Karen Vester

I attribute my success to staying true to who I am and focusing on relationship building rather than just ROI. I really believe in a Simon Sinek approach - making sure people are heard and seen, and setting others up for success. That will always be my first priority. I think when you do those things and you're authentic and genuine, the other ROI will follow. You don't really have to ask for it. For me, success is measured in so many different ways, not just ROI. It's about really understanding what people are doing, finding out what their pain points are, and really listening. At the end of the day, if I'm helping someone's life become easier and more efficient, then I'm all about it. I've also been blessed that I haven't had to interview in so many years because my roles have come through relationships - people saying 'I want to hire you.' The legal space is incredibly large but incredibly small, and the community here in South Florida is really quite tremendous.

Stay true to who they are, really, first and foremost. Make sure that they're doing what they want to do, because that's where their heart of hearts is telling them to go. Don't do it because others want you to, or you're gonna make money, or you're gonna this, because I tend to find that folks that do things that they don't really have a heart for, tend to burn out very easily. They tend to get resentful, they tend to not stay true to who they are, and ultimately, it's gonna feel like a really heavy job for you. You have to understand that when you're in a career, there is work to be done, but at the same token, you have to love what you do.

One of the biggest challenges is that it's such a large space, but it's also a very small space, and we're all kind of doing the same thing. Specifically for me in eDiscovery at a law firm, having a differentiator is really tough. You have to get incredibly creative. You have to really understand creative pricing models and things like that, because at the end of the day, we're unfortunately all kind of using and selling the same tools. So being able to go in and do a triage of folks' data, what they're using in terms of tools, and being able to sit down with them and really see and hear what they're doing, find out what their pain points are, and really listen - that's critical. I feel like we're still ROI-driven, but you have to set that aside for a moment. You have to really be authentic and go in and just really understand what they have, what they're trying to do, and how we can alleviate some of those pains. That's a big challenge, but it is something I'm passionate about. I do love identifying that from the get-go, and then maybe catering a tool stack for them to make basically their lives easier. There's also the challenge and opportunity around AI - we're trying to iron things out with AI and everything, which has been a little bit daunting.