Business Talk
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Business Talk
Innovative strides Akylade is making in AI security, cyber resilience, and risk management.
Curious about how a lawyer transitions into a cybersecurity powerhouse? Uncover Alyson's remarkable journey from practicing attorney to becoming a pivotal figure at Akylade, where she's pioneering the future of cybersecurity education. This episode promises to enlighten you on the innovative strides Akylade is making in AI security, cyber resilience, and risk management. As Alyson shares her insights, you'll gain a deeper understanding of the critical role cybersecurity plays in today's business landscape, highlighting the importance of being prepared for potential cyber incidents.
Explore the dynamic and multifaceted world of cybersecurity careers through Alyson's lens, drawing parallels to the varied specializations seen in the legal and medical fields. With a passion for relationship-building and clear communication, Alyson offers invaluable advice for aspiring entrepreneurs on aligning business operations with customer expectations. Learn how to foster long-term success through consistent customer experiences and strong team dynamics, ensuring a partnership-driven approach that transcends mere transactions. Get ready to be inspired by Alyson's expertise and vision for a secure and cooperative future in business.
Welcome back everybody to our podcast. I am just so excited to share and have an opportunity for Allison to talk to our listeners a little bit about what her business is all about when it comes to Accolade and just kind of sharing some valuable insights from her point of view on how she's been successful. If you enjoy hearing success stories and learning new tips and discovering strategies to grow your business, make sure to hit that subscribe button and turn on the notification bell so you'll never miss an episode. Also, if you would like to be a guest on our show, feel free to reach out to as well. So, with that being said, how you doing, allison?
Speaker 2:Good, how are you this morning?
Speaker 1:I am doing great. Did I pronounce it right Accolade.
Speaker 2:You did. Accolade is correct.
Speaker 1:Well, when I was doing some of my research and I want to kind of, you know, have you share with our listeners a little bit about your background, but when I looked at Accolade and I looked at your website and you kind of bridged the gap between and doing, and I really love that. It's kind of your positioning statement too as well, but it goes further than that. You say whether you're an individual seeking to enhance your skills or an organization aiming to boost your team's capabilities, accolade is there to provide you with affordable, relevant, practical certification that directly aligns to your cybersecurity position, and I think that word cybersecurity really kind of stands out. So, without me doing all the talking, let's just go dive deep into this and tell us a little bit about your background.
Speaker 2:Sure, well, I mean, as you know, you and I have known each other a long time and through many, many careers and businesses, right, Absolutely yes.
Speaker 2:We've got a long history, absolutely, so a little bit about, I guess, my background for people who don't know me, like the ADA does. I started as an attorney. I've been a practicing attorney for over 20 years and actually had represented Accolade when they first started in 2023. And after a bit of time I really loved what they were trying to accomplish and do in the industry for cybersecurity profession and really make that practical application as opposed to just a brain dump type of exam. I myself am not a great test taker, but there is a need to have some validity and verification of someone's actual skills in this job market. In this day and age, cybersecurity is such it's not even a hot trend, it's a necessity for every business, right?
Speaker 2:It is something that you have to make part of your business planning at this point. It's not a matter of if you get hacked, it's a matter of when and can you recover right. And so I had actually approached the founders of Accolade and said you guys don't seem to be moving as quick as you should. I would love to have an opportunity to help move this along and really get it up and running. And so when I joined, they hadn't actually released any certifications in the market. I joined part-time in October 2024, released any certifications in the market. I joined part-time in October 2024, came in full-time January of 2024.
Speaker 1:So happy one-year anniversary to me at Accolade Congratulations.
Speaker 2:Thank you. And we've released five certifications in that time, including one for AI security, two for cyber resilience a foundation and then a practitioner level. So do you understand it and can you apply? It Is really that foundation and then a practitioner level. So do you understand it and can you apply? It is really that foundation and then practitioner part, and then two for risk management, built on the NIST risk management framework, and then the cyber resilience is on the NIST cybersecurity framework 2.0, the current version that came out in February. So we've been very busy this past year. We've got a lot more coming in 2025 and really working on that practical side. So up to this point, it's been a lot of case studies. And can you apply that knowledge if you were in that job?
Speaker 2:and doing the things you need to do. Can you show us you can do that? We're actually going to break into more of the tools come 2025, like the NMAP scanning software which for some business owners are going to go what does this matter? Why does this matter? In short, you want your team. You know, it's always that trick of hiring people who know more than you do to do the things you don't do.
Speaker 2:Well, right, so they can compliment and round out what you might be lacking in, and you want a team that has the skills, has the knowledge, has the understanding as to how to keep your business secure and running and functioning and then recover when an incident occurs and to be able to plan for that, and so that kind of attracted to me to what they were doing at Accolade to be part of it.
Speaker 1:I think that's well stated. I think that's well stated and in today's environment, alison, when you mention the word AI, right, that's huge Mm-hmm it is. Can you expand a little bit on that and what you see, coming from your point of view, in the business that you're in?
Speaker 2:Well, ai is fascinating, right? So there's a lot of talk of it's replacing all the jobs. The way that we really see AI and that anyone should approach AI is it is a tool just like any other tool that you have, correct? And these tools, there are safety measures you need to take. If you're going to take out a hammer, you don't want to smack your thumb, right? I mean, I don't have to make a mess of it, but it is to help break it down that way, right You're not going to go use a chainsaw without the proper safety equipment and, you know, put on your goggles before you take certain actions.
Speaker 2:Ai is no different. Before you take certain actions, ai is no different, and so people think it's just plug and play. But unless you know what you're putting in and then what the machine is doing with your information on the backend, you're just acting without your safety tools right, without your net in place, and so AI has that ability to help and to help grow and to help businesses make decisions. But you have to make sure you're setting it up properly, that you're maintaining it properly, that you have people that understand the security ramifications and not each AI tool is the same. They operate differently, they keep your information differently, they share it differently with other parts of the world and other users, and so you don't want to have somebody on your team just using a free version of ChatGPT and then everybody in the world now is you know that information is used to kind of train the model and then everybody has access to your business information.
Speaker 1:You don't want to do that.
Speaker 2:So you need to have you know. If AI you're like this sounds interesting, don't just jump into it and kind of play with it with your information, right, you're going to want to find someone to show you how do you secure it, how do you use it properly for your team. But again, it doesn't really replace somebody. It always takes human oversight, right. There's hallucinations where if the machine doesn't know the answer, it's going to make one up and if you don't know any better, you assume that's accurate information and then you put that out there and that's not a good thing. I mean for lawyers in particular. There are ethics opinions about using AI. There's judicial opinions about when an American Bar, aba Association opinions that are out there about lawyers who use AI to draft their pleadings to file in court and aren't checking the sources to make sure they're actual rulings and not made up opinions that they're citing in their materials.
Speaker 1:In other words, that they're true and valid right.
Speaker 2:Correct. Yes, so the validity of what the output is from your AI is one thing. What happens to what you're putting into the machine is another. Right, you don't want to stick your fingers in the machine and lose them. So same thing with your business information, and that's that security piece on the back end and knowing which companies are doing what with your information. You know, are you the product at the end of the day when using the machines, right? So there's a lot to understand there, but it's worth exploring because there are things. I mean, I use AI a lot to help me get through certain things in a day, so I tend to. As you could tell I'm a little straightforward and a little long winded at the same time.
Speaker 1:Well, I've always known that about you, and that's admirable, to be honest with you, because you're not fake, you're true at heart. Well, and so I train the.
Speaker 2:AI to try to sound a bit like me, right, because there are times when I need to respond to customer support tickets and you want to make sure I don't always think like a customer support agent, and so you know I use that to help add that language. You know I still put my actual input. I don't have the thing do it for me, and this is where that human interaction piece is, but it's like help me respond to this ticket and here's a draft response, and then it can soften or add to it or add a call to action that I didn't think of, and so it really cuts down my draft time from a few minutes to maybe a few seconds. That helps me in a day when I've got thousands of things to take care of. So there's lots of good uses for AI. It's great at examining large things of data and compiling them.
Speaker 1:Compiling.
Speaker 2:It really does. But for lawyers you can't just go throwing discovery into chat, gpt, because there's ethical considerations there, right, that's people's private information, that's business information, that's banking information, that's birthdates. You don't know what's on the documents that you're putting into it to analyze and you have to make sure that everything's set up securely.
Speaker 1:That's a very, very good point, wow, and you never think about that. But like you said earlier, you were saying, ai doesn't replace the human element. It only enhances and allows you to gather your thoughts, as long as you have the validity or the truth behind it. Is that the way it kind of looks like?
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, I mean, that's the thing. Is anything, anytime even our team uses it, it absolutely takes human oversight to make sure and some tweaking right. The way we look at it on our end is it's an 80% solution, right? Right, which means it's not 100 percent, but it does. It can help remove a lot of the ministerial tasks. I know some companies that use AI to help them calendar things and respond. You know we've got a chat bot on our website now that will at least direct people to you know, the right knowledge database articles so they don't have to sift through it and they don't have to wait for an email response from a support team. But it also allows them to still talk with a human if they want to, right? So, yeah, we give it that option, right? You want to make sure that people get with any? I get, I'm the first one to yell at a phone and go operator, human representative. I don't. I don't want to go through the press one to go here, because if I'm calling, you.
Speaker 2:I have a question I can't find the answer to because I've looked for it right, but not everybody does that. Sometimes they just get on the phone and there are questions that can be fielded and answered quickly with the help of AI. So it is that balance right.
Speaker 1:Is there a story that you can share that you've experienced and there might not be, that really your business has kind of enhanced and it can be a short kind of story, an example. Do you have anything like that you want to share?
Speaker 2:Like what, what accolade is enhanced. Or just like a success story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, something, a success story that you can share with our listeners. That comes to mind, and sometimes you know, I'm putting you kind of on the spot too as well. So if you don't have it, that's okay.
Speaker 2:No, it's interesting. So Accolade is relatively is new as we're seeing it in there and the feedback we get overall is that you know we wrote a textbook that really supports the first two, the cyber resilience exams. Know we wrote a textbook that really supports the first two, the cyber resilience exams and a lot of individuals have come back with this book wasn't just for, like, how to pass the exam for them.
Speaker 2:They use it as a day to day guide in their work, and so that was to us a big thing of success that we were able to not just teach an exam right that it was to be able to provide an actual resource that practitioners at high levels are telling their teams.
Speaker 2:you need to read this book and keep it at your desk as a guide day to day, and for $9, it solves a lot of problems. It shows them how to do, you know, to implement the NIST cybersecurity framework in a real fashion for any size business, no matter where you're located, and so it is a tool.
Speaker 2:but it's also written at a 10th grade reading level, because a lot of people that use you know, even though the NIST cybersecurity framework is a United States concept, we'll say, right, that comes out of our governing documents here. Other countries use it almost exclusively because it's a framework that can be applied and is meant to be applied. It's not really a regulation, but more of. Here's a set of suggestions, and the actual document itself is only 28 pages, but we've created something where you can take it and go oh, that's how I make the pieces fit. Essentially, it's like getting a box of Legos without the instructions and you can make anything you want out of it. We give you some instructions to show you how to make something out of it.
Speaker 1:I like that, those two words. How to right? Yes, having that, having that book put up to the side and in layman's terms, so the average person can actually read it. So kudos to you, because when you talk about cybersecurity, read it. So kudos to you, because when you talk about cybersecurity, that and the word itself is something that you know. You really kind of like step back and say, wow, what is this? There's a lot in that word.
Speaker 2:Right, it's an umbrella. People think, oh, cybersecurity. But they don't realize, even when they transition into the profession. And that's been a rewarding thing for me is getting to meet all of these different people at different stages in their career, whether they're brand new and hey, I just want to do this, or transitioning from something else into this field and understanding that umbrella and what there is so much that's under cybersecurity right it's.
Speaker 2:Are you hacking? Are you incident response? Are you you, you know, uh, doing the sock analyst type of thing, looking at how do you respond to the incidents type of deal? Are you helping, you know, do the um preparation and planning for a business? Are you the consultant that says here's how you put it into place? Are you the chief information officer who's directing the entire team? There's so many different ways to be part of it. It's kind of like law. That's why I find this fascinating. I find there's a lot of similarities. You go to law school and you can become a lawyer or a doctor right, and you can technically practice anything within there. But when you think about your lawyers or your doctors, if I practice in business law, I may not know the first thing about family law.
Speaker 1:And if I do?
Speaker 2:criminal law. You don't want to hire me to do antitrust. If that's not one of my, my unique skill sets within their specialties. Yeah, when you go to a general practitioner, you're not going to ask him for your proctologist exam like generally speaking, right? So cyber is really like that, where it's got those little bit of nuances and specialties within it, and so a lot of people just think cyber is one thing, but really it's just that umbrella that everything else is housed underneath.
Speaker 1:Wow, allison, such great information in such a short amount of time. I love it. And you know, you really bring a sense of you know value in terms of what you're doing. You know for your customers and I love that so much too as well, and you definitely know what you're talking about. So, on another note, there's a lot of there's listeners here that are wanting to help grow their business. There may be some that are aspiring entrepreneurs. I always try to give you know, give them some tidbits from, from our guests such as yourself. Can you give any kind of inspiration or insight? Few examples on what makes you successful.
Speaker 2:So that's such a great question, and and success is defined in so many, so many different ways right. It could be dollars, it could be goals, it can be. You know, whatever that definition is is for you and for me it's always several different things relationships. So for me, I mean, as you know, I've always built whatever business I'm doing on a relationship basis, right?
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:It's that trust right, it's that ability to communicate, it's that making yourself available and really providing that human level experience that you can't get otherwise, and that care and that empathy to what you know as a lawyer. People come to you with your problems right, With their problems right, and it's your job to help them try to navigate something that's otherwise difficult. Because, honestly, who wants to go to a lawyer, right?
Speaker 2:Not even lawyers want to hang out with other lawyers, generally speaking, right. So you come to us with a problem, and so what's always made me successful is, as you mentioned at the very beginning, I'm human, I make mistakes. You know I'm human, I make mistakes. I put on my pants one leg at a time, just like anybody else, and I try to understand where you're coming from, but also try to see past where your roadblocks might be, and offer solutions, not just on the legal side, but also on the business side.
Speaker 2:I did a lot of business law and working with organizations and how do we get you from A to B to maybe to Z right? Whatever that is is for you and be part of a partnership, as opposed to just I'm going to fix this one problem and move on. And so that's really what gave a longevity of success for my, my companies, my law firms that I had been a part of or built on my own and then and subsequently sold, was those long-term relationships, and not just with me, because I can't sell me right, excuse me.
Speaker 2:But with my team right and with what we've built.
Speaker 2:And so part of that is for a business having those policies, procedures, operations, standard ways of how you're going to operate your business and how you're going to connect with your customers, so that whether they're talking to me or they're talking to you or they're talking to another member of my team, it is a similar experience, even though we're all humans with different. But we know that if you're representing X brand, you address it in a particular way way so that it's consistent, right, and so it's scalable. It makes your job so much easier if you have scripts on how do you answer customer complaints, how do you answer the phones, how do you address those concerns or issues, what are your communication metrics with your team? Do you you know, when you're talking to a client or customer, what are those expectations and do you lay it out up front and then do you satisfy it Right? So if I say to you, you can expect to hear from me maybe once a month on the status of your case, if you don't hear from me, you should be worried.
Speaker 1:Correct.
Speaker 2:You know, if you do hear from me, you're like great, they haven't forgotten about me.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And that's such a big thing in certain business. And of course, that's much more on the service side. If you're selling, you know when you look at something like Accolade it's not just a product and I don't treat it as just a product. It's not just a certification exam. We really want to help, be your partner in watching you grow and develop right and that's just me, even as a lawyer, and that's always how I approach the business of.
Speaker 2:If I'm here, it's not just another checkbox thing, it's meant to be. What's the purpose? How do we help you get where you need to go? And if I feel that you've succeeded right and you've shared that you've accomplished what you're looking for, then I feel that success, then we've done what we needed to do to help you get on your journey right. Whether that's measured in dollars or not, part of it is really for me genuinely is did we get you to wherever it is you want to go?
Speaker 1:Right. Well, that's well stated. I couldn't have said it better myself. So, as we wrap up here, could you provide our listeners a way to get a hold of you with Accolade, your website, as well as a phone number?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. Actually I think it's on my little thing if it's showing correctly, but it's.
Speaker 1:AKYLADEcom is the website, it does show.
Speaker 2:It does. And then our number is actually 1-866-ACCOLADE A-K-Y-L-A-D-E, which is 2-5. Oh, now you're going to make me look it up.
Speaker 1:I think it's 2-5-9-5-2.
Speaker 2:Let's, I think it's 259-5233. I knew there was going to be a test, right, but the easiest, quite frankly, is you can just email me. Please don't spam me, but I would love to hear from anybody that wants to chat. Allison A-L-Y-S-O-N at accoladecom. So I don't use AI to answer my emails. I read and address all of my emails that come in and usually people are a little surprised that the CEO is emailing them back. But I'm like, don't be, that's who I am. If I have time to be able to address this individually, I want to do that. Like I said, it's a human approach, right? We just want that connection.
Speaker 1:And that's not always a bad thing when the CEO takes time out of the busy schedule to reply to an email to you. That's actually how it used to be in the past. So thank you so much again. It's such a pleasure. I'm glad you're able to share your insight about your business. Congratulations on your success and hopefully we can have you back again in the near future.
Speaker 2:I'd love to. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me this morning. You're very welcome.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning in to First Media Consulting Podcast. If you enjoyed the podcast, subscribe today To nominate a business you would like to recommend to be on our show. Go to firstmediaconsultingcom or call. Thank you for.