Entrepreneurship, AI, and Personal Branding in a Connected World
Scott Grates explores the vital role of authentic relationship marketing, the evolution of personal branding, and empowering the next generation with resilience and self-belief in an increasingly digital, fast-paced world.
Foreign.Welcome to Inclusion Bites, your sanctuaryfor bold conversations that spark change. I'm Joanne Lockwood,your guide on this journey of exploration into the heart ofinclusion, belonging and societal transformation.Ever wondered what it truly takes to create a world? Remember, everyonenot only belongs, but thrives. You're not alone.Join me as we uncover the unseen, challengethe status quo and share stories that resonatedeep within. Ready to dive in? Whether you'resipping your morning coffee or winding down after a long day, let'sconnect, reflect and inspire action together.Don't forget, you can be part of the conversation too. Reach outto jo,lockwood@seechangehappen.co.ukto share your insights or to join me on the show.So adjust your earbuds and settle in. It's time toignite the spark of inclusion with Inclusion Bites.Today is episode 186 with thetitle From Textbook to Triumph and I have theabsolute honour and privilege to welcome Scott Grates. Scott isa visionary entrepreneur and best selling author who harnessesrelationship marketing to accelerate business growth
Joanne Lockwoodhost
whilst empowering students for real worldsuccess. When I asked Scott to describe his superpower, he saidthat it is transforming relationships into reciprocalsuccess. Hello, Scott, welcome to the show. Thank
Scott Gratesguest
you, Joanne. I'm so excited to, to be here and have thisconversation wherever it goes. Yeah, no, it's
Joanne Lockwoodhost
phenomenal. I'm honoured. And you're joining us fromover the other side of the Atlantic from me, so somewhere. Yeah, North America.
Scott Gratesguest
So I am in central New York and we were chatting alittle bit before we hit record here, you know, New York, everyone immediatelythanks. New York City, Times Square, Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building.That's about three hours south of where I am. I'm actually a littlebit closer to Canada, Montreal, Canada, than I am New York City,but right smack dab in the middle of the state, about an hour west ofthe state capital of Albany. Wow,
Joanne Lockwoodhost
I've never been that far north. I've been to New YorkCity. New York, New York, yeah, the double barreled name. Yeah,I worked over there in the 90s, I think it wasmid-90s I was there and yeah, I guess it's changed a bit. But yeah, Iremember it being near Thanksgiving and then you had all the steamrising up from the under road, pipe work and stuff.
Scott Gratesguest
You know, people, a lot of people love the city. I'm a moreof a country lover myself. You know, we're in themountains and surrounded by beautiful lakes and in the fallit's just gorgeous when the foliage changes and all the different coloursand you know the air just smells crisp and clean.Very different than the city. But we do like to sneak down thereonce in a while and catch a show or a ball game. The food isamazing and, but just a little, a little too busy. Theolder I get the, the, the more space I enjoy. Yeah, no, I
Joanne Lockwoodhost
relate to that. I can relate to that. I, when I was working over thereI, I spent two or three weeks in New York City,did a bit in Miami and then I, I flew across to the west coastand did a bit around la, San Diego,Beverly Hills area. And there's a real distinction between the New York Cityor very on top of yourself. Everything's fast paced. You get out ofLA and everything's far apart. Place of life isdifferent and it's incredible. I guess you get the difference between where youare upstate in that as you say in the mountains and thescenery. It is interesting because America
Scott Gratesguest
is you know, probably a dozen good sized cities and thenall the rest is just small towns like I live in and there's so manysimilarities but then they are very different geographicallywhere when you look at Boston, New York, Philly, the Northeast inparticular, there's just this grinded out, fast pacedgo, go, go mentality and then you get down intowhere you're talking about Miami and then out west into you know, la, San Diegoand it's just more of a laid back chill. Youknow, one is live to work, one is work to live. I prefer the latterbut we've got three teenagers and I'm not wishing years awaybut when the youngest is, is out of the house we will. They call itSnowbir. We fly south for the winter. Winters don'tdo it for me. So we'll be down in Florida from, from probably Christmasuntil May and then come back to New York and enjoy the summers and fallfoliage here and then you know, take off again. My memory of Florida is always
Joanne Lockwoodhost
the humidity and the, the thunderstorms and the flash rain thatpulls down. You get that? Yeah, every, every area you got to get, you know,
Scott Gratesguest
the good with the bad. But they, you know, people don't realise Florida experiences winteras well. We were down there this January and it was in the high 40s,you know, so pretty cool by Florida. The wintermonths aren't as bad. The humidity certainly is very real.
Joanne Lockwoodhost
Memorial Day I had a guest on here I think back in January this yearand she was from Atlanta and she was saying it's the coldest Atlanta she's knownin Many, many years. So you've had a real mix of weather this yearit was, it was. A really, really cold winter, I
Scott Gratesguest
guess, you know, north to south here in America, but the year before that wasvery mild, so who knows? I don't know. I don't get into climate changeand, you know, just because I'm not that I don't believe in itor, you know, I just, I'm not smart enough to understand how all that works.So I'm trusting people who can figure this stuff out.
Joanne Lockwoodhost
Yeah, there's the old expression, stay in your own lane.But, you know, I appreciate sometimes you want to step out and not. And notbe blinkered, but sometimes you think, hang on a minute, yeah, I haven't got ananswer for everything, even though I want to. But yeah, sometimes it's best to listen.
Scott Gratesguest
That comes with age, Joanne. You know, for years I wanted to have ananswer for everything and I felt lesser if I didn't. And now I'mcomfortable with the. I don't know. That's a, It's a great question, it's a greatpoint. I don't know and I do. I find myself the older I get, themore comfortable I am knowing what I know and staying in my lane, like yousaid. So when I introduced you, I described you as
Joanne Lockwoodhost
a visionary entrepreneur, which is a big, weighty title to sort ofbe labelled with, isn't it? Sort of. And a bestselling author, which is also anotherthing to live up to. So you talk about relationship building and youwork with organisations, you work with people to try andempower them to have better success in the world through relationship marketing. Tell me abit more about how you got into that and what that means. Yeah, great
Scott Gratesguest
question. Out of necessity is the quickanswer. When I started my firstbusiness and it was an insurance agency, I had no businessexperience. We had two babies and diapers. We werecoming off the 2008 financial meltdown where I had lost my job withHSBC, London based company. They got rid of six and a halfthousand jobs on a Monday morning. I was one of them. And, you know,again, with age comes the understanding that when a window closes, a dooropens and you often don't see it or understand itat the time, but everything is happening for us. That's where, you know, faith, andit doesn't have to be religious faith, just the faith that things will work out,belief in the unseen and, you know, so when I opened the,the first agency, I couldn't advertise andmarket in traditional ways. Which are very expensive.And, and so I found a niche in, in relationshipbuilding, relationship marketing, really getting grassroots and divinginto five different areas which, which we can talk about obviously,but you know, small businesses being the first one. And,and really this whole fable of the goose and the golden egg,you know, became very clear to me and that if the golden egg is, isa prospect, a potential customer, I can spend tonnesof money that I didn't have or you know, run up debt and,and try to get all the golden eggs I can in traditionalcompetitive ways like everyone else was doing. Or I cango deep with the geese who lay the golden eggs eachday. And when they do, if I have the relationship with the geese, then they'regoing to send the golden eggs my way. And, and what I found isthat the, the geese are doing the hard work. They're, they're building therelationships, they're building the trust with their customers. And so I said, who are
Scott Gratesguest
the people that are already doing business with the people I want to do businesswith that already have those relationships and I can just pourvalue into them without asking for anything in returnand then nurture those relationships over time so that when they have aninsurance need or their customer has an insurance need, they go, hey, you should gotalk to Scott. And it's a long term approach andthis is why people get frustrated with it, right? But, but ultimatelyI was able to start with, with fellow small business owners here in my community.Then I got into the schools, I got active with serviceorganisations, I started focusing on my, my customers, right, mycall, my star customers to try to clone those people, right, that I wantto do business with and then just very active on social media,aware of my personal brand. And I never wanted to beknown as an insurance agent. I don't know if anyone does.You know, I wanted to be known as, as a husband, as a father, asa community leader, a thought leader, someone who has the servant heartthat pours back into the place that we call home and we love.And oh, by the way, if you need help with insurance, I can do thattoo. And so really that's, that's the longer version ofout of necessity. But you know, I just didn't have
Scott Gratesguest
money. And you talk about being a visionary,which I'm sure someone wrote that for me, but, butthe truth is I'm a, I'm a contrarian. You know, I, I, I have aknack of looking at things and saying, hey, if everyone'sthinking this is the way to go, I want to Peek the otherway, you know, and see what's happening over there or can we make something happenin a different direction so that I stand out because again, I'm in a verycompetitive, commoditized. Well, I guess every industry is competitive and commoditizednow, right? With, with AI and everything emerging, we've really levelled theplaying field in a lot of ways. So I'm always looking for, for new approachesand this relationship piece, what I really love about it a, Ijust love people and I enjoy building relationships with the right people. Andnot all people are good people. So let's be clear about that. And not Idon't want, I don't want to work with all people, but when I do findthose people. But the other piece of that is in this digitallydominated world, what was once old is new again.And the power of eyeball to eyeball and really loving on people and caringabout them like that, AI can't replace that. And you know, howeveradvanced we get digitally, we still want to beseen and heard and loved and know that wematter. And so really that's my focus and what I teachmy teams is to just love on people. The right peopleexpect nothing in return. And what happens is when you do that, suddenly peoplewant to reciprocate. They want to work with you and do business withyou and refer others to you. And that's been our model for going on 20years now. Picking out some of the nuggets in there, the golden egg and the
Joanne Lockwoodhost
goose. You're not focusing on the egg, you're focusing on the geese. I love thatidea. And I'm a great believer in relationship marketing. I'm a great believer in buildingrelationships. Pay it forward. My model is more altruistic thanpaying it forward. I don't expect to ever see the return. You justgive like, like you don't expect to see a great method. That way you becomevery authentic and people can believe and trust in you that you're not doingit for a reward, you're doing it because you're a great person.I think that that approach really resonates for me. But you were also saying, youknow, this is 2008 financial crisis. I was trying to customer mind back to whatI was doing. So I had my own IT company back then. And so wewere selling services and we were dealing with businessessuddenly closing up shop or constricting. They weren't hiringanymore. Had a knock on through every sector of businessback in, back in 2008. I remember it well. But I started my firstIT company back in 1998 andthat's pre iPhone, it was pre broadband, it was dial up at thetime and you were writing letters to people, sending outbrochures and printing stuff, weren't you? And stick it in the main, it'll bea franking machine. If it's frank it, post it here. After weget letters in the morning we'd open them or bin them.Way of marketing. And it's gone through a big cycle I thinkback in those days I was involved in organisations I think, I don't know ifyou have it in the States called BNI Business Networking International. Soyou are really taught me about the giver's game model and this getting in thereand in the weeds and getting to know people's relationships. I think you're just sayingto me is really resonating. But today in the digital world and you mentionedAI, it's sometimes hard to do that again, isn't it? Yeah,
Scott Gratesguest
you bring up so many good points there. The first one I want to talkabout is people's BS metres are higher than evernowadays. So if you're not doing it for the right reasons andwith sincerity and being genuine, authentic people will pick up on that. So don't evenbother doing it. That's the first piece. And then you know, the otherthing is the bni. Yeah, we do have BNI here and so Ioften equate this to what I've done. My model and thecommunities I serve as. I've built my, my own BNI for
Scott Gratesguest
lack of a better term without the BNI stuff, you know, and BNI is very.I scratch your back, you scratch mine, I give with the expectation thatyou're going to come with so many leads, you know, we don't do that. Wejust find like minded people who, who have this gogiver mentality, servant heart and, andwe, we're there for each other, you know, and we support one anotherand there's none of the red tape, you know, kind of rules andyou know, whatnot. So, so yeah, I say all the time if you'renot in BNI because it is an exclusive club, right, they only take one personfrom each industry and so if you're not in the club, make your own.And again that, that speaks to the contrarian in me where it's like, hey,you know, if everyone's doing this, well let me just go start my ownthing and find people I, I want to do business with. Soyeah, the, the AI, I'm Embracing it. So, full disclosure,I use AI every day and, and I think it's,it's a fantastic tool. And it's funny how you were talking about2008 and I was picturing as you were talking like, almost like a black andwhite scene with, with these old printing presses and I'm thinkingIt was only 17 years ago. Right. But it feels like an eternity.And yeah, I was, I was with you. Right. We were still typing outthings with certain pro is wild. But yeah, the AI, I'membracing it. But, but as a tool, you know,and I, and I. It will replace certain things, it will replacecertain people. But here's what I believe is that, you know,I'm not scared it's going to replace me. So long as Iknow how to utilise that tool to, to dowhat I need to do with my businesses and, and keep growing with it. Thepeople who will be replaced are the ones who just refuse to adaptand, you know, they, they want to die on that hill of I'm going todo it this way and we're not going to, you know, and, and so, youknow, I'm going. You have to go with it or get run over by it,because it's not stopping. Yeah. I mean, we've seen Blockbuster and video
Joanne Lockwoodhost
hire companies being taken out by streaming, being byNetflix. Traditional broadcast TV has been takenout, print media has been taken out by onlinestuff. It's just an evolution. It's just happening quicker than it's ever happened beforein human history. If you look at the way Sam Altmanis, releasing ChatGPT models every six monthsis a quantum leap forward. What was true one minute is nowa potential in the next minute is now reality. And if I was agraphic designer, if I'm a coder, the latest canva update, you can, you can nowgenerate entire websites, entire entire games justby ideating into a chat box. It's crazy.
Scott Gratesguest
It really is. And I, I think for most of the listeners,as wild as you think things are going to be in the next coupleyears in this space, I don't think you're even scratching thesurface with your wildest thoughts. I think it's going to go way beyond that. Idon't know. We can, we can riff for hours on this, but, but yeah,it's, I guess what happens. Yeah,don't fear it. You know, we initially fearchange, but, you know, I do believein the human spirit and I do believe in the humanheart and, you know, again, it's a Tool. Butultimately we need each other. And I do believe that in thefuture, when robots are running restaurants, people willpay more to go to a restaurant and have a human waitstaff. You know, I think that the humans will actually be at a premiumbecause we'll want to get away from the machines. Butagain, that's rabbit hole stuff. But yeah, humans aren't goingaway. I get that. I mean, if I'm
Joanne Lockwoodhost
fencing, eating a McDonald's meal, for example, I've got the appon my phone. If I'm thinking I'll drop in on the way back and wecan stop in there, I can order it on my phone before we set offfor the first place, and I turn up, I put the little code in thatI'm sat in front of and then they'll deliver it to my window, straight inmy car and all I gotta do is eat it. And that, that helps. IfI walk into, into the, into the restaurant, there's a big terminal. I can pushthe buttons and tap the screen and then pay for it and I can justwait for them to give it to me or I can go sit in mycar. That kind of works for me that, that's the ultimatetransactional fast food. Often,often I'll walk into McDonald's and go, I don't want to do all that. Ijust want to talk to you. I just want to explain what I want. Iwant you to give me a Big Mac, I want to give you large friesand I want a really nice vanilla shake. And I want to have thatconversation. Sometimes it depends on where I am in mymind. If I don't want to talk to anybody, I've got a transactional way. IfI want to have human contact, I can. And sometimes I'll sit in my caron my own, sometimes I want to sit in a restaurant and it's. I thinkwe can consume in different ways now, can't we? I think, and choose it ourselves.
Scott Gratesguest
Yeah, I agree with that 100%. And, and that's, you know,really why I'm all in on, on the relationship piece, rightto, to business. And I don't know. And everyone's different, every business isdifferent, but I just enjoy the human sideof what we do. And I'm in risk management and, and we talkabout protecting assets and building assets and wealth and you know, I.These are very emotional, you know, conversationsand behavioural, you know, habits are so important. Andyeah, you can type into to chat and ask it for financialadvice and you can give it all of Your numbers and tell it your hopesand dreams and goals and it will build probably a plan that's betterthan what I could do for my clients. Butyou know, when they're confused or scared or therewas a market movement or they had an accident or they were diagnosed with anillness, or they lost someone they loved, you know, these, these real life momentshappen, like we're still going to need each other and, and so,you know, I, I, that's why I just keep going back to it.It's a tool and it will help and it's made me, and I'm sure youas well, Joanne, 10x more efficient already, right?I mean, you took my bio and you know, plugged it in and chattells you, you know, this great stuff about me, which you didn't have to researchand think about on your own, but I do the same thing, you know, andI've written training manuals and coursesthat, you know, it took me like an hour, which would normally be weeksof work. So it's making us more efficient. But I think toomuch of anything is problematic, you know, and so it has to be part ofthe puzzle. I don't think we can be all. In right there, the word you
Joanne Lockwoodhost
mentioned in there, and I latched onto it and you used the word riskand I can't remember the exact quote, but something like trust is hardfought but lost in an instant and you can never regain it orsomething is kind of the. And I guess when you're talking about here in yourfinancial investments, your advising clients, a lot ofthat comes from risk and trust. Do I trust Chat GPT with myhome, my family, my car, my whole life?No. Do I trust you? Maybe not now, but I canask you questions and we can build up a relationship. I can meet other peoplewho trust you. ChatGPT. I could meet other people who don't trust itat all. Or, you know, the trust with ChatGPT is cautioustrust, isn't it? It's an assistant. I don't empower it. Soyou're talking about relationship building and trust is the key in there, isn't it?
Scott Gratesguest
Yeah. And I'll give you a word that you used earlier, which is empathy.And this is so huge, right, because you know, AI can giveus facts and stats and a plan and words, but I don'tknow how often it's going to say, I hear you, Joanne. I knowthe struggle you're going through. I feel the same way. I've been there. Right. I'mhere to listen sometimes we don't even give advice, we just give anear and we're there for people emotionally when they need usand we can guide them. You know, just that empathypiece is so important. And again, as theworld goes towards mass emails andsocial and SEO and, you know, I, I just still believethat if you have a couple hundred really strongrelationships with the right people now, every business is different, but in my business,a couple hundred solid relationships. So not just me, but my, my whole team,we can do everything we need to accomplish for our customersby just knowing a couple hundred of the right people and, you know, divingdeep into those relationships. So, yeah, empathy is aword we focus on a lot. There's a phrase which I believe I coined, not
Joanne Lockwoodhost
anybody else in, but please tell me if you've heard it.Otherwise there's the old adage, it's not what you know, it's who you know.And my spin on that is no longer what you know or who youknow. It's all about who knows you. So, andwhat I often say to people is, with the best and the best of intentions,I don't care who you are as long as you know who I am. Andso that's about building this kind of first century personal brand,about creating that Persona thattells the story about your values, your, your hopes and fears anddreams that people can then buy into you. And I remember being alwaystold at networking meeting, don't give your business card out, collect other people,that way you can email them, that way you've got control of the conversation.But I learned over many years that I would never call them, I would neverphone them up, I would never do all this. So actually I want you toknow who I am so that, that's more important to me. I leave a roomwith 50 people knowing me and then they will go, oh yeah, Iremember Joanne, I remember Joanne. But I can never contact the thousands of people Icome in Contact with on LinkedIn Everywhere else now the relationshipthere changed a bit. That's a great take, you know, so my book is called
Scott Gratesguest
Referrals Done Right and the old schoolnetworking is in my opinion the wrong way to do it.And that's what you're talking about with these forced social interactions and networking and thegrabbing the cards and following up and making the calls. And I love your takeon it, which is, you know, I want you to know me. And I tellpeople all the time that you aren't who you think you are in the businessworld. You are who your Google reviews say you are, because that's what other peopleare saying about you. And my, my kids, I, I just try to impressupon them so much. All kids that I talk to spent a lot of timewith, with working with high school students is this brand awarenessand, and what an amazing time for them to be aliveand be able to build your personal brand. Because, you know, I mean, I'm staringdown 50, but even in, during my years when, when yougo back like you, you had to know certain people to get into certainuniversities or get certain jobs or get into certain rooms, get certain meetings.
Scott Gratesguest
You know, you had to have a certain amount of money or social status or,you know, there was these family connections and social ties that were so importanttoday. I'm not saying that's not important, but for the kids, theplaying fields level now, you know, and it doesn't matter. You can bein your bedroom and creating amazing content and a personal brand andbecome a millionaire. You know, you have access to, to the Internetand know you have access to information. You know,holding a cell phone, a 16 year old today has access to moreinformation than President Barack Obama did when he first tookoffice. You know, 20 years, not even 20 years ago. Andyou know, Ted Talks and YouTube and you know, just peoplethat some of the, the greatest thought leaders in the world, all their information's outthere for free, you know, but kids like to stillscroll TikTok and watch Cat videos and stuff and I'm like, all right,well that's all right once in a while. But you know, spend 20, 30 minutesa day, you know, digging into something that's of interest to you that, that youcan leverage and, and use in the future. But yeah,I, I don't even remember what your initial question was there, but.
Joanne Lockwoodhost
It'S about the power of personal brand and. Oh, the personal brand. Yeah,
Scott Gratesguest
so, so yeah. And you know, and then there's a, a cautionary tale in theretoo, is that everything you do put out there can hauntyou forever. You know, so, so choose wisely. You know, how you wantpeople to see you, how you want to be known, because it can be verypowerful in either direction. I don't know if this is your, your
Joanne Lockwoodhost
lane, but I'm going to ask this question anyway. One thing I'venoticed about my own evolution, if you like on socialmedia and I post stuff on LinkedIn, whatever it may be, is in the earlydays you kind of, you're a bit of a stalker. You have a look around,you don't even want to leave a Footprint in the snow. You don't want anyoneto know you've been there. You won't, you won't like, you won't touch. You justhere and have a look at someone's content and you get brave and think, oh,I like that, or I react to it, or I think, oh, that was insightful.I'll use a LinkedIn insightful. Then eventually you start bringing a little comment, then youmay reshare it and time progress as you get, become more confident in who youare, then you start writing your own content.I think for I've taken this content and I think this on it and theneventually I would say we use the word visionary entrepreneur.You break into that sort of thought leader bracket where you're noworiginating. And then the magic happens when people startsharing your content that you've originated and they're liking and sharing,suddenly that snowball starts tumbling. Yeah, admittedly this is a space
Scott Gratesguest
I was pretty weak in LinkedIn specifically, um, andI hired a LinkedIn coach because I realised how weak I was. SoI sought, sought out a professional. And one thing that my big takeaway fromLinkedIn is when you can create contentto support other people who already have the audience. Again, this kindof goes back to the goose and the golden egg. Right. Um, so, so if
Scott Gratesguest
you have a hundred thousand followers and I'm one of themand I can create something insightful to support oradd to your thought, now a hundred thousand people canpotentially see my comment because I'm piggybacking off of youraudience. And so I think a lot of times we think we have to createour own post. But you know, I might have 700 people that followme. I would spend, you know, for the audience, I would spend more timetrying to contribute to bigger thought leaders posts to beseen on LinkedIn and then just make sure that whatever thefirst few words of your, your title or who you are, make sure they're,they're powerful and will resonate. Let people know exactly who you are and what youdo. So that if they read your, your comment, they see the first fewwords of your, your title, they go, ooh, maybe I should follow this person andthey'll click on you and, and do the same.
Joanne Lockwoodhost
Great. And yeah, that's a great way of levelling up, isn't it? Orstepping up is to. Bit like one of those weeds that has a little seed,sticky seeds that get stuck onto your socks. You know, you're trying to stick ontosomebody else and hopefully they're going to take you out and fertilise you somewhere elsein the world. Yeah, well, you know, think about it when we talk about getting
Scott Gratesguest
into rooms, right, and the who, not how and who, you know, andit'd be very difficult for me to. And I'll just use like, Tim Ferriss, right?So it'd be very difficult for me to get a meeting with Tim Ferriss orshare a conversation with him. But right now, you and I can go on toTim Ferriss, LinkedIn, find something that's intriguing to us and come up with somethinginsightful we can add to the conversation. And boom. And I'm in the sameroom, virtual, albeit as Tim Ferriss and his audience,you know, and so, yeah, that could be like a dandelionweed sticking on. A sock, but, yeah, no, it is. Yeah, I
Joanne Lockwoodhost
agree. Now, I say I'm a great fan of that sort ofthing as well, but what I've started doing lately is identifying people's contentthat resonates either positive or negative with me and then doingmy own opinion piece whilst quoting it. So it's stillstandalone content, but quoting. I was reading this on someone's post the otherday, so it gives me another spin and take on their content. I tag themin on it and then they can choose to engage or not, but at leasttheir followers are seeing mine as well. I've tried doing that a lot lately, whichallows me to have a. Rather than just copy and paste what they've put,I want to really make sure that I'm adding, adding my view on it andas to why I agree or why I disagree or what they've missed. It's agood, good way of spinning on, isn't it? Million
Scott Gratesguest
Dollar Question. Do you use AI to help you with thoseoften? Yeah, I've got, I've got a, I, I, I've written my own
Joanne Lockwoodhost
custom context. I've, I've, I've, I've worked on mytone of voice, my, my Persona, who I am, my brand values. I,I paste loads of stuff I've written into it and I, I'll, I'lltake something and I'll say that this is my view on this and I often,sometimes dictate into chat GPT or just type it in. So this iswhat I'm thinking. This is where I want to go. I want you to godeep on this. I wanted to really critically analyse it. I want you to findeverything that is, you know, positive and negative. I want you to. There's acouple of philosophical techniques. One is called The Moss and the Bailey, where you finda really easy statement and then you have something that you, you link toit as being indefensible. So, so I asked it to test it out using allthese theory models, applied bias on it and all these things. So sometimes you geta really good opinion. I look at it and go, yeah, don't you get that?So I take everything it's given me and feed it back into the machine againand say, look, you've just given me all this. Give me something out of that.So sometimes I just massage it and keep kneading it and kneading it and kneadingit with my own thoughts. And then sometimes something pops out and you go, that'sit. I'll have the saying I used earlierabout it's not what you know, it's who you know, actually, it's who knows you.I'll feed that in as a, as a hook into something,you know, one of my sayings, hopefully I coined and thenuse that as the hook for my perspective on a topic. SoI'm still coming up with a metaphor or the analogy and thenusing it to steer the content, which is often means you do get uniquecontent out of AI, give it the right prime. And I read it and think,yeah, I would have written that. Yeah, I would have written that. I look throughit and go, yeah, that sounds like me. I show it to somebody else. Oh,that's, that's, that's insightful. That's, that's powerful. It's like, well,it is, yeah, it's. But I'm not, I'm not cheating because I'm not, I'm nothanding over the keys to the AI engine I'm usingas a. Because I, I used to hire a, I used to have acomms expert, a media person whoevery week we have a meeting, we'd have a one to one and she'd interviewme on various topics and she would go away and write me an article whichI'd then edit a bit and then tweak and then she'd finish it off andshe'd send it off to all these magazines and publishers. That's all I'm doing. Insteadof paying her a thousand bucks a month, I'm using AI to dothe same process. I couldn't agree with you more. You know, this last
Scott Gratesguest
book I had a team of writers, you know, so, so they all had differentroles, but there were four, four of them that we met weeklyand they'd give some assignments and they'd you know, ghostwrite some stuff andwe'd go back and forth. And then, you know, there was a team of editors,you know, and there was just all these people that helped bringthis to market. And to Your point, for $20 amonth, I can now replace them. And I've created what Icall my Scott bot. Right. So, same thing. I've uploaded all my blogs and workand books and, you know, I was preparing for a career day at alocal school recently and I wanted a theme and Iwanted some personal quotes and anecdotes, just like you do.I just started talking to my own bot and it was giving me quotes frommy own work that I had forgotten about. And in a matter of minutes, Ihad this perfectly outlined 20 minutepresentation to go in and share with the kids. So Idon't, you know, there's this talk, is it cheating that? It's not cheating. Right.It's doing the same thing that we've always done, just with a machine.
Joanne Lockwoodhost
Yeah. One of the things I do is I do alot of advice and guidance on transgender rights and things like that. And, you know,you've got stuff going on in the States, we've got stuff going on here inthe uk and a lot of people want answers to some of these law changes,legislation changes. And I'm able to take all of the legislativeguidance that's come out as PDFs from the courts, whatever it is,dump it into the model and say, look, this is what thelaw was, this is what the guidance is. This is the latest Supreme Court ruling.This is that, that and that and that and that. I want you to giveme some clarity, give me a guidance note on that. It spitsit out and I feed it back in again, say, look, I want you totest this out. People are going to criticise me for this advice. I want youto really make sure this is robust and evident everything you're saying andtell me this is safe. Then it goes through and goes, yeah, this isbecause it gives me a full analysis and says at the bottom it says,if you want to be doubly sure, just tweak this or put this little disclaimerin here. And then when I post it on LinkedIn, I got these people pilingon, saying, you can't say that, you can't say that. I take their comments,feed it back into my model and say, they've said this nasty thingabout me. What do you do? They said, no, they're wrong, they're wrong, they're wrong,they're wrong. Or actually they've got a small point here. Tweak it and put this,and then adjust it. So I'm allowing other people tocritique my work back in the morning, which. Is
Scott Gratesguest
kudos to you, you know, for being vulnerable andexperimental, you know, with, with the work and, and taking feedback.Because I'm sure you do a lot of ignorance, you know, so that's a bit.How do you. Yeah, how do you, how do you, you know, extrapolatethe, the positive stuff, you know, the feedback or potentiallypositive from just the pure ignorance and hate. But yeah, that's, that'samazing work. The technique works whatever field you're in.
Joanne Lockwoodhost
Hang on a minute. It's called peer review by scientists. That's what theydo. They write a paper, they peer review it, and they all have it, theyall try and pull it apart and then they build a better model as aresult of the peer review. So that's all you're doing, just using AIto be your hive mind.You work with in high school, do you work with students or is it mainly
Joanne Lockwoodhost
business school? I work with all students. I love kids, right? So I wanted to
Scott Gratesguest
be a teacher, but I also wanted money. So there was a real odds howpassionate am I about teaching? And so I found a way to, to doboth, right? Where as a, an entrepreneur, I make agood living, but I'm also uniquely qualified to go intothe classroom and help teach childrenthings they can't find in the textbook. You know, and that's the whole think outsidethe textbook approach. I say often that schools are good atteaching kids what to think, but as you know, Joanne, inthe real world, we need to know how to think. You know, critical thinking, discernment,teaching, self awareness and understanding that thesenegative thoughts, the self doubt, the inner critic,the imposter syndrome, even though they don't understand, that's what it's called. But all thesethoughts and feelings, it's standard equipment in their brains. Butthey're thinking, they're not good enough, smart enough, strong enough, confident enough,worthy of certain things because they're having these feelings. But they don'tunderstand that everyone else in the room is having the same feelings. Whether they, theyadmit it or not, they are. And so the kid's ability, you know,and again, going back to digital, I call it apps, aps,their ability to acknowledge it, that, hey, Ihear this voice, I understand that it's not just me. This is standard stuff.Prove it wrong. Look for a moment in their past wherethey have done certain things and then theS is silence it. And I teach kids this three secondpause. I don't, you know, it's not unique to me, but that's the whole,I got this right, so acknowledge it, prove it wrong,silence it. And so, you know, really they say you're,
Scott Gratesguest
you're best qualified to help the person you oncewere. And when I look back and did some deep work intomy childhood, I realised I had real confidenceissues. I had some father issues. Not that he wasa bad dad at all, but he was overbearing, demandingand I could never live up to his expectations. And itfilled me with self doubt that I was never good enough. Andso I look at adults in the corporate world that I work withnow and we do trainings for them around salesspecifically, but they're still dealing with the things that they haven'tworked out from their childhood. A lot of them, and really adultsbecome deteriorated teenagers as we go. In many ways, notall I'm painting with a wide brush here, but you know, my, my focus withthe kids is, is really no matter what you want to do,you know, and first of all, let's not talk about what you want to do,let's talk about who you want to be, right? Because that's far more important thananything you're going to do. Just understand that you're always going to have critics,you're always going to have self doubt, you're going to think you don't belong,you're not worthy. And all of that's bs, right?Because you are worthy and deserving of everything you're willing to work for andeverything that's important to you. And really just diving into thatcritical thinking, that discernment, that justcontinuous improvement. And reallythe confidence comes from not the textbook orthings you, you. I can't teach you how to be confident. Tony Robbinscan't teach you how to be confident. Right? Confidence is earned, notlearned. And so you've got to be willing to take a shot, fall on yourface, get back up and take another shot. And, and failure is justfeedback. And I think, you know, we in schools, we, we think failure and wethink oh my gosh, that's. But, but you know, Joanne, every, every successfulperson you've ever talked to on the show is, is their pastis loaded with failures, right? And that's how we build strength andadversity and courage and confidence. And so those types of messages isreally what I want to get out to the next generation, to empower themto, to do whatever it is that they want to do as longas they're being the person true to themselves that they want to be looking. Now
Joanne Lockwoodhost
I was thinking, wow, that's, that's, that's so, so true. The. I think someone askedme a little while ago, how am I able to stay so calm, soresilient? We used to call it bounce back ability, I think in the 90s. Howdo I handle that? I said, well, I've messed up a lot in my lifeand you don't get 60 years old without messing a lot up. I thinkwhat it is, you just learn over time that it's justbrush it off, you're going to get up, the earth's going to rotate, the sun'sgoing to come up and everything's going to be okay tomorrow. And you learn aftera while that you've messed up so many times, you've learned so many lessonsthat you're more confident to approach today in a different light. And I thinkthat's, maybe that's the problem. What we, we trying to fast track ouryounger generation to have that resilience without having been throughthe learning curve, if you like. We have to let them fail a bit andwe're not creating environments where they can. Yeah, you got to earn your
Scott Gratesguest
scars, you know. And you have. I have. But, butthat's not a quick and easy. There's, you know, metaphor. Butthere's no elevator to the top. You gotta take the stairs, right?And wherever you want to go, it's one step at atime. And sometimes you don't want to take that next step orit's scary or hard or you know, just, you're fearful, but you justgotta keep climbing. And you know, again, it's kind of acliche, corny metaphor, but it's true with the fast track. And I fearfor our kids. I call them the microwave society now because they want everything inan instant. But all good things take time. And if I could leave thisgeneration, my kids generation with, with, you know, some parting words,it's don't be in such a rush. You know, all good things take time.Embrace failure, right? Learn from it, take some chances.
Joanne Lockwoodhost
You. Know, and it's okay not, not to know
Scott Gratesguest
everything right now.So, so yeah, I do fear that we're,we're pushing them faster and again the technology plays into this.You know, then they should be pushed. Youknow, I, as hard as it is as a parent of three, Iwant my kids to experience pain and suffering andfailure. And I know that sounds cold and it's so hard for us to justtake a step back and let them mess something up. But if they don't, howdo they ever learn? You know, and, and I think as parents,you know, we. We talk about this trophy generation where every kid gets atrophy and that's not the way it should be. And it's like, well, who's buyingthe trophies? Because the kids aren't, right? We're the ones doing this to them.So if it's. If it's, you know, that important to you, then stop buying thetrophies, but, you know, and let them feel a little bit of pain. But Idon't know, it's ultimately, I.I guess empower is the word that comes back. Empower them to, to makedecisions, trust them, and, and then care forthem when they. They mess something up and, and help them, you know, workthrough that, because that's, that's the process of growth, development, and confidence.
Joanne Lockwoodhost
Article somewhere, I can't remember where I saw it or who to quote and attributeit to, was that if you're looking tobreed entrepreneurs or people with entrepreneurial spirit,you do not hire grade 8 students. Grade A studentssail through life expecting to win everything. Whereas what you're looking at reallyis the grit and fighters at the bottom whoare getting Cs, Ds, and Es, who are being stayed inafter school or being told off for doing stuff, because those are the ones thatare learning grit and determination, and they're also figuring out how to win in aworld that doesn't let them win. Whereas if people who are used to winning, usedto getting A's, they don't know how to handle a B. They don't know whatto do with it. I say all the time, you know, winning's easy, and that
Scott Gratesguest
sounds maybe cold or pompous, but you find out what you're madeof in defeat. Anyone can win. And I'll go, don't get me wrong,there's wrong ways to win too. But you get the point.And I don't want to knock the kids that are doing great in school.That's awesome. But you're right. I mean, look at the entrepreneurs,specifically. Most of them are misfits and dropouts. And,you know, they. They had to kind of fight for everything and figureit out because nothing came easy to them. And when things come easy toyou, unfortunately, my, My concerns for those students aren't,you know, up until 21, 22 years old, it's the entire life after that,when things stop, you know, no one, no one cares about your grades when you're30, you know, and you're trying to raise a family and you have debt andyou've got a career, you know, and you know, are you prepared for that?
Joanne Lockwoodhost
Yeah. Where's your coping strategy? Where's your, your adversitydefence? And you know, how do you fight back against that? Yeah. Do you think,I mean, you mentioned the phrase imposter syndrome earlierand I'd never become consciously aware ofthat in me until about 10 years ago. For various reasonsin my life, I changed everything in my life and I suppose because I'd hada very linear progression, I left school, Idid some electronics, I got out of electronics into computing and I was selftaught. So I was largely in control of my own destiny at a time wherenobody else in the 80s was really an expert in IT andcomputing. So I was up there in the beginning of the curve whereI was never an imposter, I was always at the front of the curve. ButI think later in life I pivoted and changed from IT intoHR and recruitment and other things. That's where my imposter syndrome came becauseI suddenly had to acquire a new skill where I found inadequate.If you're saying that younger people, younger generations are now seeing this, more hyperaware of it, is that very, that side effect of thehyper connected world or the pressure to always win or judging each otheragainst each other all the time, what's created that pressure on them?
Scott Gratesguest
Yeah. So full disclosure, I'm not an expert, you know,in this, this is just my opinion, but from what I see,and I think it was Eleanor Roosevelt who said comparison is the thiefof joy. I think social mediain many ways is the worst thing that could have happened to kids.You know, they, they see everyone's highlight reel the best fewminutes of the day, they see things with filters, they see AIgenerated things. Right. They're see, they're seeing things taking them as truthand they're wondering why they're not thatgood or cool or smart or athletic or pretty or youknow, whatever it might be. And so I, I think when I, whenI talk imposter syndrome with that group, you know, it's,it's really, to me the, the root cause is, is the comparisontrap where they're constantly comparing themselves toa standard that isn't real. And I don't know if we'rehaving enough conversations with kids about this, but we're seeing it and I don't knowthe stats but you know, but cyberbullying's awful. The suiciderates are horrific. Why, you know, why, why are weallowing this as a society? It's crazy, you know, but money,I guess, is the answer. People in power not wanting to make thosedecisions, you know, I, I think it's, it's just we need to have morehealthy conversations around what's real,what's not. You know, I don't know if you saw the Netflix special the SocialDilemma. It's worth watching if you haven't.But a couple quotes that stood out from that one isif, if you're not paying for a product, you are the product.And I was like, ooh, that one was a gut punch, right? Where, youknow, you and I are smart enough now to realise that everything wedo becomes part of our algorithm and everything is strategic andintentional when it comes to trying to sell us stuff or change our moods andemotions. Well, 11, 12 year olds don't understand that. And
Scott Gratesguest
you know, another thing that came out of that episode was they said, youknow, about half a dozen white guys in Northern California are controlling themoods of millions of teenagers across the planet. And it's sick, butit's true. So I don't know, you know, when you. Soimposter syndrome, maybe it's not the right phrase, but I, I thinkthere's a confidence crisis in kids. A because they, theydon't communicate. We, we spent all this time talking about relationships and relationsand they're not just not comfortable and no fault of their own, they just haven'tbeen exposed to the eyeball to eyeball. How do I converse withsomeone? How do I interact with Joanne? What do I ask? How do I startthat conversation? You know, I do, I interview as an employer andit's sad just the lack of interpersonal softskills that, you know, this generation, they lack. So, you know,that's another thing that I do is I offer for the students that I getin front of the opportunity to help them build their resume, dojob shadowing. I've got a couple of interns startingover the summer, mock interviews where we, we go throughand help them prepare for interviews. Just those importantrelationship building soft skills. But yeah, it's, thephones are, are good and bad, right? And so I talk about AI being atool and social media I'm on all the time and we talk about LinkedInand we leverage it for, for certain business initiatives.But the younger generation is, you know, they'reusing it in different ways and I think there's just too muchcomparison and it's killing their confidence.
Joanne Lockwoodhost
Yeah, that's something I was going to dive in with you and talk about isthe. How do you get the moderngeneration to actually start meeting face to face? Youknow, I appreciate I'm probably stereotyping here, but they do a lot of onlinegaming, do a lot of online chat,very rarely pick the phone up to talk anymore. They're messaging with text orvoice notes. So it's very asynchronous. That's a different skill tohaving to actually engage in a conversation like we're doingnow, when you're a younger generation now andyou're probably not used to those sort of conversations, everything isonline or offline or asynchronous. Andtech space, how do you help people break out of thatinto building what I would call a stronger relationship? Great question,
Scott Gratesguest
and I don't know if I have a great answer, but the. Youknow, sometimes you just have to. You have to force people to do things theydon't want to do, you know, and, you know, I'll be the first to admitI much prefer a text to a phone call. And so I have to forcemyself to do things that I don't want to do, which is sometimes pick upthe phone and call someone or, you know, meet with someone. And so the otherthing I say a lot is that I can tell you the stove is hot,but until you touch it and burn yourself for that split second, you're not goingto believe me. And so, you know, really pushingkids out of their comfort zone. And this is what we do with. And again,this is. You talked about entrepreneurs not always being top
Scott Gratesguest
performers of grades. Well, another key characteristic of entrepreneurs is a lot of them areformer athletes, because athletes know how to work in a team.They know how to communicate, they know how to lose, deal withadversity. They're competitive, right? They want to win. And so, you know, how do weget kids working on teams and in groups, even if they're.If they're not into athletics? So I, I think at ayounger age, it's important to, to get them working in groups and witheach other. It's not comfortable, you know, but, you know, I think we just haveto force people out of their comfort zone to realise that, hey, youknow, I do like this person, or, you know, this is a relationship worthpursuing, which I don't know if you get that over Snapchat. No, you're
Joanne Lockwoodhost
building one to many, many, many relationships like that. You're not.We're not actually building the meaning of full, short relationships, small relationships.I mean, I think when I was growing up, you have what, six, five orsix meaningful relationships in your life at any one time,excluding your parents or maybe your siblings. But yeah, and that's.I remember the time management book. It was six things plus two thingsthat are family on top of it or something. That's as much as you canhold in your head at once. But now we're trying to hold too much, tryingto keep too many things going, and we've become transactional, don't we? And I thinkthe other thing I've found with relationships I've built over the years is they canbe lopsided. One is where you're a giver, and oneis where you're a taker. It's trying to find ones where you aresymbiotic, where you give and take equally. If you don't phone for a day, theyphone you or you phone them. But some relationships, you're always doing thephoning or the other person's always doing the phoning, and you think soit's trying to find those relationships where you are both bought into it. It's thehard bit, isn't it? 100. Yeah. And that's. That's probably why you only have a
Scott Gratesguest
handful of those really good relationships. And that's in manyways all you need. You know, it less is more when it comes toeverything with productivity, efficiency, happiness. I think it's.Greg McEwen wrote the book Essentialism, and that was. Made aprofound impact on me where I just started looking atall this stuff. And that could be materialisticstuff that could be baggage from my past, stuff that couldbe relationships that aren't worth the time and effort stuff.And, you know, for a garden to grow, you got to pull theweeds. And, you know, it's okay to.To only have a handful of really deep, rich, meaningful relationships,but where we get into trouble is, is we've got as asociety, a loneliness crisis going on, too.There's. I don't know the number, but I be confidentin saying it's probably staggering, almost unbelievable, the number of people who don't evenhave five or six good relationships or any,you know, and this is, I think, why social influencers aregetting popularity that they. They are because I'mable to. To go on YouTube and watch aMr. Beast or whoever it might be, and. And I can relate to that person.They become my friend. But it's not a real relationship. Andso, you know, I think it's again, I don't know the answer. But. But somewherealong the line, this has to be part of the conversationwith. With kids to let them know the importance of just genuine,real relationships. I think I did a while ago.
Joanne Lockwoodhost
I don't do any of anymore, but I used to do it. It was onFacebook. It used to pop up and give you a list of whose birthday itis today or tomorrow or yesterday or something like that. And I'd be going downthe list thinking, happy birthday or not.I was, in my head, I was going, why didn't. Why don't I want towish you a happy birthday? Because I don't really know you. It doesn't seem appropriate.
Joanne Lockwoodhost
You're just on my list because potentially you're a networking or someone who.Yeah, so I was almost like going down the list, evaluating,basically have that decision point, why don't I want to wish you happy birthday?And I think what that gave me the should we still be friendsor shouldn't we? And then I also guess it'smaturity. You go down that you see people's posts and think, I don't want toread this. I don't want to argue with you. I don't want to get intoa conversation with you. I just don't want to read it. So do I unfollowyou or do I remove you as a friend? And they're funny proposition thinking,well, I don't want to fall out with you. I don't want to not bea friend with you. I just don't want to listen to you. So we'll unfollowyou. I guess that's just maturity. And you don't need the BS inyour life anymore. But you're making those decisions. And I think if youngerpeople, everybody could get more used to that idea. You don't have to listen toeverybody. Don't knock yourself away in an echo chamber. You know, listen to what's goingon, but also filter out what brings you joy.
Scott Gratesguest
Such a great take. And that's another thing I talk about a lot. I saidif you. You might have a thousand friends on social media and950 of them, if you ran into them at the storetonight, wouldn't even say hi to you. So are you really friends?You know, and, and you and I have had this right, where it's like we'reconnected on, on social and then we see each other in person. We don't evenacknowledge each other's existence, like talking about adisconnect. But the opposite happens as well, doesn't it. I don't know if you found
Joanne Lockwoodhost
this but you're so connected with people on social. When you do meet them inreal life, you like know everything about each other. It's like, oh, why you beendoing this? How's your mom? And you went on holiday last week. It's a fantastic.
Scott Gratesguest
For sure. I mean you know there's in my space, you know, I do alot of training, coaching, consulting and Covid. Right.Changed everything. And so just how you and I are talking rightnow over the computer. I had four plusyears with people getting deep with them, getting to know them, seeingthem. Right. Albeit over the. And then it's almostsurreal when you finally meet in person. Youknow, it's almost like. I don't know how to explain itbut. But yeah, we're like, we're. We're best friends. We've never met before. It's wild.But this is where world's going, I guess. Yeah. And
Joanne Lockwoodhost
I do that now. I do a lot of events and speaking and turningup at places and you've done so much liaison over zoom or teams inadvance and you actually get to the event the live and suddenly these people havegot legs. You walk, you can stand up. It's like, it's incredible.Scott, this would be an absolutely fascinating conversation. We could talk, we couldcarry on talking for hours, I'm sure. How can people get a hold of you?
Scott Gratesguest
Yeah. So appreciate that and appreciate the space and theconversation. It's just my name is my website so it'sscottgrates.com and that links to thebooks and TED talks and different waysto connect and engage with me. Yeah. Run a couple different podcasts. They're linkedup on there as well and really just have become achampion hyper locally focused onmy community again, narrowing the focus. I talk a lot about whenyou, you know, when you have diluted focus,you get diluted results and this is something that I wasstruggling with because I was trying to be all things, all people all the time.And. And so now my focus is. Is really in about a 30mile radius. There's enough people hereand enough, you know, children here who, who I want tokeep here and improve this place and, andyou know, again, corny cliche but if we can leave it a little bit betterthan we found it and that's really what I'm on a mission to dois empower the next generation, educate them, help them be thebest versions of themselves, whatever that looks like for themand just make the place that I've called home for almost 50 years. Alittle bit better when my work here is done. On that note, thank
Joanne Lockwoodhost
you. Amazing. Thank you, Joanne.
Joanne Lockwoodhost
As we bring this conversation to a close, I want to express mydeepest gratitude to you, our listener, for lending yourear and heart to the cause of inclusion.Today's discussion struck a chord. Consider subscribing toInclusion Bites and become part of our ever growing communitydriving real change. Share this journey with friends, family andcolleagues. Let's amplify the voices that matter.Got thoughts, stories or a vision to share? I'm allears. Reach out tojo.lockwood@seechangehappen.co.ukand let's make your voice heard. Until next time, thisis Joanne Lockwood signing off with a promise to return withmore enriching narratives that challenge, inspire andunite us all. Here's to fostering a more inclusive world oneepisode at a time. Catch you on the next bite.
In this episode of The Inclusion Bites Podcast, Joanne Lockwood welcomes Scott Grates for an exploration of personal branding, authentic relationship building, and the journey from setbacks to success. The conversation takes listeners through the differences between traditional and digital relationship marketing, highlighting the enduring power of human connection amidst the rise of technological advances such as artificial intelligence. Joanne draws upon her own experiences in business and networking, while Scott explains the value of nurturing genuine, reciprocal relationships, focusing not just on transactional gains but on lasting impact within communities and organisations.
Scott is a visionary entrepreneur and bestselling author who specialises in harnessing relationship marketing to foster real-world success. Based in central New York, he brings a wealth of experience from founding and growing an insurance agency during challenging economic times. Scott’s passion for building authentic connections extends beyond business—he works extensively with students, educators, and local organisations to cultivate self-awareness and resilience. With his contrarian approach and servant heart, Scott encourages critical thinking and empowers both adults and young people to look beyond superficial achievement, nurturing the confidence needed to thrive in modern society.
Joanne and Scott analyse themes of trust, empathy, and personal brand, questioning whether digital tools can ever truly replace the warmth and understanding found in human relationships. They address the complexities of today’s multi-channel communication, such as the influence of social media, the value of emotional intelligence, and the challenges of building meaningful ties in an era of comparison and constant connectivity. The discussion also covers practical strategies for leveraging AI responsibly, balancing efficiency with authenticity, and how the best entrepreneurs often arise from adversity rather than academic success.
A key takeaway from this episode is the critical importance of purposeful, value-driven relationships—whether with colleagues, clients, or communities. Listeners will discover why embracing resilience, empathy, and the courage to fail is vital for both personal and professional growth. This episode encourages individuals to look past quick wins and cultivate real connections, inspiring anyone seeking to transform textbook knowledge into genuine triumph.
The views and opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Inclusion Bites, SEE Change Happen Ltd or Joanne Lockwood. This episode is shared for general interest and discussion; we accept no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of any statements made.
