We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tissa Richards a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Tissa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

The biggest risk I’ve taken is starting an enterprise B2B software company. I had no technical co-founder, which introduces a lot of challenges. I went entirely without a salary and self-funded the company until we had sufficient traction to raise outside money. The endeavor was obviously an enormous financial risk, and an equally large personal risk. There was a large opportunity cost of the salary I could have been making elsewhere. And running and scaling a company took an emotional, psychological, and physical toll on my health. But it was also one of the biggest – and best – learning lessons I’ve ever had, both professionally and personally and was a massive springboard for me.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

As you might glean from the story above, I’m a repeat software founder and CEO. I’ve raised millions of dollars, secured multiple patents for my innovative technology products, scaled companies, and nurtured remarkable high-performance teams. Today, I am an award-winning author, keynote speaker and leadership expert. I run a leadership company with a mission to create unshakable leaders, teams, and organizations. That enables companies – from hyperscale startups to Fortune 500 companies – to rapidly grow revenue, pivot quickly, and focus on their own missions to deliver value to their shareholders.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

I do no “selling.” 100% of my business is direct referrals or organic growth through LinkedIn, the traction of my book (“No Permission Needed: Unlock Your Leadership Potential and Eliminate Self-Doubt”), or word of mouth when people hear me deliver a keynote or attend one of my workshops. This kind of organic growth is extremely effective because I’ve already secured professional, personal, and social capital. That equates to trust, and people are willing – and excited – to recommend and share me with others in their network.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Resilience is critical to personal and professional success. One of the key pillars of my mission is to help leaders, teams and organizations become unshakable. And being unshakable is closely aligned with being resilient. When you are clear on your mission, purpose, and goals – and how you as an individual, team or organization can deliver them – you have a lot of clarity. And when things inevitably veer off course slightly – or majorly – that clarity helps you spring right back up, recalibrate, and keep going. That’s the definition of resilience.

A great example of this is the ability to distinguish between failure and defeat. This is a key trait of an unshakable leader. Defeat is the feeling of being demoralized and overcome by adversity after being beaten by something. Failure is simply a lack of immediate success. It is not fatal. It requires refocus and alterations to the strategy to achieve success. An unshakable team quickly regroups, focuses on the mission, and figures out how to recalibrate the strategy. When my last software company failed it took a huge financial and emotional toll on me – but it did not defeat me. I refocused on my goals and my mission. I reminded myself that I am unshakable and resilient, and simply adjusted course. And that’s what I help my clients with every single day.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tissarichards.com/ https://www.tissarichardsleadership.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tissa-richards/