The industry has seen a remarkable growth amongst female entrepreneurs. The leadership skills and strategies by women have been extremely welcomed by the industry. One such exceptional leader who has marked the industry in a short time, with her excellent leadership is Lindsey Myers, the Founder of Concrete Blonde Consulting. She is an exceptional communication expert and a successful womentrepreneur. In the consulting industry, she has an unbelievable win-streak for counseling clients from the Fortune 500 companies, to assist in increasing profits, manage brand reputations and gain market share.
Apart from being an exceptional entrepreneur, Lindsey believes in sharing her knowledge with peers. She is a guest lecturer at several universities, including Hofstra University and Saint Joseph’s University. Her lectures have always been critiqued as “possessing a presence people often find unforgettable.” Her leadership and expertise have been rewarded several times, besides her award cabinet comprises of PRSA Big Apple award, PRSA Bronze Anvil Award, eight MarCom awards, nine Fair Media Council Folio Awards, Communicator award, SABRE award and an Excellence in Communications award.
Recently, Lindsey engaged with Mirror Review to clear the misconceptions about leadership and give us some interesting insights on her journey. Here are the excerpts,
Be Structured and Follow the Schedule
Being a Founder, how will you describe your daily routine?
The roles and responsibilities of leader can get tedious throughout the day. So as a leader, it is important to have a structured schedule. In my personal experience, I think that creating a structure for your day is really important and for me, the lynchpin to that is typically a solid workout. Once I have gotten in a good run, everything else just falls into place.
Excelling At Media Relations And Company Visioning
What would you say is that one unique quality that differentiates your company from its competitors?
My company is a full-service consulting and marketing firm. At Concrete Blonde Consulting, our area of expertise is not only in media relations and company visioning but, we also do a substantial amount of work with influencer campaigns. My skillful team examines your business development pipeline and identifies the new areas for the growth to create new strategies and amplify current opportunities. This all has been a central area of focus, in addition to the growing crisis communications division.
I believe what separates us from the competitors is that we believe every client is unique. We partner with them to unearth their core business goals. Then we create bespoke strategic marketing plans with benchmarks to chart our progress and target our methods. We feel a sense of responsibility to our clients and we are responsive not only to their needs but also to the ever-changing world in which they operate.
Approach Failure as an Opportunity
How did you embrace your failure? Did your failure change you in anyway?
I have always believed that failures are the stepping stone to success. No journey is prone to obstacles, and I too had to face my share of failures. But, whenever I hit a speed bump I always asked myself, “what is this here to teach me?”
In my opinion, failures are the way we learn and when we approach it as an opportunity instead of threat you can find value there, usually more than from your success! You can say that the real trick is keeping your mental energy in a positive place and not beating yourself up over your mistakes. We all make mistakes, but it’s what you do with them that distinguishes you.
Always Be Optimistic
How would you keep yourself and your team members motivated who are struggling in day-to-day tasks?
Every day cannot be similar and there are days when one lacks motivation. In times like this, I remind myself and my team to focus on the vision of what we are trying to create, and expect that we will be able to do it!! For me, the most important part is knowing what you want and creating a clear vision of what it will look like and how you will feel when you accomplish your goals.
Always Room for Being Better
Are you satisfied with the current company culture or do you wish to see any changes?
I certainly love our company culture, but I also believe that there are few things that we can do better as a growing company. I believe that there should always be room for betterment. I try to examine what works and what could work harder and then tweak it as we go along. Throughout my journey, I have learned a lot from my entrepreneurial clients. I’m so grateful for all the partnerships that helped and are continuously helping in shaping us as a company.
Guideposts for Developing Leadership
Have any of your personal experiences helped you to become a good leader?
Absolutely! I believe we are the product of our experiences in the life. Each and every experience helps us in shaping in a certain direction. Being a leader is not an easy job, we have to deal with several issues and also keep ourselves calm. My experiences with all of my relationships i.e. both personal and professional have been the guideposts for developing my leadership skills.
Insecurity Can Be an Advantage
According to you, what are your insecurities as a leader?
I think my biggest insecurity has always been that my kindness is mistaken as a weakness by others. But, that doesn’t stop me from being kind! I feel as though people often underestimate me, however, sometimes that’s an advantage in the challenging business world.
Scale for Growth or Impact
What are your future plans for the company?
Expansion is always on the roadmap. We growing quickly right now and the next decision we are focused on is determining whether we would like to scale for growth or scale for impact.
Health Has To Be a Priority
Despite your busy schedule, how do you keep yourself healthy?
I vigilantly focus (and re-focus!) on my health – working out, eating right, sleeping eight hours a day are all a huge part. Apart from living a healthy lifestyle what I believe people often forget is to focus on mental health. One cannot simply compromise on mental health. For me, mental health is equally as important as physical health and meditation is a large part of my routine.
