About Me
Courtney Howard—Owner, Catbird Consulting
I’m Courtney (she/her), owner of Catbird Consulting. I live in Buffalo, NY with my husband, son, and our two cats.
I began my career in New York City at a startup before joining Google to manage Strategy & Operations across multiple teams. While in NYC, I also completed a Master’s degree in Management & Systems with a concentration in Strategy & Leadership at NYU.
After more than a decade in NYC, my husband and I moved our family back home to Buffalo and opened a restaurant called Bidwell. We were thrilled by the support we received from the local dining community and were proud to serve our guests, right up until we decided to close in 2022.
From startup, to corporate behemoth, to brick-and-mortar business, my career path has been unusual but I’ve gained a unique point of view from my experiences.
My time in corporate tech & at a startup taught me to wear multiple hats, maintain extremely high standards, and focus relentlessly on the end user of my work.
Owning a restaurant showed me the power of serving my local community, creating an uncommon customer experience, and transforming constraints into creative solutions.
Here’s the fundamental lesson I’ve learned—success is something each person must define for themselves. We move closer to it by rooting our actions in our personal values and prioritizing sustainability in our work and our lives.
For me, that looks like using my knowledge, experience, and education to help small business owners achieve their own vision of success. That’s why I started Catbird Consulting.
Learn more about the services I offer, get in touch with me, or schedule an intro call to chat about how we can work together to help you reclaim your time, strengthen your business, and move decisively toward your goals.
To hear more of my story and what led me to launch Catbird, listen to Ashton Warner’s interview with me on her podcast Long Story Long:
Catbird Core Values
First and foremost, I value diversity, equity, and inclusivity. I welcome clients, partners, and community members of all backgrounds and identities.
I see it as my responsibility to communicate with and serve others in the ways that are most respectful and supportive of their needs. I don’t tolerate hateful speech or actions.
If you’ve read up on my strategic planning service, you’ve seen that I work with clients to identify their core business values—so I figured it’s only fair that I share my own as well.
The core values that serve as the foundation of my work at Catbird are:
