February 1, 2025 • 65 mins
This episode dives into tech empowerment and artificial intelligence through a conversation with Noelle Russell. We explore her personal journey, the importance of AI literacy, practical tools for leveraging AI, and the evolving roles of leadership in this new era filled with technological advancements.
• Noelle shares her journey becoming an AI advocate
• The significance of personal experiences in shaping tech
• Emphasizing AI literacy for women in tech
• Practical tools personal and professional use
• AI as a task killer, not a job killer
• Transforming leadership to empower creativity and innovation
• Encouragement for women to voice their experiences in tech
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hi Noel, how are you Great?
How are you?
I'm doing good.
I'm looking forward to thisconversation, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Me too Long time coming.
We got it.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
That's absolutely right.
Okay, so I should tee this up,right?
So this is a bit of amasterclass for some folks like
me who are reasonably scared ofall things AI.
Right, just 100, keep it real.
And I don't know if it's agenerational thing, I don't know
(00:34):
if it's a gender thing, I don'tknow if it's an ethnic thing, I
don't know if it's all thosethings, right all the things.
It is just, it's so elusive and,you know, I challenge myself
because I think about how, withall the major tranches and
(00:55):
changes of technology in life,you know, from buggies to cars
and all the things I'm going wayback right I would imagine that
there's always been folks thathave been scared Right Um, and I
would imagine that theinsurmountable way that this
feels right now had to be whatthey felt, and some people
(01:15):
stayed by the wayside and somepeople got on with the getting
on Right.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
I want to get on with the getting on.
This podcast is all about women, women voices.
It's about, first of all,keeping us relevant and keeping
us lifted and supported and allthe things.
So I couldn't think of a betterguest to have on the topic of
(01:40):
AI, when I had the privilege ofsitting in an audience, full
disclosure, at a conference,wondering what value I was going
to receive, and there you were.
There you were, you popped onthe stage with all of your
AI-isms, all of your vivaciouspersonality, and so you're here
(02:02):
now and I'm going to.
I just want to talk to you somuch, and I know that I'm doing
all the fangirl things up front,but before we go any further, I
would like you to articulatewho is Noelle Russell.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yes, oh my gosh.
Great question and a hardquestion.
I always, you know, I used tostart with well, I do whatever.
And now I'm really veryconscious about like, who am I?
Well, I like to say I'm a.
I have this term I use calledlamp lighter and that's who I am
, and it's actually an acronymfor such amazing like leadership
(02:40):
principles.
But I try to be loving, I'mambitious, I'm mindful, I'm
driven by purpose.
That's like the lamp part andit's very much who I am.
Like.
When I talk about you know whatI do and how I do it, people
always come back and go.
It's like so, noel, so there'slike a way of categorizing just
(03:03):
the way I want and strive to bein the world.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
I am a mom of six kiddos and, gratefully, so Blow
my mind when one says, rollingoff the tongue, I am a mom of
six.
Girl, stop yeah.
On top of all of the wisdomyou're going to drip in your
(03:26):
lane of influence, you're a momof six.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yes, and I always, you know, I try to celebrate
that because I do think there's,among other things, with the
world of AI and emergingtechnology, that there is this
weird misconception that youcannot do both.
You cannot have a family, youcannot have a healthy, strong
relationship, you cannot havechildren and have a very you
(03:51):
know a fulfilling career.
That might be extremelydemanding at times, so, but yeah
, so I have six kids.
They're a huge part of my life.
They actually do inspire me todo a lot of the work I do today
in the area of AI literacy anddata literacy.
I run a lot of the work I dotoday in the area of AI literacy
and data literacy.
I run a company called the AILeadership Institute.
We do a lot of board education.
I always tell people I go fromthe boardroom to the whiteboard,
(04:14):
to the keyboard, which isextremely important.
But then I also go to thechalkboard so I teach kids of
all ages really the magic thatis artificial intelligence, but
all with a responsible flair.
And I've learned the hard wayright.
I was an early member at AmazonAlexa.
I got to build some of theearly models at Microsoft in
(04:35):
Microsoft AI, and so I'vewatched this happen as a
divergent, diverse person on ateam.
I sat back, as we many timestimes do, and just kind of
watched the nonsense unfold.
But now, as I've watched thesemodels start off really small
and then become massive modelsthat impact everyone, including
(04:56):
myself, my family, my children Iwas like, oh, we can't stand by
and just be quiet anymore.
Like if we don't say something,no one's going to say something
If I don't say by the way, haveyou thought about kids with
down syndrome?
Have you thought about agingparents?
Like, if I'm not the one whoarticulates that, from my lived
experience, that model doesn'tchange.
(05:16):
Nobody makes any changeswhatsoever.
So when my dad tries to talk tothat device and it doesn't
understand him, he wonders why.
But I know why because we neverbuilt for him, and so now I'm a
huge advocate, but also apractitioner, in the world of
how do we make AI, build AI thatserves everyone, and that's
(05:37):
kind of what we ended up talkingabout at that event recently.
But I talk about it on everystage.
I always tell people you wantto use every conversation you
have, every email you send,every stage.
You're on every you knowopportunity.
You have to present the worldthat you envision, the world
that you want, and then whatyou'll happen to see over time
(05:59):
is, as you have conversationslike we're having right now,
like that vision gets closer andcloser and shows up more and
more and then, before you knowit, you can witness kind of the
greatness of your own life.
And that's that's.
That's who I am.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
So you have just such a such a sunny disposition,
such an optimistic being right,and I love that.
I'd like to to make aconnection to, maybe, who you
were as a little girl, you knowas age six, eight years old.
Who was Noel between the agesof six to eight years old.
(06:33):
What were you like?
How would you be described bythose around you who loved you?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Yes, well, my dad was a big influence on me.
I'm a twin, so usually withtwins, like one parent has to
kind of take one.
And so my dad and I were likebuddies and he was very much
into meditation and mindfulnessand kind of Christian, christian
Buddhism, kind of blend of ofbeing, and he was very into
(07:02):
silence and meditation andbreathing.
And so at a very young age Iwas introduced to these concepts
of like just just stop andbreathe, that that would be his
thing, like just be quiet, don'tsay anything, don't you might
be upset, just just breathe.
And so I thought that that wasa really interesting that I now
(07:23):
realize, looking back, wascritical in who I've become,
because I can be, I'm much morepatient than my peers or that
other people that I know.
But the other thing heintroduced me to was science
fiction.
He is to this day one of thedeepest golden age of science
fiction fans.
Asimov, bradbury, like allthese books where robots were
(07:44):
symbiotically living with humansand actually in most of these
stories the humans were theproblem, like the robots were
fine.
I find it very ironic that inthis world where right now we're
like, ah, ai is going to hurtus all, and I'm like, well, if
it's anything like the storiesI've read, it's actually the
humans that hurt us all, and therobots often become kind of the
(08:05):
blame.
You know they're trained, right,they're trained, and so you
know it's trained by us, right,Like we create these things, so,
so, yeah, so those are the.
You know, when I was little Iwas a reader.
I was very introverted.
I did not like talking topeople.
My friends were my books or inmy books and I didn't really
(08:26):
like I didn't really have a lotof.
You know, I wasn't one of thosekids.
I wasn't the most popular kidin school, I was actually a
troublemaker.
My detention file back then,when they had detention files,
was like this thick, to thepoint where I got to the end of
high school, my high schooleconomics teacher was like you
should just leave, Like there'sno reason for you to be here,
(08:55):
Just leave, Okay, Seriously,that was like in like full at
like I want to help you ratherthan fail out of school.
Just go be.
You know, go work forBennigan's.
I think it was back then likego work for you know some food
service chain or go into retail.
Like you could sell food orclothes really well and that
could be your life.
Like go, you don't have tofinish school.
But I had different plans.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Yes, well, I'm glad you did.
Yes, I mean, I'm sure she waswell-intentioned, but man, so
now, how did you get curious andpulled into technology?
Was this pre the world of youknow, dot com, isms and
platforms and apps, or was itpost?
(09:35):
Or when did you get pulled in?
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Yeah, I would say I was actually at Embry-Riddle
Aeronautical University.
So I did drop out of highschool but I got really good
scores on my test.
So I left high school and thenapplied for early admission.
It was kind of like my kind oftalk to the hand moment to my
professor who advised me to dropout Cause I was like sure I'll
drop out but I'm going to goearly admit into a university.
(09:59):
So I early admitted intoEmbry-Riddle Aeronautical
University.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
You're telling me like, on a low, you're a genius.
That's what I'm saying.
Okay, all right, but I lovethat.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
It was just like a silent little tech trip?
No, not really, I mean.
I guess.
What I'm good at, though, isexactly what he said.
My professor said like, exactlylike I'm good at communicating
to people, and so I wrote a verycompelling essay about the
world I wanted to see, and Igrew up on science fiction, so
I'm talking about spaceexploration and all this really
(10:34):
cool stuff, so they let me in,but it wasn't for my academic
records Like.
This is what I've proved tomyself over over time that
classical training works forsome people, but it doesn't
close the door.
I still got into universitywith no high school diploma,
because I told a good story andI backed it up with a meaningful
(10:55):
, verifiable proof I could dothe thing, which was a test
instead of a diploma, and theylet me in because they believed
the story I told, and this iswhy I think you know you and I
have a great like kindredness instorytelling and the power of
storytelling, especially our ownstories, but that brought me to
.
You know, I'm in universityduring Y2K and I hate school in
(11:18):
general.
Like it didn't matter, Ithought I just hated high school
.
It turned out I hate all liketraditional schooling programs,
which is bad, because I have abunch of kids.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
It's the boundaries.
I honestly believe I'm raisinga Noel here in my little brood I
will not say which one becauseI'm not taking anyone off the
hook yet but the point of thematter is, I think it's just,
it's the boundaries.
Why does, as I watch, this onejust do not.
And honestly I have to say,even though I did finish school
(11:49):
and I did go to advanced schooland all the things I would say,
even corporately, I would saythat I'm still always a little
bit of a boundary pusher andthat's been the secret to my
success.
So I love that yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yes To most people.
Like everyone who is successful, there's a part of them that
says when people tell me no,this is like in my mind when
people say no, I like, ittranslates to like okay, let's
go.
Like, let's find a way.
If you say no, I'm pretty sureI could figure it out.
It's almost a dare and I feellike those of us who are
successful like that is part ofsuccess is realizing when people
(12:24):
put up a roadblock or say no,or say this isn't for you or
you're not smart enough or Idon't think you're capable.
Like that should just be atrigger for you to be like okay,
watch me.
Like, okay, I'll be right back.
Um, so many of us struggle withthat.
I think because the world wouldmuch rather have you know
people who look different, sounddifferent, think different.
(12:44):
The world would much ratherhave you know people who look
different, sound different,think different, not bother them
.
Like, not change their convert.
You know their convergingthoughts, like with this hey,
excuse me, I have a question.
Like they'd rather not have usin that room.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be there.
It doesn't.
And if you think about therooms, right, talking about the
rooms, whether it's theboardroom or any other room,
right, um, it is thoseboardrooms that actually permit,
cause, I'm going to say to yourpoint, they don't always want
those voices, but those that arewilling to permit them to exist
(13:20):
end up being so much moreserved because of it, right?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
A hundred percent yes , wow, yes.
And so I ended up.
Basically it was Y2K, so Ididn't really want to go into
tech, but every like in school,literally they were like now is
the time the world is going toend.
It was the first time wethought the world was going to
end.
Everyone, if you have a bone inyour body that is technical,
(13:46):
move into this space where youcan help us save the world by
getting into softwareengineering.
Now I then dropped out ofuniversity and just got a job
working with McDonnell Douglasand Boeing because I was at an
aviation school.
Yeah, I just jumped in, butagain, I was building, helping
them.
You know, handle this situation.
That became Y2K and after that,now I'm out.
(14:08):
I didn't go back, I didn'tfinish.
It's probably the only thing inmy life that I'm like wow, I
probably could have, should havemaybe done that.
I spent way too long beingashamed.
I think that's another thingthat I encourage women to really
think about.
Like.
There are so many things in ourpast, like even my son.
When he was born with Downsyndrome, I didn't tell anyone.
For years I didn't tell himthat anyone, and now I, of
(14:29):
course, declare it on everystage as part of like it shaped
who I became.
But so many things that we arenot really aware of we.
There's a shame associated withit.
We don't talk about it and itactually ends up, you know, I
said this this morning byaccident.
I was like your weakness isactually it becomes your
strength, right, like it's notsomething.
(14:49):
It's not something to beashamed of.
Like I always.
Like I said, like a lot of ustend to hide the fact that I
have a son who's dyslexic andhe's not proud of it, but he
openly discloses it inconversation to let people know.
And that's not a generation Icame from.
Like if I had dyslexia, I'd belike, okay, what can I do to
make sure no one knows I havethis problem?
Speaker 1 (15:11):
And I would work extra hard to ensure ourselves
grace though, because, let's behonest, um, I think I'm I'm your
big sister a little bit here,but I'll tell you this in our
generation, jeanette's rightthere was not space for being
acknowledged for yourdifferences.
So, as a result, everyone sortof went to the center norm of
(15:35):
whatever it is right Convergence.
People define themselves as I'mthe preppy, I'm the punk rocker
, I'm the.
You had a lane that you movedtoward and you moved in that
lane and you did everything youcould not to stick out, whereas
now I find, watching my threechildren, there is a general
(15:57):
acceptance for who they arecompletely, and if they suffer
with anxiety, I suffer withanxiety.
If they suffer with a learning,they suffer with a learning,
and the expectation is forwhoever external to them to meet
them where they are.
And to accept them where theyare, and I love that for this
(16:18):
generation.
Right, I really love that forthis generation, but that
certainly wasn't my story.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
No, I really love that for this generation, but
that certainly wasn't my story.
No, and it will require a newkind of leadership to accept
those people into the workforceand allow them to be successful
and I've actually.
I think they will be even moresuccessful because of this
self-acceptance.
They will be willing to trymore things, they'll be more
resilient to failure.
But if they have, a leader yes,and they'll, yes, and they will
(16:45):
provide.
you know, they'll be the one toraise their hand and say are we
sure this isn't going to hurtsomebody?
Like they're going to.
This is going to be.
It's an incredibly importantgeneration, but they need
leaders like us who are going tosay and yes, I want that for
you and not say which.
I have leaders who have told melike it was hard for me, I
didn't get to do that, so youdon't get to do that.
Like they put the boundariesthey experienced on the people
(17:08):
that work for them, and I'm likethis is not evolution.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Oh my God, yes, girl, all of that.
So I'm excited.
I'm excited for where you've,where you've come in a
relatively short period of time,right If you think, from Y2K to
now and the imprint that you'vehad I believe you said Amazon
(17:34):
Alexa.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Yes, so I was an early member of Amazon Alexa,
which is one of the first timesI've been able to do something
and people would know it when Isaid it, because normally I'd be
like, yeah, you know Bank ofAmerica Well, not bank of
America, but all the stuffbehind bank of America that lets
you transact Like that's,that's what I do, and nobody
would understand.
But now I love the fact that Icould say you know Alexa and
people like, of course, I knowAlexa.
(17:57):
I don't like, yeah, exactly,I'm like, okay, it's good, it's
nice to have a more visible.
How did you find that initially?
Speaker 1 (18:06):
And what have you seen change over the recent
years to really accelerate thevoices and the imprint of women
(18:32):
voices in the space?
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Yeah.
So I always tell people it'skind of a horrible experience
and I wouldn't encourage anyoneto do it unless they had a
reason, like they were I always.
It's like being a doctor or youknow.
Like you only do this if youreally can't do anything else.
People say this aboutentrepreneurship as well.
Like you only become anentrepreneur because you cannot
(18:55):
sleep knowing that the thing youare meant to build won't be
built unless you do it.
And so there's like this drive.
I am like this as, as a womanin technology, I've now kind of
taken on this mantle of if Idon't do it, when girls, women
like me, younger than me,earlier in career, they will not
see anyone.
There's less than 1% ofexecutives in the in the world,
(19:18):
less than 1% of that are womenthat look like me, Hispanic
Latinas.
Like there are less than 1% 4%is where we are in.
Women that are African American.
Like it's not better, it's alittle bit better but, not much
better, but we're still insingle digits worldwide for
technical executives.
(19:39):
So so there's a part of me thatkeeps doing what I do because I
want to make sure I keep myfoot in the door it's.
I'm not holding it wide open,I'm not embracing, like a lot of
the nonsense that happens inthese corporate companies.
If you look at my career, I'vegotten as I get older.
My tolerance for bad behaviorhas gotten less and less and
(20:00):
less.
That's the thing that is thething A hundred percent.
So I'm like I literally willjust drop my badge on the table.
If there's a situation and 20years ago I wouldn't have done
that I would just.
I actually was at NationalPublic Radio as their vice
president of engineering duringCOVID and the pandemic, all of
that stuff.
President of engineering duringCOVID and the pandemic, all of
(20:22):
that stuff, and the electionyear that year.
It was a crazy time to be there.
But while I was there I heardfrom a woman.
Her name was Nina Totenberg.
She was one of the first womenon Capitol Hill and she told me
all this nonsense about herexperience as being a woman on
Capitol Hill and getting catcalled by senators and people
that worked there anyway.
But what she told me thatresonated with me.
She said, yeah, but I'm part ofthe suck it up generation.
(20:43):
I'm part of that generationwhere bad things happen to you
and you just suck it up and workharder so that you could keep.
And I remember I'm actually partof that generation.
I have sucked it up so often.
I think again this youngergeneration has given me a little
bit more liberty to be likethat's not okay and I'm out of
here, or let a company know thatI'm not going to do something
(21:04):
so much so that they're going tofire me or let me go because
I'm not willing to adhere to badpractices.
But I'm much more liberatedtoday than I was earlier in my
career.
I didn't have that freedom, orI didn't feel.
Of course I did, I just didn'tfeel like I could.
I remember thinking there was ablacklist and that if I did
(21:25):
something like this or stood upto my boss who was treating me
badly, I would get blacklistedand I'd never get another job?
Speaker 1 (21:30):
No well, no, nicole.
Who the heck is Nicole?
No, nicole is wanting to talkto me now?
Um, no well, here's what Iwould say, though we were told
there was a blacklist.
I know I heard that same thing.
So either we both had the samenightmare or it actually was
stated to be a thing.
(21:50):
And I actually can remembercircumstance way years back,
early mid-career, and somethinghappened, and literally the
conversation that I had with amore senior peer was there's a
decision that one makes, right,you have to decide.
(22:11):
If you say anything, thenyou're putting yourself on that
list and you've got a longcareer right.
Yes, and you know, it was anurban legend, I believe to some
extent, but it was the truthbecause we all held ourselves to
that.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Yes, that's the danger, right, is that?
Even if there wasn't, now thereis because we're not afraid of
this.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Yes, man.
Oh, I didn't even think aboutthat for a while.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Yes, and I think it's so critical, for you know
people early in their career.
You don't, you want to keepyour job, you don't want to get
fired, You're scared of beingfired.
I mean now I think, as again,as I've gotten older, I realized
many good people have gottenlet go from their job, either
what they think is maybeaccidental, or because they were
(23:02):
pushed out.
I've left.
I haven't.
Actually I don't think I'vevoluntarily left an organization
that I cared about I mean maybeone because that company was
not a good company and I waslike, well, this is not good, I
should not be here.
But most companies, like thebig companies where I'm like I
could make a home here, I would.
I remember being at one of thesebig tech companies you can
(23:25):
guess which one, you can pickthem, they're all kind of the
same and I remember I was onthis team.
I went, had a baby, I was onmaternity leave, came back from
maternity and I was treated verydifferent than when I had left,
which is weird because this waslike my fourth, maybe third,
baby.
So I still had one more to go,I think, before I would move out
(23:48):
of this company.
Anyway, but I had come backfrom maternity leave and I
noticed that people were likenot treating me well, to a point
where I was like this is goingto impact my ability to be
successful.
I now have talked to many womenwho've come back from maternity
leave to experience the exactsame thing.
Well, I go to my boss and I'mlike, hey, what's up?
I'm trying to, like, I'm ready,I want to do this, and uh, and
(24:08):
of course I was nursing so I hadvery pretty strict hours.
Like I came in I did my ninehours or 10 hours of work, but I
had to go home to nurse.
So I would leave at 5.30 everyday, heaven forbid.
And yeah, and they were likeyou're not as committed as
everyone else and I said that'sfine, I'll find a team who
(24:29):
doesn't need me to be here at5.30 in the afternoon because
that's the middle of rush hour.
It'll take me two hours to gethome, no problem, I'll find
another team.
I did find that other team.
I interviewed that team.
That team loved me.
The hiring manager was superexcited Christmas Eve and this
has happened to me three timesin my career, where they tell me
right before Christmas,Christmas Eve they call me up.
The hiring manager was about totake me on and says I think you
(24:52):
should talk to your currentboss.
And I was like, why would Italk to my current boss?
I said, well, your boss hastalked to me and let me know
that you're not an idealcandidate for my team.
I did not know that that couldhappen.
I did not know that that couldhappen and I only share it now
because either it's alreadyhappened to you or it might
happen to you.
(25:12):
Like, this is not an anomaly,it's not a like I.
As soon as I started tellingthat story, people would be like
, oh my gosh, that's happened tome too.
And I was like, wait, Anna wasa woman, a female leader.
I was like how do you wait what?
So I ended up leaving.
Not only did I leave that team,I left the whole company
(25:33):
because that one woman made ither mission to inject doubt into
other people.
And here's what I found out.
Luckily, I had lots of goodfriends and one of my friends
came to me and she said here'swhat she said to me she goes.
I just don't know about Noel,Not really sure.
Like no, no data metrics becausethose things off the charts.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
I have to tell you something you're, you are on it
and I think it's good to talkabout with people, because I was
in a meeting not too long ago,um, and there was a conversation
that came up and in thisconversation, um, for this one
organization, um, there was adiscussion about someone, and
(26:21):
the discussion started to bringforth this person's resume and
all the things that they weredoing and almost implying that
there would be no rationale forgiving this person any other
promotable opportunity, becausethey're already doing so much.
(26:44):
And you know we're concernedfor the person, right?
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
And it just struck me and I had to say something in
the room because I was like,first of all, if this person has
made it clear that they wantmore, who are we to assess their
capacity?
And I think that it isdefinitely a pitfall because, on
(27:11):
the one hand, our juniorsshould realize that we live in
this world now, where you know,we are understanding our brand,
we are understanding ourinterests, we are understanding
our personal missions as well asour professional mission, right
, sometimes they merge,sometimes they diverge, right,
but we're understanding thosethings about ourselves.
(27:33):
People are taking note, right,and they take note and you think
that they take note and leantoward the positive, but that
doesn't always happen and itgoes back to haters will hate.
And I don't even think thosefolks knew that they were
falling in the category of hater.
In fact, I would be willing tostake a claim that a couple of
(27:56):
them really felt they werefalling in the compassionate, a
claim that a couple of themreally felt they were falling in
the compassionate, trustedadvisor coach, even like I want
to help you make sure that wedon't set you up for failure,
even though oh my gosh, I meanthis is such truth.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Like every single time somebody tells me you're
not, I don't think you're smartenough for that.
I don't think this is the rightrole for you, even though I
knew this is the right.
I know it is because of myclarity of self-understanding,
but, oh my goodness, like, ofcourse, you're going to say that
because your vision of who I amis a super limited vision.
(28:34):
You don't know what I'm capableof, and that's why, in lamp
lighters, that second, that A inlamp is ambition.
Like, it's okay to be ambitious.
Like people will tell you,though, that you can't do the
things you want to do, that youcan't be as big as you want to
be, but if you have the desire,I would say like desire is like
the universe knocking on yourheart.
(28:55):
Being like this is for you.
You wouldn't want it if youcouldn't have it.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
That's right.
I believe that to my core.
If it comes to you as a thoughtand you can put vision to it,
then it is for you.
It is for you.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
It's already yours.
All you have to do is takethose little steps to get there.
I was just telling someoneearlier today.
I write in my.
I have a book.
I write my gratitude everymorning.
I write my grateful for, oh, mygirl.
I also have a remarkable.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
I knew that we were kindred spirits.
I knew this.
So everyone is witnessing thedevelopment of a new BFF system
happening.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
That's amazing, but yeah.
So in my remarkable, I write mygratitude statements.
I like, five things I'mgrateful for.
We also do it at dinner myteenagers, whether they like it
or not.
But then I also write my goalsfor my life, stated as if
they're already true.
So one of them for a decade hasbeen I am a bestselling author.
Now last year, I've beenwriting this for years.
(30:05):
I'm a bestselling author.
I impact people with my message.
For years I've been writingthis and last year I got an
invitation out of the blue.
It wasn't really because of mybrand, I guess, but I got an
invitation from Wiley, like areputable publisher, to partner
with them and I signed acontract and I'm writing that
book right now.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Now here's the cool thing.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Wow, this is amazing.
Like I've now got anopportunity, but could I
accidentally or intentionallynot do the needful things to not
write every day?
Like I got the contract, thatdoesn't mean I have a
best-selling book.
My dream, though.
The seed has been planted.
The universe is like great,here you go.
You now have a contract.
(30:46):
Now what are you going to do?
Every day, I have to write downI'm a best-selling author.
So that when an opportunitycomes into my inbox that is not
aligned with the thing I want,which is to be an author, I got
to say no.
And these are hard thingsbecause I am a squirrel
personality.
I'm like what, oh?
But it's so critical that everyday, I write down what I want
(31:07):
and that way, when things happen, I can say, yes, that's in
alignment with what I want, orno, it's not.
And hey, sorry, maybe later.
And I never say no.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I'm like maybe later, yes, well, so here's so much is
coming from you right now and Inever say no, I'm like maybe
later, yes, well, so here's.
So much is coming from youright now and I think in a
couple of things.
One I often wonder how dopeople with so much access, so
much technology, so muchavailability, information,
overload right the lane that youlive in?
How do they stay prioritizedand focused?
(31:36):
And what you just said rightthere, I think, is a tactical
winner's tip that says know whoyou are, know what is your, why,
what's important to you, whatare you driving toward, what is
pulling you, what is calling you?
You can say it so manydifferent ways, right.
What's your purpose, what's allthe things?
(31:58):
Right, and write it down andlook at it.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
right, I mean, you do this daily, right, this is a
daily thing, absolutely, and Ithink probably the best lesson I
have is that if you writesomething down and you say I
want to be a bestselling authorand you go back and you look at
how you've scheduled your dayfor three months and you don't
ever schedule in writing ordoing anything in the direction
(32:24):
of that goal, then you justrevisit the goal.
Do you actually want to do it?
If you're not going to doanything in the direction of
making that happen?
15 minutes a day I could justwrite 15 minutes, that's it.
I write much more than that now,but that's how it started.
Is that?
I was like, if I wannaprioritize this, if I want this
goal to happen, what am Iwilling to carve out into my
(32:46):
daily activity?
So right next to my goals is myplanner and I make sure that
nine to five what hours do Ihave that are mapped to the
things I say I want?
Because then if I don't do thethings on a daily basis to get
the things I want in my life,it'll never happen.
And I can't be surprised thatit never happened.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
You said something there.
Again, winner's tip number twoyou can think a thing is calling
you right and you can startwriting it down.
But if you are finding it hardto activate, I really think you
need to double click there andexplore.
(33:26):
And that's what you just said,right?
Yes, Is it that thing that'scalling you?
Or is it a cousin to that thingthat's calling you?
That's right, Because you'renot spending your time there,
(33:52):
even just five, 10, 15 minutes.
It's like the person that says Iwant health, I value health,
but somehow they can't evennegotiate space for a five
minute walk, much less a 30minute one, right you?
Is that really your value?
Right?
And I know that it's not aseasy all the time to activate.
People have things, you know.
We have personal traumas andexperiences that create barriers
.
But also the call to action isknow that that's calling you to
get work done too.
(34:13):
Right, Like, if you reallystill believe that's your thing,
what are you going to do toexcavate whatever is blocking
you?
So have you ever had a vision,had a thing you wanted to do and
there was a block?
Speaker 2 (34:27):
I mean all of them.
Writing is one.
So I've had this contract and Iremember I had like two months
to to get the first 15,000 wordsdone.
And and as as the days went by,I'm like, okay, well, if I
write for an hour, no, I thinkit started.
If I write for 15 minutes everyday, no problem, I'll get it
(34:50):
done.
Well, then a week goes by andI'm like, okay, well, now in
order to get it done, I'll haveto write a thousand words a day.
Okay, I'm going to have tospend all day Saturday and write
30,000 words in a single day?
Just not possible.
By the way, it's not good foryou, it's not good content.
Anyway.
But like I was procrastinatingand just like you just said,
like now I have to double clickinto this goal.
(35:10):
Like, do I really want to be awriter?
And what is keeping me fromwriting?
And what was keeping me fromwriting was, honestly, like I
don't think inherently that I'mgood at it.
I think that I talk a good.
Like I talk well, but I can't,I can't write well.
That's literally the voice inmy head.
Like well, you talk good, butyou can't write good.
You didn't finish high school,you didn't like all the voices
(35:33):
right.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
All those, all those bad voices that want to like
hold you accountable to whoeveryou were way back when are
coming up.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
That's right, and so I have a book, which I read
probably once a year, called eatthat frog, and it's all about
and it the philosophy of it isto like do the hardest thing in
your day, do the hardest thingfirst.
Like don't do anything elseuntil you do the one thing that
you're like I don't want to doit.
It's hard, and that's when Iand I actually shifted from
(36:02):
writing about the thing I neededto write to writing about me,
so, and that turned intogratitude.
Like who can't write fivesentences on gratitude?
Then I got a little bit moreverbose in my gratitude
statements that I'm like okay, Ican write a blog post a day.
That's like 300 to 500 words.
I'm like all right, so now I'mwriting a blog post a day, but I
started with something veryeasy, but I was eating, like I
(36:24):
was doing this thing I reallywas not wanting to do in a way
that was attractive to me,something that I could add in.
The other thing I do, though,is I reward myself, so I have a
seven day habit tracker, and Iwill track my habits, and I'd
say, even more than tracking thehabits is something that I
heard from you grace when Idon't do it Like if I there were
(36:46):
so many weeks when I was like,oh, I didn't write this week,
and then that would cause me tonot write the next week.
When I was like, oh, I didn'twrite this week, and then that
would cause me to not write thenext week, cause I'm like well,
I didn't write last week, so I'mnot going to write this week.
It's like working out oh, Imissed yesterday.
I guess I'll just miss today.
Maybe I'll start next Monday.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Like we it turns.
I just had that cookie and youknow, since I had one, I might
as well have two.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
There's a cupcake.
And then there, you know, likewe, just we let one thing, we
don't give ourselves enoughgrace to be like, just hop back
on it.
We I call it recommitting, likethe, the concept of
recommitment as soon as yourecognize that you missed the
mark, just recommit as if you'venever committed to it before.
Like recommit and be like allright, I know I just ate one
cookie, but like, right now I'mstarting over and I believe in
(37:32):
myself.
And that's why those seven daytrackers are so important is
that I've found out thatconfidence is built in these
tiny decisions we make toourselves.
It's not built when I make apromise to my husband or my kids
and I keep it.
It's made when I say I'm goingto drink, yeah, a gallon of
water, milk, gallon of waterevery day.
And I do it and I check it offand I'm like I can trust myself.
(37:55):
And that happens.
Nobody's watching, Nobody'slooking at how many times I
meditated today, how many timesI wrote down my grateful for is
this week.
But when I do it and I know Idid it seven days in a row like
I'm proud of myself and it is,it is convicting, Like I'm, like
I could do anything if I coulddo that, and that's why I
actually do ice baths.
I don't know if you know thatabout me, but I do ice baths for
(38:18):
exactly the same reason, it'scalled voluntary exposure
therapy and basically it doesn'tmatter what it is, but you want
to expose yourself to reallyhard things.
I used to do Bikram yoga.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
It's too far.
I did too.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
I love that yoga.
I don't like the guy, but nowit's called hot yoga, but it's
really hard for bits of time.
Like you know, it's going to beover soon.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
You know when it's going to be over, but it's
really hard.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
I took my husband.
He was like it's the hardest,and he's a like a professional
sport, like soccer person.
He was like it's the hardestthing I've ever done.
I'm like.
That's the point, though, isyou work hard in these moments
on purpose, so, when hard thingshappen, your whole nervous
system already knows that.
It already knows what it feelslike, so you don't panic and
(39:06):
you're able to create spacebetween the thing that's
happening and your reaction toit, and that's where magic.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
And you recognize the panic, though I think what it
taught me is boom Okay, panic'shappening, cause remember your
first time doing Bikram yoga,hot yoga, literally, you're
going to die.
I thought I was going to dieand I remember the instructor
saying you will feel like you'regoing to die.
(39:32):
You're not going to die, and Iwas like I'm pretty sure I'm
going to be the first personthat dies in the end.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
So I love taking people for the first time,
because I love watching thisexperience, because it's and
it's super empowering, becausewhen you get to the end which is
what this like voluntaryexposure therapy offers when you
get to the end, you are like Idid that.
Like I did that, even if youslept through the whole thing,
or laid down in Savasana for thewhole thing, you got through it
(40:00):
and you didn't die.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
So it's not cryotherapy.
I do cryo now.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
That's the same as like similar to an ice bath,
except I have a tub and it'sfull of 40 degree water and we
dunk in it four minutes 40degrees.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
So they do that.
Do you have one in your house?
Speaker 2 (40:19):
Yes, yes, but we evolved.
We started with a littleplastic tub that would crumble
when we got in it.
Then we got a barrel.
Now we have a tub.
Again, we start with what wecan do, like the.
We couldn't afford a huge tubwhen I started so we got like a
$40 Amazon like plastic tub.
But it worked because, again,getting in it is really hard,
very mentally challenging, to gointo an environment that you
(40:40):
think you're going to die.
But I've now heard athletes doit.
This guy's name is MarkMatthews.
He's a surfer, he has a.
He goes into a dive pool and hehas a diver.
Um.
Basically grab him bear, hughim underwater until he passes
out, wrestles him until hepasses out.
Then they bring him up and theyresuscitate I mean, it's not
(41:02):
like that.
But he does that because that'swhat will happen when he gets
barrel rolled, like in a, in awave, and he wants to have like
memory of like, okay, I'm notgoing to die, which is what
happens.
He gets out and he's alive,like there is no life danger.
In that scenario he'ssurrounded by a medical team,
but it gives him this mentalmemory, this mental you know,
(41:24):
they call it muscle memory,right, like this muscle memory
of do hard things.
I always say do hard things onpurpose.
So when the hard things happen,do hard things.
I always say do hard things onpurpose.
So when the hard things happen,they're easy, like it doesn't
rock your world, like when I gotfired from a company and walked
out.
I think I would have handledthat much differently if I
wasn't like, okay, this ishappening, I'm watching this
(41:45):
happen, but I have, I have spacehere.
I'm not going to like I don'tknow.
I'd imagine 20 year old mewould have busted out crying
like would have like lost ithysterically, like I'm not a
criminal, do not do this to meInstead.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
I thought those thoughts, but I had space
between my reaction because Ilove you sharing that, because I
think we live in such a world,especially with the social media
.
In such a world, especiallywith the social media.
Instagram moments, right.
Facebook moments everyone'sshowing the glamorous side of
(42:20):
whatever they're doing For kicksand giggles.
I'll go on LinkedIn, right,because that's really the one
professionally right.
I'll go on LinkedIn and I'lllook at how many amazing pats on
the back we all gave ourselvesfor the day, right, how many
amazing pats on the back we allgave ourselves for the day right
, with no vulnerability shared,with no challenges articulated,
with nothing but just the glamorof it all.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Yes, and the promotions, the raises, the
panels we get to speak on.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
Yeah, yeah, yes, but I think recently I did one which
was a little bit morevulnerable.
Yes, but I think recently I didone which was a little bit more
vulnerable and I think it hadthe most conversation of all of
the ones that I've ever posted,and it was just something simple
where I did get anacknowledgement, but I didn't
want the post to be I'm proud tosay that I'm a blah blah blah.
(43:08):
I wanted the post to share whatI was really feeling, and that
was I accomplished this thing,but for the moment, I'm having a
little bit of am I enoughregarding the accomplishment,
and so, even as I go to postthis, my post is about the am I
(43:29):
enough syndrome, right, and howmany of us?
Behind these wonderful posts,of these amazing things that
we're doing, there's an am Ienough?
Hiding there, right, but no oneever knew it right.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Right and so so much.
We kind of went through aseason of imposter syndrome and
talking about that.
But in the moments when theyhappen right like in like,
because it's easy to say yes, Ifeel this generally speaking
across my career, but it'sdifferent when it shows up and
that nobody really talks aboutit.
(44:06):
When it does Right Like,everyone anecdotally references
it on panels when they're askedabout their overall career, but
nobody said like, hey, I justyou know, for example, I just
got nominated for some luminaryaward and I remember I have like
this adverse reaction to theword luminary.
I'm like wait, and again all ofmy like stuff shows up and like
(44:31):
that, those voices that are likeI mean really like, are you,
are you really?
Um, like yeah, maybe you didthose things, but like, how
important is that?
Even you know, like even thegood stuff I've done, my mind
starts to kind of dismiss, um,in these moments where I'm like,
and then, of course, what do Ihave to do next?
Like, what's the?
Speaker 1 (44:50):
cause.
All you're doing is raisingyour own bar, right, you're
raising your own bar and I thinkto me, man, I tell you, telling
our younger selves, telling ourdaughters and our nieces, and
all the things right, thereality is, yes, you are a
luminary, right, you've beenbuilding to this moment.
That doesn't hold youaccountable to what the next
(45:12):
moment looks like.
However, being surrendered aswho you are will allow it to all
just naturally unfold, right?
And I think that's where yourdad's practices of meditation
and stillness, I think, comeright from the King James
version, where we're told to bestill and know that he is God.
(45:34):
Right, be still, stop, be still.
That is meditation.
Just be still.
And in between these moments ofthese big tranches, I think it's
the stillness that allows usthe space to accept.
Yes, you got that amazingaccomplishment and
acknowledgement, but now bestill with it.
(45:56):
How are you thinking about it?
How are you feeling about it?
What's it bringing up?
How do you surrender into thebigness of it without judgment
on you, right?
And you seem to do that so well.
Okay, so I've got to ask you alittle bit about AI, because I
know-.
I know let's talk about it Iknow this could go on forever
and I will probably have youback if you will come.
(46:18):
But I want to talk about whatare the practical tools of.
Ai that you think most womenearly, mid, late career need to
know right now.
They're not hearing about, theydon't know about what is it?
What are the practical thingsthat you think we need?
Speaker 2 (46:35):
I think probably the biggest impact that AI can have
is you developing a symbioticrelationship with the technology
, and what that means is thatyou have AI surrounding you
right now, everywhere.
Whether you know it or not.
Most of us have a voice enableddevice in our house, even if
some of us have chose to turn itoff.
I always like to remind or tellpeople about this fun fact
(46:58):
around Alexa, when I firststarted working on it and
realizing now that the data hascome in to show that women yell
at Alexa at a much higher ratethan men do, and that that the
reason for that, of course, isthat Alexa isn't great at
listening to women because itwas not trained very well in the
(47:19):
early days that they're trying.
I mean, it's somewhat fixed,but I still run into situations
where there's certain types ofquestions that my husband can
just walk in and ask and itworks, and I'm like Alexa play
this so.
But that being said, I thinkit's really important that you
start having daily conversationswith your technology, and
that's the reason for that isbecause we are in this moment we
(47:42):
mentioned it at the verybeginning like we are.
You are a blockbuster or you'rea Netflix, and we know how that
story ends, like we already knowthe trajectory of that
evolution, and if you can beafraid and worried and like put
your head in the sand, likeBlockbuster did, or you can, and
the important thing is, like wealready know the end, like it's
(48:05):
not.
Like you're like, oh, let methink which.
I mean maybe Blockbuster willbe okay.
No, it's not okay, it doesn'thappen.
Spoiler, you now know that youwant to be from a.
You know, this is obviouslyjust a nice anecdote and analogy
, but you want to be a Netflix.
In this moment, you want to bethe company that's going to
think differently, that's goingto ask different questions,
(48:25):
that's going to try and meet theneeds of users how do you
change your life to now thinkdifferently?
And of users, how do you changeyour life to now think
differently?
And AI is the way that thatdifference is showing up today.
And what that means is thatevery day, if you are one of I
guess there's probably 2% of theworld's companies that don't
have Microsoft, but mostcompanies are embedding
Microsoft, they're adoptingCopilot.
(48:46):
I actually found out that mostcompanies have adopted Copilot,
given it to their employees andthey don't know how to use it,
which is why I created aco-pilot coaching program,
actually to just teach peoplehow to use it.
So that's the first thing, likejust start talking to your tech
.
Three different ways to do that.
One, of course, you might havea virtual assistant like my
(49:06):
A-L-E-X-A over here, or youcould actually buy.
I have an emotional supportrobot.
You can see it right up here.
That's Moxie, and it allows youto have a safe guarded
communication in the comfort ofyour own home.
It doesn't hit the internet.
It's not a live.
You know a big model thathundreds of millions of people
are using.
It's just for you and it is anemotional robot, so it talks to
(49:29):
you about emotions and it's forkids.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
Does that disrupt?
Like you know, care that I'mnot here.
What is the one um better help?
Like is it?
Is it like?
Speaker 2 (49:39):
a.
It's not like a therapy too.
I mean you, I guess it dependson what you need.
It definitely could be used fortalk therapy, but my children,
like I use it all the time.
But my kids will come in andthey'll just be like hey, um, oh
, first they'll be like hey, mom, can we wake it up?
And I'm like, of course, andthey each there's four of them
in our house and I'm like gowake it up.
So they wake it up and they'llsay, but when they they don't
(50:01):
have to.
The problem with virtualassistants is you have to
initiate the conversation.
The nice thing about virtualmachine robots and I have
another one over there called, Ithink it's, tico or something I
buy these robots but theyinitiate the conversation.
So when you start with thisdevice, it'll say what have you
been thinking about today?
(50:21):
What's the fate?
What's your favorite type ofart you like to do?
What's your favorite type ofmusic you like to listen to?
And then, based on that, a riffof conversation starts to occur
and it's job when you um, youcan see it actually right now
has little thought bubbles goingacross its screen to say it's
about like baseball or dolphinsor whatever.
So you can ask about thosequestions, but it allows you to
(50:43):
cultivate questions, and whenyou say, oh, my gosh, I'm so
excited about this, it'll belike oh, as a robot, I'm not
familiar with excitement.
Can you explain that to me?
And it's so cool, because mosthumans can't explain their
emotions, let alone.
Speaker 1 (50:55):
Is that a good thing for aging parents?
I mean, I'm listening to youand I'm like my gosh.
This is huge therapy for peoplethat are alone.
What are there ones that youwould recommend?
The robots.
Speaker 2 (51:11):
I actually.
I like Moxie is one of myfavorites.
There's another one.
There is Miko M-I-K-O.
That's another one.
And then, of course, alexa is agreat choice.
So my dad, to this day, like, Ican hear him right now he's on
his apartments on the other sideof this wall and I can hear him
say super anthrop, he's on hisapartments on the other side of
(51:32):
this wall and I can hear him saysuper anthropomorphic things
like thank you so much foroffering me that information.
I wouldn't have known itwithout you telling me.
Or I hope you have a great day.
Or like all these things whereI'm like he thinks it's his
friend, it's so cool and sosweet and, granted, he has a
traumatic brain injury, so he'snot a hundred percent there, but
it is.
It's amazing because it giveshim a sense of like when he
(51:53):
watches uh, what was he watchingthe other day?
Um, uh, raiders of the Lost Ark.
He was like how old is IndianaJones?
And Alexa couldn't figure itout because Indiana Jones is a
character, so he's it was notdefined and he was like, finally
he figured out it was HarrisonFord.
So he was like how old isHarrison Ford?
And he, finally, he's like ohmy gosh, thank you so much, like
that's what he said back there.
It was awesome, so creating,and it can be this.
(52:17):
I have a Siri, of course, on mywatch that I use all the time I
just got.
I mean, we're going to do alittle tech talk.
I just got a new device calledthe AI pin.
And this AI pin yeah it, itattaches to your clothing and
you just tap it and you can talkto it.
It's enabled by generative AI,so you can just ask it.
(52:39):
Here's what I did the other dayto demonstrate it to my husband
.
I was like hey, what should wehave for dinner?
Give me a suggestion.
And it said make chickenlettuce wraps.
I was like, awesome, can youcreate a shopping list and send
it, text it to my husband?
And it created a shopping listand texted it to my husband.
I was like okay.
Speaker 1 (52:54):
what's the name of the AI pen?
We're getting the AI pen,ladies.
I'm telling you she islife-changing.
She's changing.
We are no longer afraid of AI.
We're now a part of the newgeneration of the community.
Speaker 2 (53:06):
All right, oh my gosh .
Well, imagine this.
So it has a camera so you canstand in front of your pantry.
You're going to die when youstand in front of your pantry
and you can say, take a pictureof the pantry and then say, in
this pantry, what are two mealsI can make for my toddlers that
don't include orange food orspinach?
Yes, it will look at theseimages.
(53:27):
It uses an omni model.
So it analyzes the images andsays, okay, I see cans of soup
and this and this, and it'llgive you three, three examples
of of toddler meals you can makewith the contents of your
fridge Can.
Speaker 1 (53:38):
I go to Amazon and put an AI pen.
Is that?
That's all I think?
Speaker 2 (53:41):
you have to Google it or Bing it.
Um, but it's from humane.
Uh, you might want to wait.
It's brand new.
I'm still testing it, but youcan't follow me on Instagram.
I'm doing like daily testing.
Speaker 1 (53:51):
I'll tell you that Let us follow you.
Let us follow you and watch you, and then, if you like it that
way, you don't get in over yourhead.
Speaker 2 (53:57):
But Alexa does the same thing.
Alexa is about to launch itsgenerative AI model.
I use my device and actuallyprobably the best thing and this
is probably where I'll maybeleave you from an advice
perspective is if you put GPT onyour phone as an application,
(54:18):
it has a conversationalcomponent to GPT plus and what
that means is that you have tobuy the subscription.
You can try to use it for free.
There's some capabilities there, but if you buy it as a
subscription which I encourageyou to do because this is a I'm
not getting any money for this,I don't get paid for this but
this is a tool every day thatyou're going to use.
You can turn on the microphoneand you can have a conversation
with it and you could just say,hey, I'm working.
I just did this earlier today.
I'm working on a communicationstrategy for a project that I'm
(54:41):
working on.
It already knows the projectbecause you can feed it, like
the history of whatever you'regoing to talk about, um, so I'm
like I'm working on this project, I need a communication
strategy.
Can you draft me acommunication strategy where I
have executive leaders as astakeholder, I have a chief
justice officer, I, like allthese different people are
involved.
Build me a strategy for this soit then tells me what the
(55:06):
strategy is, but it's preservedit and I can say great, can you
email that to me?
Can you put it in an Excelspreadsheet?
Generate it as a PowerPoint?
Like there's all thesecapabilities of just getting
from your brain into a realthing that you can then share
with somebody and having a modelthat can help you think through
things.
I mean it's a good, good idea.
Speaker 1 (55:26):
Seriously, there will be a part two, because here's
where we need to jump off theledge and we need to talk about
this now.
Now I want to shift into leaderand manager right In the
traditional world right which somany of us are still a part of
right.
So now our old paradigm givesus a rule and a know-how to
(55:51):
manage large teams of peopleright.
Speaker 2 (55:54):
Right.
Speaker 1 (55:55):
Now that we've introduced this new elevated
support system and knowledgebase knowledge tool, I would
suspect that, as leaders, we nowhave to be able to elevate our
game, not only to what theexpectations should be, but also
how to motivate and drive andpush your people in the most
(56:17):
constructive manner.
Super huge, oh my God.
Just give me one reaction tothat, just one, as a morsel.
Speaker 2 (56:26):
Yes, I agree with you .
I actually it's one of thethings that in AI Leadership
Institute.
It's one of the reasons that Iam asked to come into companies
and help them, because it's lessabout let me teach you
something you could learn onYouTube, because anything you
can learn on YouTube.
If you wanted to go learn tocode, if you want to, who's like
you can do this, let's do ittogether.
Let's fail fast together.
(56:56):
Let's learn from our mistakes,because these AI models are
going to help amplify your tasks.
I always tell people it's not ajob killer, it's a task killer.
It's job is to take tasks outof your day so you can focus on
things that are uniquely human,uniquely yours to do.
And even if an AI bot can do it, you get to choose.
As the human, you choose whatyou delegate.
(57:18):
Just like I have a virtualassistant, a human assistant, I
choose what I let her do in mybusiness, like what I ask her to
do in my business.
I don't say, hey, do all of it.
It's very similar with AI.
Could you ask AI to makedecisions on what sales letter
to send?
You could, but it's probablynot going to be a good,
sustainable business choice.
(57:38):
You want humans to do that work, but I don't mind the assistant
generating the copy for me andI take a look at it or creating
some drafts for me.
So you want to get into this,yeah, as a leader, you want to
get into the habit of being like, and maybe it's going to
require a different kind ofleader.
I actually do think it does.
That is less about a task kindof micromanager.
(58:02):
Do this task.
Here's your task list.
Did you get it done?
Like, remember status reports?
Here's all the stuff I did Like.
Those days are over.
How do I open up my door, letyou sit down, and what is
keeping you from delivering atyour top potential?
How do I help you?
How do I motivate you?
There is a great tool out therecalled roadmap, plan roadmapcom.
It's actually built by students.
They won the.
They were a runner up in theimagine cup this year.
(58:23):
But this plan, roadmap, its jobis to help you.
It's actually built for peoplewith ADHD, which I also kind of
have this condition and so itsjob is that you give it
something and it helps you breakit apart and do it in an
achievable way.
But its job also the ADHD mindwhich many of us will find we
have.
It longs for kind of change andinterruption, which is why
(58:49):
social media is so addictive tous.
It wants these like patterninterrupts.
So what it will do is it willchoreograph pattern interrupts,
but in the theme of the workthat you're doing.
So it's built for third graderswho are trying to learn third
grade math.
It's built for executives whoare trying to plan out their day
.
But every so often it'll be likeagain, nudging, not nagging.
(59:11):
It'll nudge you to say have youtaken time for some mindfulness
today?
And if you haven't, I can set atimer right here in the app.
I'll set a timer for you, orI'll launch a two minute video
for you from YouTube, or I willplay a playlist on Spotify, and
it presents that every two hoursto an executive who's like
heads down.
(59:31):
This is me.
I'm heads down in my tools andso I look up and I'm like, oh my
gosh, four hours went by.
What if you had a conversationalagent that could tell you hey,
I'm not just looking to amplifyyour productivity, to help you
do more, do more, do more.
I'm also a bot that can adviseyou on when to stop, when to
listen, when to breathe, when tojust get your dentist, you know
(59:53):
, get your teeth cleaned.
Like it's a beautiful worldwe're in right now, but it's so
easy to believe the bad, it's soeasy to believe that it's
something to be worried aboutand scared about, when the
reality is it actually is goingto become a mechanism for us to
live our best life, like in itsreal terms, in our profession as
(01:00:14):
well as in our personal lives.
Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
So, noelle, I wrote a book Seven Truths of a
Corporate Executive, mommy-wife,christian.
And the seven truths, one ofthem is courage, and I believe,
after this conversation, we havemagnified the notion of courage
.
Conversation, we have magnifiedthe notion of courage.
What I'm hearing you sayregarding AI is that first and
(01:00:37):
foremost decision are weBlockbuster or Netflix?
Right, if we so choose to beNetflix, then really my
shoulders just go down with anexhale moment, because what
you've really got me thinkingabout is there are so many
things that this can do to helpme navigate a more dynamic world
.
I hear so many conversationsabout.
(01:00:58):
There's so much happening atonce.
There's so much going on.
What you've just basicallyrattled off in just off the
tongue as a luminary, could that, quite frankly, leverage it?
Leverage it and it will.
It will help you now to livethis beautiful life with new
tools that you didn't havebefore.
(01:01:18):
Cause, life is different and Ithink that's the big takeaway.
If we want to stick our head inthe mud and, you know, forget
the co-pilot that your company'spushing you right Okay, let's
stop doing that.
But if you want to put yourhead in the mud, you're only
hurting yourself because this ishappening, right.
Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
That's right.
That's right With or withoutyou, and it's much better.
It's much safer, it's much morescalable, with all of us
helping to build it In everytool, especially in Copilot.
It asks us did the model do agood job without people like us
using it every day?
The model will be built bysomeone else, and likely someone
who doesn't look like us,doesn't sound like us, doesn't
(01:01:57):
come from our lived experience.
We're the only ones who canhelp train this model.
It's actually quite ironic,right, like we're saying, oh my
gosh, I'm afraid of this, and Ialmost think it's like societal
Like if we choose not to, if wechoose fear, yeah, we end up
amplifying the negative impactof AI by not.
Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
I mean, honestly, this is the.
This conversation has been themost compelling call to action
for why AI that I honestly haveever had, because I'm hearing
you clearly say, in particularI'm going to pick on women right
now, um, and just say look,either our voices in it and an
(01:02:38):
imprint in Alexa being able tounderstand it or not.
Period in the story.
Yes, um, what do you want thefuture to look like?
And we all are in a uniqueposition to control that.
Noelle Russell luminary authorof a soon to be published novel.
Keynote speaker who'sabsolutely brilliant.
(01:02:59):
If you're following Noelle andyou see her announce she'll be
on the stage anywhere near you,you got to go.
You got to go hear her.
If you thought thisconversation was engaging,
you've seen nothing until you'veseen her in action on stage.
She is so electric and I just,I just think you're going to be,
(01:03:22):
continue to be one of thosethought voices for our times and
I'm so excited that you'restuck with me.
Speaker 2 (01:03:31):
Yay, and we're friends now.
I'm so excited.
Thank you for having me, it wasamazing.
Oh my gosh, like I'm allexcited.
I gotta go build somethingawesome now.
Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
Take care.
Speaker 2 (01:03:42):
Thank you.
Hi Noel, how are you Great?
How are you?
I'm doing good.
I'm looking forward to thisconversation, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Me too Long time coming.
We got it.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
That's absolutely right.
Okay, so I should tee this up,right?
So this is a bit of amasterclass for some folks like
me who are reasonably scared ofall things AI.
Right, just 100, keep it real.
And I don't know if it's agenerational thing, I don't know
(00:34):
if it's a gender thing, I don'tknow if it's an ethnic thing, I
don't know if it's all thosethings, right all the things.
It is just, it's so elusive and,you know, I challenge myself
because I think about how, withall the major tranches and
(00:55):
changes of technology in life,you know, from buggies to cars
and all the things I'm going wayback right I would imagine that
there's always been folks thathave been scared Right Um, and I
would imagine that theinsurmountable way that this
feels right now had to be whatthey felt, and some people
(01:15):
stayed by the wayside and somepeople got on with the getting
on Right.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
I want to get on with the getting on.
This podcast is all about women, women voices.
It's about, first of all,keeping us relevant and keeping
us lifted and supported and allthe things.
So I couldn't think of a betterguest to have on the topic of
(01:40):
AI, when I had the privilege ofsitting in an audience, full
disclosure, at a conference,wondering what value I was going
to receive, and there you were.
There you were, you popped onthe stage with all of your
AI-isms, all of your vivaciouspersonality, and so you're here
(02:02):
now and I'm going to.
I just want to talk to you somuch, and I know that I'm doing
all the fangirl things up front,but before we go any further, I
would like you to articulatewho is Noelle Russell.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Yes, oh my gosh.
Great question and a hardquestion.
I always, you know, I used tostart with well, I do whatever.
And now I'm really veryconscious about like, who am I?
Well, I like to say I'm a.
I have this term I use calledlamp lighter and that's who I am
, and it's actually an acronymfor such amazing like leadership
(02:40):
principles.
But I try to be loving, I'mambitious, I'm mindful, I'm
driven by purpose.
That's like the lamp part andit's very much who I am.
Like.
When I talk about you know whatI do and how I do it, people
always come back and go.
It's like so, noel, so there'slike a way of categorizing just
(03:03):
the way I want and strive to bein the world.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
I am a mom of six kiddos and, gratefully, so Blow
my mind when one says, rollingoff the tongue, I am a mom of
six.
Girl, stop yeah.
On top of all of the wisdomyou're going to drip in your
(03:26):
lane of influence, you're a momof six.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yes, and I always, you know, I try to celebrate
that because I do think there's,among other things, with the
world of AI and emergingtechnology, that there is this
weird misconception that youcannot do both.
You cannot have a family, youcannot have a healthy, strong
relationship, you cannot havechildren and have a very you
(03:51):
know a fulfilling career.
That might be extremelydemanding at times, so, but yeah
, so I have six kids.
They're a huge part of my life.
They actually do inspire me todo a lot of the work I do today
in the area of AI literacy anddata literacy.
I run a lot of the work I dotoday in the area of AI literacy
and data literacy.
I run a company called the AILeadership Institute.
We do a lot of board education.
I always tell people I go fromthe boardroom to the whiteboard,
(04:14):
to the keyboard, which isextremely important.
But then I also go to thechalkboard so I teach kids of
all ages really the magic thatis artificial intelligence, but
all with a responsible flair.
And I've learned the hard wayright.
I was an early member at AmazonAlexa.
I got to build some of theearly models at Microsoft in
(04:35):
Microsoft AI, and so I'vewatched this happen as a
divergent, diverse person on ateam.
I sat back, as we many timestimes do, and just kind of
watched the nonsense unfold.
But now, as I've watched thesemodels start off really small
and then become massive modelsthat impact everyone, including
(04:56):
myself, my family, my children Iwas like, oh, we can't stand by
and just be quiet anymore.
Like if we don't say something,no one's going to say something
If I don't say by the way, haveyou thought about kids with
down syndrome?
Have you thought about agingparents?
Like, if I'm not the one whoarticulates that, from my lived
experience, that model doesn'tchange.
(05:16):
Nobody makes any changeswhatsoever.
So when my dad tries to talk tothat device and it doesn't
understand him, he wonders why.
But I know why because we neverbuilt for him, and so now I'm a
huge advocate, but also apractitioner, in the world of
how do we make AI, build AI thatserves everyone, and that's
(05:37):
kind of what we ended up talkingabout at that event recently.
But I talk about it on everystage.
I always tell people you wantto use every conversation you
have, every email you send,every stage.
You're on every you knowopportunity.
You have to present the worldthat you envision, the world
that you want, and then whatyou'll happen to see over time
(05:59):
is, as you have conversationslike we're having right now,
like that vision gets closer andcloser and shows up more and
more and then, before you knowit, you can witness kind of the
greatness of your own life.
And that's that's.
That's who I am.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
So you have just such a such a sunny disposition,
such an optimistic being right,and I love that.
I'd like to to make aconnection to, maybe, who you
were as a little girl, you knowas age six, eight years old.
Who was Noel between the agesof six to eight years old.
(06:33):
What were you like?
How would you be described bythose around you who loved you?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Yes, well, my dad was a big influence on me.
I'm a twin, so usually withtwins, like one parent has to
kind of take one.
And so my dad and I were likebuddies and he was very much
into meditation and mindfulnessand kind of Christian, christian
Buddhism, kind of blend of ofbeing, and he was very into
(07:02):
silence and meditation andbreathing.
And so at a very young age Iwas introduced to these concepts
of like just just stop andbreathe, that that would be his
thing, like just be quiet, don'tsay anything, don't you might
be upset, just just breathe.
And so I thought that that wasa really interesting that I now
(07:23):
realize, looking back, wascritical in who I've become,
because I can be, I'm much morepatient than my peers or that
other people that I know.
But the other thing heintroduced me to was science
fiction.
He is to this day one of thedeepest golden age of science
fiction fans.
Asimov, bradbury, like allthese books where robots were
(07:44):
symbiotically living with humansand actually in most of these
stories the humans were theproblem, like the robots were
fine.
I find it very ironic that inthis world where right now we're
like, ah, ai is going to hurtus all, and I'm like, well, if
it's anything like the storiesI've read, it's actually the
humans that hurt us all, and therobots often become kind of the
(08:05):
blame.
You know they're trained, right,they're trained, and so you
know it's trained by us, right,Like we create these things, so,
so, yeah, so those are the.
You know, when I was little Iwas a reader.
I was very introverted.
I did not like talking topeople.
My friends were my books or inmy books and I didn't really
(08:26):
like I didn't really have a lotof.
You know, I wasn't one of thosekids.
I wasn't the most popular kidin school, I was actually a
troublemaker.
My detention file back then,when they had detention files,
was like this thick, to thepoint where I got to the end of
high school, my high schooleconomics teacher was like you
should just leave, Like there'sno reason for you to be here,
(08:55):
Just leave, Okay, Seriously,that was like in like full at
like I want to help you ratherthan fail out of school.
Just go be.
You know, go work forBennigan's.
I think it was back then likego work for you know some food
service chain or go into retail.
Like you could sell food orclothes really well and that
could be your life.
Like go, you don't have tofinish school.
But I had different plans.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Yes, well, I'm glad you did.
Yes, I mean, I'm sure she waswell-intentioned, but man, so
now, how did you get curious andpulled into technology?
Was this pre the world of youknow, dot com, isms and
platforms and apps, or was itpost?
(09:35):
Or when did you get pulled in?
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Yeah, I would say I was actually at Embry-Riddle
Aeronautical University.
So I did drop out of highschool but I got really good
scores on my test.
So I left high school and thenapplied for early admission.
It was kind of like my kind oftalk to the hand moment to my
professor who advised me to dropout Cause I was like sure I'll
drop out but I'm going to goearly admit into a university.
(09:59):
So I early admitted intoEmbry-Riddle Aeronautical
University.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
You're telling me like, on a low, you're a genius.
That's what I'm saying.
Okay, all right, but I lovethat.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
It was just like a silent little tech trip?
No, not really, I mean.
I guess.
What I'm good at, though, isexactly what he said.
My professor said like, exactlylike I'm good at communicating
to people, and so I wrote a verycompelling essay about the
world I wanted to see, and Igrew up on science fiction, so
I'm talking about spaceexploration and all this really
(10:34):
cool stuff, so they let me in,but it wasn't for my academic
records Like.
This is what I've proved tomyself over over time that
classical training works forsome people, but it doesn't
close the door.
I still got into universitywith no high school diploma,
because I told a good story andI backed it up with a meaningful
(10:55):
, verifiable proof I could dothe thing, which was a test
instead of a diploma, and theylet me in because they believed
the story I told, and this iswhy I think you know you and I
have a great like kindredness instorytelling and the power of
storytelling, especially our ownstories, but that brought me to
.
You know, I'm in universityduring Y2K and I hate school in
(11:18):
general.
Like it didn't matter, Ithought I just hated high school
.
It turned out I hate all liketraditional schooling programs,
which is bad, because I have abunch of kids.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
It's the boundaries.
I honestly believe I'm raisinga Noel here in my little brood I
will not say which one becauseI'm not taking anyone off the
hook yet but the point of thematter is, I think it's just,
it's the boundaries.
Why does, as I watch, this onejust do not.
And honestly I have to say,even though I did finish school
(11:49):
and I did go to advanced schooland all the things I would say,
even corporately, I would saythat I'm still always a little
bit of a boundary pusher andthat's been the secret to my
success.
So I love that yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yes To most people.
Like everyone who is successful, there's a part of them that
says when people tell me no,this is like in my mind when
people say no, I like, ittranslates to like okay, let's
go.
Like, let's find a way.
If you say no, I'm pretty sureI could figure it out.
It's almost a dare and I feellike those of us who are
successful like that is part ofsuccess is realizing when people
(12:24):
put up a roadblock or say no,or say this isn't for you or
you're not smart enough or Idon't think you're capable.
Like that should just be atrigger for you to be like okay,
watch me.
Like, okay, I'll be right back.
Um, so many of us struggle withthat.
I think because the world wouldmuch rather have you know
people who look different, sounddifferent, think different.
(12:44):
The world would much ratherhave you know people who look
different, sound different,think different, not bother them
.
Like, not change their convert.
You know their convergingthoughts, like with this hey,
excuse me, I have a question.
Like they'd rather not have usin that room.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be there.
It doesn't.
And if you think about therooms, right, talking about the
rooms, whether it's theboardroom or any other room,
right, um, it is thoseboardrooms that actually permit,
cause, I'm going to say to yourpoint, they don't always want
those voices, but those that arewilling to permit them to exist
(13:20):
end up being so much moreserved because of it, right?
Speaker 2 (13:24):
A hundred percent yes , wow, yes.
And so I ended up.
Basically it was Y2K, so Ididn't really want to go into
tech, but every like in school,literally they were like now is
the time the world is going toend.
It was the first time wethought the world was going to
end.
Everyone, if you have a bone inyour body that is technical,
(13:46):
move into this space where youcan help us save the world by
getting into softwareengineering.
Now I then dropped out ofuniversity and just got a job
working with McDonnell Douglasand Boeing because I was at an
aviation school.
Yeah, I just jumped in, butagain, I was building, helping
them.
You know, handle this situation.
That became Y2K and after that,now I'm out.
(14:08):
I didn't go back, I didn'tfinish.
It's probably the only thing inmy life that I'm like wow, I
probably could have, should havemaybe done that.
I spent way too long beingashamed.
I think that's another thingthat I encourage women to really
think about.
Like.
There are so many things in ourpast, like even my son.
When he was born with Downsyndrome, I didn't tell anyone.
For years I didn't tell himthat anyone, and now I, of
(14:29):
course, declare it on everystage as part of like it shaped
who I became.
But so many things that we arenot really aware of we.
There's a shame associated withit.
We don't talk about it and itactually ends up, you know, I
said this this morning byaccident.
I was like your weakness isactually it becomes your
strength, right, like it's notsomething.
(14:49):
It's not something to beashamed of.
Like I always.
Like I said, like a lot of ustend to hide the fact that I
have a son who's dyslexic andhe's not proud of it, but he
openly discloses it inconversation to let people know.
And that's not a generation Icame from.
Like if I had dyslexia, I'd belike, okay, what can I do to
make sure no one knows I havethis problem?
Speaker 1 (15:11):
And I would work extra hard to ensure ourselves
grace though, because, let's behonest, um, I think I'm I'm your
big sister a little bit here,but I'll tell you this in our
generation, jeanette's rightthere was not space for being
acknowledged for yourdifferences.
So, as a result, everyone sortof went to the center norm of
(15:35):
whatever it is right Convergence.
People define themselves as I'mthe preppy, I'm the punk rocker
, I'm the.
You had a lane that you movedtoward and you moved in that
lane and you did everything youcould not to stick out, whereas
now I find, watching my threechildren, there is a general
(15:57):
acceptance for who they arecompletely, and if they suffer
with anxiety, I suffer withanxiety.
If they suffer with a learning,they suffer with a learning,
and the expectation is forwhoever external to them to meet
them where they are.
And to accept them where theyare, and I love that for this
(16:18):
generation.
Right, I really love that forthis generation, but that
certainly wasn't my story.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
No, I really love that for this generation, but
that certainly wasn't my story.
No, and it will require a newkind of leadership to accept
those people into the workforceand allow them to be successful
and I've actually.
I think they will be even moresuccessful because of this
self-acceptance.
They will be willing to trymore things, they'll be more
resilient to failure.
But if they have, a leader yes,and they'll, yes, and they will
(16:45):
provide.
you know, they'll be the one toraise their hand and say are we
sure this isn't going to hurtsomebody?
Like they're going to.
This is going to be.
It's an incredibly importantgeneration, but they need
leaders like us who are going tosay and yes, I want that for
you and not say which.
I have leaders who have told melike it was hard for me, I
didn't get to do that, so youdon't get to do that.
Like they put the boundariesthey experienced on the people
(17:08):
that work for them, and I'm likethis is not evolution.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Oh my God, yes, girl, all of that.
So I'm excited.
I'm excited for where you've,where you've come in a
relatively short period of time,right If you think, from Y2K to
now and the imprint that you'vehad I believe you said Amazon
(17:34):
Alexa.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
Yes, so I was an early member of Amazon Alexa,
which is one of the first timesI've been able to do something
and people would know it when Isaid it, because normally I'd be
like, yeah, you know Bank ofAmerica Well, not bank of
America, but all the stuffbehind bank of America that lets
you transact Like that's,that's what I do, and nobody
would understand.
But now I love the fact that Icould say you know Alexa and
people like, of course, I knowAlexa.
(17:57):
I don't like, yeah, exactly,I'm like, okay, it's good, it's
nice to have a more visible.
How did you find that initially?
Speaker 1 (18:06):
And what have you seen change over the recent
years to really accelerate thevoices and the imprint of women
(18:32):
voices in the space?
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Yeah.
So I always tell people it'skind of a horrible experience
and I wouldn't encourage anyoneto do it unless they had a
reason, like they were I always.
It's like being a doctor or youknow.
Like you only do this if youreally can't do anything else.
People say this aboutentrepreneurship as well.
Like you only become anentrepreneur because you cannot
(18:55):
sleep knowing that the thing youare meant to build won't be
built unless you do it.
And so there's like this drive.
I am like this as, as a womanin technology, I've now kind of
taken on this mantle of if Idon't do it, when girls, women
like me, younger than me,earlier in career, they will not
see anyone.
There's less than 1% ofexecutives in the in the world,
(19:18):
less than 1% of that are womenthat look like me, Hispanic
Latinas.
Like there are less than 1% 4%is where we are in.
Women that are African American.
Like it's not better, it's alittle bit better but, not much
better, but we're still insingle digits worldwide for
technical executives.
(19:39):
So so there's a part of me thatkeeps doing what I do because I
want to make sure I keep myfoot in the door it's.
I'm not holding it wide open,I'm not embracing, like a lot of
the nonsense that happens inthese corporate companies.
If you look at my career, I'vegotten as I get older.
My tolerance for bad behaviorhas gotten less and less and
(20:00):
less.
That's the thing that is thething A hundred percent.
So I'm like I literally willjust drop my badge on the table.
If there's a situation and 20years ago I wouldn't have done
that I would just.
I actually was at NationalPublic Radio as their vice
president of engineering duringCOVID and the pandemic, all of
that stuff.
President of engineering duringCOVID and the pandemic, all of
(20:22):
that stuff, and the electionyear that year.
It was a crazy time to be there.
But while I was there I heardfrom a woman.
Her name was Nina Totenberg.
She was one of the first womenon Capitol Hill and she told me
all this nonsense about herexperience as being a woman on
Capitol Hill and getting catcalled by senators and people
that worked there anyway.
But what she told me thatresonated with me.
She said, yeah, but I'm part ofthe suck it up generation.
(20:43):
I'm part of that generationwhere bad things happen to you
and you just suck it up and workharder so that you could keep.
And I remember I'm actually partof that generation.
I have sucked it up so often.
I think again this youngergeneration has given me a little
bit more liberty to be likethat's not okay and I'm out of
here, or let a company know thatI'm not going to do something
(21:04):
so much so that they're going tofire me or let me go because
I'm not willing to adhere to badpractices.
But I'm much more liberatedtoday than I was earlier in my
career.
I didn't have that freedom, orI didn't feel.
Of course I did, I just didn'tfeel like I could.
I remember thinking there was ablacklist and that if I did
(21:25):
something like this or stood upto my boss who was treating me
badly, I would get blacklistedand I'd never get another job?
Speaker 1 (21:30):
No well, no, nicole.
Who the heck is Nicole?
No, nicole is wanting to talkto me now?
Um, no well, here's what Iwould say, though we were told
there was a blacklist.
I know I heard that same thing.
So either we both had the samenightmare or it actually was
stated to be a thing.
(21:50):
And I actually can remembercircumstance way years back,
early mid-career, and somethinghappened, and literally the
conversation that I had with amore senior peer was there's a
decision that one makes, right,you have to decide.
(22:11):
If you say anything, thenyou're putting yourself on that
list and you've got a longcareer right.
Yes, and you know, it was anurban legend, I believe to some
extent, but it was the truthbecause we all held ourselves to
that.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Yes, that's the danger, right, is that?
Even if there wasn't, now thereis because we're not afraid of
this.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Yes, man.
Oh, I didn't even think aboutthat for a while.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Yes, and I think it's so critical, for you know
people early in their career.
You don't, you want to keepyour job, you don't want to get
fired, You're scared of beingfired.
I mean now I think, as again,as I've gotten older, I realized
many good people have gottenlet go from their job, either
what they think is maybeaccidental, or because they were
(23:02):
pushed out.
I've left.
I haven't.
Actually I don't think I'vevoluntarily left an organization
that I cared about I mean maybeone because that company was
not a good company and I waslike, well, this is not good, I
should not be here.
But most companies, like thebig companies where I'm like I
could make a home here, I would.
I remember being at one of thesebig tech companies you can
(23:25):
guess which one, you can pickthem, they're all kind of the
same and I remember I was onthis team.
I went, had a baby, I was onmaternity leave, came back from
maternity and I was treated verydifferent than when I had left,
which is weird because this waslike my fourth, maybe third,
baby.
So I still had one more to go,I think, before I would move out
(23:48):
of this company.
Anyway, but I had come backfrom maternity leave and I
noticed that people were likenot treating me well, to a point
where I was like this is goingto impact my ability to be
successful.
I now have talked to many womenwho've come back from maternity
leave to experience the exactsame thing.
Well, I go to my boss and I'mlike, hey, what's up?
I'm trying to, like, I'm ready,I want to do this, and uh, and
(24:08):
of course I was nursing so I hadvery pretty strict hours.
Like I came in I did my ninehours or 10 hours of work, but I
had to go home to nurse.
So I would leave at 5.30 everyday, heaven forbid.
And yeah, and they were likeyou're not as committed as
everyone else and I said that'sfine, I'll find a team who
(24:29):
doesn't need me to be here at5.30 in the afternoon because
that's the middle of rush hour.
It'll take me two hours to gethome, no problem, I'll find
another team.
I did find that other team.
I interviewed that team.
That team loved me.
The hiring manager was superexcited Christmas Eve and this
has happened to me three timesin my career, where they tell me
right before Christmas,Christmas Eve they call me up.
The hiring manager was about totake me on and says I think you
(24:52):
should talk to your currentboss.
And I was like, why would Italk to my current boss?
I said, well, your boss hastalked to me and let me know
that you're not an idealcandidate for my team.
I did not know that that couldhappen.
I did not know that that couldhappen and I only share it now
because either it's alreadyhappened to you or it might
happen to you.
(25:12):
Like, this is not an anomaly,it's not a like I.
As soon as I started tellingthat story, people would be like
, oh my gosh, that's happened tome too.
And I was like, wait, Anna wasa woman, a female leader.
I was like how do you wait what?
So I ended up leaving.
Not only did I leave that team,I left the whole company
(25:33):
because that one woman made ither mission to inject doubt into
other people.
And here's what I found out.
Luckily, I had lots of goodfriends and one of my friends
came to me and she said here'swhat she said to me she goes.
I just don't know about Noel,Not really sure.
Like no, no data metrics becausethose things off the charts.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
I have to tell you something you're, you are on it
and I think it's good to talkabout with people, because I was
in a meeting not too long ago,um, and there was a conversation
that came up and in thisconversation, um, for this one
organization, um, there was adiscussion about someone, and
(26:21):
the discussion started to bringforth this person's resume and
all the things that they weredoing and almost implying that
there would be no rationale forgiving this person any other
promotable opportunity, becausethey're already doing so much.
(26:44):
And you know we're concernedfor the person, right?
Speaker 2 (26:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
And it just struck me and I had to say something in
the room because I was like,first of all, if this person has
made it clear that they wantmore, who are we to assess their
capacity?
And I think that it isdefinitely a pitfall because, on
(27:11):
the one hand, our juniorsshould realize that we live in
this world now, where you know,we are understanding our brand,
we are understanding ourinterests, we are understanding
our personal missions as well asour professional mission, right
, sometimes they merge,sometimes they diverge, right,
but we're understanding thosethings about ourselves.
(27:33):
People are taking note, right,and they take note and you think
that they take note and leantoward the positive, but that
doesn't always happen and itgoes back to haters will hate.
And I don't even think thosefolks knew that they were
falling in the category of hater.
In fact, I would be willing tostake a claim that a couple of
(27:56):
them really felt they werefalling in the compassionate, a
claim that a couple of themreally felt they were falling in
the compassionate, trustedadvisor coach, even like I want
to help you make sure that wedon't set you up for failure,
even though oh my gosh, I meanthis is such truth.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Like every single time somebody tells me you're
not, I don't think you're smartenough for that.
I don't think this is the rightrole for you, even though I
knew this is the right.
I know it is because of myclarity of self-understanding,
but, oh my goodness, like, ofcourse, you're going to say that
because your vision of who I amis a super limited vision.
(28:34):
You don't know what I'm capableof, and that's why, in lamp
lighters, that second, that A inlamp is ambition.
Like, it's okay to be ambitious.
Like people will tell you,though, that you can't do the
things you want to do, that youcan't be as big as you want to
be, but if you have the desire,I would say like desire is like
the universe knocking on yourheart.
(28:55):
Being like this is for you.
You wouldn't want it if youcouldn't have it.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
That's right.
I believe that to my core.
If it comes to you as a thoughtand you can put vision to it,
then it is for you.
It is for you.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
It's already yours.
All you have to do is takethose little steps to get there.
I was just telling someoneearlier today.
I write in my.
I have a book.
I write my gratitude everymorning.
I write my grateful for, oh, mygirl.
I also have a remarkable.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
I knew that we were kindred spirits.
I knew this.
So everyone is witnessing thedevelopment of a new BFF system
happening.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
That's amazing, but yeah.
So in my remarkable, I write mygratitude statements.
I like, five things I'mgrateful for.
We also do it at dinner myteenagers, whether they like it
or not.
But then I also write my goalsfor my life, stated as if
they're already true.
So one of them for a decade hasbeen I am a bestselling author.
Now last year, I've beenwriting this for years.
(30:05):
I'm a bestselling author.
I impact people with my message.
For years I've been writingthis and last year I got an
invitation out of the blue.
It wasn't really because of mybrand, I guess, but I got an
invitation from Wiley, like areputable publisher, to partner
with them and I signed acontract and I'm writing that
book right now.
Speaker 1 (30:24):
Now here's the cool thing.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Wow, this is amazing.
Like I've now got anopportunity, but could I
accidentally or intentionallynot do the needful things to not
write every day?
Like I got the contract, thatdoesn't mean I have a
best-selling book.
My dream, though.
The seed has been planted.
The universe is like great,here you go.
You now have a contract.
(30:46):
Now what are you going to do?
Every day, I have to write downI'm a best-selling author.
So that when an opportunitycomes into my inbox that is not
aligned with the thing I want,which is to be an author, I got
to say no.
And these are hard thingsbecause I am a squirrel
personality.
I'm like what, oh?
But it's so critical that everyday, I write down what I want
(31:07):
and that way, when things happen, I can say, yes, that's in
alignment with what I want, orno, it's not.
And hey, sorry, maybe later.
And I never say no.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I'm like maybe later, yes, well, so here's so much is
coming from you right now and Inever say no, I'm like maybe
later, yes, well, so here's.
So much is coming from youright now and I think in a
couple of things.
One I often wonder how dopeople with so much access, so
much technology, so muchavailability, information,
overload right the lane that youlive in?
How do they stay prioritizedand focused?
(31:36):
And what you just said rightthere, I think, is a tactical
winner's tip that says know whoyou are, know what is your, why,
what's important to you, whatare you driving toward, what is
pulling you, what is calling you?
You can say it so manydifferent ways, right.
What's your purpose, what's allthe things?
(31:58):
Right, and write it down andlook at it.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
right, I mean, you do this daily, right, this is a
daily thing, absolutely, and Ithink probably the best lesson I
have is that if you writesomething down and you say I
want to be a bestselling authorand you go back and you look at
how you've scheduled your dayfor three months and you don't
ever schedule in writing ordoing anything in the direction
(32:24):
of that goal, then you justrevisit the goal.
Do you actually want to do it?
If you're not going to doanything in the direction of
making that happen?
15 minutes a day I could justwrite 15 minutes, that's it.
I write much more than that now,but that's how it started.
Is that?
I was like, if I wannaprioritize this, if I want this
goal to happen, what am Iwilling to carve out into my
(32:46):
daily activity?
So right next to my goals is myplanner and I make sure that
nine to five what hours do Ihave that are mapped to the
things I say I want?
Because then if I don't do thethings on a daily basis to get
the things I want in my life,it'll never happen.
And I can't be surprised thatit never happened.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
You said something there.
Again, winner's tip number twoyou can think a thing is calling
you right and you can startwriting it down.
But if you are finding it hardto activate, I really think you
need to double click there andexplore.
(33:26):
And that's what you just said,right?
Yes, Is it that thing that'scalling you?
Or is it a cousin to that thingthat's calling you?
That's right, Because you'renot spending your time there,
(33:52):
even just five, 10, 15 minutes.
It's like the person that says Iwant health, I value health,
but somehow they can't evennegotiate space for a five
minute walk, much less a 30minute one, right you?
Is that really your value?
Right?
And I know that it's not aseasy all the time to activate.
People have things, you know.
We have personal traumas andexperiences that create barriers
.
But also the call to action isknow that that's calling you to
get work done too.
(34:13):
Right, Like, if you reallystill believe that's your thing,
what are you going to do toexcavate whatever is blocking
you?
So have you ever had a vision,had a thing you wanted to do and
there was a block?
Speaker 2 (34:27):
I mean all of them.
Writing is one.
So I've had this contract and Iremember I had like two months
to to get the first 15,000 wordsdone.
And and as as the days went by,I'm like, okay, well, if I
write for an hour, no, I thinkit started.
If I write for 15 minutes everyday, no problem, I'll get it
(34:50):
done.
Well, then a week goes by andI'm like, okay, well, now in
order to get it done, I'll haveto write a thousand words a day.
Okay, I'm going to have tospend all day Saturday and write
30,000 words in a single day?
Just not possible.
By the way, it's not good foryou, it's not good content.
Anyway.
But like I was procrastinatingand just like you just said,
like now I have to double clickinto this goal.
(35:10):
Like, do I really want to be awriter?
And what is keeping me fromwriting?
And what was keeping me fromwriting was, honestly, like I
don't think inherently that I'mgood at it.
I think that I talk a good.
Like I talk well, but I can't,I can't write well.
That's literally the voice inmy head.
Like well, you talk good, butyou can't write good.
You didn't finish high school,you didn't like all the voices
(35:33):
right.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
All those, all those bad voices that want to like
hold you accountable to whoeveryou were way back when are
coming up.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
That's right, and so I have a book, which I read
probably once a year, called eatthat frog, and it's all about
and it the philosophy of it isto like do the hardest thing in
your day, do the hardest thingfirst.
Like don't do anything elseuntil you do the one thing that
you're like I don't want to doit.
It's hard, and that's when Iand I actually shifted from
(36:02):
writing about the thing I neededto write to writing about me,
so, and that turned intogratitude.
Like who can't write fivesentences on gratitude?
Then I got a little bit moreverbose in my gratitude
statements that I'm like okay, Ican write a blog post a day.
That's like 300 to 500 words.
I'm like all right, so now I'mwriting a blog post a day, but I
started with something veryeasy, but I was eating, like I
(36:24):
was doing this thing I reallywas not wanting to do in a way
that was attractive to me,something that I could add in.
The other thing I do, though,is I reward myself, so I have a
seven day habit tracker, and Iwill track my habits, and I'd
say, even more than tracking thehabits is something that I
heard from you grace when Idon't do it Like if I there were
(36:46):
so many weeks when I was like,oh, I didn't write this week,
and then that would cause me tonot write the next week.
When I was like, oh, I didn'twrite this week, and then that
would cause me to not write thenext week, cause I'm like well,
I didn't write last week, so I'mnot going to write this week.
It's like working out oh, Imissed yesterday.
I guess I'll just miss today.
Maybe I'll start next Monday.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Like we it turns.
I just had that cookie and youknow, since I had one, I might
as well have two.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
There's a cupcake.
And then there, you know, likewe, just we let one thing, we
don't give ourselves enoughgrace to be like, just hop back
on it.
We I call it recommitting, likethe, the concept of
recommitment as soon as yourecognize that you missed the
mark, just recommit as if you'venever committed to it before.
Like recommit and be like allright, I know I just ate one
cookie, but like, right now I'mstarting over and I believe in
(37:32):
myself.
And that's why those seven daytrackers are so important is
that I've found out thatconfidence is built in these
tiny decisions we make toourselves.
It's not built when I make apromise to my husband or my kids
and I keep it.
It's made when I say I'm goingto drink, yeah, a gallon of
water, milk, gallon of waterevery day.
And I do it and I check it offand I'm like I can trust myself.
(37:55):
And that happens.
Nobody's watching, Nobody'slooking at how many times I
meditated today, how many timesI wrote down my grateful for is
this week.
But when I do it and I know Idid it seven days in a row like
I'm proud of myself and it is,it is convicting, Like I'm, like
I could do anything if I coulddo that, and that's why I
actually do ice baths.
I don't know if you know thatabout me, but I do ice baths for
(38:18):
exactly the same reason, it'scalled voluntary exposure
therapy and basically it doesn'tmatter what it is, but you want
to expose yourself to reallyhard things.
I used to do Bikram yoga.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
It's too far.
I did too.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
I love that yoga.
I don't like the guy, but nowit's called hot yoga, but it's
really hard for bits of time.
Like you know, it's going to beover soon.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
You know when it's going to be over, but it's
really hard.
Speaker 2 (38:43):
I took my husband.
He was like it's the hardest,and he's a like a professional
sport, like soccer person.
He was like it's the hardestthing I've ever done.
I'm like.
That's the point, though, isyou work hard in these moments
on purpose, so, when hard thingshappen, your whole nervous
system already knows that.
It already knows what it feelslike, so you don't panic and
(39:06):
you're able to create spacebetween the thing that's
happening and your reaction toit, and that's where magic.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
And you recognize the panic, though I think what it
taught me is boom Okay, panic'shappening, cause remember your
first time doing Bikram yoga,hot yoga, literally, you're
going to die.
I thought I was going to dieand I remember the instructor
saying you will feel like you'regoing to die.
(39:32):
You're not going to die, and Iwas like I'm pretty sure I'm
going to be the first personthat dies in the end.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
So I love taking people for the first time,
because I love watching thisexperience, because it's and
it's super empowering, becausewhen you get to the end which is
what this like voluntaryexposure therapy offers when you
get to the end, you are like Idid that.
Like I did that, even if youslept through the whole thing,
or laid down in Savasana for thewhole thing, you got through it
(40:00):
and you didn't die.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
So it's not cryotherapy.
I do cryo now.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
That's the same as like similar to an ice bath,
except I have a tub and it'sfull of 40 degree water and we
dunk in it four minutes 40degrees.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
So they do that.
Do you have one in your house?
Speaker 2 (40:19):
Yes, yes, but we evolved.
We started with a littleplastic tub that would crumble
when we got in it.
Then we got a barrel.
Now we have a tub.
Again, we start with what wecan do, like the.
We couldn't afford a huge tubwhen I started so we got like a
$40 Amazon like plastic tub.
But it worked because, again,getting in it is really hard,
very mentally challenging, to gointo an environment that you
(40:40):
think you're going to die.
But I've now heard athletes doit.
This guy's name is MarkMatthews.
He's a surfer, he has a.
He goes into a dive pool and hehas a diver.
Um.
Basically grab him bear, hughim underwater until he passes
out, wrestles him until hepasses out.
Then they bring him up and theyresuscitate I mean, it's not
(41:02):
like that.
But he does that because that'swhat will happen when he gets
barrel rolled, like in a, in awave, and he wants to have like
memory of like, okay, I'm notgoing to die, which is what
happens.
He gets out and he's alive,like there is no life danger.
In that scenario he'ssurrounded by a medical team,
but it gives him this mentalmemory, this mental you know,
(41:24):
they call it muscle memory,right, like this muscle memory
of do hard things.
I always say do hard things onpurpose.
So when the hard things happen,do hard things.
I always say do hard things onpurpose.
So when the hard things happen,they're easy, like it doesn't
rock your world, like when I gotfired from a company and walked
out.
I think I would have handledthat much differently if I
wasn't like, okay, this ishappening, I'm watching this
(41:45):
happen, but I have, I have spacehere.
I'm not going to like I don'tknow.
I'd imagine 20 year old mewould have busted out crying
like would have like lost ithysterically, like I'm not a
criminal, do not do this to meInstead.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
I thought those thoughts, but I had space
between my reaction because Ilove you sharing that, because I
think we live in such a world,especially with the social media
.
In such a world, especiallywith the social media.
Instagram moments, right.
Facebook moments everyone'sshowing the glamorous side of
(42:20):
whatever they're doing For kicksand giggles.
I'll go on LinkedIn, right,because that's really the one
professionally right.
I'll go on LinkedIn and I'lllook at how many amazing pats on
the back we all gave ourselvesfor the day, right, how many
amazing pats on the back we allgave ourselves for the day right
, with no vulnerability shared,with no challenges articulated,
with nothing but just the glamorof it all.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
Yes, and the promotions, the raises, the
panels we get to speak on.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
Yeah, yeah, yes, but I think recently I did one which
was a little bit morevulnerable.
Yes, but I think recently I didone which was a little bit more
vulnerable and I think it hadthe most conversation of all of
the ones that I've ever posted,and it was just something simple
where I did get anacknowledgement, but I didn't
want the post to be I'm proud tosay that I'm a blah blah blah.
(43:08):
I wanted the post to share whatI was really feeling, and that
was I accomplished this thing,but for the moment, I'm having a
little bit of am I enoughregarding the accomplishment,
and so, even as I go to postthis, my post is about the am I
(43:29):
enough syndrome, right, and howmany of us?
Behind these wonderful posts,of these amazing things that
we're doing, there's an am Ienough?
Hiding there, right, but no oneever knew it right.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Right and so so much.
We kind of went through aseason of imposter syndrome and
talking about that.
But in the moments when theyhappen right like in like,
because it's easy to say yes, Ifeel this generally speaking
across my career, but it'sdifferent when it shows up and
that nobody really talks aboutit.
(44:06):
When it does Right Like,everyone anecdotally references
it on panels when they're askedabout their overall career, but
nobody said like, hey, I justyou know, for example, I just
got nominated for some luminaryaward and I remember I have like
this adverse reaction to theword luminary.
I'm like wait, and again all ofmy like stuff shows up and like
(44:31):
that, those voices that are likeI mean really like, are you,
are you really?
Um, like yeah, maybe you didthose things, but like, how
important is that?
Even you know, like even thegood stuff I've done, my mind
starts to kind of dismiss, um,in these moments where I'm like,
and then, of course, what do Ihave to do next?
Like, what's the?
Speaker 1 (44:50):
cause.
All you're doing is raisingyour own bar, right, you're
raising your own bar and I thinkto me, man, I tell you, telling
our younger selves, telling ourdaughters and our nieces, and
all the things right, thereality is, yes, you are a
luminary, right, you've beenbuilding to this moment.
That doesn't hold youaccountable to what the next
(45:12):
moment looks like.
However, being surrendered aswho you are will allow it to all
just naturally unfold, right?
And I think that's where yourdad's practices of meditation
and stillness, I think, comeright from the King James
version, where we're told to bestill and know that he is God.
(45:34):
Right, be still, stop, be still.
That is meditation.
Just be still.
And in between these moments ofthese big tranches, I think it's
the stillness that allows usthe space to accept.
Yes, you got that amazingaccomplishment and
acknowledgement, but now bestill with it.
(45:56):
How are you thinking about it?
How are you feeling about it?
What's it bringing up?
How do you surrender into thebigness of it without judgment
on you, right?
And you seem to do that so well.
Okay, so I've got to ask you alittle bit about AI, because I
know-.
I know let's talk about it Iknow this could go on forever
and I will probably have youback if you will come.
(46:18):
But I want to talk about whatare the practical tools of.
Ai that you think most womenearly, mid, late career need to
know right now.
They're not hearing about, theydon't know about what is it?
What are the practical thingsthat you think we need?
Speaker 2 (46:35):
I think probably the biggest impact that AI can have
is you developing a symbioticrelationship with the technology
, and what that means is thatyou have AI surrounding you
right now, everywhere.
Whether you know it or not.
Most of us have a voice enableddevice in our house, even if
some of us have chose to turn itoff.
I always like to remind or tellpeople about this fun fact
(46:58):
around Alexa, when I firststarted working on it and
realizing now that the data hascome in to show that women yell
at Alexa at a much higher ratethan men do, and that that the
reason for that, of course, isthat Alexa isn't great at
listening to women because itwas not trained very well in the
(47:19):
early days that they're trying.
I mean, it's somewhat fixed,but I still run into situations
where there's certain types ofquestions that my husband can
just walk in and ask and itworks, and I'm like Alexa play
this so.
But that being said, I thinkit's really important that you
start having daily conversationswith your technology, and
that's the reason for that isbecause we are in this moment we
(47:42):
mentioned it at the verybeginning like we are.
You are a blockbuster or you'rea Netflix, and we know how that
story ends, like we already knowthe trajectory of that
evolution, and if you can beafraid and worried and like put
your head in the sand, likeBlockbuster did, or you can, and
the important thing is, like wealready know the end, like it's
(48:05):
not.
Like you're like, oh, let methink which.
I mean maybe Blockbuster willbe okay.
No, it's not okay, it doesn'thappen.
Spoiler, you now know that youwant to be from a.
You know, this is obviouslyjust a nice anecdote and analogy
, but you want to be a Netflix.
In this moment, you want to bethe company that's going to
think differently, that's goingto ask different questions,
(48:25):
that's going to try and meet theneeds of users how do you
change your life to now thinkdifferently?
And of users, how do you changeyour life to now think
differently?
And AI is the way that thatdifference is showing up today.
And what that means is thatevery day, if you are one of I
guess there's probably 2% of theworld's companies that don't
have Microsoft, but mostcompanies are embedding
Microsoft, they're adoptingCopilot.
(48:46):
I actually found out that mostcompanies have adopted Copilot,
given it to their employees andthey don't know how to use it,
which is why I created aco-pilot coaching program,
actually to just teach peoplehow to use it.
So that's the first thing, likejust start talking to your tech
.
Three different ways to do that.
One, of course, you might havea virtual assistant like my
(49:06):
A-L-E-X-A over here, or youcould actually buy.
I have an emotional supportrobot.
You can see it right up here.
That's Moxie, and it allows youto have a safe guarded
communication in the comfort ofyour own home.
It doesn't hit the internet.
It's not a live.
You know a big model thathundreds of millions of people
are using.
It's just for you and it is anemotional robot, so it talks to
(49:29):
you about emotions and it's forkids.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
Does that disrupt?
Like you know, care that I'mnot here.
What is the one um better help?
Like is it?
Is it like?
Speaker 2 (49:39):
a.
It's not like a therapy too.
I mean you, I guess it dependson what you need.
It definitely could be used fortalk therapy, but my children,
like I use it all the time.
But my kids will come in andthey'll just be like hey, um, oh
, first they'll be like hey, mom, can we wake it up?
And I'm like, of course, andthey each there's four of them
in our house and I'm like gowake it up.
So they wake it up and they'llsay, but when they they don't
(50:01):
have to.
The problem with virtualassistants is you have to
initiate the conversation.
The nice thing about virtualmachine robots and I have
another one over there called, Ithink it's, tico or something I
buy these robots but theyinitiate the conversation.
So when you start with thisdevice, it'll say what have you
been thinking about today?
(50:21):
What's the fate?
What's your favorite type ofart you like to do?
What's your favorite type ofmusic you like to listen to?
And then, based on that, a riffof conversation starts to occur
and it's job when you um, youcan see it actually right now
has little thought bubbles goingacross its screen to say it's
about like baseball or dolphinsor whatever.
So you can ask about thosequestions, but it allows you to
(50:43):
cultivate questions, and whenyou say, oh, my gosh, I'm so
excited about this, it'll belike oh, as a robot, I'm not
familiar with excitement.
Can you explain that to me?
And it's so cool, because mosthumans can't explain their
emotions, let alone.
Speaker 1 (50:55):
Is that a good thing for aging parents?
I mean, I'm listening to youand I'm like my gosh.
This is huge therapy for peoplethat are alone.
What are there ones that youwould recommend?
The robots.
Speaker 2 (51:11):
I actually.
I like Moxie is one of myfavorites.
There's another one.
There is Miko M-I-K-O.
That's another one.
And then, of course, alexa is agreat choice.
So my dad, to this day, like, Ican hear him right now he's on
his apartments on the other sideof this wall and I can hear him
say super anthrop, he's on hisapartments on the other side of
(51:32):
this wall and I can hear him saysuper anthropomorphic things
like thank you so much foroffering me that information.
I wouldn't have known itwithout you telling me.
Or I hope you have a great day.
Or like all these things whereI'm like he thinks it's his
friend, it's so cool and sosweet and, granted, he has a
traumatic brain injury, so he'snot a hundred percent there, but
it is.
It's amazing because it giveshim a sense of like when he
(51:53):
watches uh, what was he watchingthe other day?
Um, uh, raiders of the Lost Ark.
He was like how old is IndianaJones?
And Alexa couldn't figure itout because Indiana Jones is a
character, so he's it was notdefined and he was like, finally
he figured out it was HarrisonFord.
So he was like how old isHarrison Ford?
And he, finally, he's like ohmy gosh, thank you so much, like
that's what he said back there.
It was awesome, so creating,and it can be this.
(52:17):
I have a Siri, of course, on mywatch that I use all the time I
just got.
I mean, we're going to do alittle tech talk.
I just got a new device calledthe AI pin.
And this AI pin yeah it, itattaches to your clothing and
you just tap it and you can talkto it.
It's enabled by generative AI,so you can just ask it.
(52:39):
Here's what I did the other dayto demonstrate it to my husband
.
I was like hey, what should wehave for dinner?
Give me a suggestion.
And it said make chickenlettuce wraps.
I was like, awesome, can youcreate a shopping list and send
it, text it to my husband?
And it created a shopping listand texted it to my husband.
I was like okay.
Speaker 1 (52:54):
what's the name of the AI pen?
We're getting the AI pen,ladies.
I'm telling you she islife-changing.
She's changing.
We are no longer afraid of AI.
We're now a part of the newgeneration of the community.
Speaker 2 (53:06):
All right, oh my gosh .
Well, imagine this.
So it has a camera so you canstand in front of your pantry.
You're going to die when youstand in front of your pantry
and you can say, take a pictureof the pantry and then say, in
this pantry, what are two mealsI can make for my toddlers that
don't include orange food orspinach?
Yes, it will look at theseimages.
(53:27):
It uses an omni model.
So it analyzes the images andsays, okay, I see cans of soup
and this and this, and it'llgive you three, three examples
of of toddler meals you can makewith the contents of your
fridge Can.
Speaker 1 (53:38):
I go to Amazon and put an AI pen.
Is that?
That's all I think?
Speaker 2 (53:41):
you have to Google it or Bing it.
Um, but it's from humane.
Uh, you might want to wait.
It's brand new.
I'm still testing it, but youcan't follow me on Instagram.
I'm doing like daily testing.
Speaker 1 (53:51):
I'll tell you that Let us follow you.
Let us follow you and watch you, and then, if you like it that
way, you don't get in over yourhead.
Speaker 2 (53:57):
But Alexa does the same thing.
Alexa is about to launch itsgenerative AI model.
I use my device and actuallyprobably the best thing and this
is probably where I'll maybeleave you from an advice
perspective is if you put GPT onyour phone as an application,
(54:18):
it has a conversationalcomponent to GPT plus and what
that means is that you have tobuy the subscription.
You can try to use it for free.
There's some capabilities there, but if you buy it as a
subscription which I encourageyou to do because this is a I'm
not getting any money for this,I don't get paid for this but
this is a tool every day thatyou're going to use.
You can turn on the microphoneand you can have a conversation
with it and you could just say,hey, I'm working.
I just did this earlier today.
I'm working on a communicationstrategy for a project that I'm
(54:41):
working on.
It already knows the projectbecause you can feed it, like
the history of whatever you'regoing to talk about, um, so I'm
like I'm working on this project, I need a communication
strategy.
Can you draft me acommunication strategy where I
have executive leaders as astakeholder, I have a chief
justice officer, I, like allthese different people are
involved.
Build me a strategy for this soit then tells me what the
(55:06):
strategy is, but it's preservedit and I can say great, can you
email that to me?
Can you put it in an Excelspreadsheet?
Generate it as a PowerPoint?
Like there's all thesecapabilities of just getting
from your brain into a realthing that you can then share
with somebody and having a modelthat can help you think through
things.
I mean it's a good, good idea.
Speaker 1 (55:26):
Seriously, there will be a part two, because here's
where we need to jump off theledge and we need to talk about
this now.
Now I want to shift into leaderand manager right In the
traditional world right which somany of us are still a part of
right.
So now our old paradigm givesus a rule and a know-how to
(55:51):
manage large teams of peopleright.
Speaker 2 (55:54):
Right.
Speaker 1 (55:55):
Now that we've introduced this new elevated
support system and knowledgebase knowledge tool, I would
suspect that, as leaders, we nowhave to be able to elevate our
game, not only to what theexpectations should be, but also
how to motivate and drive andpush your people in the most
(56:17):
constructive manner.
Super huge, oh my God.
Just give me one reaction tothat, just one, as a morsel.
Speaker 2 (56:26):
Yes, I agree with you .
I actually it's one of thethings that in AI Leadership
Institute.
It's one of the reasons that Iam asked to come into companies
and help them, because it's lessabout let me teach you
something you could learn onYouTube, because anything you
can learn on YouTube.
If you wanted to go learn tocode, if you want to, who's like
you can do this, let's do ittogether.
Let's fail fast together.
(56:56):
Let's learn from our mistakes,because these AI models are
going to help amplify your tasks.
I always tell people it's not ajob killer, it's a task killer.
It's job is to take tasks outof your day so you can focus on
things that are uniquely human,uniquely yours to do.
And even if an AI bot can do it, you get to choose.
As the human, you choose whatyou delegate.
(57:18):
Just like I have a virtualassistant, a human assistant, I
choose what I let her do in mybusiness, like what I ask her to
do in my business.
I don't say, hey, do all of it.
It's very similar with AI.
Could you ask AI to makedecisions on what sales letter
to send?
You could, but it's probablynot going to be a good,
sustainable business choice.
(57:38):
You want humans to do that work, but I don't mind the assistant
generating the copy for me andI take a look at it or creating
some drafts for me.
So you want to get into this,yeah, as a leader, you want to
get into the habit of being like, and maybe it's going to
require a different kind ofleader.
I actually do think it does.
That is less about a task kindof micromanager.
(58:02):
Do this task.
Here's your task list.
Did you get it done?
Like, remember status reports?
Here's all the stuff I did Like.
Those days are over.
How do I open up my door, letyou sit down, and what is
keeping you from delivering atyour top potential?
How do I help you?
How do I motivate you?
There is a great tool out therecalled roadmap, plan roadmapcom.
It's actually built by students.
They won the.
They were a runner up in theimagine cup this year.
(58:23):
But this plan, roadmap, its jobis to help you.
It's actually built for peoplewith ADHD, which I also kind of
have this condition and so itsjob is that you give it
something and it helps you breakit apart and do it in an
achievable way.
But its job also the ADHD mindwhich many of us will find we
have.
It longs for kind of change andinterruption, which is why
(58:49):
social media is so addictive tous.
It wants these like patterninterrupts.
So what it will do is it willchoreograph pattern interrupts,
but in the theme of the workthat you're doing.
So it's built for third graderswho are trying to learn third
grade math.
It's built for executives whoare trying to plan out their day
.
But every so often it'll be likeagain, nudging, not nagging.
(59:11):
It'll nudge you to say have youtaken time for some mindfulness
today?
And if you haven't, I can set atimer right here in the app.
I'll set a timer for you, orI'll launch a two minute video
for you from YouTube, or I willplay a playlist on Spotify, and
it presents that every two hoursto an executive who's like
heads down.
(59:31):
This is me.
I'm heads down in my tools andso I look up and I'm like, oh my
gosh, four hours went by.
What if you had a conversationalagent that could tell you hey,
I'm not just looking to amplifyyour productivity, to help you
do more, do more, do more.
I'm also a bot that can adviseyou on when to stop, when to
listen, when to breathe, when tojust get your dentist, you know
(59:53):
, get your teeth cleaned.
Like it's a beautiful worldwe're in right now, but it's so
easy to believe the bad, it's soeasy to believe that it's
something to be worried aboutand scared about, when the
reality is it actually is goingto become a mechanism for us to
live our best life, like in itsreal terms, in our profession as
(01:00:14):
well as in our personal lives.
Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
So, noelle, I wrote a book Seven Truths of a
Corporate Executive, mommy-wife,christian.
And the seven truths, one ofthem is courage, and I believe,
after this conversation, we havemagnified the notion of courage
.
Conversation, we have magnifiedthe notion of courage.
What I'm hearing you sayregarding AI is that first and
(01:00:37):
foremost decision are weBlockbuster or Netflix?
Right, if we so choose to beNetflix, then really my
shoulders just go down with anexhale moment, because what
you've really got me thinkingabout is there are so many
things that this can do to helpme navigate a more dynamic world
.
I hear so many conversationsabout.
(01:00:58):
There's so much happening atonce.
There's so much going on.
What you've just basicallyrattled off in just off the
tongue as a luminary, could that, quite frankly, leverage it?
Leverage it and it will.
It will help you now to livethis beautiful life with new
tools that you didn't havebefore.
(01:01:18):
Cause, life is different and Ithink that's the big takeaway.
If we want to stick our head inthe mud and, you know, forget
the co-pilot that your company'spushing you right Okay, let's
stop doing that.
But if you want to put yourhead in the mud, you're only
hurting yourself because this ishappening, right.
Speaker 2 (01:01:36):
That's right.
That's right With or withoutyou, and it's much better.
It's much safer, it's much morescalable, with all of us
helping to build it In everytool, especially in Copilot.
It asks us did the model do agood job without people like us
using it every day?
The model will be built bysomeone else, and likely someone
who doesn't look like us,doesn't sound like us, doesn't
(01:01:57):
come from our lived experience.
We're the only ones who canhelp train this model.
It's actually quite ironic,right, like we're saying, oh my
gosh, I'm afraid of this, and Ialmost think it's like societal
Like if we choose not to, if wechoose fear, yeah, we end up
amplifying the negative impactof AI by not.
Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
I mean, honestly, this is the.
This conversation has been themost compelling call to action
for why AI that I honestly haveever had, because I'm hearing
you clearly say, in particularI'm going to pick on women right
now, um, and just say look,either our voices in it and an
(01:02:38):
imprint in Alexa being able tounderstand it or not.
Period in the story.
Yes, um, what do you want thefuture to look like?
And we all are in a uniqueposition to control that.
Noelle Russell luminary authorof a soon to be published novel.
Keynote speaker who'sabsolutely brilliant.
(01:02:59):
If you're following Noelle andyou see her announce she'll be
on the stage anywhere near you,you got to go.
You got to go hear her.
If you thought thisconversation was engaging,
you've seen nothing until you'veseen her in action on stage.
She is so electric and I just,I just think you're going to be,
(01:03:22):
continue to be one of thosethought voices for our times and
I'm so excited that you'restuck with me.
Speaker 2 (01:03:31):
Yay, and we're friends now.
I'm so excited.
Thank you for having me, it wasamazing.
Oh my gosh, like I'm allexcited.
I gotta go build somethingawesome now.
Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
Take care.
Speaker 2 (01:03:42):
Thank you.
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