Category: Featured

Rising Through Resilience: “Give young, high potential employees an opportunity to shine while letting them fail”, With Neil Golson

Give young, high potential employees an opportunity to shine while letting them fail. That may sound counter-intuitive, but part of empowering younger employees is letting them know that you’re there for support and guidance, while advising that they’re held accountable for the results.

In my work as a coach and consultant, I speak with business leaders across multiple industries about their most significant challenges. One common theme continues to emerge — rapid change and disruption are the new norms in business, and the only constant is the demand for resilience. At the heart of resilience is the ability to adapt and recover quickly from adversity. I am certain that more than intelligence and talent, resilience is the single most important trait required to succeed in today’s highly complex market.

My “Rising through Resilience” interview series explores the topic of resilience in interviews with leaders across all walks of business.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Neil Golson, Executive Vice President of Marketing & Strategic Partnerships at FlashParking, a mobility technology company. Neil is applying his past marketing strategies in order to position FlashParking to be a player in an entirely new category. Beyond simply perfecting the parking experience, FlashParking is reframing the way that urban communities perceive garages by leveraging their technology to transform physical assets into mobility hubs, which will ultimately transform the mobility grid.

Neil Golson is FlashParking’s new EVP of Marketing and Strategic Partnerships. Neil leads FlashParking’s efforts to help isolated parking assets transition into connected mobility hubs that will be at the core of the smart city. Prior to joining the FlashParking team, Neil served as Head of Marketing & Sales Operations for Residential Energy at Tesla and Sr. Director of Business Development for SolarCity. Before that, Neil spent seven years at The Coca-Cola Company leading the McDonald’s Division for the Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and as the Senior Brand Manager for the Coca-Cola brand in North America. Neil earned a B.A. in Journalism and Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his M.B.A. from Auburn University. He currently lives in Austin and enjoys spending time with his two girls.

Thank you so much for joining me! Before we begin, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’?

Absolutely. At first glance, my story seems a bit all over the place with time in North Carolina, California, Montana, Alabama, Texas, and China, but what has always fascinated me is tackling complex problems with multiple stakeholders. In high school, I loved the debate team and competing as part of the Model United Nations teams. In college at The University of North Carolina, I had the opportunity to refine those skills further through a double major in Political Science and Journalism, with a focus on persuasive communication in public relations.

After graduation in 1999, I hopped on a one-way flight to San Francisco and joined the dot com boom as a very early employee in a startup called Everdream, founded by Lyndon and Russ Rive with their cousin Elon serving as Chairman of the Board. That was an amazing experience at a technology startup that didn’t quite fit the mold for the dot com boom but was solving a real problem. The company was eventually acquired by Dell and became a big part of Dell’s Small Business Services.

Following that startup experience, I wanted to better understand how large companies functioned and had the opportunity to join The Home Depot in a Store Leadership Program that enabled me to spend time, both as an Assistant Store Manager and time in Corporate Merchandising. I quickly fell in love with retail and the opportunity to test and learn daily with different products featured on endcaps, product demos and DIY classes, and staffing/deployment models to drive consumer/contractor sales, special orders, and customer/employee engagement.

From there, I went to business school with a plan to build on what I’d learned and shift into a career in product marketing and brand management. I landed an internship then a full-time job with The Coca-Cola Company to launch their ready-to-drink coffee business. I worked on several different brands leading up to running the flagship, red can Coca-Cola. During my time at Coca-Cola, I had the opportunity to work on Superbowl ads and American Idol while also working with Wal-Mart, 7-Eleven and local bottlers to introduce new packaging, including the 100-calorie mini-can. While it’s certainly fun to shape a national conversation with a Superbowl ad, launching a new package, building out the supply chain and fundamentally changing a category, was one of the highlights of my career. That opportunity led me to Asia and working with McDonald’s in a fascinating part of the world where both brands were growing rapidly. My team was able to expand into new categories like coffee with McCafé, and real fruit smoothies.

As amazing as the international experience was after my second daughter was born, I knew it was time to get back to the US. I had also been dealing with the unbelievable amount of air pollution in China, so I jumped at the chance to work with Lyndon Rive again and joined SolarCity to help accelerate the transition to sustainable energy. After a few years of hypergrowth, SolarCity became part of Tesla and I broadened my focus to ensure that every electric vehicle sold was powered by sustainable energy with a solar system, residential battery, and home charging. Doing that through the launch of Model 3 as it continued to set sales records quarter after quarter, was very special.

After five years at SolarCity and Tesla, and with electric vehicles and sustainable energy generation well on their way to the mainstream, I decided to start looking for a new problem to solve and that brought me to Austin and FlashParking.

What are the top three factors you would attribute to your success as a leader at FlashParking?

Vision, Strategy, and Persistence.

When I announced on LinkedIn that I was joining FlashParking, I had several friends reach out asking what the real play was because they knew I wasn’t joining just a parking company. Well, they were absolutely right. The vision to evolve isolated parking assets into mobility hubs acting as congestion capacitors for a smart city, as multi-modal logistics hubs, and as a marketplace for busy consumers and their autonomous, electric vehicles is massive. It’s also a simple, and somewhat obvious solution for so many trends we’re experiencing right now.

Painting that vision and influencing real estate owners, mobility companies, and municipalities to align and execute, will require a very clear strategy to create alignment. The transformation must happen quickly to harness the opportunity. We need to demonstrate quick wins for each of these stakeholders because the current trends in urbanization, e-commerce, electrification, and autonomy are moving so fast that if each stakeholder tries to optimize the system for only their best interest, we risk turning our urban cores into giant, cluttered parking lots.

This is where persistence comes in. Today, there is no cost to scooter companies for staging on public sidewalks, no cost to transportation network companies like Uber and Lyft for increasing traffic congestion, and no cost to the air pollution coming from combustion engines. We’re just starting to see municipalities step in and price these externalities, and that’s what will change behavior when done correctly. These costs have to be created in conjunction with all stakeholders so that they actually create change that moves society forward and doesn’t attempt to prevent change from happening. It’s not going to be easy, but the result will be cleaner, more efficient smart cities.

In your opinion, what do you think makes your company (FlashParking) stand out from the crowd?

FlashParking was created by founders from outside the parking industry with a lot of guidance and partnership with industry leaders. The result is a true cloud-based operating system that provides the extensibility to transition isolated parking assets into connected mobility hubs. The real-time visibility and flexibility of the system allows for customization to the unique operation of each garage and the integration of different services and amenities to match the needs of the local consumer.

How has FlashParking continued to thrive in the face of rapid change and disruption in your industry?

The best way to handle change and disruption is to remain nimble and either get ahead of it or find a way to shape and harness that change. I believe that FlashParking has been able to do both, and the key moving forward, will be to work closely with the companies and municipalities that are driving that change to ensure that parking operators and real estate owners have a seat at the table.

Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s jump to the main focus of this interview. We would like to explore and flesh out the trait of resilience. All of my successful clients seem to have one quality in common, and that is resilience. What does resilience mean to you?

Resilience is about getting hit and getting back up. Having the confidence in yourself and your beliefs to not let anything, or anyone, stand in your way.

When you think of tenacity and endurance, what person comes to mind? Can you explain why you chose that person?

My manager during the transition from SolarCity to Tesla, Bryan Ellis immediately comes to mind. When I first met Bryan, he ran financial planning and analysis, but he was different than any other finance person I’d ever met. Bryan was a business partner and knew what we needed to accomplish and was able to model, listen, remodel, identify options for success, and work with the leadership of every different function to ensure they were all crystal clear on what was necessary to deliver. As we went into the transition and the founders of SolarCity and the majority of the executive team moved out of the business, Bryan stepped into a primary leadership role and handled everything that was thrown his way while communicating to a large organization going through an immense transition. He always did it with a smile and clear, authentic communication, regardless of what was happening. He always followed up, always had an adjustment, always had the willingness and excitement to jump in and figure out how to identify and remove roadblocks.

Has there ever been a time that someone told you something was impossible, but you did it anyway? Can you share the story with us?

It’s interesting. I thought about this one a lot and honestly, I can’t remember someone telling me that. I’m sure it’s selective memory, but I’ve worked with so many great teams, great leaders, and great companies, that I’ve never thought of anything as impossible.

Did you have a time in your life where you had one of your greatest setbacks, but you bounced back from it stronger than ever? Can you share that story with us?

As part of the transition from just selling solar to selling the full Tesla ecosystem — from the electric vehicle to the solar system powering it — I had the opportunity to build and manage the first team within Tesla that was expected to sell all of our residential products. Iterating on the customer journey in real-time with varying value propositions while merging CRM systems, sales cultures, and keeping up with the already crazy pace of change in both businesses took everything I had. As soon as we got the whole thing working, the entire team was integrated into a new sales organization and I shifted back into a sales operations and marketing role. While I knew that was always the plan, that transition was tough emotionally. It took me a few months to authentically be back at my normal self as we fine-tuned the new organization, addressed challenge areas, and got the whole thing back up to speed. It really took a commitment to the principles and process and continuing to push for what I knew was possible.

Did you have any experiences growing up that have contributed to building your resiliency? Can you share a story?

A big part of my experience growing up was willing to seek out an independent adventure. It likely came from my summers at YMCA Camp Thunderbird. That sense of adventure led me to be an exchange student in high school in Spain, which then led me to a public boarding school at the North Carolina School of Science & Math. I also was supported by hiking, camping, and white water rafting with my father. That continues today as we’ve hiked Mt. Kilimanjaro together in Africa, as well as the Great Wall in China.

Resilience is like a muscle that can be strengthened. What strategies do you use to strengthen your resilience? (Please share a story or an example for each)

I feel like my daughters strengthen that for me every day.

What are your thoughts on how leaders can create a more resilient workforce?

Give young, high potential employees an opportunity to shine while letting them fail. That may sound counter-intuitive, but part of empowering younger employees is letting them know that you’re there for support and guidance, while advising that they’re held accountable for the results.

Extensive research suggests that people who have a clear purpose in their lives are more likely to persevere during difficult times. What is your purpose?

My purpose is to leave the world a better and happier place than I found it. There’s so much negativity in our society today. That’s what drew me to authentic, positive brands like Coca-Cola, that allow you to react to the world and not just talk about features and benefits. It’s also what drew me to companies like Tesla and FlashParking, that are using technology to solve real problems.

What is your favorite quote or personal philosophy that relates to the concept of resilience?

The quote that guides me every day is, “Live a Great Story.” For my 10th wedding anniversary, my wife and I hiked to the base camp on Mt. Everest. On the last day, you hike through a memorial zone that families and friends have put up different things to remember climbers that died on the mountain. That last day has some serious elevation and every step you take is difficult, but for some reason when I passed a monument with that quote on it, I was flooded with emotion and sat there for quite a while. When I got home and looked up the climber, I learned that he had come to Everest from the US, he left his two young daughters at home that were the same age as mine. His memorial had that quote on it and to me, the way it connects to resiliency is that if you’re living a great story, then you’re in charge of the narrative, you’re in charge of how it ends and every great story needs a hero that doesn’t let anything stop them.

Can our readers follow you on social media?

FlashParking’s Website: https://www.flashparking.com/

FlashParking’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FlashParking/

FlashParking’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flashparking/

Flashparking’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/flashparking

FlashParking’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/flashparking/

Neil’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neil-golson-3123842

This interview was inspiring. Thank you very much.

Rising Through Resilience: “Give young, high potential employees an opportunity to shine while… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

End Gender Bias (Enact Progressive Family Leave Systems): This failure in our system starts with the courts. Family court commissioners blindly discriminate based on what the court feels mom and dad should be in life. This is not justice; it is likely the most overlooked cancer in our government system that if it is not treated very soon could bring down our entire way of life. Meanwhile, the private sector is not helping end the bias of gender roles despite the robust advancement of women in personnel and HR roles. Did you know that according to Forbes, less than 17% of companies allow men to take paternity leave? Forcing men out of the workforce with no parenting leave rights is no better than penalizing women for having children. It further serves to prevent women’s advancement, too, by forcing them back into experienced-based hierarchies of hiring and compensation, not pay-for-performance systems. The ability for families to ensure a livable wage is earned by at least one earner is critical, and progressive models that holistically support American families should be a priority for every corporation.

As part of my series about “the five things we need to do to close the gender wage gap,” I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. J Paul Rand, MBA, CPCN.

Dr. Rand is an Executive at RSolutions, PLLC an applied thought-leadership think tank. He was selected as a Regional White House Fellow, and once was the youngest elected public official in Washington State (both non-partisan positions). He is a Big 4 C-level adviser featured by FORBES, Puget Sound Business Journal, NBC, CBS, and more. As an Organizational Development Leadership Authority, he prescribes solutions maximizing ROI through organizational development/human capital performance strategies: a process he defines in his 2020 publication “Culture-ROI”. He is proud to have helped over 3000 female clients advance their careers over the past 15 years; but equally proud of his research and publication the DadJob: the fastest-growing career in America. He runs a non-profit (The-Orchard.org) where he was endorsed for his groundbreaking work supporting combat veterans since 2007. You can find him exclusively on LinkedIn or at www.jpaulrand.com

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us the “backstory” that brought you to this career path?

Early in my career, I was afforded a chance to conduct research at the intersect of higher-education, personnel departments of large corporations, and professional non-profit associations to research, design, and deliver organizational learning systems. The focus of my research at the time was maximizing human performance in the workplace by working with leading-edge Human Resource and personnel department authorities. In time I became fascinated by the objective of putting the human back into the workforce (and now back into the digital era).

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this career?

I was contacted by a follower on LinkedIn (I can be found exclusively on that platform). He nominated me based on my research to serve as a non-partisan Fellow in the White House Fellows program. Out of over 2500 nominations I was selected as a Regional White House Fellow and made a policy proposal on how to advance America with new learning systems within the Department of Labor, some of which I will discuss here.

Can you share a story about the funniest or most interesting mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I am still making them, in a desperate hope to remain relentlessly motivated in my work like it is day-one — a proven discipline of the Amazon Company, and name of their HQ based in Seattle!

Ok, let’s jump to the main focus of our interview. Even in 2019, women still earn about 80 cents for every dollar a man makes. Can you explain three of the main factors that are causing the wage gap?

I have created award-winning programs helping to economically advance thousands of individuals not just in being hired, but in performance, pay and leadership positioning as organizational thought leaders, applied scholars, and advanced performance-focused personnel professionals. This has included local, state, and federal accreditation and endorsed programs that I designed. Many of the programs were awarded by the Society of HR Management for ten consecutive years based on the individual performance of my clients. The participants were 90% women and represent to date over 85% of the personnel departments in Seattle (the City of Companies).

Based on my experience and research for over 15 years on this matter, I suggest that this issue is not an issue of men versus women. Equality is an American issue.

The wage gap exists due to:

• Gender pay likely is a symptom of gender bias in board and executive roles in the corporate sector.
• Adherence to an outdated management control model that does not embrace collaboration, innovation, and new perspectives by embracing systems self-defined roles and compensation for employees that fits the modern technical economy.
• But I would suggest the root-cause: Antiquated gender role bias in our (family) court system.
• To help define the complexities of the wage gap and the importance of why women’s advancement as organizational board leaders is imperative over the next decade for the health and performance of our economic system, my team at RSolutions has created a publication available in 2020. I hope your audience will check it out.

Can you share with our readers what your work is doing to help close the gender wage gap?

For nearly two decades I have been working to help women to break the stigma of women in work, shatter the glass ceilings (by helping several become elected officials) in government and private sectors; and actively coached, mentored, and trained thousands of women pioneering a pathway for younger generations of women in the workforce through applied professional sciences which I outline in an interview with this outlet previously.

Recently, I have been writing a lot lately about the Culture-ROI method while working with an elite team of AI scientists (in collaboration with Nestor-Up, learn about this system at www.RSolutionsPLLC.com) to create an applied organizational culture-performance system. This system will ensure companies can monitor, measure, and compensate fairly for collaboratively focused culture-building roles in the organization.

One past example I am proud of is the thought-leadership of professional scholarly programs at the Strategic Learning Alliance, a system run by women owners with over 30 years in both health-sector negotiations and IT sectors. These women are pioneers and I encourage any women who feel discriminated against, held back, or prevented from excelling to learn about these two leaders and their applied professional programs for coaching and negotiations in professional roles. They will immediately impact your ability to break through the barriers!.

Can you recommend 5 things that need to be done on a broader societal level to close the gender wage gap? Please share a story or example for each.

My research on this has revealed a few concerns summarized here that address what I believe is the root-cause behind the pay gap:

1. Solution One: Embrace the Learning Economy by implementing learning sabbaticals and academies: higher education often lags the private sector. One way they do not is they understand the value of life-work balance with a sabbatical system. Organizations achieve ROI within three years of investing in educational programs (undergraduate to advanced degrees). I have helped to influence and forge learning organization systems, with some clients investing over $1B annually in education benefits. When we change our paradigm that life-work balance can drive ROI as much and better than work-life expectations, we can impact our working and living cultures profitably. I speak about the depths of this in an overview of my policy made to the Department of Labor and the White House on LinkedIn and also in an article with this outlet here in addition to other HR-focused interviews available on my website.
2. End Gender Bias (Enact Progressive Family Leave Systems): This failure in our system starts with the courts. Read my publication DadJob and see the shocking evidence that the root cause starts with one government branch that has no checks on its authority. It does not take much effort to research the fact that family court commissioners blindly discriminate based on what the court feels mom and dad should be in life. This is not justice; it is likely the most overlooked cancer in our government system that if it is not treated very soon could bring down our entire way of life. Meanwhile, the private sector is not helping end the bias of gender roles despite the robust advancement of women in personnel and HR roles. Did you know that according to Forbes, less than 17% of companies allow men to take paternity leave? Forcing men out of the workforce with no parenting leave rights is no better than penalizing women for having children. It further serves to prevent women’s advancement, too, by forcing them back into experienced-based hierarchies of hiring and compensation, not pay-for-performance systems. The ability for families to ensure a livable wage is earned by at least one earner is critical, and progressive models that holistically support American families should be a priority for every corporation.
3. Cultivate a Culture-ROI HR Strategies: Engage your organizational culture, and change the dynamics of your organization for the better! I am regularly cited for the importance of creating culture-ROI systems. Processes in an organization that focus on humans first, then leverage proven time-tested business models to empower technology solutions. Instead, according to research, less than 80% of companies lead with people-first organizational strategy. This despite plenty of evidence it separates the good from great. I write in 43 cities about this message as a Leadership Trust member of the American City Business Journal. Check out my work on my website for articles, but I challenge all HR professionals to spearhead being the solution and present in all departments and not stuck in the legalistic silo created by outdated HR leaders of the past century who merely responded to legislation and did not proactively seek to innovate personnel departments. What’s the ROI? Take a look at the City of Seattle’s growth where 85% of their HR leadership has been trained and supported in this method. Year over Year for a decade its experienced hypergrowth and created millions of jobs through economic gain. Culture-ROI, that embrace true diversity of thought with people-focused strategies drives ROI, it’s that simple.
4. Learn Negotiations and Coaching as Applied Professional Sciences: women ask for less money than do men. Historically, the glass ceiling was shattered during the Great Recession. Women took jobs for far less than men, with more seniority, was offered (or would take). This is tremendous in that depending on the studies examined there are equal rates of men and women in corporate America (note: several indicators that over 66% of women hold higher degrees, and more women are being hired into corporate roles than men for the past two years). Consider work by two leading scholars I have had the pleasure of supporting over the years. They have created an applied professional certification program for women to advance in both coaching and negotiations. The fact is that less than 3 out of 10 female job applicants negotiate a job offer, versus 7 out of 10 men. Learn negotiations, learn to coach (to teach and guiding collaboration and performance accountability in the workplace). The system evolved from a nurse turned Union-negotiator (a very rare role over the past thirty years); and another female leader who cut her teeth as a single mother in the IT sector over 30 years ago (in an industry still plagued by gender role discrimination). When it comes to understanding struggle and the value of some of the ideas I share here, these two have lived it, researched, and innovated a great first step every woman considering a professional career should learn from. Learn about how negotiations can impact your job scope, your life-work balance, and earn better income (not just by learning to negotiate, but by also holding a certification). This is the best first step women can do immediately to enhancing pay and performance in the workforce. Check out their programs at www.strategiclearningalliance.org Imagine ending the wage gap by 2020 by simply helping inspire women to negotiate their worth using a system designed by women negotiators, for women to advance in corporate roles, but created in coaching like process to ensure application of outcomes based on natural strengths of women.
5. Social Media versus Real Social Interaction Addiction: we have a right to opinions, but we also have a duty to keep destructive, negative, and biased opinions to ourselves. This age of shaming moms (who want to work; or dads that want to stay at home; and vice versa) must end. The notion we can attack people on social media from a place of personal opinion is a testament to our character as a nation. Likewise, stop believing everything on social media, accept it as entertainment at best. Be engaged in professional networking in responsible and mature forums and online programs, learning, and professional society events. These are ecosystems of evidence-based debate, collaboration and professional focused responsibility to make a more perfect community, workplace, and union. This is a far better use of everyone’s time pending some type of control on the abusive use of shaming, trolling, and creating conflict based on opinion, inadequate and flawed data collection methods, and hype.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

Well thank you for that statement; I appreciate you saying so.

I would have to say that my movement of focus this year is DADJOB. A system by fathers, with fathers, designed to help men be better for kids and community. Did you know that there has been a 4-fold increase in the number of stay-at-home dads (and many of them are disabled?). This is really important to me as a father of three daughters and one son; equality requires we ensure girls have the chance to earn really amazing income and career opportunities in corporate America, but also it requires we start to recognize it is important we help young men and current dads to be supported if they choose the dad-job — the fastest-growing job in America.

As a society, this is a new role and supports equality of pay as much as equal opportunity and respect for parents as a whole. There is a lot of support needed to men can feel welcome in this new role. It is a new phenomenon, and to encourage equality and diversity it is important men and women, young and old read this publication. Just like programs at www.strategiclearningalliance.org and my publication at RSolutions can help advance women in the workforce with modern professional performance tips, trends, and learning lessons. Gender equality is needed now.

This is an exciting adventure and one not only of personal experience for myself but also a three-year research endeavor I have taken to understand the complexities of this new gender role. Be sure to check out the 2020 public release at www.readDADJOB.com or on my websites!

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Not everything that can be counted, counts; not everything that counts can be counted. I hope I have respectfully represented this quote by Einstein in my interview responses with you!

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂

I think I could help both Arianna Huffington and Melinda Gates in both advancing women in the workplace and creating innovative ground-level economic outreach good for social services and fundamentally changing our attitudes across the country in many ways. It would be a pleasure to learn from them over lunch or breakfast.

This was really meaningful! Thank you so much for your time.

Dr. J Paul Rand: “Here Are 5 Things We Need To Do To Close The Gender Wage Gap” was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Future Of Travel: “Many businesses are catering to outdoor travel” With Ruben Martinez of GlampingHub.com

What we are seeing is that within the hotel industry you have bigger chains and mid-size chains looking to diversify and they see a lot of potential and opportunity within the outdoor and glamping spaces. They are wondering how to become a part of that whether it is by investment, adding glamping accommodations onto their property, or by converting properties that were not producing well into outdoor glamping spaces. These hotel businesses are seeing the upside and are starting to invest.

As part of my series about “exciting developments in the travel industry over the next five years”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ruben Martinez.

With over 31,000 accommodations in over 120 countries, Ruben Martinez, Co-Founder of GlampingHub.com says glamping is here to stay. While undergoing his MBA at Regis University in 2011, Martinez and friend David Troya, of Sevilla, Spain, was currently getting his MBA at the University of San Francisco, they first heard the term glamping. Seeing the potential of this very young industry, they decided to create a place where people could come and find these unique and incredible types of accommodations and ultimately reconnect with nature. Since launching in 2014, Glamping Hub has grown to become the world’s leading portal for glamping accommodations in the outdoor travel industry and continues to grow and list new accommodations across the globe daily. From launching Glamping Hub’s Denver, Colorado office, to the first-ever Global Glamping Summit in 2018 to the creation of the American Glamping Association, Martinez strives to build a community in which travelers can collect memories, not things.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I studied international business as both my undergraduate and MBA. With the new knowledge and excitement to get started, I wanted to pursue this as a career but did not really have a plan laid out during the time of my education. After my undergrad, I worked for a company doing product development and found that I was not very passionate about this field. I wanted to be more in charge of my destiny but did not really know what this meant. I decided to take some time to plan my dream and went to Spain to take Spanish classes and try something different. That’s when I met David Troya, Founder of Glamping Hub. We then together started working in a travel company, and ultimately returned to the states to each do our respective MBAs, Myself at Regis and David at USF. While at USF David heard the term “glamping” and came to me wondering if this was something we could do, and together we created Glamping Hub, the new world’s leading portal for unique outdoor accommodations across the globe. We did not start Glamping Hub because we were experts in the outdoor industry or knew everything there was to know about glamping, but because we had a passion for international business and saw a lot of potential in this new and fresh market to be innovators and become experts. No one was attempting to do what we wanted to do, so we jumped at the opportunity, and our story began.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

Glamping Hub is a global company, with a global reach. We offer something that is different and unique to many individuals, yet comfortable and accessible at the same time. It is almost the best of both worlds situation where maybe someone has or has not gone glamping, but as soon as they do, it makes a lot of sense to that individual. Glamping Hub is uniquely positioned to represent the future of travel because people are extremely curious about the idea of glamping and are so easily able to be comfortable with it once they experience it first hand.

We have individuals from many different cultures and countries with offices in two different countries, the USA and Spain, and Glamping Hub does not just provide these unique accommodations to one small market, rather on a global scale in over 120 countries. They are provided to the global market, to everyone everywhere.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”? Can you share a story about that?

Staying connected by having daily and weekly check-ins, catch-ups, and conversations with people on our team and in the industry allows us to stay in tune to what is going on and to share our energy. It allows you to be creative and come up with new ideas together as well as ease the burden.

Within this industry, there is so much room for collaboration and partnerships, and to really share in the cool things that can be done. That can also make it feel overwhelming and daunting, so by maintaining and structuring the focus and goals and task at hand while remaining organized, also is major in keeping up the momentum.

Let’s jump to the core of our discussion. Can you share with our readers about the innovations that you are bringing to the travel and hospitality industries?

The innovation is accessibility to a new version of travel, were for individuals who tried ten years ago to go do glamping in a treehouse in Costa Rica was tough and challenging, and made it really hard to achieve the goal of booking a stay and having that experience. The innovation is very centered around the accessibility not just only to the types of accommodations and locations, but also to the experience, and the accessibility of being able to have different experiences, and differing price points. This allows us to get people outdoors more often, whether or not you have or have not experienced the outdoors.

Which “pain point” are you trying to address by introducing this innovation?

There are a few different “pain points”. One is accessibility, and under that, you have individuals who like the idea of going outside but the idea of traditional camping is daunting, expensive, and a lot of work. You have this group of people that now have a hurdle and can’t make that jump because of the process and where to start. On the other hand, you have these really unique properties and businesses and often because many of these are small locally owned and run businesses. They are the ones doing the day to day work, check-ins, maintenance, customer service for their sites, and the experience part then can get left behind due to time constraints. This is where Glamping Hub steps in. By driving the booking process and customer services, marketing their properties, and bringing exposure to the truly unique experience they offer, hosts are able to focus strictly on their property and the experience they want their guests to have. This allows them to do what they do best.

How do you envision that this might disrupt the status quo?

We are seeing within the industry now that there is a significant outside investment, and that these new businesses are not necessarily going through the hurdles that the earlier older businesses went through. Within the industry, the status quo has changed in that, our website has allowed people to have this accessibility and possibility of stepping outside their comfort zone. There are a new lens and mindset from many different angles. Whether it is the investment or the individual, there is a demand now for experience-based travel unlike ever before. It allows people to enter the market by starting their own property or site, insurance companies to come in and ensure these properties, outside activities and recreation to partner with these properties, manufacturers to provide tools and pieces and solutions to put the sites together, and more. We were able to break the status quo in that travel is one way, when really it has so much potential and find the way they want to travel.

Can you share 5 examples of how travel and hospitality companies will be adjusting over the next five years to the new ways that consumers like to travel?

What we are seeing is that within the hotel industry you have bigger chains and mid-size chains looking to diversify and they see a lot of potential and opportunity within the outdoor and glamping spaces. They are wondering how to become a part of that whether it is by investment, adding glamping accommodations onto their property, or by converting properties that were not producing well into outdoor glamping spaces. These hotel businesses are seeing the upside and are starting to invest.

The millennial generation over the next two years is going to spend more money on travel over paying off loans or saving money to buy a house. The purchasing power is now coming to fruition and their priorities are different from other generations. Companies need to be aware of this and pay attention to how these next generations are traveling. Some companies will capitalize on this and some will be too late.

Many businesses are also catering to outdoor travel, through activities, excursions, products, and offering everything from affordable to luxury in order to offer you the experience you crave.

You are a “travel insider”. How would you describe your “perfect vacation experience”?

My perfect vacation would be a treehouse on the beach in Mexico. Just sitting on the beach reading a book, taking a dip in the water, and absorbing all the sounds and relaxation that paradise has to offer. I prefer to go off the beaten path, somewhere where there aren’t a lot of tourists, and I can learn about the landscape, the culture, and the people from where I am visiting. A beach, a book, and a beer make my perfect vacation.

Can you share with our readers how have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

We recently set up an innovation and entrepreneurship club at a local high school in Denver, Colorado. This local high school is for first-generation high school graduates only. They go to school four days out of the week, and one day out of the week they have a paid internship at banks, law firms, hospitals, and more, where they are able to get real-life working experience and pay for their schooling. You have to be at or below the poverty line to get into the school. Our program gives them access to the idea that one day they can be an entrepreneur. The success rate for entrepreneurs is staggering, and this demographic is pretty much nonexistent. The journey of an entrepreneur is already an uphill battle, and for this demographic, the odds are already worse. The idea is to plant the seed, give them exposure to other entrepreneurs, and give them programming to show that if they do want to be an entrepreneur they can and have that option. The end goal is to provide an opportunity to grow.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Linked in:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruben-martinez-b39703a/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/glampinghub/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/GlampingHub

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/glampinghub/

The Future Of Travel: “Many businesses are catering to outdoor travel” With Ruben Martinez of… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Future Of Travel: “Why the voice of the DMO will become even more important in community conversations” With Katie Fussenegger

As part of my series about “Exciting developments in the travel industry over the next five years”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Katie Fussenegger. Based in Kentucky, Katie is the President and CEO of ShelbyKY Tourism & Visitors Bureau.

Katie is a strong voice for tourism throughout the Bluegrass State. In late 2019, she was named the Member of the Year by the Kentucky Travel Industry Association. As one of the youngest executive directors of tourism for Kentucky, she has served on the KTIA board since 2016. KTIA represents all segments of Kentucky’s tourism industry, which has a total economic impact of over $11.2 billion.

Thank you so much for joining us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I am a person with a plan and not one to generally deviate once I’ve made up my mind. However, after beginning dental hygiene school, I quickly observed that two of my greatest skills — connecting with others and the art of hospitality — were not going to be utilized to the fullest potential. After a semester of intense medical classes, I switched majors to communications and was offered an internship with my hometown Destination Marketing Organization (DMO). After only about six months of my internship, I was offered a permanent position which led to a lifelong career. Well, lifelong in the sense of my 32 years!

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

Interesting? Just spend a day answering the phones in our office and you’ll receive some of the craziest questions you’ve ever encountered!

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

This mistake happened recently. I was in a board meeting for the Kentucky Travel Industry Association. I was recovering from a cold and had a cough drop in my mouth. While trying to say, “funding mechanism,” the cough drop moved in my mouth. I made a Freudian Slip by using the other “F” word!

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

We have an awesome company culture. Our team is glad to be at work, we work for the betterment of the community and we all believe in our product. While we don’t have budgets to match several other tourism bureaus, we make up for the difference in personality, customer service, and relationships.

Ours is also a connected team. On at least 10 different occasions, our Marketing Director Chenelle and I have dressed the same without communicating our fashion choices in advance!

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”? Can you share a story about that?

Never assume you know, listen twice as long as you speak, attend everything you can to ensure you understand the full picture and never be afraid to lean into the discomfort of change. Finally, attend conferences to stay up on the latest trends and reconnect with colleagues that might be able to offer different perspectives and/or reignite your love of your industry.

Any time I’m near my breaking point at work, I try to connect with trusted advisors in the industry to work through the issues I’m facing. They always seem to shed new light on the dilemma and help me to think clearly.

Also, I always make time to attend the U.S. Travel Association’s ESTO Conference. This one-of-a-kind educational platform allows me to hear about new/innovative trends in the industry, prepare for the inevitable waves of change and to truly ignite the passion I have for travel & hospitality at large.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

I would not be where I am today without the distinct mentoring of several people. First and foremost, my grandfather who has been in the hospitality industry for almost 45 years and was more than willing to provide advice and guidance to me. Nicole Twigg was one of my first bosses at another DMO and biggest supporters to this day. She is a supreme professional and I am honored to have her confidence. I also owe a debt of gratitude to my very first Board of Directors who took a chance on a “green kid” right out of college to lead our community DMO and believe in my leadership. Finally, my marketing director Chenelle who continues to be one of my biggest cheerleaders and pushes me to strive and perform better each and every day!

Let’s jump to the core of our discussion. Can you share with our readers about the innovations that you are bringing to the travel and hospitality industries?

Innovations might be a stretch; however, I do believe I continue to push the industry to think differently about the role of the DMO. Although our first purpose is to be advertisers and marketers of our local communities to the traveling general public, I feel we play a vital role in the economic vitality of our areas. Without new monies being injected into the local economy, we would stagnate.

I also feel we are community managers and destination developers as constant watchdogs for the perseverance of our identities and think-tanks for new ideas for the visitor to experience.

Furthermore, DMO’s must think larger than the polish we promote. Our organization regularly volunteers at not-for-profit and community organizations so that our small staff never lose sight of the realities of our area. A rising tide lifts all boats!

Which “pain point” are you trying to address by introducing this innovation?

Certainly, a pain point in the hospitality industry, and, definitely in our area, is a lack of a qualified workforce. Many of the industry jobs are front-line and even part-time work, which makes it difficult to find employees. Add in the low unemployment rate and that makes for a major issue. By encouraging staff to volunteer at community organizations and understand issues at the ground level, they can think about this complex issue and make connections to fill those gaps. Additionally, the bureau is engaging with workforce coordinators in Kentucky to identify where our DMO can be of assistance.

How do you envision that this might disrupt the status quo?

It already is! We are seeing customer service and the visitor experience diminishes. This is unfortunate. It puts a blemish on the property or community you are representing, which leads to decreased visitors.

Can you share 5 examples of how travel and hospitality companies will be adjusting over the next five years to the new ways that consumers like to travel?

1. Competition for information is real. We must adapt and pivot our marketing messages to be concise & to the point.
2. As I mentioned earlier, the lack of a qualified workforce.
3. As technical advances make the world a smaller place, people will have the opportunity to experience a destination even more so before they set foot there. The information is at their fingertips.
4. The voice of the DMO will become even more important in community conversations. Community planning, clustering businesses together to satisfy guests, walkability, bikeability… visitors’ expectations continue to climb.
5. Content creation is a gamechanger. When I look at our budget compared to five years ago, a lot of dollars now are going to public relations and blogging.

You are a “travel insider”. How would you describe your “perfect vacation experience”?

Remote enough that you felt isolated from the outside world, yet close enough to a bigger city for entertainment and activity options. Add to that, somewhere warm, with my husband and children, on a beach.

Can you share with our readers how have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Two main things: I would like to think I’ve shed a light by spreading the word of who we are in ShelbyKY and by taking the platforms I’ve been given to help others. For example, our team has helped and continues to assist the Shelby County Backpack Project. This organization provides over 300 meals each week to 1,500 people with food insecurity. I spread the story of the Backpack Project by using my platform when in front of lawmakers and influential people across the state. As a staff, we pick a not-for-profit quarterly to support. One of the coolest things from this work is, while benefiting those outside of our organization, we are bonding as a team.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I would love to see it be a standard benefit to offer paid time to volunteerism. Could you imagine how much of an impact that would make? We do that already in ShelbyKY with the quarterly volunteer days. We also give our team the opportunity to take time off during the week for their volunteer projects.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

• https://www.facebook.com/VisitShelbyKY/
• https://twitter.com/VisitShelbyKY
• https://www.instagram.com/visit_shelbyky/
• https://www.facebook.com/katie.fussenegger

The Future Of Travel: “Why the voice of the DMO will become even more important in community… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Be transparent. Transparency for companies is no longer a “nice-to-have,” it’s a necessity — especially on Instagram. Show them who you are. Pull back the curtain. What is it like to work at your company? How do your employees engage with your own product or service? Feature your team members, who they are, where they come from, and how they fit into overall your brand story. At the end of the day, if your own employees aren’t using your product or giving your company rave reviews, why should your Instagram followers? Leveraging Instagram to highlight your team will instantly make your brand feel more relatable and make it easier for your followers to see themselves as potential customers, or even employees. We actually welcomed a hire in August who had initially heard of us on Instagram and sent us a message inquiring about open positions back in April. You never know!

I had the pleasure of interviewing Anna Hochberger. Anna is the the Content Marketing Strategist for Peerfit, a digital fitness platform that gives employers, their employees, and Medicare Advantage members access to a variety of fitness studios, gyms, and digitally streamed workouts, making wellness more accessible and enjoyable.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I was a Gender Studies major in college at the University of Florida (Go Gators!). During my sophomore year, my final project for the fall semester was to buy a “Women’s Magazine” and analyze the advertising inside. It was just before Thanksgiving, and I distinctly remember counting 32 ads for 32 different companies, 23 of which included a woman smiling down at a perfectly brown turkey, and only one of the women was a woman of color. It was a great testament to the need for diversity and representation in marketing, and I decided to focus on social media.

Can you explain to our readers why you are an authority about Social Media Marketing?

When I started at Peerfit in February 2018, we had 7,441 followers on social media, total — that included our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Today, we have 25,054, with 11k of those exclusive to Instagram, and we’ve successfully converted our Social Media into a lead generation tool in the process. This year alone, we’ve seen a 500% increase in leads, proving a clear ROI on our efforts there.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started this career?

Since I manage all of our social media channels, I’m also the person who answers our direct messages and responds to comments. We recently ran a giveaway on our Instagram and the winner was one of our users, and when I notified them that they won, they told me they had recently moved to a new city and didn’t really know anyone there. We’re huge proponents of using group fitness as a way to build community and, coincidentally, we have an employee based in the city where our winner moved. I was able to connect them and they went to a workout together and co-worked at a coffee shop. It was a unique opportunity to bring our mission to life and make those in-person connections for someone from behind-the-scenes.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

If you follow Peerfit on Facebook, you know we’re quite fond of GIFs and frequently use them to respond to people when they comment on our posts or mention us. About two months into my role, a (high ranking) member of our team posted about us, and whilst searching for a clever GIF from The Office to post in response, my cursor, for lack of a better word, spazzed. A GIF of Michael Scott saying “I hate looking at your face. I want to smash it” then published on the post, and I fully considered moving out of the country. Luckily I was able to change it instantly and I don’t think a said member of our team even knows it happened, but now I pick GIFs from my phone just in case.

Which social media platform have you found to be most effective to use to increase business revenues? Can you share a story from your experience?

Facebook! This year we leaned deep into Facebook, from ads to run-of-the-mill social posts and boosted posts and everything in between. As a result, over 70% of our leads from social media this year came directly from Facebook.

Let’s talk about Instagram specifically, now. Can you share 6 ways to leverage Instagram to dramatically improve your business? Please share a story or an example for each.

1. Be transparent.

Transparency for companies is no longer a “nice-to-have,” it’s a necessity — especially on Instagram. Show them who you are. Pull back the curtain. What is it like to work at your company? How do your employees engage with your own product or service? Feature your team members, who they are, where they come from, and how they fit into overall your brand story. At the end of the day, if your own employees aren’t using your product or giving your company rave reviews, why should your Instagram followers? Leveraging Instagram to highlight your team will instantly make your brand feel more relatable and make it easier for your followers to see themselves as potential customers, or even employees. We actually welcomed a hire in August who had initially heard of us on Instagram and sent us a message inquiring about open positions back in April. You never know!

2. Consistency is key.

This seems obvious, but it’s worth mentioning. If you’re a Social Media Strategist, you’re already constantly fighting algorithms to make sure your followers even see your content, why make it harder by posting sporadically? Look at the data. When are your followers online? When do they typically like your posts? Pick a time, and post at the same one every day. This way, your followers know when to expect your content, no algorithms necessary. We’re quite fond of the 5 pm time slot.

3. Quality over quantity.

When I first started at Peerfit, we posted on Instagram three times a day — not Stories, the Feed. It was a little much. Over time, we learned that when it comes to Instagram, quality beats quantity every time. So, we looked at what kind of posts were performing best, adjusted, and narrowed our posts down to once a day to highlight what we knew our audience wanted to see. A couple of months ago, we noticed that Instagram posts featuring members of our team consistently outperformed other posts, so we pivoted our entire Instagram strategy to focus on that. Since doing so, we’ve seen a 15% increase in engagement, and one of our top-performing Instagram posts for the entire year is actually a photo of a few of our team members participating in a charity bike ride together.

4. Plug it elsewhere.

You put a lot of work into your Instagram, show it off elsewhere! By plugging your Instagram in alternative mediums like newsletters or email campaigns, you leverage an additional audience to not only grow your Instagram following but also increase engagement with your existing client or user base. In September, we included a giveaway we were hosting on Instagram in our monthly newsletter to our users. We subsequently saw a 116% increase in entries compared to the giveaway prior and a 4% increase in followers that month.

5. Give people something to “share”

We have four pillars of “Shareable Content” at Peerfit: Utility, Entertainment, Identity, and Emotion, and they inform all of our content creation decisions. Think about the social media posts you share with family and friends. Do they make you laugh? Are they something you relate to? Does it evoke a certain emotion? Keeping this in mind will not only do wonders for growing your following and engagement, but it will also make you memorable and help you stand out from the crowd. We recently dived into the Instagram Story Sticker space, and our second best performing Sticker is a medal that says, “I made it to my workout.” It’s something super simple, but super relatable, and it’s racked up 94,000 views in just under a month.

6. Your brand has a personality, your Instagram should too.

Brands are like people — they all have a personality. Your Instagram should reflect that. Are you sarcastic? Funny? Good at tugging the good ole heartstrings? No one likes talking to a brick wall — make your Instagram look and sound like an actual person.

7. Social media is all about connecting, and leveraging Instagram to showcase your personality and identity will make you that much more likable and approachable to customers.

Because of the position that you are in, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

Mental health and burnout are obviously huge points of conversation right now, as they should be. Social media is often accused of being a “highlight reel”, and to some extent, it definitely is — but what if we changed that? What if, instead of posting pictures of ourselves or our morning coffee, we just posted a simple “1–10” for how we were feeling any given day? It’d allow us to check in with each other and open up conversations for those who need to have them. Let’s bring some “real life” back to a world of carefully curated content.

Some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂

Alexandra Weiss, the SVP at Glossier. The way they incorporate their customers into their social media is genius!

Thank you so much for these great insights. This was very enlightening!

How to Use Instagram To Dramatically Improve Your Business, With Anna Hochberger of Peerfit was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

“How I Was Able To Thrive First Despite Experiencing Impostor Syndrome” With Caren Kenney of Premier Executive Leadership

Get more comfortable with being uncomfortable. Be proactive in intentionally pushing yourself out of your comfort zone — and not just at work. Taking on any challenge will help you build confidence in all areas of your life. For me, I attacked my fear of heights by reluctantly agreeing to zipline with my daughters over a canyon in Hawaii (I confess that my eyes were closed most of the time, but I figured if I died at least it would be in a beautiful place!). And then when I survived that, I agreed to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro with some of my colleagues and family — and I’m still here! As I learned from Dr. Loehr, everyone who pushes the envelope and goes where they have never gone before will experience impostor syndrome in varying degrees. The critical issue is how you deal with it — deny it, become less transparent, more distant and insecure or recognize and acknowledge the feelings for what they are — completely normal and to some extent inevitable. Balance your feelings of insecurity with intentional strong, positive self-belief, recognize the value of showing genuine humility in leadership, resist being distant and impersonal to protect yourself, and reflect often on your purpose.

As a part of our series about how very accomplished leaders were able to succeed despite experiencing Imposter Syndrome, I had the pleasure of interviewing Caren Kenney.

Caren is Executive Director of Premier Executive Leadership™, confidential executive development and wellbeing program focused on helping CEOs and C-suite executives thrive in highly stressful roles. She is a successful entrepreneur who co-founded a health technology start-up that developed the industry’s first direct-to-consumer behavioral health digital coaching programs, which were ultimately acquired by the largest healthcare company in the world. She also coaches a range of leaders and entrepreneurs as part of her role at the Human Performance Institute.

Thank you so much for joining us! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’?

From a professional perspective, I’ve had the unique experience throughout my career of never moving into an existing role — landing new positions that I either pitched or were created and that involved launching new businesses and programs. This has presented both an incredible opportunity and challenge which required me to continuously reinvent myself, but it has resulted in an exciting and rewarding career to date.

From a personal perspective, I am blessed with an amazing family including two beautiful daughters, but my life has also presented some significant challenges that tested me mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually, including losing my first husband to a slow-developing but severe mental illness, raising my daughters as a single parent, and battling an ongoing and still undiagnosed autoimmune disorder after being misdiagnosed with some scary conditions like multiple sclerosis and cancer. As difficult as these experiences have been, each has ultimately helped me grow and become more resilient and reminded me how important it is to identify and stay connected to your personal purpose, take care of yourself, and invest your energy in the people and things that matter most in your life.

Can you share with us the most interesting story from your career? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?

As co-founder of a small health tech start-up company that developed the world’s first direct-to-consumer digital behavioral health coaching programs, I was driven by a passion and personal purpose fueled by the challenges my family experienced. My mission was to provide confidential help to people around the world struggling silently with mental health issues. While I knew we were on to something unique and desperately needed, I had no idea that within 24 months we would go from a scrappy start-up to ultimately being acquired by the largest healthcare company in the world. Key takeaways for me were:

1. Stay focused. Be clear about who you are, how you are uniquely different, and what you are delivering. Stay laser-focused on what you’re good at, what problem you are solving, and who you are solving it for.
2. Don’t go it alone. In a startup, you have to wear many hats, but you can’t be good at everything. Ensure you bring in diverse perspectives as well as the right external partners who are also on the cutting edge (e.g. we invested in a technology partner that was ahead of its time, which provided us with a competitive advantage).
3. Don’t flinch. There were days when we weren’t sure if we could meet payroll or keep the lights on but we stayed the course, didn’t let small things derail us, and acted like we were bigger than we were (“fake it until you make it!”) to maintain investor and customer confidence. There will always be people who don’t believe you will succeed but don’t let their skepticism become your own.
4. Stay connected to your purpose. Building and growing a new business is challenging and comes with significant risk and uncertainty. If you remain steadfast on “why” you are doing what you are doing and truly believe it, this can become the wind at your back and help you push through the storms.
5. Don’t sacrifice yourself. One of the biggest mistakes leaders make is deprioritizing their own wellbeing in order to make their companies successful, but when you fail to thrive, your company and relationships fail to thrive as well. Taking care of yourself can keep you from burning out and becoming disillusioned over time.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

The Human Performance Institute (HPI) takes a holistic, science-based approach to help individuals achieve higher levels of performance in all areas of their lives. By integrating the sciences of performance psychology, exercise physiology, and nutrition, we help individuals effectively maximize their energy across four interconnected dimensions to create lasting behavior change. Key areas that make us unique:

1. We take a holistic (whole person/whole life) approach and recognize the intricate interplay between our physical body, our emotional and mental capacity, and how we maintain alignment to our deepest held values.
2. HPI is the only organization whose promise of sustained behavior change is supported by published, evidence-based studies, and sustained outcomes at 18 months.
3. We recognize Purpose as a critical element to engaging and empowering people to take control of their lives and unleash their personal performance across all facets of life — with 25 years of data collection to prove it. This is why it is a cornerstone of everything we do.
4. HPI leverages a deep human insight that appears to connect with the fundamental human “operating system,” creating a deep affinity for our programs and behavior change that transcends age, gender, continents, and cultures. Our solution connects with over 100,000 people each year in 40 countries around the world.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

Many people have supported me throughout my career, but one in particular that stands out is Dr. Jim Loehr, the world-renowned performance psychologist who co-founded the Human Performance Institute and has coached world-class athletes, Fortune 100 CEOs, and military special forces. When I went through training at the institute nearly 11 years ago, I had the great privilege of having Jim as my coach and he continues to be an incredible mentor and friend. He challenged me on my old story about why I didn’t take care of myself better and put my wellbeing first and taught me the importance of having a clearly defined personal purpose and how to activate it, not only to maximize my energy capacity but to invest it in the people and things that matter most in my life.

So many of us are really good at fooling ourselves into believing we can’t do the things we need to do because we don’t have the time, resources, or ability to do so. That’s your old story, and until you change it, you’ll never get your life right — and you will never truly be successful in anything you do.

Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. We would like to explore and flesh out the experience of Impostor Syndrome. How would you define Impostor Syndrome? What do people with Imposter Syndrome feel?

Imposter Syndrome is a belief that one is inadequate and/or undeserving of their role or success, and that it is only a matter of time before others will find out and expose them as a fraud. Almost everyone experiences imposter syndrome at some point in their life — even the most successful global CEOs and other C-suite executives. Instead of feeling the joy and accomplishment they expected when reaching the top, many CEOs feel lonely, anxious, and vulnerable — like they are not only failing in their roles but in their relationships with the people who matter most in their lives. Entrepreneurs can be especially vulnerable as they are charting new uncertain territory and often lack the skills and years of experience of more seasoned leaders.

I believe it is further exacerbated for a couple reasons:

1. Leaders are now continuously in the spotlight — facing even greater demands and expected to possess an expanded set of competencies, take a stance on social and political issues, and navigate complexity, with the need to continuously disrupt themselves and their organizations.
2. We are evolving business processes and technology at lightning speed — continuously disrupting, transforming and reinventing business models — but we are failing to evolve the human beings who are at the core and required to make all of this successful. It’s a phenomenon that no one is talking about or addressing.
3. As a result, people struggling with Imposter Syndrome often feel stressed, anxious and overwhelmed, and in a desperate move to keep up, they make sacrifices like sleeping less, skipping workouts, and deprioritizing recovery and time with loved ones and friends. This only exacerbates their feeling of failure.

What are the downsides of Impostor Syndrome? How can it limit people?

While almost everyone experiences Imposter Syndrome at some point in their life, persistent levels can wreak havoc on our mind and body. Ongoing fear of being exposed is associated with higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the brain and body1 and higher levels of anxiety and depression. Feelings of insecurity can cause one to work even harder and neglect self-care (eating well, engaging in physical activity, getting enough quality sleep and regular recovery, etc.) and turn to unhealthy behavior and even substance abuse. Imposter Syndrome and lack of confidence can also limit one’s willingness to take risks and to be creative, agile and disruptive — all key attributes of a successful entrepreneur.

How can the experience of Impostor Syndrome impact how one treats others?

Imposter syndrome often results in a lack of trust and confidence in oneself and others, and research suggests that this can even impact decision-making and ethical standards2. When we experience self-doubt, we not only judge ourselves critically but are more likely to judge others critically, which can impact our ability to build strong, healthy and productive relationships. Additionally, those who struggle with imposter syndrome often feel they can never really let people know who they are because in their mind they are a fraud. This can cause others to perceive them as very distant and difficult to know, which can undermine trust and team spirit.

We would love to hear your story about your experience with Impostor Syndrome. Would you be able to share that with us?

I have experienced Imposter Syndrome many times throughout my career — the most recent being four years ago when I took on my current role. As excited as I was about the position — and the ability to lead a team in creating an exciting, innovative and desperately needed new category in executive leadership development and wellbeing — there were some terrifying moments! I would be working with and coaching many of the top global leaders in the world. I had never held one of their roles — had never been the CEO of a Fortune 100 or 500 company. Why would they listen to me? What if they found out I didn’t have near the experience they did? What if the program didn’t work?

Did you ever shake the feeling off? If yes, what have you done to mitigate it or eliminate it?

Given my desire to continue to seek new and challenging roles and opportunities (and the fact that I am human!), I’m sure I will never completely eliminate occasional feelings of not being qualified enough for a role or project, but I believe I have come a long way. The more I have worked with leaders at all types of organizations, the more I learned that we are really no different. We all want to find meaning in our lives, and we all struggle with some of the same universal issues — confidence, stress and burnout, challenges with building and sustaining meaningful relationships, and personal challenges such as caring for a family member who is ill or struggling or dealing with a personal physical or mental health issue. I employed a few strategies to keep myself in check and mitigate this from resurfacing:

1) connected with my personal purpose — my desire to have a positive impact on the lives of others who are struggling — and viewed my role as an opportunity to accomplish this

2) reminded myself that this is a universal feeling we all experience and it’s OK — and even beneficial — to get out of my comfort zone as it’s an opportunity for growth

3) challenged my thinking about my competency — reminding myself that I do have some unique experience and skills that I bring to the table and that I need to be more compassionate with myself, stay positive, and change the story in my head.

In your opinion, what are 5 steps that someone who is experiencing Impostor Syndrome can take to move forward despite feeling like an “Impostor”? Please share a story or an example for each.

1. Identify and challenge your critical inner voice. Tune in to your inner private voice, and when it tells you that you are not good enough or that you will fail at what you are doing, ask yourself: What is the tone of this voice and where is it coming from? Is this the voice I want to take me through the most important challenges in my life? What evidence do I have that I will not be successful? What are the true facts?
2. Create a new story and a private voice. Ask yourself the following questions: What do I uniquely bring to the table? Why was I chosen for this role? What have I done successfully/learned in the past that I can apply to this role? What would I say to a friend or loved one who was experiencing these feelings?
3. Connect to your Purpose. Get crystal clear on why you are here on this earth — what matters most to you, and what difference you want to make. Most of our clients think they know their purpose, but too often we find that either 1) their purpose is not clearly defined or too broad and 2) they confuse their organizational purpose with their personal purpose, and subsequently too often sacrifice their personal wellbeing in service of what they are trying to achieve for their business. In the end, both the individual and organization will struggle. Employ daily rituals and strategies that enable you to successfully live into your purpose.
4. Manage your energy. In our training and coaching of thousands of executives around the world, we have found that when their energy levels are depleted, they struggle with confidence, decision making, and their ability to perform successfully in all areas of their lives. When you are doubting yourself, check-in on how you are managing your energy. Are you getting enough sleep, eating well, exercising, and taking regular recovery breaks throughout the day? A deficit in any area impacts your confidence, emotions, ability to focus, your relationships with others, and the ability to perform at your best in every area of your life. A few quick strategies: Move frequently through the day, Eat light and often (strategic snacks throughout the day), Get 7–9 hours of sleep, Build-in recovery breaks throughout the day (e.g. end meetings 5 minutes early), Journal daily — practice gratitude and affirmations, reflect on your accomplishments, set intentions, etc.
5. Get more comfortable with being uncomfortable. Be proactive in intentionally pushing yourself out of your comfort zone — and not just at work. Taking on any challenge will help you build confidence in all areas of your life. For me, I attacked my fear of heights by reluctantly agreeing to zipline with my daughters over a canyon in Hawaii (I confess that my eyes were closed most of the time, but I figured if I died at least it would be in a beautiful place!). And then when I survived that, I agreed to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro with some of my colleagues and family — and I’m still here! As I learned from Dr. Loehr, everyone who pushes the envelope and goes where they have never gone before will experience impostor syndrome in varying degrees. The critical issue is how you deal with it — deny it, become less transparent, more distant and insecure or recognize and acknowledge the feelings for what they are — completely normal and to some extent inevitable. Balance your feelings of insecurity with intentional strong, positive self-belief, recognize the value of showing genuine humility in leadership, resist being distant and impersonal to protect yourself, and reflect often on your purpose.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

GLOBAL DISCONNECT. While technology has enabled great advances, it often isolates us and consumes an inordinate amount of our time and energy. I would initiate a weekly one-hour global technology disconnect and recovery break — 60 minutes where people commit to disconnecting from all electronics (phone, television, social media etc.) and focus on investing in either:

1. Themselves (journaling, meditating, enjoying nature, etc.) or
2. Relationships (taking a walk, playing a game, or enjoying an uninterrupted meal with a loved one)
3. Of course, they can then jump back on social media and share their stories of recovery and connection with loved ones!

We are blessed that some very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them 🙂

While I have had the great fortune to meet some prominent inspirational leaders throughout my career, I would be most excited to have a private meeting with Bill Gates. He is obviously an incredibly successful entrepreneur, is able to think big yet stay laser-focused on what is important, and has had a huge impact on the world. But more importantly, he is a leader who has demonstrated incredible character and integrity — staying connected to his values, blending his passion for his personal purpose, and building a remarkable legacy that will live long beyond his time on this earth.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carenkenney/

Twitter: @carenkenney

Instagram: CarenKenney

1 https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/real-women/201809/the-reality-imposter-syndrome

2 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325404027_Two-Faced_Morality_Distrust_Promotes_Divergent_Moral_Standards_for_the_Self_Versus_Others

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

“How I Was Able To Thrive First Despite Experiencing Impostor Syndrome” With Caren Kenney of… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Future Of Travel: “Make Sure To Incorporate Experiences” With Galena Stavreva, CEO of SpareFare.net

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Incorporate experiences — The younger generation of travellers want to do exciting experiences while they are on holiday, not just lie on a beach all day sipping martinis. Businesses which incorporate experiential travel into their offering will attract more attention from millennials.

As part of my series about “exciting developments in the travel industry over the next five years”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Galena Stavreva, the CEO of SpareFare.net — a secure secondary marketplace for flights, hotel rooms and package holidays. Travel is great, and SpareFare’s marketplace is all about turning the less fun parts of it — such as cancellations — into new deals that improve the status quo for everyone.

Thank you so much for joining us Galena! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

I graduated with a law degree from the London school of Economics and spent a few years working as a solicitor in London (that’s a British lawyer, for the non-Brits reading this!). SpareFare was born out of personal frustration — I had to cancel quite a few holidays and knew that I could sell them to other people, but none of my friends wanted to buy the reservations. I realised that a lot of other people have the same problem and saw a gap in the travel market. I have always wanted to have my own business and started my first attempts when I was 6, but SpareFare is my first deep-dive into the world of entrepreneurship.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I have made so many mistakes and will make many more — this is just an inevitable part of the learning process! A really funny situation I still remember is when I had to present SpareFare at a travel conference in Bulgaria. The conference is in Bulgarian and that’s my native language, so I did not really practice much beforehand. After all, I know everything there is to know about SpareFare and I was speaking in my mother tongue. Only after appearing on stage did I realise that presenting SpareFare in Bulgarian did not come to me as easily as speaking about the business in English. I was already on stage and had to improvise massively while keeping my cool. I laughed so much about it afterwards, but it did not seem funny at the moment!

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

We play by the rules and make sure our customers do so, too. The travel industry is ripe with rules and regulations and it takes some time to understand them all. All travel providers have their own individual rules as well and the whole landscape can seem hard to navigate. Since our service is new and no one had really done this before, I personally read the terms & conditions of airlines, hotels and travel agents to make sure SpareFare and its customers comply. A competitor who recently stopped trading was very tempted to allow the sale of all sorts of travel tickets, including rail and Eurostar tickets. It is illegal to resell train tickets in the UK and it is also not allowed to resell Eurostar tickets, and they were featured in the news about facilitating this ‘illegal’ exchange. I believe that their blatant disregard for the rules played a big part of their demise.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”? Can you share a story about that?

It does not matter if you are busy or not. The only thing that matters is whether you are fruitful — are you producing results or not. You do this by keeping your focus. You should not have more than three or four main projects you are working on. These should all be things which will get you to your next goal. If an opportunity or a request comes in, which is not part of these main projects, just say no. When you are just starting out it may seem difficult to know where to focus on, but it gets easier with practice. If a meeting, speaking engagement or anything else comes up and it is nice to have but not part of the steps that take you to your next goal, just decline politely. Burning out comes from doing too much. You don’t need to do too much — do just one thing at a time, but do it well.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

My wonderful husband has been a vital part of SpareFare’s success and growth from day one. He is my co-founder and none of this would have been possible without him. Entrepreneurship is difficult, and it is extra hard when you are doing it for the first time. You won’t have a team at the very beginning and having someone to discuss ideas with is invaluable.

Let’s jump to the core of our discussion. Can you share with our readers about the innovations that you are bringing to the travel and hospitality industries?

SpareFare.net helps travellers sell their unwanted flights and hotel reservations to people looking for bargain holidays. It is like eBay for travel but with verified transfers and no ticket touts. We give travellers refunds for their non-refundable reservations and genuine, deep discounts for flights and hotel reservations. Sellers can recoup some the money they paid for their non-refundable trips, while buyers get a true discount of up to 50–60% by not paying the current price of the bookings. A win-win for everyone involved. SpareFare acts as an intermediary, ensuring that the exchanges on the platform are secure.

Travel fraud is rampant and this prevents the sale of travel reservations on general listing platforms like eBay or Gumtree. To accommodate the exchanges, SpareFare verifies all sales and also operates an escrow service, where we hold the buyer’s money until they travel and only then we pay sellers. Our expert customer services support helps travellers navigate the complex terms & conditions of travel providers and ensures that sellers are always aware of the name change fees and other rules imposed by airlines, hotels and travel agents.

Which “pain point” are you trying to address by introducing this innovation?

A lot of the travel reservations are non-refundable and if you can’t go, you lose the money you paid for your holiday. Luckily, many of these reservations are refundable — the name of the passenger can be changed and the booking can be sold to someone else. We are helping sellers recover at least some of the cost of their non-refundable holidays. On the other hand, we are also helping buyers travel cheaper — all offers on SpareFare are sold at a significant discount to the current live prices of flights and hotel reservations. For flexible travellers, the bargains on the site are the absolute best out there — it is like someone else has already paid for part of your holiday!

How do you envision that this might disrupt the status quo?

We are on a mission to make travelling cheaper and easier for everyone. We are doing this by creating a new type of shared economy in travel. SpareFare’s solution is a win-win for everyone involved. It makes no sense for so many travellers to lose money on non-refundable reservations, while, at the same time, may people want to travel more, but cannot afford it. Trekksoft 2019 travel trends report acknowledged that SpareFare ‘fills a massive gap in the tourism industry, and will become its own tourism trend from 2019.’

The creation of this secondary market makes travelling easier and cheaper for everyone. Our sellers recover on average around 50% of the money they have paid for their trips. Our buyers report saving between £200 and £500 when using SpareFare. Without our platform, all of these amazing refunds and travel bargains would be lost. We are turning wasted opportunities into happy memories.

Can you share 3 examples of how travel and hospitality companies will be adjusting over the next five years to the new ways that consumers like to travel?

Today’s consumers have a great choice of offers and this makes them very demanding and impatient, which is great, because it keeps companies on their toes and constantly improving. I think travel and hospitality companies will need to focus on these three main travel trends:

1. Personalised travel — consumers expect and want brands to tailor their information based on personal preferences or past behaviors.

2. Guide users — the vast choice of travel destinations, hotels, transfers and experiences is great, but also very overwhelming and time-consuming for the time-poor customer. Some traveller even say it can be stressful! Companies will be expected to assist today’s travelers with decision-making at every step of the journey.

3. Incorporate experiences — The younger generation of travellers want to do exciting experiences while they are on holiday, not just lie on a beach all day sipping martinis. Businesses which incorporate experiential travel into their offering will attract more attention from millennials.

You are a “travel insider”. How would you describe your “perfect vacation experience”?

I live in London, where it is always raining and cold, so a sunny destination is always my top choice. The perfect vacation is a mixture of leisure time on the beach plus a few exiting adventures and opportunities to meet local people and to talk to them about their life.

Can you share with our readers how have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Apart from genuinely helping our users get out of difficult situations, I also believe in investing in charitable causes. SpareFare is currently supporting a project in Bulgaria for children in orphanages, which prepares volunteers and teachers who work with the children and help them with their professional realization.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

I would legalise drugs and use the proceeds to treat the addicted. Drug addicts do not need jail, they need treatment. Everybody who wants to buy drugs can do so, so clearly our current laws are not stopping the access to the drugs. The current system only benefits the drug distribution networks.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

You can stay up-to-date with our deeply discounted holidays and free giveaways by searching SpareFare on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

The Future Of Travel: “Make Sure To Incorporate Experiences” With Galena Stavreva, CEO of… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

“How I Was Able To Thrive Despite First Experiencing Impostor Syndrome” With Marriage & Family Therapist Stevon Lewis

Be relentless in challenging their “Inner Bully”. The inner bully is that inner voice we all have that makes us question our abilities and self-worth. Listening to it often leads us to feel more negatively about ourselves, our futures, and our present circumstances. For example, in a relationship an inner bully might prey on our thoughts of feeling as though we don’t deserve our significant other. Often times this will cause us to act in ways that prevent intimacy and connection. We become increasingly angry, clingy, jealous, defensive, or easily offended. If our partners are less talkative on a particular day, our inner bullies get us to believe they are mad at us for something we did. We will blindly believe our inner bully instead of checking in to see if our significant other may not feel good or if there is some other rational explanation for their silence.

As a part of our series about how very accomplished leaders were able to succeed despite experiencing Imposter Syndrome, I had the pleasure of interviewing Stevon Lewis. Stevon is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. He earned Bachelors of Arts degrees in Psychology and Afro-Ethnic Studies from California State University, Fullerton. He also has a Master’s of Science degree in Counseling with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy from California State University, Long Beach. Stevon began his therapy career in 2007 as a therapist at a community mental health agency in Long Beach working with the families of adolescents involved with the juvenile justice system. More recently, he served as the Director of Counseling Services at Woodbury University, a small private university in Burbank, CA. Currently, he is in private practice full-time, in Torrance, where he works with adults struggling with Impostor Syndrome, and couples experiencing difficulty in their relationships as a result of poor communication and unmet expectations. In addition, he is an Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine University and a Past President of the Long Beach-South Bay Chapter of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists.

Thank you so much for joining us Stevon! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’?

I was born and raised in South Central LA. As a kid, I was part of the CHOICES program which allowed inner-city kids to attend schools outside of their area. My mom sent me to Wonderland Avenue Gifted Magnet Elementary in the Hollywood hills. It was a bit of culture shock for sure; I mean I’m a kid from the hood, and some of these guys’ parents were producers for Beverly Hills 90210 and writers for Cheers.

I can remember back as young as 5th grade always being interested in why people did the things they did. A vivid memory I have, is of a kid who was new to Wonderland. He was an African-American kid, which there weren’t many of us there, and he was getting into trouble, like being brought to school by the police trouble. This wasn’t something that was common for students at Wonderland. I was always curious about how he ended up at our school because he definitely didn’t fit in. One day he rode my bus home, not sure why, but he was picked up by an older White woman, old enough to be his grandmother. I figured he must have been in foster care or something and that his situation probably had something to do with his behavior.

My fascination with people never left. I’ve always had an ability to connect with people on an emotionally intimate level and remember being the guy that talked my friends down when they were upset, facilitated “mediation” between friends, or redirected negative behavior. It was a natural progression for me to end up as a psychotherapist. I would talk to people and connect with people even if I weren’t a therapist. After high school I took some time off from school, a year, to process as best I could, the death of my father. I took some classes at Santa Monica Community College and eventually transferred to CSU, Fullerton. After undergrad, I worked in group homes and non-public schools before enrolling in my Master’s program at CSU, Long Beach. My first job as a Trainee was at a community mental health agency in South Central LA working with the families of kids involved in the juvenile justice system. I stayed at that agency for seven years working my way up to Program Manager.

I moved on to become the Director of Counseling Services at Woodbury University, a small private college in Burbank, CA. I served as Director for 5 years and am now full-time in my private practice, in Torrance, CA.

Can you share with us the most interesting story from your career? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?

Early in my career, while working in community mental health, I was a field therapist. That means that I would conduct therapy in my clients’ homes. Most of my clients were in South Central Los Angeles, and predominantly Black and Latino areas. I once received a referral for a family and called as I normally did to set up an appointment. The guardian of my potential client answered the phone and asked me a question I was unprepared for. They asked me if I was Black. After I acknowledged that I was they quickly indicated that I could not schedule an appointment. I had to have my supervisor at the time, a White male, to contact the family and convince them to allow me to accompany him as he met with the family. When we met with the family it turned out they were also Black, and that my potential client had been sexually assaulted on multiple occasions by Black men. This made their guardian extremely leery of Black men in general. From this experience I learned an important lesson. That is, because I may share some similarities with a potential client, I cannot allow those similarities to prevent me from doing the work to establish a rapport and getting to know their personal stories.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

As a therapist I stand out because I am a Black male. In the field of psychotherapy there aren’t many Black males. Clients often want someone that looks like them when they come to therapy. Their belief is that some things about them will not have to be explained. While this isn’t necessarily true, this belief often drives the choice in therapist for African-American clients. I’ve had many clients, Black males, that came to me as their first time ever participating in therapy. One had such a good experience that they encouraged their family member to come as well. I choose to see that as a testament to the good work we did and some change to the negative narrative that surrounds mental health services in the Black community.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

I’ve had several people help me along my journey and am grateful for all that they have done to assist in my maturation as a therapist. Someone that I’ve continued to lean on and seek guidance from, as my career grows, is Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis. She is a psychologist in the L.A. area and is my “go to” when I need to process career related decisions. She has helped me navigate my first few interactions with producers that wanted to meet with me about possible TV appearances.

Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. We would like to explore and flesh out the experience of Impostor Syndrome. How would you define Impostor Syndrome? What do people with Imposter Syndrome feel?

Impostor Phenomenon is a term coined by Dr. Pauline Clance and is more commonly known as Impostor Syndrome. Individuals that suffer from Impostor Syndrome are usually high achievers in some facet of their life, whether it be in their career, in education, or in the arts. What I have found in working with individuals that struggle with impostorism, is that that they don’t come to therapy indicating feeling like an impostor as their primary presenting problem. Most often they’ll express feelings of not living to their full potential or report a history of self-sabotaging their success. In addition, while Impostor Syndrome isn’t in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fifth Edition (DSM-5), the symptoms usually develop into depression or anxiety, disorders that are diagnosable.

In peeling back the layers I’ve found some glaring commonalities:

· They had a parent(s) that was very critical of them; frequently pointing out where they needed improvement.

· Their parent(s) did not equally provide praise of their accomplishments or achievements, and often dismissed those accolades as routine or required.

· They are often the product of a childhood environment that was dysfunctional, in which they seem to be the only person from their immediate family to have experienced the overall success they have achieved.

· Expressions of love were infrequent or nonexistent.

· As adults they seem to be the “only one” in the room, as in the only person of color or only woman.

· As a result of these experiences they have developed a high level of self-doubt, are dismissive of their own abilities, are overly critical of themselves, neglectful of their needs, and fearful of future failure. For example, someone struggling with Impostor Syndrome might receive an award and say, “Oh, almost everyone got one,” or after getting an ‘A’ in a class, they might respond, “That class was easy!” Other times they may be plagued with intense fear that they are going to “screw things up” as a result of getting a promotion, becoming a parent, approaching marriage, or some other potential increase in responsibility.

What are the downsides of Impostor Syndrome? How can it limit people?

The downsides are that individuals that struggle with Impostor Syndrome often end up with high levels of anxiety or depression. They live in constant fear of being found out as a fraud due to their continued success. They are unable to connect with their successes and often find elaborate ways to explain away their success, and when they are unable to explain away their success, they will often turn to minimizing the significance of that achievement. That is, they will say that their accomplishment wasn’t that difficult or that if anyone wanted to do what they did, they could have. In addition, Impostor Syndrome often causes people to refrain from seeking out greater opportunities due to their strong belief that they don’t have what it takes to have earned said success.

How can the experience of Impostor Syndrome impact how one treats others?

People with Impostor Syndrome are often times the biggest cheerleaders for the accomplishments of others. They are extremely happy for the success of close friends and family. Impostor Syndrome causes people to inflate the deservedness of others. That is, it’s easy for them to see why other people deserve the success they have attained. The pitfall is that this narrative they create about the abilities and deservedness of others leads them to further negatively evaluate their own abilities and accomplishments.

We would love to hear your story about your experience with Impostor Syndrome. Would you be able to share that with us?

As a Black male therapist, I haven’t always had an example, per se, to follow or model myself after. In my graduate program I was the only Black male in my program the entire time I was there. I think this experience led to me questioning whether or not I knew what I was doing. I don’t have an example to follow to effectively evaluate my trajectory and therefore, enter into most opportunities questioning if I will be successful.

Did you ever shake the feeling off? If yes, what have you done to mitigate it or eliminate it?

I continually overcome any feelings of impostorism. I use the same techniques and skills I teach my clients. I tell myself, when exploring a new opportunity, that I’ve been successful in the past and find ways to figure out how to be successful and would continue to do so in whatever the new venture is. In addition, I tell myself I am doing a good job and remind myself of all the evidence around me that supports this belief.

In your opinion, what are 5 steps that someone who is experiencing Impostor Syndrome can take to move forward despite feeling like an “Impostor”? Please share a story or an example for each.

Five steps someone with Impostor Syndrome can take to thrive despite their impostorism are to:

1. Be relentless in challenging their “Inner Bully”

· The inner bully is that inner voice we all have that makes us question our abilities and self-worth. Listening to it often leads us to feel more negatively about ourselves, our futures, and our present circumstances. For example, in a relationship an inner bully might prey on our thoughts of feeling as though we don’t deserve our significant other. Often times this will cause us to act in ways that prevent intimacy and connection. We become increasingly angry, clingy, jealous, defensive, or easily offended. If our partners are less talkative on a particular day, our inner bullies get us to believe they are mad at us for something we did. We will blindly believe our inner bully instead of checking in to see if our significant other may not feel good or if there is some other rational explanation for their silence.

2. Create an evidence sheet

· An evidence sheet as an actual piece of paper, or a digital notebook, where you list all of the evidence that doesn’t support your negative view of yourself as a fraud. This is not based on whether you agree with the information, as we know people that struggle with Impostor Syndrome will often explain away the evidence they receive that suggests they aren’t a fraud. The goal is to continually add to the document to show oneself that their feelings of being a fraud aren’t based in reality.

3. Stop dismissing or minimizing their accomplishments

· Individuals that struggle with Impostor Syndrome often dismiss, or minimize, their accomplishments as routine. I teach my clients to celebrate themselves by acknowledging their accomplishments. The idea is that even if their accomplishment is routine, that doesn’t that it shouldn’t be acknowledged. In addition, if we disproportionately highlight our shortfalls, while ignoring our successes we end up feeling like a failure.

4. Temper their expectations of themselves

· People that struggle with Impostor Syndrome frequently hold themselves to a standard of perfection that isn’t sustainable or achievable. Unless they are perfect, they are convinced they are failing. It would be better for them to temper expectations by using scaling techniques to evaluate their performance. For example, if they have a list of 10 things to accomplish and they accomplish 9 out of 10, it would be better to say they’ve accomplished 90% of what they wanted to do and remind themselves that 90% is an A!

5. Stop comparing themselves to others!!!

· In working with individuals that struggle with Impostor Syndrome, the most toxic behavior they exhibit is using the lives and accomplishments of others to negatively evaluate themselves. I often hear, from my clients, how others are superior in their abilities and, as a result, are more deserving of the success they have achieved. Individuals with Impostor Syndrome need to stop measuring their abilities and journey based on someone else’s model. It’s okay to take a different route to get to the same location; some people like to fly, while others would rather drive.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-).

I have an idea that I want to start with children of color from less advantaged environments. I think that access to resources and appropriate guidance are two major components, within our control, that holds them back from achieving more. That being said, I would love to start an organization that sought to identify elementary school aged children and give them access to resources and guidance through college. The idea would be to get them enrolled in the best elementary schools, best middle schools, best high schools, and best colleges to give them a chance at long-term success.

We are blessed that some very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them :-).

I’ve always said, jokingly, that if I met Oprah my life would be changed for the better. She’s such a great cheerleader of people that if she believes in you, you, in turn, will believe you can do anything. Additionally, I am a HUGE fan of Malcolm Gladwell’s work and would love to have a conversation with him. I am fascinated by how he thinks and would be excited to discuss politics with him. I listen to his podcast religiously and have read most of his books; still working on What the Dog Saw and Talking to Strangers at the time of this interview. He’s a consumer of knowledge and I see myself as having a similar thirst for understanding things.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

I am most active on my Instagram and LinkedIn accounts, but for the purposes of this article I will list all of my social media handles

· Instagram — @StevonLewisMFT
· Twitter — @StevonLewisMFT
· LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevonlewis/
· Facebook — @StevonLewisLMFT

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

“How I Was Able To Thrive Despite First Experiencing Impostor Syndrome” With Marriage… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

“How I Was Able To Thrive Despite First Experiencing Impostor Syndrome” With Sandy Slager of Skye Learning

Managing feelings of inadequacy is a part of life. I would guess most people experience moments where they feel they don’t deserve what they have. There are many tools that one can use to shake off imposter syndrome. Some tools would ideally span each day, such as mentoring. Whereas other tools are very project or task specific, but choosing the right tool for the issue is important. For instance, when I was in business school, I leaned on my mentor for guidance and occasional confidence boosts, but within the day-to-day feelings of inferiority, I found it helpful to remind myself that my experiences are different, not lesser than others in the classroom. I also clearly defined success in the classroom, which for me did not mean being at the top of the class, but rather ensuring I built positive relationships with my classmates and learned as much as I could from their unique experiences.

I had the pleasure to interview Sandy Slager. Sandy is the President of Skye Learning, and Chief Operating Officer of MindEdge Learning, founded in 1998 and based in Waltham, MA.

Thank you so much for joining us Sandy! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’?

I have been with MindEdge Learning, and now Skye Learning, for over 20 years. In the world of edtech and online education, that’s many lifetimes. I started in the industry in 1998 and grew professionally as the company grew. These days this is a very unusual career path, but I always found new challenges, new beginnings, and new opportunities within the strategic shifts that MindEdge has executed over the years. And now, there’s never been a more exciting time in online education. I attended Union College for undergrad and Boston University for my MBA. Aside from my work at MindEdge and Skye Learning, I am a twin-mom to two girls. I love writing, cooking, and photography in my down time.

Can you share with us the most interesting story from your career? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?

The most interesting part of my career has, ironically, had little to do with my career. For me, the transition into being a working parent has been the most challenging and the most rewarding part of my career. Not only did it force me to address work-life balance head-on, but it also gave me a perspective on work that I never had before. I have become more efficient, more effective, and more engaged in my work since having children. This is an unexpected outcome for me, needless to say, and I’m still slowly uncovering the nuances of similarities between these two lives.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

MindEdge’s mission is to improve the way the world learns. Since our founding by Harvard and MIT educators in 1998, we have served nearly two million learners. MindEdge has been producing online courses and building relationships with professional credentialing authorities for more than twenty years. Skye Learning, a division of MindEdge, is an online learning destination helping professionals and new graduates future-proof their skillset in a changing world of work. Both MindEdge and Skye Learning approach continuous education from a unique perspective with annual surveys that deep-dive into the topics that matter most to today’s modern workforce, including the future of work, digital literacy, job burnout, and the importance of credentials. By exploring these insights, we are able to better understand employees’ challenges and desires in order to provide them with an online learning option that best fits their needs.

MindEdge and Skye operate with an extremely clear learner-first approach. Learner feedback is taken very seriously by the entire company, from senior management to editorial staff and sales team members. MindEdge’s focus on continuous improvement means that courses are reviewed and updated on a regular basis.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

The current CEO of MindEdge, Jefferson Flanders, has been a steady mentor and supporter over the last 20+ years of my career. His mentoring and guidance have been instrumental in helping me overcome instances of imposter syndrome over the years. It can be incredibly beneficial to be mentored by a person who has a different background, career path, and framing on business than you do. Confirmation bias can be powerful, so ensuring that you’re approaching challenges and solutions through a different lens is an important part of individual career growth. Of course, having a mentor to remind you of your strengths during moments of failure is critical in building professional confidence.

We would like to explore and flesh out the experience of Impostor Syndrome. How would you define Impostor Syndrome? What do people with Imposter Syndrome feel?

Throughout my career, I have seen many women — including myself — experience feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt despite years of experience, education, and senior titles. This pervasive issue even runs into the home as I am raising two young girls, making me a confidence ambassador for more than just colleagues. However, imposter syndrome can manifest in individuals in different ways. With this in mind, I have worked through my own techniques and methods for beating imposter syndrome over the years, and now make it a point to work with my younger staff on how to maintain an appropriate and reasonable confidence-level with all types of career successes and failures, working in personal nuance along the way.

To overcome imposter syndrome, people not only need emotional support but also a tactical set of tools to help them feel more confident in their individual skill development. Approaching imposter syndrome on a case-by-case basis helps to ensure that the support a mentor is providing to overcome it appropriately maps back to the needs of the individual.

What are the downsides of Impostor Syndrome? How can it limit people?

Imposter Syndrome hinders a worker’s ability to feel confident about the work they are producing. An outstanding downside to this effect is how it makes hard work feel worthless, which further deteriorates a person’s motivation and can lead to job burnout. Our 2nd Annual Work Confidence Study discovered that job burnout is so widely felt that nearly 75 percent of workers experience the increasingly prevalent medical condition. More, workers are overall less confident that they’ll be able to hold on to their current jobs with just 82 percent reported they are confident they’ll still be employed in a year’s time, a number that is down from 93 percent in 2018.

Feeling insecure at work can cause a person shy away from new challenges. I believe that this feeling ultimately impacts the workplace, leaving considerable untapped potential. It behooves business leaders to coach employees through such matters with an effective approach to resolve these challenges.

How can the experience of Impostor Syndrome impact how one treats others?

Anytime someone is feeling insecure internally, it can impact how they treat others. In some cases, you might be short or otherwise non-communicative. In other cases, you could come across as defensive or aggressive. Recognizing that you are insecure in your own right as a first step goes a long way toward equalizing your fears and even admitting it out loud. For instance, by saying out loud, “I don’t feel qualified to make this call” can only be powerful when you follow it up by actually making the call with “I don’t feel qualified to make this call, but here’s what I think anyway.” In a scenario like this, business leaders can be a critical for encouragement and reinforcement to help support employee confidence and overcome the side effects of imposter syndrome, positively impacting their entire organization.

We would love to hear your story about your experience with Impostor Syndrome. Would you be able to share that with us?

In my experience, imposter syndrome is not a one-time event, nor is it persistent in every day or two. I have fleeting moments where I fear I have gotten lucky or been granted promotions or accolades for reasons that are not related to my talents. One of the worst instances of imposter syndrome I felt was actually during business school. Working for a small company for my whole career, I suddenly found myself having case discussions with people whom I felt were much more experienced and much more “worthy” of sharing their expertise than I was. It affected my confidence in contributing in class and how I performed on assignments. Ultimately, I had to work twice as hard to not only complete projects and tasks but also on coach my confidence up along the way.

Did you ever shake the feeling off? If yes, what have you done to mitigate it or eliminate it?

Managing feelings of inadequacy is a part of life. I would guess most people experience moments where they feel they don’t deserve what they have. There are many tools that one can use to shake off imposter syndrome. Some tools would ideally span each day, such as mentoring. Whereas other tools are very project or task specific, but choosing the right tool for the issue is important. For instance, when I was in business school, I leaned on my mentor for guidance and occasional confidence boosts, but within the day-to-day feelings of inferiority, I found it helpful to remind myself that my experiences are different, not lesser than others in the classroom. I also clearly defined success in the classroom, which for me did not mean being at the top of the class, but rather ensuring I built positive relationships with my classmates and learned as much as I could from their unique experiences.

In your opinion, what are 5 steps that someone who is experiencing Impostor Syndrome can take to move forward despite feeling like an “Impostor”? Please share a story for each.

Understanding these five statements can help a person begin to take control and reconcile with the effects of imposter syndrome:

1. You’re not superhuman, and you don’t have to be.
Setting reasonable expectations for yourself is, I believe, the first step toward self-acceptance. Anyone would or could feel like an imposter if they set the achievement bar too high to reach.

2. Seek out a mentor and become a mentor for someone else.

Mentoring from someone who knows you can be a huge confidence boost. Listening to what someone says, as they watch you from the outside, is usually very different than how you see yourself.

3. Define success at the beginning, and don’t move the goalposts.

By defining failure and success at the start of a task or project, and by not moving the goalposts you’ve set, you stand a better chance of being pleased with the outcome. This is certainly the foundation of building confidence in yourself and your work. For instance, if you decide at the start of a project that at the one-month mark you should have completed a list of five things, and you accomplish that goal, take a moment and dare to be proud of yourself.

4. Build your confidence with credentials and education.

If you have a seat at the table, it’s highly likely you’ve earned it. If you feel insecure about your knowledge or experience, shoring up your education and training is one way to help build your confidence. Leave yourself no reason to doubt you deserve to be there. I found myself deep into a career in business management with pretty fierce self-doubt, and I quickly realized I needed to get an MBA in order to build my confidence sufficiently. In other cases, it could be as simple as a certificate program or course work.

5. Remember, you’re not alone!

Imposter syndrome disproportionately affects qualified people. So, if you feel like you suffer from imposter syndrome, it’s important to remember that you are not alone. When I open up and seek feedback from colleagues, I’m always surprised at how top-of-mind these confidence issues are to those around me, too.

If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

I would inspire a climate change awareness and prevention movement via a global tree planting initiative. Planting trees is a very simple and straightforward way to curb climate change, and if everyone planted one additional tree in their yard, I think the world would breathe a theoretical sigh of relief.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why?

I would love to share a meal with Madeleine Albright, former US Secretary of State and Ambassador to the United Nations. Secretary Albright has always been a fascinating political figure to me. She and her family immigrated from Czechoslovakia when she was 11 years old, and she eventually rose to become the first female Secretary of State for the United States. Her confidence appears to be unwavering from the outside, but I would actually love to discuss imposter syndrome with her to understand if she was ever affected and how she managed to handle it. Secretary Albright is also a twin mom of two girls, as I am, and I think we could share some laughs over what it’s like to raise twin daughters.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

Follow me on LinkedIn.

“How I Was Able To Thrive Despite First Experiencing Impostor Syndrome” With Sandy Slager of Skye… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.