Making Waves with Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, Former President & CEO Celebrity Cruises

Brave Bold Brilliant Podcast

Jeannette talks to the fabulous Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, Vice Chairman, External Affairs for the Royal Caribbean Group and author of “Making Waves: A Woman’s Rise to the Top Using Smarts, Heart and Courage". Lisa joins the show to talk about her fascinating business background, how she conquered the world of business, and what's coming in her future.

Lisa talks about what makes a great leader, why women deserve a more prominent role in all aspects of life, and how the power of courage can transform your path through life. She also discusses her book, and talks about how it is built upon the transferrable lessons from her own life in business.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• People are drawn to leadership and magnetic power of those who steer the ships. True leaders are those we can lean on during the stormier times.
• Learning is not just about seeing the things we aspire to. It's about recognising what doesn't work, and calculating that into our life plan, too.
• Everyone has an ego, but the problems arise when we are led solely by it, instead of using it as an accelerating force.
• Many who enter business near the top don't arrive with the smarts and the skills that you can only gain by climbing the ladder progressively.

BEST MOMENTS

"I learned that a great leader is a great leader. And that's what people are looking for. Captains aren't looking for someone who was a captain to be their leader at the end of the day."

"I always find it serendipitous that I ended up in the cruise business, hospitality on the ocean. And it's like this. My life came full circle and it was through no plan."

"I was a woman who did it. And, you know, the subtitle of Making Waves is a woman's rise to the top using smart and courage."

"I've had to be very conscious of that. You know, when I was my first promotion was going from a salesperson to a regional sales manager, which meant that I went from an individual contributor."

This is the perfect time to get focused on what YOU want to really achieve in your business, career, and life. It’s never too late to be BRAVE and BOLD and unlock your inner BRILLIANCE. If you’d like to jump on a free mentoring session just DM Jeannette at [e-mail] or sign up via Jeannette’s linktree https://linktr.ee/JLinfoot

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Brave, Bold, Brilliant podcast series - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/brave-bold-brilliant-podcast/id1524278970

Lisa Lutoff-Perlo - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-lutoff-perlo

ABOUT THE GUEST

Lisa Lutoff-Perlo is Vice Chairman, External Affairs for the Royal Caribbean Group, where she works on broad strategic initiatives with industry organizations and key external stakeholders. Prior to that, she served as President and CEO of Celebrity Cruises from 2014 to 2023, the first woman to take the helm of a Royal Caribbean Group brand and one of the few women then leading a multi-billion dollar brand.
Lutoff-Perlo is a recognized trailblazer in the global hospitality industry. She was the driving force behind transforming and re-defining today’s relaxed luxury cruise experience with a bold, innovative approach to ship design and service for both the industry and the Celebrity Cruises brand. Launching Celebrity’s Edge Series in 2018, the ships were immediately hailed as game-changing for the industry and recognized on TIME Magazine’s annual “World’s Greatest Places” list. She also led the Celebrity brand through a digital transformation, tapping into new market opportunities, customer trends, a robust digital marketing focus and increasing guest loyalty.
In the years leading up to the global pandemic, Lutoff-Perlo led Celebrity Cruises to historic financial performance. She then led the industry back into service on June 26, 2021, when Celebrity Edge was the first ship to sail from a U.S. port and went on to return the brand’s business performance to historical ranges in the first full year post-pandemic. In 2023, Celebrity Cruises’ ships were the first in the world to earn the coveted star rating from Forbes Travel Guide, further solidifying the brand’s relaxed luxury resorts at sea brand positioning.
A purpose-driven leader, Lutoff-Perlo also catalyzed cultural progress in the 200-year-old cruise industry by appointing the first American female Captain and the first West-African woman to work on the bridge of a cruise ship; making history with the first all-female bridge and leadership sailing in 2020; and, ultimately, increasing Celebrity’s percentage of women on the bridge to 32%, far exceeding the maritime industry average of 2%.
She has been recognized with numerous awards for business transformation, outstanding leadership, diversity and inclusion, and her numerous philanthropic efforts., and is a member of the Board of Directors of Fortune 500 company AutoNation (NYSE: AN) actively lending her expertise to numerous nonprofit boards.
Lutoff-Perlo shares her powerful career stories and lessons learned in her leadership book, “Making Waves: A Woman’s Rise to the Top Using Smarts, Heart and Courage,” available in February 2024.

ABOUT THE HOST

Jeannette Linfoot is a highly regarded senior executive, property investor, board advisor, and business mentor with over 25 years of global professional business experience across the travel, leisure, hospitality, and property sectors. Having bought, ran, and sold businesses all over the world, Jeannette now has a portfolio of her own businesses and also advises and mentors other business leaders to drive forward their strategies as well as their own personal development.

Jeannette is a down-to-earth leader, a passionate champion for diversity & inclusion, and a huge advocate of nurturing talent so every person can unleash their full potential and live their dreams.

CONTACT THE HOST

Jeannette’s linktree - https://linktr.ee/JLinfoot

https://www.jeannettelinfootassociates.com/

YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtsU57ZGoPhm55_X0qF16_Q

LinkedIn - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jeannettelinfoot

Facebook - https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jeannettelinfoot

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jeannette.linfoot/

Email - [e-mail]

Podcast Description

Jeannette Linfoot talks to incredible people about their experiences of being Brave, Bold & Brilliant, which have allowed them to unleash their full potential in business, their careers, and life in general. From the boardroom tables of ‘big’ international businesses to the dining room tables of entrepreneurial start-ups, how to overcome challenges, embrace opportunities and take risks, whilst staying ‘true’ to yourself is the order of the day.

Travel, Bold, Brilliant, business, growth, scale, marketing, investment, investing, entrepreneurship, coach, consultant, mindset, six figures, seven figures, travel, industry, ROI, B2B, inspirational: https://linktr.ee/JLinfoot