Lisa Nirell
Founder at EnergizeGrowth LLC
Marketing for Leaders
Episode Summary
This week on Episode 118 of the Keep Leading!® podcast, I share my interview with Lisa Nirell! Lisa is a marketing expert and shared how customers act and buy differently and the implications this has on how leaders market and sell.
Check out the “60-Second Preview” of this episode!
Bio
Lisa Nirell, the founder of EnergizeGrowth® LLC, helps marketers and CEOs accelerate marketing innovation and growth. Top leaders from AARP, Adobe, Google, and LinkedIn hire Lisa to formulate new strategies and launch breakthrough marketing ideas.
In addition to her keynotes and workshops, she leads the Marketing Growth Leaders™, a private peer group dedicated to helping CMOs thrive. Tens of thousands have participated in her online courses on LinkedIn Learning, Knowable, and Skillsoft.
Lisa is the award-winning author of The Mindful Marketer and EnergizeGrowth NOW. She also hosts the weekly Mindful Marketer Livestream on LinkedIn. Lisa was also recently inducted into Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches Program.
Download her Mindful Marketing Pandemic Planning Tools at themindfulmarketer.com/bonus.
Website
https://lisanirell.com/
Other Website
https://energizegrowth.com/
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/energizegrowth/
Twitter
https://twitter.com/lisa_nirell
Get Your Copy of Lisa’s Book!
https://lisanirell.com/books/marketing-mindfulness/
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Keep Leading LIVE (Live Recordings of the Keep Leading!® Podcast)
www.KeepLeadingLive.com
Transcript
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This podcast is part of the C Suite Radio Network, turning the volume up on business.
Welcome to the Keep Leading!® Podcast, the podcast dedicated to promoting leadership development and sharing leadership insights. Here’s your host, The Leadership Excelerator®, Eddie Turner.
Eddie Turner:
Hello, everyone! Welcome to the Keep Leading!® Podcast, the podcast dedicated to leadership development and insights. I’m your host Eddie Turner, The Leadership Excelerator®. I work with leaders to accelerate performance and drive impact through the power of executive coaching, masterful facilitation, and motivational speaking.How are customers acting and buying differently post COVID? How will their behaviors impact the way you market and sell? Learn the answers to those questions and why they matter in my interview with the amazing Lisa Nirell. Lisa Nirell is the founder of Energized Growth LLC and she helps marketers and CEOs accelerate marketing innovation and growth.
Lisa, welcome to the Keep Leading!® Podcast.
Lisa Nirell:
Hi, Eddie. thanks for having me.
Eddie Turner:
It’s a pleasure to have you, Lisa. Lisa, can you tell us a couple of things about your background that I didn’t mention.
Lisa Nirell:
Well, I’ll share with you what happened about 10 years ago because it really helped shape the business I have now and the impact I’ve been able to have on chief marketing officers and their teams. I was sitting here in Northern Virginia across the table from a very experienced CMO in the tech industry and he said to me “Lisa, I am really overwhelmed and actually I’m very disengaged from my career right now.” And I asked him why and he said “Well, first of all, the board of directors is becoming very demanding of me to deliver revenue to the company. And secondly, I’m expected to be an expert in customer experience. I don’t even know what that area is. It’s a whole new nascent area of business. And the third thing is I feel like I’m breathing my own exhaust.” When you’re just working in your office and you’re working really hard but you really don’t know how your work compares to others or what you might be missing out on. So, I said to him “Well, what if there were a way for you to really get rid of some of that sense of isolation and surround yourself with really great marketers like you who don’t compete with you?” And he said “Gosh! That would really be a relief.” And that was the beginning of my reinventing my business to what it is now. My mission is to help marketers, marketing leaders, and CEOs build sustainable companies and extraordinary lives by not going it alone. So, that was probably a real turning point for me, Eddie. And who knew that that was preparing me and our clients to navigate what we just went through which is the pandemic where everyone was isolated and alone.
Eddie Turner:
So, that powerful question that you asked that chief marketing officer led to a new line of business for you where you are helping CMOs and CEOs around the world.
Lisa Nirell:
Well, I am very proud to say that and this is just a humble brag that since that time, I’ve forged alliances with companies like LinkedIn, Google, Hilton and others and to the point where now one of my online courses has helped over 10,800 marketers build better careers and contribute more to the growth conversation within their respective companies. So, I want to just keep going.
Eddie Turner:
Outstanding. Well, that’s something to brag about indeed. And you’ve become a top coach which is how we met because you’re a member of the esteemed Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coaches family.
Lisa Nirell:
Yes, I am. To this day, I tell you, that was such a lifesaver to have been invited to join the 100 Coaches community 30 days before lockdown last year. And you probably remember that very well.
Eddie Turner:
Indeed. Can you explain to those listening who don’t really understand what happened that makes you call it a lifesaver?
Lisa Nirell:
I recently purchased my own home and moved away from the town where I used to live before when I was married and having gone through a divorce and really a reinvention of my whole life. I was enjoying my new home and then COVID hit and all of those efforts I was making to meet neighbors and go to social events and concerts came to a screeching halt and so did all the live meetings that I was hosting for the marketing leaders. We have a community of leaders who gather regularly called the Marketing Growth Leaders. And all of a sudden, we had to cancel all of the in-person events and all of my keynotes and it was really jarring for me. I mean, I’ve met people who are perfectly fine on a couple of Zoom calls here and there and the rest of the time they’re fine, just living their lives and not seeing a lot of people. They can order from DoorDash and order their products online for the rest of their lives and they’ll be pretty happy with it but I’m not one of those people. I love interacting with friends and clients and colleagues in person. and I had to make some significant adjustments so that I didn’t have that sense of sadness and isolation. So, 15 months later I can proudly say that the Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coaches community was truly helpful in building not only new connections but deepening the connections with some of the other members who I knew rather well in the first place.
Eddie Turner:
Yes. And I have to say along with you that I would call it a lifesaver because Marshall began holding daily morning meetings with us and that was different from the weekly meetings that he’d been holding and the community that we built with each other was truly sustaining and also equipped us to take that to our clients but then also some of the things we learned helped us to truly save the lives of our families. And so, truly an honor to be a part of that community and indeed life-saving as well.People define marketing differently. So, how do you define marketing, Lisa
Lisa Nirell:
Marketing sure has taken on some new stripes since the pandemic but in some ways, some things haven’t truly changed. I define marketing as the ability to educate, inform and inspire the ideal audience for your solutions or services.
Eddie Turner:
I like that definition.
Lisa Nirell:
That really hasn’t changed. The way in which you deploy marketing and the number of other groups that it involves has definitely changed and grown exponentially. So, I mean, I’m just thinking right now about one of my top clients in the Washington DC area, they’re over a billion dollars in revenues. They have been around for over a hundred years and they have some of the most savvy marketers I have ever met. In one given year, can you believe this, they send out two billion emails, two billion email newsletters a year, and that’s with the letter B.
Eddie Turner:
That’s a staggering number.
Lisa Nirell:
Yes. So, you can imagine they’re a pretty sizable organization and they have their digital house in order but boy, what they have found is that you the old days of just having a silo, a department called the Customer Retention Department and having them do their projects and send out messages and publish content and send their email messages, the days of being able to do that are gone. Now that same department, the head of that department whose name is Melissa, Melissa needs to make sure that the pre-sales team is involved, that the information technology department is involved because of the changes in privacy rules and the cyber terrorism that we’re all having to proactively cut off at the pass, and also the brand guidelines team needs to be involved. So, now they have their tentacles in all these other departments and without a way to keep things moving swiftly, they are finding that some of their initiatives can take up to, believe it or not, seven years to go live.
Eddie Turner:
That’s a long time.
Lisa Nirell:
That’s a long time. I mean, they’re very fortunate that they’re not out of business because nowadays customers would never tolerate a seven-year cycle. I mean, Operation Warp Speed was one of the many examples of initiatives that operated at speeds that we have never seen before. So, now, innovation is not something that we expect to take years but maybe days or months.
Eddie Turner:
And, of course, Operation Warp Speed is the project that got us the vaccinations that we needed or the vaccines leading to vaccinations.
Lisa Nirell:
Yeah, it’s brilliant. I mean, the whole ability to innovate and the mRNA technology and innovations which was also led by a woman scientist is a tremendous and inspiring story that’s profiled in Walter Isaacson’s new book. So, I encourage people, if they’re looking for data and insights on the efficacy and safety of the new methods of testing vaccines, it’s a real fascinating read.
Eddie Turner:
Yes, and her name is Kizzy Corbett. Kizzmekia is her first name. Kizzmekia Corbett. She’s known as Kizzy and she did that and she’s only 35 years old. So, just a fascinating accomplishment and we’re all so grateful because it’s helping the world get back to normal.So, you gave us a nice definition of how you define marketing, which I love your definition. Now, can you tell us why this matters to leaders?
Lisa Nirell:
Marketing matters to leaders because if we work in an organization, it is our responsibility, in an ethical way, to deepen our relationships with our customers and our stakeholders. So, whether you’re sitting in the marketing department or you interact in any way with customers, then you need to understand the power and the pressures that marketers are feeling right now. It is a whole new world. I mean, I opened the paper yesterday morning, Eddie, and it’s fascinating what’s going on. Do you step foot in retail stores these days?
Eddie Turner:
Yes.
Lisa Nirell:
So, you’re one of the few that still kind of goes shopping and visits retail stores or grocery stores because I’m one of those people. I still like to go and find the best produce or special homemade products or locally made products at some of the smaller retailers nearby at my Leesburg, Virginia, home but in places like Levi Strauss and Walmart, Target, Macy’s, every single one of these retailers just reported that they are reskilling tens of thousands of their employees to learn Customer Service, Marketing, and Sales. So, they’re taking them off of some of their traditional face-to-face customer retail jobs and teaching them things like Customer Service, Sales, and Data Science.
Eddie Turner:
That’s wonderful to hear. I did not know that.
Lisa Nirell:
Yeah. I mean, marketing opens up so many possibilities for people who want a career where you are interested in changing customers’ lives for the better.
Eddie Turner:
Well, how have customers’ lives changed post COVID?
Lisa Nirell:
There have been really three things that have changed dramatically. First of all, in the Edelman Trust Barometer Survey, what they found last year, they did the survey in the middle of COVID and they found that people trust organizations more than they trust politicians. So, you saw this probably firsthand because we got to interact with so many socially active people within the Marshall Goldsmith community where people and employees turn to companies for guidance on social activism and social issues and vaccine distribution more than they trust the government to give them the answers. So, what this means for marketers is we need to have a 360-degree view of life, not just a 360-degree view of our customers.
Eddie Turner:
Yes.
Lisa Nirell:
I mean, we need our marketers, our CMOs that sit around the virtual table every six weeks in our marketing growth leaders meetings are asking me questions about public health, about politics, about how to deal with return-to-work policies, how to formulate those policies in a way that aligns with their core values as a company. Now, two years ago, those were not the topics coming up in our client meetings or in our private CMO peer group meetings.
Eddie Turner:
That’s a good point that you made. They no longer trust politicians. They’re looking to organizations and that has shifted the role of the chief marketing officers and CEOs in that they are now having to become public policy experts and not just experts on their function of business.
Lisa Nirell:
That’s exactly right. And public health as well. It’s fascinating. Now, they don’t have to be scientists per se but they have to have enough information to give people guidance and calm them in this storm known as rapid change and increased ambiguity. I think some people call it VUCA.
Eddie Turner:
Yes, VUCA. And for those who may not be familiar with VUCA, can you just tell us what that acronym stands for, Lisa?
Lisa Nirell:
VUCA stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. That, in a nutshell, is the new world in which we live.
Eddie Turner:
Excellent. Thank you. That is the new world we live in, indeed.I’ve enjoyed my conversation with Lisa Nirell. Lisa is a marketing leadership and growth expert and we’ll have more with Lisa right after this.
This podcast is sponsored by Eddie Turner LLC. Organizations who need to accelerate the development of their leaders call Eddie Turner, The Leadership Excelerator®. Eddie works with leaders to accelerate performance and drive impact. Call Eddie Turner to help your leaders one on one as their coach or to inspire them as a group through the power of facilitation or a keynote address. Visit EddieTurnerLLC.com to learn more.
This is Phil M. Jones, author of Exactly What to Say, Exactly How to Sell and Exactly Where to start and you’re listening to the Keep Leading!® Podcast with Eddie Turner.
Eddie Turner:
Okay, we are back. I am talking to Lisa Nirell. She’s a marketing leadership and growth expert. Lisa works with some of the top CMOs and CEOs in the world.So, as you work with chief marketing officers and chief executive officers, can you tell us, Lisa, about some of your successes? You alluded to one of your clients that has a billion dollars in revenue but your ability to help them with your marketing leadership and growth, share with us how that’s working.
Lisa Nirell:
It certainly has been a great couple of years here, Eddie, because I’ll give you an example of one of the clients I worked with. This person was brand new to a role as a CMO. And the executive found me on LinkedIn Learning where I have a course there called The Effective CMO. They followed up with me and said “Are you located in the Washington DC area because, boy, I have a few questions for you? I’m new to my role and I’ve got a lot of demands on my time and some big goals here at the company. I don’t really know where to go from here.” We met and we are very close by to one another geographically and what we found is that this CMO reported to a CEO who loved to have lots of goals and lots of initiatives running concurrently. In fact, the CEO expected this person to juggle 14 priorities. So, what we did over five months is we helped the CMO become the growth champion for the organization. The CEO gave them carte blanche and said “Look, if you can help us come up with some kind of method to prioritize our growth initiatives and know where to invest our marketing dollars, that would be great.” So, I worked with the CMO and a small group of stakeholders. We limited the group to 10 people. And over those five months, I taught them methods to not only think strategically about their growth opportunities but to actually build a plan that worked for them that helped them move from 14 priorities down to four.
Eddie Turner:
How about that!
Lisa Nirell:
Yeah. So, the results of that growth planning initiative and coaching the three key stakeholders actually led them to 30% year-over-year top-line growth. That happened for two consecutive years without adding more staff. They optimized their marketing dollars and the CMO got a promotion. For me, that was one of my most rewarding experiences recently. And now that CMO is in demand. She has been asked to join advisory boards in the Washington DC Metro area and is also speaking at virtual conferences about what it takes to be an effective CMO. So, I was very honored to be part of that growth success story.
Eddie Turner:
I am happy to hear that. What a great story. Thank you for sharing that with us. And part of your methodology about helping people become better as marketers and as chief marketing officers is documented in your book The Mindful Marketer: How to Stay Present and Profitable in a Data-Driven World. Tell us about that.
Lisa Nirell:
Yes, I was talking to one of my mentors Mark Levy and I said “Mark, I’m ready to get my next book out but I’m really struggling to bring together,” at the time, “my 27 years’ experience actually in Marketing and Sales. I don’t know how to bring the next message out to the world.” And what he helped me understand was that my 18 years of learning and studying mindfulness had a direct impact on how I work with clients and how I help them succeed. So, Mark Levy, who I think is one of the best mentors one could ever have …
Eddie Turner:
I actually know Mark and I think he’s amazing.
Lisa Nirell:
He is amazing. And Mark helped me generate my big sexy idea which was to blend my personal experiences with marketing and hence The Mindful Marketer was born. And by the way, you can download some sample chapters at TheMindfulMarketer.com/Bonus.
Eddie Turner:
We’ll put that link in the show notes for folks.
Lisa Nirell:
And so, it was a great experience. That was my second book. And the best part of all is that what my publisher told me at the time, which was a division of McMillan Publishing, is they said “Lisa, don’t worry about the early sales of the book because your book is going to have legs. It will be around for a few years.” And they were right.
Eddie Turner:
That’s an encouraging thing to hear a publisher say.
Lisa Nirell:
Well, they knew I was a decent marketer. They love hiring authors who already have solid marketing plans and have a following, of course. And so, they were just really, really reassuring that the topic of mindfulness was not going anywhere, that it was growing in popularity. And they were right. And marketing isn’t going anywhere. It’s growing and changing. So, bringing those two worlds together was probably one of my best decisions in my career.
Eddie Turner:
Well, it sounds like it. From the results that I’ve seen, it has proven true. And you’re right. Neither of those are just going to go anywhere and it truly is making a difference for leaders.Lisa, what’s the most important thing you want to make sure our listeners know as a result of our conversation today?
Lisa Nirell:
My promise to people, my belief is that the dream of creating a sustainable company and an extraordinary marketing career is alive and well if you take the time to stay self-aware and to keep learning. Find other people and find organizations that encourage trust, learning, and experimentation and you will find a great career for yourself.
Eddie Turner:
Thank you. And on the Keep Leading!® Podcast, we love to get quotes or adages or the best piece of leadership advice you’ve ever received that helps you to keep leading.
Lisa Nirell:
Some of the greatest advice that I ever received, Eddie, came from the one and only Alan Weiss who some people have called the rock star of consulting.
Eddie Turner:
Yes.
Lisa Nirell:
Alan is so much more than that. He is an icon in the world of management consulting, leadership and entrepreneurship. And one of the things he said to me when I started working with him years ago was “You are not in the hours for dollars business. You are in the business of delivering great value. Make sure you design your business accordingly.” So, in the 20 years I’ve had my consulting and publishing and speaking business, I have never charged by the hour or by the day. I charge based on value and it gives me the freedom to really raise my game and the impact I can have on moving the needle for my customer’s business and it also gives me the latitude to schedule time away from work where I can, I’ll say, experience altered states such as dreaming, sleeping, and meditating which is where I get my new ideas. I don’t get my new ideas checking emails. I don’t get my new ideas focusing on fixing my website. I get it when I’m away from my desk, when I’m meditating, sleeping or even swimming which is one of my passions.
Eddie Turner:
That is indeed. Wonderful advice for all of us to reflect on as leaders that will help us keep leading.Thank you, Lisa. Where can my listeners learn more about you?
Lisa Nirell:
People can go to LisaNirell.com. I actually have a five-minute Mindful Marketer Quiz and people can go there and say “How prepared am I for the new world where there are new customer demands, expectations, faster moving customer activity and team expectations and where I need to learn so many new things to relate to other people in more effective ways?” So, go check out the Mindful Marketer Quiz or go to EnergizeGrowth.com as well if you’re interested in learning more about the marketing growth leaders peer community.
Eddie Turner:
Wonderful. Lisa, thank you so much for being a guest on the Keep Leading!® Podcast.
Lisa Nirell:
Eddie, this was so much fun. I can’t wait to see you again.
Eddie Turner:
Yes, this was fun. I can’t wait to see you again as well, Lisa.And thank you for listening. That concludes this episode, everyone. I am Eddie Turner, The Leadership Excelerator®, reminding you that leadership is not about our title or our position. Leadership is an activity. Leadership is action. It’s not the case of once a leader, always a leader. It’s not a garment we put on and take off. We must be a leader at our core and allow it to emanate in all we do. So, whatever you’re doing, always keep leading.
Thank you for listening to your host Eddie Turner on the Keep Leading!® Podcast. Please remember to subscribe to the Keep Leading!® Podcast on iTunes or wherever you listen. For more information about Eddie Turner’s work, please visit EddieTurnerLLC.com.
Thank you for listening to C Suite Radio, turning the volume up on business.
The Keep Leading!® podcast is for people passionate about leadership. It is dedicated to leadership development and insights. Join your host Eddie Turner, The Leadership Excelerator® as he speaks with accomplished leaders and people of influence across the globe as they share their journey to leadership excellence. Listen as they share leadership strategies, techniques and insights. For more information visit eddieturnerllc.com or follow Eddie Turner on Twitter and Instagram at @eddieturnerjr. Like Eddie Turner LLC on Facebook. Connect with Eddie Turner on LinkedIn.