AI readiness for leaders takes center stage as Marina Morgan, founder of Morgan Impact, joins Business Superfans Podcast to unpack what it really takes to thrive in the AI era.
As artificial intelligence accelerates faster than most teams can adapt, many business owners feel overwhelmed instead of empowered. Marina reveals why human resilience, mindset, and adaptability are now the true competitive advantage—not tools alone. Drawing from global diplomacy, organizational psychology, and Silicon Valley coaching, she explains how leaders must rethink productivity, strategy, and long-term planning.
This episode delivers a championship-level blueprint for service-based businesses ready to stop resisting change and start building teams that win under pressure, no matter how fast the game evolves.
Discover more with our detailed show notes and exclusive content by visiting:
Key Takeaways
AI readiness is a human problem first – Technology scales fast, but mindset and adaptability determine who wins the season.
Long-term planning is being rewritten – Five-year strategies are replaced by agile, data-driven recalibration.
Resilience beats raw productivity – Sustainable performance comes from neurophysiology, not hustle.
Burnout blocks innovation – Teams can’t adapt if their nervous systems are overloaded.
Superfans collapse sales cycles – Introductions from loyal advocates outperform cold referrals every time.
Leadership requires identity flexibility – The ability to reinvent yourself is now a core business skill.
AI amplifies who you already are – Strong cultures win bigger; weak cultures break faster.
Marina Morgan is an entrepreneur, executive coach, and founder of Morgan Impact. With over 15 years in organizational psychology, global diplomacy, and Silicon Valley leadership development, she helps founders and executive teams build human resilience and AI readiness during periods of massive change. Marina works with technology-driven organizations to unlock productivity, adaptability, and long-term performance in the AI era.
Listening to Marina felt like watching a veteran coach walk onto the field during a chaotic playoff game. AI isn’t the opponent—resistance to change is.
What stood out most is how Marina reframes productivity. This isn’t about grinding harder; it’s about upgrading the operating system of your people. Just like elite athletes train recovery and mindset, winning businesses must train resilience, neuroplasticity, and adaptability alongside technology.
This conversation perfectly aligns with what I teach inside my SUPERFANS Framework™—ecosystems win championships, not isolated stars. When your leaders, teams, partners, and clients all adapt together, momentum compounds. That’s how businesses stop reacting to disruption and start dominating the next era.
Comparing with the period that we are experiencing right now, it is happening at the same time everywhere.
Intro/Outro:
But I am the world's biggest super fan. You're like a super fan. Welcome to the Business Superfans Podcast.
We will discuss how establishing business superfans from customers, employees and business partners can elevate your success exponentially. Learn why these advocates are a key factor to achieving excellence in the world of commerce.
This is the Business Superfans Podcast with your host, Freddy D.
Freddy D:
Hey, super fan superstar Freddie D. Here in this episode 174, we're joined by Marina Morgan, entrepreneur and cultural diplomatic ambassador who takes on a challenge many service based business leaders are quietly wrestling with right now. How to stay resilient, human and effective. As artificial intelligence reshapes the way we work.
Too many teams feel overwhelmed by AI instead of empowered by it. As the founder of the Morgan Impact, Marina brings a journey that spans global diplomacy to Silicon Valley.
Executive coaching, helping leaders and teams build resilience in the AI era. She's also developing aiq, a practical model for assessing and strengthening AI readiness.
Freddy D:
Welcome, Marina, to Business Superfans, the service Provider's Edge podcast. Great conversation we had before we started recording. You're bouncing between New York and San Francisco. Welcome to the show.
Marina Morgan:
Thank you so much. Thank you for having me today. And you're right, I'm living between two coasts. I think a lot of people doing something like that of this.
But right now I'm in San Francisco.
Freddy D:
What part of San Francisco?
Marina Morgan:
I'm living exactly in San Francisco. This is the small city next to the Golden Gate Bridge. Sausalito. So, okay, it's not so popular like San Francisco.
And that's why it's easy to say I'm living in San Francisco because it's just 15 minutes to the downtown of the city. Okay.
Freddy D:
Yeah.
Freddy D:
I drove through San Francisco two years ago and we drove over the Golden Gate Bridge.
Marina Morgan:
Yeah.
Freddy D:
And then driving in the city, man, you have to have your eyes everywhere.
Marina Morgan:
It's true. Driving in San Francisco is pretty complicated. The hills and the small streets. It's not so easy.
Freddy D:
Yeah, it was. I had to be completely focused on my driving there. So let's go back to the beginning.
I know that you work with some coaching and stuff like that, and you worked in a SaaS space and other aspects. So what's the backstory? How did this all come about?
Marina Morgan:
I'm working. You're absolutely right.
Most of my clients, they are the business owners and the solutions that we are providing in my company, mostly they are Focusing on a high level of productivity for all the team. Specifically in the period of the change, integration of some innovations or pivoting of the business. I'm providing three types of services.
This is like coaching for the founders and business leaders, one to one coaching. Also team coaching for C level managers, facilitation and so on.
And developing of some educational programs for the employee if you need it, for example to integrate some new skills or to providing the new mindset that they need to use some technology or new approach for their business development. So that's what I'm doing. I have degree in organizational psychology and I'm in this FIELD More than 15 years at the same time.
I started my own entrepreneurial career when I was 19 years old or something. My first business was we washed the windows with my boyfriend at that period.
Actually I would like to say that this is amazing business because nobody love to wash windows but we love to enjoy the beautiful sunlight through the clean windows. I always know that if I will need some money somewhere, I will very quickly organize business like this anywhere and it will work.
I had a period when I work in huge companies like a head of employee development, mostly in TMT industry, technology, media and telecom. I had a pretty impressive cooperative career.
But in my heart I'm an entrepreneur and that's why I decided that I should move to Silicon Valley and open my own company to provide the best service that I can for my clients. This is the story.
Freddy D:
Oh, what a story. It's. You remind me of. My first business was a janitorial business as well.
And my first through a friend, we're still friends some 50 some years later. He got me to do a manufacturing company that was doing some stuff from General Motors. And I was basically going in and cleaning the offices in there.
And then I ended up hiring high school kids even though I was just graduated out of high school to help with the cleaning. And so that was my first dab into a business and I got the coaching from my friend.
Marina Morgan:
Thank you for the story. All of us began somewhere one day.
Freddy D:
Yeah, it's important to look back because some of those experiences come into play as we evolve in our businesses, career, whatever that we're doing. Those experiences become applicable one way or another in what we're doing.
Marina Morgan:
I think that we are actually right now in a pretty interesting moment on history. Then all the rules and strategies are changing pretty dramatically because we have right now AI integration everywhere.
We've had the periods of global change on the business when it was industrial development of all the from all over the world. The next time it was the digitalization of everything and then the Internet.
But comparing with the period that we are experiencing right now, it is happening at the same time everywhere. For example, if we're speaking about innovation and digital innovation, I think it took probably 20 years and we were able to rely on experience.
Some technological companies, for example, if I have a factory or manufacturing or I have, I don't know, retail business or whatever it is. And right now it's happening absolutely at the same time everywhere with all your clients, with all your competitors in different markets.
And I really think that we right now need to recreate all the business approach that we had before, specifically everything about strategic planning, because it's pretty difficult to plan something for the five years.
When I began my career, it was pretty normal to develop business strategy for five or 10 years because we were able to have to use the data that we had to make it predictable, what results will we have, and just to fix it a little bit during this journey. But right now I know that most of the huge technological companies here in the valley, they change their approach for strategic planning.
And this is something like big data that you're collecting in real time and just calibrating your business goals each quarter or something like that, but not five years forward.
Freddy D:
Yeah, back when I got started, before we started recording, as I mentioned, I started in the SaaS space before evolving what's called SaaS, it was just software and it was in the Computer Aided engineering and manufacturing space. So the platforms are called Computer Aided Design, Computer Aided Manufacturing, CAD cam. That was at the very beginning.
And when we had a software update, it was once a year. Then it moved to twice a year and then it went to four times a year. And this is all pre the online world.
Businesses were somewhat reluctant in the beginning to adopt the technology. And so what I would do is I would actually have workshops to educate them how the industry is changing.
behind. And now since I'd say:
And in the last three years, with AI coming out, it's now really gas pedal to the floor.
Just like you mentioned your strategy planning 2, 3, 4, 5 years, it doesn't work anymore because you got to be able to be agile and be able to pivot very quickly. And those that don't pivot today are going to be wondering what happened.
Freddy D:
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Marina Morgan:
I definitely agree with you and I think this is one of the main obstacle for each business right now because one of the direction of my activity in my company. We are right now working on the framework that measuring readiness of the team for AI integration through the human perspective.
Different research emphasized that our ability to adaptate for absolutely new way to live and work and managing our businesses it will be one of the main obstacle in this AI revolution.
As I can see it right now during we are doing our research, I think we analyze something like 5,000 different papers about the AI integration and interaction of human and AI specifically in the business field. And as I can see this understanding that we need to dramatically change all our habits and all our scenarios of planning our lives.
Not only business, they're not working anymore.
And this is pretty complicated because for example, when I was young liner scenario if you're living was pretty okay, you are growing up, you got your university degree, you started your job and you are just growing and you're becoming the, I don't know, the head of big company or you're opening your own business or something like that. And you just living in this field for all of your life. Right now everything is changing.
It's pretty normal for the young generation planning several types of career during their life.
For example, before 30 I will be, I don't know, marketologist and then probably I will be like interior designer or at this period I would like to work with the social Media, then probably I will become an owner of some coffee shop. This is changing.
And for me specifically, it's pretty complicated to accept that I can be absolutely another person, absolutely another professional with absolutely another identity. And this is the only one way how I can develop, survive and be successful in my field and so on. So what do you think?
Freddy D:
Yeah, I can completely concur because I was in the same industry for 25 years. I started as a tech guy because my background was in engineering.
And then I went through some really high end sales programs and I ended up working my way up to being in charge of global sales for a company and scaled that product pretty significantly around the world.
I finally had my own software company where I was importing softwares from different manufacturers around the world and they were actually subsidizing me because they saw what I did with this other product. But today that's a different. It's a whole different ball game.
And so you're absolutely correct, Marina, is that today you can go in this one direction and then you can make a pivot and completely change your trajectory of where your career is and where your life is. And with the technology that's today, people can work, the nomads can work anywhere in the world now. And it's a different approach.
And I think where a lot of business owners really run into some challenges is they have a hard time changing their mindset because they're set in a way and the world's different and either they need to pivot and adjust how the world is operating today, otherwise they're not going to survive.
Marina Morgan:
You're absolutely right.
Freddy D:
Because for example, I got somebody that was on the show beginning of this year, he does marketing for businesses and he is traveling all over Europe right now. For a while he was in South America. Now his agency is working and he's mobile, so he's actually traveling the world.
This is how I'm just emphasizing what you just mentioned. He's got a marketing agency, his whole family is part of the agency. They all work in it. They're traveling.
I don't remember last country that they were in, but it's somewhere in Europe. And they stay there for three months and then they say, okay, they're done and they move on to another area.
And so they're seeing the world, running their business, helping small businesses improve their marketing. And nobody would have ever thought of doing that five years ago.
Marina Morgan:
You're absolutely right.
One of the things that I got from my clients, they have a technological company and then they integrated AI solution Their team came to them and said something like it's pretty complicated for us because those things that we were able to do for three or four months in the past, right now we're able to do for the couple days. And this is absolutely another dynamic of your productivity.
This is one of the things that we're working with my clients like how to accept new yourself and what to do with this.
And another important story here, I think that we really don't have any experience in the past that we can rely on because different scenarios of innovation, they were a little bit different. And also we are living in historical moment when all the humanity are changing.
In the future we will live with the artificial intelligence like a part of our life, like natural part of our life.
And I think that we are the last generation on the whole the planet that remember the period before and how does it look like education, communication, career development, business development before the AI integrated in our life, of course we used it and for example picture Google search using AI technologies as well. But it wasn't available for everybody. And I'm right now able to create my own application just for the one day.
And I'm not a developer, I'm not a professional developer. And it felt like a magic.
And right now this is pretty, right now this is pretty normal thing for me and I can really account and model in several different hypothesis for my business. I can easily create a website just for one day using the services that you can put some.
I don't know, I mentioned apple.com and say something like create me the same website but for my product. This is my logo, this is my palette, this is my products that I would like to sell here.
And you will got this website absolutely the same beautiful and proper just for one day. And before you need to hire in some team waiting for then they will be able to develop professionally.
But I love it and I think my love to innovation, this is the reason why I'm living here. And most part of my clients, they're from innovative and technological industry and that.
Freddy D:
Brings a great segue into how do you work with your clients.
So share a story of how you've kind of worked the client and then you've helped them get themselves out of their own way and be able to scale in the aspect that they needed to. And now they're what I would call your biggest super fan.
And they're telling other executives in the Silicon Valley area the work that you've done for them and how you've transformed them. And that's Getting you more business.
Marina Morgan:
Actually, I would like to say that I really love your approach here. Because if your client becoming your loyal fan. This is the best thing that you can have in your business.
This is the best way to develop and promote your business. Just to have the highest loyalty of your clients for you and for working with you. As I mentioned right now I have two directions of my activity.
First, group of services is endorsing job with my clients with their teams. I'm working by my own and also I have a network of professionals that I'm involved in where I need them.
My solution as I mentioned, combine business strategies, organizational behavior and psychology and some neurophysiological approach.
Because if you would like to have a high level of productivity in your team for a long time in long distance and we need it in a long distance because everything dramatically changing every day and we need to have this resilience in a long distance. You need to have some understanding how our body and our brain is working and what is productivity from the neurophysiological perspective.
And this is the best way how you can solve problems around it. Learn out less motivation and everything that is about your condition.
And another thing, I'm not selling it right now, but I'm developing it and it will be my scalable digital product as I hope.
Now this is iq, the framework that I mentioned above that measuring AI readiness with our integration and providing some solution what you can do just to fix it a little bit and to make it work better.
Actually we had so many not very successful hypothesis about the developing my business and involving involving the clients as always because my target audience is pretty complicated. This is the business owners who should be open to giving access for you to pretty gentle aspects of their teams and business.
Because to provide really resolvative solution you need to deeply understand what's going on in the company, what's going on in the organization, what is the relationship between the team members, what is the relationship between the co founders. And probably sometimes you need to work with deep motivation of the business owner or some deep aspects of the relationship between the co founders.
As I mentioned, this is a long time to give you the success.
It takes a long time because if they didn't know you before and even if you already are working together, you need to go for several steps before you will have this access to pretty real situation that's happening in the organization. Sometimes it is really much easier to solve these problems when you are inside of business.
Because as I mentioned I worked in a companies and then you are the team member. This is absolutely another thing.
But from another perspective, when you are a team member, you are unable to see a lot of different problems the organization really have because you are part of the story. You have your identity with this organizational culture. This is pretty normal for you.
And of course when I'm just employee, I'm unable to work professionally with our business owner because we have this hierarchy of our relationship and I can be their equal partner for them in the things that we are doing. What was the best for me. Of course I have the website.
We provided different advertising using Google social media developing my personal brand because that I mentioned above. Yeah, you should have this loyalty and this just a small level of trust to make the first step together.
Of course in my situation personal recommendation recommendation works best because people who are coming to you after the recommendation of somebody who they trust and who are their authority for them, we just jump in for this stage of that developing this trust. Because they'll already have some trust credit for me.
Of course we have some serum system and I have a website and we're tracking what people doing on the website and we can see what part of the website were interesting for them or wasn't. It was interesting for them or wasn't. And we're changing it in real time.
One of my friends here in Silicon Valley they are developing an amazing product and I'm waiting for the when they will launch this product. That changing your website depends on who are looking at your website location.
Some another data that publicly available and it's changing the phrases color whatever it is to make their fuel better. And this is one of the tools their idea is to from idea to the launch for one day.
And the AI agent should replace small the team of the small business. And to help business owner and entrepreneur to open the business without necessity to hire in a huge team.
So I hope that we will have this solution because of course it was pretty huge budget that we spent for testing of different hypothesis. And as well as right now I have the group of my loyal client. It is becoming more and more easier because they recommend me.
We're doing something together.
They're developing, they're growing and this is how I'm looking for the client and speaking about what make them loyal for what I'm doing and why they're coming back for me with another tasks with another request. I think mostly when you are speaking about the coaching or some another services like this people using verb help.
I will help you to find new clients. I will help you.
I Actually don't like this concept because I'm thinking about myself, like about a partner for my client and for my client's business. And that means that you are sharing the responsibility for the result. And I'm trying to be pretty clear about this responsibility.
Not only I'll do the best for you or something like this. I'm trying to be there honest about what I can do or what I couldn't do.
And what will happen if you will not do your part of the responsibility in our contract. And not all the people love it actually if we don't have this clear agreement between us, I will not work with the client.
Another important part, if I'm working in person or this is some kind of group coaching and we really need to provide some important change in the mindset of the team.
I'm recommending to start with some kind of neurophysiological changes because we need to have some base in our brain that we can use for this change. Because what is the change if we're speaking about the people? This is neuroplasticity, this is our ability to create new neural connection.
And this is how we learn, this is how we adaptating for different change. This is how we are, this is what make us.
And if for example, there is stressful situation for a long time or you don't have enough nutritions in your body and just go on.
Even if I will be pretty professional, like an expert in coaching or something like this, we will not have those level of stability of this change that we need, this level of resilience that I mentioned. But not all the people are ready for this. And if we are not doing it, I'm not working because sure, no more tobacco, because this is useless.
Of course I can just blow your motivation and say, yeah, we will go, we will win, but it will disappear after the week of our session or something like this. And I would like to provide some stable change for my clients and they're coming back to me. And this means that my approach is working.
Freddy D:
And I want to go back, Marina, to the fact that there's a difference between referrals and introduction. And when you get a referral that is just basically a name with a phone number or an email address.
And now you still have to follow up and continue with that person where an introduction is completely different. Because now you're connecting somebody between person A and person B and you're the conductor between and making that connection.
And for that to take place, that individual has to be a super fan of the work that you've done for them or the work you've done with some people that they're familiar with. And now that collapses that whole sales cycle.
So I want to reemphasize what you were mentioning earlier, because once you get an introduction from somebody, they're already pretty much sold on the services that you're providing.
And so now it's just up to you to finish putting that relationship together and moving it forward into something that's collaborative versus a referral. You still have to go pursue that referral. And that's two different animals.
Wealthy people and very successful people work through introductions because that collapses that whole process.
So I just want to really emphasize that because that's really the game changer for businesses, especially service based businesses, even technology based businesses when you get connected to somebody. My fastest sale in the manufacturing space was because my customer was a super fan.
They were working with somebody else that was doing overflow work for them. They told them that to minimize data exchange issues, they needed to contact me and buy this technology.
The guy calls me up and I was looking to do a whole presentation and he goes, jack says I need to get it. How much? How fast can you get it? And that was a sale.
I spent 30 minutes organizing what the order was going to be, what kind of computer monitors and all that stuff that was my whole time was putting together the order and then actually using back then their fax machine to fax the order back to corporate. Because it was all he wanted to do is what it is he wanted and how fast could I get it to him.
Marina Morgan:
So it sounds great.
May I ask you, if you like an entrepreneur and business owner with a great experience, what should happen in your situation that will make you to, for example, invite professional like me to your business?
Freddy D:
Good question.
Me would be if I am looking to take my business to another level and incorporate some of the technologies and working with some of the personnel that may not be as open minded about the technology. Because right now there's a group, there's. I look at it as there's three kinds of people. There's three kinds of business owners.
First one is those that make things happen. Group two is they watch things happen. Group three, wonder what the muck happened. Okay. And so group one is going to be ahead.
They're going to be leaving everybody behind. Group two is going to be going, whoa, man, I need to miss that window, I need to get on it.
And group three, they're going to be out of business because they just are clueless.
And that's where I think some things that you're talking about would be able to help businesses, those at group A and B because you can't help group C. Yeah.
Marina Morgan:
Dynamic of change implementation.
Freddy D:
Yeah. So it'd be group A and group B.
Marina Morgan:
You mean if you will need to integrate some interesting innovation technologies, provide your organization for the really dramatic change, probably you will be interested in professional like me. Great. This is a great opportunity when you can speak with your client and we just testing a hypothesis about the introduction and referral.
For example, when you will start your research about professional like me, will it be the first step from your side to go to your friends who you trust and ask do you have professional that I need in your network?
Freddy D:
That's why you got to have super fans. Because super fans are going to be your best salesforce and it doesn't cost you any money. You don't have to pay them.
And they're happy to do it because they believe in you. They believe in what you're doing and they're energized because of what you're doing. And so when you get think of a sports team.
So you got the San Francisco 49ers, you got the sports fans, they got the jerseys, the painted faces, the banners. Those are die hard sports fans of the Chicago, not the Chicago, I'm a Chicago Bear fan but of the San Francisco 49ers. They're promoting that team.
Is a team paying them for that pr? No. Are they making money off the merchandise? Absolutely.
That's what businesses really need to strive for is to create that level of enthusiasm into their whole ecosystem which is not just a leadership team but it goes through the entire organization. It goes to beyond the organization to complementary businesses, to contractors, to suppliers, to distribution channels.
And most people don't even think of ancillary businesses. You get that whole growth engine going, your business is going to explode.
Marina Morgan:
Yeah.
Freddy D:
So as we come to the end here, Marina, great conversation, lots of insight, especially with how things are changing dynamically, especially with AI. How can people find you?
Marina Morgan:
Thank you so much for this opportunity to present myself and for this very interesting, intriguing conversation. You are my client actually and that's why my client, my portrait of my client. And it's really was, I use this chance to ask you what will you do?
So you can easily find me in LinkedIn, Marina Morgan San Francisco and also on my website, themorganimpact.com and you can have request for the free session for a couple of, for the half an hour and we can discuss the thing that you need.
Freddy D:
Okay, great. We will make sure that's in our show notes. Great conversation, great insight. Thank you so much for your time.
Marina Morgan:
Thank you so much.
Freddy D:
Love to have you on the show down the road.
Marina Morgan:
Absolutely.
Freddy D:
What really stood out in today's conversation with Marina Morgan is this AI isn't the threat, our resistance to change is. Marina reminded us that businesses winning in the next era aren't just adapting new tools.
They're building human resilience, adaptability and mindset at the same speed as technology. And for service based business owners, that matters more than ever.
Because your edge isn't the software you use, it's how well your people can think, adapt and lead through constant change. That's leadership in today's world. And it's very and it's why conversations like this matter.
So you're not just reacting to what's coming next, but intentionally shaping it. If you enjoyed today's conversation, make sure to hit subscribe so you don't miss future episodes.
Because every week we bring insights to help you get one step ahead, not left behind. And if you're ready to stop listening and start activating, join the Entrepreneur Prosperity.
Freddy D:
Hub on school completely free.
Freddy D:
The moment you join, you'll be surrounded by other service based entrepreneurs who are leveling up their people, processes and profitability so they can finally step into true prosperity.
Join us here at skool sk o o l.come prosperity hub and inside you'll gain access to conversations, tools and weekly growth plays to help shift from going from doing everything yourself to leading a business that works smoothly, predictably and profitably.
Freddy D:
Thanks for tuning in today.
Freddy D:
I'm grateful you're here and part of the Business Superfans movement. Every listen, every action you take gets you one step closer to building your own super fans.
Remember, one action, one stakeholder, one super fan closer to lasting prosperity.
Intro/Outro:
We hope you took away some useful knowledge from today's episode of the Business Superfans podcast. Join us on the next episode as we continue guiding you on your journey to achieve flourishing success in business.
