We recently connected with Lis Best and have shared our conversation below.

Lis, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?

Some of the biggest trends I am seeing in the impact / ESG space broadly right now include:

-A lot of the people who have been doing this work for 5, 10, 20+ years are seeing their roles increasingly move toward regulatory compliance, and they’re not necessarily all that interested. There is a lot of emerging regulation in our space, and that means that work that was once creative, cross-functional, and strategic is increasingly going to look a lot more like accounting and legal. I have a lot of conversations with brilliant leaders who are wondering whether this new landscape is for them.

-For that reason and many others, a lot of brilliant people with this skillset are exploring new opportunities to put it to use as entrepreneurs and consultants, or in the climate tech, workforce development, venture, and start-up worlds. It’s so exciting to see all the innovative businesses launching and all the different roles being created that draw on our expertise.

-Remote work has, in many cases, made the influencing that has long been a part of working as a change agent more challenging to do. It can be harder to pick up on non-verbal cues, read a room, and have a post-meeting debrief on Zoom. Even leaders who have done this work for a long time are craving confidants and advisors who they can trust and strategize with.

-Relationships (both inside organizations and beyond their four walls) are an absolutely essential part of personal sustainability and leadership development for impact professionals. Not only does connection help leaders feel less alone, it often helps people solving novel challenges find the resources they need faster and more efficiently.

Because of all of the above, we’re going to a) continue to see a lot of demand for people who want to lead this work, b) hopefully see this space expand in new and creative ways to meet this demand as veterans of the space leverage their ethos and skillset in new ways, and c) have an immense opportunity to find new ways of building relationships and developing leaders in a hybrid and remote world.

Lis, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am an executive coach for women changing the world and founder of the Girls Club Collective (GCC), a feminine leadership lab for change agents. I also host the Women Changing the World podcast, which shines a light on the incredible people who are working to make the world a better place. My clients are impact and ESG leaders at Fortune 500 companies, sustainability and social impact consultants, and entrepreneurs who are birthing the new through their businesses.

I started my business because, after more than a decade in the sustainability and social impact space at organizations like Qualcomm and BSR, I watched one amazing woman after another land her dream job… and then completely burn herself out. (It happened to me, too.) Often, the reason organizations are – or aren’t – doing the right thing comes down to the effectiveness of the people (often women) who are leading this work. I wanted to help other women in these roles not only become more effective at their jobs but do so in a way that’s regenerative and values-aligned.

Since officially opening the doors in January 2020, I have been blown away by not only the amazing work that my clients do but also the many ways that they lift other incredible women up along the way. It’s a completely different leadership style than anything I learned in school or in the women’s leadership programs I’ve been a part of.

I started GCC, a feminine leadership lab for change agents, because I believe that this leadership is what we need to create a future that works for all of us. And in 2023, I put community at the heart of my business with the official launch of our community. We provide leadership tools and resources, connection through collective problem-solving, and visibility and amplification for rebels with a cause.

To date, we’ve had the joy and the privilege of welcoming 30+ members into our intentionally intimate community. They’ve been experiencing wins that include:
Invitations to bid on dream consulting projects
New IRL friendships
Referrals for dream roles in the ESG space
Visibility opportunities and amplification from fellow members
Resources on cutting-edge sustainability topics

And our founding members have been saying (and posting) things like:
“This year I tried something new. I invested $$ and time into my career social life. And it has been 1000x worth it.”
“I might be biased, but GCC has been one of my favorite ways to build community this year. It’s not only helped me refocus who I am as a leader, but some of the connections I’ve made are the start of great collaborations and friendships.”
“I always wanted a professional space to talk about the things we’re thinking about but not saying out loud. I find it so helpful to talk through real $#!+ in real time.”

I’m biased, but I think our community is incredible – and I have a feeling that the best is yet to come.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The best source of new clients for me is word-of-mouth and referrals. I feel so lucky that when amazing people find amazing things, we love to tell our friends! Many of my clients find me because they’re having a “not this” moment, and one of their friends tells them, “You should talk to Lis.”

The second-best source of new clients for me has actually been LinkedIn. Less than a year ago, I decided to shift my primary content focus toward LinkedIn, since it’s where so many of my people hang out. It was a great decision – ever since I started my business in 2020, I have met total dream clients seemingly out of the blue because they found me there. There’s a lot that is great about LinkedIn; one thing I love in particular is the focus on content and substance.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

It’s not exactly a lesson, but one of the biggest things I’ve had to unlearn since starting my business is hustle culture. I had no idea how deep my corporate programming ran until I found myself fully in charge of my schedule… and still feeling guilty when I wasn’t in front of my computer between 9am and 5pm.

Something I’ve been really paying attention to lately is HOW I do what I do. For example, it’s one thing to talk about feminine leadership principles like asking for and receiving help, collective problem-solving, elevating the people around us, and saying “I don’t know…” and it’s another, much more powerful thing to embody them.

I heard a great quote on the We Can Do Hard Things podcast recently about how counterproductive it is to run ourselves into the ground working to convey to other people that they can resist the systems that tell them they should run themselves into the ground.

So a BIG intention I’m bringing with me into 2024 is a focus on continuing to align my HOW with my values on a daily basis. I’m definitely no stranger to hard work, and I’ve flirted with burnout more times than I care to count. I want this upcoming year to feel like an exhale, and I’m committed to continuing to explore how business can be done in a way that feels regenerative for the person and people operating it as much as the person or people experiencing it.

In other words, I’m excited to “be” my way into a future that works for all of us (me included!) – the future that so many of the amazing leaders around me are creating.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://girlsclubcollective.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/girls_club_collective/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/65628408/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@girlsclubcollective

Image Credits
Emilie Bers