September 18, 2023 • 34 mins
In a conversation that will have meaning for just about everyone, Marisa and Steven invite on a long-standing industry friend Lisa McCarthy, whose coaching company, Fast Forward Group, has helped over 100,000 professionals take ownership of their entire lives. This one is about how to have a brand new perspective on our ambition, our fears and our careers. This one is about the stories we tell about ourselves… to ourselves. Take the time to give this episode a listen (because hint: it’s also about finding time for what matters)!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hi, Welcome to brand New from the iHeart Podcast Network
and Brand New Lads. I'm Marissa Thalberg.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
And I'm Stephen wolf Fan Aida. How are you doing, Marissa? Oh?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
You know, I was going to say it's going to
say I'm so busy, but then I thought, well, I'm
rad not busy, and are you not busy? And don't
you sort of have a love hate relationship with saying
I'm so busy or actually having other people tell you
how busy they are busy?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
You know, I feel like it's like one of those
words where it's just like, really, are you really that busy?
I don't know. I try to really think of how
language creates reality and the fact that you describe yourself
as busy, Like what are you really projecting? What are
you really conveying to people? Because maybe that's this image
of the Tasmanian devil and it kind of, maybe, I
(00:54):
don't know, like gets people not wanting to come near
you because you're always busy? Like is that what people
perceive you? It's an interesting way to describe yourself, yeah, or.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Is it the way? It is? An apology? Sometimes for
me it's an apology. Sometimes I think we were like
a little bit of badge of importance, like.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Oh so much, it's so self important, so busy. Well
do you think I'm not busy or do you think
my time isn't as important?
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I don't think I've met a person, at least in
this country. Well maybe in our more city professional worlds,
but not always professional worlds. I've met so many that
they always describe themselves as busy. So the funny part
is just how incredibly subjective it is to be busy,
don't you think?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, But this goes again. Language creates reality and this
idea of how you describe yourself, you know, what becomes
the perception of you really becomes the reality of you.
And so if you're always describing yourself as busy, then
I feel like, again it's the way that you're badging yourself.
And I don't know, how do you really be more
thoughtful of your time? What is the image of yourself again,
(01:59):
you as a brand, and how are you showing up?
What is the perception that people have of you? What
are the words that people describe you when you are
not in the room. Those are all things that kind
of come back to the language that you use to
describe yourself.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
See, that's funny, you go to language. I always think language,
and I feel like this just takes me to some
more very pedestrian and practical concerns, like how do you
figure out how to get all these things done in
the day, and the I think conflicted relationships we have
with our phones now because they're always with us and
(02:33):
they're always on and they're always but.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You have the power, you are in control, right, you
could turn it off, like you could put it away.
Really well, this is probably a great segue, and it's
the perfect way to kind of introduce to our brand
new POV because we have very special guests, the one
and only Lisa McCarthy, the CEO and co founder of
(02:56):
Fast Forward Group. Just write a book. Welcome Lisa to brand.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
New Thank you excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
We are thrilled, right, Marissah.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
I mean, you know, Lisa's a perfect example exactly why
we did this podcast and a very specific point of
view of the people we wanted to have on and
maybe not the people that you've heard of. Maybe in
some cases people you have heard of, the people who
we know are incredibly special and their perspectives need to
be heard. And we both have a personal connection to you,
which I feel is worth starting off with. As we
(03:26):
talk about how much our industry runs on relationships with Steven,
you should start because yours goes way back.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Absolutely. I mean, I feel that I owe pretty much
the advent of my career in marketing and media to Lisa,
because when we met, I was working as a hedge
fund portfolio manager and somehow some friends of mine in
finance lured me to go interview at Univision unibecong for
(03:53):
the Spanish speakers, and I'm like, why on earth would
I go talk to unib's young I grew up making
fun of this with my Alita, like the program I
just you can watch it. But here was this energizer
buddy of a woman. And I interviewed with Lisa and
she sold me on this incredible bold vision and I
feel like, that's a recovering themed Lisa, that we'll talk
(04:13):
about creating a bold vision. I was like, you know what,
this woman seems absolutely crazy and I love it and
I'm going to sign up for this journey. And so
thanks to Lisa, I joined Univision to be her VP
of Business Intelligence.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I remember that day we're.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Going to do data analytics back in two thousand and eight,
and then three months later I was helping her run marketing.
So go figure. Thank you, Lisa.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
I mean so much to discuss just on that story
and what it means to have great people who lift
you up. And I'll say in a different way.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Of what's your connection Marissa.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
In a different way, I'd say Lisa's been someone who's
lifted me up, but more recently, probably just in the
past few years, where one of the ways in which
I take stock This is going to sound really deep,
but it's true. One of the ways I take stuf
of how I feel successful is the company I've been
lucky enough to keep. And sometimes I look around and
have literally been at a dinner table with these other
(05:10):
incredibly powerful, amazing women, and that's happened because we have
some mutual friends who've organized that a few times. For me,
it's been a little bit of a pinch yourself moment, like, Wow,
how do I get to be at this table and
how energizing that's been. And Lisa's been one of those people.
So thank you for being one of those people.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
You are welcome, You're one of those people for me,
it's a powerful table and I'm always honored to be there.
And congratulations on bbcast seven.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Right, Well, Lisa, let's get into it. Congratulations to you
because you left this incredible career. You started off in
investment banking. You then made a transition into ad sales
working at Turner back in the day, the glory days
of Turner, and then you had this esteem career at
CBS and Viacom and Adventure Univision. But at some point
(05:58):
you decided to clear a bold vision and I feel
like you've been living what you call your power principles.
You just tell us a little bit about why you
started Fast Forward Group in the first place.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Sure, well, Univision had reorg fifty seven when I was
in year five and I chose to leave, and I
was going to take definitely a year off because I
had been working since I was I was sixteen, and
I was really at an inquiry, do I want to
go back to corporate America and specifically media and run
(06:32):
anand sales organization or is it time to do what
I had for probably a decade said, you know, someday,
when I have retirement savings, etc. I'm going to create
a company that really helps people succeed regardless of the pressure,
(06:52):
the uncertainty, the change, and not only succeed professionally but personally.
And you saw some of that Stephen at Univision. But
the question is it's a concept, how do you create
a system that reliably helps people do it? And specifically
if you help a leader and a team, then obviously
it is exponential results. So despite some pressure to go
(07:15):
to some pretty desirable AD sales opportunities.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Yeah, you could have gone anywhere. I mean you could
have gone to know so many different media companies or
tech companies that needed AD sales leaders, but you decide
to be an entrepreneur. I mean you did not have
an entrepreneurial background.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
No, I really did ad.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
It's something that's in concept, it sounds interesting, but really
taking that leap that is something that a lot of
folks don't do. And I'll just be really like, what
really was that impetus? What led you to say, you
know what, I'm going to take this leap?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I felt like life is short and this is my
superpower and if I go do.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
This, what is this? What is your superpower?
Speaker 3 (07:50):
The superpower is lifting like having people realize that this
is it, and regardless of the circumstances, you can take
ownership of your business, your career, and your life. There's
many things that we can't control. We can't control the economy,
we can't control certain you know, people in senior leadership.
(08:11):
We can't control politics, And there's so many things we
can control in terms of how we show up, where
we invest our time and energy, how we react and
respond to people circumstances, how we speak, how we listen.
So let's focus on what we can control, and that's
my superpower. And I just felt as if it's really
(08:34):
hard for people in most of the workplaces I know,
and so I was going to go for it. I
had a friend of mine named Wendy, who I met
when I was twelve years old. She was a very
successful executive coach, had also experienced the pressure and pace
in corporate America, and at the time she said, I'm
at a crossroads too. So I felt very fortunate because
(08:57):
I am the kind of person that like to work
in partnership. So, you know, I went from this big
company with a lot of energy and then Wendy and
I fortunately did it together. But if I have been
alone every day, just my dog and my laptop. I
don't know how it would have gone, but it doesn't matter.
I partnered with Wendy. We created the curriculum. I was
(09:21):
up at four point thirty every morning with fear, with discomfort,
like what if this doesn't work? And this was such
a big leap and wasn't the wrong choice.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
And sounds like an inner critic.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Big inner critic. And then I always went back to
if it doesn't work out, I'll go back to ad sales,
which I am talented at and will be good. Like
it's not that I was unhappy. I just felt like,
now's the time to throw my hat over the wall.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Well, I want to go back to the throw your
head over the wall because that's a metaphor that I
think is very telling. And we should talk about the
fact that one of the bold visions you gave yourself
and I remember you talking about this, was to now
a book. And part of why we wanted to really
have you on now is because you did that and
you said you were going to do it, and you
did it, and that book is out. I think your
(10:10):
your manifestation of everything that you've built in the book's
called well, they can't see it, so I'll describe it.
It's called Fast Forward Five Power Principles to Create the
Life you Want in just one Year by Lisa McCarthy
and your partner Wendy Leshgold.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
And we're back.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Writing a book is an exercise and language. A lot
of the work you do is an exercise and language,
and you talk about the power of that. In fact,
Stephen just saying, oh, that's your inner critic, and you're like, yes,
it is. So tell us a little bit about a
topic that I think a lot about how language creates reality,
the stories you tell and for those of hers and marketers,
it's our professional job, but oftentimes we're not so good
(10:55):
at it when it comes to ourselves.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Yeah, that's one of our mantras. Language creates reality. So
back to what you can control. You can control how
you speak to yourself and what you say out loud.
So two things I want to share. One, the book
was again throwing our hat over the wall. I want
to say, as a year three, people said when are
you going to write the book? And I said, it's
(11:19):
on the list, but we're not putting it as a
priority right now. And that was starting in year three.
An hour in year eleven. So finally, and I really
give the credit to Wendy. She said, it's time. It's
time to put the legacy on paper. And also, countless
people finish the program or finish executive coaching, and they say,
how do I give this to my partner, How do
(11:41):
I give this to my sibling, how do I give
this to a friend? How do I give this to
my team if I'm a manager and they're not going
to do the program? And now we have the book,
and the book gives people the system so we could scale.
So that's one thing. It was uncomfortable even when it launches.
You're inner critics says, what if it's not successful? What
if people don't like it? You know, the if, the
what if? And we said, we really care, but not
(12:04):
that much. We did it for us, We did it
for our graduates, We did it for the future people
in the program. Now back to your question. Language creates reality.
We tend to sabotage ourselves and along the way as
a human being, regardless of your success as a human being,
(12:24):
you make up stories about yourself, other people and other
people meaning your colleagues, that person over in business Unit X,
that you think should be fired. We always say in
the program like they're not getting fired the people that
are difficult. And then you know, we have stories about
our friends and we have definitely have stories about people
and our extended family. Now, you a lot of times
(12:48):
can't control the circumstances and you can't change people, although
we will keep on trying and live in frustration when
we do that, but we can always choose our story.
So when you identify negative stories about yourself, other people's circumstances,
and we get into this in the book, the first
step is to identify it right, because sometimes the fist
(13:10):
doesn't know it's in the water. We just relate to
it like we're right, we're right. We're busy collecting evidence.
It's so true, we're so right. But if you have
a fixed perspective, then another one is not possible. So
we give in the book, we give people our model
of identifying the disempowering perspective or story, recognizing the cost,
(13:32):
sharing the cost out loud, because when we write things
down and we share them out loud, when.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
We talk about costs, you're not talking about like dollars
and cents. You're talking about, you know, the personal cost.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Negative of that negative impact, negative impact. Like, if my
story is there's not enough hours in the day, that's
my relationship to time, So what's the cost of that.
I'm always feeling overwhelmed, right right. I'm sure a lot
of your listeners can relate to that story. So I'm
always feeling overwhelmed. And the cost is not even that feeling.
(14:02):
It's that feeling, but it's also productivity because if you're spinning,
then you know you're not even going to try to
get organized and delegate and stop doing things that are
not important because you feel pressure, and that clouds you're thinking, right,
that clouds you're.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Thinking, let me push back a bit and play a
little bit of a devil's advocate, right. So what you
are saying sounds so simple, but in practice it is
so difficult because what you're asking for someone to do
is to really change their perspective. You're asking them to
think differently about a story. And if someone has been
(14:40):
collecting evidence to prove that I am right, it's really
hard to get out of that mindset. And like you
just said, you might not even know because oh, I'm
feeling so overwhelmed. Oh you know, not enough hours in
the day. I know so many people, myself included, that
say that. But how do you kind of snap out
of that rut that you're in because you might not
even to your point about fishing water, You may not
(15:02):
realize that you are sabotaging yourself with that language. How
do you snap out of it?
Speaker 3 (15:07):
You got to raise your consciousness and park the evidence.
You know. Of course I could come up with evidence
for there's not enough hours in the day, but use
the model in the book. The facts are this, twenty
four hours in the day. Hopefully you're sleeping eight hours
a night, So okay, I've got sixteen hours left. How
am I going to invest them? And you know you
(15:28):
have the power, I promise you. In our executive coaching practice,
when the coach sits down with the client and literally
analyzes the time as if you were an accountant or
a consultant you had to track your time. They always
find multiple meetings that are not a good use of
their time, and just they have reactive habits that get
(15:49):
in the way. I have to respond immediately. My attitude
is like, let somebody else respond. I'll see what's going
on in six hours. As long as I you know,
look at it and twenty four hours a day. So
when you start to recognize the cost, you see and
we get real life stories in the book, Wait, I
can change my relationship to time and it begins in language.
(16:11):
You know this story, Steven and Mercy. You may have
heard it too. I mean, I spent over a decade
when I was in corporate America commuting two kids at
the time I now have three, or I have three
for a while. But my whole story was if people said, Lisa,
how are you, I'd say I'm really busy, and I'd
say it in a very intense, rushed way with my
(16:32):
two phones. And when I recognized the cost of that
to myself, always feeling anxious, never feeling like I could
sit on the couch or relax, questioning where I did
invest my time, and then I really wasn't accessible to people.
People would start the sentence for a decade, I know,
you're really busy, but and I'm sure some people didn't even.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Because those become labels that started to attach themselves to you.
And so that is the person which creates reality. This
is always busy. So I'm not going to bother her.
I'm not going to go up to her. She's busy,
exactly right.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
I mean this reminds me of back in the days
when I was running executive moms. Distinct challenges of working mothers,
although certainly not to suggest they're unique ones. And there
are a lot of pulls on your time that there
are specially younger working moms listening to this, maybe listening
saying well, sure, that's fine, but I don't have real
control over my time. My kids need me when they
(17:28):
need me, and they're not necessarily saying, oh, okay, you
carve this time out. And similarly, some of us work
in organizations or for bosses where the demands on time
bleed into all sorts of moments that maybe they didn't
used to, or with pressures and demands. So what do
you say to your clients or to listeners about that
(17:49):
when you don't actually feel like you have as much
control as this idea might suggest. Is it then more
about the way we talk to ourselves through it, or
is it a more practical step in terms of managing
those demands.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
I think it's both. Number One, there are almost always
requests that you can make, recommendations that you can make.
A lot of times people are not making them because
they relate to it as if this is the way
it is, and who am I to make that request?
And simple things. I mean, I remember I had a
manager that had the weekly meeting at four o'clock. Inevitably
(18:29):
we'd start late, we'd go over and I was, you know,
running at warp speed, sweating to get to my trains
so that I can have a family dinner. And that
went on for several months, and then I finally said
to my manager, would you be willing to have the
meeting one hour earlier? And he said, fine, that's fine,
that works for me. People wouldn't even think to make
(18:51):
the request and share the impact. A lot of times
management is unconscious about how decisions they make impact others.
I also think going to women specifically, and we do
a whole women's program, and the book is more gender neutral.
But what we've learned is, yes, of course there's unique challenges.
(19:12):
Women tend to be the primary caregiver of their children
and their parents. Women can be more critical of themselves,
and sometimes there's unconscious bias in the workplace, and sometimes
there's even conscious bias in the workplace. So I think
in those cases women have to often give up control.
(19:34):
So one is to make requests and recommendations. But also
we have some real perfectionists in control freaks, and let
your partner do whatever, but do it his or her
way like versus your way. And at work, a lot
of times people are you know, you're doing your job
plus your old job, okay enough, Like it's good enough,
it's good enough. I know you're a better writer, I
(19:56):
know you're better whatever, but it's better that you're not
doing all the work and you're not on your laptop
at eleven o'clock at night. So those are some of
my suggestions. But if you have the perspective that this
is the way it is and you're not changing your job,
you have control over your perspective and what you say,
(20:17):
and you can make requests.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
So if you look at the five power principles and
i'll summarize them, declarable vision, choose a new perspective, plan
the work, and work the plan. I've heard that so
many times, use language of action and then stop talking
and get curious, how would you, I mean, if you
just had to pick one. I know it's not fair,
and I know it's a system and all that kind
(20:40):
of stuff. But if you were to say to a listener,
you just need to do one of these just to
get the ball rolling, because a lot of times you're
in that rut, it's so hard to get out of it.
What would you.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Recommend Definitely number one declarable vision and share it. Whether
you feel stuck uninspired, or you are feeling good but
like now what you know, or you have these huge,
ambitious goals professionally and personally and you're not sure how
(21:12):
to achieve them. The Bowl vision gives you a very
structured exercise. You're fast forwarding one year from today, which,
unto itself, is very unusual, even if people are setting
KPIs or giving goals to put in the system, or
even you know, I want to lose twenty pounds, or
I want to meet someone or whatever it might be
(21:33):
a professional or personal. I want to, you know, save
twenty percent of my income. But in this case, you
are fast forwarding a year from today, and you are envisioning,
based on our seven questions, what extraordinary success looks like
for you, Not what other people think you should do,
but what is extraordinary success? So you got to do
some soul searching, and you got to spend a couple
(21:55):
of hours really being thoughtful about the questions, and the
book will help you. And ultimately the output is that
you have on a piece of paper obviously typed up
for most people, and you have this vision. And we've
had people say in the program, I really want to
be this person. I want to have this life because
(22:15):
you know, most people are just living in a very
reactive way. What do I need to do by Friday
to keep my job, to hit my goals?
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Yeah, zombie mode. They're just making the donuts, you know,
get up, get out, just.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Trying to get through.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Ye, just trying to get through, just trying.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
To get up. But what you talking about, Lisa, is
really important because it's not just professional. And I've seen
this because again I've hired fast Forward group almost at
every firm that I've worked at since you know, my
day's when he's young. Thank you, happy client. But the
truth of the matter is people really start to kind
of go beyond the professional goals and they really get
(22:50):
into the personal goals. And what I find so powerful
is when you're declaring a bold vision, what you realize
is it's not just things that are happening at work.
People are bringing their whole sell into this exercise. They're
talking about their relationship with their parents, with a sibling,
with their kids, and I feel like people discount the
personal absolutely, those.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Things they go together.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
It's hard to especially the way we work.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
I have seen such transformation, and I think that we
were ahead of our time because when we started and
we talked about whole life design, people would hear it
as oh that, you know, that seems soft, like I'm
investing in yoga, like for my employees getting him headspace
(23:38):
and nothing. You know, I love yoga and I like headspace,
but they didn't know where to fit a whole life
design program. Now fast forward, excuse the pond. We have COVID.
We have a different kind of young people generation. And
I heard this recently in Rashad Yeah, yeah, exactly his
(23:59):
dint his podcast with Heather McGowan about the future of
the workplace, and they were describing, and I really love
this metaphor that it used to be there was a
professional circle that was really big, a personal circle that
was way smaller, and they were separate and people would
get to their personal life like on the weekend or
I've had people in the program that have said like
(24:20):
I'll focus on my health and my relationships when I retire,
and I'm like, oh, and I'm going to retire fifty
five whatever, So you know that's insane. This is it
And what we're seeing is what they reflected in the podcast.
It's now people saying, post COVID, new generation, how does
work fit into my life? So that's what this framework
(24:41):
is about. You know, if we're asking the question what
are you known for? It's I'm known as a I'm
known for being patient. That's going to be in your
whole life, and it's a breakthrough because a lot of
people are not being that now or not being that consistently.
I'm known for being positive. I'm known for, you know,
being a manager that cares. I'm known for being a
(25:02):
loving parent. Like these are things that that one question
has caused so many breakthroughs in people that use our
power principles. And then the whole concept is how do
you bring this level of intention and discipline to our
personal life? How do you think?
Speaker 2 (25:23):
You know?
Speaker 3 (25:23):
What what does extraordinary health look like a year from today?
How do your relationship map your life? I Mean I've
had people in the program say I never thought about this.
You know, it's like, oh, I want to spend more
time with my family or I want to like make
two friends. Like no, But if you fast forward and
the whole framework is about it's already happened, and you're
going to throw your head over the wall and put
(25:44):
down a specific measurable result that feels like I don't
know how to get there. But once you write it down,
you read it, and if you share it, you'll figure
it out.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
This is what high performing athletes do, right. They visualize
the move. They visualize, you know, Serena Williams, are you
know great football players like they're envisioning the goal. They
that's that's what they do. Peak performance people visualize and
then your body's just doing the action.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Yeah, I'm going to wrap us with the last question. Yeah,
I venture that the reason why, if there were a
singular reason why the majority of people don't do this,
tell me. If I'm right, Lisa, it's because it's scary
and it's hard. And I alluded to this before, So
I thought this is a good way to wrap us up.
Is you you talk about throwing your hat over the wall.
(26:28):
You mentioned it earlier. What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (26:32):
So that is not something we made up. There's an
Irish writer by the name of Frank O'Connor and he
tells this story about when he was young, he and
his friends would go hiking in the countryside and whenever
they got to a tall wall that they didn't know
how to get over, they would throw their hat over,
so they had no choice but to go get it.
And it's such a powerful metaphor for life because when
(26:55):
you see a wall, you have two choices. One is
to throw your hat. The other is to just say
it's just too hard. It's just too hard, it's too uncomfortable.
It's like, I just want to play it safe and
stick with what I know. And there is fear. You're
choosing to be uncomfortable and you throw your head over
the wall. You're committing to outcomes that one are not predictable,
(27:18):
two are not safe. Three you absolutely could fail, and
a lot of us do or we have failed in
the past, and you really don't know how to get there,
like it's never been done before, or for you accomplishing
that would just be unrecognizable. Once you throw your head
over the wall, you write it down on paper, you
see the possibility and people's actions are always correlated to
(27:42):
the future they see. So human beings get creative, we
get resourceful, and we always say to people a year later,
first of all, you're going to read your vision. We
always say, read your vision once a month, share it
with people that could hold you accountable and help you
get there. And this is going to require getting vulnerable
because most people, and this is the beer Marissa, most people,
(28:04):
we keep our ambitions and dreams to ourselves. We'd rather
just under promise, over deliver, or say it to one
other person because we don't want to have people ask
us how it's going. So that's the power of the
Buld Vision. And then frankly, the other power principles. I mean,
you made me choose one, so that's my advice and
that's the first chapter. And the other four principles are
(28:27):
all about helping you achieve your whole vision, so they're
not these a la carte items.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Well, I don't know about you, Steven. I'm ready to
go get my hand.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
I'm ready to put the vision out there. I am
inspired as always, Lisa, thank you.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Yes, Well, while you're inspired, do it, do it over
the next two people. We always your life this is
not the thing to procrastinate. This is the thing to
do right now, because exactly right, this is it.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Words to internalize. So, Lisa, thank you so much for
joining us us.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
I loved having you. I know Steven did too. And
when we come back, we're going to be talking about
what's on your minds. Well, now it's time for what's
on your mind And as always, we love hearing from you.
So let us know what you're wondering about or want
us to talk about an answer by simply emailing us
(29:24):
at ideas at brandashnew dot com. And the question we
have today is from a listener named Seth, who asked
us in these words, what is a brand today? Not kidding?
Has the definition of brand changed along with the challenges
and channels of expression?
Speaker 2 (29:44):
I mean, very on the nose for our pod. But
you know, given certainly all the great brand building that
you've done throughout your career, Marisa, what what do you think?
I mean? Like, how would you approach this question? Because
it's so kind of open ended.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
I think a brand is the commercial definition for who
you are, except the you might be an it, but
for me they're almost tantamount. I mean, it's I'm going
to keep saying who, although I recognize we're probably talking
(30:21):
about a company or service or product and thereby an
inanimate object. But who you are in the world, what
place you have in the world, how people know you,
how they relate to you, what you stand for, what
personality traits you and body And in that sense, we
as marketers do these personification exercises, and I think they're
(30:43):
not silly. I think they're very real because that is
the psychology of how humans do interact with brands. And
we can unpack that all day long, but it's true.
And this is why marketing is a powerful art as
well as a science, because I relate to a Coca
Cola different than just a bottle that says cola. I
(31:04):
just do feel something, and that is all the power
of brand. And the thing that I find fascinating is
no two brands are exactly the same, even though they
may have incredible similarities in what's underneath them. So for me,
that's the answer, and it really isn't about channels and
it isn't about I mean, those are the tactical ways
(31:27):
of expressing it to cess question, But for me, the
fundamental definition remains unchanged and frankly more profound and more
powerful than ever before. And if I were to attach
a wish to this, it would be that others in
corporate America and the investor community would not discount just
(31:48):
how important it is when you think about the upsize
or downsized value there can be based on that relationship
and the strength of that relationship.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
What do you think I feel building on that, you know,
if you take a step back, I truly feel a
brand is about values, right, And when you really think
of what is a brand today in the very noisy world,
there's so much noise all around us. We're constantly trying
to find signal, and people are not going to really
(32:17):
have many opportunities to remember what it is that people
feel or think about a company, about a product. So
I think you have to be very very clear about
what it is that you stand for. And I feel
that is ultimately all kind of wrapped into this concept
of brand. It is what your values are and they
(32:38):
manifest in kind of all these different I guess spokes. Right, Certainly,
there's a logo, and you know there is products and design,
and you know the identity and the copy, But ultimately
at the heart of that brand is a value and
that could be applicable to a person because you are
a brand, or that could be for a product like
(32:58):
an iPhone, or that could be for a company like Nike,
or that could be for a country, right the United States.
And so it really comes down to the values that
I think are infused in a brand. Well that's my take.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
I think values are definitely a part of it, and
it's all those other attributes to that just become you know,
very much about how we think of ourselves. And you know,
a piece that I was working on and now maybe
I'll have the courage and the fast forward, bold vision
to get this out of you know, a draft and
into writing is talking about who we as people are
(33:33):
brands just as brands are often like people. So it's
something that I like to continue to think about. But
in doing that, I guess we'll just say that's it
for this time, and we appreciate you joining us. Hopefully
you've enjoyed this content and listen to all the episodes
that preceded. Please don't forget to follow us at the
Brand New Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, so you
(33:54):
never miss an episode and.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Does a favorite, Please leave a rating comment on the
Apple Podcast wherever you're listening. All that content really helps
spread the word, helps feed the algorithm, and again thank you.
So until next time, let's keep it brand new.
Hi, Welcome to brand New from the iHeart Podcast Network
and Brand New Lads. I'm Marissa Thalberg.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
And I'm Stephen wolf Fan Aida. How are you doing, Marissa? Oh?
Speaker 1 (00:17):
You know, I was going to say it's going to
say I'm so busy, but then I thought, well, I'm
rad not busy, and are you not busy? And don't
you sort of have a love hate relationship with saying
I'm so busy or actually having other people tell you
how busy they are busy?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
You know, I feel like it's like one of those
words where it's just like, really, are you really that busy?
I don't know. I try to really think of how
language creates reality and the fact that you describe yourself
as busy, Like what are you really projecting? What are
you really conveying to people? Because maybe that's this image
of the Tasmanian devil and it kind of, maybe, I
(00:54):
don't know, like gets people not wanting to come near
you because you're always busy? Like is that what people
perceive you? It's an interesting way to describe yourself, yeah, or.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Is it the way? It is? An apology? Sometimes for
me it's an apology. Sometimes I think we were like
a little bit of badge of importance, like.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Oh so much, it's so self important, so busy. Well
do you think I'm not busy or do you think
my time isn't as important?
Speaker 1 (01:21):
I don't think I've met a person, at least in
this country. Well maybe in our more city professional worlds,
but not always professional worlds. I've met so many that
they always describe themselves as busy. So the funny part
is just how incredibly subjective it is to be busy,
don't you think?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Yeah, But this goes again. Language creates reality and this
idea of how you describe yourself, you know, what becomes
the perception of you really becomes the reality of you.
And so if you're always describing yourself as busy, then
I feel like, again it's the way that you're badging yourself.
And I don't know, how do you really be more
thoughtful of your time? What is the image of yourself again,
(01:59):
you as a brand, and how are you showing up?
What is the perception that people have of you? What
are the words that people describe you when you are
not in the room. Those are all things that kind
of come back to the language that you use to
describe yourself.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
See, that's funny, you go to language. I always think language,
and I feel like this just takes me to some
more very pedestrian and practical concerns, like how do you
figure out how to get all these things done in
the day, and the I think conflicted relationships we have
with our phones now because they're always with us and
(02:33):
they're always on and they're always but.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
You have the power, you are in control, right, you
could turn it off, like you could put it away.
Really well, this is probably a great segue, and it's
the perfect way to kind of introduce to our brand
new POV because we have very special guests, the one
and only Lisa McCarthy, the CEO and co founder of
(02:56):
Fast Forward Group. Just write a book. Welcome Lisa to brand.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
New Thank you excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
We are thrilled, right, Marissah.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
I mean, you know, Lisa's a perfect example exactly why
we did this podcast and a very specific point of
view of the people we wanted to have on and
maybe not the people that you've heard of. Maybe in
some cases people you have heard of, the people who
we know are incredibly special and their perspectives need to
be heard. And we both have a personal connection to you,
which I feel is worth starting off with. As we
(03:26):
talk about how much our industry runs on relationships with Steven,
you should start because yours goes way back.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Absolutely. I mean, I feel that I owe pretty much
the advent of my career in marketing and media to Lisa,
because when we met, I was working as a hedge
fund portfolio manager and somehow some friends of mine in
finance lured me to go interview at Univision unibecong for
(03:53):
the Spanish speakers, and I'm like, why on earth would
I go talk to unib's young I grew up making
fun of this with my Alita, like the program I
just you can watch it. But here was this energizer
buddy of a woman. And I interviewed with Lisa and
she sold me on this incredible bold vision and I
feel like, that's a recovering themed Lisa, that we'll talk
(04:13):
about creating a bold vision. I was like, you know what,
this woman seems absolutely crazy and I love it and
I'm going to sign up for this journey. And so
thanks to Lisa, I joined Univision to be her VP
of Business Intelligence.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
I remember that day we're.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Going to do data analytics back in two thousand and eight,
and then three months later I was helping her run marketing.
So go figure. Thank you, Lisa.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
I mean so much to discuss just on that story
and what it means to have great people who lift
you up. And I'll say in a different way.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Of what's your connection Marissa.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
In a different way, I'd say Lisa's been someone who's
lifted me up, but more recently, probably just in the
past few years, where one of the ways in which
I take stock This is going to sound really deep,
but it's true. One of the ways I take stuf
of how I feel successful is the company I've been
lucky enough to keep. And sometimes I look around and
have literally been at a dinner table with these other
(05:10):
incredibly powerful, amazing women, and that's happened because we have
some mutual friends who've organized that a few times. For me,
it's been a little bit of a pinch yourself moment, like, Wow,
how do I get to be at this table and
how energizing that's been. And Lisa's been one of those people.
So thank you for being one of those people.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
You are welcome, You're one of those people for me,
it's a powerful table and I'm always honored to be there.
And congratulations on bbcast seven.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Right, Well, Lisa, let's get into it. Congratulations to you
because you left this incredible career. You started off in
investment banking. You then made a transition into ad sales
working at Turner back in the day, the glory days
of Turner, and then you had this esteem career at
CBS and Viacom and Adventure Univision. But at some point
(05:58):
you decided to clear a bold vision and I feel
like you've been living what you call your power principles.
You just tell us a little bit about why you
started Fast Forward Group in the first place.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Sure, well, Univision had reorg fifty seven when I was
in year five and I chose to leave, and I
was going to take definitely a year off because I
had been working since I was I was sixteen, and
I was really at an inquiry, do I want to
go back to corporate America and specifically media and run
(06:32):
anand sales organization or is it time to do what
I had for probably a decade said, you know, someday,
when I have retirement savings, etc. I'm going to create
a company that really helps people succeed regardless of the pressure,
(06:52):
the uncertainty, the change, and not only succeed professionally but personally.
And you saw some of that Stephen at Univision. But
the question is it's a concept, how do you create
a system that reliably helps people do it? And specifically
if you help a leader and a team, then obviously
it is exponential results. So despite some pressure to go
(07:15):
to some pretty desirable AD sales opportunities.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Yeah, you could have gone anywhere. I mean you could
have gone to know so many different media companies or
tech companies that needed AD sales leaders, but you decide
to be an entrepreneur. I mean you did not have
an entrepreneurial background.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
No, I really did ad.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
It's something that's in concept, it sounds interesting, but really
taking that leap that is something that a lot of
folks don't do. And I'll just be really like, what
really was that impetus? What led you to say, you
know what, I'm going to take this leap?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I felt like life is short and this is my
superpower and if I go do.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
This, what is this? What is your superpower?
Speaker 3 (07:50):
The superpower is lifting like having people realize that this
is it, and regardless of the circumstances, you can take
ownership of your business, your career, and your life. There's
many things that we can't control. We can't control the economy,
we can't control certain you know, people in senior leadership.
(08:11):
We can't control politics, And there's so many things we
can control in terms of how we show up, where
we invest our time and energy, how we react and
respond to people circumstances, how we speak, how we listen.
So let's focus on what we can control, and that's
my superpower. And I just felt as if it's really
(08:34):
hard for people in most of the workplaces I know,
and so I was going to go for it. I
had a friend of mine named Wendy, who I met
when I was twelve years old. She was a very
successful executive coach, had also experienced the pressure and pace
in corporate America, and at the time she said, I'm
at a crossroads too. So I felt very fortunate because
(08:57):
I am the kind of person that like to work
in partnership. So, you know, I went from this big
company with a lot of energy and then Wendy and
I fortunately did it together. But if I have been
alone every day, just my dog and my laptop. I
don't know how it would have gone, but it doesn't matter.
I partnered with Wendy. We created the curriculum. I was
(09:21):
up at four point thirty every morning with fear, with discomfort,
like what if this doesn't work? And this was such
a big leap and wasn't the wrong choice.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
And sounds like an inner critic.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Big inner critic. And then I always went back to
if it doesn't work out, I'll go back to ad sales,
which I am talented at and will be good. Like
it's not that I was unhappy. I just felt like,
now's the time to throw my hat over the wall.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Well, I want to go back to the throw your
head over the wall because that's a metaphor that I
think is very telling. And we should talk about the
fact that one of the bold visions you gave yourself
and I remember you talking about this, was to now
a book. And part of why we wanted to really
have you on now is because you did that and
you said you were going to do it, and you
did it, and that book is out. I think your
(10:10):
your manifestation of everything that you've built in the book's
called well, they can't see it, so I'll describe it.
It's called Fast Forward Five Power Principles to Create the
Life you Want in just one Year by Lisa McCarthy
and your partner Wendy Leshgold.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
And we're back.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Writing a book is an exercise and language. A lot
of the work you do is an exercise and language,
and you talk about the power of that. In fact,
Stephen just saying, oh, that's your inner critic, and you're like, yes,
it is. So tell us a little bit about a
topic that I think a lot about how language creates reality,
the stories you tell and for those of hers and marketers,
it's our professional job, but oftentimes we're not so good
(10:55):
at it when it comes to ourselves.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Yeah, that's one of our mantras. Language creates reality. So
back to what you can control. You can control how
you speak to yourself and what you say out loud.
So two things I want to share. One, the book
was again throwing our hat over the wall. I want
to say, as a year three, people said when are
you going to write the book? And I said, it's
(11:19):
on the list, but we're not putting it as a
priority right now. And that was starting in year three.
An hour in year eleven. So finally, and I really
give the credit to Wendy. She said, it's time. It's
time to put the legacy on paper. And also, countless
people finish the program or finish executive coaching, and they say,
how do I give this to my partner, How do
(11:41):
I give this to my sibling, how do I give
this to a friend? How do I give this to
my team if I'm a manager and they're not going
to do the program? And now we have the book,
and the book gives people the system so we could scale.
So that's one thing. It was uncomfortable even when it launches.
You're inner critics says, what if it's not successful? What
if people don't like it? You know, the if, the
what if? And we said, we really care, but not
(12:04):
that much. We did it for us, We did it
for our graduates, We did it for the future people
in the program. Now back to your question. Language creates reality.
We tend to sabotage ourselves and along the way as
a human being, regardless of your success as a human being,
(12:24):
you make up stories about yourself, other people and other
people meaning your colleagues, that person over in business Unit X,
that you think should be fired. We always say in
the program like they're not getting fired the people that
are difficult. And then you know, we have stories about
our friends and we have definitely have stories about people
and our extended family. Now, you a lot of times
(12:48):
can't control the circumstances and you can't change people, although
we will keep on trying and live in frustration when
we do that, but we can always choose our story.
So when you identify negative stories about yourself, other people's circumstances,
and we get into this in the book, the first
step is to identify it right, because sometimes the fist
(13:10):
doesn't know it's in the water. We just relate to
it like we're right, we're right. We're busy collecting evidence.
It's so true, we're so right. But if you have
a fixed perspective, then another one is not possible. So
we give in the book, we give people our model
of identifying the disempowering perspective or story, recognizing the cost,
(13:32):
sharing the cost out loud, because when we write things
down and we share them out loud, when.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
We talk about costs, you're not talking about like dollars
and cents. You're talking about, you know, the personal cost.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Negative of that negative impact, negative impact. Like, if my
story is there's not enough hours in the day, that's
my relationship to time, So what's the cost of that.
I'm always feeling overwhelmed, right right. I'm sure a lot
of your listeners can relate to that story. So I'm
always feeling overwhelmed. And the cost is not even that feeling.
(14:02):
It's that feeling, but it's also productivity because if you're spinning,
then you know you're not even going to try to
get organized and delegate and stop doing things that are
not important because you feel pressure, and that clouds you're thinking, right,
that clouds you're.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
Thinking, let me push back a bit and play a
little bit of a devil's advocate, right. So what you
are saying sounds so simple, but in practice it is
so difficult because what you're asking for someone to do
is to really change their perspective. You're asking them to
think differently about a story. And if someone has been
(14:40):
collecting evidence to prove that I am right, it's really
hard to get out of that mindset. And like you
just said, you might not even know because oh, I'm
feeling so overwhelmed. Oh you know, not enough hours in
the day. I know so many people, myself included, that
say that. But how do you kind of snap out
of that rut that you're in because you might not
even to your point about fishing water, You may not
(15:02):
realize that you are sabotaging yourself with that language. How
do you snap out of it?
Speaker 3 (15:07):
You got to raise your consciousness and park the evidence.
You know. Of course I could come up with evidence
for there's not enough hours in the day, but use
the model in the book. The facts are this, twenty
four hours in the day. Hopefully you're sleeping eight hours
a night, So okay, I've got sixteen hours left. How
am I going to invest them? And you know you
(15:28):
have the power, I promise you. In our executive coaching practice,
when the coach sits down with the client and literally
analyzes the time as if you were an accountant or
a consultant you had to track your time. They always
find multiple meetings that are not a good use of
their time, and just they have reactive habits that get
(15:49):
in the way. I have to respond immediately. My attitude
is like, let somebody else respond. I'll see what's going
on in six hours. As long as I you know,
look at it and twenty four hours a day. So
when you start to recognize the cost, you see and
we get real life stories in the book, Wait, I
can change my relationship to time and it begins in language.
(16:11):
You know this story, Steven and Mercy. You may have
heard it too. I mean, I spent over a decade
when I was in corporate America commuting two kids at
the time I now have three, or I have three
for a while. But my whole story was if people said, Lisa,
how are you, I'd say I'm really busy, and I'd
say it in a very intense, rushed way with my
(16:32):
two phones. And when I recognized the cost of that
to myself, always feeling anxious, never feeling like I could
sit on the couch or relax, questioning where I did
invest my time, and then I really wasn't accessible to people.
People would start the sentence for a decade, I know,
you're really busy, but and I'm sure some people didn't even.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Because those become labels that started to attach themselves to you.
And so that is the person which creates reality. This
is always busy. So I'm not going to bother her.
I'm not going to go up to her. She's busy,
exactly right.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
I mean this reminds me of back in the days
when I was running executive moms. Distinct challenges of working mothers,
although certainly not to suggest they're unique ones. And there
are a lot of pulls on your time that there
are specially younger working moms listening to this, maybe listening
saying well, sure, that's fine, but I don't have real
control over my time. My kids need me when they
(17:28):
need me, and they're not necessarily saying, oh, okay, you
carve this time out. And similarly, some of us work
in organizations or for bosses where the demands on time
bleed into all sorts of moments that maybe they didn't
used to, or with pressures and demands. So what do
you say to your clients or to listeners about that
(17:49):
when you don't actually feel like you have as much
control as this idea might suggest. Is it then more
about the way we talk to ourselves through it, or
is it a more practical step in terms of managing
those demands.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
I think it's both. Number One, there are almost always
requests that you can make, recommendations that you can make.
A lot of times people are not making them because
they relate to it as if this is the way
it is, and who am I to make that request?
And simple things. I mean, I remember I had a
manager that had the weekly meeting at four o'clock. Inevitably
(18:29):
we'd start late, we'd go over and I was, you know,
running at warp speed, sweating to get to my trains
so that I can have a family dinner. And that
went on for several months, and then I finally said
to my manager, would you be willing to have the
meeting one hour earlier? And he said, fine, that's fine,
that works for me. People wouldn't even think to make
(18:51):
the request and share the impact. A lot of times
management is unconscious about how decisions they make impact others.
I also think going to women specifically, and we do
a whole women's program, and the book is more gender neutral.
But what we've learned is, yes, of course there's unique challenges.
(19:12):
Women tend to be the primary caregiver of their children
and their parents. Women can be more critical of themselves,
and sometimes there's unconscious bias in the workplace, and sometimes
there's even conscious bias in the workplace. So I think
in those cases women have to often give up control.
(19:34):
So one is to make requests and recommendations. But also
we have some real perfectionists in control freaks, and let
your partner do whatever, but do it his or her
way like versus your way. And at work, a lot
of times people are you know, you're doing your job
plus your old job, okay enough, Like it's good enough,
it's good enough. I know you're a better writer, I
(19:56):
know you're better whatever, but it's better that you're not
doing all the work and you're not on your laptop
at eleven o'clock at night. So those are some of
my suggestions. But if you have the perspective that this
is the way it is and you're not changing your job,
you have control over your perspective and what you say,
(20:17):
and you can make requests.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
So if you look at the five power principles and
i'll summarize them, declarable vision, choose a new perspective, plan
the work, and work the plan. I've heard that so
many times, use language of action and then stop talking
and get curious, how would you, I mean, if you
just had to pick one. I know it's not fair,
and I know it's a system and all that kind
(20:40):
of stuff. But if you were to say to a listener,
you just need to do one of these just to
get the ball rolling, because a lot of times you're
in that rut, it's so hard to get out of it.
What would you.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Recommend Definitely number one declarable vision and share it. Whether
you feel stuck uninspired, or you are feeling good but
like now what you know, or you have these huge,
ambitious goals professionally and personally and you're not sure how
(21:12):
to achieve them. The Bowl vision gives you a very
structured exercise. You're fast forwarding one year from today, which,
unto itself, is very unusual, even if people are setting
KPIs or giving goals to put in the system, or
even you know, I want to lose twenty pounds, or
I want to meet someone or whatever it might be
(21:33):
a professional or personal. I want to, you know, save
twenty percent of my income. But in this case, you
are fast forwarding a year from today, and you are envisioning,
based on our seven questions, what extraordinary success looks like
for you, Not what other people think you should do,
but what is extraordinary success? So you got to do
some soul searching, and you got to spend a couple
(21:55):
of hours really being thoughtful about the questions, and the
book will help you. And ultimately the output is that
you have on a piece of paper obviously typed up
for most people, and you have this vision. And we've
had people say in the program, I really want to
be this person. I want to have this life because
(22:15):
you know, most people are just living in a very
reactive way. What do I need to do by Friday
to keep my job, to hit my goals?
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Yeah, zombie mode. They're just making the donuts, you know,
get up, get out, just.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Trying to get through.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Ye, just trying to get through, just trying.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
To get up. But what you talking about, Lisa, is
really important because it's not just professional. And I've seen
this because again I've hired fast Forward group almost at
every firm that I've worked at since you know, my
day's when he's young. Thank you, happy client. But the
truth of the matter is people really start to kind
of go beyond the professional goals and they really get
(22:50):
into the personal goals. And what I find so powerful
is when you're declaring a bold vision, what you realize
is it's not just things that are happening at work.
People are bringing their whole sell into this exercise. They're
talking about their relationship with their parents, with a sibling,
with their kids, and I feel like people discount the
personal absolutely, those.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Things they go together.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
It's hard to especially the way we work.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
I have seen such transformation, and I think that we
were ahead of our time because when we started and
we talked about whole life design, people would hear it
as oh that, you know, that seems soft, like I'm
investing in yoga, like for my employees getting him headspace
(23:38):
and nothing. You know, I love yoga and I like headspace,
but they didn't know where to fit a whole life
design program. Now fast forward, excuse the pond. We have COVID.
We have a different kind of young people generation. And
I heard this recently in Rashad Yeah, yeah, exactly his
(23:59):
dint his podcast with Heather McGowan about the future of
the workplace, and they were describing, and I really love
this metaphor that it used to be there was a
professional circle that was really big, a personal circle that
was way smaller, and they were separate and people would
get to their personal life like on the weekend or
I've had people in the program that have said like
(24:20):
I'll focus on my health and my relationships when I retire,
and I'm like, oh, and I'm going to retire fifty
five whatever, So you know that's insane. This is it
And what we're seeing is what they reflected in the podcast.
It's now people saying, post COVID, new generation, how does
work fit into my life? So that's what this framework
(24:41):
is about. You know, if we're asking the question what
are you known for? It's I'm known as a I'm
known for being patient. That's going to be in your
whole life, and it's a breakthrough because a lot of
people are not being that now or not being that consistently.
I'm known for being positive. I'm known for, you know,
being a manager that cares. I'm known for being a
(25:02):
loving parent. Like these are things that that one question
has caused so many breakthroughs in people that use our
power principles. And then the whole concept is how do
you bring this level of intention and discipline to our
personal life? How do you think?
Speaker 2 (25:23):
You know?
Speaker 3 (25:23):
What what does extraordinary health look like a year from today?
How do your relationship map your life? I Mean I've
had people in the program say I never thought about this.
You know, it's like, oh, I want to spend more
time with my family or I want to like make
two friends. Like no, But if you fast forward and
the whole framework is about it's already happened, and you're
going to throw your head over the wall and put
(25:44):
down a specific measurable result that feels like I don't
know how to get there. But once you write it down,
you read it, and if you share it, you'll figure
it out.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
This is what high performing athletes do, right. They visualize
the move. They visualize, you know, Serena Williams, are you
know great football players like they're envisioning the goal. They
that's that's what they do. Peak performance people visualize and
then your body's just doing the action.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Yeah, I'm going to wrap us with the last question. Yeah,
I venture that the reason why, if there were a
singular reason why the majority of people don't do this,
tell me. If I'm right, Lisa, it's because it's scary
and it's hard. And I alluded to this before, So
I thought this is a good way to wrap us up.
Is you you talk about throwing your hat over the wall.
(26:28):
You mentioned it earlier. What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (26:32):
So that is not something we made up. There's an
Irish writer by the name of Frank O'Connor and he
tells this story about when he was young, he and
his friends would go hiking in the countryside and whenever
they got to a tall wall that they didn't know
how to get over, they would throw their hat over,
so they had no choice but to go get it.
And it's such a powerful metaphor for life because when
(26:55):
you see a wall, you have two choices. One is
to throw your hat. The other is to just say
it's just too hard. It's just too hard, it's too uncomfortable.
It's like, I just want to play it safe and
stick with what I know. And there is fear. You're
choosing to be uncomfortable and you throw your head over
the wall. You're committing to outcomes that one are not predictable,
(27:18):
two are not safe. Three you absolutely could fail, and
a lot of us do or we have failed in
the past, and you really don't know how to get there,
like it's never been done before, or for you accomplishing
that would just be unrecognizable. Once you throw your head
over the wall, you write it down on paper, you
see the possibility and people's actions are always correlated to
(27:42):
the future they see. So human beings get creative, we
get resourceful, and we always say to people a year later,
first of all, you're going to read your vision. We
always say, read your vision once a month, share it
with people that could hold you accountable and help you
get there. And this is going to require getting vulnerable
because most people, and this is the beer Marissa, most people,
(28:04):
we keep our ambitions and dreams to ourselves. We'd rather
just under promise, over deliver, or say it to one
other person because we don't want to have people ask
us how it's going. So that's the power of the
Buld Vision. And then frankly, the other power principles. I mean,
you made me choose one, so that's my advice and
that's the first chapter. And the other four principles are
(28:27):
all about helping you achieve your whole vision, so they're
not these a la carte items.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Well, I don't know about you, Steven. I'm ready to
go get my hand.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
I'm ready to put the vision out there. I am
inspired as always, Lisa, thank you.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Yes, Well, while you're inspired, do it, do it over
the next two people. We always your life this is
not the thing to procrastinate. This is the thing to
do right now, because exactly right, this is it.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
Words to internalize. So, Lisa, thank you so much for
joining us us.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
I loved having you. I know Steven did too. And
when we come back, we're going to be talking about
what's on your minds. Well, now it's time for what's
on your mind And as always, we love hearing from you.
So let us know what you're wondering about or want
us to talk about an answer by simply emailing us
(29:24):
at ideas at brandashnew dot com. And the question we
have today is from a listener named Seth, who asked
us in these words, what is a brand today? Not kidding?
Has the definition of brand changed along with the challenges
and channels of expression?
Speaker 2 (29:44):
I mean, very on the nose for our pod. But
you know, given certainly all the great brand building that
you've done throughout your career, Marisa, what what do you think?
I mean? Like, how would you approach this question? Because
it's so kind of open ended.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
I think a brand is the commercial definition for who
you are, except the you might be an it, but
for me they're almost tantamount. I mean, it's I'm going
to keep saying who, although I recognize we're probably talking
(30:21):
about a company or service or product and thereby an
inanimate object. But who you are in the world, what
place you have in the world, how people know you,
how they relate to you, what you stand for, what
personality traits you and body And in that sense, we
as marketers do these personification exercises, and I think they're
(30:43):
not silly. I think they're very real because that is
the psychology of how humans do interact with brands. And
we can unpack that all day long, but it's true.
And this is why marketing is a powerful art as
well as a science, because I relate to a Coca
Cola different than just a bottle that says cola. I
(31:04):
just do feel something, and that is all the power
of brand. And the thing that I find fascinating is
no two brands are exactly the same, even though they
may have incredible similarities in what's underneath them. So for me,
that's the answer, and it really isn't about channels and
it isn't about I mean, those are the tactical ways
(31:27):
of expressing it to cess question, But for me, the
fundamental definition remains unchanged and frankly more profound and more
powerful than ever before. And if I were to attach
a wish to this, it would be that others in
corporate America and the investor community would not discount just
(31:48):
how important it is when you think about the upsize
or downsized value there can be based on that relationship
and the strength of that relationship.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
What do you think I feel building on that, you know,
if you take a step back, I truly feel a
brand is about values, right, And when you really think
of what is a brand today in the very noisy world,
there's so much noise all around us. We're constantly trying
to find signal, and people are not going to really
(32:17):
have many opportunities to remember what it is that people
feel or think about a company, about a product. So
I think you have to be very very clear about
what it is that you stand for. And I feel
that is ultimately all kind of wrapped into this concept
of brand. It is what your values are and they
(32:38):
manifest in kind of all these different I guess spokes. Right, Certainly,
there's a logo, and you know there is products and design,
and you know the identity and the copy, But ultimately
at the heart of that brand is a value and
that could be applicable to a person because you are
a brand, or that could be for a product like
(32:58):
an iPhone, or that could be for a company like Nike,
or that could be for a country, right the United States.
And so it really comes down to the values that
I think are infused in a brand. Well that's my take.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
I think values are definitely a part of it, and
it's all those other attributes to that just become you know,
very much about how we think of ourselves. And you know,
a piece that I was working on and now maybe
I'll have the courage and the fast forward, bold vision
to get this out of you know, a draft and
into writing is talking about who we as people are
(33:33):
brands just as brands are often like people. So it's
something that I like to continue to think about. But
in doing that, I guess we'll just say that's it
for this time, and we appreciate you joining us. Hopefully
you've enjoyed this content and listen to all the episodes
that preceded. Please don't forget to follow us at the
Brand New Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, so you
(33:54):
never miss an episode and.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Does a favorite, Please leave a rating comment on the
Apple Podcast wherever you're listening. All that content really helps
spread the word, helps feed the algorithm, and again thank you.
So until next time, let's keep it brand new.
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