536. She Turned Her Personal Productivity Journal into a 7-Figure Business w/ Cathryn Lavery

The ONE Thing

NOVA Media

Business, Careers, Entrepreneurship

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 December 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

So much of life runs on a “default” operating system—school, work, productivity tools, even your phone. But what happens when that default just doesn’t work for you? In this episode, Jay Papasan sits down with BestSelf Co. founder Cathryn Lavery to talk about being diagnosed with ADHD at 31, realizing she was a “Mac forced to run PC software,” and how she began designing systems that actually matched her brain. Cathryn shares the INCUP framework (interest, novelty, challenge, urgency, passion) and how she uses gamification, short time frames, and keystone habits to stay focused. You’ll hear the origin story of the wildly successful BestSelf Journal, the shift from being a “product company” to a “problem company,” and how relationship struggles inspired tools like the Intimacy Deck and other conversation decks. Challenge of the Week: Start a “problem log” in the notes app on your phone. For the next week, capture every small friction or annoyance in your day—personal, work, or relationships. At the end of the week, review your list and ask: Which of these problems am I uniquely suited to solve? *** To learn more, and for the complete show notes, visit: the1thing.com/pods. Links & Tools from This Episode: Learn more about BestSelf Co. BestSelf Journal Intimacy Deck Self-Discovery Deck Core Values Deck Helm Free Resources Want to be a guest or share feedback? Email podcast@the1thing.com or send us an audio note at Speakpipe.com/the1thing. Produced by NOVA

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week's guest is Catherine Lavery. She is the founder of the best self company and a good friend of
0:05.8	mine. What I love about our conversation is we're exploring. If you feel maybe out of place
0:11.5	and your workplace and how you pursue your work, like maybe the default operating system
0:16.8	the world's throwing at you just wasn't made for you, you're going to find a lot of
0:21.3	inspiration in this podcast. That was Catherine. She got diagnosed late in life with ADHD,
0:27.0	and she's also just kind of cut from a different cloth. What worked for everybody else
0:31.5	wasn't necessarily going to work for her, and she found the courage and the curiosity
0:36.3	to go find her own innovative ways to solve it.
0:39.7	And guess what?
0:40.5	Those ended up turning in some of her biggest selling products in her amazing company.
0:45.1	So there's lots of entrepreneurial inspiration here.
0:47.9	And for those of you who may just be having a soundtrack in your head,
0:51.6	something's not right about me.
0:53.6	Maybe you can reverse it. And you can start saying something's not right about me, maybe you can reverse it,
0:54.9	and you can start saying something's not right around the default system and I'm going to find
0:59.4	my own. I hope you enjoy this episode. I'm Jay Papazan and this is the one thing, your weekly
1:04.4	guide to the simple steps that lead to extraordinary results.
1:22.5	Catherine, welcome to the show.
1:24.0	Thanks for having me.
1:26.0	You know, we've been in the studio before.
1:46.0	For our listeners, you've helped us design our core values deck, which people love. So thank you again. That was the last time we were here. Neighbress can remember it was like maybe 2017, 2018? I don't even know. Was it that long? I was like, was it before I have my daughter after? I think it was before. Okay. But anyway, we're here again and get to hear about your journey. And yesterday at our One Thing Summit, our day before yesterday, we were talking about ADHD and performance.
1:54.4	And you talked about this feeling that so many of us get.
	...

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