Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Who’s really running your inner boardroom?
17 Plays3 months ago
At The Second Voice, we explore the inner conversations leaders rarely say out loud.
In this solo episode, Luisa explores how every leader has a private boardroom they never talk about (not with their team, not with their mentors, sometimes not even with themselves). In that boardroom sit three voices: the doubter, the driver, and the decider. The question is.... who’s running yours?
If this episode resonated, it is likely because the second voice is active in your leadership too.
Hosted by Luisa Hogan, leadership resilience strategist and founder of Vermelho Consulting.
Luisa works with founders, executives, and senior leaders who carry real responsibility and want to lead with steadiness, clarity, and self-trust under pressure.
Her work focuses on nervous system regulation, leadership identity, and the inner dialogue that shapes how leaders show up when things are hard.
Work With Luisa
If this episode sparked reflection, here are ways to go deeper:
• Leadership resilience workshops and advisory
• Keynotes and curated live experiences
• The Steady Leadership framework and private sessions
Learn more at: vermelho.com.au
A Note From Whisper & Thread
The Second Voice is proudly supported by Whisper & Thread.
Whisper & Thread creates intimate apparel embroidered with quiet, internal messages designed to interrupt negative self-talk.
Each piece carries a reminder on the inside. Not performative. Not loud. Just for you.
Because leadership self-talk does not start in the boardroom.
And confidence is built in the moments no one sees.
Explore Whisper & Thread at: whisperandthread.com
Stay Connected
Follow along and join the conversation:
• Instagram: @thesecondvoicepodcast
• Instagram: @vermelho_consulting
• Instagram: @whisperandthread
Subscribe, rate, and review The Second Voice to help more leaders find these conversations.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Mental Boardroom
00:00:02
Luisa Hogan
Every leader has a private boardroom that they never talk about. And it's not with their team and it's not with their mentors. And sometimes it's not even really with themselves.
00:00:13
Luisa Hogan
In that boardroom sits three voices, the doubter, the driver and the decider. And the question is, who's running yours?
Exploring Internal Dialogues
00:00:23
Luisa Hogan
Welcome back to the Second Voice Podcast, where we uncover the conversations that leaders don't have out loud. I'm Louisa Hogan, your host, and today I'm flying solo, but I want to take you inside the invisible boardroom of your own leadership, the one where your doubt and your drive and your decision-making comes from, and they're constantly battle for control.
00:00:43
Luisa Hogan
And that boardroom is the boardroom inside of your head.
The Brain's Role in Decision Making
00:00:48
Luisa Hogan
So I like to talk about it as a boardroom because the reason why we have this podcast is the first voice and the second voice. And it's actually, there's neuroscience around this. So our first voice is controlled by the amygdala. When a threat happens, The amygdala kick it kicks in and it tells us there's a threat. And that instant voice that comes up in our head is usually around protection. But it's also around doubt. What's happening? What's going on there? That shouldn't be going that way.
00:01:19
Luisa Hogan
And because of that, you have somebody sitting at your boardroom table that's a doubter. At the same time, when you're able to regulate yourself, your prefrontal cortex calms you down and you're able to hear a second voice. And that second voice is the calm one, the one that tells you everything's okay,
00:01:41
Luisa Hogan
move quietly, move in this direction and it's the one that helps you make decisions in a sound and calm and clear way. And that's your second voice, the voice that needs to be louder than the first voice but it's more of a signal.
00:01:57
Luisa Hogan
The first voice is really a megaphone shouting and because it's controlled by the part of you that's telling you under threat. But the signal that comes from your second voice is a quiet voice and you have to really listen out for it.
Functions of Doubter, Driver, and Decider
00:02:13
Luisa Hogan
Now, i like to talk about it as if it's a boardroom inside of your head, because if you've ever been inside of a boardroom and and dealt with different board members, you have so many different personalities around that but boardroom table. And when I was a CEO, I've been a CEO twice, and both of those times I sat with two very different boards, but there was always somebody who was the doubter.
00:02:38
Luisa Hogan
the one who would want to control risk a lot more than everybody else. And then there was always the driver, the person who was always very excited about opportunities and would push you harder than what you thought possible to go and grab those opportunities. And then there was the decision maker around that boardroom table and the person who would always make you come to a decision around what you were gonna do. And that is around every boardroom that I've been in. And I've been in there as board member, as a board member, as a CEO, and also as a guest into board meetings through my consulting practice and running consulting work through those boardrooms. You always get those three personalities.
Managing the Doubter's Influence
00:03:21
Luisa Hogan
Now, The doubter shows up at the table as the person who questions everything. So when you're presenting to the doubter, when you've got something that comes up to the doubter, they're always the person who has a million questions around why this is going to work, why it can't work. They're they're often the devil's advocate, the person who's seeing it from another angle.
00:03:45
Luisa Hogan
And that's an important role. And it's an important role in every board, But it can be very draining because you're constantly having your enthusiasm thwarted.
00:03:56
Luisa Hogan
Now, inside your own mind, in the boardroom in your mind of your self-talk, you're going to be experiencing very similar things where you have that data showing up.
00:04:08
Luisa Hogan
telling you that you can't do things, asking you why you have the audacity to take on this opportunity, telling you that you can't do it and why you can't do it and where all the risks are.
00:04:21
Luisa Hogan
Now, they can play a really good role when it's managed well, but if you don't manage the data well, they can derail every new project and that's in a boardroom and also within your own mind. It can be the voice that stops you from doing everything that really lights you up or that could be a good opportunity for you.
The Driver's Push for Ambition
00:04:48
Luisa Hogan
Now then there's the driver. Now the driver is really that second voice that I talked about earlier. It's a little bit quieter and it's the the voice that urges you on. And it's the voice that tells you to be ambitious. It's the voice that tells you to be determined And in a boardroom, it's often the quietest voice, especially in a room full of doubters. And I've had this before. We have had multiple doubters. And then there's one quiet voice in the room who is the cheerleader and the driver and the one telling you, yes, actually, this is a great idea. And I was very lucky that that was a chairman of one of my boards that used to do that. If he's listening, he'll know exactly who he is. But inside your own mind, that driver can be a tiny little signal, a quiet little voice going, no, I think you need to take on this opportunity.
00:05:44
Luisa Hogan
But there can also be a risk because if you don't listen to what the risks are out there and you only listen to the driver to go, go, go go go you may put yourself at risk of taking on opportunities that you know you shouldn't have taken on or that put you at risk itself. And it's about finding a balance between the driver and the doubter.
Deciding Between Doubt and Drive
00:06:08
Luisa Hogan
then finally, you've got the decider. And the decider is the one that is you. It's the one, the voice that tells you to listen to the doubter or to listen to the driver.
00:06:23
Luisa Hogan
That decider is going to need to be brave. and to listen truly to the instincts and to the intuition that you have to know which is the right choice to move forward.
00:06:35
Luisa Hogan
And without the decider, you're constantly just listening to voices going back and forth, and you never really get anywhere. Because even if your decision is wrong, and the decider made the wrong choice, at least you've taken a step forward and made a decision on what you're going to do.
00:06:54
Luisa Hogan
Now, in my own story, I've had the decider, the doubter and the driver pop up many times.
Navigating Voices Post-Business Closure
00:07:01
Luisa Hogan
And one of the times that speaks so clearly to me as when the doubter was showing up was when I had to wind up an organization as a CEO and I had to make a clear decision after that on whether I was going to look for other opportunities, other CEO roles that I could step into, or if I was going to start my own business.
00:07:21
Luisa Hogan
And to be honest, at the time, the doubter was very loud. The doubter was telling me that nobody would employ me as a CEO ever again because I had wound up a business. The doubter was telling me that i wasn't a good leader if I had tried to save in an organization and had failed at that. And the doubter was telling me that, no, I absolutely am not going to be somebody that people would want to employ ever again.
00:07:50
Luisa Hogan
At the same time, I had the data also telling me that I wasn't good enough to start my own business and how was I ever going to make money? But eventually i had to listen to the driver.
00:08:02
Luisa Hogan
And the driver was telling me, no, you have gained such wonderful knowledge and skills from winding up an organization, not only in change management, but in leadership and in and resilience. You need to be using this knowledge to help other leaders like you to not go through the same journey that you have just been through.
00:08:25
Luisa Hogan
And there was where my decider had to listen to either the doubter or to the driver and make a decision on what path I was going to take. Now I'm so glad at the time I listened to the driver in me, which was telling me that no, I could do the work, that I had a good message to share because almost 10 years later, nine years later, Here I am sharing my message with the world still today, creating podcasts.
00:08:54
Luisa Hogan
I've consulted on multiple projects. I've traveled around the world. I work with amazing clients around the world. I'm scaling that business now. to take on more consultants. And it's been a wonderful journey. And at the same time, two years ago, started a second business, which is multiple award winning.
00:09:12
Luisa Hogan
And I would not have done that if I had listened to the data telling me that I wasn't good enough to start my own business. And I can only imagine what would have happened if I'd listened to the data even more and not taken on a senior leadership role ever again, because I'm really passionate about that. And I love leadership. And I love building business and I love driving strategy and making that business.
00:09:34
Luisa Hogan
And if anything, I have shown over the last nine to 10 years, how I am good at leading businesses and creating business, because here I am doing that quite happily and successfully 10 years later.
00:09:49
Luisa Hogan
So that journey, that story wasn't the end. It was just a continuation of my journey. And I'm so glad that the voices that I had at the time were ones that I was able to think about carefully and make solid decisions, even though I had a very loud doubter in the boardroom of my mind telling me what to do.
Impact of Stress on Decision Making
00:10:13
Luisa Hogan
Now, if you want some practical strategies about how to identify these voices in the moment and let and not let one dominate unfairly,
00:10:24
Luisa Hogan
I need you to think about how the doubter often comes at times of stress and emotional times. And it comes from that amygdala thinking where you are in a state of pressure, and in a state of hyper arousal where everything is stressful and you are in a state of fight, flight or freeze potentially, or in a state of stress.
00:10:54
Luisa Hogan
And when that happens, your thinking narrows. And when it narrows, it only tells you about the negative things that are gonna potentially happen. And it does that to protect you.
00:11:05
Luisa Hogan
And of course it does that to protect you. When there were tigers, you needed to narrow your thinking to only focus on the bad things so that you can get away and not get eaten. But in a world where we have to think strategically as leaders and make sound business decisions as entrepreneurs and leaders, we need to be able to widen our thinking.
00:11:24
Luisa Hogan
And so if you can recognize that doubter shows up at times of stress, at times when you feel unsafe, at times when you don't feel steady, that doubter is going to show up and speak very loudly.
00:11:38
Luisa Hogan
And it would be the same in a boardroom. The doubter speaks loudest when there's more at stake, when there's more risk, when things don't feel steady, when things don't feel safe, they are going to be the doubters in your boardroom telling you to wind that back.
00:11:53
Luisa Hogan
So if you can recognize that, that's the first step to managing it. If that doubt voice is coming when you're in a state of steady and calm and widening your thinking, then you know that you need to listen to that doubter a lot more. But if you're listening to that doubter because of fear and feeling unsafe, it's not a good time to listen to it.
The Power of Calm in Leadership
00:12:15
Luisa Hogan
So then when do you listen to and not listen to the driver? Well, when you're in a state of calm again, you are going to be widening your thinking, thinking about things in a more strategic way, being more connected socially when you are in a state of level calm.
00:12:34
Luisa Hogan
And when you do that, the decider is also going to be a little bit more calm, but you are going to be able to hear the voice of reason a lot more. That's going to speak a little bit louder than the doubter for a change.
00:12:48
Luisa Hogan
And so for you, it's around bringing yourself and I do this personally it's throughout bringing yourself to a state of calm a state of steadiness so that your thinking widens and your perceptions change so that you're not making decisions off of a voice that's only telling you to protect yourself and that's how I navigate it I try and think about what state am I in And if I'm in a calm, measured state and I'm not in an aroused, hyper arousal state, I'm not stressed, then I know that the voices I am hearing are coming from a calm, level-headed place and that I don't need to listen to the data or I don't need to listen to the driver who may be exciting me too much to take on a challenge. And it's a little bit of a dance inside your own head.
00:13:39
Luisa Hogan
So essentially, Recognize that there are different voices in your mind, not physically. So recognize that there are different voices that go on around the boardroom in your mind.
Choosing Voices for Growth
00:13:55
Luisa Hogan
and that you don't have to listen to all of them, and that you are the CEO of that boardroom, and the board is there to guide you and give you direction, and to also brain you in if you need it, or to push you in the right direction and connect with the right people, but you are essentially the CEO of your brain, and you are the decider. You get to choose which voice you listen to.
00:14:20
Luisa Hogan
You get to choose what advice you take on from your own mind and what advice you do not. And when you realize that it can change your leadership exponentially for the good, because you're finally listening to a voice that's about your intuition and you're listening to a voice that's about reason and calm and steadiness and not to a voice that's operating from a state of fear and, Hey, look, there's a tiger, get out of here.
Navigating New Opportunities
00:14:47
Luisa Hogan
So your leadership isn't just the voice that you share publicly. It's that second voice in the boardroom of your mind. And you've got to learn to chair that meeting well.
00:15:01
Luisa Hogan
And you will lead not just others, but yourself. And you'll do that with clarity and with strength and with steadiness.
Conclusion: Leadership and Challenges
00:15:12
Luisa Hogan
So that's today's short, sharp solo episode and some food for thought on the boardroom of your mind. The second voice in your boardroom isn't just background noise, it's the deciding vote on how you lead and how you live and how you last through the challenges that are brought to you.
00:15:27
Luisa Hogan
I look forward to seeing you at our next episode. Till then, take care.