What if You are Already Enough? w / Lisa Cork

[00:00:00] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: An introvert to become an extrovert did a very courageous move that led you to the label of the broccoli lady. Can you share that story with us?

[00:00:11] Lisa Cork: Sure. First, President George Bush. This is way back in 1990 when he became president, he banned broccoli from Air Force One, the presidential plane, because he’d been vice president under Reagan in any ways, didn’t like the smell, so he banned broccoli. So as broccoli growers, we decided that that’s just not acceptable. So we put together a good natured protest, which was when you fill a semi truck full of broccoli, it’s the equivalent of 10 tons.

[00:00:39] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Emotional hardship. Let’s talk a little bit about that. What did you feel was really hard emotionally in the first days when you then started taking that job on?

[00:00:47] Lisa Cork: Yeah, so when I first started in the company, you know, what I’ve grown to realize a little bit in hindsight was I was probably pretty emotionally immature, right. So lots of confidence, lots of skills, but probably really good at what I did to mask the fact that I just feel like I didn’t have a lot of self confidence inside. Right. And you know, we all kind of have masks that we wear in the real world that maybe hide what we’re feeling inside. And so for me, you know, this first job, I knew how to do great work, but I never let myself believe that I was doing great work. And so there was, you know, there was a period of time where I probably either missed out on opportunities or maybe didn’t jump aggressively or as assertively as I could have because I was kind of always doing a little bit of a battle with an inner self confidence demon. And, and the way I reflect on that is, you know, I had been given two really powerful women mentors, both at university and during my first years of my career. And I just, I didn’t know what to do with them.

[00:02:05] Lisa Cork: Oh, right. Like I just, I didn’t know how to network. I didn’t know how to build relationships. And I think the other observation is, you know, know, way back then, nobody talked to us about doing personality tests. Nobody talked to us about understanding yourself and learning what makes you tick. And I think students now have many more opportunities to do that. I think as professors we talk about that, but had I done that, I think it would have made a huge difference because, you know, I can sit here and this. Your students may be surprised, but I’m a huge introvert, right.

[00:02:45] Lisa Cork: And I’ve learned how to mask that. I’ve learned how to to be, you know, fully present as a CEO with that. But had I known that in my early 20s, I think it would have framed how I could have gotten help to improve upon the skill sets that I was lacking. So just not knowing how to network, you know, and having two really amazing women mentors who could have just made my career fly even more than it did, was something I look back and go, that would be one thing I wish I would have done different is understood myself better, realized I had low self confidence and dealt with it when I was 24, not when I was 50.

[00:03:31] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: That’s beautiful. So, audience, big takeaway here is you’re taking care of yourself is never selfish. Self care is actually something that will lead your career really in the right direction because you’re learning more about yourself and that will make you a better human being. And the way that I look at this is also that we sometimes tend to ignore, like, little signals and little signs. So the fact that you traveled in Europe mostly by yourself.

[00:03:59] Lisa Cork: Completely by myself. That’s the introvert.

[00:04:03] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: That’s the introvert right there. Right. It’s like you, you were by yourself,

[00:04:07] Lisa Cork: yourself, you manage this, and still you

[00:04:10] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: are never like, oh, maybe I like being by myself. Right, Absolutely. So that there’s like, sometimes little things. Do I. Do I like groups? Do I really exceed, you know, like, do I feel like I’m relaxing when I’m in a big audience? Or do I feel like I’m resting more when I’m just doing by myself and I’m deciding myself what I’m actually doing? Right.

[00:04:30] Lisa Cork: Yeah.

[00:04:30] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: So there were all these little, like, stones that you already jumped to cross that river right there. Right. And audience, there is a really fun label. And I’m going to ask Lisa about this right now because I would like to hear that story that I asked you earlier. So she, despite being an introvert, but an introvert to become an extrovert, did a very courageous move that led you to the label of the broccoli lady. Can you share that story with us?

[00:05:04] Lisa Cork: Sure, sure. So it was so just set a little bit of context. So when I went to work for the produce sales company, when you do a good job, you get promoted to sales. That’s the normal career trajectory. Love it. And had I known myself a little more, what I would have realized is that introverts don’t make great salespeople. Right. Introverts make really bad salespeople.

[00:05:33] Lisa Cork: And so I got this wonderful promotion and I cried every night for three months because I just, I hated Sales, I couldn’t do it. I was miserable. And it kind of became to a realization within the company that this wasn’t going to be my strength. But the great news is that I had a great company who could see I had so many other talents. And that’s where the ideas around marketing started to come out. And they said, look, come in and do your job, but then you’ve got these ideas. So in the afternoon, let’s see what you’ve got. Like, we love what you’re saying, so bring those to life.

[00:06:06] Lisa Cork: And so that’s kind of the transition point where I became a specialist in fresh produce marketing. So fast forward a couple of years and the company I worked with was probably one of the largest broccoli growers in the state of California. And first President George Bush, this is way back in 1990 when he became president, he banned broccoli from Air Force One, the presidential plane, because he’d been vice president under Reagan in any ways, didn’t like the smell, so he banned broccoli. So as broccoli growers, we decided that that’s just not acceptable. So we put together a good natured protest, which was, when you fill a semi truck full of broccoli, it’s the equivalent of 10 tons. And so we were gonna, we decided to send 10 tons of broccoli to the White House. So here’s what’s interesting. The first press release I ever wrote as this new marketing manager, right.

[00:07:01] Lisa Cork: Basically went viral before you could go viral. So in the old days, there was seven fax numbers that used to connect you to the world. And we wrote a press release and sent it out overnight to these seven fax numbers. And the following morning, I walked into phones ringing off the hook from all across the United States wanting to hear about the broccoli story. So we ended up engaging with the president’s office. And then George Bush made one of the most famous quotes of his career, which is, I’m President of the United States. I ate broccoli until I was 60. I’m not going to eat any more broccoli.

[00:07:38] Lisa Cork: But for the broccoli vote out there, Barbara loves it. And if she’s here when the truck arrives, she’ll greet it with open arms. And so immediately we had a call from the White House saying, you will have nothing further to do with the President. But they gave me Barbara Bush’s press secretary. And I was on the phone making arrangements for us to fly to Washington D.C. meet the truck at the White House and present Barbara Bush with Cases of broccoli on the White House lawn. And so that’s how I earned the moniker of the broccoli lady, because it was basically my initiative and my press

[00:08:10] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: release

[00:08:12] Lisa Cork: and, you know, just proof that, you know, you can. You can be who you are. Right. But you also, it’s helpful to learn skill sets that maybe push your comfort level.

[00:08:25] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Right.

[00:08:26] Lisa Cork: Because we’re never going to kind of change. Like, I’m never going to stop being an introvert. But to be a successful marketer, I’ve had to learn how to overcome some of the challenges of my natural being an introvert. And, you know, this was a great study is I just felt like I was so passionate and committed to the story of what we were trying to create that it gave me this incredible courage to kind of override my fears and to make these cold calls to media and television in the White House. And, you know, kind of that led to where we got to today. So, conservatively, they say we generated about $150 million in free publicity for broccoli.

[00:09:06] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: And that was in what year?

[00:09:07] Lisa Cork: That was in March of 1990.

[00:09:09] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Beautiful. So audience takeaway here. But first of all, eat your broccoli.

[00:09:17] Lisa Cork: Absolutely. You never have enough broccoli in your diet.

[00:09:19] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Right. Never have enough broccoli in your diet. But second of all, of course, even if you discover something about your own personality, like being an introvert, it doesn’t limit your possibility that when you step into your passion, that you can actually overcome this and do something truly extravagant and completely groundbreaking at that point. Did you actually drive this in my truck, too? I just have to tie this back. Oh, no.

[00:09:45] Lisa Cork: That would have been such an interesting link back to my history.

[00:09:48] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: That wouldn’t have been thinking.

[00:09:50] Lisa Cork: No. Quite a special skill. No, no, we just. We got to ride the truck around the White House standing on the sidebars. But, you know, that was until we got pulled over by the police.

[00:10:00] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: But did you dump the broccoli on the lawn?

[00:10:03] Lisa Cork: No, no, we donated most of it to a food bank.

[00:10:07] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Oh.

[00:10:07] Lisa Cork: We took three cases with us to the White House.

[00:10:10] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: And then what did they end up doing with it, do you know?

[00:10:12] Lisa Cork: Well, you know, Barbara was a wonderful matriarchal politician’s wife. And, you know, we had about a 30 minute audience with her, 250 journalists in a semicircle on the White House lawn. And she was just incredibly gracious. So acknowledging the food bank donation and. And then promising that she would take the three cases down to the household chef when George was away and that she would eat the broccoli. Oh. Because he was not gonna have any more broccoli.

[00:10:39] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: So I guess the moral of the story is he never changed his eating behavior, which right now, like, I’m kind of like laughing about this myself because my husband is the same way. There are some things I can dig and dig and dig and I just have to let go because he’s not going to change his mind. So I just had to let him be. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:10:59] Lisa Cork: He preferred pork rinds over broccoli, and that was gonna. Yeah, it wasn’t gonna change.

[00:11:04] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: What is that? I know. Yeah. But. Oh, well.

[00:11:09] Lisa Cork: Right.

[00:11:10] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: I love the broccoli lady story. That was absolutely beautiful. So when did you feel you did this shift from I hope this works to this might actually work? What caused this shift? When you started to feel, hmm, I think there’s something there.

[00:11:26] Lisa Cork: Yeah.

[00:11:26] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: In my role as marketing manager to where I could do this full time on my own, Leading a company, becoming the CEO and starting something from the ground up. Right.

[00:11:37] Lisa Cork: Yeah. Gosh. So it was really after I’d left Apio, so the passion for travel ultimately won the equation. And by then I’d met my husband, we’d gotten married, and both of us independently had a. Had a really strong desire to travel around the world. So it took us five years to save money for this 18 month trip that was going to take us to 36 countries. And so we. I ended up quitting my job in 1993 as part of us leaving on this trip around the world.

[00:12:17] Lisa Cork: And we did three countries in 18 months and ended up never coming back to live in America. So immigrated to New Zealand full time as part of that trip. And then when I was in New Zealand again, through networking, we’d had a broccoli grower come to California. I ended up working for New Zealand’s largest broccoli grower. Beautiful did work for him. And then in New Zealand, what I was doing was quite novel and innovative. So I was getting more and more requests from other growers to do the same and. And started my own company in 1995.

[00:12:49] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Nice.

[00:12:49] Lisa Cork: Yeah.

[00:12:50] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: So sometimes I guess it’s just a way to kind of like say, all right, here I am. But what is kind of missing in my life is this piece that I really cared about when I left the university. The traveling portion. Right.

[00:13:03] Lisa Cork: Yeah.

[00:13:04] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: And still to this point, you are so passionate about travel. Right. Which, you know, that’s always like your red little thread that has woven through your life right there. So when you started, you know, and your biggest lesson that you Learned the hard way. And audience, this is an important one. It’s so important in life to sometimes look back. And so what I’m going to ask Lisa right now is what is the biggest lesson you learned the hard way that you wish you could tell your younger self?

[00:13:39] Lisa Cork: So I made some notes because I wanted to really think, like, this is a big question. This is a great question. Thank you for asking it. I think two things came to mind. Number one is do the work, whatever that looks like, to understand yourself. Like, you’ve got to know what makes you tick to then be able to figure out how you optimize that or how you learn to work around that, depending on what your passion and your goals are. Right? So that ability to really just learn, you know, take the time, do the observational work, to learn about yourself.

[00:14:20] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Right?

[00:14:22] Lisa Cork: And then I think the second part was, you know, like, just don’t be afraid to be you. It often makes me teary to talk about this part because, you know, it’s just we spend. And I think I see in students, you know, you just see so much angst and concern and disappointment or dissatisfaction with these beautiful souls who are perfect, literally, in their way, and yet we always seem to want to change, to want to change. So I think, you know, absolutely do a bit of work to understand yourself. But if you’re an introvert, go, I’m an introvert. Like, that’s just me, and that’s how I’m meant to be, and I can be perfect within that. But I don’t have to let that hold me back. You know, I can learn how to have extroverted moments.

[00:15:16] Lisa Cork: You know, I can. If it holds me back from networking, I can learn to be a better networker. Right. And that just this idea that we’re just, you know, perfect and valuable and amazing as we are. Yeah.

[00:15:30] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: I always look at this as like a rainbow, right? That there’s all different kind of shades of color, but you just have to find, like, where you are, right? And you could even take on different colors. Like, say, I’m an introvert here, and I’m an extrovert right there. So that you really use the whole spectrum. But students and audience, this is the most difficult thing. You have to try on some of the colors to see which one you enjoy. Because otherwise, if you’re like, well, I’m just like, in this little box right here. It’s. It’s nearly like I tell my students, like, trying on shoes, right? You have to walk a little bit in the shoes to experience how that feels.

[00:16:09] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: And it’s the same with colors. You’re like, maybe I’m that shade or that shade, and. And that’s really their personality right there. And you will change this. I always tell my students, give yourself permission to figure out that how you were five years ago is maybe not how you are today. And maybe looking into the future, that five years from now you might be different again.

[00:16:30] Lisa Cork: Absolutely.

[00:16:30] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: And that’s really how I kind of like, define a growth mindset, that you always grow and you change. So don’t box yourself in and think you are just like that one personality right there.

[00:16:42] Lisa Cork: And if something feels uncomfortable, just say yes to opportunity, even if it’s uncomfortable, because there’ll be some reason why it was presented, and there’ll be some growth that comes out of it. So I love the idea of never saying, you know, never saying no to opportunity. Right. Always kind of going, I’m opening, and I’ll say yes, and then see where that leads. Yeah. Because it’s amazing what may come out of a yes conversation that’s both meaningful and learning. Yeah, that’s true.

[00:17:10] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: That’s actually. And actually audience, too. I saw Lisa in the hallway, and I kind of asked her to do this interview. This is how we are sitting here right now. It’s like, I have this idea about the campus CEO thing. Ever seen the mail room? And now we are here.

[00:17:25] Lisa Cork: Say yes to opportunity.

[00:17:26] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: It’s an opportunity, and we all learn it. We love this right now. So if you were 18 or 19 today, what would you tell yourself? Can I read what I wrote, please?

[00:17:35] Lisa Cork: All right. Apologize for the reading. But here’s what I wrote, literally. So if I was 18 or 19. 18, what would I tell myself? I’d say, you are amazing. Be confident in being yourself, because you are enough.

[00:17:49] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Oh, I like that a lot. This is a good message. And you might even put that on a sticky note next to your mirror and look at it every day.

[00:17:56] Lisa Cork: Absolutely. Absolutely. Because you are amazing. Right? Every person is amazing.

[00:18:03] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Yeah. And I think that I love how you framed this earlier, that we especially look at the students, and that keeps us young, because so young.

[00:18:16] Lisa Cork: I now have TikTok. Right. I now have TikTok, and I’m learning how to use it. They’re showing me how to use it, slowly but surely. But I now have TikTok.

[00:18:23] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Right.

[00:18:23] Lisa Cork: I wouldn’t have had TikTok before.

[00:18:25] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: So now there’s TikTok. And then, of course, the beautiful thing is, too, that you realize how the students are changing. And because maybe because they have TikTok and social media that they start to question more who they are. So instead of being more confident because they have all these resources, I nearly have the feeling that all these resources make them like these little. These little dots in this game. Do you remember this computer game, I think it was called Dot or something. Do you remember with this, like, little thing that moved around on a screen that they are nearly like something like. I don’t even know where I go.

[00:18:59] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Right? Yeah.

[00:19:00] Lisa Cork: So that’s like another Pong generation.

[00:19:02] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: That’s what I mean.

[00:19:04] Lisa Cork: Oh, we don’t mention that. That date says.

[00:19:10] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Okay, so Pong was everybody’s perfect. Of course, my students are now thinking probably about beer pong or something different.

[00:19:19] Lisa Cork: It was an old computer game, the original computer game, which moved a little curse. Yes, absolutely.

[00:19:24] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: And that’s what I nearly think about my students sometimes.

[00:19:27] Lisa Cork: Right.

[00:19:27] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: That they just move in all these directions where I’m like, don’t worry about this. Just like, really figure out who you are and then tell yourself you’re amazing. This beautiful message that you just shared with us.

[00:19:41] Lisa Cork: Amazing.

[00:19:41] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Yeah, that’s. That’s the most important thing. And. And really use it as your fuel to keep going forward. Right.