She Ran a $3B Cruise Line When the Entire Industry Shut Down | Lisa Lutoff-Perlo - Celebrity Cruises

Well, the first thing I talk about, chapter one is called Sailing Through the Storm, and it started puns.

Chapters all are puns, you know. I wanted to have a little fun with it. I talked about International Women's Day and Captain Kate and 100% of the bridge manned by women, and that was March 8th of 2020. That cruise happened on International Women's Day. I got off mid-cruise probably around the 11th. I flew back to my office after a huge celebration. I remember standing in the grand plaza of the ship after designing, building and introducing this transformational series of ships that was critically acclaimed, making more money than we ever thought we would possibly ever imagine making. The crew and the team on board were so proud and excited of what we had accomplished in gender equality as a brand, and the guests were partying and celebrating. I remember standing there thinking this is a mic drop moment if I walked away right now, and that was 2020. I could not have asked for more. I could not have left a better legacy. I was euphoric. I left the ship. I got back to the office on a Thursday. Went home for the weekend on Friday, and we shut down. That weekend, Sunday, we ceased operations, and we weren't going to be back for 15 months. Little did we know then it would be 15 months. Imagine going from the highest of high to the lowest of low in your career within, I don't know, 72, 96 hours. I just couldn't imagine it. One month later, April of 2020, my sister was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She had 12 to 18 months to live, and she only lived for 12. But here's what I learned during that horrible time. I learned that 20,000 crew members were counting on me, and my family was counting on me to get us all through as best we could. The silver lining of the COVID-19 cloud is that my sister lived with me, and I got to spend every day of the last year of her life with her. Had COVID not happened, that wouldn't have happened, and I wouldn't have been able to do that unless I left the company. It made such a difference to her and to me. As I was thinking of how I was going to get 20,000 people around the world through this horrible time, I needed to show up for them every day, and I needed to flex different leadership muscles. I learned leaders really need to be flexible because you need to dial up and dial down certain things depending on the situation or what people need from you. So I needed to go away from that hard-driving results, performance-driven, up income, profitability, return on invested capital CEO to empathetic, hopeful, building confidence, letting people know it's going to be okay. You're going to get back to work. You're going to be able to provide for your families again. Even if I didn't know that on any given day because we thought we'd be back in business three months later, not 15 months later. So I learned a lot during that time, and I probably learned the most about being a leader during that time than in any other time of my career. I also learned you have to focus on the things you can control and put aside the things you can't control, look in the windshield and not in the rearview mirror, and try to stay as positive as you can and keep people focused on positive things and the future to the best of your ability.

Well, the good thing is I think I had some of that behind me already. I had done that so many times in my career. I had unlearned a lot, and I had to relearn a lot, and I had to evolve a lot, and I had to get better. I was in the Galapagos with my other sister and her two daughters, my nieces, who I dedicated the book to because they are so special to me. I have always conducted myself in a way that I wanted them to be proud of me. We were in the Galapagos, and Darwin was in the Galapagos. Whether you believe in his theory of evolution or not, this isn't about that. But I bought a Darwin t-shirt when I was in the Galapagos. On the front of the t-shirt, it says 'Evolve,' and on the back, it says 'Or become extinct.' I had practiced that so many times throughout my career in adaptability, unlearning what I knew, learning new things, learning how to be a better leader, learning how to focus on different leadership qualities. Some of that was through feedback, some through self-reflection, self-evaluation. Some of it was being open to conversations and learning to be vulnerable because I didn't know everything like I did when I was in sales and marketing. So when I saw myself in this situation, being confronted in a way I never would have imagined, certainly all of those things had to go on steroids because who could imagine being closed out for 15 months due to a global pandemic? But I had already done those things, so I think it helped me. I think that's what leaders need to understand. I don't think you can go from only one thing to being successful during COVID if you weren't willing and able and had the experience of doing that along your way.