IAM414- CEO and Author Mentors Entrepreneurs to Create Meaningful Brands

Lisa Marie Platske left her action-packed career as a Federal law enforcement officer after 9/11 to become the CEO of an international leadership development company, Upside Thinking, Inc. An award-winning leadership expert recognized by the White House and the Small Business Administration, Lisa Marie delivers high-energy presentations using her 7-step process centered on influence, vulnerability, and connection.

Author of 7 books and a certified master coach, she serves on the board of several philanthropic organizations including Project Forgive.

Founder of Design Your Destiny Live™, Lisa Marie lives in Alexandria, VA with her loving and supportive husband, Jim and their pet foxes.

• CEO Hack: Spaciousness – taking time off
• CEO Nugget: It's not the end of the world, there's always another door of opportunity
• CEO Defined: Chief enthusiasm officer

Website: http://www.upsidethinking.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lisa.marie.platske
LinekdIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisamarieplatske
Twitter: https://twitter.com/UpsideThinking
Books: https://www.upsidethinking.com/books

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long long interview? If so, you've come to the right place, Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I Am CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello, this is Gresh from the I am CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today Lisa Marie Platske of Upside Thinking Lisa, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Lisa Marie Platske 0:38

Thank you. I'm so excited, brash happy to be here.

Gresham Harkless 0:41

Super excited to have you on as well. And what I wanted to do is just read a little bit more about Lisa so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Lisa Marie Platske left her action-packed career as a federal law enforcement officer after 911 to become the CEO of international leadership development company Upside Thinking Inc., an award-winning leadership expert recognized by the White House and the Small Business Administration.

Lisa delivers high-energy presentations using her seven-step process centered on influence, and vulnerability in connection, author of seven books and a certified master coach. She serves on the board of several philanthropic organizations, including Project Forgive, and Founder of Design Your Destiny Live. Lisa lives in Alexandria, Virginia with her loving and supportive husband Jim, and their pet foxes. Lisa, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Lisa Marie Platske 1:27

I am so excited.

Gresham Harkless 1:29

So to kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. What led you to get started in your business?

Lisa Marie Platske 1:35

CEO story that was me as the accidental entrepreneur. I was working in federal law enforcement Gresh. And I had no desire to leave law enforcement. I loved what I did. And it was my husband who asked me out. And we went out and I was like, I do not want a serious relationship. He said good. I don't want a serious relationship. And a year and a half later, when he asked me to marry him, I went, Yeah, this has gotten serious.

So when I looked at the two of us since he also was in law enforcement having these competing careers, these 24/7 hour careers it was how do I get to have freedom, fun, and flexibility and have my marriage work. And when I looked at the variety of opportunities that I was given in, you know, either running police academies or going into organizations, the one that provided the most in that category of freedom, fun, and flexibility was opening a business.

Even though I had no connections in business. I was 3000 miles away from my closest friend living in California at the time. I was newly married, and I never took a business class in college only criminal justice. However, I think nobody in my family knew law enforcement. And I did that. So let's do this business.

Gresham Harkless 2:51

You love how that kind of had that kind of just happened to that flows?

Lisa Marie Platske 2:54

Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, really I believe that, and I'm not sure maybe you've not experienced this. But I've found that my business has a lot of leaping and waiting for the net to appear.

Gresham Harkless 3:05

Yeah, well, definitely. You know, in this day and age, especially with technology, it seems like something's always changing. So as soon as the playbook so quote, unquote, comes out, it seems like the place of change, and sometimes even the game, the sport seems to even have changed too. So a lot of times you do have to create your own kind of playbook.

Lisa Marie Platske 3:19

That's true. That's exactly it. And, with doing this for 15 years, I have found that there are things that I thought were so important that I had to spend my time I had to invest in doing this, or they don't even exist anymore.

Gresham Harkless 3:35

Do you feel like a lot of your background has translated into you being able to run your business as far as maybe like skill standpoint, even though it may be completely different, so to speak?

Lisa Marie Platske 3:43

Yes, definitely. Because in law enforcement, I really looked at it as, the psychology of people, it was about understanding people. And ultimately, every human being wants the same thing. They all want to be valued. They all want to be appreciated. They all want to be loved for exactly who they are. I don't care if you're talking about the person who is not the roughest, toughest person to the person who is the softest, gentlest individual, it really is the same we as human beings are wired for, good and we're wired to, want that same level of appreciation.

So I look at that and have seen that show up. In my career in law enforcement. I was there during 9/11 witnessing the goodness of people while people spoke about some happiness being so, horrific, and it was I lost my mentor and it was horrific. And I watched people gather together and it really was where I learned forgiveness in the deepest way.

So that career when I look at the leadership work I do now is such a foundation. The other thing was that I did not succeed in the beginning in law enforcement.

I was you know, strong fiddling, and the guys were not like they were not interested in, what it is that I had to offer. And I could not figure this out, I could not know I had been rewarded in other careers and I had been rewarded in school and gotten the A's and the gold stars. And, here, it was like, wow, they don't see me, what am I doing wrong. And so I signed up for a leadership course. And in the leadership course, they gave me a series of assessments. And in one of the assessments the instructor shared with the class, these 25 leaders in the law enforcement community, were not in law enforcement, some of them were, but others were in other businesses.

She shared that I was a zero, and scored a zero on the interpersonal skills assessment. And she went on and said, you know, if Lisa invites you to do something, she doesn't really want you there. And if you invite her to do something, and she says, yes, she really wishes she was someplace else. And I remember that crash like I remember the crummy feeling of just having no Mi is zero and driving home. And having no one talked to me the pain that really was receiving that feedback that wasn't safe to receive. And I had to have a long look at myself and my career and why I wasn't connecting with the guys. And it ended up being the most wonderful, exquisite thing that happened.

As often things in life I've discovered that seems to be, you know, when I'm rock bottom, my men looking and going, how am I ever gonna get out of this ditch? And then the next thing, you know, it turns out to be one of the best things that happened to me. And so that's really one of the things that led me on my leadership journey. So having not had some of that background was the behavior component. With this being a zero experience, I don't believe that I would have been successful in my business in the way that I am now.

Gresham Harkless 6:49

That makes perfect sense. And I appreciate you tremendously for sharing that with us. And I think that is always hard. Because I usually say the phrase all the time, and I repeat it, you know, and bad days are good days or whatever, it's always darkest before dawn. So a lot of times, when you reach that rock bottom, that zero moment, as you kind of spoke to, you feel so bad, you feel really crummy, but a lot of times that is around the corner, that opportunity that really starts to move things forward. And we just have to kind of continue to move forward in order to do that. So I appreciate you for sharing that with us.

Lisa Marie Platske 7:15

Thank you for being someone that I feel comfortable sharing that with you.

Gresham Harkless 7:20

Absolutely. So I know you touched on it a little bit, you know, with what you're doing with Upside Thinking, can you talk a little bit more about the leadership development that you're helping and all the things you're doing for the clients you're working with?

Lisa Marie Platske 7:30

Sure. So the work that I do is in the leadership realm around leadership and vulnerability and positioning, how do you really understand what to say who to say it to why to say it so that they really see you? And that was the piece for me that in law enforcement was missing?

The guys didn't see me they didn't understand me I was this anomaly that didn't make sense to them. And so when I learned in that moment in that zero I did do something different because it was either, you know, Hey, girl, no, you gotta be smart, and tough and strong and right. But you could also be alone and dead. If no one's got your back. That's a pretty big wake-up call. And I can't say that I went, when you say, you know, there's the dawn, I wasn't seeing the dawn. I was definitely seeing the dust.

Gresham Harkless 8:15

Dark, more dark.

Lisa Marie Platske 8:15

Yeah, as I really was, it was not it was there was no light in that. And that's what made me say, okay, so what are you going to do? Like you have this? What are you going to do? And so I started to study positioning, I started to study connection, I started to study why people are why people connect with someone else, like what is it that makes someone likable?

Or what are the pieces in me being a social introvert that have people also believe that I don't like to be around or connected? And what are the walls that I've created to keep me safe, that are keeping me away from connection with people? And so those are the pieces that today in the work and leadership coaching and consulting and in training and organizations that I get to explore with people so that they get the bigger opportunities and that there aren't these unconscious behaviors that are going on keeping them from promotions or keeping them from clients or keeping them from what it is that they ultimately want.

And the greatest part about it is that I'm not looking for people to change who they are like, I didn't change who I was, I noticed the behaviors that were showing up and said, Okay, so what would allow for the connection? And what are the things that are important for me to say and speak? And so it's not about changing who you are to be something else for someone.

It really is understanding how you speak to someone else's listening. How do you actually hear what's being said read between the lines and then speak your own truth? And through that work? A lot of what I do is also around forgiveness because forgiveness is the foundation that is a high leadership skill to be in forgiveness.

You're in that emotional intelligence where things that go wrong, you're not taken out for days, weeks, months. I have years for some people. And so I've gone into large organizations and done work around forgiveness with teams. And in conversations, even one coaching client said, this issue is not a negotiation issue, this is a forgiveness issue. And unless you deal with the forgiveness issue with the people that you're not so happy with the opportunity, you won't come even if you know how to negotiate. And so being in those conversations is really wonderful.

And it's led to my current passion, which is really around race, and civility, how do we look at differences? Do we focus on so many differences? Or do we focus on all the ways that we're like, everyone wants to be loved, valued, and appreciated.

Gresham Harkless 10:39

And I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce, and it could be for you or your organization. But what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Lisa Marie Platske 10:45

The piece for me that I believe is my secret sauce is one, I'm willing to do my work. I'm willing to every day look at me and go, What is it that I'm doing that I could do better? Rather than having me look at all the things that I'm doing? Well, which I do? Rather I look at what is it that's not working. And not that long ago, I went and said, Oh my gosh, like when you speak this way when you get upset, meaning like when someone says something, and it upsets you, you come across as arrogant. Because ultimately I'm in fear.

Most people are in fear when they're when they're triggered by something. And so I'm going to put out the fight mechanism like I know how to do I'm going to defend myself. And so then it can be tracked as arrogant. So what do I have to do to lower my defenses just simply show up as love to really hear what's going on. Because those are conversations of fear.

So number one, I'm willing to do my own work. And I don't believe everybody is. And that's the reason why I say that. It's something that is my secret sauce, that makes me different.

Number two, I also deeply love people. Recently, someone was on a call with me and I said, you know, I'm not sure that I can afford your services. And I said, here's the thing. I'm here in service, I'm going to have this wonderful call with you.

And at the end of it all, you're going to contribute to my life, and hopefully, I contribute to yours. And if we decide that there's a way to work together great. And if there isn't, this is an exquisite exchange of my time, I find that so often in business, we're taught to check the box to have a profitable activity. And the reality is that it goes back to people, those people and I deeply love people that does that mean that I you know give away all of my services, no rush. It simply is that wherever I am, I'm fully in the moment in whatever conversation I am in. And because of so many things I've heard in business, I believe that's the secret sauce.

The third piece is forgiveness that when I've been wronged and the wrongs have been significant, the ability to forgive is a gift. It's a blessing. It gives me peace of mind. And the other thing is, I don't have people on my team or colleagues or clients walking around on eggshells thinking that they're going to do something wrong. That is unforgivable. Love is always the answer, regardless of the question. And so being from that place for me, it's not the Tange I can give you all the business systems, I could do the things that you know, allow you to say, here's how I use my metrics and track my time. I don't believe that that's what it is, that makes me unique and different.

Gresham Harkless 13:21

Nice, and I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this could be an apple book or habit that you have. But what is something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Lisa Marie Platske 13:32

Spaciousness, I map out when I'm going to take time off every six to eight weeks at a minimum. That could be three days, five days, or two weeks, but it is mapped out so that I don't I will oftentimes work on what are considered traditional holidays, Fourth of July, Memorial Day, Labor Day Christmas, New Year's, you will often find me working. The reason is that on that day, I may have the highest level of productivity, I'm clear that there are times when I will want to have a day of time off a space. And so I create that and have the spaciousness in my schedule. Where I'm not running around means that my effectiveness is far more important than my efficiency.

Gresham Harkless 14:17

Exactly. So now I want to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And that is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you can happen to a time machine. What would you tell your younger business self?

Lisa Marie Platske 14:26

I would tell my younger business self that is not that deep, like it really, you know when something happens that it really isn't the end of the world, that there's always door number two, door number three, or number four, there's always another door of opportunity waiting.

Gresham Harkless 14:46

I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Lisa Marie, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Lisa Marie Platske 14:55

A CEO is a person who's in charge of the vision the person who's actually out They're however I use the acronym for Chief enthusiasm officer like him the most enthusiastic about my life, about my clients about what it is that I'm creating the destiny that I'm designing. That's the reason why the vision makes sense the casting of the vision and the work. That's really, what I would call the higher level leadership work.

Gresham Harkless 15:22

I appreciate that. And I appreciate your time even more. Lisa, what I wanted to do was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you can let our readers and listeners know. And then of course, how best I can get a hold of you. If I thought about all the awesome work that you're doing.

Lisa Marie Platske 15:35
Thank you. Thank you, I would say the only the only thing I say all the time is the world needs you and your brilliance. Like, make sure that you're out there speaking your truth, even if it is incredibly uncomfortable because comfort doesn't change the world. And how to get in touch with me Upside Thinking is the name of my business and my website.

So that's an upside and the word thinking.com. You can always email me at lisamarie@upsidethinking.com Yes, I still use email. There are a few of us out there. And I actually answer them too. And then you can find me on Facebook or LinkedIn. Those are my two primary platforms and I love connecting love people.

Gresham Harkless 16:11

Thank you so much. I appreciate you for sharing your brilliance with us and reminding us to do the same we will make sure to have those links and that information in the show notes, especially your email. But thank you so much, Lisa Marie, I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Outro 16:22
Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, And leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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