Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio is my pleasure to introduce you to my friend Jacque Lerma, founder of Mindbridge Solutions Assessments and Consulting, and a visionary entrepreneur dedicated to serving children and families through education and behavioral health. With more than a decade of experience in special education, Jacque is a bilingual school psychologist and speech language pathologists assistant who leads a multidisciplinary team focused on helping children reach their full potential through thoughtful, culturally responsive, responsible support. But beyond her professional work, Jacque is also navigating the real life balance of building and scaling a business while being a present mom. Staying grounded in her faith and being intentional about where she invests her time and energy, her approach to leadership is rooted in authenticity, alignment, and knowing when to say yes and just as importantly, when to say no. Jacque, welcome to the show.

Jacqueline Lerma: Thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here with you finally. I know here we made it.

Trisha Stetzel: It’s taken so long for us to get together. And, uh, just a shout out to no women. That is how Jacque and I met. And I believe the first time that we met was in Houston at the focused event. And then we’ve seen each other a few times since then and happened to be on the cover of the summit magazine this year. Both of us. Congratulations.

Jacqueline Lerma: It’s truly amazing, I love it. Proximity is the power.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely. All right, my friend, tell us a little bit more about who you are.

Jacqueline Lerma: So I am a generation, first generation Latina founder, um, you know, only child raised, born and raised in McAllen, Texas, small border town, um, to Texas. And, you know, I. I’ve seen adversity throughout my entire life, you know, just being born of immigrant parents, that was already in itself an adversity. So, you know, I just, you know, a teen mom as well navigating life and my husband and I clawing to the top together. Um, it’s been a beautiful experience. Um, living life with my four boys, my husband and building, you know, the business. So it’s just, you know, you know, when you say rooted in faith, resilience and authenticity and that, that really that truly speaks to who I am.

Speaker 4: Mhm.

Trisha Stetzel: And which is why we were that energy brought us together over and over and over again. Yes. All right, I want to if it’s okay with you, I want to dig around a little bit more. You’re building a business, raising a family for boys. You’re staying active in your community. What is this current season of life look like for you, Jacque?

Jacqueline Lerma: So there’s no such thing as balance, you know? I think for me, it’s what is priority. Um, if we are building something, um, it’s. I’m very strict on my timelines. I have hard deadlines. Um, and I’m very, very focused on what my day to day looks like just because my husband works out of town and I’m solo here in Houston. Um, so it’s, you know, my day starts at seven and I have a hard cut off at 3 p.m. because I got to go pick up the babies and do dinner and take them to practice and then to self-care for myself. So it’s a whole ordeal and routine for me, but I’m very, very hard on those cut off for for times during the day just so that I ensure that I’m with the kids and that they’re also taken care of. There’s a priority on that during the day when they’re out at school. There’s a priority for work as well. So and I say no, quite frankly, if there’s something that doesn’t fit into my schedule, I say no, let’s reschedule. Find a time that fits into my schedule. So, um, balancing, I don’t know, that word is thrown up like it’s, you know, just confetti. Let’s balance it out. No, it’s more so about priorities. What’s priority. And let’s figure this out. And then the rest will trickle in.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, I love that. It’s work life integration. How do we fit everything in that’s important with our priorities. I love that. Um, I want to know how you stay organized. I definitely want to dig into the. No, but we’re not there yet, so I want to stay. I want to know what tools do you use to stay organized with such a busy home and work life?

Jacqueline Lerma: So, Tricia, it was maybe about a year and a half ago where I really started utilizing my calendar. It is my saving grace. Um, because I was starting to miss events or appointments or, you know, a call. And it’s, it wasn’t intentional. It was just, it wasn’t in front of me to where I could visibly see it and say, oh, I got to be at this one. So now my entire kids event is on my calendar. My doctors and my kids doctor’s appointments are on my calendar. Everything is on my calendar, but I need that ten minute, um, alert. Hey, you have this going on, you know, and I wake up in the morning, I look through my calendar. What’s going on today? If not, I’ll take time in the evening before the next day. Um, but everything is in my calendar. I also have a calendar in my fridge that I write out a month in advance, especially right now in the summer, because we have tournaments, we have vacations, we have this and meetings. And, um, so it’s just a daily reminder. I’m getting my creamer first thing in the morning. And guess what? Jacque hears this. You gotta do this this morning or this this day. So it’s always planning my day in advance and knowing that it’s in my calendar like, oh, I’m not going to miss it, you know? And we’re entrepreneurs, we, we’re going to miss things. Unfortunately, there’s so much going on. Um, so I, you know, I think that has worked until now as we progress with the app. I think I’m going to need a little bit more help. So, you know, hopefully in the fall I’ll be able to get a little bit more help where. All right, you got to juggle this. You got to help me with this and emails and things like that. So but in the in right now, that’s what I use.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: You need a little mini me. I’m just saying you do.

Speaker 4: I do, I do.

Trisha Stetzel: I am a big calendar advocate myself. And I too, by the way, have a paper calendar. It’s not on my fridge, but it hangs on the inside of my wardrobe. And I have it at every morning when I get into my wardrobe, I see my calendar. So I appreciate that. Uh, you and I are doing. Maybe it’s old school, I don’t know, but it is a way to stay organized.

Jacqueline Lerma: Um, it’s whatever works for you. You know, those are part of the executive functioning skills and how you stay organized. And, um, it is incredible to see how many people at the top are disorganized, but I can’t do it.

Speaker 4: I can’t, I know.

Trisha Stetzel: I feel like I have this, uh, um, commitment to myself to stay organized. Don’t miss an appointment, right? Don’t miss an appointment. Um, I would love to know more about how you found yourself in the industry that you’re in. What, what, what was the passion behind getting into the work that you do? Jacque.

Jacqueline Lerma: So, you know, there’s a saying that that goes, God places you in places where you need to be and it’s never by mistake. So I mentioned that I’m a teen mom. Um, and before becoming pregnant, I had decided that I wanted to go into becoming a DEA agent. Law enforcement. Um, down where I’m from, it’s a lot of Border Patrol agents, customs, FBI, drug raids, things like that. And I love the adrenaline. Um, and I also know that my day cannot look the same every day. So I was said, you know, peace out school. I also hated school. Um, and I told my mom, you know, I’m, I’m going for law enforcement, you know, I don’t care what you say, but this is what I’m, I’m going for. And at the time, my mom was working for region one as a social worker, where she would go into homes and do an intake process for children under three with disabilities, right. And help them navigate the services that that child needed. Um, and I say this because in the summer of 2008, I realized I was fresh out of high school, and, um, I learned that I’m pregnant. And so the application process of being in law enforcement was paused because I really needed to reflect on how I was going to do law enforcement being a parent. You know, there’s extraneous hours. And, um, it’s just it wasn’t going to be feasible for me. You know, I family is everything for me. So that’s when my mom said, well, why don’t you try speech therapy? You know, and I said, oh, okay, here we go. Something that I don’t like. But little did I know that that would be that would evolve to be my passion. Mhm. Um, so I started doing observations with speech therapists that my mom was working with, and I fell in love.

Jacqueline Lerma: I fell in love like it was love at first sight. So I said, all right. Fall of 2008, I started school, and by 2013 I had graduated with my Bachelor’s in Communication Sciences and Disorders, and I was working as an SLP in Houston, Texas. Um, so, and I, I loved it, I loved it, I loved every single aspect of my job description. Um, but what I did not like was that I was doing home health at the time. Okay. So the traveling in Houston really drained me. So that led to, I don’t know if I like what I’m doing. Um, I spent so much time on the road and I always knew I wanted to go back for my master’s. So I started analyzing the speech. Masters. And I said, you know what else is out there for me? So, um, I continued doing my research and my aunt is a school psychologist and she said, you know, I love what I do. Try it and applied got in and four years later, I’m a school psychologist and my heart and passion is it’s just such an alignment with me. I love, love what I do, I can write a report with my eyes closed. I go in and I know what I’m looking at. It’s, you know, a little bit. There’s complex cases sometimes, but I just, I love it, I love it wholeheartedly, and it just aligns with who I am serving others. So I, that’s how I fell into my career and I’ve built on it. Um, you know, this is 13 years in the making. So it’s, you know, it’s a process, but I, I love where I’m at and I’ve loved the journey as well.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. And what a different direction things have taken. And I also believe that everything happens for a reason. There’s a direction. You may not know what it is, but it will appear. Yes, it always does.

Speaker 4: Oh, I love that.

Trisha Stetzel: Um, for folks who are listening today that already want to connect with you, Jacque, what’s the best way for them to reach out?

Jacqueline Lerma: They can reach out to me via email at jacqueline@my.com or on Instagram. They can find me on my social at Jacqueline underscore um. That’s how they can reach out to me.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, I love that. I know that people want to learn more about you and you’re so much fun. And yes, by the way, her name is Jacqueline and I asked her before, since we’re friends, if I could call her Jacque. And she said it was okay. And then we had. And then we had some movie buff fun after that.

Speaker 4: Yes, we sure did.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. All right, I want to circle back around to the big no. The big no. So you mentioned earlier, and even in your introduction, I talked about you being so much better at saying no than you used to be. So I want you to talk about, um, how that alignment really happened for you and what, what got you to that point where you learned to just say no.

Jacqueline Lerma: So it came with time because I by, I think by instinct, I am a people pleaser. So I felt obligated to say yes all the time. Um, in 2023, when my business initially hit rock bottom, I had to reanalyze that because I was so exhausted, physically, emotionally, um, exhausted of saying yes and pleasing everybody else. And I wasn’t benefiting from any of that. Um, so the mental toll that it took on saying yes was extreme. Um, until I started saying no and I started taking care of my well-being. And that’s when I was like, oh my gosh, it was like an aha moment. You can say no, and it’s okay. People are not going to be upset with you, you know. And I also threw out the I don’t care what people think about me, you know, it’s who this is who I am speaking to my authenticity, you know, um, and I, I felt at that time that I wasn’t identifying with myself because I kept saying yes to people that I was like, we’re not in alignment. You know, I’m saying yes to you for the very wrong reasons. Um, and that’s when it hit that it was okay to say no, and it’s okay to be who you are. And you know, when you build your character and your authenticity, that is what people relate to more. But it also demonstrates a little bit of jealousy from others, you know? And that’s when you realize that you’re doing what’s right for you and things are going well.

Jacqueline Lerma: Um, and people don’t talk about that. You know, the envy, the jealousy. And when they start seeing things go well. Um, and you realize that it’s, it’s a whole shift in your internal work. Um, and part of it is that saying no, right? Because it’s not something that aligns with you. Um, so it was a long process, but I’m glad that I am carefree. Now. I can give $0.02 about what people think about me. I will show up in front of the camera without makeup, with a baseball cap, and I am. I’m happy, I’m happy. I find beauty in who I am. And I think that’s just the most precious part of life. Um, you know, social has really brought out the ugly of being a content creator. And, you know, you have to be picture perfect and you have to be face perfect makeup perfect and outfit perfect. And no, you don’t, no, you don’t, absolutely don’t. And you know. I was bullied in middle school, so showing up without makeup in the camera would have been a huge no for me years ago, you know, because I had acne and now I’m like, oh, who cares? Embrace those beauty. You know, that’s treasures. Yeah. Um, but, you know, I, I think life is beautiful. You only get to live it once and live it to the fullest. Live it to who you are. So if it does not align with you, say no and it’s okay to say no.

Speaker 4: I love that. Thank you for.

Trisha Stetzel: Sharing all of that and the vulnerability that you have here. And, um, your beauty shines through you, I believe, and your energy is just, um, it’s so I’m going to say appealing to me. I just love being around you because you are who you are. And I like to be who I am.

Speaker 4: And if people don’t.

Trisha Stetzel: Like it, by gosh, they can go to another room. How about.

Speaker 4: That?

Jacqueline Lerma: Absolutely. But you know what, Trisha? They won’t leave that room because they have no self-identity.

Speaker 4: They don’t want to.

Trisha Stetzel: Leave the room.

Jacqueline Lerma: They don’t want to. They want to see you. They want to criticize every aspect of you. But why? Because there’s no self-identity.

Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah.

Jacqueline Lerma: So there’s so much fake in the world. And, you know, I, I and you know this for me, this is all divine alignment. This is God that lives within me. Um, I find peace through him. I find my strength through him. I find my wisdom through him. Everything you know, everything, everything I go. Walking around this earth alongside with him. With him. Um. And it’s because of the grace of God that I’m here where I’m at. I mean, I don’t think I’d be here without him. So.

Speaker 4: Yeah, that you are.

Trisha Stetzel: Such an amazing human being. And I’m so glad that you and I have found each other multiple times.

Speaker 4: Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: I love to hear your take on surrounding yourself with the right people. So you and I both are part of an organization. No KNOW, naught NOW, which is a women’s women’s organization, and I’d love for you to talk about. You don’t have to talk specifically about the organization, but the people and being in the right room and surrounding yourself with the right people. How has that mattered to you and your business and your personal life?

Jacqueline Lerma: Oh man. It’s it’s been everything. Everything that I’ve needed. Um. Proximity towards other women that are at the same level, you know, and I mean, by the same level as I don’t mean cognition wise. I don’t mean, uh, social economical wise. No, our vision is the same. We are building, we are in the trenches together. We resonate with one another. We’ve all hit rock bottom in some point of our entrepreneurship. And we, you know what? We didn’t do a pity party. We got ourselves back up and we kept going. We have that perseverance and we’ve kept the consistency. Um, so sitting or sitting at a table with like minded women has been a phenomenal experience because we sit at the table and we share what has worked with us. We share what has not worked with us. We give insight. Hey girl, have you tried this? Have you tried that? Um, we give resources to one another. Um, and we are finding each other working with each other now. So I love that, you know, where I was looking for someone to help me do the app. I found it within the no organization. Um, looking for and of course I’m looking, but I’m, I’m praying for all these things, right. You know, and, and I just landed in this Organization, um, by a nomination. I wasn’t expecting it. I initially thought that this nomination was a scam. Um, Mercedes kept reaching out to me. I don’t know how she did it. Poor Mercedes.

Speaker 4: We all say the same thing about her Mercedes. We love her.

Jacqueline Lerma: Um, she was a scammy, not scamming, but just, you know, all over my email. And I’m like, who is this lady who keeps reaching out to me? Like, delete, delete, delete. Then she found me on LinkedIn and that’s when I realized, oh, she’s real. She’s an actual person. And I’ve shared this story with her and she’s like, Jacque, everybody thinks the same. Um, but it’s been a tremendous help. Um, you know, when I started entrepreneurship, I bought into an organization, um, and I, I wasn’t given this opportunity within the organization. So I’m very, very grateful and thankful that I’ve landed in this organization. And I’m forever grateful with God because he was the one that, you know, aligned the stars for all of this to happen. So, um, it’s been an amazing experience. It really has. So I mean, kudos to Sarah. She’s done an amazing job with the network organization. And, you know, we’re going to continue to grow alongside with her as well.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. All right. So we’re going to have to tag her when, when we’re when we put the show out there, anytime we put this show out there, uh, what a fantastic organization. And, uh, I love, thank you for the work that you do. It’s, um, it’s great. It’s great work. It sets such a high bar for many of us out there who would love to be in serving the people that you serve. So thank you for doing that. Even though it may not be the thing you dreamed about as a young girl. That has turned into such a passion for you. So for women who are listening today, or just anybody but women specifically, um, that feel pulled in a hundred different directions, business, family life, what would you tell them is one step they can take just this week to create more alignment?

Jacqueline Lerma: Um, dig deep into your inner soul and search for what you are wanting. And I will say that when you find that that alignment, when you find that wanting, go for it. If you’re ready or you’re not ready, ready or not, go for it. If you’re fearful or not fearful, go for it. Nothing will change if there’s no action. Um, and when we were presented with this opportunity of entrepreneurship, my husband and I were not ready. We were not ready. I was four months postpartum. It was, you know, I was recovering from preeclampsia, severe preeclampsia. Um, it was I don’t even know how I said yes, by the grace of God, I say yes. Um, and we pulled through, pull through. And we, I mean, immediately opening up our clinic and we hit the floor, but we didn’t give up. We didn’t give up. We looked for resources. We continued. And if you are in the rock bottom, I would say do everything in your willpower before you give up everything. Everything, everything that you got before you give up because it’s very easy to give up.

Speaker 4: It is.

Trisha Stetzel: It’s easier to give up than it is to keep trudging forward. Right? And take that next step. I love that, so, uh. Take action. That’s what I heard. Yeah. Take action. It’s never the right time. It’s never, never feels like it’s the right time. There’s always an excuse out there. Take action. All right. As we get to the back end. I know our time went by so fast. It’s me.

Speaker 4: You have to come back.

Trisha Stetzel: You have to come back so we can have more of this fun conversation. As we get to the back end of our conversation. I have one last question for you, Jacque. What’s next for you?

Jacqueline Lerma: Um, we are in the midst of building our tech app. So we were building a platform for families, providers, school district clinicians, um, to connect the entire ecosystem for individuals with disabilities. And we are looking forward to some speaking Engagement. So we are and we’re just we’re really excited for the future and we continue to move forward and persevere.

Speaker 4: I’m so excited.

Trisha Stetzel: And congratulations on all of the ways that you are succeeding and continuing to focus on your priorities and being a beautiful mother and a fantastic entrepreneur and a wonderful wife, and doing all of the things because you are you’re doing all of the things. I just love that. So congratulations to you. And I’m so glad that you spent some time with me today. Thank you.

Jacqueline Lerma: I’m so happy that you invited me, Tricia. And I can’t wait to come back because we need another one.

Speaker 4: Okay? Yes we do. Absolutely.

Trisha Stetzel: All right, Jacque, tell us how we can connect with you one more time.

Jacqueline Lerma: Um, so you can connect with me via email at jacqueline@mindbridge.com or on my social Jacqueline underscore.

Speaker 4: Fantastic.

Trisha Stetzel: All right, you guys, it’s Jacqueline, JACQUELINE at Mind Bridge. Mindbr. I’d getx.com. Thank you again, Jacque, for being with me.

Jacqueline Lerma: Thank you.

Trisha Stetzel: All right, you guys, that’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in the conversation that Jacque and I had, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, a veteran, or a Houston leader ready to grow. And be sure to follow, rate and review the show. It helps us reach more bold business minds like yours. Your business, your leadership, and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. It is my pleasure to introduce you to my guest today, Daya Naef, attorney, business strategist, podcast host, and fractional chief AI officer at the Success Partner. Daya helps organizations integrate artificial intelligence into their operations, leadership, and growth strategies. But her perspective may surprise you. While many people view AI as a technology conversation, Daya believes the real opportunity lies at the intersection of innovation and human connection. Former attorney, mediator, adjunct professor and now AI strategist has delivered more than 3000 hours of coaches, excuse me, coaching and spoken at dozens of events nationwide on leadership, AI and the future of professional services. Through her work with law firms and mid-market companies, she helps leaders move beyond AI experimentation and into meaningful business results. She is also a longtime podcast host and passionate advocate for relationship based business development, believing that as technology advances, authentic human relationships become even more valuable. Daya, welcome to the show.

Daya Naef: Thank you Trisha. I’m very excited to be here.

Trisha Stetzel: I’m so excited to have you on. Your energy is just pouring into my screen and I love it. Tell us a little bit more about who you are.

Daya Naef: Absolutely. I think you I think you covered the gambit. Um, and I think my diverse background and put together as the sort of Venn diagram or ikigai of those things that you described about me, puts me in a very unique situation to be able to serve, serve my clients, serve businesses, and if not to ideally idealistically benefit the legal industry as a whole, which then of course, will, will benefit the business world and the people world and all that together. All as one.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. All right. I want to dive right in because I think the conversation around this human in the middle or human connection is so important in the world that we’re living in today. So everyone seems to be talking about AI replacing people. You took a totally different view on that. What do you believe human relationships actually? Or why do you believe human relationships actually become more important as AI becomes more capable.

Daya Naef: Absolutely. I mean, there’s no replacing the trust, the likability, the, you know, in business, they always say you do business with someone you like and you trust. And, you know, AI simulates a lot of empathy or can simulate a lot of conversation. But basically what it’s doing is it’s taking patterns and it’s mirroring what you’re putting in as information. So there’s always going to be a risk that it just agreeing with you or being a yes person and a yes person never helps you develop in life.

Trisha Stetzel: It’s so true.

Daya Naef: So I think there’s going to be, and you already see it a little bit with some of the reactions to, say, AI only media channels. So you’re seeing those kind of being hit or miss or even AI flooding into mainstream media, such as like Instagram and Facebook. So you’re seeing people veer more toward The live productions more toward that, the obviously human productions. And in a way it’s kind of the blooper effect. It’s like, okay, what is this real human going to do? Because we know the AI is too perfect and polished, something that we’re really, really deepening that connection. And especially coming out of Covid. I know we’ve been out of Covid a while now, but something that we learned from Covid is even the most introverted of us needs connection.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm, mhm. Yes. Human connection is part of who we are, right? It’s a necessity for us to learn and grow and behave the way that we do. How does this play into because you come from this legal space of being an attorney and a mediator, how does AI play in that space with that industry?

Daya Naef: Yeah. I mean, right now it’s the most behind as far as practical application of AI. Um, I just did a survey of my, A my readership, my my people and my contacts, uh, attorneys, firm attorneys. And, you know, it came back really still hit and miss. You know, I do a lot of public speaking and I kind of just gauge the temperature of the audience. I’ve been speaking on AI for about three and a half years now and sort of gauging the temperature as I go. And it’s gone in waves. And I, and I feel I kept feeling like, okay, it’s here now, it’s here now. But then there would be a huge setback. There would be some sanctions that would come back and come out and would have a huge chilling effect. But then it would be a marketing campaign that would come out from some of the large legal specific players. And then there would be a there would be an upswing. And then and then there would be something that came out like the, the recently, a lot of the privilege cases and work product privacy cases that have come out. And so then there was another chilling effect. And it’s really going to be saturated. I mean, there’s going to be a forced Saturation that comes into the legal market very soon. I say by the end of the year, there will have to be policies and procedures in place at every firm, whether you really want them or not, or where you or where you feel like you’re using AI or not. Um, because the sort of dirty secret is you are using AI, whether you know it or not.

Trisha Stetzel: This is true. So I want to, I don’t want to get too technical because I want to keep it on the human aspect. But I do want to talk about the definition of AI because I think oftentimes, particularly those that are in the small to midsize business arena or those who just aren’t really utilizing it yet, think of AI as a chat bot and it’s so much more than that. So can you like bring us all in and give us a little better definition of what artificial intelligence actually is?

Daya Naef: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, ChatGPT came out and it was like the consumer direct to consumer AI and kind of swept across Really basically every audience. And then when you get deeper into using it for business purposes. So, you know, first it came out as entertainment and it came out as, you know, write me a funny haiku or something like that. And then people started looking at the business use cases for it. But still, what I’m seeing is people are using it like the drive through window. You know, they go up and they say, okay, I want a number six with a Diet Coke, you know, and it does that. And but what they’re not realizing is if they adapt it and, and bring it in, integrate it into the system, or if you or if you feel more comfortable, you know, putting it out, bringing it in, however you want to describe that is it actually has a seat at the table. It actually has a seat not in, not in necessarily the leadership sense where it’s going to have this, this voice, but it’s going to be at least there as an assistant or as a junior associate. It’s going to have an integrated part in your in your office, in your work world, in your day to day, in your life at home. You know, it’s we’re seeing it more at home than in the office scenario. But if you if you think about taking it away from a transaction and into a relationship, that’s where you’re going to see the benefit.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. How does this play into the coaching role? So in your bio, I let the audience know that you’ve got over 3000 hours of just coaching in this space. So that’s a human in the middle.

Daya Naef: Mhm.

Trisha Stetzel: I hear a lot of coaches talking about, oh my gosh, AI is going to replace the coaching industry. What are your thoughts on that?

Daya Naef: Yeah. Absolutely cannot. And I’m speaking at another conference on that on access to service and mental health and how we’re going to develop both as practitioners and as how to educate the public on what is a safe AI versus what is not safe for you to use it as your, your thought companion or your therapist, if you will. Uh, where are these things going to be beneficial and where you have to put guardrails and restrictions on them in order to not water down the quality or to not lead people down the wrong road? Um, and so my coaching actually where the rubber meets the road and what I actually do every day, the coaching comes in with the behavioral change and working with people, I say I’m the one who shows up with the box of tissues. I’m the one who has the, the cone of silence. Like you can actually tell me why you hate what your firm chose, or why you felt like you should have been in the decision making process and you weren’t, or helping you be in that process. Like be a leader. Hey, you know what? I’m just the legal assistant. Whatever. I said, yeah, but you’re going to be the one with your hands on the keyboard or speaking into the the voice, as is more common now, you’re going to be the one with the day to day, you know, the senior partner who’s the rainmaker, then they may or not, they may or not, may not be the interface, the direct interface to the AI in your firm. And you are.

Trisha Stetzel: All right. I want to talk about leaders and leadership development. The actual people aspect of all of this. So I, as leaders or owners or founders, CEOs, whatever title we carry, how do we keep our people engaged from a human aspect when we’ve got so much automation out there?

Daya Naef: It’s always been a challenge. It’s always been a challenge. And again, that sort of human ness leaning, leaning into your authenticity as a leader, I know that’s come in and out again. It’s another thing that kind of came in vogue and then went out. So we went, we were doing that empathetic leadership, and then all of a sudden that went out and said, no, no, our productivity, productivity. So I think we’re probably going to see another swing back to the empathy and putting the empathy and the EQ back into leadership in order to build stronger people through this revolution, if you will, or through this kind of tsunami of change in especially the legal industry. But in all industries, people are going to need more support. They’re going to need more human to human heart centered support. And that sounds a little bit juxtaposed with also this huge productivity and efficiency gains that we’re going to be seeing with AI, but we have to learn how to communicate with it and communicate with each other even more. So since we can kind of just outsource a lot of thinking to it, you know, we’re building a second brain, we’re building little mini mes and clones, and we’re having people talk to those clones, but where do we really come into the real data, the real Trisha? Like, how do we come in and be even, you know, Uber authentic? Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. So I’m seeing such a big opportunity here to start building more, better relationships with people. And I like that. But that’s just who I am, right? I’m just like, yes, this sounds amazing. Okay, um, tell us we’ve gotten a peek into the work that you’re doing. But tell me more about the success partner, the work that you’re doing, and the clients you serve.

Daya Naef: Yeah, absolutely. So the success partner, um, came, came up, um, came about in 2018. So when I took a step back from practicing law and more a step into that human or even more human connection, I was realizing that, you know, my brothers and sisters of the practice, um, excellent practitioners, excellent tacticians, not so much not so good with the bedside manner. And I said, well, we could really lean into that. And like a series of both professional and personal changes that kind of came along at that time. I took a break from everything and I dove into coaching school. So in 2018 into 2019, I was coaching school, building my network, changing my, changing my service offerings to, to be that person that I thought our industry and our profession needed. So I can thank my, I think my, my former paralegal, who also does marketing and media for helping me come up with the name because this is what we do. We’re a partner. We are a partner in your firm, helping the firm in and of itself be more successful on a variety, on a variety of fronts and a variety of ways. Yes.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. I love it. So if listeners are already ready to connect with you, what’s the best way for them to reach out?

Daya Naef: Absolutely. Email Dana at the success partner.com. I’m all over social media. Like you mentioned, I have a podcast. I’m on LinkedIn, Twitter. Um, what’s the other one? Tiktok. So my, my social media folks keep me very omnipresent. So I’m not, not difficult to find.

Trisha Stetzel: All right. And for those of you just listening today, his name is spelled DAYA last name Naifeh NAEF, so that you can find her in all of the most logical places, because that’s where we are. And that’s how I found you. Um, let’s talk for a minute about your podcasting. I know you’ve got two that are out there, so tell us more.

Daya Naef: So the Success Partner podcast named after my, my brand is the longest running and I interview people who are great resources. So not only are they successful in their business, they offer success as a service. So I have a lot of fractional CFOs, um, fractional marketing people. Um, I have some very interesting people like breath workers. And um, I have a financial therapist, so I have some very interesting people that are all their goal is supporting other people. So they share a little bit about how they develop their business. And they also share about how they help others developing the business. And then I have one that is AI specific. So it’s at ai dot law. Um, I think I maybe have about ten episodes so far. I talked to practitioners who are using AI or other legal technology, and I also have demos of products that people have have developed that serve the legal industry, where I can come on and show a brief demo so they don’t have to. So you don’t know if you’re curious about something. You don’t have to set up a sales call necessarily with the company. You can actually see a snippet of it with no, no strings attached on that, on that particular podcast.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. All right, you guys, I’m going to put those in the show notes. So if you’re sitting at your computer, you can certainly point and click to go find those podcasts. I’m also assuming Dia that they can go to your website and there’s probably a link there. You guys can visit the success partner.net to find the links for those. If you’re just listening, okay, you’re a giver. I’m a giver. We had this conversation before, So we, you and I both, um, had this belief in giving before getting. Uh, and let’s square that up with business relationships today because that’s what we’re talking about. So how does that philosophy fit into an increasingly automated world?

Daya Naef: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, why why I have while I use tools to like, keep in touch with my network and send out information, of course, newsletters and such, the actual 1 to 1 conversations are still the most important way to connect or even the podcast interviews like this is how we are really getting. You and I are getting to know each other. Uh, you listeners out there, we’re getting to know each other. And it really is a combination of things, you know, it’s keeping yourself top of mind. So when people need your services, but also showing that we’re not in this alone, we are in this together, you know, especially those of us who are Uber small businesses, then we need support. You know, even even that much more as we as we move through really even, even seasonality right now, you know, we’re going into summer, people are looking at booking things for the fall, but people are also looking at what do I need to do over the summer to stay connected or reboot or whatever summer means for you? Um, and you may feel like you’re alone with that, but if you have a deep network, you can reach out and you say, what are you doing? You know, maybe we, maybe we’ll set some accountability or maybe we’ll look at, um, bouncing some ideas off of each other. What do you think of this content? What do you think about should I, should I take some time and invest in writing a book? Like what should I be doing right now as far as seasonality in my, in my business? And that’s summer season versus, you know, five years in business season, which whichever, however you want to look at that.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And being intentional about those connections. So I was just thinking, you know, people like you and I, I don’t know how much time you spend working behind the screen, but many of us who are owner operators spend a lot of time in our home offices or in a box somewhere. How do we what would you say is the best way to stay intentionally connected or network with other people? When you spend 90 plus percent of your time working from home?

Daya Naef: Yeah. I mean, I do do a lot of online connecting. I do a lot of video calls. I have a Zoom coffee link, and you don’t have to be on Zoom. It can be teams or meet or whatever you want to meet on. But and we may or may not have coffee, it doesn’t matter. But really having those connections and some people I meet with a lot like we, we meet at least once a month and see how we’re. See how we’re doing, see what direction we’re going in, see what kind of feedback we’re getting from our markets, either a common market or different markets. Um, and then of course, you know, getting out, you know, I’m in New Orleans, so we love to get out and I love my coffee shop. So one of my Instagram channels is my coffee shop life and I’m always checking in from where I’m having a good cup of coffee and usually meeting someone. Not always. They’re just plugging away on my laptop. I’m I’m literally meeting with people that are, that are local or maybe even in town for business. I always make sure I know. And, and usually when you offer to meet up with someone in New Orleans, they do take you up on it. So I have people from all over the country, when they’re here for a meeting or a conference or to meet with a client, we we end up meeting face to face. And I love that.

Trisha Stetzel: We have to intentionally do that, which is how you and I got connected, whether it was through someone or direct. And I do all of my networking intentionally online as well, because I live too far away from a coffee shop. Darn it. Push a little, a little closer, coffee, tea, whatever works. Right? Um, all right, I want to shift our conversation from how AI is affecting people to the actual people. So we all know or have been in an organization, maybe even have an organization now where we have critical knowledge trapped inside of our key employees. So how can I help solve some of those problems without losing that human element?

Daya Naef: Yeah, this is this is a wonderful thing. And I have a project idea as well. So I’ll answer the easy question first, the technology being there. So yes, the technology to create a digital twin or an institutional wisdom capture is there. I feel in adding the human element would be having someone like a volunteer myself, you know, interview people a lot of right now, institutional wisdom is, is in the founders, especially in the legal industry. They’re in the founders who are about to retire. So we are having a huge company transfer right now. And I’m such a people person that I actually kind of envision myself following them around on the golf course or meeting them at the club for lunch and capturing some of this, if not the process or the operations of what they do, but more the spirit behind, you know, the culture. Like what was the how did you envision the culture of the firm when you founded it 50 years ago, and how can we let that legacy live on as we are innovating and as a new generation is stepping into your shoes? In fact, it’s like two generations or three generations down now coming into leadership. And so how do we not throw away the historical context of the firm while we, I say firm could be business as we’re passing it on. And I think having those really candid conversations and really capturing those candid conversations in someone’s natural habitat that only a human can really do, and then having it, of course, captured and recreated by an AI, an AI tool, or an AI process.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. All right. I’m in. Let’s just go interview everyone. I love this. I think it’s so much fun. It’s so fantastic. And how many of us know someone that left this world with knowledge that never got passed down or the story didn’t get told? I know a few and gosh, wouldn’t it have been amazing to capture that on audio or video or even on paper, for gosh sakes, right? Oh, I love that. Okay, uh, one more technical thing that I think is really important here is how can our small to midsize businesses, those folks who are listening today, um, how can they compete with larger businesses using AI?

Daya Naef: I think that’s the biggest, I think that’s the biggest market I do. And large firms, you see it every day. They are over spending. They have gobs and gobs of technology that they are buying and the ROI is has not been there for them because they really did it at. They’re really doing it for optics. Their clients say, are you using insert big name software here? And you’ll find, yes, they’re subscribing to it, but they actually don’t know what they’re doing with it. Um, a scrappy small timers like we have to use it. We have to get an ROI on it because it’s really hurting our, it’s hurting our bottom line as we are adding tools and not using them or not training our people on them or not evolving, involving our people and making it part of our ecosystem. So since we are required to have a return on investment, I find this is going to be the biggest leap and the biggest plus for small, small businesses competing with larger businesses.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. All right. So then playing off of that five years from now, what’s going to separate organizations that thrive or have adopted and are using and learning, um, AI enabled tools and those that struggle. So what separates those two?

Daya Naef: There’s going to be a big, a big shift. And then I did a special segment and had two panelists talk about this a few weeks ago on the podcast, we did a special kind of panel episode on a sorting. It’s going to be a sorting factor. And so if you are an expert or you have a niche in what you do deepening, that is going to set you apart from everyone else, you know. And there will also be the, I’m gonna say the bottom level, but I don’t mean bottom, like lower, lower, uh, any, any derogatory way. I mean the bottom like the most processed. So there’s really two ways that you’re going to go. Most people use law since that’s my most familiar industry is, as a lot of us are, you know, good at what we do. We’re practitioners. We cover enough volume to keep the lights on, and we’re as good as we need to be to produce the product and keep the relationships with clients and build the relationships and keep our reputation amongst our peers, which is where we mostly get our business. There’s going to be a shift. There’s going to be people that really dial in to a very specific thing where they are the expert. The AI can never be the expert on it, or mostly can never be the expert at applying something because it’s so entrenched in who we are. But then there’s also going to be those of us who learn to be more automated and more Productized don’t like it. It sounds kind of cheap, but to be more productive and we’re going to be handling things that are too sophisticated for just like a claims form or something that’s already a software as a service, but not at that. We need to hire somebody who’s like a $3,000 an hour expert. So it’s going to fall into maybe 1 or 2 of those camps. And and I’d love to be proven wrong. So.

Trisha Stetzel: All right. Five years from now. And that will not be our next conversation. By the way, we are definitely going to connect more often than that. Uh, all right. As we get to the back end of our conversation, one last question for you. What’s next for Dia and the success partner?

Daya Naef: Oh thank you. Thank you. Um, I think more, I mean, I think being more out there, I love in-person speaking events. So if you’re listening and you have one coming up that’s relevant, I’d love to talk more about that. Um, I did a lot this spring. Maybe maybe a few too many really. Uh, I got, I got to pace myself a little bit more as we move into planning for the fall and planning for the fall season, for speaking and getting my, getting my materials revamped and getting out there to see. Of course, I’ve been invited to so many conferences, but I really have to pick where where I’m going to be most effective in getting the right message to the right people. Um, maybe a book in the works. So I know I’ve said that before, but maybe so, maybe so. Uh, I will keep you posted. Uh, I do have a small group of practitioners that are going through a process that we’re developing. So that might lead to the book coming out. And I’ll have a few coauthors on that since we are working through the process together. So I guess just stay tuned.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow, I love that. That’s so much fun. Dana. All right. One last time. What is the best way for folks to connect with you that are listening today?

Daya Naef: Yes. Dana Naifeh and the success partner.com or you find me, um.com does go to.net. So you can either use either one and, uh, you know, LinkedIn, YouTube, just, uh, just find me. I am, I am out there and love to. Would love to be in touch.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh my gosh, I’m so excited that you came on with me today. I’m honored to have this conversation with you and can’t wait to have the next one.

Daya Naef: Thank you. It’s been great.

Trisha Stetzel: All right, you guys, that’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation that Diane and I had, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, veteran or Houston leader ready to grow. Be sure to follow, rate and review the show. It captures more bold business minds just like yours and your business. Your leadership and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.