¶ Introduction to Operations Unfiltered
Welcome to operations unfiltered. The podcast that takes you behind the scenes of influencer and talent management. I'm your host Zarina and this week I'm having another Mustang meetup with my friend and fellow alum. Dwight foot. Dwight is my very own tech consultant. So we did a deep dive into tech fatigue. The state of AI. And he shared some advice for small business owners. You know, this wouldn't be a Mustang meetup without sharing some memories from our times at SU.
And giving some advice to new freshmen. So without further ado, let's get into this week's episode of operations unfiltered. It is a Mustang meetup edition.
¶ Meet Dwight: Tech Consultant and Stevenson Alum
And I am joined by one of my favorite people, my best friend in the entire world, fellow Stevenson alum, Dwight. Hello and welcome. I'm so excited to have you.
Oh, of course. I'm so proud of you too. Cause you know, I'm always behind the scenes with what you're doing. And it's just I'm always excited to see your projects come to fruition. So I'm so proud of you.
Yes. Well, you know, I'm all, you're always in my corner and thank you so much for always being a guest, being a Guinea pig, helping me and you know, I'm sure we'll get to it, but since this is a Mustang meetup, I always like to ask anyone, any alum that I have come on.
¶ College Memories and Life Lessons
What their major was while they're at Stevenson, what year they graduated and share a favorite memory that you have from Stevenson.
Okay. Well, I was a couple of different majors at Stevenson. Yeah. I, I wanted to be a graphic designer. So I had started off, as a visual communications major. And then I sat in a four hour art class and I was like, this isn't, this ain't for me, Y'all can have this. I need to find something else to do.
Not four hours. Four hours is insane.
Exactly. So then I switched over to computer information systems. And that was very much getting into my programming bag. I was like, I'm going to be a software engineer and do this and that. And I think I was in my sophomore year of those courses and I was like, Oh, I don't really enjoy this either. And then I finally ended up getting into business information systems, with the focus in e-commerce technology. So that's ultimately what I graduated with, in 2014.
And then I went back to Stevenson in 2017 and got my, master's in business Technology Management.
So it all came full circle, got two degrees from Stevenson. I love to hear it. And I'm laughing as I get to my next question. What is your favorite memory from SU? And I'm laughing because like I said, Dwight and I are best friends. We met at college. So. Go ahead. The floor is yours.
You know, college was a key friend. I have so many favorite memories. I think one of the ones on a serious note that comes to mind is when you were DJ Lady Z at the Mustang Radio. And I came to see you doing your shift and I was fixing your laptop and you were doing your DJ thing and life was just so innocent back then and we were just hustling and things were so much simpler. Thank you. One of my favorite memories. So I love that one.
But you know, I also love the one, we were driving back from green spring and you're like 1992 Honda and
yes, trenches. This is the theme, the running theme. Anytime I I have a Mustang meetup. The running theme is we was in the trenches cause you're about to talk about my 1990. It was a 94. Excuse me. I'm
sorry. A 94 Honda. It's a comfortable ride, but baby, baby was, she was trucking and, um, it might've been raining or something. Anyway, on our, you know, our drive back from Green Springs to Owings Mills, it's like all those back, windy roads and everything. And, You were coming to a stop sign, but you know, you was kind of gunning it. And so you were like, Joe, hold my break. And I'm just like, what?
And when I tell you this girl was obviously applying, you know, the regular break, but then also lifting up the emergency break, like I was. Absolutely.
Listen, you had, I was a broke college student. You got to do what you got to do. That car got me from point A to point B. And Joe, hold my break. For those who don't know, that is a reference to Madea who also got me through college. So listen, I had to do what I had to do. My car worked. Okay. It got us
there.
Fun fact about that car. Um, I would still be driving that car today. Had I not crashed it into the golf course, trying to make it to class to green spring during the snow. So rest in peace to my baby Lola. She was a great card.
She was cute.
She was cute. Those are funny friend. Thank you for including me in your favorite memories from Stevenson. Cause you were definitely part of some of my favorite memories as Stevenson. I'm always going to say RA training, shout out to Marie. RA training is always going to be some of my favorite memories and another favorite memory that I have from our time at Stevenson, it was always our tradition, you know, whenever it snowed.
Somehow, some way we would dig out our cars, my 1994 Lola, we would dig out our cars and we would always go to Chipotle no matter what snowstorm we were in. It was giving very big back energy back in the day. But that was one of my favorite memories. So I just always think about
you. Yeah, for the Chipotle friend, I still would.
I'm in like a middle ground between big back and trying to get ready for summer, but nevertheless, stop. I'm sorry. Amazing. Anyway. Yes, Frank.
¶ Dwight's Career Journey and Side Hustle
Okay, so let's get into your current role and or your side hustle. What are you doing now? Post grad in the real world?
Yes, in the real world. Oof, stress. So currently I am a senior customer success manager at Latera. Latera is a company that provides software solutions to law firms all over the world. So drafting software, risk management software, really just about anything. I mean, we offer a full suite of solutions that all firms, can adopt to really increase their productivity, create some consistency in their workflows, and really just enable legal professionals to really do their best work.
So I've been at Letera about two years now. I originally started off as a solutions engineer. Where I was helping implement the solutions, post sales, helping our customers customize the solutions in a way that made sense or for their business. So now I'm kind of moved into the customer success side, which is a little less technical. But that's something that I really wanted to do because I enjoy building relationships with people.
and I kind of was over the whole, I want to, I thought I was going to be like this all mighty, engineer and know everything, and that just got exhausting. So I was like, I'm going to go focus on what I do best. That's really connect with our customers and understand their needs. So,, this position is pretty cool. I get to do a little bit of both. but it's really about advocating for our customers and really managing their journey as they make their way through the litera ecosystem.
Um, my little side hustle, I don't know how many years ago this was now. Was this 2020, maybe 2019? I feel like it was
2019. Give yourself that extra year. I feel like it was 2019.
Probably. So I started a tech fluent creative agency. And that was really me kind of delving into my love for web design. That was originally the purpose of that. Okay. You know, like I said before, when I was at Stevenson my freshman year, I really wanted to be a web designer. So I thought it was kind of the perfect way to kind of bring myself back to that.
And that was more so you know, kind of consulting, doing the design work, and really just helping other small businesses really find, Best practices,, you know, in a technical space that made sense for their business, really helping them make a footprint online, essentially.
Yes. We actually worked together a couple of times on a few projects. So I smile when you say tech point, cause I know we were working on some things, so I love hearing about tech fluent. So speaking of tech fluent, your professional life, and even your personal life, we love exploring the people, processes, and tools or technology that are used to do whatever it is that you do and keep it going and functioning efficiently.
¶ Tech Tools and AI in Professional Life
So, what tools and technology do you use,
yeah, so professionally, my go to is Copilot right now, Microsoft Copilot has changed the game for me because
before you get into it, what is Copilot? For those who don't know what Copilot is, what is Copilot?
Yeah. So Copilot is Microsoft's latest AI solution. I mean, this thing is, it's almost like another person, which really is the wow. It's like having an assistant without having a physical assistant. It's really like help increase my productivity. So if you don't have it, yeah. If you can get it at work, you know, go advocate for that to your managers, to whomever, to really start adopting it. So what
type of tool, what does it help you do? I'm so intrigued. Give me the T. Let's spill the T.
So, the T is from a project management perspective, Copilot is really great at the end of your meetings because it can generate meeting notes. It can literally extract, action items, decisions that were made, who said this, who said that, and it puts it in a nice format for you, and it takes a lot of the post meeting work that a lot of project managers have to do, right? Sending out the email.
With the actual items and what we covered today, all of that's done for you and you just kind of go in and kind of edit it to make it sound like, you know, it's something that you actually wrote, like a human
wrote it. Yeah. Oh, wow. I can't believe your corporate job lets you use that. I know so many corporate companies have so many qualms about utilizing AI. So it's interesting that your company allowed you to do that. And hearing from your perspective, it's, it's giving you some efficiency and and optimize your processes. So clearly it's working.
Yes, definitely. Yeah. And if my company wasn't letting us use it as a technology company, I would be concerned. So
yeah, for sure. For sure. And so I, you mentioned their side hustle. What type of tools did you use or do you use to manage task when you do a side hustle project or even in your personal life?
Yeah. So I love OneNote. OneNote is like, it's like my diary to everything. I love being able to do freehand notes where it doesn't have to be a structure. You kind of can just put your thoughts on the page and just, yeah, just let it live there. And that's one of my favorite things. That's how I journal. That's how I, if I need to write something. It's
a digital bullet journal, if you will.
Yeah, exactly. So definitely one note and then also something that you introduced me to, which was Trello. I still love the tool so much, because I think both of us are very visual people too. So for sure. Yeah. Yeah.
Cool. So you mentioned you're a consultant. I've worked with you on a couple of projects with some small businesses. Thinking back to the projects you've worked on, current projects, whether it be corporate or on your side hustle. What tech challenges have you observed?
¶ Challenges and Opportunities in Tech
There's so many tech challenges, especially for small businesses, but I think probably, the one that. I've seen quite often it's just that a lot of small business owners aren't really taking advantage of the solutions that are out on the market. It's so easy to get like overwhelmed with all the different solutions, right? I don't care what, what sector of tech that you go into. It's all oversaturated. And so.
I think people tend to kind of shy away from technology if it's not kind of comfortable with, and I think, you know, as a business owner, your focus really should be scaling your business, really understanding your market and really just delivering a world class solution to your customers. And so. I think it's so important to really take advantage of technology to automate some of those mundane tasks, right?
absolutely. Automation is key. I love a good trigger because honestly, to your point, it's oversaturated. I need somebody to remind me that co pilot sounds amazing. Like I'm just sitting over here. I've Googled it already. Like, so I absolutely get it. And then to that point, do you ever experience or even the clients that you support, do you experience tool fatigue? I'm in my tool fatigue era. I'm tired of all the tools.
So I hear you, but me over here, I just want to get a pencil and a note, a and a pad. I just, I want to go back to the old days.
Yes, yes, yes, yes. And which is a cheap. Probably funny you think, well, he's a tech guy, he doesn't get tech burnout, but I absolutely do, probably on a daily basis. and I'm very much like you, I still love a good pen and paper to write on my to do list, because you get tired of looking at a screen all the time, it's it's one thing to do it for work, but then if you have a side hustle or whatever you're doing outside of your professional life, it just gets really exhausting.
So I'm all here for the technical breaks.
Absolutely. And at this point I need it. My mental health is, is directly tied to the screen time I feel like. So I need to shut it down and the tool fatigue is taking a toll on me. Oh my goodness. And what have you observed are some roadblocks or obstacles in the industry of tech and AI and adoption of that? Because you mentioned how it helps to optimize efficiencies and streamline processes
yeah. You know, AI has really, blown up over The past year or so, and obviously it's, it's not that new tool AI has been around for quite some time, but, I think on a consumer level, it has really expanded itself and, as great as it is, it also comes with a lot of. What ifs and a lot of security risk and implications and things like that.
And so, just being vigilant about the kind of AI tools that we're using, because you have AI tools out there that you can literally feed it, whatever you want, and it may go and regurgitate that to someone else, right? It could be something racist. It could be, you know, any kind of crazy thing. And so I think it's our responsibility as consumers to, Hold these developers accountable, right? We, there's so many bad actors out there.
I think AI will always kind of be a sensitive area for, for a lot of people. A lot, a lot of people, meaning corporations, people that are small business owners. it's risky for everybody. And so I would just say, do your research. And really take your time interacting with these AI tools.
Great advice. And as a small business owner who's already scared of everything, AI definitely scares me, but I have benefited from it. It saves me so much time. My brain is all over the place. So for that to spit out some key takeaways and some action items and film the meetings, oh my gosh, it replaces time that I could be using to be productive elsewhere. I wish that my corporate job would adopt it soon. Hint, hint, nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
You know, because I've asked for it and I think honestly it could replace or make a lot of these meetings more efficient, you know, so fingers crossed that more companies will adopt it because I think it's here whether we like it or not and we got to adjust, we got to adjust and keep it moving. Yeah,
exactly.
Okay.
¶ Dream Clients and Future Aspirations
So your dream client. Who would you love to work with at TechFluent? Whether it be your dream business, your dream content creator, who is on the list
Oh, so you see, you know, I'm a, I'm a watch guy, right? I love watches, it's been my thing forever. If I could ever work with Audemars Piguet, that would be the ultimate, ultimate, ultimate, client. And obviously I would be doing something probably along the lines of developing some sort of web tool or something to help drive their sales or something along those lines.
But I think just to be able to kind of establish that relationship with them, because I'm just in such of an awe of how they work, their craftsmanship, how they market, it would be perfect.
You definitely giving me classic man vibes. So I could see that working out for you at TechFluent. And I hope that that happens for you. If you're listening, TechFluent is here and available. Audemars Piguet. I can't even pronounce that. That's very classy. You
better speak it. I love that.
¶ Advice for Freshmen and Closing Remarks
So, because this is a Mustang Meetup I always like to close it out with what piece of advice would you give a freshman
Oh, okay. This is like, what, going back 10 years when I was, no, more than 10 years when I was a freshman, like 15 years. Don't
look at me. I'm still a young girl. I don't know. You are
a spring chicken, friend. I am. I have.
Yeah. I don't know.
But I think the best advice that I could give is be open to any and everything. You never know where you may find your tribe, where you may find interests. You know, it's obviously a scary experience sometimes coming out of high school, going to college where you don't know anyone, and you have all this responsibility, but I think keeping an open mindset is probably the best way to be in college, right?
you and I met, I don't know, because of the admissions office, I think, I was giving tours, you were working in the office, You just never know. At that front
desk chow, at that front desk, always at work.
Yeah, so I think, I really do think once, once you find your tribe that way, it's, college is just going to be like 10 times better.
Oh my, well thank you, that is perfect advice and I couldn't agree more. And again, thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Operations Unfiltered, the Mustang Meetup edition. It's always a pleasure talking to you and you know, I'm gonna text you later.
Yes, friend. Of course. Thank you for having me. This is so good. I can't wait to see this blow up because I know it will. And I'm just so happy for you.
Thank you so much, friend. And thank you guys for listening. Thank you. Until next time.