Isabelle Mercier-Turcotte: Co-Founder/CEO of LeapZone Strategies & Host of LeapTV

Isabelle Mercier-Turcotte is a ‘no-nonsense’ dynamo, born to catapult passionate entrepreneurs to build infectious and impactful brands, businesses and lives. As one of North America’s Top Small Business Influencers; best-selling author, TEDx speaker and TV show host, Isabelle’s sole purpose is to empower ONE Million Entrepreneurs to rock their businesses and lives into shape by creating a worldwide “My Life, My Biz, My Way” Movement.

What is your story?

My dad was a very popular radio and TV talk show host where I lived and my mom was an avid entrepreneur hairdresser. Every day I could not wait to get home from school where I could work with my mom. I started wanting to be with adults since I was very young; I loved having adult conversations at a super young age. And I learned a lot about business, about customer service, about how to please and how to delight people, and how to be accountable and responsible. I started paying for my school supplies at 9 years old. My mom wanted to teach me that when you want something you gotta work for it and you gotta put some money aside. And sometimes by the time you amalgamate the money maybe it’s gone out of style because it’s taken that long. I was born into a family where I had to pitch ideas and I had to position what I wanted and what I didn’t want. Through that I learned to be an expert at positioning things and at coaching people to own it. My mom always said “You gotta own the Good, the Bad, and The Ugly.” If you own it you cannot go wrong. And this doesn’t mean you endorse it or that you want the ugly to remain for life. Owning it is one of the things that brought me to where I am today. 

I find that women (and I’m generalizing here) have more difficulty owning what it is that we do want and do not want, and what we are and are not willing to do to get from here to there.

Even though I was raised with specific things early in my life this doesn’t mean it’s much easier for me to own my value, my genius, being able to say no, no I don’t want that; yes I do want that. In truth, I didn’t want to do a TEDx talk, I thought I was going to die because speaking in public freaked me out at that time. I thought it would break me in half and I could not get back up from that. But I did a fantastic job even though I flubbed on stage in the first five minutes and I completely lost my train of thought to the point where I had to interact with the audience and go, “I have no idea where this is going.” I was really lost but I owned it. When I’m unclear, I own it. When I make a mistake, I own it. When I know I did something great, I own it. If someone says this was awesome, I say thank you for noticing. That’s what it means to me to own it rather than downplaying it. If someone says “you’ve got great hair,” responding with  “Well you should have seen me yesterday. My hair was way better.” That’s not owning it! Say thanks for noticing because that is owning it. 

Another thing that brought me here was being a dancer, on the way to a professional dance career… and then breaking a leg. I was in a cast for six months and I could not dance anymore and so I had to recycle myself. I went into scenography which is set design and special effects for movies and theatre. And this is where I met the love of my life. We’ve been together 28 years. I never thought I would be with a woman. I’m just someone who fell in love with someone else and that someone else happens to be a woman. If we weren’t together I can’t promise you that I’d be with a woman, but I can promise you that had I not broken a leg, readjusted what I wanted to do and arrived somewhere completely different than what I thought I’d be doing, I would never have met her and I would not be here today. I would be somewhere, but I wouldn’t be here. 

ME: So how did your parents respond to you wanting to have adult conversations or whatever version of adult conversations you can have when you’re that young? They must’ve just loved that. Or did they try to keep you as a child doing childish things?

My mom loved that. I can’t say my dad was very present. You know my dad lived in his head. I understand my dad better today because I’m very much like him. I live in my head. I have nine people up here and I’m very, very, very good at what I do, which means it’s obsessive. My dad was obsessed with his work. He obsessed with writing great ads for radio, he was master of ceremonies at many events and he’d have to prepare, so my dad was never really present mentally, mostly physically. My mom was a Curious George and still is. She wants to know everything. For example, if I paint she’ll want to know what I was thinking as I made that stroke. For me, it’s more like “I don’t know why, it just happened.” So she was always asking a billion questions because she’s very interested and she’s very interesting. I did not think that was cool when I was young, but today I can totally appreciate it. 

As a kid I did some dumb things but my mom was always asking “what do you want?” And I didn’t know. And she would say “I know you know. Just think about it. Go make a list and then tell me what you don’t want.” This helped me know what I didn’t want. My brother and I always had to pitch ideas or be intelligent about why we wanted to do something. She raised me knowing that I could be or do whatever I wanted assuming I would want it. This is what inspired my TEDx talk. My mom said “Isabelle, if you can’t say no to what you don’t want, then you’ll never have the time and energy for what you do want.” That struck a chord for me and I thought, “yeah I have big things to accomplish and I need to have the time to do them.”

So I became really good at saying no and she didn’t really like that when it was no to her for some reason. But I was like Mom this is biting you in the ass!!! 

What is your mission now?

My mission is to really help entrepreneurs, couplepreneurs and teams. I am good at getting people clear about what they want and what they don’t want. Getting people to do things the way they want to do them. I’m on a mission to help people live by design, not by default.

I really want them to understand that you can make life be exactly what it is that you want. I’m not saying that things won’t occur that you don’t know about and shit happens of course, but worrying is a choice. Being successful is a choice. Bailing is a choice. I believe that everything is a choice and you have control over that choice. There are things we don’t have control over but overall in life you’re responsible for your life and I want entrepreneurs to understand that it requires a specific architecture and it requires courage. It requires guts and it requires the willingness to look stupid and fail. It requires the willingness to revel in your successes. And it is possible when one wants it bad enough. 

Most people are not willing to do what it takes to be successful. They want to be successful. They want shortcuts but they’re not willing to do what is required. In my program, Build To Rock, I’m not teaching anything that is not required. I’m a minimalist. I will teach what I feel is absolutely needed with no frivolousness. I teach the basics of what it takes as a mind and body ritual, as habits, as physical things that one has to do to get clear.  I help people uncover, understand and own their true value so that they can have the guts, courage and the gumption to build what they want to build the way they want to build it. 

How did you know what to focus on?

I live by the assumption that it’s a hell yes or it’s a no. I have no grey zone and this has made it easy for me to focus. The last couple of years since I’ve been here at Trailblazers, I’ve experienced grey zones and I honestly don’t know what to do with that. I’m a black and white kind of person and I have a process, a decision funnel that I go through. The funnel is impact, fun, profit. And profit isn’t just money. The currency could be pleasure or health because there are many types of currency such as time or desire. 

I look at every opportunity and ask myself, will this allow me to create a shit ton of impact? Is this going to be fun? Is this a hell yes for me? Or is it a “meh, it could go either way” then it becomes a no. I don’t dwell in the “meh” because then it’s a simple No. I also ask how will this be profitable because it must be profitable for all parties involved, not just me. 

That’s the funnel of decisions that I have. My mom was always forcing me to make decisions with rationales. For example, my mom is very catholic and I’m spiritual. She wouldn’t allow us to eat candies or sugar for the 40 days of Lent before Easter and we had to pick our favourite toy – not a fake favourite, it had to be the absolute favourite – and we had to wrap it and give it away to someone who needed it more than us. And I hated that! I thought my mom was so mean! The first time we had to do this I chose a fake favourite and my mom asked me “tell me why this is your favorite toy, because from my experience of watching you that is by far not your favourite toy.” And then we would run through all the toys and then eventually I had to get rid of my little Cabbage Patch Kid. It was hard! BUT this changed fast. We had to give the toy ourselves, not just put it in a box at a bank somewhere. I lived in a very small town of about 400 people including flies in the summer. When I gave my Cabbage Patch Kid to a little girl she just about fainted. She was so happy and she cried and she didn’t know why she was crying. And I thought wow, I want to give! I want to give all the time!

My mom always asked me to look at the pros and cons of everything and then look at which choice would bring me the most joy? Which one will allow me to be the best that I can be? And this was pivotal, which one has the least amount of trade-offs, because there are trade-offs to everything. It was always a negotiation in my family which was exhausting as a child. We were raised with: look at the positive side and look at the trade-offs, which choice has the most positive sides and the least amount of trade-offs or which trade-offs are you willing to live with? This truly made me who I am today and helps me focus and make decisions. 

Did you have a breakdown moment?

There have been so many that were pivotal for me. 

Initially I wanted to go into graphic design and I applied to a college (Cegep in Quebec) that was tremendously hard to get into. There was only one spot available and two of us got in from my year. And I was told by the counsellor that the spot was given to my colleague, Natalie, because that’s the only thing that this girl is good at right now and that’s the only thing she wants to do. I freaked out, naturally, because I thought for sure I would get the spot. He went on to say that I, on the other hand, am multifaceted, good at everything I touch, and I get bored in a flash. And he would prefer to send me to a private school where I would get to do all facets of art rather than just graphic design. At first I was not in agreement with him and I was not happy because I felt like Natalie was more special and she got what she wanted and I didn’t, I got some default school. And I’m so not by default! But this ended up being the best decision of my life. That counsellor really saw me and saw through me. 

Then I broke my leg in dance and my dance career was shot. To me dance was my entire life. I went to a dance conservatory and I danced for 12 hours a day and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to dance anymore. 

Another breakdown happened during my preparation for TEDx that I thought was going to kill me. I don’t understand what I went through, but I contemplated many ways to not show up for that event, which of course I would not have done but I was going into panic attacks. In the end, I triumphed and I did it. It was great and I pushed myself. 

At the age of 32, my partner and I sold our business and we took a year off and traveled the world. You would think, awesome! But I was so fucking lost. I didn’t know who I was anymore. I didn’t know up from down or side to side. And I had to go back to work. I felt like I would have been ready to be 65 at the time and retire, but I couldn’t. I needed to go back to work again but I didn’t know what I was to do and I did not remember my value. My partner and I put everything back on the table, including our relationship. It was a tough time. 

Today I own my value but I have my moments just like everybody else when I question what I am doing. But now I have a ritual to get myself out of it. 

Do things sometimes feel hard? What do you do then? What is your self talk in those moments?

Initially I go through a little self-pity. I give myself five minutes of boo hoo, poor me, or five minutes of frustration. I get really angry at times and then get judgmental for a moment, or watch TV or eat a bag of chips and go through this self-pity party. And after that I say to myself, alright, what did I do to attract this? What is the gift I’m unwrapping in this situation? What do I need to learn? What do I need to shift? What do I need to stop doing? What do I need to start doing? I have regular rituals to ensure that I’m at my best, for example I meditate daily to keep my head out of my ass. And I’ll get out of it and then come out much stronger on top. 

What do you believe is your #1 key to success? Or what principles have you built your foundation of success on?

Discipline is something that has been an asset for me and being a dancer and an athlete my entire life has tremendously helped with this. Discipline in having a healthy strong body and a healthy strong mind. I am also extremely focused. When I go into my Bubble Time a bomb could go off and I wouldn’t know it. I don’t get distracted easily. I’m like a dog with a bone.

I also wholeheartedly believe that saying No is the biggest asset to success. You don’t climb the success ladder by saying yes to everything. The most successful people I know say No more than they say Yes. This doesn’t mean they’re negative or selfish. They know what to say Yes to and what to say No to. 

I also believe in treating myself like my own best client. I put my own projects in my calendar and I will say no to other people’s projects to give me the opportunity to finish mine. I give my clients 350 percent, so I give myself the same. Why is it with the human race that when it’s time for working on our own stuff it always gets pushed aside when someone else needs something? I don’t do that and we end up being able to create and do a lot of things on our own because I put myself as a client on the production board. Our deadlines are as important as our clients’ deadlines even though they’re self-inflicted. They’re still as important and that has played a big role in how successful I’ve become. I understand what I need to be at my best and I own it and respect it. 

Do you have regular habits that contribute to your success?

I wake up super early, usually at 4 in the summer and 5 in winter, and I meditate. I have a specific meditation that I do every morning that touches on perfect health, financial abundance, on owning my inner badass, and other things. I used to be obsessed with exercise and did it daily but now I do it weekly. My physical activity is still very important to me. The time between 4am and 9am is for “me time”, my meditation, and my own learning because I love to learn. This is the time when I do things to fill my own glass. My first meeting is usually around 9:00, sometimes 8/8:30. And I close my day with me, too. So my day starts with me and ends with me and in the middle I’m all yours. 

Do you have a biggest fear and how do you overcome it?

Until recently my top fear was to do a TEDx talk and I said no three years in a row. I was lucky that I was asked and I didn’t have to audition for it. I did go through the practice channels and the 32 revisions of my script. My biggest fear was to lose my train of thought on a big stage. And it came true. I know I absolutely brought that onto myself because I worried so much about it. How could it not have appeared? And it’s ironic because my talk is about not worrying. 

Now my biggest fear to tackle is heights. I could never jump off a plane but I want to and I’ve been debating this for at least 25 years. To me that is the ultimate surrender. 

What is the best piece of advice you ever received that you always follow?

If you can’t say no to what you don’t want you’ll never have the time and the energy for what you do want. 

Are you as fulfilled personally as you inspire others to be?

I think that I have absolute moments of fulfillment. I think I have absolute moments of bliss, peace of mind, that I’m good at what I’m doing, and everything is aligned. But I call those units of happiness in life. I think most people think that life should be all units of happiness and then there’s all these challenges. I think the opposite. I think life is a bunch of fucking obstacles and in between the obstacles there are moments of greatness, moments of beauty, and moments and units of happiness. And I’m collecting units of happiness. 

And I’m one of those people where if I’m not happy with one thing in my life my whole life is at stake. Where as Margarita, my partner, is much more down to earth. She’ll say for example, Isabelle we’re talking about the kitchen; we’re talking about one room in our entire life and house, and sure as shit you have enough understanding that this is not the end of the world. But I’m all integrated and if one area is weak, I’m obsessed about that area and then suddenly my whole world is tainted. So, I’m working on units of happiness. I’m working on the little things that bring me fulfillment.

I don’t need a shit ton of money to have a fulfilling moment. I have had lots of money in my account and no fulfillment whatsoever whereas I have also had amazing fulfilling moments while completely broke. And I’m working on having amazing fulfilling moments with a full bank account because I think we can have it all. But the expectation can’t be that it’s all units of happiness or all fulfillment all the time. I believe that in moments of unfulfillment therein lies the next opportunity. It’s like I’ve outgrown this opportunity here so now what? A coach of mine calls it the door of confusion. First you are unhappy, then you’re fucking confused and only then there’s the other side. You can’t go from unfulfilled to happy without going through the door of confusion. And it’s your ability to embrace the door of confusion that makes all the difference on this beautiful journey.

What does success feel like to you?

It feels like peace of mind and freedom to me. And what leads me to peace of mind and freedom is when I’m at a place in my life where I can say yes to anything I want or no to anything I don’t want. To me that’s pretty sweet because it means that I don’t need to take on a project if I don’t want it. I will throw myself into helping a client or doing something I want. I’ll go to bed at night feeling like I’ve made an impact on someone positively and I don’t have to worry about how I am going to pay the bills. Freedom and peace of mind to me are brought on by being able to say yes or no to what I do or don’t want. And just knowing that that is possible gives me the feeling of success.

What’s inside a thought leader’s soul? I always wanted to know! 

About 4 years ago I received a Big Magic Idea about discovering the answer to this very question. Instead of just wishing I knew what made thought leaders tick, I got the brilliant idea to interview some thought leaders and then write a book about what I learned. 

That idea struck fear into the very heart of me and I shelved it. I didn’t actually need to know that badly what thought leaders thought or what success principles they lived by or what they did when things got hard. 

The thing with Big Magic Ideas is that they’re insistent and this one wasn’t leaving me alone. I rode the whole roller coaster of
Who am I do do this?
What if no thought leader wants to talk to me?
What if I fail?
…you know…that roller coaster?!

Then I turned 40 and I freaked out a little bit. The Midlife Funk came knocking to help me stop hiding behind fear. So, I made a list of women who I wanted to approach and interview. I reached out to my community to help me put together a list of questions. And I sent the first messages out. 

Many of the women said yes!!

I loved conducting the interviews and hearing their stories, their triumphs, struggles, and wisdom. I was elated. I now had 120 hours of conversation to work with. I got the interviews transcribed and ended up with a gazillion pages of gobbelty gook…the transcriptions were awful! OH NO!! Now what? I don’t have the budget to pay an editor at this point, so I took the next year and a half to fix the transcriptions. 

In the end, the book has turned into a series of blogs with the most important parts of the conversations highlighted. I want the world to know how these thought leaders think and what guides them. Their stories and wisdom are ready to go out into the world!