She Is A Leader - The Podcast

Yvonne Heimann [00:00:00]:
In today's episode of She Is A Leader, I'm having a candid conversation with Sylvie Di Giusto. Yes, I'm trying my Italian accent on this one. We explore how this former European corporate leader transformed her perceived weakness into her greatest strength. After spending 20 years in corporate Europe hiring and firing people, Sylvie noticed a pattern. The candidates who looked perfect on paper often failed to perform, while talented people within the organization were frequently overlooked. This observation sparked her fascination with perception and how it impacts leadership. Sylvie shares in this episode of she Is a Leader how she went on this remarkable journey, including her split second decision to move to America with a newborn baby just nine days after giving birth when her husband received a job offer. This fulfilled a childhood dream where she would tell people, I want to be an American starting at the age of five.

Yvonne Heimann [00:01:14]:
What makes Sylvie's story so powerful is her insight about self perception when speaking on TV as a guest. She initially hated her accent when appearing alongside well spoken American experts until a producer told her over a casual glass of wine this was precisely why they kept inviting her back. You sound like an international expert and say things simple and easy to understand for everybody watching. For anyone struggling with feeling not enough or trying to blend in rather than stand out, today's conversation here on she Is a Leader offers a refreshing perspective on how your perceived limitations might actually be your greatest strength. And today I am so excited fellow European. We might also have. We might also have already nerded out a German language in the green room. So guys, if I suddenly switch to German we're gonna catch ourselves and jump back to English so that everybody in the audience can understand us today.

Yvonne Heimann [00:02:31]:
Because I am so excited I today want to introduce you to Sylvie di giusto and I probably butchered that again. I I gotta work on my Italian. That is such a passionate language. Sylvie is a multi award winning keynote speaker, author and expert in perception and leadership who helps professionals and organization harness the power of intentional choices. So anybody of you that has been around for a few episodes know exactly why I invited you. Perception. Such a thing for me. I am so excited to pick your brains today.

Yvonne Heimann [00:03:15]:
And with two decades of corporate experience across Europe and the US she now delivers immersive interactive keynotes that inspire leaders to refine their presence, enhance client interactions and build lasting influence. As the world's first 3D holographic keynote speaker, Sylvie combines cutting edge technology and practical insights to create unforgettable learning experiences. You are also the author of the Image of Leadership and discover your fair advantage. Empowering professionals to lead Sell and persuade with impact. Sylvie, my fellow European, welcome to the podcast. I am so excited to have you.

Sylvie di Giusto [00:04:09]:
I am more excited to be with you. Thank you very much for having me. You know, if we by accident turn into German, I want to encourage all listeners and all viewers they can speak German with us too, because to our American friends, obviously, you just have to sound angry and everybody will. Everybody will believe it's German language.

Yvonne Heimann [00:04:32]:
Girl, girl, you brought something up. Back in the day, right after I moved to the States, I was still working with my first husband in hospitality, and it was the easiest to get the daily specials in German language. You wouldn't believe how often I got the question of, are you guys fighting? Like, no. If we would be fighting, he would have a knife in his back. You know, when I'm mad, that's just the language. And I think. I think that might actually be a piece. And I would love to hear your perception on that.

Yvonne Heimann [00:05:07]:
I'm. I'm similar to you. I'm so in. In that perception. And I think it comes from being perceived as angry so often. Speaking German language, then living English, my brain switching. I'm thinking in English, I'm dreaming in English now. And it's like I can articulate certain things way easier in English now than in German.

Yvonne Heimann [00:05:33]:
It's been 17 years, and I just use English more. But German has so many more words to really get something across in specific levels of emotion. Where I'm like. It all comes back to me to perception, where it's like, you have your reality, I have my reality, and the actual reality is probably somewhere in between. So how did you get in?

Yvonne Heimann [00:06:00]:
That's my story. How did you get into this, this topic of perception and especially perception in the combination with leadership and how does it show up?

Sylvie di Giusto [00:06:12]:
You know, I had the pleasure of being in corporate Europe for 20 years, and I was almost involved if somebody got hired or fired and everything in between. I was responsible for the top leadership academy of the biggest retail and tourism organization in Europe. And what always fascinated me and fascinated me like I was when we hired people and during the interview, they said all the right things. They behaved exactly the way we wanted them to behave. They even looked the way we wanted them to look like to represent us, right? And we were so 100% sure that those are the best candidates for the jobs we are hiring right now. And then years later, I had to fire the same people for a total lack of performance. And I always wondered what went wrong. Why were we so wrong in the way we perceived those candidates on the one side.

Sylvie di Giusto [00:07:12]:
And second, what really frustrated me way more is why didn't we identify leaders in our own organization? There were so many young, talented, ambitious professionals that could have probably fulfilled that role way better. But for every reason they didn't stand out to us as potential leadership candidates. Why didn't we perceive them as such and why didn't we put them into those positions? And so I really early in the front line realized that our perception and the decisions that we make based on our perception, those of others have a huge impact. And unfortunately, we are obviously sometimes influenced by factors that go beyond the data, facts and figures that we have in front of us when we make those decisions. And so when I moved to the United States and made a major career change basically within 48 hours and decided to leave corporate and move here, I just switched sides and thought, I'm going to use my 20 years of corporate experience and combine that with my passion to be on stages and share with organizations and leaders the impact of the perception they have about themselves, how they see themselves and how the world sees them, and what decisions are made based on those perceptions.

Yvonne Heimann [00:08:53]:
She's going deep right away. Oh my God, I love it. Because you also talked about, it's, it's not just about how others perceive us. So what comes to my mind in that moment is right away too of how, how women are often perceived when we are more in our masculine, when we're in that boss role, we are a bitch, or we're too soft and all the things. But then you also brought up how we perceive ourself. What do you think is, where is our own perception coming from? Because I'm like as. Again, just as we were talking. You have your perception, I have my perception.

Yvonne Heimann [00:09:37]:
And then the reality is probably somewhere in between. I think it's also for ourselves where it's like we have this picture of us, other people have that picture of us, and the reality is probably somewhere in between. Am I right in that assumption?

Sylvie di Giusto [00:09:54]:
Yeah, absolutely. And I always say when we talk about perception, don't think about the others first. You always got to start with yourself. You need to first of all define how you would like to be perceived and then have a level of self awareness to identify if there are gaps in between the way you would like to be perceived and how the world actually perceives you. Here's the challenge with self awareness. We think that the older we become, the higher we climb the career ladder, the more successful we are, the more self aware we are. But unfortunately, the opposite is True. Because the older we become, the more successful we are, the more we think that we are doing things right.

Sylvie di Giusto [00:10:43]:
Because that's why we are here. Correct. So the less self aware we become and the less people tell us actually the truth. Now for women in particular, there is a challenge with self perception. And I can only share that from the perspective of being a woman myself and of serving women in corporations or business owners. Women have a tendency to think they are never enough. When we perceive ourselves that what we perceive is just not enough. We always need one more certification.

Sylvie di Giusto [00:11:21]:
We always need one more proof or permission to be who we really are.

Yvonne Heimann [00:11:28]:
Why do we do that?

Yvonne Heimann [00:11:31]:
I count myself into that too. Same where it's. It just does. Never seems to be enough.

Sylvie di Giusto [00:11:37]:
And what I encourage women when it comes to self perception to look inwards and what you find there is amazing and it is enough. And put that to the forefront. I give you an example from my personal story because very often this can even be one of your insecurities. I like you. Maybe at the beginning I really struggled with my accent. My accent was one of my biggest insecurities. Especially because I have a profession where I, I'm in the spoken word industry. I go on stages and I thought how can I ever be on stage on a.

Sylvie di Giusto [00:12:19]:
Speak as a speaker and have this very heavy accent? So one day when I lived in New York City, a TV show, a production company from a TV show reaches out to me and says, do you want to come to the studio tonight and comment on the public Persona of a US politician? And I said, yeah, sure, I want to do that. Jumped into an Uber. I had no idea who the politician is. I quickly googled his name, put together three, four facts that I can say something. But it was, you know, it was a big media opportunity. So as an entrepreneur you just jump on those opportunities. I end up in on this show in between well spoken American political experts who used words so sophisticated, so yummy. I mean, I can't even tell you how much I hated seeing myself on TV afterwards.

Sylvie di Giusto [00:13:18]:
And they invited me again and again and again and every single week. When I saw myself on that show, it was such a painful experience for me because I always compared myself to them. And here is what changed my trajectory forever and what showed me that what's inside of us is enough and it's better than we believe it is. At the holiday party over a glass of wine, I telled the producer and said, I point to my mouth and say, I have no idea why you invite me again and again and again in between all those sophisticated, well spoken Americans. And he points at my mouth and says, that's the reason why we invite you because you sound like an international expert and you say things so simple that people in front of the TV understand you, but they don't understand anything of what the other guys are saying. And see, again, as a woman, we often think we are not good enough, we need to be better. I need to do, I don't know, accent reduction training. And in reality, it's my superpower, it's my distinction and it changed my trajectory forever.

Sylvie di Giusto [00:14:42]:
And I encourage you, everybody listening in that when you look into yourself, when you start with your self perception, you are good enough, find what is in there and don't look on the outside and compare yourself with others to find something, what you need more of. You don't need more of, you already have everything that you need inside of you.

Yvonne Heimann [00:15:11]:
Yeah, I was on the lucky end of the accent conversation where I had enough. I had external support that's like, it means you're speaking more than one language. You know how many US residents speak just English? And then at one point somebody did come up to me and is like, you want to be this fancy coach and, and go on stage and all the things, you better be cleaning up your English. And I'm like, you know what? How many languages do you speak? And honestly, in my private life, enough men actually love the accent too. So I, I joke once a while like, I don't have an accent. Do I have an accent? I don't have an accent, but it's, it's one of the things I also see, especially in, in your case, I think we don't have the big fancy freaking words that nobody understands. So now, yes, you have a whole bunch of people there that nobody understands because you use words I have never heard. We have the German accent, we have the European accent.

Yvonne Heimann [00:16:22]:
So first of all, English is not our first language. Damn, she knows more than one language. And then secondary, using simpler language, bringing the same point across, the same education, the same entertainment. Let's be honest, it's US TV in simple words, where, where people can just identify them with us. So I love to hear your story where that same thing was reevaluated, where it's like, you know what, what's different in us is what makes us special. That's why people love us. Hearing about your story.

Yvonne Heimann [00:16:59]:
And it's like, by the way, by the way, 48 hour decision on I'm packing my bags and I'm going to the States. What was that?

Sylvie di Giusto [00:17:10]:
Well, you know, I have a 10 year older brother who I love and adore. He's my best friend and he told me when I was 5 years old and he was 15, it was the first time that he heard me say the following. When people ask me as a child, what do you want to be as a grownup? Other kids said, I want to be a teacher, I want to be a firefighter. And supposedly I started to say, I want to be an American. And nobody knows where this comes from. Nobody in our heritage is American. Back then, I don't even know if we had TV that I'm making myself very old now. But obviously I remember those days.

Yvonne Heimann [00:17:56]:
I remember the days of having to call operator, not having a tv. I gotcha.

Sylvie di Giusto [00:18:02]:
Nobody knows where it comes from. Long story. My entire life I dreamed of living in the United States. And I tried everything I applied, you know, colleges for visas for green or for internships. I always jokingly said I did dated every single American who ever traveled through Europe to make this work. But nothing did work. And just when I gave up that dream, as always, when I thought, well, it was just a dream and had a different focus in my life and that was, I just became a mom and I was in the hospital. So we are getting very personal now.

Sylvie di Giusto [00:18:45]:
I. You better buckle up. I was in the hospital. It was Friday, November 20, and it was 8:24am in the morning. And I remember that time stamp so good because it was four minutes after my daughter was born. And my husband walks into the room and says, I have a job offer in America.

Yvonne Heimann [00:19:09]:
And he knew. Did he know that backstory of you?

Sylvie di Giusto [00:19:12]:
Yes, of course, of course. And I had our newborn daughter on my arm and said, okay, let's go. And he. No, no, no, no, no, no. The company that sent him over said, you just had a baby, supposedly. Of course we're gonna take care that months. We're gonna fly you back and forth. And when you've, when your wife settled in, she can come with the baby.

Yvonne Heimann [00:19:38]:
You haven't, you haven't met my wife yet. She is ready to go.

Sylvie di Giusto [00:19:45]:
No. And so luckily, I have to say, I had a boss back then, the, the CEO of the company that I called and said, ah, by the way, I just had my baby and I quit. Not because of the baby, but because I have an opportunity to move to the United States. And he was one of the greatest leaders I have ever crossed paths. And he also knew about that lifelong dream. And he said, I'm gonna do everything to support you to get out of this role and this organization as fast as possible. And nine days later, I was on a plane with a newborn on my lap and moved to the United States.

Yvonne Heimann [00:20:33]:
And I thought, I'm crazy. And making fastest sessions girl. Holy canoli. Oh my God.

Sylvie di Giusto [00:20:43]:
And never make. And it was the best decision of my life. On paper, it didn't make sense to anybody, but it all to me. Very often of the best decisions that you make.

Yvonne Heimann [00:20:56]:
God. Looking back now, did Little did little Sylvie ever think this is what life is going to look like?

Sylvie di Giusto [00:21:05]:
Oh, no. Oh no. Well, let me go back to Little Corporate Sylvie because maybe that's the Sylvie more of your listeners might relate to. Little Corporate Sylvie was the first in, the last out at the office. She took care of everything and everyone. In fact, little Sylvie took pride in. In being the problem solver for everybody. She took pride in the fact that no matter who in the company knew whatever they're gonna drop off on her table is going to be taken care of.

Sylvie di Giusto [00:21:48]:
Little Sylvie thought that hard work will get her to the top. And she had to learn that success is not so much to do with hard work alone that she thought. And little Sylvie did everything to blend in rather than to stand out. So yeah, a little. Little Sylvie didn't even have an idea of what. What's possible because she was just in the wrong mindset at the beginning of her career. She didn't see that success is not just hard work. Success is about doing not the most things, but the right things.

Sylvie di Giusto [00:22:40]:
Success is saying no to many things so that you can say yes to the right things. Success is being visible, but being visible to the right people in the right moment. And those people might be not even your direct reports or around you. Success is about positioning yourself on a bigger play field. Success is about so many other things than what little Sylvie thought.

Yvonne Heimann [00:23:15]:
What do you think the future has for you? Where do you want to go from here?

Sylvie di Giusto [00:23:22]:
I'm in love with my future. That's all I can say. I'm in love with my future. I'm in love with tomorrow. Because today I have learned something that makes me a better human, a better woman, a better business owner. Tomorrow and tomorrow, can you imagine, I'm going to learn something, something that will make me a better leader, a better mother, a better woman, a better business owner for the day after tomorrow. So can you imagine what happens the day afterwards? That's what I'm looking for.

Yvonne Heimann [00:24:07]:
God, yeah. Welcome everybody listening and watching this is. This is why I love my podcast, because I never fully know who I'm gonna have on or where the conversation starts, starts or ends or leads us to, because holy cannoli girl, I did not see this one coming. And oh, my God, Sylvie, for everybody that feels like me right now, because I got nothing to add to this. This is like mic drop moment. Where can people find you? Where can people find your book? Go connect with you? Where should they go?

Sylvie di Giusto [00:24:50]:
Anywhere on the Internet. Whenever you type in my name, which is not the easiest.

Yvonne Heimann [00:24:55]:
I failed on that one.

Sylvie di Giusto [00:24:57]:
Yes, but you can type it in with typos. Chances are very high that you are going to find me because there are not so many around with such a complicated name. Then you're gonna find my website, my books, my. Yeah, my. My social media accounts, and I hope that you're gonna stop by and say hi. But if you stop by and say hi, then please make sure that you tell me that you are coming from Yvi's Fantastic podcast. And that I know I have a new friend because all of Yvi's friends are my friends.

Yvonne Heimann [00:25:33]:
And with that, everybody is listening, watching, reading on the blog. You know what comes now? We make this really simple for you. You don't even have to butcher the spelling of her name. Girl, I feel you try to order a Starbucks with Yvonne as the first name, it always becomes Evan. We make it easy for you. You're gonna find all of the things in the description below. We have both of your books in there. We have your website in there, all the things.

Yvonne Heimann [00:25:57]:
So we make it nice and easy. You guys just need to click and. Sylvie, oh, my God, thank you so, so, so much for coming on. Maybe I need to find my digital nomad way over to the east coast and we're just gonna. I've heard the east coast has some good bread and baking stuff that's more European inspired than what I have over here on the west coast. So I'm like, well, might just have to find my way over there.

Sylvie di Giusto [00:26:26]:
Now you have a friend on the east coast who lives at the ocean and has a boat.

Yvonne Heimann [00:26:31]:
Oh, now we are talking.

Sylvie di Giusto [00:26:33]:
Okay, talking sunset rides and dolphins in the morning and then a little bit of German talk. How about we do the following? Since we started this way off, I'm gonna say goodbye and thank you to you in German and then your listeners can decide if it sounds angry or not.

Yvonne Heimann [00:26:52]:
Guys, we're going to do this. We're going to say bye of German, and I want you to pop in the comment section. Does it sound like we are screaming at each other and mad, or does it actually sound kind of nice.

Sylvie di Giusto [00:27:22]:
Here in the United States and in Canada and worldwide.

Yvonne Heimann [00:27:26]:
Oh, my God, so much. Danke. Bye bye, everybody.