#369 How to Automate Manual Operations Without Breaking Compliance

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (0:00)
Welcome to Embracing Digital Transformation. Before we dive in, I wanted to personally thank you for listening. Many of the ideas we discuss on this show inspired my new book, AI Augmented Teams. If you're looking for practical ways to combine human expertise and AI to achieve better outcomes, I think you'll find it valuable. Learn more at paidar.ai/books.
That is P-A-I-D-A-R dot A-I slash books. Now, let's get started with the show.

**James Gilbride** (0:30)
The company didn't contract in employees. In fact, our growth was so much of a hockey stick that we were able to reassign people and reallocate job duties without contracting the company.
We're going to be doing something different.

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (0:52)
Why this matters to you.
Legacy operations are under pressure to move faster, prove compliance, and use data in real time. The challenge is not just modernizing systems, it is changing how work gets done without breaking the business or losing the people who know it best. This conversation shows how even a physical regulated operation can become more agile when leadership treats transformation as an operating model, not a software install. Let's get into the interview.
Welcome to Embracing Digital Transformation. This is Dr. Darren. On this episode, how to digitize an analog workflow without losing your team, with James Gilbride. James, welcome to the show.

**James Gilbride** (1:40)
Well, thank you so much for having me.

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (1:44)
Hey, the first time I met you was years ago, and we've talked a couple of times about your business, and I watched you progress, grow your business into something spectacular.
And then I said, you know what? I really need to have James come on the show and tell his story. But before we do, everyone knows, and if you listen to my show, you know what the question is coming up. I only have superheroes on the show, and every superhero has a background story and origin story. So James, what's your origin story?

**James Gilbride** (2:19)
Oh, well, you know, being a late Gen Xer and early millennial, I'm in this very odd decade of time where the computer was very prevalent and ubiquitous as part of my growing up and as part of my schooling.
It took a very big interest into using the computer and using, learning the languages of the computers that were around me. Mostly the Apple IIe was where I started. And then moving on into high school, I got a work release, into a work release program where I was able to go to school half day and then go to a business half day. And that started as an internship and that started my work into the professional world. And so I started at 17 at the Mormon Church Office Building in Salt Lake City, Utah in their informatics department. And it was the oddest thing. Nobody had ever placed or requested to be placed there. And especially as a teenager, there was no teenager.

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (3:32)
You were there with a bunch of old guys, right?

**James Gilbride** (3:34)
Yeah, I was just a bunch of old guys. And so I had to get a sign off from the member of the first presidency or the office of the first presidency in order to be working there. Several interviews, they were confused as to what I was even trying to do.
And so ultimately, after several weeks of going back and forth and getting in, even then when I was getting my photo taken for my first ID badge at 17, you know, the gal was like, I have no category to put you in. And so I ended up like, we don't have a category for an intern. It's you're a professional. And so I was a professional and had access to all buildings and all areas. And it was, it was that's pretty cool, James. Yeah, it was one for him. And so that carried on, you know, and I worked with a lot of computing technology there. Everything was on Novell. And so that got me interested in that whole process and Lotus. And then it takes into, I got recruited for a.com in Virginia at 18 And on a paper tiger, paper millionaire, moved across country, 18, 19, worked for this organization. It was a ISP DSL startup and worked in their network operations center.
And did token rings through Cincinnati was my main area.

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (5:06)
Oh, my goodness.

**James Gilbride** (5:07)
And ultimately, that bubble burst and I went to college. And so once I went to college, I was able to, I decided I'm out of technology. I don't want to be anywhere near technology. And so I went into psychology and philosophy as my major. I wanted to be a clinician, sit there and enjoy people, and be away from all the binary and bits.