Heart-Centered Leadership and Modern Sales Strategies with Lyndsay Dowd
What do you do when your career takes an unexpected turn?
In this episode of Bold Moves, Confident Choices, Lyndsay Dowd shares her bold transition from 25 years in corporate America to entrepreneurship. After climbing the ranks at IBM, a sudden career change led her to discover new passions and a heart-centered approach to leadership.
Lyndsay opens up about how investing in herself and building her personal brand transformed her life. Now, as Chief Revenue Officer at Intry Careers and host of the Heartbeat for Hire podcast, Lyndsay helps others build modern leadership skills and create cultures that drive results.
Listen to Lyndsay's inspiring journey of taking risks, embracing change, and leading with heart to redefine success in the professional world.
Must-Hear Insights and Key Moments
Lyndsay’s 25 years in corporate America, including 23 years at IBM
Her bold decision to leave the corporate world and transition to entrepreneurship
The challenges she faced when fired from her new job and how she rebuilt her career
How she built her personal brand and embraced podcasting despite initial doubts
The importance of personal boards of advisors and building a supportive community
Advice on navigating career shifts and entrepreneurial challenges
How LinkedIn and social media have become vital tools for personal and professional growth
Insights on leadership, personal branding, and creating cultures that drive results
Words of Wisdom: Standout Quotes from This Episode
"There’s no such thing as job security, you have to do this for yourself. You have to project who you are to the world and if you don’t do that, you’re missing a big opportunity." - Lyndsay Dowd
"Your brand is not your job or your company, that’s a job that you do. I would argue most people are multi-hyphenates and that’s just a fancy way of saying you can do a lot of things and be known for a lot of things." - Lyndsay Dowd
"You have to be willing to be open to new opportunities. Don’t mistake your company for your community; don’t let fear stop you from trying new things." - Lyndsay Dowd
"The beautiful thing about being an entrepreneur or taking a bold step is you can surround yourself with energy that helps you make good decisions and push forward."
- Lyndsay Dowd"When you’re in your early 18 to 25 years, everything is coming at you fast. It’s a real special time for growth and building relationships that will serve you throughout your life."- Lyndsay Dowd
It’s super rewarding when you give time to people and you meet people that you never thought would be in your life and they teach you things you never knew.” - Courtney Turich
Mentioned in this Episode
About Lyndsay Dowd
Lyndsay Dowd is a renowned Speaker, Founder, Author, Coach, and Podcast Host with a passion for transforming leadership and organizational culture.
With over 25 years of experience in the corporate world, including 23 years at IBM, Lyndsay has successfully led large, high-performing sales teams. Her expertise in leadership and culture led her to create Heartbeat for Hire, where she focuses on building irresistible cultures and modern leadership practices that drive results.
A two-time author of Top Down Culture and a contributing writer to Voices of Women, Lyndsay has been featured in major publications including Fortune Magazine and HR.com. She hosts the globally ranked podcast Heartbeat for Hire and is a frequent guest speaker.
Currently, she serves as Chief Revenue Officer at Intry, a company merging technology with humanity to help job seekers land their dream jobs. Lyndsay is recognized as a Top 10 Business Coach by Apple News and was named Business Coach of the Year in 2023
Follow Lyndsay Dowd:
Stay Connected with Courtney Turich:
A Team Dklutr Production
BLOG TRANSCRIPT
Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies
Courtney Turich: Hey, everyone. It's your host, Courtney Turich, with Bold Moves, Confident Choices. We're here to talk with leaders and entrepreneurs about making fearless decisions and taking charge of our own path. Let's get real, get bold, and take charge of our future.
I am super honored for today's guest, Lyndsay Dowd. She is the Chief Revenue Officer for Intry. A keynote speaker, two-time author, and host of the globally ranked Heartbeat for Hire podcast, she believes in heart-centered leadership because it drives results. Not only that, she is a wiener dog lover and a mom of twins. Lyndsay Dowd, I am super excited to have you with us today.
Without further ado, girl, please jump in and share your story with us.
Lyndsay’s Bold Leap: From Corporate to Entrepreneur
Lyndsay Dowd: Well, first, let me just say, I'm super excited to be with you. I love what you're doing. I love how you're highlighting these people who are making these bold moves because if you don't, life is pretty dull. So, I made a bunch of bold moves that I didn't really intend to make, but I'll just start by sharing.
I spent 25 years in corporate America and 23 of them were climbing the ranks at IBM. I started in customer service and worked my way up to executive, and I used to manage big sales teams for them. And, after 23 years, I was ready for a change, which is kind of weird because my family put in 105 years at Big Blue.
So my husband, my father, my father-in-law, my mother-in-law, everyone thought I would die there. I didn't. And another company sought me out and said, would you come run a sales team for us? And I said, sure. So I packed up my big blue legacy, which was a very bold move at the time. And I went to this other company and I knew it was going to be hard because it was all new stuff and new people, new politics.
And in six very short months. They fired me. Wow. And I was gutted. I was devastated. I thought I was the only executive on earth that was ever fired. I thought no one would ever want to work with me again. I really didn't know what to do with myself for a solid month. And at the end of that month, I asked myself three questions.
What do I love to do? What am I really good at and how can I help people the most? And I knew how to build modern leaders and I knew how to create an irresistible culture that drives results. I have done it many times. I taught other leaders how to do it. And so I started my company heartbeat for hire now. I used to run all kinds of first-of-a-kind businesses for IBM.
So I thought I had all the chops I needed to go start my own company wrong. I did not have the right skill set to be an entrepreneur. So that was in and of itself a bold move because I had to figure it out. But on the way I started a podcast, as you said, I wrote a couple of books. I started coaching C suites and individual leaders and I started keynoting and I started teaching LinkedIn workshops because I understood how important personal branding was along that path in the last few months. I encountered Jennifer Sethry, who's the CEO of Intry Careers, and she has this patented resume technology.
She asked me to participate in a boot camp in July. It was a resounding success. It was a boot camp for job seekers, arming them with everything they would need to go out and crush it in the job-seeking space, and over that time and planning the next one, she offered me the role of chief revenue officer at Intry.
So now we are trying to disrupt that space and giving companies an outplacement alternative while really keeping the heart and humanity in this process. And there are so many good things about that. So I just talked way too long, but, hope that helps.
Courtney Turich: Completely. I love so much of what you do, Lyndsay, and I want to go back to that story a little. So, when you left IBM, went to this other company, and then got let go, was there any part of you that wanted to go back to IBM?
Lyndsay Dowd: A lot of people said, come back, come back, and I just kind of felt that wasn't going to be right for me. I learned incredible things at IBM. I had a really wonderful experience there.
So there's no shade on that, but I really wanted to push myself in a different direction. And here's the reality. When you sit and you ask yourself those questions, it helps you define your why. And many people in the corporate space kind of forget to do that. They go along with it. Career-ish plan. They think that climbing the ranks helps define why they believe that corporate space is their community.
And I just wanted more for myself. I wanted to try different things and it was really scary to invest in myself and to hire a coach and to work with marketing teams and advisors and do things I had never done before. The first advisor that told me I was going to do a podcast, I looked at him like he had four heads and I'm like.
What do you mean? I'm not a journalist. I don't know how to do that. Who's going to want to listen to this? And 122 episodes later, I haven't stopped and I'm scheduled deep into March of next year. So I don't know, you staying open to this sort of stuff would never have happened had I stayed in the corporate world.
And I couldn't have predicted that this was the way it was going to go.
Courtney Turich: Lyndsay, you have such a natural ability to connect with people, to talk with people. It actually shocks me that you never thought of a podcast for yourself because, I listened to it myself and I'm like, wow, it is such a great conversation and you have a way of pulling information out of people so genuinely and authentically, it's very special.
Lessons from the Heartbeat for Hire Podcast
Lyndsay Dowd: I appreciate that. I interview those who I find interesting. And lucky for me, I get to rub elbows with some pretty extraordinary people. And most of these people have become my friends. So that's been a total joy. And now it's at the point where a lot of agencies reach out to me and they say, Hey, do you want this person on your show?
And I've got it to such a high caliber. That I can say no, and I can also invite people that I think might be a stretch for me. So the guest list coming up is extraordinary, but the whole point of the show was to illustrate examples of what good leadership looks and feels like when I keynote and I pull a room and I say, who here has had a bad leader, a hundred percent of the room raises their hands.
Lyndsay Dowd: And when I say who here has had a great leader, it's not that many. And We're not even close. And I just feel like if you've never had a good leader, if you've never been a good leader, how do you know how to make that happen? How do you know what to do? And so this was my attempt at hopefully, whether it's a Super Bowl champ or an Olympian or a CEO or a scientist or a doctor, somebody's message is going to get through to you and it's going to click and you're going to go. That's what that's supposed to look like.
I can do better and I can do right by my people, or I don't want to work for this person anymore. I deserve better. And I want that for myself.
Courtney Turich: Absolutely. And to everyone again, her podcast is the heartbeat for hire. So check her out. I promise she won't be disappointed. And Lyndsay, I have to keep asking some questions before it's your big bold move, but what are the two books that you've published?
Lyndsay’s Powerful Books on Leadership and Women’s Stories
Lyndsay Dowd: Oh, they're right here. The 1st 1 is top-down culture and it's on Amazon. It is a collection of stories of leadership, the tragic, the great, and everything in between. The best compliment I get is from the people who know me today, I heard your voice. So clearly, I feel like you're sitting next to me telling me these stories, which is super cool.
The second is Voices of Women. This is an anthology. These are stories of women leaders from around the world. And I was honored to be asked to be included in that book. And I will tell you the stories are not just business. There are stories with children. There are stories about culture and community.
And if you want to be inspired, it's a great, great buy. So that's also on Amazon.
Courtney Turich: Very cool. So, Lyndsay, let's jump into a big question for you, and you've done so much. As you said, this might be a hard one because they really build upon each other, but When you think about your journey and your path, what would you say was the big, bold move or confident choice that took things to the next level for you.?The Power of Surrounding Yourself with the Right People
Lyndsay Dowd: Personal or professional?
I think my decision to not go back to corporate was really scary. Really scary. And I had parents who absolutely were not entrepreneurs. My mother was a schoolteacher. My father obviously spent 41 years at IBM. so financial security was paramount and they both had their own terrible experiences with financial loss.
So to us, that was a real heavy threat in my upbringing and to say, You know, I took all that commission's money, not all, but some commission's money, and I was going to invest in myself. That was a foreign concept to them. They were not fans. And so to kind of go against. Their advice and their counsel. I think my mom said to me something like, couldn't you just make it a side hustle while you get a job?
And I just kind of said, no, I'm doing this and I don't think I knew what I was doing. And it took a minute. And I stayed really, really open. And the 1 bit of advice I would love to give people is don't mistake your company for your community. 1st of all, you've got to build your own community. There is no such thing as job security. There's only career security.
So when you build your community, you're building your personal board of advisors, your PBA. Those people are the people who know you, they're the people who know what you're made of. They're the people who kick your butt and they're the people who really want to see you win.
And when you are constantly checking in with them saying, I have this opportunity, what do you think? What do you know? They're not always going to give you the answer you want to hear, but they might kick you in the butt just enough. That you'll take that bold move and make that bold step. I had a lot of those people and I still do, who are in my corner, no matter what, you and I are part of the outlier project.
We've got a whole lot of those people. But yeah, you've got to build that for yourself. And I would not be able to make any of these bold moves, without those people kind of cheering me on.
Courtney Turich: So when you talk about this TBA, do you talk, is there a select-like number you have in mind? Do you want it big?
Do you want it small? You know, like, are there layers? Yeah.
Lyndsay Dowd: I mean, uh, a PBA is. Oh, sorry. PBA. Yeah. It's your decision first off. I mean, I think if you were to have a really big one, it might be a little diluted. You want kind of a handful of people who understand you and who really want to see you win, who are not threatened by your success, and the beautiful thing about being an entrepreneur or taking a bold step like you're doing with this show.
And you and I have had so many talks about you doing this, I want to see you crush this. I want to see this show soaring. And I want that cause not cause I have anything to do with it. I want it for you. And when you can surround yourself with that kind of energy, you're going to make good decisions.
So for me, I probably have like six to eight people that I can call. And if I'm really down and doubting myself, which. All of us struggle with this. We all get in our heads. We all think, what am I doing wrong? Am I on the right path? Some months the money's not great and you're like, Oh, how am I going to provide for my family?
I was the breadwinner. So that was a really big shift for our whole family. But when you have those people cheering you on saying, girl, you've got this now get it go fly. It changes the way you view yourself. It changes the way you view your potential and it's just really, really important to build it for yourself.
Courtney Turich: So for everyone. Lyndsay introduced me to the outlier project, which is this beautiful community of like-minded individuals who are all trying to elevate themselves to be better in this world. It took me a while to actually jump in, but once I took the leap again, thanks to Lyndsay, it has been beyond my wildest dreams and expectations.
Because when you say it's a group of people to lift you up and be there to be there to support you and who want to see you succeed. It is more than any, like I said, more than anything I have witnessed in my life of people really celebrating you, encouraging you to do that. I couldn't agree more.
Lyndsay Dowd: And I will just tell you, can I tell you one little story?
Please. Okay. So I have one outlier story that I love to tell because it is so outlier. But I met Andrew Duguid, who, you know, very well, you know, on a typical coffee chat as we outliers do, and this was 30 minutes turned into two hours. And, I asked him a question, I said, so what are you up to?
And he said, well, you know, I just sold my company. I was the CEO of a company called Canopy. I'm kind of in between things, but I want to start this men's mental health community and I'm bipolar. This is Andrew talking. I'm bipolar. My wife is a shrink and I'm like, okay, so there's nobody more qualified.
So let's get started. And he's like, wait, what? I said, no, no, we're starting now. You have to do this. I have nothing to do with this. I'm just making you do this because the men in our lives need this. And he was like, really? I said, yeah. Oh no, it's happening. I'm going to call you every day for the next however long it takes.
And so we became accountability partners for over a month and Iron Tribe was born and it's this active men's mental health community. They meet every Wednesday, and have nothing to do with it other than kicking his butt to make that happen. But while this was happening, I said to him, Hey, I need some help.
He said, what do you need? Anything? I said I needed to talk to some CEOs for some market research. And he's like, yeah, done. So he sends me eight, seven of them get on a zoom right away. One of them says, Hey, Andrew, thank you for introducing me to the lens. That was awesome. But I need to talk to you because I need a CEO for my company.
And he became the CEO of aAskBob AI. So Andrew will tell you that none of these things have happened. Had we not had that coffee chat, had I not gotten his corner, and had we not become really close friends, and that is just. A sample of the kinds of things that we as outliers do for each other. And, our friendship is still super strong and I love seeing him win and he's doing great big things.
So yeah, that's just my favorite.
Courtney Turich: The power of networking, right? Lyndsay. I mean, you encouraged me when we first met, you said the same thing to me. So, everyone, she told me the same thing. I said I'm going to do a podcast. I don't know why I'm holding back. And she's like, you're doing this.
Lyndsay Dowd: I'll be one of your first guests, and here we are.
But you have such a natural talent for this, and such a knack for seeing people and for making them feel welcome and comfortable, and this is such a sweet spot for you, so I'm so thrilled that you've done it, and I'm so happy to be here.
Courtney Turich: Thank you. All right. You've given us the bold move of entrepreneurship, leaving big corporations, that secure foundation, right?
And you have succeeded. You've actually shown us that we can all do what you're doing. Now, when you look back at your younger self, I know you have two twins, a boy and a girl who are probably getting close to this age.
So what would you tell yourself? About what you know now and have learned.
Leveraging Your Network
Lyndsay Dowd: I think the 1st thing is back to what I said about community. I think my kids are 16 and so and they're very different. My son is on a soccer team and he's got a massive group of friends and my daughter has a much smaller circle and, As they go into college, those circles are going to shift and change and broaden.
And I'm really looking forward to them getting a new crop of kids to learn from and grow with. But cultivating those relationships, building that rapport, I think 1 of the things no 1 told me in college was to build relationships with your professors. I wish someone would tell me that. I thought my job was to get through college.
So I could be an adult. Adulting is hard, guys. Right, me too. Enjoy college. But really, that's your first opportunity to start to build those relationships with people that you respect., Those relationships will serve you and whether you join a fraternity or a sorority or a club or something, those communities will help you build your personal board of advisors.
And those boards of advisors will change over time. You will outgrow them. You will surpass them and. It's okay. It doesn't mean anything. You have to find the people that are there who are going to really lift you up. I think when you're 18 to 25 years old,
Everything is coming at you fast. I was very wild at those times, but I went to school in Colorado. I grew up in New York. It was very different. I felt like I walked into a catalog, and I was like, the world is my oyster and I sucked every bit of life out of every single day. But I think that time is a really special time for growth and, oh, another bit of advice. Get on LinkedIn.
Had I done what I do now? And I'm approaching 10, 000 connections. My network would have been massive, but I was under the foolish impression that LinkedIn was for your company, the people you worked with, your partners, and your clients. And I just didn't treat it like I should have.
And obviously, I know better now, but it's not too early to start building that. And there's nothing set in stone on this platform. You can change it whenever you want.
Courtney Turich: Spot on. And that's how we met Lyndsay really on LinkedIn. And the statistic I believe is only 1 percent of people actually post and engage on LinkedIn.
Lyndsay Dowd: Yeah, I think it's between one and 3%, but even still, that's really low because we're over a billion users and you want a crazy stat. So there are 225 million users in the U. S. on LinkedIn and more than 1. 5 million feed updates per day. Really? Sorry, every minute. Sorry, not per day. Every minute? Every minute.
Yeah. So anybody that thinks you have said your story. Like 100 times. I promise you your network hasn't heard it. So don't give up. It's okay to repeat. It's okay too, I mean, I've told my story. I've been on like 90 podcasts. So you'd think I'd be really, everyone's heard it. No, a lot of people haven't heard it.
So, and your network. Who doesn't know that I am hearing my story for the first time? So you have to remember there are always new eyes and new ears looking out for what you have to say. So don't be afraid of saying the same thing over and over again. You've got to build your brand. And that's another thing you have to build a brand.
But back to the point, there's no such thing as job security. You have to do this for yourself. You have to project who you are to the world. And if you don't do that, you're missing.
Courtney Turich: a big opportunity. Well, okay. So there are a few things I want to dive into just from you answering your question and also from the brand.
Let's start with the brand first, since it's top of mind because a lot of people who come to LinkedIn believe that they have to represent their company, not themselves. How do you bridge those two? Or how do you do it? Make him play nice in the sandbox together.
Building Your Personal Brand: Beyond the Corporate Job
Lyndsay Dowd: Yeah, that's a really good question because we just ran a career accelerator for Intry, last week.
And there was a gentleman who was in the cohort and he was a really smart guy. He's done massive amounts of sales, executive jobs, and operations jobs. And what he really wanted to do was become a CEO. He didn't really know how to articulate that. And he was still gainfully employed. So we were not going to rock the boat and be like.
He's a CEO because they'd be like, hello. No, you're not. So we had to be very thoughtful in the word choices that we made to project the right image for him. And by showing that he has all of this depth and breadth and by showing up in other people's feeds and commenting and being an active member on this platform, is going to set himself apart.
And. For anybody that is thinking that their brand is their job, or your brand is your company. Oh, honey, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Yes. You could be a vice president of marketing or business development or HR or whatever, but that's not your brand. That's a job that you do. And I would argue most people are multi-hyphenates and that's just a fancy way of saying you can do a lot of things and you can be known for a lot of things.
And as Courtney said, I'm an author, a podcast host, I'm a keynote speaker. I'm a coach. I'm a CRO. I like being all those things. And if you have those kinds of accolades, talk about them, and feature them on your profile. So there are tons of ways to do this. And I learned how to do it because I needed it for survival.
And I will tell you, when you invest in yourself and you build your personal brand, all kinds of new people will come into your life. And that's exactly what you want to have happen.
Courtney Turich: For sure. And so like building this community back to, opening yourself to the community. A lot of people say we don't have time.
I've said that before, I don't have time to reach out to more people to do this, do that. You've actually taught me that I can, and I haven't shared that with you, but just through various means of communication. So what do you say to somebody with that thought process? Like I did, I don't have time.
Lyndsay Dowd: We all have choices. You prioritize your time. Do you want to binge the Netflix series? Or do you want to spend half an hour on LinkedIn nurturing your community? Do you want to voice text your PBA and the people who are close to you in your life? You all have choices. Anybody that says they don't have time, first of all, if you want to get anything done, ask a busy mom because a busy mom can do a million things.
And if I'm behind the wheel in my car, oh my gosh, you get my undivided attention because I'm just driving. I can't talk to anyone else. I can't look at Slack. I can't look at LinkedIn. I got you. So those moments when I'm behind the wheel, I'm like, Ooh, who can I talk to? Who can I connect with? Cause you're getting my full attention versus I got LinkedIn here.
I got this there. Like It's good. So you just decide how you want to balance your time. I think you can tell me if I'm right. It's super rewarding when you give time to people and you meet people. You never thought you would be in your life and they teach you things you never knew, and processes and opportunities.
I mean, you tell me, what do you think?
Courtney Turich: I couldn't agree with you more. And through my experience with the outlier project and getting to know you more, I have. This internal fire is inside for people and the connections that I'm starting to make with individuals. I'm doing the connections. I'm doing voice-to-text to share my voice with people so they can hear my voice.
I'm reaching out to people when I'm in the car like you do Lyndsay, and you've inspired me to do that. And so. I am grateful for you. And thank you for being here today. I can't believe we're coming up to the end already because I could keep digging into all these questions that I have through your story.
So before we leave today, lens, where can people find you?
Lyndsay Dowd: Yeah, so my website is heartbeat for hire.com. Of course, I'm over at Intry, so it's Intry careers.com. And I'm on LinkedIn. Please connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm super active there. I'm also on Instagram and I'm on Facebook and TikTok.
It's all Lyndsay Dowd, h for H, for Heartbeat, for Hire. And please check out the YouTube podcast. It's on, well, it's on YouTube and wherever you find your podcast. So go enjoy it.
Courtney Turich: Friends, you will not be disappointed when you reach out to Lyndsay. Listen to her podcast, heartbeat for hire. She has amazing guests.
She is an amazing person. Amazing soul. Lyndsay again, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here today and to everyone else. Be bold, be confident, and be you. Thank you.
