IAM511- Podcast Host Delivers Perspective-shifting Conversations

Allison Hare is the creator and host of the Little Left of Center podcast and has been a high-achieving high-tech sales professional for 15 years. Allison's insatiable curiosity and obsession with helping entrepreneurs, executives, and business professionals disrupt the status quo, led her to share the compelling stories of culture-changers through her podcast.

Little Left of Center delivers perspective-shifting conversations with the most fascinating CEOs, founders, entrepreneurs, doctors, political leaders, religious figures, educators, comedians, authors, artists, seekers, and change-makers.

• CEO Hack: Waking up at 4:30 am and doing three things before looking at any screen
• CEO Nugget: Not worrying about bullshit and prioritizing things that matter
• CEO Defined: One with a vision who can inspire great people with a different perspective

Website: http://littleleftofcenter.co/

https://www.instagram.com/llocpodcast/
https://www.instagram.com/allison__hare/

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Transcription:

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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. I have Allison Hare of the Little Left of Center podcast. Allison, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Allison Hare 0:38

Hi, it's great to be here. Thanks so much, Gresh.

Gresham Harkless 0:41

No problem. Super excited to have you on and what I wanted to do is just read a little bit more about Allison so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing.

Allison Hare is the creator and host of the Little Left of Center podcast and has been a high-achieving high-tech sales professional for 15 years. Allison's insatiable curiosity and obsession with helping entrepreneurs, executives, and business professionals disrupt the status quo, led her to share the compelling stories of culture-changers through her podcast.

Little Left of Center delivers perspective-shifting conversations with the most fascinating CEOs, founders, entrepreneurs, doctors, political leaders, religious figures, educators, comedians, authors, artists, seekers, and change-makers.

Allison, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Allison Hare 1:24

I sure am. That sounds like a mouthful.

Gresham Harkless 1:27

No worries, I got through it somewhat smoothly but practice makes perfect. I know you're you're hosting your podcast, and I wanted to hear a little bit more about your CEO story. What led you to get started with your podcast and everything you're doing?

Allison Hare 1:39

Yeah. I work in a high-tech sales company as you had mentioned, and I moved to a community that is very mixed racially and socioeconomically. When we moved here, that elementary school was not that great. I just had my first son, he's now six. I thought elementary school was not that great. What if I could be part of the solution instead of being part of the problem and just moving or complaining about it so I got involved? I started to volunteer as an academic mentor and served on the foundation board.

My whole life had been changed just from the one hour a week, or whatever, that I would sit across from these amazing children that I would have never known otherwise, that there was this little boy, and his name was Dan Torrio and Dan Torrio was a kid that every time I went in to go see him, he was always set aside from all the rest of the kids, he was always in trouble. When I sat with him, he had no attention span, he just was bouncing off the walls and would not listen without paying attention. He was just, it was just insane. I thought I don't know if this is worth it, is this worth it? I thought, well, I bet every person has quit on this boy, I'm just gonna keep showing up.

That's what I did in that very next time, everything changed and, yes, he still had attention issues. But I could tell he respected and trusted me. When I started to realize that he had a life that I would have never known about a life that I probably could never relate to where parents are just trying to survive through whatever means or whatever that was. That kind of changed my perspective on a lot of things, I want to help and I want to serve. I have a degree in broadcasting, and I've always been great at public speaking. That's what I love I feel very comfortable on a mic or a stage. But I wanted to know how could I help.

As I started to look at so many different things that I felt were problems in the world, I felt like well, how can I help? How can I serve? How can I make a difference instead of complaining? Earlier this year, in May, I started, I launched the Little Left of Centre podcast, interviewing culture changers. My main question is, it is how do you move a community? How do you move, inspire, and move a community forward and break the status quo? So that's kind of been how I started it.

Gresham Harkless 4:20

Nice. Well, I definitely appreciate you for doing that. I think, as you talked about, there are so many people that don't try to be the change they wish to see in the world, so to speak, and see and ask that additional question or spend that little extra time to see kids or whoever it might be, that might be going through something that we don't know because everybody has a story that we don't really sometimes take the time to to do that. I appreciate you for doing that and taking it even further to take your talents and gifts, and to be able to kind of create and build your platform to do that.

Allison Hare 4:50

Thank you.

Gresham Harkless 4:52

Absolutely. I know I touched on it a little bit and you touched on it as well too. I want to hear a little bit more about the podcast. Can you take us through exactly like what we will find, what we can listen to there?

Allison Hare 5:01

Yeah, so I do interview culture changers, so people whose work kind of breaks convention and changes how the rest of us live. The idea for it was, what if I'm able to shift a perspective through conversation or through sharing other people's stories? What if I'm able to inspire the listeners to actually take action, and maybe contribute in their own ways? I always ask, how can people contribute to your mission, if it's something that they feel so inspired by? I started it in May, and I went through a podcast program to it, was called the Podcasting Fellowship.

I just fell in love with the process with the production part of it, the interviews with the conversations, and even the editing and all this stuff in the background, I love that from a listener's perspective, the feedback that I typically get is I didn't realize it was that way, or I never would have thought that, that that was the case. So it has changed my perspective. That, to me, is the biggest pat on the back that maybe I'm doing my job.

From the Little Left of Centre, it's not a political podcast, despite its name. It was somewhat born to the frustration of the political climate of feeling like voting once every two years was not enough. I feel like we have so much more to contribute. I am a mother of two and working professional. A lot of the people that I talk to are in similar spots where they feel like, I have more to give, I'm not really using all of my talents. What can I do? The podcast, I'm not sure if I'm answering your question, Am I answering?

Gresham Harkless 6:48

You're hitting the nail on the head.

Allison Hare 6:51

But yeah, it is their perspective-shifting conversation. One of my favorite episodes is with Father Dennis Dorner, Jr. who is a young Catholic priest. Through all the controversy, he's a young guy, he's got long hair, he's got pierced ears, He's everything you would not expect from a Catholic priest. I sat down with him and was so blown away at what it's like to walk in his shoes to be a priest, and probably the hardest time ever to be a Catholic or to be in religion at all, especially with the controversy that surrounding the Catholic Church.

I thought that was unbelievably powerful to hear him directly address it, and, and talk through it, and kind of offer us some hope, not just for religion, or the fate of just humanity. I thought it was really powerful, regardless of your place in religion.

Gresham Harkless 7:54

Nice. I definitely appreciate that. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't know if you find this same when you're talking with people who listen to the podcast and listen to it from different perspectives a lot of times for us to make a change or see as impactful things happen, we need to have things a little bit shaken up. To hear people that actually kind of talked about, you know, the religious leader who's able to be not quote and quote, conventional, or what you would expect him to be. Sometimes when you hear his title, it allows people to look at things in a different way. Hopefully, and I'm imagining this might be part of what you're doing, is also helping to create a different perspective and different solutions to some of the problems that we have as well.

Allison Hare 8:32

Yes, and there's something that has come about from this podcast is that I'm actually launching a podcast program as well. It's called Press Play Podcast, and I was thinking about how can I inspire others to use their voice and use their talents and their gifts to make a difference or make an impact. I thought about it and thought about it and whiteboard it with a business professional and we came up with this idea of why not teach other people how to use their voice in a powerful, impactful way.

As you probably know, when starting a podcast, there are so many different components and minutia to kind of get through and figure out options. I think we as a society are overly presented with options that you can now almost have choice fatigue. I will be taking them through a step-by-step process to go from concept. It's gonna be a collaborative community as well, but from concept to go live through Press Play podcast, so yeah.

Gresham Harkless 9:36

Nice. That's super exciting, what I talked about and kind of like what you spoke to is that sometimes we don't realize and we need reminders of people like yourself that have phenomenal podcasts that we do have a platform, whether it be you to talk about these difficult issues or to talk about something that we create whatever it might be, we have options to do that. But a lot of times, if that's not in our world, a lot of times we don't know that we can actually do that.

So I pray for one doing it and also helping out so many people doing it as well.

Allison Hare 10:03

Thank you. I guess the question is, how do you give a voice to somebody? I don't know. I'm sure you probably agree with this, it's really easy to take a place of apathy, because you don't know where to start, or you don't know that your contributions will actually make a difference. That is kind of in the place where I live, what if we said, yes, and what if we identified what your gifts and talents are? What breaks your heart? How can you contribute, focus on that, and figure out where to go? So that's kind of the place where I live.

Gresham Harkless 10:35

That is super awesome that you're able to do that which empowers people, as well. You might have a writer's session on this, but I want to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. It could be for your podcasts or yourself, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Allison Hare 10:47

I think it's such a great question, Gresh. I think that I can see through the cracks of depth. I like to go as deep as possible. I'm a Scorpio. I don't know if you care about astrology.

Gresham Harkless 11:01

I am a Gemini.

Allison Hare 11:02

I have a daughter who's a Gemini.

Gresham Harkless 11:04

She's awesome. Already know.

Allison Hare 11:05

She is awesome. The dual life for sure. But I'm a Scorpio so I like to go really deep than the surface things that maybe other people miss. I'll listen to a podcast, and I'm very much an auditory learner. I'm not sure if you are like that, because of what you do. Your visual

Gresham Harkless 11:22

Yeah, I'm super visual.

Allison Hare 11:22

I'm more audio. I'll hear things and I'm like, but what about this? What about that? What about this? How does this tick? I started to come up with this framework of questions just by hearing other people in the conversation where I want to understand the context, I want to understand more. So my podcasts are, I guess my differentiator is I like to excavate really deep, but come up with things that are consumable, and can come up with things that are going to change and maybe shift a perspective, enough where people have not only an understanding or a context where they may not have had before.

For instance, my little guy, Dan Torrio, like it would have been so much easier. I think before that, for me to dismiss kids that were disruptive is just bad kids are not worth it. So being face to face with this kid added context and allowed me to understand the environment where he came from, to the point where it's not his fault, it may not even be his parents' fault. Like all of that stuff, there's so much more systemic inflammation that what if we were able to untangle that in a way that made it clear and consumable and gave us a pathway to progress?

Gresham Harkless 12:39

Awesome. I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app or book or habit that you have, or what's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Allison Hare 12:49

Oh, my God, this is so easy for me, I wake up at 4:30 am. That is my hack. I've got several hacks. I was actually listening to the podcast today with James Clear, do you know who James Clear is?

Gresham Harkless 13:02

Think so.

Allison Hare 13:02

He wrote the book Atomic Habits, which would be the perfect answer to your question. But I wake up at 4:30 am. I have two kids, and from 4:30 to 6:30, I'm able to shower, work out, or work on the podcast. But it is golden to me, I do pass out at nine o'clock. It's not like I don't get any sleep. We as a family have had to adjust as well. So I have to be really intentional with my husband the time that I have because he is more of a night owl.

When I wake up at 430. I swear 4:30 to 6:30. I wake up. The other thing that I do, before I look at any screen is I have to do three things. One of those things is to follow my breath for 10 breaths. The second is to move my body in some ways. So whether it is stretching, or just doing a little bit of exercise and the third is that I write in a journal. So I do those three things before I look at any screen.

Gresham Harkless 13:56

Awesome. Now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. That is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you could hop into be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Allison Hare 14:06

Honestly, it's something that I still struggle with not worrying about the bullshit and focusing and prioritizing on things that matter.

Gresham Harkless 14:17

Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favourite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO and we're hoping to have different quote and quote CEOs on this show. So Allison, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Allison Hare 14:27

Somebody who's got a vision that can inspire people who are greater than the CEO to kind of what do they say all what do they call it like all ships rise? I'm totally failing on this question. But that's what I think if you surround yourself with really great people who have different perspectives, and different talents and I'm totally ruining the phrase, but all ships rise together.

Gresham Harkless 14:56

Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Allison. I truly appreciate you and your time. What I want to do is pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and listeners know and then of course how best they can get ahold of you, subscribe to the podcast and find out all the awesome things you're working on.

Allison Hare 15:12

Yeah, thank you so much for this Gresh. I really appreciate it and I'm honored. Yeah, so the podcast is called Little Left of Centre. It is available anywhere you listen to podcasts. It also streams on Decatur FM and is also available on Salesforce radios. If you work for Salesforce, you can access episodes there too. I will be launching like I said Press Play podcasts and my website will be littleleftofcenter.co so not .com but .co littleleftofcenter.co. If you have any questions you can follow me on the socials I'm llocpodcast on Instagram. Would love to hear from you, and would love to learn. If you are a culture changer or if you know of a culture changer please let me know I'm open to any ideas and super excited to to hear from you as well. So thank you so much.

Gresham Harkless 15:12

No problem thank you so much for you know taking some time out and of course making this your work, a lot of people have a voice and are doing awesome things and we need to hear about them. I appreciate you for doing that as well.

Allison Hare 16:06

Thank You

Gresham Harkless 16:08

No problem and hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Outro 16:16

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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