem)

🧲 What a lead magnet is supposed to do (hint: it’s not a discovery call—and it’s not a “buy my $7 thing” ambush)

🏁 The fastest path to a real quick win that makes subscribers trust you enough to take the next step

🔥 How to write emails people actually read (even if you “aren’t a writer”)

🤖 Where AI helps—and where it hurts when you’re trying to sound like a human, not a brochure

🎯 Why segmentation beats “more content” (and how to find the 3AM problem your audience is actually worried about)

🚫 Why most entrepreneurs shouldn’t run ads yet (and what to do instead so you’re not lighting money on fire)

👥 Thousand Person Tribe: a cold-traffic shortcut to your first 1,000—without tech overwhelm, confusion, or calendar chaos

If you’re building an audience from scratch (or your list is growing but not converting), Catharine will help you stop guessing—and start building a list that actually pays attention.

👉 Want to try Catharine’s system and get your first 100 leads?

Check the links in the show notes for TPT Gift / Thousand Person Tribe.

“Most people aren’t failing financially… they’re just flying blind.”

Daniel Rodgers spent 20 years running high-stakes programs at Microsoft and Google—where you don’t get to guess your way to success.

Then he took that same program management mindset and used it to build his own “escape plan” to financial freedom… and retired earlier than he planned.

This episode is for anyone who wants their time back—but doesn’t want to live on ramen, obsess over stock picks, or feel overwhelmed by “money math.”

Steve and Daniel cover:

🧭 The real reason financial freedom feels hard: you don’t have visibility, metrics, or a plan (and that creates anxiety)

🎮 How Daniel “gamified” retirement by treating it like a launch—complete with KPIs, forecasting, and checkpoints

🧠 The Ostrich Effect: why smart people avoid looking at finances (and how to break the cycle fast)

📊 The tool most people are really paying advisors for—and why Daniel gives his version away for free

💳 Debt vs. investing (the blunt truth): why you don’t “out-invest” high-interest debt—and what to do first instead

🧾 Why budgeting feels like punishment (and how to reframe it as an audit that buys you freedom)

🛍️ The 3 categories of spending—and how to cut costs without giving up what you actually love

🚪 The “unlocked prison door” moment: why people stay in jobs they hate—even after they’ve reached their number

🧪 The retirement “dry run” Daniel recommends before you quit (so you don’t panic, backpedal, or get bored)

If you’ve ever thought, “I make good money… why do I still feel trapped?”—this conversation will flip a switch.

👉 Learn more about Daniel’s book, podcast, and free toolkit at EscapeTheClock.com

What happens when the system tells you to be patient… while your health is declining?

In this powerful and unexpected conversation, Steve Werner sits down with Mark Burnett—an entrepreneur who was diagnosed with both Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s and told the standard solution would take a decade (if it ever arrived at all).

Instead of waiting, Mark went searching.

He breaks down how he uncovered international research, tested a natural approach on himself for six months, and went from Stage 3 Parkinson’s to running a marathon. Along the way, he made a bold decision to turn his personal solution into a company—without cutting corners or hiding behind hype.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why “wait 10 years” is not a strategy when your health is on the line

• The difference between symptom management and personal responsibility

• How Mark approached research like an entrepreneur—not a patient

• What it took to earn trust in a skeptical supplement industry

• Why transparency, medical testing, and lived proof matter more than marketing

• The unexpected business lessons that came from building a mission-driven company

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a caregiver, or someone navigating uncertainty, this episode challenges how we think about health, innovation, and what’s possible when you refuse to accept the default answer.

👉 Learn more about Mark’s journey and research at MyBrainRestore.com