May 2, 2025 • 16 mins
Tissa Richards, a leading authority on resilience and innovation, challenges the traditional views of resilience. Instead of merely bouncing back, Tissa reveals how fostering resilience as an on-demand muscle can drastically improve our adaptability, creativity, and overall joy in life and work. Discover practical strategies that empower individuals and organizations alike to thrive in the face of constant change and unpredictability.
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Company Website: https://www.tissarichards.com/
Company Website: https://tissarichardsleadership.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tissa-richards/
Connect with Chris Troka:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-troka-3a093058/
Website: https://focused-biz.com/
Website: https://christroka.com/ #brainwork #framework #business #entrepreneurship #practical #stategies #resilience
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Remember to communicateabout yourself with clarity.
It will really make a difference.
And it also increases your confidence andthe confidence other people have in you.
You're listening to Brainwork Framework,a business and marketing podcast
brought to you by focused- biz.
com.
Welcome back to another episode.
With us is the CEO, Tissa Richards.
(00:21):
She is a innovative inventor.
She has worked with a lot of softwarecompanies, sold them, scaled them.
She's done a little bit of everything.
We're talking about hernew book, Resilience.
We're so excited to have her on.
Tissa, thanks for joining us.
How are you today?
It's so good to see you.
I know you're in a muchcolder place than I am.
Yes.
I'm a bit jealous of yourtemperature right now.
However, so excited to have you on.
We always like to ask our entrepreneurs,tell us about your journey.
(00:42):
What were you doing before?
And how did that kind of bringyou into what you're doing today?
Absolutely.
So as you said I'm arepeat software founder.
So I unintentionally kind of found myselfcreating software products, creating
this IP portfolio, raising money andthen realizing it was just not fulfilling
anymore but taking all those lessons,
especially winding down my last companyand moving into what I'm doing today
(01:04):
which is a running a leadership companywhere we really help leaders and
teams and organizations figure out whothey are, how they create value and
particularly this year with the newbook I have coming up, really helping
them be a lot more resilient and sortof moving from burnout to thriving.
So it was kind of that journey ofbeing an entrepreneur, knowing being
in their shoes and just knowing howto really help people and teams thrive.
(01:27):
That is fantastic because I know it's ahuge issue having burnout kind of losing
your mindset, your focus and it affectsthe team and the sales and revenue
that a business is trying to generate.
So with your past clients,can you go through some of the
people that you've worked with?
What things they were strugglingwith the dream outcome you
were able to achieve for them.
Yeah and I think on this topic inparticular, one of the things I realized
(01:51):
was that if you are the leader, you'rethe business owner, the entrepreneur,
if you're not thriving, your team is notthriving and your company is not thriving.
And it's really easy to think.
I'll just keep grinding andeventually I'll get back to a
full cup but you can't do that.
When your cup's empty, it's empty and thenyou start to see that cascading effect.
Your team is really burned out.
(02:11):
You're a little more short tempered.
You're not as innovative.
Everybody starts the gears get gummed up.
So I think realizing that we're all reallydealing with so much uncertainty, so
much disruption, this work life, virtual,hybrid thing and I'm seeing with so
many people, I work with a lot of reallysenior leaders and their teams and they're
just sort of saying, I'm not thriving,I know my team is not thriving, help us.
(02:35):
And so, helping that in a lot ofdifferent ways, we just see some really
quantifiable and then qualitative results.
That is fantastic.
When it comes to the line of workthat you're in, was this something
that you've seen any big shift in theworkplace since covid you mentioned this
hybrid back to office sort of thing.
I think the workplace is changing.
(02:55):
The workforce maybe has a bitmore leverage today than they
did at least 5, 10 years ago.
What changes have you seen eithersince covid and just in general.
Where should be the focus for alot of these these workplaces?
What should they be doing toretain and attract talent.
Yeah, I think there's really2 questions in there, right?
The 1st is what has changed?
Why?
I think people struggling a littlebit more and then what can we do?
(03:17):
That 1st question is reallyinteresting because immediately
after COVID, there was this feelingof we have no delineation between
work and home and things like that.
And that's probably still truebut there's a lot of uncertainty.
Just think about how many peopleare anxious about the economy, about
sort of global, whether it's theclimate, global politics, global
conflicts but then there's things like.
(03:39):
AI or emerging technologies.
I mean, so many people I talk toare thinking if I don't know how
to use it, what will my job be?
Or there's a lot of disruption thathas happened and people don't know what
it's going to mean for them and when wedon't have a lot of clarity and context.
Our brains don't like uncertainty.
There's so much research on that.
So uncertainty creates alot of stress and anxiety
(04:01):
and you're not at your best whenyou're very stressed and uncertain.
Then you have the fact that somany companies lately have gone
through so many reorganizations.
You saw big companies think aboutSalesforce and there was huge
layoffs and then there was rehires.
So there's this really kind of shiftingsands of, do I even feel safe in this job?
(04:23):
And I don't mean psychologically safe.
I mean, literally, willthis job be here tomorrow?
So there's a lot going onand we're expecting more
and more from people, right?
So we're expecting the KPIs.
When I hear from people, it's like,I'm expected to do so much more with
so much less and I'm burned out at homeand I'm taking care of kids and family
members of all different generations.
(04:44):
And that's another thing.
There's so many generationsin the workforce now.
So everybody's communicatingin different ways.
There's just a lot of people whoI think are running on fumes and
there's a quantifiable impact.
People's productivity and engagementgoes down, their interest levels go
down, that sense of psychologicalsafety goes down and then of course
(05:06):
the company's performance will go down.
And this is going to impact everybody.
Yes, absolutely.
It's a cascading effect.
You bring up so many really amazingpoints about the fear and anxiety
that was instilled and the uncertaintythat people have within the workforce.
Back in the day, we used to have ahigh school education could afford
you a job with a pension thatcould be a single income household.
(05:27):
Fortunately, today we have to worktwo jobs, multiple jobs or get
creative and find opportunities outthere but it's something that we're
just kind of having to deal with.
But I think, Transcribed the silverlining, the end of the day, we need
some of what your book is talking about.
The resilience.
How we stay motivated?
How do we stay resilient insuch an uncertain climate?
This is so interesting, right?
(05:47):
Because think about the traditionaldefinition of resilience, which is the
ability to literally bounce back fromsomething and go back to your normal life.
Well, the only certaintynow is uncertainty.
What did they used to say?
Like death and taxes.
Those are still certainties but now weknow that the level of uncertainty and
disruption is just going to continueand probably accelerate and I think that
(06:10):
definition is not just outdated but it'sactually really dangerous because it
makes us feel like we are the problem.
I'm not bouncing back,what's wrong with me?
I'm burned out, what's wrong with me?
But there's nothing wrong with you.
The definition, no one's ever sat usdown and said, here's how to be resilient
and I really think of it as a muscle.
We all have it.
If you have ever done anything inyour life, you're resilient, right?
(06:34):
Just something simple likeyou're late, getting the kids
to school, you burned dinner, itdoesn't matter, you're resilient.
If you've gotten through thetiniest things to the biggest
things, you're already resilient.
To me, it's redefining that definitionso that you realize you have it.
You need to identify it, surface itand really activate it as a muscle.
(06:55):
And that's for every single day.
So you know that it's how you are goingto respond to what life throws at you
and it's a very intentional response.
It's how you're going to sort ofLook at whatever's happening and
say, here's the values that I'm goingto look at this as a lens through.
Here's how I'm going to replace asort of visceral reaction with a much
(07:16):
more calm and values based response.
Here's how I'm going to sort of what Ithink is a challenge into an opportunity.
And there's really ways to sort ofturn these into tools for yourself and
when you do this, everything changes.
You realize that you are in controlof your resilience and this is at
(07:36):
the individual level at home, atwork, it's at the team level, it's
at the whole organizational leveland it actually becomes this really
incredible competitive advantage.
That is fantastic.
If we could only take thosefailures and missed opportunities
and turn them into life lessons.
We talked a little bit about that beforewhen it comes to trying something new.
There's this uncertainty and doubtthat we have a lot of entrepreneurs,
(07:59):
business owners struggle with this.
What should people be doingat the individual level now to
have that different mindset.
We talked before about the reactionbeing curious before you're furious.
How do we kind of develop thatemotional intelligence that we
need to be better communicators?
And I think just bemore resilient overall.
Yeah, and Chris, I love that we'retalking about this because just knowing
(08:23):
that there's a difference between areaction and a response is the first
step and it's so much healthier.
So when you react to something,so much goes through your body.
Think of the fight or flight reaction.
So it's a cascade of physiological, right?
So there's these hormones that gothrough you, adrenaline and cortisol.
It's your body gettingready to protect yourself.
But that was back when we literallyhad to physically protect our lives.
(08:46):
If you get an email or if you get a textthat from your mother in law or whatever
it is, that's not a life threateningsituation but it's still activates the
same fight or flight reaction and when youdo that over and over, you're literally
training your pathways to eventuallyburn you out at an adrenal level, at an
emotional level and we are burned out.
(09:08):
So the first thing is justknowing I don't need to react.
I'm going to separate my emotionsfrom my response and start to ask
yourself, What values, what is thisactivating, what is this challenging?
How can I think of this as fight orflight or do what's right and what's
right for you, it's what's right for yourfamily, it's what's right for your team.
(09:31):
That's just a place to start.
I literally have mine up ona post it note on my desk.
It's like, I'm going to respond this way.
Such a simple place to start.
I love that.
Earlier, before we started recording,you told me, "so what?" And this was
kind of to develop what your businessis or maybe your mission statement,
your elevator pitch who caresabout who you are and what you do.
(09:51):
So what?
And I think that really helpedto refine the communication piece
of who you are and what you do.
Can you tell us more about how so whatcame about and how it can help us?
Yeah, absolutely.
I think I will never be able to escapethe two words that I say all the time
but if you think about how we tendto talk about ourselves, we tend to
just vomit up everything we've everdone or been or things like that.
(10:15):
And it's any kind of communicationeven if you're talking about your team
or if you're raising money for yourcompany or if you're doing three year
fiscal planning it doesn't matter.
We tend to just put all the thingsin there and we expect our listener
or our receiver to parse through it.
And we think, our job's done.
We put all the information in.
That person can think about it.
But we have so much in our heads.
(10:37):
There's so much cognitive load thatit's our job as the communicator
to get to the "so what", whatshould that person take away?
Because if we throw it over thefence and figure they'll sort it
out, one of two things will happen.
Either they're going to take away thewrong message, which means we don't
control our narrative or they'rejust going to go, I'm so overwhelmed.
There's so much I've got to do.
(10:58):
I'm just going to tune out and now you'velost the opportunity to communicate.
So you've got to get to the so what,not what, how, when, where, but get
to the why that person should care.
So when people talk to me, I say it withkindness and love but I'm always like,
everything you've just told me, so what?
So I'll give you the so whatof what I just told you.
(11:19):
When you get to the so what, peoplewill remember you, they will talk about
you, you will get bigger deals, youwill be seen as a better communicator.
There are benefits to thisand it's a cognitive kindness.
I love that approach and earlier beforewhen we're talking about communication
styles and how we perceive situationsare our attitudes and our beliefs.
(11:41):
I shared being objective freefrom bias and you had a better
term for who was pragmatic.
The pragmatism whichis dealing with things.
Sensibly and realistically andI think that in itself can be
such a shift in mindset to tryto have that different lens.
I think it's a huge benefit for a lotof people to look at things in this way.
(12:04):
Yeah, I think it's just putting alittle distance between the emotion.
I told it to you because Igot feedback after a keynote.
Someone sent me a message and he'slike, I loved the thought leadership,
the big ideas but I really thoughtyou were the most aggressively
pragmatic person I've ever met andI thought, I'm going to choose.
This is not an insult.
This is actually really cool.
What a compliment.
It is a compliment becauseyou get straight to the point.
(12:25):
Just be aggressivelypragmatic about the world.
Don't take things personally.
Get to the so what and when we've donethat with companies and with teams?
If you can find your so what people willlook at you and go, I want to hear more.
It really works.
That's what it's all about.
Everything that you've done leadingup to this point has created this.
incredible success for yourself.
Earlier, we were talking a bitabout what success you had in
(12:48):
terms of building relationships.
How do you handleworking in the B2B realm?
Are you doing a lot of LinkedIn?
Is it cold outreach?
How are you building these relationshipsand working with such fantastic companies?
I'm so lucky.
I have been in addition to becalling aggressively pragmatic.
I have been called a curator of humansand I think that where is all your
(13:09):
social and professional capital?
It's in your existing network and thereis nothing that excites me more than.
This is why I asked you, tellme who you want to meet.
I get really excited leaning in andgoing where am I going to put Chris
in my head so that next week orthe week after I'll be talking to
someone and go, whoa, stop talking.
I really want to introduce you to himbecause When you are seen as a great
(13:33):
connector, you're a great listener, youare sort of fostering these connections
and it comes back to you tenfold.
So, my entire business is referral,because I love to connect people.
And I see so many people trying to gettheir next role or they're trying to
get on a board and they're cold callingpeople, and I think, first of all, that
(13:53):
sounds awful but second of all, Whydon't you start where people already
love you and are your evangelists?
You have to nurture thoserelationships and it's not hard
to nurture people who already loveyou and want the best for you.
Right, absolutely.
Now, what are you mostexcited for leading into 2025?
You've been doing a lot of keynotes.
You have a book coming out.
(14:14):
Is this kind of everything you're focusingon making sure it's a successful launch?
Yeah, super excited.
So the book will be out in early Q42025 about Rethinking Resilience.
I'm doing the keynotethat goes along with it.
It has been really well received, reallyfocused on just organizations and teams
that are really aiming to sort of increasethat engagement, help teams through
(14:36):
disruption and uncertainty and helppeople move from burnout to thriving.
And I'm doing a lot of workshopsaround that and the executive
advisory work that I do.
So I work one on one and in smallgroups with senior leaders and it's
really meaningful and fun work.
I love that.
It makes a big difference when the workthat we do solves a lot of problems.
(14:57):
You can see the results thatpeople have and they're thankful.
And I think it's a testamentto the work that you do to be
100 percent referral based.
It shows that you're doing great work.
They love to talk about you and theycan't wait to tell their friend or
their colleague the next businessabout what you do which is exciting.
Where can people find out more aboutyou online and get connected with you?
It's very straightforward.
It's www.tisarichards.com.
(15:20):
Actually, I realized I put it as myLinkedIn or as my zoom name or LinkedIn.
So if you want more informationabout keynotes or workshops,
just reach out there.
I love that.
And we'll have the links availabledown in the description and
show notes for everybody toget connected with to say here.
Now, is there any last words of adviceimparting wisdom to our audience
here that you wanna share with them?
Just wanna open up the floor to you.
(15:41):
You put me on the spot becausewe talked about so much today.
I think two things.
The first is just remember tocommunicate about yourself with clarity.
It will really make a difference and italso increases your confidence and the
confidence other people have in you.
And the 2nd, when it comes toresilience, you have it already.
So if you're feeling a little bitbeaten down, you're not broken.
(16:04):
Our definition of resilience is reallybroken and know that you gotta find it.
It's already there.
We just need to bringit up and activate it.
And there's a couple of tools thatyou can do but that knowledge alone
is really helpful to know that youcan get through anything big or small.
I absolutely love that.
Thank you for all the tips and tricks.
If you need any advice for a funny memeto add to your keynote presentation,
(16:28):
you could always add in the officememe of Kevin or he says, why say
many word when few word do trickand that can be a great transition
where he drops the chili on the floor.
That's a moment where you need resiliencebut I think either would be great.
I think it'd be allbased off office memes.
It's very universal.
Yes.
Tessa, I appreciate it.
Thank you for coming on the podcast.
Congratulations on all your pastsuccess and really looking forward to
(16:50):
everything that you do in the future.
Congratulations.
Chris, this was such a fun conversation.
I really appreciate it.
Me too.
Thanks so much.
Remember to communicateabout yourself with clarity.
It will really make a difference.
And it also increases your confidence andthe confidence other people have in you.
You're listening to Brainwork Framework,a business and marketing podcast
brought to you by focused- biz.
com.
Welcome back to another episode.
With us is the CEO, Tissa Richards.
(00:21):
She is a innovative inventor.
She has worked with a lot of softwarecompanies, sold them, scaled them.
She's done a little bit of everything.
We're talking about hernew book, Resilience.
We're so excited to have her on.
Tissa, thanks for joining us.
How are you today?
It's so good to see you.
I know you're in a muchcolder place than I am.
Yes.
I'm a bit jealous of yourtemperature right now.
However, so excited to have you on.
We always like to ask our entrepreneurs,tell us about your journey.
(00:42):
What were you doing before?
And how did that kind of bringyou into what you're doing today?
Absolutely.
So as you said I'm arepeat software founder.
So I unintentionally kind of found myselfcreating software products, creating
this IP portfolio, raising money andthen realizing it was just not fulfilling
anymore but taking all those lessons,
especially winding down my last companyand moving into what I'm doing today
(01:04):
which is a running a leadership companywhere we really help leaders and
teams and organizations figure out whothey are, how they create value and
particularly this year with the newbook I have coming up, really helping
them be a lot more resilient and sortof moving from burnout to thriving.
So it was kind of that journey ofbeing an entrepreneur, knowing being
in their shoes and just knowing howto really help people and teams thrive.
(01:27):
That is fantastic because I know it's ahuge issue having burnout kind of losing
your mindset, your focus and it affectsthe team and the sales and revenue
that a business is trying to generate.
So with your past clients,can you go through some of the
people that you've worked with?
What things they were strugglingwith the dream outcome you
were able to achieve for them.
Yeah and I think on this topic inparticular, one of the things I realized
(01:51):
was that if you are the leader, you'rethe business owner, the entrepreneur,
if you're not thriving, your team is notthriving and your company is not thriving.
And it's really easy to think.
I'll just keep grinding andeventually I'll get back to a
full cup but you can't do that.
When your cup's empty, it's empty and thenyou start to see that cascading effect.
Your team is really burned out.
(02:11):
You're a little more short tempered.
You're not as innovative.
Everybody starts the gears get gummed up.
So I think realizing that we're all reallydealing with so much uncertainty, so
much disruption, this work life, virtual,hybrid thing and I'm seeing with so
many people, I work with a lot of reallysenior leaders and their teams and they're
just sort of saying, I'm not thriving,I know my team is not thriving, help us.
(02:35):
And so, helping that in a lot ofdifferent ways, we just see some really
quantifiable and then qualitative results.
That is fantastic.
When it comes to the line of workthat you're in, was this something
that you've seen any big shift in theworkplace since covid you mentioned this
hybrid back to office sort of thing.
I think the workplace is changing.
(02:55):
The workforce maybe has a bitmore leverage today than they
did at least 5, 10 years ago.
What changes have you seen eithersince covid and just in general.
Where should be the focus for alot of these these workplaces?
What should they be doing toretain and attract talent.
Yeah, I think there's really2 questions in there, right?
The 1st is what has changed?
Why?
I think people struggling a littlebit more and then what can we do?
(03:17):
That 1st question is reallyinteresting because immediately
after COVID, there was this feelingof we have no delineation between
work and home and things like that.
And that's probably still truebut there's a lot of uncertainty.
Just think about how many peopleare anxious about the economy, about
sort of global, whether it's theclimate, global politics, global
conflicts but then there's things like.
(03:39):
AI or emerging technologies.
I mean, so many people I talk toare thinking if I don't know how
to use it, what will my job be?
Or there's a lot of disruption thathas happened and people don't know what
it's going to mean for them and when wedon't have a lot of clarity and context.
Our brains don't like uncertainty.
There's so much research on that.
So uncertainty creates alot of stress and anxiety
(04:01):
and you're not at your best whenyou're very stressed and uncertain.
Then you have the fact that somany companies lately have gone
through so many reorganizations.
You saw big companies think aboutSalesforce and there was huge
layoffs and then there was rehires.
So there's this really kind of shiftingsands of, do I even feel safe in this job?
(04:23):
And I don't mean psychologically safe.
I mean, literally, willthis job be here tomorrow?
So there's a lot going onand we're expecting more
and more from people, right?
So we're expecting the KPIs.
When I hear from people, it's like,I'm expected to do so much more with
so much less and I'm burned out at homeand I'm taking care of kids and family
members of all different generations.
(04:44):
And that's another thing.
There's so many generationsin the workforce now.
So everybody's communicatingin different ways.
There's just a lot of people whoI think are running on fumes and
there's a quantifiable impact.
People's productivity and engagementgoes down, their interest levels go
down, that sense of psychologicalsafety goes down and then of course
(05:06):
the company's performance will go down.
And this is going to impact everybody.
Yes, absolutely.
It's a cascading effect.
You bring up so many really amazingpoints about the fear and anxiety
that was instilled and the uncertaintythat people have within the workforce.
Back in the day, we used to have ahigh school education could afford
you a job with a pension thatcould be a single income household.
(05:27):
Fortunately, today we have to worktwo jobs, multiple jobs or get
creative and find opportunities outthere but it's something that we're
just kind of having to deal with.
But I think, Transcribed the silverlining, the end of the day, we need
some of what your book is talking about.
The resilience.
How we stay motivated?
How do we stay resilient insuch an uncertain climate?
This is so interesting, right?
(05:47):
Because think about the traditionaldefinition of resilience, which is the
ability to literally bounce back fromsomething and go back to your normal life.
Well, the only certaintynow is uncertainty.
What did they used to say?
Like death and taxes.
Those are still certainties but now weknow that the level of uncertainty and
disruption is just going to continueand probably accelerate and I think that
(06:10):
definition is not just outdated but it'sactually really dangerous because it
makes us feel like we are the problem.
I'm not bouncing back,what's wrong with me?
I'm burned out, what's wrong with me?
But there's nothing wrong with you.
The definition, no one's ever sat usdown and said, here's how to be resilient
and I really think of it as a muscle.
We all have it.
If you have ever done anything inyour life, you're resilient, right?
(06:34):
Just something simple likeyou're late, getting the kids
to school, you burned dinner, itdoesn't matter, you're resilient.
If you've gotten through thetiniest things to the biggest
things, you're already resilient.
To me, it's redefining that definitionso that you realize you have it.
You need to identify it, surface itand really activate it as a muscle.
(06:55):
And that's for every single day.
So you know that it's how you are goingto respond to what life throws at you
and it's a very intentional response.
It's how you're going to sort ofLook at whatever's happening and
say, here's the values that I'm goingto look at this as a lens through.
Here's how I'm going to replace asort of visceral reaction with a much
(07:16):
more calm and values based response.
Here's how I'm going to sort of what Ithink is a challenge into an opportunity.
And there's really ways to sort ofturn these into tools for yourself and
when you do this, everything changes.
You realize that you are in controlof your resilience and this is at
(07:36):
the individual level at home, atwork, it's at the team level, it's
at the whole organizational leveland it actually becomes this really
incredible competitive advantage.
That is fantastic.
If we could only take thosefailures and missed opportunities
and turn them into life lessons.
We talked a little bit about that beforewhen it comes to trying something new.
There's this uncertainty and doubtthat we have a lot of entrepreneurs,
(07:59):
business owners struggle with this.
What should people be doingat the individual level now to
have that different mindset.
We talked before about the reactionbeing curious before you're furious.
How do we kind of develop thatemotional intelligence that we
need to be better communicators?
And I think just bemore resilient overall.
Yeah, and Chris, I love that we'retalking about this because just knowing
(08:23):
that there's a difference between areaction and a response is the first
step and it's so much healthier.
So when you react to something,so much goes through your body.
Think of the fight or flight reaction.
So it's a cascade of physiological, right?
So there's these hormones that gothrough you, adrenaline and cortisol.
It's your body gettingready to protect yourself.
But that was back when we literallyhad to physically protect our lives.
(08:46):
If you get an email or if you get a textthat from your mother in law or whatever
it is, that's not a life threateningsituation but it's still activates the
same fight or flight reaction and when youdo that over and over, you're literally
training your pathways to eventuallyburn you out at an adrenal level, at an
emotional level and we are burned out.
(09:08):
So the first thing is justknowing I don't need to react.
I'm going to separate my emotionsfrom my response and start to ask
yourself, What values, what is thisactivating, what is this challenging?
How can I think of this as fight orflight or do what's right and what's
right for you, it's what's right for yourfamily, it's what's right for your team.
(09:31):
That's just a place to start.
I literally have mine up ona post it note on my desk.
It's like, I'm going to respond this way.
Such a simple place to start.
I love that.
Earlier, before we started recording,you told me, "so what?" And this was
kind of to develop what your businessis or maybe your mission statement,
your elevator pitch who caresabout who you are and what you do.
(09:51):
So what?
And I think that really helpedto refine the communication piece
of who you are and what you do.
Can you tell us more about how so whatcame about and how it can help us?
Yeah, absolutely.
I think I will never be able to escapethe two words that I say all the time
but if you think about how we tendto talk about ourselves, we tend to
just vomit up everything we've everdone or been or things like that.
(10:15):
And it's any kind of communicationeven if you're talking about your team
or if you're raising money for yourcompany or if you're doing three year
fiscal planning it doesn't matter.
We tend to just put all the thingsin there and we expect our listener
or our receiver to parse through it.
And we think, our job's done.
We put all the information in.
That person can think about it.
But we have so much in our heads.
(10:37):
There's so much cognitive load thatit's our job as the communicator
to get to the "so what", whatshould that person take away?
Because if we throw it over thefence and figure they'll sort it
out, one of two things will happen.
Either they're going to take away thewrong message, which means we don't
control our narrative or they'rejust going to go, I'm so overwhelmed.
There's so much I've got to do.
(10:58):
I'm just going to tune out and now you'velost the opportunity to communicate.
So you've got to get to the so what,not what, how, when, where, but get
to the why that person should care.
So when people talk to me, I say it withkindness and love but I'm always like,
everything you've just told me, so what?
So I'll give you the so whatof what I just told you.
(11:19):
When you get to the so what, peoplewill remember you, they will talk about
you, you will get bigger deals, youwill be seen as a better communicator.
There are benefits to thisand it's a cognitive kindness.
I love that approach and earlier beforewhen we're talking about communication
styles and how we perceive situationsare our attitudes and our beliefs.
(11:41):
I shared being objective freefrom bias and you had a better
term for who was pragmatic.
The pragmatism whichis dealing with things.
Sensibly and realistically andI think that in itself can be
such a shift in mindset to tryto have that different lens.
I think it's a huge benefit for a lotof people to look at things in this way.
(12:04):
Yeah, I think it's just putting alittle distance between the emotion.
I told it to you because Igot feedback after a keynote.
Someone sent me a message and he'slike, I loved the thought leadership,
the big ideas but I really thoughtyou were the most aggressively
pragmatic person I've ever met andI thought, I'm going to choose.
This is not an insult.
This is actually really cool.
What a compliment.
It is a compliment becauseyou get straight to the point.
(12:25):
Just be aggressivelypragmatic about the world.
Don't take things personally.
Get to the so what and when we've donethat with companies and with teams?
If you can find your so what people willlook at you and go, I want to hear more.
It really works.
That's what it's all about.
Everything that you've done leadingup to this point has created this.
incredible success for yourself.
Earlier, we were talking a bitabout what success you had in
(12:48):
terms of building relationships.
How do you handleworking in the B2B realm?
Are you doing a lot of LinkedIn?
Is it cold outreach?
How are you building these relationshipsand working with such fantastic companies?
I'm so lucky.
I have been in addition to becalling aggressively pragmatic.
I have been called a curator of humansand I think that where is all your
(13:09):
social and professional capital?
It's in your existing network and thereis nothing that excites me more than.
This is why I asked you, tellme who you want to meet.
I get really excited leaning in andgoing where am I going to put Chris
in my head so that next week orthe week after I'll be talking to
someone and go, whoa, stop talking.
I really want to introduce you to himbecause When you are seen as a great
(13:33):
connector, you're a great listener, youare sort of fostering these connections
and it comes back to you tenfold.
So, my entire business is referral,because I love to connect people.
And I see so many people trying to gettheir next role or they're trying to
get on a board and they're cold callingpeople, and I think, first of all, that
(13:53):
sounds awful but second of all, Whydon't you start where people already
love you and are your evangelists?
You have to nurture thoserelationships and it's not hard
to nurture people who already loveyou and want the best for you.
Right, absolutely.
Now, what are you mostexcited for leading into 2025?
You've been doing a lot of keynotes.
You have a book coming out.
(14:14):
Is this kind of everything you're focusingon making sure it's a successful launch?
Yeah, super excited.
So the book will be out in early Q42025 about Rethinking Resilience.
I'm doing the keynotethat goes along with it.
It has been really well received, reallyfocused on just organizations and teams
that are really aiming to sort of increasethat engagement, help teams through
(14:36):
disruption and uncertainty and helppeople move from burnout to thriving.
And I'm doing a lot of workshopsaround that and the executive
advisory work that I do.
So I work one on one and in smallgroups with senior leaders and it's
really meaningful and fun work.
I love that.
It makes a big difference when the workthat we do solves a lot of problems.
(14:57):
You can see the results thatpeople have and they're thankful.
And I think it's a testamentto the work that you do to be
100 percent referral based.
It shows that you're doing great work.
They love to talk about you and theycan't wait to tell their friend or
their colleague the next businessabout what you do which is exciting.
Where can people find out more aboutyou online and get connected with you?
It's very straightforward.
It's www.tisarichards.com.
(15:20):
Actually, I realized I put it as myLinkedIn or as my zoom name or LinkedIn.
So if you want more informationabout keynotes or workshops,
just reach out there.
I love that.
And we'll have the links availabledown in the description and
show notes for everybody toget connected with to say here.
Now, is there any last words of adviceimparting wisdom to our audience
here that you wanna share with them?
Just wanna open up the floor to you.
(15:41):
You put me on the spot becausewe talked about so much today.
I think two things.
The first is just remember tocommunicate about yourself with clarity.
It will really make a difference and italso increases your confidence and the
confidence other people have in you.
And the 2nd, when it comes toresilience, you have it already.
So if you're feeling a little bitbeaten down, you're not broken.
(16:04):
Our definition of resilience is reallybroken and know that you gotta find it.
It's already there.
We just need to bringit up and activate it.
And there's a couple of tools thatyou can do but that knowledge alone
is really helpful to know that youcan get through anything big or small.
I absolutely love that.
Thank you for all the tips and tricks.
If you need any advice for a funny memeto add to your keynote presentation,
(16:28):
you could always add in the officememe of Kevin or he says, why say
many word when few word do trickand that can be a great transition
where he drops the chili on the floor.
That's a moment where you need resiliencebut I think either would be great.
I think it'd be allbased off office memes.
It's very universal.
Yes.
Tessa, I appreciate it.
Thank you for coming on the podcast.
Congratulations on all your pastsuccess and really looking forward to
(16:50):
everything that you do in the future.
Congratulations.
Chris, this was such a fun conversation.
I really appreciate it.
Me too.
Thanks so much.
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