Connect
To Top

Meet Kathy Heasley of Heasley & Partners in Fountain Hills

Avatar photo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kathy Heasley.

Kathy, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
People often ask, how did you come up with the concept of “heart and mind” in business. My answer is, the “mind” part was easy. Most businesses, especially years ago when I got out of college, were all mind so those experiences were abundant. The “heart” part, well, that was a different story. Businesses seldom thought or openly communicated an emotional side. So for me, to begin bringing out the human side of business, that wasn’t something I fully learned in the business world. It came from a lifetime of experiences that shaped me into who I am. We are all products of our experiences, I believe.

I’ve had people tell me, “It’s like you know what people are thinking and feeling,” and by people they mean business people such as employees, customers, partners, etc. And the context is in terms of their fears, desires and motivations. Which makes me very handy when it comes to understanding buying behavior. Whether it’s a consumer choosing between one product or another, an employee deciding where or where not to work, or even a business owner deciding to add another franchise location or not, people say I have a connection.

I believe it’s because my life experiences prepared me to see and feel the heart in all these decisions. Did you know that every decision we make comes from that very place, our emotional center, no matter how logical we think we are? It’s our human nature. Which brings me back to how I came to be known as the business and branding guru with Heart; i.e., possessing the unique ability to tap into people’s emotions while at the same time keeping a process-oriented, bottom-line business mind.

Much of the heart stems from growing up with parents who were hard-working and determined to make a better life for their kids, first and foremost. My dad was a painter and worked, in good years when business was plentiful, seven days a week, from 6:00 am to 4:00 pm, then went to do odd painting jobs for clients he had cultivated over the years. I don’t think I ever heard him complain once, but he was dead tired by the time he got home.

My dad was born in Italy and came to the U.S. permanently right after World War II. His first trip to America was on the Queen Mary as a prisoner of war. He and others in his own band of brothers who served in the Italian army were “captured” in Northern Africa. He always used the term “rescued” rather than captured because had it not been for the Americans he would not have survived. Had it not been for brave American soldiers, I would not be writing this! I owe my life to the Americans of the day who treated these men well. As you can imagine, my dad loved America from the time he set foot here. He said he never saw so much abundance in his life, even as a so-called prisoner.

My mother was born of Italian immigrant parents in Pennsylvania. Her father died when she and her brothers were young, and because her mother was uneducated and unable to support them, all four were placed in orphanages. That rough childhood made my mom strong, resilient and tough herself. She loved her kids, worked tirelessly to make sure my three older sisters and I had the best life possible. Suffice to say, we were not wealthy, but we were always cared for and that was enough. She had the ability to save a nickel until it became a five dollar bill. I still don’t know how she managing to pull off financially the wonderful Christmases of my childhood.

The story of how my mom and dad met is the stuff of movies and for another article, but thanks to my mom’s relentless determination, my dad, who got deported after the war, got his chance to return to the U.S. and become an American citizen a few years later.

I was the last of four girls in our family, born about nine years after my closest sister. I was called a “late blessing” since my parents were in their mid-forties when I came along. And a blessing I was, meaning, I was blessed with four sisters who provided me a picture window view of life in the 60’s, 70’s and beyond. I was a listener, and I remember being at the kitchen table while conversations between teenagers and adults covered everything from the Beatles to the Vietnam War, the Hippie movement, to Bob Dylan to the assassination of both Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. along with many other historical milestones. Looking back, I don’t fully remember their words, but I can still feel what we all felt. And therein lies the beginnings of how I am able to feel what other people feel.

My two oldest sisters who years later came to own their own hair salons were starting their careers working at a tiny salon down the street. My mom used to make them lunch and sometimes I would walk it down to them. I’d get to the salon and for some unknown reason, the stylists and customers used to let me, this little ten-year-old, hang out there. I would watch as the ladies entered the salon and listen as they and their stylists talked about the week’s events. Again, I remember few of their words, but I can still feel their exasperation, joy, sorrow, desires, disappointment, etc.

This tendency to be an empathetic ear became even more obvious when I was in high school. My classmates, boys especially, would confide in me about all kinds of challenges they were having. From their fear of disappointing their fathers, to uncertainty about college to what to do about the girl they liked. It was so strange to me because all of this openness was unsolicited. I think they saw me as safe. And of course I never shared anything they said with anyone, to this day, and never will.

I truly believe the genetic gifts of my Italian parents and my very open upbringing—meaning I grew up in an adult world—gave me a unique degree of empathy. Just for the record, I was also an annoying young teen, feeling my way through my own emotions, who would retreat to my stereo and headphones (the best Christmas gift ever) almost every day, fully exasperated by school, boys and my mother. (It must be tough to raise girls.)

If all that adult conversation and my own teen struggles started me on the path to understanding the emotions of people, then the singer/songwriter music of the 70’s gave me the ear to put them into words. I spent countless hours reading album covers and singing along to music from The Eagles, Dan Fogelberg, Yes, George Harrison, Electric Light Orchestra, Eric Clapton, Fleetwood Mac, Foreigner and many others. Thank God for the Columbia Record Club. You got all this music for a penny! (Remember that?)

At the same time, I grew up in the golden age of advertising. Like most kids of the time, I watched a lot of TV, and because I had a verbal ear, I could, and often did, recite every single commercial from about 1965 through 1980. No joke, we used to play “cigarette tag” where the rule was if you were about to get tagged, you’d be safe if you could quickly blurt out a cigarette brand and its correct slogan. Talk about effective advertising! Slogans and jingles for toys, cereals, electronics,  soda, you name it… pop out of my mouth to this day, oftentimes because something triggered a memory. I mention this because this education of sorts taught me how to communicate persuasively.

So when I got to Penn State—thanks to my parents who scrimped and saved to send me there—and discovered I could get a degree in Advertising, it seemed right. I give great credit to Penn State for teaching me a writing style that has literally paved the way to my career success. There, I learned how to put heart into words, make it sell, and keep readers reading. (You are still reading, aren’t you?) It was also the place where I first experienced heart in a professional setting. Dr. Stebbins, history prof, would give lectures that were so passionately delivered that he would start the term with a class of say, 100 and end it with 300 because he was just that good. Later I realized it was his heart that made the difference.

When I graduated, I was eager to get on with my life. I was done with the small suburban town I grew up in and was ready to make something of myself. It was time for a new beginning. So I talked my mom into buying me a one-way ticket to Houston, Texas (in 1984 that’s where the jobs were) and I left. It took some time, but I got my first job as a sales rep. I always say it wasn’t my dream job, but selling office equipment on commission sure makes you grow up fast. Even more important, I learned I had values. As a teenager, I never thought about right and wrong that way; I just tried not to do too much wrong.

But in sales, I was pushed right up to the brink of a line I wasn’t willing to cross. That’s because the empathy kicked in. I remember having a sales call at an elementary school in a very poor part of town. I walked in hauling my demo unit right passed this line of little first graders holding hands two-by-two. I’ll never forget their eyes as they looked up at me. I can feel right now my sorrow that they had to live in this horrific, dangerous neighborhood and go to this school that didn’t even have working drinking fountains, equipped classrooms or clean floors. When I got into my meeting, I demo’d the equipment, and then I asked, “How often are you going to use this?” I didn’t like the answer. It wasn’t often enough. Right then and there, I said, “You know what? I think you could spend $5,000 a lot better here at this school.” And then we had a discussion about what else they needed. I just wasn’t going to take $5,000 from those kids.

After nine months of ramen noodles and self-discovery, I did my very best selling and landed a job in my first advertising agency. I thought I got the job because sold myself well. Turns out I excelled at a writing test. (Thank you Penn State.) My title was publicity writer. There I wrote articles for the Houston Chronicle and the old Houston Post about new homes and developments and builders. Ryland Homes and Friendswood Development Company (Exxon) were my clients. In today’s terms, I was a content marketer and this was the content. There just weren’t any blogs, social media or the Internet. The media was newspapers.

I loved that job and the people I met along the way. But then one day, the bad economy caught up to Houston and clients stopped paying. I got laid off. It was devastating. This wasn’t supposed to happen to someone with a college degree! This was why my parents struggled to send me to college. So I wouldn’t have to experience the same thing my family experienced in all too many winters.

It took some doing but when I regrouped, I begged and literally badgered a woman at the ad agency that handled all the Coca-Cola brands. “Recession-proof products,” I thought! “I have to have this job!” I got the post as a media assistant and learned the media buying ropes for major national brands. Coca-Cola was a buttoned up training ground that led to me being transferred to Phoenix, Arizona, to head up the account there. I was all of 23 years old by this time, and responsible for a $3 million dollar TV, radio and outdoor media budget. It was a huge responsibility that I was eager to take on. There are so many stories to tell here, including running the Coke and Pepsi Challenges. I was smack dab in the middle of the Cola Wars and yes, I do have inside insight into the new Coke old Coke disaster. I learned many branding lessons from that to be sure.

But again, one day the word got out that Coca-Cola USA was buying up all the bottling plants including my client. It was either move to Los Angeles or you’re out of a job. I decided to stay in Phoenix. Again, I was crushed. How could this happen? But stronger and wiser, I eventually got a job with “the best company in Arizona” I was told, although I had never heard of them. American Continental Corporation. Yes, I worked for the company that built The Phoenician, Estrella and many other landmarks we enjoy today. I was the director of corporate communications for the insurance division and it was there that I learned how to, as I say, “translate English into English.” By that, I mean every day I took a bunch of technical insurance and financial jargon and wrote it in a way that your grandmother would understand it. I felt for these policy holders who would call all upset because of a callus, confusing letter our IBM mainframe spit out and mailed. Among my many projects was to rewrite with empathy (heart) more than 700 different letters that were automatically printed, inserted, sealed, stamped and mailed to policy holders. By estimation, this one project saved the company millions in lapsed policies from angry policyholders.

My five-year stint there ended with national news coverage of the collapse of Lincoln Savings, part of American Continental Corporation, and the start of the savings and loan crisis. Although we were a top-rated, solvent, profitable insurance company we were brought down too. From that, I learned my biggest branding lesson: if you over brand by putting the same logo on everything when one division goes down, they all go down. This time, being laid off was different. I was strong, secure in my abilities and ready for my next challenge. I drove my VW Cabriolet home with the top down and the music loud!

From a tiny three-line classified ad in the Arizona Republic I interviewed and was hired as the advertising manager and distributor marketing manager for Microtest, a darling emerging tech company in the equally emerging local area networking (LAN) Industry. It was the heyday of computer trade publications—PC Week, PC Magazine, LAN Times, MacWorld, etc. and I worked with them all, buying and placing ads for our network test and measurement products. I worked trade shows across the country and traveled to meet our distributors in the US, Canada and Europe, bringing them marketing plans to help sell our products to their customers.

Microtest was pivotal in my evolution because this was the first company where I felt that energy I now call The Heart Effect™. It’s a priceless asset that will rocket ship your business once it is spiraling. We, along with founder David Bolles, and the engineers, and production and everyone there, we were enabling the flow of data and transforming the world. Truly we did and the company grew to more than $30 million in sales. The experience was electric, it was a drug!

At that point, we launched an IPO and took the company public. It was a fascinating process. The most fascinating part was that the suits from Wall Street who paraded up and down our make-shift, shabby hallways, never bothered to ask or consider what the magic was that made Microtest Microtest. They just looked at the numbers. They saw only the mind side of the business. To their surprise, it was the heart that was the real asset.

The day we went public was exciting. And then it wasn’t. I always say it was the day the heart left the building. Literally. Eventually, the new Wall Street-ready leadership began to take control, and with it they lost a lot of the innovation and certainly the heart of the company. Sales began to dip, competitors began to catch up and things started to go bad. New hires were brought on and our “we” organization turned into a kingdom-building “me” organization. It was devastating to me. I felt like someone I loved had died.

Literally, I couldn’t continue to work there in an empty shell of what had been. So I decided to start my own business. I owe my first client to none other than the founder of Microtest, David Bolles and a new company he was starting. I’m forever grateful.

From there, confusion set in on how to help my clients be successful. I read every marketing book looking for the “silver bullet” that would make everything click. While looking and looking, I began to realize that I worked from a different perspective than most marketing professionals. Clients would tell me, “This is not at all what I expected, but I like it! And it’s working!” One client after another, I began to see a pattern: The clients that let me into their businesses and operations, allowed me to truly discover the heart and bring it to life, did exponentially better than those who kept me at arms’ length and did projects based on shallow (mind only) strategies. It became so obvious that it started to bother me. How can I get everyone to let me in?

In the meantime, I was hired by a very young Cold Stone Creamery and Doug Ducey, who is now our governor. He was leading the company that had about 35 locations and 12 employees. This, too is a whole other chapter in the long saga, but suffice to say, I’m grateful to Governor Ducey, at the time Doug, for trusting me to do what I do, which is bring the emotion and the business together to drive results. We literally bottled and offered heart along with ice cream and nine years later, the company had 1,400 locations in the U.S. and the Pacific Rim.

The same thing happened for many companies, and I soon was asked by a client who believed in my work to accompany him and others in his circle on a worldwide speaking tour where I would talk about branding. In preparation for the tour, he would invite me and others on stage at smaller events as practice. It was at an event in Scottsdale where on stage, on the spot, I blurted out the process that I had been subconsciously using all along for all those years! I was asked, “So Kathy, how exactly do you brand companies? What are the steps?”

(Are you kidding me? What kind of question is that?)

Out of sheer fear, in front of 400 people, I said, to my own surprise, “Well, first I find the Heart. Then I work on the Message, you know, put the heart into words. Then I create the Images like logos, photos, etc. Then I determine what Actions the brand can own. Finally, I put in place as many Systems as possible. That way, the brand is repeatable, scalable and consistent.” My client continued to talk, and all the while I’m thinking, “Stop talking so I can get off the stage and write this down before I forget it!” I still have the notebook where the Five Stages of Heart & Mind® Branding—Heart, Message, Image, Actions, Systems—was immortalized for the first time.

Often fear and getting out of your comfort zone drives the best outcomes. It did for me. From there, I spent two years traveling and giving talks about Heart & Mind Branding in places like Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Singapore; Sydney, Australia; Edmonton, Canada; London, England and all over the United States. And for groups as large as 4,000 people. It was through that experience that I learned a truth that gives me hope for the future of all things and all circumstances: As people, we are all far more alike than we are different. Our hearts are always the same at their deepest levels. Even in Malaysia, for example, a country that seemed so vastly different than our own, the wonderful people there held the same aspirations in their hearts. The same aspirations as my clients, as their customers, as my mom, as my dad, the ladies at the hair salon… and me.

Heart, enveloping the Mind of business, I discovered became a game-changer. A universal truth. The silver bullet, I realized, wasn’t in any book. It was in my own heart, through a lifetime of experiences that I am ever so grateful to have lived.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There certainly was the early acceptance of the Heart & Mind Branding method. Of heart in general. There are still people out there who think they make rational buying decisions. It’s not physiologically possible. Brain scans show it.

The reality is, those are not my clients. My clients are people who want to grow their businesses by truly connecting with all their audiences in a Genuine, Meaningful and Different way. They are people who are tired of superficial marketing that doesn’t drive results.

There’s a saying I recall from the biography of Albert Einstein. I paraphrase here: if something is truly innovative and revolutionary, you never have to worry about anyone stealing your idea. Because if so, you’ll have to cram it down their throats. Change and new ideas are hard for a lot of people.

Please tell us about Heasley & Partners.
Biggest client successes, Cold Stone Creamery, Massage Envy, State of Arizona Brand Project. All these used the Heart & Mind Branding method and generated exponential growth. Companies a few million in size grew to billions and the state created hundreds of thousands of new jobs because heart was wrapped around the work of the great teams within these organizations and shared with the world.

HEASLEY&PARTNERS is a branding company that since 1994 has been shaping businesses into brands and building them from the brand up. We work with organizations of all sizes and entrepreneurial people using our proprietary Heart & Mind® Branding method. In the process, we first find the heart, then craft the message, image it and put it into high gear through actions and systems. HEASLEY&PARTNERS works with companies globally because of our high-demand method of creating the brand – culture connection, The Heart Effect™ that is the rocket fuel of business growth. I coach select business leaders and speak to groups around the world on how to create The Heart Effect in their own lives and businesses to drive results. Additional specialty brand-building services include event production; business book writing and publishing; leadership development, speech and professional writing for business executives; Heart & Mind Branding workshops; Heart & Mind visioning retreats and intensive, day-long, one-on-one business advisory sessions with me.

More information:

An accomplished Senior Executive, Entrepreneur, Advisor, and Thought Leader with decades of success in business development, communications, marketing, brand building, public relations, publishing, video, content development, Kathy has worked with diverse companies and people.

Franchising, consumer products, financial services, hospitality, tech, manufacturing, real estate, healthcare, government, political, beauty, fitness, wellness are among the industries in Kathy’s experience arsenal. Clients find her diversity an asset because she readily sees the patterns in a business and can apply the best practices laterally. The result is exceptional creativity. Kathy’s methods are featured in Chicken Soup for the Entrepreneur’s Soul and Midas Touch, by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki.

Kathy graduated from Penn State University with a BA in Advertising. In 2019 she was named a Penn State Alumni Fellow, the most prestigious award given by the 700,000-member Penn State Alumni Association. She serves as president of the Penn State AD/PR Alumni Board for the university’s top-ranked Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications and is a regular guest lecturer in the classroom. She is a member of the college’s Alumni Society board and the Carnegie Society. She served as an advisory board member at Grand Canyon University’s Executive MBA Program under the direction of Ken Blanchard and as a business plan panel judge at Thunderbird’s Walker Center for Global Entrepreneurship. Kathy is also a repeat speaker at ASU’s Center for Services Leadership Symposium.

Kathy was named a Woman of Achievement in 2017 by In Business Magazine, in 2012 was one of the Top 25 Women in Business by the Phoenix Business Journal and an Athena Award nominee. Before founding her firm in 1994, Kathy worked with Coca-Cola, Ryland Homes, Exxon, Dr Pepper, and B2B firms in finance, insurance, and technology. Through that, she realized the power of heart and has made her mark trumpeting that emotion moves people to action by speaking on “heart” around the world. Her record of results demonstrates the effectiveness of connecting emotional triggers with business practices (Heart with Mind). Best of all, she gives business leaders a process to make it happen in their companies.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Favorite memories are the times spent in the kitchen with my mom, making Elderberry jelly, canning peaches, whatever she expected me to help her do. It wasn’t a “let’s can peaches!” It was “I have peaches to can, so get in here and help.” There’s a big difference. The former is entertainment. The latter is feeling needed and purposeful. It’s really important for kids to feel needed and purposeful, I think. Plus, I really learned my way around a kitchen!

Pricing:

  • “Ask Kathy” Strategy Sessions $500 for 90 minutes, 100% guaranteed.
  • Hire Kathy as a coach $500 per hour with a minimum of 5 hours, 100% guaranteed.

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Family Promise of Greater Phoenix

Suggest a story: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.

Related Items

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in