Takes on Talent: Why AI Makes Mediocre People More Mediocre with Ryan Lee of Trident Advisors

Takes on Talent: Why AI Makes Mediocre People More Mediocre with Ryan Lee of Trident Advisors

Ryan Lee [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanjlee/] is Founder and CEO of https://www.linkedin.com/company/withtrident/Trident Advisors [https://www.linkedin.com/company/withtrident/], where he helps organizations accelerate AI-driven transformation and build intelligent workflow automation into the fabric of how they operate. He has shipped mission-critical systems at Apple Pay, Visa, and ADT, and is one of the few practitioners in the space who has led both the building and the advising sides of enterprise technology at scale. In this episode, Oz and Ryan go wide, covering what the Sears-to-Amazon and Blockbuster-to-Netflix transitions tell us about the companies most at risk right now, why expertise still precedes leverage in an AI-native world, and what it actually means to build with agents. KEY TAKEAWAYS 00:00 Introduction. 02:10 ADT, Visa, Apple Pay: the career arc behind Ryan's framework for AI transformation.  06:05 Sears, Blockbuster, Motorola: why incumbents keep losing to internet-native challengers. 10:45 The internet comparison holds, but the speed of AI adoption changes one critical variable. 13:30 The super-powered individual contributor and the three things that stay AI-resistant.  15:50 Relational work survives because people still want to talk to a person, not a bot. 19:30 Cursor's three phases of AI maturity and what the developer 3X actually means.  22:15 Why becoming an expert first is still the only legitimate path to wielding AI well. 28:00 What agentic frameworks actually look like and why specialization produces better output.  31:10 Aeon Source and the case for building proprietary AI tools from institutional knowledge. 35:40 The CIO problem: why handing AI to technology is the new version of outsourcing hiring to HR.  40:00 The innovator's dilemma, the quarterly death march, and why founders move when others stall.  43:30 Apple's internal cannibalization model and the Navy SEAL team approach to disruption. 44:50 Why startup economics are changing and proofs of concept can now be built in weeks. Click the link in the comments for the episode. Thank you for listening to “Hire Learning with Oz Rashid.” Don’t forget to leave us a review and subscribe so you don’t miss out on future episodes.  Connect with our host, Oz Rashid, on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ozrashid [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ozrashid].    To learn more about MSH, visit https://www.talentmsh.com [https://www.talentmsh.com].   RESOURCES MENTIONED Trident Advisors: https://www.withtrident.com [https://www.withtrident.com] "Platform Revolution" by Geoffrey Parker, Marshall Van Alsteveen, Sangeet Paul Choudary: https://platformrevolution.comhttps://www.amazon.com/Platform-Revolution-Networked-Markets-Transforming/dp/0393249131 [https://www.amazon.com/Platform-Revolution-Networked-Markets-Transforming/dp/0393249131]  "Business at the Speed of Thought" by Bill Gates: https://www.amazon.com/Business-Speed-Thought-Succeeding-Digital/dp/0446525685https://www.amazon.com/Business-Speed-Thought-Succeeding-Digital/dp/0446525685 [https://www.amazon.com/Business-Speed-Thought-Succeeding-Digital/dp/0446525685] "Basic Economics" by Thomas Sowell: https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Thomas-Sowell/dp/0446525685https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Thomas-Sowell/dp/0465060730 [https://www.amazon.com/Basic-Economics-Thomas-Sowell/dp/0446525685] Naval Ravikant's writing:  [https://nav.al] https://nav.al [https://nav.al] #TalentAcquisition #HiringStrategy #EnterpriseHiring #GigEconomy #AIinHR #WorkforceTrends

15M Books, 75 Countries, Now She's Building AI with Anna Belova of OpenWay AI

Anna Belova [https://www.linkedin.com/in/aibelova/], Founder and CEO of OpenWay AI, is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and serial entrepreneur. She built DEVAR into one of the most ambitious consumer augmented reality companies in the world — 15 million books sold across 75 countries in 27 languages, a no-code AR platform used by 250,000 creators and 200 universities in 180 countries, and partnerships with Google, Hasbro, McDonald's, and Nasdaq. Anna shares her philosophy on building corporate culture from the very first hire, and why a strong culture is the most powerful defense against the wrong people. We explore what separates the most successful founders from everyone else in the room, why big-brand enterprise executives rarely thrive in early-stage startups, and what a single question about travel reveals about how a candidate actually thinks. KEY TAKEAWAYS 00:00 Introduction.  03:35 Selling cucumbers at age five and competing for customers — Anna's earliest experience as a builder.  06:28 How OpenWay AI’s AI autonomous agents manage the full customer life cycle from first website visit to closed deal.  11:31 The common traits of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley and what sets them apart from everyone else.  15:55 How the greatest founders don't just solve existing problems — they create problems that never existed before.  19:18 Why corporate culture is a direct reflection of the founder's strengths and blind spots, whether built intentionally or not.  21:39 Why a strong corporate culture is the best defense against bad hires: the wrong people cannot survive in it for long.  22:44 Three phrases banned at Anna's company for every employee, including herself: "I don't know," "It's not my job," and "It's impossible."  26:07 Why founders keep making the enterprise executive hire, and why it seldom works at the early stage.  29:10 The Zootopia problem: when startup speed and corporate pace collide on the same team. 31:21 Receiving the Forbes 30 Under 30 recognition mid-event in Italy — and treating it as a responsibility, not a trophy.  37:11 The travel interview question and why it reveals more about how a candidate thinks than any skills test.  48:15 Using AI as the world's largest library: seamless access to everything, with humans still making the decisions.  Thank you for listening to “Hire Learning with Oz Rashid.” Don’t forget to leave us a review and subscribe so you don’t miss out on future episodes.  Connect with our host, Oz Rashid, on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ozrashid [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ozrashid] To learn more about MSH, visit https://www.talentmsh.com [https://www.talentmsh.com] RESOURCES MENTIONED OpenWay AI:   [https://openway.ai] https://openway.ai [https://openway.ai]  "The Technology Trap" by Carl Benedikt Frey: https://www.amazon.com/Technology-Trap-Capital-Labor-Automation/dp/069117279X [https://www.amazon.com/Technology-Trap-Capital-Labor-Automation/dp/069117279X]  #TalentAcquisition #HiringStrategy #EnterpriseHiring

Corporate Recruiting Is Passion, Not Commission: The Five Ps and What Candidate Experience Actually Costs with Brett Fitelson of Seminole Hard Rock Support Services

Oz Rashid sits down with Brett Fitelson [https://www.linkedin.com/in/brett-fitelson-48490b38/], Technical Talent Acquisition Manager of Seminole Hard Rock Support Services [https://www.linkedin.com/company/shrss/], to explore what separates transactional recruiting from recruiting that genuinely changes lives. Brett came into staffing the way most great recruiters do: sideways. A yellow sticky note, a cold call to Robert Half, and a lot of persistence later, he discovered he was built for this work. Five years inside Seminole, Brett has personally hired over 600 people across 18 departments, 13 states, and four countries. We explore the real difference between agency staffing and corporate recruiting, how Brett’s candidate experience approach turned two SVP finalists into lifelong advocates, and why the Five Ps (proper preparation prevents poor performance) show up in every conversation he runs. KEY TAKEAWAYS 00:00 Introduction. 01:00 How a six-month-old sticky note and a cold call to Robert Half launched a 10-year recruiting career. 11:50  Staffing is money-driven; corporate recruitment is passion-driven, and Brett nearly tripled his base salary by following the latter. 19:00 Building a Boeing 787 while flying it: what it means to recruit inside one of the world’s most recognizable brands. 21:00 600 hires, 18 departments, 13 states, 4 countries: what it means to be the gatekeeper of Hard Rock’s culture. 23:28 A promotion and a new baby at the same time: why Brett’s answer is always get a bigger plate. 28:45 Pickleball, 5 AM courts, and the 80-year-old who handed Brett the best lesson in humility he ever got. 32:00 Culture fit before credentials: why Brett knows within five minutes whether a candidate belongs. 34:35 The Five Ps: why interviewing is like professional dating, and the one question that reveals preparation instantly. 39:15 Two SVP candidates, one blocked calendar, 15,000 steps: what world-class candidate experience actually looks like. 45:15 Proactive vs. reactive follow-up, the day-after email to the hiring manager is non-negotiable. 47:05 Wake up early, make your bed is the advice that Brett would give his 20-year-old self. RESOURCES MENTIONED Seminole Hard Rock Support Services website: https://careers.hardrock.com/ [https://careers.hardrock.com/] “Make Your Bed” — University of Texas at Austin 2014 Commencement Address - Admiral William H. McRaven: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxBQLFLei70 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxBQLFLei70] Thank you for listening to “Hire Learning with Oz Rashid.” Don’t forget to leave us a review and subscribe so you don’t miss out on future episodes.  Connect with our host, Oz Rashid, on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ozrashid [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ozrashid].    To learn more about MSH, visit https://www.talentmsh.com [https://www.talentmsh.com].  #TalentAcquisition #HiringStrategy #EnterpriseHiring

Build a Company That Outlasts You Through Founder-Led Growth with Benny Czarny of OPSWAT

Benny Czarny [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bennyczarny/] is CEO and Founder of OPSWAT [https://www.linkedin.com/company/opswat/], a cybersecurity company he bootstrapped from a San Francisco apartment over 20 years ago. It now employs over a thousand people and protects critical infrastructure across 80+ countries. He is also the author of “Cybersecurity Upside Down” and co-producer of the cybersecurity docuseries "Into the Breach." We dive into Benny’s founder philosophy on patience with product go-to-market, why he views unsolicited resignations as a leadership failure, how he identifies the best candidates by the quality of questions they ask, and why he burns every 30-60-90 day plan he receives. Key Takeaways: 00:00 Introduction. 06:40 How the original idea for a cybersecurity language protocol turned into a bootstrapped product that customers lined up to buy. 11:30 What's changed and what hasn't across 22 years and 1,100 employees. 16:10 How AI is expanding the attack surface, threatening LLM data lakes, and creating new infrastructure vulnerabilities. 21:30 Why Benny wrote "Cybersecurity Upside Down" and how his editor convinced him to rewrite it from scratch. 28:00 The origin of "Into the Breach" and why he partnered with the MythBusters production team to myth-bust the firewall. 32:30 Competing for talent against Google and Palo Alto by offering a mission that outlasts any paycheck. 35:00 The three honorable ways to leave OPSWAT, and why every other exit is a leadership failure. 39:00 Why Benny throws 30-60-90 day plans in the trash and what he asks instead. 43:00 The pattern Benny sees in every strong hire: questions that reveal how prepared the candidate really is. 50:00 Advice for founders: don't pivot from a product before you've exhausted its go-to-market. Resources Mentioned: Benny Czarny [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bennyczarny/] https://www.linkedin.com/in/bennyczarny/ OPSWAT [https://www.linkedin.com/company/opswat/] https://www.linkedin.com/company/opswat/ "Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life" by Arnold Schwarzenegger [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0593655958] https://www.amazon.com/dp/0593655958 "Built to Last" by Jim Collins [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060516402] https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060516402 "Cybersecurity Upside Down" by Benny Czarny [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GH8SZXJ9] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GH8SZXJ9 "Into the Breach" docuseries [https://www.opswat.com/into-the-breach] https://www.opswat.com/into-the-breach Thank you for listening to “Hire Learning with Oz Rashid.” Don’t forget to leave us a review and subscribe so you don’t miss out on future episodes. Connect with our host, Oz Rashid, on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ozrashid. To learn more about MSH, visit https://www.talentmsh.com [https://www.talentmsh.com/]. #TalentAcquisition #HiringStrategy #EnterpriseHiring

What Yvette Martinez-Rea of Yext Learned About Grief, Work, and Showing Up

In this episode, we sit down with Yvette Martinez-Rea [https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvette-martinez-rea-8625b91/?isSelfProfile=false], Chief Operating Officer of Yext [https://www.linkedin.com/company/yext/], a SaaS platform powering digital presence for some of the biggest brands in the world. Yvette brings more than two decades of operating experience across tech, gaming, media, and beauty — including senior leadership roles at Verizon [https://www.linkedin.com/company/verizon/], ESL Gaming North America [https://www.linkedin.com/company/eslfaceitgroupde/], Yahoo [https://www.linkedin.com/company/yahoo/], United Online [https://www.linkedin.com/company/united-online/], and Violet Grey [https://www.linkedin.com/company/violet-grey-inc-/]. Yvette shares the unexpected loss that reshaped how she leads and why she now makes room for the hard stuff at work. We explore her "slow hire, fast fire" philosophy, the one word she always hires for, and why the best candidates are often already inside your organization. Key Takeaways: 00:00 Introduction.  03:00 What a COO actually does: monitoring, managing, optimizing, and connecting the dots across a company.  05:15 The identity shift that happens the day you move from COO to CEO.  07:15 Career advice for anyone navigating a tough job market and an AI-driven future.  10:40 Losing her husband to cancer ten weeks after diagnosis and stepping back from a Fortune 50 role.  12:45 Joining Yext as an individual contributor and being told "no," so work didn't become a drug for grief.  18:00 Auditing her leadership to create space and safety around grief and loss at work.  26:15 Practical ways to show up for someone in loss — at the funeral, three months later, and on the anniversary.  30:20 The one word she hires for and why it quietly unlocks every other quality.  37:10 Why the best next hire is often already inside your company.  40:10 Slow hire, fast fire: the rule she swears by and when desperation breaks it.  43:00 Reframing collective grief through "The Friday Afternoon Club" by Griffin Dunne.  45:30 Advice to her 20-year-old self: You don't have to show up with the answer. Resources Mentioned: Yvette Martinez-Rea [https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvette-martinez-rea-8625b91/?isSelfProfile=false] https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvette-martinez-rea-8625b91/?isSelfProfile=false Yext [https://www.linkedin.com/company/yext/] | LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/yext/ Yext [https://www.yext.com] | Website https://www.yext.com "The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir" by Griffin Dunne [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/717278/the-friday-afternoon-club-by-griffin-dunne/] https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/717278/the-friday-afternoon-club-by-griffin-dunne/ "The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel" on Netflix [https://www.netflix.com/title/82087556] https://www.netflix.com/title/82087556 Thank you for listening to “Hire Learning with Oz Rashid.” Don’t forget to leave us a review and subscribe so you don’t miss out on future episodes.  Connect with our host, Oz Rashid, on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ozrashid [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ozrashid].    To learn more about MSH, visit https://www.talentmsh.com [https://www.talentmsh.com].  #TalentAcquisition #HiringStrategy #EnterpriseHiring