Sara Sheehan’s guest in this episode is Linda Fisk, the Founder and Chairwoman of LeadHERship Global, a community of unstoppable women enhancing their leadership blueprint and embracing their power. Linda is an award-winning CEO, TEDx speaker, best-selling author, keynote speaker, and university professor. She talks with Sara about the goals and successes of LeadHERship Global, the power of women, and what she sees coming up in her future.
Linda found her genius work by being part of leadership organizations that allowed her to meet other inspirational leaders. Leaders coming together who align against a particular challenge or issue create a greater impact and accelerate success. This understanding and love for leadership alignment translated into creating the global community of LeadHERship Global where she found like-minded leaders collaborating for a supportive community where women have access to the same privileges and benefits that men benefit from.
Sara Sheehan and Linda Fisk discuss how LeadHERship Global ushers members into high-powered C-Suite positions or inspires them to start their own businesses, why sustainable impact and giving back are a vital part of what they work on, and the partnership with She Talks that provides a speaker summit only for women. Linda shares her own story and the goals and ambitions that drive her forward, including an opportunity called The InvestHER Fest to connect entrepreneurs to investors. What Linda has to say is enlightening and deeply inspirational. Her devotion to the betterment of opportunities for women and the desire to uplift all women into impactful change will challenge us all to realize our best potential.
About Linda Fisk:
Linda Fisk is a multi-award-winning leader, keynote speaker, podcast host, TEDx speaker, best-selling author and university professor dedicated to amplifying and extending the success of other high-calibre business leaders. She is the CEO of LeadHERship Global, a community of unstoppable women enhancing their leadership blueprint and embracing their power to be the best version of themselves- in work and life. As Chairwoman of LeadHERship Global, Linda supports and guides ambitious, creative women to move in the direction of their purpose, their mission and their dreams with powerful connections, critical support, practical tools and valuable resources to show up, speak up and step up in their careers and personal lives.
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Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:
Contact Linda Fisk:
- Website: LeadHERshipGlobal.com
- Email: linda@leadhershipglobal.com
- Linda Fisk LinkedIn
- LeadHERship Global LinkedIn
- LeadHERship Global Instagram
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Transcript
Sara Sheehan: [00:00:02] Hi there, I’m Sara Sheehan and welcome to my podcast Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan. Today I’m talking with Linda Fisk, founder and chairwoman of LeadHERship Global, a community of unstoppable women enhancing their leadership blueprint and embracing their power to be the best version of themselves in work and in life. In LeadHERship Global, Linda supports and guides ambitious, creative women to move in the direction of their purpose, their mission, and their dreams with powerful connections, critical support, practical tools, and valuable resources to show up, speak up, and step up in their careers and personal lives. Linda is a multi-award winning CEO, TEDx speaker, five times international best-selling author, US Senator for the WBAF, keynote speaker and university professor, dedicated to amplifying and extending the success of other high-caliber business leaders. She is the Chairwoman of LeadHERship Global, an organization that I find truly fascinating. Linda, I am so excited to welcome you here today and to launch into this amazing discussion.
Linda Fisk: [00:01:32] Sara, thank you so much for letting me be a part of this incredible platform that you’ve created. I’m really honored and I’m excited about our conversation today.
Sara Sheehan: [00:01:42] Excellent, Linda, thank you so much for that warm welcome. Can you share with me how you found your genius work?
Linda Fisk: [00:01:53] Well, I will tell you that I have had the good fortune of being a part of many leadership organizations. In fact, I served as the chief marketing officer for one executive leadership organization, and I served as the CEO of a second executive leadership organization, where I found that when leaders are able to come together and they’re able to collaborate and coordinate efforts, then their impact can be doubled or tripled. I have found that these kinds of organizations allow you to meet other inspirational leaders, create lifelong friendships, and be surrounded by people who are deeply invested in your success. And I have found that incredible leaders coming together aligned against a particular issue or problem or challenge that they want to solve in-community, then not only is the impact greater, but they’re able to accelerate the success together in a much quicker time frame, a much quicker pace than they could have by themselves. And so I knew that my purpose is to bring leaders together to create and support personal and professional breakthroughs. And in LeadHERship Global, we try to guide women to achieving greater leverage and greater freedom, both in their careers and in their businesses and their life.
Sara Sheehan: [00:03:30] That is so incredibly powerful, and I cannot wait to work with you in that community, because I definitely will be a member of your community soon. I find what you’re doing to be truly amazing. One of the things that I’m so intrigued about in your story, Linda, is the fact that you created your business after being the Chief marketing officer of the Young Presidents Organization. How did you know that this was the right next step for you after being in that role?
Linda Fisk: [00:04:08] I will say that YPO is one of the most successful and one of the most impactful organizations that you can be a part of, but the percentage of women that are a part of that organization is still extraordinarily small. At the time that I served in a C-suite position in YPO, the percent of women that was a part of that global organization of about 36,000 members, it was only 5%. And so somewhere between 5 and 10% of their global organization was comprised by women. The more that I began to dig into that to understand why, why would so few women join YPO and stay there? I found that women often didn’t feel valued. They didn’t feel listened to. They didn’t feel honored and respected. Not by the management team, but by other members. And so I wanted to create an organization where women were inspired and motivated by other women leaders who would counsel them, who would cheer them on, who would support them to greater and greater levels of success and impact. I wanted to create a global organization where women felt honored, they felt valued, and they had access to the same sorts of privileges and benefits and unique opportunities that men typically are able to engage in.
Linda Fisk: [00:05:36] We now have a global community of world-class women, thought leaders and experts that are brought together to really collaborate and facilitate excellent outcomes for each other. We’ve created an incredibly impactful community of extraordinary women in leadership all around the globe. We have women in Africa and Europe, Australia, New Zealand, North America, South America, and we offer a pretty comprehensive methodology that’s really designed to unleash the full potential of women in leadership all around the world. We want to attract high-performing and growth-oriented leaders and provide a safe, confidential, supportive and private community for them so that they can be transparent, they can be vulnerable, they can be honest about the challenges they’re facing, the opportunities in front of them, and they have the benefit of unbiased, objective guidance and feedback from other women around the world who will tell them the truth, who will lift them up, who will provide counsel, who will really help them accelerate their success.
Sara Sheehan: [00:06:47] And so just to double click on that a little bit, some of the participants, well, all of the participants in the community are women and all of the participants are entrepreneurs. Most have built their own businesses themselves and they are seeking support. They are seeking practical tools and guidance that will help them. Can we give a couple of specific examples of some of the things that a participant might be able to engage in, in the community?
Linda Fisk: [00:07:26] Absolutely. So the first thing I would note is that while the majority of the women that are part of LeadHERship Global have stepped into a role as business owner, business and founder, we also have a significant number of women who are business investors or who have been placed into the C-suite in a position like CEO, CTO, CMO at a large corporation. That corporation can be for-profit or nonprofit. But sometimes the Women in LeadHERship Global have been hired into a C-suite position. Other times, they have created their own business and they are now a business owner, a business founder, and leading incredible impact and change around the world by creating their own, usually social impact organization. So most of the women in LeadHERship Global are committed to some sort of social impact or social good or some sort of really positive change in the world. And so that’s why I say that part of the benefit of LeadHERship Global is to meet inspirational leaders, to create not just lifelong friendships, but be surrounded by people who are deeply invested in your success. And so that’s one of the first benefits that we offer is this idea of connection. But we also provide incredible learning events. What I have found is the very best leaders that I’ve ever met, both men and women, have embarked on a continuous discovery of learning, so they are lifetime learners that are deeply invested in their own development as a professional and as a person.
Linda Fisk: [00:09:15] So we provide learning that informs that perspective and nurtures new skill sets, new perspectives, new worldviews, new aptitudes. Because at every single stage of your career, you have to learn how to create sustainable impact and influence. And so, in LeadHERship Global, we have trust forms, leadership boards, accelerate webinars, we have global networking events. We have council meetings where we’re able to showcase some of the most impactful world-class experts in business, in health, in spiritual development, in a range of topics that women have access to, again, at no charge, just through their membership. And then we also recognize that a big part of being able to grow and scale a business and to advance your own leadership journey is that you need to learn how to better serve others and to genuinely support their career advancement and their overall engagement and work. So we help women all over the world not only receive incredible access to funding and media opportunities and learning and connection, but we also help them become mindful of the opportunity and the responsibility that they have to serve their own advancement by serving others.
Linda Fisk: [00:10:46] We really believe that the most important sense of fulfillment and reward that you can receive is by giving back. That fulfilling feeling of giving back and contributing to others is absolutely unparalleled. In my estimation, true meaning, true purpose is about how you’re able to better the lives of the people around you, your loved ones, the people in your community, the lives of the people in other places around the world. Meaning never comes from what you get, it comes from what you give. And so we provide opportunities to find ways to give back and to make an impact to other women around the world.
Sara Sheehan: [00:11:30] I love it, and it is very aligned with the way that I lead and the way I want to lead and leave an impact on others. I think it’s quite beautiful. How are you expanding your business today, Linda?
Linda Fisk: [00:11:47] I will tell you, we are always looking for opportunities with partners. So we have found that there are particular businesses that are very aligned in our mission and vision and purpose, but they have unique specialties that we don’t. So we very intentionally and purposefully partner with aligned organizations and businesses that provide extraordinary opportunities for our members. So, for instance, we partnered recently with an organization called She Talks and they provide speaker summits only for women.
Sara Sheehan: [00:12:27] That’s tremendous.
Linda Fisk: [00:12:29] Yes, and through that organization, we’re able to offer our members the opportunity to step on a big stage in front of 5000 people and tell their story. So we have orderly speakings now. I think that’s so important.
Sara Sheehan: [00:12:46] That is so powerful. It’s so rare for some people to get that opportunity. And the fact that you’re helping them to develop that skill in a safe way is wonderful for someone that’s proactive and growth-oriented, because if they lean into it, they’re only going to get better.
Linda Fisk: [00:13:09] Right. Sara, you said it so beautifully, that’s it. And so we look for organizations like that. We also recently announced a partnership with a company called Scroobious, and Scroobious teaches and trains and coaches and consults with entrepreneurs so that they can win that ever-elusive venture capital investment. Scroobious teaches women entrepreneurs how to create a pitch deck, how to create a pitch presentation, how to organize their financials, how to weave their story into the pitch, and how to win over investors that may be looking to invest in a series A or a series B, or it may be an angel investor or a venture capitalist firm that’s interested in supporting women owners, women operators. And so we help prepare women entrepreneurs to step into that boardroom with investors and be able to very convincingly, very confidently explain their vision, explain their mission, explain their business and receive that needed infusion of cash.
Sara Sheehan: [00:14:21] That is phenomenal that you’re mentoring women in that way, because that pays more than dividends. It truly paves the road ahead for their lives. That is phenomenal. Do you have any offerings that you’re working on that are new, or ways that you’re working with clients that are new?
Linda Fisk: [00:14:45] I love that you asked that. Thank you so much. We are always working on new offerings, new benefits, new privileges, new experiences for women in leadership. We want this to be a never-ending opportunity to be able to accelerate their success, no matter if their definition of success is: I want to write my first book, I want to stand on a TEDx stage, I want to have an award-winning podcast, I want to grow and scale my business from $1 million to $10 million, or $10 million to $100 million. Whatever their unique definition of success is, we want to give them access to the privileges, the benefits, the opportunities that will strengthen that position, but also accelerate the timeline to get to that vision, that goal, that objective. So one of the things that we have coming up that I’m super excited about is a global retreat. So this fall we’re going to be announcing very shortly a global retreat where women have the opportunity to come together to network, to build relationships, to be able to learn and grow in community in one of the most picturesque, beautiful spots in the world. So more on that soon. But we are also getting ready to announce a new opportunity for women entrepreneurs to step into the limelight with their business idea or their fledgling business, and actually pitch it to investment groups. So we’re calling it The InvestHERfest. And the InvestHERfest will connect entrepreneurs to investors so that they have an opportunity, much like Shark Tank, to present their idea, to demonstrate their vision, to explain their financials and to win investment dollars. So we’re very, very excited about that.
Sara Sheehan: [00:16:42] That’s incredible.
Linda Fisk: [00:16:43] And we’re launching a series called Ask The Experts. Ask The Experts is an opportunity where our members have the incredible opportunity to step into the limelight by having a huge virtual event developed in their honor, where they get to teach and train and coach on their area of expertise to our other 10,000 members all around the world. So they step into the spotlight, it is their event, and we help them prepare their presentation and then present to our members about their area of expertise, their unique giftedness, experience, expertise that provides value to our members, but also raises the visibility and expands the thought leadership of that member.
Sara Sheehan: [00:17:36] That is unprecedented, and it’s a large list. That is an amazing list of things that you’re working on, Linda. That is amazing.
Linda Fisk: [00:17:48] I feel it every day, Sara. I am scurrying. We all are, on the team, working as quickly as we can to bring these things to light because there’s so much opportunity for women, and we are so dedicated and determined and excited to bring these opportunities to women in leadership.
Sara Sheehan: [00:18:07] That’s wonderful. And so, Linda, talk with me about what your big goals and aspirations are that you’re currently working on.
Linda Fisk: [00:18:18] Our success is measured through our member success. We take count of the impact that we’re able to create on behalf of our members. They report to us any time that they’re able to create a new division of their company, or create a joint venture, or a partnership or collaboration that dramatically increases their success. And what I hear from our members are absolutely leaps forward in their ability to accelerate their success, often due to the relationships that they create within the community. I’ve seen nonprofits get fully funded to the tune of $1.7 million. I’ve seen new divisions of companies created through a partnership that now represent 37% of the overall revenue of that company. I’ve seen joint ventures created, collaborations developed. I have seen women get tapped for corporate boards or speaking opportunities because of their experience in LeadHERship Global. We’ve had women step into really significant speaking roles with a five-figure payout for that speaking role because of a podcast or a TV show or a speaker opportunity that was provided to them through LeadHERship Global. So our definition of success is absolutely contingent on the kinds of experiences and advances that our members are experiencing. We help members accelerate their success by defining their vision, growing their leadership, expanding their influence, and ultimately leaving a lasting legacy.
Linda Fisk: [00:20:10] We track and measure those things with our members, because we want to harness the knowledge, the influence and trust of high-performing women all over the world to stimulate idea exchange, to support creativity, to provide resources and tools that accelerate both personal and professional growth. And, in fact, we also know that we are a trusted resource to women who are in crisis. I have conversations with women every single week who are going through a divorce or the dissolution of a partnership or they’ve gone through some sort of personal crisis. Maybe they lost a son, a daughter, a mother, a father, and they turn to the team at LeadHERship Global to not only provide support and comfort, but to connect them to the kinds of caregivers that are a part of our network that then can surround them with the kind of support that they need in that time of crisis. Whether that’s legal advice or whether that’s therapeutic services or counseling services. Sometimes it’s simply being surrounded by a group of women that they know care for them, and are deeply invested in their ability to move through this period into the next phase of their journey. So we also support people in their personal lives as well as their professional lives.
Sara Sheehan: [00:21:42] That’s a tremendous thing. It’s much more than an online community when it becomes part of your life and part of your support network. That’s tremendous. And so, Linda, what would you say being a transformational thinker means to you?
Linda Fisk: [00:22:05] Sara, what a great question. I think of impactful leadership as making long lasting, positive and meaningful contributions to organizations, communities, and in the lives of people. So transformational or true impactful leadership is that idea that it’s not a transaction, it’s not a one-time give and take, but it’s about making a long-lasting, meaningful contribution to others. And to do that, I think you have to combine both your mind and your heart. You have to be able to step into a leadership role, recognizing that your mind and your heart need to both be active. You have to achieve sustainable goals and build lasting impact that is led by both your intuition, your heart, as well as your mind. And I think that to lead and achieve sustainable goals that do build lasting impact, it takes genuine and generous influence. It takes the opportunity to genuinely and generously influence and lead people to believe, to trust, and to join you in your mission. So women, I think, are uniquely well suited in that. In fact, some of the strengths that we take for granted as women actually help lead, especially in high-stakes situations. And I think that one of the most important qualities of a good leader is to be able to understand your unique giftedness, your strengths, your talents, and develop a unique leadership style that’s based on your own values, your own character traits, your own talents, and to recognize that as a woman, involving both your heart and your mind in your leadership style is absolutely a strength.
Linda Fisk: [00:24:09] It’s not a weakness, it’s a strength. Serving with your mind and with your heart, incorporating an attitude of service to genuinely connect with other people in your life and earn their loyalty is one of the highest callings that we have as women and as leaders. And I think you have to be generous. You have to participate in the lives of those around you. You can’t be solo, blinders on, focused on your own attainment of goals. You have to be open to participate and genuinely invest in the lives around you. You have to share your knowledge generously with those you lead. You have to be a role model to inspire and motivate people to move forward, and you have to stop and listen to those around you and understand what’s happening in their life and how can you support, how can you help? Do you have a resource or a tool or a connection that might be useful to them? And so in my mind, being a transformational or impactful leader is about listening, it’s about pausing long enough to really understand what’s happening in the lives around you, and it’s about consciously and purposefully making long-lasting, positive and meaning contributions in the lives of those around you.
Sara Sheehan: [00:25:33] That is wonderful. I hear so much in your voice about generosity and paying it forward, and I think it only comes back to us as a multiple. When we give, it is surprising at how wonderful that reciprocity is. Thank you for that.
Linda Fisk: [00:25:56] I agree, Sara. I will tell you that the most fulfilling feeling that you can have, is to know that you’ve been able to impact someone else’s life, and you’ve been able to pay it forward. And as I said, women have been proven to hold a key advantage. And many of the soft skills associated with leadership. In fact, a study by the global consulting firm Hay Group found that women outperform men, and get this, 11 out of 12 key emotional intelligence competencies. In fact, the Hay Group found that women leaders tend to slightly outperform men in most leadership skills associated with emotional intelligence. So those are sometimes considered to be soft skills, but really it’s the ability pertaining to the way you approach or handle others in your life. So empathy. Empathy absolutely wins in a crisis. But the difference in leadership between the genders grows even larger when there’s any sort of crisis. Female leaders express more awareness of fears that their team members might be feeling. They express more concern for the well-being of their team, and they express, believe it or not, more confidence in their plans. So I will tell you, women have many, many attributes and sort of natural skill sets that they shouldn’t try to hide or discount or discard. In fact, they should be doubling down on some of these competencies, like having an authentic communication leadership style, navigating through discomfort, navigating through imposter syndrome. Giving, and receiving actionable feedback.
Sara Sheehan: [00:27:41] Absolutely. Those competencies of emotional intelligence are absolutely critical for success, and they know there’s tangible research that if you improve your alignment on those competencies, it has a financial repercussion that is positive in your life. It’s phenomenal. That’s one of the many books that I’m reading right now, actually. Emotional Intelligence 2.0. And so, Linda, is there anything else that you’re working on that you would like to share?
Linda Fisk: [00:28:20] I will say that one of the things that we’re really focused on right now is women in leadership in Africa. The currency in Africa, whether it’s the niger or the rand, has a valuation that is very devalued as compared to the US dollar or compared to the euro. We recognize that the currency valuation of the currency in different regions around Africa has a valuation that puts the women in Africa at a significant disadvantage. The rest of the world is remarkably expensive. If you’re relying on a currency that basically has the valuation of a penny to the US dollar. So in the United States, if you’re charging $20 for a service, well, that is like $2,000 to women in Africa. So we are developing a program so that women in Africa in leadership can join LeadHERship Global on scholarship. Because we believe that all women around the world deserve to have access to the same level of influence, thought leadership, learning, connections, resources, tools, media opportunities, funding opportunities as women in the rest of the world.
Sara Sheehan: [00:29:53] That is tremendous.
Linda Fisk: [00:29:54] We want women in Africa to have equal opportunity. So we are providing now a scholarship that allows women in leadership in Africa to have access to the same level of benefits and privileges and opportunities as everyone else. And we’re excited about this. This is a very calculated and intentional, purposeful offering that is going to take a lot of work on our part, and it’s going to create a lot more demand for my team. But it’s something that we’ve talked about as an organization we absolutely believe in. So we’re really excited about that. We think that it’s going to enrich our organization as well, because women from all over the world will now be able to tap into the brilliance and the tenacity and the resilience of women in leadership all over Africa. So we’re super excited about that.
Sara Sheehan: [00:30:49] That is so powerful. That is a wonderful message to share. It is truly going to diversify your community in a tremendous way. And I can’t wait to hear some of the success stories that will come out of it, because there will be people that don’t expect to be able to uncover a new goal or aspiration, and actually be able to make it come true with your, and your community’s, support. That is awesome. Truly incredible. And so Linda, tell us, how can our listeners find you?
Linda Fisk: [00:31:32] The best way to get in touch with me is simple email. I tend to be really responsive in email, unless somehow it gets redirected to one of my other folders. But my inbox is absolutely sacred to me. If you know my email address, you know I will get back in touch with you. And that is linda@leadhershipglobal.com. So leadhershipglobal.com. And, we also tend to be really active on most social media platforms. So you’re welcome to drop me a note in LinkedIn or Facebook, and I’ll absolutely do my best to get back in touch with you. You can drop a note to LeadHERship Global on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or me, Linda Fisk on all of those platforms as well.
Sara Sheehan: [00:32:24] That is a wonderful invitation to reach out to literally one of the smartest and brightest minds that I’ve met recently. And Linda, I am so excited about what you’re doing. You are absolutely going to change the world, and I’m so excited to share this conversation with my listeners. Thank you so much for your time today.
Linda Fisk: [00:32:51] Thank you, Sara. What a privilege and an honor to be on your platform. You talk about making a real global impact. Your show is going to reach lives and transform them with your messages of hope and resilience, and I just am so excited to see the ripple effects of this podcast.
Sara Sheehan: [00:33:13] Awesome. Thank you so much, Linda.
Sara Sheehan: [00:33:15] Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan, where I had a wonderful conversation with my friend Linda Fisk. CEO, TEDx speaker, founder, and current Chairwoman of LeadHERship Global. Linda’s work and wisdom are a testament to the force of impactful leadership and the unique strengths that women bring to the table. There are a few key takeaways that will resonate with leaders everywhere that I’d like to share with you. Integrated leadership for sustainable impact. Combining both mind and heart in leadership roles is essential for driving meaningful, long lasting contributions within organizations, communities, and among people. Leveraging emotional intelligence. Women excel in empathy and emotional intelligence, traits particularly advantageous in high stakes situations. Linda encourages women leaders to not only embrace these natural skills, but also to bolster them through authentic communication and emotional intelligence training, global support, and equal opportunities. LeadHERship Global strives to support women leaders worldwide, focusing on equal opportunities across geographies. An exciting new scholarship program is being developed to assist women in leadership in Africa, combating challenges like devalued currency. Linda’s passion for catalyzing positive change is truly inspiring, and it was an honor to feature her on my show. For those looking to amplify their leadership journey, this episode is an absolute must listen. By all means, please subscribe and never miss an episode wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you so much for being a listener. I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Have a great day!
