Inspire AI: Transforming RVA Through Technology and Automation
Our mission is to cultivate AI literacy in the Greater Richmond Region through awareness, community engagement, education, and advocacy. In this podcast, we spotlight companies and individuals in the region who are pioneering the development and use of AI.
Inspire AI: Transforming RVA Through Technology and Automation
Ep 8 - AI-Driven Leadership Transformation: Drew Saur on Navigating Tech Careers
What happens when a tech engineer becomes a leader in a world increasingly shaped by AI? Meet Drew Saur, a career coach with a unique perspective on transitioning from technical roles to leadership positions. Drew shares his own transformation journey from engineer to COO, and now to a career coach. Promise yourself the insights you need to transition from being a mere problem solver to an opportunity creator. Drew sheds light on his six-pillar methodology, emphasizing the importance of recognizing one's value proposition and leveraging networks to propel career growth in the fast-evolving tech industry.
Discover transformative career strategies through the eyes of tech executives who harnessed relationship-building and storytelling to break through career stagnation and advance to top leadership roles. Drew also discusses the nuances of mentorship and sponsorship, especially for underrepresented groups in tech. By understanding the difference between having a mentor and a sponsor who actively champions career growth, tech professionals can effectively navigate their advancement paths. It's a conversation rich with real stories and practical advice on how to inspire teams and influence strategic decisions.
AI tools are not just reshaping industries but also transforming career coaching practices. From platforms like ChatGPT to ResumeWorded, Drew explores how AI can enhance personal branding, automate low-level tasks, and even provide tailored coaching. However, he urges tech leaders to maintain authenticity and personal input in their professional narratives. Dive into the ethical and strategic implications of AI in leadership, as Drew discusses the need for curiosity, experimentation, and understanding AI's role in reshaping organizational structures. The episode concludes with a look at how tech executives can strategically integrate AI tools to stay ahead in a competitive landscape.
Welcome RVA to Inspire AI, where we spotlight companies and individuals in the region who are pioneering the development and use of artificial intelligence. I'm Jason McGinty from AI Ready RVA. At AI Ready RVA, our mission is to cultivate AI literacy in the greater Richmond region through awareness, community engagement, education and advocacy. Today's episode is made possible by Modern Ancients driving innovation with purpose. Modern Ancients uses AI and strategic insight to help businesses create lasting, positive change with their unique journey consulting practice. Find out more about how your business can grow at modernagentscom, and thanks to our listeners for tuning in today. If you or your company would like to be featured in the Inspire AI Richmond episode, please drop us a message. Don't forget to like, share or follow our content and stay up to date on the latest events for AI Ready RVA.
Speaker 1:In today's episode, I'm thrilled to introduce Drew Sauer, a career coach who specializes in guiding tech executives to their next level leadership success. He's the founder of Drew Sauer Coaching and his unique six-pillar methodology has helped countless tech professionals transform technical prowess into strategic leadership. As a former tech COO, he's coached 100-plus leaders to executive roles, leveraging insights from the top to accelerate their success. His approach is refreshingly hands-on, focusing on real-world actions and measurable outcomes as he helps others navigate the often tricky transition from technical expert to effective executive. As AI reshapes industries at breakneck speed, his insights on integrating tools like ChatGPT and Resume Worded offer a powerful edge for anyone looking to stand out. So if you're eager to learn about how to thrive in a rapidly evolving landscape, building leadership skills, leveraging AI and propelling your career forward, this is the conversation for you. Please join me in welcoming our guest, drew Sauer, to Inspire AI.
Speaker 2:Hey, jason, happy to be here. Thanks for having me on the show and thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1:Can you start by telling us a little bit about yourself and your business? And, of course, you're interested in AI.
Speaker 2:Of course. Of course I mean it starts with probably a little bit of background on my career, which is I spent most of my career in technology. I started as an engineer and coder and worked in financial services, mostly in the New York area, and I had a great career working on various technology systems, going through the different sort of phases of technology platforms, all the way up through kind of cloud conversions in my last role, and I was actually the chief operating officer ultimately of a tech organization in New York where I had a very large team I had like 750 people and it was going great and at a certain point my boss decided to retire. That's kind of what happened and I had to figure out what did I want to do with the second half of my career?
Speaker 2:And while I love the job, I love the company if you know, financial services there's a lot of auditors and regulators and things like that and I decided I want to do something different and that's when I shifted over into this executive coaching business, mostly because that was an area that I sort of struggled with this executive transition in my own career and I saw a lot of my staff having the same challenge and that's when I launched it and so that's what I've been doing the last four plus years is helping tech leaders sort of grow their careers and get into the executive ranks. And in the context of our conversation today, obviously related to AI is a huge both opportunity and challenge to a lot of tech firms and a lot of sort of tech leaders in terms of what's next, and so that's really where my interest comes from, mostly from what AI can do for us. Then, obviously, from my career perspective is okay, what does that mean to everybody and their job? So that's a quick little history of how I got to where I am today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I believe we're all at that turning point, whether we've recognized it or not. It's interesting to hear how your career transitioned into this field and then how you're making another pivot into technologies that will advance and make your field of interest thrive even more. So can you walk us through your coaching methodology? How did you tailor it to tech executives?
Speaker 2:Of course, and what I would say is the major message that I have for all kind of the tech leaders and people I work with is the idea that it's not a bigger version of your job, it's a different job fundamentally. And most of us who grew up in sort titles like vice president and we get rewarded for delivery, we get rewarded for doing the right thing on time, on budget, high quality, and then at a certain point that changes right. And that's really where I focus. And ultimately there are kind of six major pillars that I work with people on, and it's this idea of, first off, how do you get the role, and then, secondly, how do you thrive in the role? And to get the role is relatively straightforward, but you have to think a little bit differently about it. So the first thing you need is sort of an offer and a value proposition answering the question of why would somebody hire you as, say, a vice president? Right, it's not just that you could do the job, it's not just that you're ready for the job, because there are a bunch of other people who want that job too. So what is your unique thing? So I kind of help people figure out what is their unique value and how to sort of position that.
Speaker 2:Then you need leads, which, as you grow in your career, increasingly becomes based on your network and recruiters and relationships. So you got to figure out how to do that. And then, ultimately, it's about selling yourself for the role, right, which is just part of what needs to be done. You know, myself included, not a lot of people like to sell themselves. It's just not necessarily a comfortable thing, but in order to have a bigger impact, it's one of the skills that you need to build. So that's another thing that I work with people on. So that's kind of the basic. You know, offer, leads and sales is how you get the role. But what about when you're there?
Speaker 2:Right, and ultimately, the executive role really is based on three things that you need to figure out right. One is this kind of amorphous term around executive presence, which is basically the question of do other people see you as an executive, which means the questions you ask, the way you engage, the things you talk about. You need to think about how to do that at the executive level. And then, ultimately, it's about kind of relationships and results, right, and as you go up again, relationships become more and more important, because it's not necessarily about getting it done, because you now have teams to do that. It's about putting the right people in place, getting other people on board with what you want to do.
Speaker 2:So, ultimately, those are kind of the six things that I work with people on and, in terms of tailoring it right, that six is pretty much good for everybody. That's the map, but obviously everybody has a slightly different history, a slightly different story, and so that's really where, when I work with people, it's like OK, where are their strengths, where are their challenges? And we typically work on the one or two things that they really need to focus on, and those tend to make the biggest difference in their career.
Speaker 1:Right, ok, so just to recap, you've distilled down through your coaching program and six pillar framework One, the offer to the leads, and then three sales, and then you kind of have another side of it where you are helping them develop their presence and their relationships and understand what results to go after. Is that what I heard, right?
Speaker 2:Exactly Like you think of it as two. Is that what I heard? Right? Exactly Like you think of it as two halves of the equation. Right, and you know you need both to succeed.
Speaker 1:Right, okay. And so by tailoring you know this specifically to tech executives. You're bridging their deep technical expertise with their executive mindset, so that gives them an ability to uh determine what their measurable value is to the outside world and and be able to express that through what their unique proposition. What did? Did you say unique?
Speaker 2:Yeah, unique value proposition and a simple way to understand it is when, when you're in a tech organization, you're working with other technical people, right? And they they know what you know. They have a similar background. They get it. And as you become a leader, you increasingly work with people outside of technology.
Speaker 2:It might be in product, it might be in sales, marketing, legal, right across the enterprise, and those people don't have the same background, which is why, again, the way you communicate, the way you engage, has to be different, because they have a different background than you do and they're not as steeped in the technology, they don't understand probably as much as we do, and so that's really one of the things you need to adopt to be successful.
Speaker 1:Indeed, yeah, okay. What are some of the most critical leadership skills you would say that tech executives in 2025 should adopt?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say there's two classics and kind of one new right. And the classic two are sort of again this kind of vague concept of executive presence, but really it's the question of your ability to convince other people to do things right. So, how well can you communicate, how well can you influence? Because, again, at the more senior levels, you can't do it alone, you need other people and you need to be able to convince them. So this kind of communication ability is one. The second one, which is kind of again classic and perennial, is sort of the strategic mindset, right, which is the question of what do we do next? Right, and that's a question that, again, executives are asked to answer, which is understanding the technology front, the competitive landscape, the environment, everything else, and answering that question of what do we do next. And those are true decades ago and they're still true today.
Speaker 2:I do think that the tech fluency is that third piece and it's becoming increasingly important, particularly with this conversation today, because of AI and what that is really doing to change everything. Right, if you think about the last few years of technology, they were for technologists, right. If you think about moving to the cloud, to a non-technologist, what does that even mean If you put a product or a marketing person up against a AWS console, what would they do? They probably wouldn't know what to do, right? But if you give them chat, gpt, everybody knows what to do. You just ask questions and you talk to it, and so suddenly this technology revolution. Right is not just for technologists, it's for everybody. And so what, what are the impacts of that is going to be very important for all the leaders.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, so definitely communicating complex ideas would be a game changer for the the tech executives, being able to learn the new skills and apply them on the job, while communicating them effectively to their customers.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. I think it's an important note that all tech executives should hear to stay relevant and effective in their field for sure. Can you talk a little bit about how many tech leaders struggle transitioning from technical to executive roles? And how do you help them specifically to bridge that gap?
Speaker 2:I would say that the main struggle and this is kind of what we talked about a little bit before, but there are two main struggles One is people get rewarded for this execution mindset, the get it done mindset. That is absolutely critical. It's important to every function to get it done well, on time, high quality, etc. As you sort of peer to the other executives, and one way I often talk about it is this service mentality versus a partnership mentality. A service mentality is where somebody says, hey, drew, I need you to do this. Here's a project. It's really important to the company. I'm putting you in charge, go get it done. And now I've got to execute it. But I am effectively a service provider to them. They define what needed to be done and I'm getting it done.
Speaker 2:Eventually I need to be part of the conversation of what should we do? Right, and that's kind of that transition where, if you're used to basically getting an initiative, getting a project and then executing it, getting yourself into those conversations is sometimes a challenge. And it's also a challenge because you're really good at that thing, probably right. So people love it when you execute and what do they want you to do? They want you to do more of it. So this is why it is a struggle sometimes, because you have to be the one to break yourself out of it right, which means that you need to engage differently. You need to ask some different questions. You need to basically make them see that you can do other things, and that's really one of the things that you know when I help people. You know in my coaching practice, there are questions to ask, there are ways to engage, but ultimately it's the how do you get them to see you differently and show that you are ready? Because just doing your job really well, unfortunately, is not enough these days.
Speaker 1:Right on. Yeah, it sounds like you're helping people make a mental shift from becoming, or from being, a problem solver to an opportunity creator. Exactly, yeah, and it's more than just organizational strategy, it's like personal development strategy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because it's a lot about how you think about yourself, how you think about your job and how you engage with others, and it is I use the term reframe Right. You need to reframe the way you see the world and change it from again the sort of execution mindset to an executive mindset, right, which is what we're all trying to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, managing tasks to inspiring teams and influencing strategic decisions. Absolutely, that sounds good. Thank you for digging into that one with us, sure, so how do you measure the success of your coaching engagements?
Speaker 2:This one's a pretty straightforward one, right? Ultimately, it's do people get the jobs that they want? Right, and I work with people who are trying to move up the ladder, whether it's a manager, director, director to VP, and the ultimate, you know, measure of success is did they land that role Right? In a broader sense, I'm also trying to help people take more control over their career right, because a lot of times people do the job and then they hope they are seen, they hope they did it enough. They don't really know how the promotion thing works and they're just kind of waiting, and so, ultimately, my sort of main goal is to give people more agency in their own career Right, so you understand the landscape, you understand the rules and then you can set yourself up for success in a much faster way, right, so that's my goal is to get them to the job, but ideally much faster than they would have before they started working with me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's pretty straightforward. It just reminds me of Jerry Maguire's show me the money statement, right, Like, yeah, you can be my coach all you want, but I'm, you know, I'm looking for you to to increase my income or give me my promotion. That's, that's what it amounts to. It sounds like that's pretty awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the idea. There's a lot of coaching. I mean, coaching can be very valuable in many different scenarios, but for for for me again, coming from the tech background, coming from the delivery background, I'm big on outcomes, so to me, that outcome is the clearest way to know that you've added value, and that's what I'm trying to do.
Speaker 1:Totally, and tell us what inspired you to become a career coach anyway, and particularly for tech executives.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's I did. It mostly comes from kind of lived experience. Right, and I had a great career and, as I said, I started as a coder. I was doing projects. I worked for Accenture, which was a consulting firm, and did great. So every couple of years I did great work, I got promoted, great work, got promoted.
Speaker 2:And then I was at a company and I was a director, ready for executive director promotion, and for that I was equivalent of a VP in our world and I worked really hard. I got a great bonus, I got a great rating and I didn't get promoted and I had great mentors, great supporters, but they gave me this sort of generic advice around well, it takes a little longer. Build your executive presence, you need to be seen more. These things that weren't super helpful for me. So I decided to kind of double down, work even harder, had a great next year, got an even bigger bonus, all was great. And I still didn't get promoted. So that was two cycles in a row that I didn't get promoted.
Speaker 2:And that's when I realized that, okay, something isn't right here, I'm not understanding this world, and sort of took a step back, looked at kind of what the what the executives were doing versus what I was doing, and that's when I really had this epiphany that it's like, oh, it isn't just working hard and doing more, it's doing different, right, and that's one of those things that, as soon as I figured that out and again I focused on some of the stuff we talked about in terms of relationships and changing the way that people saw me and generating more strategic ideas and things like that I got promoted, I got executive director, managing director, and then, as I said, I was the chief operating officer and it's that sort of mid-career linchpin that made all the difference for me.
Speaker 2:And I saw that again in my own staff who were trying to grow. They often had the same problem and it seemed to me as both a common need for tech leaders, because a lot of people kind of feel that stall point in the middle of their career and there really wasn't a lot out there. There was all this sort of generic advice, but not the tactics of OK, literally what do you say when you want to go meet an executive. I thought I could add some unique value there and that's why I decided to launch my own business.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, you mentioned this at the beginning and just now, just briefly, can you tell us what your go-to statement is on how you help people make that mental shift between doing more or not doing more and just doing something different?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and this idea that it's not a bigger job, like that's the ultimate thing, is that you cannot hard work your way into an executive role. That's just not the rules. That's not how people judge you. There is a relatively clear line and it's much easier to see on the other side, like if you ask any executive, they're very able, very easily able, to judge whether they think someone else is an executive Before you get there. It's very hard to see, but there is a relatively bright line and again, it's this realization that it's not more of what you're doing, it's adding new things that you didn't do before. Right, that's the most important piece.
Speaker 1:Indeed. So being passed over for promotions in the past had inspired you to commit, at some point in the future, to helping others and supporting them on preventing them from hitting the same pitfalls that you hit yourself.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great. Okay, can you maybe share us a success story where your coaching significantly impacted someone, specifically an executive's career?
Speaker 2:impacted someone specifically an executive's career. Yeah, happy to. And you know, one of my favorites is something that I've seen repeat a few times, but I think it very well illustrates how quickly things can change if you do the right things. And so this was a gentleman named Shelly. He worked at Microsoft, he was a director there, and he came to me and he basically wanted to work with me because he had had that conversation right. Again, it's very similar to my own situation, like very well regarded, like done really well, was well rated, and he talked to his boss about getting promoted and his boss had said yep, absolutely, you know, you're on the track, but it'll probably be basically two or three years. That was kind of the timeline he gave him. And so he came to me and he's like I don't, I don't really want to wait two or three years, I want to start looking around. And so we started working together and one of the things I always sort of recommend for people is you know, as you learn some of the stuff that we do around relationships and engagement, you know, if you have a day job, particularly, you have a practice ground, right, go try these things out, because it's like any new skill, new habit. You need to figure out how it works, you need to kind of build it in and be comfortable with it. And so an assignment I typically do with people is say okay, I want you to go meet with other executives, I want you to go have a different conversation. Don't make it an execution update. Don't give them status. Talk to them about their problems, what are their strategic challenges? Just have a different conversation. And so we started doing this and literally less than three months later, his boss came to him and said hey, you know again Shelly was his name. It's like hey, I've heard a lot of great things from other leaders in the firm because he had been going out there and meeting various managing directors and VPs and stuff like that. And he basically said and you've made a real difference and I'm going to put you up for promotion. Said and you've made a real difference, and I'm going to put you up for promotion. And he did. And he got promoted within six months. And you know, he actually did end up leaving and he's doing another thing and he actually got sort of a senior vice president position outside, because he kind of continued.
Speaker 2:But I always love that story because that's often what people hear oh you're doing great, but just give it some time. Right If it's give it some time. But just give it some time, right, if it's give it some time. That's code word, for you're not showing the behaviors that we want to see, and I hope that if I just let you do some more stuff, you'll kind of naturally pick it up. But these things are very learnable and so you know this story and this again this happened a few times where when you practice it, suddenly opportunities open up. So that's an example of one where, again, it's just adding new behaviors can make a difference and it can happen quite quickly.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So from this particular example, this associate was a senior director and, stagnant in their career trajectory, wasn't getting much support from leadership. They then went and had conversations based on your, your impactful approach. Right, you're coaching them through this, this relationship building, executive presence, uh, awareness type, uh pillar, right? Um, they were able to get their promotion. They jumped to another company and got another promotion, and so on and so forth, um, doubling their, their salary. That's amazing. I would love to meet this person honestly and get their get their side of the story, but I know it's confidential so I won't ask.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it's great, all right. What strategies do you suggest to help underrepresented groups advance in tech leadership?
Speaker 2:That's a great question and it's one of those things that the core skills and the core things you need to do are the same, but for particularly underrepresented groups, my advice always is, again, the storytelling and communication skills become even more important because if you're in a situation where your voice is going to be heard less potentially than others, having those skills, being able to make yourself heard, is critical, and that is a skill set that you can build. But also, you know this, mentorship and sponsorships are key right, being exposed to and growing your own relationships and having a network outside right. And so it is, you know, the same advice I give anybody, but it is something that do more right Again, communication and networking being the two kind of core pillars of meet more people learn more about what they do, learn more about what the challenges and the needs are of the organization or whatever job you want, but really put yourself out there.
Speaker 2:more is usually the fastest way to address that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I think most of our audience would be fairly familiar with what a mentorship is, but can you explain what a sponsorship is?
Speaker 2:Yeah, A sponsorship program is just a more formal version and this obviously depends on the company and what their particular goals are. But a mentor is somebody who can go to advice. A sponsor is someone who is active in your career growth, right. And so a sponsor is somebody who will basically look out for you and say, hey, there's a new opportunity over here and so-and-so would be a great candidate, and they try to expose you to hey, you should try for this. It's not necessarily that they're going to give you things, but they're supposed to keep an eye on it from their presumably more senior perch and help sort of grease the wheels, if you will, and get you to more opportunities, see more things and actively help you grow your own career.
Speaker 1:Oh, that is cool.
Speaker 2:That's a relationship.
Speaker 1:I need to explore myself.
Speaker 2:They're harder to get, but they are very valuable if you can get them.
Speaker 1:In your experience, are sponsorships well understood between the requester and the sponsor?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I would say and I can give you the question originally was around underrepresented groups there are.
Speaker 2:There are often formal programs or for women or minorities or things like that, where there actually is a commitment to say yes, this is kind of a mentorship, but it's also somebody who's going to keep an eye on you, somebody who's going to help you identify opportunities, and oftentimes it's a it's a more subtle relationship between you and a mentor. A mentor can easily become a sponsor if they become an active champion and they think you can do really good things, right. So they're always wanting to show your value and add to it, and really it's one of those things that you can kind of figure it out based on what are they willing to do for you, right? If they're willing to answer your questions and give you advice, that's awesome and that's a mentor. If they're willing to start to say, introduce you to new people, then you start to move on to that sponsorship because they're taking active action and using some of their own network or opportunities to move you along. So that's a great way to kind of test where you are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think I think it makes a lot of sense to inspect for your inner circle where you you get the most support from and can leverage their influence in helping you take the appropriate steps and open the right doors. So yeah, thank you. It really resonated with me to hear you say that storytelling and developing executive communication is pretty much on point. For any tech executive. It doesn't come natural but it is definitely coachable.
Speaker 2:Definitely.
Speaker 1:How do you think tech executives stay relevant in such a rapidly evolving industry?
Speaker 2:What I would say is it starts with kind of this lifelong learning, right? I mean, particularly if you've been in technology. It's just one of those industries that just continues to evolve and you know we can talk a little more about AI in a little bit, but it's one of those things that is just going faster and faster. So being a lifelong learner, staying curious, is one of the most important things and particularly as you kind of move up in your career, it's important to note that you know the actual technology becomes harder and harder to stay on top of. There's only so many technologies you can master, whether it's a coding language or a tool set or something like that. So understanding again some of these more transferable skills, like strategic thinking and the innovation communication we talked about, but also asking yourself what is the impact of these technologies. Your job, particularly as an executive, is not necessarily to code, but it's to say what is this going to do to my business, my industry and everything?
Speaker 1:else.
Speaker 2:And so that's really where you want to sort of continue that. And this is just another plug for the networking and peer learning, because one of the easiest ways to do that is to go meet a bunch of other people who are also thinking these things and share ideas.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely the lifelong learning piece and staying curious, having an innovation mindset, are all skills I think that are super important for leadership of the future. So you just touched on some of the technologies. I'd like to know your perspective on how you see AI influencing career paths of tech executives and possibly the next decade.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so predicting the next decade of AI influence is going to be very difficult. We can start with the idea that it's only going to get more powerful from here, right, and so I would say that you know this again, this idea of tech fluency. You just need to keep up with what's going on, what the possibilities are, and there are really two halves of the equation that you need to think about, right? One is how does AI impact the products and services that we offer, or whatever company you are, because it's going to be embedded in everything. And the other one, which is potentially even more challenging, is what does that do to the organization, right? What does that do to the jobs? What does that do to the skill sets as certain jobs become, you know, augmented via AI?
Speaker 2:Some may become replaced via AI. Where are the places that you know human innovation and engagement really shine, and where are places that you know might make sense to? You know, have an AI agent or something like that? Do it. So, again, thinking about business and organization are probably the two major pieces that will be key for figuring out how AI is going to influence anybody's career going forward.
Speaker 2:Yeah this one really resonates with me.
Speaker 1:AI Ready RVA as you know, I'm part of this podcast is developed and powered by AI Ready RVA. As you know, I'm part of this podcast is developed and powered by AI Ready RVA's leadership. I think it's important for everyone to consider, whether you're an executive role or not, how prepared you are for the future, where AI is literally integrated into every aspect of our businesses and, as you pointed out, having that technical fluency and ability to learn from these experiences and effectively integrate AI into the products and processes like you said, and, of course, the strategies to be able to drive your organization's success.
Speaker 1:that is key to a successful future for many, if not all, leadership. I think I completely agree. Okay, yeah, I do.
Speaker 2:So let's dig a little deeper and talk about how AI is transforming the field of career coaching, specifically and particularly for executives that you work with. Yeah, it's an interesting question, and it's a good one, because the stuff that I'm seeing, even in my own business, is very parallel to what's probably going on in many different businesses, and so the first aspect is all the basic stuff can now be done by AI or chat, gpt or tools like that, whether it's sort of cleaning up your resume, writing a cover letter and you know. So basically any of the simple things like bad grammar or spelling mistakes or things like that should all be sort of gone right. And there are also things even in my own practice I have and it just because it's fun for me like I built an agent on chat GPT which basically I loaded up all of my training, all my stuff in it, and it's a way for people to interact and get some feedback based on the way I would do things, you know, based on everything I've learned. So just this idea, you have this kind of virtual coach which is a version of me that seems to be pretty accurate. I mean, it's only going to get more accurate over time.
Speaker 2:So again, then I have to think about, you know, even in my own business. So then, what's my value if there's an AI that can answer most of the questions? And it sort of comes down to I think the best example here is the idea that, okay, if everybody has access to AI, suddenly every resume, every LinkedIn profile should all be pretty good, right, it's as if you had a professional writer do it. So, if they're all pretty good and what used to work, which is well, it was just badly formatted, all this kind of stuff, if that goes away, what is the differentiator? And that's where it goes back to our storytelling and our focus, which is the AIs can't tell you what you're really good at.
Speaker 2:The AIs can't tell you right now what the hiring manager is looking for and understanding the problem. They kind of give you an idea, but it's still much more art rather than science, right, and that sort of value proposition, the value matching and ultimately the communication, is the thing that AI isn't quite there yet. And so again, this idea of you take the low-level tasks and you have a tool that can do it for you, right? Whenever I have to write something, I can always have a first draft or get some ideas from ChatGPT, but then I have to make sure it's what I want to say, yeah.
Speaker 2:So what I would say is, in summary, it really is having an AI do the base work. All the easy tasks are something that is what I'm seeing in my business. So what other people are going to see elsewhere? And again, this idea of okay, so what's the art, what's the thing that will make you stand out, is really where you need to think about how are you different than the AI and what it can do, and that's the thing you need to bring to the table as your differentiator.
Speaker 1:So you built your own GPT so your students, if you will, can talk to you when you're not around. I'm just curious how, yeah, have you seen that feedback from them yet?
Speaker 2:I mean, I've had a few people doing it and I've gotten some really good feedback, and the difference is and this is where you know again thinking through AI, right?
Speaker 2:So AI is generic and has most of you know it's read the entire internet and can talk about you know pretty common stuff, they can talk about pretty common stuff, and so what that means again, I might happen to do it through ChatGPT versus Cloud or something else, but what that means is the advice it gives tends to be the advice it gives everybody, and so part of my coaching practice is trying to give people advice that isn't the same as what they can read on the internet, right?
Speaker 2:Something that's different because ultimately, that's what we're trying to do is you need to differentiate yourself, you need to find something different, and so I have you know just little things about. You know particularly the way I suggest people interview, the way I suggest they write bullets is slightly different, because I focus very much on that tech executive, right. So it's different advice. And so getting an AI to know the way I would do it and answer it the way I would answer it, you know it took a little bit of time and effort, but having had people change it. They've told me, and I sort of set it up to be like okay, as Drew would say, you know, pick a phrase for me and then he would give advice based on that. So it is very tailored to my specific philosophies, which is what you know I teach everybody in the community.
Speaker 1:Did you provide them a set of prompts or are they just learning how to use it based on their own specific knowledge of GPTs?
Speaker 2:Right, and so what my job was and again it's you know.
Speaker 2:I'm sure there'll be more versions and it'll get better, but basically you know, because I've done everything on video now and things like that, like I have, you know, hundreds of pages of transcripts and things based on me talking about. You know the way that I approach things, and so I loaded that up to to GPT and then I had to do like and like everything else. You have to do a little bit of reinforced learning. I would ask you questions and it would answer in a way that I wouldn't, and then I'd have to put in your instructions and say, well, no, you need to. You know sort of match this stuff Exactly, you need to do X, y.
Speaker 2:So it did take a bit of training, and so that's when my clients say, hey, what do you think of this cover letter? It then goes as well as Drew would say here's the structure, here's the structure we use in Drew Sauer coaching and it will coach them on the way we do it. So yeah, I mean, most of them have some experience with ChatGPT, but helping them sort of get the most out of it is the goal.
Speaker 1:Nice. And last question on that topic have you tried operator yet?
Speaker 2:I have not tried operator yet. I am curious in terms of what it can do, and this is where you start to get to that again, that agent level of it can actually take actions on your behalf. That is another line that we got to think through. It's one thing when it's giving you feedback. It's one thing when it's giving you ideas. It's one thing when it's giving you feedback. It's one thing when it's giving you ideas. It's another thing when it's taking actions. And you know that's that is going to be a new world to explore and we can talk about this in a little bit, but that's a great example some of the things that you're gonna have to think about as a leader going forward yeah, of course okay well, tell us a little bit more about specific ai tools or platforms that you use in your coaching practice.
Speaker 1:We heard a little bit about what you've offered your students. What do you use and how does that enhance the experience for the tech executives and maybe even how have they been? How has that impacted your work?
Speaker 2:Sure, and you know, for example, one of them and you know specific affiliations. There are a couple of tools like this, but is a a tool called Resume Worded, which is a tool with an AI engine that is specifically designed to look at resumes and job descriptions, and what it's trying to do is understand what the job is looking for and give you feedback on your resume based on that. And again, what is it good at that we're, as humans, aren't as good at is that it can easily digest all the specific nuances. It doesn't forget a word. It doesn't it good at that we're, you know, as humans, aren't as good at is that it can easily digest, you know, all the specific nuances. It doesn't forget a word, it doesn't get tired, it doesn't skim over certain sections of the job description, so it can look at it holistically and do a really in-depth analysis of how well it matches. And that's very useful because, rather than spending time reading it, in like two seconds it can tell you oh, it talks a lot about data architecture or customer service or cloud or whatever it is, and I don't see that in your resume, so it can quickly tell you the things that are missing.
Speaker 2:You know, but like everything else, it's not perfect, right, sometimes it highlights words that don't make a lot of sense to the human, but that's a tool. Again, just from a workflow perspective, makes it very easy to review and score resumes. It can figure out what is a quote, unquote, good bullet again, which is a subjective task, but it's really able to do that. So that's kind of the main thing. And then things like you know, chat, gpt, in terms of you know role play exercises and pitches and interview prep and things like that. Those are things that I've encouraged kind of my clients to use as well and they can be very helpful too.
Speaker 1:Do you just back to your your chat bot, do you?
Speaker 2:do you have a nickname for it? Yeah, I call it it's. It's Andrew, so it's sort of the Android version of Drew. So that was yeah, that was what I came up with. Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 1:Now gone through some of the some of the tooling AI advancements, let's talk a little bit about advice. I always like to help our listeners learn a little bit more about how they can integrate AI into their decision-making processes.
Speaker 2:What's your?
Speaker 1:advice for them.
Speaker 2:I mean, my advice right now is to use it to test hypotheses, expand ideas and be creative. Right so it is. An advisor is kind of the role that I would sort of advise myself most people to actually use it in, right it is. Again, for those of you who know how AI works, it is still a semantic engine. It's basically predicting text based on having read effectively the entire internet, and it actually is really good at that and can come up with a lot of good ideas. But it is not, at least at this point, grounded in irrefutable logic and it can still make math mistakes and things like that. And so what I tell people is use it to stimulate your thinking, validate your thinking, test yourself. You know I'm personally not quite ready to have it in a decision making perspective, because I don't think we understand enough about that, but I do think using it to help balance your own intuition and provide you a great advisory service is probably the best use case for it at the moment.
Speaker 1:So no agent reasoning for you tomorrow, then huh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, it depends on what it is right and this is where part of it is. As I said earlier, like I come from a financial service background, right, that's where I worked for many, many years and would I put an AI agent in charge of like real money, meaning like millions or billions or trillions of dollars? Absolutely not. If I'm ordering from DoorDash, you know like what's the worst that can happen is it gets that yeah right, exactly Right.
Speaker 2:So if I get okay, that's that I would probably be willing to try. And that's really where, as a business person, you want to think about. It's like every decision is is a risk adjusted decision, right, what is? What is the impact, what is the likelihood that what I want to have happen happens? And then what is the probability that something will go wrong? And those are the same kind of thinking you want to think about in terms of what would you put AI in charge? And a lot of that is we don't know how good these things are going to be. So you want to think through the downside cost. So if this goes wrong or better yet, when this goes wrong, what happens and what's the consequence? Right, and If you're comfortable with that, again, doordash curly fries instead of my spicy fries, you might be fine. A million-dollar cash transfer not so good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you're saying it's like a blend of science and art and what we need to consider when we keep decision-making and that sort of forward thinking with these technologies to ensure risk management strategy is upheld. Well, I got you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All right. So let's bring it back up just a little bit, or tell us how AI is reshaping what it means to be a successful tech executive.
Speaker 2:I think the main reshaping I would say is, you know, again, the core decisions that we talked about in terms of strategy and communication are the same, but the context is now much different and I think there's going to be a much stronger push for people to start embedding AI because, they see it, it looks really good on the surface, right, you know, basically, having an initial conversation looks really powerful. It's only until you get in some of these deeper ones that you start to see where some of the boundaries are, some of the flaws are, and so my guess is there's going to be a huge push from whether it's the business community, whether it's customers themselves, to say, hey, give us more AI enablement. And, as a leader, you're going to have to sort of think how to navigate that. What are the right decisions to make? What are the best things to do? So?
Speaker 2:Understanding, particularly like the ethical and business implications, right, we you know, most people who are in this space have heard of examples where you know AI is making decisions on loans. And, again, if you know the background of AI, you know there's no specific logic. People don't know exactly how these things come to a decision and if, again, you're making these things that affect people's lives. You just need to be very thoughtful about sort of the ethical and business implications of these kind of things. So you know this idea of what can you delegate, what can you not. I think these are going to be critical challenges that are going to, you know, test a lot of the leaders in the next decade.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I'm hearing that story of how you see the world right now, with AI and integrating it into more and more critical processes and things that touch, you know, financial services, and it sounds like the differentiator will be those that can execute it safely, ethically, within a risk-averse manner, to create the right guardrails, and all of that to ensure that the generated outcomes are the most appropriate outcomes and that you're keeping the customer safe. And that's where you know the future is and that's where the big money and the big impact is, I think, personally.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it meaning, if you can solve that problem, there are lots of opportunities, lots yeah.
Speaker 1:But, in general, like to be a successful tech executive tomorrow or in the future, you need to be able to seamlessly integrate AI into daily workflows, regardless of how much money it is making for you.
Speaker 2:Agreed. I don't think it's something that you know. Maybe there are a few industries here and there, but I think it's almost everybody's going to have to address this for their company. No matter what you do, it will be part of your decision making going forward.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what do you think some of the mindset shifts are that are crucial for executives to work effectively across or alongside the AI systems.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and this again ties back to some of the themes we've already talked about, which is we're entering a world where there aren't necessarily easy answers, right. So you need to be curious, you need to do experimentation, setting up limited trials, trying things out, trying to figure out where the boundaries are, figuring out again this kind of partnership model. Right, ais aren't magic. I mean, they feel like it sometimes, but what is the role of the AI? What is the role of the humans in the organization? What is the right like in this partnership idea is probably a good one to say how do you bring it together to get the best of both? And you know, just building that trust little by little. So, again, you're comfortable with where you're using it and understand the risks involved.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think the balance is between trust and a healthy skepticism, to ensure that the AI remains a tool that enriches human decision making and doesn't self-destruct on our behalf.
Speaker 2:Yep agreed.
Speaker 1:Cool. And what do you think about advancements in AI and automation? How do they affect executives in tech?
Speaker 2:I mean, I think in terms of AI and automation, there's two, one of which we already talked about, which is it's going to change the org, your business, your structures, your teams, pretty significantly. I think the other one that we haven't talked as much about is the competitors. So it will enable a new crop of people to create products and services that are going to potentially not take a lot of capital to create, to come out of you know sort of left field and be a little surprising. So I think, whatever competitive analysis people do, you probably need to widen the aperture a bit, like look broader to see what else could be coming, spend more time trying to figure out what else could be done here, and this sort of complication between you know that competitive threat versus the risks, governance and ethics right Is that balance is going to be kind of critical in terms of, okay, how do you deploy this in a way that is good for your business and done in a well-managed way?
Speaker 1:Right. So less effort on the executive's part for execution and more higher-level innovation in governance.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that rings true for me as well. So, finally, how do you recommend tech leaders leverage AI in developing their teams and themselves?
Speaker 2:I mean, I think one of my favorite use cases for AI right now is just learning, right, and it's this idea of having a personalized, you know, sort of agent that can help you learn and understand your differences. And just kind of a quick story here is you know, my daughter. She's now a freshman in college but you know, we were studying for the APs. I was helping her and she was doing AP physics and we're doing electricity and magnetism and it's, you know, trying to find out you know, some complicated thing about induced currents and things like that. But basically watching the videos and reading webpages only gives you so much, but using a chat, gpt, you can actually say so, am I thinking about this, right? Is it kind of like this? And what will happen is it'll go well, that's close, you almost have it, but here's the difference and it will give you a specific thing that will help you understand why your understanding may not be 100%. And so task learning and I think there was a recent study from Harvard that sort of validated this. But task learning can be significantly accelerated by AI when it's designed to help coach you and sort of test you and help you grow. So that is a huge opportunity for everybody. Whatever skill you want to learn, having an agent that can help you is huge. So you've got to think about that for your teams. You've got to think about that for the emerging skills. That's one of my favorites.
Speaker 2:The other is automation right, this idea that you know, before it was sort of effectively hard-coded automation right, you could sort of codify, you know a process and put in bots that execute the process as defined. But now, with AI agents, it can be a little more fluid right, it can be approach-driven and I think that's going to have a lot of impact on the internal processes of an organization. And, of course, productivity right. As you've seen, with just basic writing and marketing copy and things like that, chat-to-pd can just do it much faster Legal review much faster. So there's this impact on productivity. And those are kind of the three areas I would say is you can definitely leverage AI to make your teams and your organization better.
Speaker 1:I, for one would love to learn how to leverage AI to recognize my own skill gaps and personalize my professional development in a smart way. Given everything that I know about myself, if I could hand that over to a bot to scrutinize and give me, you know, honest feedback about where I currently stand, where I want to remain relevant, I think that would be a tremendous tool to provide the public and, of course, organizations. I think about how important it is to upskill the entire organization with these skill sets. It's not just about putting a new tool, an intuitive tool, in front of them. It's about how do they design their work experience around that tool and make the most use of it. How do you train them and all of that, and I think those are extremely important questions to ask as leaders in today's age.
Speaker 2:Agreed.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, that was fun. Last but not least, drew, this is one I like to take away with everybody to get to know you a little bit better, a little bit more on a deeper level and a sense of where your mind is. You know, as a dreamer, if you will Tell me if you had any superpower, what would it be and why?
Speaker 2:to be and why?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is a great question and I'll answer it in the context of what I do now, right, which is career growth and coaching and things like that.
Speaker 2:And I think in there and this probably won't be surprising based on what we've talked about for the last little bit is sort of this idea of sort of perfect, persuasive conversation, right, the ability to talk to somebody and convince them to do something.
Speaker 2:I think if I had that as the superpower, that would be the one I would choose, because, again, you can only do so much as yourself, any organization, any big dream, anything you need to do. You need other people and one of the key ingredients is to actually, you know, get them on board. And so I think that is the superpower, right. I mean, I think it is an actual, attainable superpower. Obviously not perfect communication, but you can get really, really good at it, and so, rather than kind of the Superman superpowers, I always think you know what would actually help, again, my clients, my business and just the world in general, and then I think would be that, so, if you can do the communication right, solves a lot of problems, build some trust and you can get momentum for those things that you think are important to yourself. So that's why I would choose that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think about communication because, yes, I agree, it is a brilliant superpower. You said at the beginning, like if you can communicate really, really well, you can get people to do anything, right. So that's, that's in and of itself, um, mystical right. And beyond that it's you can fix anything with communication, too right, like if you know how to how to work with somebody, um, you can build bridges instead of burning them, right, and you can do all sorts of wonderful things to make the world a better place. So I second your superpower of communication so thank you.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, drew. That's the end of our episode today. I really appreciate your time. It's been really excellent conversation. I know I learned a lot and I hope that the executives or the aspiring executives around us will listen in and and gain some, some helpful tips from you. Um, in this conversation Um, I know they will anyway, and um, and if they want to reach out to you, what? What would you tell them to do?
Speaker 2:I mean, if they want to reach out. I mean it's, you know, drew Sauer, you can look it up. I have, I have my, my YouTube channel. I have a free community for those people who are looking to do that and obviously I do coaching for those people who are interested. But you know, drew sourcom, you can go check it out and you know, my goal again is to help people get to the careers that they want right, achieve those, those roles that they think will make the biggest impact for themselves. And so, Jason, I appreciate you inviting me on as a great conversation and I hope everybody found it useful and thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thanks, thanks, drew. Take care, man, and thanks to our listeners for tuning in today. If you or your company would like to be featured in the Inspire AI Richmond episode, please drop us a message. Don't forget to like, share or follow our content and stay up to date on the latest events for AI Ready RVA. Thank you again and see you next time.
