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Welcome to "Visionary Voices" the podcast where we dive into the minds of business owners, founders, executives, and everyone in between.
Each episode brings you face-to-face with the leading lights of industry and innovation.
Join us as we uncover the stories behind the success and the lessons learned along the way.
Whether you're climbing the corporate ladder or just starting your business journey, these are the conversations you need to hear - packed with visionary voices and insights.
Let's begin.
So Blair, thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of Visionary Voices.
Can you give us a top level view of what it is that you do right now and your journey so
far?
sure.
Thanks, Akhil, for having me on.
So I'm the CEO and founder of Leaders Uplifted, a new learning and development agency that
I launched just a year ago.
We specialize in game-based learning experiences for senior leadership, as well as
emerging leaders in an organization and
What makes us really unique is our interactivity and our past experience working with
federal agencies, large corporations.
There really isn't a tough room that we haven't won over.
Wow, very cool that you worked in all those different areas as well.
I mean, I'd love to learn a little bit more about the entrepreneurial journey that you've
been on, right?
Because you started this, you know, just about a year ago.
So how are you finding it?
Because the journey is a very interesting one.
So it'd good to hear what your thoughts are on that right now.
sure.
I mean, I think that I have had an inner calling to be an entrepreneur for a long time.
It really goes all the way back to being a Girl Scout as kind of Pollyanna as that sounds.
It's true.
That sense of I can figure this out.
I can get the badges right.
Really stuck with me.
And I carried that forward into my career.
I studied performance in college.
I studied voice and speech.
I have an acting degree.
So I definitely got a sense of what it takes to use yourself.
as an instrument, but then quickly after college, I landed a job at this amazing place
called IMG Academy teaching communication skills to athletes.
So I had the chance for eight years being a communication coach there to work with
pre-professional athletes.
I have a few NFL draft picks under my belt who I helped with media training.
Yeah, but what you learn working with athletes is that they don't respond to lectures.
You have to get in and kind of practice, make things really tangible in hand.
on and that's what game-based learning is excellent for.
Very cool that you managed to work with, you know, athletes and you've learned that out.
So what's the journey when you were starting this business?
Was it a case of, you know, you had all this experience, you're working with athletes and
seeing what was going on there.
And they're like, do you know what, we can actually build this into a business when it
comes down to, you know, employee engagement and that side of it as well.
Was that the transition you took and the journey you went on?
I mean, yes, is that connect the dots straightforward.
And really the choice to launch a brand on my own after 20 years as a coach, facilitator
and consultant came down to this.
There are kind of behind the scenes training processes that are happening for top
executives that are being given and gifted to leaders that are on the rise that the
general public doesn't know about.
And if they only had the training and the skill to have a little bit more presence and
create a little bit more influence, and I'm talking in person with their communication
first, it could be a game changer for their ability to get promoted in their organization.
And if you're an entrepreneur, it's a must have.
You have to be able to speak and share your brand's message.
Yeah, I completely get that, right?
You always need to have that coaching there, but it's so interesting what you said is some
executives, they're gonna have access to coaching, which we might not even think of as
even possible, right?
It was even out there.
And so the fact that you're bringing this awareness to it is very, very important to start
with.
And I'd love to dive more into the service that you do and what it is that you're trying
to build out specifically and how that's really gonna help shape companies and
organizations.
thank you so much because it's really cool getting through the first year and knowing that
I've got a product that works because I had the chance to run executive training sessions
at Hilton and NASA and Ashland and LiveRamp, big large companies this past year.
So we have a really good proof case.
But in year two, my mission is to take it direct to the executive, especially people who
are in the middle part of their career.
And I find there's two groups there.
There's a group of people who are kind of ambitious
on the rise wanting to climb quickly.
Maybe they've got their master's degree, they've got a manager or director title, but
what's next?
And it could be their communication that's holding them back.
And then on the other side, there are executives in the middle part of their career who
know it's their communication, who know that they've been there top notch on all the
projects, but they're not getting noticed.
There's something about their level of presence that isn't getting picked up on, and so
they just need a boost in that regard.
So my plan really is
to scale this digitally.
And what's so exciting is that communication skills training is totally universal.
It might be the last bastion that is still viable for humans against AI, right?
We still need to show up as ourselves, even if we're getting AI to help our posts and our
written content, that's fine.
So by having a digital membership where people can join and come to my hands-on classes
week after week and work on their career journeys with a coach on my team, that's really
what I'm
so excited about to launch.
No, I love the business model there with the membership side and the community aspect of
it as well.
I'd love to zoom in on the communication element that you've been talking about.
So what is communication to you when it comes down to these executives and what are some
of the common pitfalls that you might see with the clients that you've worked with as
well?
Because it'll be interesting to see if I'm doing any of these things because communication
is one of these things.
I'm always trying to improve, especially as a podcast host, so it'll be good to know.
I mean, what I think is really cool that we're doing on this podcast and that we've done
since we got to know each other is there's an energy that comes to communication that
really underlies everything.
And so you almost have to be a little bit of a radio receptor to pick up on another
person's energy.
And then authentically, this is really key.
Like in your own voice and style, try to match their signal.
If people are making mistakes, it's because they're over rehearsing, right?
They are coming in like super
polished and they told me to move my hands like this.
doesn't work that way.
On the other hand though, I think a lot of people are just afraid to even get started.
They're like, I don't want to be a keynote speaker.
don't want to be on stage in front of hundreds of people.
That's fine.
I'm not here for that.
I'm here for the Tuesday meeting that got dropped on you because your colleague is out and
all of a sudden you're leading a hybrid session, right, and having to speak on the spot.
So that also matters in addition to being over-prepared, being under-prepared.
You want that Goldilocks on right in the middle.
Hmm.
No, no, I completely agree.
I remember when I'm, when I first started the podcast, the first three or four episodes, I
was like, do you know what?
I'll do this in person.
It'd be good to get the content.
It'd be very high quality, all these different things.
And on the train down, I was thinking to myself, why am I doing this?
This is, this is stupid.
I can't speak in front of people.
I can't speak like this.
And I'd rehearsed and prepared all the questions and what I was going to talk about and
everything.
And then it was quite funny.
I was watching them back recently, right?
So this is about a year later, or just under a year later.
And it's so robotic the way I'm trying to go through each phase of the interview that I
was trying to do.
And it comes down to those communication skills that you said before, Is not rehearsing it
like that.
You need to be natural.
You need to match that energy.
think energy is very, important in communication, 100%.
And the athletes really got to experience this because, know, the coach just can't tell
them run faster.
They have to practice and go through drills.
And that was what happening with, you know, the athletes in the combine.
They were there for 16 weeks to get a really fast 40-yard dash, but off the field, we were
working on them with communication agility.
And what if they ask you this?
What if they ask you that?
Just so that they could be not rehearsed, but ready.
Ready makes a huge difference.
because a lot of it does come down to confidence and it's okay to even say courage that
voice on the train which is like why you know we all have to overcome those inner voices
that aren't helpful and that's where getting a coach can just accelerate results so much
faster.
One of the golden nuggets I just heard there was not rehearse but ready.
I think that's such a simple mantra, right, that you could have when it comes down to any
speaking gig that you're going to be doing or meeting or whatever, right, is you don't
want be super rehearsed in that realm, but you need to be ready, right?
You need to be ready for what you're to be talking about and everything like that.
So I love that aspect of it.
I'm just laughing so hard when you're saying this because I'm flashing back to a time
where that readiness came in huge handy.
I happened to win a bid to create a large scale program on Capitol Hill about five years
ago.
We were training 10,000 people, including the members of Congress, which was like wild
from a learning and development perspective.
And I was selected to run the first inaugural class for the members of Congress, including
the Speaker of the House.
And I remember, you I knew what I was
I had planned and prepared, but then they brought in like the security, including like a
bomb sniffing dog right before teaching.
And I was not prepared for that.
There's no way to prepare for that.
But because I felt ready, because I felt grounded and you know, I know what I'm doing.
There was no imposter syndrome.
I was actually excited to lean in.
It didn't throw me.
It's a really fun anecdote to tell the story now, of course, right?
But that readiness made a difference.
Yeah, definitely.
It's so crazy that you've managed to speak at these incredible companies and environments,
right?
It's like in the government like that is insane.
I know you touched on presence when you're speaking as well and that side of public
speaking.
So can you dig in a little bit more into that and what that looks like and what people
could be doing and some steps that could be there?
Yeah, I totally will.
And I'll take presence, executive presence, and also really tie it to influence, but not
the art of being an influencer online.
I'm talking about influence in your professional relationships, in your network, and in
your organizations.
I really had some light bulb moments about this years ago when I was asked to create a
digital course on leading through influence.
And what I discovered is some scientific research on the basis of power in an
organization.
literally like how people become powerful in their corporate hierarchy.
Title and hierarchy is one way.
Having access to information that other people don't have is another way.
There are some kind of rules and regulations that stop you up.
But on the other side of power, there was this really amazing kind of study done on
relational power and relatability and getting people to like you, getting to have a
reputation that actually wasn't about you.
It's called refer-
Where other people refer to you as the leader and that 100 % comes down to communication
skills.
It's like ability, magnetism, charisma.
So those things can be taught and it's not like you put a lesson on the board.
This is how to be more charismatic.
But I think I got less charismatic describing that.
But it does come through the art of energetic exchange, practice, thinking quickly on your
feet, landing some jokes and all of sudden your communication muscles are stronger.
Yeah, no, so interesting.
I've never thought of relational power like that.
So it's such an interesting concept.
And when it comes down to implementing this, mean, with the clients you've worked with
before, what did that roadmap look like to start implementing some of these new traits
within their communication and conversation?
Because of course, as you said, right, it's not just a whiteboard session and, okay, they
know everything now.
It's a case of, you're gonna have to keep implementing this in the day to day.
But what does that roadmap look like for your clients when you execute this?
you.
so like, get very excited and maybe I start being a not great interrup- communicator
because I interrupt.
But this is my whole framework.
So it's called the Lyft system and it's four things that leaders can do to immediately
start to get on top of their communication confidence.
The first is get a hold of the language that you are saying to yourself.
Are you thinking to yourself, I hate speaking?
Well, we need to flip that script somehow and say, I'm learning about speaking or I'm
improving at speaking.
And then the second thing is defining yourself as a leader who can communicate.
Right.
The second part of it is
influence that is one of my principles but I truly think about influence as energy and are
you bringing the right energy to the environment and also is the environment that you're
in as a leader your organization is that good energy for you I mean we got to take a look
if we're surrounded by toxicity we either have to courageously change it or maybe leave
because that's not right the third principle is fellowship I am a huge Lord of the Rings
fan I'm a big gamification like who's your tribe
fellowship to me is are you surrounding yourself by people who lift you up and as a leader
sometimes?
We just have to find those people.
They're not going to come to us We have to get build the fellowship, but those three
things Mathematically to me combine to equal traction and the results that you're going to
get and the number one thing that you need to think about with Results is your ability to
constantly try a new action go deeper 1 % better day after day So that is my lift system
and I start with
an assessment so people can get self-aware.
We have to go with the inner work first, but very quickly we can also build muscles and
skills to think about how to activate these lift principles in their day-to-day.
Hmm, it sounds like a formula essentially, right?
Is do these three, you know, these three things and eventually you're going to get to that
point of having that presence and doing all these different things.
But I think the biggest takeaway I took from that was the self-talk element is if you keep
telling yourself that I'm a bad speaker or I'm going to ruin this interview or whatever
that looks like, then you will probably manifest that into reality and probably do that.
It's like there's that saying, right?
Is, you know, he says he can, he says he can't.
They're both, they're both right.
And so this is all about the self-talk principle.
Exactly.
It's your kind of inner work.
Again, I don't want to shy away from that term just because we're talking about our
professional career.
This is what athletes do.
They do a lot of visualization, a lot of mental preparation off the field.
And I saw that for those years when I was at IMG Academy.
But I love play and I love game thinking and a game based mindset to get us there because
it's very hard to just say be competent, be competent.
It's like what?
You're crazy.
But if instead
you could perhaps think of yourself with a little dose of an avatar.
Like today, I'm showing up as that side of me that loves adventure and that craves the
unexpected.
And then when it happens, it gets exciting instead of scary.
So, picturing yourself in a game, like Seth Prebatch is one of my gamification experts.
He said, think about a game layer on top of reality.
What if you could give yourself points for making eye contact?
What if a handshake was
as the win that you needed before the meeting and you just started there to add it up.
yeah, that's such an interesting concept of, of playing it like it is a game, right?
That you have this avatar and today you're going to use a skill set that you've acquired,
right?
And you're going to execute on this and use it that way.
And I think it, it makes it fun in a way, right?
It's because then you're taking the pressure off it and you're just saying, look, this is,
this is what we're going to do today, right?
We're going to play this element of the game and show up as this specific avatar, as you
said.
You mentioned gamification, you know, a few times within this.
So how are you implementing this with?
the kinds that you have, you have this avatar principle, but what else are you doing there
when it comes down to the gamification part?
So the Lyft formula is a game-based way of looking at engagement.
And I like to use it two ways.
For the individual executives that I coach, it helps them get more engaged in their work,
life, and career, right?
So they overcome burnout and get that fire back and get ready for what's next.
No matter what organization they're with, this is about their journey.
And then for the organizations that I support, we use this to activate their culture.
We use Lyft as a
design framework to create learning experiences, leader development pipeline, succession
planning, and it's incredibly effective because it's not just looking at values and
culture principles and mission statements.
This is actually behavior based.
So I've found over these 20 years that through game based learning classes, shared
experiences that people go through together, their behaviors change.
They are more connected.
They are more leaned in.
And so, you know, it reminds me of
A study I did for Hilton where we sent this learning mechanism out to 1500 properties
around the world to see could they invite more people to join Hilton Honors.
And after going through 10 minutes of game-based training a week over six weeks, the brand
saw between a 30 and 70 percent boost in success.
10 minutes a week.
So that's the power of games.
It's just mind-blowing.
Yeah, that's crazy.
Because I've never thought of, you know, because I think we've all understood
gamification, right?
We all understand as a concept, but within business, it's like I know it, but I've never
really implanted it into what it is I do.
And so it's one of those things that now that you've broken it down and the impact that it
can have, it makes sense to look at what you can gamify within the business, either
internally or externally, you know, with the clients you work with.
Because even from a sales point of view, I have worked with some companies before.
where they really gamify the sales process, right?
Because sales as a job, it can be very challenging, very stressful, all these different
things, but the gamification point of it made it so much more fun and more relaxed
overall.
So I think gamification is definitely an interesting way to leverage results, right?
And get these results within your clients.
loved when you said more relaxed because actually flow state is one of the most high
performance ways that a business leader can be, right?
When things just seem to fall into place and you're enjoying it and having fun along the
way and we need to practice what that feels like so that we're not just tense and anxious
and urgent all the time.
We got to get to flow.
So that's been one of the most effective ways and gamification always sits really well.
Like you're saying in an industry like sales.
or there's clear outcomes, but counter to that in learning and development.
Anytime we're just there to learn, there to grow, if we can add play, it will only make
the results more sticky.
I love it.
And one thing I did want to speak a little bit more about was, you because you mentioned
you've worked with like athletes, for example, right, and some really high performing
teams.
What were some of the just the common traits you found within the successful athletes,
right?
Because I think there's always maybe a few obvious traits that you might come across.
So what were those traits?
And it'd interesting see if that can correlate towards entrepreneurship and business as
well.
Yeah, well, it was fascinating to work with so many, you know, junior athletes for years
at this boarding school.
And then, of course, the pre-professional and pros, all of them had in common this, that
they were coachable, that they were seeking feedback, used to getting feedback.
And then that feedback was specific, too.
So I could say to an athlete, hey, I want you to say that same story again, but lean
forward in your chair.
And they'd be like, and it would change everything.
Or let's try this mock interview conversation again, but now instead of pacing back and
forth in the room, I want you to stand really still.
and it would again change their dynamics so we could get very practical and they were
coachable and open to that.
But you think about the world's greatest golfers, football players.
One time I worked with a gentleman who won the Bass Baster Classic, Takahiro Omori.
I mean, just amazing.
And he loved practice so much that he installed a swimming pool in his backyard with the
center line down on it so he could cast again and again and again.
And these are like the disciplined, coachable,
to work for it, parts of athleticism, but now apply that to the very human skill of how we
speak and we can just get better, more comfortable, better.
Amazing.
No, I love that.
I love the feedback loop and the coachable aspect because I think taking that into
entrepreneurship, it's just so important.
The feedback loop is so, so important.
I mean, I think for me, my biggest breakthrough in the last kind of 12, 13 months has been
around product, right?
Is building out the product in a way where obviously you're going to get the results and
you you're going to achieve all these different things.
Because what I used to do at the very beginning of the entrepreneurship journey is I
would...
go ahead and start building out a service or some tool or something that I thought my
clients would need or thought my ideal clients would need.
But I would never go through the process of getting feedback on it or getting feedback on
the idea first before building the thing out.
And it seems like such a common thing for entrepreneurs to actually do because a lot of
times they have like an idea and they'll just build it and build it and they will come.
ultimately that's not how business works.
And the last like 13 months has been a case of, do you know what?
I've got this idea.
I'm going to talk with a hundred of these ICP people, right?
I just have a conversation, float this idea, see what their feedback is, see if that
matches with the pain points they have.
And then at each step, step of building out the MVP and then the product and then the
service even more is a constant feedback loop with the beta users or clients that we have
in the process at the moment.
and
For me, it's been such a great help to shape the service and create what we've created
now, but you know, we're still going through this process, right?
Always improving it, but just having a feedback loop as a system put in place with
whatever it is that you're doing.
And so again, right, you can take this to sales, right?
You can take it to marketing, take it to all these different departments that you have.
It's just having a feedback loop system in place to then get that information back and
then you can make those adjustments, as you said, and then you can improve to the next
level.
It's so invaluable and I hugely applaud you because you've cracked through a barrier that
actually is holding back a lot of entrepreneurs and leaders who are already in the role,
which is that courage to ask and not feel weak.
about it, but to know that when you're courageous enough to say, Hey, hey, this is, it's a
working draft.
It's a pilot.
worked in Deloitte.
We called every program a pilot.
was never finalized.
Right.
But that actually becomes your greatest strength.
And there is this invisible wall of courage the first few times.
But then after you get through it and you're like, Oh, I don't have to have a plus plus
perfect here.
I can show up as myself real and let people in and they're still going to love it.
And then they're going to help me make it better.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's being authentic, right, is one of the biggest takeaways from the conversation
in general is you do need to be authentic because again, when it comes down to like client
relationships, for example, if you from the very start put on like this is a finished
product, completely polished, you can not have any issues.
If any small issues ever do creep into the process, then instantly they're going to be
like, what's going on?
Whereas if you frame it, right, so it's all how you frame it.
If you frame it in a sense that look,
but building this out, every step of the way, I'm gonna really annoy you and ask for
friction points throughout the whole process, so be prepared for it.
And that's why I always pre-frame when I sign a new client is like, that's what we're be
doing.
And it sets the environment and the expectation that we're gonna be asking these questions
all the time and getting that feedback from them.
And we wanna get 100 % truthful feedback.
And so you've got to set that stage early, I think, when it comes down to the business
point of view, especially with the client relationships.
That's what really drew me to you.
And when we were getting to know one another, and I love what you're doing with this
podcast and your business is because it is real.
And actually, I think that real human connection, the beautiful achievement and
fallibility is so important.
It is what sets us apart from AI.
If you want something totally perfect, have the algorithm make it.
Have tech put it together.
But for real, relatable connection that accompanies business goals, that's what keeps
entrepreneurs in.
So yeah, I'm with you on that too.
Yeah, it's interesting with AI that you mentioned that because I always love talking about
AI in these podcasts to see where people's thoughts are with it.
So when it comes down to your industry, I mean, we've already touched on it a little bit
already.
But what are your thoughts around AI?
How are you using it within your business right now?
And how do you think you're going to be using it later on?
And how do you think it's going to also impact the industry that you're in?
So know there's a few questions there.
I'm here for this.
I am fascinated by AI and I am actively on my own learning journey about it.
So I use AI each week in my Uplifted Weekly blog that I write.
But what's cool for me is I actually speak.
the blog out loud.
It's the first time in my life that I feel like I could just wax poetic and then I'm voice
recording myself the whole time.
So I'm asking AI to make sense of everything that I've said.
And it's been a really cool partnership 30 weeks in where I feel that it sounds just like
me.
I can hear my whole story through it.
But have they fixed the grammar?
Absolutely.
I'm also so fascinated on AI twins.
And this is a really cool tactic for any of your listeners who
might be recording their voice coming up.
So I did recently record my voice for an AI twin because I want to know, I want to
experiment.
I almost am competitive with my AI twin.
Can I still be better than her?
But like you talked about recording before and how it sounded too rehearsed and polished.
For people who are going to record their voice for a duplicate clone software like that,
they need to be unrehearsed.
If you read a script, your AI twin will sound like they are reading.
So that art of keeping it real, even though it's for a digital purpose, is kind of
interesting.
And my hope is actually to teach people about it.
I'm planning on launching a LinkedIn live this year called Speaking Skills to Outshine AI.
And my hope is that I'll be adept enough to put my AI twin in the live stream with me and
have a banter back and forth because I love that kind of imaginative meta stuff.
And I think it's what we need to be talking about.
So I want to leave.
yeah, definitely.
What was it?
Just out of right?
Was it 11 Labs that you're using for the voice element of it?
absolutely.
So I committed to doing the professional level recording too, which is a minimum of 30
minutes of speaking, which is kind of a lot actually.
And I'm a speaking professional, but it was a great experience and I'm blown away by how
accurate it is.
It even sounds like me to me.
Yeah, yeah, no, it is scary how good it is.
So 11 Labs is such a great tool.
Yeah, I definitely love using it.
But it's so interesting what you said in terms of your use case, right, is it seems like
the common thing I'm hearing across the board with just business owners in general is
right now it's in the stage of efficiency, right, is how can we just use this for the
efficiency point of view?
I've yet to come across an entrepreneurial business within the service based industries
that we speak to, where they've completely
like stopped maybe one of their services and just using automation and AI.
And so it's going to be interesting when we're to reach that point where someone does do
that, right?
Where they're like, do you know what?
We've decided we're just going to cut down this whole service that we're doing, build up
into automation and AI and launch it that way.
So when it comes down to the industry that you have, I know, I think I know your answer on
this already is that you're not always going to replace it with just AI.
But do you think within the industry itself in the next five years that...
there could be a lot of elements of the service that you have, which would be done with
AI, let's say, rather than one-on-one coaching or group coaching, side of things.
definitely.
I mean, there are efficiencies to having an AI be there for you as a sounding board, a
counselor to take you through.
processes and I aspire to create my own GPT to help people come up with their keynote
speech.
think keynote speeches are over complicated.
There's a very simple formula that nearly every speaker has underneath.
So I see that coming in, but where will it not replace us physically in the room?
I hope.
I mean, that is where I'm coming to the strong foundation of I've seen holograms.
I've seen this former CEO of Deloitte as a hologram on stage.
at Deloitte University, right?
But everybody knew it was a hologram.
And some of us were like, just get here on an airplane.
So that, so yeah, I think that we do need to embrace it.
And the last, I guess, metaphor I would say is AI has dropped us all in the water.
We're all in the water, right?
But some of us are gonna learn how to surf.
And that's what I'm trying to do is get up on the board and surf on top of it and command
it instead of just getting hit by the waves again and again.
Yeah, no, no, I completely agree.
I think that human connection, it's not going to be replaced, right?
At least anytime soon.
But it's interesting.
I was challenged on this view recently.
And it opened my eyes a little bit where I think for the generations that we're in, right?
Where AI, know, we're in our adulthood when AI has come into play is we might not be able
to connect with AI on a conversational level and you know, all these different things, but
there is going to be a generation who are raised with just AI, right?
Where they've had AI from the day they're born.
And so it's going to be interesting to see are these people, this generation, and again,
it'll be 20 years time, but will those types of people be able to resonate and connect
with AI, right?
So if they're in the room, they'll have a normal conversation like we'll be having, you
know, ourselves, but also be able to connect to them on a deeper level.
So that I think that's going to be an interesting shift within the next kind of 20 years
or so on a generational point of view.
But I do think in terms of the next, you know, five, 10 years with our generations and the
future ones or the ones above is
I don't think we're ever going to really connect with AI on a conversational level.
I think we're always going to have that human relationship that we want to build up.
And I think that won't be replaced for us.
But it is an interesting train of thought for the future generations, how that might shift
as well.
it's shifting so wildly.
I think I read that the hundred years of progress that happened from the Industrial
Revolution beyond pale in comparison to the amount of change in progress that's going to
happen in the next 10 years because of AI.
But what I would say to that is we're in a current litmus test now in terms of connecting
with the AI.
I love to ask people if they say please and thank you when they're putting in their
prompts or not.
That is maybe the best personality test in a professional.
And to be clear, I do say please and thank you.
I'm very polite to my AI and we have a very encouraging copacetic relationship.
Yeah, no, that's an interesting experiment that you can run right is look at someone and
when they're using are they saying please and thank you right are they connecting to on
that level who knows.
But no awesome.
And then one of the questions I did have was just around your general journey so far is
have you had any mentors in your life that have really helped shift and you know take to
the next level really because in my opinion mentors are really really important but it
will be interesting to hear your point of view on that as well.
sure, thank you.
Yeah, I have.
mean, I have had amazing people come into my life and give me, sometimes the moment hasn't
been a formal mentorship, but it's just been a moment of aha, light bulb and wow, I can do
this.
And that has happened not only from people that are more experienced than me in their
careers, but a lot of times from my peers.
I'm definitely dedicated to mentoring the next generation of people.
In fact, sometimes I have to pull back on how much I'm giving out.
because I need to still run the business.
But I can't encourage it enough.
It's again that invisible wall of courage to say to somebody, I'm in need of a mentor.
Do you have extra time?
Could I connect with you and get some guidance?
I'm always encouraging people to grow up to become their own Obi-Wan or Gandalf or
Dumbledore, some wise person who can help support.
So I hope that it happens more.
But for me, at the end of it,
I do journal and I do a lot of get it out of my head and off of my heart and into reality
somehow and those own self reflections of What am I doing?
Where am I going?
What do I really want are actually even more important?
So I would encourage that as well
Yeah, no, I love that.
think, think mentorship, right?
As you said, you get those aha moments and not just in mentorship, but also in like, on
like online, online education, right?
For example, it's quite interesting because you know, a lot of people have some type of
course or whatever that's going to be.
and a of people do hate on people that have courses for some reason.
It's very strange because in my opinion, every course that I've done, I've always taken
something away from it.
But there's, always been some bit of information, some, something like that.
And even if 99 % of the knowledge there, I didn't actually utilize, but that 1 % I did,
I'm still utilizing today.
And so the point is that you can take value from anywhere, right?
From any conversation, any peer in your network, or any mentor as well, is that you can
always find something to take away from it.
But I think mentorship in business is definitely very important, especially for new
entrepreneurs and seeing what's actually possible.
Because for me, when I started getting into entrepreneurship game,
At the time I was like, do you know what, I just want to make a couple of grand a month
and I'll be chilling.
I'll be pretty happy.
so I was also, I was also a currency trader at the same time.
So I was like, well, I'll focus on currency trading, just have a bit of cash flow from the
business and then I'll be set.
And it wasn't until I went to a networking event where I met people similar age to me and
it's like, what do you do?
And they're me how they have, you know, about a hundred clients and they're charging, you
know, five, 10 grand a month.
And I'm like doing the numbers in my head and I'm like, is that possible?
I didn't know we could do that.
Like that's, that's crazy.
And so just from those peers that I've met, you know, now become my friends, is seeing
what's actually possible as well, which is very, very important.
So, so now I love that.
That's why I love this podcast and I love this chance to connect because it's an important
conversation and there is somebody out there.
who needs to hear this encouragement.
And it's also why podcasts themselves are such a great way to kind of grow your brand and
to show that side of yourself.
Maybe you don't have time as an executive to mentor every single person that you want to,
but if you can put your thoughts and ideas out into the world through means like this,
it's global.
We can reach everybody and it lasts much longer than that one conversation because it
stays around.
Yeah.
completely agree.
So one of the final questions that we always have on this podcast is if you can go back to
your 18 year old self and you can only take three things with you, whether it's some
business knowledge, some philosophy knowledge, whatever that looks like, what would those
three things be and why would it be those things?
is a money question.
That is so good.
It reminds me of those big questions at the end of Inside the Actors Studio.
So I will do my best on this.
The first thing I would take is to dream big dreams.
My 18-year-old self, actually at 17, I left my small town in Florida and moved to New York
City to study performing arts and theater.
And that was a big dream.
And for a while, I let that be enough.
But you've got to keep pushing yourself to say, why not?
Why not pick my most wild imagining?
Because I might get there.
So that's one.
Two is to protect your sleep, your nutrition.
your well-being, right?
To know that actually you can't function on five hours of sleep a night.
It's just not humanly possible and you will be doing all your great work at disservice if
you're only half present because you're tired or hungry or over caffeinated.
So I would have started that well-being journey sooner.
I shout out to my friends, Jen Fisher and Chris and Kara Moore, who helped get me on that
journey.
And then the third thing, I'm leaning forward.
for this one is bet on yourself first every time.
You cannot rely on a title, an organization, I got this job, this paycheck.
It can all go away in an instant through no fault of your own.
It's just, it's not your own.
So I love the entrepreneur mindset even if you're in a job.
I love entrepreneurship.
I'm a born entrepreneur and betting on myself is something I have never regretted.
I love the message there.
So dream big, take care of your health and bettering yourself, right?
Is the really the key, three key things there for people to take away.
So many had that at 18.
It did take a couple more decades to figure some of that out.
Definitely.
Well, look, thank you so much for joining me on today's episode.
I really enjoyed this conversation.
Me too.
Thanks you.
Cheers.
Cheers.