In today’s episode, Apollo engages in a conversation with Olivia Brooks Allan, Executive Vice President at Landmark Ventures. The discussion revolves around important topics such as leadership, team building, and the significance of embracing one's authentic self in the professional realm.
In today’s episode, Apollo engages in a conversation with Olivia Brooks Allan, Executive Vice President at Landmark Ventures. The discussion revolves around important topics such as leadership, team building, and the significance of embracing one's authentic self in the professional realm. Olivia emphasizes the value of recognizing and harnessing the unique superpowers of each of her team members, fostering a safe environment for open communication, and delivering feedback with empathy to promote growth and development.
Olivia also shares insights on the role of caregiving in shaping her leadership style and the importance of balancing head and heart in decision-making and prioritization. Emphasizing the importance of reflecting on accomplishments and celebrating them, Olivia stresses the value of data-driven decision-making in strategic planning and goal setting.
Overall, the interview showcases Olivia Brooks Allan's perspective on effective leadership, team dynamics, and the blending of personal and professional aspects of life. Her insights offer valuable lessons for aspiring leaders seeking to build strong teams, support individual growth, and navigate the complexities of modern professional environments.
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Guest Bio
Olivia Brooks Allan is the Executive Vice President at Landmark Ventures, a leading strategic and financial advisory firm offering a unique combination of venture development and global investment banking services. She is responsible for the success of all aspects of Landmark’s events business including leading an experienced group of event directors and production staff, thereby shaping the vision for all elements of year-round events including partnerships, production, marketing, communications, programming, operations, logistics, growth, and ongoing innovations.
Previously, Olivia has been a successful leader within corporations with recognizable brands including American Express, Gartner, Four Seasons, The Peninsula, and Taj Hotels, and more recently with Mastercard. Throughout the past 19 years, she has focused on business development, management, marketing, and public relations. As an independent consultant to the events industry, Olivia developed and executed high-end event projects for corporations and individuals.
Olivia is recognized as a leader who creates long-term and mutually beneficial relationships between clients and service providers. Her signature management style is delivering impactful results by energetically guiding her team in an environment where they flourish professionally. Olivia was the recipient of The President’s Club Award of Achievement twice during her tenure at American Express.
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Guest PLE Score
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Guest Quote
“I think we have a responsibility as leaders to understand: ‘What are the superpowers I need? Do I have too many of one? Do I have too little of another?’ And then really watching your team to see if they're moving into a different space of their career and helping them to figure out where they can use their superpowers best.” - Olivia Brooks Allan
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Time Stamps
*(3:05) Olivia's Achievement Index
*(4:28) What's on Olivia's mind
*(9:07) Looking just over the horizon when identifying business goals
*(11:43) When the world pivoted in 2020
*(15:06) How Olivia's team maintained all their clients during the pandemic
*(18:44) Everyone has their own superpower
*(21:50) Lessons from being a caregiver
*(26:41) Why you need to set aside your ego
*(32:46) Delivering effective feedback with empathy
*(37:09) Matters of the head vs matters of the heart
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Links
[00:00:00] Apollo Emeka: Improving your leadership skills will help you in every area of your life, but it's tough to know where to get started, and that's why we created the Achievement Index Assessment. You can take the assessment at theachievementindex. com. It takes about five minutes, and it's going to generate a personalized report that breaks down how you prioritize, leverage, and execute.
[00:00:20] Apollo Emeka: Go to theachievementindex. com or find the link in the show notes.
[00:00:26] Olivia Brooks Allan: Whenever I'm interviewing anyone, my favorite interview question is, what is your superpower? I think we have the responsibility as leaders, which I think is one of the most amazing things you can ever do, to understand. What are the superpowers I need? Do I have too many of one? Do I have too little of another?
[00:00:42] Olivia Brooks Allan: And then really watching your team to see if they're moving into a different space of their career and helping them to figure out where they can use their superpowers best.
[00:00:53] Apollo Emeka: Welcome to The Achievement Index, a podcast designed to help you understand and accelerate the ways you perform. I'm Dr. Apollo Emeka. I created The Achievement Index based on my experience in the FBI, U. S. Army Special Forces, and business. According to the Achievement Index, vibrant success is the result of doing well in three areas, or as we like to call them, orientations.
[00:01:19] Apollo Emeka: Prioritize, leverage, and execute. On this podcast, I'll be getting inside the minds of noteworthy leaders to explore how their unique orientations inform the successes and challenges they've navigated throughout their lives and careers.
[00:01:38] Apollo Emeka: On the show today, I'll be speaking with Olivia Brooks Allen, Executive Vice President at Landmark Ventures, a leading strategic and financial advisory firm offering a unique combination of venture development and global investment banking services. Landmark also organizes the Annual Social Innovation Summit, designed to convene the best and brightest minds in social impact.
[00:02:02] Apollo Emeka: Olivia is a recognized and respected thought leader, public speaker, and subject matter expert known for creating long term and mutually beneficial relationships between clients and service providers. She delivers maximum results by energetically guiding her team. in an environment where they flourish professionally.
[00:02:21] Apollo Emeka: Olivia, how in the world are you doing today?
[00:02:25] Olivia Brooks Allan: I am so great. Thank you for your beautiful introduction. I am thoroughly blushing. But, um, first and foremost, thank you so much for having me. I am truly honored. I love listening to your show. The fact that we're having a pinch me moment. So thank you so much.
[00:02:42] Olivia Brooks Allan: It's going to be an amazing.
[00:02:43] Apollo Emeka: You stop that, Olivia, you stop that. Well, this is, you know, if you've listened to the show before, you know that these conversations can sometimes get really like nerdy and technical in certain areas, and then they can get really kind of fluffy and personal in certain areas.
[00:03:00] Apollo Emeka: So we'll see where this takes us. Although I already have some fluffy personal stuff that I want to ask you about. But yeah, so you, um, you took the Achievement Index, you took this assessment, and it turns out that you fall in our kind of prototypical profile for an executive. So, you were 60 percent prioritized, 32 percent leverage, and 2 percent execute.
[00:03:22] Apollo Emeka: And so, yeah, you are Prioritize dominant, which is what we would expect to see from an executive. And then you've got strong leverage and a little bit of execute. How did these results hit you? You know,
[00:03:33] Olivia Brooks Allan: first of all, thank you so much for the opportunity to have the results. I think that as leaders, we don't always get the beautiful gift of a mirror.
[00:03:44] Olivia Brooks Allan: And it was really just illuminating to see What came back. So it was, you know, in some ways you're surprised. And I think that it takes quite a bit of humility to actually read these things. Um, but it was delightful. Again, the mirror is so important. I try and surround myself with people that verbally.
[00:04:05] Olivia Brooks Allan: care enough to give me the feedback, but then to have an assessment that's based on analysis. And I can't even imagine the millions of hours that went into creating your framework. I just felt really honored with the gift of a beautiful mirror to reflect on, you know, really what the truth is
[00:04:20] Apollo Emeka: saying. Oh, awesome.
[00:04:22] Apollo Emeka: That's, that's great. So, you know, in terms of these conversations can be technical or they can be fluffy. I would love to just kind of hear what's on your mind right now. For me, I, so I know that you're a mom, right? Uh, you have what, uh, she must be seven or eight? She's eight, yes. Eight, okay, cool. So you're a mom, you're running this team, you're doing big things in the world, like, but I guess what's on your mind today?
[00:04:48] Olivia Brooks Allan: Today. It's a good question. I'm a morning person, so I spend the first... A couple hours after waking, um, and I purposely take time to write down sort of three things that are weighing on me and I'm thinking about. And so today I'm really thinking about, this is technical, but, uh, the forecast. And I'm thinking about how do we get to a place as a team where we go into the new year.
[00:05:19] Olivia Brooks Allan: I'm, I'm always living sort of six months in advance. And so today sort of my big things were forecast, team comfort. We're going into our really heavy, big season. And I'm also, you know, sort of cognizant right now of the macroeconomic factors that are happening in the world and how do I. So, I sort of see around those terms.
[00:05:41] Olivia Brooks Allan: So, those are my three big things. I do also just want to say that I'm a Northern California girl. Ayyy! Who grew up climbing mountains. And so, I want to... You know, as I was preparing for our conversation today and then seeing my scores and understanding the mountain analogy, I think it's really a helpful framework because in each part of our careers and our professions, we're constantly given the gift of new mountains to climb if you're managing your career correctly.
[00:06:11] Olivia Brooks Allan: So I want to mention that, you know, in addition to forecast sort of team comfort, team joy, And then the macroeconomic factors that I can't control, but I can be ready for. Yeah. Um, I was really thoughtful around this idea of climbing the mountain, so thank you for making that part of your, your index.
[00:06:29] Apollo Emeka: Oh, absolutely.
[00:06:31] Apollo Emeka: We super nerd out on this . So when we are engaging in strategic planning, we keep it in that mountain analogy, so rather than a traditional s swat, so we'll do the SWOT or the pestle or whatever kind of traditional scan on the kind of backend, but then on the front end. We just look at things as opportunities or advantages and challenges.
[00:06:50] Apollo Emeka: And the, the advantages are sunshine and the challenges are clouds. So, um, so yeah, we nerd out on this mountain climbing analogy hard. That's
[00:07:00] Olivia Brooks Allan: great. Great. I'm, I'm going to start doing it as well. So when I'm prepping my morning, I'm going to start
[00:07:06] Apollo Emeka: about the mountains more often. That's it. Yeah. What are the, what are the clouds?
[00:07:10] Apollo Emeka: What's the sunshine here? I love that starting your day like that. And again, that kind of thinking, did you say six months into the future? Is that about how far you are typically thinking?
[00:07:21] Olivia Brooks Allan: About six months because it's You know, we have to prepare as a team really carefully for what's ahead. And so we have, you know, the way the team is structured and the way we organize ourselves is we have, you know, a lot of individuals that are very much focused on what's happening next week, what's happening the week after that, and they build their teams and their operations and their technologies around.
[00:07:45] Olivia Brooks Allan: Getting through the day to day. I take my role very seriously. One of the girls on my team is amazing. So I was like, Hey, what's the crystal ball telling us now? But I, you know, I see my responsibility as making sure that we're very stable as we go into the future. I mentioned already, what does the bend look like and how much as a team can we see around that bend?
[00:08:06] Olivia Brooks Allan: It, no one can actually do it. You know, at the end of the day, we're all doing our very best, but there's, you know, great. conversations, great information, great research can help inform where we want to take the business. And so I am constantly sort of thinking about how do we keep challenging ourselves?
[00:08:25] Olivia Brooks Allan: How do we keep innovating? Who are the right partners for us? Uh, so, you know, I think that I really see client relationships as this like incredibly symbiotic relationship. And so rather than living in the space where you're just having to say yes to whatever business comes in, how lovely if you've seen around the bend and you're aligning with missions and goals and saying, I pick you as a partner.
[00:08:51] Olivia Brooks Allan: And so, I take a little bit of, you know, my role in that regard seriously. I'm like, okay guys, yeah, let's think about who we want to work with in the future and help identify and build relationships so that we can establish those as real partnerships.
[00:09:06] Apollo Emeka: I love that. And what makes six months feel like a sweet spot?
[00:09:10] Apollo Emeka: Because I know, you know, there are some people, like, I am kind of obsessed with like the three years from now, you know, and I have to pull myself. Closer to the present. And so, you know, what is it for you? That's like six months is kind of a sweet spot.
[00:09:25] Olivia Brooks Allan: You know, it's a good question. I would, I'll tie it back.
[00:09:28] Olivia Brooks Allan: It's probably a different answer. The six months is probably a different answer than I would have had maybe five years ago. Okay. Uh, I think my work at Landmark Ventures has. Sort of given a shorter timeline, it is very much our, we're 25 years old. We have, you know, really senior executives who in, in their space are the absolute subject matter experts, whether it's cybersecurity or information technology, but we also have a very scrappy.
[00:09:56] Olivia Brooks Allan: Startup, get the work done mindset. Yeah. And so I think that we pivot really fast and we think fast inside of six months. And also I think that there's this recognition that we can't change things that. You know, seeing that far out is great, um, but we are not a behemoth company that takes three years to turn the ship.
[00:10:20] Olivia Brooks Allan: So I think six months is sort of a stable, this is where we want to be in six months. Of course, I'm thinking bigger in terms of, you know, to your point, I know from a revenue perspective where I'd love us to be in five years time and three years time. But I also think that there is almost a calm with our team in knowing that, okay, this is what's gonna happen for the next six months, this is what's gonna happen over the next six months.
[00:10:42] Olivia Brooks Allan: So I think that that's why that's a shorter timeline. And again, I think it's a different answer than it would have been maybe five years earlier in my career.
[00:10:50] Apollo Emeka: And so wait, so it's, it's shorter than it would have been. It's you're, you're, you're looking, that's so interesting because most people are the opposite, right?
[00:11:00] Apollo Emeka: Like, because when you first hit the workforce. You're responsible on a daily basis for deliverables, right? And typically, maybe, maybe weekly, but oftentimes it's like you've got to kind of account for every, every hour and every day, right? And then you get, as you get into, you know, management, then it's like, okay, now I'm kind of measuring things in weeks, maybe months, right?
[00:11:23] Apollo Emeka: And then you start getting up. So did you have kind of like a, an arc? In terms of that, you know, like, when you came in, were you, like, super heads down, execution focused, and then it expanded, and then it kind of came back? What was that like? Yeah, you know,
[00:11:36] Olivia Brooks Allan: I think there's factors that impact thinking. I'll make it personal, if that's okay.
[00:11:43] Olivia Brooks Allan: But, you know, all of us, as this human society, went through the pandemic together. Our job, my team, this incredibly hardworking, fantastic team, our job is literally to bring humans together. Our full job is just bringing humans together so that they can meet and connect and suddenly, literally, it was taken away from us.
[00:12:10] Olivia Brooks Allan: And so, Probably at the beginning of the pandemic, that, that, again, that four or five time timeframe four or five years ago, I was probably very much more stable and comfortable in thinking about six months or excuse me, in multiple years out in terms of what the strategy was going to be and what we're going to be doing.
[00:12:27] Olivia Brooks Allan: And we had to pivot and we had to pivot really fast. And so what I learned is an agile team is a high functioning team. And so in my process now, I'm really You know, sort of thinking about what does February, March, April look like for us. And I've been with the firm long enough and I've been in business long enough to know what fast off the mark feels like and it feels really good, right?
[00:12:54] Olivia Brooks Allan: When you know by July you've hit all your numbers and you're moving on to the next.
[00:13:00] Apollo Emeka: Strategy is tricky, people. Sometimes you have to look far down the road and sometimes you can't. Sometimes you have to rely. On leveraging your team and being nimble. It's not so much about looking to the top of the mountain and figuring out where you want to go.
[00:13:17] Apollo Emeka: It's about building the base camp that could reasonably tackle any of the mountains in your area. Sometimes, nimbleness pays off. But you think about something like the mandate in California where in 2035 it will no longer be legal to sell brand new internal combustion engine vehicles. That's not something you nimble your way to.
[00:13:42] Apollo Emeka: You have to have a solid plan in place that reverse engineers off of that date. So, depending on... What kind of company you're in, what size, what stage. Sometimes you have to rely on agility, and sometimes you have to rely on hardcore, long term planning. For Olivia, the focus is about six months into the future.
[00:14:04] Apollo Emeka: And
[00:14:04] Olivia Brooks Allan: so, six months is I think, kind of where my head space is, and I think it's giving us the, kind of the nimble flexibility to also pivot and change and maneuver, um, through what we don't know, you know, may or may not happen ahead
[00:14:18] Apollo Emeka: of us. Yeah, that's, that's really incredible. And I think that's one of the things that when we're working with leaders here, trying to figure out those lenses, you know, what's the appropriate lens for their industry, for the DNA of their specific businesses, you know, at what levels.
[00:14:34] Apollo Emeka: Should you, you know, so you've got managers, how far out should they be looking and what should they be accountable for on what interval, right? And the same thing with executives. So it's, it's really interesting to hear how the pandemic impacted your business and kind of recalibrated your executive focus to say, Oh, six months is six months is about right.
[00:14:56] Apollo Emeka: And then, right. And hearing you say...
[00:15:00] Olivia Brooks Allan: Yeah. Because you don't know what's going to happen. Yeah. And so, you know, kind of preparing. Faster, more nimble. And, you know, I'm really proud of our team. Just going back and reflecting a little bit, you know, we never stopped. We didn't lose a single client during the pandemic.
[00:15:15] Olivia Brooks Allan: We immediately pivoted and, um, much of the work that we do is again, bringing. Communities and people and business leaders together to drive real results. We never stopped. We took every event that was meant to happen to bring literally thousands of people together. We pivoted to almost a broadcast television experience.
[00:15:36] Olivia Brooks Allan: Didn't know, we have some bumps and bruises on us because we didn't know exactly what we were doing, but we felt that. It was our responsibility as business leaders to absolutely in that moment create community. And we did it, we did it through half good Zoom calls, and then we get a little better and we, we try and do our technology and we get a little better.
[00:15:56] Olivia Brooks Allan: And I'm really, really proud we hauled it. Um, we said that we were all going to the bunkers together in, in early March, and, uh, we were, and it was successful and I think it shows a lot about who we are as a team.
[00:16:08] Apollo Emeka: That's super cool. And, you know, I was watching a lot of Seth Meyers and Trevor Noah, Seth broadcasting from his, from his attic and Trevor from his apartment.
[00:16:16] Apollo Emeka: So you probably had, uh, I mean, I saw what they were working with. So I'm pretty sure that you all were up to par for how to pivot in the pandemic, uh, in terms of getting out to the world. Yes.
[00:16:28] Olivia Brooks Allan: I love naming projects. So when, you know, we have like a sprint project, I'll name it, and we named it Project Blue and I had two incredible women on our team and you know, all their job was, is going out and assessing technologies.
[00:16:42] Olivia Brooks Allan: And we were built, what we were building is a shelf. And I said to the team, we need to be able to pull technologies off the shelf at a moment's notice to produce. Our events. And, um, we ended up with 250 different technologies assessed, and then we plug and play them to produce really beautiful quality work, everything from huge events for, you know, CEOs, cheap.
[00:17:09] Olivia Brooks Allan: Human resources officers who were arguably the most senior leaders in their game, all the way to a roundtable with someone who says, I'm not sure how I got here, but I'm so glad that I'm here. I have that intimate connection. So we felt really proud of that work.
[00:17:23] Apollo Emeka: But that's incredible. And that's what we call building out the base camp, right?
[00:17:26] Apollo Emeka: It's like, Hey, we need to build out that technology base camp and it needs to be built. Like, yeah, we, this is the mountain that we want to tackle today, but we also need to be prepared to pivot. And, you know, climb that icy beast over there, right?
[00:17:41] Olivia Brooks Allan: Oh, I love the mountain analogies, they're great. It's so good.
[00:17:45] Olivia Brooks Allan: At the beast camp in the mountains,
[00:17:47] Apollo Emeka: it's great. Yeah, it's so cool. And I mean, it sounds like you all do a really good job of... of finding that balance because there are some people that can get bogged down in the base camp and they're like, wait, wait, wait, one more technology, wait, wait, wait, wait, one more SOP, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, one more key hire or build out this team or, right, and they can get bogged down in building out this massive sprawling base camp that they end up, you know, Either not getting up the mountain and focusing on execution or hey, actually the weather has shifted and that's not the mountain anymore.
[00:18:20] Apollo Emeka: And so now we built out this sprawling base camp for a mountain that we no longer want or can feasibly climb. That's right. But it sounds like you all aren't, are, have found a really solid balance of like, okay, we need to be in prioritized mode. Let's pick this mountain real quick and let's put our heads together, build out the base camp that's going to get us up the mountain fastest and let's, and let's go and let's make it repeatable.
[00:18:39] Olivia Brooks Allan: That's right. I think our team has collectively, so I, I talk all the, whenever I'm interviewing anyone, my favorite interview question is, what is your superpower? And the reason being is that I truly believe that teams should be a symbiotic. relationship where too many Olivias on a team, too many Apollos on a team isn't going to work, right?
[00:19:01] Olivia Brooks Allan: Everybody has different superpowers. And so one of my favorite interview questions is, what, what superpower are you going to bring to the team? And I was interviewing someone recently and she said, I'm going, I'm a caregiver. Oh, that's interesting. And I do think about it because I think to myself, like, I've had a lot of caregivers.
[00:19:16] Olivia Brooks Allan: I don't need another caregiver. Or I'm absolutely that person that you can come to if you need. Uh, a really tough client conversation. Oh, you know what? I don't have enough of that. It's an interesting way to think about a team. And it's also, I think the bravery of great leaders to understand when you need a different type of superpower on your team, or if the superpower that someone.
[00:19:40] Olivia Brooks Allan: has possessed for a long time, like that light might not be glowing as much as you want it to. And I think one of the greatest gifts you can have as a leader is understanding when it's time to let someone help someone go shuffled into possibly a new part in the organization. Or help them discover that they're really good at something outside of the organization.
[00:19:59] Olivia Brooks Allan: I think we have a responsibility as leaders, which I think is one of the most amazing things you can ever do. To understand what are the superpowers I need? Do I have too many of one? Do I have too little of another? And then really watching your team to see if they're moving into a different, a different space of their career and helping, helping them to figure out where they can use their superpowers best.
[00:20:21] Apollo Emeka: Wow, that's, I mean, that requires an incredible intuition and thoughtfulness. And I've been thinking a lot about the whole self, you know, and a lot of the, the leaders and the companies that we work with are led by women or people of color. And the idea. of bringing your whole self to your work is something that's really, really important to us here, not only from like a mental health standpoint of the, of the companies that we work with, but also that's where you find the coolest ideas.
[00:20:58] Apollo Emeka: And the coolest stuff is when people can just show up as, as themselves. And I just read this article on Medium that you wrote talking about your journey to becoming a mother. And I thought, Oh my goodness, you know, that is, um, it just demonstrates some incredible emotional dexterity and flexibility. So if you all want to go check it out, just search for her name and maybe, uh, something about moms in the C suite.
[00:21:27] Apollo Emeka: And, uh, and check it out. It's an incredible article, and if you're a parent or you, uh, are a caregiver of someone, you're, it's gonna, that article's gonna hit you, um, for sure. But, you know, I have a two year old and a five year old, and so I think a lot about parenting, and about how does my work influence my parenting, and, you know, me being a good husband to my wife, and, and vice versa, you know?
[00:21:49] Apollo Emeka: I mean, can you share a little bit about that journey? To becoming a mom and you use the term caregiver, like, which in the article, you talked about being a caregiver kind of for a large part of your adult life. What's that journey been like and how do you feel like it influences how you show up as a professional?
[00:22:06] Olivia Brooks Allan: So I think what's really important is that. One, there needs to be a recognition and it doesn't necessarily have to happen the moment you become a caregiver, a mother, a father, uh, maybe of your aging parents. I think that there are a lot of different scenarios where we're all, uh, required to give care.
[00:22:27] Olivia Brooks Allan: It's increased in different parts of our life. What I think is important, and you just touched on this Apollo, is just the whole self. So once I had my daughter, what I realized is I became a heck of a lot better at my job. I had this other human that I was required to take care of. The ego had to be removed.
[00:22:48] Olivia Brooks Allan: The challenges that I thought were so important prior to being a mother. Uh, became less prioritized. I am notorious, and my husband and I just had a week to ourselves, like my daughter had this amazing trip with my sister and my brother in law, and so we had for the first time in, in eight years, a week together.
[00:23:06] Olivia Brooks Allan: And I found myself floating back into working till 9. 30, 10 o'clock at night, not necessarily finding that balance. And what I've learned, and what is so important, and the joy that we need to find in caregiving is that you can learn. So much just by being with other people. I learn so much from my daughter in the way that she speaks and she interacts with the world and she's seeing things in this really fresh perspective.
[00:23:34] Olivia Brooks Allan: As someone that's been in charge of marketing and bringing humans together, I'm, I, I bring my whole self in terms of trying to learn from her and then apply that back into my professional life. As I said in the article, that seems so easy. There are days when it is just really darn hard. And my absolute appreciation and, you know, anyone can hit me up on LinkedIn and DM me, um, if they have questions.
[00:24:01] Olivia Brooks Allan: Because I think it is a journey and it is difficult at times and there are not always a ton of resources for caregivers. And so I think that we need to support one another and really be there for each other. So I think to answer your question more directly, I think it is about... I've really enjoyed this journey of bringing my experience of my daughter into my professional life in the sense that I am constantly finding energy and ways to learn from her.
[00:24:29] Olivia Brooks Allan: Um, I think it's also made me more empathetic to other people because she has a different personality than I do. She interacts with kids that are different than her. So, you know, I think that it's important to use the gift of caregiving to inform and... Celebrate and integrate into your daily, your daily professional life.
[00:24:48] Apollo Emeka: I love that. Yeah, that's amazing. It is pretty wild what you can learn from kids because they're just operating off of like. 80 percent instinct, right? Like, they're, they are the human brain exposed, right? So, um, yeah, there's so much that you can learn.
[00:25:05] Olivia Brooks Allan: I'll share two quick, quick stories. One, yesterday, my daughter came into my office, it was 6, 630, 645, and she took my hand, she's like, Mom, come on, we're going out on the lawn to have some fun, which is just so incredible, right?
[00:25:19] Olivia Brooks Allan: And so that happens to you. Go with them, right? Like my inclinations, knowing I've got more to do. The second my daughter started reading this year, which is a really beautiful gift to see a human learn how to read because of the access that that gives them. So that was, that felt really special. And she started asking me to read with her my own book.
[00:25:40] Olivia Brooks Allan: And I was a comparative literature minor at, at university and I love reading, but I kind of, you know, I never had time. I was always diving into business books and how do I keep getting yeah, to be a better leader? And, um, she helped me to find the pleasure again and just picking up the book for no reason other than the fact of pure joy.
[00:26:00] Olivia Brooks Allan: So again, finding those moments, listening to your children, allowing them to help you grow as a human just as much as you're helping them to grow into a human, I think is a pretty special gift.
[00:26:11] Apollo Emeka: That's amazing. You know, I, I'm hearing this again, going back to that kind of timeframe piece of when am I supposed to be in the future?
[00:26:20] Apollo Emeka: When am I supposed to be in the past? And when am I supposed to be in the present? Right. And like, your daughter was like, you were, uh, I guess kind of in, in maybe a future or a different present, right, of like working, right. And then your daughter's like, yo, you got to be like, really right here, right now.
[00:26:35] Apollo Emeka: Right. Um, and you're like, okay, I guess I do. Let's go. Um, That's so cool. I want to go back to a word that you said that was unexpected for me in this kind of parenting journey. And you said you have to, you said something like you have to set ego aside or you have to get over ego when talking about parenting.
[00:26:55] Apollo Emeka: You know, where might that have come from? How does ego show up?
[00:26:58] Olivia Brooks Allan: Yeah, a couple of things back to whole self. I have spent Quite a bit of my life, thankfully. Um, I took a yoga class my first year of college and I've never looked back. It has just been a beautiful meditative experience for me and something that I rely on heavily to keep my brain and my body healthy.
[00:27:18] Olivia Brooks Allan: And if you spend time, you know, learning I think Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth is a beautiful book for anybody who is You know, perhaps feeling like they need a bit more, uh, energy and understanding of who they are as a human, but also more empathy towards other humans. But he talks a lot about ego, and I think that as a parent, it's very easy to look at this gorgeous being that you've created and try and turn them into something that you perhaps have always wanted to be.
[00:27:47] Olivia Brooks Allan: Or you have a perception of who they should be or who they should become. And that goes the same for leading people on your team. You know, I talked about thinking about the superpowers of the team. I can't change their superpowers, but I can figure out a way as a leader or as a mother to help draw out what they really are.
[00:28:06] Apollo Emeka: This is such a cool point. As a leader, you can't dictate or decide somebody else's superpowers. But what you can do and really what you're obligated to do as a leader. is to paint an amazing vision of the future. To point to that mountaintop and say, Hey, we're going there. And then help people leverage their own superpowers in getting there.
[00:28:32] Apollo Emeka: To activate their superpowers in getting to the vision. So, you know, they kind of go hand in hand. A vision, without people with superpowers to execute on it, is just a dream. And superpowers are kind of wasted if they're not pointed at a really strong, amazing.
[00:28:55] Olivia Brooks Allan: My daughter loves acting and singing and dancing.
[00:28:58] Olivia Brooks Allan: All three of those things make me want to like crawl under the covers. Like, so, so the point is, is I've had to move my ego aside. And, and, you know, remove perhaps my perceptions of like, how would you want to go down that path? Like, that's not safe. Like, how do you become a CEO if you're going to go be singing and dancing?
[00:29:15] Olivia Brooks Allan: Like, aside from what a cultural, I'm not sure how well this has worked out for any, you know, all this stuff. I have to just look at her and say. That was a beautiful dance, and I love the way you sang that song, and I'm sure the next time you sing it's going to be even better. And again, I think that applies as well to leadership.
[00:29:32] Olivia Brooks Allan: You can't change people, but you can help, help them get better at the gifts that they already have.
[00:29:38] Apollo Emeka: Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Hold on, let me make a quick note here. Um, stop yelling, choke him out at my son's jiu jitsu practice. Okay. Alright, cool. Well, it's really interesting because if we translate that directly over to the team composition issues that you were talking about, you know, a couple minutes ago, it's like, With your kid, you have to be like, okay, well, I guess this isn't your thing, and let's go find something else.
[00:30:09] Apollo Emeka: And it sounds like that translates on your team as well, right? Like, hey. Yeah,
[00:30:14] Olivia Brooks Allan: you know, I think it is tough. And I'll go again, very personally here. I... At my core and who I am as a person, I love kindness. I grew up around animals and kind people. My sister is the most, I draw so much inspiration from her. So at my core, I'm a very kind person.
[00:30:33] Olivia Brooks Allan: So I've had to work very hard at leadership in terms of giving. Very direct feedback, helping people to get, um, you know, back on track if they're off track. And it, you know, through the years, I've made mistakes. It doesn't always translate because my tone and tenor tends to be very positive, very nice, very kind.
[00:30:52] Olivia Brooks Allan: And then suddenly if I'm telling you your superpower is the light is low, that feels quite harsh. Uh, so that's, you know, something I'm, I'm working on to this day that, you know, The kind of the zero to 60 happens pretty fast when you're trying to get results and like you're making results Decisions to support that six month period.
[00:31:16] Olivia Brooks Allan: Um, so I think that that's, you know, speaking very transparently around things that I'm working on Um, that's something I'm always working on because I'm in a role that requires results And therefore I am also in a role that requires individuals to, you know, kind of pick up the piece if they're not driving results You know, sometimes those are very tough conversations, but ones that need to be had.
[00:31:39] Olivia Brooks Allan: And I'll go back to the fact that I am, can be very tough on my daughter, you know, like not making your bed and like not writing a thank you note or like non negotiables. So
[00:31:53] Apollo Emeka: yeah, yeah, well, it's, it's, it's awesome that you've honed in on this thing in your own leadership journey to focus on. What have you learned so far?
[00:32:02] Apollo Emeka: What do you feel like are the key bullet points? Because I think, you know, everybody struggles with both giving and receiving feedback. And so whether you're kind of coming from the, the spectrum, you know, the end of the spectrum where it's like, Oh man, this person is so nice, but now they're saying this thing.
[00:32:20] Apollo Emeka: Or it's like, Oh, this person is so cold. And there's, you know, right? Like, so you're coming from like this end of the spectrum where it's like, everything is like, We're talking about superpowers. We're talking about like all of this stuff. It's bright, it's airy, and it's light. And then when you have to give somebody some feedback that's like, Hey, actually, you know, well, your behavior needs to change now, right?
[00:32:40] Apollo Emeka: What have you learned up to this point that are some of the keys if you're coming from that kind of like, hyper positive, bright, airy, what are the, what are the keys to delivering effective feedback?
[00:32:49] Olivia Brooks Allan: Yeah, that's, that's right. So I think I'll take it back to understanding your team and you know, your, your index was incredibly insightful for me because inside of the index, there was.
[00:33:02] Olivia Brooks Allan: You know, ideas of how I can communicate better, you know, with a prior tourist or, you know, how do I have that conversation? And so I think there's a couple of things here that I've learned, and that is, I think it's really good to have strong mentors, uh, individuals that you can pick up the phone and call and work through.
[00:33:22] Olivia Brooks Allan: How do I have this conversation? I had one yesterday where, you know, I, I called a colleague of mine, a very senior person at the firm and said, I'm working through something. Can you help me work it through? So I think that that's helpful. I also think that it's important to, um, everyone's always strapped for time, but I do look at when we do our mid year reviews and our year end reviews, I don't have.
[00:33:42] Olivia Brooks Allan: But I'll take a look and see, you know, read through some of our junior teams mid year reviews and understand what they're working on. And I do a bi weekly meeting with the members of my team that don't report directly to me. And I always open up with, this is a safe spot, this is a safe place. As you know, you can always call or text me, we can talk about these conversations privately.
[00:34:05] Olivia Brooks Allan: But I throw out a prompt question of, it might be something as simple, although incredibly helpful for me. What do you need to hear during our quarterly business review? What would you like me to cover? What's a point that you need to hear? Um, so I try and really connect with our junior team. In that way,
[00:34:23] Apollo Emeka: leadership can feel daunting and mysterious.
[00:34:27] Apollo Emeka: There are so many different examples of leaders out there. Some of them are more kind of behind the scenes, some are more out front and exuberant. And there are lots of ideas, in pop culture, in our own experiences, that shape what leadership should be. But one way to demystify what leadership is... is to ask your people how they want to be led.
[00:34:54] Apollo Emeka: What is it that they want to know from you? And what do they care about? And the only ways to find that out is if you can create a space that is intentional and safe enough for them to actually tell you. And Olivia does this magically.
[00:35:14] Olivia Brooks Allan: I am Religious about doing a quarterly business review. They are so much work and it's all internally facing.
[00:35:21] Olivia Brooks Allan: So some leaders may argue, why would I take the time to do that? Like, why would I do that when I can be out selling? I think it's really important to pause and reflect and. Celebrate and give gratitude to the work that we have done, particularly because we never stop. Like, we don't have a down season. We don't have a season where like, oh, let's all take a break.
[00:35:42] Olivia Brooks Allan: Like, December isn't dead for us. You know, we are very busy all the time. And so forcing the conversation in a positive way around this is what we accomplished. And this moment just happened for me. last month and I was in the middle of a move to a new home and had a million things going on at work and just juggling juggling and juggling like I just don't I don't have time to do this.
[00:36:06] Olivia Brooks Allan: And you know what I did, Apollo? I took a moment and said, what do I need to work on? I need to work on my ability to leverage AI better. I've researched the best AI tools to build beautiful presentations. I did it all myself. I didn't ask my team to do anything. I didn't ask anyone to jump in. Of course, they gave me the data to put into it.
[00:36:27] Olivia Brooks Allan: And then, and then at the end, I, I was almost teary after we finished preparing this thing because I didn't even totally realize how much we'd accomplished You know, kind of up and down year where we've been so busy sort of surviving, it's important to, to pause and reflect and say, thank you and celebrate what has happened.
[00:36:50] Olivia Brooks Allan: And then also use that as an informing moment to help decide what are we doing in the next six months. So, you know, if leaders out there are currently figuring out the way to kind of consolidate information and communicate back the wins and the concerns, um, I highly encourage you to take the time to do that on a quarterly
[00:37:08] Apollo Emeka: basis.
[00:37:09] Apollo Emeka: Yeah, that's, that's awesome. And I think it highlights something that I work on personally a lot and that we, we also help our leaders and teams with is like, when is it a head issue and when is it a heart issue? Right? And so it's like, and being able, like, it's okay to have matters of the heart, right? But don't treat them like they're matters of the head and vice versa.
[00:37:31] Apollo Emeka: Right? So it sounds like you're like, All heart when it comes to the spirit of the team. But then it's like, well, actually let's, let's use our heads to measure how this spirit is producing results. Right. And so we can keep the spirit what it is because it's a matter of the heart and it's isolated in ways from matters of the head.
[00:37:52] Apollo Emeka: And now let's look at the matters of the head and let's see. Let's see what the information, what the data is telling us, what the results are telling us, and then let's make an adjustment. I
[00:38:01] Olivia Brooks Allan: love that you do that inside of your business. And I think it's also really important, particularly as we have so many individuals coming into the workforce that are really appropriately demanding balance between head and mind and work and heart and spirit.
[00:38:18] Olivia Brooks Allan: I certainly grew up in sort of this. I've been working for so long that that was not part of any of the vernacular when I entered the workforce. And that's something that I, you know, I'm really trying to make sure that I'm cognizant of now. And I think it's also really nice that companies, I think the pandemic did a lot for us in that regard, right?
[00:38:37] Olivia Brooks Allan: There's always a gift in something. And I think the gift was there's a little bit of a recognition that we all work at different paces. And all of us, this rhythm that we have is different. It's different for different people. As I mentioned, I'm a super morning person. Like I love getting up early. Um, at 10 PM, you know, kind of team huddle on a, on something that we're working on for the next day is like, hard for me, just like others on the team would be like, this is amazing.
[00:39:03] Olivia Brooks Allan: This is my perfect, this is what I'm on, you know, so recognizing that I
[00:39:07] Apollo Emeka: think is important. Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for the conversation. It's cool because we got to nerd out on some, the technical things that we nerded out on were leadership stuff, which is my favorite thing to, to nerd out on and go technical on.
[00:39:24] Apollo Emeka: So I really appreciate the conversation. I appreciate the work that you're doing and, and the energy that you bring to it. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Oh, thank
[00:39:33] Olivia Brooks Allan: you. Thank you so much. It is such a pleasure to speak with someone who is impacting the way we work and helping leaders to be even better at what they do.
[00:39:44] Olivia Brooks Allan: This has been just an absolute pleasure and I can't, I can't thank you enough
[00:39:47] Apollo Emeka: for the opportunity. Aww, you're too sweet. Thank you, Olivia. Thank you so much for being on the show today, Olivia, you bright and cheery human being, you. And now, it's time for the takeaways. First, from a prioritized perspective, Olivia called out how important it is to know when you should be looking to the future, to those mountaintops, and when you should be present, focused on what you're doing right now.
[00:40:20] Apollo Emeka: She thinks that it's important that leaders focus on Big picture events and macroeconomic forces. And I couldn't agree more. One of the cool things that she does from a prioritized perspective is to name the initiatives that they're working on. Now this might feel like kind of a small thing, but.
[00:40:40] Apollo Emeka: Honestly, anytime anything gets a code word or a project name, it galvanizes people. So, in what ways can you use code words or project names for the initiatives that you're working on? From a leverage perspective, she clearly, clearly values her team a ton. And she focuses on building a team around superpowers.
[00:41:01] Apollo Emeka: As a matter of fact, it's her favorite interview question to ask. Hey! What is your superpower? Another thing that she does is she leverages the data and the processes within the company. So she will read reviews of people that don't report directly to her just to get a feel for how things are going. She has skip level meetings as well.
[00:41:20] Apollo Emeka: Again, leveraging the systems and the structure that are in place there at Landmark Ventures. One of my favorite things that she said falls into the execute column. Because it's something that she does every single day. First thing in the morning, she wakes up and she writes down the three things that are on her mind.
[00:41:41] Apollo Emeka: And that helps to inform how she's going to spend her day and how she might revisit that kind of six month view of her strategy. And finally, she says that it's so important to track and measure results and progress. That way, you know exactly how to pivot, how to recompose your teams with the right superpowers.
[00:42:03] Apollo Emeka: And finally, she says it's so important to track and measure your results. That way, you know how to adjust and pivot your strategy. You can understand the composition of necessary superpowers for your team. And... You have real tangible data points to provide people with timely and direct feedback. Well, thank you again so much, Olivia, for being on the show.
[00:42:28] Apollo Emeka: And thank you all for listening. We'll see you on the mountain.
[00:42:36] Apollo Emeka: Remember, you can find out what your Achievement Index is by going to www. theachievementindex. com. Take the assessment. Takes about 15 20 minutes. Make sure you're in a nice, calm state of mind, in a quiet place, and you can find out your own Achievement Index and figure out how you match up against our guests.
[00:42:58] Apollo Emeka: I'm Dr. Apollo Omeka. If you like the podcast, please rate us on whatever platform you're listening and remember to share it with your friends. Thanks. See you next time.