Lisa Riolo Turning Potential into Prosperity

Lisa Riolo master of ceremonies for Affiliate Summit Miami 2007 has been an influential person in the affiliate marketing space for quite some time as Senior Vice President of Business Development at Commission Junction for over 6 years Lisa earned the reputation for the catalyst that drove Commission Junction to its success.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Lisa at Affiliate Summit Miami on the comfortable couches within the lobby of the Intercontinental Hotel, with pillows mashed on tops of our laps, our shoes lying beside us on the floor, we had the time to talk about many things including woman in the eCommerce space. Lisa’s knowledge, thoughts, and inspiration drove me to consider career movements I might not have noted without her insight. Her ability to move people is astounding and her introduction to you if you are not familiar with her comes below in the context of an interview.

Paulson: What have you been up to since leaving Commission Junction in 2006?

Lisa Riolo: I’ve worked on several projects as a consultant or advisor, and looked into a few start-up ventures. I’ve also been fortunate enough to act as a business coach for several people. Plus, I’ve carved time for plenty of reading!

Paulson: Where did you come up with the name for your new company Hammock Ventures?

Lisa Riolo: Well, I think of the Hammock as the universal symbol of leisure. Ultimately, I hope every venture leads us to having more leisure time.

Paulson: Creating business or team success is important to help any company achieve their goals, how do you start with a new client interested in your services?

Lisa Riolo: I listen, ask questions and try to understand a leader’s intended outcome for his or her business. A fairly common theme is figuring out how to accelerate growth and to scale the operation to support the additional business.

Paulson: Do you have any tips for young women interested in succeeding in eCommerce marketing?

Lisa Riolo: Build formal mentoring relationships. You can hire a coach, you can ask an executive, manager or advisor that you respect, or you can attend networking events and make connections there. Get into a Mastermind group, too. Other perspectives are invaluable.

One other thing…
There are not a lot of ‘independent’ women circulating within the Internet Marketer circles. During this past year, I’ve spent time expanding upon my core experience (affiliate marketing) and I’m continually surprised at how few women are visible among the industry leaders. If you survey the authors of “biz op” information products or “how to” experts-you’ll find mostly men. I haven’t found a lot of women entrepreneurs either. Don’t get me wrong-women business owners and founders exist. They just aren’t as visible. SO: if my observations reflect an actual imbalance, I imagine there are a lot of opportunities for female marketers. Great marketers understand the customers that are out there buying. There are plenty of stats out there that state that women spend a high percentage of products (including online). So having the female perspective might offer an advantage. I don’t know-but it’s a theory I’d like to test.

Paulson: What are the core foundations of your business services? And which services that you perform do you feel are most needed?

Lisa Riolo: I am all about turning potential into prosperity. I thrive by helping business people to develop and grow. Whether we’re focused on the entire business, a team or an individual, my greatest gift is seeing opportunities and solutions within the ‘chaos’ of daily life and transforming that idea or vision into success. I’ve developed a type of bi-focal perspective to see at both a micro and macro level. Since I find that people typically gravitate toward the weeds or the clouds, and have difficulty understanding the other-my presence usually creates a bridge. I help the tactical, short-term, ‘get-it-done’ folks add a broader context to daily activities. And, I help the visionaries that crank out long-term strategies to focus and implement scalable operating systems.

I find that individuals tend to struggle more in their lives with knowing ‘What and Why’ rather than ‘How’. I find that businesses are pretty good with ‘What and Why’ but struggle with the ‘How’ and processes. What is fairly universal, though, is that clients usually are looking to accelerate their growth. So, I’m in business to facilitate that growth.

Paulson: While speaking with you at Affiliate Summit Miami 2007 I was amazed at your ability to “Sum up” my current career path and your insight and direction was amazing, how can a company or person interested in succeeding hire you? Contact you?

Lisa Riolo: You can find me at LinkedIn, Facebook or via email. My address is Lisa at lisariolo.com

Paulson: What have you found most interesting about transitioning to self-employment?

Lisa Riolo: The learning curve is definitely steep-but not in ways I expected. I have a pretty good idea about my weaknesses and faults, so I anticipated certain challenges. What I hadn’t considered was that I didn’t initially design an environment that leverages my strengths. I love people. Working for myself dramatically reduced the amount of time I’m actively engaged with people. I’ve found that challenging. In addition to the energy I get being with people, the quality of my work dramatically improves through collaboration. Needless to say-as soon as the revenue supports it-I’ll be building up a team within Hammock Ventures.

Thank you Lisa for taking the time to let everyone at ReveNews know what you are up to. I might add that your skills as a business coach are tremendous and we are all looking forward to your great success now and in the future.

About Heather Paulson

Heather Paulson is the President of PaulsonManagementGroup.com which provides Affiliate Management, Paid Search Management, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Management and affiliate video production and affiliate recruiting services.

Heather was appointed to the Affiliate Summit advisory board in 2006. In 2007 Ms. Paulson was appointed to the advisory board for Affiliate Classroom. In 2007 Ms. Paulson was elected as PPCClassroom.com’s education manager. in 2008 Ms Paulson was nominated as a FAB member of the Performance Marketing Association and is an honorary recipient of the ACC Certified Affiliate Managers Course. in 2008 Heather Paulson was invited to become a member of The Internet Oldtimers Foundation. She has passed the Google professionals certification twice. Heather also blogs at Paulson Management Group Blog. You can follow Heather on Twitter: @Heatherpaulsons.

Website: http://www.PaulsonManagementGroup.com