Hallie interviews best-selling author, executive consultant, speaker, and Silicon Valley veteran, Ann Hiatt, on how she has built confidence over the course of her career as a naturally introverted person, and has bet on herself to create breakthrough opportunities in her life, like creating the first Chief of Staff role at Google and now stepping out onto her own as a founder.
Ann has 15+ years of experience reporting directly to high-profile CEOs such as Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and Eric Schmidt of Google and Alphabet. She now consults with CEOs and their leadership teams across the globe on c-suite optimization, has been a featured speaker at major conferences such as SXSW, The Growth Faculty, and the Valencia Digital Summit. Her bestselling book, Bet On Yourself, was published by HarperCollins in 2021.
References and Resources
Bet on Yourself by Ann Hiatt
Follow Ann on LinkedIn, Instagram, Youtube, and Twitter
Timestamps
[1:06] Introduction to Ann Hiatt.
[2:28] Ann shares the inspiration for her book, Bet on Yourself, how the pandemic lockdown became the right time to write her book, **and why she wanted to put something empowering and inspiring out into the world during that time.
[5:28] You don’t have to be special. By taking bets on yourself, you can create opportunities where they at first appear limited.
[6:10] Ann shares one pivotal moment where she bet on herself by creating the very first Chief of Staff role at Google.
[10:16] Ann explains how the need to reinvent herself and pay her knowledge forward prompted her to take the leap from Chief of Staff to Founder.
[12:46] Though each CEO Ann worked for was very different from the others, there were two common denominators among them all which lead to successful strategic partnerships and organizations: humble leadership and debate.
[16:00] Ann admits she is not a naturally confident, extroverted person. She advises that confidence is something you develop line by line, and shares how she slowly developed her confidence over the course of her 15-year career.
[20:13] “You can’t push yourself until you trust yourself”.
[21:21] ROI: Recognize, Own, and Implement breakthrough opportunities.
[25:08] Don’t wait until you’re ready to “step onto the stage”.
[28:57] To be successful, leaders today need to be more ethical, be comfortable with more scrutiny, understand that that comes with the territory, and rise to the occasion.
[31:52] Ann compares the C-suite and their team to an orchestra.
