The Tribe has Spoken

You have had a hand in the digital transformation of so many companies that change the way we do so many things how we invest, how we pay for things, even how we sign documents and contracts. That means having to sell a lot of new ideas to others. Do you have a process for selling a new idea? What advice would you give on that?

So, sometimes you use the disadvantage to your advantage. So one of the things that many women know is you're often the only woman in the room, you have an idea, you say it it's ignored. And then a man says it later and everyone listens. So, I've actually used the making it somebody else's idea. I don't have to have ownership, right? If I want the idea to succeed, if I want things to move forward, I don't have an ego around ownership of the idea. It's the idea itself that has to have the merit. So, finding someone else whose voice is going to be heard to present that idea is one strategy that I have regularly used. The other is when I was pregnant with my first daughter, the show television show Survivor came, and this concept of the survivor alliance was something I picked up from that show. I'm like in business, this is really important. You've got to have your survivor alliance. And so in every company that I've gone into, I found my survivor alliance and then bringing your ideas to that survivor alliance. And that way, like everyone in that alliance can be helping either shape the idea to get it better which is always a great idea, but also being an advocate. So, when you do bring it up in whatever form you're bringing it up and to get it sold, you already have other individuals around the table who were like, yeah, I think that's a great idea. What about this, this and this too. So, the combination of making your idea somebody else's idea, so it will be heard and using others in an alliance kind of way to bring those ideas into the forefront is two strategies that have been really successful for me.