IAM637- Trainer Creates Unique Experiential Programs For Leaders

Lisa Dadd spent 15 years with a Fortune 100 company, learning the foundations of corporate sales and marketing before redirecting that knowledge as an entrepreneur. An intense training in transformational leadership and work in social-emotional intelligence gave her a new appreciation for blending seemingly divergent skills. Today, Lisa enjoys playing with those skills as she creates unique experiential programs that develop leaders who are radically self-aware, personally accountable, and deeply connected to their visions.

• CEO Hack: (1) Using a scheduling app to save time and energy (2) Canva
• CEO Nugget: Find your unique way – there's no right or wrong
• CEO Defined: (1) Being intentional about what your vision is (2) Driving your mission (3) Having a support team

Website: https://www.lisadadd.com/

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2P77e5H
YouTube: https://youtu.be/sNqWHAhs1ew

Check out one of our favorite CEO Hack’s Audible. Get your free audiobook and check out more of our favorite CEO Hacks HERE

Transcription

The full transcription is only available to CBNation Library Members. Sign up today!

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. 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 Dadd of lisadadd.com. Lisa, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Lisa Dadd 0:38

Thank you. Nice to be here.

Gresham Harkless 0:40

Yeah, super excited to have you on. And what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Lisa. So you're gonna hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Lisa Dadd has spent 15 years with a Fortune 100 company, leading the foundations of corporate sales and marketing before redirecting that knowledge as an entrepreneur, and intense training and transformational leadership and work on social-emotional intelligence, gave her a new appreciation for blending seemingly divergent skills. Today, Lisa enjoys playing with those skills. She creates unique experiential programs that develop leaders who are radically self-aware, personally accountable, and deeply connected to their visions. Lisa, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO podcast?

[restrict paid=”true”]

Lisa Dadd 1:17

I am, let's do it.

Gresham Harkless 1:18

So I wanted to hear a little bit more about your CEO story. What led you to get started with your business?

Lisa Dadd 1:22

Yes, sure. It sort of happened accidentally on purpose, if you will. I have been working for a Fortune 100 company for over 15 years. And I always said that when I figured out what I wanted to do, I would go do it. I really didn't intentionally start out to own my own business, I was sort of on a journey of discovering what would bring me more joy and happiness, I had just kept climbing this corporate ladder to realize that I was becoming less and less fulfilled and less and less happy. And so one day, it just hit me that I could choose to leave. And it was kind of a good time in my organization to leave. And I stepped away and I had this mission to figure out what it was that would fulfill me that would give me some more meaning and purpose in my life.

Gresham Harkless 2:03

Yeah, that makes so much sense. I appreciate you for breaking that down. And I think so many times, we always wish we were at the finish line not realizing that it's a journey. And sometimes we have to respect kind of the process of respect what it takes to get to where exactly we want to be and get that fulfillment, but it sounds like you have.

Lisa Dadd 2:19

Yeah, exactly. And it was one of those things where I realized that I kept saying I was going to figure it out, but I wasn't actually doing anything to figure it out. I was letting life sort of happen to me rather than really well, you talk about being a CEO, rather, rather than being a CEO of my own life.

Gresham Harkless 2:34

Right. Exactly. That makes so much sense. I love that I really, you know, hit home with me. And I think so many times we think that we can wake up and then you know, our mission and vision. Sometimes it might happen where we're living that out. But often we have to do the work in order to get and see that fulfillment in our lives.

Lisa Dadd 2:59

Yeah, definitely. I used to say that I think I must have been waiting for the magic fairy to fly by Frankel's purpose desktop, that was not gonna come, right? And so I've definitely realized and now I support others in how do we go through that process? Don't all automatically wake up with a huge vision and specific dream of what we want to create. It's not always quite that simple.

Gresham Harkless 3:12

Absolutely, absolutely. So I know you just touched on it a little bit. So I wanted you to take us through like exactly how you work with clients and what that looks like.

Lisa Dadd 3:20

Yeah, for sure. It depends on what stage clients are at. So those clients that are really in the I have no idea what I want to do, Lisa, I just I know there's a bigger purpose for my life. And I'm sort of stuck. I actually take them through a process, I use a tool called Soul language. And we actually look at you know, what is your soul's kind of purpose and being here? What does that what does that look like for you? And maybe, what are some of the elements that keep blocking you? And so we start there for those people that are really still looking for that purpose ferry that to fly over them.

And then individuals that are kind of already in the process of you know, I've started a business, I'm a bit struggling, I've been trying to get to my next level, or maybe even to just get some momentum with those individuals, I take them through a bit of a different process that helps them really create the vision and mission for their organization. Always kind of bringing in that soul piece of like, what is your unique brilliance? And how can we leverage that in a way that not only brings a paycheck to your bank account but brings joy and fulfillment back to your life?

Gresham Harkless 4:18

Yeah, I love that. And so many times I say like, and I don't know, if you find this when you talk with people with clients, I feel like sometimes people are in the mentality where it's either worse or ever both. So why can't you have a really prosperous, phenomenal business feed your soul at that exact same time, and do everything you're supposed to be doing?

Lisa Dadd 4:33

Exactly. And what happens is often people start out there. And then as we become entrepreneurs, we recognize, at least this happened for me, I was in a big organization with a structure around me to support the work I did and to support me in my brilliance. Then I come out as an entrepreneur and say, I really want to be in my brilliance in my heart and feel into what I'm doing. All of a sudden I realized I had to do all the components that my organization used to support and all of a sudden we got busy doing all of those pieces and that fear of what if I can't replace that income? And that starts to be the lens. And then we realize, oh, wait a second, I started this for more joy and fulfillment, and I've let that go. Because I've had fear. And the internet and digital marketing and all of the pieces sometimes feed into that fear of what if you can't make money? And what if, what if you can't replace that income? So it's, I think it's a natural piece that it's almost like we start there, and then it's easy to lose it.

Gresham Harkless 5:24

Alright. No, I appreciate you articulating that, especially that fear piece, because I think, you know, you start, you know, you start doing all of the things, and you realize, and you start, you know, putting out more fires than you are, you know, kind of a lot of lighting the fire within to be you know, why you did all the things that you're doing is very easy, in a short period of time, sometimes lose sight of that. And I love how you talked about that, how you do that with clients to be able to get back to why you were doing exactly what it is that you're doing.

Lisa Dadd 5:49

Yeah, I just worked with a client the other day, and she's a small business. So there were three of them in the room when we were doing a strategy planning session. And really, that's exactly what I ended up doing getting them back to the grassroots. You know, we started with that question of why you started this business in the first place. And yes, we've come this far. And how can we get back to that in a way that feels really powerful, but also brings us the success and impact that you're looking for? And it was like, Oh, yes. Why did we create this in the first place? becomes a really powerful question.

Gresham Harkless 6:18

Yeah, absolutely. Especially with, it's always going to happen in a business where there's going to be so many things you're gonna have to juggle and put out, but making sure that you're back in alignment, and you're back paying attention to that, why is super powerful. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call your secret sauce, and it could be for you personally or your business. But do you feel like that is what sets you apart? Is that ability to be able to see the difference between whether somebody is in alignment or not?

Lisa Dadd 6:40

Yeah, and yes, it is. And I think what the secret sauce really is, is, my belief, my approach, and my attitude is all around the fact that there is there's not only one way to success, I think a lot of a lot of companies and organizations out there now, especially in the entrepreneurial space, it's like there's their teaching one, I won't even say strategy, their tactics, it's like you have to do this tactic to be successful. And my belief is that no, we need to get back to what are your what is your unique brilliance. And is that driving your mission? Yes, there are other components to your business. But are we really at the core of it? Are you trying to be like everyone else and do all of these things and forget who you are at your core? There's a strength in that I do a lot of sales training with people. And I train them how to actually be an amazing salesperson being completely you not being who you think salespeople need to be. And when I give people that switch, and I show them how to do that. It's like freedom. It's like, oh, my gosh, you mean I can actually just be me better? It's like, yeah, it's freedom if there's a freeing in it.

Gresham Harkless 7:41

Yeah, absolutely. I usually say a lot that you can never lose if you're running your own race. But as you kind of spoke to, I think so many times, when you see somebody that's become successful, you don't sometimes realize their why or how they're doing it, you just see the steps that they did. So you have to kind of emulate that in order to be successful. But by doing that, sometimes you're losing yourself, you're losing that alignment, you're losing that way, and that may not necessarily be alignment as it is with the person is quote unquote, successful, and how we define it.

Lisa Dadd 8:07

Yeah, and I think there's even one step further going on nowadays, especially because we have so much access to the Internet and so many Internet entrepreneurs who are teaching what made them successful. And when we peel it back, it's actually even they aren't really clear on what made them successful. I've been in I've been in several programs, I bought into myself, and I've worked with several entrepreneurs and small business owners, and I recognize they believe that there was a strategy or tactic that made them successful. And why peel back the layers and go, that's actually not what it was for you. And so they're teaching the tactic, and not even realizing for themselves like, oh, I had this thing. That really is the success.

Gresham Harkless 8:43

Yeah, absolutely. And I'm glad you broke that down. I think we kind of talked when we first connected about that aspect of how sometimes when you're so close to it, it's hard for you to really see what was success because you did a bunch of different things. And one of the things worked out. And it may be what you thought it was, but it may not necessarily be but because we're so close to it, because we were doing it, it's hard for us to first of all identify and then you know, take it a step further and actually teach people what exactly we did.

Lisa Dadd 9:07

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And often it's a vision and the mission piece, right? I think, you know, in being a CEO, what does the CEO do the CEO holds the vision has a really strong connection to what the vision is that's bigger than themselves, and then drives the mission in order to get to the vision, right? And so it's when we lose sight of that we said that everything starts with that vision and mission before we can do anything else. So I think that's a big strong piece of the CEO part.

Gresham Harkless 9:34

Yeah, absolutely. It keeps us in alignment and on the right track. So I definitely appreciate that. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So that could be like an app, a book or a habit that you have, or something that makes you more effective and efficient.

Lisa Dadd 9:48

Sure, I use a scheduling app. And I don't think it matters which one you use, to be honest, but the moment I switched to a scheduling app, especially when I became a new entrepreneur working by myself was allowing myself to connect with people, it saves so much time and energy of back and forth emails and texts to just say, here's the link to my calendar. I also suggest that people have, whatever app you use for that you have one that allows you to have different calendars. So you can send out different links to different people, I'll even send it to friends that I'm trying to have a phone call with sometimes look at the bigger one. There's that piece. And then I suggest selecting apps, especially for early entrepreneurs, that will do a lot of work for you without needing to learn a lot. One of them that I've used for years is Canva. It's such a simple app for creating graphics and for creating images and not having to become a graphic designer. And so definitely anybody who's using social media, for advertising and things, it's free, it's free. It's simple.

Gresham Harkless 10:45

Yeah, I love that hack. And I'm definitely gonna adopt that as well, too. I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So that could be like a word of wisdom or a piece of advice or like I like to say, if you were to happen to a time machine, what might you tell your younger self?

Lisa Dadd 10:59

Yeah, it's very connected to what we've been talking about, I would say to, my younger self, and maybe not even that many years ago to say, Do it your way, and find your way, that's the nugget I have for people is that each of us has our own unique brand of brilliance. And if we are working to really clarify that and peel back the layers, it's not, you know, it's not obvious sometimes. But to really stay in our own lane, to recognize that there's not only one way to do business, there's so many, there's no right or wrong. It's about alignment.

Gresham Harkless 11:31

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So and I know we've touched on this a little bit, but I want 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, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Lisa Dadd 11:42

Yeah, being a CEO, to me means being really intentional about getting clear on what your vision is, and driving your mission. And CEOs don't do it alone. So even if you're a solopreneur, that doesn't give you by in terms of doing it all on your own, there are many ways to have a support team around you, whether they're working for you, or encouraging you empowering you to be a filter for your options. I think that CEOs, you know, from a recovering Lonewolf I, I struggle with that. But being a CEO is being really so focused and intentional on your vision and your mission, that you're willing to ask for support, you're willing to get support, and you're also willing to carry the vision.

Gresham Harkless 12:26

Absolutely, yes. And I am too, a recovering lone wolf as well, too. So I completely understand what you mean. And I think that when you have that, you know that mission and vision, I think you can also find people, whether it be employees, whether it contracts, or however that manifests itself that can be in alignment with your mission, he can make sure that you guys are marching along. And I think you can go so much farther when you do have that mentality of it's not just me, it's like we and you can start to move forward and start to really make a lot of impact.

Lisa Dadd 12:51

Exactly, yes.

Gresham Harkless 12:53

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome.

Lisa Dadd 12:54

I would say I want to bring it back to and just say that's also for your own life, to be a CEO, and for your own life is to be really completely intentional about creating the vision of what are you creating for your own life, aside from your company, even but what is your life even looking like? And are you directing it and not just letting it happen by default?

Gresham Harkless 13:11

Right? Yeah. And it makes so much sense. And I appreciate you for bringing that back. Because I usually say a lot of times when we peel back the onion, a business, we forget that it's made up of people, when people have different needs and aspirations and goals. I think so many times we forget that people aspect, not just when we're looking at business, but also in our own businesses, we forget that we need to take care of the CEO in our life before we say the CEO in this business or this organization. So not looking at that first sometimes can be detrimental to us getting to where we want to be.

Lisa Dadd 13:38

Yeah, exactly. And we get to be healthy in that too. I think as CEOs sometimes especially if we don't have a brick-and-mortar business, we recognize that what we need to keep strong and healthy is ourselves in order to do that.

Gresham Harkless 13:49

Yeah, absolutely. as I as I said, last year, my theme was making sure my oxygen mask was on first. You have to make sure that you take care of yourself so that you can take care of so many other people and so much more.

Lisa Dadd 13:59

Yeah, the airplane. I call that the airplane roll.

Gresham Harkless 14:01

Exactly. Exactly. Well, awesome. Well, Lisa, I truly appreciate that perspective and 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 then of course how best they can get a view and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

Lisa Dadd 14:17

Yeah, I think I would just say that it invests the time in understanding really what it is you truly want to create. Getting super connected you know, if you my mission is to have people connected to their visions. And that means you need to know what your vision is, and really get clear on what that is for you. So I'm going to offer that if your reader if your listeners are interested, I do 30-minute free strategy sessions just to hear where people are at and give them a little bit of an idea of directionally in terms of where they can go and where they can get started. I think it's important to invest in that no matter what stage you're at. It's like if you're struggling to start or just plateaued at your next level. You know there's something more it's important to invest and what's next? Like? What is that we're creating?

Gresham Harkless 15:03

Yeah, absolutely. And for people who want to take advantage of that, what's the best way for them to go to your website?

Lisa Dadd 15:07

Yeah, best to go to the website, Lisadadd.com. It's da Double D. And you can just click on chat with Lisa. And, yeah, you'll get my calendar that we just talked about, I had a link to it.

Gresham Harkless 15:18

There we go, we got to see your hack right there. So I definitely appreciate that Lisa. And we will definitely have the link and information in the show notes. But I can't, you know, echo it enough how important it is to make sure that we're always constantly paying attention to where we are, what we're doing our why. And it can be very easy, very quick when we lose sight of that. So that's why I appreciate you so much. We're talking about this during the episode, but again, also providing you know, help to so many entrepreneurs and business owners that are juggling so much to be able to make sure we're in our vision and align with everything we're doing.

Lisa Dadd 15:46

Yeah, the best thing is it gives you permission to say no, almost more than Yes.

Gresham Harkless 15:49

Yes.

Lisa Dadd 15:50

Anybody's feeling overwhelmed. Usually, when I do strategy with people, I take things off their plate and add more on, which is really important to know that sometimes really less is more as long as it's in line with our vision and our mission, we can say no to so many things.

Gresham Harkless 16:06

Exactly. And it makes so much sense. And I think everybody who might be listening to this probably has a couple of things that they say no to and you want to work through that. So I definitely appreciate you for making that available to us to get things off of our plate. So thank you so much again, and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

Outro 16:21

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.

[/restrict]