Lisa Kleissner has experienced domestic violence and grief and had to learn to recollect herself to move on. Learn how to embrace the universe and your gift. Listen to how she worked through the challenges to become the co-founder and president of a family foundation dedicated to empowering entrepreneurs worldwide.
Top Takeaways:
-
- Learning to recollect yourself after a heartbreaking ordeal- and moving forward with impact and a risk-taking spirit
- How to be present, be of service and listen to the unspoken to be able to deal with loss and grief
- Learning to ask for whatever you need and trusting that the universe will deliver
"Given the speed with which trust can be lost versus the speed which one builds trust, all of us are required to do more work today to gain trust because trust is a vital tool for all transactions." -Lisa Kleissner
Key Moments
Lisa describes her childhood in Hawaiʻi and her journey of learning to receive, that life has taught her [1:45]
She talks about her experience with domestic violence at only 19 years and how she learned from that to live an impactful life [6:18]
How one event taught Lisa the steps to tackling the finance system [9:17]
The importance of trust in Lisa's work which is about finances, the environment, and building relationships [12:00]
How her foundation invests in measurable impact by working together with investees and affordable housing developers [13:52]
How they're invested in a housing fund in Latin America, Ghana, and other places in the world to provide solutions to affordable housing [16:10]
Lisa explains how she found peace after losing several of her family members in 18 months and her husband's cancer diagnosis [18:18]
How Lisa learned about her gift of listening to the unspoken by being of service to friends and family who are passing [21:40]
Understanding you have all you need and only have to move into your gift [31:02]
How Lisa's foundation supports for-profit businesses to scale and nonprofits to bring in capital and help them achieve their mission [33:31]
THE KL FELICITAS FOUNDATION EMPOWERING ENTREPRENEURS
Lisa Kleissner is co-founder and President of the KL Felicitas Foundation, a family foundation dedicated to empowering impact entrepreneurs worldwide and investing 100% of the foundation corpus into impact across asset classes.
The foundation was cited by the World Economic Forum for its impact portfolio investment leadership. The foundation is the recipient of the BNP Paribas Grand Prix in Philanthropy and the Magis Award for Social Entrepreneurship from Santa Clara University. Ms. Kleissner was cited as one of 35 world-changing women in conscious business in 2019 by the Conscious Company.
INVESTOR NETWORKS FOR ENTREPRENEURS WORLDWIDE
Ms. Kleissner is co-founder and Chair of Toniic Institute, a global impact investor network, and Hawaiʻi Investment Ready, a business accelerator for Hawaʻi for and not for profit impact enterprises. Ms. Kleissner is an Advisory Board and Investment Committee member of Aqua-Spark, a global impact fund focused on aqua-culture. Ms. Kleissner is on the board of Real Good Fish, a California Community-Supported Fishery serving over 1600 customers. Ms. Kleissner resides in Big Sur, California, and is the Treasurer of the Community Association of Big Sur.
CHANGE MOVES AT THE SPEED OF TRUST
Advocacy started early for Lisa Kleissner. During her high school days in Hawaii, she pushed for environmental causes, earning the ire of school administrators when bringing in scientists and activists who challenged prevailing wisdom.
Kleissner's desire for change continued throughout her life, culminating in her founding of the KL Felicitas Foundation. Together with her husband Charly, she supports entrepreneurs who have the vision for a business with a social mission but require the mentoring, funding, and technical services to become viable.
Her motto is, "change moves at the speed of trust." After leaving an abusive first marriage, she went back to university, studying hard and looking for the next risk to take. She met and married Charly, building a life and supporting socially conscious capitalism.
Ms. Kleissner is a speaker, workshop leader, and author on impact investing and impact enterprise development. When she is not moving the impact agenda forward, Ms. Kleissner spends time swimming, hiking, biking and skiing in her "backyard".
RESOURCES
Toniic
LinkedIn
Wikipedia Lisa Kleissner
Forbes Article on Changing the Way We Invest
KL Felicitas Foundation
Interviews with Charly and Lisa