Episode 214: Kind Leaders Build Better Businesses | Lindsay White | Founder, High Voltage Leadership
What if the secret to confident leadership and a thriving workplace was simply… being clear? In this powerful conversation, Lindsay White, founder of High Voltage Leadership, shares how clarity, kindness, and self-trust can transform your leadership and your life. After walking away from a toxic corporate job, Lindsay built a leadership coaching business designed to help female entrepreneurs build culture-rich teams, maintain integrity, and lead from a place of purpose. We talk about the emotional weight of leadership, the role of intuition, and how to stop being the boss you hated and start being the leader your people need.
“I help female founders create incredible leadership, incredible places to work and a ripple effect that goes out from their company.”
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Follow along using the Transcript
CHAPTERS
00:00 Welcome and snowy Canadian intros
01:00 What is High Voltage Leadership?
03:00 Quitting corporate after a toxic boss
05:00 How coaching changed Lindsay's life
07:30 From burnout to building a business
09:45 The link between integrity and authentic leadership
12:00 Confidence comes from doing hard things
14:30 Why unfinished tasks drain your leadership energy
16:00 Using pain as an indicator for growth
17:30 Women are trained out of trusting their intuition
20:00 Founder fraud and the shame spiral
23:00 Self-empathy as an entrepreneurial superpower
26:00 Why your best clients should feel like VIPs
29:00 The myth that clarity is mean
31:00 Setting expectations in small business leadership
34:00 Why she works with female entrepreneurs
36:30 The ripple effect of empowered women leaders
39:00 What 8-year-old Lindsay wouldn’t have predicted
41:30 Her surprise takeaway from starting a business
43:30 What she’s manifesting now
I always use the phrase clear as kind. When you are clear with people, you are being kind to them because you are giving them the expectation. You are allowing them an insight into what you need and desire and want. And particularly when we run our own businesses, so many of us have come from a place where we had a terrible boss.
That's Lindsay White of High Voltage Leadership. I'm Kara Duffy, and this is The Powerful Ladies podcast.
Welcome to The Powerful Ladies Podcast. Woo-hoo. Let's begin by telling everybody who you are, where you are, and what you're up to in the world. Yeah.
I'm Lindsay White and I'm the founder of High Voltage Leadership. I'm located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
The snowy north today. Oh, it's, it is. I like a map of North America's weather today, and there is a literally something happening in every corner possible.
We had a power outage at my house last night. The winds are crazy around here. There's a. Blizzard warning in Southern California for the first time in 20 years. Yeah. That's bananas.
I just wanna apologize because that polar vortex is coming straight down from the Arctic. Yes, that's correct.
Santa Claus lives in the North Pole, that's in Canada. He has a Canadian passport. Just so we're all clear and we apologize that we've sent you our super shitty weather buckle up.
It is so crazy and like Salt Lake City's like it has been snowing for 24 hours straight. I'm like, okay. Yeah,
that's what we got.
We got about a foot and a half of snow in about 14 hours, and now we're used to that. Yeah. But it still made things a little tricky here, to be perfectly honest with you. And we're still trying to dig ourselves out a little bit, but yeah, no, it's, and it's about minus 25 degrees Celsius, which I don't even know what that is, Fahrenheit.
It's cold.
It's very cold. Probably like negative 40 ish. Yeah. Something around there. It's recently miserable. So while you're, freezing in Canada. Yes. You ha have started this company called High Voltage Leadership, which to me, instantly sounds sounding a lot warmer than what you're dealing with outside.
Yeah. What is high voltage leadership and where did this business come from? Yeah.
Great question. So high voltage actually comes from my life purpose statement, which is to be the high voltage extension cord that connects people to their own inner brilliance. That is my purpose on this planet. It's why I'm here.
Love that. And yes. That it really is, it's a phrase that encompasses so many meaningful things to me in terms of my own values and my energy level and the passion that I bring to every relationship and connection that I create. The actual coaching and consulting practice comes out of a couple things.
So I have been in human resources and talent management for 15 years, so I have a pretty extensive background and as a business partner in a lot of those spaces, I've done just about everything from recruitment to organizational design to compensation. I'm not an expert at many of them. I'm a jack of all trades.
And what I love to do is to be able to scale that knowledge that I got from the corporate world, bring it to a female led small business. I also had so many of us. A toxic boss. And for so many of us that have left the corporate world, that is a big reason why we never went back. And I worked for one of those assholes and I quit in the middle of a meeting with her 'cause she was such a jerk, and I was so sick and tired of every time she contacted me it was to give me shit about something stupid.
She was one of those people that would give you half the information and then beat you up because you didn't do what she wanted you to do. And I finally said to her like, I'm not a mind reader. Like enough. And when I left, I was sick physically, mentally, emotionally. I was taking it, the anxiety meds, I was taking sleeping meds.
I went and had some testing done. I literally had no good things left in my body except for iron, because my doctor had me on an iron supplement. I was drained. Like physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. And I was so lucky. I had already recognized, I loved coaching leaders and I worked with a lot of senior leaders, a lot of C-suite executives supporting them as.
They grew their leadership style and strategy and then supporting them in how they built their people strategy and their teams. And so I went immediately from quitting my job into my coaching certification process. I spent 14 months deeply embedded in learning how to be a great coach and I coached, but I knew I wanted to be a fantastic coach, and it's the best thing that I ever did.
And I was really able to immerse myself in the process and the program and just being a coach. And out of that, my own peers challenged me to start my own practice and that became high voltage leadership. And so now that's what I do is I take all of that awesomeness and I. Just use it on a micro scale for female entrepreneurs.
Their teams helping them create incredible cultures, fabulous places to work, they can lead in their business, but also in their life. And the ripple effects of that are astronomical.
First, I love that your peers were the ones that peer pressured you into starting your business. They would call it coaching, but Yes.
Yeah, it was definitely pressure. Yeah. That's what I think is so funny. I, I remember taking a communication and leadership class ages ago when I worked at Puma, and I was living in Germany at the time, so this was the English speaking version of that class. So it was like. Myself and the Italians and people from Spain and Canada and like all the non Germans.
There were a few Germans in the group too because we all were speaking English in the office, but it was mostly the expats and the Italians who were in the group with me were a part of my team and we finished this course and they raised their hand and go. So when are we allowed to use this to get what we want?
Because it is the superpower. Once you know how to communicate powerfully, once you know how to lead, once you know how to coach, like there's this balance of like, when does it become manipulative? Because I. I know how to control the room and get what I want. And the teacher got so embarrassed, she's you're not supposed to use this for bad.
And the guy on my team was like, I don't wanna use it for bad. I wanna use it for what I want. Yeah. And it was such a unique distinction that I will never forget that moment. And so to go back to your peers, like there is this borderline where you're like, I know what's good for you. Let's just push you over there slowly.
Or how about real fast?
Yeah. Yeah. It was, it, it was definitely an interesting moment. I've called all along called myself an accidental entrepreneur. I have absolutely no business running a. Like, I really don't. And my learning curve has been straight up in a lot of ways.
And so if nothing else, I take that back to my clients. All of the hard earned lessons from my own entrepreneurial journey. But yeah, coaching really is about using your powers for good, not evil. There, there's absolutely no doubt, and you have to really learn the practice of self-management.
In order to be a really effective coach, it is not about me. In fact, I am a strong advocate for anyone that you see on Instagram that calls himself a coach. And all it is pictures of them run and hide. That is the opposite of what you need to look for. Yeah. In a good coach. It is, ultimately you really have to have the best of purpose and intention behind what you're trying to create as a coach, or it does go horribly wrong.
It really can. And that's why I think integrity matters so much yes. And I don't think it absolutely you need this in a coach or any other sort of influential role, but just in general with businesses, yeah. Anything that's gonna trip us up or get in our way or have be a mindset thing that we have to overcome, it's so often ties back to this integrity piece and.
I, what I end up working with a lot of clients through is, how can you be a hundred percent you and be in integrity at the same time?
Yeah.
And I think that's such an interesting conversation to have. How does the integrity piece fit into your world, and what advice do you give in that space?
Yeah.
You know what I, integrity is a really important value for me, and authenticity is my core value. Yeah. I spent a lot of years not being able to be myself. I am the anti HR lady. Yeah. Where most HR people, let's be honest, is a pink job. Most HR ladies are yes people. And they are compliant and they say yes, and they don't argue and they don't push back.
I'm the opposite of that. I'm completely disruptive. I truly am high voltage, right? So I don't fit the mold and I spend a lot of time trying to be the square peg in the round hole doesn't work. So authenticity for me is key, but high integrity, always doing what is right, even when no one's watching, even when it's harder and even when it doesn't make you money.
And that's what I talk a lot about with my clients is if that's what you want as one of your corporate values is integrity, because that's important to you, then you need to do it even when it actually doesn't make a whole lot of sense sometimes, but you do it because it's the right thing to do. And I think that can line up with authenticity because if you truly believe that integrity is a value of yours, then it should fit neatly.
Inside of who you are authentically does that, you're nodding, so that makes sense to you. It makes sense
to me. And integrity is to me, like living in integrity and living authentically. Like they're almost saying the same thing because if you're not being authentic to yourself, then you're not in integrity with your expression and what your passion is and what you could be doing.
Like integrity is when we talk about wanting alignment. I think that word resonates with people sometimes easier than integrity. 'cause we put like morality behind integrity sometimes. Yeah. And we don't need to. But if you wanna live in aligned, purposeful life, then it's gonna have a lot of integrity because.
It just means that things are where they're supposed to be like.
And it means that you are truly passionate about uncovering where they are not.
Yes.
Because to be someone with high integrity, to live in that integrity, you have to be prepared for people to call you out and give you strong feedback when you are not, so that you can recognize.
Because it's not a, this isn't a straight narrow path. It is a winding, bumpy road. And sometimes you will find yourself outside of your integrity and you need someone to yank your chain. So you have awareness and can recognize, oh, wait a minute, there's the line. It's way back there. Holy shit.
Whoops. Like I didn't mean that. I bet. I guess I better fix that immediately. That's what being integrity is, again, doing it even if it's hard.
Yeah. And people often ask me as well, like, how do I build confidence? And I'm like, that's how that Yeah. Doing the integrity work, like doing things that are hard doing it when no one else is looking because you can't, magic wand someone to have confidence.
You can only get it right. You can only get it by doing hard things. It's the only way. Yeah.
I think that's such a great comment. Like the confidence comes from doing the hard things, doing the hard work. Doing the digging right. Really uncovering and facing and I think for so many people, what I see is.
We will do, we'll go to incredible lengths as human beings to avoid the difficult things. Most importantly, the difficult emotions. Oh, we're so sneaky at it. We will shop until we drop. We will smoke or drink, or have sex or gamble. We will do all sorts of self-destructive shit to avoid dealing with the difficult stuff.
And it never ceases to amaze me that when you actually get into the difficult stuff, it's not nearly as hard as your brain made it out to be. No. It's not nearly a scary or ter but, and it's in that process that you gain confidence in knowing my shit's not that bad. Yeah.
I'm okay.
And that alone is.
Yeah, no, it that alone is a huge part. I think of the being confident in a room space, even if like silly things like I, I'll work with people going through just like a, an integrity checklist, which can have things like, my car's not washed, or I need an oil change, or Right. Like for a long time on my list was like, fix the screen door and it was just like never, it was haunting me on the to-do list.
But we don't realize that these things that we know are not the way they should be. The things that you're like, why does it matter if there's dishes in my sink? I'm like, because if you show up and you need to rock it in a presentation or to a client, all of that's gonna weigh on you as not being done.
Yeah, not being handled. And it can sound so silly, but I guarantee anyone listening, if you spend two hours just going around putting all the silly things back into integrity, cleaning them up, putting them back where they should be, you'll be shocked at how be. Different you feel 'cause of how you are viewing yourself differently.
Yeah. I, I think procrastination in that same way is such a great indication. Yeah. If you're procrastinating on something and I'm, I've got my hand up. Oh yeah. I have something that I've carried forward on my planner for the last three weeks. I don't wanna deal with it. Yep. If you are doing that, it is a pretty good indication.
There's something important going on there. What is that thing? That's the work, right? That's something that you actually need to get into and it's a great place to bring that to a coach because they will hold you down and open you up and really help you see what's in, like what is in that is causing you to not do it.
So I love it. I think some of those and this is, I do a lot of work with positive intelligence. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the book or the philosophy, but it's those hot stove moments. We would call it those moments when you feel the pain, like if you have your hand on the red hot stove, that's the moment that you know, something's up.
There's work to do there. Now get your hand off the stove, like stop. Stop touching. Like, why are you holding your hand on that hot? Knock it off. But if you use the pain to, to frame a word, if you use the pain as an indicator, that is a really good point at which you need to start thinking about.
There's something here for me.
And what I often see people doing as well is like blaming themselves for overreacting or. Not being able to handle something, and I'm like no. Whatever your natural reaction is to something, it's correct, but let's, we don't, that's just the reaction.
It's sorry. It's just the trigger. It's not the reaction. So it's triggering. You trust it, it's telling you something, but we have to dig under it because the first trigger response is never the. The real one, the one that's gonna help you live your best life. It's never those things, but there's so much, I'm not sure how to articulate this movement.
In modern Western society, there's an element of we don't trust ourselves because we think the way we react to things is broken or wrong, and we don't use all the intuition that we actually have to our advantage, especially in those hot stove moments.
Yeah. Oh, a hundred percent. And I think in particular as females I think we are trained out of using our intuition. I'll never forget, this was like an Oprah moment from way back. So people are gonna be able to judge my age here. She had someone on the show and I don't remember in particular, but it was like a personal safety expert and this expert was, had said something about a gazelle would never get in an elevator with a lion.
Yeah. But we do that all the time. As women, we know something is wrong with that guy on the elevator. And we get in anyways because we're taught to be polite. Yeah. Who gives a shit? I'm never gonna see this guy again. Why do I have to be polite? Whoa. And honestly, I've seen it in my own, I have two girls and I have two boys.
I've seen it in my own girls where situations have developed because we don't trust our own intuition because we have to be nice. Yeah. Whether that's society or our parents or whatever. Blame it on whoever you want, but we are, we're trained out of trust your gut. If you just stop for a moment, get quiet.
The right answer is right there. But we are told over and over again, particularly in our corporate lives, that we should not listen to that conversation. It's
bullshit. There's, I honestly think if I had to put a percentage on it, probably 40% of what I do for people is mindset oriented, and within that 40%, that's mindset oriented.
Assuming the other parts like plans and structures and like actual math to make the business work, I would guess in that mindset portion, we spend 80% of our time. Unpacking and deleting and taser, dusting all the shoulds. Yeah. I'm like, why, what, how do we stop this cycle of, as someone said on a recent podcast, becoming an emotional Sherpa?
Yeah, totally. A hundred percent. Yeah. I think the short answer is we don't I don't know if we'll ever get rid of it. Yeah. And actually, ironically, I think there's more of that shit now than ever. And I do believe our social media pipes into that. I'm as guilty as the next person. I doom scroll through Instagram and think about, oh my gosh, look at all these coaches with their seven figure businesses, and I don't have that.
Oh my. And then I'm like, wait a minute. Anybody can rent a Lamborghini and lean up against it for a photo shoot like time out. That is absolutely made up. It's completely false. It's totally fabricated. It's com it's complete bullshit. That person flies economy just like I do.
Yeah.
I saw, yeah, like it's garbage.
It. It's such a, it's one of those tools. I was just listening to an interview with the CEO of Pinterest. 'cause they're really pushing hard to change the AI to give you content for good versus give you content for screen time. 'cause content for screen time leads you towards anything controversial, triggering.
It just increases aggression and things that are not good for culture and society at large. So they're really pushing. Of course, like you go on Pinterest and maybe you get a little envious of someone's kitchen or apartment or whatever. Sure. But that's the it's a place of hope. Like we're building boards of like visions.
Thank you. And he's like, why can't the other platforms be like this? Like why are we letting the AI control what we see? Wow. Versus what we should have. So it was really interesting 'cause I do think. It goes both ways. One short
answer to that, and we all know what the answer is. It makes money, it a ton of money.
Just follow the dollar bills. And you'll find the reasoning behind it. It's not any more complicated or more simple than that. Mark Zuckerberg makes a shit ton of money because you doom scroll on Facebook and it just constantly feeds you the crap that your, your brain is hooked to.
It's, yeah, it's so crazy. But I wanna come back to the founder fraud thing, right? Yes. Because I think you hit on that, and that's really important I think, in leadership space.
Yeah.
I still, I keep them, I have two copies of a magazine that I saw that had a similar title to Powerful Ladies that was featuring women up to cool things.
And I got this magazine. I found it just as we were starting this company. And I bawled my eyes out because I just had one of those rollercoaster breakdown days and I went, it's already done. I don't have a space. Like I just lost my ship and it was complete nonsense. I don't even think the magazine exists anymore.
I don't think it made it another six months after I saw it. But it, like I had, I honestly thought, I can't do this for about three hours. And then I was like, you know what? Fuck it. I'm gonna do it anyway. But there's so many times in. My business, my clients, just in being a human. When you think someone else is doing it, they're doing it better.
There's no room for me. I'm not good enough. Like we are so shitty to ourselves. So what advice do you have for leaders or entrepreneurs about getting out of that space? Yeah,
it's as simple and as complicated as this. Give yourself some empathy. Give yourself some empathy. It's okay. It is okay to look at that Pinterest page, at that magazine cover, at that Instagram account and think I'm a shitty loser.
To have that moment and just sit with it. Don't run away from it. Sit with it and put your hand on your heart and have some empathy that is how you feel right now today.
Once you do that, it has way less power to control how you're gonna show up in the next moment and the next moment and the next moment.
And part of the reason why I love talking to other coaches, part of the reason we're doing the International Women's Day thing, that may have probably aired before this one, so go back and listen to it, everybody.
Yeah. Is because I want. I want to set the example of look at all of these coaches who all have careers. They're all doing their life, they're all have clients. Everyone's doing great. There's so much room for everybody. A hundred percent. But again, it comes back to being authentic to yourself, to your point, 'cause like people who are gonna be attracted to you as a coach versus me are gonna have totally different needs and wants.
All the things, and they could work with all of us at some point, because at different points in your life it makes sense. It's like exactly why I also don't have the capacity. I love everyone and I can't help you all. Like I just can't. I can't work all the hours that people, my current clients want me to.
Exactly.
And I do think, from an external perspective, that is a hundred percent true. I also think what's been valuable for me as a coach and a business owner is recognizing who I do my best work with. Yes. Who I enjoy working with the most. Because especially when you're starting a new business.
You think, oh my gosh, there may not be space for me and I'm never gonna make any money. I'm gonna be a huge failure. And all that shit's floating around in your head. Circular, the shame spiral. I actually sometimes you can go on a shame bender. Like it could be two or three days of that shit.
I've had one of those. But it, but the reality is that there is no one like you, nobody's the same. And so no business is going to be exactly the same. Yeah. Unless they copy you. And that's. Legal problems. Rude and no integrity. No integrity. And even then, are they going to be able to do it the same way you do?
Are they gonna deliver the same way you deliver? No, they're not. But we also have to recognize who do we do our best work with. Because that's what we derive incredible pleasure and fulfillment from the work we get to do. And when you match those two things up well, that's where the magic really starts to happen.
It's never gonna to be the same. Like it just couldn't possibly. No, and I think when you frame it that way, that you're not just showing up in the world that you get to, you're in choice all the time. Wow. That's a completely different perspective on where you're at.
It's this it's abundance, it's it's having belief, it's having faith that you can actually do it.
Knowing like we, if. If you know that you are standing in the space that you're supposed to be in it, sh things shift it. I can't coach people who don't have any belief. It's possible if you show up with a little window, I just need a window. Yeah. And we can make magic happen a little bit, but if people show up and they're like, no, I don't, it's not possible.
I'm like I gotta move on. Yeah, there are people who. Have so much belief and all they need is to fix one structure and everything changes for them. That's gonna be fun. And this isn't this, I think what you're saying is true for all businesses, not just coaching, Oh yeah, everyone should be choosing their, who they work with at that level.
Like a hundred percent. Yeah. I don't want clients that, I don't wanna go on vacation with the end.
No, I, you know what? It was really powerful for me to really explore and I had done, I'll tell you honestly, I'd done all that client avatar work. I actually gotta the point where I was like, if one more coach or consultant tells me I've gotta spend more time, my client avatar, I am gonna throw.
A tantrum I'm gonna have a full scale meltdown client. Don't say client avatar to me ever again. And then I actually went and did some work with a coach, and he was like, yeah, that stuff's all garbage. And I was like, oh, we thought, hallelujah. He was like, no, what we're gonna talk about is your velvet rope.
Who are you letting in? Who's on the special guest list? Yeah. Who you said, who do I wanna go on vacation with? Who do I want in the VIP area? That's how I yeah. Who do I wanna party with? Yep. Those are the people that I do great work with. They experience incredible transformation for themself, for their business.
And they get what I do. Intuitively, they understand that the connection between the leadership coaching and the culture and the talent consulting and they understand the ecosystem that is it's intuitive for them. Hallelujah. That's easy work to do. It's fun. Everybody goes home happy.
Everybody has lots of success. And the money rolls, right? The end mic drop done.
But I, so many. People are petrified about being leaders. They're they are petrified about hiring wrong. They're petrified about micromanaging. Like we are so afraid to be the person that we are. We hate and revile. Yeah. And I'm like, guys, if you hate that person that much, it's gonna be really hard to be them.
Even if you think you're getting close.
Yeah,
Please. I have to tell people to be more mean on a regular basis, and not that people should ever be mean in the workplace, but it's a euphemism for to do things that they're like that's so aggressive. And I'm like, all you did was ask for the copier to have paper in it all the time.
That's, you're not declaring war. Yeah.
I think you bring up such a great point and the phrase I often use, and I absolutely love Brene Brown. I would totally stalk her if I lived in Houston. She's allowed in the VIP area hundred 10, she's one of the first people in the VIP area. I love her.
And I love that she's just speaking of integrity. Like she's just so bold with her integrity. But. I always use the phrase clear as kind. When you are clear with people, you are being kind to them because you are giving them the expectation. You are allowing them an insight into what you need and desire and want.
And particularly when we run our own businesses, so many of us have come from a place where we had a terrible boss. It's the truth. And so we swing the pendulum the other way and we become don't use the term servant leader with me 'cause I really don't like that. But we become a doormat leader. Like we just let our people walk all over us.
We'll, time out. That's no way to run a business. No. And it's certainly no way to create a great culture. So when you are clear with people, you are kind to them because they understand what is expected of them and they can deliver. And if they don't deliver, they're not working in the right place.
So help them find the right place where they can deliver it. 'cause we all wanna do great work. Yeah, maybe that sounds a little Pollyanna, but I do believe that. I believe people want to do meaningful great work. They do. Yes. Tell them what that is, and then let them decide if they still wanna participate.
Yeah. And if they don't make it easy for them to go away, and if they do, make it easy for them to achieve, that's your job as a leader. No matter if you are working a big business or you have a team of three, that's as, it's as simple and as complicated as that.
There's so many words that we think are bad words in the workplace.
Like selfish is bad, direct is bad. Being a diva is bad. And it's there's a lot of, they can't, they don't have to be, they don't have to be, they don't have to be at all and all so many things. There's a spectrum, right? There's demanding green m and ms every step you take versus like just asking for what you want and not feeling guilty about it.
Yeah, because that's what you've hired them to do. You talked earlier about recruitment is difficult and certainly I do a lot of work with my clients around recruitment strategy and branding and execution because it is such a complicated part, especially in a small business.
Every hire is important and impactful and expensive. Because let's be clear, recruitment is expensive. If you're just clear with yourself right from the start. You create a clear expectation right from the job posting, then you can create a clear expectation for the execution and the follow through.
And then it's your responsibility to make sure there's continued clarity again, as simple and as complicated as that. But if you are not clear, how the hell is anybody else going to be clear?
And we've all been on those projects where you're like, wait, why are we doing this? Who decided this? Yeah.
Everyone knows that. We're just going this is gonna go off a cliff. We're okay. We all sign off on, off the cliff plan. Okay.
Who's driving? Who is driving the, I'm on the bus. Who's driving the bus? Or do we have like animal from the Muppets? Driving the bus. That's scary. People just wanna know what you want them to do and that you are there to help them remove the roadblocks to do it.
And if they can't do it, that they can talk to you about, Hey, I'm back of trouble.
Yeah. What made you want to focus on female small business owners in particular?
That's a great question. Because I've worked with lots of men. I still do, I have male clients they sneak in every once in a while. That's not true.
I wanted to focus on female business owners because I think what we've just talked about is the truth. I think a lot of women leave corporate business for, there's a couple big reasons. The first one is the toxic. The second one is because they have children and they decide that working corporate nine to five with a two hour commute every day is not going to fit their lifestyle and they wanna be a high quality mom.
I respect that. I have four kids. I wanna be a high quality mom. And then, they have a deep desire to create. They have a longing to create something, whether that's a product or a service that they're really passionate about. But what inevitably happens is that they don't anticipate the leadership part.
I have a great product. I want to sell it. I have a great service. I want to sell it. Holy shit. Suddenly I have 16 people working for me and I don't know what to do with them. Yeah, or I got out of leadership at the corporate level because I didn't have a great example. I didn't get lots of support and training, and I really dislike it again.
Holy shit. Now I have 15 people reporting to me in my own business, and they're all looking at me. To make decisions and to guide the ship and I don't know if that's really what, and so to me that was what was really important is these incredible, inspired, passionate women just need the opportunity to step into their own leadership, really own it in their business, but also in their life.
Because for all of us, being a business owner, a business leader is just one role. We are mothers, sisters, aunties, best friends. Whatever. Those roles are equally as important to us as our role as business owner as CEO, whatever you wanna call it. And so if we embrace our own authentic leadership style, we can show up better in all of those spaces.
And to me, so many that's the key, right? That's the key.
And study after study shows that when more women are in leadership positions. Not in all of them. I'm not saying we need to have women leaders exclusively, but when there's more women leaders, the results tend to be more profitable, happier workplace environments.
There's so many good metrics and I find it really shocking because they, there was a similar say they came outta about kids in grade school. Girls are trained to be more leader, more, sorry, excuse me. Girls are trained to be better leaders, whereas boys were not asked to be leaders at all at that age.
And yet it reverses in society so far, whereas suddenly men are expected to be leaders, but women are, men are told not to be. And it's such strange conditioning because it's the opposite of what you would expect based on how we started on this journey. And yeah, the phrase that I'm sure you've heard a million times so how the mom goes, the home goes, how the women go, the community goes, oh, a hundred percent.
And it's like that ripple effect you talked about before. Giving one woman a successful business changes so much that is not measured enough in statistics to really look at GDP impact and health and wellness impact in so many other things.
And I can't remember the study, so I'm not gonna quote this properly, but it was micro loans for women in villages in Africa. Don't ask me where, don't ask me when, don't ask me how much, but what they uncovered was when, and we're talking like tens or hundreds of dollars micro, micro loans for these women in their villages to create some kind of business.
The ripple effects were astronomical. Women and girls became better educated. They became a force for good. They created more collaboration, like all of it. It was beautiful. And I hope that it's still continuing. I had a boss that used to do that regularly. They paid their loans back faster than ever, right?
Like it is, the truth is when women own and lead organizations big or small. The cultural shifts have incredible ripple effects. This is why I love to help women business owners be more impactful leaders and create really great places to work because everyone in that business and their family, and their kids and their relatives and the communities they get involved in the sports and activity, everything benefits.
Yeah, the impacts are enormous. It doesn't matter if it's a six figure business or an eight figure business or whatever. The ripples can be felt for ages.
Yeah. If we go back to 8-year-old, you would, she have imagined that this is what you your life is today and how you're making an impact.
No, I don't think so. I really am an accidental entrepreneur. It is not ever what I imagined I would do. My parents were, my dad was a mount of policeman. My mom was a teacher for 35 years. They both have government pensions. That's the family I was raised in. My parents worked very hard and earned their beautiful retirement.
They're currently in Texas, enjoying the sunshine. So no 8-year-old me would not have imagined that. In fact, I have a political science and a history degree. Love it. I came to business and then specifically into HR in my twenties and in my thirties. I, if I won the lottery tomorrow, I would actually go back and get three P PhDs.
I I would go and do research and archives and history and genealogy and all that stuff. So no 8-year-old me would never have imagined that I would be doing this stuff.
What has surprised you the most about how having this business has changed you?
Yeah, I think first and foremost, like I said, I had a straight up learning curve.
So I have learned a ton about myself in particular and how I want this business to be a reflection of me. So I love that because I've learned at the same time that I've been coaching and consulting on this exact same step. So it's really reinforced what I already knew to be true. It's absolutely shifted the way I view my own leadership.
How I show up in my community, it's changed the things that I get involved in because it's caused me to be more focused and to feel more passionate about how my values are going to resonate outside of the walls that are my own home where I run my business. Yeah. So it's been deeply impactful for me.
Yeah. We ask everyone on the podcast where you put yourself on the Powerful Lady Scale. If zero is your average everyday human, and 10 is the most powerful lady you can imagine, where would you put yourself today and where would you put yourself on average?
Yeah, so I'm coming off a migraine yesterday, so today I'm probably like a four or a five 'cause my brain is still a little foggy.
I would tell you that normally in terms of power I mean I'm high voltage. I like to operate right at an eight or a nine. I certainly recognize there are some really powerful ladies that I see as 10, 10 plus, and I think, yeah, that's who I aspire to be. That's the business I wanna have.
That's the passion that I wanna pour into things I do. That's the way I wanna show up. Now they're five or six, or eight or 10 years ahead of me in their business journey, so I also recognize I'm gonna grow into that.
I can't imagine not having inspiring people that you're chasing after.
To me, that just makes it so fun. Like I remember in the corporate world when I got to a point where there weren't many people above me anymore, it was boring because I was like okay, I don't really wanna go any higher and now what? So I like being in a space where there's always gonna be.
Beyonce, we were like, huh, yeah, I didn't think about that. I think I need to add that to my list of goals. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. We've also been asking everyone lately on the podcast what do you need? What's on your wishlist? How can we help? I love the idea of having a to manifest list and a to-do list, and this is a pretty powerful connected community.
So if if you treated powerful ladies like a genie, what would you ask for? Oh yeah. Rub the bottle, baby.
Yeah. First and foremost I'm a I'm a connector at heart. Connection is a big value for me, and so I love connecting with other strong, powerful women who want to be great leaders and who wanna grow really beautiful work environments, wanna have great cultures.
So I always wanna connect with women like that. So that would be number one. Connect with me. So come and find me. I'm not hard to find. I think the second piece is this message around the positive intelligence and the way that work has shifted the way, it's work. I still do every.
And the way that it's shifted how I view myself and my own saboteurs, that nasty little, sneaky little jerk of a voice in my own head when I kick the shit outta myself that's, that, that is work. I seriously, I think that's like the human condition. I think it's work everybody needs to do. And so my second wish would be that everyone check out the positive intelligence pieces and how it can be of service to them.
Real
quick, before you go to three. Did have you named your that mean voice in your head by any chance?
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Her name is L Oh, okay.
Me. Yeah. Sense. Yeah. I a friend of mine named her Fran. And so she'll be like, fuck you, Fran, and tell Fran to get lost sometimes. I love it.
But then she got married and her mother-in-law is named Fran, and she's do I change the name and we're like, you can't, like you've already been yelling at her for all this time. So you just have to have two friends in your life now.
Yeah. But you just better be careful about which one you're talking to.
Yeah. Like company. That's tricky. Yeah. I love. Getting up close and personal with those conversations that are in your own head and what are the behaviors they are driving? I love doing that work. Every time I run a cohort of people through the program and do the group coaching with them, I learn something.
It never ceases to amaze me the way people absorb and interact with their own saboteur and the new. Interesting creative ways they think and see it and how that shines a light on the work I still need to do. 'cause Lord knows I just, when I think I got it figured out, my saboteur runs and does something shitty and I go into a shame spiral anyways.
That, that is number two. That work to me is very meaningful and I love to talk about it and promote it. And because I think everyone can find value from that. And what would be the third piece? Such a great question. I think for me the third piece would be if man, this is my brain not working today.
What would be number three on my list? Those two things are
both so big and powerful for me. It can be small. We have to manifest a free coffee sometimes
yeah. I think that, yeah. The third piece for me would be really having everyone who's listening today spend some time reflecting on who they are as a leader.
What is my style? How do I wanna show up and lead? And not just if you're running your own business, but lead in your life. Lead, lead as a parent, lead as a sister, lead as a B, F, F. If we all stopped in this world and reflected a little bit more on how we wanna lead ourself and how we wanna show up in that role in our communities, in our cultures, man, I think the world would be a different place.
So maybe that's what I would put as number three.
That's why I'm doing my thing too. 'cause Yeah, it really, these are the things that will change the world because it. Has that ongoing carry over effect that we've been talking about. And I love that you talked about reflect on your leadership style because you have a quiz on your website that can send people to.
I do. So for people who wanna take the leadership style quiz, if they wanna find you, follow you, work with you, where can they do all of that?
Yeah, so you can find me and the quiz@highvoltageleadership.ca and the, there's a just a button at the top of the page that says, take the quiz. And the quiz is, it's fun, it's interesting.
It's only gonna take you a few minutes. And I've, I, I'm so gratified 'cause I've gotten some really great feedback on it. Like people have found that it is, it's something that's insightful but not heavy. Like this is not psychometric testing everybody. Just to be clear and I share some of my top tips depending on the, on this different style.
It just gives you something to reflect on and to think about. So actually that's a great thing. Go and do the quiz. And then you can find out more about me and what I do and the people that I work with on the
website as well. Amazing. It has been such a pleasure to talk to you today.
Thank you so much for taking time outta your busy schedule, and I'm excited to have you be part of our International Women's Day conversation too. Thank you so much.
I'm super jazzed about that.
Amazing. We will wrap it up there if that works for you. Is there anything else you wanted to say? Okay.
No, I love it.
Come and find me. Connect with me on social media. I love that.
All the links to connect with Lindsay and High Voltage leadership are in our show notes@thepowerfulladies.com. Please subscribe to this podcast wherever you're listening, and leave us a rating and review. They're critical for podcast visibility. Come join us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies, and if you're looking to connect directly with me, visit kara duffy.com or Kara Duffy on Instagram.
I'll be back next week with a brand new episode and new amazing guest. Until then, I hope you're taking on beam powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
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Instagram: highvoltleadership
Website: highvoltageleadership.ca
LinkedIn: lindsay-white-high-voltage
Email: lindsay.white@highvoltageleadership.ca
Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud
