Interview With Traci Philips – Executive Leadership & Performance Strategist
- Brainz Magazine
- Oct 4, 2021
- 7 min read
Updated: Oct 5, 2021
As an Executive Leadership & Performance Strategist, Traci Philips supports visionary business owners and corporate executives to learn and practice better communication, resolution strategies, decision-making and leading during times of change and when the stakes are high. A three-year stint co-facilitating a men's transformational program for industry leaders incarcerated in Federal Prison taught Traci more than she could ever have learned elsewhere about high-stakes leadership and the cost of bad decision-making. This experience fueled a passion in her to help top leaders learn what they needed to know so they wouldn't end up losing what matters most. Her ultimate goal is to support her clients to live authentically and lead powerfully by creating more awareness about who they are, how they want to be seen, and what legacy they want to leave behind. Traci is the co-host of Eavesdrop in the Moment, a bi-weekly podcast that discusses current trends and leadership. Her book, Looking In: Discover, Define and Align the True Value of Your Life, Leadership and Legacy is helping leaders around the globe increase their confidence and self-identity to meet leadership demands and their personal performance potential.
Traci Philips , Executive Leadership & Performance Strategist
It’s great to meet you, and we’d love to learn more about you:
In 2007, my husband and I moved to NC with our newborn daughter. I had recently left a 15-year career as a foreign language curriculum developer and instructor to be a stay-at-home mom. Those first 5 years had many challenges, as our country was in recession, and I struggled with postpartum and the challenges of raising a child, who required three surgeries before her second birthday, that had us traveling regularly to MD to meet with her surgical and care team. Those years taught resilience and created a strong family bond, and it set the stage for much of the work I do today helping visionary leaders capitalize on their challenges to build the legacy of their dreams.
When my daughter began kindergarten, I made the decision to get my coaching certification and first entered the field of holistic health. Three years in, I realized this area of coaching did not fit my personality and desire to work with more driven and growth-oriented individuals. I began considering consciously-driven leadership, which, at the time, was only beginning to be discussed. I thought about big industry leaders. What if these individuals were to go through a complete metamorphosis that left them with deep clarity and a sense of ownership about who they are and how they have come to serve the world for a greater good? What would this mean, not only for them but for those closest to them, their employees, organizations and the impact they had on the world? I knew then that I was being called to focus on leadership, but I had no idea how I was going to make that transition.
Two months later, I received an invitation to help a past client. At the time, she was a clinical psychologist at Butner, the Federal Prison here in NC. She invited me to co-facilitate a men’s transformational program she had created for leaders serving sentences for white-collar federal crimes. These were men who had held prestigious positions of power and influence. In my time there, I learned it is the high-profile leaders who are one of the most under-served in our culture when it comes to personal support and specialized care to help them through the stress and challenges they encounter. I ended up volunteering and working with groups of these men for three years, as I built up my leadership and performance coaching practice. I believe strongly there is no certification program in the world that would have offered me the knowledge, skills and experience I learned while at Butner. Today, I spend my time focused, specifically, on visionary leaders who know they came to this life to make a significant impact and want to unlock their true potential and serve with clarity, resolve and integrity.
What have your life challenges taught you that you use in your work today?
Life is full of many changes and surprises, and the road is never completely straight or smooth. I have learned many things in paving my own way. Opening myself to follow a calling has challenged my faith and trust in my own intuition, as well as strengthened my knowledge of where I am most valuable and valued. From this, I now have the experience and worldly credentials to teach others what I have learned. One of the core principles I share is how to “look in” for the answers we seek. This asks of us to develop all three of our brains – head, heart and gut – in order to receive the information we need to make the right decisions that are in alignment with who we are and why we are here.
Through my work and life experiences, I’ve developed a strong belief that the key to individual betterment and the ability to thrive is within each person. Deep down, each of us already knows what we need to reach a state of balance – we simply need to learn how to listen and understand what our inner voice is telling us and most of all, follow it.
I have lived in different parts of the US and Europe. Being in different cultures has taught me a lot. I have encountered struggles and overcome obstacles. Each challenge has allowed me to learn something more about myself and of that which I am capable. During my pregnancy, I was told at every stage that there was something potentially “wrong” with my baby. This was after trying everything for over two years just to GET pregnant. I had to learn to draw my energy in and up and to create the story I wanted to live, rather than the one I was being told. When my daughter was born with a birth defect, I worked through that time with the same trust and faith in what I could do, letting go of what was outside my control.
What do you want most for your clients and how do you help them with this?
I want people to learn to be free and grounded, two areas many struggles to access for longer than a fleeting period of time. Being confident and assured in one’s identity is about knowing oneself. Most people do not. As an Executive Leadership & Performance Strategist, I support visionary business owners and corporate executives to learn and practice better communication, resolution strategies, decision-making and leading during times of change and when the stakes are high.
My time working with ex-leaders in prison taught me how to do this well. I have a passion for helping my clients define their personal values, authentic approach and intentional outcomes to create a clearer vision and blueprint for their lives and leadership. I also assist them in learning how to confidently and effectively communicate these points and define their Zone of Brilliance. All in all, I help visionary leaders define who they are and help them to understand why that matters and how to Own Their Zone.
What is your Superpower or Zone of Brilliance?
As far back as I can remember, I have been a questioner. What I know now is the environment I grew up in offered me the opportunity to sharpen my own innate talents of auditory discernment and translation, as well as develop and hone my proficiency in clairaudience. Some people call what I do linguistic profiling. I can “read” the patterns in people’s language to find truth, hidden information and innate capacities.
With this, I have the ability to help clients identify and apply effective tools and approaches to zero in on core issues and challenges that are creating an inability to meet desired objectives and outcomes. As I assist people in discovering their Zone of Brilliance, I am also able to support them in uncovering the behaviors, beliefs, judgments and conditioning that is holding them back. In a nutshell, I know how to discover genius, cultivate vision and communicate its value.
Who do you credit for helping you get to where you are today?
I never have liked the term “self-made.” There is no one, in my opinion, who has been “made” without the help, support and assistance of many others. For me, it started with my parents who were (and still are in their 80’s) independent, hard-working and heart-centered entrepreneurs. They are also both creatives – my mother, an artist and my father, an architect.
Each is also visionary, so I grew up understanding not only what that means but what it looks like to live with this unique breed each and every day. Being a visionary, also, I have come to embrace and accept who I am and my unique skills and traits – all of them, the good and the more challenged and challenging.
I have had loads of teachers, coaches, mentors, friends and complete strangers who have played huge roles in my life play. Allowing me to develop, learn and know what I came here to experience.
Other than working directly with your clients, where else do you focus your professional time and effort?
Currently, I am an active member of the Women Speakers Association and the national and international networking organizations BNI, XPX and RPAN. I love to talk about what I do and have appeared on Blog Talk Radio, Annie Jennings PR podcast show, AuthorExpertWire and various other locally and nationally acclaimed podcast shows. I co-host a bi-weekly podcast show, as well, called Eavesdrop in the Moment where discussions are non-scripted, raw and real, covering everything from current events to personal life experiences. Finally, I love to write and put out monthly blogs and recently released my first book, Looking In: Discover, Define & Align the True Value of Your Life, Leadership & Legacy.
