Tech Me Seriously!

In this episode, Sarah Tenisi speaks with Maritza Diaz, founder of ITJuana, which enables companies in California to create technology centers of excellence in Tijuana. She is also on the Board of Directors for the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and sits on the Forbes Technology Council.

Listen in as Maritza unpacks her initiative to build the Biomed tech valley in Tijuana and why more discussions need to be had on the cross-border economy. She contends that the area covering San Diego and Tijuana makes for a “something way better Silicon Valley” due to its being a prominent hub for the life sciences.

Maritza also explains how she aims to generate the next wave of engineers and thereby solve the problem of access to talent in software engineering, not to mention pave the way for greater diversity in the industry.

Finally, she discusses how developing this market ultimately results in a huge win-win situation for both the U.S. and Mexico, giving both nations an even greater competitive advantage on the world stage.

Maritza concludes that: “We do have the talent. We just need to leverage it.”

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:45] Why Tijuana is the ideal tech center

●      [03:56] San Diego and Tijuana as a “way better Silicon Valley”

●      [08:22] Telling the Federal Reserve that Silicon Valley shouldn’t be in San Francisco

●      [11:07] The difference between perception and reality

●      [14:37] Solving the problem of access to talent in software engineering

●      [22:19] Developing the “next wave of engineers” via bootcamps

●      [30:16] Unintentionally weaving diversity into the software industry

●      [32:54] How companies can tap into this market

●      [37:20] Breaking perceptions through this initiative

Key quotes:

●      “Tijuana is only 25 minutes south of Downtown San Diego; hence, it’s located in the same time zone. We can find amazing quality software engineers. It’s sort of a no-brainer: Why wouldn’t more companies go there to enable their digital capabilities?”

●      “For every two jobs that Tijuana generates, it represents one job created in San Diego.”

●      “Hire the person, not the skill.”

●      “My passion—the reason why I do this—is because I do want to generate these jobs of the future for people like me who probably otherwise wouldn’t have that opportunity. And the way to do it is by bringing the companies to establish them here in Mexico.”

In this episode, Sarah Tenisi speaks with Emily Perry, PhD. She is the Senior Education Program Manager at QuillBot, a company focused on developing state-of-the-art AI-based writing and research tools to make writing painless. Emily goes in-depth into how AI is transforming educational writing.

She and Sarah kick off the episode defining what AI is (and isn’t) and addressing AI skepticism before dedicating the latter part of the conversation on how QuillBot is making writing “painless” and, in particular, helping students focus their energies on what really matters in their writing assignments.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:26] What is “artificial intelligence” and what is not AI?

●      [09:25] How AI is transforming the world today

●      [18:10] Addressing AI skeptics

●      [24:56] How AI is being applied in education

●      [37:28] All about QuillBot

●      [46:07] How QuillBot lightens students’ load

Key quotes:

●      “An AI system can pretty much understand its environment, and it’s completely tasks and actions to achieve a certain goal that it’s trained to do.”

●      “If you don’t understand [AI], that’s one thing. But don’t not try to understand it and still reject some of these really, really important advances in the educational community, like taking mundane tasks such as grammar checking and automating that with AI.”

●      “QuillBot was designed as an AI writing and research platform. The goal is to help make writing painless.”

In this episode, Sarah Tenisi speaks with Susan Schwartz, Founder and Leadership & Management Coach at The River Birch Group. She spent her early career working as a project manager on large technical projects. Today she focuses on transforming professional experts into excellent leaders. Her book, Creating a Greater Whole, discusses this process in detail.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:58] Why aspiring leaders should never overlook the “soft and squishy” skills

●      [04:43] How a technical expert transforms into a professional who leads with excellence

●      [07:43] Why Susan wrote Creating a Greater Whole

●      [10:27] What’s emotional intelligence got to do with it?

●      [16:04] Why those in IT are very much responsible for user experience

●      [18:00] The power of storytelling and other soft skills for technical experts

●      [25:45] The importance of having a team of people who are unlike you

●      [29:05] The evolution of teams over the last 30 years

●      [33:16] Creating psychological safety in your work environment

●      [40:29] Foundational knowledge versus expert knowledge

●      [43:28] How to delegate and set expectations as a leader with “TAG”

●      [49:00] How leadership will look in the next ten years

●      [53:23] Why Susan prefers the term “professional skills” over “soft skills”

Key quotes:

●      “A leader’s function is to motivate and to help people see the overall picture—to know why what they’re doing is so important, who they need to connect with, and why they need to connect with them. Leaders are coaches and mentors and they help you learn how to make those connections, and very often, it’s done by modeling.”

●      “Emotional intelligence is a tool that enables you to observe the situation around you and choose how you’re going to react and behave to that situation, because you can’t change anyone’s behavior except your own.”

●      “When you’re in IT inside a company, all of the users are your clients, and internal clients are so much harder than external clients, because they expect that much more and they’re less patient—so much less patient.”

●      “It’s all about continuous learning. Real leaders are constantly learning by asking questions and learning about what’s going on within their teams.”

In this episode, Sarah Tenisi speaks with Christina Dyer, CEO of Christina Dyer International, an executive leadership and coaching company. She is also the Founder of Noble Adventures, a leadership retreat and adventure company.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:26] What is “unconditional positive regard”?

●      [09:30] Why “participation trophies” aren’t necessarily a bad thing

●      [10:58] How does unconditional positive regard help businesses heal the world?

●      [18:45] The power of one person’s attitude in your organization

●      [22:04] Christina’s globe-trotting adventures and how got to where she is now

●      [27:55] About the Rwandan genocide

●      [30:27] How far a dollar can go in helping families outside the U.S.

●      [35:52] The CALM method

●      [42:38] How Noble Adventures helps people develop unconditional positive regard

●      [52:54] The benefits of coming from a place of positive intent when interacting with your team

●      [56:16] The killer of trust within organizations

Key quotes:

●      “Unconditional positive regard allows people the environment in which they can best flourish.”

●      “I think one thing that COVID has done is take the focus off of performance and results and put it on people.”

●      “When you have one person in your organization that is positive, they can impact and influence attitudes.”

●      “Poverty really breeds a lot of creativity.”

●      “Self-awareness is the first step to being a leader.”

●      “Fun and adventure is the glue that holds teams together.”

In this episode, Sarah Tenisi speaks with Alex Goldfayn, a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, and CEO of The Revenue Growth Consultancy. His specialty is motivating sales teams, executives, and owners to take action and quickly increase revenue. On September 22, 2021, he released his newest book Pick Up The Phone and Sell: How Proactive Calls to Customers and Prospects Can Double Your Sales.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [02:12] Two nuggets of wisdom from Alex that has helped Sarah in working on instead of in her business

●      [03:57] Why Alex wrote his latest book

●      [08:51] The problem with email

●      [11:12] What Pick Up the Phone and Sell teaches about phone calls

●      [14:50] Where Alex got his start as a sales coach

●      [20:05] Alex on being “born an entrepreneur”

●      [25:59] Why nobody fails more than salespeople

●      [31:21] Developing the mindset to crush selling

●      [41:57] Having your prospects remember you

●      [48:27] Is cold calling dead?

Key quotes:

●      “If you’re in B2B sales, the phone is so effective that it’s the most effective sales growth tool that we have. Also, it’s the most avoided and least-used sales tool that we have. Meanwhile, the least effective sales pathway, which is email, is used the most.”

●      “I think that, when you send an email, you hurt your sale more than you help it. [...] You make yourself more distant from the sale.”

●      “We have to walk through those nos in order to get to the yeses, because if we don’t attain the rejections, we won’t get to the yeses. Each no gets you closer to the next yes.”

●      “I think the greatest superpower in selling is perseverance.”

●      “We have so much in common with people now that I don’t think there really are any cold calls. Cold calling assumes you have nothing in common.”

Alex’s Other Books

●      Evangelist Marketing: What Apple, Amazon, and Netflix Understand About Their Customers (That Your Company Probably Doesn't)

●      The Revenue Growth Habit: The Simple Art of Growing Your Business by 15% in 15 Minutes Per Day

●      Selling Boldly: Applying the New Science of Positive Psychology to Dramatically Increase Your Confidence, Happiness, and Sales

●      5-Minute Selling: The Proven, Simple System That Can Double Your Sales ... Even When You Don't Have Time

In this episode, Sarah Tenisi speaks with Michelle Wagner, the CEO of MindStrong, a telehealth company focused on providing mental health services using traditional methodologies combined with newer technologies like predictive analytics and Artificial Intelligence. 

Sarah and Michelle chat about the history of mental health and how it has evolved to people now speaking openly about it, and how technology has helped reach out to several patients seeking help with their mental illnesses, with the latest one being the telehealth services. Tune in to listen to Michelle’s history in the industry, and how she’s using Mindstrong to reach out to patients.  

TimeStamps

[01:27] Differences between mental health and mental illness

[05:30] History of mental health and mental illness

[10:34] Focussing on mind, body, and soul

[11:40] Michelle Wagner’s story

[17:40] Technological advancement in telehealth services

[20:33] Shortage of therapists and psychiatrists and mental health professionals

[21:29] Is technology one of the causes of mental health issues?

[23:37] Mental health and social media

[26:04] Solving the problem of mental health services shortage

[27:35] EAP plans

[30:45] The speeding technology

[32:50] What good mental health looks like

[38:00] Having a conversation on mental health

[45:03] Helping people with their mental health

[47:33] Setting work-life boundaries

[51:06] Michelle’s challenge to everyone

Notable Quotes

●      Everyone experiences sadness, depression, or anxiety momentarily. That doesn’t necessarily equate to clinically diagnosed illness. 

●      Technology is doing good things when it comes to healthcare and that’s pretty exciting to see tech truly used for good just in terms of accessibility alone.

●      Good mental health is raising your own self-awareness of what you are or what you need at that moment, understanding your own feelings and how they influence your actions, and how you communicate and interact with other people.

●      You’re not good to everyone else if you’re not good to yourself.

●      70% of human thought is negative. Those are our brains. That’s how they work. But you can train your brain to be more aware and think more about how you are showing up.

Connect with Michelle

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelledwk/

Mindstrong Website https://mindstrong.com/

In this episode, Sarah Tenisi speaks with JM Ryerson, Co-founder and CEO of Let’s Go Win, a professional training and coaching organization focused on helping people develop the mindset to allow them to succeed. JM is the author of Let's Go Win: The Keys To Living Your Best Life (2020) which outlines the tools that he uses to bring about this success.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:30] Why JM wrote his book

●      [03:46] Allowing your kids to skin their knees

●      [05:16] Coming up with the 12 facets of life covered in the book

●      [08:11] What led JM to write his book and start his company afterwards

●      [11:04] Defining “vulnerability” and “authenticity”

●      [18:48] Helping your team deal with personal issues

●      [23:32] Why fun is a non-negotiable for JM

●      [27:40] How to build a routine

●      [34:46] JM’s upcoming playbook

●      [37:54] What to do if a passion turns into a chore

●      [41:46] Why you don’t need to have it “all figured out”

Key quotes:

●      “‘The most important chapter starts with taking the mask off.”

●      “I can work with ‘don’t know how’ all day long. It’s the ‘can’t’s and the ‘won’t’s where I’m like, ‘Eh, you’re probably not the best client for me.’”

●      “You cannot please everyone. That is a guarantee.”

●      “Take care of your mind, your body, and your soul. That’s the most basic routine you can do.”

●      “If anybody says they have it all figured out, whether they’re a parent or a leader, they’re full of it.”

In this episode, Sarah Tenisi speaks with Vitale Buford, an executive coach, speaker, and the author of Addicted to Perfect: A Journey Out of the Grips of Adderall. Listen in as Vitale shares how she helps organizations lead with imperfection. 

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:33] Defining “perfectionism” and why we outsource our self-worth

●      [02:44] The difference between “perfectionism” and “excellence”

●      [07:00] How much excellence is “enough”?

●      [08:44] How Vitale overcame her obsession with perfection

●      [13:25] How to identify if you are suffering from perfectionism

●      [18:30] How you lead differently once you switch to striving for excellence

●      [24:06] The importance of self-awareness building trust

●      [28:20] How to let your team know that you do not expect perfection

●      [30:29] Why you need to look inward to change your company culture

●      [32:23] Why it pays to sit back and just be present as a leader

●      [36:57] The benefits of embracing imperfection in your organization

●      [43:57] What’s next for Vitale?

Key quotes:

●      “‘Perfection’ is this false identity or persona that we put on that is externally motivated.”

●      “Asking for help, is a trust building exercise”

●      “‘Perfectionism’ is externally motivated and competition-based while ‘excellence’ is externally motivated and cooperation-based.”

●      “The only type of competition you need to have is competition with yourself.”

●      “Being ‘enough’ is being present—accepting the present moment as it is.”

●      “Be radically honest with yourself. We can’t change unless we’re willing to really look at ourselves and say, ‘What’s holding me back? I deserve better.’”

●      “Perfectionism erodes trust. If you don’t have trust in an organization, you have nothing.”

●      “Your level of awareness and growth is equal to your effectiveness as a leader.”

●      “We get uncomfortable with things being good, because as perfectionists, we’re always looking for that one thing that’s wrong. Nothing is ever enough.”

●      “Curiosity is the beginning of all change.”

In this episode, Sarah Tenisi speaks with Anna Straus, the CEO of Sparck, an AI platform that helps companies recognize, gauge, and retain employees.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:12] The definition of “employee engagement”, “employee recognition”

●      [02:44] The evolution of employee engagement and recognition

●      [04:49] The importance of emotional intelligence for managers

●      [08:02] How authentic leaders influence their team

●      [10:21] Differences in different generations of employees

●      [11:37] How to recognize team members other than with financial rewards

●      [16:55] Pitfalls that companies with inefficient recognition programs face

●      [20:14] Getting to know the humans behind your employees

●      [22:15] How to know if recognition is something an employer cares about

●      [24:39] How younger generations of employees are impacting recognition

●      [25:59] How managers can become more emotionally intelligent

●      [27:37] Achieving work-life integration, especially amid lockdowns

●      [33:07] Sparck as an “employee relationship management” (ERM) platform

●      [39:58] What is lacking in ERM solutions today

●      [42:27] What the future workplace looks like

Key quotes:

●      “‘Employee engagement’ is measuring the emotional commitment that the employee has to the organization: how passionate they feel, how willing they are to refer employees, and their overall loyalty to the organization.”

●      “‘Employee recognition is one of the leading drivers of employee engagement. It’s recognizing the achievements or behaviors that employees have within the workplace.”

●      “When a leader is authentic, they give their employees the permission to do the same.”

●      “The physical reward is only half of the experience. The other half is, who and how is this recognition being received?”

●      “When recognition is done well, it’s establishing and building stronger relationships within the workplace, especially with employees and managers.”

●      “It’s those basic questions that come with genuine curiosity that start building relationships.”