An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
“Don’t let other people define you” (I know, it’s six…). Many people can be attributed to this quote, but I interpret it to writing your own story. This doesn’t mean you have to do it alone, you can have advisors, counselors, who stress-test hone and improve your narrative, but it must be yours. This is the impetus and inspiration for my book “Be The Brand.” This is how you communicate in 3-D. 3-D for me is define it (who are you), design it (how do you want to show up) and deliver it (who will benefit from what you have to say). People want to know the story behind the career, the person behind the title, and the passion behind the person.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tamara Jacobs.
Tamara Jacobs is a seasoned personal brand and executive coach as well as a strategic communicator who has written several books and provides counsel to the pharmaceutical industry’s C-suite executives. Her particular path has been independently forged, and she has developed many ground-breaking strategies to cut through the noise and shatter assumptions. There is a reason Tamara has the trademark for “Success is a Planned Event®,” and in this interview shares how you too can become an effective purposeful disruptor.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Thank you for speaking with me. I resisted this career path for a long time because my mother was a professor of speech communications and I wanted to carve my own path. I think it is important, particularly for women, to step outside the shadows of their family, mentors and bosses — taking those learnings into their own specific charted path. I didn’t really have a plan at first. I ended up pursuing what I call a cacophony of careers, leading to the multi prismatic career quilt that is my legacy. I started out in theater, then television reporting, public relations and executive coaching — ultimately leading to where I am today, which is serving as counselor to the C-suite. The common denominator is communications.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Generally speaking, I don’t take prescribed approaches. I look at things from the 360ͦ level. What are we trying to achieve, what is the landscape, what is the green field, and how do we position a leader to achieve those goals? This is not the prescribed methodology, it bucks the most conventional rubrics. That said, I feel particularly, with the C-Suite in Healthcare, it is so important to be authentic, customized, and objective-oriented. I am a truth teller, who has built trust with benign candor. Feedback is just that, and an investment I make in my clients. The approach I use is refinement, not advice that could be perceived as personal weaknesses. To me, what we do is changing behaviors and attitudes. The actions ultimately speak louder than words.
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?
Theater gave me the opportunity to understand if someone won, someone had to lose. I wasn’t afraid to perform, I was afraid to audition. I recently was working with a leader who wanted their visibility raised in order to support and enhance the overarching corporate reputation of the pharma company. I was excited to work with this inexperienced communicator, and realized quickly we shared the same fear — the fear of rejection, and the polarization of winning and losing. This was a catalyst moment in our working relationship, and I was able to build trust through relaying my own experience to empower her to show up, put herself out there, and to focus on the “what if” in a positive, rather than a negative light. You miss 100% of the shots you do not take.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
One of my mentors was a male ally. People assumed he wasn’t the ally he turned out to be. He served as a mentor, and his advisory and sponsorship made an incredible impact on my career. He gave me significant opportunities because he invested in my potential and development. He was without nuance, or politic. He recognized talent that warranted cultivating, and he also demonstrated to me what leadership really is. Along the way, he was shattering assumptions about who he was and what I could become. As a leader, your success is measured by the people you bring along with you to succeed.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Disruption for the sake of disruption is always bad. Disruption, recognizing what can be augmented or amplified, with a measured approach is always good. First identify the opportunities, then look at the solve. For women newscasters for example, pay parity has been a significant challenge. But how did they address this in a male dominated industry? Through metrics, proof points, of better engagement and viewership. They did their homework on why they merited pay parity, not to justify it but to prove their worth. These women inspire me on the daily, and their approach as a coalition gives us many lessons in how to disrupt for good. An example of disruption for bad is everything being automated. Not everything should be automated, sometimes and in many cases a personalized approach drives better results. We can see this in the trends in advertising from call centers (automated) to banks that act like café’s with a human to human approach (personalized).
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
“Don’t let other people define you” (I know, it’s six…). Many people can be attributed to this quote, but I interpret it to writing your own story. This doesn’t mean you have to do it alone, you can have advisors, counselors, who stress-test hone and improve your narrative, but it must be yours. This is the impetus and inspiration for my book “Be The Brand.” This is how you communicate in 3-D. 3-D for me is define it (who are you), design it (how do you want to show up) and deliver it (who will benefit from what you have to say). People want to know the story behind the career, the person behind the title, and the passion behind the person.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
I intend to be a silo-buster. Cross organizational collaboration has never been more important, and how we get there is all about leading without labels.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
There is a need to make deposits in a relationship before you make withdrawals. I believe in the Shine Theory, which is not my theory but one I ascribe to. It means if you shine, I shine. We are invested in each other’s success, not one-sided support. It means as women we must help women, clapping in their corner, not watching for them to make a mistake. Women should work in concert, not competition. Men have long been considered as taking control, women as taking care. There needs to be a shift in this balance to work with male allies to ensure we support everyone, regardless of gender identity, and with our own unique superpowers, for the common good.
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
The book “The Medium is the Massage” by Marshall McLuhan. A particular quote in this book is the one I live by. “There is absolutely no inevitability as long as there is willingness to contemplate what is happening.” We each have the power of predictive influence, and this was the jump for me to write my own book, “Your Ultimate Success Plan.” Assessing both risks and opportunities correctly will guide you to achieve your goals.
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. 🙂
This is a lesson I learned from my father who was a successful first violin chair. It took a great deal of rigor and discipline to quietly achieve his goals. It was never assumed he would always be first chair, he was constantly being challenged for his spot. He routinely faced competition during talent selection, demonstrating his playing ability behind a curtain, so you never knew who was performing for the judges. Everyone got a shot, which was democratic but also unnerving, having to continually earn your role. I would like everyone to earn their spot, to get on the field, play their best, and show up every day as innovative and results oriented. You should be prepared to stand on your merits, and shine as a result.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My favorite quote is one I coined after years of counseling the C-suite. “Try yes first.” If you say no, you have closed the door and cannot walk that back. If you say yes, you are opportunity forward, and can always pivot based on the agile methodology of trying it out and testing it. So, say yes, and be engaged in the results.
How can our readers follow you online?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamarajacobscommunicationsinc/
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Female Disruptors: Tamara Jacobs of TJC On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.