Lorraine K. Lee is a keynote speaker and the best-selling author of Unforgettable Presence: Get Seen, Gain Influence, and Catapult Your Career. She also teaches popular courses at Stanford Continuing Studies and LinkedIn Learning. She is passionate about empowering leaders to elevate their presence, influence, and impact. Her frameworks have been adopted by globally recognized organizations like Zoom, Amazon, Cisco, and McKinsey & Company.
John Shegerian: Get the latest Impact Podcast right into your inbox each week. Subscribe by entering your email address at impactpodcast.com to make sure you never miss an interview. This edition of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by ERI. ERI has a mission to protect people, the planet, and your privacy, and is the largest fully integrated IT and electronics asset disposition provider and cybersecurity-focused hardware destruction company in the United States and maybe even the world. For more information on how ERI can help your business properly dispose of outdated electronic hardware devices, please visit eridirect.com. This episode of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by Closed Loop Partners. Closed Loop Partners is a leading circular economy investor in the United States with an extensive network of Fortune 500 corporate investors, family offices, institutional investors, industry experts, and impact partners. Closed Loop’s platform spans the arc of capital from venture capital to private equity, bridging gaps and fostering synergies to scale the circular economy. To find Closed Loop Partners, please go to www.closedlooppartners.com
John: Welcome to another edition of the Impact Podcast. This is a really special edition. We’ve got with us today Lorraine K. Lee. She’s a keynote speaker, the best-selling author of Unforgettable Presence, and the founder of RISE Learning Solutions. Welcome to the Impact Podcast, Lorraine.
Lorraine K. Lee: Thank you, John, for having me. Super excited.
John: That’s super exciting to have you here. You’re doing really important and great work. I read your book. I’ve listened to you on a couple other podcasts. You really have some special talents. Before we get to those, I want you to share a little bit about your background. Where were you born, where did you grow up, and how did you get on this really fascinating journey that you now are on?
Lorraine: Of course. I was born in LA, grew up in the same house all up until college, studied journalism at Northwestern University. Then, when it was time to enter the workforce, I joined tech at some would say its peak. I was very fortunate that I joined at a time where many tech companies were looking to grow their content team. I was able to use those journalism skills in a journalism-adjacent role. I was a founding editor at companies like LinkedIn, founding editor at Prezi, the presentation platform. They were all amazing experiences, learned so much through all of them. But at the end of 2022, that’s when many tech layoffs were happening. So I got impacted. That’s really where that pivot happened, where I decided, okay, I’m going to start a business and see what happens. Thankfully, while I was at Prezi, which was the company that laid me off, I had taken it upon myself to learn more about public speaking, to get better, to advance my career. That led to things like becoming a LinkedIn learning instructor, so that by the time the layoff happened, I had a sense that I had made money outside of my nine-to-five and thought, okay, there’s maybe something here where I can turn this into something, a more flexible work-life balance here and just have more control over my destiny. I started RISE Learning Solutions in 2023. Now, I am a speaker. I still teach through LinkedIn Learning at Stanford. I have my book, which you mentioned, came out at the end of April. Then I also am a content creator, so a LinkedIn influencer.
John: Talk a little bit about why you chose journalism. Who was the influence on choosing journalism as your original path in terms of your formal education?
Lorraine: It was funny because I didn’t initially think journalism. I knew that I liked to write and I knew that I didn’t like math. When I thought about doing extracurriculars in middle school and in high school, the newspaper seemed like the natural fit. Then I actually started or created the middle school newspaper where I was. I worked on the high school newspaper, became editor-in-chief, and just loved it. I went to multiple journalism summer camps during high school. So I knew that that was very much a passion of mine. It really stemmed from, I like writing, I don’t like math. Let me just try this thing.
John: I’m so old, Lorraine, that I just remembered while you were just talking about it, one of the nicest and most pleasant experiences of my life. I went to the McBurney School on the west side of New York City. I grew up in Manhattan. I was the editor-in-chief of my school newspaper.
Lorraine: Very nice. That’s great.
John: It was just literally one of the happiest times of my life. I see how you got it. No one in your family, I take it, was in the journalism world.
Lorraine: No, not at all.
John: When you were in the school, before tech, were you originally thinking that one day you’re going to be up on Bloomberg or MSNBC or CNBC or New York Times or Wall Street Journal? Was that the original thought process, or were you always thinking about merging journalism and tech?
Lorraine: I didn’t think about merging journalism and tech, but I didn’t think that I would be at a traditional publication. Pretty early on, I realized that I wanted to do something journalism adjacent, but I didn’t know what. Thankfully, I had the opportunity to work at a PR firm. I worked at Leo Burnett during what they call a journalism residency for a quarter. I worked on the communications team. I’m going to try just a lot of different things and realize I liked all those different things. I have the skill set for those different things. It just happened to be that by the time I graduated, all these articles were coming out about Silicon Valley and how lucrative the opportunity was. I just thought it’s close enough to LA. Initially, I wanted to go back home, but let me give this a try. We’ll see if I like it. If I don’t like it, I can always go back home. So I ended up here. I’m still here.
John: I’m always fascinated by origin stories. Were you a big reader growing up?
Lorraine: Yeah.
John: Still, you enjoy books and reading? Is that part of your life?
Lorraine: I do, yeah. I read a lot of Kindle books, like Amazon Free Read, just for fun. Also, you can see I have a lot of business books. I have a lot of author friends right now, so you can see a lot of different books behind me. I try to read their books as well.
John: You enjoy reading, though.
Lorraine: I do, yeah.
John: That’s awesome. Talk a little bit about RISE Learning Solutions. What is it? Was your vision? And what has it become since 2023?
Lorraine: I came up with the company RISE. I really like acronyms, and you probably saw John in my book. I have a lot of acronyms. The goal of RISE is to help professionals become more recognized, influential, successful, and empowered. That can be in a number of different ways. That’s also why I mentioned all the different things I do. Some people, it makes sense to do coaching. Some people want to see me speak. Some people rather take courses from me. I do a lot of different things. It took me some time to figure out what that intersection was between my skillset, my passion, what I really enjoyed doing, who I enjoyed helping, to see the impact that I was having. And so this is where I’m at now. I’m still building and figuring out how to scale and grow the business. I’m almost done with year three, and really enjoying it still.
John: Building and scaling and figuring it out is part of just the entrepreneurial journey.
Lorraine: Exactly. Yeah.
John: Okay. Don’t worry. I won’t tell anybody, but what’s your favorite part of your daily life? We all have what we love. What’s our favorite part? We always know it’s not our real favorite, but we have to do it anyway. What’s your favorite part about running and scaling RISE Learning Solutions?
Lorraine: I love helping professionals. I love helping people grow in their careers, learn how to stand out, especially if someone’s quieter or more introverted like me. I love helping them with their confidence. When I do things like speaking, when people take my courses, and they send me a message afterwards, or they read my book, which is the most recent thing, seeing that they got more confidence to lead a meeting, or that they did great on their presentation. All of that just makes me so happy. Again, that’s the goal of why I started this business. I want to help people.
John: There’s a common theme here. I just interviewed recently another author who has five books, and also his own radio and podcast. He said to me that he was a massive introvert, and I totally relate, but you’re living that same paradox that I tend to live in. You’re an introvert, but professionally, you’re a tremendous extrovert. Talk about that. Talk about the paradox of living the high-wire life of being professionally an extrovert, public speaker, a writer, happily doing podcasts, and also in-person public speaking, but really truly being an introvert. How do you reconcile both?
Lorraine: Yeah, I like how you described that as balancing the high-wire. When I was in corporate, and then even after corporate, sometimes it feels like the workplace is just built for extroverts. As an introvert, I struggled wondering, why can they speak up so quickly, and come up with ideas? Why do I need more time to think? It just made me feel a bit out of place. It was only until I realized that introverts have a lot of superpowers, and I understood what those superpowers were, that I could really lean into that. To your point, John, yeah, I’m more introverted, and I can speak, and I’ll be on when I speak, but it’s all about energy management. After I speak, maybe after this podcast, maybe I just won’t talk to people for an hour. I have time blocked off in my calendar to just recharge and reset. The thing about being an introvert with these public-facing opportunities is that they’re actually quite well-suited for introverts. It’s a little bit of unconventional advice. If you think about it, as a public speaker, or at least a planned public speaking engagement, introverts are really great at connecting with people. I’m going to try to understand the audience. We’re very thoughtful. We’re prepared. We know how to bring people along the journey with us. We want to make sure everyone’s on board. It’s not just us speaking to everyone. On platforms like LinkedIn, we’re really strong writers, so that’s great. We can write long form, and write posts, and get our voice out there. It’s really about not putting that pressure on ourselves to be the loud person in the room that’s going to lead to burnout, and just isn’t your authentic self. How can I better understand my superpowers, my strengths, and lean into those, and understand again the energy management piece of it?
John: Again, origin story. Were any members of your family entrepreneurs, or were you also a first time not only journalist, but entrepreneur as well?
Lorraine: Yes. I have to say my dad is a successful entrepreneur. He just retired, actually, so I’m very happy for him. He just sold his company, which is amazing. But in terms of personality, they’re introverted as well, so similar in that sense, but in the terms of me being out there, and being in the public, and just meeting new people all the time, that’s very much not their personality. A bit of a contrast there. They’re always saying, how did you end up this way?
John: That’s what I’m trying to figure out, which is fun. Really, you have in your DNA, entrepreneurial DNA.
Lorraine: Yes. I suppose so.
John: That’s great. That’s wonderful. Let’s switch topics now to this wonderful book that I’ve read, and I just love, Unforgettable Presence. What drove you? What was the aha moment for Lorraine K. Lee to say, I got to write a book. I got enough to say, and I think enough people want to read about it, learn about it, that I’m going to put this in a book?
Lorraine: It’s so funny, John, because I did not envision writing a book ever. It wasn’t until a former co-worker said to me, I’d launched my first LinkedIn learning course, and then he messages me congratulations, and then he goes, so when’s the book coming out? Sort of in a jokey way, but then I thought, oh, hadn’t thought about that, but maybe that sounds kind of interesting. Then a few weeks later, I met a friend in person for the first time. She was a friend through LinkedIn, and she asked me the same thing. Have you ever thought about writing a book? At that point, I’m like, okay, this is an idea. It sounds exciting. It makes sense, given my line of work, but I’m not going to work on this quite yet. I was still employed by my past company. Then the layoff happened. Then I started my business, no clients, not a lot of work. I thought, all right, I’m going to write the outline for this book. I’m going to learn how to self-publish, but the ideas didn’t come together cohesively. I also realized how much work goes into a book at that point, as I was just very loosely outlining. I decided, I’m going to hold off and wait. I want to do this with a traditional publisher, at least for my first book, and just have a little bit more guidance there, and also a little bit more time under my belt for my business. Then by the end of the first year, my publisher, Wiley, reached out on LinkedIn. I wrote the proposal. A few other publishers reached out soon after. I’m just like, this is the universe telling me it’s time. The proposal just flowed. It just made sense. I still felt a little bit imposter syndrome and nerves, but again, the universe was telling me it was time. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity. And I’m so happy I followed that voice.
John: Let’s go back to the most important part of what you just said. A publisher reached out to you named Wiley on LinkedIn.
Lorraine: Yeah.
John: Obviously, what you were doing on LinkedIn was also very attractive to others that want to be part of your journey.
Lorraine: Yeah.
John: I love it. I dig it. In a nutshell, before we go over the book in total, what would you love the readers of this great book, and I highly recommend our listeners and viewers to buy it. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, any good bookstore will have this book. What do you want them to take away? What’s your real hope after they read this book? What could they take away?
Lorraine: My hope is that readers have a new understanding of what presence is. A lot of us, when we hear presence, we think executive presence, how I’m showing up in a room, a boardroom, a high-stakes situation. Maybe the executive looks a certain way. We have certain stereotypes or certain connotations in our head. What I’m doing with this book is I’m redefining presence. It’s not just about how you’re seen. It’s also about where you’re seen. Presence is something that can be learned, and it’s something that should be happening at all points of your career. Now, we have a video presence. We have a LinkedIn presence. We have presence when we’re leading a meeting, even when we’re chatting with someone or sending an email. That’s presence, too. My hope is that readers feel a lot more empowered, a lot more confident, and realize that this is something that they can have as well. Executive presence is one piece of it, but it’s not all of it.
John: Am I misunderstanding this, or is this just another way of saying it? It’s really about building your personal brand, which, of course, like you said, includes executive presence, but is a lot more than that.
Lorraine: Yeah, building a brand. I have a chapter on career brands. I mean, certainly a very, very important piece of it. It’s actually the first chapter of the book because it’s just so critical as a foundational piece for all the other things that follow, but yeah, exactly.
John: Talk a little bit about why is it important more than just for careers or job hunting for people to be on Reid Hoffman’s great invention called LinkedIn?
Lorraine: To your point, LinkedIn has become our virtual landing page, our virtual water cooler, our ultimate virtual office. It is not just a place to look for jobs anymore. Now, I’m so fortunate I was part of that original team that brought content to the platform, so it’s just amazing to see what it’s become, but if you want to stay top of mind, if you want to meet interesting people in your industry, if you want to establish yourself as more credible, as a thought leader, LinkedIn is the place to do it. There is a stat that I cite in the book from the RAIN group, and they say that 82% of buyers will look up a seller on LinkedIn before replying to prospecting efforts. Now, we’re not all necessarily salespeople, but if you think about that stat, wow, a lot of people are going to LinkedIn and checking you out before they decide, am I going to talk to this person? Am I going to accept their message? Am I going to accept their connection request? It’s such a powerful way for you to create a positive impression, for someone to have a positive impression of you without ever having to meet you. I can’t think of another platform that really allows us to do that, and so LinkedIn is just so powerful in that way to, again, stay top of mind, and whether you are on your own in business, whether you are at a company, it is going to elevate your presence, and I was active on LinkedIn while I was at my last company. People saw me differently. It’s a little scary to post on LinkedIn, so if you’re the person who can actually do it, people look up to you in a way.
John: For our listeners and viewers who’ve just joined us, we’ve got Lorraine K. Lee with us today. She’s a keynote speaker, the best-selling author of Unforgettable Presence, this wonderful book that we’re talking about today, also the founder of RISE Learning Solutions to find Lorraine or to hire her, please go to www.lorrainekaylee.com. Why would someone hire you? Are you for a new person who just graduates college that’s trying to start their career and get the best opportunities? Are you for someone who’s been an executive already at a large corporation but wants more opportunities and to connect with more thought leaders? Who are you for, and how does it work in terms of your consulting services and your advisory services?
Lorraine: Sure, I would say the book is targeting mid-career people who do great work. They’re trying to reach that senior level, but they’re facing some roadblocks or some challenges. To your question, though, that’s sort of like my bread and butter. I was there not too long ago, but I am consulting with Fortune 500 CEOs on their LinkedIn. A lot of parents have actually bought the book for themselves and they said, oh, I’m going to gift this to my college student because this is something I want them to know before entering the workforce. Really what it boils down to is that I help people with those foundational people skills, soft skills, presence skills that can help you at any point in your career. I’m happy that I get to help so many different people, but the book specifically is targeting a little bit more of that mid-career professional, but I’ve seen people all over the world, all different levels enjoying it, which I’m happy to see.
John: And you’re non-geographic specific because of the beauty of technology and interconnectedness, you could consult to anyone around the world who’s watching the show that’s interested in your services. Doesn’t matter if they’re in Shanghai, Mumbai, or Dubai, you can work with them, correct?
Lorraine: Exactly, yeah, the beauty of virtual.
John: I love it. Talk a little bit about the terminology career brand. Why do you lean into that term and why is that so important?
Lorraine: Career brand is another way of describing personal brand. And I wanted to describe it a little bit differently because personal brand can have a lot of negative connotations with it. So personal brand, oh, I got to be promoting myself all the time, or, oh, I’m that salesy person, always talking about myself. And people have a adverse reaction to that. So I think career brand more accurately describes what a brand is in service of. It’s in service of helping you in your career. Now, what is a career brand? What is a personal brand? It’s essentially a reputation. It’s what you want to be, or what you are known for, rather. You can either be really intentional about it, you can form it, you can shape it, you can strengthen it, or you can leave things to chance and let other people do it for you. Or maybe people don’t even know that you exist. So you’re going to have a brand, whether you care about it or not, but it’s better to be thoughtful, intentional about it.
John: Really better than just let it all happen, right? Yeah, makes sense. If you were to say, John, I want your listeners and viewers, here’s my one best career tip for the audience today. Your book is full of chalk, full of great information and tips and acronyms, as you say, and acronyms, as you know, because you’re so wise to create them, are much more memorable. But what’s your favorite career tip that you could share with our listeners and audience today?
Lorraine: Oh my gosh, that’s a hard question, John. So a lot coming to mind. But the one that I will say today, since we’re on a video call, is to be thoughtful about your virtual and video presence. And a lot of people think that video is second best in person, they keep it as an afterthought, they are not super intentional about it. But a lot of communication and a lot of collaboration is happening over video. So, we want to make sure that it reflects us and that we show up on video in the way that we want to be seen also in person. So, I don’t want you to be on video and be kind of lax because you’re at home. I want you using your hands and I want you having energy. I want you breaking out of that autopilot small talk. I want you to make eye contact. I want you to be thoughtful about what people see behind you. So, it’s not hard to create a great video presence, but it does take intentionality and just take it step by step. But it can really boost your confidence and can really shape perception.
John: It’s hard to believe you grew up in Southern California. I grew up in Manhattan. So, you use your hands like a New Yorker.
Lorraine: [Inaudible].
John: But that’s really important. It’s part of your brand, how excited you get about things. I purposely went to my cell phone with intention to look you up here. And here you are, 328,000 followers. Lorraine, everyone wants that. What are you, Taylor Swift? Does this book in your mind help you begin that journey towards becoming an important thought leader in your specific field of expertise?
Lorraine: It certainly has helped. I’ve definitely seen my followers grow faster since the book has come out. But the thing about that following, it’s great. I’ve been building it since, I don’t know, like 2013. So it’s been a while. And I’ve had different jobs and I’ve had stops and starts, but right now moving forward, I’m always going to keep continuing it. It’s not sexy, but consistency, that’s a really big piece of it. Engaging with people and not just pushing content out, but actually responding to messages, responding to comments, being there, letting people know who I am and not just shouting at everyone. That has also gone a long way.
John: Are you saying building your career brand as a contact sport?
Lorraine: I guess you could say that, yeah. It’s not easy.
John: It’s not easy. And you make a great point. I’m so happy you said that. 2013 to 25, it’s blocking and tackling and the great Muhammad Ali said, all of his wins in the ring happened outside of the ring. It all came from all of his preparation and training. And so the same goes. So really it’s a great message to the entrepreneurs out there and just people building their career brand, as you point out, that it’s not an overnight deal. There’s no such thing as one silver bullet. You’re not going to come away with one silver bullet. Really what you beautifully put in this book is what I call the methodology of convergence, where you’re doing a lot of important things that add up to great results.
Lorraine: Yeah. Very well said. Yeah. It’s all building blocks. I just made a LinkedIn post the other day saying success doesn’t come overnight. So we’re on the same wavelength.
John: There you go. Lorraine, talk a little bit about your future. You’re very young. You’re very successful.
Lorraine: Thank you.
John: Yeah, and that’s a great position to be in because to have this much success this young in your life is a wonderful blessing. What do you feel? What are you excited about next for your career, for your career brand? And what’s your vision for the next couple of years ahead?
Lorraine: I’m getting ready to launch my first masterclass in a few weeks that is going to lead into a larger course that’s connected to the themes in my book. And so I’m really, really excited about that. That I see as the next phase of my business. People have been asking me about, of course, for a long time. It’s something that’s a little bit more scalable, repeatable, and those are the best businesses. So that’s something that I’ve been thinking about. I’m still going to obviously do the speaking and the teaching, etc., on the brand deals and whatnot. But I’m excited about this next step.
John: Where will that be? Where will that masterclass be? Where will people be able to access it? And when do you expect that to drop?
Lorraine: Yeah. So I’m going to start promoting it in a few weeks, but if you follow my newsletter or subscribe rather, LorraineKlee.com slash subscribe, you’ll get all the updates, any bonuses there first. And I’ll also, of course, be posting on LinkedIn.
John: That’s wonderful. Well, Lorraine, this book is wonderful. I totally recommend our listeners and viewers to buy it to bolster their career, whether you’re an entrepreneur or whether you’re just climbing the corporate ladders of the world. Everyone can have a better career brand. Unforgettable presence. Get seen, gain influence, and catapult your career. Lorraine, thank you not only for writing this wonderful book, but more thankfully, thank you for spending the time with us today, the generosity of your time to share some of your thoughts and wisdom. I wish you continued great health and success. And thanks for making us all just a little bit better in the career brands that we’re building.
Lorraine: Thanks, John.
John: This edition of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by Engage. Engage is a digital booking platform revolutionizing the talent booking industry. With thousands of athletes, celebrities, entrepreneurs, and business leaders, Engage is the go-to spot for booking talent for speeches, custom experiences, live streams, and much more. For more information on Engage or to book talent today, visit letsengage.com. This edition of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by ERI. ERI has a mission to protect people, the planet, and your privacy, and is the largest fully integrated IT and electronics asset disposition provider and cybersecurity-focused hardware destruction company in the United States, and maybe even the world. For more information on how ERI can help your business properly dispose of outdated electronic hardware devices, please visit eridirect.com.
Read Unforgettable Presence – https://unforgettablepresencebook.com/
Connect with Lorraine – https://linkedin.com/in/lorraineklee
Weekly Bite-Sized Career Tips – https://lorraineklee.com/subscribe
LinkedIn Learning Courses – https://lorraineklee.com/linkedinlearning
Collaborate with Lorraine – [email protected]