Lisa Levy is the Founder and CEO of LCubed Consulting, a business that helps enterprise to medium-level organizations elevate through strategic goal achievement. She and her team teach the practice of rapid adaptive transformation to notable global, multi-billion-dollar clients. A frequent guest expert on multiple media outlets and a speaker at business executive conferences.

• CEO Hack: Self-care and protecting my time by blocking time for non-business things
• CEO Nugget: Don't sweat the small stuff, if everything is urgent nothing is
• CEO Defined: Creating something and having that thing have more meaning to the people I serve

Website: http://www.lcubedconsulting.com/

http://www.futureproofingcubed.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisalevy/

FULL INTERVIEW

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Transcription

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[00:00:02.20] – Intro

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.

[00:00:26.10] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Lisa Levy of L cubed consulting. Lisa, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:00:40.39] – Lisa Levy

Gresh, it's great to be here. Thanks for the invitation.

[00:00:43.20] – Gresham Harkless

No problem. Super excited to have you on. And before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Lisa so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Lisa is the founder and CEO of L cubed Consulting, a business that helps enterprise to medium-level organizations elevate through strategic goal achievement. She and her team teach the practice of rapid adaptive transformation to notable global and multibillion-dollar clients. A frequent guest and expert on multiple media outlets and a speaker at business executive conferences, Lisa, it's awesome to have you on the show.

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[00:01:14.59] – Lisa Levy

Thank you so much. It's good to be here. I'm looking forward to talking to the tribe.

[00:01:19.59] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. Super excited to have you on the show, and I wanted to kinda rewind the clock a little bit and hear a little bit more about how you got started. Could you take us through your CEO story? We'll let you get started with the business.

[00:01:30.00] – Lisa Levy

Absolutely. So my CEO story started in two thousand eight. I was working for a company that I thought was going to be my absolute epitome of a dream job and I got into the environment and it was anything but a dream. The organization was highly siloed, the C-suite was highly fractured, and people didn't simply like one another. And I watched what was going on and I looked at the number of consultants that were brought into the environment and I thought to myself, I can do this. I can do this better and I can make it easier for companies to get the support that they need from a consulting organization that actually drives value and improves efficiency and effectiveness for how businesses operate. So again, two thousand and eight, I walked away from a corporate job and opened up LCubed consulting, and I've never looked back.

[00:02:31.50] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Well, I definitely sorry to hear about that experience, but I don't know if you find this, but I find it sometimes when I don't have the the best experience, I guess, you can call them, that sometimes that's one of the best learning tools you can ever learn. Because for one, you know what not to do, and two, you know how you can improve and do a lot better.

[00:02:48.00] – Lisa Levy

Well, you know, we learn through failure, not through success. And so that was a really challenging time, and it really made me consider what's important. Over the past twelve years, that has led to creating adaptive transformation, which is our business forward approach to help businesses align simply their people, processes, and technology so that they can be effective.

[00:03:15.69] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And I know that's, you know, I guess, how exactly you serve the clients, but it definitely sounds like those three, I don't know if the correct term would be pillars, are so important to one another that sometimes if you're missing, like, one of the legs, I guess, of the table, you're missing, like, the entire business because it can kinda fall over.

[00:03:33.19] – Lisa Levy

Absolutely. And, you know, there are people out there who will challenge that I oversimplify by saying, you know, it's all about aligning people process and technology, but it is, it's a three-legged stool and you can't stand on just two of the three and they grow organically as a business grows. Any entrepreneur starts a business with an idea. But to bring it to market, they need people to do the work. And for the people to be efficient and effective, they have to have processes that are repeatable and that they're, you know, that they are efficient. And then as you grow further, you can leverage the right technologies to automate pieces so you kind of do more with less. And yeah, it is an equation, and it's very sequential and yes it is complicated and it is complex to make it all work but if you just keep in mind that it really is there are just those three pieces It really can all come together, and a company can grow and thrive.

[00:04:34.50] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. I think that's and it's so funny you say that because I always felt like there was a kinda distinguished there's a difference, I should say, between simple and easy. They don't always go along the same lines. Even though you have those, you know, that simple equation, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's easy to be able to execute on that and be able to see that successful business.

[00:04:54.60] – Lisa Levy

Right. No. It is easy and is not something that I'm selling. Right? This is hard work and, you know, I'm a process person and so I could, you know, claim I can solve any problem with boxes and arrows. Well, this is three boxes, but they're really important boxes. Right? There's a lot of implication behind that. Having good people doing the wrong work, the work that they're not capable of doing doesn't make anybody successful. It makes an individual employee feel frustrated and demeaned. It has your management also confused and this is a wonderful person but if you don't understand their actual capability, you can't leverage it and nobody's going to be happy, let alone successful. So yes, building blocks. Yeah. Right people doing the right work with the right process. It is it all has to build on each other.

[00:05:48.69] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And definitely, as you said, you know, leveraging that technology optimally to be able to kinda achieve, those goals as well too. So, I wanted to, ask you for what I call your secret sauce. This could be for yourself or for your business, but what do you feel kinda sets you apart and makes you unique?

[00:06:05.89] – Lisa Levy

So I guess I can answer that two ways. For l cubed, the secret sauce is absolutely adaptive transformation. And adaptive transformation, the big secret is it's not a secret. So adaptive transformation is our framework of using industry-standard best-in-class practices, project management, process performance management, internal controls, and organizational change management. The secret part is how we do this and we leverage it across functions rather than building them as silos. So that's the secret. For me personally, this was a hard one to learn, but the secret sauce is doing the things that scare me. If something about an opportunity is frightening, it must mean that it's gonna be a challenge and that there's an opportunity to learn something and to walk into it rather than away from it.

[00:07:05.39] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That makes so much sense. Absolutely love that. So 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, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:07:20.89] – Lisa Levy

So as we're sitting here having this conversation, we're all still self-isolated and we're we're in COVID nineteen quarantine. This hack has been important to me for years but being confined in space at home made it makes it even more valuable and really it's protecting my time. And there have to be times that are for me personally versus my business versus my clients. And really honoring and taking and blocking out a couple a couple of hours here or a couple of hours there that has nothing to do with business.

And making sure that my family is a priority and that I take the time that I need just to stop and stop thinking, stop doing, and just be still. And I listen to and I'm part of lots of different organizations and teams talking, you know, CEO leadership and you know, right, you know, we need to drive and thrive and constantly be in motion doing, doing, doing, making an impact And there's a point in time where you can't. You just have to hit the pause button. It doesn't it's not forever. But, yeah, taking care of myself is my favorite hack.

[00:08:40.50] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. And I love that kinda, you know, making sure to keep your cup full. And I don't know if you definitely agree with this, but I almost feel like, you know, you hear so much of people that burn out and are just going, going, going, and they hit that wall. And as much as they want to get back up or they wanna go around, you just when you hit the wall, there's not anything you can do. You just have to literally rest. So I almost feel like if you're kinda on top of that and you initiate those that time, initiate those breaks, those opportunities to kinda recharge, then that allows you the opportunity to continue to kinda run that marathon of entrepreneurship and business.

[00:09:13.50] – Lisa Levy

And that's the perfect analogy. Right? It is a marathon, not a sprint. And, yes, you know, taking time. When I was writing my book, Future Proofing Cubed, I interviewed, a dozen couple of dozen CEOs and listened to their stories and there was a thread through all of that and it was hitting the wall. And for different people that means different things, you know, just you know, I'm tired, I'm grumpy, you know, on the on one end of the spectrum, on the other end of the spectrum, it's a serious life-threatening illness and in our businesses are important to us. They are creations of ours.

We have very close personal ties and emotional ties to them, but are they worth our lives? And so I have always tried to protect my time, you know, as a way of maintaining balance. But listening to other stories and really seeing the worst-case scenario of what happens when you don't have really elevated that for me and you know that little time on my calendar that says blocked don't schedule. It's real. It's not, you know, a lot of time but those blocks, you know, they're out there and they're there for a reason and my team knows it and I think everybody appreciates hearing somebody else say, yeah, I will take the time out for me and you need to take the time out for you when you need it. Ten years ago, we didn't have those conversations, and I think it's much more important that we, you know, acknowledge our humanness.

[00:10:53.29] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. Because, often we can sometimes, you know, forget that aspect of it, but I absolutely love that hack just because it reminds us of why we're actually doing what we're doing. And I think sometimes when we get into the day-to-day, we can sometimes forget about the family, about, you know, whatever it is that truly inspires what it is that you're doing. So I love that reminder and that hack. So, I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So that could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It could be something you might tell a client, or if you were to happen to a time machine, you might even tell your younger business self.

[00:11:27.60] – Lisa Levy

Don't sweat the small stuff. One piece of advice that I was given early in my career by an executive assistant, twenty, twenty-five years ago. You know, everything always feels like a crisis and we can get into this mode of managing crisis to crisis and everybody's energy is always, always, always at a hundred percent. And this very wise woman looked at me one day and she said, okay. Here's the deal. When somebody says this is an emergency, you have to ask this question. Do we need to call nine one one? Is somebody bleeding or dying? If the answer is yes, please please please please call nine one. Mhmm. If the answer is no, it's not an emergency. And so the nugget is being able to take, again, the time, the moment, the pause to assess, Is this emergent request really emergent or is it just important? And then prioritize how you use your time and your energy that you're putting your time into what matters most because if everything is urgent, nothing is. And that is my nugget.

[00:12:43.20] – Gresham Harkless

Oh, I love that. Even if everything's urgent, nothing is. And that's extremely powerful because I think, as you said, you know, so many times, you know, you're being pulled from this, that, or the third on what's an emergency, what needs your time and attention right there, right at that moment. But I think if you're able to and this kinda sounds like it's a practice that you can kinda develop as well too, where you're able to kinda take a step back and ask, is this something that I need to call a nine one one for? Yep. And that helps to kinda reframe things. And when you get in that practice, when things are pulling at you, you start to be able to kinda use that muscle, so to speak, to be able to kind of understand exactly where it falls on the totem pole.

[00:13:21.00] – Lisa Levy

Absolutely. Simple question. Do I need to call nine one one? Hopefully, the answer is usually no.

[00:13:28.00] – Speaker 2

Yes. Absolutely. Simple yet powerful. So I absolutely love that, Lisa. And so, now 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 quotes, unquote CEOs on the show. So what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:13:44.70] – Lisa Levy

For me, being a CEO is about creating something, and having that something mean something to a greater audience than me. For LCubed, it was solving a series of business problems that kept other leaders up at night. How do you, you know, make things that seem so difficult achievable? How do you address, what I call the way we've always done it syndrome? You get stuck in these patterns and how do you break them and become more effective and more efficient? So for me, as a consultant and a CEO of a consulting practice, it's really about solving other people's problems. The larger definition of CEO really is about leading people to do good work, to do good things, be it their product or their services that make the world easier, make our lives easier, add value, and keep the machine of life happening.

[00:14:49.39] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Absolutely. I love that perspective and that definition because when you were saying that, it kinda reminds me of the word kinda legacy where, you know, I think we, again, kinda go through the things that we do, but we wanna have such a huge impact on everything. And I think true leadership, you know, is defined by being able to obviously do that in our businesses and our lives. But I think when you're able, like you, are able to work with clients and have that impact, it it kinda transcends and goes so much farther than sometimes we can even, imagine.

[00:15:18.60] – Lisa Levy

That would be the goal and the dream.

[00:15:21.70] – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely.

[00:15:23.00] – Lisa Levy

I like Legacy. I like it

[00:15:25.79] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Lisa, truly appreciate that definition, and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional. You can let our readers and listeners know and let us know how we can get a hold of you, get a copy of the book, and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

[00:15:41.79] – Lisa Levy

Absolutely. The easiest way to find me is at www.lcubedconsulting.com Future Proofing Cubed book, the link is out there, and a link to schedule fifteen minutes with me if you wanna have a conversation.

[00:15:59.00] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much again, Lisa. We will have the links and information in the show notes as well too so that everybody can follow up with you. But truly appreciate you, for your time and all the work that you do too to to kinda remind us of how we can improve the legacies in every aspect and every step that we do in our lives. So I appreciate you again, and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

[00:16:19.50] – Lisa Levy

Awesome, Gresh. Thanks for the opportunity to talk to the tribe.

[00:16:23.20] – Outro

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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