July 1, 2025 • 26 mins
This podcast episode features an enlightening discussion with Hunter Jensen, the esteemed founder and CEO of Barefoot Solutions, who has been at the forefront of digital innovation for over two decades. A salient point of our conversation revolves around the evolving landscape of leadership in the face of technological advancements, particularly artificial intelligence. Hunter elucidates the pressing need for organizations to deploy internal AI tools that safeguard proprietary information while simultaneously enhancing employee productivity. Furthermore, he emphasizes the dual pillars of effective leadership: strategic direction and the empowerment of team members, underscoring the significance of trust within this dynamic. Ultimately, our dialogue reveals that investing in human capital is paramount, as it not only cultivates a sense of pride but also fosters a resilient organizational culture poised for success.
The podcast presents a profound dialogue between Jaclyn Strominger and Hunter Jensen, the esteemed founder and CEO of Barefoot Solutions, a company that has been at the forefront of digital innovation since its inception in 1998. Hunter shares his extensive journey from a solitary freelance web developer to leading a company that has adapted to the evolving technological landscape, including early forays into mobile applications and more recent ventures into artificial intelligence and machine learning. He elaborates on the strategic pivoting of his business model, which was essential for maintaining relevance in a rapidly changing industry. Hunter's insights into the importance of adaptability and foresight in leadership are paramount, demonstrating how a commitment to continuous learning and innovation has been integral to the success of Barefoot Solutions.
Moreover, the conversation delves into the dynamics of managing a diverse team, where Hunter underscores the significance of effective communication among varied personality types—from creative designers to analytical engineers. He posits that fostering a culture of collaboration enhances problem-solving capabilities and ultimately improves project outcomes. This segment highlights the necessity of understanding different communication styles and the role of leadership in bridging gaps between team members, thereby facilitating a cohesive working environment. Hunter's leadership philosophy, which emphasizes trust and autonomy, serves as a guiding principle for his organization, allowing employees to thrive without the constraints of micromanagement.
In discussing the implications of artificial intelligence on leadership, Hunter presents a compelling argument about the necessity for businesses to develop tailored AI strategies that ensure the protection of proprietary information while enhancing operational efficiency. He articulates the trend of deploying private, internal AI assistants that cater to specific organizational needs, thus empowering employees to leverage technology in a safe, effective manner. This proactive approach to integrating AI within business frameworks reflects a broader understanding of the evolving landscape and the responsibilities of leaders to equip their teams with the tools they require to succeed in an increasingly digital world. Ultimately, the episode encapsulates the essence of visionary leadership—strategic foresight, empowerment of personnel, and the commitment to innovation, all of which are indispensable in navigating the complexities of contemporary business.
Takeaways:
- Hunter Jensen, founder and CEO of Barefoot Solutions, has transformed the company through various technological reinventions over the last two decades.
- Leadership must balance between strategic direction and employee empowerment, fostering an environment of trust and autonomy.
- To effectively leverage AI, organizations must develop internal systems that protect proprietary information...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:58):
Well, hello everybody andwelcome to another amazing episode
of the Unstoppable LeadershipSpotlight podcast. I am your host,
Jaclyn Strominger, and on thispodcast we hear from amazing leaders
and their game changinginsights on how they can be better
leaders for today andtomorrow. So today I want to welcome
Hunter Jensen and he is anamazing individual and I'm just going
(01:21):
to pull up his amazing bio. Heis the founder and CEO of Barefoot
Solutions where he has beenpioneering digital innovation for
over 20 years. And sinceestablishing the company in 1998,
you must have been two. As afreelance web developer, he has transformed
into a trusted partner forrenowned brands such as Microsoft,
Salesforce and Samsung. Soit's quite unique. He blends a personalized
(01:46):
touch of a boutique agencywith the capabilities of a large
consultancy delivering ROIdriven software solutions. So, Hunter,
welcome to the UnstoppableLeadership Spotlight podcast.
Thanks for having me, Jaclyn.
So it's so glad to have youhere. And so we were talking a little
(02:06):
bit before the podcast andyou, you started this company, you
know, like I said, I think youmust have been two when you started
it, but in 1998 and you have2012 full time employees and 30 to
40 contractors. And that's ahuge, I think, interesting meld of
(02:26):
what's happening a lot incompanies right now. So what I'd
love to hear from you as theCEO, how has your journey been with
coming up with that 12 and thefull time and contractors?
(02:46):
Sure, yeah. So, you know, whenI started this company, it was just
me, I bootstrapped it. I wasa, you know, freelance web developer
when I was in college and juststarted doing that full time. When
I, when I graduated fromcollege and moved out here, San Diego,
(03:09):
and we grew organically formany, many years. I, I, when I realized
that you can only, you know,make so much money when you're billing
your own hours, I decided toreally get serious about starting
the company and, and hiringfolks to do the jobs that I was bad
at or that I didn't likedoing. And in that way, we really
(03:32):
grew organically over time.You know, we started off as a web
development shop and thenwe've reinvented ourselves probably
four or five times since thento stay relevant, you know, for,
for example, we got intomobile apps really, really early
on. We were one of the firsthundred apps in the app Store. So
like very early days, I thinkthat was.
(03:54):
Wait, I just, I have to stopfor a second because I'm like, oh
my God, that is like, I justremember like in 2000 how everyone
was like, we gotta, we gotta, right?
Like, yeah, it's funny. CauseI, I'm doing kind of the same thing
that I did for mobile rightnow. You know, when, when it really
started to catch on. Yeah.Everybody was like, okay, so we need
(04:19):
a mobile strategy. Doesanybody know what that means?
Right.
And it was a brand newconcept, so, you know, people didn't
really know how to approachit. And so I did a lot of speaking
and kind of educating folks ondifferent strategies and what makes
sense for their business andall the rest of it. Exact same thing's
(04:39):
happening in AI right now.Right. We need an AI strategy. What
is our AI strategy? Doesanybody know what that means? And
so we do a lot of consultingwork for companies in that space
right now. But to get back tothe journey, so we were a web shop
and then we were doing mobileapps. And then we got really into
the Internet of things andbuilding software for medical devices
(04:59):
and smart connected devices.Then we got into crypto and blockchain
for a little bit when that washot. And then about seven or eight
years ago, we did our firstmachine learning project, which I
would say is like our entryinto AI, because this has been around
a lot longer than generativeAI has. And the way that I had been
(05:21):
running the company was hiringfolks in San Diego to manage client
relationships, to manageprojects, to do graphic design, user
interface, user experiencedesign and that kind of thing, and
then contract out the actualdevelopment of a lot of these projects.
(05:43):
And so I did that for manyyears. I did it all across the globe.
I've done Southeast Asia, I'vedone South America. I found my sweet
spot in Eastern Europe. And soI was working with several contract
teams in Eastern Europe. Ilike their education model. They
have great IT infrastructure.The pricing is not the cheapest in
(06:03):
the world, but it's a lot lessthan than in America for engineers.
And so I was working withthese contract teams and I came in
touch with one in particularthat offered to buy controlling interests
of my company. So in 2019, Isold a controlling interest in Barefoot
(06:24):
to a large global softwareconsultancy that's got offices in
eight or nine cities at thispoint, headquartered in Warsaw in
Poland. So now I shifted awayfrom contract teams all to my parent
organization for theengineering side of things. And so
I have my team that used to bebased in San Diego, now has kind
(06:47):
of distributed and is all overthe country. And then we ramp up
and down on developers asneeded as projects and clients come,
come and go and projects getcompleted. So that's why I can't
give you a great answer interms of how many people are working
on barefoot projects todaybecause it changes very, very regularly.
(07:09):
So that's been, our structureworks very well. It allows us to
price competitively versus allAmericans. Gets very, very expensive.
And so we were able to passthat on to our customers. So that's
kind of why we're set up theway that we are. And what, it's a
differentiator for us in thatyou get the like white glove kind
(07:32):
of high touch boutique agencyfeel. But if you need like 15 developers,
I can have them started, youknow, in a week or two.
Right.
And most age, most boutiqueagencies can't do something like
that.
Right.
They're always managing abench and maybe have a few people
ready, ready to work on a newproject. So that's a, it's a big
differentiator for us.
(07:52):
That's huge. So, so from aleadership standpoint, how do you,
you know, how do you managethe personalities and you know, of
all of that?
Yeah, well, it's, it's reallyinteresting and I, I, I hate to generalize,
but I've been doing it longenough that I can generalize a little
(08:15):
bit in that we've got two orthree types of personalities. I have
my creatives who are doing UIUX design and branding and copywriting
and all things like that. Andthey have a certain personality,
typically not all of them,but. And then I have engineers and
(08:36):
they have a very differentpersonality. And then I have my project
managers who are extrovertedand relationship people and you know,
they're the ones that engagedirectly with our, with our clients.
And you know, often I am orkind of top leadership is serving
(08:57):
as a conduit between thosetypes of personalities because they
don't always speak the samelanguage. But, but I need my UI UX
designer to be able tocommunicate to my engineers what
needs to be built.
Right.
So there has to be that levelof communication between these different
(09:17):
personality types. And youknow, it's, it's actually really
fun because they tend toapproach problems differently and
when you get, you know, adiversity of opinions and voices,
it lifts everything up.
Right.
Like the friction is, is good,it's a positive, you know, if, if
they're not agreeing onsomething, the outcome is going to
(09:38):
end up being better than ifjust one person made the decision
and then we ran with it.Right. It elevates all of it. And
so I actually really love thatwe have diverse personalities in
the organization and there'stypically not much conflict between
them. But sometimes thecommunication styles need to be,
(09:59):
I need to remind them thatthey're talking to engineers and
the engineers think in acertain way. And that's easy for
me as a retired engineer,we'll call it. I still do some architecture
and stuff.
But so when you're thinkingabout the team, I mean obviously
that communication andobviously, you know, with the different
(10:21):
personalities, do you, asyou're looking at people, how, how
important is it for whetherthey're contract or full time employees
to have a certain set of values?
(10:42):
Yeah, it is different. It isdifferent. At the end of the day
with my contract team at myparent company, I am not their boss,
I am not their CEO. They workfor my parent company and that's
where they get their paycheck.And so I have to be very aware of
that as I tend to act like aCEO, you know, regardless. But I
(11:08):
have to be very conscious ofletting them do their thing to a
certain extent. You know, asan example, like we'll do an all
hands with just the, just theAmerican folks once a month that
the contract team doesn't cometo. We also do other meetings where
the entire group comes. Butyou know, the contract team is, is
(11:33):
a, it's harder to managebecause they're coming in and out.
It's not always the samepeople, it's often new people. And
so getting them to kind ofunderstand how we operate and how
client relationships work forus and all the rest of it is kind
of a constant education aspeople are coming in and out of our
projects.
Yeah, that's actually kind ofinteresting. So one of the things
(11:58):
that you're working on and youknow, you said, you know, chatbots
and, and obviously customsoftware development, but I want
to kind of talk a little bitabout the chatbot and people and
what you're seeing in the, inout there as you're talking to businesses.
(12:18):
How, how is AI in youropinion, affecting leadership at
companies?
That's a really interestingquestion. So I'm actually, as I talk
to these businesses, I'mactually seeing a trend right now,
(12:42):
a very clear trend. There are,there is a segment of businesses,
a large segment of businessesthat can't really use ChatGPT. And
the reason that they can't isthey're dealing in proprietary, confidential,
confidential information allday. And they need the large language
(13:06):
models, they need the AI toknow that information to really be
effective for them.
Right.
And so what we've been seeinga lot of at these types of organizations
is the desire to deploy youknow, I'll call them assistants because
chatbots doesn't do itjustice. But deploying these, like,
(13:26):
private, internal, on premise,you know, AI assistants and agents
to help do their job moreeffectively. And so this has all
sorts of interestingimplications, right? For lawyers
is a great example. You know,they want to be able to do this to
help them draft contracts orapplications for patents or what
(13:50):
have you. But maybe it's assimple as, you know, an HR assistant,
right? When Sally wants toknow whether or not Invisalign is
covered by her dentalbenefits, right now she has to email
HR and HR has to go look upher records and figure all that out.
And it takes a lot of time.And there's no reason that we need
(14:13):
humans to do that kind ofstuff anymore with the new technology
that's come out only in thelast three years.
Right?
And so what we're seeing israther than like trying to go after
particular use cases, we'reseeing leadership deploy platforms,
their AI platform that touchesall different parts of their business.
(14:37):
Because, you know, employeesor employers, CEOs should be worried
that their employees areleaking confidential information
to these large language modelsbecause they're doing it. And so
you need to give them thetools so that they can level up and
be more productive and moreefficient using this amazing technology.
(14:59):
But you need to give them in away that is safe for your business.
Right? Boundaries, Exactly. Inkind of a walled garden, if you will,
bubbles them up. And so that'swhere I see leadership really driving,
right? Whereas, you know,someone that's an employee might
(15:21):
think, I really need a toolthat can help me do X. And leadership
is thinking we need to empowerall of our employees to use this
technology. Right? Becauseleadership is really just two things,
right? It's strategicdirection and then empowerment and
(15:41):
then just get out of the way,right? Make sure we're all rowing
in the same direction. We havea clear vision of where we're headed.
You have all the tools andpeople and resources and knowledge
that you need to do yourportion of that, and then call me
if you need me, if you needanything, right? And otherwise, I
trust you to get the job done.And so I think that's kind of how
(16:06):
those two things tie togetheris we need some new tools to give
to our team so that they canuse this incredible technology. Because
right now there's a whole lotof people that are getting a little
bit left behind because of theconfidential nature of what they're
doing. You know, you're awealth advisor, you're an accounting
firm or you're a law firm, youknow, you name it. We're seeing companies
(16:29):
spend and deploy these type ofsolutions like now, like this year.
Yeah, I find it trulyfascinating and something that you
just said. And so listeners, Ireally want you to hone in on this
because I think it is so trulyimportant. Hunter just said leadership
is kind of two key things.It's your strategy, where you're
(16:52):
going and empowerment. Andpart of that empowerment is trust.
And so, and so like zone in onthat because it is so important for
you, you know, as leaders andfor all of us as leaders to know
that strategy, but also toempower, like we are here to empower
(17:13):
our people and to trust ourpeople and to work with them to get
to know them. And then, youknow, I think what's great about
having AI in that realm of itis that there are ways that you can
even use that to help your, tohelp your people become more empowered
as well. It's really, I thinkit's fascinating.
(17:36):
Yeah, yeah. You know, you knowI mentioned at the beginning, right,
that we've reinventedourselves four or five times over
the course of the last 20 plusyears. That's the strategy part,
that's the CEO strategicvision. This is what we're doing
now. And it's not always easyor obvious. You know, a lot of, I
(18:00):
love my job because a lot ofwhat I get to do is tinker with new
tech because I'm trying tofigure out where the puck is going,
right. And so I'm alwaysevaluating new technologies. I was,
you know, early beta user forChad, GPT, all, you know, all of
that sort of stuff and that'sall. And I read like two hours a
(18:20):
day, I just read news abouttechnology and tinker with things
and all the rest of it. Sothat's the strategic part, right?
And that's a big part of, of,of every day and of longer term thinking
and planning and all the restof it. And then there's the empowerment
part, right? And for theempowerment, you know, I hate a micro
(18:44):
management, right. And that'snot my style. That's not how we operate
at barefoot. And so it's, itreally is a lot about trust, right.
I hire the types of peoplethat I can trust to do great work
because we do great work here,right. We have a high bar of excellence
(19:07):
and I can trust them to beautonomous. I don't need to direct
them every day. I don't needregular stand up meetings with all
of them or any of that stuff,they're just great. And if they're
not, they don't last very longhere. It's just not. It's just not
in our culture. Like, if youneed to be micromanaged, then this
(19:27):
is not the, you know, just notthe place for you. And so a big piece
of empowerment is trust. Andthen there's just the nuts and bolts
of it. Do you have what youneed? How can I help you? What would
make you level up? What wouldmake you better? What would you like
to spend time learning? Whichis a big one for me. Right. Like,
you know, we're. We'reembarking in this new space, and
(19:50):
I'm extremely knowledgeableabout it because I get to read for
two hours a day and all therest of it, but they don't. They're
in the trenches. So how do Ieducate them on what is happening
in the world of technologyright now and get them up to speed
so that they can deliverbetter outcomes for our clients?
So trust is really important.Education is really important. Autonomy
(20:13):
is really important. And thenjust make sure they have what they
need. Right. All the tools andthe time and all the rest of it.
If you can get those piecesright, then they'll. That they'll
love to do great work. Right.You create a place where they are
proud of what they do. One ofour core values is actually just
(20:35):
be proud of your work, becauseif you're proud of it, it means you
worked hard, it means it'shigh quality, it means that you care.
Right.
And so if, you know, I reallytry to instill that sense of pride
in our work because I feellike it trickles down into all these
other things that we want fromour team.
(20:57):
Yeah. So again, huge keyinsight, you know, trust and, you
know, you know, what to almostlike to put it all together in a.
In a package is to also say,invest in your people. And they will.
And if they feel thatinvestment, it's going to come back
(21:17):
tenfold because they're goingto appreciate it. And then if they
can, because then you'retaking pride of them, and they feel
that they're going to alsothen really want to have the pride
in the work that they'redoing, and they kind of go hand in
hand.
That's right. That's right.Invest in your people. I mean, my.
My chief operating officer Ihired as an intern. He was the very
(21:41):
first person I hired 19 yearsago or 20 years ago, and. And he's
still with us. And it's veryrare that someone quits Here, because
I think they feel thatinvestment. They know that I care
and that we as a company areworking together to, to solve problems
(22:05):
and to, you know, drive ROIfor our clients. Right. Like, that's
what, that's what we do here.And so when you invest and they know
and they feel it, they stay.And I mean, and that's like just
a very practical thing. Thecost of losing someone, especially
with a smaller team, you can'teven put a number on it. I mean,
(22:26):
you can't. They're sovaluable. And the longer they stay,
the more valuable and the moreproductive they become and the more
helpful for the business andall the rest of it. And so, you know,
the people is the mostimportant thing, period, Full stop.
It's the people.
Right.
It's also one of the hardest things.
Right, right, right, right.
(22:47):
It's. It's.
It is so valuable. You know,Hunter, you have such great insights,
and I. And I would imaginethat the. What you do for your clients
as a company is absolutelyquite remarkable because you, as
a human are quite remarkable,and you're a great leader, and I
could tell you're a great CEO.How can our listeners connect with
you, learn more about you?
(23:10):
Absolutely. Please don'thesitate to reach out. You do not
need to be a potential clientto get on the phone with me. I'm
very active on LinkedIn. Youcan find me there or just send me
a direct email,hunterfootsolutions.com I will reply.
So please don't hesitate toreach out. I love talking all things
(23:33):
business and technology, andso I'd love to. I'd love to speak
to your listeners.
Awesome. Well, fantastic. So,listeners, we've had some amazing
insights here on the showtoday. I would love for you to do
me the favor and reach out toHunter, connect with him, and then
please go one step or twosteps further, actually, and hit
(23:57):
subscribe if you haven'talready. And also, please share this
episode with. With as manypeople and friends and colleagues
as you can, because there'ssome really amazing insights in here
to be a great leader. Andagain, if we can create more great
leaders, we'll have greaterpeople in our society. I'm Jaclyn
St. The host of UnstoppableLeadership Spotlight Podcast. And
thank you, Hunter, for being agreat guest.
(24:18):
Thank you, Jack.
Well, hello everybody andwelcome to another amazing episode
of the Unstoppable LeadershipSpotlight podcast. I am your host,
Jaclyn Strominger, and on thispodcast we hear from amazing leaders
and their game changinginsights on how they can be better
leaders for today andtomorrow. So today I want to welcome
Hunter Jensen and he is anamazing individual and I'm just going
(01:21):
to pull up his amazing bio. Heis the founder and CEO of Barefoot
Solutions where he has beenpioneering digital innovation for
over 20 years. And sinceestablishing the company in 1998,
you must have been two. As afreelance web developer, he has transformed
into a trusted partner forrenowned brands such as Microsoft,
Salesforce and Samsung. Soit's quite unique. He blends a personalized
(01:46):
touch of a boutique agencywith the capabilities of a large
consultancy delivering ROIdriven software solutions. So, Hunter,
welcome to the UnstoppableLeadership Spotlight podcast.
Thanks for having me, Jaclyn.
So it's so glad to have youhere. And so we were talking a little
(02:06):
bit before the podcast andyou, you started this company, you
know, like I said, I think youmust have been two when you started
it, but in 1998 and you have2012 full time employees and 30 to
40 contractors. And that's ahuge, I think, interesting meld of
(02:26):
what's happening a lot incompanies right now. So what I'd
love to hear from you as theCEO, how has your journey been with
coming up with that 12 and thefull time and contractors?
(02:46):
Sure, yeah. So, you know, whenI started this company, it was just
me, I bootstrapped it. I wasa, you know, freelance web developer
when I was in college and juststarted doing that full time. When
I, when I graduated fromcollege and moved out here, San Diego,
(03:09):
and we grew organically formany, many years. I, I, when I realized
that you can only, you know,make so much money when you're billing
your own hours, I decided toreally get serious about starting
the company and, and hiringfolks to do the jobs that I was bad
at or that I didn't likedoing. And in that way, we really
(03:32):
grew organically over time.You know, we started off as a web
development shop and thenwe've reinvented ourselves probably
four or five times since thento stay relevant, you know, for,
for example, we got intomobile apps really, really early
on. We were one of the firsthundred apps in the app Store. So
like very early days, I thinkthat was.
(03:54):
Wait, I just, I have to stopfor a second because I'm like, oh
my God, that is like, I justremember like in 2000 how everyone
was like, we gotta, we gotta, right?
Like, yeah, it's funny. CauseI, I'm doing kind of the same thing
that I did for mobile rightnow. You know, when, when it really
started to catch on. Yeah.Everybody was like, okay, so we need
(04:19):
a mobile strategy. Doesanybody know what that means?
Right.
And it was a brand newconcept, so, you know, people didn't
really know how to approachit. And so I did a lot of speaking
and kind of educating folks ondifferent strategies and what makes
sense for their business andall the rest of it. Exact same thing's
(04:39):
happening in AI right now.Right. We need an AI strategy. What
is our AI strategy? Doesanybody know what that means? And
so we do a lot of consultingwork for companies in that space
right now. But to get back tothe journey, so we were a web shop
and then we were doing mobileapps. And then we got really into
the Internet of things andbuilding software for medical devices
(04:59):
and smart connected devices.Then we got into crypto and blockchain
for a little bit when that washot. And then about seven or eight
years ago, we did our firstmachine learning project, which I
would say is like our entryinto AI, because this has been around
a lot longer than generativeAI has. And the way that I had been
(05:21):
running the company was hiringfolks in San Diego to manage client
relationships, to manageprojects, to do graphic design, user
interface, user experiencedesign and that kind of thing, and
then contract out the actualdevelopment of a lot of these projects.
(05:43):
And so I did that for manyyears. I did it all across the globe.
I've done Southeast Asia, I'vedone South America. I found my sweet
spot in Eastern Europe. And soI was working with several contract
teams in Eastern Europe. Ilike their education model. They
have great IT infrastructure.The pricing is not the cheapest in
(06:03):
the world, but it's a lot lessthan than in America for engineers.
And so I was working withthese contract teams and I came in
touch with one in particularthat offered to buy controlling interests
of my company. So in 2019, Isold a controlling interest in Barefoot
(06:24):
to a large global softwareconsultancy that's got offices in
eight or nine cities at thispoint, headquartered in Warsaw in
Poland. So now I shifted awayfrom contract teams all to my parent
organization for theengineering side of things. And so
I have my team that used to bebased in San Diego, now has kind
(06:47):
of distributed and is all overthe country. And then we ramp up
and down on developers asneeded as projects and clients come,
come and go and projects getcompleted. So that's why I can't
give you a great answer interms of how many people are working
on barefoot projects todaybecause it changes very, very regularly.
(07:09):
So that's been, our structureworks very well. It allows us to
price competitively versus allAmericans. Gets very, very expensive.
And so we were able to passthat on to our customers. So that's
kind of why we're set up theway that we are. And what, it's a
differentiator for us in thatyou get the like white glove kind
(07:32):
of high touch boutique agencyfeel. But if you need like 15 developers,
I can have them started, youknow, in a week or two.
Right.
And most age, most boutiqueagencies can't do something like
that.
Right.
They're always managing abench and maybe have a few people
ready, ready to work on a newproject. So that's a, it's a big
differentiator for us.
(07:52):
That's huge. So, so from aleadership standpoint, how do you,
you know, how do you managethe personalities and you know, of
all of that?
Yeah, well, it's, it's reallyinteresting and I, I, I hate to generalize,
but I've been doing it longenough that I can generalize a little
(08:15):
bit in that we've got two orthree types of personalities. I have
my creatives who are doing UIUX design and branding and copywriting
and all things like that. Andthey have a certain personality,
typically not all of them,but. And then I have engineers and
(08:36):
they have a very differentpersonality. And then I have my project
managers who are extrovertedand relationship people and you know,
they're the ones that engagedirectly with our, with our clients.
And you know, often I am orkind of top leadership is serving
(08:57):
as a conduit between thosetypes of personalities because they
don't always speak the samelanguage. But, but I need my UI UX
designer to be able tocommunicate to my engineers what
needs to be built.
Right.
So there has to be that levelof communication between these different
(09:17):
personality types. And youknow, it's, it's actually really
fun because they tend toapproach problems differently and
when you get, you know, adiversity of opinions and voices,
it lifts everything up.
Right.
Like the friction is, is good,it's a positive, you know, if, if
they're not agreeing onsomething, the outcome is going to
(09:38):
end up being better than ifjust one person made the decision
and then we ran with it.Right. It elevates all of it. And
so I actually really love thatwe have diverse personalities in
the organization and there'stypically not much conflict between
them. But sometimes thecommunication styles need to be,
(09:59):
I need to remind them thatthey're talking to engineers and
the engineers think in acertain way. And that's easy for
me as a retired engineer,we'll call it. I still do some architecture
and stuff.
But so when you're thinkingabout the team, I mean obviously
that communication andobviously, you know, with the different
(10:21):
personalities, do you, asyou're looking at people, how, how
important is it for whetherthey're contract or full time employees
to have a certain set of values?
(10:42):
Yeah, it is different. It isdifferent. At the end of the day
with my contract team at myparent company, I am not their boss,
I am not their CEO. They workfor my parent company and that's
where they get their paycheck.And so I have to be very aware of
that as I tend to act like aCEO, you know, regardless. But I
(11:08):
have to be very conscious ofletting them do their thing to a
certain extent. You know, asan example, like we'll do an all
hands with just the, just theAmerican folks once a month that
the contract team doesn't cometo. We also do other meetings where
the entire group comes. Butyou know, the contract team is, is
(11:33):
a, it's harder to managebecause they're coming in and out.
It's not always the samepeople, it's often new people. And
so getting them to kind ofunderstand how we operate and how
client relationships work forus and all the rest of it is kind
of a constant education aspeople are coming in and out of our
projects.
Yeah, that's actually kind ofinteresting. So one of the things
(11:58):
that you're working on and youknow, you said, you know, chatbots
and, and obviously customsoftware development, but I want
to kind of talk a little bitabout the chatbot and people and
what you're seeing in the, inout there as you're talking to businesses.
(12:18):
How, how is AI in youropinion, affecting leadership at
companies?
That's a really interestingquestion. So I'm actually, as I talk
to these businesses, I'mactually seeing a trend right now,
(12:42):
a very clear trend. There are,there is a segment of businesses,
a large segment of businessesthat can't really use ChatGPT. And
the reason that they can't isthey're dealing in proprietary, confidential,
confidential information allday. And they need the large language
(13:06):
models, they need the AI toknow that information to really be
effective for them.
Right.
And so what we've been seeinga lot of at these types of organizations
is the desire to deploy youknow, I'll call them assistants because
chatbots doesn't do itjustice. But deploying these, like,
(13:26):
private, internal, on premise,you know, AI assistants and agents
to help do their job moreeffectively. And so this has all
sorts of interestingimplications, right? For lawyers
is a great example. You know,they want to be able to do this to
help them draft contracts orapplications for patents or what
(13:50):
have you. But maybe it's assimple as, you know, an HR assistant,
right? When Sally wants toknow whether or not Invisalign is
covered by her dentalbenefits, right now she has to email
HR and HR has to go look upher records and figure all that out.
And it takes a lot of time.And there's no reason that we need
(14:13):
humans to do that kind ofstuff anymore with the new technology
that's come out only in thelast three years.
Right?
And so what we're seeing israther than like trying to go after
particular use cases, we'reseeing leadership deploy platforms,
their AI platform that touchesall different parts of their business.
(14:37):
Because, you know, employeesor employers, CEOs should be worried
that their employees areleaking confidential information
to these large language modelsbecause they're doing it. And so
you need to give them thetools so that they can level up and
be more productive and moreefficient using this amazing technology.
(14:59):
But you need to give them in away that is safe for your business.
Right? Boundaries, Exactly. Inkind of a walled garden, if you will,
bubbles them up. And so that'swhere I see leadership really driving,
right? Whereas, you know,someone that's an employee might
(15:21):
think, I really need a toolthat can help me do X. And leadership
is thinking we need to empowerall of our employees to use this
technology. Right? Becauseleadership is really just two things,
right? It's strategicdirection and then empowerment and
(15:41):
then just get out of the way,right? Make sure we're all rowing
in the same direction. We havea clear vision of where we're headed.
You have all the tools andpeople and resources and knowledge
that you need to do yourportion of that, and then call me
if you need me, if you needanything, right? And otherwise, I
trust you to get the job done.And so I think that's kind of how
(16:06):
those two things tie togetheris we need some new tools to give
to our team so that they canuse this incredible technology. Because
right now there's a whole lotof people that are getting a little
bit left behind because of theconfidential nature of what they're
doing. You know, you're awealth advisor, you're an accounting
firm or you're a law firm, youknow, you name it. We're seeing companies
(16:29):
spend and deploy these type ofsolutions like now, like this year.
Yeah, I find it trulyfascinating and something that you
just said. And so listeners, Ireally want you to hone in on this
because I think it is so trulyimportant. Hunter just said leadership
is kind of two key things.It's your strategy, where you're
(16:52):
going and empowerment. Andpart of that empowerment is trust.
And so, and so like zone in onthat because it is so important for
you, you know, as leaders andfor all of us as leaders to know
that strategy, but also toempower, like we are here to empower
(17:13):
our people and to trust ourpeople and to work with them to get
to know them. And then, youknow, I think what's great about
having AI in that realm of itis that there are ways that you can
even use that to help your, tohelp your people become more empowered
as well. It's really, I thinkit's fascinating.
(17:36):
Yeah, yeah. You know, you knowI mentioned at the beginning, right,
that we've reinventedourselves four or five times over
the course of the last 20 plusyears. That's the strategy part,
that's the CEO strategicvision. This is what we're doing
now. And it's not always easyor obvious. You know, a lot of, I
(18:00):
love my job because a lot ofwhat I get to do is tinker with new
tech because I'm trying tofigure out where the puck is going,
right. And so I'm alwaysevaluating new technologies. I was,
you know, early beta user forChad, GPT, all, you know, all of
that sort of stuff and that'sall. And I read like two hours a
(18:20):
day, I just read news abouttechnology and tinker with things
and all the rest of it. Sothat's the strategic part, right?
And that's a big part of, of,of every day and of longer term thinking
and planning and all the restof it. And then there's the empowerment
part, right? And for theempowerment, you know, I hate a micro
(18:44):
management, right. And that'snot my style. That's not how we operate
at barefoot. And so it's, itreally is a lot about trust, right.
I hire the types of peoplethat I can trust to do great work
because we do great work here,right. We have a high bar of excellence
(19:07):
and I can trust them to beautonomous. I don't need to direct
them every day. I don't needregular stand up meetings with all
of them or any of that stuff,they're just great. And if they're
not, they don't last very longhere. It's just not. It's just not
in our culture. Like, if youneed to be micromanaged, then this
(19:27):
is not the, you know, just notthe place for you. And so a big piece
of empowerment is trust. Andthen there's just the nuts and bolts
of it. Do you have what youneed? How can I help you? What would
make you level up? What wouldmake you better? What would you like
to spend time learning? Whichis a big one for me. Right. Like,
you know, we're. We'reembarking in this new space, and
(19:50):
I'm extremely knowledgeableabout it because I get to read for
two hours a day and all therest of it, but they don't. They're
in the trenches. So how do Ieducate them on what is happening
in the world of technologyright now and get them up to speed
so that they can deliverbetter outcomes for our clients?
So trust is really important.Education is really important. Autonomy
(20:13):
is really important. And thenjust make sure they have what they
need. Right. All the tools andthe time and all the rest of it.
If you can get those piecesright, then they'll. That they'll
love to do great work. Right.You create a place where they are
proud of what they do. One ofour core values is actually just
(20:35):
be proud of your work, becauseif you're proud of it, it means you
worked hard, it means it'shigh quality, it means that you care.
Right.
And so if, you know, I reallytry to instill that sense of pride
in our work because I feellike it trickles down into all these
other things that we want fromour team.
(20:57):
Yeah. So again, huge keyinsight, you know, trust and, you
know, you know, what to almostlike to put it all together in a.
In a package is to also say,invest in your people. And they will.
And if they feel thatinvestment, it's going to come back
(21:17):
tenfold because they're goingto appreciate it. And then if they
can, because then you'retaking pride of them, and they feel
that they're going to alsothen really want to have the pride
in the work that they'redoing, and they kind of go hand in
hand.
That's right. That's right.Invest in your people. I mean, my.
My chief operating officer Ihired as an intern. He was the very
(21:41):
first person I hired 19 yearsago or 20 years ago, and. And he's
still with us. And it's veryrare that someone quits Here, because
I think they feel thatinvestment. They know that I care
and that we as a company areworking together to, to solve problems
(22:05):
and to, you know, drive ROIfor our clients. Right. Like, that's
what, that's what we do here.And so when you invest and they know
and they feel it, they stay.And I mean, and that's like just
a very practical thing. Thecost of losing someone, especially
with a smaller team, you can'teven put a number on it. I mean,
(22:26):
you can't. They're sovaluable. And the longer they stay,
the more valuable and the moreproductive they become and the more
helpful for the business andall the rest of it. And so, you know,
the people is the mostimportant thing, period, Full stop.
It's the people.
Right.
It's also one of the hardest things.
Right, right, right, right.
(22:47):
It's. It's.
It is so valuable. You know,Hunter, you have such great insights,
and I. And I would imaginethat the. What you do for your clients
as a company is absolutelyquite remarkable because you, as
a human are quite remarkable,and you're a great leader, and I
could tell you're a great CEO.How can our listeners connect with
you, learn more about you?
(23:10):
Absolutely. Please don'thesitate to reach out. You do not
need to be a potential clientto get on the phone with me. I'm
very active on LinkedIn. Youcan find me there or just send me
a direct email,hunterfootsolutions.com I will reply.
So please don't hesitate toreach out. I love talking all things
(23:33):
business and technology, andso I'd love to. I'd love to speak
to your listeners.
Awesome. Well, fantastic. So,listeners, we've had some amazing
insights here on the showtoday. I would love for you to do
me the favor and reach out toHunter, connect with him, and then
please go one step or twosteps further, actually, and hit
(23:57):
subscribe if you haven'talready. And also, please share this
episode with. With as manypeople and friends and colleagues
as you can, because there'ssome really amazing insights in here
to be a great leader. Andagain, if we can create more great
leaders, we'll have greaterpeople in our society. I'm Jaclyn
St. The host of UnstoppableLeadership Spotlight Podcast. And
thank you, Hunter, for being agreat guest.
(24:18):
Thank you, Jack.
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