Episode Transcript
[00:00:19] Speaker A: Welcome to Ever Changing Technology, the show where we explore the breakthroughs, mindsets and innovations shaping our world.
I'm your host, Jim Bradfield. Today's guest is someone who understands transformation not just intellectually, but through lived experience.
Jen Gaudette is a human performance specialist and master transformation and success strategist who helps entrepreneurs break out of their burnout, overwhelm and stagnation so they can reignite their business and their life.
Her work blends neuroscience, leadership, psychology and human optimization, guiding people who feel stuck in survival mode back into clarity, alignment and sustainable success.
Jen, welcome to the show. That was quite a mouthful of introduction there.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: It sure was. Thank you for having me, Jim.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Today we're going to begin with an aha moment in your journey.
The revelation you experienced in Palm island that reshaped everything about how you lead and help others transform.
So many people watching, feeling like they're constantly doing instead of being. They're working, grinding, chasing success, me, yet still being disconnected, drained or unsure of their purpose.
You know, that moment you experienced in Palm island speaks directly to that struggle. It's a reminder that clarity often arrives in stillness. And our biggest breakthroughs happen when we step back from the cycle of constant action.
So, Jennifer, you spoken about a transformative experience in Palm Island. So exactly what happened there and why was it so such a turning point for you?
[00:02:12] Speaker B: So I guess, I guess I should back up so that I can paint the picture of how I was going in.
So I was the picture of success. Everybody saw me as life goals at the time I was in sports, medicine and human performance predominantly. And I worked with professional Olympic athletes. I worked with all the people that everyone else would love to see and have. I had a relationship. I had the house, I had the, like, I had the lifestyle. I was able to do the things that everybody thinks success means. But the reality is, for years I was on burnout, I guess is the best way to put it. I would cry in the closet at 2 o' clock in the morning when my daughter and my husband were asleep because I didn't have any gas left in the tank.
I was taking care of everybody else. I wasn't taking care of myself. And I was really career driven, driven, which is not a bad thing. But I didn't realize how bad it had gotten until I finally got to go on this trip. My husband and I planned it. We hadn't been in a vacation in, in a while, a long time. And you know, you fly halfway around the world and get to this private island. And what happened There was.
He asked me. He said, I can't do this anymore. And he asked me if I still wanted to be married. And that was the gut punch for me. I didn't see that coming at all.
And so it caused me to really take a step, big step back, and to think about, well, what. What am I driving for? I know I want to be here. I know I want to show up in this way. But, like, the people who I care about the most aren't getting the best of me. In fact, they're only getting, like, the dregs at the bottom of the coffee cup. And so I had to. I had to really reassess what matters to me because everybody else defined me as successful, and I felt like a failure.
I felt like I just wasn't who I was meant to be, even though I was doing all the things. And it really took that awareness and it took that quiet and taking that whole week, because there's not a lot you can do when you're on an island. Folks like you, basically, you sit around, you kayak a little bit or do a little paddle board, but for the most part, you're there with your thoughts.
And it was what I needed in order to assess, is this who I want to be and what do I want to do moving forward?
And so as I looked at that, I realized I was not like, I believe that we should be a full cup that overflows. And I wasn't. I was, like, pouring out drags. So no one was getting the best of me, and it was time to make a change. And I did. I actually left sports medicine. That was the trajectory that I took in favor of what I'm doing today.
[00:04:53] Speaker A: Wow. Yeah. My granddaughter is looking to get into sports medicine, so I need to talk to you after this to make sure that we're not getting into something that's too harsh.
So how did that moment shift your understanding of leadership and really what truly drives people to succeed?
[00:05:12] Speaker B: Well, you know, when we think about. When we think about. Let's talk about a couple of different aspects.
Self leadership is essential for us to be effective leaders.
So if I was not, if I'm burned out and I'm not taking care of myself and I'm not honoring really what's important to me, then that's showing out. Even though I'm showing up for my team and for the people that I serve, I'm not giving them my best.
So it requires us to get really raw and real with ourselves and say, hey, you know, am I leading from A place of integrity, because it really is. If we're not doing the things that we expect our teams to do, or we're not vulnerably sharing where we are so they see that we're not this perfect pedestal, whatever, that they put us on, then we're doing a disservice to the people that we serve. And in healthcare, for example, the culture is kind of toxic. It's. You put everything you have to do everything. Like, it's to the point where, you know, in certain facilities, you don't even have time to go to the restroom, you know, and so you're putting patients first, you're putting your teams first, you're putting everybody aside of your own, even basic needs.
You'll skip lunch, you'll skip. Like, there's just a lot that happens in that environment. And we're passionate as healthcare providers. When you go into medicine, you go in because you want to help people, you want to make them better, you want to help them, you want to be that catalyst. So it's kind of a double whammy. And so in order for us to lead in that space, in order for us to truly show up our best selves for all of the stakeholders involved, we really need to take a hard look inside and get really real with, what is it that I'm doing? Am I filling my cup? How am I taking care of myself? Am I doing the things that are authentic to me and then sharing that vulnerably with the team? Hey, look, guys, I've been doing all these things. You look at me in this way, and I'm leading by example. But the example that I'm leading is not a sustainable one.
It's one that leads to burnout. And so having that conversation really shifts things and allows us to lead from a better place of integrity.
And it also lets us look at and recognize, okay, maybe I'm holding people to the same ridiculous standards that I was holding myself to before that, and that wasn't fair to me, and it wasn't fair to them. So it really is kind of a reset and a recalibration once we do that internal work. And I truly believe that we have to do that internal work in order to see even greater heights, whether we're talking about business or our personal lives.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Now I can see lots of professionals chase the growth and end up burned out and all that kind of thing. And obviously we can tell what it taught you about balance and clarity. But how did this revelation shift the way you now guide business leaders, entrepreneurs, through their own transformations. There's got to be a lot of people who are just tied up in knots.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: Well, the answer is it's simple, but it's not easy. And that's the reality, is we always put ourselves on the back burner first. So what I've shifted into is how do we create? How do we become the CEO of our business and our life? What that means is we have to set boundaries, and we have to really define what it is that we want to do do, and we operate within those terms. And so it really has transitioned into what is your. Why. Why are you doing this? What is it that you hope to achieve from that said success milestone? And what does your life look like? What is different once you achieve that? And how are you being. Who are you being and how are you feeling? And so we really look at it holistically, I guess, is the best way to put it, so that we create the business that serves the life we want to lead instead of our business running our lives. So it really is a fundamental shift that starts with, what is it that I want? Why do I want it? What are my core values and principles? And then build from there.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: Wow. I mean, that's really deep. I really appreciate that answer.
So, one message. Do you want people to take away who might be at their own crossroads moments? I mean, you know, there's, like I said, there's so many people out there now, you know, with a business, you know, going south so much and people not understanding the economy and what's going on with the international and all that. So. So what do you.
What do you tell people?
And for their crossroads moment, Waiting for change. But, you know, they're afraid to leap at it.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: You know, that fear, that gut fear that you're experiencing, if you know that you need to make a change and you're afraid of it, it's time to just jump. Because it's kind of like being at the top of the roller coaster. I like to say fear is excitement on pause. When we feel like that sick to our stomach. Ugh, I don't know if I want to make this decision. Usually that's an indication that is where our growth is.
And so it may be uncomfortable, but. But if we know what we're doing right now is not working, we have to make a change. And change is always uncomfortable. So it's time to just take that step, dive in. And it's funny because once you're at that top of the roller coaster and you're feeling that fear, it transforms into Excitement. As soon as you start going down, that adrenaline rush hits. And it's sort of the same when we're at crossroads. Like, the real challenge is making a decision.
But once we make that decision, when we take that action with that decision, as long as it is aligned with what we want in our life and the life that we want to design and become or the business we want to create, as long as that decision is in alignment with that, that will turn into excitement and it'll fuel that momentum, that fire, that fire in your belly, so that you can continue on to what's next.
And so I think that's an excellent analogy. Fear is excitement on pause.
[00:11:12] Speaker A: Well, I mean, this, it's pretty amazing discussion. You know, does this kind of apply to every, every kind of business and every kind of person? You know, it's not just healthcare, right?
[00:11:26] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. You know, a lot of times. And I actually, I gave a talk yesterday about this exact thing. Every human being, every business owner, we all have a couple of things. We have an inner critic, and that's the voice in ourselves that says, who are you? You don't know enough. Why should you do this? And we have their best friend, which is imposter syndrome, which is, oh, if only they knew I am not that great person or who they think that I am. So the inner critic and imposter syndrome is really, it's the voices in our head. But we get to choose no matter what business they're in, no matter what career we're in, no matter what choice we have to make. We get to choose whether we let them drive or we put imposter syndrome and inner critic in the backseat. It's okay that they are there because they're there to protect us. They're there to keep us safe, but they're not there to actually help us survive and thrive.
So it's time for us to put ourselves in the driver's seat and us make those decisions and take those actions that are going to actually bring about the life that we want. That's, that's truly where we empower ourselves, no matter where we are in our business journey.
[00:12:35] Speaker A: Awesome. Okay, so coming up next, we're gonna dig into what it really takes to build a business that thrives from the inside out, especially in an era where burnout is at an all time high. Stay with us.
And we're back. I'm Jim Bradfield and this is Ever Changing Technology here on NOW Media Television.
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So welcome back to Ever Changing Technology. We're here again with human performance specialist and transformation strategist Jen Gaudette. In this segment, we're shifting from personal transformation to business transformation and specifically, why so many startups and entrepreneurs feel overwhelmed before they even get off the ground. Now, Jen has seen this up close through her work with founders, CEOs and early stage companies, and she brings a unique lens.
Growth only lasts when it starts internally, not externally.
So a lot of entrepreneurs out there try to scale by hustling harder, reacting quickly, and chasing every opportunity. I know I did that.
But this often leads to burnout and chaos.
Jen leads teaches leaders how to slow down, think strategically, and build businesses rooted in alignment, clarity and sustainable systems. You know, real growth is created from mindset, structure and purpose, not pressure and panic.
So Jen, what are the most common mistakes you're seeing early stage companies make?
[00:15:00] Speaker B: Well, there's a lot of them, but most commonly the biggest one is they, they fail to plan. And it sounds so simple, but a lot of people start up and they do not have a strategic plan. And so what do I mean by that? I mean you have a, everybody sets like a financial goal or a revenue goal, but I'm gonna say a realistic revenue goal, a realistic profitability goal, and then breaking that down and reverse engineering that and asking, okay, what do I need to do from a marketing strategy standpoint?
What am I gonna need? How many people do I need to talk to in order to close X number of deals? Let me give you an example. If I want 100 clients, let's make it easy. I want 120 clients in 20, 26, and each of those is going to be $10,000. I'm just going to use very simple math.
120 clients at $10,000 gives me a really nice amount of income at the end of the year. Well, if that's my goal, how many people do I need to talk to in order to close that? 10 clients per month. Because, you know, 120 divided by 12 is 10. Well, maybe I have a 20% closing ratio.
I don't know what my close ratio is. Going to be when I first start out, but I'm going to guesstimate that it's going to be one in five because that's kind of an average that we see with most of the people that we work with. So if I'm going to close 10 people, then I need to speak to 50 because I know that I have a 20% close ratio. And so what do I need to do every day in order to get those leads? Like reverse engineering our success. If I want this, then what do I need to do in order to get there? Taking that, your marketing strategy, taking your goals and making sure you know what you need to do every day, every week, every month, and putting a metric to it. So if you're listening to this and you're like, whoa, I'm already overwhelmed. Listen, Overwhelm is trying to solve too many problems at once. Take one problem at a time. So set your goal first, then ask what do I need to do to get there? How many clients do I need? That's your first step. Your second step is what do I need to do to get that many clients? Your third step is, okay, how do I get that lead flow? Right, so break it into little bite sized chunks. But most business owners, their plan is in their head. It's not written down, it's not somewhere that they can look at it and it's not rooted in something that's reality.
So I would say that's the very first start thing. Start with a plan, have a plan, and P.S. all plans are created and we have these great intentions and stuff's going to happen. Life's going to happen, inflation's going to happen, we're going to be in an election year like whatever is going to happen is going to happen. But if we have that plan, it's sort of a North Star. And we're used that as our guiding and we pivot a little bit along the way so that we have something that we can follow, that we can measure our success.
So that's the biggest mistake. And the second mistake I would say is unrealistic expectations. I can't tell you how many new founders come to me and they're like, yeah, I'm going to make a million dollars in six months. No, you're not. You've never had a business. You have no idea what you're doing. The reality is you're not. In fact, you're going to be lucky to even break even in the first year to three years. Because the reality is most businesses, especially if they're Brick and mortar do not. And if you're a tech startup, which I play in, 99% of tech startups fail.
So it's have a realistic timeline and a realistic understanding of what you're getting into.
[00:18:31] Speaker A: Yeah. And so you're obviously working a lot with CEO development and things like that and taking these guys to, you know, think more strategically instead of reactively. So you know, and you mentioned something about, you know, building it from the inside out. So really, you know, what are we talking about here when it comes to sustainable business development, building from the inside out. And what do you teach your CEOs?
[00:18:59] Speaker B: Yeah, so my, my philosophy is simple. I marry human performance with business strategy and tactics. And I'm going to tell you that 100% of the time the best strategy and tactics in the world does not yield the result. If we haven't dialed in our human performance as a founder, as an entrepreneur, as a leader, as an executive.
If we're not operating from peak human performance, we're not making the right decisions fast, we don't have speed of execution and we're not carrying ourselves in a way that is able to charismatically communicate what we expect from our teams as a leader. So leading from the inside out looks like dialing in our human physiology and psychology first. So we are performing at an optimal level and making sound decisions and communicating those effectively. And what does it look like broader scale when we're at a little bit of a bigger business? Everybody thinks about marketing to the customer, but our internal marketing is so much more important. That's how we're taking care of our teams, how we're getting their buy in. It is our role as a leader to set that strategic vision and plan and get the team excited about executing that plan. And if we're not taking care of our people and internally marketing in the way that they understand what's in it for them and linking their success, like what their definition of success is to their business success goals, we're not going to have an optimized result.
So it really looks like doing it internally first and then internal marketing before we external market. So that if we take care of our people, our people take care of our clients and our business, businesses can grow.
[00:20:39] Speaker A: Yeah, that's pretty well deep there.
So you, you pretty much work with just about anybody in any size business. Right.
[00:20:50] Speaker B: So I would qualify that I work with professional service based businesses for the most part in the coaching and consulting space. And I work so. So what does that look like? It looks like healthcare and medical. It looks like legal, financial and technical.
And the reason behind that, I do have some trades, all service based because I believe that when we optimize in those areas, the ripple effect impacts so much broader of a scale, you know. And so I tend to stay in the service based businesses and predominantly professional service.
[00:21:26] Speaker A: Okay, well that's great. Now can you share a success story of a startup that shifted its mindset, completely transform its results from you?
[00:21:34] Speaker B: I absolutely can. So one of my favorite past clients recently in the healthcare industry, I'll give a healthcare industry example.
Superb doctor. Superb doctor. Excellent results from a clinical standpoint.
Came to me because no time with the children. No, couldn't take a vacation, really was suffering from burnout.
And what that looked like is revenue had stalled for about two or three years and they were really wanting to grow and hire on and serve in a bigger way.
So we started first with setting boundaries and we started with a stop doing list. And I recommend if you're watching this, this is one of the easiest things that you can do no matter what stage of business you're in. Write down all the things you do during the week in your business and also in your personal life and the things that drag and don't bring you joy, the things that are like $10 an hour or $50 an hour, tasks that can be sent to a VA or hired out to an executive assistant, I want those to be on your stop doing list because the time that you're spending on these non productive tasks that that have to get done, they still have to get done, but they can be automated or delegated.
That time when you reclaim it allows you to focus on higher value tasks which means growing your business, growing relationships and so you free time so that you can achieve your results there. But not only that, you have more energy at the end of the day for what matters most in your family. And so that means learning to say no to the things that you shouldn't be doing as a founder and delegating or automating those things so that you can focus on your zone of genius and really grow your company in the way that you need to.
And so this is exactly what we did with that doctor. And long story short, within three months she brought us on for full consulting because she was ready to grow a team, because she went on a vacation, realized that she can trust her team and she was able to have time with her children. And if we're fast forward it for the 12 month timeline, she tripled her revenue and actually her profitability, her cash flow in A business. We doubled what that was in that timeline. All from her saying no and getting more strategic about her time, focusing on what matters most to her, what her zone of genius is, and delegating and automating the rest.
[00:24:07] Speaker A: Well, that's awesome. Listen, we only have a couple more minutes in this segment, but I wanted to ask you, you, you know, what do you do? What do you say to somebody who's brand new, he's a new entrepreneur, and he's trying to grow with purpose instead of burnout? He doesn't have a whole lot of people what he or she, obviously. What do you say?
[00:24:29] Speaker B: Yeah. So I would say start with your plan. What is the plan? What are the activities? What is the 20% of the effort that you're using today that's yielding 80% of your results, get rid of the rest and double down on what's working.
Too many times. Solopreneurs. I'm assuming that's the realm. Solopreneurs or micro businesses. Too many times. We do what everybody else is doing. But if we start with a plan, and we talked about that plan earlier, we start with a strategic plan and we reverse engineer our success and we really look at and track what are the things that are bringing leads into my business, what are the best leads that are coming into my business and focus on marketing to those specific people or delivering on that level. What we're able to do is we're able to attract more of our ideal clients into the business and serve them at a higher level, which will in turn grow our business and take a lot of strain off. Because if we're churning a lot and this happens like we throw spaghetti at the wall and hope something can stick, that's not having a plan. That's basically your plan is hope. And hope is not a good plan in business.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: Right. Hope is not a good plan.
[00:25:36] Speaker B: So that's right.
[00:25:37] Speaker A: So, Jen, for viewers who want to learn more about working with you or exploring your programs, you know, where can they connect with you?
[00:25:44] Speaker B: The best way to get me is on LinkedIn. I am responsive on LinkedIn. I do have social media managers for my social, but I always respond to my messages. So find me on LinkedIn. Jen Gode.
And you can also catch my TV show right here on Now Media. I have two of them. One of them is Power CEOs. It airs on Mondays. And the other one is Vital Signs.
[00:26:06] Speaker A: Awesome. That's excellent. Yeah, we really appreciate you here on NOW Media.
So up next, we're diving into AI and the startup revolution.
What's working, what's hype and how smaller businesses can use AI without fear or big budget.
And we're back. I'm Jim Bradfield and this is ever changing Technology here on NOW Media Television.
Welcome back to Ever Changing Technology. In this fast moving digital world, startups need more than passion, they need innovation.
And a few forces rather are shaping innovation faster than AI.
So Jen, you've been working closely with AI driven founders and giving your firsthand insight into what's really working. So we now going to be talking about how small businesses can embrace AI without fear and it often feels intimidating. I know AI is tough sometimes, especially to older generation people but in reality it's becoming one of the most accessible tools for small and mid sized business.
So automation, customer experience, content creation, data insights, they're all within reach. But understanding how to integrate AI with human creativity and strategic thinking is the key to unlocking real impact. So Jen, what trends or strategies are you seeing right now that truly work in AI driven startups?
[00:27:44] Speaker B: So that's an excellent question and I'm going to actually hit it for broader. In any business the AI integration that is going to make the most sense is the one that's in alignment with your key business initiative.
So remember we talked about the business plan. Well, how are we going to get to our goals? What are our top? Most of the time we have three to five key business initiatives for a year. If you look at, for example, we're at the end of 25, let's look at 26. If we look at our 26 plan and we have three initiatives, one of them is we want to grow revenue, one of them is we want to optimize our profit margin, which means we might be looking at operational efficiency and maybe one of them is we want to hire a team.
So if we look at that as three key initiatives, then we ask ourselves which things am I doing every day or my team are we doing every day, every week, every month? What are the processes, the 10 processes that are predictable, repeatable and I know there's going to be a specific outcome or a certain outcome that's going to occur and documenting those, when we take that and look at, okay, great, we have these 10, I'm just going to say 10 processes. We have these 10 processes, they occur at this amount of time.
It's taking up x hours, 10 hours a week. It's costing us $10,000 a month to run. I'm making up these numbers, then I'm going to look at what automations can I put into play. And if a process is costing me $10,000 a week to run, I'm going to spend $5,000 a week to put in an automation. Because once that automation is in place, now it costs me that much less and there's very minimal cost of engagement. So we start with our key initiatives. We align our automation, our AI integration with our key business initiatives, our goals, where we're trying to go.
We document our processes and then we find the tool. What's not working is shiny object syndrome. Going for all these different tools that are out there and then we're overwhelmed and there's just too much and we're fine. We're spending a lot of time learning and playing with a lot of tools that aren't really impacting our bottom line. But when we start with what we want and the processes we want to automate and we look at it strategically, we implement one at a time.
And once we see that return on investment, we go to the next and we just take it one step at a time. And those are the ones that we're seeing. And I'll give you an example.
There was a company in the legal industry actually that I was working with. They went from a 49% gross profit margin to an 81% gross profit margin by the time they integrated. It took 18 months to do all of the integrations. That's huge. And at the bottom line, it was a 14% improvement in the bottom line, folks. That means that with the same amount of leads, the same amount of customers, they're able to put 14% more in their pockets at the end of the day, like that's what we care about. It's not so much about top line revenue, it really is about how much we keep.
So that's the approach. If we are going to do an integration, what is the process that's repeatable? I'm just repeating this because I know that repetition wins repeatable and predictable, and it's in alignment with our business goals. That's the AI integration we want to go to or the automation we want to go to, because that's what's going to impact our bottom line, whether it's going to free up our time and, or operational capital for us.
[00:31:01] Speaker A: Yeah, that's, you know, that's actually pretty impressive too.
You know, that can be for any business. Right? I mean, you're talking about large, small, or anything like that. So, you know, the most common misconceptions founders have about AI when launching new ventures, it sounds like, is they just want to make Everything work here? My phone says something, let me just go ahead and have that look at it, you know, and boom, you know, it's just a mess, right? Isn't. Don't you have to have the good process and the right data?
[00:31:33] Speaker B: You absolutely do. And so I speak about this a whole lot.
AI readiness is everything.
There was a study that came out a few months ago from MIT that 95% of AI integration students failed. Why? Well, because the people selling you a product doesn't matter what product it is, they don't care about your data quality.
They're just selling a product. So if you have bad data, garbage in equals garbage out. If you have processes that are not efficient, all AI is going to do is make that exponentially more inefficient. So we want to look at it from a. Do I have my processes mapped? What is that? That's standard operating procedures, folks. And it's, let's take a client pays and they're onboarded. The minute that the credit card is taken, they get this welcome email, they get this form, it's automated. Everybody a person calls them has a welcome conversation. They're scheduled for their first appointment. Like every piece of the process and every tool in the process needs to be documented because if you try to put an AI to this and you miss a step, it's going to be wrong.
So readiness is everything. Your processes and then your quality of data. So for the solopreneurs out there who've been using Google Drive and Google Docs for 12 years, 15 years, not all of that data is still accurate.
So look at it and cull the data and make sure that what you're feeding to AI is real and relevant and accurate today. Don't give it mumbo jumbo because it's going to confuse the AI. So I like to think of it like, if you can't hand a manual in to a human and then walk away and then do the job, why are you expecting a computer to do?
Doesn't make any sense. It's all about the.
Yeah.
[00:33:22] Speaker A: Yes. I didn't mean to interrupt you, but you know, in the last three minutes or so, can you share an example of an AI driven startup that's doing something truly innovative and impactful that you've been working with?
[00:33:34] Speaker B: Yeah, actually there's several, but I'm gonna actually share one that is in, I'm sure in the medical space because I just think this is so cool and everybody will understand it. So there's a company and the founder, Waqas, is He's got a cardiology product, it's a wearable. But what he did was he looked at the problem. There's not enough cardiologists for all the people. And then he looked at the other problem, that when you have a cardiac event, they give you this wearable monitor. You wear it for seven to 14 days, and then you turn the device in and then you don't get the results for a week or two.
So when he looked at AI, he looked at AI from this perspective, he says, okay, well, what if AI could real time get the data and interpret the data and if there's an anomaly while you're wearing the device, it notify your cardiologist?
Well, guess what that does. If you have an anomaly, the cardiologist sees it and he can pick up the phone and say, hey, Mr. So and so, you need to get to the ER because you have something going on that saves lives. That is an innovative use of the technology.
It's using AI to monitor and to see when there's anything that's out of the norm. Highlight that and give that to the clinician. So here's the most important part, folks. The clinician has to look at it and go, yep, that's an anomaly. And yes, this is an emergency. Go to the emergency room, or no, this is not a big deal, and make the clinical decision. So the AI is not making the clinical decision. What it's doing is it's reading all the data so they get real time updates and they don't have to wait three weeks because that could be a heart attack or something else that has happened. So that is a really awesome use of artificial intelligence. It's aggregating data and looking for anomalies. And so it's predictable. Right? An EKG always looks the same and when it doesn't, it pings and sends an alert. So it's, it seems like it's complex, but really it's quite a simple process that's just done over and over and over again every time you have a heartbeat.
[00:35:34] Speaker A: Wow. Okay. And obviously you've got to have some trained personnel behind that. So, you know, we'll be right back here. In our final segment, Jen's going to share what the future of AI means for leadership. What we've kind of been talking about all along, but we're going to talk about putting that into practice and what skills, you know, tomorrow CEOs have to develop to stay ahead.
Look forward to seeing you.
And we're back. I'm Jim Bradfield and this Is Ever Changing Technology here on NOW Media Television.
Welcome back to Ever Changing Technology.
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So welcome back to Ever Changing Technology.
We've explored personal transformation, business development and AI innovation.
And now we're going to close with the future. So Jen, your work sits at the intersection of leadership, human potential and rapidly evolving technology.
As AI accelerates, leaders have to involve evolve just as quickly, not by becoming more robotic, but by becoming more human, more conscious and more adaptable.
So the future of leadership requires emotional intelligence, strategic thinking, adaptability, and a deep understanding of how humans and technology can collaborate. So AI isn't going to replace leaders, but leaders who ignore AI may be replaced by those who embrace it.
The younger generation taking over from the older generation.
Preparing both people and organizations for the shift is essential for long term success.
So Jennifer, you know, you've seen firsthand how the AI is reshaping industries. You know what, what excites you most about where it's heading?
[00:37:59] Speaker B: Yeah. So a lot of people don't.
They think that it's an apocalypse coming. I choose to see it as the next renaissance. What AI is able to do right now, what it's really good at is aggregating data, doing the research part, like pulling things together and summarizing it and doing some of the more mundane tasks. And what that does is it frees us up to be more creative and to get back to that human to human connection which I truly believe is where we're going to see that next renaissance where going to free time for creativity. And I really believe that there's opportunity here for us. I say AI is here for us to get back to being human.
[00:38:47] Speaker A: Well, that's excellent actually. So how do you see leadership evolving as AI becomes more embedded in business decisions and strategy? What are they? What do you use and when do you use it?
[00:38:58] Speaker B: Well, I'm going to say something that may be a little controversial and I am a fan of radical, radical transparency from leadership.
The AI integrations that are failing are when either leadership decides they're going to just put something in and then they issue an edict or a dictate that, hey, this is what it's going to be. And that's not a way to win.
We've got a massive shift, we've got team members that are going to need to be upskilled or reskilled.
And so I really believe that as leaders it is, number one, we have to be utilizing the technology and number two, we need to be brutally transparent about it. Hey look, I'm not a tech native. I mean I'm about to be 50 so you know, I had to learn this too. And here are the challenges that I faced. When the leadership comes and they're open about their use of the technology and the, and not just the wins, but also some of the struggles and how they got around it. What that does is it allows our team members to feel more comfortable with what's coming. And then it also is important for us to create a psychologically safe space for innovation where they learn and they grow and they bring ideas and they utilize the technology in a space where if they mess up, it's okay, it's a learning experience and they're not going to feel the gavel coming down on them or fear for their jobs. So it's about being transparent, it's about being vulnerable and communicating and it's about creating the space for learning for our team members in this transition. And then as we move forward, really it's going to be on us as leaders to be creatively problem solving and driving humanity forward.
And what does that mean? Well, schools have trained out creating creativity, they've trained out creative problem solving. This is an opportunity for us as leaders to bring that back in to design together solutions with every stakeholder, every team member so that we can better serve our clients.
So I really believe it's about the soft skills and the communication as well as that transparency.
[00:41:08] Speaker A: Yeah, that's pretty deep actually too.
So you know what skills do tomorrow's CEOs and entrepreneurs need to thrive in an AI driven world? And it's not just, not just older people who are starting to get ready to retire in that.
It's the mid people that are actually going to be taken over from the CEOs. What do they need to thrive in an AI driven world?
[00:41:37] Speaker B: Well, I think one of the soft skills that's most important in leadership is communication.
And I do see communication has gotten more challenging as time has gone by.
Text does not convey emotion always in the right way or right manner. Neither does email. So communication skills, clear, concise, compassionate communication is going to be essential moving forward as well as the ability I believe to coach as a coach Myself, I might be a little bit biased, but it's not a management leader boss anymore. That's the past. What we're moving to is how do I hire smarter people than me and coach them up to be greater than what they believe is possible for themselves even? How do I set them up for success? Success and for growth so that I facilitate that creative problem solving in my team? So I think leaders who are in middle management or aspiring to executives, executives and also founders, those soft skills are really critically important. But communication above and beyond all others.
[00:42:52] Speaker A: Yeah, that's so again, you know, you talked about people developing these skills. Now I know that AI is around us everywhere because just about everything we do, even, you know, even when you make a phone call to the doctor, half of the time that's going to be an AI person talking to you or somebody with your credit card or whatever. Right. Those are all AI driven things. You know, they still sound a ish. Right?
But are younger people, are they getting anything in school? Are they getting what they need to be able to develop these kinds of skills for AI?
[00:43:34] Speaker B: Well, I think that depends on the school system. I think that depends on a lot of things.
I'm going to use my grandchildren as an example.
They're a little adverse to learning from AI, but we've put it in a fun way. One of the things, if concerned about this, one of the things that I recommend to entrepreneurs and to parents, really get chatgpt or one of the others and play with the creative aspect of them, let them ask questions and ask, well, what's a different perspective of this? Or helping our kids to get comfortable with the technology and understand what is an ethical use of the technology and what are the boundaries around technology is going to be incredibly important, especially I think about, you know, social media. There was a huge mental health implication and fallout, an unintended consequence of social media. We saw it with teen suicide and all kinds of other things. We're going to have that same challenge. We're facing an identity crisis as humans. Like if AI can think faster than me, then who am I if I'm a knowledge worker?
So it's really important that we foster in our children and in ourselves and in our teams. What does ethical use look like? What are the limitations of AI and where do we draw those boundaries? Because the reality is if you're relying on a large language model, chat or I don't care which one, grok, whatever they are, the whole thing is designed to make you happy. It's not going to necessarily be Accurate. It's not necessarily even going to give you great advice. If you're asking it for advice, you need to always fact check it and understand what the role of technology is and how to interact with it in order to have an optimal result. How do you leverage the technology so that you can put your human aspects on top of it, Your decision making, your creativity, your compassion.
And I want to say this, one of the best ways for entrepreneurs to use large language models. If you're like me, I'm a direct communicator. I'm very blunt most of the time. Well, I go to chat and I say what I want to say and I say, okay, make this clear, concise and compassionate so that I can communicate this tough thing in this crucial conversation. For people who talk too much or they're too wordy or they're uncomfortable with conflict, use that, use that microphone and speak into it everything you want to say in a crucial conversation and say, okay, can you make this clear, clear, compassionate and concise so that this message is what's conveyed and it'll help you so that you can become a better, more effective communicator?
[00:46:11] Speaker A: Yeah. So, you know, and we talked about business, we talked about all the CEO development and all those kind of things. So organizations preparing their people, not just their systems for changes ahead, you know, what, what kind of things can you really tell them? Addition to what you've been saying already. What, what other kinds of things can you, you know, help? The small business guys especially, you know, they're, they're really struggling. People are really struggling how to use things like that. They don't have time.
[00:46:39] Speaker B: Yeah. The easiest thing to do, if you're thinking about implementing and you don't understand what it was that we were talking about from the standard operating procedures to the data or to your strategy, even hire a coach or consultant who's been doing it and been in that space for a while. Because the reality is we don't have a lot of time.
But the right consultants, advisors, and the right advisors in your corner can be a shortcut so that you can integrate the technology and there's going to be an investment, but an investment should have a return on that investment. So if you're thinking about that, hire somebody who's done it, who's done it successfully, and who can be your partner as you develop that so that you can see that escalation and see that return on investment on the other side. Don't try to do it by yourself.
[00:47:25] Speaker A: Awesome. So if you could leave viewers with One thought in the last minute here.
The future of AI and humanity, what would that be?
[00:47:35] Speaker B: Buckle up, folks. It's going to be a fun but a bumpy ride.
[00:47:41] Speaker A: A bumpy ride, yeah.
So where can people, viewers follow your work or connect with you for deeper transformation and leadership support?
[00:47:53] Speaker B: Yeah, thank you for asking. Power CEOs is on now media. I strongly recommend you check that out. I have AI segments regularly. I do a lot on technology and transformation on that show. You can also check out Vital Signs on NOW Media TV as well. It's all about peak human performance.
You can go to my website, jengodecoaching.com or you can interact with me on LinkedIn. I'm on LinkedIn, I'm regularly there and I interact with my viewers. Viewers in that fashion as well.
[00:48:21] Speaker A: Well, that's awesome, Jen. You know, thank you for sharing your wisdom and your experience and, you know, your powerful perspective and insights. It's been very, it's been very impressive.
Human potential evolves infinitely when we align, when we lead consciously and when we embrace change. That's the biggest problem that I'm seeing. People are not embracing change to our viewers. Remember that the future isn't something that happens to us. It's something we shape through the choices we make today. Whether you're an entrepreneur, innovator or lifelong learner, stay curious, stay adaptable and stay open to what's possible.
I'm Jim Bradfield and thank you for joining us on Ever Changing Technology.
We'll see you next time.
