Do you feel that in a time when we are more connected than ever we are drifting away from real human connection, especially to ourselves? I do. Hi, I'm Leticia Latino and I want to invite you to join me and my very inspiring guests in exploring ways to reconnect to your essence, to your definite purpose, to what makes you tick. Are you ready? Hello hello and welcome to the Back to Basics podcast where we explore the deeper connections that make us tick as humans. Today I'm excited to welcome a truly inspiring guest, Lisa Lutoff-perlo. She is a recognized global business powerhouse and recipient of numerous awards including the South Florida Business Journal and Forbes Travel Guide lifetime achievement awards. She's best known for her transformative role as the former CEO of Celebrity Cruises where she made history as the first woman to lead a major cruise line. Her leadership helped redefine the luxury cruise experience with a focus on innovation, diversity and sustainability. She also helped activate the enthusiasm for soccer here in Miami during her tenure as president and CEO of the FIFA World Cup 2026 Miami Host Committee. She's a sought after keynote speaker and she's also the author of Making Waves: A Woman's Rise to the Top Using Smarts, Heart and Courage. I love all of that and thank you Lisa for being part of Back to Basics.
My pleasure Leticia, it's wonderful being here with you today.
Well there's so many things. I mean as an Italian I love soccer so I thank you for helping ignite that enthusiasm for that sport that is misunderstood in the US, I think by many still a little bit, but getting better. I totally agree and I think you contributed to that. But we'll talk about that a little bit more. So I mean there's so much Lisa, you have a lot of content out there, you are really a trailblazer with everything. The reason why this podcast exists is to establish that your journey could be anybody's journey and I know especially on that you're big on that. So when I heard you say that on an interview I said I have to reach Lisa and see if she would come to the podcast. So can you share a little bit of your origin story? Just where were you born and most especially what did you dream of becoming when you were a little girl and if any of those passions really bled into your life?
Thank you Leticia. And yes, Making Waves, my story really is at the heart of that: if I can do it, you can do it. I started my life where I was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, the oldest seaport in the United States, a very small fishing town. Most of the kids I grew up with were Italian and Portuguese and all of their dads, brothers, uncles, grandfathers were fishermen. So it was a small fishing town. My parents always owned either restaurants or coffee shops in that town. I'm neither Italian nor Portuguese and no one in my family were fishermen, but I got a love for hospitality and people at a very young age because part of it is in my DNA and personality and the other part is because my parents were always in hospitality. So I always find it serendipitous that I ended up in an industry for almost 40 years in hospitality on the ocean because I grew up on the ocean and my parents had restaurants. My whole career has been in hospitality. And to answer the question of did I ever think I would end up where I ended up, the answer is a resounding no. Never in my wildest imagination or dreams. I didn't know for a very long time what I wanted to do, where I wanted my career to be. Even when I ended up in the company I was with for 40 years, I still never thought I would be president and CEO of one of the brands. I was in sales for 17 years in progressive leadership roles within sales and my sole ambition at that point in time was just to be the head of sales. So my story is also one of: you should probably dream bigger and you probably shouldn't limit yourself in how you think about where you could end up. You should probably think that you're capable of as much as other people think you're capable of. Those three things were big lessons for me in my career.
Beautiful. And that's why I'm excited that you decided to write this book. I didn't read it, I listened to it because these days it's hard to find the time to sit down and read. I'm more of a paper person but I say if it's going to get done it has to get done somehow. But you're also big on leadership and transmitting those leadership skills. And I think that message of dreaming bigger is super important because if we are not our biggest cheerleader, who is going to be? I'm a big believer on that and it makes me sad sometimes where you see people that could do so much and they just say no to themselves before they even throw the name on the hat. So I think that your book can really inspire many to dream bigger and really go after anything. And part of the journey that I love is that you started in the travel agency as a travel agent. So it's a job where people say 'I'm just a travel agent, how can I even dream of doing this?' So can you talk a little bit about what you think made the difference besides allowing yourself to dream bigger that really helped you carve out that beautiful career and journey?
Well again, I think a lot of it is how we're wired as human beings. What is comfortable for you? I've always been ambitious, I've always been competitive, I've always wanted to be the best at anything I've ever done. So those inherent qualities are helpful certainly when you're thinking about what you want to do. I did start at the bottom and I think that's another thing that people don't understand. They think you need to start near the top to get to the top. They don't realize that you can start somewhere very low on the totem pole like I did and end up somewhere that again you never dreamed you'd end up being, by looking at different opportunities as they present themselves as stepping stones to something that could be big. I've talked to a lot of people, even in my previous company, and as people ask me for insight and advice about how they're thinking about their careers and how they might be able to do what I was able to do, one of the things I also learned is that you have to be willing to do different things to get different experiences and build your resume and your value so that when these opportunities come up you're tapped on the shoulder for them. I didn't realize that until I was in the company for almost 20 years where I was taken from sales and put into marketing. I didn't want to go, I wanted to stay in sales and be the head of sales. Little did I know that somebody forcing me out of my comfort zone to go see value in me that I didn't see in myself, that I could be an effective leader across the enterprise, was the first move I made reluctantly. That was the first of many moves that ultimately got me to where I ended up being. Once I made that first move, it was more comfortable for me to continue to make the moves, but that first one was hard and I was not happy about it. I didn't embrace it right away, but once I did I went for it. The same old me came back and I became ambitious again and competitive again and I wanted to be the best at it even though it was new for me. That was the beginning of a series of many other moves that ultimately got me to president and CEO.
And getting out of comfort zone, that seems to be like the big one. And the cliche imposter syndrome, I'm sure you felt it at some point, saying 'How am I going to do operations?' I know you talk about it in the book. You saying 'What, all these ships?' I mean you imagine an operation like that. I admire and I'm a cruiser, I love cruising since I was a little girl. It's just incredible to acknowledge the fact that if you're ambitious and you're smart and you have the assets, even if you don't have the knowledge, you're big on surrounding yourself with people that know and having a great team. So can you lean on that a little bit in terms of how you were able to really go to the hound with a great team?
Well, you know, as I was navigating my way through the company and taking on all these different roles in which I was not a subject matter expert, I consider myself a salesperson at heart, that's where I started my career. Honestly, I believe we're always selling, so I don't think you ever stop selling regardless of if you're standing in the boardroom selling your strategic plan or selling something to a child to convince them to do something. You're always selling and I feel it's a huge asset to have in any role that you take on. But when I was taking on these other roles where I really didn't know what I was doing and I wasn't a subject matter expert, I learned that I was chosen for positions because I exhibited attributes that the leadership and the company felt were very valuable, like my leadership capabilities, the way I thought about culture and teams, the way I solved problems, the way I got results. People felt those were transferable skills that I could take anywhere in the company. That's true and I did. But that said, you need to be willing to learn and you need to be willing to say 'I don't know everything' and 'I'm not a subject matter expert, so I need to surround myself with people that know more than I do in certain areas so that I can be successful and so that we can all be successful.' You also have to be willing to ask people for help and admit you don't know everything. Even the people that work for you. I've seen so many leaders come into roles and not be successful because they couldn't admit they didn't know everything they needed to, they weren't willing to ask for help, they weren't willing to show any vulnerability. Some people look at that as a weakness, and I look at all of those things as an absolute strength that helped me be successful as I went into so many roles in so many different areas of the company that I had never worked in before.
Well I will tell you when I was listening to your book I thought I must not be crazy because I feel exactly the same way. In terms of I see so many egos and I'm in telecommunication, it's a very male dominated industry, and that's diversity something we'll touch upon. But sometimes it's like am I crazy trying to be more open, trying to create consensus, trying to really bring the weaknesses into the table to see how we can all solve it when you see others approach it very differently. Exactly to your point, not showing the vulnerability and sometimes you see them getting ahead with that strategy. But I think ultimately you're going to hit a roadblock because we didn't solve what we needed to solve back there. So sometimes you doubt yourself, I know I do, and that's why I love the book in terms of how you also use the word courage in your title which I think is very important because it takes a bold person to own your strategy. You're living proof that it does work, creating something bigger, happy teams, instead of leaving devastation behind with people upset about everything because of the way leaders sometimes work. So I think that's a very important message. And you also talk about empathy. Can you talk about empathy because I think it's seen as a weakness in the business world many times in the boardroom, and I think it's actually a power when used properly.
Yeah, I'm a huge, huge proponent of empathetic leadership. I feel like it's something that so many leaders lack. Empathy means caring as much about others as yourself, or more about others than yourself. Sometimes when you see people who rise to the top, it's all about them. I just feel that my approach to leadership was one that I needed. I was leading 20,000 people from 70 different countries spread out all over the world. These people left their homes, their families, their friends, their children. Mothers left children, fathers left children to go make a living for their family in a way that they couldn't in the countries they come from. I looked at that as such a tremendous sacrifice. I looked at how they cared for each other and how they cared for our guests. This was all new to me when I went into operations because sales and marketing was very different. I remember it really hitting me in 2005 when I went into operations just how special our crew was and how I didn't feel like they were nurtured enough or cared for enough. I wanted to change that culture because I believed that they deserved it and that I would get discretionary effort for that. When people know you genuinely care about them, they usually genuinely care about you back, and then they put in that incremental effort that's priceless. That helps you be so successful. Because I'm that type of person anyway, it worked really well for me. But then I look around at other leaders who have no empathy. And to your point that you just said a moment ago about being willing to ask for help and being willing to be vulnerable, and that it was ultimately going to hit them as a roadblock at some point, I believe that non-empathetic leaders, it's going to do the same thing to them. If people don't want to work for you, they have so many choices. They don't work for a job – everybody needs to make a living and they'll stay for a little while, but they won't stay. And if they stay, you're not going to get 100%, you're going to get what they want to give you on any given day. I just didn't think that was the best recipe for success. So now I've been out of the brand for almost two years and people cruise on Celebrity and tell me how much the crew still misses me. I consider that the ultimate compliment, that after almost two years of being gone, the crew remembers and misses me and tells our guests that. I always say that's the one thing we all should want to happen: that when we're not there anymore, that you're missed. That means you made an impact on people's lives that was very special. That's how I wanted to lead, that's the type of leader I wanted to be.
That's your legacy if you ask me – the fact that people remember you because of the culture you instilled in the brand. I know you shared how you put together crew members to create a family. This is something that seems so unimportant to some people, but it's like if they're happy, they're going to go to work happier and it's just a snowball effect. It's counterintuitive but some people just don't lead from what I call heart-centric leadership, where you really put yourself in each other's shoes. So I love all that. So of course on the more business side, it's always so fascinating. You held three positions, correct me if I'm wrong, because I listened to the book a while back, that you were the first female ever holding that position. And you think you are fortunate because you say you never felt pushback from men, you never felt your gender meant anything different. I think that's a very fortunate position to be, because when you talk to other women in other industries, one way or the other they have felt that pushback or not taken seriously or when the moment came to really get that opportunity, somebody else got it. So what do you think? Do you think it's like you had great mentors besides being awesome and having all your attributes? Does it take a special kind of other men or people in leadership to push and pull up the ones that have the talent despite their color, race, or gender?
Absolutely, for sure. I happen to work with quite a few men that were like that. My biggest advocates have always been men because I was in a male-dominated industry, there were no other women that were going to push me along or pull me along or help me succeed. So as I was climbing the corporate ladder, I never felt like gender was an obstacle for me. I felt like I was viewed as a high potential talent in the company and I was rewarded with a lot of different positions for the work that I did and the results that I got. Where I faced a lot of gender discrimination is when I went into those operational roles, either from colleagues I was working with because they were men, or on ships because all of the leaders on the ships were men. When I took over the Marine organization, because it was all men, I felt like there were two things I had to figure out how to get around: one was the gender issue of a woman being in a world that truly only men had these executive roles and only men ascended and were promoted, and the other was that I was a girl, what did I know about being a captain or an engine room? So as I faced that skepticism, I adopted the attitude 'watch me prove you wrong.' I spent many years taking on all these different roles as the first woman, having to prove that I deserved to be where I was and figure out a way to work with all these men. As much progress as I made in gender equality and gender balance, the vast majority of everyone I worked with every day was still men. So I had to find my way as a woman. What I realized is it didn't take long. I admitted I didn't know as much as they did about what they did, I admitted I had never done their job before, and I asked them to perhaps think that just because I hadn't done their job, there must be other reasons why I was put in this role, and couldn't we figure out how to establish a mutually respectful and supportive relationship so we can all be successful. When you come from a position of strength, sometimes you run into a bully or two, and if you stand up to the bully, the bully usually becomes your biggest and staunchest supporter and advocate. So that's really how I assimilated into this very male-dominated environment. Then I learned over time that they really appreciated working for a woman and they really appreciated working for me. They were very sorry when I moved on from different positions. So I think it's only natural when a woman goes into these types of environments that have always and only been men, that there's going to be a level of skepticism, lack of acceptance, and then we have to prove that we belong here. And that's what I did.
