Rosanna Berardi Delivers Keynote at Women’s Entrepreneurship Day 2025

You've been given the wrong memo.

The memo that you're reading from is all wrong.

Since you were a little kid and you were in school, the memo that you were given said, go to school, get good grades. Get a job. Work there for 30 years. Retire and live happily ever after. That's what your parents did, right? My dad had a job for 40 years.

The memo that you're reading from is wrong. The world that we live in is changing rapidly. We're on the verge of a technological evolution. Now, don't moan and groan. You've probably heard of this thing called AI artificial intelligence. It's lurking everywhere. If you're not using it, the person next to you is. AI is a game changer. Your memo is wrong.

And today I'm going to give you the new rules for your memo. And I'm going to tell you how to next level your life. Now stay with me. You're not a bad person. You're reading from the old memo. You're exhausted. How many things can we do? How many? Think about what you're scrolling all day and what it's saying to you.

You're not good enough. You're not thin enough. There's something wrong with your face. You need to wear a weighted vest. You need to drink enough water to hydrate a small village. You need to make plant based meals. You need to go on date night. You need to be interesting. You need to be small. You need to be quiet.

This is what you're told. You're bombarded. Nobody is telling you or talking to you about what you really need to do to next level. I'll tell you what. It's not your weighted vest. It's not. Now we're all creatures of comfort. Think about your morning routine. The alarm goes off. You get your coffee. You get ready. You drive down the same street.

You stop at your same Starbucks. Or Tim’s. You get your order. Park in the same parking lot. Go inside, computers on, email, email, email, Facebook. Couple texts, some memes to your best friend. You do the same thing every single day. Every day for years. Decades of your life. You're doing the same thing. There's nothing wrong with you. You're human.

Humans are wired for comfort. We like to be comfort cozy. We like our routines. They're comforting. They bring us joy. They bring us satisfaction. But that comfort is going to kill you at some point. And I'm not here... Don't moan and groan and say... Oh, she gave me this free breakfast, and now she wants me to do all this crap.

I am not here to make your life more difficult. I'm here to make your life more strategic. So when you walk out those doors, you're not going to do what everyone else does. What does everyone else do? Doom scroll, rot, sit in their bed, have their weighted vest. I'm sorry, I just. I can't stop on that. The weighted blanket.

That's what everybody else does. But what you're going to learn today is going to next level you and is going to give you a new perspective for growth. Because we're in an economy. I don't know if you saw the news last week. It's not good. Amazon laid off 14,000 of their corporate jobs, 3% of their workforce. Intel 24,000.

Verizon 15,000 workers gone. Those people were reading the wrong memo. I'm not saying it's their fault, but AI is coming. It's coming for you. Don't roll your eyes because it is. And I am here to tell you that you need to next level your life with a few little tweaks. I'm not asking you to sign up for a 5K.

I'm not asking you to do anything insane. But I'm here today to share what I've learned in the last 20 years of building my firm. For those of you that don't know, I started my firm the same year I got married, built a house, and had Salvatore, and it was just me for eight years. And people say to me now where it's me and 20 others.

How did you do it? You're so smart. You're so good at marketing. You must have an MBA. You must have taken marketing classes, yada yada. No, I didn't know shit about starting a business. Truly. My dad, who's from Italy, whispered in my ear like, what are you doing? Don't work for somebody. Start your own business. So I did.

I didn't know what I was doing. But guess how I got to here today? By constantly leveling up by educating myself in small ways. This is year 20, guys. It didn't always look like this. Those of you in the room that have known me forever, it was a hot mess for a long time and it's still a hot mess.

My house right now looks like a bomb hit it. Whatever. That's just how life is. But by next leveling yourself. I did stuff at the Women's Business Center at Canisius, at UB CEL. I just took a public speaking class a few weeks ago, and people are like, why did you do that? You're you're a good public speaker.

I'm like, well, I'm good, but I want to be great. I don't want to just be good because you know what? Everyone's good. I want to be great. So I signed up for a seven month class. Now I'm the extreme example. But the point is, businesses and life, they just don't happen anymore. We don't live in our parents economy of go to the Ford plant and work and turn a screw for 30 years and you're done.

We are in the wild, wild West and we're going to talk about how to next level. So you're not rotting and scrolling, but you're thinking high level. By the way, these prizes will be auctioned off at the not auctioned drawn at the end of the event. These are from Bloomingdale's. If you can tell the merchandizing is a little bit similar.

So how are we going to go next level without driving ourselves bananas? Okay, first of all, let's get the white elephant out of the room. AI. People love it or hate it. Artificial intelligence. Stop googling things. Okay, Google was from 2010. Okay. Delete Google. Delete Google. Google will give you a one dimensional answer. If I put in ‘nearest coffee shop to me’ it's going to say Spot Coffee on Delaware.

If I download ChatGPT and say nearest coffee near me, it'll say, well, there's Spot, there's Starbucks, there's Tim Hortons, are you in the mood for a more casual, cozy vibe? Or do you want to bring a friend there? Or is this for business? What's this for? And I'm gonna say, oh, it's for my friends. Well, I think you'd like the vibe at Spot. On Monday nights they have live music. Unlike your kids. And unlike your spouse, ChatGPT wants to make you happy. It is the constant pleaser. It's like, do you want me to make a reservation? Do you want me to draw you a picture? Do you want a map? Can I come with you? Literally all the things that you've dreamt about, like telling your kids, pick up your shoes, pick up... and nobody listens.

ChatGPT listens and responds and says, how can I make this better? How can I make this better? You guys, are you kidding me? We've all been waiting for this moment. Delete Google. It's crap. It is crap. ChatGPT. It is free. It is like having a little personal assistant in your back pocket. And the more you use it, the more it learns about you and knows your preferences.

And here's a good use of it. So my father is 86 years old. He's an immigrant from Italy. He still has a job. He works at the Elma Golf Course two days a week, throughout the summer. So he can play golf for free because he's Italian. There's always got to be a free. Free part of it. It's free.

It's all free. Well, he gets unemployment, which is kind of funny because he's been self-employed for 50 years. And the unemployment claim gets denied. Right? Now, my father would get $140 a week. Now, this is big money, right? And he's, like, calling me. He's in Florida right now. He snowbirds. Texting me all these pictures. I got this letter and it says I have to have a hearing, and you need to fly me home to Buffalo.

And I'm like, oh God, no, no, no, no, hold on. And then he's taking pictures of all of his calculations of what he earned and what he's owed. So I get like ten text messages and I'm like, oh, for the love of God. And he's like, hound. Did you do it? Did you do it? Texting you. Did you do it yet?

So I'm sitting around, I'm lazy. I'm tired. I'm wired for comfort. I pop in all of the screenshots that he sent me, and I put him in ChatGPT, and I say, why was this claim denied and what do I do? And may God strike me dead in 30s. It said this claim was denied because you're missing the pay stubs from October and November.

Would you like me to draft the appeal? Yes. Yes, please. This would take me hours. The man is driving me nuts. Literally drafted the appeal and then said do you want me to draft the cover letter? Yes. So in five minutes, I had a draft that was 90% good. I'll spend another 15 minutes to close the gap. That's one example.

Go shopping. Are you always wondering, oh, is this a good price? I'll take a picture of your item. It's got the sales tag thrown in. ChatGPT. Is this a good price? I do this for my purse shopping all the time. It'll say yeah, this is a great price or no, that bag is from two seasons ago. And you can get it cheaper at TJ Maxx.

It can be used for a million things. I had a little, like, burn on my face, took a picture and I'm like, what is this? Oh, it's just some dermatitis. Get some hydrocortisone. You're fine. Like, literally. It's nuts. No. Google. ChatGPT. And for all of you that are like, I don't trust it, I don't like it. It's going to follow me, meh.

Stop. You're being followed everywhere. Your pictures are everywhere. Your Google history is everywhere. Stop being close minded. This is coming faster than you think and is going to make your life so much better. Okay, so we're going to stop googling. Then, stay with me here. We're going to stop doomscrolling. I know I'm guilty. I love my TikTok. I love my Instagram.

I would gather that every person in this room spends at least 30 minutes a day looking at some crap, right? It's addictive. It's built to be addictive. 30 minutes times, seven days a week is 210 minutes, which is 3.5 hours. If I said to you, Tammy, I could give you 3.5 more hours this week. You would pay me a lot of money.

You'd be like, how much is it? Where do I sign up? How do I get three and a half more hours? Right. Three and a half more hours of time. Think about that. That's half a workday. That's like a really good spa day at Woodhouse Day Spa, right? But instead, we're like. We're too busy. We can't do anything.

I'm not saying... you got to scroll. It's just part of it. Right? But maybe, just maybe look at something different. Maybe just do 20 minutes. You can set a timer. I've been deleting Facebook and Instagram from my phone in the morning, so it's not there all day. And then at night I reinstall it and I look for 10 or 15 minutes.

For me, that works. But maybe just a little bit less. And maybe if you're on there, look at something you don't normally look at. You know, if you follow CNN, follow Fox. I know, but listen, the media is all corrupt, okay? And to get the truth, the truth is somewhere in the middle of CNN, Fox, Wall Street Journal, New York Times.

It's somewhere in the middle. But if you're always looking at Fox, look at CNN or look at something that takes your brain out of that loop, because these social media platforms are built on algorithms that constantly want to please and feed you, like New York shoe fashion trends, like I'm getting video after video and I'm like, this is amazing.

Stop that. Stop. You can do it for a few minutes. But 3.5 hours. That is a huge time suck. What else are we going to do? We're going to learn something new. Now again. Here she is, breakfast blah, telling me what to do. Learning something new is not taking guitar lessons or, you know, picking up ceramics as a hobby.

Learning something new is to get your brain out of its comfort zone. And I mean, call somebody that you haven't had coffee with in a long time. Set a meeting. Take a walk. For the love of God. Go outside. I know we live in Buffalo, and it gets dark at 4:00, but you can still walk. Do something different.

It doesn't mean you have to take, you know, a one year class or something, but it's never been easier. You guys, we have this powerful tool in our hand, and we're using it. Garbage in, garbage out. Watch a video on something that you like. Are you interested in painting or crafting, or how the hell did you make those flowers out of paper?

You know, that is just it's taking your brain out of its comfort zone. So do something different. Learn something new. The next level learning will transform you. Believe me, I didn't know crap about marketing, but I'm obsessed with it. I'm obsessed with the constant chase of learning something new. And I do it constantly. I drive my team crazy.

I drive my family crazy because I want to know what's next. And that's how I've gotten the business that I have today by next leveling. And for all the haters that are like, oh well, of course you’re a lawyer, you can afford it, blah blah blah. There is so much free crap out there. No excuse. YouTube is the greatest place to learn anything new, so try something new.

And then finally, you've probably heard this before. Get rid of your repetitive tasks. We live in a DoorDash economy. Anything can be sourced out. I know she says... whatever. No. Don't go get your prescriptions. Walgreens will deliver them for two bucks, $2! Do you really want to go there? Stand in line. If you've ever been in Walgreens now since Rite Aid closed.

It's a disaster. Those poor people at Walgreens. Get it delivered two bucks. Get your dry cleaning picked up, delivered. Your laundry. I know people ... I don't want someone else folding my underwear. And I want my things done on gentle and blah, blah, blah. Stop it. There's a service called Poplin. When you walked in today, you all got your High Wire Woman journal passport. In

there is a coupon for $20 to Poplin, which is the Uber for laundry. You make your request. Person comes and picks it up. You can give them your detergent specific instructions. They bring it back the next day. It's $1 a pound just to give you an idea. If you have like a large, like one of those black garbage bags.

It's going to be about $30. It comes back, my lady Jamie, oh, my God. Puts them in bags according to who owns the clothing. Here's Jack's bag, here's Rosanna bag. Here's Salvatore's bag. Folded beautifully, like from a department store. 30 bucks. I know it adds up, but my time is valuable. If I got another hour or two back a week, plus some of the time from scrolling, that is moving the needle.

We are a DoorDash economy. All those little things the grocery shopping, the laundry, the dry cleaning, the writing of checks, the picking up your prescriptions... Gone. Move them to someone else. You are too important. You need to go next level. Your memo says stop doing the laundry and okay, you don't have to be as extreme as I am about outsourcing things. Do one.

It will transform your day and your time. So today we're learning the new rules of life. And when you walked in, everyone got a High Wire Woman passport, which thank you to Mackenzie, my marketing genius who designed them for me. And it's old school. It's analog by design. It's paper with a pen. Think about the last time you used a pen. It's really weird, but what we're doing today is in advancement of learning and next leveling. What we're going to do, you could stay exactly where you are. There's five facilitators that are going to come around, and they're going to lead a discussion at your table about really easy peasy things. What's your go to meal when you're in a hurry?

What's the best app that you like? What's your go to gift? What do you do to save time? It is meant to be a dialog, and you can write it in your book and keep that book with you. Throw it in your purse and think about. Think about what you do. You know, things don't happen overnight. This AI innovation is happening overnight and is really going to wipe out a lot of jobs.

You don't want to be one of them. And even if you're high level and you do something that you don't think a computer can do. The way that we live today has changed. You're not your parents. We don't have the luxury to sit in a job for 30 years, but this doesn't happen overnight. It is deliberate, intentional, strategic actions.

And we get in this coma of life, of routine and comfort and scrolling. And that's normal. But I want you to walk out the door today with two things. I want you to think about the next time you pick up your phone, what you're looking at. Is it helping you? And how long have you been on the damn phone?

And then I want you to walk away with a couple ideas in your notebook that you're like. Oh, that girl told me about her three ingredient dinner. I'm going to make that next time I'm in a hurry. And that's it. I have nothing to sell. I created High Wire Woman because it has been pure, torturous hell for 20 years.

Building a business, having employees, raising a kid, trying to have a house, doing parties. It has been hell. I have nothing to sell you at all. I'm here to share knowledge. And that's what today is. So what we're going to do now is the facilitators are going to stand up, and you're going to sit where you are and they're going to come to you.

Okay. So every five minutes we're going to just keep rotating. When we're done we're going to sit down. I'm going to pull your name out of a box for some of these fantastic prizes. And the vendor market is open and the food is still out there. So thank you everyone and enjoy.