A powerful exploration of personal growth that challenges the conventional wisdom of constant self-improvement. Discover why letting go of limiting beliefs and fears may be the real key to transforming your life and unlocking your potential.
Her Story
About Lisa
Lisa Soss is the Founder and Principal Consultant of Soss Strategy Group, and a product and operations leader driven by a passion for solving complex business challenges and helping organizations grow — working at the intersection of operations, technology, and product strategy across a career spanning nearly 13 years.
At Soss Strategy Group, Lisa works directly with small and mid-sized businesses to cut through operational complexity, sharpen product direction, and build the scalable systems that support long-term growth. The practice draws on nearly 13 years of experience inside Financial Independence Group, where she advanced through multiple roles spanning annuity and life insurance operations, business analysis, and product management — most recently serving as Senior Product Manager.
Throughout her time at Financial Independence Group, Lisa became known for her ability to bridge communication between stakeholders and engineering teams, lead digital transformation initiatives, and develop solutions that streamline processes and improve efficiency. Her work included collaborating on industry-changing technology integrations, supporting annuity and insurance innovation, and contributing to cross-functional teams that prioritized both business performance and customer experience. She also served as a member of DTCC's Senior Advisory Board, bringing an outside perspective back into the organization and staying at the forefront of industry trends. Her leadership style, grounded in curiosity, adaptability, and clear communication, earned her multiple Employee of the Month recognitions and a featured spotlight within the organization.
Lisa holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology with a minor in Spanish from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) designation.
Beyond her professional work, Lisa partners with Race for Impact to raise funds for women's empowerment initiatives and competes in charity races supporting mental health awareness — causes that reflect the same commitment to growth and collaboration she brings to every client engagement.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Lisa
01What do you attribute your success to?
So much of who I am comes from my parents. They gave me my work ethic, taught me what it means to show up and put your head down. But they also taught me something harder, without ever meaning to. They were always working. They rarely stopped to enjoy what they'd built, always planning to do that later, in retirement. Neither one of them made it there. Sadly, my mom lost her battle with cancer and my dad has dementia. Watching that happen changed something in me that I don't think will ever change back.
I don't want to get to the end and wonder "what if." Watching my parents defer their lives is what gave me the courage to finally start this new chapter and pursue the entrepreneurial dreams I'd been sitting on. To take the risks they never felt free to take and to go after the work that actually lights me up. You never know how much time you have, and I refuse to waste mine waiting for a right moment that may never come.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Learn the business and understand your customer first. I spent years in operations before moving into product, and that foundation shaped everything. I could sit in a room with engineers, executives, and customers and understand all of their perspectives because I had lived close to the work. The best strategists I know aren't the ones with the most frameworks, they're the ones who took the time to understand how things actually work before deciding how they should work differently.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
No one is going to map your career for you. You have to know what you want, be willing to say it out loud, and be comfortable advocating for yourself even when it feels awkward. Women are often socialized to wait to be recognized, but recognition follows visibility, and visibility requires you to put yourself forward.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
AI represents both the greatest opportunity and one of the most significant challenges of our time. The potential is undeniable — but so is the responsibility. As AI continues to eliminate roles and reshape workflows across industries, its impact will be fundamental and far-reaching. The real work is ensuring it's adopted responsibly: protecting the data that powers it, being intentional about how it's applied, and staying clear-eyed about what it means for the people and organizations it displaces.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Authenticity, trust, curiosity, and autonomy. Those four words show up in everything I do, both professionally and personally. Authenticity because I've never been good at performing a version of myself that doesn't match who I actually am, and I don't ask that of the people I work with either. Trust because nothing works — no team, no client relationship, no partnership — without it as the foundation. Curiosity because it's what has driven every meaningful step in my career, from learning a new part of the business to eventually building my own. And autonomy because I do my best work, and I help others do their best work, when there's room to think, decide, and own the outcome.
Her Content Hub
Articles by Lisa
Maybe the Answer Isn’t More
Sometimes growth starts with letting something go
To launch Soss Strategy Group, I had to reckon with something I didn’t expect.
Not the business plan. Not the financials. Not the question of whether I had enough experience—I had 13 years of it.
The thing I had to reckon with was this: for the first time, my name is the brand.
There’s no organization to stand behind. No title that does the explaining for me. No company logo carrying credibility on my behalf.
Just me, putting my point of view out into the world and hoping it lands.
That’s a different kind of exposure than anything I’d done before. And I could feel the resistance immediately.
So I had to ask myself a hard question:
What am I actually resisting?
The answer surprised me less than I’d like to admit.
- To grow, I needed to let go of my fear of being seen.
- I needed to let go of my fear of judgment.
- I needed to let go of my fear of failure.
- I needed to let go of the guard I’ve carried for years and allow myself to be more vulnerable than feels comfortable.
For a long time, I thought confidence would come first and action would follow.
What I’m learning is that it’s usually the other way around.
What if it’s letting something go?
We’re wired to think growth is additive. If something isn’t working, the answer must be more effort, more discipline, more knowledge, more strategy. We assume progress comes from adding: another habit, another system, another optimization, another thing to improve.
But what if the answer isn’t adding something new?
What if it’s letting something go?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately because everywhere I look, the message seems to be the same: do more. Build more. Learn more. Optimize more. Become more.
And while some of that advice is valuable, I wonder how often we stop to ask whether the thing standing between us and the life we want isn’t something we’re missing, but something we’re carrying.
Something we’re carrying
You can be the most driven, focused, hardworking person in the room and still feel stuck—not because you’re incapable and not because you aren’t trying hard enough, but because something is quietly working against you.
Maybe it’s a belief that you’re not smart enough to pull it off. Maybe it’s the voice that tells you people like you don’t build businesses like this. Maybe it’s the fear of being judged, failing publicly, or succeeding and suddenly having to become someone you’ve never been before.
You don’t hear those thoughts out loud very often. But they show up everywhere: in the opportunities you don’t pursue, in the conversations you avoid, in the ideas you never share, and in the risks you talk yourself out of before anyone else has the chance to tell you no.
Fear rarely sounds like fear
The tricky part is that fear rarely sounds like fear.
It sounds practical.
It sounds responsible.
It sounds strategic.
“I need a little more experience first.”
“I’ll start when I know more.”
“I just need a better plan.”
“There are people way more qualified than me.”
Maybe those things are true. Or maybe your brain is doing exactly what it was designed to do: keep you safe.
Because growth requires uncertainty. And uncertainty feels uncomfortable. The problem is that what keeps us safe doesn’t always move us forward.
What part of myself do I need to let go of?
So here’s the question I’ll leave you with:
Not, “What do I need to add to get where I’m going?”
But, “What part of myself do I need to let go of?”
The perfectionist? The people pleaser? The person who doesn’t think they’re good enough?
- For me, it’s the version that needs everyone’s approval.
- The version that’s afraid of judgment.
- The version that believes visibility is dangerous.
- The version that thinks she needs one more credential before she’s ready.
None of those things require a new strategy.
They require a decision.
Maybe the next version of you isn’t waiting on the other side of more knowledge, more experience, or a better plan.
Maybe it’s waiting on the other side of letting something go.
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.