Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. Today’s guest is Andrew Bolton, CEO and co-founder of TechRescue LLC, a 24 by seven tech support and cybersecurity company helping seniors, families and small businesses across the US stay connected and protected. Andrew is a Harvard finance graduate with a background in Wall Street and private equity. He is building a company that puts people before profit, offering real help from real humans in a world overwhelmed by automation and disregard. Andrew, welcome to the show.

Andrew Bolton: Thank you. You know, you make it seem like I’m actually a very nice person. No, I have an Irish Catholic mother with a rolling pin with dents in it, so I have to behave.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh my goodness. I knew this was going to be a great conversation. I’m so excited to have you on. So, Andrew, you just gave us a little bit of insight into who you are, but tell us a little bit more about yourself, and then let’s dive into what Tech Rescue does for other human beings.

Andrew Bolton: Oh, let’s see, we can give it really quick. Uh, I went I went to school. I followed exactly what everybody said to do. I went to school, I went to work, I went to grad school. And then. Then what? Then Covid happened, and then, you know, everything else spiraled out of control. And then one day, just serendipity came. My father asked, how do you forward an email? And I said, dad, for Pete’s sake, and for everybody. I got a little show and tell my father God love him is 78 years old. He went to college at Hofstra back in the late 60s. Now, for anybody who doesn’t know what this is, this is a card system. This. You hear that? That’s paper. That’s paper, that’s cardstock. This is what a computer used to be for all of you people that don’t know what paper is, who’ve never seen paper. This thing used to be stacked in the thousands, fed through a machine, and these little itty bitty holes would then be programed into the machine. And then your calculations will be run based off of the sequence of the cards. Now, God forbid you misplace one card, Mr. Card. Miss, shuffle the card. These stacks were in the hundreds or thousands per equation, depending on what you were using it for. Now you can just ask Google or AI or anything else the same thing and it tells you in milliseconds. Yeah. That’s how fast we’ve come. Mhm.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Yeah. Like lightning speed to get where we were not just 4050 years ago to where we are today. Yeah.

Andrew Bolton: So to give a perspective. If anyone has ever had their cell phone as a teenager, if you’re a teenager you grew up with a cell phone. You understand the ideal concept and what we would call relative speed of technology. Right. At a certain point, we have basically measured that technology advances every year by about five years now. So if we’re starting from the first sets of computers that were used to launch the moon, launch the rocket into space in the 1960s, every compounding year up until about the invention of the internet was on a granule linear basis. Mhm. When we went world, when we went connected we started jumping. And we’re now we’re about every five years in technology companies are outpacing themselves. That’s why we’re going through so much as we’re creating new prototypes of massive rates. Yeah. It’s no wonder seniors don’t have the ability to constantly keep up. We have AI, we have artificial. We have, uh, we have goggles. We have. We have complete systems in our homes that can surround us and make us feel virtually wherever we want to be. Mhm. You’re going to get lost in the shuffle. Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely. So we were talking about this before. Our seniors are actually a little more technical than we think they are. So let’s talk about that.

Andrew Bolton: So right off the bat, um, grandma and grandpa aren’t what we remember as Grandma and Grandpa. It’s not like going to grandma’s on your bike and going down and going down to the lake. And there’s the barbecue and the egg toss. No no no no no no. We’ve come to the age where that demographic, the great generation, um, those who served in the 1940s and 50s in Korea, they’ve slowly started going towards the assisted living facilities and nursing homes and stayed and, you know, end of care life facilities. So what we’ve seen is the shift of demographic that now what would be urban considered uncle and auntie are now grandma and grandpa. The average American female in the United States is statistically around 48 years old. And a grandmother. Wow. 48 years old and a grandmother plus 18. That puts you at.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. What year? 76.

Andrew Bolton: Exactly. Yeah. And guess what. I hate to say it with the fact that we have at home equipment access on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook to health and Jazzercise classes. And we kept keeping together. I know it’s cliche to say, but put 65 is not 65 anymore. 40? You know, 65 is 45 now. Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s crazy. And I can’t do math. So if anybody’s listening to the math that I was doing, don’t make fun of me. It’s okay.

Andrew Bolton: So what we’re seeing is the type of questions that we’re getting are video games. So we’re not really seeing, thanks to a lot of things in the news that, you know, thankfully, you know, children are not getting access, you know, out of school immediately. So a designated person has to pick them up, but usually a parent. So what we’ve seen is the uptick since even last Christmas, where it was almost 20% of the GDP was coming from senior from senior purchasing and technology is that seniors are buying video game consoles, and you can go to your local Walmart. A 65 inch plasma screen TV doesn’t cost no more than about $400 a PS5. You know, not the top end models, but, you know, a lower end model. A PS5 will cost you maybe 5600. So you get a couple of games NBA, uh, NFL, and we’re getting calls on how to connect to their to their player, to their player name. So now they’re connected online and they’re playing baseball together. So instead of I know it’s weird to say instead of actually going outside to play baseball, they’re keeping communication with their kids playing, you know, the rival games, you know, you know, Yankees, Yankees and Boston Red Sox. You know Molly, you know Marlins and White Sox. You know this is how we are connecting which led me to really dive into the numbers, is that at the end of the day? We as a species and we keep forgetting this part. We’re still a species. I know we have social media and we have opposable thumbs and we can send stuff into space, but we’re a species. We all share the same chromosomes and DNA at some molecular level. We’re all connected. We want to connect with each other. Yeah, at the end of the day, that’s all we want to do is just connect with each other.

Trisha Stetzel: So these seniors are calling you about video games. I’m dumbfounded. One that that they’re playing video games.

Andrew Bolton: I.

Trisha Stetzel: Love to I love to hear that they’re playing with their grandkids, though. This is cool. I like this connection right where these grandparents are able to connect with their grandkids.

Andrew Bolton: So Sniper Grandpa is one of the top players on YouTube. He’s been on numerous podcasts in regards to his subject matter, in terms of his service and, you know, his life experience and things like that. But he’s connecting with people around the world, and he’s one of the top shots on the internet. There’s, um, there’s Warhammer granny who, um, there’s a grandmother in the Warhammer community who’s who’s commanding a massive empire.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh, my gosh, that is so funny. So grandparents are getting younger.

Andrew Bolton: Age is just a number.

Trisha Stetzel: And technology is changing so fast. How how are you, Andrew? Keeping up Tech Rescue, LLC? How are you keeping up with assisting with technology when it moves so fast?

Andrew Bolton: Well, luckily they come to us. So we get we get straight from the front lines exactly what’s going on. Which is why our data, when we write articles on LinkedIn, We. We hand out our information. We’re not going to sell that data. Because when I was in grad school trying to find Ebsco host, you know, qualified data and articles was hard to do. And when we publish articles, we provide the data, you know, that can go along with what we see. So that allows maybe a grad student to basically come up with a new question. See, this is the part that where I get upset and I know I’m going to deviate from the subject for just for a quick second. Okay. Education is not about the facts and figures and numbers. It’s the ability that we have to be able to teach the next generation how to ask new questions. Okay. That’s it. All right. That’s education.

Speaker4: Yeah. Okay.

Andrew Bolton: We just have to ask different questions. So with that being said, the new question that we found ourselves is what’s the new senior? The new senior is up there. Mobile. They have they have fiscal spending. The average American consumer has $1,300 in subscriptions. Um, they are traveling more than any other demographic in our in our population, they’re traveling three times more than they ever have. And yes, believe it or not, even with fiscal uncertainty, this generation has been solid enough to be able to extend some of their equity lines of credit, whether it’s been home or portfolios, to help cover the cost of student loan debt. I believe I saw one part of the study said that 11% of almost all student loan debt being paid off is by grandparents.

Speaker4: Wow.

Andrew Bolton: There is this massive amount of opportunity with this demographic because they want to stay active. They want to stay connected. They are making it apparent that they want to and they want and they want to stay. They want to stay young and we want to stay connected.

Trisha Stetzel: Don’t we.

Speaker4: All? Absolutely.

Trisha Stetzel: So I’m I’m just going to throw this out there. My mom was a grandmother at 40. So I get this generational thing right where our grandparents are so much younger. And I think it’s really interesting how much tech comes into play here. And it’s because it’s all around us. It just is. You can’t you can’t walk ten feet without passing some kind of technology. Um, all right. So let’s go to the other side of things, the other end of the spectrum, and talk about youth in America and Tuck. And I know there’s a lot of discussions around faces and phones. So our grandparents are doing it and so are the youth of America. So tell me more about what you’re learning in that space.

Andrew Bolton: Unfortunately, some of the psychological studies are true. What we’re finding is that the data showing us being connected in such a way has taken away from human connectivity. So. I don’t want to be the doom. I don’t want to be that guy. But we have completely monetized human emotions, right? We have AI’s that have been utilized on sites like OnlyFans. And I’m not trying to pick the argument for OnlyFans. There’s a lot of different things out there, but we’re just going to use this as an example in the monetization world. You know, human interaction. And that’s basically what it is, is the marketplace for human interaction with, let’s just say, a theme now in these particular themes, whatever you want to call them, video games or in personal relationships, we’re still paying for it. We’re getting calls about how to send different payments and how to have these different prizes and gifts connected to certain accounts. So. Because we’re raising this post Covid group. Right. And this is where the data is getting really interesting because we’re still pulling it now, this generation from the class of 2020 to 21, when the lockdowns went into effect, the ones who graduated just about the lockdowns, they’re relatively fine. The classes of 2021 up until about 2025, We’re seeing that in terms of the spending wise, this group, in their most critical adolescent development years, have an interactive personally with each other. For example, in class, a 16 year old boy sits across from a 16 year old girl, hormones pumping throughout the entire classroom.

Andrew Bolton: That’s an experience that you get used to when you’re working in an office setting or you’re out in the real world, you’re surrounded by the same type of environment hormones. And now most people are not at that age. They’re even hotter. They’re even higher in terms of that scale. So for the first aspect, we’ve taken away that. Arena where we can practice interpersonal communication and interpersonal connections with each other in a real world setting. That’s the classroom. The second aspect, and I know it’s a funny way to talk about it, but you don’t learn the subtle hints of flirting on a camera. You don’t have that foot tapping your other foot, or that pencil rolling off to the side so you can come down and pick her up, and then you see the there’s none of that. So what we’re seeing is there’s this uptick in usage in all these other channels of communication outside of real life. Why? Because we we consequently built a funnel. We constantly, constantly built the funnel for it. We put kids in a classroom expecting that they were going to actually do schoolwork, and they were on their computers for, what, almost a year and a half, two years. Then we gave them another year and a half to come back to school if they wanted to, because then we were touch and go about it. So they spent 4 to 5 years doing what? Yeah. Okay.

Speaker4: Yeah. Uh huh. Huh?

Trisha Stetzel: Distracted by their phones?

Speaker4: Yeah.

Andrew Bolton: This is going to be a problem. Because sadly enough, in our line of work, in our business, we can’t hire. We get a lot of these applications to work in the call center. We can’t use any of them.

Speaker4: Mhm.

Andrew Bolton: The reason being is our call center is a hotline. We call it a hot. We call it a hot call. A hot call is anything frustrated tired cranky. You know all the wonderful things that you feel like because you can’t get the stupid thing to work. And I’ve tried a million times. Yes, dear. I’ve unplugged it. Re plugged it, turned it on, turn it off. It just won’t do it. We get those calls. That’s what we do all day long. It’s not. And I can’t blame them. It’s not their fault. We didn’t train them. We did not prepare them for life. Like. Excuse me. I’ve been waiting in line for 20 minutes. Um, how long does it take to pour a cup of coffee? We haven’t prepared them for that. And I get the resumes. I get the interviews. We have a problem. We have a problem. We’ve got about 37 million kids with no real skills. So one of the things that I think that this generation and we’ve been tossing around different ideas and trying to get groups together, is have the connection of these people, this generation that have lived through world two world wars, Korea and Vietnam. How do we get we have technology. We can talk to anybody on the other side of the planet. I can pick up my phone and call any one of the people that I know in Botswana right now, and they’ll pick up the phone. Couldn’t do that 20 years ago.

Speaker4: Nope.

Andrew Bolton: And and here, I’ll tie it in because I know you want to get to it. Ai. The genie is out of the bottle. Ai is out of the bottle. I’m sorry. It’s not going anywhere. We use it because when we’re taking a look at hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of calls and data, I can’t look at it fast enough, but AI can.

Speaker4: Yeah.

Andrew Bolton: Same with. Same with when we had the internet. The genie’s out of the bottle. So how do we make it work? And this is where I tied into the education. We have an entire country structured on an educational system that was rudimentary and hasn’t changed in almost 50 years. We now have the most powerful tool to have ever come into existence. Artificial intelligence. When I say the way that we need to do education now is AI can read everything that has been ever printed in human history in less than a minute. We have the answers. All of them. We have all the answers. What’s missing? The new questions. If we have all the answers that have ever been given in the history of the world, what? What do we not know? What we don’t know. We’re not. We now have common sense. This is. This is important. We are now in the dawn of the informational breakthrough age. Ai will break through quantum computing. Ai will break through diseases once we figure out how to ask the new questions. Think of it this way. Think of cancer.

Andrew Bolton: Think of every John Hopkins research paper ever done, every study ever done, every surgery ever done, every case, every looked at, every thing that has been ever done at John Hopkins read in 30s with a new question and boom! We now have the understanding of how maybe a cell turns malignant and now turns cancerous because we asked a new question, because there it is, across 500 different radial scans. We can now see it because we ask the new question. We are in the beginnings of the dawning of the new age, where we have all the answers. We’re at the end of the line. We’re at the end of the consensual mind of what do we know, right? Even Neil deGrasse Tyson said, we know what we know, right? We know what we know. We now have the most powerful tools since the nuclear bomb, the splitting of the atom, the splitting of the atom was in the 40s. This is the new one. This is how we change everything by not by doing the same thing, by asking a new question. That’s it.

Speaker4: That’s it. That’s it. We just saw the world’s problems today. Andrew. Yeah.

Andrew Bolton: And if you if you ask the right question, you might be able to.

Speaker4: Yeah. I love that I think that’s fantastic.

Andrew Bolton: So because we have everything we have created the tool to read everything that has ever been written. We have music being put on YouTube. Artists who don’t, who don’t even exist. Why? Because they have an AI who can sing. An AI who can make a beat. An AI who can make lyrics, an AI who can make drums and guitar and piano. We have it all. We are in the dawning of everything. We have AI creating painters and pictures and stories and content we have. But guess what? It still needs a human to guide it. It still needs a human to control it still needs a human to ask. That’s it. We are now with the most powerful tool that has ever been in existence since fire. Really, really and truly since fire with fire. We created communities. We gathered around the fire with fire. We were able to cook food with fire. We were able to explore because we were no longer afraid of the night. Fire was hot. Fire hurt. Fire burned. We controlled fire. Here we are. This is it. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the dawning of everything. Of everything to come. This is it. This. This next. Within this decade, 2020 to 2030. This is the cradle in which all of the next 100 years is probably going to be determined in every way, shape and form. Because with this tool, remember Oppenheimer, the movie? The moment that they solved that equation, they knew exactly what was going to happen.

Speaker4: Yeah.

Andrew Bolton: And the worst part about it is it’s inevitable because we can’t help ourselves.

Speaker4: Mhm.

Andrew Bolton: Which is why, as scary as that is to believe, which is why we exist as tech rescue. Because at the end of the day, as curious as we are to create these things, we still want to connect to one another. We still want to talk to one another. Really, at the end of the day, if we look at all the things that people call us about emails, printers, faxes, uh, Bluetooth, TV, everything, what is it really all coming down to? We play video games so that we can connect to a story so we can be part of it and be part of a community. We watch football because we feel connected to that community and that team because it represents something to us. We are a community, people. We are that and the moment. And this is why I laugh. And I cry a little bit too, when I see the news. It’s like we keep forgetting that as much as we want to admit it, when we don’t do, we’re not a solo people. We’re not solo species. We’re not sharks, sorry. We’re mammals we like. We like one another.

Speaker4: Like we do. We like it.

Andrew Bolton: Believe it or not.

Speaker4: Well.

Trisha Stetzel: And we and we thrive that way. And we crave to be around a community and have other people in our lives. And I know there are some people sitting listening to this today or even watching and saying, I don’t like human beings. Well, you know what? There’s a human craving to be around other people. And that’s just the bottom line. You can’t get past that.

Andrew Bolton: So I would say to somebody that does not like any person anywhere, any place, I would argue, who are the people that are hanging on the wall? And I would then ask, do you have everything delivered or do you still go to that one place? Because I guarantee you, it’s probably not because of the pie.

Speaker4: Nope.

Trisha Stetzel: It’s the people.

Andrew Bolton: It’s the people.

Speaker4: It’s the people.

Trisha Stetzel: Andrew. Oh my gosh, this has been such a such an invigorating conversation. I love everything that we’ve touched on today. There’s so much more that we could talk about. However, we’re at the end of our time. So can you give our audience the best way to connect with you?

Speaker4: Of course.

Trisha Stetzel: The best way to get in touch with Tech Rescue if they need help from your business.

Speaker4: Of course.

Andrew Bolton: You can call us at (855) 250-8586. 24 hours a day. Seven days a week, including the Super Bowl. Yep. I know, I’m a Jets fan. Leave me alone. We’re open. I’m hopeful. I’m hopeful. All right.

Speaker4: Leave me.

Andrew Bolton: It’s been it’s been a it’s been it’s been a long run. It’s been a long it’s been long. Or you can go visit us at. Io Oh, and I’ll leave it with. And I’ll leave with this. Technology is a beautiful, beautiful thing. We have been able to completely change the world. First, second and now going on third. Generational families who have come from wherever they have come from are able to talk to loved ones from around the world because we grew up in a time where to call grandma was like $0.90 a minute, or internationally it was like $1.20 something.

Speaker4: Mhm.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. And our generation started moving away from home. Right. And now you hardly see people sticking around in their hometowns. They’re all migrating. We talk to see you’re going to have to come back on the show because there’s this whole conversation that we had before we started the show about.

Speaker4: Oh, I, uh, I.

Andrew Bolton: Gave I gave her some inside baseball that hopefully will get me on the show. I have to I have to keep it selling. See, ABC always be selling?

Trisha Stetzel: I love it, Andrew. Thank you so much for being with me today.

Speaker4: Thanks for having me.

Trisha Stetzel: Ceo and Co-Founder of Tech Rescue LLC. This has been so much fun. Can’t wait to have you back so that we can have yet another very interesting conversation.

Speaker4: Thank you.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation, share it with a fellow entrepreneur, veteran, or Houston business leader ready to grow or your favorite senior. And be sure to follow, rate and review the show. It helps reach much more bold business minds just like yours. Your business, your leadership, and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. You know, I love a guest who brings equal parts strategy and heart. And today’s guest does exactly that. I’m so excited to welcome Lindsey Dowd, a leadership strategist, founder of heartbeat for hire, award winning podcast host and unapologetic storyteller. With nearly 30 years in sales and leadership. Lindsey has built powerhouse teams, transformed cultures, and helped executives show up with confidence, clarity and, yes, a little swagger. She advises C-suite coaches, high level leaders, and delivers keynotes and workshops that challenge the status quo and actually get results. I’m almost done, Lyndsay. I’m loving this. Her podcast, heartbeat for hire, is ranked in the top 5% globally and recently won Best Business Podcast at the Women in Podcasting Awards. Lyndsay’s work blends candor, charisma, and strategy, and I can’t wait for you to hear how she’s helping others build irresistible cultures that people truly want to be a part of. Lyndsay, welcome to the show.

Lyndsay Dowd: What an intro. Thank you Trisha. I’m so happy to be here. We’ve been working on this for a little bit. So this is.

Trisha Stetzel: Yes, exactly. Well, and I, I love bringing bios forward because we don’t always take it in ourselves. And it’s not something we would say about ourselves, but it makes it feel pretty good, or us feel pretty good when someone else is saying it. And you’re amazing. I’m so glad to have you on the show, Lyndsay. First, let’s start with who is Lyndsay? Tell us a little more about you, and then let’s jump into the work that you’re doing with your clients.

Lyndsay Dowd: I would love to. Thank you. Um, so, yeah, I spent a whole lot of time in corporate America. About 25 years. And, uh, 23 of those was spent, uh, climbing the ranks at IBM. And my family put in 105 years of Big blue. So I literally grew up in that culture. My dad used to sell typewriters. I went to the office in Manhattan and would sit in the chairs and play on the typewriters and the highlighters, and I literally grew up in that culture, and I thought that that’s what business looked like. And at that time it was really diverse. It was, uh, very family oriented. And there was these things called branches. And so if you were part of a branch, you knew everybody’s kids. You got to rent out an amusement park for the day. You got to really hang out. So I thought this was business. I thought this was cool, um, and found myself there through an acquisition. I came in through Lotus, which, if you ask any Lotus person, they’ll tell you they acquired IBM, but I started in customer service and worked my way up to executive ranks and used to lead big sales teams for them and got to do a lot of first of a kind roles. It was a really cool, really decorated career, and I learned some great lessons along the way. And at the end of 23 years, I was ready for a change and another company sought me out and said, would you come lead a sales team for us? And I said, sure. And so I packed up my big blue legacy. Off I went.

Lyndsay Dowd: And any reasonable executive knows, it takes about six months for a new executive to find the bathroom. Um, that’s not how it went for me. And they fired me at six months and I was gutted, devastated. I thought no one would ever work with me again. I was sure I was the only executive to ever be fired on Earth. Um, and I really couldn’t even talk about it for the first couple of weeks. Um, and after a month of licking my wounds, I asked myself three questions. What am I really good at? What do I love to do and how can I help people the most? And I knew how to build modern leaders, and I knew how to create irresistible culture that drives results. And so I bet on myself. And I started my company, heartbeat for hire, which, by the way, my parents were not entrepreneurs. As you know, my dad was legacy IBM. My mother was a schoolteacher. So like entrepreneurship was very foreign, very scary, not secure. So didn’t really have a lot of support from them. Um, but I did it anyway. And so I started coaching C-suite and individual leaders. I wrote a couple of books, I started my podcast, and, um, today I’m keynote, I’m doing a little coaching. I just finished a stint as a CRO for a startup. And, um, I’m doing some executive workshops, some LinkedIn workshops. And how do you tell your story? So right now I’m doing a bunch of different things. Um, and I love it. And it’s terrifying and wonderful and exhilarating and fascinating all at the same time.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that, Lyndsay. And that is exactly how we got connected, because we have IBM in yes, connections. And yes, I’m so excited that we found each other. And, um, I would like to know a little bit more about the clients that you’re working with. So would you mind sharing like who those people are or just describe to us who it is that you’re working with?

Lyndsay Dowd: Yeah, I work with kind of a myriad of different folks. And, you know, when you start out, you have this idea of this is exactly who I’m going to be working with, and it doesn’t always happen that way. So you get these calls from people that have engaged with your posts and they’re like, okay, so I was.

Speaker4: A CFO.

Lyndsay Dowd: And now I’m a CEO and I don’t think my people like me. Can you help? And I’m like, oh yeah, I can help. Oh yeah. So we were gonna hone your voice. And so we use tools like LinkedIn, and we use all hands calls and things that are already happening in their business to really help her stand out. Um, that that was actually a really wonderful story. That leader was, um, to go from a CFO to a CEO is a really hard leap, because you’re really close to the numbers and you’re probably not the strongest people leader. Um, and she kind of was missing a little bit of that. So I just reminded her of her humanity. And, um, I would she was very, you know, buttoned up and very still and stoic. And I said, okay, okay, let’s talk like we’re having cocktails and we’re girlfriends meeting out. Tell me about your business that way. And she was still, like, really monotone. And I’m like, that is not how you talk when you’re having cocktails. And so I really kind of had to pull it out of her. Um, but I get to do that. I get to do a lot of, um, leaders who have never had to pay attention to their brand.

Lyndsay Dowd: Uh, they might find themselves out of a job. They might find themselves on the verge of losing a job or totally burnt out, and they know they need to step up. They know they need to build a network, and they’re kind of going, oh my God, I don’t know how to start. Um, and then I get to work with teams so very often, you know, you’ll have a really talented team, but they’re not working great together. Um, and so when you can kind of show them each other’s humanity, give them a reason to be interested in each other, you create those connections that make them more invested and more interested in learning, and you give them some what I think are really simple tools, but no one’s ever taught them, um, on just how to be a better leader, how to be more human, more authentic, more vulnerable, and, um, change the culture of their place. So that’s kind of who I work with. And I get some weird ones every once in a while that have nothing to do with any of those things. But yeah, that’s pretty happens.

Trisha Stetzel: They’re attracted to your energy, right? What you’re bringing to the table. So, uh, do The words imposter syndrome resonate with you at all, or even with the clients that you work with?

Lyndsay Dowd: Of course. I mean, I think they resonate with everyone no matter what you’re doing. And whether I was at IBM doing a first of a kind role, when you’re new to something, you don’t know everything. And newsflash, nobody does. So you kind of just have to learn to get uncomfortable, get comfortable being uncomfortable and that kind of status. I mean, coming up in tech, being the only woman in tech for about a decade, not the only woman in the company, but the only woman on the teams that I was on. Um, you are so accustomed to change. You’re so accustomed to things moving quickly. And just when you start to get something, they throw you a new acquisition, or they throw you a new team and you’re like, damn it, I was getting so good at that. Now I got to learn new stuff, but you just kind of get used to that pace and when you’re always used to that pace, you don’t know any different. So the difference when you’re on your own, it all falls on you. So that’s kind of like, oh, who’s gonna work with me? I’m not like, I’m not with Big Blue anymore. I’m, you know, I’m just a little heartbeat for hire. But somebody finds my story inspiring. Somebody looks at what I’ve done and they’re like, damn it, I can learn from her. This is. This is good. Um, so, yeah, I would just say, if anybody is starting something new, find the people that are doing it really well and go ask them, what did you do wrong? What should I avoid, and what are some tips for success? Um, because when you surround yourself with people who make you better, you’re just going to get better.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely. I know you’re not alone. We’re all through it, and we continue to go through it as things shift and change. So, Lindsey, you talked about being the only one growing up in tech and being in the business that that, uh, that you were in. How has that played into this role that you are in now as an entrepreneur?

Lyndsay Dowd: Well, I said I was the only woman, and so that let me make that distinction. So first let me just say, back in the day when I was the only girl on the team, um, inspiring leadership meant, let’s talk about the play on the 30 yard line of the game that I did not watch, and I wasn’t inspired by that. I couldn’t relate to that. I didn’t care about that. And I felt excluded more than anything. And it was a it was an uninspired way to do my job. And I was always hungry for that connection, that someone who could see me and who could, you know, get me. And I’m, I’m I’m weird. I always called my my teams mavericks and hustlers because I wanted us to think differently. I knew I didn’t have all the answers. I knew there was other people that had done things that I had never tried and I always wanted to learn from them. So taking that spirit and then I, I was lucky enough to work for some great, great leaders, many of whom were women. And I had one woman who, um, her name was Adriana, and she promoted me twice, and she asked me the first time. She said, so how do you want to run the business? And I’m looking over my shoulder going, you want you want to know you. You’re asking me? And she was like, well, yeah, you’ve been in the trenches. You know what’s going on. So tell me, and I, I felt autonomy, you know, for really the first time in a leadership role that way. Um, I had another leader who, um, I was managing a huge account.

Lyndsay Dowd: Uh, it was Ernst and Young. I had $150 million quota. It was enormous. Lot of responsibility. There was 55 reps on my team. And I’m telling my new boss, this is my plan. This is what I want to do. This is how I’m going to approach it. And I’m about like 15 minutes into my presentation and she stops me and she goes, girl, I’ve got your back now fly. Oh, those words they took the the I mean, they made me gasp. I was like oh my gosh. Goosebumps. Then goosebumps still when I tell that story. But I took that energy and I turned around to my team and was like, you guys, we have an opportunity to do things differently. We’ve got a leader who trusts us. What do we want to do with this? And those two examples are such powerful examples of what good leadership looks and feels like. And so much of what I do is taking from those experiences, grabbing other experiences that I find, whether it’s on LinkedIn or on my show. I I’m always trying to teach through story. That’s how I keynote. That’s how I do my show, my podcast show. It’s what I’m doing here. Um, but yeah, story is king. And when I get to work with clients. I always remind them story over stats every day of the week. Um, nobody’s going to walk out remembering 83% of something, but they are going to remember, you know, how do you want to run the business or they are going to remember, you know, I got your back now fly.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that I got goosebumps too, by the way. So thank you for sharing that energy with me is coming through the screen. How exciting. Uh, I know it’s hard to believe we’re halfway through our conversation already, so if folks are ready and want to have a conversation with you or want to connect with you, what is the best method?

Lyndsay Dowd: Well, you can find all of my socials and my stuff at heartbeat for hire. Com um, please connect with me on LinkedIn or on Insta. That’s where I’m the most active I am on TikTok. I am on Facebook, albeit not that active, but I am there. Um, and of course YouTube. My my show is. You can also find the podcast through there, but my show is on YouTube and wherever you find your favorite podcasts. So, um, lots and lots of good stories about what good leadership should be.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that, thank you. Lyndsay. And her first name is spelled l y n d s a y. Last name d o w d. As always, I’ll put all of the links in the show notes. So if you’re sitting in front of your computer watching or listening, you can just point and click. Lyndsay, I heard you say a few minutes ago that it’s important to surround yourself with the right people. What does that mean?

Lyndsay Dowd: Oh, well, I mean, back to the I don’t know, everything. Um, I still believe that no matter how good you get, no matter how many awards you earn, no matter how many books you write, there’s still more to learn. And the day you stop learning is the day you’re in the dirt. So you know, to me, I always want to be around people that make me better. Either they inspire me. They teach me something. They, um, help me level up. They expose me to people I’ve never seen or met before. Um, and I think when you live with that kind of curiosity and you live with that hunger to be inspired and hunger to make your life better. Um, it just never stops. And so I, I collect people, some people collect spoons, I collect people, and, you know, I’m always adding people. I’m the person that sits at the bar. And we’ll talk to you in an airport and learn all these things about you. And before you know it, you’re either coming on my show or you’re I’m dragging you over to a community I’m in or something like that. Um, but I find people so fascinating and interesting and there’s always something to be learned.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm. Or you’re introducing them to your network or. Right. I mean just.

Lyndsay Dowd: 100%.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I tell everyone if you’re not hanging around with people who are bigger, better, faster, stronger, smarter than you, you’re in the wrong room. And oh.

Lyndsay Dowd: Yeah, I never wanted to be the smartest person in the room. And that is a scary thing for a lot of leaders to say. Um, it’s funny, my my brother and I, we share really similar leadership philosophy, and he’s a VP of sales, and we laugh that we both say this and we walked into a room of of, you know, teams we were managing were like, I’m not the smartest one here. So, you know, let’s, let’s talk, let’s, let’s marinate on some ideas. And we had a good chuckle that we both did that. I thought that was pretty funny because, you know, we didn’t go to the same schools. We didn’t go to the same companies, but we shared that same same spirit.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. So there’s something you call power skills. And I think this plays right into the conversation that we’re having today around the things that we need to be thinking about, the people we should be hanging around with and what is. Let’s talk more about power skills. What does it mean? Yeah.

Lyndsay Dowd: So power skills are what I call soft skills. And the reason I don’t call them soft skills is they’re far too important to be called anything soft. So, you know, back when that was coined, um, they were associated with women and they were EQ and being sensitive and being a, you know, a thoughtful, nurturing leader. Well, yes, there are those things, but there’s a lot of power skills. So like one of my favorites is delegation and delegation. I wouldn’t associate that necessarily with with women. But when you use delegation properly and the way that you do that is you say, oh, Trisha, you’re interested in analytics. I have an analytics project I want you to run point on it, but I’ve got your back. If you fall down, that’s on me. But I want to give you a chance to shine. So let me help you. But I want you to lead this. Does that sound good to you? And you’re like, oh, wow, so exciting. I get to do something I’ve been dying to do. So yes, you’re getting things off your plate, but you are giving people a chance to shine. Which leads me to another power skill, which is lifting others up. Celebrating people. And the best leaders understand that they don’t need to keep all the accolades to themselves.

Lyndsay Dowd: Their team is a reflection of them. So when they’re constantly saying, oh, Trisha, will you please tell the story of how you won that deal? It was such a unique story. I think we could all really learn from you. Could you share that? Okay. I’m giving you the spotlight. You’re getting to tell a story. You’re hearing that I respect you, and everybody’s paying attention, so that looks good on you. It looks good on me and the the leaders that are constantly celebrating, constantly lifting others up. They’re the ones everyone wants to work for. And oh, by the way, the team is watching. So they’re seeing, hey, I want I want my name in lights. I want to be celebrated like Trisha. How can I do that? And they raise their hands more. They’re engaged more. They’re connecting with her with you. You know, this is this is a really great way to lead. And then, of course, there’s communication, um, which that’s, you know, table stakes. But, you know, no one’s a mind reader. And. Oh, by the way, if you think that your one time annual review is an appropriate way to lead, I’m telling you, it’s not. So stop that. You’re checking in with your people way more than that.

Trisha Stetzel: So yeah, I fantastic. And I love the idea of power skills versus soft skills, because that word really doesn’t have any intention behind it. Soft. That’s it.

Lyndsay Dowd: These are differentiators. Yeah. This is like, what makes a good leader a great leader. And having that humility, having that authenticity and admitting if you screw up. You know, I just had a girlfriend. Really great friend of mine. She’s a leader for a company called Cooler Heads. Um, they make caps for people going through chemo so they don’t lose their hair. And she actually did a post about this. She said, you know, I showed up on a team call. She’s in the process of moving. Her life is pretty chaotic. And she said she wasn’t her best self and she did not show up the way that she wanted. And she spoke very curtly to, uh, someone on the team. And the first thing she did was call and apologized. And then she addressed the whole team and said, I wasn’t at my best. I can do better than that. I’m really sorry you all saw it, but I hope you won’t see that again. Well, do you think all those people are now going, Courtney, what a lousy leader. No, they’re like, wow, that was really nice. And that was really scary for her to admit. And I make mistakes, too. And I’m going to give her more grace. And that’s really how it works. Um, so it’s a good lesson.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely. And, uh, I wrote an article recently about that, specifically how, you know, if you’re a leader and you trip and you fall.

Lyndsay Dowd: We all.

Trisha Stetzel: Do. How do you come back from that? And it really is about standing up and saying, you know what, I made a mistake. And here’s what we’re going to do about it, right?

Lyndsay Dowd: Oh, I did it today. My my daughter knocked over a very precious glass from my grandmother, and it shattered in a million pieces. And it’s priceless. I can’t can’t be replaced. And it’s it was a heartache. And she was she she felt really badly. But she was yelling at me to get out of the room so she could clean it up, and I was. I responded with, you can’t yell at me if you’re sorry. Like you don’t yell at me like you broke something important to me. And we cooled down and I said to her later, I said, I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I’m sorry, but you need to work on what you’re really sorry. You can’t yell at the person if you’re really sorry. That doesn’t really work very well. And she’s like, mom, I just felt really badly. And you know, it was great. We calmed down, we addressed it and cleared the air. But I had to say I did it wrong. You know, that happens.

Trisha Stetzel: And as leaders, we should be acting the same whether someone’s looking or not. Meaning it happens in your personal life. And that’s exactly what you showed your daughter. So as a mom to a beautiful young lady, and I also heard you say that you had women who supported you as you were coming up in corporate. And it sounds like you continue to support women. How important is it for us to. I’ll call it circle the wagons, because while I’m in Texas and I would just say that, but how important is it as women to circle the wagons and raise up young women and those who are coming up and support them?

Lyndsay Dowd: So, so important to me, giving back, paying it forward. Call it what you want. I mentor a lot of young women, a lot of young women sellers who are trying to find their place. They’re trying to move around the world with executive presence. They’re not entirely sure what that looks like because maybe they haven’t had great leaders before. So I’m kind of a safe space because I’m kind of no BS. And you can come ask me anything, and I’m not going to tell you. You’re dumb. Um, so it’s really important to give back because I’m raising future leaders, and I have twins. I have boy girl twins. Um, so my son and my daughter both have to learn from these moments. They have to learn to be the best people. Um, because if we don’t fix that, and we had this whole, like, gentle parenting movement where we’re telling, no.

Speaker5: No, no, I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable.

Lyndsay Dowd: No, no, no, I want you to feel uncomfortable. I want you to, you know, go through it. Problem solve. It’s okay. No one ever died from being uncomfortable. You’re going to be all right. Um, it’s it’s a really important skill set that I think this generation of kids that’s coming up right now, they don’t really have good tools to, um, to manage themselves. And that’s a big problem. So we got to fix it.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. I agree, uh, we’ve we’ve we have a son who’s going to be 34 this year. So at the top end of that generation that we’re raising, and sometimes they look around and go, did we do this to. Did did we do this? We were military parents. So we definitely didn’t do that. Um, but I see it right. And it’s it’s really hard to get past sometimes. It is. Um. All right. So as we get to the back end of our conversation today, I know this time went by so fast. So fast. What? Um, you know who my listeners are? Small to medium sized business owners. People who are entrepreneurs. They’re also leaders. They have teams, small teams, large teams. What would you want them to leave with today? Lyndsay.

Lyndsay Dowd: Well, first I would just say everybody can be a leader. Whether you manage people from an HR perspective or not. Anybody can lead and anybody can lift each other up. And you make that choice to do that. But I promise you, if you start celebrating people. And this could be passing someone on the sidewalk. You have a beautiful smile or gosh, you look great today or you know. I love how you talk to your son or whatever it is. If you start living in that space and you do it with your employees, you will change the culture around you. And those words might feel small, but they are extremely powerful. So please, if you get nothing else out of this lovely conversation, just go. Lead with heart. Go. Be kind. Go lift other people up. That always looks good on you.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that I saw a commercial the other day that said, just smile at someone. It can change things in an instant for both you and the person.

Lyndsay Dowd: Hundred percent.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. So, Lindsey, one more time. Tell us how people can connect with you. Because I am better. I’m a better. I’m betting that there are several people who want to connect with you. I hope.

Lyndsay Dowd: So. Um, yeah. Just come check my website at heartbeat for hire. It’s much easier than trying to spell my name. Um, so you can connect with me through there or find me on LinkedIn. I’m connected to Trisha, so that’s easy to find. Um, but yeah, I would love to be connected. Say, you heard it here, and, uh, I’ll know where you came from.

Trisha Stetzel: Love that. Thank you. Lyndsay. And by the way, Lyndsay’s a LinkedIn guru that I plan to learn from. I’m really excited about watching, uh, as you as you’re taking your journey, I’m going to follow behind you because I love what you’re putting out there.

Speaker6: It’s a really.

Lyndsay Dowd: Great tool that will set you apart. And if you’re a leader, even with a small company, that is still such a great way to represent yourself. And even if you think your business is just local, there is massive opportunity for you on LinkedIn. And I’m not paid by LinkedIn.

Trisha Stetzel: And not just.

Speaker7: Opportunities to sell something.

Speaker6: That’s right, beautiful.

Trisha Stetzel: Networking opportunities, which is how I found Lyndsay.

Speaker6: That’s right in the first.

Trisha Stetzel: Place, right? We had something in common and it’s a great way to get out there and network, especially if you’re sitting in your four walls for most of your day. Lyndsay, thank you so much for being on with me today. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed our conversation.

Lyndsay Dowd: Sam, thanks for having me. This was a blast.

Trisha Stetzel: That was very much fun today. Lots of energy. That’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation, share it with a fellow entrepreneur, a veteran, or a Houston leader. Ready to grow. Be sure to follow, rate and listen. It helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours. Your business, your leadership, and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.