Discover how to “Love Your Leadership”, with Hakim Lakhdar from Lakhdar Coaching. Hakim shares how his unusual journey from Key West musician to Harvard Law educator to executive coach, shaped a simple truth: the way you show up daily is what builds trust, wins referrals, and creates five-star operations.

You’ll hear how to strengthen emotional intelligence, lead with authenticity, and build transparent cultures where lawyers and teams thrive. Hakim breaks down practical routines, self-audits, and mindset shifts that keep you calm, confident, and consistent in both your practice and life.

Key Topics

03:21 — Hakim shares how growing up abroad and performing in Key West shaped his coaching lens

04:14 — Discover how work in Central Asia revealed the power of professional coaching

04:47 — Learn how executive education at Harvard and Miami Law shaped his approach with attorneys

06:02 — Hear why focusing on “who you’re being while you work” matters more than doing more

06:59 — See why emotional intelligence is no longer a “soft skill” but a must-have for lawyers

10:02 — Get a no-judgment method to self-audit and increase self-awareness

12:08 — Understand how stripping away law school conditioning helps you lead authentically

14:04 — Compare two similar firms and learn how operations create dramatically different results

14:43 — Discover how transparency and open communication strengthen culture and execution

19:07 — Hakim explains how honest self-check-ins guide career pivots and keep leadership aligned

20:59 — Hear how early sensitivity became a leadership superpower with the right channel

22:59 — Learn how personality frameworks like DISC and animal types help teams work better together

24:51 — Explore Hakim’s “why” and what it means to truly love your leadership

26:38 — See how AI tools like Fathom and ChatGPT support focus and productivity

29:15 — Find out how morning routines, fitness, and wellness practices protect long-term energy

31:01 — Discover books that reshape money mindset and client value in entrepreneurship

32:40 — Hear which podcasts and thought-provoking content Hakim values for growth

33:43 — Learn why referrals to coaching are best viewed as a gift, not criticism

Resources Mentioned

• Fathom AI Notetaker – https://fathom.video
• ChatGPT – https://openai.com

Books

• Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg - https://a.co/d/2P5Daau
• Taking Flight! by Merrick Rosenberg & Daniel Silvert  - https://a.co/d/cv18oBe
• Love Money, Money Loves You by Sarah McCrum - https://a.co/d/iFM9s0y
• The Law of Divine Compensation by Marianne Williamson - https://a.co/d/bWzfF06 

Podcasts

• Coaches Rising – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/coaches-rising/id1144203613
• Live Into Your Brilliance – https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/live-into-your-brilliance/id1695544209

About our Guest:

Hakim helps leaders uncover the unseen patterns blocking their success so they can lead with authenticity, courage, and clarity. For over 15 years, he has guided entrepreneurs, executives, and high performers worldwide—from directing high-profile programs at Harvard Law School to serving with the American Bar Association in Washington, D.C., Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, to coaching leaders across industries. As host of the Access Your Leadership podcast, Hakim shares powerful stories of transformation and practical strategies for mastering self-leadership, navigating career transitions, and overcoming leadership challenges. A devoted husband and proud father to identical twin boys, Hakim believes leadership is deeply personal—because it’s not just about what you do, but who you are being.

https://lakhdarcoaching.com/ 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hakimlakhdar/ 

Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0907thUNk2ZNZ9V08W8Xth?si=7330def6c2dc4e7c 

About Jay Berkowitz:

Jay Berkowitz is a best-selling author and popular keynote speaker. Mr. Berkowitz managed marketing departments at: Coca-Cola, Sprint and McDonald's Restaurants, and he is the Founder and CEO of Ten Golden Rules,  a digital marketing agency specialized in working with attorneys.

Mr. Berkowitz is the author of Advanced Internet Marketing for Law Firms, The Ten Golden Rules of Online Marketing and 10 Free Internet Marketing Strategies that went to #1 on Amazon.  He is the host of the Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing Webinar and Podcast. He has been profiled by the Wall Street Journal, The Business Journals and FOX Business TV.

Mr. Berkowitz was selected for membership as a TITAN for Elite Digital Marketing Agencies, he is the recipient of a SOFIE Award for Most Effective use of Emerging Media, and a Special BERNAY’s Award.

Connect with Ten Golden Rules

Subscribe to Ten Golden Rules on YouTube

Check out our webinars on TenGoldenRules.com

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Follow Ten Golden Rules on Facebook

Connect with Jay Berkowitz on LinkedIn

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I spent most of my early career surrounded by

lawyers. So I got to learn them in my degree in undergrad with

sociology. So I'm a lover of people and groups and the way

that people operate and think, and, you know, to observe them

as I always would. I learned a lot about the way lawyers think

and the way that lawyers operate, and as any lawyer will

attest to, the journey through law school is this sort of like

forced molding of what a lawyer ought to look like and think

like and talk like. And what I'm always encouraging my legal

professional clients to do is let's try to strip some of that

away. Let's keep all the learning, let's keep all the

experience, all the valuable things that you've acquired

along the way, but let's strip some of the expectations and the

shoulds and all of that and get back to sort of who you are at

your core, so that you can operate in a unique way to you,

but also in an authentic way. And that becomes something that

become much more consistent, much more confident in the way

that you deliver that, and then your clients feel that as well,

versus reinventing yourself. Who am I going to be today? What

lawyer does my client need me to be today? Yes, circumstances

require a different approach, but not a different person. And

I think that I'm always curious to see who you really are. I

mean that question, so who are you can be really uncomfortable

and confronting for a lot of people, especially lawyers, when

they've worked so hard to create an image or a persona around who

they are as legal professionals. So I like to strip that away and

kind of get back to if you were to do this exactly your way,

what would it look

like? Well, good morning, good afternoon, good

evening, whatever time this podcast finds you, welcome to

the 10 golden rules of internet marketing for law firms podcast.

Great guest today. We'll get to him in two seconds. Today's

commercial is for the 10 golden rules of internet marketing for

law firms podcast. And if you enjoy it and you're a regular,

do me a favor. Send it to another attorney. Send it to

someone in the industry. I'd actually love to connect with

folks who work with lawyers, accountants, business coaches,

software or lawyers. Maybe one of those folks could be a guest

on the podcast. Send them to me. We'll have them on the podcast.

So today's commercial is, send it to a friend. Thank you in

advance. And today I'm excited. I'm like extra fired up today.

You guys can tell, because my guest today is someone I've

known for about three or four years. We've been in two

different networking groups together. Hakeem lachdar from

lockdar coaching, welcome to the 10 golden rules of internet

marketing for law firms podcast.

Mister Jay Berkowitz, I am so excited to be

here with you today. I'm a big fan, and this is fun.

This is like extra fun for me because we've

shared beers and lunches and networking and referrals and

conferences, and we've done it all. So yeah, today it's a

little bit extra fun for me. We always start out with a

question, and we want to learn a little bit about your journey.

And Hakeem has got a great one, by the way, I might even coax

him to sing before we tell him that in advance. So his journey

includes singing. So tell us how you became locked our coaching.

Well, I won't even go into all the twists and

turns, and thank you, Jay for already planting the seed there,

because my hand starts sweating, and the minute you said, I was

like, Oh no, yeah, I've had a really interesting journey. I

spent the early years of my life in the Middle East, Kuwait and

Saudi Arabia. I moved to Florida, where I grew up most of

my life. Went to Florida State University, go Knowles, and

started playing music there toward the southeast, ended up

being a featured act in Key West, Florida, which is what you

were alluding to, played at Irish Kevin's, the best bar in

Key West and had an amazing time. But I knew that there was

something more for me out there. I was destined to do more with

my talents and my experiences, and I went to graduate school in

Indiana University. I moved to DC, and next thing I knew, I was

in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, working in places that are not

on your short list of Spring Break destinations, but what an

amazing opportunity to go to Central Asia and work there. And

that's where I fell in love with coaching. I was helping to

support and develop my field staff out there, and while they

would benefit from so much information around writing

quarterly reports or annual reports. They really, actually

were hungry for leadership, support, professional coaching.

And I saw that need, and I leaned into it, and I absolutely

loved it. And I moved on to another opportunity at Harvard

Law School. Did executive education there with lawyers,

leadership and management training for lawyers around the

world, and then moved back down to South Florida with my wife

and kids. I was working at University of Miami, also doing

a more executive education, and just felt this pull to working

with individuals, one on one, because that's where I saw the

real opportunity for transformation.

So you took your talents from Tajikistan to South

Beach. That's right, that's right. Oh yeah. LeBron. James

LeBron, yep, you brought your talents back to South Beach.

That's awesome. So Hakeem works with a lot of attorneys. He also

works with a lot of folks who aren't attorneys. Yeah, but tell

me about your company and the current role, and you do a kind

of a unique approach to coaching. You aren't as much

about the doing you as as you explained it, you're more about

how you do it, but yeah, I'll let you say it in your words.

Yeah. Thank you so locked our coaching has been

around since 2019 it's a one man show. I have a lot of people who

support what I do in terms of helping me on my podcast and

social media and things like that, but in terms of what I do

and who does it, it's me, and I love that, because I get to

interact with my clients very intimately throughout our

engagements. And as you said, we're spending so much time, and

myself included, focused on what we need to do more of what we

need to do better. And I really like working with my clients on

who they're being while they do it, and that understanding of

who they are being, what they are feeling, what they are

experiencing, what they love, what they don't love, what

they're good at, what they could work on to improve as they're

doing all of these things that were being, you know, sort of

encouraged and sometimes even pressured to do, whether it's

self imposed or not, that piece of it, the being piece of it,

the understanding what it means to lead oneself before leading

others is really the essence of my coaching.

There's a couple terms that keep coming up in my

sphere. Well, one of them is nonviolent communications, NVC,

and the other one is emotional intelligence. That sounds like a

lot of the work you do is in in those spheres.

Yeah, yeah. 100% I think emotional intelligence,

especially. We see the posts everywhere now where people are

very vocal about how these once named soft skills, are no longer

soft these are must haves. These are crucial skills to success,

and a lot of people didn't understand how that factored

into an individual's success, especially if they were a high

achiever or top performer. But actually it's that top

performance, plus the emotional intelligence piece, some of

those soft skills, which I'm reluctant to even call them that

anymore, but the emotional intelligence piece is what

allows people to be trustworthy, to build trust, to create

relationships to, you know, maintain clients long term. And

I think that's something that people are really starting to

lean into, and really starting to focus a lot more of their

resources on.

So give us emotional intelligence for

dummies. What are three of the skills, or seven of the steps?

Yeah.

Well, I think emotional intelligence, as I

would define it, is really a deeper and clear understanding

of one's self from an emotional level, obviously, but how you

react to things, what sort of things trigger you, how you make

people around you feel your ability or inability to connect

deeply with others. And again, deeply doesn't mean deep, dark

secrets and over sharing. It just means being real and

authentic. And the only way to do that, I think, in terms of

the self awareness that's required for higher emotional

intelligence, is just that to become more self aware. They're

not three or seven. I think it's really more than more like one,

it's finding a practice that works for you, where you can

start noticing patterns that are developing in the way that you

interact with people based on your emotional responses to

things.

Maybe differentiate, for me, the role

in communicating with clients and customers and peers and

communicating with employees? Yeah.

I mean, I think we could pick that apart, and I

think there are potentially different ways that one might

communicate to each of those groups, depending on what the

perceived outcome is, but ultimately they're all the same,

because, as I was sharing with you earlier, it's really about

leading oneself first before leading others. And you are

leading your clients, you are leading your employees, you are

leading your peers. And if you are effective at leading

yourself, and you know where you're coming from, and it's

consistent and it's authentic and it's clear and it's

confident, then it's consistent like that across the groups.

Yes, your intention may be different, or your desired

outcome might be slightly different, but the way in which

you communicate ought to be the same. And I think it ought to be

the same, not because it should, but because that's what's going

to feel most congruent, most aligned with you, and you're not

going to have to force or fake your way through communication.

You used the terms earlier about learning

yourself and doing a self audit. Again, that's part of the work

you do with your clients, but maybe give us the high level.

Yeah. How? Someone can do that. Is there a book? Is there a

course?

Or there are lots of interesting books around

this? Anything that you can look up, if you just Google Self

Mastery, for example, that's really good. Andrew Bryant is

another godfather of self leadership, which is the core of

my coaching, leading oneself, first and foremost. But I think

that the essence of of self audits or self leadership or

self awareness is really doing it from a place of non judgment,

and that's the real crucial piece, because it's one thing to

notice things about oneself, but then if you spiral into judging

yourself and beating yourself up, because we all are our own

harshest critic, right? I mean, once you start to notice those

things, do it from a place of light, easy, fun, rather than

this place of, like, overly critical, over, over, judging

yourself, because then you're going to spiral out into a

different direction, and you're not going to benefit from the

learning. If you see, I'm taking notes, we're

actually doing a culture exercise at our company. So, Oh,

fantastic. I'm paying close attention, by all means, not

only is he a good guy and a buddy smart. I forgot that part

in the introduction. Maybe try and put it in context for

lawyers. This is the Internet Marketing for law firms podcast.

We're doing a lot of work in growth strategies and how

companies can give five star operations, and I'm sure your

advice is relevant for everyone else we're talking to here.

Sure, how do you take it to that next level?

Yeah, so you know this about me, Jay, but I spent

over two decades working with lawyers. So even though I'm a

non lawyer, as we call ourselves, I worked at the

American Bar Association, I worked at Harvard Law School,

and I worked at Miami law so I spent most of my early career

surrounded by lawyers. So I got to learn them in my degree in

undergrad with sociology. So I'm a lover of people and groups and

the way that people operate and think, and, you know, to observe

them as I always would. I learned a lot about the way

lawyers think and the way that lawyers operate. And as any

lawyer will attest to, the journey through law school is

this sort of like forced molding of what a lawyer ought to look

like and think like and talk like. And what I'm always

encouraging my legal professional clients to do is

let's try to strip some of that away. Let's keep all the

learning, let's keep all the experience, all the valuable

things that you've acquired along the way, but let's strip

some of the expectations and the shoulds and all of that and get

back to sort of who you are at your core, so that you can

operate in a unique way to you, but also in an authentic way.

And that becomes something that become much more consistent,

much more confident in the way that you deliver that, and then

your clients feel that as well. Versus reinventing yourself, Who

am I going to be today? What lawyer does my client need me to

be today? Yes, circumstances require a different approach,

but not a different person. And I think that I'm always curious

to see who you really are. I mean that question so who are

you can be really uncomfortable and confronting for a lot of

people, especially lawyers, when they've worked so hard to create

an image or a persona around who they are as a legal

professional. So I like to strip that away and kind of get back

to if you were to do this exactly your way, what would it

look like?

Perfect, well said, and I'm eating it up. So

you and I have an interesting viewpoint. You know, we look at

companies and law firms from the outside in. And now that I've

been doing this for many years, I feel like I have a little bit

of a feeling for what works and what doesn't work. Sure, I do an

annual planning webinar. It's actually one of our most popular

ones on our YouTube channel, how to build your annual business

and marketing plan. And I talk about two firms that each get

about 5000 visits to their website, and one firm signs 20

clients a month. One firm signs 80 clients, but the difference

between two firms is one runs like a business. They're super

organized. They give five star operations and five star service

to their clients, so they get five star Google reviews and all

kinds of referrals, and that's the biggest reason why they have

80 clients a month. And the other one's constantly

dysfunctional. They don't get referrals from people in the

industry, from the medical providers because they don't pay

on time. All the parts are broken, and, as opposed to the

other firmware, all the parts run super smooth. So when you

look from the outside in, what are some of the things that you

would recommend to a law firm and to any business in terms of

operations, management structure?

Yeah, I think the word that I was thinking about

as I was listening to you say that, for me, from a leadership

perspective, is transparency. I think there's a lot of

withholding of information. Oftentimes there's a lack of

clarity in vision or what we're all working towards together. My

role might be different than your role, but we're all working

to. It's a common goal, or at least that's the assumption,

what is that goal? What is that vision for this company, for

this client? And I think that the resistance or the hesitation

that people often encounter in sharing, whether it's the

clarity that they have around that vision or the lack of

clarity, more importantly, when people have questions, people

get up in their heads and they start to judge themselves, their

inner critic gets quite loud and says, don't ask that question.

You're going to look silly. Don't ask that question. It's

going to undermine your authority. And so things don't

get talked about. And I think that within an organization,

when I'm on the outside looking in, I see that communication,

not type of communication, a style of communication, just

communication Big C isn't happening in the way that it

could. And as that improves, so do their operations.

Transparency is something that has changed in

business, and I grew up in a world where nobody would ever

tell a co worker how much you made. It was all very hush, hush

and very much in favor of management. The company would

never tell you how much they made. And now there's a lot of

openness and transparency around those things. Sure. What is that

just a cultural shift? Do you think or is that people respond

better to that open transparency and thereby companies run

better?

Yeah, it's a great question. I think when I'm

thinking about transparency, it is exactly what you described.

And I'm also thinking about in the context of vulnerability

too. So transparency, yes, in terms of business operations and

the inner workings of a business, but also transparency

in what this client needs, what this client isn't getting, how

you met your mark, how you didn't meet your mark, feedback

is looped into that as well, right? I mean giving and

receiving feedback. I mean I work with senior leaders around

that constantly, and even reframing it as not positive or

negative feedback, but reinforcing or redirecting just

a conversation, but the conversation has to be had, and

I think the transparency has shifted over time, because

ultimately, Jay people don't want to be bottled up like that.

They're holding so much in that it's incredibly unhealthy. We're

not even talking about mental health and mindfulness here, but

that's and there's an element of that, but it's unhealthy at the

end of the day. It's ineffective, it's in it's

inefficient, and it's unhealthy for people to be walking around

all day trying to create a version of themselves or edit

themselves all day long at work, versus just being what they are

and sharing what's true for them, and doing it from a place

of professionalism and politeness, of course, and

respect, but doing it in a way that's really true and authentic

too.

Yeah, I can see the the transparency is

authenticity is openness is Yeah, yeah, no hidden agendas,

no, right, yeah, right. That's definitely an evolution for the

better in the world. This is a question I really like to ask

our guests. We used to ask this in our CEO group, are there any

key pivots or changes you made in your career, and you've made

several that would be valuable lessons you come to a fork in

the road and you pick one or the other. What are the lessons

you've learned that maybe would be valuable for a young attorney

or a young business person looking at two paths?

Yeah, I'm never banging. You know this about me,

Jay, I'm never banging the drum of leave your corporate job and

go do what you love and only what you love. I'm a bit more

realistic than that. Of course, I want people to love what

they're doing. Of course, I want people to feel connected. To

feel connected and aligned with the work that they're doing. But

the thing that I found throughout my career, and again,

you mentioned the twist and turns. I mean, I did acting in

stunts down in South Florida. I did music, music and singing and

key, the keys. I lived in Las Vegas for a year. I taught

kindergarten, I bartended. I mean, I did all of these

different careers every point along the way, I did that self

audit that you mentioned earlier, and just checked in.

Okay, the day I was offered a full contract at Irish cabins to

stay was the same day I was offered acceptance into a

master's PhD program at Indiana University, two very different

paths, and I had to ask myself, What do I want out of this life?

What do I what am I hoping to achieve? Is it to have one

button buttoned and no shoes as I play in the keys? It's not a

bad life. Or do I want to advance my degree and

potentially pursue another path and every step along the way, I

did that checking with myself, and I was very, very honest with

myself. And I think that honesty with oneself. I talk about this

with clients in large groups when I'm giving talks, is we ask

ourselves 40 to 50 questions a day. How many of those do we

actually answer? Do I have to do this all day? How long is this

going to take? Oh. Do. Why am I doing this? We ask these

questions all day, but very rarely do we actually answer

them. And if we take the time to slow down and actually answer

them honestly, we might reveal some interesting answers that

send us on a path that is more aligned with who we are.

I think we answer. Ask ourselves about 35

questions in a day now, and we take five of those may just put

them into chat GPT. That's right, yeah, thanks, chatgpt. We

find out a faster way. And chatgpt always gives me the

answer I want. So I'm like, Okay, thank you, yeah, good

prompts, great answers. That's right. You know, you're very

mature at a young age, obviously playing the rock and roll down

in Key West. Where did you learn that? Self audit? What is that,

what are the questions you ask yourself?

You know, I didn't get into this when I was

telling my story, because there are just so many twists and

turns. But when people ask me, How long have you been coaching?

My default answer these days is, I've been coaching since I was

seven years old. I was the guy whose friend would get picked

last for kickball, and he'd go walk off his head, hang, hang

low. And I would say, You know what, I'm going to sit this game

out. And we'd go walk the fence line and we talk about it. I was

in middle school, and I was the only boy to join a peer

counseling out of black satin jacket with my name on the back

that said peer counselor. And I was counseling my peers at sixth

and seventh grade and doing conflict mediation between kids

who were fighting at the during lunch hour. Yeah, it's been so

ingrained in who I am, but I think a lot of it came from my

early years of living abroad and being in a different culture

with different languages and different people and religions

and smells and sounds and sights and all of that had me need to

be so aware of how this was affecting me and how I was

operating within it, that now it's just become an automatic

thing for me, and you can plot me anywhere, and I'm going to

have a good time and I'm

going to make them down above. Or could you

just sense it from an emotional standpoint?

No, I think from an emotional standpoint, I was

working with a phenomenal emotional emotional intelligence

profiler in the UK, Lindsay cap and I took an emotional

intelligence assessment, and she said, your report is scary. And

I said, Why is my report scary? And she said, your emotional

intelligence levels are off the chart. And that has its pros and

its cons too, right? I mean, it takes management of that too,

because that unmanaged or channeled in the wrong way can

be really debilitating, but channeled in the right way can

be extremely powerful. And something that one of my younger

years being told all the time, don't be so sensitive. Don't be

so sensitive in my later years, came to realize, Wow, that

sensitivity is actually a superpower

for me. I'm just taking a sneak peek here at your

DISC profile. Are you familiar with disc? I am familiar with

disc. I can't remember. It's been so long,

it's probably 10 years ago that I did my own DISC assessment.

So I think an initiator, charismatic,

visionary and sociable, yeah, BI is dominant and influential.

Yeah, you're like, a leader and, you know, dominant type

personality, and also the life of the party.

Yeah, we use an assessment, and a company I work

with out of the also out of the UK, called the training rock,

and it's based on Carl Young's personality types. And we use

animal influencers, and it's really, actually quite fun, and

I'm a lion and a dog and an ant, and lion and dog are just what

you described, very dominant leadership tendencies, very

focused. Can step in when necessary, and dog is also

people pleasing and warm and loving and caring and all of

those things, and they have their vulnerabilities. So if

you're working from those strengths for each of those

animals, fantastic. If you're working for their

vulnerabilities from each of those animals, you're going to

be a nightmare. So it's really about channeling that and being

aware of what you default to. And that's the self audit,

that's the self awareness, that's the self leadership

piece.

There's a book called taking flight, and they

describe all the disc profiles as birds. So the D is, is an

eagle, you know, scoring above, looking down, dominant

leadership. The I is the parrot, typically a sales personality,

life of the party. And that's supportive. Is the Dove, which

is be closest to the dog. And then the wise owl is the C, the

numbers person typically like that, pas and lawyers. Most of

the lawyers I talk to are CDs, so they're dominant, because

most of the guys I'm speaking to are business owners, yeah, and

probably the business manager of the firm. If I'm talking to the

trial attorney, they're the CS, you know, they're the very

detail oriented, like CP, lawyers, almost Yeah. Makes

sense. Interesting. What's your why? I'm sure you're familiar

with the number one TED talk of all time. Simon Sinek, yeah,

people aren't go watch it. It's the number one of all time. What

gets you up in the morning? What makes your heart beat faster?

I'll answer it in two ways. So my why for doing

what I do is. Is very simple. I don't like to see people unhappy

at work. We spend so much of our days, so much of our lives at

work, either in the office or with our peers online or our

colleagues online, and to see people struggle through their

work day, anxious, worried, stressed, burnt out,

overwhelmed, whatever it might be, it genuinely pains me to see

that. And typically, what I see is those people are operating

that way because there's a problem at the top. It usually

tracks back to poor leadership. So for me, rather than going

around every office and getting giving everybody a hug, I'm

going right to the leaders and saying, let's get you to a

place. And this is my other why, where you can love your

leadership. I want to see you loving your leadership. It's not

going to be all day every day, I know that, but I want you to

feel so calm and so confident in the way that you lead, because

it's congruent, because it's authentic, because it's aligned

with who you are, that the people that you then lead or

that you interact with, feel that too, and that, for me, is

how I'm making my difference in the

world. I love that line, loving your

leadership. I think that's you, and we talked a little bit about

that, and hopefully, thank you, part of your personal brand

going forward. So this is the time in the 10 golden rules

podcast. We've been doing this for 15 or 16 years, where we ask

you the quick one line answers, all right, so the first one,

what are any apps or techniques you use for personal

productivity?

So I realize lawyers have a little bit more

of a challenge with this in terms of privacy, but the one

that I use that has been a game changer for me is the AI note

takers. So I personally use fathom, and that has been so

beneficial to me, because one, I have a transcript of our

conversation, versus me going off screen, constantly writing

notes off to the side, I can stay very focused, very present.

And I love that, because if I need to go back and refer to

something, I can just go back to the transcript. So that has been

fantastic for me. And then any other utilization of AI. I use

AI throughout my coaching. My clients know that it's not in

place of the coaching. It's really more of an organizational

tool for me. So I've got my folders in chat GPT. I keep

things quite organized in there, and it's a great resource so

that I can maximize my time, because, as I mentioned, I'm a

one man show.

I mentioned that, or you mentioned fathom. I love

fathom, recording us on Fathom right now. And what it does is

it records the video and audio. It transcribes the video and

audio. It creates a summary of the call. It creates a summary

of next steps. Who committed to do what you can download the

transcript. I've used it actually a lot of times,

downloading the transcripts into advanced gpts. Yes, I've used it

to compare candidates for jobs. For sure, I've we're using it

for sales coaching. So we download the sales calls and

look at our sales calls with our sales team. Love it, so Fathom

is a great one. I love it, yeah, all the other kinds of AIS too,

for sure. Yeah. Do you have a person? Well, Hakeem looks

great. Okay, dude's getting super fit. So I know you do, but

share with us your personal wellness and fitness routine.

Yeah?

So when I first started coaching, it took me a

while to shake off the sort of conditioning that I had I had

from years and years of w2 nine to five work. So I treated

myself like an employee, and I was not a great boss to myself.

So I overworked myself. I think you may know that in one of my

earlier years, I gave myself pneumonia for two months, and I

was in the hospital twice because I had just burnt myself

out trying to be 100% dad, 100% husband, 100% coach, 100%

business owner, son, brother, all of those things. And the

reality was I needed to create some time for myself so I could

be my best self. And it's the old adage of put your mask on

before you put the mask on to the person next to you. And I

wasn't adhering to that. So I have been very conscious of that

in recent years, where I create time for myself in the morning

to journal. I create time for myself to set my intentions for

the day. I take time where I go for a nice, long walk with a

weighted vest every morning and just sort of reflect on how I'm

feeling in my body and what I want to achieve with the day

today, and how excited I am to see certain clients, and what's

ahead for the week, and how I'm going to show up in my family,

and very being very clear and very intentional about those

things. So that's kind of my process. Is just creating space,

because it's something that I feel we so often neglect, is

finding that time and space to just do that self audit, to do

that check in, to set intentions. So creating more of

that in my day has been really helpful.

By the way, when you take your talents to South

Beach, Hakeem and I are both in South Florida, you're definitely

getting a workout when you're walking in the summer right now.

That's right, yeah. What is the. Behind the weighted vests. I've

been seeing them a lot lately.

Yeah, rucking with a rucksack has been around

for decades, and that, I think that comes out of a lot of the

military fitness routines and having a big rucksack and

carrying 4060, 80 pounds on your back. And now people are seeing

the benefits of adding a little extra weight to your walk, so

that your walk is not only a brisk walk and an enjoyable,

relaxing walk, but it also adds a little bit of resistance to

whatever length or distance you choose to walk. So it's a nice

way just to kind of dial it up a little

bit. I wondered if there was a mental aspect to

it. I remember my trainer in the gym gave me a 25 pound weight

and had me do a couple exercises, and he said, Wouldn't

it feel great if you could do it 25 pounds lighter, if you could

play sports, 25 pounds lighter? And I got the message right.

These are supposed to be the quick one liners I'm slowing you

down. Best sure business books.

Best business books. So it's interesting,

there's love money. Money loves you is one that is fantastic,

the law of divine compensation. As you'll notice, there's a

little bit of a trend here. So as I started my business, one of

the things that I really wanted to focus in on was my

relationship to money. It's very easy when you're getting a

paycheck and you know to the penny what it's going to be

every two weeks or every month as you become an entrepreneur,

it's eat, what you kill, and how you manage money, how you relate

to money, how you think about the exchange of money as value

with your clients, was very important to me. So I've spent a

lot of time actually focused on those books. And that is often

something I think that gets overlooked as we build

businesses, or we build book of businesses or clients. So that's

those are my two

next up. You've got a little bit of time on your

calendar, maybe before your next meeting, and a blog, a podcast,

a YouTube comes across your feed. Which one that you

subscribe to, you stop everything and listen to or read

10 golden rules? Of course,

yay. Yeah, that is the right answer for a few

any future guests.

I figured I was it was getting teed up perfectly

for me. I couldn't, I couldn't swing and miss on that. I really

enjoy listening to books. So if I'm if I'm walking, I tend to

listen to audio books, if I'm not sitting down somewhere

reading them. Podcasts are often podcasts that get referred to

me, which I love. I mean, anyone who refers a podcast or says, Oh

my gosh, this episode, you would love this. I'll listen in. I

don't have any go to podcast. There's coaches rising, which is

a great one. There's a living to your brilliance, which is one

out of the UK that a friend of mine, Al Kenny does with Mark

bilby, and that's a fantastic podcast a living to your

brilliance. And any ones that are are thought provoking for

me, and less about here the top 10 ninja hacks to figuring out

how to be a better you. I don't subscribe to those as much. I'm

much more interested in things that make you go, Hmm, kind of

thing.

So who's your NFL or sports team?

Yeah, grew up in South Florida. Sadly, I'm a

Dolphins fan, which is suffering for a couple years, which is

painful all around I am also a dire Die Hard Seminoles fan,

having gone to Florida State and my freshman year we went. Any

hope for this year? I have no idea where we are right now is

also painful, so I'm getting it from all angles here, but those

are my two teams.

What's a great introduction for you? Business

wise, it's

interesting, because I think that a lot of

times people struggle with making introductions to coaches,

because it's akin to telling someone you need therapy, and

people shy away from that. But what I encourage people, when

they're making the referrals, to see it as a gift, and I really

mean that, to see it as you are fantastic. You know, in the sort

of spirit of Jim Collins, you are good. I want to see you be

great. This is the guy that's going to make you great. This is

a guy that, together, you guys, can get to a place where you are

loving your leadership, you are feeling like you're great at

what you do, and the results then show for it. So I think

it's really anybody business owner, senior professional,

aspiring leader, anybody who's committed to putting in the

work, anybody who sees an opportunity to level up, anyone

who's wildly successful but feels like there's something

missing and they're curious to see what it is that they're not

seeing. I have that unique perspective not being their

spouse or their leadership team member or their business

partner, I'm their champion. And to be in that conversation and

to, you know, reveal some of those things that they may not

see or they choose and not to look at, perhaps over time, are

always really fruitful conversations.

And if you think Hakeem is a fit for you or

someone you know, where can we get in touch?

View. You can find me on LinkedIn. I'm pretty

active on LinkedIn. Hakeem a lachdar. I check my messages

regularly. I respond to most comments that I see on posts.

You can also reach out to me via my website, locked our

coaching.com or, of course, via email. Hakeem at locked our

coaching.com

that's l, a, k, H, D, A R, thank you, H D, A R,

that's right, and links in the show notes, of course, down

below in YouTube, wherever you're watching or listening to

this. Hakeem, this was lots of fun, as always, learned and was

entertained and enjoyed our time together. Thank you.

Thank you, Jay. I love being in conversation with

you, and I'm I'm excited to see what you continue to create

through this podcast and the important work that you do. So

keep it up, brother.

Thank you, my friend.