(00:05-00:34) Intro
Hi, everybody. Thanks for tuning in to the Coaching Call podcast. On this podcast, we'll cover various types of coaching by trainers in sports, martial arts, fitness, and business. We'll discuss each coach's methods to getting the most out of their respective athletes or clients and how they attempt to change the platform in which they coach. Join us on a fun adventure as we discuss unique coaching styles. Coaching is a universal part of how we get others to get something done.

(00:34-01:02) Sifu Rafael
Join your host, Rafael, and his guests on this unique journey in coaching. Hi, I'm Sifu Rafael, and this is the Coaching Call podcast. If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe and leave a review. This episode was made possible by listeners like you. Daria, thank you so much for joining me on Coaching Call. How are you? I'm very well. Thanks. Thanks for having me here, Sifu.

(01:02-01:21) Sifu Rafael
Absolutely. Absolutely. And you're coming all the way from Israel. I love it. Well, now we can connect from anywhere in the world. That's brilliant. I love that. Yes, it is a great thing. So one of the things that I love doing is getting to know my guests. And one of the best ways, I think, is if we go from your childhood, right?

(01:21-01:51) Daria Rudnik
Where were you born and who would you say influenced you before even the age of 10 or around that time? Oh, that's a great question. I was born in the middle of Russia in a small town. And like every Russian girl, I loved ballet and I loved watching ballet. I wasn't very like small girl in that age. But anyway, I was jumping around my apartment pretending to be a ballerina. Nice, nice.

(01:51-02:21) Daria Rudnik
And did you ever study ballet? Did you ever go to classes, anything like that? No, no, no, no. Didn't happen, huh? I was more into kind of music. I was playing the piano, but like dancing and sports was never my thing at that time. It's kind of a nice thing to pretend that I am a ballerina rather than be a ballerina. So who would you say was your biggest influence growing up?

(02:21-02:27) Sifu Rafael
And it doesn't necessarily have to be a parent. It could be a friend, a teacher, a coach.

(02:28-02:54) Daria Rudnik
I think it's a combination, obviously parents, obviously friends. But I do remember some teachers that kind of had faith in me and things they were saying, hey, I didn't expect that from you. And I was going, okay, they expected something from me. They expected something good from me. And it was really encouraging because they meant it to be encouraging. So things like that.

(02:54-03:22) Daria Rudnik
I never noticed them back then, but now kind of looking back, it feels good. There you go. How was school for you growing up? Again, as I mentioned, I wasn't much into sports. I mostly did reading and learning. Some things I liked, some things I just did because I had to and I wanted to be a good student.

(03:24-03:42) Daria Rudnik
It wasn't an easy time. School was never an easy time. But it was focused on mostly learning. Although I think I should spend more time going out there having fun with friends.

(03:43-04:12) Daria Rudnik
When you said you were not into sports, what do you mean? You didn't like the sports or nothing really attracted you? I didn't like sports. I didn't like sports classes at school. I had an injury in school. And after that, I got my top grades because I got this injury during those classes. So my teacher was so much afraid of kind of giving me bad marks. So he was giving me top marks while I was not doing anything at all.

(04:12-04:29) Sifu Rafael
So I didn't like that. As a kid, what kind of hobbies did you enjoy? Did you even have a hobby or was there something that you did that you really enjoyed? I did like reading.

(04:30-04:47) Daria Rudnik
I can remember me being in the room alone while my whole family was watching TV and my younger sister was watching TV and I was reading Three Musketeers or something of the kind, like any adventure stories. I really loved them.

(04:47-05:08) Daria Rudnik
So to take you away, right? Instead of a movie, you actually got deeper. Yeah, I prefer books. I think maybe because we didn't have very good movies. They were nice, but not that kind of adventure movies that could take you away, like you said. So are you still an avid reader now?

(05:09-05:17) Daria Rudnik
No, I don't read now. I mean, I rarely read fiction because I have this feeling that I've read all the books.

(05:18-05:47) Daria Rudnik
I know that's not true, but I'm so scared to take a new fiction book. Kind of think, okay, would it be a good book or will I be disappointed? I hate being disappointed by books. So I rarely like, if it's something that I really feel like worth spending time and reading, then I do that. But now I don't read much fiction. I think my last book was Harry Potter. No, I mean, not the last one, but the last big one, the last, yeah.

(05:47-06:14) Sifu Rafael
But you did enjoy that. Oh, I did. That was a lot of adventure, right? That was a lot of adventure. A lot of adventure. When you think about your life when you were a child, what's one thing that stands out for you? There are a lot of things. Pick one.

(06:16-06:44) Daria Rudnik
The major one. The major one. Yeah, I mean, the way we, it wasn't, I mean, it wasn't easy at that time. Like it was really not easy at that time. And kind of remembering those times when my parents struggled, we struggled. It was hard on everything, on clothes, on food. I mean, it was really bad time then.

(06:45-07:11) Daria Rudnik
for many people in Russia. I kind of remember that and that gave me motivation to go forward and do whatever it takes to reach my goals, to live a different life. And like at my twenties, I have this feeling. I remember that kind of from my childhood kind of pushing me forward, going further.

(07:12-07:41) Daria Rudnik
setting really ambitious goals. That was really helpful. I don't know if I would be able to do that and achieve that without that experience in my past. Maybe yes, maybe not. I don't know. But yeah, that was something that influenced my decisions. So you were born in Russia. When did you actually leave Russia? I left four years ago. Oh, so recent.

(07:41-08:00) Sifu Rafael
Yeah. When did you start getting into technology, into AI and all these things? Because we're going to talk about some of the things that you're doing, right? But when was that? How long ago? Was it computers? Was it a class? Yeah.

(08:01-08:20) Daria Rudnik
I, I did, I, uh, we did have a computer at home. Uh, or one of the first computers, uh, like, uh, over there, I, I did something on the basic language, um, some programming then, but I mean, I'm not a tech person. Definitely. It's just like, I have this curiosity for things and for technology.

(08:20-08:42) Daria Rudnik
And then I was in HR and I was very curious again about HR tech and like different tools and platforms and what we can do for performance and for learning and how we can use technology to enhance our skills and help organizations grow. And like the technology we all having now and exploring and

(08:42-09:00) Daria Rudnik
excited about is AI. So obviously, that's kind of a nice natural step for me to see, okay, how does it help us? And then when I learn more about it, there were also questions like, how does it influence us? How does it influence our cognitive ability? How it influences our

(09:00-09:27) Daria Rudnik
collaboration, how it influences team dynamics, and the way organizations are structured. So all of those questions are really interesting. And they're not tech questions. They are human questions. But technology impacts our lives a lot. So we need to know how it works. And it's impacting even more, right? Medicine has really been impacted by technology.

(09:28-09:44) Sifu Rafael
operations are being impacted, lasers, all these different things, and it's all based on technology. Do you believe that we will expand our lifespan based on technology?

(09:46-10:15) Daria Rudnik
I do. Well, we see that our life expectancy is longer. We live longer and healthier lives because of technology. And obviously, the more technologically advanced we are, the longer lives we should live. So, yeah. It's interesting. I was talking to somebody who has several patents in AI, and he said that...

(10:16-10:45) Sifu Rafael
within not too long from now, people will be able to live to at least 150 or if not more. Would you want to live that long? Sure. I mean, unless I am cognitively able. Yeah, yeah. No doubt. And we can accomplish so much more if we're able to be around longer, as long as our cognitive is still there, right? As long as we can

(10:46-11:04) Sifu Rafael
function. And I think movement is also one of the most important parts of that because you don't want to be tied to a bed for the next 50 years, right? You know, once you reach 100, you're like, okay, I'm in a bed now. That would not be a life that you want to live.

(11:05-11:31) Daria Rudnik
Yeah, I mean, just today, I mean, just really today, I heard a report, like I saw a report that tells that if you do one hour physical exercises of different kind, not just running or not just cycling, but of different kind, kind of doing mix, one hour a day, your life expectancy will be 25% longer, 25% by doing those exercises. I am into sports now. Yeah.

(11:31-11:58) Sifu Rafael
I'm doing that now. It makes sense, right? It's not like you're going to go play football or soccer or hockey and all that. But activity, I think, is so important. This is what one of the programs that I run is called Sifu's Mind Body Method. And that's one of the most important aspects is movement, right? Any kind of movement, just walking, makes a huge difference in our lives.

(12:00-12:17) Sifu Rafael
So you talked about you were an HR, right? Tell us about that. How did you even consider that that's a career path you wanted? How did you get to HR, right? And for those of you who are HR, it's human resources, right?

(12:17-12:36) Daria Rudnik
I never knew about HR when I was, again, growing up. We didn't have human resources, like a university degree. And my degree is a teacher of English and German. And so when I graduated, I said, okay, what do I want to do when I grow up? Because I didn't want to be a teacher.

(12:36-13:04) Daria Rudnik
i didn't want to go to school and so i found an opportunity like after several times i found an opportunity in learning uh learning and development function in deloitte uh and i applied there because i love learning i love uh i love teaching people i was attending some trainings myself some personal development trainings i studied um learning nlp like uh linguistic programming and

(13:04-13:28) Daria Rudnik
So I was very curious about how adults learn. So I joined that and then kind of gradually from learning specialist to learning manager to head of L&D to head of organizational development to chief people officer in different companies. That was kind of my gradual growth in HR. Very cool. Very cool. And how long did you do it for?

(13:29-13:54) Sifu Rafael
Or I think more than 15 years with some breaks, like maternity leave breaks. But yeah, it's about 15 plus years. Look at that. Nice. Good for you. What would you say is the biggest lessons that you learned when it comes to human development in HR that people either do or don't do?

(13:57-14:18) Daria Rudnik
Well, I'd say, for me, you motivate people. Because people are motivated themselves. But you can't demotivate people. When people come to your company, they are motivated, they engage, they want to work, they are so into it. And...

(14:18-14:36) Daria Rudnik
Like eventually it sometimes goes by and you have demotivated and disengaged employees. Why did it happen? So that's kind of a curious question that I asked myself. Where do those people come from? Because they join very motivated. I see them when I interview them. I see how eager they are to work here.

(14:36-14:59) Daria Rudnik
um so yeah building the culture that actually lets this motivation stay is uh is my biggest learning insight from from working hr so how how did you uh did you see a lot of burnout uh in in the company that you were working for did you see people

(15:00-15:11) Sifu Rafael
struggling because of the way they were working or maybe being overwhelmed? We didn't have that word back then. Okay.

(15:12-15:31) Daria Rudnik
Not the word, but the... I know, I know. Again, when there is no kind of notion, you don't know what to look for. So when you see someone struggling, now you might guess, okay, is it burnout? Is it laziness? Is it lack of motivation? Is it the wrong position?

(15:31-15:52) Daria Rudnik
We didn't have that option then. I didn't know about that. What I did is I saw a lot of frustrated people. That's how I saw them. I knew that there were people who are struggling to keep up with the pace of how business is growing, how business is developing.

(15:53-16:17) Daria Rudnik
And I see that this struggle and the level of stressed experience is getting higher and higher with every company that I go to. And it means whatever, like every two or three years, I saw more and more people who are struggling. And that is also because I was moving up the career ladder and I was seeing a lot of executives who are very stressed.

(16:18-16:47) Daria Rudnik
with multiple challenges, demands that they're facing, the regulators, economy, global crises, like financial crisis 2008, and then the local crises and people becoming more demanding and employees becoming more demanding. They know, okay, we need you to motivate us. We need you to set clear goals. So, well, yeah, I did see a lot of people and I still see them a lot.

(16:50-17:19) Daria Rudnik
Another question is, did you ever feel that for yourself? Burnout, too much pressure? I didn't feel too much pressure. I did feel too much pressure. I don't think I have experienced like real burnout because I don't know. I think I have something that whenever I feel like a lot of pressure and I cannot do anything about it, I kind of change jobs.

(17:22-17:51) Daria Rudnik
That's kind of smart. And with my business, uh, it's again, probably I know it's crazy optimism of when something goes wrong, it's just, okay, take a deep breath. It's going to be all right. Cause otherwise, otherwise everything is just worthless. No, no, it's, it's not like that. Everything's going to be all right. So, yeah. So you, um,

(17:52-18:13) Sifu Rafael
you eventually wrote a book right your first book clicking yeah why the word clicking right why what do you mean like the clock is ticking your life is ticking away what does that mean it's clicking it's when your team clicks and everything just works

(18:13-18:29) Daria Rudnik
And it's actually an acronym and it's actually an acronym for click with a framework click. When you build a team, you build a team that has built on five pillars. First is clear purpose. Teams need to be very clear on how they work together.

(18:29-18:48) Daria Rudnik
linking connections, how people are connected with each other and broader organization. And it's integrated work, how, what are the work norms and rules, how we work together, how often do we meet or like how we structure our KPIs and metrics and how we measure results and success.

(18:48-19:14) Daria Rudnik
The fourth one is collaborative decisions, how we make decisions as a team, what decisions are left for leaders, what are decisions for individual contributors. And the fifth one is knowledge sharing and feedback is how we grow and learn as a team. So when you have clear purpose, linking connections, integrated work, collaborative decisions and knowledge sharing, it'll make your team click. I like it. Pretty cool. Pretty cool.

(19:14-19:31) Sifu Rafael
And so what was the catalyst that you said, I need to write this book? What made you say that this is what I believe, but others need to also understand what I'm bearing here? And you see I'm taking notes, right?

(19:35-20:02) Daria Rudnik
There are two reasons. One is very selfish. I think better when I write things down. I kind of get clarity on what is it I'm doing when I write things down. So I've done a lot of work with teams, with leaders, doing team coaching sessions, consultancy. And it's kind of inventing the wheel every time. And I went, okay, I want more clarity on what is actually working.

(20:03-20:23) Daria Rudnik
And then kind of getting together all the frameworks and tools that we're using, like how do you create team norms? How do you make decisions? How you bring clarity in like making decisions and decision-making authority. And that's the first thing. And that's when I started to collect those things. And then...

(20:23-20:40) Daria Rudnik
Sometimes I have people who can work with me and I also have people who cannot work with me or maybe don't want to work with me. They want to work with someone else or they can do it themselves. I love doing things myself. It's not always I go to hire a coach. Sometimes I read a framework and I try it out. So there are people like that, like...

(20:40-21:09) Daria Rudnik
So for those people, this is the book where they can read and do things from it because I wanted it to be really practical. There are templates, there are workshop scenarios, there are frameworks, very applicable for most of the teams out there. So anyone who can read it, just take it, try it out and see how it works. Very good. Very good. I like it. And how long ago did you write that book?

(21:12-21:26) Daria Rudnik
I started writing this book in 2020. I wrote about half of it, didn't finish. Okay, dropped it for about a couple of years. Then I started again in 2022.

(21:26-21:53) Daria Rudnik
That was the year when I moved from Russia to Israel again, didn't finish. And then at some point, I think it's kind of was in me and kind of growing there. And in 2024, I started again. And in 2025, August, it was published. Very good. So there was some procrastination on there, wasn't there? Oh, yeah. A little bit, a little bit all that.

(21:54-22:08) Daria Rudnik
five years of procrastination. I mean, in between. It's not so much procrastination. It's lack of clarity. Like now I know it's lack of clarity. There was an old...

(22:09-22:37) Sifu Rafael
wine commercial on television many years ago in the U.S. and it was Paul Masson who said, serve no wine before it's time. So the timing wasn't right for the book, maybe, right? Yeah. So I love that saying and it's not procrastination, it wasn't the time, right? I have a lot of people who keep asking me to write a book. I have people who are constantly asking me to be in their book. And I've

(22:38-23:06) Sifu Rafael
kind of refused a couple of times. And then I've been in three books, but with hesitation, because I didn't want to put out there what's not ready for me to put out there. And I've already written like 90 books, but I will not put them out because I'm not ready for them to come out. And when the right time, they'll come out, right? And I've already, I've literally actually almost finished

(23:07-23:35) Sifu Rafael
I mean, they're all done, but I mean, really almost went to decide I'm going to publish and I'm like, no, I'm not going to do it now. So, and it's not, for me, it's not procrastination. It's timing. So I want to make sure that everything aligns, all the stars align. And some people say, just do it. What are you waiting for? But sometimes it is what it is. And I don't want to fight with the process that I'm going through. And it seems like you did the same. Yeah, yeah.

(23:36-24:02) Sifu Rafael
i'll be waiting for your book you and many others right one day you i'll make sure you get a copy once it comes out okay but then you also um you're the co-author of the ai revolution and the creator of aedra.ai wow what does this all mean to me what

(24:02-24:13) Sifu Rafael
Talk to us about that concept and ideas and so forth. Again, I learned by my... Revolution, the co-author of that. What is that all about?

(24:13-24:32) Daria Rudnik
It's a book where like several people, AI experts got together to write about how AI is influencing our lives. And there were different perspective AI in customer support, AI in sales, AI in different spheres. And I was, my chapter is about

(24:32-24:56) Daria Rudnik
critical skills team needs in the era of AI, because again, AI is influencing how we think and work together. And teams need to have certain skills that are not tech skills, first, to be able to collaborate with AI. Again, a lot changed since then. And I've learned a lot more about how AI influences our brain, how AI is influencing

(24:56-25:19) Daria Rudnik
our language when it comes to collaborating with teams and AI. So that book was one of my first steps into learning. And again, I learned by writing, by sharing, by teaching, by doing about AI. Very good. Very good.

(25:20-25:37) Sifu Rafael
And then you also talk to us about AIDRA, right? A-I-D-R-A, right? Dot AI. What is it? Because there's so much AI out there now. What is the difference with the one that you have currently?

(25:38-25:59) Daria Rudnik
It's my pet project. Again, everyone is playing with AI. I'm playing with AI, obviously, because if I want to know how it works, I need to create something. And I've tried different no-code platforms, zero-code platforms. I tried write code myself with the help of AI. I can see how it

(25:59-26:29) Daria Rudnik
plays out in different aspects. And for now, it's basically my voice. It has all the knowledge that I have, my book, my articles. So when people ask questions, they don't have access to me. They have 24-7 library of everything that I share with the world and I share with my clients and they can ask questions and get responses. Very cool. Very cool. So how did you even know

(26:30-26:50) Daria Rudnik
Because you said you didn't have the technology. How did you even know how to go and create something like that? Because that's very interesting. Oh, you, you, well, now the easiest answer would be ask chat GPT. How to create something like that. But at that time,

(26:52-27:09) Daria Rudnik
I don't know. It's just being open to signals and seeing, talking to people, hearing what other people are doing, looking for some examples. Again, there are a lot of platforms and tools that support any non-technical person do.

(27:10-27:38) Daria Rudnik
and it almost anything like you can do in any app without writing a single line of code, without even looking at single line of code. But I actually did look and I did deploy and I did everything with the help of AI because you go there, you ask a question, you get some response, you change the question because the first response is rubbish. And then you learn.

(27:39-28:02) Sifu Rafael
one of the things that they say about ai it learns right you teach it and it gets smarter with every process right but then you're getting smarter too right i'm much smarter working with ai than i was one year before uh with all the things that you learn you can learn prompt engineering but it's

(28:03-28:12) Daria Rudnik
I mean, the most important thing when you work with AI is first, you need to be very clear about what is it you're looking for. And second, um,

(28:14-28:37) Daria Rudnik
you need to have a kind of expert check. So how do you learn something when you're not an expert and you don't know what you're looking for? You break it down into small, small, small pieces and you start small. And like the thing, for example, I'm trying to do an RAG database with the help of AI so that it has, again, all of my knowledge, all of my database, all of my...

(28:37-28:47) Daria Rudnik
drafts and everything so that I can pull it up whenever I need it. And I have no idea how to do that. I have no idea what it even means.

(28:48-29:17) Daria Rudnik
So I kind of go to ChatGPD and ask, okay, what does it mean? Why do I need that? What if I use it for this first person, for that purpose? Kind of asking different questions so that, okay, I have an overview. I know what it's about. I know that I need it. And then, okay, give me step-by-step. Give me overview of the steps. And then let's go step-by-step how I can do that. So you need to learn how to learn with the help of AI. Why do you name it Adria?

(29:20-29:45) Daria Rudnik
Well, I was chatting with AI saying, give me a list of names that I kind of sound technological and that domain is free. So it gave me some options. Okay, there was Adra there and then I checked the domain, domain was free. So I registered and then,

(29:45-30:14) Daria Rudnik
Yeah, one year later, someone says, hey, well, that looks familiar. That looks like Daria, but it's just Adra. Same letters. Really? So it's just a matter of just changing things around, right? And then you get a different feel. Yeah. But you didn't realize it? I didn't. I didn't.

(30:18-30:44) Sifu Rafael
So, but you can now take the credit for it. It's my name. That's it. I would love to, so a couple of people are saying hi to us. Gabby, thank you for being here with us, right? And Emilio, I really appreciate you guys. What I want to do is, we talked about movement earlier, and I want to share a video with you based on movement, so take a look.

(30:47-31:17) Sifu Rafael
You've followed the rules, tried the restrictions, counted the carbs, the steps, and the failures. You're not lazy, you're exhausted from doing it all without real change. What if the problem isn't you, but the plan? Sifu's MindBody method is a 90-day transformation built on seven unshakable pillars

(31:17-31:45) Sifu Rafael
mindset, movement, nutrition, hydration, fasting, journaling, and faith. This isn't another shortcut. It's your structure, your strength, your reset. You don't need harder, you need better. Ready to begin? Start today. So with that in mind,

(31:45-32:14) Sifu Rafael
so now when we talk about longevity that's one of the biggest concepts that i do with my program and so the question that i ask a lot of my clients is how long do you think you're going to live and they'll start with a number right and then when they're my program all of a sudden that number went up it's because now they see the possibility of doing all the different pillars and how they'll help them

(32:15-32:45) Sifu Rafael
live a life that's that's worth living right so that when we talked about earlier you said 150 sounds great as long as i have uh you know my brain is still functioning and my body can still move that makes a lot of sense right but we sometimes forget to take the actions today and we live for tomorrows but today we're still living so we have to take today on right what are your thoughts on developing

(32:48-32:56) Sifu Rafael
In the business world, something that will allow people to expand on their leadership skills.

(33:01-33:28) Daria Rudnik
I mean, after this video about the importance of nutrition and movement, I kind of think about how packed our office is and how uncomfortable it is to sit all day in one chair. And what you might think is leadership, just kind of typing it all, thinking, strategy, or even not thinking sometimes. Having meetings...

(33:28-33:43) Daria Rudnik
that's not i mean if you cannot lead your life lead your healthy life how can you lead others so it's we need more health in our workspaces and work environments and funny enough i mean covered i think

(33:44-34:14) Daria Rudnik
prompted us to be more active because we don't have to sit in the office. We can be at home. We have some time to go to gym. We have some time to spend with our families. We can have a standing desk, which is my next, my dream. And yeah, so taking care of it. So with that in mind, and thank you for sharing that. With that in mind, what do you think about the four-day work week that a lot of companies are starting to implement?

(34:14-34:24) Daria Rudnik
So it gives them three days off. No, it's the same concept when you kind of

(34:24-34:45) Daria Rudnik
give people a frame. Here is the frame when we expect you to work within this frame and produce something within this frame. We don't care about anything else. Here is the time we want you to be present during that time. Whether it's four days, five days, six days, three days, it's still the same concept. And it's outdated. People...

(34:45-34:56) Daria Rudnik
deserve freedom. People deserve being accountable for their outcomes whenever and from wherever they want to do that.

(34:57-35:24) Daria Rudnik
I want to work six days a week. Why? Because I need my nights off because I want to be with my family, with my kids. I can spend six mornings, no problem, but I need my kids off. I want to work three days full time, 24 seven, because my work doesn't require me to think much. I just, they can type thing. I don't have to think. I can do it with my eyes closed. Let me pack it into three days and like the rest of the week is free.

(35:24-35:47) Daria Rudnik
the thing is when we try to fit people in certain schedules is outdated so four days work week five days proper is no way right but what happens to certain businesses that are brick and mortar and for example you wanted to go buy the blouse that you're earning

(35:47-36:13) Sifu Rafael
and you go to the store and it's closed because somebody decided to not come into work today because they need their time off and so what what happens to a business like that that they need to be open seven days a week and yes they do have people who have to be there from this time to that time um so there's still that right yeah so how do we function that way

(36:14-36:30) Daria Rudnik
That is a great question. And again, it all comes to agreement. Like I'm a grown up person. You're a grown up person. Like I want to work for you. You tell me, hey, here is how business works. We need kind of this role requires you to be like in the office.

(36:31-36:51) Daria Rudnik
in the office this amount of time because of that reason. Like there was certain reason. It's not because you want to see me how I work at my computer. It's because customers are there, technology is there, something that like really makes like really needed. And I say, okay, I agree to that because I know there is a reason.

(36:51-37:21) Sifu Rafael
And we have this agreement. But if it's something that you want to see me how I work because you feel comfortable as a manager seeing people working, no, that's not a good reason for making people work certain times in certain places. So you're saying, but we're talking about office, right, work and retail or a restaurant. That's a whole different world, right? It's a different environment. A manager of an office can manage

(37:21-37:47) Sifu Rafael
from home they can manage on vacation they can well not vacation let's say they go to you know they go to an island they can still manage the office but a manager of a restaurant that's moving they may actually have to be in the physical location right a manager of a retail store may have to be there right at the physical location so it's two different

(37:48-38:16) Sifu Rafael
entities, if you will. One is you accept that position and you know that this is required of me. And the other one is like, wait a minute, I'm not required to be there all the time as long as I get my things done, right? So there is two different worlds that we're talking about. I mean, hospitals, obviously, where you need to have people there. We need nurses, right? We need doctors, we need...

(38:17-38:36) Sifu Rafael
But a lot of times, if you go to an emergency room in the middle of the night, and they're not going to have a plastic surgeon waiting for you to come in, so somebody else may have to, you know, throw you up, but then they'll go, oh,

(38:36-39:04) Sifu Rafael
We're going to do this temporarily until you go see the plastic surgeon. So then that's an appointment, right? So yeah, absolutely. And thank you for all this. This becomes a really interesting conversation because we have to, as a person, we have to accept what are we willing to do and not willing to do. If we go into a field where we're required to be present in that situation,

(39:05-39:34) Sifu Rafael
then we have to it's we out outweigh the balance right it is this is the career that i want or is this the career i want do i want the time to be able to go anywhere in the world or am i stuck here right as an entrepreneur myself you know it's uh it's easy for me to say you know i'm not going in today well i'm doing this i'm doing that right and that's easy for me to say right but a lot of times

(39:34-40:04) Sifu Rafael
even when i'm committed to doing something that i made a commitment right and then i know that i have to be there so thank you for sharing all that what what's the the one uh takeaway that you you you worked at a a very well-known company right uh deloitte right what's one of the the biggest takeaways that you

(40:06-40:30) Daria Rudnik
can say that I took away from working at this particular firm. Well, apart from it is a company with a great culture. I was lucky in the beginning of my career working with companies with strong cultures. But interesting thing that I learned there is that your culture is built to support your business goals.

(40:32-40:43) Daria Rudnik
And when we talk about big four consulting companies, well, they obviously have a culture of constant work and overwork and lots of work, but

(40:43-41:03) Daria Rudnik
It's an agreement. People know what they're like. When they join this company, they know what to expect. You're going to work your ass out. Sorry. 24-7 for the first five years. But then you can get the promotion. And that promotion opens a lot of doors. You can...

(41:03-41:19) Daria Rudnik
go to executive level in to client you can like grow to partner level but those first five three to five years is you're going to work a lot no private life nothing just this and this is an agreement everyone knows about that and

(41:19-41:37) Daria Rudnik
Everyone respects that and no one says, hey, I work too much. I mean, you're here because you agreed on that. On the other hand, I was working for a Swedish company. That is a totally different story. When you need to have fika every two hours, it's the time when they have tea.

(41:37-41:52) Daria Rudnik
Like a break when they can talk and chat and have their coffee. And thicker time is super critical and very important. And if people feel sick, they don't go to work. They call in. How can I do that? Oh, I need to walk my dog.

(41:53-42:16) Daria Rudnik
So I need to go out, walk my dog, and maybe then come back. And again, this culture and this company is serving companies' goals. We want people to feel happy, relaxed, and make our clients happy and relaxed. So you don't just build a company like Deloitte or like Google, like Meta. You build a culture that you need.

(42:19-42:34) Daria Rudnik
So culture is very important for success, isn't it? It is very important if you don't pay attention to culture. Some kind of culture will emerge, but will it be the one that will help you? I like that.

(42:35-42:58) Sifu Rafael
And one of the things that for me, it's always about how can we help, right? And you talked about that, right? The culture is going to help the clients. It's going to help the employees so that that business does succeed. Yeah. Daria, what's next for you?

(43:01-43:28) Daria Rudnik
Well, again, with this open new opportunities, human AI collaboration, that's kind of my focus of this year and maybe a few years ahead and how we work with AI, how we collaborate with AI. How do you manage a team of AI agents? How do you manage a team when you have three people in one agent and how do you make them work together and collaborate?

(43:28-43:58) Daria Rudnik
how do you solve conflict when, and there will be conflicts between the people and agents because we kind of perceive them as interns, someone who's helping us, something who can either support or argue back or do something wrong. Who is to blame when AI is going wrong and doing something that's unexpected, who is there to solve that problem. So yeah, that's really curious about how that's going to,

(43:58-44:27) Daria Rudnik
evolve and helping leaders and teams go through this AI transformation. I'm working with a few companies that go through this AI transformation and they make mistakes, but we try to make it the best way possible through collaboration and step-by-step trial and error. Nice, nice. Where do you see business for yourself with AI?

(44:30-44:45) Daria Rudnik
Well, I do see, again, some AI agents helping with my business, still kind of playing around with that. No one small working agent, but maybe it will be more. We'll see how it goes. Yeah.

(44:49-45:07) Daria Rudnik
I mean, it's going to be part of life. It's not just business. It's how you work. It's smart homes. It's medicine. It's who's looking at your x-ray, whether it's AI or human, or maybe it's first AI and then human and things like that.

(45:07-45:32) Daria Rudnik
Already becoming an integrated part of our life because a lot of tools, a lot of platforms are integrated in AI. While we're talking somewhere, someone's AI is transcribing what we talk and create summary out of it. So it's probably become something that we don't even notice. How would you feel comfortable if you went to a restaurant and it was all AI run?

(45:35-46:05) Sifu Rafael
Your food is prepared. And I was in Texas and this robot came over and you can punch in your food order and then it goes away, right? And so I'm okay with that kind of, I still would prefer a person, right? Because maybe you want to ask what's in it, what's this, what's that? But then what if it went to the kitchen and it was all a bunch of AI robots making your food, would you be okay with that?

(46:06-46:26) Daria Rudnik
I would definitely be okay with robots cooking my food. I would probably even trust them even more. But I'd like to see a person greeting me and say, hey, welcome. We're so happy to see you. I think that an AI chef, which is going to take

(46:27-46:52) Sifu Rafael
jobs away from actual chefs or cooks or whatnot um less contamination right less chances of error and the food will always come out good and i'm not saying that i'm for it but i'm just giving the benefits of it um would it be more efficient probably the the robot's not going to call in sick

(46:54-47:15) Daria Rudnik
It may need to be repaired, but it's not going to call in sick and it's going to be there. It's not going to sweat over your food, right? It's not going to have to take a cigarette break. There still will be chefs. Because again, robots, they cannot operate without human expertise. So all these things, humans will replace us.

(47:15-47:35) Daria Rudnik
No, they won't. They will replace kind of dumb work that we don't want to do. Some of the creative work that we might want to do, but to really do creative work, you need some experts who will be guiding AI to create something meaningful. There you go. That's it. So we still need humans, huh? Absolutely. Isn't that Terminator 3?

(47:38-48:05) Sifu Rafael
I think Matrix is a long, long way ahead. I don't expect it to come soon. Hopefully not. We're still viable, if you will. Let me share one more video with you and then we'll come back and chat a little bit. Put that together. Here we go. The city never sleeps and neither do the dreamers who build its pulse.

(48:07-48:28) Intro
From every corner of the globe they come. Visionaries, creators, leaders, each carrying a spark ready to ignite the world. This is not an event. It's a revolution of rhythm and reason. A symphony of minds. A movement of momentum.

(48:32-48:44) Daria Rudnik
Lancelot, Jose Escobar Together they set the stage for brilliance

(48:45-49:11) Intro
is the nyc experience mastermind light up this city they're coming from the east coming from the west knowledge on deck put the truth to the test leaders in motion hearts in sing dropping wisdom so deep it'll make you think they bring story sweat and flame different faces one share name elevation that's the sound nyc experience mastermind where purpose is found

(49:13-49:39) Sifu Rafael
Fun, fun, fun. I almost danced. Ah, yeah. It's funny. Every time I play that, somebody's dancing. I'm dancing. Somebody else is dancing. Yeah, so that's what's happening here in the U.S., in Tampa, February 27th, which is a week away. It's going to be so much fun. Yeah. So, Daria...

(49:41-49:56) Sifu Rafael
Are you looking to write any more books? Are you looking to expand what you're doing currently and talk to us about what you are currently doing? Because I want people to connect more.

(49:57-50:22) Daria Rudnik
What I do is I help leaders build amazing teams because again, through all of my work as a chief people officer, I've seen companies thrive and go through various disruptions like mergers and acquisitions, financial, global financial crisis, pandemic, military conflicts. When you have a strong team, you can survive almost anything. And I've seen companies failing because

(50:23-50:49) Daria Rudnik
the executive team was dysfunctional. I mean, they didn't have a shared purpose. They were not connected. There was a lot of conflicts. And those conflicts were like more personal conflicts rather than conflicts about ideas of how we should move forward. And those companies just, they don't exist anymore. And that's why I really want to help leaders build strong teams through either leadership coaching or team coaching, like working together with the team.

(50:49-51:11) Daria Rudnik
And that's why I wrote the book. That's kind of my main focus, especially, again, with AI. When AI is entering, it's even more important to be clear about what is my purpose, how we collaborate, how we communicate, what are the norms and rules of our team, how we grow and learn together.

(51:11-51:39) Daria Rudnik
So even though my book Clicking is nothing about like no word about AI, it's all about it's very critical for the AI driven world. And I do want to write another book, but it's not ready yet. There you go. It's more time. The time is right, right? Yeah. Yeah. Do you have an idea of what that book is about yet or do you want to keep it under wraps for now?

(51:40-51:56) Daria Rudnik
I have an idea and I have a thought. I want to, again, this book, my first book is for leaders and it's about teams. But I do know how exhausted and overloaded leaders are today because, again, they experience multiple demands from the top.

(51:56-52:17) Daria Rudnik
The executives expect and investors expect top performance. The team members expect motivation and clarity and direction. And customers expect exceptional service. And governments expect a lot, like regulators all over the place. You need to follow so many rules.

(52:17-52:47) Daria Rudnik
And the speed of pace is so high. So a lot of leaders are very, very overloaded, exhausted, burned out. And I want to write something that will help them solve that and kind of live through that with strength and joy and feel well about themselves and their lives. Nice, nice, nice. And we will be looking forward to that book that's going to come out. So

(52:47-53:17) Sifu Rafael
Your website is going to cross the bottom. As we wrap up, I want people to connect with you, but tell us if you had a magic wand, right? How would you fix the world? I think the thing that we need is be able to talk

(53:19-53:45) Daria Rudnik
to each other openly without judgment. Because I know many people are ready to like share their opinions with no problem with that. But in most cases, opinions, it was what I think and I don't care what you think. And having this curiosity about what other people think. And why do you think that way?

(53:45-54:12) Daria Rudnik
And why do you think that having a chef robot is good or bad? And why do you think that four-day work week is good or bad? And kind of trying to understand each other first and then kind of make some judgment and make your opinion second is what really helps solve so many problems, so many conflicts. I think our world is very conflicted.

(54:13-54:40) Sifu Rafael
Right. And it's because of understanding. I think people want what they want and they don't care about the other person. Right. And I think when we start to care, things will change. Tell us what somebody can expect when they go to your website and your website. I want you to say it's going across the bottom because people are going to listen to this at one point, too. So spell it out for them. That way they can find you.

(54:41-54:57) Daria Rudnik
So you can definitely find me on LinkedIn. I'm very open to connections on LinkedIn. And if you go to DariaRodnik.com, you can find some articles obviously there. But I want you to check out the resources page where you can find downloadable tools to...

(54:57-55:27) Daria Rudnik
For example, see if your team is overusing AI or how to motivate your employees or what are the biggest leadership challenges in 2026 and how to solve them. All these kinds of things you can find on my resources page or my website. Very cool. And don't forget to go to aria.ai, right? It's on the website. You can have access to that on my website. So you can chat with Aydra on my website as well. There you go.

(55:27-55:55) Sifu Rafael
Well, I'm so blessed that you took the time today. Thank you. And just for everybody else, I'm in New York. So right now it is 10.55. What time is it in Israel? It's 5.55 p.m. Look at that. Just a few hour difference, right? Seven hour difference, though. There you go. Thank you again, Daria. Great conversation. And I look forward to having so many more with you. Blessed to know you. Thank you.

(55:56-56:22) Sifu Rafael
Everybody, do me a favor. Somebody needs to hear the message that was delivered today. So go ahead and share this video, this episode with somebody. Take care, everybody. God bless. Thank you. It was a great pleasure talking to you. Thanks for your questions. I really enjoyed this conversation. Thank you. Me too. All right, everybody. God bless. Take care. Don't go away, Daria. You hang out for a second. We'll let everybody go.

(56:25-56:27)
Bye.