Most people think AI is coming for their job. Jane Williams thinks it is coming for their cover.

Jane spent 20 years at IBM and was inside the building when Watson was first being trained, back when every professional had to sit down and teach the machine their own domain by hand. She later rose to CIO before leaving corporate to coach. In this conversation she explains why AI does not replace leaders, it reveals them, and then gets honest about the business of coaching: why selling to companies beats selling to individuals, why she caps her roster on purpose, and the question she asks every client on day one.

“AI isn’t replacing leaders. That’s the thing people need to understand. It’s revealing them.”

Read the full breakdown: AI Made Expertise Free. Judgment Is the Only Moat Left. — my response to this conversation, on why judgment is the only thing left to sell once AI makes the busywork free.

Chapters

  • 00:00 — Introduction & the need for structured coaching businesses
  • 01:30 — From IBM Watson to today’s AI explosion
  • 03:24 — Why AI will reveal leaders, not replace them
  • 09:23 — Defining your own version of success
  • 11:07 — The transition from CIO to executive coach
  • 17:04 — Getting over the “icky” feeling of sales and video marketing
  • 22:37 — Why selling B2B coaching is easier than B2C
  • 34:42 — Avoiding burnout: why Jane caps her roster at 10 clients
  • 46:31 — “Graduating” vs. retiring from the corporate rat race
  • 47:59 — One piece of advice for new coaches: get credentialed

What we cover

  • What it was actually like inside IBM when Watson was being trained, and why you have to “breathe life into these things” before they know anything
  • Why AI reveals leaders instead of replacing them: when the mechanical work disappears, judgment and acumen are the only things left to evaluate
  • The line between using AI to think for you and using it to think better and faster, and the writing app David built for his son
  • The corporate-to-coach transition nobody warns you about: becoming the marketing department, the sales team, and the product all at once
  • Why coaches from the corporate world should sell to companies, not individuals
  • Why Jane caps her roster at eight to ten clients, meditates before every session, and refuses to walk in frazzled
  • “Graduating” instead of retiring, and the question she asks every client that took her five years to answer for herself

Notable quotes

“You’re taking away a lot of this mechanical work that’s not necessarily useful. And you’re really relying now on people’s judgment and their acumen and what’s human about that side of it to be successful.”

“Use it for the things it’s good at, and use your brain for the things your brain is good at.”

“I am much more familiar and capable as an IBM consultant of going and selling to a board of directors than I am standing there selling something to you.”

“I always say I graduated instead of retired.”

About Jane Williams

Jane spent 20 years at IBM, later served as a CIO in higher education, and holds a Doctorate in Leadership of Remote Teams. She now coaches IT executives through Find Your Fire Coach and is launching a new venture, Make Working Work, focused on helping people work better in hybrid environments.

Connect with Jane on LinkedIn or through Find Your Fire Coach.

Ready to close the Growth Gap? Get the Growth Gap resources here. Or book a 15-minute call to talk it through.

Find Coach as Entrepreneur on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Amazon Music.