Welcome to "Visionary Voices" the podcast where we dive into the minds of business owners, founders, executives, and everyone in between.
Each episode brings you face-to-face with the leading lights of industry and innovation.
Join us as we uncover the stories behind the success and the lessons learned along the way.
Whether you're climbing the corporate ladder or just starting your business journey, these are the conversations you need to hear - packed with visionary voices and insights.
Let's begin.
So Alina, thank you so much for joining us on today's episode of Visionary Voices.
Can you give us a top level view of what it is that you do right now and your journey so
far?
Thank you for having me, Aqil.
It's a delight to be here.
So, yes, I suppose, my name is Alina, Alina Addison.
And what most people know me for is I am the founder of Adapta, which is an executive
coaching and leadership development company.
I'm also an ex-investment banker.
I used to be the head of trading and execution for Rothschild.
And then during that period as an investment banker, I also built a hotel.
in Romania, where I'm originally from.
So I've got a hotel, boutique hotel in Transylvania overseeing the Dracula Castle.
So probably those three things will be what most people know me for or know about me.
What most people don't know about me is that as a head of trading and execution at Roche
Child, I used to be able to negotiate with almost anybody.
The one person I wasn't able to negotiate.
with was my own son.
And so he was diagnosed on the autistic spectrum 10 years ago.
And actually, I think the other thing I didn't mention what people know me for is I'm also
the author of a book called The Audacity Spectrum, which I keep forgetting.
And it was only just published last year.
So going back to what most people don't know about me is I had to learn that the to say
no, I had to learn
how to communicate with my son.
He's been my best student and my best teacher in communication really.
I felt powerless at the time, I didn't know what the diagnosis meant.
I sort of accepted the diagnosis but I didn't accept the prognosis.
So, you know, he has been my biggest catalyst for change, my biggest inspiration and I am
forever grateful for where I am today.
We've done it together.
Amazing.
It's quite a journey that you've been on.
You're working in a lot of different industries there.
I mean, there's a lot I want to unpack.
So firstly, going from investment banking to the industry that you're in right now, that's
quite a big transition, right?
So can you explain to me that transition and how you dealt with that, going from
investment banking to this consulting side of things?
What was that change like for you?
Well, mean, it's always been the change.
doesn't happen overnight, interestingly.
So at my company, Adapter, we do coaching, executive coaching and leadership development,
mainly in the financial services industry.
So I transitioned into the other side of it.
I also qualified as an accountant with PwC, so I forgot to say that.
for me, it was a gradual, I suppose, transition.
when I...
when I diagnosed Dan, so that was sort of 10 years ago, my company has now been going for
almost nine years, so eight and a half.
And it was very much a turning point in my life.
Did I want to do this for another 20 years?
And there was also, there was a little trauma that I don't talk about it in my book, I
don't talk about it.
I sometimes sort of mention because it is something else that sort of happened.
was an illness.
It was a change that almost forced me to consider another path.
And I had a coach.
So I always say, you my son was the catalyst for change, but actually the inspiration was
my own coach, John, at the time.
So I had someone who I was really admiring.
It was inspiring.
And when I decided to do something else, to try a different job, if you like,
totally different career path was because I could see someone who did it successfully.
So I gave myself two years.
It was a calculated risk.
So you see as an investment banker, I was the head of trading and execution.
So what I was extremely good at was taking risks.
And this is again, one of the theme in my book.
As an entrepreneur, you need to have that appetite for risk.
and I, you know, I sort of started all over again, many times in my life, in my career.
And that was another example of me deciding to go down a different path.
It's not an easy industry.
I 10 years on, I suppose most people will know it's unregulated, the coaching.
Everybody can become a coach overnight.
So the barriers to entering this industry are very low.
The barriers to success are very high.
So for me, it was a calculated risk.
just, I thought I will try to do something different and also
I really was getting very passionate about the positive psychology, about neuroscience,
about emotional intelligence, all because I just wanted to, almost, not almost, to change
myself so I can understand my son better.
Because I truly understood that it wasn't about me changing him, it was about me changing
my perspective to his perspective.
So that's why I did what I, you know, I decided to go down.
I gave myself two years.
as any calculated risk and if it wasn't going to work I was actually going to go back to
the financial services industry.
Yeah, I mean, there's a couple of things that I'd love to dig into a little bit more.
What you said about risk.
I think that's such an important element of being an entrepreneur and going down that
route is yes, take, you have to take the risks, but at the same time, be calculated with
the risks that you're taking and understand, okay, what does this look like?
You know, what's the timeframe you're going to allow?
What are the inputs you're going to do in that timeframe to see, you know, at the end of
it, let's assess did this meet the criteria or the end result that we wanted to?
If yes, great, we can go into it more.
And if not, then we can pivot away.
and then what you said as well about the barriers to entry, right?
As you said, barriers to entry can be very low, but the barriers to success is very high.
And in my industry as well within marketing agencies, you know, there's so many marketing
agencies now popping up here, there, and everywhere because the barrier to entry is just
so low.
But what you said there rings to be very true in this industry as well, where the barriers
to success actually is very, very high and to actually make it work is very difficult to
do.
So when it comes down to.
the work you do now with the companies that you're working with, what does that look like
from the service delivery point of view?
So how do you create this change within these organizations?
So I think, it's simplistically, so I have a team, so it's not just on my own, we, this,
in the organization, we provide what I call the sort of plain vanilla, the one-to-one
coaching, the executive coaching for, you know, the sort of C-suite.
And it's usually because I work with private equity.
It would be someone who will, it's career-based.
So someone who will go from a director to a managing director, from a managing director to
a partner, and then a managing partner.
So we...
We serve people on those transitions.
We also do team coaching.
So we work with teams, again, to just get them high performing.
And as you can imagine, in these corporate entities, everybody wants to perform.
It's an incredibly competitive environment, again, to succeed.
So we do that.
We also do peer coaching.
and mainly with women, so we do quite a few women leadership programmes.
We will take the, again, the talented women, the succession, the women who have been
carved out to be the next partner, let's say, and then we will work with them for six to
12 months in peer coaching.
And then the other thing, what I call my sexy projects, are my retreats.
So I take leaders twice a year.
now to my hotel in Transylvania in May and in November.
you know, it's quite a wide spectrum of service delivery that we do at Adopt.
no, nice.
They're very quiet.
I think you tackle so many different areas there, which is great.
And then when it comes down to the industry you're in, right?
So the financial industry in general, because I mean, for me, when I first started trying
to work for myself, the first thing I actually did was getting into currency trading and I
got really interested into that side of things.
So when it comes down to that industry in particular, I guess what are some of the
challenges that you face specific to maybe that industry and the people that you work with
there?
Because I think, you know, financial...
companies or trading companies, et cetera.
The people that work there could be very different to maybe some of the other corporate
entities that are out there as well.
what are some of the differences there that you might have picked up or noticed when it
comes to your industry?
That's a really good question.
I suppose it's almost like, what's the avatar, the profile of the client in those type of
industries?
They're very fast, they're very results driven, they're very success focused.
So it's all about results.
You have to be able to react fairly quickly in terms of the big deals.
so I used to work in the sort of credit.
head of credit risk and trading but it's a big spectrum of the financial services and
where we still tend to serve will be in what we call the front office, the deal makers.
So they are the people who will win businesses so they have to be able to negotiate, they
have to be able to deliver, they have to be able to work under pressure.
because they have to compete with other of these financial institutions they tend to.
you know, they usually will finance a big corporate, the leverage, you know, buyouts, for
example.
This is where I tend to play.
So it's quite a long lead times in terms of, you know, they have to do research on which
companies they need to pick to then fund.
So there is, it's a very high pressure environment.
I used to think, and I'm not saying that anymore in terms of the language, but it's a very
hard jungle.
At times, used to be only the fittest will survive.
mean, it's changing.
The world is changing.
We're sort of a bit more accommodating, and it's not just about results.
Of course, we all know it's about well-being, but I would say, primarily, it's still very
results-focused.
No, amazing.
That's exactly what I was picturing in my head as well.
Because we've all seen those movies, the trading style movies, everything in that type of
environment.
And it is very, very high pressure and high risk as well with some of the stuff that you
do.
zooming into the book that you have.
So can you break down, what is this book about?
What will people learn if they go through it?
And then we can go on from there.
Thank you.
So the book is called The Audacity Spectrum, leading with care, courage and
non-conformity.
So for me, my mission was to sort of redefine audacity as not only being bold and
courageous, which is what most people associate, almost reckless, know, the sort of
negative connotation with audacity.
I wanted to bring this new dimension of a positive connotation to audacity, which is you
really have to care.
in order to be audacious.
You have to care so much about either someone or your mission or something that you don't
care about what other people think.
And that's sort of that mindset of the successful entrepreneurs or successful people in
business, in the corporates, is they really have to focus on that mission and not care as
much about what other people think, which is a natural human...
We all care about what everybody else, which sort of want to be validated.
And then the non-conformity piece was really what I've learned from my son, is I grew up
in, well, in communist Romania and it was a very conforming society.
You had to conform with the rules.
So I was very naturally able to conform.
I was able to be part of groups, of teams and conforming to their rules.
What I then found out, so when my son is almost the other side of the spectrum, really
non-conforming, or not that he doesn't want to conform, I think his brain sometimes, he
just sees things that other people don't see.
So I became very attractive about this idea of non-conformity.
How do you sometimes, you know, comply with the rules, but also find ways of circumventing
the rules, not necessarily breaking the rules, because I'm not a big advocate for breaking
the rules, but...
Sometimes the conventional thinking is so conventional that we miss some really important
cues.
So that's how the book came about.
As I said, it was really inspired, which is why it's called Spectrum, because it's a wide
spectrum of qualities.
And it's interesting, what I say is that we're all on the spectrum, actually.
We're all unique in a certain way.
And it's finding that...
Yeah, that's sort of the uniqueness that we all have and leverage that.
And I came up with this idea of the eight A's, so the letter A, which I've got here, you
know, sort of, so there are eight A's of audacity or of audacious leadership.
And I've sort of constructed a star.
So they are because it's like a north star with eight peaks.
And the idea is that you can read the book in any order.
You don't have to read it from the beginning to the end.
So it's a bit non-conventional.
You can open it up at any of the chapters and see, know, is this an A that I want to go
deeper?
So the first A is attunement.
And that is sort of, you know, the power to slow down, to feel your own feelings, but also
know, tune into the feelings of others.
Then you have acknowledgement, which is, you know, the courage to know what your
strengths, but also what your weaknesses are.
And then, you know, the courage to admit when you don't know.
You have assurance, which is the courage to say yes.
You have assertiveness, which is the fortitude or courage again to say no.
And then you have authenticity, which is where this you have to...
Again, it's all within the theme of courage, it's the belief to trust yourself and care so
much that you don't care about what other people think.
That's true authenticity at its heart.
You can speak your truth without having the fear that you are going to upset someone.
If your truth is your truth, just have the courage to express it authentically.
Then the 6A is advocacy.
which where the care comes is you, know, again, what I've just said, the passion to care
so much about someone or something that you move mountains, that's true advocacy.
And I sort of became an advocate for my son, you know, having to express sometimes.
He's now learned to do all of that on his own, but at the time I was his advocate.
The seventh A is adaptability, which is, you know, again, the ability, the courage to let
go.
Most people say, yeah, but I can change because I've traveled.
and I've been in 10 countries, that's not, that's part of the adaptability.
But how willing are you to change your mind?
When you've been conforming to this rule, how willing are you to change your mind to see a
different perspective?
And the last A, which is my most favourite, is appreciation.
Again, this power, this ability to see the positive even in the negative experience of
life.
Yeah, yeah, amazing.
I think that's such a detailed explanation of the book.
I'm so excited to read this actually, because there's a few points there where I was
thinking, do you know what, I definitely want to dig in more about this.
I mean, when it comes down to the validation point, know, letting go of that external
validation, I'd love to zoom in a little bit more into that because I for me, that's
something that over time, I've been trying to break out a little bit more because when I
first started the business world, I was like, do you know what, I...
I'm going to be so kept by what I post.
I'm only going to post things I think other people will want to read.
And, you know, podcasts as well, the very beginning, I was thinking, do you know what,
this, I'm doing this for other people rather than the questions that I want to ask, let's
say.
So when it comes down to letting go of that validation from other people, how do you start
that process and how do you start letting go of those, of those things?
Well, it's an interesting question.
One last thing I've forgotten.
So if you want to read the book, what I would suggest that even for your readers, Achille,
and I can share that, maybe you put it into your notes, there is a free quiz.
There's a free or dusty quiz, which shouldn't take you more than, I don't know, five
minutes.
And then, I mean, it's a playful way.
And you can then find out which one of these eight A's are your superpowers and which is
what I call, you know, your edges, where you might have to stretch them a little bit.
And then you can find out.
Is this this need to for for validation and it's interesting you say even with you when
you started the podcast so I have got my LinkedIn lives that I started February last year
and again for me my the way my mindset works It's everything is experimentation is that
risk taker in me like if it's not gonna work I'm taking the risk and if it doesn't work,
then we'll try something else and I think it's just doing it for
yourself, you know, to go back to what are my values, what am I doing this for, what am I
doing the podcast, so for me the lives is, I just want to have interesting conversations
with people that I love and I'm learning from them, they're learning from me, yes it's a
risk because I'm doing it live, but you know, and I accept that not everybody is willing
or able to do things live, I am willing to make mistakes live.
Yeah.
then say, you know, literally just role model.
Imperfection, as I call it, as I used to be, and I probably still am at heart at times
what I call a recovering perfectionist.
So for me to stretch the muscle of, OK, this is imperfect and that's OK.
And of course, it comes with age and comes with maturity.
I've not always been like this.
I always cared and even more so
I think when we're young and when we're women, and again I'm very careful not to
generalise, we really care a lot about what other people think and then we just don't do
it.
Rather than, so my philosophy of life is, you you've got this play between making a
decision which is a risk and a lot of people don't make decisions for fear of upsetting
someone or whatever their internal narrative is.
And my, because I'm so action-orientated, I always say to my clients, well, you could make
a bad decision, but at the moment you're making no decision.
So, you know, when you make no decision, you are in the no man's land of you're never
going to find.
And actually you're wasting a lot of time.
So for me, it's like, let's make a decision.
I don't know whether it's going to be right or wrong.
It doesn't matter.
We will find out whether it's wrong, either immediately or in two weeks, in two years, we
will find out.
So it gets you moving.
And once you are in movement, you're in action and then you can always change.
That's the adaptability piece.
That's really true adaptability.
It's like, let me try and if it doesn't work, I'll change gears.
I'll change paths.
I'll do something with it.
Yeah, I think the key thing you said there is, and that's okay, right?
We're gonna try this and if it fails, that's okay.
And it's giving yourself permission to fail in a way, right?
Where if it's failure or just a lesson, right?
It's how you interpret that.
But, that's okay is a good way to approach different things you're gonna go into.
Because what you said about perfectionism, right?
I'm very much in that realm of wanting every little detail to be perfect.
And the one thing I found out,
because back in the day, I was doing a lot of web design and those different things.
And with that, you can be tweaking it for hours and hours and hours to make sure every
pixel is in line and everything.
And then when it came to the podcast as well, I wanted every conversation to be exactly
perfect, laid out, everyone's captivated throughout the whole thing.
But ultimately, within a conversation, there's going to be points which you can't control
and you can't change and everything.
And that's okay, right?
You got to give yourself that permission just to be that authentic person throughout these
conversations.
but also giving yourself that permission to fail as you said.
And so, I mean, what other bits around the conformity part as well, right?
Cause you said about conforming sometimes, but also circumventing when you know you should
circumvent those rules.
So how do you differentiate, you know, which one you should do within that thing that
you're doing right now, right?
When should you conform and when should you circumvent?
How do you analyze that on your side?
And you don't, it's interesting, we'll go back to playing, experimenting.
So I think for me the conforming is, know, of course we have rules, we have laws, you
know, so we have to conform with those.
There is a reason why we have to pay taxes every year, because we have to contribute to
society.
you know, I'm not saying circumventing those type of things, although, but so it's, and
the structure is always important, because creativity actually happens within constraints.
So the more constraints, so the more I suppose rules you have, we have to do it within
box.
But within this box, could we actually change the shape of the box?
Does it have to be always a square box?
Can we create a different shape?
So it's more that, we all need structure.
And even people saying even coaching is like going with the flow.
And I love going with the flow, but you still do need some structure to what you're trying
to create.
Otherwise, when we build a...
a house, always say, know, build a hotel, you need to have the design.
It has to have...
And then you can change.
actually, I don't want that room there or I don't want the window there.
But without having that plan or a shape of a plan at the beginning, it's difficult to
create something.
And I wanted to go back to your point, you know, as you said, it's a sort of failure.
My philosophy coaching...
philosophy is reframing, because I did a lot of that with my son, know, sort of reframing
from what he would perceive as negative or as a failure to, know, what is the other
possibility?
So I don't call failure failure, if that makes sense, I call it feedback.
So, you know, it's like, what's the feedback or, you know, a lesson?
What's the feedback that you've had from that experience, which we call a failure?
There's something that you've learned and it's never a failure unless you have decided not
to learn something from it because if we keep repeating the same lesson then maybe but the
whole idea is every experience that we have and you know every way we go or every path
it's been given to us there is a lesson in there.
It's quite interesting.
I was talking to one of my friends who's a head of marketing for a company and he was
saying, you know, lot of companies, whenever they run like an advertising campaign,
they're always looking at, okay, the success metric is going to be the revenue coming in.
But he was like, no, like they need to reframe this because ultimately at the end, you're
to get two things.
You're either going to get money or you're to get information on what worked or didn't
work.
And so as you know, going back to your point, there's always a lesson in the actions that
you're taking.
If the outcome is not what it is, you what you wanted it to be, that's fine, because
there's also going to be that information, those lessons within it, which then you can
apply to the next thing you're going to test.
And then you just reiterate and you keep moving forward.
So I love that reframing principle.
And especially in entrepreneurship, it's one of those, you know, arenas where you're
constantly having these challenges and these tests and everything.
And so you need to have that growth mindset, let's say, where you're just flipping all
those failures, I say, or, you know, into those lessons.
to continue and improve.
So when it comes down to your own entrepreneurial journey, mean, what's some of the
biggest challenges that you face as you've been growing and scaling over the last few
years?
What challenges have you faced and how did you overcome those?
Well, actually, it's interesting.
think the industry as a whole, it's changing.
It's obviously the AI, which I know you've talked on some of your other podcasts and it's
a very topical subject right now.
I mean, that is definitely changing the landscape.
So we have to be aware of that.
is also talking about the low barriers to entry.
is, you know, like in any business, you always look at the demand and supply.
There's a lot of supply right now.
So I think that's a challenge that we need to acknowledge.
And then you have to constantly find ways of staying relevant, of serving your clients and
navigating these sort of changes, staying significant in as much where there is so much
supply and so much content.
But it will come back to the absolute, you know, the simplest things or the common sense,
as I call it, which is, I'm sure you heard this.
phrase before, know, common sense is not so common.
It's like what do people need?
There's a lot of stress in the system.
And, you know, people still, people will buy people and you know that through your
marketing, I'm sure, you know, it will come down to the connection.
People will still want to go on retreats and spend time with other people or on their own
for that matter.
But, you know, so I think for us it's like what is the, what is the, what is the pain?
What is the problem that we're trying to
to solve and how can we help?
How can we stay in communication and in dialogue with our clients?
So we stay current.
A few years ago, and still it's coming back, the whole burnout, it was huge in corporate.
And again, in retaining people, the whole diversity, do they have enough diversity in
their teams?
And we know that the women or ethnicity.
All of that's been very relevant and now we talk about neurodiversity.
So you just have to really be willing to keep learning actually.
That's how you differentiate, I suppose in every industry but even more so in the industry
that I'm in.
The best coaches compared to average will be the ones who are willing to...
constantly update themselves.
It's like that.
Operating system needs to be updating no matter what, whether you are a computer, know, IT
and AI.
Same with us humans, is we have to constantly be learning.
So I always say, my test is interesting.
This is me being challenging, because I love to be, you know, when people say, Alina, what
type of coaching style do you have?
And I say, well, I'm challenging.
And now I'll challenge you with love, but you have to be willing to be challenged.
And actually, it's in one of the models in the books.
which is so simple but I use it over and over again, is that sort of comfort zone and then
you have the stretching zone outside.
So you have to be willing to be uncomfortable.
You're not going to learn in the comfort zone.
You have to feel slightly uncomfortable.
Do not go into the panic zone which is a third circle.
You know, when you are so uncomfortable then you're going to stop learning.
That's the truth.
But are you willing to constantly learn?
And what I say to my clients, you need to make sure that your coach has got a coach.
That's a test.
So if they're not willing to invest in themselves and in them just upgrading, why should
you invest in them?
And that's been a game changer for me, know, having, you know, all of this last 10 years,
having my own coach, sometimes more than one and being part of this incredible communities
of high performing people, because I'm a true believer that, you know, that you become the
average of
the five people, I mean that's what they say, that you spend most time with.
So make sure you are surrounding yourself with people who lift you up, who give you energy
and then you will constantly continue to learn and upgrade.
I love that message there.
going back to what you said about updating your operating system, your OS, right?
I resonate with that a lot because a lot of the times when people start their companies or
are running their companies is they'll build what they think the clients need or think the
services that they might need.
But ultimately, do they need those services?
You need to constantly be asking these questions and iterating the product and the
services, as you said, to constantly be updating because...
You know, there's so many changes going on now with automation AI, all these different
things that you have to stay on top of it and iterate and change wherever you might need
to.
And I think that's what's going to be the differentiator, as you said, between, you know,
we have all this supply, but ultimately the people at the very top, they're the ones that
would have changed and iterated and become flexible as the market dynamics shift and
change over time.
So I think there's so many different lessons throughout this podcast for sure that people
can take away and apply to their business.
But one of the final questions we always ask on this podcast is if you can go back to your
18 year old self and only take three things with you, whether it's business knowledge,
philosophy, some technical knowledge, whatever, what would those three things be and why
would it be those things?
Hmm, what would the three things be?
And actually something that you just said earlier, I think you said, you know, it's going
to be okay.
And I suppose what I will tell to my young self, it's something that I've been using as a
mantra.
It's going to be okay in the end.
And if it's not okay, it's not the end.
Mmm.
So, you know, because you have to be okay with life is going to give you obstacles and
opportunities, which to me, I almost just switch it on its head is what is the opportunity
in this particular obstacle?
And you might not be able to see it in the moment and that's okay.
But actually it will eventually, there's a lesson that's been given to you and just be
very grateful for both type of experience.
So that's number one.
Number two will probably be
don't give up.
And that sort of perseverance and tenacity which is through my book.
Just because someone says it's not possible, it doesn't mean it's true.
Because people might not be at top level of nonconformity, they might not be able to see
what you see.
And having that faith and that belief, and again I'm not saying it's going to happen, but
you have to start with that faith.
because I remember my own coach said, your two biggest gifts are your courage and your
belief that anything is possible.
that is, sounds, it lands true for me.
It's a big belief that anything is possible.
And yet the life has given me a lot of tests to say, really Alina, is that, and even, I
suppose my own diagnosis with my son, I remember thinking, that, what now?
because I know it's everything is possible, but that's not the case.
And then I found different ways.
I remember my, and I'll tell you a very little story, I know at the end, but I remember
going very frustrated to my dad, because he was my biggest teacher.
And he said, Alina, everything is possible.
And I said, how is this diagnosis, which really scared me at the time?
And he said, well, Alina, people are blind, they're blind.
Because I remember saying, I can't give a blind person their sight back, dad.
just go with this BS that everything is possible.
I mean, I was in that state.
And then he said, it's true.
You have to acknowledge the reality.
However, what superpowers, what senses does a blind person have that you don't?
And I remember that was a moment of refrain.
So, you know, again, just find your own way.
So I suppose that that would be my number.
You know, don't give up.
Find a non-conforming way and...
The third one, what would the third one say to my sort of young self?
Community, you know, just find your tribe.
And I know it just, that is important.
And I think I did enough, but would I do it differently?
But just, you know, surround yourself, surround yourself with people who give you energy,
you know, find your tribe.
And maybe that's why I don't stay, you know, for me, I stayed in some sort of, you know,
relationships in terms of even work at times, maybe too long, you know, not acknowledging
that I, it's time.
to move on.
So those will be my three lessons.
no, I love the, I love the mission there, right?
And some of the lessons there.
And I think everyone can take a lot of golden nuggets throughout this whole episode for
sure.
So, thank you so much for joining me on today's episode.
really enjoyed this conversation.
Thank you.
Now, absolutely, it's been a pleasure and delight.
And thank you.
Well done.
Thank you for what you're doing in the world and your own mission.
I mean, actually, it's lovely to just witness.
For me, it's like the sort of new generation trying to make a difference.
That's phenomenal.
It's great to watch and witness.
So thank you.
appreciate that.
Thank you very much.