Episode 10: Saying Yes with Catherine Madden
In my senior year of high school, I came to the US as a cultural exchange student through a Rotary Club. As a part of this one year exchange program, I stayed with a family in Arizona and attended the local high school. Because I was an exchange student, I was offered a place in the Student Council at my school, a position that other students had to be elected for. But I declined the offer and chose to take a Physics class instead. I hid behind the excuse that I needed the science class credits for college (after three years of high school in India, I probably had enough science credits for a lifetime). But the truth was that I was scared that I would make a fool of myself. So instead of exploring this unique opportunity and living the American high school experience to its fullest, I chose to hide behind books. It was still a fantastic year full of many new experiences - I ate a taco for the first time, I sold Girl Scout cookies, and I spent six weeks traveling around the US by train. But I don’t have many memories from the school. And I still wish I had found the courage to say “yes”. I would have made many more friends and memories.
In this episode, Catherine reminisces about an experience from the earlier part of her career when she said no to an opportunity because of self doubt. This experience taught her an important lesson, and even today motivates her to override her self-doubt and say yes to opportunities.
Catherine Madden is a co-founder of UXDX, a global conference and community that helps tech team's shift from projects to product teams. Catherine has project managed events for over a decade and has a background in marketing working for a number of years in Australia’s Marketing body, the ADMA. Personally, she loves challenging and testing her limits both on a professional and personal level.
UXDX USA is taking place on June 16th - 17th 2021. The online conference will deliver live and on-demand content through case study talks, panels and workshops from global leaders. There is a special $10 discount for the listeners of Unseen Battles. Simply use PARUL10 at the checkout.
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