Linda McMahon, who serves as the 25th Administrator of the, is just one of five women in President Trump's 22-person cabinet.

For the past five years, Georgia has been ranked #1 for business success due to small businesses, giving the leader of the SBA even more reason to pay the state a visit.

McMahon visited CATMEDIA’s Atlanta headquarters during her SBA Ignite Tour to meet with SBA’s 2016 Georgia Small Business Person of the Year, Catherine Downey, to discuss Downey’s personal SBA success story. Downey is the founder and CEO of CATMEDIA, a full-service communications and training company, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

A highly successful entrepreneur and reputable business executive, McMahon is on tour visiting small businesses across the nation, spreading awareness on the agency’s programs and services, and getting real-time input on today’s most pressing small business challenges.

McMahon has been a longtime advocate of women in leadership and business, and has been widely recognized as one of the country’s top female executives. As the co-founder and former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), based in Stamford, Connecticut, she helped grow WWE from a 13-person regional operation to a publicly traded global enterprise with more than 800 employees in offices worldwide. She stepped down as CEO of WWE in 2009 to run for the U.S. Senate, and was the Republican nominee for the State of Connecticut in 2010 and 2012.

McMahon is quoted in saying, "When you are constantly in a really heavily dominated male environment, the one counsel that I always give to young women and women who are older as well, is don't think you have to change who you are.”

When it came to choosing McMahon to head up the SBA, McMahon expressed that President Trump, wanted “someone who’s built a business, who’s been through the ups and downs; someone who knows what it’s like, who can walk the walk, and talk the talk of a business owner.”

CATMEDIA is honored and humbled to have been one of McMahon’s stops on the SBA Ignite Tour. The company has been named one of the op 100 fastest growing companies and top five women-owned businesses in America by Inc. Magazine. CEO, Catherine Downey, led the SBA Administrator on a tour of CATMEDIA’s three-story headquarters: a 5,750 square foot facility purchased through the SBA 504 loan program.

Downey, a single mom, started the firm (as CATVIDEO), using her experience in television production, media, and project management. She built a thriving business while also caring for her young family. Her years of hard work and sacrifice paid off. With now grown children, Downey has redoubled her efforts to expand her firm to meet the ever-changing needs of federal and commercial clients in today’s fast-paced world. In 2011, Downey changed the company name to CATMEDIA to reflect its expanding services.

Downey credits the SBA and its partnering organizations for helping her successfully scale up the firm and her executive management skills. “I feel like a poster child for the SBA as I have participated in many federal government programs and services that have helped grow my business. Each class or meeting has been a building block for my growth and the growth of the company,” says Downey..Downey and CATMEDIA representatives visit the SBA to remain engaged and plugged into the vast network of resources.

“They have an enormous amount of resources to help you. I would not be in business today if it weren’t for the SBA,” says Downey. Through Counselors to America’s Small Business, Downey learned about federal procurement, which lead to her certification in SBA’s 8(a) Business Development Program. Downey is a client of the Georgia Small Business Development Center and a graduate of of the center’s Fast Track program. She also graduated from SBA’s Emerging Leaders Program as valedictorian in 2014. As a way to pay back, Downey services othe the SBDC advisory board and speaks to various groups for the SBA.

CATMEDIA has been recognized as a leader among government services contractors. Fully staffed with true innovators, the firm is patent-pending on several training and communications technologies. Additionally, CATMEDIA has thrice been named to the Inc. 500 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America, and made it in to the Top Ten of the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 2015 Pacesetter Awards for Atlanta’s 100 fastest-growing private companies.