Asim Amin

Founder & CEO at Plumm | Empowering Minds & Building Thriving Workplaces | Passionate Mental Health Advocate

I’m the Founder & CEO of Plumm, the all-in-one HR platform with mental health at its core.

HR today is fragmented, companies juggle payroll, performance, compliance, and wellbeing across too many tools. Plumm brings it all into one platform, helping organisations cut costs, save time, and look after their people. Because no HR strategy is complete without mental health.

Plumm started as a mental health solution and has grown into a full-service HR platform, used by companies worldwide. Our mission is clear: make workplaces more productive, inclusive, and human.

I’m also the host of the Immigrants Building Companies Podcast, where I speak with immigrant entrepreneurs who’ve built companies against the odds, sharing lessons on resilience, growth, and leadership.

If you’d like to:
🚀 Book a demo with Plumm: https://eu1.hubs.ly/H0mJb040 
🎙️ Discuss podcasts, speaking, or media features: taslynn@heyplumm.com

International Trade Program

Poor mental health costs UK employers up to £56 billion a year.

And yet, when employers invest even just £1 in preventative employee wellbeing, they see an average return of £5.30.

We’ve seen case after case, that happier employees make for a healthier business.

It’s why we developed Plumm: a seamless all-in-one, evidence-backed mental wellbeing solution for employers and their teams.

We support your team through our global and diverse pool over 200 accredited therapists and coaches, who can cater to their individual needs, preferences, and circumstances, regardless of where they are in their wellbeing journey.

Whether they can benefit from group learning, need professional help and personalised 1:1 therapy or coaching, or self-help resources, we've got it covered.

Ready to level up your team's wellbeing? 👉 https://www.plummhealth.com/request-demo

You’ll spend £4 a day on a latte without blinking.
But £27 a month for your health?
“Too expensive.”

That’s roughly what a WHOOP costs.
And no, not everyone needs a WHOOP.
It could just as easily be a gym membership. Plenty in the UK cost £20–£30 a month.

The number isn’t really the point.
It’s where the line gets drawn.

Some spending feels automatic.
Other spending gets questioned, even when it’s about your own health, energy, and how you want to feel day to day.

That says a lot about priorities.

Because health isn’t a one-off decision.
You don’t choose it once.
You choose it in small ways, over and over again.

Those choices compound.

And one day you realise how you’ve been feeling for a while now
more tired, less resilient, lower energy
or the opposite.

That’s why what you prioritise today matters more than it seems 👌🏼

PS: I still love coffee, but I’d rather have it home ;)

Founder & CEO at Plumm | Speaker | Advisor

Let’s be honest.
 
Most of us f*cked up over the holidays.
 
Too much food.
Too much sugar.
Too much wine.
 
And now everyone’s pretending they “reset” on Jan 1.
BS.
Here’s what actually happens:
You enjoy yourself.
Then you feel guilty.
Then you convince yourself you’re already behind.
You’re not behind.
You’re human.
 
What’s messed up isn’t December.
It’s the idea that one month can “ruin” you.
Your body didn’t suddenly forget how to function.
Your discipline didn’t disappear.
Your year isn’t over because you ate more than planned.
 
The real problem?
People think progress has to be perfect.
It doesn’t.
Balance beats punishment.
Every time.
 
You don’t need extremes.
You don’t need to suffer.
You don’t need a diet built around how you look.
You need habits built around how you feel.
 
Energy > aesthetics.
Focus > abs.
Consistency > guilt.
 
So no, you didn’t fail January.
And no, you don’t need to “start again” next Monday.
You start today.
You eat better because it helps you think.
You move because it gives you energy.
You sleep because you perform better.
That’s it.
 
Just show up.
Again.
And again.
That’s how it actually works.
 
Happy 2026 everyone ✌🏼

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Perfection is how average founders justify being slow.

I’ve done it.
Watched others do it.
Same outcome every time.

Early on, I hid behind “not ready yet”.
What I really meant was: “I don’t want the market to tell me I’m wrong.”
So I delayed.
Refined.
Overthought.
And nothing happened.

In the first 3–5 years, your product isn’t supposed to be good.
It’s supposed to move.
Because movement creates:
- feedback
- revenue
- momentum
Perfection creates meetings.

I’ve launched things that made me cringe.
They still taught me more in a week than months of planning ever did.
Most features I was obsessed with? Nobody cared.
The market told me that. Fast.

And the reality is, most founders fail because they wait until they feel confident.
Confidence doesn’t come before action.
It comes after exposure.

If you’re still polishing:
You’re not protecting quality.
You’re protecting ego.
Speed doesn’t mean sloppy.
It means honest.
And honesty compounds faster than perfection ever will.

DO NOT hire people who are good on paper.

The strongest hires I’ve seen recently weren’t the neatest on paper anyway.
A few gaps.
Not every box ticked.
Some rough edges.

But when things shifted, they didn’t stall.
That’s what stood out.
Work is changing faster than job descriptions can keep up.
By the end of this decade, around 39% of the skills people use today won’t be relevant anymore.
Most roles won’t disappear.
They’ll mutate.
Which makes “tool knowledge” a short-lived advantage.

In practice, I’ve learned to watch for different signals:
Who asks better questions once the brief gets fuzzy.
Who notices second-order problems, not just the task in front of them.
Who can disagree without becoming defensive.
Who recovers quickly after being wrong.

Those things don’t show up on a CV.
And they matter more when pressure is real.

Nearly 6 in 10 people will need reskilling in the coming years.
Yet the global workforce is still expected to grow.
So the edge isn’t experience alone.
It’s adaptability over time.

You can train systems.
Rewrite processes.
Roll out new tools.
What’s harder to build is judgement.
Curiosity under uncertainty.
The ability to stay useful when the rules change.

As automation takes care of the predictable, these qualities surface.
Not because they’re “soft skills”
But because they’re the difference between keeping up
and actually moving forward.

BREAKING 🚨 Europe just made its boldest move for founders in decades.

Yesterday at Davos, Ursula von der Leyen announced EU–INC.
A single, truly European company structure.
This matters. A lot.
For years, Europe hasn’t lacked talent, it’s lacked simplicity.
27 countries.
27 rulebooks.
Different equity rules.
Different compliance hoops.

So founders did the rational thing.
They incorporated elsewhere.
(Usually Delaware)

EU–INC changes the equation.
One corporate framework across the EU.
Incorporate online in 48 hours.
No mandatory notaries.
One legal entity, valid in all 27 countries.
Taxes and labour laws stay national.

The corporate layer goes European. That distinction is critical.
Because Europe’s biggest problem was never ambition. It was friction.

Scaling shouldn’t mean:
– Setting up new entities per country
– Reworking equity structures
– Burning seed capital on legal fees

If executed properly, EU–INC could unlock:
– Faster company creation
– Founder-friendly equity
– Easier cross-border scaling
– A real Single Market, not a theoretical one

Most importantly?
This is the first time Europe has clearly chosen builders over bureaucracy.
Execution will be everything.
Speed will matter.
Consistency will matter.
But the signal is loud and clear: Europe is finally building for founders 🇪🇺🚀

I didn’t wake up one day and decide to rethink health.
Life did it for me.

What surprised me wasn’t the moment itself.
It was what changed afterwards.

How quickly your definition of “healthy” shifts when it’s no longer abstract.
When it’s not about performance, or numbers, or discipline.
You start paying attention to different things.
How stress shows up in your body.
How sleep affects your mood, not just your energy.
How recovery isn’t optional if you want consistency.

Longevity stops being about adding years.
It becomes about protecting capacity.

The ability to think clearly under pressure.
To regulate stress instead of living in it.
To train, work, and live without constantly borrowing from tomorrow.

I’m reading Outlive at the moment.
What resonates most isn’t the science, it’s the reminder that decline accumulates through small decisions repeated daily.
Ignoring signals.
Normalising fatigue.
Treating rest as a reward instead of a requirement.

Perspective changes how you move through life.
You become less reactive.
More intentional.

Longevity, in that sense, isn’t about fear.
It’s about responsibility.
And once life forces that lesson,
you don’t approach health the same way again.

STOP focusing on your personal brand.

(I know, coming from someone who posts 5x week lol)
But hear me out.

A lot of people start building their personal brands, and then visibility comes:
the likes, the comments, the impressions, DMs
you somehow get momentum

but something doesn’t quite add up..
All those vanity numbers..all the likes, all the followers..
CAN’T fix a sh*t product
(or service)

The issue is that attention doesn’t give you breathing room. It does the opposite.
Once people are watching, they’re not just reacting to your ideas. They’re experiencing everything. The product. The service. The follow-up. The bits you were hoping to fix later.

If that experience is weak, people don’t argue about it. 
They just disappear.

I’ve seen people with impressive visibility struggle to keep customers.
I’ve also seen founders with no presence at all build businesses people stick with because the thing actually does what it says.

A personal brand doesn’t create trust. 
It spends it.

Does that mean you should not work on your personal brand? Absolutely not, you should.
But that shouldn’t be your priority.

Building an amazing product should be.
Building a fantastic service your customers can’t stop talking about should be.

Once you have that, then you can build your personal brand on top.
Just get your priorities straight.

And btw, sometimes the best move is to shut up, build properly, and let people talk later 👋🏻

If your best people are leaving..
it’s probably NOT about MONEY.

It’s about growth.
Companies that invest seriously in L&D see up to 50% higher retention.
Yet most still treat learning as a perk - or worse, a cost.

That’s not a people problem.
That’s a leadership one.

High performers don’t quit bad jobs, they quit stagnation.
When people stop learning, they don’t argue.
They don’t disengage loudly.
They don’t ask for more.
They just start planning their exit.

The data is blunt:
- 94% would stay longer with better development
- Growth opportunities now outrank pay for many senior performers
- Teams with weak learning cultures lose their best talent first

And yet we keep trying to fix retention with:
Bonuses.
Perks.
Offsites.

None of those solve stagnation.
Real L&D is whether someone leaves a year later with better judgment, broader scope, and more confidence than when they arrived.
If the answer is no, they’ll leave.
Eventually.

That’s why we don’t treat L&D as HR hygiene.
We treat it as leadership responsibility.
Because people don’t stay loyal to companies.
They stay loyal to growth.

“Go to HR.”

People hear it the same way they heard “go to the headteacher’s office” at school.
Somewhere you end up once things have already gone wrong.

That perception didn’t come out of nowhere.

HR usually gets involved after weeks of small things being left unsaid. 
Feedback is usually avoided. 
And, expectations are left vague. 
Managers hoping issues fix themselves. 
By the time HR shows up, there’s history, emotion, and momentum.

From the outside, HR looks like enforcement.
Inside, HR is dealing with accumulated silence.

Most problems don’t start as formal issues. 
They start as ordinary moments that weren’t handled early, when the cost was low.

When managers treat HR as the place difficult conversations go, people learn to associate HR with punishment instead of support.

If you want HR to feel human, managers have to do the human work first.

Clear expectations early. 
Feedback while there’s still room to adjust. Intervention before frustration hardens.

HR isn’t the headteacher’s office.
It just inherits what wasn’t handled sooner.

2026 HR trends you need to know:

1. HR will end up owning problems no one else wants
Because they sit between leadership intent and lived reality.

2. AI will finally expose how little most companies understand their own workforce
HR has been saying this quietly for years.

3. “Hiring shortages” will keep being blamed on the market
When the issue is internal talent stuck in the wrong places.

4. Job frameworks will keep getting rewritten
Work will keep changing faster.

5. Hybrid work will stay unresolved
Because many leaders still don’t know what good work looks like.

6. Burnout won’t be treated as a crisis
Until it hits delivery timelines.

7. As usual, HR will be looped in late,
then blamed early.

HR isn’t late. 
It’s just been convenient to ignore.

There’s one kind of decision
I never got used to making.

It wasn’t about direction or priorities.
It was about people, and knowing that whatever I chose would follow them home.

Later, it gets called a pivot. 
In the moment, it felt like sitting across from someone and realising you were about to change something you couldn’t take back.

I’ve been laid off before. 
I remember the shock, the quiet afterwards, the way it made everything outside of work feel suddenly uncertain.

I’ve also had to be the one delivering that news.
What stays with me isn’t what I said.
It’s what I saw.
The pause before someone replied.
The way they nodded, even when it hurt.
How often they asked about everyone else instead of themselves.

There wasn’t anger.
There was care.

People checking in on teammates.
Worrying about how the team would manage.
Trying to make sense of what came next.

That kind of response doesn’t come from policies or values written on a wall.
It comes from how people have been treated all along.

You don’t really understand leadership when things are moving fast and going well.
You understand it when something breaks and there is nowhere to hide.

We talk a lot about growth.
But responsibility shows up differently.
It sits with you long after the meeting ends.
Long after the decision is made.

Those moments are uncomfortable, and they should be.
Because once the decision is made, there’s nowhere else for it to land but on you.
You don’t get to soften it with language or hide behind process.
All you can do is stand in it, be clear, be honest, and make sure the people affected are treated with as much care as possible.
Not because it looks good.
Because you owe them that.

If things get hard → raise.
If growth slows → raise.
If you’re unsure → raise.

There’s a weird default in startups…
Everyone’s obsessed with raising.
But no one really stops to ask the boring question:

What exactly are we trying to buy with this money?

Not the pitch-deck version.
The one you’re honest about when it’s just you and the numbers.

Some of the best decisions I’ve made at Plumm didn’t happen after a round.
They happened when there was little (sometimes VERY little) money in the bank.
Because that’s when you’re forced to think differently.
You get creative.
You stop hiding behind “we’ll fix it after the raise”.
You really ask: what actually moves the needle?

Scarcity sharpens you.
It forces out-of-the-box thinking.
It makes you ruthless about priorities.
Sales matters more.
Focus matters more.
Every spend suddenly has to earn its place.

Somewhere along the way, we’ve been sold this fundraiser lifestyle.
The press.
The LinkedIn posts.
The idea that raising equals success.

But money isn’t success.
It’s just fuel.
And fuel on a bad engine doesn’t fix the engine.

There were moments where raising felt like the obvious next step.
And then we realised it wasn’t.
The better question became:
How do we push revenue?
How do we sell better?
What can we do without more capital?

Raising can make sense, I’m not anti-fundraising, but raising by default is a trap.
And sometimes, having less is exactly what makes you a better founder.
Because when there’s no safety net, your instincts show up properly.

You can’t make an A-player out of a B-player.

I know people hate hearing that.
I used to, too.

For a long time, I thought the right coaching, enough time, or “the right environment” would change people. It doesn’t. Not in the way founders hope it will.

I’ve tried. 
More than once. 
And every time, it cost the business.

Ash didn’t step up because he was promoted. 
He was promoted because he was already acting like it mattered to him personally.

No one had to chase him. 
No one had to spell things out twice. 
No one had to convince him to care.

He already did.
That’s the difference.
Some people feel ownership naturally. 
Others wait to be told what to do, how to do it, and when it’s “enough.”

You can train skills. 
You can’t train that internal bar.

At some point, I stopped trying to turn the wrong people into the right ones. And started backing the people who were already wired differently.

Everything got easier after that. 
Decisions. 
Trust. 
Progress.

Ash is a good example of this.
He is THAT person who takes responsibility even when no one is watching.
He cares.

If this makes you uncomfortable, good. 
It should.

PS: Choose carefully. 
And stop lying to yourself about potential.

The worst way to start a business:

	1.	Decide you want to be a founder before knowing what you want to build (because you like the “lifestyle”..)
	2.	Reverse-engineer a product that sounds good to investors, not customers
	3.	Build an MVP to justify a deck, not to solve a problem
	4.	Avoid talking to users because “we already know the market”
	5.	Call early confusion “vision”
	6.	Ship features no one asked for because they look impressive in demos
	7.	Measure success by meetings booked, not problems solved
	8.	Sell discounts as “traction”
	9.	Hire sales to compensate for unclear value
	10.	Blame sales when customers don’t convert
	11.	Add more features instead of fixing the core problem
	12.	Call lack of focus “moving fast”
	13.	Run internal meetings about growth instead of external conversations with users
	14.	Burn cash to protect the narrative
	15.	Pivot quietly, rebrand loudly 
	16.	Tell the team profitability comes after scale
	17.	Run out of time, not ideas
	18.	Buy PR articles to boost you ego

Remember: Build something people would miss if it disappeared.

Everyone wants the quick win.
The overnight success.
The shortcut.
The “one good idea”.
What they don’t want is the part before it.

It took me 10 businesses
and 27 years
to get here.

Because that’s how long it took to actually understand what works.
Most of those businesses didn’t fail, they just… faded.
Wrong timing.
Thin margins.
People problems.
Ideas that sounded good but didn’t survive reality.

Each one taught me something small and painfully specific.
How fragile cash really is.
How quickly momentum dies.
How often “almost ready” is just fear in disguise.

There was no big moment where it all clicked, just fewer mistakes over time.
The Plumm people see now isn’t the result of a breakthrough, it’s the result of repetition, and the sum of all the hard lessons learnt in those 27 years.

Everyone wants the result.
Very few want the years it takes to recognise one.
That gap is where most people disappear.

We all say we hate talking about money.
What we really hate is being exposed.

Because money has a way of cutting through the BS.

The biggest mistake I see some founders make is stepping away from numbers too early.

Because staying close to revenue forces uncomfortable conversations.

Sales conversations.
Pricing conversations.
Reality conversations.

Top line tells you if anyone actually wants what you’re building.
Bottom line tells you whether the way you’re building it is sustainable.

Ignore either, and you start lying to yourself.

I’ve seen founders obsess over growth while margins slowly collapse.

I’ve seen “strong pipelines” with no cash to show for it.

By the time they re-engage with the numbers, the options are already limited.

Spreadsheets aren’t finance work. They’re where the truth shows up first.

If you know your numbers, you feel in control.
If you don’t, you call it stress.

That’s the difference.

“Is there still a future in HR?”

That question keeps coming up because a lot of HR work is disappearing in plain sight.

AI is already handling the volume work.
Questions. Admin. Scheduling. Screening.
The things that kept teams busy and roles full.

That part isn’t coming back.

But much of that work was never the value.

For years, HR became the place unfinished thinking was sent.
Vague roles. Avoided conversations. Poor decisions dressed up as process.

AI exposes that.

Because once the admin goes, what’s left is judgement.
And judgement is harder work.

The future of HR belongs to people who can design work that still makes sense as organisations change.
Intervene early, before silence turns into resentment.
Support leaders when there is no policy to hide behind.
Read patterns humans feel long before data shows them.

AI can answer questions.
It can’t rebuild trust.
It can’t decide what “fair” looks like in a messy situation.
It can’t carry the weight of a hard call.

Teams using tools like Plumm are already shifting this way.
Less firefighting.
More thinking.

So yes, there is a future in HR.

But it belongs to those willing to step away from owning process
and into helping organisations make better decisions about work.

Cognitive decline starts earlier than what you think 
(and if you are 30+, you should be reading this..)

Yep, the decline starts in your early 30s..
way earlier than you expected, right?

And interesting enough, the other day I was reading how some studies put the difference between people who actively challenge their brains and those who don’t at 2–3 years of memory decline.
In some cases, closer to a decade…

So, I was like “Hold on a minute.. I need to do something about it..”

So I’ve been trying to go back to basics lately.
And yesterday, instead of doing anything particularly “CEO-productive”,
I did a puzzle.
No phone nearby.
No background noise.

What surprised me wasn’t that it was calming.
It was how unfamiliar it felt to concentrate like that.
Holding pieces in my head.
Remembering what didn’t fit.
Staying with the problem instead of jumping to something else.
That kind of effort used to be normal.
Now it’s rare.

The data on brain longevity is pretty consistent on one thing:
it’s not about consuming more information.
It’s about effortful thinking.
Puzzles, crosswords, problem-solving tasks - they show up again and again in studies on cognitive reserve.
They force the brain to slow down and work.

Kids do this instinctively.
Adults engineer it out of their lives.
Shortcuts.
Assistance.
Constant input.
The brain adapts.

I’m not claiming puzzles are a solution to anything.
But they’re a good reminder.
If brain health matters - not just now, but over time -
it’s worth paying attention to how often we actually ask our brains to do something hard.

Sometimes going back to basics isn’t regression.
It’s maintenance 👌🏼

PS: What was your weekend “brain activity”?

“Graduates should work for free.”

That’s not a hot take.
It’s exploiting the market while pretending it’s common sense.

What it really says is this:
We want output without accountability.
We want talent without doing the work of building it.

Entry-level roles were never meant to be efficient, they were meant to be formative.
You hired for raw potential.
You tolerated mistakes.
You invested time before expecting judgement.
That’s how people got good.

Now?
Many companies want graduates who arrive finished.
Tool-ready. Confident. Immediately useful.

And when they don’t?
The gap gets filled with unpaid labour.
“Trials.”
“Exposure.”
Open-ended internships with no real intent to hire.

The cost moves from the balance sheet to the individual.
Income disappears.
Waiting becomes the price of entry.
At that point, talent isn’t about ability, it’s about who can afford to be patient.

AI is making this worse.
The low-risk learning work is vanishing.
Junior roles are fewer.
The remaining ones demand judgement before judgement has time to exist.
Instead of redesigning how people grow, many companies opt out altogether.

Pay matters.
Not as a moral argument.
As a forcing function.
Pay creates obligation.
Clear expectations.
Feedback.
Actual management.

Without pay, there is no graduate role.
There is only unpaid labour with nicer language.

If you hire graduates, you’re making a choice.
Either you build capability, or you extract value and avoid responsibility.

We’ve always paid interns, because serious companies invest in the pipeline they depend on.

If you hire graduates, pay them.
That’s the line between developing people
and taking advantage of them.

"Work smart, not hard."
That's how people justify being LAZY.

And it usually comes from those who have never done the hard part first.

At the start of anything new (a role, a company, a team, a product) you simply don't know enough. You haven't seen enough. You haven't broken enough things.

Saying "hard work isn't needed" at the beginning is complete BS.
You're trying to avoid building the foundation.

The only way you learn what matters is by putting the bloody work in.
Getting close to the details.
Seeing where time gets wasted.
Feeling where decisions hurt.

That's how judgement is built. Only after that do systems make sense.
Only then can you remove effort without removing understanding.
Only then does "working smart" actually mean something.

Skipping that phase doesn't make you efficient. It makes you fragile.
You end up managing ideas instead of reality, faking confidence until shit hits the fan.

Every good operator I've met has done the same:
Deep into the execution
Understood the gaps
Simplified ops
Built a system to scale

In that order. And repeat.

So yes, work smart.
But earn it.

Because if you haven't done the hard work yet, you're not being smart.
You're just hoping.
(and being LAZY)

Founder & CEO at Stafi | Remote Staffing Solutions for Law Firms | Empowering Women Entrepreneurs | Psychologist, Author & Speaker

Hi, I’m Raquel, Founder & CEO of Stafi.

As a Brazilian immigrant and entrepreneur, I know what it means to build something from the ground up. 

Throughout my career in high-pressure, male-dominated industries, I saw how often women, especially business owners, were overworked, juggling too much, and struggling to find the right support.

That’s why I built Stafi, to provide law firm owners with highly skilled, fully supported talent from Latin America, while giving them back the time and freedom to actually enjoy their success. But for me, this mission is personal. 

I’m deeply passionate about empowering women in Latin America, creating career opportunities that allow them to grow, thrive, and build better futures for themselves and their families.

We don’t just place virtual staff, we train, mentor, and support them, ensuring they become true assets to your business. 

Today, with over 600 staff members and 420 law firms as clients, we’ve proven that building a thriving law firm doesn’t have to mean doing it all alone.

Looking for cost-effective solutions to scale your firm with the right support? Let’s connect: https://getstafi.com/schedule-a-call/
Or give us a call, we are available 24/7: (786) 891-5619

Raquel Gomes

Successful? Yes ✅
But also: exhausted, anxious and honestly, kind of miserable.

Let’s talk about it - the kind of success that doesn’t feel good.
The kind that looks great on LinkedIn, but slowly grinds away at your health, your relationships, and ultimately your happiness.

That was me. Following a model I didn’t design.
One that was built for a different era and actually, for different people altogether.

The legal industry, and corporate culture at large, was built on this model of constant availability, constant performance and constant hustle.
Which yes, allowed me to win.
But in real life, I was depleted.

I recently sat down with Kaysia Earley, Esq. for a conversation about redefining success and what it actually means to lead as a woman, not as an imitation of a man.

And we realized something quite powerful:
That our struggle with confidence is actually a struggle with conditioning.

We were told:
→ “Be helpful.” So we overfunction.
→ “Don’t be bossy.” So we undercommunicate.
→ “Be nice.” So we avoid hard conversations.
And we’ve been trying to survive that system ever since, instead of reshaping it.

But I’ve learnt over the years that being powerful does not require being depleted.

The old narrative of being a badass woman meant being always on, putting work above everything, and proving worth through output.
My new narrative is about calm authority, clear boundaries and making room for all aspects of me.

It’s time freedom.
It’s laughing with my daughter on a Tuesday afternoon and not having to feel guilty for it.

Now, success means:
✅ Building a business that runs with me rather than running me into the ground.
✅ Knowing I don’t have to do it all myself to be excellent.
✅ Choosing sustainability over sacrifice.

If success is costing you your health or happiness, it’s way too expensive.

Let’s rewrite the rules.

I’ve been paying a tax for years. 
Chances are, you’re paying it too.. and you don’t even know it.

It’s not on paper.
It won’t show up in your accounting software.
But you feel it.
It’s the tax women pay for backing themselves in a world that quietly suggests we shouldn’t.
The cost of raising your hand when you’re not 100% “ready.”
Of building something without asking for permission.
Of believing in a vision no one else can see yet.

When I started Stafi, I had no investors, no blueprint, and a baby in my arms.
What I did have was this quiet, uncomfortable belief that there had to be another way - one where I didn’t have to choose between motherhood and leadership. One where I could do both, and do them well.

But trusting that wasn’t free.
Every day, I paid the price in self-doubt, second-guessing, and the pressure to be perfect - not just competent, but unquestionably qualified at all times.

That’s what I call the delusion tax.
The emotional and mental toll of believing in yourself as a woman in spaces that were never built with you in mind.
And here’s what makes it heavier:
Men are often rewarded for boldness.
Women are often punished for it.
So we learn to hesitate. We overthink. We wait.
We work twice as hard to earn half the confidence.
But when we decide to go anyway

When we start before we feel ready, ask for what we’re worth, and lead in ways that don’t fit the mold
We lower that tax for the next generation of women.

So if you’re carrying something big, and part of you is wondering whether it’s too much...
I’ve been there.
And I hope you keep going.
You’re not delusional.
You’re building something the world doesn’t know how to measure yet.
But one day, it will.

Winning cases won’t grow your law firm anymore.
Winning trust will.

You can deliver the best legal outcome possible.
You can fight like hell for your client.
But if their emails go unanswered, if no one checks in after the consultation, if the intake felt cold and rushed…
They’ll remember that more than the result.

Because people don’t talk about the paperwork
They talk about how you made them feel.
And that’s what either builds your reputation
or breaks it.

The law firms that are scaling right now?
They’ve figured this out.
They’ve stopped trying to do it all in-house.
They’ve invested in systems that create a seamless client experience without burning out their attorneys.
It’s not about being perfect.
It’s about being present, responsive, and real, at every single touchpoint.

I wrote more about this here:
👉 https://lnkd.in/ebUBeVXv
If you're serious about growth, don’t just obsess over your numbers.
Obsess over your experience.
That’s where the magic is.

“There’s room for all of us.”

I watched Helen Mirren honour the women who shaped her journey on a global stage, and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t get me a bit teary-eyed.

Because the first time I felt truly supported by another woman in business, it caught me off guard.

I wasn’t used to it.

I was raised with this idea that another woman’s success meant there was less room for me. That we had to compete. That there wasn’t space for softness, vulnerability or real connection in leadership.

And I believed that for a long time.

Until I realized there was no need to compete when we could collaborate instead.

The women winning together were creating spaces where we could say:
“I’ve been through it too.”
“You don’t have to prove yourself here.”
And “Let me show you how I did it, so you don’t have to burn out figuring it out alone.”

And once I let go of the belief that I had to do it all on my own, everything changed.

My business grew.
My energy came back.
I started building community along with building a company.

So this is your reminder to celebrate the women who support you.

Because there’s more than enough space at the table.

And if there isn’t?
We’ll build a bigger one.

They told me I had to move fast.
That slow was risky. That big wins only came from big sprints.

But I kept choosing something else.

I passed on the “high-potential” hires that didn’t feel aligned.
I said no to deals that looked good on paper but felt off in my gut.
I chose to stay close to my daughter.
I built around my capacity.
I scaled my company the way I live my life:
intentionally.

For years, I wondered if that meant I was doing it wrong.
But the truth?
We’re not scaling wrong.
We’re scaling differently.
And it’s bloody working.

Companies with women in senior leadership are more profitable, more innovative, and more sustainable over time.
McKinsey calls it a performance advantage. I call it living in alignment.

Because when women lead, we build in relationship.
To our clients.
To our teams.
To our values.
To our bodies.

At Stafi, we work with hundreds of women-led law firms.
You know what they have in common?
They’re not chasing speed.
They’re chasing sovereignty.
They grow in ways that leave room for joy, health, and children who still recognize their mother at the dinner table.
They don’t trade away their wellbeing for performance.
They build systems where performance includes wellbeing.

This isn’t some ideal. It’s a strategy. It’s a movement.
And it’s already happening.

The world doesn’t need more founders with broken nervous systems.
It needs more women who trust their timing. And create businesses that can breathe.

That’s the kind of growth I’m committed to.
That’s the kind of leadership I believe in.

Ambition has never been the problem.

It’s the definition of it that’s broken.

Because when a man says he’s ambitious?
We picture money, power, leadership, legacy.

When a woman says the same thing?
We ask:
“Sure, but what about your kids?”
“Are you sure you’re not being selfish?”
“Can you really have it all?”
I’ve heard it all.

But here’s what no one tells you:
You can be a present mother and a powerful leader.
You can run a business and run to school pickup.
You can delegate, slow down, laugh more, and grow faster.
Ambition doesn’t have to look like burnout.
It can look like boundaries.
It can sound like “no.”
It can feel like ease.

I used to believe I had to work twice as hard to earn my seat.
Now I build my own table, and I make sure there’s room for rest and revenue.
And I want more women to do the same.
So no, we don’t struggle with ambition.

We struggle with a system that sold us a definition that doesn’t include us.
We’re rewriting it.
On our terms.
With our values.
With our joy intact.

Because what’s the point of “success” if you don’t get to live it?
Ambition, redefined.

What does it look like for you?
👇 Let’s build the new version together.

Are your AI tools helping you make a mess?

So many of us are obsessed with the idea that the ‘right’ software will change everything.
Better efficiency. Faster intake. Less stress. More time.

But honestly, none of that is ever going to happen if your current processes aren’t in order.

Not too long ago, a PI attorney I follow posted about her frustration.
Months after investing thousands in AI tools, there was still no ROI to be seen.

Even though tasks that had previously taken her team 8 hours now took closer to 30 minutes, they still weren’t growing.

It wasn’t because the tool was bad.
It was that the underlying systems weren’t ready for it.

It’s something I’ve noticed across law firms I’ve worked with.

We want the quick win, the automation, the tech solution… but we skip the boring stuff:
✅ Documenting how things are done
✅ Clarifying who owns what
✅ Creating accountability structures
✅ Building a culture where feedback is valued

None of that really looks like the thing that will actually move the needle.
But it IS what drives results, whether you’re delegating to a new team member or implementing a new tool.

So before you put thousands into the next shiny solution, ask yourself:
→ Is our current process actually working without tech?
→ Would a new hire know exactly what to do on day one?
→ Are we avoiding hard conversations by hoping software will solve it?
→ Is your case data complete, consistent, and actually usable?
→ Who’s taking ownership of learning, implementing and maintaining the new tool?

Buying the tool is the easy part.
The work that matters happens before the purchase.

Get your people aligned. Get your processes clear. Then the tools will actually do what they're supposed to.

The most expensive mistake isn't buying the wrong software. It's buying it too soon.

Just 14%.

That's how many leadership roles in fashion are held by women.

In an industry built on female consumers, female creativity and female labor.

When women are underrepresented in leadership, entire businesses suffer. Not because women are "better" leaders. But because diverse leadership creates stronger decisions:

→ Companies with gender-diverse leadership teams are 21% more likely to outperform on profitability.
→ Diverse teams consider more perspectives, catch blind spots earlier, and build products that actually reflect their market.
→ Women leaders tend to bring higher emotional intelligence to the table. Not because of biology but because many have had to read rooms, navigate bias and lead without formal authority for years.

The problem is, we operate in a system that wasn't designed for this.

Most industries, fashion included, were built on structures that reward one type of leadership.

And when you don't fit that mold? You're told to adapt.
Smile more.
Speak up, but not too much.
Be assertive, but likable.

So women leave. Or they stay and plateau. Or they build their own tables.

The solution isn't just "hire more women." It's redesigning the entire structure. Flexible leadership models.
Promotion criteria based on impact, not hours logged.

Because when women lead, the whole system changes.
Not just for women. For everyone.

So if you're in fashion, tech, law or any industry where this gap exists,
ask yourself what structures are still in place that weren't built for diverse leadership.

Then start dismantling them!

Because women don’t need to lead like men to make an impact.
They need to lead.
Full-stop.

Most law firm owners are flying blind.

They’re growing, hiring, delegating.

But not tracking what matters.

Today, we’re hosting our next Inner Circle Workshop, and it’s all about data-driven growth for law firm owners.

Paul Angelle will be leading the conversation, discussing:
👉 If you can’t measure it, you can’t grow it: The essential KPIs every law firm must track in 2026.

He’ll get into:
→ The exact numbers to track
→ How to use them to delegate smarter
→ And why guessing is what’s keeps firms stuck

If you're in the Inner Circle, see you there.

If you’re not yet and this hit a nerve, DM me or signup here: 👉 https://lnkd.in/eC9CzJDC

Let’s stop the guesswork so you can lead with clarity.

My dad owned one of the largest HVAC factories in Latin America. 

And then… it all disappeared.

When technology changed the industry, his business didn’t adapt.
It was heartbreaking to witness as a daughter.

But it also taught me one of the most important lessons of my life:
Innovation doesn’t wait for anyone.

This January, I’ll be in Orlando speaking at the AI for PI Expo with Demetrio Rico (yes, we’re presenting together!), and we’ll be talking about this exact moment in time.
Because I’ve seen what happens when people resist change.
And I’ve also seen what happens when they embrace it, with intention, not fear.

Let’s be real: AI is not going away.
But also, AI is not magic.
Without systems, without structure, without clear workflows, it becomes chaos.
We’ll be speaking about how to actually scale using AI, not just talk about it like it’s some shiny object.
Because for law firm owners (especially women), time is our most limited and valuable resource.

If you’re planning to be there, I’d love to meet in person.
🗓 Jan 15–17 | JW Marriott Orlando
🎟 Use my speaker code STAFIAI25 for 25% off
🔗 https://lnkd.in/ehsJqzmN

Let’s talk AI, systems, and what it really takes to grow without burning out.

We keep reacting to violence against women.
But when do we start preventing it?

The UK just announced a £20M package to teach consent, healthy relationships and respect, before toxic ideas take root. Nearly 40% of teens in relationships already experience abuse.

So the government is finally addressing the issue where it often starts: in education.

Meanwhile, in South America, we face some of the highest rates of harassment and violence against women globally.
And yet, the conversation still focuses on what women should do to stay safe.

Walk differently.
Dress modestly.
Be smaller.

That's not prevention.
It’s teaching women to live in survival mode.

Real prevention?
It's teaching boys about consent before their first relationship.
It's helping young men identify harmful messaging before it shapes their worldview.
And creating a generation that doesn't have to unlearn misogyny, because they were never taught it in the first place.

This isn't just a women's issue.
It's a societal one.

And we can't keep waiting for the next alarming statistic to take action.
The lineage of violence, harassment, and normalized disrespect.
That ends once we stop accepting it as inevitable.

It stops when we invest in education. In conversation. In accountability.

The UK is stepping in. South America needs to do the same.

Our daughters deserve more than coping strategies.

*Pic credits: The Female Quotient

1200 people. One city. Countless possibilities!

On January 27th at 4:00PM, I’ll be in Miami speaking at the National Trial Lawyers Summit, one of the biggest legal and business events of the year!

My session?
👉 Redefining Success: Leading as Women, Not as Imitations of Men.

Because for too long, leadership has come wrapped in a suit, a schedule that leaves no room for family and a mindset that glorifies burnout.

That’s not my definition of success, and I know it’s not yours either!

In the past few years, I’ve gone from corporate burnout to building a business that supports freedom, joy and ambition.
Not just for me, but for hundreds of women running law firms across the U.S.

At this event, I’ll be sharing the truths I had to unlearn, the systems I had to build and the mindset shifts that helped me stop leading by someone else’s rules and start building success on my own terms.

What I love most about events like this?
The unfiltered conversations.
The aha moments.
The stories of growth, leadership and the messy beauty of doing life and business differently.

So if you’re:
→ a female founder juggling life and legacy
→ a law firm owner tired of doing it all alone
→ someone who believes there’s more than one way to lead

Come to my session. Let’s connect. Let’s talk.
Drop a comment or message me if you’ll be there, I would truly love to meet!

Burnout isn't just burning people out.

It's burning the entire legal model down.

And honestly? Maybe that's not such a bad thing.
(hear me out..)

I've been watching the industry for years now, and the pattern is impossible to ignore.
Talented lawyers leaving.
Firms scrambling.
Clients frustrated.
And everyone asking the same question: "Why is it so hard to find good people?"

I've realized that it was never a talent problem - it’s a sustainability one.
→ The billing targets.
→ The 80-hour workweeks.
→ The pressure to always be on.
→ The idea that rest is weakness.

It’s not just outdated, it’s dangerous.

The lawyers I talk to aren't leaving because they don't love the industry.
They're leaving because they can't keep living like this.

And the firms that are thriving right now?
They're the ones who stopped waiting for things to go back to "normal."

They embraced flexible work before it became a buzzword.
They invested in support staff so lawyers could actually practice law.
They built cultures where having boundaries wasn't seen as weakness.

Because the old model was breaking people.
And broken people can't serve clients well.

So yes, burnout is reshaping the legal industry.
But what's emerging on the other side might actually be better.
More human.
More sustainable.
More aligned with how people actually want to work.

The legal world is at a crossroads.
And the ones who are brave enough to lead with humanity, who create workplaces where rest, support and sustainability are the norm, will be the ones who thrive.

If this resonated, you can read my full article here:
https://lnkd.in/eFZs-eDJ...

“Be nice. Be quiet. Be patient.”
That’s what we were told growing up. But here’s what they forgot to mention:
you’ll also be ignored.

We teach women that if they wait their turn, it’ll come.
But all I ever saw was women waiting... and growing smaller.

Until one day, I stopped waiting.
I stopped asking for permission to lead.
I stopped apologizing for taking up space.

When I left corporate, it wasn’t just for freedom.
It was because I refused to shrink.
I refused to let my daughter believe that ambition and motherhood cancel each other out.
I refused to live in the same cage my mother was handed.

So yes, I lead differently.
I lead while laughing. While loving. While resting.
While crying in therapy.
While showing up, even when I’m scared.
While building alongside the man I’ve loved since I was 20.
While mothering without guilt.

And if they call that disruptive?
Good.

Because the next generation needs to see what real power looks like
Not perfect.
Not polite.
But present. On our terms.

🚨 Last call to join me live!

If you’re overwhelmed, wearing too many hats or just craving more ease in your business…
This webinar is for you!

On January 22nd, I’m going live to share the exact strategies I use to help law firm owners scale with confidence, without burning out.

Our “Staffing for Success” session is all about practical, simple tools that actually make a difference.

This is your last chance to sign up.
If you’ve been waiting for the ‘right’ moment to invest in yourself, this is it.

🗓️ Live on Jan 22nd
Sign up here: 👉 https://lnkd.in/eMUPStsG

No one tells you that building a company as a woman means unlearning everything you were ever praised for.

Being nice.
Being agreeable.
Being selfless.
Being the one who always holds it all together.
Those things don’t help you when you’re running a business.
They hold you back.

I had to unlearn:
– Saying yes when I wanted to say no
– Carrying everything on my own to prove I could
– Being “easy to work with” instead of being honest
– Smiling when I was drowning inside

At one point, I realized I wasn’t building from power, I was building from fear.
Fear of not being enough.
Fear of being judged.
Fear of failing at both work and motherhood.
It took therapy.
It took a lot of crying.
It took asking for help (which felt like failure at first).
It took finally saying: I don’t want to do it like this anymore.

And slowly, everything shifted.
I stopped leading like I was still trying to earn a gold star.
I started trusting myself more.
I stopped trying to be perfect.
And I started allowing ease.

Now I take month-long vacations with my family.
Now I delegate without guilt.
Now my daughter says she wants to be like me.
(Three years ago, she told me she didn’t. That broke me.)

So if you’re building a business and feeling like you’re barely holding it together:
You’re not doing it wrong.
You might just be doing it the way you were taught.
And that’s the real thing to question.

If your business can’t run without you,
you don’t have a business…
..you have a job.

And probably a very exhausting one.
I learned that the hard way.

This week, Demetrio and I are heading to Orlando to speak at the PILMMA event - and if you’re a law firm owner who’s ready to grow without burning out, this is the room you want to be in.

We’ll be breaking down how we scaled our company by building systems that actually work:
✔️ Systems that don’t collapse the moment you log off
✔️ Real delegation (the kind that ends fights - yes, we’ll go there)
✔️ And why adding AI to a broken process is a fast track to disaster

We’ll share the messy middle too - the failed workflows, the control issues, and what finally got us out of our own way.
📍 Orlando | Jan 15–17
🎤 Honest, in-person conversation
🔗 pilmma.org/ai-for-pi-expo

Still time to grab a spot.
See you there?

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