Lisa McLeod

Lisa McLeod

2013 TEDxPeachtree speaker Lisa Earle McLeod is far more than a top-rate professional in the sales world—she is an inspiring individual who seeks out what motivates individuals and finds ways to turn work into a catalyst for great ideas and even greater action.

Lisa is a best-selling author, sales leadership consultant for the likes of Google and Proctor and Gamble, and is the mother of two daughters. She fills in other free moments as a commentator for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and writes a monthly piece for Forbes.com.

I had the chance to speak with Lisa recently while she was spending time at the beach in Florida. Lisa’s warmth in conversation left me incredibly excited to see and hear her talk on November 8.

1) What did you want to grow up to be when you were 7? Was it anything like what you’re doing now?

When Lisa was 7, she saw a televangelist speaking to a group of people and was truly taken by the power of the speaker over his audience. She ran and told her mother that she wanted to be like the man on television. Her mother, a scientist and atheist, immediately said “you’re going to have to find a religion first!”

Lisa’s dream of being a preacher died quickly after, but her desire to help people turn the emotion of wanting to do something into actually doing something, and this desire continued to drive her career ambitions. In a way, Lisa feels like she’s evangelizing about the need to connect to something bigger than ourselves, particularly to the desires of childhood aspirations.

“When we’re young, we know ourselves,” Lisa said. “It’s only when the world starts messing with us that we get thrown off course.” We’re happy Lisa has found her course.

2) Catalyze, our theme this year, implies the quickening of a relationship or reaction between two things. Tell us about an unexpected change in your life that was the catalyst for irreversible change.

Lisa was once at lunch with some people she was coaching when she heard a series of common complaints: The feelings of falling short at work, at home, of not feeling attractive or healthy enough, and generally not feeling empowered about what they were doing at work. She felt the need to help these people and others overcome those feelings of shortcomings.

“I was interested in how people are thinking and feeling,” Lisa said. She set out on a course to find books that would help people with these all-encompassing, all too familiar problems but did not find much. “So one day I sat down and started to write a book.” Lisa’s effort to write simultaneously felt like the most natural thing in the world and the most challenging, as she never imagined doing so.

Three books later, Lisa realizes that ultimately her concerned with those thoughts and feelings shared in common over lunch that fateful day are the catalysts that shifted her career, her life, and now is what drives the core of what she does.

3) At the end of the day, what is it about your work that keeps you going?

“When you change how people think and feel about themselves and their abilities, it has a dramatic effect on that person.” Lisa is on a mission to empower people to realize their full potential not just in the sales room, but in parts of their lives that integrate things they care strongly about. That’s where her joy in the connection between how people think of themselves and their abilities come together.

Lisa noticed that people frequently hunger for the chance to work in their communities on issues that matter deeply to them, but they infrequently (if ever) get the chance to do so because they feel the need to focus solely on the corporate world. While many people feel that the choice between one type of work and the other is black and white, that’s not the case. “People are desperate for a life of purpose and meaning, and they shouldn’t have to give that up because they want to work.”

When Lisa can see through the process of empowering people to have a balanced working life and self-perception, she knows she’s done something to feel satisfied about.

4) What keeps you centered in this crazy world?

“It might sound trite, but breathing, sleeping, and exercising!” Lisa advocates for awareness of what stress and challenges can do to our bodies, and of how vicious a cycle that process can be.

“When I’m spinning, I know I have three options: I can breathe, I can run, or I can sleep,” Lisa said. “Either way, I know there are a number of options for quieting that frantic little gerbil in all our minds, and it starts with taking care of what’s happening in our bodies.”

 

Katie GrillsKatie Grills is a marketing professional and resident of Atlanta’s Historic Old Fourth Ward neighborhood. When she isn’t playing catch with her dog, Katie likes to hone her culinary abilities, read short fiction, and explore the intricacies and oddities of Atlanta’s neighborhoods.

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