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Serious Lady Business is the podcast where we dive into the serious—and sometimes not-so-serious—realities of being a female business owner. Host Leslie Youngblood keeps it real about entrepreneurship as we dive into the hard lessons no one warns you about to the surprising wins that make it all worth it. Tune in for honest conversations, unfiltered insights, and stories that prove you’re not in this alone.
Hey there. I'm Leslie Youngblood, and this is serious lady business, the podcast where we get real about what it takes to build a business as a woman today. From late night Google searches and client curveballs to the wins that make it all worth it. I'm talking about the stuff no one puts in the highlight reel. Each week, I'm bringing you honest conversations, lessons learned, and stories from women who are out here doing the work.
Speaker 1:Messy, meaningful, and unapologetically bold. Whether you're just dreaming about starting a business or deep in the grind, this podcast is your space to feel seen, supported, and fired up. Because let's be honest, this journey is hard, hilarious, and absolutely worth it. So let's dive in. Welcome back to Serious Lady Business.
Speaker 1:I'm Leslie Youngblood, your host and also the founder of Youngblood MMC, a marketing media and content agency. With me today is Olga Topcaya. Olga is the founder and CEO of Lapis Lapis AI Consult, leading the way in assisting businesses to leverage the transformative power of AI. Having over a decade long, vibrant marketing and product career, she approaches AI innovation with a business first mindset to ensure clients are making the right decisions and implementing AI. She is a proud boy mom and founded her AI company on the same philosophy with which she views parenting the need for adaptability, continuous learning and contextual understanding.
Speaker 1:Welcome Olga.
Speaker 2:Hi. Great to meet you, Emily.
Speaker 1:Love that you have this parent approach to AI in tech. What we're going to be talking about today is Parenthood Pivoting and the Quiet Power Behind AI. So it's not, I feel like we're going get into a lot of facts about women in AI here, right? But I feel like we're going to talk about how women can rebuild their identity after major life shifts and how AI isn't just a tool for scale, but for survival. It creates spaces for vulnerable, relatable conversation with founders, execs, moms, and there's such opportunity in this space.
Speaker 1:How can we all come together around it? So Olga, with Lapis Consulting, you made a bold move from marketing and product into the world of AI. What sparked that pivot for you?
Speaker 2:Yes. So I was in tech for a I was in marketing, but I was working in tech companies for some time. And then I went on parental leave. And at you know, it was great. But then when I was getting ready to come back, that's when, like, the worst tech recession hit me.
Speaker 2:Every other industry was doing fine except tech at that Hundreds of thousands of people were being laid off from Google, from Facebook. It was trickling down everywhere. So no one's hiring. And I said, okay, I'm gonna take a step back. I'm gonna hang out with my baby, see, you know, see what my next move is.
Speaker 2:Because otherwise, I'm just sending out resumes into a void that nothing's going on. Right? And that's when I kinda like serendipitously discovered AI. And it was before the ChildGPT boom. So about six months or so before the ChildGPT And I thought, holy shit, like, this is amazing.
Speaker 2:Why is nobody talking about It was like a dinosaur in comparison. It was GPT-three at that point. And it was a complete dinosaur to what we have now or, you know, even try GPT. But I thought this was incredible. I need to learn everything I can about it.
Speaker 2:What? Wow. Of course I started over a lot of
Speaker 1:curse You sure can. You break those curse words.
Speaker 2:It was just incredible. So I said, I need to learn everything now. And I started doing I started just joining groups, doing hackathons. My husband's a developer. I'm like, why did you not tell me about this?
Speaker 2:Right. I He's like, whatever. It's a language model. So I just literally learned like everything I can. I think I my first foot in the door as a prompt engineer for fraudulent company at that point.
Speaker 2:It was Copy AI. They were one of the first companies in AI. And that's kind of how things So I got that as a contract and then ChildGPT rolled out and I got another contract for an AI company. They are on the product side. And then another contract in prompt engineering.
Speaker 2:And so just all these contracts kind of kept popping up because nobody was hiring full time. But people wanted contractors. They wanted consultants. They wanted consultants in And that's why I'm like, all right, well, I gotta start my own company now. So that's how Lapis was kind of born.
Speaker 2:It was the, you know, step. And then soon after, I realized, well, okay, I have the business side. I have the AI side, you know, from from the business perspective and the problem engineering side, But I'm still not a developer. I'm missing that technical component. Don't have a CS And to be really competitive in this field and not just yap away basically, you need to have those technical skills.
Speaker 2:So that's where I brought in partners that are actual AI developers. And I hired AI developers. And that's where it kind of evolved to be a three pronged business on the AI business side, the development side, and then the AI coaching side. I love
Speaker 1:that. I love that you just organically caught the wave of AI, right? And that it was fortuitous in the way that you were on maternity leave and then this crazy tech stuff was happening. And I think that's a very stressful storm to like be like with a new baby and then you're this industry that you know and love is like going crazy. And to find something that you're so curious about and like really like feel like, oh, like feel the pull towards.
Speaker 1:Right. Had to have been what's the word I'm looking for? Comfort comforting, like, you know, and exciting in the midst of all sorts of chaos. Was that is that true?
Speaker 2:No, it was terrible. From
Speaker 1:hindsight, though, Olga, from hindsight. It was so scary
Speaker 2:because I'd never never done any I did consulting, but not in in past. Mhmm. I you know, it was it was comforting in the sense. Yes. You're right.
Speaker 2:Because I did find something that I really, really loved and I was really good at. And I don't know if I ever really felt that way about marketing. I I like marketing. You know, it was something I did for a long time and I like product. I still love product.
Speaker 2:I always liked product more than marketing. But yeah, like with AI, it really did feel like my kind of passion in a And so in that sense, yes, that comfort was kind of there. But yeah, it was it was it was scary. It was hard. It's still scary.
Speaker 2:Course. Right? It
Speaker 1:never changes. It's like it's like that no matter what. Right? But tell tell us how, like, I'm sure having a background in marketing and product was probably super beneficial with getting Lapus up and going. So tell us a little bit about that and how that background in those.
Speaker 1:You know, we talk about transferable skills, right? Like helped you, even though this was something entirely new, helped you move forward in the right way?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So a few things that was, you know, one, figured out like how to be like super scrappy and and I was 100% bootstrapped and I never took on investors, doing everything myself. So I knew that I needed to find a way to position my company, for example. I knew that I needed to have a value prop and a differentiator and that, we needed to solve real problems. And I think a lot of mistake that a lot of companies make is they start with the technology and they try to stick it into a whole Right, the problem.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then they call it product market fit. And then we found product market fit. And they always thought that was stupid. Like you have to start with the market and then you move the product, right?
Speaker 2:Just start with, I would always start with, okay, what problem am I solving? Like, know that AI is like the thing and people want AI. But I always try to think about, being tech first, but being business first. Problem are we solving for businesses? So when a company comes to us and says, hey, like I have this problem, can AI solve it?
Speaker 2:That's when you know, that's when we'll start working with them. If they come to us and say, hey, can you build me this thing? My first question is gonna be, What do you actually want to accomplish? So I think having all of that background really helped me propel my business forward. And yeah, and obviously, the marketing, all that myself.
Speaker 2:So I didn't need to, at least in the beginning, I didn't need to hire a company, you know, or or person to do it. It's really just like when I started needing, like, the extra pair of hands that I started kind of expanding to different services and things like that. But I still do, like, most
Speaker 1:of time. Sure. Sure. Yeah. And like at any point, you know, there's skills that we bring with us and things that we like, and it just makes the current business better.
Speaker 1:So Olga, you describe A. I. And parenthood as parallel journeys. Can you share what you mean by that? Because I love that.
Speaker 2:Think about it a lot When working with AI and like you're just starting out. It's new. It's scary. It's exciting. It's frustrating when it doesn't listen to you or do we want it to do.
Speaker 2:It
Speaker 1:is hilarious. Yes.
Speaker 2:When it doesn't work, there's also a really interesting phenomena where when you tell AI, like, don't do something, it is going to do it 100%. It is it is and there's reasons behind it. Like, because you you kind of, like, put the idea into like, you put it's called priming. Mhmm. So you're actually focusing when you say do not do something, you're, like, focusing the attention on that thing.
Speaker 2:Like a child. That's a kid. That's like a child. It's just like a kid. I know.
Speaker 2:It's it's hilarious. And like they're patching it up and they're kind of like fixing it, you know, the the developers and everything. But but that's that's kind of what it is, you know, and that and like your know, things are constantly evolving. Right? And and and they're constantly growing.
Speaker 2:So what worked yesterday isn't going to work today. You kind of have to always, like, adapt and always be on top of it because things are going to change week to week. Right? And and that's the same thing with AI. It.
Speaker 1:That's so funny. It's an and I feel like it isn't in its infancy still, really for so many, like the general population, it's a brand new like infant type of situation surface technology. But I just love so much to have that analogy because I think it takes away, gosh, what, like the intimidation factor for women. And I hope that with like women listening and we'll get so much more into it as we continue to chat because with new technology, I think the, you know, you always have early adopters, right? You have like the hockey stick and like the general, you know, trajectory of technology adoption.
Speaker 1:Right? And a lot of new technology, whether it's AI, whether it was the television, whether it was the Internet, right? People get intimidated by that. Like, Oh, I don't know. I'm gonna I don't even know what to do.
Speaker 1:And so to to correlate it to being a parent, which so many people are, whether you're a cat parent, a dog parent, a human parent, right? Like, you're like, oh, yeah, it's not that big, thing. It's a tool for me that is going to do that can do so much for me, that could do so much for my business or my job or my family life. Right. Like the opportunities to utilize it are truly endless.
Speaker 1:So I just think that's like such a fantastic analogy. And when we talked before, you know, we talked about, you know, you becoming a mom and like amongst this, right? Like how did that influence your mindset as a founder and a leader specifically?
Speaker 2:So I kind of had to like just figure it out. Like the same thing. It's it's just like figuring it out and just starting. You know, before I became a mom and, you know, when when my baby was a baby, like, I read a ton of books, read a ton of parenting books, and I took what I could and I, you know, and it's the same thing, right? Like I read leadership books and business books, but then eventually you kind of get to a point where you kind of like, there is no book and you have to just do because every kid is different and every business is different and every leader is different.
Speaker 2:So you kind of have to just like do it and it's it's not gonna be perfect and you're gonna make mistakes and kind of mistakes and there's no other way around it. And I think you know, I think like like, okay. There's this book. It's called Brave Not Perfect. And it talks about the author's mind is, like, slipping in the author's name is slipping in my mind right now, but she founded Girls Who Code, and she does not code.
Speaker 2:And, like, she ran for office, and she has no politics experience. And she talks a lot about how, like, women, we are always, like, primed to be perfect, have all of the answers, like, from, like, a young age, you know, to to have all the answers, to be perfect, to have the straight a's, and look pretty all the time, and be a great mom, and be a great wife, and have a great house, and have a fantastic career, and, like, everything just has to be perfect. And in all of that, we lose our sense of bravery, lose our ability to take action. And that's why so much of us, like so many of us are so risk averse. And we make for better or worse, you know, but we do make less risky investments, for example.
Speaker 2:True. The worst thing in the world, I'm not gonna Like I'm a super competitive investor, but it's 100% true, right? Like we make less risky investments. We apply to jobs that we are only 100% fit for, you know, and they get 110% fit for where men will do it when it's like crazy. And I see it all the time.
Speaker 2:I get resumes from people all the time. I seldom get a resume from a woman. That so rarely do I get a resume from a woman. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It it really is. At least on the on the tech side. It's very rare. And the men who apply, most of them, they're not qualified. They're really they're really not qualified.
Speaker 2:You know, and they'll even like basic things. Like, I'll say, you have to be based in, certain countries, for example. And they always talk to me like, hey, I'm in this other country. Like, that should be fine. Right?
Speaker 2:I'm like, no. It's not fine. I don't have a legal contract there. No, sir. But a woman would never, you know, even know Exactly.
Speaker 2:And so so I think it you know, this all kind of ties together. And and with AI, it's the same thing with technology. Right? Like, we're just so less likely to embrace it because of this risk So just not being perfect, going in like taking the step, I was never able to do it. In a way like AI has actually really, really helped me step forward because so much of what I did with my business, I used AI to implement AI to build the website.
Speaker 2:I used AI to draft like the initial steps of the legal contact so that I had I could be more conservative with, you know, hiring a lawyer to just view, like, final steps. I used AI in a lot of my marketing. Right? And so and it wasn't perfect. And if by any means and then I had to just kind of figure it out and then take it, you know, to the next level as things kind of evolved.
Speaker 1:No. I love that. And something that I've been thinking about a lot lately, this phrase, courage cries. Right? Like, think we have this perception in our mind of like the hero or heroine and they're brave and they're maybe they're in their armor.
Speaker 1:They've like slayed the dragon. And it's like, no, that in real life, the hero, like you're crying at night at like 12:00 in your computer and you're like, I don't know what I'm doing is you're and you're questioning your decisions like as a parent or in your business. Right. And it's like that is courage to just do the thing no matter what because you know you have to do it. Right?
Speaker 1:And so I think that that is so on point. And we pulled this fact, which I think is a great segue, is there's a February 2025 study from Harvard Business School associate Professor Rembrandt Koenig. He found that women are adopting AI tools at a 25% lower rate than men on average, despite the fact that it seems the benefits of AI would apply obviously equally to men and women. Why do you think this is?
Speaker 2:So I think it's basically what we just talked about. Right? It's the risk factor. AI is new and well, relatively new because like AI has realistically been around forever. But this new wave of AI, right?
Speaker 2:This new stage of AI, like you said, isn't in its infancy, it's new. Things that are new are risky. Things that are new are scary. So I see a lot of this like, well, we'll wait and see and let other people figure it out kind of Then kind of diving in hot first and trying to experiment for yourself because new things have inherent risk involved. And so we out here like, well, I don't know what kind of output I'm gonna get or I don't know how the information is being used.
Speaker 2:There's like the the information, you know, if you don't want it being used, there's safeguards around it, right? Ways you can turn that off. There's, you know, ways that you can mitigate the risk. It's but you have to go in and, like, look to see how that risk can get mitigated. Is it gonna be a % perfect?
Speaker 2:No. Absolutely Does AI make mistakes? 100%, it makes mistakes. And I think it's this risk aversion that we come back to that is what's preventing women from adopting it more.
Speaker 1:When a previous conversation with Sally Mueller of Womanesse and she was looking for investors and she found surprisingly that like you were saying, like the women investors wouldn't take a chance as much. They were less risky than the male investors because they couldn't necessarily afford to or they had to ensure that they were making the right step because there was more at stake for them, like more on the line. Do you feel like that translates to technology, too? Although it feels like exploring and utilizing this new technology seems less risky than investing, although it could entail investing millions of dollars into something. Right?
Speaker 1:But I'd love to hear your take on that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think psychologically, it all stems from the future. I don't think that if you're an end user, there's nothing stopping you from using it. There's there's inherently no risk in you using it as a person, as an individual. Right? If you're a person you know, if you're a business owner investing in it, yeah, there's absolutely.
Speaker 2:There's risk. It's gonna make mistakes. Right? Maybe it won't perform exactly the way that you expect it to, but that's what you have to mitigate.
Speaker 1:And there's always a risk in business no matter what you roll out, right? Mean, you should never be, and I'm sure you know that, like, you if you're launching a perfect product, you're launching too late.
Speaker 2:Yes. Absolutely. Exactly. By then and that's the problem. Right?
Speaker 2:It's like, while you're sitting there figuring it out and waiting for others to figure it out, they figured it out. Right? Like, that's the new. That's the And right. And, like and then your audience have moved out.
Speaker 2:So already, like, your yesterday's news. And now you're going to be playing catch up because they know how to do it. And that is the learning curve. The longer you wait, the more the learning curve becomes. Like when I first started out in, you know, since 2022 that I just first started out with the eye, it was way easier to understand.
Speaker 2:It was way simpler to grasp. The barriers to entry were much lower than they are now to start a business in AI people knew about it. Because the technology was so new. There was so much that was unknown about it. Nobody was an expert.
Speaker 2:Right? Like, that's the whole thing. There were no experts. And so you were able to kind of go in and experiment and try. There's no book about it.
Speaker 2:Till this day, there's really no book about it.
Speaker 1:You need to write
Speaker 2:that book, Olga. You need to write that book. You need to write the book. I've had the time to do it. There's a there you know, there's there's very there's still much that's being discovered.
Speaker 2:And that's why people are like, oh, you're an AI expert. And like, no. I am not an AI expert. There are no AI experts in this field unless you're like Sam Altman if you're like an AI professor who's been doing this for decades and you're building it. And even the big companies, they're even the ones that don't know things and they're constantly discovering things.
Speaker 2:Every week something new is coming out that they know. Every week, it is impossible to be on top of So there are no experts. And and back then, it was way easier to understand it and get into it than it is now. So longer you wait, the more your learning curve is going to.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Yeah. Well, I love what you said that there's no experts. And so that should all or no AI experts. Experts and that should also alleviate some of that intimidation, right?
Speaker 1:Where even the people that have been in it, it's a constantly evolving situation and you're at the forefront of those things. You have the knowledge of all the previous, you know, your work with it over the years that you've been working with it. But if you're new to coming into it today, it's okay because there's no experts in that way that you said. And so I think that that feels really inclusive and shouldn't be, you know, should alleviate some of that intimidation factor. And so and like with your work with Lapis Consultants, I want to hear a little bit about that because you do AI coaching.
Speaker 1:And so I'm sure that these are things that you've coached clients through all the time. So tell us a little bit about that, Olga, and how coaching with Lapis is a great first step for women who are either hesitant about getting started with AI or want to go deeper into what they already know without a huge time and even risky investment.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So instead of like teaching, know, like, oh, here's a prompt and here's what a large language model is, right? That's not really relevant. Will always start with same thing I always do. What a problem are you trying to solve?
Speaker 2:So we'll do one on one or we'll do like team workshops, whether it's a company or it's an individual, they'll come and they'll say, hey, this is what we're struggling with. So this is how I want to get better. Have, you know, maybe, you know, we have a productivity issue where we're wasting like a ton of time performing, you know, these tasks that are like super repetitive. Or maybe we have like a collaboration issue, like cross functional collaboration issue. Maybe, you know, there's certain materials we need to turn out faster.
Speaker 2:We need reports creating faster. We need to do research better. There's just so many different ways of implementing AI. So we will start with the problem. What are you struggling with?
Speaker 2:And then we will go and look at the tools that are out there to help you and how to use those tools. Maybe it's just straight try GPT, but it's just a matter of like learning how to conduct Maybe there's other tools out there that you will learn and I'll teach you how to work with those tools. Maybe you need to layer them, and then you would take only a portion of those tools, and then you bring it into your workflow, and it becomes a part of your daily moves. So you're not offloading 100% of your job to AI. That will be crazy.
Speaker 2:You need to still use your brain, but it becomes kind of just ingrained in what you're doing on a day to day And so that way, we're for the problem and we're teaching how do you use it for yourself as opposed to just like a class family. Right.
Speaker 1:Which is more valuable than anything. Right? Which is I feel like if you are a business owner right now, especially a female business owner, as we were talking about with these, we use it 25% less. You should be proactively learning about A. I.
Speaker 1:And using a consultancy, right, to learn about A. I. You should be exploring it or reading articles on it because there's no now is the time. It's only it's not going anywhere, right? It's in its infancy.
Speaker 1:We're going to see it. And so also, I want to share with listeners Olga has been so gracious to give our listeners 20% off working with her. Just mentioned the Serious Lady Business podcast. We really believe that we need to get more women learning, implementing, mobilizing with AI. So please reach out to Olga and Lapis.
Speaker 1:We will share the details in the show notes as well. But again, Olga, thank you for doing that because that is super important. And I love that you shared a little bit about how you work with your clients because there is opportunity there for you to collaborate with any female founder who is curious on how to integrate it within their business and even their life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I use it for my daily life. Whole lot of Yeah. All the time.
Speaker 1:I love that. I love it. Now Olga, tell me what strengths do you see women bringing into AI development and implementation that are often overlooked?
Speaker 2:Quite a few, I think, absolutely. One is empathy and emotions. There is actually a growing body of evidence that large language models, AI, they respond quite well when prompted with emotional So and this is just like kind of, again, things that are being discovered recently. They having this kind of built in into the original system design as opposed to being an afterthought, that's a big thing that I think women can contribute to. So we're thinking more holistically, not just like, you know, analytically.
Speaker 2:The other thing is, you know, like, I'm sure we've said this many times and our partners have complained, right? It's not what you said, it's how you said it, right? Valid. The tone, right? Like, it's in the world all the time.
Speaker 2:It's your tone. So syntax, tone, structure, right? These are things that I think women are in general just like really attuned to, and AI responds really well to. That can be like really well, it's a strength in when you're using AI, but it's also when, you know, if you're building AI, right, if you're person doing it, factoring those things in, again, into design as opposed to an afterthought. And in learning, like this is absolutely crucial, right?
Speaker 2:That kind of approach. Thinking about user adoption. So if you're a business owner, not just like how do we build the best AI system or implement the best AI system and how much cost it can cut for us, But will my people actually use it? Thinking about the people component. A lot of companies, they just like really make this mistake quite a The most investment run companies.
Speaker 2:Because at the end of the day, like you can have the best technology, you can have the best strategy, but if your people aren't using it, then you've just blew a ton of time and money out the And this is also part of what we do. If we've built the systems, then we make sure that your people are using that system. So this is all very much baked into how Lapis operates. Ethical use, like that's another really big one. There's a lot of conversations about ethics, So I think women can really make a big impact there.
Speaker 2:You know, and just like we're also really good, I think, at intuitively detecting when something is wrong and just, like, picking up maybe it's some weird wording or maybe it's like a psycho exchange. That weird wording can balloon into just like incredible virus within the So we can use that. Fascinating. And so there's quite a lot and it's not just soft skills, right? That's what we talk about often when we talk about women and how we contribute things with the soft skills.
Speaker 2:It's not soft It's like really, really crucial in making AI actually I
Speaker 1:love that. That is so true because I think anybody listening now might not have thought, how could I contribute to AI? Or those maybe a handful of women, maybe a nose, no women in their life that are working in AI or a younger person, a younger female going into college or trying to figure out what they want to go into. And we need females in that space developing, choosing, like for those reasons and are so important. Right?
Speaker 1:And I think that that perspective you don't think about like from like the outside of A. I. And even just using A. I. But we need women involved in the production and like the creation and the evolution of it because it's going to make it a better tool, better and better tech for everybody.
Speaker 1:It's just like diversity, right? Like you need diverse voices. You need all like the different types of people, like in all the different facets of life. It just makes life better and it applies to technology as much as it applies to life. So I love all those things that you shared.
Speaker 1:Well, I know when I'm sure with clients you've worked with and you yourself being a female founder and it's can be exhausting to try to reinvent ourselves or, you know, trying to figure things out or how do I implement this while I'm juggling all these other things? Or I know I have to do this for my business. How am I gonna find that time? What advice do you give to female founders when they're in the messy middle?
Speaker 2:So I think clean up the best. He's how how, Olga?
Speaker 1:How do we clean up that mat?
Speaker 2:Okay. Okay. So I think focus on one thing. That's that's really you know, and it's the same thing that I advise to my clients as a matter of men, women makes no difference. Right?
Speaker 2:Instead of like trying to swallow the ocean, like just focus on one thing and get good at just like that one thing. And you know, like and you'll see this in a lot of like productivity stuff, right? Like the the the chunking. I struggle with this a lot. Like, so I'm not gonna pretend to preach that, like, I'm the best at this or anything like that.
Speaker 2:No. Like, I really definitely struggled with it a lot. But like, just focus on one thing and like, just try to get that thing good. That has helped me quite a bit. And doing that, I also use the Pomodoro method.
Speaker 2:So just like setting a timer to do a thing for like five minutes. And it's and that's only for well, it's like just to get started. Right? So if you if you can't like get started and get focused, then set a timer for five minutes and just tell yourself, k. I'm just gonna do this thing for five minutes and and nothing else.
Speaker 2:And if the timer goes off and you wanna continue doing it, fantastic. Like, go continue doing it. So that's the method I try a lot. And then the other thing I started implementing is like, what is the top, like, revenue generating thing that I can do right away immediately. Right?
Speaker 2:So you have the productivity grid, where it's things that are lower impact. Forgot what it's called. I think it's called a productivity grid, where things that have the the least amount of impact and, you know, the highest amount of time. Like, those are things that you get rid of that are, you know, like, have the highest amount of impact and take the least amount of time to do. Those are the things that you do right now and you don't wait, right?
Speaker 2:That's the revenue generating Things that are maybe big projects, they'll have impact, but they will take a long amount of time. Will you chunk those down or you maybe delegate those things? So the productivity grid, I I use a lot. And I know people say this all the time with the self care thing. It works.
Speaker 2:It does. It works. So I struggled with it definitely. And so what I started doing is I put it on the calendar. Because if it's not on the calendar, then it doesn't Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right? Totally. So I actually put it on the calendar, and I have that alarm go off. And then I use it in conjunction with the Palmetto arm. I love it.
Speaker 2:I It goes off on my calendar and then they say, okay. I'm gonna I'm gonna give myself self care, whatever that thing is, you know, and I'm gonna do it for five minutes. And and then I just, like, set this somewhere. They're, you know, there's there's they're not perfect. It sounds like, you know, quick fixes.
Speaker 2:Some of them are quick fixes, but it's like, a boom And then I realized, like, there's just stuff that's not gonna get done. It's just not. Like, I I have to accept it, that it's not gonna get on, and and I have to be Yeah. With it. That's that's gonna is gonna
Speaker 1:Like, there was something I just read. I'm sure it was on Instagram, and it was somebody was talking about the screenwriter and director, I think Nora Ephron. And she was talking about like, you know, like everybody says they're juggling, they're juggling. But what she said was that there's you're juggling plastic balls and you're plasti juggling glass balls. And you have to figure out which ones are plastic and which ones are glass.
Speaker 1:You can drop the plastic ones. Those ones can drop and it's fine to drop because not everything's going to be done. Right. And so because you're always going to be juggling something. You just have to figure out and be okay with dropping a plastic ball because, yeah, it's plastic.
Speaker 1:It's not going to break. No big deal. Right? And so I was like, wow, that is really a great way to think about it because we're always going to be juggling female founders, professional mothers, stay at home moms, dads, all the you know, we're all juggling a million things at one time on any given day. And so we have to give ourselves that grace, too, right?
Speaker 1:And to know, like you said, with the Pomodoro method, too, like, you know what's priority, you know what you need to do. It's okay and be okay with letting those other things go. And I think that can be difficult, right? Because we want to do all the things. We want to be that perfect, that perfect, you know, no risk.
Speaker 1:And I want to be all these things to everybody. And it's just not doable or sustainable at the very least.
Speaker 2:No. And this is where, again, I really love that analogy with the old walls. It's great. And it's the same thing with kind of with cleaning. Right?
Speaker 2:Like, when you have a messy house, like and and things are all over the place, don't sit down and try to, like, organize your jewelry box because it's gonna take you two hours or however long. Sure. Your jewelry box needs organizing, but your rest of your house is the best. Right. Right.
Speaker 2:So clean that stuff up. And then like your jewelry. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. I love that. Now tell us a moment, Olga, where you felt maybe you had to choose between what made sense on paper and what felt aligned, whether it's life or in business?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so business case I thought about was earlier on, we had a potential for a big client and the budget was there, so they had the money to pay for it. They wanted a really product that the we would build out for them. And it was technically, you know, technologically feasible for sure. So it it made sense for us to take them on. But every time I talked to them, I realized, like, this this would not this would not be a fit because they they wanted things done like super fast and well.
Speaker 2:Right? They didn't think about like their people using it. They're just like, it's gonna cut costs. It's gonna cut costs. You know?
Speaker 2:And then they knew what was gonna happen is that, okay, we would build it. It would work, but and maybe we'd even build it within the time, but then their people wouldn't use it and they would blame us.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:Right? And so I needed to protect my brand. I needed to protect my reputation. And like, it sucked because it was a lot of money. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But I had to I had to say no because they knew it was gonna burn me out. And at the end, I I didn't think that they would end up being happy with it. So I I I had to say no.
Speaker 1:It was that the first time that something like that happened as a business owner for you? Or do you feel like because I think like, okay, because you're like, yep, I followed my gut. I knew I have no regrets about that. But maybe was that not the first time that happened? Because I know sometimes where especially if it's like you're trying trying to bring in more money or you got payroll and you got all the things it's like, oh, but I really could take this and maybe I can make it work.
Speaker 1:But trusting your gut is can be, you know, a struggle, especially as a woman and a provider for your family and your business.
Speaker 2:Yes. And I have definitely not trusted my gut in the past as well.
Speaker 1:And I'm sure it's gotten get you in trouble.
Speaker 2:Right? It has. It has. It has. And, you know, I tried making it work.
Speaker 2:You know, you know, some of it was like with some of the people that I hired because I needed people. And I it was, you know, it was a time crunch. And and I just I I I couldn't afford to not have that. But I knew, like, these these you know, this have several times. I knew, like, this wasn't really the right fit and and made, you know, made these mistakes, bringing these people on.
Speaker 2:But yeah. And it got me it got me into trouble. It really did. I mean, it got me into trouble. And I thought I can make it work.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna try, you know, my best and Yeah. Didn't
Speaker 1:It's so so I don't know why we always try to trick ourselves. And I think, though, at the longer the more female founders the more female founders we have in our lives, the more we have to look to, the more we have to learn from, I think we just can further gain more confidence with that. Right? But it's like, no, I need to yeah. Everybody I've heard from, anytime they've gone against their gut, that's gotten them in shit.
Speaker 1:So I really just need to say no. As much as I would love to do this or as much as I think maybe this I could really try it's like a bad relationship. Right? Why do we try to make it work? You know where it's going.
Speaker 1:You know, it's not going anywhere. And the good ones require you feel good about it. And it's not anything. So it's just always it's not and I know male founders go through this too, where it's like, Do I take this client on? But right when there's a bottom line and you're trying to grow and build something, it's hard to turn away business, even if it's, you know, well, that you know it's not going to work with.
Speaker 1:So I think that's really an important lesson to share. And then tell us, Olga, what's a false belief you had about yourself when launching Lapis and how did it change?
Speaker 2:I need to know like everything about what I'm doing and that I need to have like a full plan laid out. Three year business plan, five year business plan in AI that's not impossible. It's just because it changes so So so I knew that I had to just like adapt and just try it and just and just do it. And that's yeah. That's that's
Speaker 1:Yeah. I love that. What do you want women and listeners to know about what's possible when they trust their ability to adapt?
Speaker 2:You're gonna do it. Like, that's that's what happens. Because if you if you don't, then you're just gonna sit there and you're gonna overthink it forever. That's what happens. And you're gonna be stuck in just like analysis paralysis, weighing all the pros and cons indefinitely.
Speaker 2:If you otherwise, you're you're not gonna do it. That's what that's what happens. You're you're just gonna be stuck and you're not gonna make a decision, or you're going to, you know, just make the wrong decision and then get kind of left behind.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That's definitely important. And then as we wrap up, Olga, what do you want women to take away or the most important thing you want them to know about the AI space right now?
Speaker 2:It is changing all the time. Every day it is changing. And things are some things are gonna go wrong and some things are gonna go right. But if you don't take advantage of it, like right now, like we, you know, we just like talked about this, right? If you don't take advantage of it right now, there's other people who will, they are going to take customers.
Speaker 2:And that's just the simple reality. Right? Because they're gonna be fine making those early mistakes. But in the meantime, they're still gonna be generating And they're still going to be learning. And you're not.
Speaker 2:Right? So yeah, like things are gonna change and be okay with that. I hope they'll it can be okay with that.
Speaker 1:Right. Well, what's the worst that can happen? Right? I mean, yes. Okay.
Speaker 1:Failure. Sure. Yes. Maybe bankruptcy. I mean, god forbid.
Speaker 1:Right? Okay. But those are, like, the worst case scenarios, right? Death or do you know what I'm saying? Like, okay, what's the worst that can happen?
Speaker 1:And if you set yourself up in the right way to to succeed with it, right? Or to like set yourself up in the right way to utilize it and move forward with it. Not what there's really nothing that's really bad that can really happen, you know? So it's only going to be good. You're only going to learn.
Speaker 1:You're only going to come out through the other side and with this knowledge and with these customers and others could have stolen from you. And so I really think that there's a lot of truth to that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And you can set the guardrails. Yeah. Like, when we build stuff and, you know, like, we never just go and build stuff. Right?
Speaker 2:We we set the guardrails. We have, like, the best, you know, practices for, like, just software development. Right? You're not just gonna go and build the thing. So, yeah, you wanna have those guardrails in place.
Speaker 2:Like, I'm not saying to be just like
Speaker 1:completely Right. Mitigated risk.
Speaker 2:And just like let a bug into your software everywhere. You're gonna have guardrails and, you know, and then if you're on the coaching side, if you're just like learning AI, then you're gonna learn how to implement those guardrails as well if you're just the end user. So those things are gonna be
Speaker 1:in place.
Speaker 2:They're gonna be there, but you just don't do Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I again, we want to if you're thinking about it, have a product in mind, want to bring it into your business. Again, I want to say that Olga is so graciously offering Serious Lady Business listeners a 20% off opportunity to work with her and Latvius to get AI up and involved within your business. Like we said earlier in this conversation, women are using AI 25% less than men. Ladies, we need to get with this. There is so much opportunity.
Speaker 1:I feel like Olga and I could sit here and talk all day about all the different use cases, opportunities. I mean, this is quite I don't think there's many generations that get an opportunity to participate in such a revolutionary technological advancement. And AI is truly that thing for us. And so if you're not taking action and getting involved in learning in some way, please go and do it.
Speaker 2:Right, Olga? Exactly. Just at least watch YouTube. Right.
Speaker 1:Get on TikTok and get on the AI talk or something. You know what I mean? Like, there's just there should be no barriers to stopping you. And Olga's here and her team are here to help as well. And I really hope this conversation enlightened anybody listening right now.
Speaker 1:It's super enlightening for me. And Olga, before we wrap up, I would love for you to share where everybody can follow you, find you outside of here.
Speaker 2:Yes. So I'm on LinkedIn, Olga Tepcaya. So there, anyone can connect with me. You can also reach out at infolapisconsults dot com.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us today, Olga. Fantastic conversation. I hope that we see a flux of females entering this AI space, and I love that you've been there leading the charge and love everything that you're doing. It was a pleasure having you on today.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Likewise, this is great. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thanks for tuning in to Serious Lady Business. If you love this episode, be sure to follow or subscribe so you never miss a moment of the real, raw, and really wonderful sides of female entrepreneurship. And hey, please leave a review if you're feeling generous. It helps more amazing women find us and join the conversation. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube at at serious lady business and get all of the updates at seriousladybusiness.com.
Speaker 1:Until next time, keep showing up, keep building, and keep being your seriously amazing self.