Leigh Burgess Tells Us How To Live The BOLD Way
Leigh Burgess is a “USA Today” bestselling author (Be BOLD Today), a seven-figure entrepreneur, and co-founder of Bold Industries Group. Through her “BOLD Framework” (Believe-Own-Learn-Design), she aims to help people step into leadership, overcome burnout, and build confidence.
Her Agenda caught up with Leigh to gain more insight into her background, drive, accomplishments, and her mission going forward. If you’re looking for inspiration to start your own business, Leigh has offered a lot of intel below.
Her Agenda: Only focusing on the most important things about yourself, how would you introduce yourself to someone who didn’t know you?
Leigh Burgess: That’s a great question, I think what I probably would start with is that I feel I’ve had a life that is like no other, but many people can learn from it. Number one, I have grown up in a family that has suffered loss early on. I lost my brother when I was six and he was very young. He was eleven, and it was an accident. I think I want to introduce myself as someone who really believes in a YOLO (You Only Live Once) type of life, like today is the day so be present. And that’s really what I think drives a lot of what I do and how I operate.
Her Agenda: What would you say has driven you to be a bestselling author, entrepreneur, and co-founder?
Leigh Burgess: I think what’s driven me is that I’m fueled by my belief, and so if you don’t believe in yourself, nobody else is going to. You really have to start at home base, and that’s you. What’s driven me is to create impact for others in the lens that my first book really is all about seeing possibility through your belief, owning what you should own, and letting go of what you should not.
Her Agenda: What accomplishment are you most grateful for thus far?
Leigh Burgess: I am extremely grateful and proud of the fact that I founded my company with my daughter. So my daughter is 25 years younger than me. When we started, she was 23 and I was 48. I quit my job without a plan because I needed to just choose myself, and I was just utterly burnt out. We’ve been together for five years now and continue to grow the company and learn new things about one another, which I’m very proud of.
Her Agenda: What is Bold Industries Group?
Leigh Burgess: The Bold Industries Group is a company that I started in 2020, really making that big swing of bold and quitting my job and starting off with the bold framework. I’m really into acronyms. Even Bold Industries Group is BIG. So thinking big and really wanting to be bold is what I wanted to do, and we founded the company in consulting in a way that’s different. I have something particularly created called the D90. I use the model designed in 90 days to engage around their priorities. If they’re not prioritizing, I help them prioritize.
Her Agenda: What is your overall mission in life and business?
Leigh Burgess: My mission in life is really to make a positive impact for others. And however I do that I consider that a win; whether it’s the simplest thing, by just being human and being kind. I really want women particularly to take agency in their life and not really think it’s coming from somewhere else other than within. The power is already there, they don’t need someone else to empower them.
Her Agenda: What advice would you give millennial women trying to figure out their path in business?
Leigh Burgess: I’m assuming I know millennials are younger, for sure, but I think we have more in common than differences. I really want them to think without borders, meaning think about what’s possible and don’t put a stop sign up.
Her Agenda: Oftentimes, people think the road to success is linear, could you give your perspective?
Leigh Burgess: I definitely know it’s not linear, and I bet a lot of your readers and you realize that too. I think we think that way because that’s how the system is set up. You’re supposed to go to high school, then college, then you get a great job, then a career. Opportunity looks so different today than it did years ago; there’s a lot more openness to what I would call a portfolio career, meaning getting good at things you’re passionate about. I think generations after us (I’m in my early 50s) have started looking at what’s possible in a more nonlinear way.
Her Agenda: Do you have anything new coming up that you could tell us about?
Leigh Burgess: Yes, so “Be BOLD Today” obviously was my first book. It came out just last November, and it continues to do its thing. I have a second book coming out from Wiley. It’s coming out Nov. 19. It’s called “The Bold Leader: Decide What Counts And Measure What Matters.” I want to get into the science behind decision-making because, through coaching and organizations, the hardest move I’ve seen to make is the first step.
Her Agenda: Do you have a favorite quote or mantra?
Leigh Burgess: I think one of the ones that we really said this early on in our company was that “everyone has boldness within them.” It’s really about freeing it and what by that is, there’s things that we might be holding ourselves back around, in the sense of that gut check or that intuition; and I just really want people to kind of follow that thread of thought and do something with it.
