Episode 338: Empowering Women in Leadership: Breaking Barriers with Linda Fisk

Intro

0:00:18 – (Bob Woods): Welcome to the Making Sales Social podcast featuring the top voices in sales, marketing, and business. Join Brynne Tillman, and me, Bob Woods, as we each bring you the best tips and strategies our guests teach their clients so you can leverage them for your own virtual and social selling. This episode of the Making Sales Social podcast is brought to you by Social Sales Link, the company that helps you start more trust-based conversations without being salesy through the power of LinkedIn and AI. Start your journey for free by joining our resource library. Welcome to the show.

0:01:00 – (Brynne Tillman): Welcome back to Making Sales Social. I’m Brynne Tillman, and I’m very excited to have my special guest today, Linda Fisk, who is a multi-award-winning CEO, TEDx speaker, five times international bestselling author, us senator for the WBAF TV and podcast host, keynote speaker, and University professor dedicated to amplifying and extending the success of other high caliber business leaders. Linda, welcome to the show.

0:01:32 – (Linda Fisk): Brynne, it is such an honor to be here on your show. I gotta tell you, I am a big fan of your platform. I’ve listened to, it seems like all of your episodes, and you have the most fabulous guests, and you talk about the most impactful topics. You know, I feel honored to be among the guests that you’ve selected. Be on your podcast and always, I learned something. Every single I tune in, I take away some sort of golden nugget that I can apply to my business. So thank you.

0:02:04 – (Brynne Tillman): So I’m going to start with, this is the magic of Linda Fisk. Right? Like, this is her interview, yet she starts by talking about other people, which is the core of your program, the leader, the lead hership global program, which I recently joined. I’m very excited to learn more. So this interview is also selfish to find out a little bit more about, but I’m really excited to talk about leadership globally.

0:02:34 – (Brynne Tillman): I’m a member of the C suite network, which is where we met, and through that, we had a great conversation. And this is a wonderful kind of add-on to that membership. And I want to talk a little bit about the vision and the inspiration around that. How does leadership global address the unique challenges and opportunities facing women in leadership today?

0:02:59 – (Linda Fisk): Yeah, I love that. Thank you so much, Brynne. You know, a lot of times I have found that women face implicit and explicit biases. They face political, cultural, and sometimes economic disadvantages that are really unique to women. And so what we have really tried to do is create a safe, private community of women who are in positions of leadership and influence to help create and support personal and professional breakthroughs, to help guide women to achieving greater leverage and greater freedom in both their careers and their businesses.

0:03:40 – (Linda Fisk): So we have created a global community of world-class women, thought leaders, and experts that are really brought together to collaborate and to facilitate incredible leaps in performance and success acceleration and excellent outcomes for each other.

0:04:01 – (Brynne Tillman): Yeah, I love that. And that really comes through in everything that you do, that this is really about you elevating other people. And I think that’s amazing. So I appreciate that. You know, would you mind sharing a few transformative success stories of members who have really benefited from the network and the resources through Leadership Global?

0:04:24 – (Linda Fisk): Absolutely. I think the core benefit of Leadership Global is that we are providing a safe haven for women to be able to be vulnerable, transparent, and really honest about the challenges and some of the obstacles that they’re facing. And then they get to tap into the expertise and the experience and the lived knowledge and experience of other women in leadership who have already forged a path that they’re following.

0:04:54 – (Linda Fisk): So this is an opportunity to not only meet inspirational leaders but to create lifelong friendships, to be surrounded by people who are going to be deeply invested in your success. This is a place where women share freely their lessons, their lived experience, their shortcuts, and everything they’ve learned to help grow and scale the business businesses that they lead. And what I hear all the time is that women feel inspired and motivated by other women leaders who have cheered them on, who have provided counsel to them, who have supported them to greater and greater levels of success and impact.

0:05:35 – (Linda Fisk): I have seen nonprofits get fully funded. I have seen joint ventures created. That joint venture has then doubled and tripled the size of the businesses of the two partners. I’ve seen partnerships formed. I’ve seen new divisions of companies created. And in that new division of the company, it’s led to a 40% to 50% increase in overall revenue. Again, I think the purpose of Leadership Global is to help guide women to achieving greater leverage, and greater freedom in their careers in business, and really accelerate their success. So not only do you receive an incredible community of extraordinary women to collaborate with and coordinate with, to stress test ideas, to be able to have a very safe and transparent conversation about what’s working and what’s not all around the globe, but we also provide a comprehensive methodology that really is designed to help unleash the full potential of high performing, high integrity leaders.

0:06:41 – (Linda Fisk): These are growth-oriented leaders who are dedicated to making an impact. These are purpose-driven companies, companies that are designed to create industry disruption. And so we create a confidential, supportive, and private community for these women to help accelerate their success. And we do that by helping them define their vision, grow their leadership, expand their influence, and leave a lasting legacy. And sometimes that means that we give them lots of TV cameras and microphones, right? We get.

0:07:15 – (Linda Fisk): We help raise their visibility, we help expand their influence, we help connect them to media outlets that are excited about sharing their story. Sometimes that means giving them access to funding. As you noted, I’ve been a us senator for the World Business Angels Fund. And through that relationship, through that community, we can find funding for women who deserve to have that capital influx into their business so that they can grow and scale their business and really be able to make the impact that they’ve designed for their business and their life.

0:07:55 – (Linda Fisk): And sometimes that’s giving them a roadmap to help move their business from a million dollars to $10 million, or 10 million to 50 million, or 50 to 100. So we want to expand the influence of every single woman, and we want to help them leave a lasting legacy. And again, we do that through the community. We harness the knowledge, influence, the trust of high-performing women all over the world. And that helps stimulate idea exchange. It helps support creativity, and we help provide the resources and tools, the experiences, the events, and the learning platforms to accelerate both personal and professional growth.

0:08:38 – (Brynne Tillman): That’s a ton, right? That’s amazing. So I want to touch on a few things. You talked about methodology. Talk to me a little bit more about why this methodology is so different from, you know, other mentorship-type programs.

0:08:54 – (Linda Fisk): Yeah. One of the things that I think makes leadership global a little bit unique is that we don’t have a prescribed formula, we don’t have a program that you just follow these ten steps and you’re guaranteed to, you know, increase your success. We know that most women, define success slightly differently. For some women, they want to write their first novel. Others want to stand on a TEDx stage.

0:09:24 – (Linda Fisk): Some want really, really elite and privileged media opportunities. Some want to build a global network. And so we listen first and foremost to how women define success. What does success mean to you? And we actually created a whole diagnostic around that called vantage point that helps women really think about what their five-year vision is, what their one-year goals are, what strategies they pursued, and what’s worked and what hasn’t. Where do you feel stuck? Where are you hitting an obstacle or roadblock? What’s part of your learning journey?

0:10:01 – (Linda Fisk): And we actually walk through that with every single woman to deeply understand how they define success and what’s most important to them. And then based on that conversation and based on that diagnostic, we connect them to, as you said, a comprehensive methodology to help them accelerate their success. So the very first step is listening. The second step is really having a deep conversation about what’s important.

0:10:30 – (Linda Fisk): And then it’s a partnership with that member to give them connections to this trusted group of influential women. Listen. We have women in business, politics, and entertainment, and we try to really understand who is going to make the biggest difference for the member who is a part of leadership global. Who do they need to be connected with? Who do they need to be introduced to? And we open up our entire global community to those women.

0:11:00 – (Linda Fisk): And then we have an entire library full of diagnostics. So these are diagnostics assessments and resources that help women uncover blind spots and accelerate their own success. So we have the vantage point predictive index. We have a growth in scale assessment and personality assessment. So anything that can help women take that next step in their journey and unlock the secrets of what they need to be focused on to really accelerate their success, we absolutely make that available to them. And all these assessments and diagnostics are provided for free.

0:11:36 – (Linda Fisk): And then we also have an entire resource center that is chocked full of workbooks, worksheets, articles, podcasts, step-by-step video instruction around anything that someone could be interested in learning about. So, if you said, I don’t understand social selling, what does that even mean? I know I should be using social platforms to create connections. I don’t even know how to get started. Well, we would introduce them to Bryn Tillman, and we would point them to all the resources in our resource center that help them answer that question provided by Bryn.

0:12:10 – (Linda Fisk): So we provide tailored solution guides and career playbooks that help women overcome any challenge that they could be focused on. And we provide confidential consultation with peers. So if somebody says, I need to create a robust and reliable sales funnel, I feel like I’m not doing a good job in developing that sales funnel and creating real conversion, where we would say, have you met Bryn? We want to provide confidential consultations with people that can help solve their problems.

0:12:43 – (Linda Fisk): So it’s not about me. It’s not about my program or my workshop who I am as a leader or my particular methodology. It’s the collective of the entire community that every single member gets to tap into. And then we also provide expert-led coaching and mentoring. What that means is that we are harnessing the knowledge, influence, and trust of high-performing women all over the world to help women get access to the coaching, mentoring, knowledge, the experience that they need in order to take that next step.

0:13:24 – (Brynne Tillman): Great. So let’s back out of the leadership global for a moment, and let’s just look at the bigger picture around, like, the challenges that women leaders are facing today. And, like, how can they, other than joining the group, but how can they overcome some of the hurdles that women face, typically more than their male counterparts?

0:13:50 – (Linda Fisk): Yeah, and I would say that you know, as I said, I think that women often face cultural, political, socioeconomic challenges that men typically do not. But it really kind of depends on the environment that you’re in, what those challenges look like, exactly, what it is that you’re facing uniquely, and. And what it is that you’re trying to create in the world, what it is that you’re trying to impact. For some women, that’s simply stepping into a boardroom. Right. So they’re on a corporate track, and they would like to be able to be in a position of board service.

0:14:36 – (Linda Fisk): And usually that is a paid boardroom. And, you know, research has shown that diversity matters because it brings a broad collection of experiences perspectives, and backgrounds to create better decisions. But we know that women still hold less than 15% of senior positions among the Fortune 500 and less than 17% of corporate board seats. So there’s still a gap in terms of gender parity in the boardroom. An even smaller percentage are actually board chairs. Only 5% are board chairs in any corporate boardroom anywhere in the US.

0:15:21 – (Linda Fisk): What we know is that there’s still a lot of work to be done to create gender parity and to really optimize boardroom decision-making through gender diversity, which I think should be a critical goal of every organization, especially in the kind of highly complex and risky world we’re all living in right now. We have got to continue to elevate women’s position in the boardroom. And research from scholars has found that women need to hold at least three board seats on any board to create critical mass, which can lead to better financial performance.

0:16:01 – (Linda Fisk): And reaching critical mass can literally change boardroom dynamics substantially. Creating an environment in which, you know, innovative ideas can spring, and often from diversity, often from gender diversity. So what I would say is that diversity requirements should be considered, and I feel like they should be enacted across states in the US and all across the country. And, if you look at the global environment, only 16% of women held board seats in 2020 and that was a slight 1% increase over 2019, according to a report by Deloitte.

0:16:46 – (Linda Fisk): But we have got to do a better job allowing women to join boards where they are celebrated for their differences, where they are invited into the boardroom because they do bring a slightly different perspective. And I think that women might need to be, right now, a bit more accomplished than men, but to be able to be considered for a board seat. But they also contradict the popular belief that women board members should have non-operational or support function experience.

0:17:25 – (Linda Fisk): In my mind, women should be invited to boards simply because it introduces a level of diversity that will strengthen the board. So that is one of the, I think, most important aspects that women face as it pertains to board service. But there are just as many, I think, important obstacles that women face when it comes to being an entrepreneur and getting access to funding. There are so many obstacles that women face, especially women of color, getting access to funding if you’re an entrepreneur.

0:18:10 – (Linda Fisk): And so I could talk about that for quite a while, but it really depends on the path that you’re following and what you believe are your next steps. The kinds of challenges and obstacles that you might be facing, where you need support, where you need help to break through that barrier and actually reach the purpose that you have for your career and your life.

0:18:38 – (Brynne Tillman): Yeah, that’s very powerful. And I’m very excited about the future of women in business, but it’s still, we have a long way to go. So when I hear some of those stats, I’m still a little shocked and blown away. But you know what? It’s groups like this that will get us there faster. So very excited. About two quick questions before we start wrapping up. The first one is, how did you develop this philosophy?

0:19:11 – (Brynne Tillman): What happened in your world that got you to say, you know what, this is my focus. This is where I really want to put my energy.

0:19:20 – (Linda Fisk): Yeah, you know, again, I think some of this is a personal experience. You know what I experienced as I was building my career, and I was fortunate enough to serve in the C suite at a fairly young age. And so I served as a CMO for Fortune 500 companies, and I served as a CEO for thriving businesses that were growing at exponential rates. And so I had quite a bit of good fortune when it came to building my career.

0:19:54 – (Linda Fisk): But that doesn’t mean that I didn’t experience a lot of the microaggressions or a lot of the kind of implicit and explicit biases they hear from women every single day. I had the good fortune of serving in a C-suite position for one of the largest and most prestigious leadership organizations in the world. Now, in that organization, only 5% of the members were women. And interestingly, women were also churning out of that organization at a really rapid rate.

0:20:31 – (Linda Fisk): And I was really confused by that, because this is an incredibly prestigious organization, and it is incredibly difficult to become a member of this organization. So my thought was, why would women be leaving after they worked so hard to get in the door? Why in the heck would they be leaving? And why is it that only 5% of the members are women? So I did sort of a global series of focus groups where I met with women all over the world and asked that question, you know, what is this experience like for you as a woman in this organization?

0:21:09 – (Linda Fisk): And what I heard over and over and over again all around the world is, yes, it was really difficult to be admitted into this organization, and there were a lot of hoops to jump through, and it took a long time to be qualified to meet the criteria to be able to join this organization. But once I got here, you know, I got to tell you, the other men in my chapter, in my region, in my experience, you know, I didn’t feel like they respected me. I felt marginalized. I felt demeaned. I felt like they were treating me as their executive assistant. I was told to take notes or go get lunch.

0:21:51 – (Linda Fisk): It was just sort of this really demeaning, debasing kind of experience. And I have worked way too hard to get where I am to be treated in that way. So I left. And when we heard that story over and over and over again, I don’t think anyone meant to dishonor these women or devalue them, but that was the experience. So what I wanted to do when I had the opportunity was to be able to step into a situation where I created a place where women are incredibly honored, where they are valued, where they are seen as incredible contributors to a corporation, an organization, a movement, a community, an industry.

0:22:45 – (Linda Fisk): I wanted women to be heard and seen and valued. So leadership, global, first and foremost, has created a culture where all women are considered worthy, where they are honored, where they are listened to, where they are taken seriously, where they are put in positions of influence and power. And we think that that does have the opportunity to change culture, change perspectives, change worldviews, and we see it happening every single day.

0:23:17 – (Brynne Tillman): You know, it’s interesting because we do all have implicit biases, whatever it may be. And a lot of it is imprinted from when we were young. Right. So the hope is, as time goes on the next generation sees more women in leadership versus probably what you and I saw growing up. Right. Significantly more. The biases may start to, well, always have some implicit biases, I’m sure, but they’ll start to shift a little, and people will start to expect that there are equal women in leadership as there are men.

0:23:55 – (Linda Fisk): So I think that we’re seeing incredible strides being taken in sports. When you look at the Olympics, this is the first time that there was true gender parity in the Olympics. Right. And so we’re starting to see these incredibly exciting inroads in professional sports and the Olympics. Olympics and leadership in lots of dimensions. But the one place where we still have some work to do is in the boardroom and access to capital.

0:24:23 – (Linda Fisk): And as you suggested, we all need to be aware of any kind of implicit or explicit bias that we have so that we can work on overcoming those things.

0:24:35 – (Brynne Tillman): Great. I really love this. It’s fantastic. Okay, my second to last question is, what question did I not ask you that I should have?

0:24:47 – (Linda Fisk): You’re such a great interviewer, Bryn. I don’t think that there’s anything that you haven’t covered. I do think that if women are experiencing roadblocks or obstacles or if they are experiencing some sort of challenge, I think it’s important to find a community of like-minded leaders that can lift them, that can support them, can help them break through those barriers. And I would really recommend for any leader to be in a community of people that inspire them, that help them learn and grow and help literally accelerate however you define success. And finding that community is the game changer. That’s when you can see that you’re taking huge leaps forward, especially when you feel stuck and stymied and feel as though you’re just not sure the way through an obstacle or a roadblock.

0:25:43 – (Brynne Tillman): Fantastic. I love that. So let’s say some of our listeners are like, well, you know, maybe I’ll check out Linda’s group. How would they contact you? What’s the best way for them to get in touch with you?

0:25:54 – (Linda Fisk): Absolutely. It’s [email protected]. That’s really easy. Just shoot me a note in my email, lindaeadhershipglobal.com, and I will promise to respond to anyone who reaches out.

0:26:09 – (Brynne Tillman): Oh, very much appreciated. Thank you so much for being such a fabulous guest and really bringing some aha. Moments and insights into this conversation. So I appreciate that. And for all our listeners, while you’re out and about, don’t forget to make your sales social.

0:26:31 – (Bob Woods): Don’t miss an episode. Visit the socialsaleslink.com podcast and leave a review down below. Tell us what you think, what you learned, and what you want to hear from us next. Register for free [email protected] you can also listen to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Play. Visit our website, socialsaleslink.com for more information.

Outro:

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