Emerging Technologies For The Future Of Business

Starting the conversation:

To remain competitive in quickly changing markets, knowing how to use emerging technology is only part of the solution. The other is that there is always a human element for holding the vision of what your company is becoming, how the business will remain relevant over time, and the ability to anticipate changing customer expectations. It’s Your Business brings together three business advisors to discuss your Competitive Edge: Leveraging Emerging Technologies. Listen in to hear insights from Christy Maxfield, President and CEO at Purpose First Advisors, Dean Barta, Founder and CEO at Barta Business Group, and your host Jess Dewell, Managing Partner and Growth Strategist at Red Direction.

Challenge your initial response to emerging technologies related to maintaining a competitive edge in today’s marketplace. Being clear about what your company does — and how it will adapt to continue to offer an attractive solution — provides clear clues to what potential exits look like. From that knowledge, curiosity around process improvement or optimization can occur.

In this program, you will hear the importance of knowing what makes your company unique; that your competitors are potential options for revenue growth and exit; and the way you do work in your business is the best starting point to what and how emerging technologies fit in. So, are you ready to listen in to leverage emerging technologies and stay competitive in today’s fast-paced business world? Host Jess Dewell, Managing Partner and Growth Strategist at Red Direction, has an insightful discussion with guests Christy Maxfield, President and CEO at Purpose First Advisors, Dean Barta, Founder and CEO at Barta Business Group.

Host: Jess Dewell

Guest: Christy Maxfield and Dean Barta

What You Will Hear:

3:20 Know your competition.

• Thinking about growth means knowing who your competitors are NOW and who might acquire you LATER.
• Your values and mission make you unique and stand out in the noise.
• Positioning matters, so ask yourself: what does your customer think you do, and what do they need you to do?

9:10 Spending the right amount of attention on competitive landscape is an art.

• What we need to know versus what the customers want you to solve will uncover market place gaps.
• Why it matters that we know our competitive landscape and how it will change as technology does.
• Making progress means knowing what really is a priority — especially with quickly changing marketplaces due to customer needs and technology.

17:30 Prioritize integrating emerging technology to support strategic business growth.

• There will be friction in systems and processes which are easy starting points.
• Consider your existing competitive advantage and where you can expand or add.
• To meet and address the pressures of doing more with less and utilizing growth levers as the starting point.

26:10 Use your customer experience and your humanness to keep strengthening connection.

• We are the ones who run the process and bring creativity to solve problems.
• The way we look at how we make money may require a reset or reframe to something new for anticipating market changes.

31:40 The push companies are going through to be back at work.

• There is something to being in physical proximity to those we work with that enhances relationships.
• A leader’s ability to include management of remote work is dependent on the person in the role and the organization’s company culture.
• It is easier to dedicate protected time to deep work that is uninterrupted.

39:10 The real opportunity emerging technology brings to small and medium enterprises.

• Speed up processing for self-marketing.
• Jumpstart the creative process.
• A deeper look at large data sets to find trends of longer periods of time, and bring up patterns missed by the way we evaluate and make decisions.

48:05 3 Takeaways from the Emerging Technologies for the Future of Business conversation:

• We know what’s going on, we choose our priorities, and can communicate a clear goal.
• Get over the fear of getting technology integrated and become excited about using it to support our goals.
• Emerging technologies (even when we wait for them to be mainstream) allow a company to be agile and rapidly apply core capabilities in new ways.

Resources

• 10 Forces that Impact Businesses
• The 5th Industrial Revolution: The Dawn of the Cognitive Age
• 7 Questions to Rethink Your Business Through an Impact Lens

Transcript

Jess Dewell 00:00
Once set, what we do with technology, how we show up with technology will then be useful.

Christy Maxfield 00:07
Old tech is still also good tech. Sometimes post-it note is a technology.

Dean Barta 00:12
Having that technological advantage, it’s because the customer is driving. Actually, that’s a good reason.

Jess Dewell 00:18
I’m so glad you’re here. Thanks for stopping by. At the Bold Business Podcast, we are normalizing important conversations. Yes, there are tips. Yes, there are ways to solve problems. More importantly are going to be what do you need for yourself to be able to solve those problems and make the most of the education, the training and the programs that you are already using? This is a supplement to that. It can sit on top of it, fuel your soul, fuel your mind, and most importantly, regardless of where you’re at on your journey, maybe you’re starting out, maybe you’re ready to scale, maybe you’re going through reinvention. The conversations we are having will help you at each of those stages. So hang around, see what’s going on and I look forward to seeing you engaging with our videos.

Announcer 01:11
Welcome to It’s Your Business, brought to you by the Bold Business Podcast. This is your source for navigating today’s ever-evolving business landscape. In this program, Jess, Christy and Dean share the realities of current business challenges and triumphs. Get ready to lead with depth, understanding and achievement.

Jess Dewell 01:35
Welcome to the Bold Business Podcast production of It’s Your Business. I am here live with two of my favorite peers and we’re going to be talking today about emerging technologies in business. This is a buzzword, this is a thing. And you want to know after our conversations in terms of preparing this, I actually sat down and I was like, well, what is emerging technology and how does it show up? And guess what? It shows up in every decade. And now we’re getting to a place where it’s more than one new thing will show up in a decade. But every single time, whether it was getting on the Internet at all, doing online banking, maybe becoming a technology company and using digital marketing in addition to print marketing. Maybe it’s AI, maybe it’s operational, maybe it’s virtual help. Whatever that is, whatever that is, we still have key things to focus on in our business. Are we relevant? And to know if we’re relevant, we have to know our competition. To know if we’re relevant, we have to know what our customers want, and where they’re at, and how they want to be interacted with. And technology helps us with all of those things. So when we’re talking about emerging technologies here, that’s it? How do we use it? And Dean will say this way better than me. But then you gotta use it. And here we go. So what I will say now is I’m excited to be here. Let’s venture, let’s be bold. And we’re going to take a second or a minute to introduce each of ourselves. Christy, how about if you start?

Christy Maxfield 03:11
Christy Maxfield with Purpose First Advisors. I love people who think I’m funny. That’s the first thing you should know about me. The second is that I run Purpose First Advisors. We are a growth strategy organization that looks at growth through the lens of secession and exit planning for business owners. Dean?

Dean Barta 03:28
Dean Barda. At Barda Business Group, we focus on controller and CFO level work for basically growing small businesses that really, you know, need to. To they’re growing fast. Where the biggest question you ask the business owner is what else?

Jess Dewell 03:46
And I’m Jess Dewell and at Red Direction, we are providing growth advising services. And here’s the thing. One of the things that I love to talk about is what you’re doing right now, what’s working, what’s your biggest goal? How come you haven’t gotten there yet in your eyes? And we can find those limiting beliefs because they’re hiding in plain sight in our mindset, in our culture, in our processes. And that’s what we’re doing over at Red Direction because we just want to stir a pot now and again. Just like my peers but they probably would say it a little differently here. So today we’re talking about, we’re talking about competitive advantage with emerging technologies. And of course, our main theme in general is how do we stay relevant because we want to stay in business. And I know we really spending some time on knowing our competition is incredibly important. So when I think about this and I think about what that means to me. I know. But I’m curious to hear Dean and Christy, what do you think about when you think about knowing your competition?

Christy Maxfield 04:50
I think about it because exit and secession planning are, are really part of my jam. I think about it in terms of the fact that for many folks, if an exit is part of their strategy and they’re not going to do it internally, the next most likely buyer is one of their competitors. So who do I need to be in relationship with not only to know what’s going on and how to position my, my business for growth right now, but also what are the things that potentially make me more appealing for an exit or make my competitors appealing to me for an acquisition? So that’s going to vary from industry to industry. But when we were prepping, Dean made the point of like, in fact, you can get over-obsessed with your competition. You can try to keep up with the Joneses. And I don’t want to keep up with the Joneses as much as I want to differentiate myself. So either the Joneses want to buy me and if the Joneses are differentiating themselves, I want to buy them. But both of us are trying to do something that special and important to solve our clients problems. And it could have impact not only on our current growth in income but on our future positioning for, for exit acquisition or some other type of joint venture, things like that.

Dean Barta 06:13
Each one of us is unique and each one of our businesses, you know, there’s not a carbon copy of even two businesses in the same industry. And so just like as, as individuals, right, we, each one of us brings our own personality and passion and love to the table and, and be aware of, you know, what your competition is doing. But it’s not, it’s not about copying, it’s about, hey, what if we do it our way and do it special, that resonates with our values and, and how we want to move forward with our particular company. And, and to me that’s what really will resonate with people because then you know, they, you know, they, they will connect with you and that’s, that’s one of the best clients to have is when you’re, you’re connecting with them and they’re connecting with you and based on your values.

Jess Dewell 07:08
And it’s easy with technology because as technology becomes more accessible and we embrace it, our, our, the barrier to entry decreases. Which means what Dean was saying about uniqueness in our way becomes more important. Which makes what Christie was saying with well who am I talking to? Who am I complementary to? Because that changes my future. Those increase and we’ve been taught, and I’m going to, I’m going to say we in general, this is my opinion, we have been taught to focus on the process and not on the ambiguity. To focus on the process and embrace uniqueness.

Christy Maxfield 07:42
But what does that actually look like.

Jess Dewell 07:44
When we’re working toward growth and staying in business and figuring out those problems of how do I make payroll? Is my talent the same? I have to do more with less here. What does that look like with the time, energy and money that we have? And those are common questions that were we’ve got in that basis. And I will tell you then because I’m thinking about this and so really being able to Add to know your competition. I have, I have personal experience of being in charge of five companies doing the exact same thing. Profit margins from 8% to like 28%. And on paper you look at all the features of the things and they were all the same. And so how do you sell something at 8% and sell that same thing at 28%? Well, I figured that out because we did it and we grew and I was in charge of everybody and it did come down to who, what, what, and it was all in software. So us, it was the what kind of company was attracted to this and what features did they lean into. And so we led the marketing, we led the conversation, we led the decision-making calls and the calls of the solutions with what those clients had decided that company was already giving them. And that’s how we grew because we could help them with where their priorities were too. And so on paper it looks all the same, but how we did it, what we did and why the use was happening was what made us different. And I thought that that was an interesting way to kind of think about, we need to know how we’re different. Yeah, yeah, we have to know how we’re different. And what does that mean and where does that conversation go? What are some of the things that you hear about emerging technologies and either the excitement about it or the fear about it. Now I’m curious, right?

Christy Maxfield 09:36
It’s not even fear. I’d put it as like frustration of, oh, there’s another thing that has now become table stakes that I have to invest in, right? So like in, in the restaurant world, the point of sale system, the POS system didn’t have to do all the things it has to do today 10 years ago. But now my clients, my customers expect to be able to order online. They be, expect to be able to pay digitally. They, without even having a physical card with them, right? That they’re, they want to do this transaction. I want to have my receipt in my inbox. I want it to be tied to the app that tracks all of my loyalty points. Right. And so if I’ve got a good business going. But now just the norm of what my customers expect is I have to invest in new technology to deliver the things that have now become the new norm. I think there’s a level of fatigue around that sometimes depending on the industry of just like, oh, it’s one more thing. And now how does this talk to QuickBooks? Because Dean’s going to want all this data in there and he’s not going to want me to send him a spreadsheet anymore, because that’s not how we do it anymore. And how’s that going to get into the CRM? And nobody was going to want to upload, download, upload, you know, and do all that. Those guys just got to talk to each other too. And my thing doesn’t talk to anybody about anything because it’s like 10 years old and I don’t even know if anybody supports it anymore. Like, it can get co. That’s where you kind of get into overwhelm and then fear and then people just kind of shut down and try to, try to delegate it because they don’t want to think about it.

Dean Barta 11:14
Does your POS system need to have it? Is it your clients that are driving that now? That’s an important thing to look at is having that technological advantage. It’s because the customer is driving. Actually, that’s a good reason to upgrade. If you’re just like, well, everybody else has this CRM or whatever, then I should have it too. That’s a, that’s a different reason, you know, that it may not be, you know, that the need is there. And so, you know, taking a look at that because, yeah, all of us get overwhelmed about, oh, there’s this one more thing, you know, else you have to do. But you could look at it as, wow, if I’m going to drive more customers, to me, if I get that POS system and I could, you know, take out and make people can order online and all this, you know, let’s just say that that that’s the sav that helps that change, you know, move along a little bit quicker. You know, because you’re like, oh, because you see, you’re already seeing the benefit of it instead of it being Jess.

Christy Maxfield 12:13
Because you asked about excitement, I don’t think either of us, I mean, you get excited when you think about making more money. I’ll give Dean that That is absolutely 100%. But on the flip side, you could get excited about the new technology and it’s a distraction. And it’s either the, everybody else has it, I want it too, or, well, you know, if I do that, I’ll feel productive. I’ll feel like I’m making progress with the business. And it’s a heck of a lot more fun than updating my current CRM or reconciling my bank statements, or making sure that my social posts are scheduled, all of which require technology. But man, if I can, if I can try out like the 18 different versions of AI-prompted writing resources that are available as of like 20 minutes ago. I think about how much fun would.

Jess Dewell 13:03
Have having worked with companies both inside and outside. So this is whether I was part of this, these companies or on the outside looking in. I will tell you that there are interests around technology that are just part of the culture and the Subaru, those are named, the sooner progress is made. So there’s, there was, there were several companies that I’ve worked with status quo, mainstream, no if it even could be considered emerging technology. We are out by the way those are typically in my experience the number two to number five people companies in a market. So whether that’s geographic, wherever that geography is nationally, internationally, within your community, those people are, I mean they’re big, they’re staying presence and they, and they’re like cool, you guys figure it out then we’ll just, we’ll just work with once you figure it out. And I think that’s an interesting approach because if you can name it and say I don’t want to do emerging technology, it allows you to focus on other things and your brain space doesn’t even have to go there. The other thing I would say is on the flip side, I do like emerging technology and I know personally like Christie was saying it could be a distraction and like Dean was saying, I’m like, well now I just want to know what else is, is everybody else already using this? Whether I choose or not is a whole different story. But both, both of those things like come to mind for me. And then another piece that I would add would be well, what are my goals actually? And we have to come back to that. Are my goals to increase profitability? Are my goals to reach new markets? Are my goals to do new research and development? Is my goal to acquire a company. Whatever, whatever those organizational goals are will actually once set what we do with technology, how we show up with technology will then be useful. I need this brand new one or I need to figure this out now or this can wait until it settles a little. And I think that that’s something that we really have to hold first as well. Emerging technologies only work if we know what our goals are. And that’s not now. These are your looking forward five plus years goals?

Christy Maxfield 15:19
Yes. Yeah your percent how do you so.

Jess Dewell 15:23
Well, I got cool and I like.

Dean Barta 15:25
Your approach, Jess, because you’re looking at it. Think about it strategically because you may not need to do five different systems or whatever your business, you know, it might be, okay, well we do this and this is going to improve this and then you say, hey, well we can wait because that’s the next system. We’re not inefficient, but we know that that’s something that we’re going to have to do in the future. And being really strategic because, gosh, you know, we’ve all went through enough system conversions or transitions and all that, you know, you only want a certain number of those in your lifetime.

Christy Maxfield 16:02
I think that number of conversions to the life expectancy is directly correlated.

Dean Barta 16:08
Yeah, that’s like, like skiing moguls. You only have a number of bumps in your knees and that’s it, you know. But being strategic about that, that’s, that’s a really smart way to look at it and find out what, what’s going to be your best return on investment for, you know, you know, that particular technology and have a strong like, okay, we’ve got three main reasons why we’re using. We’re going to move to this, you know, we’re going to bring this technology in that’s really going to benefit and you know, you know, ease, ease whatever pain we have in that particular area.

Jess Dewell 16:41
Share your thoughts and questions in the comments below. I thrive on your feedback and engagement. You’re listening to the Bold Business Podcast. I’m your host, Jess Dewell. This is your program for strategizing long-term success while diving deep into what the right work is for your business.

Announcer 16:59
Right now you are listening to the Bold Business Podcast hosted by Jess Dewell, a nationally recognized strategic growth consultant. She works with business owners and executives to integrate just two elements that guide business through the ups and downs of growth. Number one, know what work is necessary. Number two, do all the work possible. Schedule a complimentary consultation to find out [email protected] Hey, I can tell you the.

Jess Dewell 17:33
The conversations that I have been having for the last six to nine months have been revolving around I’m not sure what to do with my increased labor costs and I’m expecting them to go up. I recognize that our my profitability is probably going to be going down because my costs are going to go up more than I can increase my revenue. How do I navigate some of these things? And this is where AI automation, however you want, whatever piece of AI you want, sales systems, big data, even though you know, big data for everyday companies. All of those things come down to to what you were saying, Dean. And adding on was to where are we strategically? Because I don’t think we can a company really can’t do all of them in a year. They can do one at a time. And how does that then set the stage for what’s next?

Dean Barta 18:27
Find the task or the function in your business that people really don’t like doing. And that’s probably the first place to look. You know, let’s call it data entry, which, you know, data entry is like giving someone a washboard and a bar of soap, you know, to do laundry. I mean that’s, I mean that is, that should never be done in 2025.

Dean Barta 18:48
But you, but find out what you know, that’s a good way to look and say, oh man, it’s a repetitive function. It’s, it’s, or, or it’s just something that’s like, this is just arduous to do do. Can we find a piece of technology that will really bring the burden off of that? That’s one way to look at it. And the others, what like Christy mentioned, it’s like, hey, it gives you a competitive advantage to, to kind of help, you know, prioritize what’s going to, you know, what, what the direction would be best.

Christy Maxfield 19:21
I love the idea, Dean, of looking at like, where’s that repetitive task that is that people don’t like to do? That’s also where job outdated activities that are keeping the, the organization from moving forward and sometimes creating job security for certain individuals. So it’s where you’re also likely to get the most resistance to change. Because as we have always done it this way or you know, Betty’s been, you know, doing our bookkeeping that way forever. It works, it’s not broken. And Betty would absolutely hate to do X. I can’t tell you how many clients have told me we can’t use QuickBooks online. We have to have desktop. And then on the flip side, every accountant who’s ever told me that’s not true. There’s this perception, there’s this mindset and perception of what’s possible, what, what makes sense for us because we’re on some level we all think we’re super special and there’s just no way this thing is going to do what we needed to do the way we need to do it. So that came up for me then I was like, old tech is still also good tech sometimes. So we like Post-it note is a technology.

Jess Dewell 20:33
Well, I got stories about that.

Christy Maxfield 20:34
Any office that doesn’t have a post-it right? Do I use it for my CRM? No, because importing is really difficult with a piece of paper. But I use my Post -ts for other things that allow me to be effective and efficient. So as you were talking, Jess, about There’s not a lot of things I can do to help you control your labor costs. Except there’s a lot of really good, somewhat expensive, but worth the investment, pre-employment testing that can be done.

Jess Dewell 21:07
Oh, wow. I’m a big fan of that.

Christy Maxfield 21:10
In my mind, that’s an existing technology. It’s not emerging. It’s been around for a long time. If you don’t opt for the, you know, $10 one on Facebook and actually engage a qualified professional, you can improve hiring and retention and all these other things that are, yes, are going to cost you more over time, but if you can reduce some of the ancillary costs. And the third thing is, Jess always says, are you relevant?

Jess Dewell 21:37
One of my things, are you relevant?

Christy Maxfield 21:40
If your job, if the way you serve customers involves a lot of writing for them, with them around them, and you’re not using AI, you are not relevant. It doesn’t matter how much you know, that will be valuable in certain contexts, but you’re leaving a lot of time and money on the table and you’re simply not relevant in current culture. So I think that’s a really important question that Jess has brought to my brain. A lot of, you know, what is relevancy? Because again, as I think about exit planning, people want to say purposeful and relevant. How am I going to stay purposeful and relevant? Right. And if, if you’re not focused on your purpose now and you’re not doing things to stay relevant in the areas you want to stay relevant in now, it’s not going to magically happen when you trans transition from being a business owner to whatever the next stage of life is. So having strategies around staying relevant, feeling meaningful, contributing in meaningful ways. Yeah, that has broader applications too.

Jess Dewell 22:43
I love that you were making notes on sticky notes because I’ll actually use that as an example. I have paper for every single one of my clients and I still do. And here’s, here’s an interesting concept in relationship to, in relationship to that how I want to use AI, which by the way is finally, here is I want to be able to input all of my notes in addition to maybe transcripts in the future. But right now I want to start with my notes because I can go back if I’ve been working with a company for eight years, which is the average of companies that are working with me. I know approximately this year this big win happened, but we can’t remember exactly. So in the way that I take notes, I can show up and I can find it relatively quickly, whereas in technology it doesn’t matter where you were putting all of this technology and all of these digital notes, all you had were images or pieces of paper that weren’t really searchable from the tool that you were using. Right. And now we actually have the technology with which to search those. So the questions and the value that I’m bringing are great. But being able to, like, I’m big on reflection too. Are you relevant? Do you reflect? And until AI can help me reflect and find things to support growth and building on what’s making somebody successful, their unique way of doing things, this particular process is going to be very antiquated. And I’m okay with that. But at the same point in time, there are so many other things that come to mind in relationship to, well, I need a journal prompt. I’m a better responder than I am creator. Give me something, right? What are five things to think about? Like I could actually say, here, take this correct transcript of Christie and Dean and me and tell me something I haven’t already, I haven’t figured out on my own from our conversation. Right. We’re from another viewpoint and I love seeing that because it opens up the way we think to those bigger, broader question.

Christy Maxfield 24:47
Jess, I don’t know if you saw Shauna’s comment on LinkedIn, but I knew Shauna was going to probably be watching today. And her field happens to be in, in that professional testing, that pre-employment testing. And she just noted that even in her industry there’s lots of different ways, if I’m reading this correctly, you know, they can, even in her field, her, her peers can be more efficient and less expensive with emerging technologies, but you’re never going to replace the brain behind it, Shauna’s brain and her team’s brain, to be able to take that data and really make meaning of it, you might be able to expedite that process and improve upon it. And you know, those who stay relevant will, they will use that technology to get better, faster, smarter with the human piece of the work that’s needed. I jokingly put on, I think it was actually Instagram that when AI can give my cat her oral meds, then you know, I’ll actually be scared about it taking over the universe because there’s just gonna be certain things that it can’t do. It can tell me academically what it would, what it has learned and iterated on, but there are just some things you don’t really know until you’ve had the bites and scratches to prove it. So, hey, Shawna, thank you for watching and Dealing with my tangents. And B, thank you for pointing out that, you know, emerging technologies are showing up everywhere. And I would just put the plug in for. You still need a really talented professional, whether it’s accounting, psychology, organizational development, industrial organizational design, growth consulting, whatever the case may be, exit planning. It’s that element that is going to be the hardest to replace. And that’s, to Dean’s point, if you lean into your values and your purpose and you do it better than anyone else, that’s when you can take technology and leverage it for not only the greater good, but for all the things you’re trying to create in the world. In addition to and beyond profit.

Dean Barta 26:48
All of our clients are human beings.

Christy Maxfield 26:50
Absolutely.

Dean Barta 26:51
As long as there’s a human connection that then we’re relevant as humans in this whole AI technology. So, you know, yeah, there’s certain things that robots will take over certain, you know, functions, but unless you got robots talking to robots, you know, you know, and that’s not our industry, you know, and in, you know, near 100% of businesses are human to human. So, yeah, utilize those technologies so that you can streamline things. But. And then you still, you bring the, the value of you as a person and a professional to that client who’s a professional on their end. You know, it’s. Yeah, and that’s, you know, that’s part of the. I think it’s actually just part of the human condition. You know, it’s just, you know, how we’re interacting with each other.

Christy Maxfield 27:47
So, yes, 100%.

Jess Dewell 27:50
We always need to have space with which to handle cost reduction. For example, I’ve had three pieces of technology increase in cost 200 to 600% from last year to this year. That’s a lot of money and that’s a huge jump. And that’s a lot of technology. So you have to. So if we didn’t have capacity with which to go, what can we do? How can we do this? And so here’s my first question. My first question is, which of our technologies do we have overlapping functionality with and can they get us what we want? Can I reduce the number of technologies I have by leveraging what the companies are developing on my behalf because I’ve decided to be their customer. So sometimes we don’t have to know the questions to ask. We just have to know where to go find some answers and where to go find some support. This outside piece, they’re already trying to keep me as a client. What are they doing and how are they doing it? Do I need to know day-to-day, do I need to get their development updates? No, because I’m not a programmer and I will say, do I like to see what’s going on? Do I like to understand the new features? Is it something that’s redundant on somewhere else? Because it’s good to know. Because if I have to make quick cash finds, guess where I’m going to go? We tend to go to contraction. So if we have an awareness of what we already have and where they’re going and what’s already evolving there, we can get some easy contractions without big technology change. Was what I was going to add there the second piece then to come back to this humanness.

Christy Maxfield 29:25
We have to.

Jess Dewell 29:26
Have a mindset shift. We, I, and I’m saying have to on purpose because we will either continue to move as individuals in our roles, as our CEO role as our, as our side hustle, as our main role in our company. And the way we look at the jobs that we’re doing and the people we’re working with as dollars for hours. What do I get from the hours you spend with me and am I paying for that? As long as we have a dollars-for-hours mentality, we are at risk of being replaced by technology.

Dean Barta 29:59
Yeah. Because we’re a commodity.

Jess Dewell 30:00
Yeah.

Christy Maxfield 30:01
And losing the humans that we actually need because we’re not valuing their output, we’re not valuing their unique talentful contributions. We’re valuing how much face time and hours. We’re measuring productivity by a metric that in many cases is not relevant.

Jess Dewell 30:18
So dollars becoming the output of measurable, actionable items instead of dollars being the metric with which is measured. That mindset is huge. And the companies that can make that shift are going to be the ones that stay relevant longer.

Christy Maxfield 30:35
Well, this is a little off-topic then, but with the push to go back to work in person and people, some companies demanding 100% in person, regardless, is that taking us farther away from that mindset? And potentially those leaders are in fact putting some of their ability to be relevant and successful at risk.

Dean Barta 30:59
Yeah, I think it’s a backward step actually. I think hybrid, you know, is a, it’s a better. Because people have had the, the taste of remote and, and you know, there’s plenty of statistics out there that remote work, there’s higher productivity. But to force people a hundred percent to go back to a hundred percent in person, man, I think that’s a step back for, for companies in my opinion because to me that’s not, that’s not a win-win. And you know, you’re trying to relive something else, then there’s ways to be, you know, connect with team and all that, both virtual and, you know, part-time, remote, part-time in person. I mean, so that’s just how I view it. And the discussions I have with various people about that subject, it makes me.

Christy Maxfield 31:49
Think too that the investment then needs to be on how to build culture, connection, collaboration without physical proximity or with a mix of some physical proximity, but not 100% physical proximity. And is there technology that we can use or create that helps us do that better than we do it now? But really it goes back to our humanness. We have to remember we’re humans and we have, we have human needs that need to be met in the workplace. Technology can help us meet some of those. But there will need to be an expertise, if there is not already within your organization, to leverage the humanness of your team. I think a lot of my experience has been that people think the humanness of like it’s humans being humans, bringing all those emotions to work, bringing all those issues to work, having like these things that distract them from being productive. You know, they’re humans being human. So if we can make space for that and then use technology in ways that allow them to be more human and more productive, that. That actually demands a lot of us as leaders, that we’ve probably neglected to develop those strengths along the way as a, as a business sector to be. You know, just in overall, I really.

Jess Dewell 33:07
Think it depends on your culture. I think it depends on the role, and I think it depends on your leadership and the kind of leader that you are. And what, how. Because there’s an a. Manage a management piece. I mean, some roles. I’m thinking about electricians, I’m thinking about plumbers, I’m thinking about Florida floor installers. They, they’re never in an office. Their job is out on sites. And so there’s something to learn from that. The computer work, office work, there are elements to that. And there are schools dedicated to teach people how to manage and lead in those environments. And that is limiting because they don’t have experience anywhere else. And then there are dispersed teams which tend to be in the. Where people can kind of like piece together and throw all the things together and get it there. And, and I think of development teams or remote sales teams or all of these other things that you see where you can be you, you can be remote and you can be more productive, but why are they more productive? You want me to tell you? I got an Idea, my idea, why they’re more productive. You ready? Is because they’re not as many meetings they have to be in real with you. Because I’m like, come on, let’s just boil this down.

Christy Maxfield 34:21
I love a good meeting with a good agenda. Sometimes it’s gotta be a meeting. But if it doesn’t have to be a meeting, it should be an email. And if it doesn’t need to be an email, it should be one text.

Jess Dewell 34:30
You listen to me and you’re like, come on, are you from the 90s? Why, yes. I started my career in the 90s, but guess what?

Christy Maxfield 34:35
This is still true.

Jess Dewell 34:36
The more we’re around, the more people want our time, the more that we have to be discerning of how are we spending our time. Because productivity comes from being able to be uninterrupted and doing deep work.

Christy Maxfield 34:49
It also comes from giving people a level of autonomy that many folks aren’t comfortable with because there’s a fundamental lack of trust. So we could go. This is a whole nother topic that we could go up on again. Shawna’s on our team on this. She said excellent points. I respond very well to positive affirmations. So I would just like to thank her for that. You know, the culture people is the culture people. And she makes the point, people need to feel happy on Sunday night. They do. They need to feel happy on Sunday night. Getting the Monday scaries is a thing, and the Monday scaries keeps people from being productive.

Dean Barta 35:26
Are you paying for an employee to work a certain period of time? Are you paying for results?

Jess Dewell 35:34
Yeah, that’s right.

Dean Barta 35:35
If somebody, you’re paying someone, say $80,000 a year in whatever function and you need to have these X results done, do you really care if they get it done in 10 hours versus 40?

Jess Dewell 35:48
Hopefully not.

Dean Barta 35:49
Yeah, I mean, hopefully not. Because you’re like, what, that $80,000 I’m outlaying plus benefits and all that. They’re getting whatever, you know, 4x of whatever. Who cares if they’re, you know, you know, doing laundry and taking, playing with their kids at, you know, 10:00am in the morning, as long as they’re getting their stuff done. To me, it’s like, who cares?

Christy Maxfield 36:10
That’s the point too, is like, I do care if it takes 40 hours to do a four hour job. Right?

Dean Barta 36:15
Well, true. Right.

Christy Maxfield 36:16
I also know that people are capable of, of putting in a load of laundry, taking the dog for a walk, and doing that project in a four hour period. It may just not be four contiguous hours. Right. So I Think the more we understand about what a job requires and the behaviors that we need to see that indicate that somebody has the ability to do the job the way the job needs to be done. Again, I think in a good way. It demands more of us as managers and leaders. It requires us to be more specific, to Jess’s point about what are our goals and priorities. Do these activities get us closer to our goals and priorities? Achieving those. Are they being done in alignment with our values? Does it keep us focused on the right North Star and keep us from getting overly distracted by things that are. By life? Right. Those kinds of things. And I would love, I love the idea of grappling with these issues, making us be better visionaries, leaders and managers, because we need all three of those skills in our companies. And the stronger we get at performing in those roles, the better we get at not only taking care of our people and giving them what they need to be successful, but we also take care of our clients and give them what they need.

Jess Dewell 37:47
I’m your host, Jess Dewell, and we’re getting down to business on the Bold Business Podcast. This is where we’re tackling the challenges that matter most to you with actionable and achievable advice to get real results that lead to your success. Don’t forget, press that bell icon so you never miss a program and it’s time to subscribe as well.

Announcer 38:11
Focused on growth. Listen to more programs like this which support the challenges and opportunities you are working with right now.

Christy Maxfield 38:19
Come on.

Announcer 38:20
Search Bold Business Podcast for the key terms at reddirection dot com or your preferred podcast listening app.

Jess Dewell 38:27
When we’re thinking about technology, new technology, AI, emerging technologies, there’s serious opportunity. And every single thing we just talked about has a technological opportunity with it. And it’s up to us to figure that out. So I thought maybe we could actually spend a couple of minutes and talk about that, which, by the way, we’re like three-quarters of the way done with our show and we were so into this, I forgot to say, hey, you’re listening to It’s Your Business with Christy and Dean and me, Jess, and we’re talking about staying competitive and embracing emerging technologies to do so. Welcome to this program provide provided to you by the Bold Business Podcast.

Christy Maxfield 39:06
And here we go. Well done. Thank you for that station break.

Jess Dewell 39:10
I know, right? The opportunity, right. So there’s real opportunities that technology can bring and I thought it would be good. We’re talking about it, and even though we might not be like, hey, we’re all about Emerging technologies. And this is what we talk about. We recognize the opportunities, recognize the need, and we recognize even in our own businesses, in addition to our clients, how we can be helpful and where this makes sense. So we’ve talked a lot about it, but I’m like, what if we share some examples, actual opportunities that people have considered and the choices they’ve made.

Dean Barta 39:41
How I’m using AI is through my marketing efforts. And, and I have, you know, one of my marketing people, you know, he’ll say, you know, what do you think is a relevant topic? So I give him the list of things that, that might be relevant in, in my industry and what I’m doing right now, he feeds that into whatever Chat GPT or whatever, kicks out a whole, like a post that I review and then I review and I’m like, okay, I’m going to change this. I’m going to, you know, and. But you know, there’s a foundational stuff now. If I was to sit down and write it and try to write it within my current schedule, that could be two weeks later that I would have that instead of, you know, maybe a day later or even two hours later. So to me, it’s just much more efficient to do that and, you know, and I still have control over it. But let’s just say I’m letting AI be that worker be to do all that stuff. And it’s been, it’s been great, you know, and I think first time when I decided to use that, I was like, no, I want it all in my voice and all that. And, and I can still put it in my voice. It’s just, you know, you know, it’s. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of, of good.

Christy Maxfield 40:59
That’s right. Yeah, I do a lot of that kind of thing too. I mean, before we had AI as our sign kind of now default Internet search experience in many ways, I was always using outside resources, books, podcasts, Google searches to help jumpstart the creative thinking process for me. Or to say like, is this a thing? Like, in my brain this is a thing. Anybody else think this is a thing? Who else is thinking this is a thing? Right? And like, so just the other day I was like, are we actually afraid of change or are we afraid of ambiguity? Let’s ask, are people more afraid of changer than ambiguity? They’re like, ambiguity usually leads to a fear of change and fear of ambiguity. I was like, look at all that.

Jess Dewell 41:45
Look at.

Christy Maxfield 41:46
I kind of, I didn’t have first thought I had it on with thought, right? And I’m preparing for another podcast that I’m going to be on and it’s a different take on things. It’s a marketing podcast. And while I do marketing things all the time for myself and my clients, I’m like, how am I going to tie this to succession planning? Because that’s what I really want to do is how do I tie it to exit and succession planning? And I, so I said, how would you I tie these things together? And it did what my brain would have done had I had the time and space to let my brain do it. And it just exponentially jump-started what is my natural thought process and to Dean’s point, my ability to put my own take on it because I didn’t copy and paste anything. I just was like, thank you. You just took all the disparate thoughts in my brain, connected all those dots for me faster than I could and now I can riff on them. So, you know, I think we’re all going to find ways, whether that how to get your recipe written faster so you can pass it on to your grandkids or like how you’re going to revolutionize technology in your space. And then there’s other people, like lean into people. One of my colleagues, Leah Wald, with checkmark projects, put out her blog of her favorite things. And since she’s an operations guru, they’re all technologies. Use this for this and this for this and this for this and this for. I’m like, great. Now next time somebody asks me what my favorite CRM is, I’m going to say, you know, I use this. But, but Leah loves this. Go check it out and then if you need more help, go, go call Leah because that’s her jam. So lean on others to figure out, figure that out with.

Jess Dewell 43:25
I’m using it for data collection because, you know, we have room. Every business has reports and they have so much information that can come from everywhere. It’s like, well, what do I actually track? And we’ve narrowed it down to three or four things that we are tracking at a company and then we break those down into the same buckets but by business role and you know, business section and, and whatever we need to do for each role that we have. So we’ve got, these are the results we’re looking for to get this bigger result because these are the major things that we have got going on and everybody wants to give us different reports. And so I’m just like, feed it in, feed it and feed it in and then I can ask, I Can be like, okay, cool, but thanks for giving me this big report. Let’s lay our things that we’re measuring on top of that. How does this all look when we just put ours on top? And that is how we are using some of this emerging technology to get rid of what we don’t need to see, to recognize and spend our creative energy doing creative things instead of trying to discern and decipher and filter all of this to get here. So we’re actually using it in an automated process so that we can speed up report conversations, we can speed up what we’re doing in all of these different things because that means the meetings that we choose to have, that we actually have time to dig in and go, well, is this a problem? What are the ideas reprioritize there in those meetings outside of Present Retreat time? Because that’s what everybody’s going to take back to their individual protected deep work time. I call those present retreats and be able to go, so how do I want to do things differently? What are the things that we can do over here in this business unit to bring back and get to this bigger goal and we can actually move faster, better, bigger than our competitors? Does that really matter? Maybe depends on what our other big goals are, right? Where are we going to be in five years? But I guess that’s the, that’s a way that we’re using it. Just filter, discern, tell us because it’s all there and we can get more. I can get information on all of my competitors to put in there too. So how about us compared to them to compare to them without somebody having to sit down and go collect the data, tally it up, run the reports, all of that stuff. And I think that that’s huge from competitive placement. I also think it’s huge from a strategic positioning placement. So we can ask the bigger questions. What’s changing faster?

Dean Barta 46:03
Well, I think what’s important about our examples too is that probably for Christy and me, we’re using technology to take that first step to get which it doesn’t matter if it’s an exercise program or you’re working on nutrition or whatever is doing that first day or whatever, you know, and if you use, you know, AI or emerging an emerging technology just to get. Let’s just get to the first step so that we initiate. And then Jess, you showed the excitement of like, hey, when you get in there, you get proficient with it, then it’s like, oh, all this other exciting stuff. And then your, your creativity really kicks in because you’re okay, now I know how this works and now look at all the possibilities. And so there’s a two, there’s a twofold benefit is hey, get that first step in. But next is like, now you’re sprinting and you’re having fun and you’re, you’re playing with this technology. And that’s good stuff there. That’s great stuff.

Jess Dewell 47:04
I have so many more things to share. And guess what? We’re at the time of the program where it’s like, hey, what’s your biggest takeaway, everybody? And I’m like, I don’t want to do this yet, but we gotta because we have this thing called a time constraint.

Christy Maxfield 47:21
Okay, so which of us wants to.

Jess Dewell 47:23
Go first about that?

Christy Maxfield 47:26
My biggest takeaway is that despite having a title that intimidated me because I was like, I’m not known for my daily musings on emergency technology, despite having a title that was a little challenging, I had a lot to say about it, which proves my theory that I have an opinion about everything. I just haven’t been asked yet. So thank you for challenging my ability to stretch and grow in this space and to share my thoughts. And you brought up so many things that made my brain do so many tangents that I too am a little sad to see it all, all be done right now. But, and quite honestly, the big takeaway is that you need to know what’s going on and you need to evaluate any technology, big T or little T, through the lens of your priorities and your goals. Because when you said just recently, Jess, of like, well, we can go move faster than our competitors. And then you immediately said, if that’s our goal. And I think about like the Birkin bag, I think one of the bags that is like scarce, right? Their goal is not to move faster than their competitors. Their goal is not to have the handbag delivered faster or to use new technology to make it. And everybody’s been given them all sorts of crap about that, but they are very clear in what their goal is. Handcrafted, high quality, rare and exclusive, not available to everyone.

Dean Barta 49:06
My takeaway is just, hey, you gotta get over the fear of getting into new technology. So that, and you know, and just perfectly demonstrated so that you can get into the excitement and creativity of how that technology can help you. But there’s a two-step process that I think is really important. Some people, you know, just normally they, who they are, they just jump into every piece of new technology there is. But there’s a ton of us that, that don’t and so just take that first step, get in there and then you’ll, you’ll be like, wow. Yeah, I think you mentioned it at the very beginning, Christy, how did you? We’ll be like, how did we do this without AI? You know, so just like, how did we do it without cell phones? How did we do it without Internet? You know, and you know, now it’s like you, you don’t think of anything else and it’s such, you know, it permeates what our, our, our life is. So, so yeah, it help it to get over that, that hump and then, then really thrive.

Jess Dewell 50:05
And here I am thinking how cool is it that everything we’re talking about today, when we use it through this one lens of this is what we do and this is what we do well. And so how can we use technology to help us do that better and better? Because I can actually tell you QuickBooks was losing some market share. And my last, here will be my last example. I read this in CFO Brew. So if anybody is listening and they are reading newsletters and email newsletters, CFO Brew is where I saw this. And basically the outcome of whatever that conversation was, they had to switch quickly. So what did they do? They doubled down on what they did the best with to enter a new market without having to reinvent something for that new market. And they came down from big business to the smaller SMEs where they were losing some market share because they didn’t even know that was a market that was available to them. But they adapted quickly because they doubled down on what their capability already is and what their priorities are, are. So that’s what my big takeaway is about all of this conversation. Be fast. To be fast. Where do you want to be fast? To know your capabilities and then make those decisions accordingly. I can’t believe it. I mean, holy cow, can you imagine, right? Like in the, in, in the 90s we were talking about what, we don’t have to use a fax machine anymore. We can send an email?

Christy Maxfield 51:35
I loved my first pda. My boyfriend, now husband, gave me a pda and I was like, thanks. Nothing says love like a piece of equipment I didn’t ask for. And within 20 minutes I was like, this is, this is going to change my life. I still mourn my BlackBerry.

Jess Dewell 51:54
I’m sorry.

Christy Maxfield 51:55
I never had in a car without a backup camera. I’m like, oh, I gotta turn my head.

Jess Dewell 52:02
I know.

Christy Maxfield 52:03
Well, it’s true.

Jess Dewell 52:04
And it shows up everywhere. Like in the 2010’s, right? We became Every technology, every business became a tech, a technology business. We have to have technology integrated in instead of bolted on. So this is just another step in that next evolution. And I love that about the timeliness and everything that we are working with here. Do you have any other last comments, Christy or Dean?

Christy Maxfield 52:26
I would say just remember, in every era there’s a quote from somebody who said, that’s never going to catch on. Find yourself thinking, oh, that’s never going to catch on. You might be the person quoted when it does.

Jess Dewell 52:43
So that might be your clue too.

Christy Maxfield 52:45
Just tune in a little bit more, open your brain a little bit more. Like Dean said, take it to you. You know, take a baby step, explore it, see if it’s right for you. You never know, you might like it. But yeah, that’s what I think of is there’s just in every era we can point to somebody, usually a very big leader in, in the, their time, who thought something just wasn’t relevant and they are no longer with us, literally and figuratively.

Dean Barta 53:11
Well, and everybody who’s watching and listening to this is already in emerging technology because this was not a thing 20 years ago.

Christy Maxfield 53:20
This wasn’t even a thing a couple years ago.

Jess Dewell 53:24
You heard it here and I’m even saying you heard it here first in this way. Ta-da. All right. It’s been It’s Your Business. We will see you next time. Every single time I have a conversation, I take away something that I want to share with 25 people. I know when you’re listening to this podcast, you’re also listening for that and will have something that you want to share in the comments. I would like for you to engage with us. What is that thing that you want to tell 25 people from this program? Here’s why it’s important. It’s important because yeah, there are going to be how-to’s. Yes, there are going to be steps. You’re going to be like, oh, I wish I wrote that down. I wish I wasn’t doing this and I could actually take action on that right now.
But guess what? You’re not so engaged right now because that one thing you want to share with others will be the thing that you can figure out how to incorporate in your business, in your workflow, in your style tomorrow.

Announcer 54:24
Jess hosts the Bold Business Podcast to provide insights for building a resilient, profitable business by deeply understanding your growth strategy, ensuring market relevance and your company’s future. It is bold to deeply understand your growth strategy with your host, Jess Dewell. Get more information about how to drive solutions and reset your growth mindset at reddirection dot com thank you for joining us and special thanks to our post-production team at the Scott Treatment.