Meet Your Guide to Successful Transactions
Beyond Coaching: Guiding You Through the Business of Business
My transaction coaching of CEOs and Founders goes beyond your traditional coaching. I’m dedicated to helping you navigate the complexities of the “business of business” with clarity and balance. Through my own journey of self-discovery, I’ve developed tools to stay calm in the midst of chaos. Now these tools can guide you through the turbulence of high-stakes deals. I offer a unique blend of deep expertise and creative solutions, grounded in my core values of integrity, catalyzing change, insightful thinking, innovation, and enjoyment.
My Coaching Approach
I focus on three key areas to help you succeed:
- Clarity Amidst Chaos: Helping you cut through conflicting priorities and overwhelming information.
- Staying True to Your Goals: Keeping you aligned with your long-term vision and values.
- Steady Leadership: Supporting you in maintaining a strong, confident presence through the emotional complexities of the deal.
Real-Life Challenges I’ve Overcome in Deals
I don’t just talk about challenges, I’ve lived them. Some of the high-stakes situations I’ve dealt with include:
- Debt Restructuring Under Legal Threats: Navigating a debt restructuring with two restraining orders blocking the deal.
- A Coup and Counter-Revolt: Managing a debt restructuring during political upheaval.
- Closing Amid Legal Risks: Closing a financing round while fearing a lawsuit from a small shareholder.
- Securing Critical Signatures: Tracking down a shareholder at a house party in France for a needed signature for a closing.
- Investor Dilemmas: Managing a potential 20% investor’s acquisition-level diligence and knowing when to say no more (they became our largest shareholder).
- International IPO Challenges: A failed international IPO that couldn’t price (worked on two successful IPOs and follow-ons).
- Crisis Management in Latin America: Restructuring debt during a regional crisis with unpredictable government action.
- Navigating Political Uncertainty: Assessing how prospectus disclosures might impact a presidential election in an island nation.
- Co-Founder Departure: Guiding a co-founder to exit a startup with confidence amidst co-founder issues.
These experiences have shaped my approach to coaching. When I guide you, I bring these hard-earned lessons and the calm, strategic focus that helps you see a clear path forward, no matter how chaotic things get.
About Me
Hi, I’m Catherine R. Jones, founder of Zuzi® and your transaction coach.
Over the past 25 years, I’ve had the privilege of advising on deals totaling over $72 billion. My journey has taken me from finance attorney at a Wall Street firm to General Counsel for multinational companies, providing me with real-world experience at the negotiating table. This experience has shaped my coaching and allows me to offer strategic insight, guidance, and transaction coaching for CEOs and founders facing complex deals.
My Journey: From Law to Coaching
I began my career as a finance attorney at a Wall Street firm in NYC. Later, I moved to a large law firm in Miami, where I handled debt restructurings, IPOs, and SPACs. My path then took me in-house to Atlantis and One&Only Hotels, where I helped negotiate a $5 billion debt restructuring. Following that, as General Counsel for Virgin Mobile Latin America and Upside Business Travel, I led the debt and equity financing rounds.
The Human Side of Deals: Emotions, Egos, and Motivations
Through these roles, I saw that decisions were often driven by more than just logic and numbers. Emotions, egos, and motivations played significant roles in shaping outcomes. I witnessed countless negotiations where personal feelings and egos took center stage, overpowering the terms and numbers. In the midst of all the legal jargon and deal terms, it became clear: humans make the deals, not just the companies. These human factors were often the true drivers behind business success or failure, which led me to focus on coaching the human side of deals.
Why I Do What I Do: Empowering Leaders in High-Stakes Transactions
Having survived through the highs and lows of business transactions, I’m a recovering deal junkie. From economic downturns to closing major financing rounds and surviving market shifts, I’ve experienced it all. Along the way, I faced the emotional rollercoaster of critical decision-making under pressure, exhausted, frustrated, and unsure if I was on the right path. I know what it feels like to believe every deal is a battle, wondering if it will ever come together.
The isolation that comes with being at the top is another challenge I understand. As an executive, I often felt like there was no one to vent to or to help me see the bigger picture. Overwhelmed by choices, I didn’t know which path to take. Many of my peers have faced these same struggles, and that’s why I created Zuzi® – to help leaders avoid these obstacles.
My Coaching Philosophy: Focusing on the Human Side of Deals
Although I thrived in negotiations as a lawyer and executive, focusing on legal risks and wording, I soon realized that emotions and egos often swayed decisions rather than logic. My journey of self-discovery led me to explore leadership coaching and management consulting. In doing so, I discovered a missing niche: Transaction Coaching.
Today, I combine my ICF coaching training, mentoring experience, and legal and business advising to provide a coaching approach that addresses the frustrations common in high-stakes deals.
At Zuzi®, I provide transaction coaching to CEOs and founders to help avoid the pitfalls I’ve seen, find clarity in the chaos, and make decisions that align with their core values. My focus is on empowering you to manage the human side of deals—both your own and others—so your decisions align with what you truly want for yourself and your business.
Want to learn more about my Coaching Process?
Through my journey of self-discovery, I’ve developed tools to help you stay calm in chaos. I now share these tools with my clients to guide them through the emotional turbulence of high-stakes deals.
Sign up for through transaction coaching for CEOs and Founders.
Ready to Take Control of Your Deal-Making Journey?
Book a free discovery call today and let’s explore how I can guide you toward success.
Catherine gained her experience from working at
Legal & Professional Background
I employ my skills and knowledge developed as a coach, business advisor, former executive and GC, and a corporate lawyer to support you in your transaction journey.
Brief summary of my experience:
- General Counsel of a travel technology company through two financing rounds
- General Counsel of a Latin American telecom through 7 financing transactions and 3 strategic partnerships
- SVP, Associate General Counsel, and Compliance Officer of an international hotel manager and operator through multiple financing transactions and a debt restructuring
- Corporate Associate at a Florida office of a national law firm where I advised on multiple IPOs, financings, and M&A transactions
- Capital Markets and Project Development Associate at a NYC office of an international firm where I advised on numerous financing transactions as bank and company counsel
- ICF Trained Coach
- Mentor for multiple cohorts of Babson’s College WinLab accelerator
Education
I completed my undergraduate education at Wake Forest University, where I double-majored in Politics and Spanish. I am fluent in Spanish and had an internship on the Supreme Court of Argentina while in law school at the University of Michigan Law School. I was also as an editor of the Michigan Journal of International Law and organized a conference on Post-Cold War International Security Threats: Terrorism, Drugs and Organized Crime.
Associations and Interests
Outside of work, I currently serve on the Advisory Council for the Wake Forest Center for Entrepreneurship and as a mentor for start-ups at SCAPE in Durango. I also presented at West Slope Startup Week in August 2023.
I served as Executive in Residence/Mastermind Coach for Babson College’s Miami WINLab (an accelerator program for Female Founders) for two years. I also was President of her Condo Association Board for five years, as well as a member of the Wake Forest National Alumni Council.
I became a digital nomad two years ago after selling my condo in Miami Beach, FL. So far I spent time in Asheville, the Puget sound area, Lake Tahoe, Sedona, Santa Fe and am currently based in Durango, Colorado.
You know your business, but you don't always have experience in these high-stakes transactions. You need someone that can help you understand what is normal and what is unusual. To explain terms and tell you that yes the deal may feel like its going to fall apart multiple times - that isn't unusual. Too many founders and executives don't know what a typical transaction looks like and how to use their various advisors. That's my goal. To help you succeed.