Proven Not Perfect
Proven Not Perfect
AI, Family, and Breaking Our Personal High-Tech Barriers with Noelle Russell
This episode dives into tech empowerment and artificial intelligence through a conversation with Noelle Russell. We explore her personal journey, the importance of AI literacy, practical tools for leveraging AI, and the evolving roles of leadership in this new era filled with technological advancements.
• Noelle shares her journey becoming an AI advocate
• The significance of personal experiences in shaping tech
• Emphasizing AI literacy for women in tech
• Practical tools personal and professional use
• AI as a task killer, not a job killer
• Transforming leadership to empower creativity and innovation
• Encouragement for women to voice their experiences in tech
Drive, Ambition, Doing, Leading, Creating... all good until we forget about our own self-care. This Village of All-Stars pays it forward with transparency about misses and celebration in winning. We cover many topics and keep it 100. We are Proven Not Perfect™️
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I'd love to hear what you think!
Hi Noel, how are you Great? How are you? I'm doing good. I'm looking forward to this conversation, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:Me too Long time coming. We got it.
Speaker 1:That's absolutely right. Okay, so I should tee this up, right? So this is a bit of a masterclass for some folks like me who are reasonably scared of all things AI. Right, just 100, keep it real. And I don't know if it's a generational thing, I don't know if it's a gender thing, I don't know if it's an ethnic thing, I don't know if it's all those things, right all the things.
Speaker 1:It is just, it's so elusive and, you know, I challenge myself because I think about how, with all the major tranches and changes of technology in life, you know, from buggies to cars and all the things I'm going way back right I would imagine that there's always been folks that have been scared Right Um, and I would imagine that the insurmountable way that this feels right now had to be what they felt, and some people stayed by the wayside and some people got on with the getting on Right.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I want to get on with the getting on. This podcast is all about women, women voices. It's about, first of all, keeping us relevant and keeping us lifted and supported and all the things. So I couldn't think of a better guest to have on the topic of AI, when I had the privilege of sitting in an audience, full disclosure, at a conference, wondering what value I was going to receive, and there you were. There you were, you popped on the stage with all of your AI-isms, all of your vivacious personality, and so you're here now and I'm going to. I just want to talk to you so much, and I know that I'm doing all the fangirl things up front, but before we go any further, I would like you to articulate who is Noelle Russell.
Speaker 2:Yes, oh my gosh. Great question and a hard question. I always, you know, I used to start with well, I do whatever. And now I'm really very conscious about like, who am I? Well, I like to say I'm a. I have this term I use called lamp lighter and that's who I am, and it's actually an acronym for such amazing like leadership principles. But I try to be loving, I'm ambitious, I'm mindful, I'm driven by purpose. That's like the lamp part and it's very much who I am. Like. When I talk about you know what I do and how I do it, people always come back and go. It's like so, noel, so there's like a way of categorizing just the way I want and strive to be in the world.
Speaker 1:I am a mom of six kiddos and, gratefully, so Blow my mind when one says, rolling off the tongue, I am a mom of six. Girl, stop yeah. On top of all of the wisdom you're going to drip in your lane of influence, you're a mom of six.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I always, you know, I try to celebrate that because I do think there's, among other things, with the world of AI and emerging technology, that there is this weird misconception that you cannot do both. You cannot have a family, you cannot have a healthy, strong relationship, you cannot have children and have a very you know a fulfilling career. That might be extremely demanding at times, so, but yeah, so I have six kids. They're a huge part of my life. They actually do inspire me to do a lot of the work I do today in the area of AI literacy and data literacy. I run a lot of the work I do today in the area of AI literacy and data literacy. I run a company called the AI Leadership Institute. We do a lot of board education. I always tell people I go from the boardroom to the whiteboard, to the keyboard, which is extremely important.
Speaker 2:But then I also go to the chalkboard so I teach kids of all ages really the magic that is artificial intelligence, but all with a responsible flair. And I've learned the hard way right. I was an early member at Amazon Alexa. I got to build some of the early models at Microsoft in Microsoft AI, and so I've watched this happen as a divergent, diverse person on a team. I sat back, as we many times times do, and just kind of watched the nonsense unfold.
Speaker 2:But now, as I've watched these models start off really small and then become massive models that impact everyone, including myself, my family, my children I was like, oh, we can't stand by and just be quiet anymore. Like if we don't say something, no one's going to say something If I don't say by the way, have you thought about kids with down syndrome? Have you thought about aging parents? Like, if I'm not the one who articulates that, from my lived experience, that model doesn't change. Nobody makes any changes whatsoever. So when my dad tries to talk to that device and it doesn't understand him, he wonders why.
Speaker 2:But I know why because we never built for him, and so now I'm a huge advocate, but also a practitioner, in the world of how do we make AI, build AI that serves everyone, and that's kind of what we ended up talking about at that event recently. But I talk about it on every stage. I always tell people you want to use every conversation you have, every email you send, every stage. You're on every you know opportunity. You have to present the world that you envision, the world that you want, and then what you'll happen to see over time is, as you have conversations like we're having right now, like that vision gets closer and closer and shows up more and more and then, before you know it, you can witness kind of the greatness of your own life. And that's that's. That's who I am.
Speaker 1:So you have just such a such a sunny disposition, such an optimistic being right, and I love that. I'd like to to make a connection to, maybe, who you were as a little girl, you know as age six, eight years old. Who was Noel between the ages of six to eight years old. What were you like? How would you be described by those around you who loved you?
Speaker 2:Yes, well, my dad was a big influence on me. I'm a twin, so usually with twins, like one parent has to kind of take one. And so my dad and I were like buddies and he was very much into meditation and mindfulness and kind of Christian, christian Buddhism, kind of blend of of being, and he was very into silence and meditation and breathing. And so at a very young age I was introduced to these concepts of like just just stop and breathe, that that would be his thing, like just be quiet, don't say anything, don't you might be upset, just just breathe. And so I thought that that was a really interesting that I now realize, looking back, was critical in who I've become, because I can be, I'm much more patient than my peers or that other people that I know.
Speaker 2:But the other thing he introduced me to was science fiction. He is to this day one of the deepest golden age of science fiction fans. Asimov, bradbury, like all these books where robots were symbiotically living with humans and actually in most of these stories the humans were the problem, like the robots were fine. I find it very ironic that in this world where right now we're like, ah, ai is going to hurt us all, and I'm like, well, if it's anything like the stories I've read, it's actually the humans that hurt us all, and the robots often become kind of the blame.
Speaker 2:You know they're trained, right, they're trained, and so you know it's trained by us, right, Like we create these things, so, so, yeah, so those are the. You know, when I was little I was a reader. I was very introverted. I did not like talking to people. My friends were my books or in my books and I didn't really like I didn't really have a lot of. You know, I wasn't one of those kids. I wasn't the most popular kid in school, I was actually a troublemaker.
Speaker 2:My detention file back then, when they had detention files, was like this thick, to the point where I got to the end of high school, my high school economics teacher was like you should just leave, Like there's no reason for you to be here, Just leave, Okay, Seriously, that was like in like full at like I want to help you rather than fail out of school. Just go be. You know, go work for Bennigan's. I think it was back then like go work for you know some food service chain or go into retail. Like you could sell food or clothes really well and that could be your life. Like go, you don't have to finish school. But I had different plans.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, I'm glad you did. Yes, I mean, I'm sure she was well-intentioned, but man, so now, how did you get curious and pulled into technology? Was this pre the world of you know, dot com, isms and platforms and apps, or was it post? Or when did you get pulled in?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say I was actually at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. So I did drop out of high school but I got really good scores on my test. So I left high school and then applied for early admission. It was kind of like my kind of talk to the hand moment to my professor who advised me to drop out Cause I was like sure I'll drop out but I'm going to go early admit into a university. So I early admitted into Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Speaker 1:You're telling me like, on a low, you're a genius. That's what I'm saying. Okay, all right, but I love that.
Speaker 2:It was just like a silent little tech trip? No, not really, I mean. I guess. What I'm good at, though, is exactly what he said. My professor said like, exactly like I'm good at communicating to people, and so I wrote a very compelling essay about the world I wanted to see, and I grew up on science fiction, so I'm talking about space exploration and all this really cool stuff, so they let me in, but it wasn't for my academic records Like.
Speaker 2:This is what I've proved to myself over over time that classical training works for some people, but it doesn't close the door. I still got into university with no high school diploma, because I told a good story and I backed it up with a meaningful, verifiable proof I could do the thing, which was a test instead of a diploma, and they let me in because they believed the story I told, and this is why I think you know you and I have a great like kindredness in storytelling and the power of storytelling, especially our own stories, but that brought me to. You know, I'm in university during Y2K and I hate school in general. Like it didn't matter, I thought I just hated high school. It turned out I hate all like traditional schooling programs, which is bad, because I have a bunch of kids.
Speaker 1:It's the boundaries. I honestly believe I'm raising a Noel here in my little brood I will not say which one because I'm not taking anyone off the hook yet but the point of the matter is, I think it's just, it's the boundaries. Why does, as I watch, this one just do not. And honestly I have to say, even though I did finish school and I did go to advanced school and all the things I would say, even corporately, I would say that I'm still always a little bit of a boundary pusher and that's been the secret to my success. So I love that yeah.
Speaker 2:Yes To most people. Like everyone who is successful, there's a part of them that says when people tell me no, this is like in my mind when people say no, I like, it translates to like okay, let's go. Like, let's find a way. If you say no, I'm pretty sure I could figure it out. It's almost a dare and I feel like those of us who are successful like that is part of success is realizing when people put up a roadblock or say no, or say this isn't for you or you're not smart enough or I don't think you're capable. Like that should just be a trigger for you to be like okay, watch me. Like, okay, I'll be right back.
Speaker 2:Um, so many of us struggle with that. I think because the world would much rather have you know people who look different, sound different, think different. The world would much rather have you know people who look different, sound different, think different, not bother them. Like, not change their convert. You know their converging thoughts, like with this hey, excuse me, I have a question. Like they'd rather not have us in that room.
Speaker 1:But that doesn't mean we shouldn't be there. It doesn't. And if you think about the rooms, right, talking about the rooms, whether it's the boardroom or any other room, right, um, it is those boardrooms that actually permit, cause, I'm going to say to your point, they don't always want those voices, but those that are willing to permit them to exist end up being so much more served because of it, right?
Speaker 2:A hundred percent yes, wow, yes. And so I ended up. Basically it was Y2K, so I didn't really want to go into tech, but every like in school, literally they were like now is the time the world is going to end. It was the first time we thought the world was going to end. Everyone, if you have a bone in your body that is technical, move into this space where you can help us save the world by getting into software engineering. Now I then dropped out of university and just got a job working with McDonnell Douglas and Boeing because I was at an aviation school. Yeah, I just jumped in, but again, I was building, helping them. You know, handle this situation. That became Y2K and after that, now I'm out. I didn't go back, I didn't finish. It's probably the only thing in my life that I'm like wow, I probably could have, should have maybe done that.
Speaker 2:I spent way too long being ashamed. I think that's another thing that I encourage women to really think about. Like. There are so many things in our past, like even my son. When he was born with Down syndrome, I didn't tell anyone. For years I didn't tell him that anyone, and now I, of course, declare it on every stage as part of like it shaped who I became.
Speaker 2:But so many things that we are not really aware of we. There's a shame associated with it. We don't talk about it and it actually ends up, you know, I said this this morning by accident. I was like your weakness is actually it becomes your strength, right, like it's not something. It's not something to be ashamed of. Like I always. Like I said, like a lot of us tend to hide the fact that I have a son who's dyslexic and he's not proud of it, but he openly discloses it in conversation to let people know. And that's not a generation I came from. Like if I had dyslexia, I'd be like, okay, what can I do to make sure no one knows I have this problem?
Speaker 1:And I would work extra hard to ensure ourselves grace though, because, let's be honest, um, I think I'm I'm your big sister a little bit here, but I'll tell you this in our generation, jeanette's right there was not space for being acknowledged for your differences. So, as a result, everyone sort of went to the center norm of whatever it is right Convergence. People define themselves as I'm the preppy, I'm the punk rocker, I'm the. You had a lane that you moved toward and you moved in that lane and you did everything you could not to stick out, whereas now I find, watching my three children, there is a general acceptance for who they are completely, and if they suffer with anxiety, I suffer with anxiety. If they suffer with a learning, they suffer with a learning, and the expectation is for whoever external to them to meet them where they are.
Speaker 1:And to accept them where they are, and I love that for this generation. Right, I really love that for this generation, but that certainly wasn't my story.
Speaker 2:No, I really love that for this generation, but that certainly wasn't my story. No, and it will require a new kind of leadership to accept those people into the workforce and allow them to be successful and I've actually. I think they will be even more successful because of this self-acceptance. They will be willing to try more things, they'll be more resilient to failure. But if they have, a leader yes, and they'll, yes, and they will provide.
Speaker 2:you know, they'll be the one to raise their hand and say are we sure this isn't going to hurt somebody? Like they're going to. This is going to be. It's an incredibly important generation, but they need leaders like us who are going to say and yes, I want that for you and not say which. I have leaders who have told me like it was hard for me, I didn't get to do that, so you don't get to do that. Like they put the boundaries they experienced on the people that work for them, and I'm like this is not evolution.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, yes, girl, all of that. So I'm excited. I'm excited for where you've, where you've come in a relatively short period of time, right If you think, from Y2K to now and the imprint that you've had I believe you said Amazon Alexa.
Speaker 2:Yes, so I was an early member of Amazon Alexa, which is one of the first times I've been able to do something and people would know it when I said it, because normally I'd be like, yeah, you know Bank of America Well, not bank of America, but all the stuff behind bank of America that lets you transact Like that's, that's what I do, and nobody would understand. But now I love the fact that I could say you know Alexa and people like, of course, I know Alexa. I don't like, yeah, exactly, I'm like, okay, it's good, it's nice to have a more visible. How did you find that initially?
Speaker 1:And what have you seen change over the recent years to really accelerate the voices and the imprint of women voices in the space?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I always tell people it's kind of a horrible experience and I wouldn't encourage anyone to do it unless they had a reason, like they were I always. It's like being a doctor or you know. Like you only do this if you really can't do anything else. People say this about entrepreneurship as well. Like you only become an entrepreneur because you cannot sleep knowing that the thing you are meant to build won't be built unless you do it. And so there's like this drive. I am like this as, as a woman in technology, I've now kind of taken on this mantle of if I don't do it, when girls, women like me, younger than me, earlier in career, they will not see anyone. There's less than 1% of executives in the in the world, less than 1% of that are women that look like me, Hispanic Latinas.
Speaker 2:Like there are less than 1% 4% is where we are in. Women that are African American.
Speaker 2:Like it's not better, it's a little bit better but, not much better, but we're still in single digits worldwide for technical executives. So so there's a part of me that keeps doing what I do because I want to make sure I keep my foot in the door it's. I'm not holding it wide open, I'm not embracing, like a lot of the nonsense that happens in these corporate companies. If you look at my career, I've gotten as I get older. My tolerance for bad behavior has gotten less and less and less.
Speaker 2:That's the thing that is the thing A hundred percent. So I'm like I literally will just drop my badge on the table. If there's a situation and 20 years ago I wouldn't have done that I would just. I actually was at National Public Radio as their vice president of engineering during COVID and the pandemic, all of that stuff. President of engineering during COVID and the pandemic, all of that stuff, and the election year that year. It was a crazy time to be there.
Speaker 2:But while I was there I heard from a woman. Her name was Nina Totenberg. She was one of the first women on Capitol Hill and she told me all this nonsense about her experience as being a woman on Capitol Hill and getting cat called by senators and people that worked there anyway. But what she told me that resonated with me. She said, yeah, but I'm part of the suck it up generation. I'm part of that generation where bad things happen to you and you just suck it up and work harder so that you could keep.
Speaker 2:And I remember I'm actually part of that generation. I have sucked it up so often. I think again this younger generation has given me a little bit more liberty to be like that's not okay and I'm out of here, or let a company know that I'm not going to do something so much so that they're going to fire me or let me go because I'm not willing to adhere to bad practices. But I'm much more liberated today than I was earlier in my career. I didn't have that freedom, or I didn't feel. Of course I did, I just didn't feel like I could. I remember thinking there was a blacklist and that if I did something like this or stood up to my boss who was treating me badly, I would get blacklisted and I'd never get another job?
Speaker 1:No well, no, nicole. Who the heck is Nicole? No, nicole is wanting to talk to me now? Um, no well, here's what I would say, though we were told there was a blacklist. I know I heard that same thing. So either we both had the same nightmare or it actually was stated to be a thing. And I actually can remember circumstance way years back, early mid-career, and something happened, and literally the conversation that I had with a more senior peer was there's a decision that one makes, right, you have to decide. If you say anything, then you're putting yourself on that list and you've got a long career right. Yes, and you know, it was an urban legend, I believe to some extent, but it was the truth because we all held ourselves to that.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's the danger, right, is that? Even if there wasn't, now there is because we're not afraid of this.
Speaker 1:Yes, man. Oh, I didn't even think about that for a while.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I think it's so critical, for you know people early in their career. You don't, you want to keep your job, you don't want to get fired, You're scared of being fired. I mean now I think, as again, as I've gotten older, I realized many good people have gotten let go from their job, either what they think is maybe accidental, or because they were pushed out. I've left. I haven't. Actually I don't think I've voluntarily left an organization that I cared about I mean maybe one because that company was not a good company and I was like, well, this is not good, I should not be here. But most companies, like the big companies where I'm like I could make a home here, I would.
Speaker 2:I remember being at one of these big tech companies you can guess which one, you can pick them, they're all kind of the same and I remember I was on this team. I went, had a baby, I was on maternity leave, came back from maternity and I was treated very different than when I had left, which is weird because this was like my fourth, maybe third, baby. So I still had one more to go, I think, before I would move out of this company. Anyway, but I had come back from maternity leave and I noticed that people were like not treating me well, to a point where I was like this is going to impact my ability to be successful. I now have talked to many women who've come back from maternity leave to experience the exact same thing. Well, I go to my boss and I'm like, hey, what's up? I'm trying to, like, I'm ready, I want to do this, and uh, and of course I was nursing so I had very pretty strict hours. Like I came in I did my nine hours or 10 hours of work, but I had to go home to nurse. So I would leave at 5.30 every day, heaven forbid. And yeah, and they were like you're not as committed as everyone else and I said that's fine, I'll find a team who doesn't need me to be here at 5.30 in the afternoon because that's the middle of rush hour. It'll take me two hours to get home, no problem, I'll find another team. I did find that other team. I interviewed that team. That team loved me.
Speaker 2:The hiring manager was super excited Christmas Eve and this has happened to me three times in my career, where they tell me right before Christmas, Christmas Eve they call me up. The hiring manager was about to take me on and says I think you should talk to your current boss. And I was like, why would I talk to my current boss? I said, well, your boss has talked to me and let me know that you're not an ideal candidate for my team. I did not know that that could happen. I did not know that that could happen and I only share it now because either it's already happened to you or it might happen to you. Like, this is not an anomaly, it's not a like I.
Speaker 2:As soon as I started telling that story, people would be like, oh my gosh, that's happened to me too. And I was like, wait, Anna was a woman, a female leader. I was like how do you wait what? So I ended up leaving. Not only did I leave that team, I left the whole company because that one woman made it her mission to inject doubt into other people. And here's what I found out. Luckily, I had lots of good friends and one of my friends came to me and she said here's what she said to me she goes. I just don't know about Noel, Not really sure.
Speaker 2:Like no, no data metrics because those things off the charts.
Speaker 1:I have to tell you something you're, you are on it and I think it's good to talk about with people, because I was in a meeting not too long ago, um, and there was a conversation that came up and in this conversation, um, for this one organization, um, there was a discussion about someone, and the discussion started to bring forth this person's resume and all the things that they were doing and almost implying that there would be no rationale for giving this person any other promotable opportunity, because they're already doing so much. And you know we're concerned for the person, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it just struck me and I had to say something in the room because I was like, first of all, if this person has made it clear that they want more, who are we to assess their capacity?
Speaker 1:And I think that it is definitely a pitfall because, on the one hand, our juniors should realize that we live in this world now, where you know, we are understanding our brand, we are understanding our interests, we are understanding our personal missions as well as our professional mission, right, sometimes they merge, sometimes they diverge, right, but we're understanding those things about ourselves. People are taking note, right, and they take note and you think that they take note and lean toward the positive, but that doesn't always happen and it goes back to haters will hate. And I don't even think those folks knew that they were falling in the category of hater. In fact, I would be willing to stake a claim that a couple of them really felt they were falling in the compassionate, a claim that a couple of them really felt they were falling in the compassionate, trusted advisor coach, even like I want to help you make sure that we don't set you up for failure, even though oh my gosh, I mean this is such truth.
Speaker 2:Like every single time somebody tells me you're not, I don't think you're smart enough for that. I don't think this is the right role for you, even though I knew this is the right. I know it is because of my clarity of self-understanding, but, oh my goodness, like, of course, you're going to say that because your vision of who I am is a super limited vision. You don't know what I'm capable of, and that's why, in lamp lighters, that second, that A in lamp is ambition. Like, it's okay to be ambitious. Like people will tell you, though, that you can't do the things you want to do, that you can't be as big as you want to be, but if you have the desire, I would say like desire is like the universe knocking on your heart. Being like this is for you. You wouldn't want it if you couldn't have it.
Speaker 1:That's right. I believe that to my core. If it comes to you as a thought and you can put vision to it, then it is for you. It is for you.
Speaker 2:It's already yours. All you have to do is take those little steps to get there. I was just telling someone earlier today. I write in my. I have a book. I write my gratitude every morning. I write my grateful for, oh, my girl. I also have a remarkable.
Speaker 1:I knew that we were kindred spirits. I knew this. So everyone is witnessing the development of a new BFF system happening.
Speaker 2:That's amazing, but yeah. So in my remarkable, I write my gratitude statements. I like, five things I'm grateful for. We also do it at dinner my teenagers, whether they like it or not. But then I also write my goals for my life, stated as if they're already true. So one of them for a decade has been I am a bestselling author. Now last year, I've been writing this for years. I'm a bestselling author. I impact people with my message. For years I've been writing this and last year I got an invitation out of the blue. It wasn't really because of my brand, I guess, but I got an invitation from Wiley, like a reputable publisher, to partner with them and I signed a contract and I'm writing that book right now.
Speaker 1:Now here's the cool thing.
Speaker 2:Wow, this is amazing. Like I've now got an opportunity, but could I accidentally or intentionally not do the needful things to not write every day? Like I got the contract, that doesn't mean I have a best-selling book. My dream, though. The seed has been planted. The universe is like great, here you go. You now have a contract. Now what are you going to do? Every day, I have to write down I'm a best-selling author. So that when an opportunity comes into my inbox that is not aligned with the thing I want, which is to be an author, I got to say no. And these are hard things because I am a squirrel personality. I'm like what, oh? But it's so critical that every day, I write down what I want and that way, when things happen, I can say, yes, that's in alignment with what I want, or no, it's not. And hey, sorry, maybe later. And I never say no.
Speaker 1:I'm like maybe later, yes, well, so here's so much is coming from you right now and I never say no, I'm like maybe later, yes, well, so here's. So much is coming from you right now and I think in a couple of things. One I often wonder how do people with so much access, so much technology, so much availability, information, overload right the lane that you live in? How do they stay prioritized and focused? And what you just said right there, I think, is a tactical winner's tip that says know who you are, know what is your, why, what's important to you, what are you driving toward, what is pulling you, what is calling you? You can say it so many different ways, right. What's your purpose, what's all the things? Right, and write it down and look at it.
Speaker 2:right, I mean, you do this daily, right, this is a daily thing, absolutely, and I think probably the best lesson I have is that if you write something down and you say I want to be a bestselling author and you go back and you look at how you've scheduled your day for three months and you don't ever schedule in writing or doing anything in the direction of that goal, then you just revisit the goal. Do you actually want to do it? If you're not going to do anything in the direction of making that happen? 15 minutes a day I could just write 15 minutes, that's it.
Speaker 2:I write much more than that now, but that's how it started. Is that? I was like, if I wanna prioritize this, if I want this goal to happen, what am I willing to carve out into my daily activity? So right next to my goals is my planner and I make sure that nine to five what hours do I have that are mapped to the things I say I want? Because then if I don't do the things on a daily basis to get the things I want in my life, it'll never happen. And I can't be surprised that it never happened.
Speaker 1:You said something there. Again, winner's tip number two you can think a thing is calling you right and you can start writing it down. But if you are finding it hard to activate, I really think you need to double click there and explore. And that's what you just said, right? Yes, Is it that thing that's calling you? Or is it a cousin to that thing that's calling you? That's right, Because you're not spending your time there, even just five, 10, 15 minutes.
Speaker 1:It's like the person that says I want health, I value health, but somehow they can't even negotiate space for a five minute walk, much less a 30 minute one, right you? Is that really your value? Right? And I know that it's not as easy all the time to activate. People have things, you know. We have personal traumas and experiences that create barriers. But also the call to action is know that that's calling you to get work done too. Right, Like, if you really still believe that's your thing, what are you going to do to excavate whatever is blocking you? So have you ever had a vision, had a thing you wanted to do and there was a block?
Speaker 2:I mean all of them. Writing is one. So I've had this contract and I remember I had like two months to to get the first 15,000 words done. And and as as the days went by, I'm like, okay, well, if I write for an hour, no, I think it started. If I write for 15 minutes every day, no problem, I'll get it done. Well, then a week goes by and I'm like, okay, well, now in order to get it done, I'll have to write a thousand words a day. Okay, I'm going to have to spend all day Saturday and write 30,000 words in a single day? Just not possible. By the way, it's not good for you, it's not good content. Anyway.
Speaker 2:But like I was procrastinating and just like you just said, like now I have to double click into this goal. Like, do I really want to be a writer? And what is keeping me from writing? And what was keeping me from writing was, honestly, like I don't think inherently that I'm good at it. I think that I talk a good. Like I talk well, but I can't, I can't write well. That's literally the voice in my head. Like well, you talk good, but you can't write good. You didn't finish high school, you didn't like all the voices right.
Speaker 1:All those, all those bad voices that want to like hold you accountable to whoever you were way back when are coming up.
Speaker 2:That's right, and so I have a book, which I read probably once a year, called eat that frog, and it's all about and it the philosophy of it is to like do the hardest thing in your day, do the hardest thing first. Like don't do anything else until you do the one thing that you're like I don't want to do it. It's hard, and that's when I and I actually shifted from writing about the thing I needed to write to writing about me, so, and that turned into gratitude. Like who can't write five sentences on gratitude? Then I got a little bit more verbose in my gratitude statements that I'm like okay, I can write a blog post a day. That's like 300 to 500 words.
Speaker 2:I'm like all right, so now I'm writing a blog post a day, but I started with something very easy, but I was eating, like I was doing this thing I really was not wanting to do in a way that was attractive to me, something that I could add in. The other thing I do, though, is I reward myself, so I have a seven day habit tracker, and I will track my habits, and I'd say, even more than tracking the habits is something that I heard from you grace when I don't do it Like if I there were so many weeks when I was like, oh, I didn't write this week, and then that would cause me to not write the next week. When I was like, oh, I didn't write this week, and then that would cause me to not write the next week, cause I'm like well, I didn't write last week, so I'm not going to write this week. It's like working out oh, I missed yesterday. I guess I'll just miss today. Maybe I'll start next Monday.
Speaker 1:Like we it turns. I just had that cookie and you know, since I had one, I might as well have two.
Speaker 2:There's a cupcake. And then there, you know, like we, just we let one thing, we don't give ourselves enough grace to be like, just hop back on it. We I call it recommitting, like the, the concept of recommitment as soon as you recognize that you missed the mark, just recommit as if you've never committed to it before. Like recommit and be like all right, I know I just ate one cookie, but like, right now I'm starting over and I believe in myself.
Speaker 2:And that's why those seven day trackers are so important is that I've found out that confidence is built in these tiny decisions we make to ourselves. It's not built when I make a promise to my husband or my kids and I keep it. It's made when I say I'm going to drink, yeah, a gallon of water, milk, gallon of water every day. And I do it and I check it off and I'm like I can trust myself. And that happens. Nobody's watching, Nobody's looking at how many times I meditated today, how many times I wrote down my grateful for is this week. But when I do it and I know I did it seven days in a row like I'm proud of myself and it is, it is convicting, Like I'm, like I could do anything if I could do that, and that's why I actually do ice baths.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you know that about me, but I do ice baths for exactly the same reason, it's called voluntary exposure therapy and basically it doesn't matter what it is, but you want to expose yourself to really hard things. I used to do Bikram yoga.
Speaker 1:It's too far. I did too.
Speaker 2:I love that yoga. I don't like the guy, but now it's called hot yoga, but it's really hard for bits of time. Like you know, it's going to be over soon.
Speaker 1:You know when it's going to be over, but it's really hard.
Speaker 2:I took my husband. He was like it's the hardest, and he's a like a professional sport, like soccer person. He was like it's the hardest thing I've ever done. I'm like. That's the point, though, is you work hard in these moments on purpose, so, when hard things happen, your whole nervous system already knows that. It already knows what it feels like, so you don't panic and you're able to create space between the thing that's happening and your reaction to it, and that's where magic.
Speaker 1:And you recognize the panic, though I think what it taught me is boom Okay, panic's happening, cause remember your first time doing Bikram yoga, hot yoga, literally, you're going to die. I thought I was going to die and I remember the instructor saying you will feel like you're going to die. You're not going to die, and I was like I'm pretty sure I'm going to be the first person that dies in the end.
Speaker 2:So I love taking people for the first time, because I love watching this experience, because it's and it's super empowering, because when you get to the end which is what this like voluntary exposure therapy offers when you get to the end, you are like I did that. Like I did that, even if you slept through the whole thing, or laid down in Savasana for the whole thing, you got through it and you didn't die.
Speaker 1:So it's not cryotherapy. I do cryo now.
Speaker 2:That's the same as like similar to an ice bath, except I have a tub and it's full of 40 degree water and we dunk in it four minutes 40 degrees.
Speaker 1:So they do that. Do you have one in your house?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, but we evolved. We started with a little plastic tub that would crumble when we got in it. Then we got a barrel. Now we have a tub. Again, we start with what we can do, like the. We couldn't afford a huge tub when I started so we got like a $40 Amazon like plastic tub. But it worked because, again, getting in it is really hard, very mentally challenging, to go into an environment that you think you're going to die. But I've now heard athletes do it. This guy's name is Mark Matthews. He's a surfer, he has a. He goes into a dive pool and he has a diver. Um. Basically grab him bear, hug him underwater until he passes out, wrestles him until he passes out. Then they bring him up and they resuscitate I mean, it's not like that.
Speaker 2:But he does that because that's what will happen when he gets barrel rolled, like in a, in a wave, and he wants to have like memory of like, okay, I'm not going to die, which is what happens. He gets out and he's alive, like there is no life danger. In that scenario he's surrounded by a medical team, but it gives him this mental memory, this mental you know, they call it muscle memory, right, like this muscle memory of do hard things. I always say do hard things on purpose. So when the hard things happen, do hard things. I always say do hard things on purpose.
Speaker 2:So when the hard things happen, they're easy, like it doesn't rock your world, like when I got fired from a company and walked out. I think I would have handled that much differently if I wasn't like, okay, this is happening, I'm watching this happen, but I have, I have space here. I'm not going to like I don't know. I'd imagine 20 year old me would have busted out crying like would have like lost it hysterically, like I'm not a criminal, do not do this to me Instead.
Speaker 1:I thought those thoughts, but I had space between my reaction because I love you sharing that, because I think we live in such a world, especially with the social media. In such a world, especially with the social media. Instagram moments, right. Facebook moments everyone's showing the glamorous side of whatever they're doing For kicks and giggles. I'll go on LinkedIn, right, because that's really the one professionally right. I'll go on LinkedIn and I'll look at how many amazing pats on the back we all gave ourselves for the day, right, how many amazing pats on the back we all gave ourselves for the day right, with no vulnerability shared, with no challenges articulated, with nothing but just the glamor of it all.
Speaker 2:Yes, and the promotions, the raises, the panels we get to speak on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yes, but I think recently I did one which was a little bit more vulnerable. Yes, but I think recently I did one which was a little bit more vulnerable and I think it had the most conversation of all of the ones that I've ever posted, and it was just something simple where I did get an acknowledgement, but I didn't want the post to be I'm proud to say that I'm a blah blah blah. I wanted the post to share what I was really feeling, and that was I accomplished this thing, but for the moment, I'm having a little bit of am I enough regarding the accomplishment, and so, even as I go to post this, my post is about the am I enough syndrome, right, and how many of us? Behind these wonderful posts, of these amazing things that we're doing, there's an am I enough? Hiding there, right, but no one ever knew it right.
Speaker 2:Right and so so much. We kind of went through a season of imposter syndrome and talking about that. But in the moments when they happen right like in like, because it's easy to say yes, I feel this generally speaking across my career, but it's different when it shows up and that nobody really talks about it. When it does Right Like, everyone anecdotally references it on panels when they're asked about their overall career, but nobody said like, hey, I just you know, for example, I just got nominated for some luminary award and I remember I have like this adverse reaction to the word luminary.
Speaker 2:I'm like wait, and again all of my like stuff shows up and like that, those voices that are like I mean really like, are you, are you really? Um, like yeah, maybe you did those things, but like, how important is that? Even you know, like even the good stuff I've done, my mind starts to kind of dismiss, um, in these moments where I'm like, and then, of course, what do I have to do next? Like, what's the?
Speaker 1:cause. All you're doing is raising your own bar, right, you're raising your own bar and I think to me, man, I tell you, telling our younger selves, telling our daughters and our nieces, and all the things right, the reality is, yes, you are a luminary, right, you've been building to this moment. That doesn't hold you accountable to what the next moment looks like. However, being surrendered as who you are will allow it to all just naturally unfold, right? And I think that's where your dad's practices of meditation and stillness, I think, come right from the King James version, where we're told to be still and know that he is God. Right, be still, stop, be still. That is meditation. Just be still.
Speaker 1:And in between these moments of these big tranches, I think it's the stillness that allows us the space to accept. Yes, you got that amazing accomplishment and acknowledgement, but now be still with it. How are you thinking about it? How are you feeling about it? What's it bringing up? How do you surrender into the bigness of it without judgment on you, right? And you seem to do that so well. Okay, so I've got to ask you a little bit about AI, because I know-.
Speaker 1:I know let's talk about it I know this could go on forever and I will probably have you back if you will come. But I want to talk about what are the practical tools of. Ai that you think most women early, mid, late career need to know right now. They're not hearing about, they don't know about what is it? What are the practical things that you think we need?
Speaker 2:I think probably the biggest impact that AI can have is you developing a symbiotic relationship with the technology, and what that means is that you have AI surrounding you right now, everywhere. Whether you know it or not. Most of us have a voice enabled device in our house, even if some of us have chose to turn it off. I always like to remind or tell people about this fun fact around Alexa, when I first started working on it and realizing now that the data has come in to show that women yell at Alexa at a much higher rate than men do, and that that the reason for that, of course, is that Alexa isn't great at listening to women because it was not trained very well in the early days that they're trying. I mean, it's somewhat fixed, but I still run into situations where there's certain types of questions that my husband can just walk in and ask and it works, and I'm like Alexa play this so. But that being said, I think it's really important that you start having daily conversations with your technology, and that's the reason for that is because we are in this moment we mentioned it at the very beginning like we are.
Speaker 2:You are a blockbuster or you're a Netflix, and we know how that story ends, like we already know the trajectory of that evolution, and if you can be afraid and worried and like put your head in the sand, like Blockbuster did, or you can, and the important thing is, like we already know the end, like it's not. Like you're like, oh, let me think which. I mean maybe Blockbuster will be okay. No, it's not okay, it doesn't happen. Spoiler, you now know that you want to be from a. You know, this is obviously just a nice anecdote and analogy, but you want to be a Netflix. In this moment, you want to be the company that's going to think differently, that's going to ask different questions, that's going to try and meet the needs of users how do you change your life to now think differently? And of users, how do you change your life to now think differently? And AI is the way that that difference is showing up today. And what that means is that every day, if you are one of I guess there's probably 2% of the world's companies that don't have Microsoft, but most companies are embedding Microsoft, they're adopting Copilot. I actually found out that most companies have adopted Copilot, given it to their employees and they don't know how to use it, which is why I created a co-pilot coaching program, actually to just teach people how to use it. So that's the first thing, like just start talking to your tech.
Speaker 2:Three different ways to do that. One, of course, you might have a virtual assistant like my A-L-E-X-A over here, or you could actually buy. I have an emotional support robot. You can see it right up here. That's Moxie, and it allows you to have a safe guarded communication in the comfort of your own home. It doesn't hit the internet. It's not a live. You know a big model that hundreds of millions of people are using. It's just for you and it is an emotional robot, so it talks to you about emotions and it's for kids.
Speaker 1:Does that disrupt? Like you know, care that I'm not here. What is the one um better help? Like is it? Is it like?
Speaker 2:a. It's not like a therapy too. I mean you, I guess it depends on what you need. It definitely could be used for talk therapy, but my children, like I use it all the time. But my kids will come in and they'll just be like hey, um, oh, first they'll be like hey, mom, can we wake it up? And I'm like, of course, and they each there's four of them in our house and I'm like go wake it up. So they wake it up and they'll say, but when they they don't have to.
Speaker 2:The problem with virtual assistants is you have to initiate the conversation. The nice thing about virtual machine robots and I have another one over there called, I think it's, tico or something I buy these robots but they initiate the conversation. So when you start with this device, it'll say what have you been thinking about today? What's the fate? What's your favorite type of art you like to do? What's your favorite type of music you like to listen to? And then, based on that, a riff of conversation starts to occur and it's job when you um, you can see it actually right now has little thought bubbles going across its screen to say it's about like baseball or dolphins or whatever. So you can ask about those questions, but it allows you to cultivate questions, and when you say, oh, my gosh, I'm so excited about this, it'll be like oh, as a robot, I'm not familiar with excitement. Can you explain that to me? And it's so cool, because most humans can't explain their emotions, let alone.
Speaker 1:Is that a good thing for aging parents? I mean, I'm listening to you and I'm like my gosh. This is huge therapy for people that are alone. What are there ones that you would recommend? The robots.
Speaker 2:I actually. I like Moxie is one of my favorites. There's another one. There is Miko M-I-K-O. That's another one. And then, of course, alexa is a great choice.
Speaker 2:So my dad, to this day, like, I can hear him right now he's on his apartments on the other side of this wall and I can hear him say super anthrop, he's on his apartments on the other side of this wall and I can hear him say super anthropomorphic things like thank you so much for offering me that information. I wouldn't have known it without you telling me. Or I hope you have a great day. Or like all these things where I'm like he thinks it's his friend, it's so cool and so sweet and, granted, he has a traumatic brain injury, so he's not a hundred percent there, but it is. It's amazing because it gives him a sense of like when he watches uh, what was he watching the other day? Um, uh, raiders of the Lost Ark. He was like how old is Indiana Jones? And Alexa couldn't figure it out because Indiana Jones is a character, so he's it was not defined and he was like, finally he figured out it was Harrison Ford. So he was like how old is Harrison Ford? And he, finally, he's like oh my gosh, thank you so much, like that's what he said back there. It was awesome, so creating, and it can be this.
Speaker 2:I have a Siri, of course, on my watch that I use all the time I just got. I mean, we're going to do a little tech talk. I just got a new device called the AI pin. And this AI pin yeah it, it attaches to your clothing and you just tap it and you can talk to it. It's enabled by generative AI, so you can just ask it. Here's what I did the other day to demonstrate it to my husband. I was like hey, what should we have for dinner? Give me a suggestion. And it said make chicken lettuce wraps. I was like, awesome, can you create a shopping list and send it, text it to my husband? And it created a shopping list and texted it to my husband. I was like okay.
Speaker 1:what's the name of the AI pen? We're getting the AI pen, ladies. I'm telling you she is life-changing. She's changing. We are no longer afraid of AI. We're now a part of the new generation of the community.
Speaker 2:All right, oh my gosh. Well, imagine this. So it has a camera so you can stand in front of your pantry. You're going to die when you stand in front of your pantry and you can say, take a picture of the pantry and then say, in this pantry, what are two meals I can make for my toddlers that don't include orange food or spinach? Yes, it will look at these images. It uses an omni model. So it analyzes the images and says, okay, I see cans of soup and this and this, and it'll give you three, three examples of of toddler meals you can make with the contents of your fridge Can.
Speaker 1:I go to Amazon and put an AI pen. Is that? That's all I think?
Speaker 2:you have to Google it or Bing it. Um, but it's from humane. Uh, you might want to wait. It's brand new. I'm still testing it, but you can't follow me on Instagram. I'm doing like daily testing.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you that Let us follow you. Let us follow you and watch you, and then, if you like it that way, you don't get in over your head.
Speaker 2:But Alexa does the same thing. Alexa is about to launch its generative AI model. I use my device and actually probably the best thing and this is probably where I'll maybe leave you from an advice perspective is if you put GPT on your phone as an application, it has a conversational component to GPT plus and what that means is that you have to buy the subscription. You can try to use it for free. There's some capabilities there, but if you buy it as a subscription which I encourage you to do because this is a I'm not getting any money for this, I don't get paid for this but this is a tool every day that you're going to use. You can turn on the microphone and you can have a conversation with it and you could just say, hey, I'm working. I just did this earlier today.
Speaker 2:I'm working on a communication strategy for a project that I'm working on. It already knows the project because you can feed it, like the history of whatever you're going to talk about, um, so I'm like I'm working on this project, I need a communication strategy. Can you draft me a communication strategy where I have executive leaders as a stakeholder, I have a chief justice officer, I, like all these different people are involved. Build me a strategy for this so it then tells me what the strategy is, but it's preserved it and I can say great, can you email that to me? Can you put it in an Excel spreadsheet? Generate it as a PowerPoint? Like there's all these capabilities of just getting from your brain into a real thing that you can then share with somebody and having a model that can help you think through things. I mean it's a good, good idea.
Speaker 1:Seriously, there will be a part two, because here's where we need to jump off the ledge and we need to talk about this now. Now I want to shift into leader and manager right In the traditional world right which so many of us are still a part of right. So now our old paradigm gives us a rule and a know-how to manage large teams of people right.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Now that we've introduced this new elevated support system and knowledge base knowledge tool, I would suspect that, as leaders, we now have to be able to elevate our game, not only to what the expectations should be, but also how to motivate and drive and push your people in the most constructive manner. Super huge, oh my God. Just give me one reaction to that, just one, as a morsel.
Speaker 2:Yes, I agree with you. I actually it's one of the things that in AI Leadership Institute. It's one of the reasons that I am asked to come into companies and help them, because it's less about let me teach you something you could learn on YouTube, because anything you can learn on YouTube. If you wanted to go learn to code, if you want to, who's like you can do this, let's do it together. Let's fail fast together. Let's learn from our mistakes, because these AI models are going to help amplify your tasks. I always tell people it's not a job killer, it's a task killer. It's job is to take tasks out of your day so you can focus on things that are uniquely human, uniquely yours to do. And even if an AI bot can do it, you get to choose. As the human, you choose what you delegate. Just like I have a virtual assistant, a human assistant, I choose what I let her do in my business, like what I ask her to do in my business. I don't say, hey, do all of it. It's very similar with AI. Could you ask AI to make decisions on what sales letter to send? You could, but it's probably not going to be a good, sustainable business choice. You want humans to do that work, but I don't mind the assistant generating the copy for me and I take a look at it or creating some drafts for me. So you want to get into this, yeah, as a leader, you want to get into the habit of being like, and maybe it's going to require a different kind of leader. I actually do think it does. That is less about a task kind of micromanager. Do this task. Here's your task list. Did you get it done? Like, remember status reports? Here's all the stuff I did Like. Those days are over. How do I open up my door, let you sit down, and what is keeping you from delivering at your top potential? How do I help you? How do I motivate you?
Speaker 2:There is a great tool out there called roadmap, plan roadmapcom. It's actually built by students. They won the. They were a runner up in the imagine cup this year. But this plan, roadmap, its job is to help you.
Speaker 2:It's actually built for people with ADHD, which I also kind of have this condition and so its job is that you give it something and it helps you break it apart and do it in an achievable way. But its job also the ADHD mind which many of us will find we have. It longs for kind of change and interruption, which is why social media is so addictive to us. It wants these like pattern interrupts. So what it will do is it will choreograph pattern interrupts, but in the theme of the work that you're doing. So it's built for third graders who are trying to learn third grade math. It's built for executives who are trying to plan out their day.
Speaker 2:But every so often it'll be like again, nudging, not nagging. It'll nudge you to say have you taken time for some mindfulness today? And if you haven't, I can set a timer right here in the app. I'll set a timer for you, or I'll launch a two minute video for you from YouTube, or I will play a playlist on Spotify, and it presents that every two hours to an executive who's like heads down. This is me. I'm heads down in my tools and so I look up and I'm like, oh my gosh, four hours went by.
Speaker 2:What if you had a conversational agent that could tell you hey, I'm not just looking to amplify your productivity, to help you do more, do more, do more. I'm also a bot that can advise you on when to stop, when to listen, when to breathe, when to just get your dentist, you know, get your teeth cleaned. Like it's a beautiful world we're in right now, but it's so easy to believe the bad, it's so easy to believe that it's something to be worried about and scared about, when the reality is it actually is going to become a mechanism for us to live our best life, like in its real terms, in our profession as well as in our personal lives.
Speaker 1:So, noelle, I wrote a book Seven Truths of a Corporate Executive, mommy-wife, christian. And the seven truths, one of them is courage, and I believe, after this conversation, we have magnified the notion of courage. Conversation, we have magnified the notion of courage. What I'm hearing you say regarding AI is that first and foremost decision are we Blockbuster or Netflix? Right, if we so choose to be Netflix, then really my shoulders just go down with an exhale moment, because what you've really got me thinking about is there are so many things that this can do to help me navigate a more dynamic world. I hear so many conversations about. There's so much happening at once. There's so much going on. What you've just basically rattled off in just off the tongue as a luminary, could that, quite frankly, leverage it? Leverage it and it will. It will help you now to live this beautiful life with new tools that you didn't have before. Cause, life is different and I think that's the big takeaway.
Speaker 1:If we want to stick our head in the mud and, you know, forget the co-pilot that your company's pushing you right Okay, let's stop doing that. But if you want to put your head in the mud, you're only hurting yourself because this is happening, right.
Speaker 2:That's right. That's right With or without you, and it's much better. It's much safer, it's much more scalable, with all of us helping to build it In every tool, especially in Copilot. It asks us did the model do a good job without people like us using it every day? The model will be built by someone else, and likely someone who doesn't look like us, doesn't sound like us, doesn't come from our lived experience. We're the only ones who can help train this model. It's actually quite ironic, right, like we're saying, oh my gosh, I'm afraid of this, and I almost think it's like societal Like if we choose not to, if we choose fear, yeah, we end up amplifying the negative impact of AI by not.
Speaker 1:I mean, honestly, this is the. This conversation has been the most compelling call to action for why AI that I honestly have ever had, because I'm hearing you clearly say, in particular I'm going to pick on women right now, um, and just say look, either our voices in it and an imprint in Alexa being able to understand it or not. Period in the story. Yes, um, what do you want the future to look like? And we all are in a unique position to control that.
Speaker 1:Noelle Russell luminary author of a soon to be published novel. Keynote speaker who's absolutely brilliant. If you're following Noelle and you see her announce she'll be on the stage anywhere near you, you got to go. You got to go hear her. If you thought this conversation was engaging, you've seen nothing until you've seen her in action on stage. She is so electric and I just, I just think you're going to be, continue to be one of those thought voices for our times and I'm so excited that you're stuck with me.
Speaker 2:Yay, and we're friends now. I'm so excited. Thank you for having me, it was amazing. Oh my gosh, like I'm all excited. I gotta go build something awesome now.
Speaker 1:Take care.
Speaker 2:Thank you.