"A great CEO holds and embodies the vision of the company."
Meet Dana Hayes-Burke – an expert Business Strategist, International Conference Speaker, and CEO of DHB Vision Strategists. Her job is to help business owners to SCALE-UP their businesses. She is fondly known as The Vision Builder because she gives clients the right strategies and actions to transform their business and get results. She helps them to turn losses into profits.
Dana has worked with entrepreneurs and small business owners in Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Barbados, St. Lucia, Jamaica, Florida, Texas, New York, and London. Her strategies have helped her clients save their businesses from failing. What’s more, she gives them exactly what they need to create the business model that actually matches their vision and makes clear their path to real growth. Her clients always appreciate her relatability, directness, clarity in direction, ease for execution, and most of all, real bottom-line results.
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Table of Contents
Let’s start with a brief introduction first. Introduce yourself to our readers.
Dana Hayes-Burke: I am Dana Hayes-Burke also known as The Vision Builder. Why? Because I help you to See The Vision, Believe the Vision and Build The Vision. Specifically, I work with entrepreneurs and small business owners to scale up their businesses. The game plan is to create a business model that helps you to live your ideal life design, pay yourself now and set up the framework for the growth of your business.
I have worked with entrepreneurs and small business owners in Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Barbados, St. Lucia, Jamaica, Florida, Texas, New York, and London. My strategies have helped my clients save their businesses from failing.
Our audience is interested to know about how you got started in the first place. Did you always want to become a CEO or was it something you were led to? Our readers would love to know your story!
Dana Hayes-Burke: I have always been interested in business. I remember at my high school in Trinidad, we had to choose our primary subject path. I was a very bright student and my options were very open. But what I wanted to study was business. I distinctly remember that upon entry to high school one of the assignments I was required to do was draw a picture of myself in my future profession. I drew myself as a Manager sitting behind an executive desk. I think that up to that point the only image I had of being a CEO was on TV. That being said, I pursued business all through high school and university but unlike my childhood dream, I went to a traditional office job rather than in my own business.
My career was good. I was promoted quickly from entry-level to supervisory level in less than 5 years and then to Manager level in less than 7 years. It was in this environment however that the dream was revived because I realized that no matter how much I was promoted, my job was not giving me the life that I wanted for myself. I didn’t have time. It was expected for me to be at the beck and call of the company. The level of stress was high but fundamentally, I didn’t think it was worth it. And I recognized that it would only get worse as I am promoted. So I went back to the drawing board of my life and I remembered the vision- the one where I owned my company. The one where I created my ideal life design. The one where I have time to spend with my spouse and future children. The one where I didn’t have to ask permission to “live my life”. It was at that moment, I found my dream again and I started what I called my transition business. The business to get me out of corporate and into creating my own empire.
“Selfmade” is a myth. We all received help, no doubt you love to show appreciation to those who supported you when the going got tough, who has been your most important professional inspiration?
Dana Hayes-Burke: Firstly, it’s my faith in God. I truly believe I was made to do what I am doing. This gives me the greatest sense of peace when navigating uncertainty and difficulty- the knowing that I am in the right space in my life. Secondly, I can honestly say my biggest support has been my husband. While we were dating, I expressed with him my desire to work for myself at some point and particularly when we started a family. It’s one thing to agree when it was a future prospect.
But it’s another thing when it was time for me to walk away from corporate and trust the business I was building. And my husband supported me. What’s more, is that he continues to support me as I build my businesses. When the going got tough he jumped in and supported me and has kept on supporting me.
How did your journey lead you to become a CEO? What difficulties did you face along the way and what did you learn from them?
Dana Hayes-Burke: The journey to becoming the CEO of DHB Vision Strategists was not a straight line but the truth is, no journey ever is. Firstly, I can tell you that when I left my corporate job, this wasn’t the business I went directly into. I actually started an event management firm because I already had the skills set, it was an in-demand service and I designed a business model to start the business with limited financial output. The goal was to eventually transition into my dream business which is the coaching and consultancy firm that I presently run. That transition journey took 4 years. The biggest challenge that I faced was fear. The fear of leaving what was comfortable and facing what was unknown, I kept waiting for the perfect time but there is no perfect time.
The perfect time IS the time that you start. It’s that simple. The biggest lesson I learned in that transition is that in order to accomplish anything that’s unfamiliar, you have to DO IT AFRAID. And when you do it afraid, you realize that it is much worse in your mind than it is in reality So now, at every stage of my business and life, I know that growth doesn’t mean the absence of fear.
Tell us about your company. What does your business do and what are your responsibilities as a CEO?
Dana Hayes-Burke: DHB Vision Strategists is a business consultancy and coaching firm that helps entrepreneurs and small business owners to scale up their operations. We do this by helping the decision-makers to review and revise their business models so that they can increase their profits, streamline their operations and set the foundation for significant future growth. As the CEO, I am the Chief Vision Strategist. Not only do I make the strategic decisions for my firm but I also play a vital role in mapping out the strategic framework for our clients.
What does CEO stand for? Beyond the dictionary definition, how would you define it?
Dana Hayes-Burke: In my opinion, a CEO who is good at his or her job is a transformational leader who manages the resources of the company to get the best results. A great CEO holds and embodies the vision of the company. To do that, he or she is first an example.Then, he or she empowers people to see themselves in the vision and work towards it. This builds a level of trust that even if a difficult decision has to be made (particularly as it relates to managing resources), those you are leading are able to trust your decision.
When you first became a CEO, how was it different from what you expected? What surprised you?
Dana Hayes-Burke: The function, roles and pace of a CEO’s life didn’t surprise me. Because I worked with a number of CEOs in my career, I knew what to expect but more importantly, I figured out what I wanted to avoid. I saw so many CEOs with no harmony in their life, no joy for what they were doing, and no life outside of the job. I was determined that my journey would not be like that. What surprised me was how effective I was at designing a model that helped me to manage life and business without burnout. In my opinion, I believe it starts with faith. You have to believe that better is possible and only then can you do better and intentionally achieve something different.
There are many schools of thought as to what a CEO’s core roles and responsibilities are. Based on your experience, what are the main things a CEO should focus on? Explain and please share examples or stories to illustrate your vision.
Dana Hayes-Burke: In my experience, I believe that the CEO’s job is to set the vision. Once you’ve done that, the next job of the CEO is to get the right people in the room and ask the right questions. The best solutions come to the CEO when they learn how to mine solutions from the crowd (their team, the customers and the external environment). Only then can the CEO make the right decisions and only then, can the CEO confidently lead their team to get the job done. Let me give a behind the scenes of how this works in my firm. When it comes to DHB Vision Strategists, I have a clear vision that is broken out into a complete business model.
In 2020, I was approached with an opportunity to put out a TV series on a new streaming network. It was a great opportunity for the company and fits with the vision but I had no idea how to pull it off. So I got a team together- my advisors, a trusted contractor who provided videography services to us in the past, and research from my audience. I had never done this before so I needed solutions, guidance and clarity about what was actually in demand.
It’s now 1 year later, and we have successfully launched a TV series, with 2 seasons under our belt, a global viewership and over 50,000 viewer minutes to date. This is exactly the role of the CEO – set the vision, build a trusted team to provide the right solutions, and empower your team to partner with you to get the job done.
Share with us one of the most difficult decisions you had to make for your company that benefited your employees or customers. What made this decision so difficult and what were the positive impacts?
Dana Hayes-Burke: The truth is, the most difficult decision I had to make surrounded the people that worked for me. In my first company, some of our work involved utilizing teams to serve the needs of my clients. We deployed several teams at the same time. With one of the teams, team members reported on several occasions challenges with the team leader’s style of managing them and the workflow. This resulted in poor delivery to the customer which could have compromised our contract as well as problems with the team’s morale itself.
After having several conversations with the team leader in an attempt to have the situation resolved, I recognized that she simply didn’t have what was needed for the job and I had to demote her. She chose to leave working with us all together. It was a difficult decision to make but it benefited not only the client but my other members of staff whose experience needed to be validated and they needed to be seen. Dismissals, demotions or any sort of disciplinary action with staff is a difficult part of being a CEO.
How would you define success? Does it mean generating a certain amount of wealth, gaining a certain level of popularity, or helping a certain number of people?
Dana Hayes-Burke: Success means legacy to me. It involves leaving an impact on the world that outlives me. That’s my goal.
Some leadership skills are innate while others can be learned. What leadership skills do you possess innately and what skills have you cultivated over the years as a CEO?
Dana Hayes-Burke: My innate leadership skills are the ability to set the vision and to map step by step how to strategically get there, I really can’t describe how my brain works to make this happen, but I knew how to do it even before I learned more about doing it through my education and career. I am innately a great speaker and communicator. I am naturally a leader, even when I am not trying, I would often be placed in leadership roles and people will follow me. Leaders should also be great teachers, that is a gift that I am happy to possess. What I had to learn is emotional intelligence in leadership. This is extremely critical to have a great team and work dynamic.
Sometimes as a leader, you can become so extremely caught up with what you want to be done and how it should be done that you lose the people who are doing it.
How did your role as a CEO help your business overcome challenges caused by the pandemic? Explain with practical examples.
Dana Hayes-Burke: It enabled me to be more resilient and to serve on a greater level. When the pandemic hit, I asked the question, ‘what are business owners struggling with right now?” They were struggling with what they always struggled with but on a greater scale. It was the question “how to grow my business?” This pandemic made it clear to a lot of business owners that they really didn’t know what they were doing. So I decided that my company will serve this group – entrepreneurs and small business owners on a greater and more practical level. I launch Monday Night Live on IG where I shared and taught on how to build a profitable business.
Coming out of that, we booked consistent engagements for coaching, consulting for the firm all during the pandemic. Our workload increased. Because of that, I became a host of my own TV series, and also landed clients for the company. As for me, CEO, I have been booked to speak because of choosing to serve. Now I am a paid speaker for conferences and events. As CEO, I decided that we would serve on a higher level during the pandemic and I led the acts of service. Because of this, our company grew significantly during the pandemic even with the economic challenges experiences worldwide.
Do you have any advice for aspiring CEOs and future leaders? What advice would you give a CEO that is just starting out on their journey?
Dana Hayes-Burke: My advice is summed up in this quote – “Chase the Vision, The Money will end up following you”.
Building a business and your vision is a journey and despite what we may desire, no journey is a straight line. But if you hold on to the idea of where you want to go and why it is important to you, it will give you the fuel to keep going.
Thank you for sharing some of your knowledge with our readers! They would also like to know, what is one skill that you’ve always wanted to acquire but never really could?
Dana Hayes-Burke: This is not business-related but photography. Perhaps it’s not that I can’t pick up the skill but the truth is I never really made the time for it. But now that you have asked, I can certainly add it to my future goals.
Before we finish things off, we have one final question for you. If you wrote a book about your life today, what would the title be?
Dana Hayes-Burke: ‘The Vision Moves You Forward’ – it would be all about the power of vision to help you achieve your ideal life design
Mike Weiss, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Dana Hayes-Burke for taking the time to do this interview and share her knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Dana Hayes-Burke or her company, you can do it through her – Linkedin Page
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