The Skill AI Cannot Replace, And Why It Will Define the Next Era of Founders

Speaker 1: Welcome to the Sheba podcast. I'm your host Melanie Bar. Today I'm joined by Lindsay Nemi Ash, a serial entrepreneur, investor, and board member with a portfolio of 17 companies and experience across multiple acquisitions. She's a co-founder and CEO of Jive PR, an influencer and marketing firm based in Los Angeles that she sold and later reacquired. Thank you for joining us, Lindsay. You've built, sold, and reacquired a company while also investing across 17 businesses. What's a decision that you've made that you would not make again?

Speaker 2: Well, I've done a lot of things and a lot of them work out and a lot of them don't. And I have specific moments of people decisions where at first I'm like, no. And then, okay, maybe I'll try. It just it just doesn't work for me. I invested in a couple very adventurous medical healthc care tech companies. Some of them have done okay, but some were in the psychedelic space and have not done so well. And then I've done a lot of things that have ended up well. So I feel like at some place they balance. But you also have to look at what you do and what you don't do and get over it fast because if I let all the things that I've messed up stop me, I would be in so much more regret.

Speaker 1: So true. And as an entrepreneur, we have to try things otherwise we won't get anywhere.

Speaker 2: Exactly.

Speaker 1: And going back to no. So trusting your instincts with no and then you stayed with no or you changed to yes.

Speaker 2: No, I changed my mind. I see the potential in everything, which is a blessing and a curse. I try to convince myself, but I also realize that I got to follow my own philosophy of less is more. And I'm trying to do that because I I can say yes to too many things. And

Speaker 1: it's interesting that you're saying that because I've been thinking so much more about following your gut lately because as an entrepreneur, you have to. And especially today, we're inundated with so much through AI and different platforms and different paths we can take that today more than ever it's more important to follow our gut instincts.

Speaker 2: That is going to be the superpower of the future. People's ability to go within however you want to call it and trust it even if it doesn't make sense is what's going to separate people in the future because now you can get AI to do anything for you. Smarter, more efficient, anything. The only thing we have that AI doesn't have is this gut instinct that will be a differentiator for people later on. We have a lot of noise, but the next generation has so much noise and they were raised on it from the beginning where we weren't really. It's interesting to teach them how they could make money in the next several years, even though thinking that in the next several years that's even going to change quickly. Friend of mine said to me, "Our kids are in the forgotten generation. when there's massive technology shifts, there's fiveyear gap that schools don't adopt it fast enough. Your kids in school right now are in the forgotten generation for the next five years. And it's fun that we can learn alongside them because I bring my kids into it and I get them thinking about different things and if you were to create this business online, what would that look like and how would you scale it? You're right. That's why it's so much more important for us to educate them and to a certain degree at home. We can learn at the same time and then they get exposed to that type of

Speaker 1: thinking. those who are meeting you for the first time, share with us more about who you are and what you were building

Speaker 2: today. I started a company 17 years ago. It was a marketing company, very lucky. Richard Branson Virgin was one of our first clients. We launched their social channels for the radio group and then quickly built an agency around it and then sold it 5 years ago to a very large global tech company and then I ended up buying it back last year. Um, and in throughout that I'd acquired and invested in a few different companies. One of the investments that we made was a skincare company and they ended up big biotech company sciencebacked and they were divesting of the brand and so had the ability to come in and and take it over and now work on this really cool clinical sciencebacked skincare line in conjunction with the agency and a bunch of other clients that we have. Women are so multiaceted. You're able to run multiple businesses at once. It's definitely possible. I've got a great team in place and I'm able to share resources between things and and I go at my pace, right? I haven't grown as quickly as a lot of brands can grow that take venture, but I made the choice that I for me and like my own anxiety levels like I have to be profitable as I grow and that's probably hindered me in a lot of places. I'm bored of a company that does hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars and I watch how they do their transaction and they're not doing it very different than me. They're just making lots of bigger decisions with lots more zeros. That's my comfort zone. So, I'm having to break myself out of my comfort zone through being exposed to what other people do, but also still be true to myself that I don't wake up every night at 3:00 in the morning and sweat through stress.

Speaker 1: Yes. I was just going to say there's also something to be said for quality of life. And that should really in our lives be the most important thing.

Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so. And I've been having these existential crisis thoughts over the last little while. I haven't gone as fast as I want to or I see other people doing it, but I'm at every single one of my son's baseball games or I'm able to take off an afternoon to go meet a friend. Maybe I have the better path for me and my temperament and my demeanor, but you always want what you can't have and you always think that you should be doing something more and we can't get that time back.

Speaker 1: Exactly. I've been really focused on presence lately. We just live in this anticipation of what we want and that's good because it drives us. So there's a certain amount of healthiness to it for ambition, but then there's also a certain amount where you miss the things and we are so inundated. We have so much coming at us that it's hard to take that time. It's really hard and the lists just get long. There's a million different things

Speaker 2: that you can be doing. You talk about the discernment economy in a world where everyone is chasing more. What are founders getting wrong about growth? So

Speaker 1: this comes back to what we were talking about earlier of the skill set that AI can't replace, which is like that level of discernment, right? And that it's different for everyone. So the CEO of this big tech company that I'm involved with, his discernment operates at a much different level, but that's okay for him. And mine operates at my level, but it keeps me within what works for me. So there's a healthy balance of you got to push yourself. got to you got to be a little bit uncomfortable, but you have to cut out the noise. Like, you got to make decisions by cutting out the noise. And I the more you take away, the stronger and more successful you are. It's discernment, but discernment that's appropriate for you, but not complacency. And you still have to feel uncomfortable in order to grow. Today, it seems like we have to strip away a lot of things to focus in and make certain lines of business successful because there's so many different platforms and people coming at you. It's so easy to get caught up in that current, and you're right about going with your gut, making the right decisions, and finding a way to focus on those areas of business that are ultimately going to make you successful and going back to reacquiring your business. I talked to a lot of women who sell their business, a portion of their business, and then it doesn't go the way they want to. The first few days when you get you refresh your bank account, and you're like, "Oh, that's so nice to see. Great." And then the reality sets in of especially if you've built your business from the ground up. It's part of your identity. You've had it for a while. Like then that's taken away. There's a lot of soulsearching that has to happen with that. And also your business affords you a lot of testing grounds. For me, it wasn't even just like the cash flow and revenue that comes in from it. It was that I had resources that I could leverage. So if I had an idea for something, I could put a team on the business to explore that idea and find out it was a bad idea and go and so you lose your leverage as well. By the time you pay tax, by the time you lose, you just got to know why you want to sell and have something to fall back on. But to think that that's the beall end all cuz we're taught that as entrepreneurs. Like a lot of friends who've done that, who've exited and now they're not sure what they're going to do next, want to do something, they're just not sure what's next for them. Exactly. And that's a good thing as well because it forces people into like deeper conversations with themselves on what they value and what they don't value. But if you can have those conversations with yourself while you have the business, you'll be even better set once you've once you've done the exit.

Speaker 2: Yeah, that's really good advice. You've seen a lot across industries. What separates founders who create real enterprise value from those who just create noise.

Speaker 1: The thing that I struggle with that I'm getting better at, but that I see real differences is systems. Fundamentals of a business owner. You have to have systems. And if you think you don't have to have systems, you are wrong. Like there has to be systems in place in order to scale. Otherwise, you can have a nice lifestyle business and be a glorified employee for as long as you want and call yourself an entrepreneur. You want to scale, you need systems in place. Number two, finance. Like, I don't care if you don't have a finance background. you look at your numbers every single month, even if it's painful, it's you just have to do it. Like those two things, systems and numbers are the foundational underpinning. And then the other thing, add value. Value can be different to different people. Maybe you're adding value to a super niche segment. That's fine as long as you are adding value. I'm a big believer in karma in business as well. What you give out is what you get back in. And if your business is not growing, you are the block. You see some founders that are ruthless and scrupless and they scale. Great. But somewhere else in their life, something's spiraling. There's no cause without effect. Regardless if you're into woo woo stuff or not, if you look at any entrepreneur, successful person, whether they've done it with heart and value or they've done it with corruptness, somewhere in their there's the reciprocal that's balanced to how they've done it. I can relate to so much

Speaker 2: that you just said. I constantly think, how am I the block for this? And that's hard to do, especially building a business. It's hard to look at yourself that objectively and say, "How am I holding things back?" And systems just make me relaxed. And I have a sign in my office that says, "Get it off your plate." Because sometimes you can let things sit for too long that should easily be done by someone else.

Speaker 1: So true. So true. There's this one productivity coach and they called it the one touch or two touch. That's all you can do with something. Something comes in, it's one touch, get it out or something comes in, you know it takes longer so you schedule it, but the second time you go back to it, it gets done. It sounds so easy in theory.

Speaker 2: You've operated at a high level across

Speaker 1: multiple companies. How do you actually decide where to spend your time and attention? I will trust a little bit of what I'm pulled towards more than what I'm reactive towards. I used to spend my entire day in my inbox. Everything would get answered right away cuz it made me feel clean. And then I realized that I was getting actually nothing done which was broader and building the companies. Now I take myself out of day-to-day. I'm focusing on things that I feel pulled to, but I also know are critical. The magic of real world connections and relationships is where I'm right now more pulled to and it has most impact for the company as well. But I had to get the systems in place in order to get myself there because before I was just a glorified employee that worked 80 hours a week.

Speaker 2: Yeah, I think a lot of entrepreneurs feel that way too and as making those inerson connections. I love talking to women all over the world and people and meeting you and having this conversation today. But there is something to be said meeting someone in person. That's going to be the currency of the future as we go into AI is the energy exchange and actually what you can do when you're with life. On the marketing side of our business, we have two very distinct categories. We work with consumer brands and we work with in real life experiences. So immersive experiences, museums, like game rooms. And in the last four years, our immersive side has exploded. There's such a demand for in real life human connection and it's and it's global. Like I have so much hope this is going to push us back to what's actually

Speaker 1: important. I completely agree with you. It's fun to

Speaker 2: see that swing. Yeah. What's something that you've walked away from even when it looked like a good opportunity on paper?

Speaker 1: AI related a potential for huge growth, but the personality and the energy dynamics of the exchanges of the person involved to get there. Something's off. the part of my brain is just like, "God, I'm missing out on like a multi-million dollar opportunity because this is like poised in the right time at the right space, but then there's something I'm just like, you know, listening to my body more. That's how I had to make this framework decision because on paper it's a incredible opportunity, but in the engagements I've been having, my body just went to full shit."

Speaker 2: You've mentored many founders. What's a pattern that you see consistently that limits their growth?

Speaker 1: Victimhood. anyone in my life that comes to me and tells me life is happening to them and like, "Oh my gosh, this is happening." But if you point it out to them and then they get defensive or they make excuses for it, there's no helping that. You can be the smartest person in the world. But if you have a victim mentality, growth is going to be really hard or it's going to be really hard for all the people that are around you cuz it's going to be done. If someone's in victim mode, it's really hard to help them. Entrepreneurs, we're just growthminded and it's how do we figure out how to get through this situation? and how do we figure out how to get through the next step if someone isn't

Speaker 2: able to think like that? It's so limiting in in pretty much all areas of life. And it and it brings you down, too. Especially if you're a bit empathetic. We want to help everyone. We want to fix things. And I learned this the hard way. If they want to change, great. Then I can work with them. But if they don't want to change, I'm not wasting my time.

Speaker 1: So, we've talked a lot about business today. How do you make sure that you're finding and living your joy every day?

Speaker 2: I have an 8-year-old son, and my micro habit is to do something goofy with my son every day. Just goofy. It's the best. And it usually happens right before bed. And right now, we're doing this puppet play in bed. And we film each other doing puppet play hidden under the covers. It's so simple. And that is everything. Those 20 minutes at the end of my day outnumber any trip, anything. It brings joy. And how special is that going to be to have that for the future.

Speaker 1: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Something to look forward to at the end of the day, too. Thank you for joining us today. You've given us uh so much to think about and such good advice. Share with us how and where we

Speaker 2: can find you. My last name is very hard to pronounce, but it's Lindsay Namish and I'm I I share a lot on LinkedIn and on Instagram. Jive PR Digital is the main business and then everything off of that. And so anyone can reach out to Jive and it's really easy to get in touch with me through there.