Christine Brown-Quinn on Unlocking Your Career Success

In this interview, Christine Brown-Quinn talks to Alexander “The Engineer” Lim, host of AuthorStory by alvinwriter.com, about her book, Unlock Your Career Success: Knowing the Unwritten Rules Changes Everything.



“Take ownership of your career.” ~Christine Brown-Quinn

Christine Brown-Quinn has spent thirty years in the corporate world and has become a Managing Director in International Finance, moving from the United States to London to pursue her career, as part of a wave of people who were recruited to London to strengthen the financial industry there. It was in 2010 when the bank she was working for launched a Women’s Network, which Christine had no idea what was about, as she was used, by then, to being “the only woman in the room.” When Christine asked why she was being asked to give a talk at that summit, she was told that she had a successful career as well as a family, and women would be interested to know how she did it. It was from this that she realized that the skills she did at work were ones which she transferred to her home, and vice versa, remarking that people actually become better parents and partners because of the skills they can pick up at work. Where things brought from personal life are concerned, Christine remarks that it is the values that are taught at home are the things which one brings to work, and gives an example of when her children called her out on her not doing something which she said she did.

It was during the talk, however, that Christine realized that her work was now to coach other women about how to have both a career and a family life, given the framework of both aspects of one’s life supporting each other. It was during the summer after that talk, which took place during the financial crisis of 2010, that she left the banking industry and set up her own career consultancy business, then turned that into her first book. Unlock Your Career Success is her second book, and the seed of this was planted when several of her clients mentioned that she needed to write it. “I woke up in March 2019, and the whole book was in my head,” Christine confesses, adding that what the book’s subject matter covered was essentially what she had been talking about for the past ten years.

Christine admitted that, when she left the university, her idea of career progression was all about “doing a great job;” that said, she remarked that that is only what starts off one’s career, and that it is up to the person themselves to ensure that their careers progress, as a company’s HR or a person’s manager is not responsible for that.

Christine offers the following question for women who have both family and career: “As a parent, how am I at my best?” She notes that everyone is individual, and that a “one size fits all” approach doesn’t work, so people need to think about the ways by which they will be happy, remarking that her being at home with the children all the time isn’t something that she could do well. Having a career was thus very necessary for Christine, as work stimulated her and fulfilled her being a mother.

Where work is concerned, Christine notes that the issue is that of having a mismatch in culture, noting that, when women enter the workplace, they want to feel good about the value they’re bringing as well as feel good about their organizations, working in a way that “feels more natural” to them. She notes that a lot of women look for leadership role models in the corporate world, leaders who are willing to collaborate and bring the best out in others, and that this is more of the issue than anything else. Christine also remarks that people want their work to be meaningful in that, if one has children, one desires more that the time spent away from family counts.

Christine’s most targeted audience is women in corporate environments, as she helps women navigate the issues and leadership styles in such an environment – something she has had a lot of experience with, given her corporate career. She gave the case study of one of her clients, Candida, who worked for a technology company who had worked very hard but whose career stalled out. Christine was able to coach Candida into getting the kind of position she liked, by focusing on a digital start-up department that she was interested in getting into and by using her network of contacts to send the head of the department some suggestions. These suggestions interested the department head and, thanks to Christine’s coaching, Candida asked open-ended questions which gave her more insight into concerns within the department that she could help out with. As a result, Candida is now in a position, in that department, that fulfills her.

Christine notes that the rules in the book are intended to establish career-enhancing mindset and behaviors which are needed to achieve career progression, within the context of what makes one happy. She notes that one has to plan one’s career and nourish one’s network are critical to helping one’s career progress; and the latter is particularly important when getting a broader understanding of the challenges facing the company, as one can then provide suggestions which can address said concerns. The unwritten rules, Christine also remarks, resonates more with women than with men, as the way women navigate the world is different from the way men do so. That said, men can also pick something up from knowing these rules as, while they know those rules, it articulates those rules and gives an awareness of the way women think, as the viewpoint the rules show is an alternative one which they can use to help others.

“The best way to sell is to understand the need of the client, and then address it,” Christine notes. She also remarks that, in today’s environment, the challenges of technology and the pace of change is very fast. That said, the chaos that exists in today’s environment also creates opportunities, Christine believes, and this gives people an opportunity to align the needs of the organization with one’s own values and the value that one can add to the organization. “That’s what job security looks like, now and in the future,” she concludes.

Purchase from Amazon: 
Unlock Your Career Success: Knowing the Unwritten Rules Changes Everything by Christine Brown-Quinn

Paul Smith and The 10 Stories Great Leaders Tell (for Leadership and Sales Success)

In this interview, Paul Smith talks to Alexander “The Engineer” Lim, host of AuthorStory by alvinwriter.com, about his book, The 10 Stories Great Leaders Tell.




“Be honest.” ~Paul Smith

Paul remarks that his working career was typical, in that he took a job with large corporations such as Accenture and Proctor and Gamble after graduating from college with a bachelor’s degree in economics, after which he got a master’s degree in business. He got involved with storytelling when he realized that storytelling was something which leaders should have, thanks to the leaders he admired while he was in Proctor and Gamble. “They didn’t teach me that [storytelling] in undergrad, they didn’t teach me that in business school,” he remarks about his frustration when figuring out what storytelling was all about. He thus set out on his own to explore the realm of storytelling, which is how he is where he now is, as a storyteller.

For Paul, storytelling is “telling a story about something that happened to someone.” A story is thus not a speech, a presentation or a memo with bullet points, but a narrative that has a time, place, a main character that has a goal, an obstacle in the way of getting to that goal, events that take place along the way and an ending with a resolution. Paul notes that there are eight questions that a good story must answer, and these are:

1. Why should I listen to the story? (The answer to this must be given by the storyteller, so the audience has a reason to listen to the story.)
2. Where and when did it take place?
3. Who’s the main character, and what did they want?
4. What was the problem or opportunity that they ran into?
5. What did they do about it?
6. How did it turn out in the end?
7. What did you learn from the story?
8. What do you think I should go and do, now? (This question is something that the audience needs to answer.)

Paul remarks that all stories share the same common traits; that said, in business stories, the audience is the one who needs to summarize what is learned and figure out the next steps to be taken. Storytelling is becoming popular as a means of communication within businesses because it works at getting people to think and feel what it is that needs to be done, according to him, and this is because stories communicate with both the logical/rational and the emotional parts of the brain. A list of reasons, on the other hand, only communicates with the logical/rational part of the brain, which makes this method fall short, as Paul notes that human decisions are made in the subconscious, emotional part of the brain, after which these decisions are rationalized. He also notes that facts and data are between six and 22 times more likely to be remembered if these are told within a story compared to if these were merely given as a list, which makes these facts more likely to be acted upon.

Paul mentioned that, in the three books he wrote prior to The 10 Stories Great Leaders Tell, he covered some 70 different types of stories and 250 examples of these types of stories. He was thus often asked: “What are the most important ones?” and he would give different answers each time. He decided to narrow his focus on a particular type of story when a publisher contacted him to write a book which could be read in an hour’s time, and he chose the field of leadership because several of his clients, who are leaders in their respective fields, ask him how to tell stories which could help them with their work.

The ten kinds of stories great leaders tell, according to Paul, are:

1. Where we came from. (This is a founding story.)
2. Why we can’t stay there. (This is a case for change story.)
3. Where we’re going. (This is a vision story.)
4. How we’re going to get there. (This is a strategy story.)
5. What we believe. (This is a corporate values story.)
6. Who we serve. (This is a story about the customer.)
7. What we do for our customers. (This is a classic sales or customer success story.)
8. How we’re different from our competitors. (This is a marketing story.)
9. Why I lead the way I do. (This is a personal leadership philosophy story.)
10. Why you should want to work here. (This is a recruiting story.)

Paul gave, as an example, a personal leadership philosophy story of Mike Figliuolo, who was a West Point graduate who was assigned to lead a platoon of tanks. In one of his first training exercises, despite the planning that had been done beforehand, he found himself in a situation where he was leading a force of 400 tanks against an opposing force of 400 tanks and had to pick a direction at a time where he was somewhat confused. Mike could have spent thirty seconds stopping where he was and studying his map to figure out what to do - which is a long time, given that the opposing force was likewise looking for him so they could “kill” him and the tanks he was leading. Mike made a decision on the fly to head in one direction, and within seconds of doing so, he and his entire platoon were taken out. The tanks behind him, however, saw what happened and turned in the other, correct direction, subsequently took the high ground and, in the end, won the exercise. The lesson Mike learned was that it is sometimes better to make the wrong decision quickly than the right decision slowly; and since life gives quick feedback on whether the decision taken is right or wrong, provided one doesn’t get killed by it, one can adjust and figure out what to do next, rather than get stuck in analysis paralysis. This explains why Mike is a quick, decisive leader who forgives his people for making mistakes, so long as they learn from it.

Paul notes that leaders have a difficult time telling strategy and vision stories because they don’t know the difference between a strategy document or a vision statement from a strategy or vision story. He remarks that a story for these would run along the likes of what it would be like for someone to work in a company once the latter has achieved the vision, and that, if the story is attractive enough, people will want to pitch in to achieve that vision. The founding story of the company, on the other hand, is the kind of story that leaders find the easiest to tell, because they know it by heart, because it is the most often told and is most obviously a story.

Paul recommends that people who are looking for the stories to tell need to ask for these stories from the people they work with. He recommends creating a wish list for the kinds of stories needed, and then asking around for these. He notes that, in each chapter of the book, there are guides on why such a story would be important as well as tips on how to find such stories within a company, as well as the kinds of questions to ask. He also reflects that he might want to add a “Why you want to invest in us?” story, as this is something that smaller companies need to convince people to invest in them.

Paul points out that storytelling is just one tool in one’s communication kit, and that, in general, people should be honest whenever they communicate. He also notes the popular impression is that those who tell stories effectively are natural-born storytellers, and that one is either a storyteller or not. This isn’t the case, Paul remarks, and adds that, if people want to tell stories, they should take lessons on how to do so from people who know how to do so, as storytelling is a skill on its own.

Purchase from Amazon: 

The 10 Stories Great Leaders Tell by Paul Smith

Lydia Fenet on The Most Powerful Woman in the Room Is You | Success in Sales

Engineer” Lim, host of AuthorStory by alvinwriter.com, about her book, The Most Powerful Woman in the Room Is You: Command an Audience and Sell Your Way to Success.



“Emotion needs to be taken out of business and negotiation.” ~Lydia Fenet

Lydia began thinking about writing a book for a few years before a reporter from a magazine followed her around to do a “day in your life” piece. At the end of that day, after the reporter asked her what she did when she got home, she replied that she either read books or worked on a book that she was writing. It was after reading the reporter’s transcript that Lydia realized that she should either go ahead and write the book or stop talking about it, as she had been talking about it for some time. She thus wrote a proposal and sent it to an agent, who posted the proposal on the day that the “day in your life” piece was published. Lydia sold her book to Simon and Schuster a week later, and as she was given three months to write it, she “dug deep” and did so.

The Most Powerful Woman in the Room Is You may be part memoir and part life lessons drawn from her decades of experience, but Lydia notes that it is meant for everyone, pointing out that she had male friends who read it and remarked that they were able to pick things up from it that they could use in their lives. Lydia remarks that the book is essentially all about finding confidence in one’s voice (which helps a lot in selling), and also adds that, while she had, as part of her job as an auctioneer doing 70 - 100 auctions a year, found her voice onstage, she wasn’t applying those principles to her everyday life. She notes that being with a company for twenty years enabled her to chart her growth, as the company was the main constant in that time.

Lydia remarks that women may have the skills to succeed at selling whatever it is they want to sell, be it an idea or a proposal, but that rejection and fear inhibit them from doing so. She notes that negotiation is not about being liked, and that emotion and business negotiation are two entirely different things. Lydia noted that, in her own family, she, her mother and her sister had difficulty negotiating, whereas her brothers and father did so easily. Lydia encourages practicing negotiation in her own team by allowing them to ask for better pay, pointing out to them that, while they might not get it, the effort is good practice where getting over the fear of asking is concerned.

Telling the truth is very important where sales is concerned, according to Lydia, and to illustrate this, she told a story of a place she rented for her husband’s birthday, one which she thought was well-appointed but which turned out to be more like “the set of a horror movie.” She points out that, if she sold something that she was untruthful about to someone, that person will have told all of her friends about it, and she wouldn’t be able to get a sale from either that person or her friends again, and that nobody would believe a word she said. Lydia notes a sales equation that, if someone has had a good experience, they will tell one person, and if that person has had a bad experience, they will tell nine people.

Sales is all about listening, Lydia points out, remarking that: “The truly good salesperson is the person who sits back and takes note of what the other person is saying, and then weaves their sales pitch into what that person is saying.” Sales is thus a two-way conversation, and where things that are difficult to sell are concerned, Lydia recommends that a salesperson has to figure out what is being sold, who that item is being sold to, what would appeal to the person being sold to and be truthful about any pitfalls to what is being sold. Doing so helps create a good reputation for the salesperson, which could lead to future sales. “Think of the long game in sales,” Lydia advises. “You want to be in the picture, time and time again.”

Authenticity is also important, according to Lydia, and she told of how she learned of this when she finally, after spending a lot of time emulating some of the more successful, British, male auctioneers, conducted an auction just as herself, as she was then sick and too tired to emulate anyone else. Authenticity enables people to engage others, and Lydia advises that people think about what there is in one’s personality that others would be drawn to, giving the example that people who love humor can use jokes effectively to engage others.

The “strike method” is Lydia’s term which she named after the sound of a gavel hitting a table, which attracted people’s attention. In practice, after she hits the gavel at an evening party, Lydia has thirty seconds to say something which would engage her audience, most of whom don’t know that an auction will happen at that event. The application to this is when salespeople pause before starting a sale, then having their first line ready to go, to catch the attention of the other people in the room to engage them right from the start.

Where scripting is concerned, Lydia notes that being authentic needs to be brought into this, whenever possible. She recommends that people do research on the people they will be dealing with, giving the example of being able to converse with a potential client for two hours by simply talking about their grandchildren. Failure, as far as Lydia is concerned, is exercise: “The more you do it, the better you get.” She acknowledges that it’s not always pleasant, but that one is better because of it – and the same likewise goes for rejection, pointing out that, if one fails or gets rejected often enough, the time will come when one doesn’t care about getting a “no,” one can then ask for anything. She also notes that a lot of people are willing to help and need only to be asked to do so.

For Lydia, one of her biggest takeaways when writing The Most Powerful Woman in the Room Is You was that no one can advocate for oneself other than oneself. “Stop looking around for everybody else to tell you what you want to do and what you already know that you can do,” she remarks.

Purchase from Amazon: The Most Powerful Woman in the Room Is You: Command an Audience and Sell Your Way to Success by Lydia Fenet