THE POWER OF REINVENTION with Kathi Sharpe-Ross

What happens if you’ve got your life all planned out and then things start to go awry? Obviously, the pandemic was solid proof of that. Now, it’s okay to make plans. But you also need to be open to other new, exciting opportunities that come your way that might lead you to success and happiness.

In today’s episode, we have David Rubin, the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the New York Times. We'll touch on business marketing trends, reinvention advice, and tips from a veteran of the business and brand world who has had massive success and tremendous reinvention moments.

David is also responsible for all acquisition and performance marketing, helping to propel The Times’s digital consumer business, which has surpassed 4 million subscribers. He was named one of Business Insider’s “25 Most Innovative CMOs in the World” in 2018. Prior to New York Times, he worked at Unilever for 16 years and left for Pinterest.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

- The Difference Between Invention and Reinvention

- The importance of knowing the immutable things for you

- How their team is adapting to these times

- The impact of the pandemic  on culture

- David’s most profound reinvention moment

- Having a life plan vs. seizing opportunities

Highlights:

Some Thoughts on Reinvention

With reinvention, there are some things you take with you but the hard part is how do you know that the things you’re holding on to are not going to slow you down and keep you from really changing? And what are things that you need to take with you which you shouldn’t change?

In a company, you need to be able to differentiate the things in your business that are on a mission level that cannot change and those that are just business model choices. However, how do you really know what your mission is? How do you know what your brand is about? And how do you know what are the things that if you don't change you're not going to keep up with the times?

There are things that are what they are. In the end, there are truths about the product that are immutable and your job is to amplify and frame them to tell the story. And sometimes, too, the product itself should change.

The Impact of the Pandemic on Culture

The pandemic has forced us to relate to each other more as people and to support each other in different ways. The good thing, too, is you’ve got controlled environments because you only see people on a camera and the angle that people show.

Marketing is fundamentally a creative business. The more you can be yourself, the more you can bring your whole person and diverse teams that are coming from very different places, the better the work is.

Having a Life Plan vs. Seizing Opportunities

There's a lot of pressure today to have a life plan. But follow every choice according to your exact passions. The risk in some of those things is that you don't open up the opportunity to change. You only know what you know until you experience something new.

You can have those plans, but also, be open to the idea that you might learn something weird and wonderful along the way and go follow it. The key to people who break out success-wise and happiness-wise is that lifelong learning approach and following the opportunities as they come. At the end of the day, what do you want that core to be? That's the question that only you need to and can figure that out.

Links to Resources:

www.SharpeAlliance.com

www.TheReinventionExchange.com

RE:INVENT YOUR LIFE! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

Available on Amazon Books and Apple Books

THE POWER OF REINVENTION Podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Anchor and more...

When creating your own company, it's one thing to have a passion for something, and it's another to create a business out of it. For Eric Hildebrand, he took his passion for lifestyle, entertainment, and cooking and built a business around that.

Eric Hildebrand is currently the supervisor of lifestyle and branded entertainment for Mercedes Benz where he oversees national brand partnerships sponsorships, co promotional marketing and development of industry partnerships, including Pebble Beach, Amelia Island, Concours d'Elegance variety, The Hollywood Reporter billboard Jurassic World and Justice League.

Eric recognizes that the most interesting part of the pandemic is that it's the first time that we all just didn't know. No one's lived through a pandemic. No one's experienced it. Everyone had to figure it out. Everyone's work structure and family structure changed. All the dynamics change, regardless of who you are. But it also allowed everyone to reassess and reinvent themselves in different ways.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

Pursuing Your Passion into Business

When you believe in yourself, and you stay true to who you are, I think things come to you, and you can have goals, plans, visions, but you don't really know how that's going to come together. Having a passion for cooking, Eric realized that you shouldn't go with the norm, do what's true to yourself, find those outlets, and build them over time. It's therefore very important to find your space wherever you're at in life and find your true passion.

Living Through COVID

The most interesting part of the pandemic is that it's the first time we all just didn't know. No one's lived through a pandemic. No one's experienced that. Everyone had to figure it out. Everyone's work structure and family structure changed. All the dynamics change, regardless of who you are. And we all had to rethink together. Everything was expedited and we found new ways of doing a lot of new things and doing things very differently.

The Power of Taking a Pause

We get caught up in our world and you don't question those things. You have a routine, and you have a paycheck every two weeks. You just get comfortable and, and compliant. A lot of times, you get sort of miserable and unhappy.

Sometimes, you just need to take a step away from all of the busyness in life to understand who you are, what you want, what it means to be you, look at, what you need to fulfill yourself now and moving forward. It’s important to take a pause and think about your past and all the work you've done to be where you're at now.

Links to Resources:

Follow him on Instagram @EricHildebrand

www.SharpeAlliance.com

www.TheReinventionExchange.com

RE:INVENT YOUR LIFE! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

Available on Amazon Books and Apple Books

THE POWER OF REINVENTION Podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Anchor and more...

Having that ability to have confidence in oneself and to surround yourself with the best possible people to fulfill your dream is super important.

Rachel Feldman is the director and screenwriter, and currently in pre-production, of Lilly, a political thriller to star Oscar-nominated Patricia Clarkson and Emmy-nominated Thomas Sadoski, based on the remarkable life of Fair Pay icon, Lilly Ledbetter.

Rachel has spent her life working on incredible projects, fulfilling a lot of her passions, but also taking a hard look into women's issues in Hollywood as well. Today, she’s going to share with us how she got around the system and figure out how to connect with Hollywood people to play the characters.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

Getting the Rights to Make the Lilly Movie

At the Democratic Convention, this Alabama woman came out to speak about her plight being an Alabama tire factory supervisor, and how she had been cheated on a salary. From that point on, she decided to track down her story. She wanted to get the rights to the movie, but she didn’t get it initially. Four years later, she approached Lilly’s lawyer again and she finally got the rights. She promised them to live, eat, breathe and sleep the story until she had gotten it made. Nine years later, she has kept that promise and they're about to go into production.

Having the Confidence to Reach Out

Not having huge connections in Hollywood, Rachel mustered up the courage and confidence to send Meryl Streep a letter. She turned down the role, but she offered Rachel the help she needed and connected her to people that eventually led her to find her actors for the movie.

The Challenge of Raising Money

And so, this has been a nine-year journey for Rachel. She contacted tons of people for support and she was turned down over and over, until she met a fellow who has produced over 50 independent films, which means he has raised millions of dollars to make those moviesand was willing to work with her. She then touched base with her high school friend who helped her raise the seed capital.

Moreover, they created an impact campaign that will accompany this film and they're raising money not only through equity, but also through donations. All this is increasing the dialogue and the conversation on the pressure and the impact happening in corporate America for women on so many levels.

Links to Resources:

Go to www.lillymovie.com to find out how you can take part in this movement.

Grace and Grit by Lilly Ledbetter

https://www.amazon.com/Grace-Grit-Fairness-Goodyear-Beyond-ebook/dp/B00540NVQQ

www.SharpeAlliance.com

www.TheReinventionExchange.com

RE:INVENT YOUR LIFE! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

Available on Amazon Books and Apple Books

THE POWER OF REINVENTION Podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Anchor and more...

We're probably seeing more and more people trying to align with working with companies that allow them to flourish as who they are as human beings that recognize more about their whole self. In this episode, Chris Curtin shares how he has allowed himself to align with his purpose.

Chris Curtin is a unique executive who has successfully led transformative initiatives on behalf of three category-leading companies Visa, Hewlett Packard, and The Walt Disney Company. While he was at Visa, Chris spearheaded the transformation of the company's reputation and standing resulting in the company's brand improving from the 20th to the 5th most valuable in the world. In his role as Chief Digital Officer, he led the marketing efforts behind its principal Visas digital services, moving from less than 1 million to over 80 million users worldwide. At Hewlett Packard, Chris led the efforts to revitalize the digital presence of the company. At The Walt Disney Company, he had several roles such as overseeing all new media and media for the destination businesses, including Walt Disney World, Disneyland International Properties, the cruise ships, and the guided tour business.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

The Evolution of People and Companies

Invest in the things that you love, that you buy, and that you're willing to put a share of your wallet. It's both a rational and emotional decision.

Companies go through an ongoing evolution of whether their best days are ahead of them, or behind them. People do this as well, not just brands and companies. If you look at the best reinventors in life, they are people and companies that view these periods of times as chapters. It's all one book that has chapters. But people are flipped out thinking the book is just one long chapter when there's actually a series of them. And that's part of the recipe and the key to success.

Reinvention Tips

All too often you can become defined by and as your title or as your affiliation. But that's not how you approach life when you wake up on any given day. The most important titles are dad, mother, brothers, sister, son, daughter, like – those are really important titles that you want to get right and invest in. Everything else is just a moment in time.

Be open-minded to think about what's possible, and how to live that adventure, because there's always going to be some parameters and people in our lives that are going to try to put those barriers up. And you can either choose to listen to them or not.

One of the secrets of life is to effectively get yourself out of any box that's artificially put around you. Then get into a discussion with yourself about where you want to be, what you want to be doing, and how you want to be doing it.

Business is the Assumption of Risk

The more you advance professionally, the more risk-averse, ironically, you become and you have a zero-tolerance for mistakes. And that's not good for the company because it only shortchanges their abilities to be able to expose how talented and how gifted they are. Additionally, business is the assumption of risk.

At this time when we’re all probably reinventing ourselves and our careers, having a community that offers practical solutions and amazing people you can connect with is very powerful.

Today, I’m bringing in Jeff Rosenthal, co-founder of Summit, a global community organization best known for entrepreneurial community development, and hosting global ideas, festivals and events. He's the co-owner, principal designer and co developer of Summit Powder Mountain and Powder Mountain Ski Resort in Eden, Utah.

Summit is a thought leadership think tank that inspires innovation, marketing trends, reinvention, advice and insights. The key value that Summit provides is connectivity. Summit gives this idea of giving without the expectation of return. And it creates this ecosystem of goodwill and community around you. And as Jeff's grandfather would tell him, “A large extended family is the greatest luxury in life.”

Listen in and be inspired by this great man who's had massive success and has inspired thousands around the world with his vision and his team.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

The Challenges in Today's Business Environment

Necessity is the mother of innovation. And COVID, in many ways, reinvented the challenges in today's business environment world around us. And we still don't understand how impactful the last 18 months will be, on the next 18 months over the next 18 years. In many ways, it's accelerating certain trends a decade forward. And there are a lot of people that can experience a lot of pain from the economic loss to a great degree. On the other side of it, the recovery will be like nothing we've ever seen before.

If you're an entrepreneur and you're starting something and you don't have that enthusiasm for the thing that you're building, then you've already lost to somebody that does have it is just going to do it all the time and enjoy every minute of it.

Going for the Long-Term Strategy

It doesn't matter how smart or how talented, how many times you've done it before, it's years of work for any entrepreneurial endeavor. Think in terms of 10-20 years. You may lose on the short-term opportunities.

Another great thing that COVID has done to many businesses is the ability to look inward. There are a lot of systems and ways in which we did things that were inefficient or just frankly, not the right way to do it. A lot of our strategies and realities are built on momentum and inertia until COVID hit us.

And so, having that moment to look inward and think about what you want to do and how you want to build it was just priceless. Wisdom truly comes from the reflection in moments of pause.

Growth Areas at Present

All of these disciplines have a K-shaped growth trajectory where there are a group of companies that are the exceptional leaders of any time that are going up to the right. And there are also various organizations that are derivative. They are failing and losing their relevance.

There's always the opportunity to translate the moment to demographic innocence. You always need people that can civilize and utilize these technologies with these changes in marketplaces into products and apply them.

Part of reinvention is the ability to let go of things that no longer serve you. Therefore, it takes some introspection to really figure out who you are as a brand and the values you hold dear. Today, Liz Heller joins us to talk about the reinvention process and how you can build your personal brand that’s aligned with your purpose and your values.

Liza, a Managing Partner at mem Brain, LLC, is a tech and media innovator, entrepreneur, investor, and producer with a career in cultural creation, global brand marketing, and social good. Liz is a digital alchemist, working at the nexus of tech culture, brand, community, and purpose. She was recognized by USA Today as the "godmother" of the women's cyber movement in Hollywood. Liz's award-winning career spans tech entertainment, film, and music.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

Recognizing Your Values and Understanding Who You Are as a Brand

Many women reinvent themselves as a brand constantly. A great example would be Madonna who reinvented herself all the time and we see it all the time with the amazing artists right now.

It's also important to recognize your values. There could be a lot of things you do that you enjoy, but they don't necessarily make you happy when you look at your time and how you want to spend it.

Grieving as Part of Your Reinvention Process

It’s okay to grieve the end of something. It’s not just about the loss of somebody, but also the loss of something, such as letting go of your work because you’ve got to do something else. Because ending it allows yourself room for things that you might enjoy more and that will make you happy.

Sometimes, it doesn't happen right away and it takes a moment – whether it's meditating, writing, journaling, thinking, talking to your friends, whatever that is. Listen to it and align it with your intentions because we have all these great intentions but they could add another layer of pressure on us. Break that down to figure out what makes sense and how you can end things. It doesn’t mean you’re walking away tomorrow, but be able to recognize where you need to call it.

Ways to Build Your Personal Brand

Figure out the way you want to introduce yourself and be introduced. You want two things to happen with an introduction: you want somebody to either be interested in you and what you do, or you want them to connect you with someone who could utilize what you do. Therefore, make it so concise that it reflects who you are, and get somebody to say one of those two things.

Make sure you have time for yourself. Spend the first hour dedicated to yourself and break it down into segments. Spend the first 20 minutes doing something that gets your body going to give you energy throughout the day. For the second 20 minutes, go after something you need to really tackle to give you a sense of accomplishment. For the third 20 minutes, digest something that will benefit you, your business, and your personal brand that will keep you abreast and ahead of the competition.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizheller

www.SharpeAlliance.com

www.TheReinventionExchange.com

Book: RE:INVENT YOUR LIFE! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

Available on Amazon Books and Apple Books

THE POWER OF REINVENTION Podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Anchor and more...

How do you create an equitable workplace in the face of COVID and all the other social issues our country is facing right now? Today’s guest is Shelley Zalis, the CEO of The Female Quotient, and she talks about how you can empower people and create a more equitable workplace that applies to everyone.

Shelley Zalis is an internationally renowned thought leader, movement maker, and champion of equality. She is a pioneer for online research, becoming the first female chief executive ranked in the research industry’s top 25.

Shelley is creating space for women in the workplace to have these conversations and closing the gaps with conscious leaders around party policy and pipeline. She started her company 34 years ago when she was 24 years old, at a time when there were not a lot of people having these conversations about empowering and mentoring people. Today, as CEO of The Female Quotient, Zalis works with Fortune 500 companies and impact organizations to advance equality in the workplace.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

Forging the Path to Create What You Want

A lot of people wait and watch but you’ve got to make your bed and create the life you want to live and surround yourself with the people you want to be around. We all have choices, but the fear of failure is one of the things that inhibit people from taking those steps.

How You Can Empower People to Take Risks

Failure is a risk. And if you don't take risks, there's no reward. If you don't take risks, you're perpetuating the status quo.

The first is always the innovator and the one that takes the risk. It usually fails because there's no echo system built around it. You have to make mistakes before you can find the solutions but you don't have the money.

The second is always the copycat – they copy everything you do, but they don't really know what's under the hood. The third is the sweeper and they win.

Now, you have to be all three. You need to be the first and make some mistakes. You need to be the second – copy yourself, but do it a little better. And then you need to be the third because you've already built an ecosystem, and you're not going to lose at your own game. There's always a solution, you just have to find it. Embrace failure as the greatest step forward because that’s your opportunity.

How to Create a More Equitable Workplace

It's about choice. But when we make it elective, bias barriers kick in. COVID created another dimension to work-life balance. There is no such thing as balance. It's not 50/50 because you have many dimensions in your work, your career, your family, your community, your friends, and yourself. Then add homeschooling to the equation. It's therefore important for companies to start creating policies and benefits that should apply to everyone. For instance, two days a week in an office and three days a week at home.

The Female Quotient

www.SharpeAlliance.com 

www.TheReinventionExchange.com

RE:INVENT YOUR LIFE! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? 

Available on Amazon Books and Apple Books

www.TheReinventionExchange.com 

THE POWER OF REINVENTION Podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Anchor and more...

Jeff Venn is a life architect, business owner, and mentor to young entrepreneurs. Taking a forward-thinking, progressive approach to building and running his businesses, Jeff is the founder of Create Studios, a digital marketing agency, and converge, a community for younger millennial and Gen Z entrepreneurs. What Jeff has been the most proud of is his successes on the inside, now having more control over his time, a fulfilling work-life balance, and an opportunity to inspire young entrepreneurs to dream big.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

Episode Highlights:

Reinvention as a Choice

A lot of times we are born into a place we didn't choose including our culture or our name. But other stuff is pure preference and choice. We can live our life on autopilot, and perhaps for some of us. But for others of us, we need to have our own awakening.

Finding Your Path

A lot of people wake up later in their lives and they realize they haven't had the epiphany of what they really wanted to do in life.

You don't have to necessarily radically go into another field or do that "eat, pray, love" thing but there are other pockets of your life that you haven't manifested. Ultimately, just take baby steps and take action. When you start feeling how bad you look in whatever area of your life and you know you could be better, then you know it's time to move.

The Analogy Between Autonomy and Freedom

To have freedom, you have to have a cage. You have to have freedom from something. On the other hand, autonomy is when you could produce on your own. You can ask for help or collaborate if you need to, but you don't need to be micromanaged on how to do it.

The Different Forms of Reinvention

There are five-minute reinventions and 10-year reinventions. If you have to put that money in the coffee jar and don't have Starbucks every week, make a plan and do the work. Find mentors. Reach out to them and ask for feedback.

As we get to this place of clarity, new things come into our world and into our lives that create opportunities. And that’s the beauty of reinvention. That being said, you can retool your attitude towards your job because it's really about perspective.

There's a whole lot of power in shaping our thinking and being aware of our thinking and looking at things with a proper perspective. Without that, you can't properly reinvent because you're going to be tied to too many old stories and old ways of doing things right and letting things go.

There's a lot of comforts even in painful things or painful cycles. Even when you’re starting an exercise routine or journaling in the morning, or putting in the time for a hustle before you're seeing any kind of fruit from it – look at how you’re feeding yourself and looking at things as you transform. Because while a lot of those involve moving forward, a lot of it is also about leaving behind some things you’ve done or that have brought you comfort.

Available on Amazon Books and Apple Books

www.TheReinventionExchange.com

THE POWER OF REINVENTION Podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Anchor and more...

Looking to reinvent yourself? How about becoming a content creator and putting a dent in the influencer space? Today, we touch on important business, some personal life-changing reinventions, and the state of the influencer industry with Nik Aliye and Karyn Spencer.

Nik Aliye is the global director of Whalar, a best-in-class influencer marketing company and one of the most acclaimed influencer agencies in the industry. She is a multifaceted executive with a deep expertise in digital creators. Nik produces events that create emotional, authentic connections, delighting fans and driving benchmark breaking business results.

Karyn Spencer is the global Chief Marketing Officer at Whalar. She has spent the past 20 years building unique initiatives for brands, traditional celebrities, and digital creators. Whatever Karyn is doing, she focuses through a lens of inclusion and equity for historically marginalized people.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

- Karyn and Nik’s background stories

- How the influencer industry has grown over the years

- Content creator vs. a traditional celebrity

- The impact of working from home on company culture

Episode Highlights:

How The Influencer Marketing Space Has Grown Over The Years

Although the influencer industry is nascent, it definitely is rooted in social media. But for generations, actors and celebrities have been influential. They've been starring in commercials and being brand ambassadors. So the concept isn't new, but the delivery is new. And the mechanism by which we all receive that influence is new.

Traditional celebrities are great and they have a space in the world of branded marketing and advertising. But when you look at how to activate yourself on social media, you really want to lean into digital creators or influencers. These are people who have had to study that platform and pull themselves up out of nothing and into their fame – all through their creativity, innovation, and content creation.

The Emotional Connection

The creator is oftentimes talking directly to you, taking up your whole screen, and telling you about their day. So you get this emotional connection that just doesn't happen with traditional celebrities. Watching them is not only a fandom exercise, but it also feels a little bit of a training exercise. Many young people now want to be influencers for a living. And so, they feel like the more and more they can watch these creators, the more they can understand how to do that.

Reinvention Tips

There's no one path, there is no one way to do anything. You have to carve that path for yourself and you have to just do the work.

Think about where that fits into your life. Is this something you've always been doing? Did you just start doing it at a certain phase in your life? These are two-minute reinventions where you make this passionate, conscious decision – whether that’s picking up the guitar, gardening, learning to ride a bike, or learning a language like. It doesn't have to be a life-changing thing but it doesn’t affect every part of your psyche when you do things that bring you joy.

Links to Resources:

Whalar

www.SharpeAlliance.com

www.TheReinventionExchange.com

RE:INVENT YOUR LIFE! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

Available on Amazon Books and Apple Books

www.TheReinventionExchange.com

THE POWER OF REINVENTION Podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Anchor and more...

How do you create that space where you feel safe to speak your voice? In this episode, you'll pick up some reinvention and life advice and tips from a brilliant woman.

Tami Holzman is an author, a founder and investor, a producer, and advisor and a veteran of the marketing and business and finance worlds who has pivoted and reinvented over and over as a true entrepreneur extraordinaire. Tami began her career in the entertainment industry as a talent agent, show creator and executive producer with development deals at NBC, HBO and 20th Century Fox. Today, she's an LP and advisor with Halogen Ventures, a corporate advisor, executive coach, and motivational speaker.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

How to Hone The Craft of Having a Voice and Feeling Safe in Your Space

First, figure out how to start making connections with people. Often, men will take a job and they will already be building their alliances and who they need to meet to get the promotion – and they just landed at the job. Women, on the contrary, focus on how good of a job they're doing. While women are still hoping to be noticed, men are already vocalizing their next steps. Women aren't necessarily vocalizing that because they're waiting to be noticed for the incredible job they're doing. And so, women also need to learn how to brag graciously as well as build a community of people within their industry and within their own companies.

The Power of Mentorship

Mentors are a necessity. They come in different shapes and sizes. They could be the typical, old people, But they could also be as young as 18 years old.

We don't all go to the same people for the same problems. That's why it's very important to acknowledge that. Then pick five people, and realize where they're going to add the most value. And then they'll also cross over as well. Self-awareness is the hardest part of your success path that's why EQ is crucial. The hallmark of emotional intelligence and how you become the master of influence in anything you do is understanding how other people perceive you.

If you're a leader, you should be empathetic. If you're not empathetic, people are going to be too intimidated to bring you the problems or things are falling short and they're gonna sweep it under the carpet.

How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome

“My road is always under construction. Journey is the key. The destination is me.”

Understand what your superpowers are because that's what translates into any industry. You could take on anything if you really understand what you do best and what excites you. Our scars give us a reason to succeed, and it's our perfections that give us a reason to fail. Our purpose is so much more important than the fear we're feeling. If you let that take over, then you're not doing your job. Our biggest judge and biggest critic is you – and not everyone else.

Resources Mentioned:

www.TamiHolzman.com

www.SharpeAlliance.com

Www.TheReinventionExchange.com

RE:INVENT YOUR LIFE! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

Available on Amazon Books and Apple Books

www.TheReinventionExchange.com

THE POWER OF REINVENTION Podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Anchor and more...