The Importance of Family and the Future of AI, with Asha Saxena

IN THIS INFORMATIVE EPISODE, ASHA SAXENA, AUTHOR OF THE BEST SELLING BOOK "THE AI FACTOR", SUCCESSFUL TECH ENTREPRENEUR AND FOUNDER OF WLDA, WOMEN LEADERS IN DATA AND AI, SHARES HER INSIGHTS ON THE PROFOUND INFLUENCE OF AI AND HOW ANYONE CAN GET STARTED ON GETTING FAMILIAR WITH AI.

This episode is packed with wisdom and inspiration from Asha's long career as a successful entrepreneur in tech consulting. Asha also shares a heartfelt story about her biggest supporter who was also a role model in entrepreneurship—her mom.

In this episode, Asha and I engage in a heartfelt discussion about the significant impact of a robust support system and the pivotal role her mother played in her success. She opens up about the important lessons she learned from her mom who was also an entrepreneur in a time and place where female business owners were rare.

Asha shares her profound gratitude for her mother's unwavering support as she established her own tech IT consulting company, specializing in big data analytics and data management services.

We then dive into Asha's best-selling book, "The AI Factor," where she shares her insights on the profound influence of AI and how anyone can get started on getting familiar with AI.

Asha and I explore the exciting possibilities that AI holds across various industries and make a compelling case for everyone to start using AI in their lives.

This episode is packed with wisdom and inspiration from Asha's long career as a successful entrepreneur and mom.

Asha Saxena is a mother of two and a strategic, innovative leader with a proven track record of building successful tech businesses for the last 25 years. Asha Saxena is a partner at CEO Coaching International, a leading coaching firm for growth-focused CEOs and entrepreneurs

"Always be curious. And always be learning. If you are curious and ask good questions and be open to playing and engaging with technology, you will continue growing." — ​Asha Saxena​'s Website 

MORE ABOUT ASHA:

FOUNDER & CEO WLDA, BOARD MEMBER, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR, & BEST-SELLING AUTHOR OF THE AI FACTOR.

Asha Saxena is a strategic and innovative leader with a track record of building successful technology companies over the past 30 years. She is the author of the bestselling book “The AI Factor – How to Apply Artificial Intelligence and Use Big Data to Grow Your Business Exponentially” and the Founder and CEO of Women Leaders in Data and AI, a global leadership organization bringing senior leaders together to create a fair digital world with parity and equity.

Asha is a partner at CEO Coaching International, a company focused on founding, building, turning around, and selling successful businesses. She is also an adjunct professor at Columbia University, teaching graduate classes on Management Consulting, Entrepreneurship and Big Data Analytics, and served as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Columbia Business School.

TRANSCRIPT:

Dr. Juna: [00:00:00] Well, Asha, thank you so much for joining me today, especially on a Saturday. I can't thank you enough. I met you way back in. Cliff Shor's class at Columbia Business School where I was an officer there, um, as a physician and attending physician at Columbia Medical Center. And they had this amazing thing that you can sit in on classes.

Dr. Juna: And I contacted Cliff and I was so interested in the greenhouse. So I don't know if you knew that, but that's why I was there. And, uh, that's how I met you and you look exactly the same. So, oh my God, that that's a good thing. And you were on the panel, you used to be one of the, uh, people who would sit in and all the kids who won, I think they had to win a competition to be in that, uh, greenhouse, right?

Dr. Juna: Yes. And they would pitch to you and you'd give them all kinds of amazing business advice.

Asha Saxena: Yes. Yes, exactly.

Dr. Juna: And you're kind of like one of my idols because not only are you a woman in leadership, in data and, uh, technology, but you're also a mom of two [00:01:00] amazing. Now men. Right. And you moved here after college, right?

Dr. Juna: So you started here, um, as an immigrant. Where, where were you from originally? Delhi, India. Wow. You know when people see you now and they see you like at the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange and you're like on all these boards and you're this, uh, amazing keynote speaker and author of this bestselling book now, which was incredible timing the AI factor.

Dr. Juna: Which I'm listening to on Audible, and it's, I love it. Everybody should get it. So when you see all this and all the success you've had, and you're a professor at Columbia, I mean, you've done so many things, so it's kind of hard to break it down into those little steps that happen between you moving here and starting your education and then founding a tech business and then founding more businesses and, and being an in-demand c e o coach.

Dr. Juna: I mean, It just sounds so out there. So maybe you could just give us a little bit about the very [00:02:00] beginning. Absolutely. You know, like, how did you do it? What did you do? Did you never go out? Did you work in your dorm room all night? What were you doing? So first of all, I have

Asha Saxena: to say that, um, I. You are asking me this question at a time when I think I'm kind of emotional because I lost my mom two weeks back and a lot of the people who were there at the memorial, uh, spoke about my mom and the impact my mom had on me.

Asha Saxena: And I didn't realize it at that time, but when everybody got up and said how strong my mom was and how she was there for me, made me realize and think about. What you just said, you know, from where I started to where I am today, um, it's something I wouldn't have believed. If you asked me, you know, 25, 30 years back and said, Asha, you're gonna be a bestseller author.

Asha Saxena: You would have all these successful companies. You'll be ringing the New York Stock Exchange Bell, be a commencement speaker at the graduate school. I would probably laugh and I would not [00:03:00] believe you. Um, but I think truly believe that. I think it really started from a lot before I went to school. And I would definitely say, you know, how you, you know, your upbringing has a lot to do with what happens later in life.

Asha Saxena: And I had a mom who was a entrepreneur who was a hustler. She didn't go to college and she was, um, hardworking, talented woman in a age where women couldn't go to work. Uh, my mom was in India and she had to. Stay at home and take care of me. But she had a talent, uh, she was a seamstress and very good. She learned a skill she could use sitting at home.

Asha Saxena: And she started her own school. She had like 11 siblings. Wow. And she was the richest woman because she built a business sitting at home. She had 300 students who came to her school and. [00:04:00] You know, and, and it's so funny, my son said that to me. Somebody said, your, um, your mom. I mean she, they, they were talking about my mom and they said she was the woman in the age where the women couldn't go out and get the education and couldn't go to work.

Asha Saxena: And, um, she, my mom, they were referring to actually empowered women and taught a skill that women could stay at home and, you know, create micro, you know, economic world and. And my son looked at me and said, oh my God, you are doing what grandma did. You are empowering women. And I said, oh my God, I never thought about that.

Asha Saxena: You know, it was like a unspoken thing. But I think somewhere there I learned about resilience. Somewhere there I learned about working hard and never giving up. Um, I did not, if you had asked me this question two weeks back, I would've probably given another answer, but I, wow. This moment when my mom's memorial made me [00:05:00] realize that how many people saw my mom as a strong woman, an entrepreneur who created, um, in, in a world, a third world country, an economic environment for so many women.

Asha Saxena: Um, and I think somewhere there I learned to. Have those core values, which kind of helped me be a hustler. You know, it's about survival and things are not gonna be your way and you still have to get up and run and you can't sit and cry about it. You just have to do things. And I think that attitude definitely helped me where I am today for sure.

Dr. Juna: Wow, that was such a beautiful story. Thank you so much for sharing that. And my deepest condolences to you. I mean, I read posts about her and, and I thought that she sounded like an amazing woman. But now that you tell me this story about her being an entrepreneur in those times in India without [00:06:00] an education and just, I mean, that's incredible.

Dr. Juna: Or were you the only child?

Asha Saxena: I was the only child. And you know, she started the school where she taught people how to. Be a seamstress. Wow. And she taught them how to make dresses and, and she used to make these bedsheets, beautiful bedsheets with hand, uh, embroidery and Wow. And my uncle was telling me that your mom would go, you know, in India the gold is like big thing and mm-hmm.

Asha Saxena: And my uncle was telling me that she was, Single handedly MA made more money than any of the brothers did. And she would go to the brothers and, and buy gold for them for any of their weddings or you know, their kids' wedding. And she would give so much gold. And she was, he was just saying that not only that she made money, she was so generous.

Asha Saxena: She actually paid forward, she took care of the entire family. And I think for the listeners who are listening to your show, I think there's such a big lesson in that you can be successful if you don't pay forward. You're not rich, you know, you're just rich for yourself. Mm. [00:07:00] Able to be remembered, to be a generous human being, I think is such a great

Dr. Juna: gift.

Dr. Juna: I have goosebumps and tears in my eyes and it's just so beautiful to hear all this about your mom. And she lived to an old age, right?

Asha Saxena: She lived till 84. And, um, my caretaker for my mom, the housekeeper and the caretaker, she was telling me that, you know, in April 1st I had, I was traveling and I was not home.

Asha Saxena: And my mom had fallen at 2:00 AM and she was saying she was definitely gone. Oh. But she came back at 9:00 AM when the ambulance came and did the C P R because she wouldn't go when I wasn't there. Oh. And two weeks back when she left, I was home. I was the first one to see her. I was with her. She told me.

Asha Saxena: A hundred times that she loves me in the last three months. Aw. You know, so it was just a perfect goodbye. Perfect

Dr. Juna: goodbye. Oh my God. I'm so sorry for your loss, but at the same time, I know she's always with you. I. [00:08:00] Yes, it was beautiful. Did she live with you in New Jersey? See that? Yes. Yes. Oh,

Asha Saxena: that's amazing.

Asha Saxena: I love it. So, so I have to tell you that yes, we talk about building businesses, having family, having kids. I had it all because of my mom, you know, and I always say, you have to have support systems. If you don't have support system, you can't. I'm so sorry to make you cry. I mean to,

Dr. Juna: I didn't mean to cry today.

Dr. Juna: It's such a beautiful thing and, and you know, as a mom myself, like that is one of the most important things. Well, for me anyway, it doesn't mean everybody, but for me that was. Such, such a special thing that I did in my life. And just to hear you talk about your mom like that and you know, sometimes as a mom, you know, you don't know if you're making all the difference all the

Asha Saxena: time, so Absolutely.

Asha Saxena: No, I have to tell you, uh, my mom was my world because I couldn't have done any of this without her. When you talk about all my accomplishment, you know, my mom closed her [00:09:00] business. When I had my second child and I was here in us, I came to us be a programmer. I was already, I already had a child and I was 24 with pregnant with a second child, and my mom closed her business, moved with my dad to us to take care of my kids, both my kids Wow.

Asha Saxena: And take care of the house. And I had help. So, but she still said, I'm gonna be there You go. Make things happen. I built my businesses. I would have my kids showered and. You know, dinner fed and I would come home and do homework with them and she was right there. She was the mother for the whole family.

Asha Saxena: And I built businesses, I sold businesses, I wrote books. I taught at Columbia. You know, I was a C E O coach. And my mom was always waiting for me, always waiting for me to say, did you eat? You know, are you okay? Uhhuh? And I think that's the power of a mother that she stood by me. So two weeks back, and I think she's still with [00:10:00] me.

Asha Saxena: And I think because of her, I could accomplish so much because I had the support system. And again, you know, people who are listening, any kind of support system is a great system. I was lucky that my mom was by my side every minute. My mom and dad just moved in. Wow. Thank God for my husband. Who didn't mind, who didn't my, but my mom, my parents doted on my husband.

Asha Saxena: He would walk in and my hu my parents were like, Cooking for him and pampering him and I just having that support system really truly helped me achieve what I achieved, you

Dr. Juna: know? That's beautiful. And how old were they when they moved with you into the United States?

Asha Saxena: I was 24 and my mom must be 50. I. Wow.

Asha Saxena: 55,

Dr. Juna: 52, you know, and she moved to a whole new country. Did she ever work again? Did she teach, uh, sewing or did she She,

Asha Saxena: you know, she always was it her passion? It was her passion. She always made, I have like 300 wrap dresses.

Dr. Juna: I wanna see these. [00:11:00] They're gorgeous. When I, you're gonna have to show it to me sometime.

Dr. Juna: Yes. Oh my God. This is just an amazing story. Thank you so much. Wow. You had no clue.

Asha Saxena: My God, you had no clue who this story would go here.

Dr. Juna: No, I mean, like I wanted to talk to you about your mom, but I didn't, I hadn't seen you in a while, so this is such a wonderful tribute and it's just such a beautiful thing that you're talking about and the resilience and the support system that you need.

Dr. Juna: And I mean, you were so lucky to have that work ethic you learned as a child. So what were you doing when your mom was working with these students? Was it in the house? Mm-hmm. That she

Asha Saxena: had the students? Yeah. My mom wouldn't go out to work. Right. But she. Was not allowed to go out to work. So our home was the school.

Asha Saxena: Wow. And she could have these, she would arrange this, all this in a way that she could arrange like different hours, you know, every 90 minutes her batch would rotate and she would have X number of students, you know, and she would work all day long. And I would come from school and I would [00:12:00] get right into it.

Asha Saxena: I was, I grew up in the school because that was our home. So, yeah, so I just saw firsthand how hard she worked firsthand, how she was there for all her students, how she cared every single minute about doing what she was doing. And she was so hardworking. I mean, from the morning until night, she would work, take care of the house, take care of me.

Asha Saxena: How did she take

Dr. Juna: care of herself?

Asha Saxena: I never asked. I was a kid, know. Knew my mom was there and my mom was around me, and that's all that mattered to me, that my mom was around. I mean, when I was growing up and I was a kid, I don't know how she took care of herself. You know what, actually, I remember on the weekend she would go visit her brothers.

Asha Saxena: Like Sunday night was the big night because we would go visit grandparents and hang out with the family. So that was like the best thing for her. She loved going. You know, home and having dinner with her parents.

Dr. Juna: And which child was she out of? The [00:13:00] 11

Asha Saxena: second. She was the second

Dr. Juna: child. Okay. And the first child was a boy or a boy?

Dr. Juna: Boy. I'm just asking weird questions. I'm sorry. No, and she was, I just get so curious, like, yeah, she sounds like an amazing person and it sounds like you guys had an amazing family life too, so it must've been a little hard for you guys when you all moved here because you probably didn't have as much family here.

Asha Saxena: So I'm assuming, you know, it's funny you say that because uh, my parents were, I was the only child. So for me, having my parents was my world. And then I had my husband and I had my two kids, and I had my parents. So I was complete, you know, for me, my husband, my two kids, and my parents made my world.

Dr. Juna: Let's go on to some of the questions that I had for you about resilience and questions about your book, about ai, and again, this book that you wrote was amazing timing.

Dr. Juna: Did you know that they were coming out in November

Asha Saxena: with chat gt for? Listen, I'm [00:14:00] not friends with Sam Alman. I always laugh. I say I have to thank Sam Alman because he positioned launching chat G P T according to my book release, you know? But, uh, in all fairness, I think, um, COVID was the reason I wrote the book.

Asha Saxena: And I wrote the book because a lot of people around me and my landscaper passed away from Covid. I have friends who the father passed away from Covid. And so during the Covid time, it was a time when I think a lot of people reflected. Mm-hmm. And I got a chance to reflect on my life and what, what am I leaving behind?

Asha Saxena: And my worry was that I spent 30 years in this industry, building tech companies, data management, consulting firm, e-commerce. Healthcare software company and I haven't shared my knowledge with anyone, so my thought was that I'm gonna put everything on the paper, turn it into a book, and my goal is not so much.

Asha Saxena: You know what a lot of time [00:15:00] publishers will say, you have to sell your book. You have to sell your book. In my heart it was, I don't care if I sell even one book. I wanted to get this on paper for me. I wanted to share my knowledge and all that I learned, and I really systematically put it on the paper.

Asha Saxena: Why you should care about big data and AI and how to implement. And so those are the two sections I wanna talk about. So I divide the book into two parts. The first part is really telling you stories about the companies who've done well, like Netflix and Starbucks and I, so I tell stories in the first part of the book, so very easy to read.

Asha Saxena: And the second part of the book really gives you frameworks and best practices. It tells you how to implement artificial intelligence in your business. And as I was writing the book I came across, I mean, of course, listen, we grew up in the tech world where women were very few and you just take it for granted.

Asha Saxena: And during the time, and I was writing the book, everything was going digital so fast. My whole thought was, oh my God, [00:16:00] which only 18% of women are coding these algorithm, which is a problem because we are not gonna have a seat at the table. And then I was um, uh, having lunch with a dear friend of mine who was the president of First Women's Bank and the top women in Chemical Bank in 1970s, which is now JP Morgan Chase.

Asha Saxena: And she was reporting to David Rockefeller and she said, Asha, I had to go home to my unemployed husband. Get his signature to open my bank account at the bank. I was working and I was the top woman. Wow. In 1973 in New York. Mm. And uh, so I hear this story and I go then later to watch Hamilton, the play, and then I'm like, oh my God, what a beautiful play.

Asha Saxena: But there's no woman on the stage. So the women were not, you know, we didn't have women at the founding fathers. Who were writing the laws and regulations, but women were not there as we were building the world, physical world. And so my whole thought was that, oh my God, I will not be [00:17:00] remembered. So for selfishly, I was like, oh my God, we need to do something about this.

Asha Saxena: And I started the organization called Women Leaders in Data and AI with a mission to bring senior leaders together. To create an impactful world digital, world fair digital world with parity and equity. And so this whole mission started from the book. Mm-hmm. Building an organization called Women Leaders in Data and ai, which is, we call Wda, W L D A, and.

Asha Saxena: The thought was to leave a legacy behind. You know, as we are building algorithms, these artificial intelligence is only going to exponentially enhance everything. Performance, efficiencies and biases. Mm-hmm. So how we built our models, they will be impacted by the data they consume diversity enough.

Dr. Juna: Yeah.

Dr. Juna: And women representation. Yes. As well. Yeah. You created Wda and you bring women together and you also mentor, right? Yes. Talk to me [00:18:00] about mentorship and like how that, what's that meant for you over your lifetime and also what you wanna do now?

Asha Saxena: So what we do in Wda is that we, we have, we first started the organization with just women leaders, and then we realize that, oh my God, we can't do it without men.

Asha Saxena: So we actually added 30% men mm-hmm. To the male allies. We call them male members. And the male members sit with women, uh, leaders. And the goal is that they all come together to help each other and we take care of me, which is, which is really important as a female leader who's at the C-suite level.

Asha Saxena: Mm-hmm. You know, it's pretty lonely on top. So, mm-hmm. Taking care of them first, and then then taking care of their team. So me, mine and ours, you take care of me, then you take care of mine, which is your team and your immediate managers, and then take care of ours, which is your community. Mm-hmm. The community.

Asha Saxena: Community could be your whole organization or it could be the impact you pay forward. And it's really about, you know, I, we say three things. Community [00:19:00] growth and impact. You know, Uhhuh, we, we need community as me. We need to be growing constantly so we can create the impact and without paying forward. You come to a stage where you feel that your work is not, um, paying rewards because you're not paying forward,

Dr. Juna: you know?

Dr. Juna: Mm-hmm. True satisfaction and my paying forward is like helping others in the field to come along. Mentoring and also giving back to the community. Exactly.

Asha Saxena: And also as you think about building AI in your organization, be responsible, be ethical, make sure you have diverse teams, you have diverse thought process.

Asha Saxena: Make sure you have female at the. Table, not, not only that, oh, we have X number of women, but also have equity. Make sure that these women have a say. Mm-hmm. They're not just a token woman, but they also have the command to be able to execute. Mm-hmm. So that's really, really important. And you talk about mentorship and I, I'll, I'll share a little bit about that.

Asha Saxena: And mentorship can come from women or men. [00:20:00] Right? So the I, I grew in my career because I had a mentor early on in my career. Who helped me get ahead. Mm-hmm. And again, mm-hmm. It's a great story because I was pregnant with my second child, uh, and I was eight months pregnant and my boss called me in. I was, um, uh, you know, I started my career as a programmer in a consulting firm, and very quickly I became a project manager and then engagement manager, and I was running the p and l for, for the organization.

Asha Saxena: Merrill Lynch was my first customer, and I, um, grew that account from two people to 80 people in my two and a half year of career. At that work. At that job. And my boss calls me and he says, you know what? We are going to have to, we are getting acquired and we need to. Let go strategically people. And he said, you know, I can't say that to you, but it's really your bonus.

Asha Saxena: You have a huge bonus coming up and you're one of the most expensive employees and you are on the list. [00:21:00] And he said, I'm sorry you, because you're a high performer and you are going to get a big paycheck. You are on the cutting board. You know, a shopping board. And he said, but you, he said, Asha, I can't do this to you because you are, you are such an excellent, I haven't seen somebody who works so hard and does such a good job.

Asha Saxena: He says, I'm gonna give you my, your non-compete back. Merrill Lynch loves you. Wow. Start your own business and, and continue serving the client. And I was, uh, uh, pregnant and. Confused and I started my own business. And I always say that I, I gave birth to twins. One was my human child and one was my work child.

Asha Saxena: So my business was born the same month. Same year when my, you know, the little boy was born. And, uh, I love that. And we bo, I mean, they both were such great kids because my younger son grew up to be, you know, he went to uc, Berkeley got did computer science engineer. Uh, and my, my work child, [00:22:00] my company, future Technologies became a huge data management consulting firm and we doubled every year.

Asha Saxena: But I couldn't have been successful if I didn't have a mentor who believed in me. I took a chance on me and said, I want you to be

Dr. Juna: successful and to give you your non-compete back. That's

Asha Saxena: huge. Huge. Of course. Listen, I always say that you have to pay your dues, you have to pay card. Mm-hmm.

Dr. Juna: Nothing has happened to you.

Dr. Juna: So how many years was that between school and at that point when you started company? Two and a half years. Two and a half years only. Only two and a half years. It was pretty. So you had all these management skills. Was that inborn or you learning

Asha Saxena: from somewhere? No, I made tons of mistakes. Okay. Tons of mistake.

Asha Saxena: Are you kidding me? Please tell

Dr. Juna: us. Yes. I fell and I, this is what I mean. You see the success and you don't see like all that the

Asha Saxena: failures. Yes. God, there were so many failures. I have to tell you, I wanna, I want, I wanna finish that loop on, on my boss at that point. Mm-hmm. But remember he also got bonus points because, He got a [00:23:00] huge brownie point from Merrill Lynch because he didn't pull me off.

Asha Saxena: He did it so gracefully. So he did good and it got paid rewarded big time for him because Merrill Lynch saw that he did the right thing. Oh. So he was working smart. It was very smart for him to do that. And then I continued supporting him. Even though I parted, I made sure that they were successful. So it was really wise of him to do the right thing because

Dr. Juna: it made wise compassion.

Asha Saxena: It, yeah, it was win-win from all different direction. I love it. Everybody one in that, uh, transaction. So when you talk about failure, my god, so many failures. I mean, I can go on and on and on. I mean, it was really lucky. The timing was really good. So when I'm talking about 1990s, when I started my business, technology industry was booming.

Asha Saxena: So when you talk about only two and a half years, people were starting businesses with no experience and they were doing well. The market was so hot that you can turn around and all I did, I remember three years down [00:24:00] the line or four years down the line, I was all, my job was signing contracts. We were, every day we were closing business.

Asha Saxena: It was so much business that, you know, I, I had the whole contract in department and they would say, Asha, we need your signature, Asha. We, so I got to a point where, you know, of course then I had to build all that and make sure that I move, move on to a bigger, bigger things. But you know, when you start your business, you're so hands-on and you're all in.

Asha Saxena: And the mistakes I made multiple mistakes. Mm-hmm. The biggest mistake, first mistake I made was when you are a new entrepreneur, you don't realize the value of your team and building your team. You are a individual player. You are individual hire. You know, uh, a high performance player and you run so fast and you expect everybody in your company to run fast with you.

Asha Saxena: So as a leader, individual per high performer, you lack compassion mm-hmm. For the people who can't run as fast as you. Mm-hmm. And I, I've seen. So many leaders, [00:25:00] so many managers who still have the mindset of an individual player, and they forget that not everybody runs as fast as you. People will say to me, oh, Asha, if they were running as fast as you were, they would be entrepreneurs, or, mm-hmm.

Asha Saxena: They were running as fast as you, they would be at your position or they would be a leader. So what I realized, my biggest mistake I would say is that, At that early age, I didn't realize the value of building people. If you have time, if you have team members, you, you cannot focus on just winning alone. I.

Asha Saxena: You have to invest in mentoring, building your team members to succeed, and only then you as an organization, you as a leader, succeeds

Dr. Juna: and noticing their strengths and building on their strengths, which is probably not the same as yours obviously, 'cause you are a leader.

Asha Saxena: There is a great. Saying, don't expect a [00:26:00] monkey to swim like a fish or expect a fish to climb the tree.

Asha Saxena: Mm. You have to know the difference between a fish and a monkey. Mm-hmm. You can't expect a fish to climb the tree and get disappointed.

Dr. Juna: Yeah. And you're not gonna have a 50 ASHA's working for you. 'cause then you'd all be CEOs.

Asha Saxena: Exactly. So I think compassion is really, really important.

Dr. Juna: That's an

Asha Saxena: amazing tip.

Asha Saxena: Early days. You know, I had this financial analyst I remember and she would come to my office and bring these reports and my God, there were simple mistakes, Uhhuh, simple mistakes she would make. And every time I would look at her Excel and I'll say, calculation is wrong, and I would get upset. I. And I remember I got so upset one day, you know, on those days we would print out the reports and they would bring it and leave it on my table.

Asha Saxena: And I got so upset. I looked at the report and I just threw it on the table again. And I said, this cannot be, you know, this can't be the way you work with, you know. And because I was, you know, I expected much better from her. And then few [00:27:00] days later I was at the, Fax machine those days. We had fax machine.

Asha Saxena: I was in the fax machine picking up some papers and she was standing at the printer and I turned around and like fell laughing with her and talking to her and I had this conversation with her, which was really pleasant. She comes over to my office the next day and she says, Asha, I just have to tell you, I had a really good night.

Asha Saxena: Sleep. I looked at her and I said, what does that have to do with me? And I'm like completely confused because remember, I was an individual player. I was a high performer. You're only like 24. By that time I was like 26, 27. Okay. And I'm looking at her and I'm saying, I don't understand that. And then I didn't say that out loud, so I just like looked confused and she said, Asha, you were so nice to me yesterday and I really got good night's sleep.

Asha Saxena: And I was like, oh my God, when did I become responsible for my employees? Sleep their happiness

Dr. Juna: because you were the boss. Bingo. Wow. And the power

Asha Saxena: leverage. And you forget when you are everyday working, all you're thinking [00:28:00] about, oh my God, I have to hit the number. I have to run fast. I have to close more deals.

Asha Saxena: You forget. The human element. Mm. I forgot to be human. I became a machine of producing. But it

Dr. Juna: worked for a

Asha Saxena: while. It gives you numbers, but it doesn't give you sustainability. Sustainability,

Dr. Juna: that's key. We are under stress. So then Exactly. Put the stress on them. Right. I think, I, I, I

Asha Saxena: think younger leaders or younger professionals have to remember when they become a manager, the difference between individual.

Asha Saxena: High performer to a manager is, and to manager it to a leader is when mm-hmm. You truly take care of others and make sure that you, you are responsible for other people's life

Dr. Juna: and guide them and mentor them and give them the tools that they can become, um, stronger. Right? But then there's also, you have to recognize when someone's not good for the.

Dr. Juna: Team. Well then you,

Asha Saxena: right. That's your responsibility. Yeah. You're not performing. I should have kept her in the same job. I should've sat down with her and said, you know what? [00:29:00] It's not a good fit. Yeah. You would do very well somewhere else and do it gracefully. Uhhuh, instead of getting frustrated and not.

Asha Saxena: Be happy because you are not happy. She's not happy. Doesn't work. Uhhuh.

Dr. Juna: Yeah. I had this one girl who was working at the front desk and I was interim director of the department at one point, and I said to her, I said, you're really smart. You can do more. You want, you know, you can get a promotion. And she just looked at me and she was like, I don't want that.

Dr. Juna: And I was like, what? I, I had no understanding, like somebody wouldn't want that. And then over the years I realized, well, you know, she was happy with what she was doing. She didn't want more responsibility, she didn't want to move up that ladder. And that was something that I couldn't even understand in my twenties Exactly.

Dr. Juna: Because I was always like, yeah, give me more responsibility. So going back to what you said about the nineties being this crazy opening of all of the technology companies, like open to all the, the money in that field, do you think it's the same thing now for AI companies? That are starting, are they in the A level playing field?

Dr. Juna: Like people could [00:30:00] just get into it now?

Asha Saxena: I think everybody needs to get their hands dirty with ai. You know, they say that AI needs to be your friend. You can't worry about is it good for me or bad for me? I always say that sign that group of people who are scared of science, period. Mm-hmm. There, when you think about bi biological weapons, you talk about chemical weapons, you talk about nuclear weapons, you can use signs for good or bad.

Asha Saxena: It depends upon humans of how we use it. Absolutely. Mm-hmm. When we are in the age of ai, period, there is no discussion about it. I had my publisher, you know, we were talking about my book. My publisher called me and said, Asha, we wanna schedule a call with you because we wanna learn about you are the in-house expert for ai, and we wanna learn from you.

Asha Saxena: What should we do about publishing? And the first thing he says is that publishing is a dying industry. We cannot accept AI because if we bring ai, it's a IP infringement. And. And I said, the first thing I said back to him, you [00:31:00] cannot fear ai. Say we are a AI publishing house. We're AI driven publishing house.

Asha Saxena: I said, you can use AI for just negotiating contracts. It doesn't have to be giving away IP content. You can still work with authors, but you can maybe have an AI driven editor before the editor actually reviews it. They can just do a cleanup before it goes to the editor. So the editor is not worrying about spelling mistakes or, you know.

Dr. Juna: Yeah. I mean, using AI as a tool to exponentially increase our productivity. Exactly. And accuracy hopefully. Exactly. And I know you're a big propo like fan of medical ai and so am I. I know it's gonna be amazing and it's gonna help my doctor friends who are inundated with work. Right, exactly. And less mistakes and all of that stuff.

Dr. Juna: I think we're a few years out. I have no idea. We, we'll see back in the old days where they started doing AI with trying to double read mammograms with us, and that didn't work out very well, but I know that the underlying technology has completely changed now. [00:32:00] So it is working and they're working on it at M I T and Harvard.

Dr. Juna: I'm sure we're gonna have huge changes. I would love that. I would love to have a personalized physician who has seen a hundred thousand patients instead of hundred, you know, thousands. Right, exactly. So when you're talking to people, uh, who are in their teens or let's say in high school or college, let's start with high school.

Dr. Juna: If you're in high school now and you're looking at AI and the teachers are kind of like, no, that's cheating. Or, you know, what would you tell your kid? I know what I would tell my kid. My kids are in college. I'm like, you really need to get familiar with ai. But what would you say? Listen,

Asha Saxena: I say the same thing.

Asha Saxena: I say, you have to get your hands dirty. I said that to the publisher and I said, get your hands dirty with, make sure everybody's playing with it. I was, uh, giving a talk at Meta Facebook and I was talking to the entire DevOps team. There were a lot of young college graduated employees, and they were all technical, but they were all in DevOps or different technology, not ai.

Asha Saxena: Mm-hmm. And they [00:33:00] said, how do we get started? And I said, everybody needs to get their hands dirty. I don't care if you're a teacher. You are a publisher, you are a DevOps person, you are a technology infrastructure per, I don't care what you do, you are a physician. Mm-hmm. No matter what your profession is, I.

Asha Saxena: You need to start playing with AI tools. You know, I built a movie for my mom to play at her memorial, you know, use the AI tools to build your movie. So my, the, the AI tool automatically picked the pictures and arranged it and, you know, created a movie for my mom. So, so all these ss a a

Dr. Juna: s companies coming out Exactly.

Dr. Juna: The ai, the, uh, software as a service. There are a

Asha Saxena: lot of application. There are tons of applications which are out there.

Dr. Juna: So what I, I find a lot of them are kind of janky though. I guess there's like going through iterations. So if you're in high school, you should still be like trying to talk to chat G P T.

Asha Saxena: Absolutely. And learn about what are the other tools, how do you use the tools, you know, how do you engage that tool in your day-to-day life? I [00:34:00] mean, you know, I have friends who are using chat chip to create itinerary when they're traveling recipes or you know, so you can start working with generative AI is one type of ai.

Asha Saxena: Right? But when you can start working with different kinds of technology and get familiar, not run away from it. Mm-hmm. High school or in your college, or you are a professional. You need to get your hands dirty.

Dr. Juna: Harvard CSS 50 course, which is like the basic computer science course they start with, they are actually using AI in the course.

Dr. Juna: However, I don't think most universities are allowing it as. Part of the program. So what would you say to kids who are in universities who are not using it and telling people not to use it for their courses? What would you say to them? I mean, they do need to learn coding, but they can use AI to learn coding.

Dr. Juna: Right,

Asha Saxena: exactly. So listen con uh, Khan Academy mm-hmm. Which of course, you know, gives, creates learning paths for you. And Sal Khan, the [00:35:00] founder, did a TED Talk and said, we are working with open ai. To share our data, to create AI powered learning tracks. They launched Cano, which is a ai. Yes. Mm-hmm. What a great story that is.

Asha Saxena: You know, so if you think about the educational system, and I, you and I spoke about healthcare, healthcare and education is what I'm really passionate about. I truly believe that AI can create a huge impact in healthcare. I saw this robot. Which, you know, aging and loneliness is a huge issue. And yes, you know, you, you are a spokesperson for mind body.

Asha Saxena: And so when you think about this older generation who are in rehab, they feel lonely. And I saw this robot at M I T lab. They showed us the video. The robot comes over and tells this woman, the older woman in rehab, come on, let's work out. And so the woman rolls her eyes at the robot and says, You know, like doesn't respond to him as like a computer [00:36:00] coming and talking to me.

Asha Saxena: And he, they say robots have the best jokes, so he, he starts picking on her and he says, Oh, really? You don't like the way I look? You think I'm a robot, so I can't be, you know, so she starts smiling at him. He's like, come on. And it's like, okay, fine. And so she gets up and they're laughing together and she's working out.

Asha Saxena: And

Dr. Juna: I know some people might be creeped out by that, but honestly I think it would be like, Safety wise, you know, they have, they're recording everything. If there's elder abuse going on in these homes, I think it would be great. You know, you can look at their cameras exactly what's going on. Exactly. Some industries I think it would be amazing, but of course the human touch is always the human touch.

Dr. Juna: But who knows, some of these robots are gonna have that human touch.

Asha Saxena: Right. Also, you know, they make you feel that they care about you. They're generally focused on, when you talk about personalization, it's a true personalization. We're gonna

Dr. Juna: have to have a whole nother conversation about this Asha. 'cause I know some people are gonna be like, what?

Dr. Juna: We need people and doctor friends.

Asha Saxena: Absolutely. We need people.

Dr. Juna: Yeah, but sometimes we don't have people [00:37:00] around. Yeah. For some reason, I don't know, like there's a huge problem with that, but yes, that's like out of the scope of I didn't have

Asha Saxena: to leave. I have tons. I have tons more stories I

Dr. Juna: can tell you. Oh my gosh.

Dr. Juna: We have to do more. Yes. Okay. Oh, next time. Yay. I'm so excited. Okay, so I just wanna ask you a few questions if you have a few minutes before you go. Okay. What kept you, what keeps you grounded? Do you have any strategies that work for you? You a mom? Yes. Like all these things that you've done. Oh, oh my God.

Dr. Juna: That's What

Asha Saxena: do you do? An easy one. I have failed so many times. I've seen going really up really fast. I've seen hard times. I've seen how failure feels and how you get depressed. I had to lay off close to a hundred people in my company. Wow. It was the hardest time. I prayed a lot. Um, tried meditating a lot.

Asha Saxena: And getting up in the morning and cheering myself up, I know that what goes up can come down, um, and you meet the same people you meet, going up, same people when you come down. So be humble because they're the one who are gonna kick you if you are not nice to them, [00:38:00] and they're the one who are gonna cheer for you, even you are coming down.

Asha Saxena: I'm, uh, uh, I, my businesses have survived to recession in 2001 and 2008, and my recession in 2008 was so much nicer and smoother because I had gone through hard times and failure in 2001. So staying humble is the only way. There is no other way.

Dr. Juna: So what is your advice to young women out there right now to how to succeed in ai, in a AI driven world in the future, and who wants to have a

family?

Asha Saxena: I would say always be curious and always be learning if you are curious and ask good question and be open to playing and engaging with technology. You would continue growing and you, the second important thing is always be open to learning. If you're a lifelong learner, it never ends, no matter what position you get.

Asha Saxena: So always be a lifelong learner to continue learning about new technology, new tools, new methods, new processes, and that. Has always helped me to be [00:39:00] a lifelong learner. So I would say stay curious.

Dr. Juna: Love it. When you're learning something, you it and you, it feels so hard sometimes, and you feel like you are failing.

Dr. Juna: What do you say to those people? Because I know a lot of people, including myself, you know, when things don't come easily or quickly, then you're like, Ugh. Frustrated

Asha Saxena: you. You have to learn the style of learning. You have to be self-aware. How do you learn the best? You know, for me, when I pick up a book, I feel like, oh, I have to rush because I only have 10 minutes to read.

Asha Saxena: So what I do is I'm always listening to podcasts or books on audio because I can run or when I'm running or I'm working out. I can always listen to a book, so I've figured out when and how I can learn the best. I'm also very curious, so I'm always asking questions when I meet people or when I'm talking to my staff, or I have my research team, I'm always talking to them and asking them questions.

Asha Saxena: It's like I think asking good questions, be curious and asking good questions can help you also understand about yourself and understand what you need to learn.

Dr. Juna: That's great advice. I'm listening to, uh, [00:40:00] AI Factor, by the way, I always use Audible. I'm sad that it wasn't your voice though. Yes. Thank you so much, Asha, for spending your Saturday afternoon with me.

Dr. Juna: I can't thank you enough. Thank you so much for

Asha Saxena: having me. Of course.