#awinewith Linda Johannesson
MEET Linda Johannesson, Founder of The Growth Garden
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Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:05):
Amazing. Linda, welcome back to Spark tv. I'm so excited we get to chat again because I mean, I think we get to chat basically every week in the Spark community, but it's nice to one-on-one chat and kind of dive a little deeper.
Linda Johannesson (00:23):
Yeah, most definitely. And thanks again for the opportunity. But yeah, I have found the community invaluable for having those connection points with smart women who have different ideas and it's such a great way to exchange, test something. Just have a chat, have a wine with someone so that you don't have to drink alone.
Danielle Lewis (00:41):
I know, I know. Which is very sad if you are like me drinking a wine in the work from home office. But we love it. We love it. No, and look, I'm so excited because you are officially one of the first Spark mentors ever, and I know from working with you for so long, just how valuable your experience is to the amazing woman in business who is on different stages of her journey. So I'm just thrilled to have you as a part of the new mentoring program. It's fantastic.
Linda Johannesson (01:18):
Well, thank you very much and I am pleased and honored to be a part of it. And I hope that we can set a benchmark for lots of these going forward and to showcase not only the need, but the availability of the insight that exists within the Spark community because there are some really, really incredible women in there that if we could just pull all of that information, we could take over the world. Oh
Danielle Lewis (01:46):
My God. I know. As you're talking, I was like, that's it. This is what we're doing. We're taking the world. Oh, that is so good. That is so good. So before we get into mentoring and all of that kind of stuff, let's just remind everybody who you are and what you do
Linda Johannesson (02:04):
Definitely do that. And I think they're two very different but related questions. And I'll tell you a little story. Early in my career I learned very early to not let your career define who you are. I worked for a big retailer in Canada and they got a purchased by a competitor. Competitor, said that they were buying all the brains trust and then they came in and then men who had worked for the organization for 30 plus years got let go as quickly as the receptionist who started the past week. And these people were absolutely crushed. Their job had defined them. And as a 20 something, seeing grown men walking down the aisle with their garbage bin in their hands, taking their personal stuff out of the office crying, I just comment, wow, that's a lesson. So who I I'm,
Danielle Lewis (03:01):
I literally just had an existential crisis already on this podcast and oh my God, who am I? I know where this is going. Oh my gosh.
Linda Johannesson (03:09):
But I'm glad that I learned that lesson very early in my career because it has served me well. And I am a Canadian living in Australia, and I am a beach lover. I am a reformed corporate marketing executive for examples of what I just shared. And I am a published fiction author. I'm a social animal. I loved planet activities and go on adventures photography is my creative jam. I love and pretty much obsessed with Golden Retrievers, Ryan Reynolds and Coffee.
Danielle Lewis (03:45):
That's the trifecta.
Linda Johannesson (03:46):
I love that. And I've earned a reputation for getting shit done and asking tough questions and being really curious. And I think that who I am has certainly helped to shape what I do, but it's not what I do isn't all of who I am. And I think that there's a real distinction there. But yeah, the curiosity, the strategic thinking, the planning, the visionary has all shaped what I have created in the Growth Garden to provide services to help entrepreneurs who want to grow themselves and their businesses.
Danielle Lewis (04:28):
Oh my God, it's incredible. And I do absolutely love the distinction between who you are and what you do. It is something that I personally struggle with quite a lot. I think when we have a business, there is this tendency to make it all consuming. And I have personally over many years still struggle with it, go through moments of if I'm not working, what am I doing? And that guilt associated with you can always be doing something more in your business. I don't think I've ever had a to-do list finished in my entire life.
Linda Johannesson (05:08):
You're perpetual. As long as we're comfortable with that helps. But yeah, no, I can certainly relate to that and have been in that. And it's very different when you're in the corporate world because
(05:22):
In entrepreneurial life you have this commitment and guilt to yourself, but in the corporate world to somebody else, whether it's your boss or your trajectory or whatever, it's like, okay, well I can be doing more. And you have to have balance because we can only be right. We can be good at a lot of things, but unless we have balance in our life and we're filling our cup up different things that we just can't be great at what we do. So I truly believe that having a balanced life is important and it's not going to be balanced at every phase because that just doesn't happen. But overall definitely,
Danielle Lewis (06:03):
Yeah. Well, and it's actually interesting, you just made me think reflecting on my corporate career, I think because I didn't want to be defined by my corporate career, I started a business as a side hustle. So I was like, I'm this not corporate Danny. I'm business Danny. And then when I went all in on business, Danny, I was like, wow, I think that's it. So I like this. Who are we outside of our businesses? I think that's and coming into Christmas as well, that's such a nice time to actually reflect on both I think human side and business side and where you're going for the year ahead.
Linda Johannesson (06:39):
And it's a nice checkpoint of progress when the calendar changes. And it's not so much so here in North America it's even far more so because you've got the calendar change, but most probably 80 to 90% of the businesses, that's their financial year end as well. Now here we've got two checkpoints, which I really quite like that forces you to pause and evaluate and assess and learn from and change direction if you need to. But unless you're really clear on what you're trying to accomplish, pausing and reflecting doesn't really do you that much good because you don't have something to compare it to.
Danielle Lewis (07:23):
This is such an interesting point because I think sometimes when we do the pause and reflect, it's almost just what tasks do I need to do and what am I going to ship this month or this quarter or whatever? And I dunno if we always actually align them to our overall vision for the business,
Linda Johannesson (07:44):
The vision, the values, the goals and the impact. And that's one of the things when I take clients through a deep comprehensive branding exercise, so much of that comes out and then where often branding agencies will bring it out and just give it back to you in a brand guide and you've got this, you've had the but operationalizing that is really important because that takes you beyond the activities and the tasks and the tactics, it kind of says, okay, let's do a pulse check to see are we on track with living our values? Show me are we on track with creating the vision that if we wanted to be this big or employ this many people or have this many products or make this impact, where are we in the trajectory of that? And building that into your planning rather than just creating a marketing plan that sells should you want to evaluate where you are in the accomplishment of the vision as well. And that's why I often get comments back from clients is I have never thought of my business in this level of detail ever, and it's just been so eyeopening and to me that just warm my heart because I've done my job and they're better. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (09:09):
Oh absolutely. And I think that one of the things, so you actually ran a masterclass for the Spark community. It was middle of the year, so just coming into end of financial year, which again is that amazing checkpoint, and that was the resounding feedback then as well is so what you are amazing at in my opinion, is asking those questions. And I think that that's the saying that you are only as good as the questions you ask yourself or whatever that saying is. And that's what that masterclass was all about, really asking ourselves the tough questions around what our business is, what our values are, where we're going, what actually thinking about it in that level of detail, which I think that a lot of people hadn't done ever or in a long time that really set us up for the back half of the year to actually go through and go, yeah, am I just doing that thing because I think I should be doing that thing or is that thing actually
Linda Johannesson (10:06):
Well because it's what I've already always done.
(10:10):
That's another thing. And yeah, and I thank you for the feedback on that and I really think that what it does is it makes it real too because the brain can't make a distinction between a thought and reality. If you're seeing that that thought very clearly, and that's what that level of reflection and dreaming becomes, it becomes aspirational, but you can also see it and feel it and smell it. And those are the kinds of questions that I ask, if you're to do this Goal X, what's it going to look like? How does that affect your day-to-day activities? What are the questions? What are the challenges you're dealing with? Who are the people around you? And that type of thing. And it just makes it real at another level. And I think that when we can see it, we can create it, but if we don't get to that level, it remains rather theoretical.
Danielle Lewis (11:08):
You just used one of my favorite words, which was dreaming. Talk to me about that. What is the value in actually taking a pause to think about the most amazing reality you could think of?
Linda Johannesson (11:26):
I think that dreaming opens us up to possibility where much of our day and our round just takes us and limits what we can do because we're having to answer to this, do this within a certain timeframe, our to-do lists are really long, but dreaming just takes down all of those barriers and I think it taps into without maybe even it what we think we are capable of. And that's the big thing that I've continued to see with clients is it opens the door for promise and possibility for them. And if I firmly believe that if you can dream it, you could do mostly not everything but most things because Lord knows I don't want my other dreams, I come into reality, but it gives you permission to think bigger or think longer or think differently, and it's a dream so it's not real, but in the dream you can see a reality that you may want to create for
Danielle Lewis (12:36):
Yourself. I love this so much because I think that in the world that we live in, which is heavily social media looking at everyone else's lives, I feel like there's a lot of people, especially women in business who have gotten caught up in somebody else's dream or somebody else's version of success. And there's this great guy, I think it's Justin Walsh who does this, who has this tile that everybody reposts that's all about my business plan is spending more time with my wife and kids or dropping my kids to school, blah, blah, blah, taking lunch, never having to do something I don't want to do. That's my business plan. I was like, that's so cool because it is that dreaming. It's like, okay, what do I actually want? Not what does this guru tell me that I can achieve if I use her framework? What actually do I want my life to look like? I think it's so powerful.
Linda Johannesson (13:31):
I think you've hit on it there that I think these days we are so focused on listening to other people's voices and not our own. And what the reflection does is it gives you time to have that conversation with yourself and to listen to yourself and all your insight and intellect and emotional makeup and really know that there's expertise in there and at a certain level what is right for you and what is not. And there's just so much noise that you can go in any different direction you want to, but is it aligned with you? Is it aligned with your goals? Is it aligned with what you want to accomplish? Not necessarily. And having that personal knowledge and insight is to me, one of the best competitive advantages you can apply to your business because that's where the rubber meets the road and you're either capable of doing something or you're not or doing something a certain way or it's not a fit. And if we keep digesting all of the suggestions of others, then we never know what's right for us.
Danielle Lewis (14:52):
I absolutely love it. And I think what struck me from doing the masterclass as a guided exercise is that sometimes it's difficult to get out of our own heads. So doing it on your own can be actually quite difficult. And it is one of the reasons why we launched mentoring at Spark because we wanted to give people access to, well, firstly, people that we know and trust don't just go and Google people on the internet, we've done all the hard work for you, but also that these are we experts in our specific fields. And I personally have had different mentors and coaches over the years, and I always use the analogy of an athlete who has a nutritionist, who has a therapist, who has the actual sport that they're in, coach, they surround themselves with this support network. And so that's why I think it's so valuable. And just having someone there who's objective that can talk you through the different steps, whether it is the dreaming, exercise, visioning, brand growth, I think it's really important. What are you like about mentoring and coaching other people? What do you think that means to you?
Linda Johannesson (16:12):
Well, I certainly agree with you in providing that level of objectivity and different ways of thinking because we do get caught up in our own world, and technology in the digital world just reinforces that because in an echo chamber that we just hear what we want to hear and see what we want to see and get reinforced, and that's it. Rather than looking a little more broadly. And as far as mentoring is concerned, having somebody who you a feel safe with to understands you and your business but can also take you to another level. On the sports analogy, you're never going to become a better tennis player by playing somebody who's worse player than you have to play somebody better to be better and to develop those skills and having that expertise to not only give you that objectivity to look at your skills and your practices, and then just to ask you questions, not necessarily tell you what to do because I do believe that lasting change comes from within, but you have to open the door to seeing things differently for expanding perspectives and that.
(17:23):
So whenever I've coached or mentored people, it's always started with, now where are you really crushing it and opening up the dreaming and then finding that gap between if this is the dream and this is where you are, let's look at what's missing, what needs to operate better, what skills you need to develop, how you need to even change process and efficiency and that within your own organization and how you do things because it's not always about what you do. It can often be how, and I think how is certainly one of those areas where status quo plays. It's had that we've always done it this way, so we'll continue to do it this way. That's just easier having a mentor investigate and look who's looking under the rocks and asking the tough questions and then lovingly really challenged people. That's another piece of feedback I've continued to get from clients is that if you want somebody who's going to ask you the tough questions, but gently and lovingly and that, then if you're ready to have that conversation, then Linda's your gal because it's important to get to the crux of what's not working, but the individual has to take, they don't have to take themselves in, but they have to see themselves in that and questions in them. Finding the answers and seeing a different level of possibility is helpful.
Danielle Lewis (19:06):
Yeah, absolutely. I think we do, we just get stuck in our own heads, and I love the word you said as well, that safe space, because sometimes I don't even think our own heads are a safe space, so having someone there that is facilitating that process around what are you good at? What is the, and kind of push a little bit, is that what we really want? Do we think we could dream a little bit bigger? I think mean. Yeah. I think sometimes we're embarrassed to share with people how big our goals and dreams are, which is super sad. So it's so nice to have somebody in your corner that is giving you that space to think and understand, think about what is possible, what am I capable of. I just think that there's some magic in that.
Linda Johannesson (20:04):
Yeah, most definitely. And I think that it's a greater challenge for women and I think especially women in their own businesses, to really dream big and embrace that I want to take over the world or I want to make this huge impact. The power of dreaming is really, it's motivational and inspirational and really it helps you get through the shit days because some days in business are just really hard. And if you hold tight to that dream, I'll admit this, I'm a huge head lasso fan. I even bought one of the believe signs just because I truly believe in believing. And it's that belief and that vision and that goal and that ideal that keeps us going through the tough times. And that's on a personal level and on a business level as well.
Danielle Lewis (21:05):
I love it so much, and it's just, I think about you're so right. So I've been in business for 12 years now, and the tough days don't go away. There's not like some kind of thing, magical thing happens and it stops being hard. Every year we dream a little bigger, push a little harder or change direction. Yeah, it's so nice to have that vision. That's something that's pulling us forward. That's a word. Again, I love that you use, I know in your offerings you often talk about do you have a vision that's pulling you forward? And it is so beautiful actually having sat down and thought about what is my goal? What am I working towards? And is that actually something that is pulling me forward? I just think that that concept is awesome.
Linda Johannesson (21:55):
Yeah, exactly. And you think of vision as leavers. As leavers. Are you pulling the levers to move you forward or are they pulling you Because it can be a bit of back and forth. And I do believe in the Steve Jobs quote that if you're working on something exciting that you really care about, you don't have to be pushed. The vision pulls you, and that is so true, but getting clarity on that vision is where we often just fall short that we thought we've got an idea for why we want to start a business or we understand our why a little bit sort. But I think when you talk about we continue to grow a little more and set bigger goals and that's healthy, that's continual growth because growth isn't just growing to a point and staying there because you don't continue to grow. So I think that's one of the reasons that many of us do embrace entrepreneurship is that we can continue to have this growth path that is more aligned with who we are and what we care about rather than a prescribed corporate career path.
Danielle Lewis (23:10):
Yeah, and it's interesting. So the word growth is just hitting home for me at the moment because I think that's almost the journey that you go on with women in business is that first stage of understanding, getting clarity, getting that vision, really being compelled and pulled by that vision, and then almost the refining. So okay, how do we get there? What does that growth trajectory look like? And then when it is successful and you are starting to kick goals, how do we accelerate that success? What do you find holds people back when it comes to that growth piece? Do you see anything consistently with people?
Linda Johannesson (23:48):
I think that A, it's having that full clarity around it and connecting the dots like we talked about a bit earlier, that having that vision and then what does it mean for your internal processes? What does it mean for the type of people you hire? What does it mean for the services and products that you bring to market? What does it mean for how your whole decision-making framework and embedding that in your processes because that then makes the alignment more of a process driven thing than a conscious driven thing. So you have to be conscious of what you're creating, but having tools in place that pick up the slack, if you're not consciously thinking about that, but it gives you the filters and the, it's putting out the messages and attracting the right people on your behalf. And that's why brand is so important. And that's why vision brand and understanding your ideal customer, those are the three pillars to me that you get those right, the future is yours.
(25:03):
But I think sometimes with the growth part is I want to grow, but we don't look at the past to learn from it. And I think that's a big part of it. We're always looking forward, but there are telling insights into what we've done, how we've done it, what's worked, what hasn't, and spending that time looking at that and making new decisions based on that, or at least having it as a filter that you put your growth goals through. And sometimes we suffer from imposter syndrome and we don't think that we're worthy of the success that we are dreaming of, but the fact that you're dreaming of it to me says that yes, you are definitely worthy of it, but sometimes we need to emotionally catch up
(26:02):
With that. And that's a different kind of mentoring and coaching, certainly not the kind that I would do, but understanding the psychology that goes into that, because I couldn't work with anybody to get the results that we want to get together if they're not in the right space and they don't feel worthy of that, that's another kind of coaching and mentoring that they would require. And sometimes growth happens way too fast and we have to play catch up, and we have to look at ourselves as such an important part of our businesses that we need to have ourselves and our values and our minds and our belief systems knowing that, yeah, this growth is something that we are capable of, that we deserve and that we can work hard to accomplish.
Danielle Lewis (26:55):
Oh, I love that so much. And it almost just circles right back to the start of our conversation with the who am I outside of my business? And it's interesting because yeah, I find that in the sales mentoring that I do as well. I can tell you exactly what to do, I can tell you what to do, but you're not going to do it if your mindset is going, I can't. I'm not good enough. They're never going to take my call. If you are saying all of those things to you, you're not going to do the things that I tell you to do. So it is so interesting that we do actually have to look after both the human Danny and business Danny in certain to actually see that long-term success. We really do have to, it's funny, people talk about the work and no one defines what the work is, but the work is that inner game that it is that it's almost just as simple as believing that you can achieve those dreams that you have for yourself. And then it is as simple as, let's go through the process. Let's sit down and map it out and get clear and create the vision, create the plan, optimize what we have, reflect insights, and then the path is so simple. It's not easy, but it's simple.
Linda Johannesson (28:11):
No, and it doesn't always work to accomplish all of your goals the first time. It is an iterative process,
Danielle Lewis (28:19):
But
Linda Johannesson (28:19):
Being open to the possibility of it is where the goals is. And having somebody who has the insight to be able to lead you through the expansiveness, because I've done my job when somebody is like, oh, I got this. I can do this next time, and this is part of my planning exercise. I know what my values are. I know what to evaluate, what to look at, what to challenge myself, and I'm working this into my business. That's wonderful when that happens. But being able to expecting an overnight results or expecting everything to change with one session, that's not realistic, really, it is a process. And when we look at our business through new filters, it takes time for us to catch up to this new perspective that we develop for it. And that's what I've seen often with my clients as well in that they're not afraid to dream. They're open to the possibility and they see things, but things are changing rapidly or they see an opportunity and they just need time to sit with it, to feel into it, to maybe test it with their clients or have a discussion with their team about it to really bring that to life. And then there's no stopping them.
Danielle Lewis (29:58):
And I just even made me think about, or even uncovering that they're not doing what they want to do and that they want to change direction. I think that that is so powerful as well. I know historically I've gotten so excited about ideas and just run, run, run, run, and let's do it. And then I'm like, oh, I don't want to do this for the rest of my life and had to refocus. So I think you're right. It is a process. It is ongoing. It is not overnight by any stretch of the imagination
Linda Johannesson (30:29):
And it's data driven. One of the things that just came up for me when you said that is I often will have a conversation with clients like, okay, how much time are you spending on this? How much time are you spending on this? And they give me things and then I say, okay, let's humor me here. Let's do a log for two or three weeks and see. And the reality versus their perception is always very different. And so one of the things that's really important is looking for those data points and looking for actual facts and proof that you're doing rather than just your perception. Because I think we've got to find the balance between the dreaming and the perception and the actual reality because we have to change the reality, and these two will influence how we work at changing that reality. But it's an interesting perspective that we all think we do far more of this and far less of this. And then the reality is, oh, that's telling.
Danielle Lewis (31:30):
Yeah. Oh my God, it's so true. I think you just literally made me reflect on things, and even just that idea of what is important and how much time am I spending on that versus all of the other tasks. Exactly. Oh my God, it's so powerful. Okay, we could talk all day and I would love to, but we better wrap this podcast and look, let's go with tradition. I always love to wrap up these podcasts with one last piece of advice for women in business. So reflecting on your time in business, what would be one thing that you would say to help another woman on her journey?
Linda Johannesson (32:06):
I think embrace the power of reflection, and whether it's you reflecting alone to start, start developing those muscles, or whether it is within a group, bringing something to one of the Spark chats or other communities that you're involved with and getting feedback on something and being open to feedback. We can't just stay in our own little zone. We need to get different perspectives to entertain what works and what doesn't for us. So now being open, seeing different perspectives, I think that really helps you to clarify what works for you and what doesn't, but it also helps to expand your realm of possibility and opportunity and surround yourself with great people and people who don't necessarily think like you embrace that diversity. I think we said this on the last call too, that it's one of the things that I am just so grateful to have had in my own career is I worked in a dozen different industries in marketing, branding, customer service, communications, and with men who were 70 years old and women who were 18, and just having that diversity of experience and interaction has helped to give me a broader perspective and know where I fit within that.
Danielle Lewis (33:40):
I love it. Couldn't agree more. Linda, you are absolutely incredible. Thank you for everything that you do. Thank you for being here and sharing your wisdom, and yeah, I can't wait to keep working with you.
Linda Johannesson (33:52):
Yeah. Well, thank you so much for the opportunity, Danielle. It as always, has been a wonderful discussion and I enjoy this part network. I enjoy what you bring to the table, and I really love what I do. It's not everything. It's not my whole me, but it certainly is an enjoyable way to help others to realize their dreams. Yeah, we need more of that.
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