Elevating Boardroom Impact with Strategic Communication with Lisa Small

Join me for an enlightening episode as Lisa Small, co-founder of Habitual Growth, shares her remarkable journey from pharmacy to medtech executive. Delve into her story of resilience after a layoff, igniting a quest for strategic skill development and leadership. Discover the transformative power of influential mentors and the essence of personal evolution as we navigate the complexities of career advancement together.

In this conversation, we unveil the secrets of effective communication and presentation, essential tools for climbing the career ladder. Gain insights into mastering body language, even in virtual boardrooms, and the importance of practice and feedback in refining professional skills. Explore the impact of volunteering and public speaking on confidence and perception beyond the traditional workday. As we conclude, we explore navigating boardroom dynamics with grace and authority, reflecting on the ripple effect of legacy, kindness, and recognition in one's professional journey. Join us for a dose of inspiration and actionable insights to carve your path to success.

NOTABLE QUOTES
"It's incredibly important for leaders [to communicate] the potential that you see in somebody versus the reality that [you] only see with [your] two eyes." – Lisa
"Look at what are the outcomes that need to be achieved and break those down into things that I can take action on every single day." – Lisa
"I came to the interviews extremely prepared. I was determined to figure out a path forward to show that I could learn." – Lisa
"To develop in your career, you have to take some of that initiative and you have to have those conversations." – Philip
"Asking for feedback is something that might not be what you want to hear and people might look at you funny for a little while, but eventually, they'll get used to the fact that you are trying to genuinely grow." – Lisa
"If you just take the risk and ask, people genuinely do want to help and they will continue to support you." – Lisa
“Asking for feedback is a unique thing. And you're not only getting that feedback, you're building rapport with that person that you respect. And then you're selling yourself too.” – Philip
“Most people would like to show up more confidently in their daily life and that comes from practicing to speak and learning how you carry yourself and conduct conversations.” – Lisa 
“If you can learn to communicate well, you can defend yourself.” – Philip
“Articulate your point logically, despite the emotions that you may be feeling behind what you're saying.” – Lisa
“Confidence comes through repetition and comes from intentionally placing yourself in situations where you are going to be uncomfortable.” – Lisa
“If you can have any conversations or investigations ahead of time, absolutely do that, because then you can tailor how you present based on some of those.” – Lisa
“I want to live up to that legacy of creating a positive impact.” – Lisa
“Living with intention means you craft your days in alignment with who you are and what you want to achieve.” – Lisa
“We need to treat people well, no matter what because you never know where somebody's at.” – Philip

RESOURCES
Lisa
Website: https://www.habitualgrowth.com/
Email: lisa@habitualgrowth.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/habitualgrowth1/ 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/habitual-growth 
Facebook: www.facebook.com/thereallisasmall 

Philip
Digital Course: https://www.speakingsessions.com/digital-course
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamphilipsessions/?hl=en
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@philipsessions
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-sessions-b2986563/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/therealphilipsessions

Transcript

Philip Sessions: 0:16

What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the speaking sessions podcast. I'm here with a good friend of mine, lisa Small, and the only time we get to talk is if we record podcasts with each other. I'm just kidding, but we did joke about that offline. It's been so long that I had a strangler onto the podcast just to get her in front of me where we could have a conversation. But she is the co-founder and chief revenue officer of habitual growth, which is the number one program for developing fortitude, confidence and life of intent. Lisa is dedicated to the habitual growth mission, which is to grow 5 million lives by 2027, which is just incredible. And she is also an accomplished medtech executive with multi-disciplinary industry experience spanning startups to global billion dollar corporations. She specializes in building high performance engaged teams and instilling core discipline and excellence across company culture. And today we're going to dive into utilizing speaking to elevate your career. But before we get into that, lisa, welcome to the show.

Lisa Small: 1:27

Oh, thank you, Phillip. That was such a kind introduction. I'm super happy to be here and you're right, we either need to record multiple podcasts to catch up or take this offline. Exactly, I was like, okay, we're rolling here we're going offline.

Philip Sessions: 1:41

We got to get into this because I know this conversation we're about to have is going to be an incredible thing and yeah, we could probably go on forever about that. But kind of, let's backtrack a little bit. So obviously you're high up within your organization here, as you're building another business on the side and everything, and you're obviously high up in that, with that being the chief revenue officer there and everything. But what did Lisa look like, let's say, like 10 years ago, where she wasn't this big wig, this high executive? And then how did you we'll keep it like real short and summarized but how did you get up to the level that you're at? Because we look at people that are high up in these careers and we don't understand how they got there, especially when you're in entry level position. So explain a little bit of that journey for us.

Lisa Small: 2:32

Yeah, for sure, I'll try and keep it as short and sweet as possible, but if I, if I backtrack to where I think the change started to occur, I will actually found myself completely out of a job. I'd been laid off and I looked in the mirror and there was no actual tangible skills that I felt like could be transferable. I had kind of pigeoned hold myself somewhere and wasn't sure what to do, and that was an incredibly scary feeling and I think anybody that's been in a very niche role or has been in a situation where they've laid off can absolutely relate to that kind of pit in your stomach like what am I going to do now and how do I suddenly build skills or absorb skills that you know can allow me to get to my next step but then keep you from ever being in that position again? And during that time there was a very kind woman who took pity on me and hired me into a role that I had no idea what I was doing. I was like, yep, I'll do it, it sounds great. And just that gesture alone gave me a little boost of confidence like okay, somebody actually believed in me and saw potential that I couldn't see in myself, and I think that's incredibly important for leaders when they are talking to their team members or in your personal life, with people around you, communicating the potential that you see in somebody versus, maybe, the reality that they only see with their two eyes.

Lisa Small: 4:01

So once I had that confidence of someone actually believed in me, I went down the road of personal development and I began to look at the qualities and characteristics of a leader within the organization I was in, you know, the CEO of the company.

Lisa Small: 4:17

I kind of went down the road and watched and learned what did I need to get to the next level? And then I would come back and I would build a game plan All right, if I build these skills and I gain these experiences, then I'll get to here. Okay, now I've been to this level, what does the next level look like? And so, creating a rough roadmap every time I hit another milestone because you will evolve and grow in your career, in your professional path, and the skills that are required to the next level may be completely different or just may need to be augmented from the place that you're at today. And so, literally, that's been the process that I've used is looking at what are the outcomes that I need to achieve and breaking those down into things that I can take action on every single day.

Philip Sessions: 5:00

Man. There's some great points there and I want to start back at the beginning there. So much we can dissect here.

Lisa Small: 5:06

All right.

Philip Sessions: 5:07

The first thing. So you had this person that you said gave pity on you. You didn't have skills. And then you got into this role that needed certain skills, but you didn't have those. So what non skills did you have, like? What was your background there before you got into this other role? What was that role that you moved into that you didn't have the skills for?

Lisa Small: 5:26

Yeah, my background is actually in pharmacy, so I'm a pharmacist by training. That's where I started my career. At the time that I was laid off, I was at a medical device company working not necessarily directly with patient care pharmacy, but still with pharmaceutical medications, went through a layoff and was connected with a woman still in medical device but in medical writing for coronary heart valves so patients that need some sort of valve replacement procedure, so one. I didn't know anything about those types of devices. I had never done anything remotely close to medical writing.

Lisa Small: 6:04

I could write some narratives, but the last major essays that I had ever written would have been back in college and didn't understand the regulatory landscape around the clinical studies that we'd be working with and how to get the documents that we'd be drafting for different regulations all the way through to approval. So what made the difference I believe I came to the interviews extremely prepared, so I would say that was one of the skills that I had coming to the table was I was determined to figure out a path forward, to show that I could learn. So I came with my binders of prepared examples of writing and I talked to everybody that I could and tried to understand the role and the regulations so I could speak some of the language going through. But outside of that, you know, just being willing to show that I'll do the hard work and I'll learn as quickly as I could and be moldable for what that job entailed. I think those were absolutely skills that I brought but then also had to use as I grew in that position.

Philip Sessions: 7:05

And I would say that's probably what helped you get that position, because you showed like, hey, I'm willing to take that initiative here. I've got all this stuff. I don't think I know everything and that I just have it all in my head Like I'm going to bring stuff with me to make sure that I have it all right here, at least at a minimum. And this reminds me a lot of a friend of mine that he's an engineer, very smart guy, and he was in a role that he wasn't happy with and he wanted to move within the company and speaking really held him back. He's like well, you know, I really want to go back to this old department, but it's a new manager, so I don't know the guy. I was like, just get a copy with the guy.

Lisa Small: 7:43

Put something on the calendar and get a coffee.

Philip Sessions: 7:46

And of course I'm extroverted, even though I'm an engineer as well. Like I'm extroverted, so I'm like I'll just go get a coffee, I don't care. Like networking, that's what you do. And he was so scared to do it but finally I gave him enough nudges that he went and did it and, lo and behold, he was able to go back to that apartment because he took that initiative.

Philip Sessions: 8:05

And so that's a huge thing that in order to develop in your career, you have to take some of that initiative and you have to have those conversations. That's not always a coffee, but just going and meeting with a manager or something, and so that really parlays them. The next part of your career where you would see these different managers or executives and you were like, hey, I like the things that they were doing. For those of us maybe we're in such a large organization or we're so distance whether it be physical distance, or they're just in a maybe a different building, or we just don't see them a lot, for whatever reason how did you see these skill sets that these executives had, so that you could kind of model after that to help you get to that next level and understand like, hey, these are the skills that that executive had, so you could do the modeling.

Lisa Small: 8:54

Yeah, I think you can learn agnostic of your location. You know, obviously probably you and I started our careers. Remote based work was a lesser percentage of the time, and now many of us are in completely virtual environments. I don't think that's that inhibits our ability to learn from others. I think, if anything, it potentially augments. You can't take the place of personal connections, so if people have the opportunity to get a coffee or to swing by someone's office, I think those conversations are incredibly important.

Lisa Small: 9:26

However, I would watch different levels of management or any meetings that I attended. What kind of presentations were being presented? What did it look like? How did they outline it? How much did they speak to it? How much was more ad lib, could I tell? I took note of body language when people were speaking, even just on zoom. Did they smile? Did they appear warm? Was it very stern? And then tried to get a sense of what I would want to replicate, because I saw that being an asset in their career and something that I could work to build on my own. So a lot of it was, yes, listening and learning in a number of different ways. But then beginning to filter through, what did I actually want to take for because it resonated with me. You're never gonna be what somebody else is. So which of those components of all those people could I stand behind because I felt like it was authentic to me,, and then wor k in conversations or presentations or meetings to start to try those out so that I became more comfortable with them.

Philip Sessions: 10:29

And did you just have opportunities to do these presentations or did you kind of like create those? Because I can see where, especially like a highly technical person, they're probably not doing a lot of presentations, so they may have to like find those opportunities. Like, was that just something that was part of your job or did you kind of create some of those as well?

Lisa Small: 10:47

I would. I would say I created most of those and I'm laughing a little bit because I kid you not. There were times I just created presentations because I wanted the experience of creating a presentation and then gauging how someone else would react to the way that content was laid out, the way that I talked about it. So I would literally create things and come to just one of one meetings and say, hey, I created this slide. Let me walk through this with you. Tell me what you, what resonated with you. Where do you think I can do better?

Lisa Small: 11:16

Asking for feedback is something that should never be. You should never not do. It might not be what you want to hear and people might look at you funny for a little while, but eventually they'll get used to the fact that you really are trying to genuinely grow. So I very much was proactive in however I could. In my career I also volunteered for a number of organizations, both within the you know the companies that I worked for but then also in my community, just to have the experience of speaking and presenting in front of different size groups, different ages, different backgrounds, so that I became more comfortable and then could translate that back into the next opportunity that was potentially on my plate.

Philip Sessions: 11:57

Okay, and was this feedback like you went to managers for that, or just kind of anybody that would allow you just to talk with them?

Lisa Small: 12:04

I mean anybody. I mean, I think you know there's the formal management review process that you get in, you know, on your annual cycle or however that is. I was also very proactive in the personal development and professional development plans and would you know, be vocal about hey, I'm going to ask for feedback and this is why these are the skills that I'm trying to build. So if you could curtail what your feedback is, you know, and how it can help me, and then it also gave people opportunities to look for things where I could use those skills, so that I wasn't the only one that was constantly trying to identify them, some people honestly were like no, you know, like this is just not, you know, I don't have time for this or this isn't something that I'm willing to do, and that's completely fine. But more often than not, to your earlier point, if you just take the risk and ask, people genuinely do want to help and they will continue to support you.

Philip Sessions: 12:59

Yeah, and that's so cool that you did that. And a lot of people don't take that initiative, and myself included there. I don't just go up to somebody here for manager and say, hey, you want to take a look at my presentation? That's definitely a unique thing. And really you're not only getting that feedback, you're building that rapport with that person Because it's saying like hey, I want your feedback, You're somebody that I respect and want that feedback from. And then you're also really selling yourself too, Because if you're just going, hey, come look at this presentation like, well, who?

Lisa Small: 13:32

are you to boss me around?

Philip Sessions: 13:35

Would you mind taking some time where we can go over this presentation and love to get your feedback on it? Yeah, you're just really selling yourself, but then you're also kind of putting them on a pedestal a little bit because, like, hey, I feel like you know more than me on this subject, or presentation skills and everything. So you're really learning sales and communication and speaking skills, which is such a vital thing. And you, being an executive, I would love for you to speak on that, because a lot of times people think, well, I'm not going to get on stage, I'm not speaking in front of a bunch of people, why do I need to get better at speaking? So let's speak to that person first of why, in the first place, isn't important at all for you to get better at speaking, and then we'll kind of dive in from there.

Lisa Small: 14:19

Yeah, I think I mean. Okay, let's take an example You're at the grocery store and you're going down the aisle and you come up on somebody and you and I are both extroverted. So we're going to say hi, and the person that you are now in a conversation, with their entire body language, is less confident. They talk very softly. You are going to create a perception in your mind immediately based off what you see in here and why I believe that learning to speak and to speak well and to continue to grow that skill is because you gain confidence.

Lisa Small: 14:52

You don't know who that person is that's going to say hi to you at the grocery store. You don't know if any opportunities may come out of it, but you just building that skill gives off a different energy of confidence because it's not an anomaly, it's a lack of regular occurrence and something that you're actively working to build. So you know, someone may not necessarily want to rise to the utmost levels of executive leadership in a company. I would be willing to bet that most people would like to show up more confidently in their daily life and that comes from practicing to speak and learning how you carry yourself and conduct conversations.

Philip Sessions: 15:30

Yeah, and not to mention yeah, if you don't want to get that executive level, if you can learn to communicate, well, you can defend yourself, as I've been there where I just felt like the little guy in the room. I was the. I've been told I was a young dumb engineer that was, ironically, making everything work. But yet I'm a young dumb engineer. How that works, I don't know, but I wouldn't speak up for myself. So that's kind of what the rumor was going around and I didn't combat that because it was early in my career and I felt like, well, I better not say anything as I'll get fired, which I found that it's very it's challenging to get fired. As long as you're not doing anything that harms safety or any kind of harassment, anything like that, that's very much okay. You're going to get fired on the spot for this.

Lisa Small: 16:17

Right.

Philip Sessions: 16:17

So keep that in mind. If you speak up for yourself and defend yourself, I mean, you're defending yourself. So if somebody wants to say, hey, you can't do that anymore or you shouldn't be doing that, well, probably a company you should be leaving as soon as you can because they clearly don't care about you, they just care about money. But aside from that, learning to be able to stand up for yourself and speak up for yourself is going to help you in your career. Just even just get to a pay raise or get recognized and get that recognition for the things that you do. So speaking is very important, whether you literally want to go up the ranks or the ladder in the corporate world or if you want to just stay where you're at but continue to be acknowledged and get pay raises.

Lisa Small: 17:01

Yeah Well, and to your point, I think it's really good to point out to that, to be able to defend yourself, but also to be able to articulate your point logically, despite the emotions that you may be feeling behind what you're saying. And that is also something that is grown by placing yourself in different positions and learning to say what you need to say. And then also the awareness of how your emotions will affect how you speak, so that you can practice becoming more level, becoming more logic, so that you can command the conversation versus be reactive to the conversation.

Philip Sessions: 17:38

And this makes me think of two different, distinct questions.

Lisa Small: 17:42

So first one should be hopefully a little bit easier.

Philip Sessions: 17:45

I got asked this the other day and I gave my thoughts on it, but I'd be curious from an executive's perspective on this. So say that somebody's trying to present and they're presenting on a topic, and then the executive or executives, they kind of go down that rabbit hole, and we see this in meetings all the time. So it's pretty natural as the presenter that is, we'll say non-management presenter presenting to executives that are deciding, oh, this topic, we need to go into a rabbit hole. What would be your approach for that non-managerial, non-leadership presenter to basically tell the executives, hey, let's get back on track, obviously in a nicer way. What would be your approach for that non-managerial presenter to those executives that are doing that?

Lisa Small: 18:35

Yeah, I think for sure. I mean respect is at the core, because you're not there to shame anybody from trying to go down a rabbit hole or to make anybody feel disrespected. And so I think just acknowledging, hey, the intent of this presentation or this conversation was to solve X or to find a solution for Y. This is a conversation that seems like it needs a place of its own. Should we have a consensus that this is the appropriate time to have this side conversation, or do we want to table this for a later date so that we can focus on the solution or the conversation that was the purpose of this meeting and then just put it back? I think it's not the presenter's position to drive to that decision, but to merely point out this was why I'm here and the purpose for it, and now we're maybe going in a different direction. Is this the right time or not?

Philip Sessions: 19:29

I like that.

Lisa Small: 19:29

That's definitely a better said than my answer.

Philip Sessions: 19:32

My answer was you know, have an agenda set up. So when you're presenting, hey, we're going to go through these topics and you got some times they're great and as they get off, like, hey look, we need to get back that this is where we're at in the agenda. We're going to cover some other things. So I want to make sure that we stay on track, so kind of balting the agenda itself instead of saying that they're not doing the right thing. But I like your approach to it.

Philip Sessions: 19:57

I think it's a great way, because, yeah, they may have some outside information that you as that's supposed to be like the technical expert doesn't know about, and that's why they're bringing it up, because maybe it's been brought up in several meetings and this is a very important topic. So I do like that approach to that. So I was curious on that. But when it comes to like just just presenting yourself, where do you feel that confidence comes into into play, with presenting and everything?

Lisa Small: 20:24

I believe that confidence comes through repetition and comes from intentionally placing yourself in situations where you are going to be uncomfortable.

Lisa Small: 20:34

So I believe that every single day, we do things that build our confidence, because we decide what those are that move us towards our goals. So, for example, if someone wants to continue to speak and grow that skill, they will focus actions every single day that move them closer. I also think it's important that we look for opportunities to put ourselves in situations that are not within our comfort zone, because that's where the real growth occurs. You may have to learn to speak in a different manner or to deliver a message slightly differently because it's not being heard in the way that you intended it to. You may have to learn how to change the fluctuations in your voice or how your facial expressions read, and I think all of those things come through the different situations that you're in, but also by doing them over and over, so you think less about them when you're in the moment of speaking or presenting than you did, you know, earlier on, when you were building that skill.

Philip Sessions: 21:30

I like that, and I just thought about two other questions I love to ask. Since I've got you here, we're in a boardroom.

Philip Sessions: 21:36

We're speaking to executives and a lot of times it seems to happen and I think maybe some of this is from their background information we go as the expert to present on a topic and it seems like they just make the decision like we're. We don't get to have any say in that decision, we just basically have to go, be a good soldier and execute on their decision and, as we know, the executives don't know all the nitty gritty details and so sometimes that decision that they've made doesn't logically make sense with the day to day operations. How could we, as a presenter one maybe be able to have input within that? Besides, here's the information what are we doing next? But then also be able to I guess, rebuttal, if you will and say look based on X, Y, Z. That's why I don't think this is the right decision. Can we discuss this a little bit more or something? So what's your thoughts on that?

Lisa Small: 23:23

I don't think that we're ever in a position to do rebuttal, I think.

Philip Sessions: 23:27

Yeah, I could go with a better word, but yeah, yeah.

Lisa Small: 23:31

Sorry, I had to point that one out. I think it's important to do two things. One, when you're presenting, in that scenario, you are there as a subject matter expert, and it is. We can, in that position, assume that we know far more than, potentially, the other members in the boardroom. This may or may not be true, but that should never come through in the way you conduct your presentation or that you speak. You should speak as if you're talking to an executive leader, so it's respectful and calm and contains the right level of detail. If you get too technical, you run the risk that you are making them feel inferior because they can't follow the conversation, and that will cause them potentially to create conflict or rebuttals to whatever you're saying. So, finding a sweet spot of communicating in a way that shows that I know what I'm talking about, but I'm not over-explaining it so that it makes you feel like I know more than you.

Lisa Small: 24:30

The other piece that's really important is to scenario plan for them. So if you're there sharing something, you're not just giving the details of. This is what I think we should do. This is what I think we should do and why, and back it up with real-life data, and this is the impact if we go this route, and this is the impact if we don't. And that's where you bring your day-to-day operational view and say if this decision is made, this is how it's gonna impact my team, and that could be time, money, whatever that impact is. And so you kind of force the options by showing the impact.

Philip Sessions: 25:06

I like that and it's similar to what I've talked about. You present a problem, you tell what you think the solution is in some viable next steps, because a lot of times, yeah, they're not in that day-to-day, so now they either you're forcing them to make a decision with really a lot of lack of information, or you basically lob it up to them and say, hey, what do we do? Here are the balls coming. Like you can decide. I'm giving you two balls, choose which one, which way you wanna go. So I like that. Like, hey, here's the consequences if we do go this direction, here's consequences if we don't. And let them decide which is kind of the better of the two or the worse of two. Like, what decision do we wanna make? So I like that a lot. That's a great approach there.

Lisa Small: 25:48

Yeah, and if there's an opportunity to create even a third scenario, that shows that you've taken initiative and you've critically thought about it. So in their mind there may only be two viable options. You may see that there's actually something in the middle that can work, that lessens the impact on a data from a day-to-day operational but still achieves the ultimate goal of whatever they're looking for.

Philip Sessions: 26:10

And which is key there, their goal? What goal?

Lisa Small: 26:13

they want which.

Philip Sessions: 26:14

I talk about that a lot, too, is like you need to figure out where they wanna go, and of course, you need to know where you wanna go too with this. Why are you going to them? Because you want a commitment on a certain thing, but also, what do they want? And so, especially from a manufacturing perspective, safety is the number one thing. So if you can bring up, if we don't do this, safety is going out the window.

Philip Sessions: 26:36

Well, that should get some pretty good buy-in and if not, well we need to get some new executives in there, because clearly they're not worried about what should be the number one important thing within any company, which is safety.

Philip Sessions: 26:48

And then my other question here. So one last question in the boardroom and then we'll get you out of the boardroom there and everything. But how do we connect with different managers in the boardroom? Because they are all pretty different and a lot of times, especially when we're first going into the boardroom, we probably really don't know these managers. That way, we might know their name, know what they look like, a little bit about them, but how do we start to connect with the managers and then connect with the different backgrounds that these managers have to make that connection to get that buy-in and have ultimately a great presentation and the results we want?

Lisa Small: 27:24

Yeah, I think if there's any background information or digging that you can do ahead of time to understand nuances of, maybe personality characteristics or initiatives or goals that the specific individuals in the boardroom may be coming to the table with, that's always incredibly helpful.

Lisa Small: 27:44

If you can have any conversations or investigations ahead of time, absolutely do that, because then you can tailor how you present based on some of those. If you're walking in completely blind and all you have a name you know as a name and a title, I always tell people to become a master of reading nonverbals, because as you begin to present and share and go through whatever topic it is that you are speaking on, watch around the room and see who's resonating with you and you can then adjust to be able to create a connection. And if someone's really they're leaning in, they're smiling, they seem engaged, you can point at them, you can ask them a follow up question, you can ask for their thoughts and begin to create conversation within the group itself. That then will help you understand the personalities of other members. So if you can get people talking by identifying one or two people that are resonating as you start, that's really helpful too.

Philip Sessions: 28:44

And that's such a great thing because you get that buy in from that one person which they're in that room all the time with those other people. That means they can sway the rest of the people to have buy in because they'll trust that person before they'll trust you because you're that new person in there. So that's a great thing to do, right there.

Lisa Small: 29:03

Yeah, look for that body language for sure I like that.

Philip Sessions: 29:05

Something else I also like to kind of fault to, if you will, is like core values or what's the company mission, and try and point these things back to those as much as you can within reason. Like, if trust is one of your core values, don't be like, oh well, you should trust me on this, or you know there's a lot of trust that's going into this project.

Philip Sessions: 29:23

Like don't try and just squeeze it in, just squeeze it in Make sure it makes some sense within what you're talking about, but I like to do that as well. Especially if I'm trying to pitch a company from the outside, I try and use some of those things to help relate with that company as well, which is a good thing. And so these executives hopefully they do like the core values.

Lisa Small: 29:42

Hopefully they're bought into them so that could be just another thing as well.

Philip Sessions: 29:46

But like you said, I definitely think that's the best approach is to try and look at the body language and see who's actually shaking their head and leaning in and then asking that question. It's a great thing we don't think about doing. Oh, I just got to present talk the whole time to them instead of getting them engaged, which yeah, it's going to engage them.

Lisa Small: 30:04

Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.

Lisa Small: 30:06

No, you're fine, but one of the things that if it's possible, depending on the topic, is to come with a thought of like, maybe potential questions.

Lisa Small: 30:14

So, as you're sitting there because at the end of the day, the executives want to know that whatever you're saying is going to speak to what's important to them and the decision that they have to make so if you can come and ask questions of one or two of those people that really seem to be connecting with you, that then can generate a conversation.

Lisa Small: 30:33

So let's just pretend we're talking about safety and building trust with external customers, and then you can launch and say I'm just curious, I've only been here for five years. Would anybody be willing to share with me an experience where we really did a great job building customer trust in the products that we are building and what you feel really made us successful in doing so, and create an open-ended question that allows people to start talking, and then you might get someone else that then is like well, you know, remember, in this time we really did it poorly, and you can start to pull out pieces of information from each individual. Based on what they're saying, you can determine what's going to be most important and what's going to ultimately be their decision-making point.

Philip Sessions: 31:16

I like that. That's great, and so let's go ahead and transition here to habitual growth. So you mentioned about fortitude, confidence and living a life with intent. What made you decide to start habitual growth and really focus on those three key areas in life?

Lisa Small: 31:35

Well, two things actually. One was just a gap that I noticed in my professional career. With all of the teams that I've had the opportunity to lead, professional development for every team member has been vitally important, and I didn't feel that, while these were great organizations and companies to work for, the level of personal characterization of a professional development plan was there in enough detail that people could actually act upon it, and so I wanted to create a process that met people where they were at and then help them build, not only from a personal standpoint, but to look at their professional goals and figure out where those intersected so they could focus their time and attention there. So some of the decision to start habitual growth was purely because I wanted my team to succeed at a higher level, and they could only do that by focusing on personal development in tandem with their professional development.

Lisa Small: 32:34

The other catalyst of it actually was in my own personal life. Several years ago, my father passed away very quickly from stage four lung cancer, and his funeral was so well attended and people recanted stories of how he impacted them in their community. He was a pharmacist as well. He was a business owner his whole life and I just thought, man, I want to live up to that legacy of creating a positive impact, and that's where our mission came, and so I thought about how can I create that kind of positive legacy impact? Well, I love people and I love developing people and supporting them on their journey, and so that really created the foundation for the company today.

Philip Sessions: 33:19

Man. That is awesome, and I can't help but think of my dad, and his funeral was very similar. He was a business owner but he mowed fields for a living, so basically cut grass in a field and everything, but he had so many people show up and even actually my father-in-law was the same way. He built tractors, he fixed tractors and stuff in same way, because they lived to their word. I'm guessing that's a lot of what was for your dad and everything too, just living to his word. And I'm just curious. I want to ask about the app, but I want to ask real quick of fortitude, confidence and intentionality, which one, if you could only pick one, would be the most important for you to live out?

Lisa Small: 34:01

That's a terrible question.

Philip Sessions: 34:03

I know it's awesome.

Lisa Small: 34:06

I think the most important one is intention. That's really the basis, because that comes from you as an individual and what you want. By living with intention which means you craft your days in alignment with who you are and what you want to achieve you build confidence and fortitude. So, Hands down. Living with intention is the highest priority.

Philip Sessions: 34:30

Okay, awesome. Where is this app? By the time this launches, our episode comes out, the app should be launched. Where can people pick up the app and learn more about habitual growth?

Lisa Small: 34:43

Yeah, absolutely so. We are available in both Apple and Google Play stores so people can download the app. There's a free 30-day trial so you can go in and kind of mess around with it and see the app is our tool. So individuals or teams or companies that are looking for more of a complete package experience how the process works, how to deploy it in their own life or with their own team. They can reach directly out to me or through to us through the website. We just build packages to whatever someone needs, so they may just want to know, like, hey, I want to just walk through the app, make sure I've set everything up. That's great. Versus, we have some teams and businesses that really want to look at this from an annual basis because they are really pouring into their employees and what they can help them achieve, not only as a company but also as individuals on that team.

Philip Sessions: 35:37

Okay, where is that that they can reach out? So you and your website that doesn't tell me. So tell me real quick where that is.

Lisa Small: 35:43

All right, our website is HabitualGrowthcom. Thank you for that point out, and my email is lisa at habitualgrowthcom. Either one of those, I will get back to you very quickly. Our website has more information on all the different features, as well as a direct link to download the app.

Philip Sessions: 35:58

Okay, great. And then if they want to reach out and just get to follow, you see what you got going on because you're always posting some great stuff that's inspirational. Where can they reach out to you there at, or follow you there at?

Lisa Small: 36:11

Yeah, I'm on Instagram, the real Lisa Small. That's more of my personal journey from a development standpoint. If people are interested in more of professional content, they can find me on LinkedIn, Lisa Small and I'm happy to connect in either spot.

Philip Sessions: 36:29

All right, and one last question for you, and this one is going to be a tough one. Maybe, maybe not. If you only had one message that you could share for the rest of your life. What would that message be?

Lisa Small: 36:41

I think I already said it. Actually, I think the most important message is to look in each person, at what their potential is and to communicate that potential that you see, because so many people just walk through life every single day and are just waiting for someone to look at them and see something in them. And when you speak, that it becomes truth to them and it resonates in a way that they can take action on it. So that would be my biggest I love that.

Philip Sessions: 37:09

That's a great message, and does that come from that lady that gave you that opportunity?

Lisa Small: 37:14

Yeah, partially. You know, when you've hit a low spot and someone recognized something, you want to replicate that for someone else.

Philip Sessions: 37:22

Yeah, that's just an example right there of we need to just treat people well, no matter what, because you never know where somebody's at. That's a very good point. Well, Alisa, I appreciate your insights here.

Lisa Small: 37:34

I know I gave you some tough questions we had you in the boardroom for a long time and interrogating you and everything but.

Philip Sessions: 37:40

I appreciate you for coming on the podcast and sharing such great value to help us learn how important speaking is in order to advance your career.

Lisa Small: 37:49

Thank you so much, Phil, if it's been a pleasure.