View Details

What is going on Periscope replay viewers, viewers in the web Twitter. Thank you everybody for joining me. I'm Michele Heyward McMullen stem civil engineer, founder of a tech company positive hire everybody. Hey, girl, girl, guess what? It is time for gold digger Sunday. And gold digger Sunday for those of you who are new to me, gold digger Sunday is when I come on and I give tips, hacks, processes you can use to not only create your goals, but truly, truly win at your goals. So, hey, Michelle, even though you're too out, and you will come in here anyway, we all know the other one won't show up. So don't tell her we don't tell I'm live. Okay, so if you are into goals, put a one up in the chat. If you're like Michelle, I have always dreamed about stuff. But I don't know how to do goals put up a to put a two up in in the chat. So one is you all about that goal get in line two is it sound good? But I'm not sure how to do it. So if that is you? I have a few weeks of goal. Focus live streams here on Periscope and you can search for by hashtag gold digger. Hashtag goal. go getter? There we go. Yes, one. You about See. See. Okay, you all right with me? Michelle, you are you alright? You said one. Okay, so tonight, I want to talk about accountability. A lot of times when you're seeing so many people when you're seeing a person consistently hitting their goals, what number one, what you're not seeing is them failing people for whatever reason. Don't see you failing, all of all the attention goes to when you blow up, right? When you doing good. You get the new car, a new job, the new house, the new hair, the new nails, I'm just playing, people pay attention. But there's a lot of work that goes on to getting that newness to getting what I call it that shine. And one of the main reasons you see people when you see people achieving so much is the word accountability. And it was like what held me accountability, being accountable. But being accountable to yourself can be hard. If you're trying to do great things. You do not go it alone. And this is still true. When it comes to setting and reaching your goals. You have to have accountability partners. I have several Yes. Not one, not two. I think I have 236. Like that I meet with every week and I'm about at a seven. That's crazy, right? You think that's absolutely crazy that I have that many accountability partners that I meet with on a weekly basis. Let me tell you something. How many of you when you're looking to lose weight, you step on a scale every day? Or you try on a pair of pants or a dress or whatever to kind of get it Kana Kana, right to see how far you come. For me having accountability meetings with different people throughout the week. helps me stay on track, right? So even if you're hitting your goals, you're only doing it 30 day sprints or 90 day sprints, or six months sprint, for me talking to somebody it almost every other day, or every three days, really helps was like yeah, I do nothing on Monday and Tuesday. Ooh, I got that meeting coming up on Thursday. Let me do something on Wednesday, right, I gotta get it in. So let me tell you how you can create accountability groups, right. And some of you may call them masterminds, where you're really helping and grow. Sometimes you will pay for these groups. Sometimes they're free. I went from having I'm creating a free one with a friend of mine when I was looking to get out of debt and do some other goals in my life. To go on into paid masterminds, they're rolling out in a paid mastermind, and creating free accountability groups, then being back in paid mastermind, where I'm working with more people, and there's a difference. A lot of times in between the two. So number one, there's a lot of difference in the type of people that are in a pay than those that are in the free sometimes people in the free don't show the hell up because when you pay money and you pay a lot of money, guess what you're gonna do, you're gonna show the hell up, right? So that's the first thing you need to find accountability partners who don't show the hell up, they are not gonna flake out. They're not gonna have excuses as to why they can't be there. How often they can't be there. And trust me, I have been the person, September and October. I was just traveling, like, I did not meet, I think like six weeks in a row. And you know what my accountability is by like, yeah, we know, I like I really wouldn't be there. They're like, yeah, we know. But they knew for the eight months prior, I was there every single week. If I had a one of us, if I had a one group is four of us. If the other two could meet, I was one. I was the one that was was always available, and it'd be somebody else, right, that will consistently show up. And so for me showing up, even if I said, I have five goals for the week, even if I only had one set to go, I will, I was ready with one. Guess what happened. I was I got I got something done. And I was ready to talk about it. Or if I say you know what, this was not a good week. I didn't get anything done. But what it did do was help set up a process and a thought process. Where in it is truly truly important to have somebody that shows up. So you want somebody who is going to show up to every scheduled meeting.

So some of you like Michelle, I can't meet every week. If you can't meet every week, go for every other week
excuse me, then go for every two weeks. But don't go any further than once a month, once a month, it's really hard. Especially if you're new to goals. If you're new to goals, you really need to be meeting once a week. More than once a week may be helpful. You just have to test it and try it out. All right. So you want somebody who shows up. The second thing is you want somebody who listens. And when I say they listen, they're not doing ah ha yeah, that sounds good. Okay. All right. Okay, you want somebody who's listening intently to what you said. So they thank you. So they are truly truly in tune to when they know you hold him back when they know you lie in. And when they know you're not pushing yourself. And maybe sometimes when they know you're pushing yourself too hard. So that person or those people that are part of your accountability circle, are helping to keep you in balance. Right? Now, that doesn't mean they're not going to do this. Number three, push you and what does what I mean by push you they're going to not let you always sit in your comfort zone when it comes to reaching your goals. Because the truth is goals are not about being in your comfort zone. That is why a lot of people do not reach their goals. It is about doing something you've never done before. That's what goals are. And that is why so many people never achieve them. It is very difficult to get out of your comfort zone. And I'll put this at I'll give this example. I am not a cold weather person. For me to leave my nice warm cozy home in the middle middle of winter, especially I lived in the Midwest and the Northeast. North knows I had to have a good reason. Five days a week. That reason was a job to pay the bill. So I had a nice warm cozy home are you feeling me? So when people have to go after their goals that is a reason for me like Ooh, it's cold outside and wind blowing and it's snowing. Number of cars kind of sliding on the road to data salt truck hasn't been through. I think I'm gonna stay in here is comfortable in here. I don't really need nothing right and they go sit back down. But for those of us who know that we got to go out in the cold in the snow in the winter, because we have a face to face meeting with somebody who is going to engage with us who want to take us to the next level. So we're gonna do we're gonna get us back as prepared as we can to go slide on the road, you're trying to make that meeting, right? We're going to do things that we have not done before, and get out of our comfort zone. So that person needs to be pushing you to the next level, pushing you to not sit in your comfort zone to not have a pity party to not let you say, Okay, well, I'll just do it another week. Honey, it's been three weeks, get off the pot a shit is one of them two bills to decision. They're separate, do or do not? Right. And that's what that's what you want to for somebody who is in your accountability group. All right. Now, this one may not seem important to a lot of people, but it truly truly is. And it's the follow up. Yeah, like the follow up. Okay, so we meet every week, we talk about what our goals are. And we tell you what the plan is. And guess what we do that every week? How to hell, I know, you really do what you say, do. You have to start every meeting with what happened? With the goals you said you'd want to do last week? Not a very first meeting, you may not do that. But your accountability partner should be following up with you as you follow up with them. And so right now I'm doing something that it's very difficult for me, I'm writing a blog post today a minimum of 500 words. That is my goal to write seven blog posts, a set seven blog blog posts every day for the month of November, because it is national blog writing mother blog, sunlight dad, diva, MD gear, Michel de guerre, it has me doing this. So blame it on her. So these are my goals. I'm actually I do a Twitter chat to talk about goals every week. And the second question and part of this Twitter chatter, what are your goals for the week? So I literally publicly announced my goals. Do you know what the first question is that they asked? How did you do with your goal? This week? Seriously, they do this and we publicly publicly? Announce it. So to follow up comes first. Next is what do you plan on doing the next week with your goals? Y'all with me? I know y'all got quiet on me. But it's really, really important that you have this as part of your accountability. It is truly truly important. Okay. Now, this is not a necessity. This will be nice to have. If you have accountability partner, or partners who are resourceful, yes, resourceful. your accountability partners do not have to know the answer. They just need to know how to know Google use Google, they just need to know how to tap into their, their network. They just need to know how to be resourceful. If you have these people, or at least one person in your accountability group, it pushes you further ahead and it cuts down the time you spend working on your goals. Seriously, how many? How often have you said oh my god, I don't know how I'm gonna do this. If somebody goes, oh, we'll just call such or such. Anyway, well, who is that? Oh, well, they're the vice president or the chair or such as like this organization. And then a friend of mine, we grew up together, or we went to college together or they're my next door neighbor. We go to church, we have dinner, why kids play soccer together and you like the hail? How do I not know this? Because you did not share your goals, especially publicly. So having risk being resourceful or having somebody who's resourceful in your accountability group, y'all is Bay. Oh my God. It is absolutely, absolutely Bay. So be sure you have somebody who is resourceful in your accountability group. Okay. Now, if you are looking like okay, Michelle, I don't have my goals written down. Go ahead and get my free guide to how to write out smart goals specific, measurable, attainable, reachable, and time bound goals are realistic timeline, time timeout will depend on what you want to our enemy. It will is a free guide. You sign up for it, you download it, and you just write on it. Just make as many pages copies A lot of it, when you look at the guy, there are only there's only room for seven goals. And it explains in there why it's only seven, which is a lot of goals to have in a year. But it's to really help you focus and I like to do certain goals. I work on year round. Other goals only work on certain times of the year. Right? So, so it helps you Hey, Jeff, to really really focus on one or two goals per quarter, or even less, a one or two goals every six months. So seven goals is a lot. I'm usually like five. I like the number five, sorta kind of me because I'm one to five, I have five fingers. On one hand. What did he say shorty neck, oh, Lord, Lord, help him. But it's really really good to stay focus on your goals. And not be overwhelmed by the goal by your by the number of goals you have. When you have a smaller number of goals, you can intently focus on them. And having a large number of goals, especially if you're not a goal oriented person, it is not your thing, do not do seven, do two or three. Thanks for the super heart, Jeff. So it is really, really important to keep that in mind. When you go download the guide and you start writing national goals. Just aim for two or three. And you do not have to worry about whether you want to start in 2019 started now. What is something you want to work on? between now and December 31? Hey, Natalie, what is something you want to work on? between now and January 31 2019?

What does that look like? And because you do not have to wait to work on stuff for the new year. New year new me know you can start that change now. Do not wait to put a calendar four o'clock. Guess what? Um, one day, why not make it day one today? Yes, make day one today. Get the guide, fill it out, and just start writing out your goals. Then next Sunday. When we come back here we're talking about? Oh, yeah, you're not ready. You're not ready for this being in your feelings when it comes to reaching your goals? And you're like, what would you mean in your feelings? You're gonna be in your feelings, you're gonna be scared because going after your goals takes you out of your comfort zone, like I said earlier. Okay, so I'm gonna do a recap. What do you need to look for when it comes to building and creating your accountability group number one, they must show up as well as you they must listen. As well as shoe they must push you encourage you make you get out of your comfort zone is number three. Number four. They're going to follow up with you with where your goals were. What followed with you with last week's goals when you meet in the current week. So you don't just talk about oh, this is what I'm gonna do this week. No, we want to know what went well, what didn't go well, let us know. And number five, it is not a must. But it's really nice if that person or persons in your accountability group are resourceful. Yes, yes. Yes. Yes. So that is what I have for all of you go hustlers out there. Gold Diggers out there. Go getters out there. You got this. You got this. Yes, I do tweet out my goals. And then I take a screenshot of it. And I posted it on Instagram. And I know you're like Michelle, that's too much. You crazy. I will not share that with the world. Guess what? The world will come ask me did I write my six seven blogs? And guess what? I'll say no. I wrote and they'll go, Oh, that's really good. Or I'll go I wrote one is like or what happened? What you need, what went wrong? And then they'll start helping you? Because that is part of being accountable. And that is part of sharing even in a community and being held accountable for your goals. Alright, everybody, I'm out of here. Have a great week. You got this. What is that one? Action you're gonna take this week to get you one step closer to a goal does take just do that one action. That's all I ask. Alright, everybody, have a good one and I will talk to you later. Bye.

View Details

Hello Periscope, Twitter live what is going on everybody? Happy New Year's Eve. Some of you it is actually 2019 I am not that far behind you what I have, what? 41 minutes until it's 2019. So you will probably catch this on the replay, which is quite okay. But I wanted to come on. And let's talk about day six of the seven steps to prepare for your 2019 goals.

And tonight we're talking about your mindset. Yes, your mindset because it's truly key and truly important when it comes to achieving your goals. So this is gonna be real quick, real fast in a hurry. It is like the supercharged version of above what you need to do to be ready for your 2019 goals. Okay. So number one, believe in yourself.

Meaning you will look at yourself and say, Okay, I don't know how to do this, this and this, but I'm damn good at this. And you truly after you've done your self assessment, are able to understand what your strong points are. Understand what you enjoy doing and what you're really good at. So does it hold you back when you look and see that you aren't the best at everything because nobody is right? Nobody is.

But you believe in yourself that you want to achieve these goals. Number two, if you see it, you can believe it in your mind. You can see clearly what you want to achieve. And because you can see it is so much easier for you to achieve it. If you can't see yourself. Be where you said your goal is is going to be damn hard to get there. It is very, very difficult to envision it reaching someplace if you can't see it.

Now, that doesn't mean you can see every step to get there. What it simply means is you can see the end goal. You don't know how you want to do it, but you know you're going to do it. Right because you believe in yourself and you can clearly see your vision, your angle, right? Then the third thing, fear doesn't make you stop. In your mind.

You know, you are fearless. You just know that your dream is greater than your fear. And because your dream is greater than your fear, you keep going, you don't stop, you may slow down. Take a breath rest a little bit, but you don't quit. Right? You just compose yourself. You gain your energy again, you get to move it, but your fear doesn't stop you. It makes you down but it doesn't stop you. And this is a bonus one when it comes to mindset
and that is you.

Learn not to listen to quitters. I'm being honest. You learn not to listen to quitters. What you find out is quitters don't quit as a maybe discouraging you. I won't say all of them are. They may be discouraging you from pushing ahead. And your mindset is so focused on winning your mindset is so focused on that angle. your mindset is so about you winning, quitters don't impact you.

So everybody have a happy New Year's Eve be safe. And like I said, this is quick, fast into the point as how to later I'll be back tomorrow and we will wrap up day seven, with a little something different. So if you miss any of today's days one through six, definitely definitely go check them out anywhere from looking at your habits. Expect the unexpected what else I have, how to stop procrastinating assessing your tribes and you don't have haters, you have quitters in your life. All right, everybody. I will talk to you later. Bye

View Details

What is up everybody? Thank you so much for joining me. This is Michele Heyward woman of color still founder of the tech company positive hire. And tonight, we are on day three of seven days of talking about preparing for preparing for your 2019 goals. Yes, that is what we're doing. That is what this is about. Hey, Big Daddy, Panama. Thanks for joining. So if you missed the first two days, I'm gonna tell you day one was about looking at your habits, looking at your habits, and yesterday, which was day two, was all about planning for the unexpected. Um, how do you prepare, expect the unexpected and what you should do to prepare for them?

All right. So right now we're going to get into day three, which is all about her fascination goal setters gold gold status with gold diggers go getters don't procrastinate that often most of time they are in action. And you're probably wondering how do they How do they do that?

So I have three main tips and then something I really really want you to focus on Hey Stevie. When it comes to your goals when it comes to setting your goals when it comes to reaching your goals thanks for sharing this out. If you haven't press those three dots go ahead and press those three dots and share this out okay. We're done when it comes to you really going after your goals you really pushing for with your goals. You need to number Why? Because you know you're procrastinating

You know, you're not taking action. Hey, Tiffany. The first thing I want you to do is write down don't want you to first visualize and then write down what you see what the It look like after you have achieved this goal, a lot of times we know we have to get it done. And we say yeah, cuz once I get it done, I will have all the stress done. But what does that really look like when you pay off your student loan? When you pay off your mortgage when you lose those 40 pounds and you're no longer on the meds, right?

What does that life look like? visualize it and write it down some of your really great artists, you may be able to draw it out by hand, even using illustrator or something and really make a visual story of what your life would look like. Some of you can go through and put together a book and just cut out magazines. Right?

And it's really really important you do this because a lot of times we need that inspiration we need that push and us understand and literally seeing Seeing is believing right? Where we will be if we stop procrastinating will get us in action, right? will get us in action. So make that visual, be a visual person so you can get to where you want to be with your 2019 goals. Now, this is very, very hard for people to do.

So you have this big, hairy audacious goal. That's what they say right? But what happens If you're able to break that big goal down into smaller steps, then smaller steps, the smaller steps, and it's like, well, I can do that if I only have to do this, and I have to do it 1511 times to get here. I probably can do that. Right? Like how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time? How do you how do you prepare for a marathon? You start doing five K's 10 K's right, a half marathon. You keep doing those runs.

Most people don't jump into a full marathon. Right? So you start preparing a you make it? Yeah, the girl big hairy, audacious goal, right? You take it one step at a time and being able to break that goal down into those small manageable steps and actions will help you move through your procrastination. Yes, it really does where you would be amazed and some of you like Michelle It makes no sense. Okay. Okay.

How long did it take you to graduate high school? Most people it took 1213 years dependent 14 of you day pre K, kindergarten and kindergarten. So 13 years, 13 years, right? If somebody told you it's going to take you 13 years to make $5 million, most of y'all would quit. But it took you 13 years ago damn sheet of paper. And you most of us kept going. And most like Yeah, um, I was motivated by my parents that will get out the house divided go to school, I will have a place to live Monday. You need to have that same motivation. So that 13 years it took you to get that one piece of paper write that one piece of paper was broken down into different levels of school. So you have high school Middle School. So you had high school junior high Middle School. elementary here we have high school, middle school, elementary and primary, something like that. And then in each one of those you still had kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade, fourth grade, right?

And then even within those, you have time periods where you have not first nine weeks, the second nine weeks, right? That's half a year. Then you have the third nine weeks, the fourth time, you have different periods within you get summer break, you get spring break, you get winter break, right. There are different periods in your is all and we we often don't see those as small action steps. And they really are and then you go from the semester, right, you go from the semester, to a month to a week, to a day. Then in those days you have English class math class, science, class, art, music, pe I don't know something else in there. I'm missing some classes. Right. But you get what I'm studying or naptime. I say, study on laptop, never.

But anyway, you get what I'm saying. So when you break it down to that level, that minute level, guess what you say? Well, yeah, I can do fourth grade. I mean, all I'm going to do is learn this. all I'm gonna do is learn that and then I'm gonna go to this teacher. We have broken school down to such my new action items until Guess what? We go and do it. And we don't realize it has taken us 13 years to get a sheet of paper. Hello. And then we go to college, and we're gonna take me four to five years to do this.

And if I get a Masters we're gonna take to me like, Do y'all realize, and so we're so excited because we thought 13 years was nothing, but then let me tell you, some of y'all probably realize 13 years A long time so this way did they let you go to kindergarten? So you felt accomplished right? So what that was that was a milestone we call those milestones. And so you get rewarded with a piece of paper. Then you graduate from elementary or whatever.

Oh, this breaking your grandma no show up your mom and your dad inertia, right? Did you graduate from middle school junior high graduation Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Did you graduate high school and a pass out?
Yeah, my house right.

20 years ago, just exactly
20 is gone. Just like that. A y'all have to put in those milestones in there.

View Details

What is going on everybody? This is Michele Heyward, your woman of color and stem tech founder and gold digger. Yes, I'm a gold digger, G O A L digger. I welcome welcome everybody as usual on the Sunday nights. Hey Natasha, we are talking about your goals, reaching your goals going after your goals, not giving up on your goals. Tonight. Tonight, I want to talk about fear. Do y'all know what is the number one killer of goals? Do y'all know what it is? How many of you think is money? How many of you think money is the number one killer of goals? How have dreams of goals of dreams of reaching where you want to be? How many you think is money? The second option? It's your connections? And how about your third option? You just don't know what to do. Right? Which of those three do you think is the number one killer of dreams? You think it is money, connections and lack of know how? I'm going to tell you a secret. None of those are the number one killer of dreams. The number one killer of your dreams of your goals is your fear.

Fear kills more dreams, more hopes, more aspirations than money, lack of know how and having a right connection that it kills more dreams? Yes. Because when you fear something, many of us just give up, walk away, give reasons why it cannot be done. So what I want to do tonight, is talk about when fear shows up, because fear is going to show up. It's going to show up in different ways. And you're going to have to sit there and decide to do one of these three things. One or three. Right? You want to sit in fear, which means you ain't gonna do shit. You're gonna give up. You're gonna let it kill your dream. You're gonna walk in fear. And you're going to try to figure out how do I get this done. And the third thing is like, you know what, I want it I gotta have it. Uh, you want to run like hell in fear to get what you want. Those are the three things, three options you will see when it comes to fear when it as it relates to your dreams, your hopes, your aspirations, your goals, right? But let me tell you what fear is gonna show up as number one, no one I know, has done it before. You know how easy it is to drive a car because well, you see your family and friends driving a car. You know how easy it is to have your own place because other people around you have having your place. A lot of times we say it can't be done because we've never seen anyone or know of anyone personally who has done it. So we say oh, that's something that white people do. That is something that rich people do. That is something that people who go to college you give a reason why you can't do it because you're not like the people who have done it. Don't let that stop you. Don't let that kill your dream. Okay, number two, what when fear shows up? I don't have the money for it. Guess why?

Figure out how to get the money. Is it working a second job a third job? Is that selling your house is like getting a smaller apartment? Is it keeping your same apartment getting to one or two roommates? Is it selling your car? What is it that you want to have to do to get the capital you need to go after your dream? Right where you want to get that money. Figure that out that don't let that fear of I don't have money. Kill your dreams. The third one is the most common one. And if you're watching me right now, I'm gonna tell you something nobody else on here is gonna tell you. If this is your reason as to why you can't go after your dreams. You say I don't have time. Get off Periscope. Stay off social media. Stop looking at TV. Only Come on, use the internet to find the information and to find a community to engage with to help you grow. If you take that time doing frivolous stuff, right? Talking on the phone. Watching Periscope Oops, but this one might add value for you. So you may want to be here, right, you have to be very selective on how you spend your time. And you need to make those decisions. So cut out, looking at how to get away with murder. Lords, I do miss it, I do miss and I do catch up on it. But I'll binge watch two or five episodes at one time and be done. And not watch it for I don't know the rest of the season and catch, you know, a month or two later catch some more episodes. But what I found is when I gave up a lot of time on social media, and I completely gave up TV to like, 10% of what I used to watch, y'all, I had so much more time to engage with people to find that supportive community to help me go after my goals. So yes, it can be done, but you have to be committed to it. Okay. The last one I just mentioned is I have no support data, my friends are interested in what I'm trying to do. I don't know where to find people, guess what, Google it. Find Facebook groups, find, look for hashtags on Twitter, Instagram, on Periscope, even on LinkedIn has hashtags to find those communities, and LinkedIn has groups. So you really, really have to spend the time to find that support. So you not knowing anybody, you're not having money, you're not having time, you're not having a support system, are strictly fear, telling you to give up on your goal, telling you to give up on your dream. Don't let it do that. Don't let it tell you, these things are the reason why you can't be successful. These things are the reasons why you can't reach your goal. In actuality, they are not. That is just fear hiding itself is dressing itself up. This is what you're gonna do. You're gonna show up one day, like this is gonna show up one day like this. Yeah, and if you're gonna come back the next day, talking about dress like this, right? If you're gonna show up again, like this fear is gonna keep showing up. It is up to you to come up with a way to deal with it.

Sometimes that's phone referrals. Sometimes that's finding a friend. Sometimes like, you know what, I just got to do it. I'm just going to commit to it, make that call, shoot that email, make that video, write that email, whatever it is, just commit to taking that action and doing what you need to do to get through that fear. All right, if you want to start working on your goals for 2018, because 2018 is not over. So don't say, Michelle, I'm gonna start I'm like, No, I want you to go think about what did you want to do? Achieve in 2018? Get the gold diggers, this free gold diggers guy, fill it out one or two of your goals? Probably one that you can really start on and focus on between now the last week of November and all of December and really figure out that plan. What does it look like is that the guy that gives you a smart format, and then you can work on your 2019? Start writing those out, but focus on something else in 2018? Because don't keep saying one day I'm going to do it. Make it today day one guess like Michelle what? Don't wait for one day. You keep saying one day I'm gonna do that. No make today. Day one, make this the first day that you start working on that goal. Time is not guaranteed. Take it health is not guaranteed. Take this time take this opportunity. Grab the guy, write it out. In there. I add something I use the smart goal format, but I add one thing which is accountability. And you truly truly have to have accountability to help you get through your goals that accountability partner or partners help you stay accountable. help you stay focused, help you not give up to fear, no matter what it looks like. Alright everybody, I'm Michele Heyward. I will be back next Sunday in a new location, talking about your goals. Everybody, have a great week, and I will talk to you later. Bye

View Details

What is going on Periscope replay viewers really for the web and Twitter. I'm Michele Heyward. Be sure you share this out. Be sure you heart this up. What's up shelling? Okay, I need to share this out, because we are going to talk about goals. We are so focused on on making sure. Thanks, Daria. Thanks. I mean, Shelley for sharing this out. So, we are going to talk about how do you stay focused on your goals? Hey, Lala, instead of your obstacles? And what does that look like every day? And is that reasonable for you to do? And I absolutely think it is. So let's jump in on how do you stay focused on your goals and natural obstacles? Number one, look at your goals every single day. And some of you like Michelle, what's that? What else? Michelle? There was like, Michelle, what do you mean, looking at my goals every day girl, I can look at my goals every day. Yeah, you really can. When you look at your goals every day, you are starting to automatically think about how you aren't going to reach that goal in those small steps, small actions that we talked about earlier this year. So if you miss that live stream, if you miss that scope, you got to go back and and I may have done an under hashtag goal. Gold digger or go get go getter, one of the two but you can scroll here is probably is a ways down. So let's just say that. But you this is what I suggest you do. So these are some of my bigger posts. It's the I like the big sheets. But literally take your goals, put them on, post it and put them on your bathroom mirror, especially if you have like one of the big ones. That's like five feet by four feet. You know, bidness is the 80s Whatever. If you have one of those, put it on your mirror. If not put it on your dresser, bureau. Mirror, something some mirror or glass that you look at every single day. Because of what happens while you're brushing your teeth. You're washing your face you putting on or taking, putting on your makeup. You're like, Oh my God, I need to get my eyebrows done. Right? You are seeing your goals. And I can tell you I haven't done this on the mirror in a while. But I used to have one in my last apartment that said to build well, for at least three generations of my family. Yes, I want it to Bill Well, for at least three generations and my family. I didn't say how it's going to do it. But that was that is one of my goals. So you like but Michelle, how do you do it is not something that's going to happen overnight. It is not something that's going to happen in a week it is going to take me my lifetime to get that done. So I'm very intentional with how much time I will spend here with you ladies and gents on leaning on the everlasting arm. I will spin on social on Periscoping because unless it helps me Creek ate well for at least three generations. I got a backup say, deuces. I got things to do that is going to help me do that. But I looked at those goals every single day. Just like what Michelle would if I have a plumber come in and do work. What should the farmer go learn something the plumber don't learn to put his goals up on his mirror to her mirror. That's what a plumber go learn the plumber or how focused and determined you are about your goals because you look at them every single day. And they go home that you put a bill up on that mirror. So you you you determined to pay the bill on time. I'm just saying best go in life takes time. Yes, absolutely. It absolutely does. Okay, so number one, put your goals so place you will see them every day. So right now I have them in my office. All my quarterly goals are actually my quarterly goals on a big post and in a wall next to my desk across from my desk on the opposite wall are my annual goals. So I literally when I write up my quarterly goals, I am looking across the room at my annual goals and moving things around and knowing what to write out. Yeah, I'm Matt Adel, but if you want to learn it, I can teach you how to do it, but I don't do it for free. You know why? Because if you're serious about it, I'm serious about helping you get there. and it's a whole process that I go through in goal achievement. So trust me, it works. But you have to be committed, you have to find that accountability. persons or persons. I have three accountability groups that absolutely don't. I've been on to zooms this weekend, trying to get stuff together. I might have been on to Facebook calls, helping people get off the ledge. So we help each other reach our goals and stay focus, right? Yeah, I don't play. Right it. If you want somebody to play with, if you want a grown up, I can give you your mom, my mama number. She had a daycare for over 30 years, but she won't charge you because she don't play for free. She had to pay for that played out she had to pay for those puzzles. But she had played for a fee. I'm just saying Okay. Number two, when you're looking at your goals, so this is the topic, everybody. I'm going to put it in the chat just in case you missed it. Stay in focus on your goals instead of focusing on your obstacles. And this actually came from Noel's garden, who is Shelly Moyes, who was actually one of my accountability partners. And he I haven't been to one of my accountability meetings for like two months, and they like, yeah, we know you're not coming. I've just been traveling, I've just been busy, but I will be there this week. I'm going to go make it y'all. I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna be there. I'm gonna be there. Okay, so number two. How do you not you're like Michelle, but there are obstacles. How do I not focus on these obstacles? Okay, write your obstacles down. And for every one of your for every one of your obstacles, right there how you overcome it? You like Michelle? That will make no sense. Okay, let me let me see, let's talk. So your brain homepage between you and your spouse is $3,000 a month. The bills in your house are $3,500 a month. You trying to figure out what you're gonna get 500 extra dollars from or you need to figure out how you can cut 500 Extra $500 out of your expenses. You know what you're gonna do? You're gonna start tracking how often you eat out. Is that really a necessary trip to go back and go to every Happy Hour on Tuesday, Taco Tuesday, wine down Wednesday, Thursday, Thursday. Y'all need me every half hour because every happy hour, I'm gonna be happy when you can't pay your bills. So you sit there you look at what are the obstacles keeping you from paying your bills, right? And you're like, I gotta be a grown up. Go get that fight all about all one, right? Instead of spin. If I had all the glass and the place, just, I just say my friend over there. She she'd die laughing it'd be like, you know, you're over there. Right? So but you have to almost I'm gonna use another word. You have to adult? Yes. So write down your obstacles, at least one obstacle for every one of your goals that you foresee. So if you don't see an obstacle for a goal, don't write anything down. If you see an obstacle for a goal, write it down and write how you can overcome it like Michelle, I don't want to build build this billion dollar business, but I need a million dollars. Okay, but how do we get a million dollars revenue, go out and sell something for $5 $10. So you could start by selling stuff that you need to have, you know, using your house stuff in your closet to still have tags on it. Matter of fact, how old is your car? Have you Uber to lift lately? I'm just saying hey, Alan. That's what you need to figure out. You need to figure out what our obstacle is. And what is the most immediate action you can take to overcome that obstacle. And most of the time, the obstacles are really easy. Every now and again, it will take something huge and monumental to move ahead of that obstacle. That is number two. So number one, you need to look at your goals every single day. Number two, hey, Joanne. Hey, Dr. Tammy. Number two, you want to look at you want to look at and understand what your obstacles are and how to overcome and right now how to overcome one obstacle for each of your goals if you have obstacle for those goals for that goal, okay. This is what I am horrible at. I'm so bad at this. Y'all. I am the worst at this Yes, if you have not invited your followers, go ahead and invite your followers. Number three, celebrate your wins.

Okay, now like Michelle, how can you not celebrate your wins? Because as a woman we are taught not to be boastful. We're taught to be modest. That's not very lady like To hell with that. I'm the boss. I did that. You say that you said it was built over there I did that would pop pop your callers ladies. Oh, net. Oh net. Hey, Nina, thanks for invite your false Oh, net. I have to learn not just you, but I have to learn to celebrate my wins. And when I celebrate, I need not go get food. That's the second thing I need to do. I need to celebrate my wins in another way than food and shopping. But at least when I do it, I do do do it for myself. I'm just saying. So be out there and celebrate your wins and let people now so I do little stuff. Like I don't know if any. If you follow me on Instagram, and you look at my stories, yes, up your collar. If you look at my Instagram Stories, you may have seen this really, really tall pop up banner. And that was huge for me to get a banner for my business. I'm in Atlanta right now. And my friend flew in for up from LA to help me be an exhibitor at this conference. It is really, really important for my business to be here, or at least to test it out and see if it's a good fit for me to come in and start marketing my business. Because getting a client y'all is a long game plan. It is not anything short. It is not anything quick. For most of us. It does take time, especially if you're looking at corporate clients. So here in Atlanta again, like Michelle, you'll just stay on Thursday. And I'll be here Sunday through Wednesday. Sunday through Wednesday. Oh yeah, I think I just fixed my page, but now I can't get it to connect. me that's a whole other discussion. Okay. So I So number one, look at your goals every day. Number two. Look at the obstacles for some or all of your goals. And find one way write down one way to overcome that obstacle. What is the quickest and easiest way that you can think of to overcome that obstacle? Because a lot of times the obstacle is really in here. And it doesn't exist most of the time most of the time do we keep ourselves from reaching our goals? Let's be truthful. How many people want to lose weight? How many people had this for dinner? They are not paying me. So let me do this they are not paying me but how many of us are maybe being you had some of this to go with that? I'm just saying that you want to lose weight. So we sabotage ourselves when it comes. So most of the times we are our own obstacle we blame I'm big boned did a bone don't go like this a bone is not easily put. I'm just saying I'm just saying. So really, really own the obstacles how many of them are really more in our mind than they are out in the world? Okay. Number three, hey glam queen. Number three, celebrate your wins. Post them share with your Insta bosses community, share with your paragraphs community, share them with your Periscope community. Share with your heart tribes community share with your Facebook family right share your win. I didn't come know Daraa you did not go with here with your big bone. Okay, share your wins but this is the bonus I have for you this is the bonus. And you're like Michelle what's the bonus? What is your why? Hey Natalie. Natalie isn't a by Natalie must be your favorite person or what is your why? What I say is so my goal. One of my goals I said was to create wealth with last which lasts at least three generations. And my why is I do not believe I do not feel and I do not want my I have nieces and nephews, my great nieces and nephews, and my great great nieces and nephews to continue to having to work. Okay gara continue to have to work a job. What I prefer them to do is work do work, which is fulfilling to them do work, which they are passionate about do work, which impacts the world. And a lot of times for people to feel that way they do not need they do not having to worry about student loan debt, a mortgage, health insurance, all of that is already covered. So remove removing that debt, removing that responsibility may give them hopefully the opportunity to create a life where they're doing so much more than just working a job to pay the bill. working nine to five, just make live in See that's why I don't do karaoke. See. That's why I don't do parodies. So yeah, I got it, right. So that is that that's my bonus. Now, there's like, Michelle, how do you how do you stay focused like some days are better than others? Some days, you will not work on your goals directly. And what you like what does that mean? That means you will take this last. You're gonna take this bottom line, you're gonna pour it, you're gonna sit at cipet and you could just chill and you're gonna be on Periscope, and you're gonna tell jokes about a time I sounded great, though. You're gonna tell jokes about that time. You found this great Groupon to Jamaica. And it said that a resort had no churn. Shuren children or children. For those of y'all who aren't southern or Midwestern. Head you oh my god, this is perfect. And you call your boy you tell like yeah, about he's like, okay, cool. You should definitely go you know, just be careful if you're gonna go because I went alone. I went to Jamaica about myself. I get to the resort. It ya know why I said no children allowed. Because they had a nude beach. Like it was two beaches. It was the clothes beach and the nude beach. Well, guess what? The cloth beach faces the nude beach. And guess who was? Yeah, I had all shades and I sometimes I wear my glasses. I pull it off my che so I couldn't see. Thank you. They were my glasses. I could still see it still I can still see. Even to this day, I can still see hold issues later. It was one of those times I wish I didn't have my context.

So those are the take days you you come out and you really just relax. And you reminisce on things and you celebrate things and you just really look at you do a Netflix and chill with yourself. And you don't answer your phone and you're not on Twitter, you're not on social. And those are the days that you need to really recoup. Those are the days that you need to you can refocus. Those are the days so that you don't burn out. Right. So not every day, not every hour, will you focus on your goals. Girl, nothing could have prepared me for that. I thought like after so many wrinkles, you understood you were not supposed to go in the sun anymore. But obviously that's in my mind. Not everybody's know, nothing can prepare you for that. Least not engineering school. Maybe if I was in a medical space, I nursed to something but I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready. So take the time. Take the time to relax, relate, release, relax, relate release. And that way you're ready to go back in and really focus on your goals again. You're ready to go back in. And whatever that barrier are a couple barriers that you really, they really aren't in your head. You have to face and overcome. You're ready for them. because you know your why you've looked at your goals, you written down how to overcome at least one way to overcome that obstacle or obstacles. And you've celebrated your wins. So you're like, I've done this before. I can do it again. I'm not done this, but I can do this again because you know what happened? I don't know. I don't know. I'm a guess how many of y'all ride a bicycle have written a bicycle? How many of you like girl the last time I rode a bicycle like 25 years ago. And you looking crazy, right? But if I told you, I need you to ride that bicycle, from this corner of the block to the next corner that block you like it's gonna be rough, but I can do it. You know why? Because you've done it before. So while you may not have achieved this one goal, but you achieved these other five you might Wow cheap five I can do the one it's just a little bit rougher. Because you build up your skill set. The more goals you set, the more goals you work on, the more goals you achieve, so it works out. Yes, resiliency. I got the crew over there she like her. It's called resilience. I'm the English one you to math, one C is teamwork. Work is teamwork up in this condo tonight. So all right. So what are we going to do? It is is coming up on Monday bicycles that I have loved. You know what it is about bicycles. They teach us how to ride bicycles. They should teach us how to fall and there's a difference. So teaching you how to ride a bicycle, they're focused on you not instead of saying okay, when you feel yourself going to the right side, move your foot to catch yourself. When you feel yourself leaning to the left side, pull your core and suck your stomach in and try to balance and try to really focus on this. It says that they get freaked out and because they freak out, you freak out don't get the neighbor's car. Learn how to ride in the street. Right off this hill I'm having flashbacks of learning how to ride my yellow son duster as a kid. But I watched my now nine and a half year old nephew teach himself how to ride a bicycle. And you know why he taught how he taught himself to ride like 30 minutes or an hour because nobody was out there screaming at him. Nobody was telling him he was just like I felt like I was gonna fall so I put my foot down I didn't know how to fall if I fall over Flass See, I cannot do that. Karen is your name Karen did I get it right or am I wrong? So you gotta be cracking out too I already know how to fall Oh y'all I failed the other day the reason why I was in Atlanta I did not step both feet down like my left foot did not went like so it was a step down and my foot went like that and I fell
in a parking garage that wasn't a bad part. The bad part was two people in there you fall up there see Karen we don't have to talk we don't have the top no care we don't have the top I know where you hang out you take you hang out with two well why now is it yeah because I know how to well do so so yeah, I fell Oh my God and I was like going to a different another Yvette Megan I got an eight n i and i i don't know i don't know why I care.

But Megan Okay, I got Megan Michele and Meghan hanging out. So I don't even know what I was talking about falling or somebody I fell. But really stay focused on your goals does take effort. It does take a team and it does take you stay in the game more times than you you jump out of the game. So we'll talk about that more because I forgot where I was unless Daria you remember are making you remember, I don't remember. It is stressing to see the number of slaves and say who refused to be saved by Jesus Christ. Then what you shouldn't do is go and try to save their souls. Because if that's what you're called to do, then you need to do that. Don't distress about it go to work about it. I don't even need drinks. So, yeah, no, no, that's fine. That's fine. I get it. But to that own self be true. So, so we're looking at the bicycle, my nephew, I like, Well, how did you learn how to ride a bicycle? And you know what I noticed there was not one adult out there screaming at him, you're gonna run into but it was not the other kids. And I saw him riding a bicycle. And I didn't realize he was learning to ride the bicycle. And then I'm talking to his mom like, yeah, so I saw him outside, right? And she's like, he don't know how to ride a bicycle. I said, Well, who told you that? Because he asked, I ran. She said, Well, whose bicycle? Is he? Right? Because he didn't have a bicycle at the time. And I'm like, oh, shoot, I don't know. Got my nephew in trouble. So he comes inside. And he like his mom's like, your Auntie said you will. You will learn it. Yeah, I'm back on track. I don't know it popped in my head. You were you were writing about it. Oh, yeah, I got off such such bicycle. But y'all know how to ride a bike. He was like, I just taught myself. And she was like, What do you mean, he just taught yourself? He said I could ride it. So I figured out how to ride. And he just, he just came and started to get something to drink. He's like, Well, can I go back outside and ride again, she was like, Okay, let me go out. So you won't be all up in the street when cars come. So that's when the yelling star said, Get over to your right side a cars come and staff get over to the left side. You know, stuff like that did. But he learned to ride because it would not want where he was one adult out there me. But I didn't know he couldn't ride a bicycle. So I didn't bother him. See what happens. See what happens when adults get out of the woods and get out of kids way. See the great things they do on their own. I'm just saying. So keep that in mind to keep that in mind. So that that brings me to another thing. When achieving your goals. I said accountability partners and having mastermind groups is important that you are sharing your goals with some people. Actually, anybody without the understanding of what darkness is, is really confused. Because my brilliance so scares you. Because my skin is so bolder than you, it stands out. And that melanin just pops until it blinds you and it confuses you. And you get lost and confused and your own thoughts of how brilliant and powerful I really am. Until you sit there thinking I don't understand that can't be instead of saying I want to know how I can be the same you focus and hits for think that I'm less than, but really, I'm more than and you yearn to be like me. So what I want you to do YOLO 678765, watch my replay, on how you can stay focused on your goals, instead of focusing on your obstacles. Because my being black, no, I don't feel stupid about that. What I feel is, you feel less than because you're not black, you feel less than because I get all the notice you feel less than from my brilliance and my boldness and my blackness. And once you're able to understand the power that comes with this, you will start to understand how you can evolve to this level, how you can share, like I am sharing and what I've learned to help others no matter the level of melanin in their skin. And until you have that revelation you will feel less than but I encourage you not to feel less than are encouraged you to open your mind and be able to receive wisdom and to grow from that. And I know right now it doesn't seem possible because somebody has spared you that you are more than because you have less melanin. But people with melanin Guess what? They don't ever feel that way. You know, they feel that when I walk up in this place, I'm like a diamond. I may not be cut, but I'm the purist and everybody notices me and how do you grow from that? So what is it that you bring to the table so that others can notice you? And you don't have to compare yourself to others? So stupidity is nothing. When you look at being black. Check that. So, everybody, what are we going to do? I want you to take some time, I know some of you. In reality, we're all different shapes as we really are, we really, really are making. So I want you to find some posts, it's four big posts, from big, big wall posts, and write your goals down. We are in the last part of 2018. And some of you are feeling discouraged, because you didn't hit your goals, you need to hit one goal in 2018, that you started. Trust me, I really know how you feel. But what I want to go through every Sunday, excuse me to start at the beginning of this year is we go through your goals. And I'll come on, and we'll talk about how to get that movement. Because while you may not hit your goal, remember your wins are not completing your goals, your wins, every step that you take. To get to reach that goal. I learned that it's like yes. Yeah, exactly. It really, really is I science Oh, man, that's been so long ago. So every every goal, every step that you take towards the goal, every action, even if you find that girl, going in reverse was what I should have done instead of putting the car in for that fits in that bush was not what I wanted to hit. Good Megan. So when you say lots of goals, so what I generally tell people, you don't want to have more than seven goals. And is one and like seven categories. So the like spiritual, mental, emotional, physical career or professional, personal, and financial. There are different areas, I tell people to have goals, but really only have one. In each one of those categories, each one of those seven categories at most. And then in there, you could have some some other things. So one of your goals for 2018 was, I want it to pay off a $20,000 in debt. And then I was like, Michelle, I paid off 10 I like what hell? Why are you mad, you only paid off 10 Because I'm wanting to pay off 20 Let me tell you, some of you have paid off $5 out of that 20, you still doing better than a lot of people. Maybe they have 720 to get to the end. So so so we my friend just says like don't pay her no attention. So you really, really need to stay focused on the actions you're taking to your goals. Those are your wins. Even though you haven't accomplished that goal, doesn't mean you're less than it simply means you're still in the process. And it's taking you longer to reach that goal. So we're going to look at that. I don't know what the plan is exactly. But I know I'm not traveling anymore. Some people can't even pay it out. Yes, some people really can't pay it.

Right. Every step is a it is a small victory, getting and reaching a goal or goals and a main. Exactly. So I have like an overarching 2018 goal, y'all I had one of my goals this year. Written ins for September, like to hit this in September was to have my tech company a C Corp. I just wrote it down. And what happened in September, I started a C Corp process. It was nothing I was doing intentionally working on but I had written it down it was on my 2018 plan. There is power in writing your goals down. So if you're telling me Michelle I have these goals for 2018 and I said what are they just like oh, I can't remember them. I'm gonna be like Well where did you write them down this like I don't I didn't write them down. I needed to go write them down. So this is your homework for next week. Write your goals down and we will go from there. I need you to come back next week with your goals if your goal is to pay Bahama pay down my debt, that's fine my I want to lose I want to fit in a size eight pants. Fine write it down small goals for me are part of my it is exactly Megan. It is it is really about small tangible goals because when you hit the small ones, the big ones don't seem so impossible. They seem like okay, that's just going to take longer. I will be able to do that in three months or one year, it might be three to five years. But let me tell you something, something that you thought you would reach in five years because you've hit the smaller one and three, one month and three month and six month goals. that five year goal now gets done in two to three years because you're meant momentum keeps going. Me too. I had a lot. I had a lot manifest after writing them down and put it where I see it every day. It works. It really really works. It it works in our subconscious because we start doing things and taking action or not taking action girl. So my doctor Tammy texts me and she wanted me to fly to Corpus Christi to come hang out. The way my bank account set up Dr. Tammy, I'm not gonna be able to make that because unless it's a revenue generating type activity. Michelle would not be there. Deuces. I appreciate you that love you. I was yes. Go go. I need to join you, Megan. My goal is to hit 160. And I am a middle schooler from like 60. I must say that. So we really by our by like, like Natalie said she had a lot to manifest after writing down her goals. And putting them when she see them every day. It works subconsciously it truly, truly does. And so even working subconsciously and then going in them and tasks mastering them. On a daily basis, it helps a lot. I do at least one thing every day to accomplish my goals and work towards them. Yes, and it doesn't take and when you when we talk about goals, we will also talk about how much time each day you need to spend on them. And I will tell you, you can do a lot in 15 to 20 minutes a day on a goal. And you're like Michelle, you lie. If you want to lose weight and you're not working out at all now at all right now 15 to 20 minutes of walking a day it will make a difference. Going from zero to one five minutes a day makes a difference. I want to learn how to do real estate Hey, lady divine, I want to learn how to do real estate. listen to a podcast or audiobook, a YouTube video, reading a book 15 to 20 minutes a day will increase your knowledge. Right. It's small. So it took me about three months to get to that. It does. But you know what happens? You keep going and you keep going. And you keep going. And you keep going. That's That's my my breakdown of it. Okay, are we good? Are you so y'all know what y'all assignment is? Dr. Tammy, the assignment is to write down your goals, your 2018 goals. Now, if you're like Michelle is q4 of 2018, I did well, but for my 2018 goals, I'm focused on 2019 the Write down your 2019 goals. Let's go let's get started on him. Just got to 2018 don't mean you can't start on 2019 Hell, you can start on 2025 ball. I can't. But we got it. That's what we're going to do for the next few Sundays. I'm gonna say next five Sundays. We'll work on goals. Probably even the Sunday after Thanksgiving, because some of y'all gonna be like, I feel sick. I want Black Friday shopping. Better to take time and keep going to rush Exactly. Just keep it and even when you backslide even when you have a bad day even when you drink the whole bottle of wine and eat the whole bag of pita cinnamon sugar chips. You just you own it. And I own that I own that. But guess what got to keep going. It's no time to give up. None whatsoever. All right, everybody. We good. We good? Yeah, ready. I don't know who's pressing those hearts because I'm not on my phone is here. And I'm on E cam. So I'm on my laptop, which is at 9%. So I won't be on here much longer at all. But if you have not followed me be sure you follow me. I'm at Michelle C and I'm a one L Michelle. We shall see hey, we're here on Periscope. You can find me on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook. I have twitch and Snapchat but I just have to account that is it. I just have two accounts. And if you're like, do work with your 2019 and if you're like Michelle My 2018 can watch your 2018 goals. It is not too late. Let's get them moving. You might you probably can achieve one or two of them if you're committed. I'm committed with you You will get it in the next five weeks. Right? It is me I'm following you. Okay. Great. Glad Queen for God. Great, great. Great. All right, everybody. I'm out of here. We have a busy day tomorrow setting up the booth. I feel like big Tigger setting up the booth. No, don't worry about it. Alright, everybody might feel like you need to go to sleep and get back on track. Yes, that is what I don't want y'all to be for those of you like Michelle, I haven't looked at my goals for 2010 since January. Do not beat yourself. Yes, you are following me on Twitter. I have to check Instagram you probably are. I've just been really busy. But I know you are on Twitter. Because I followed you back. Do not beat yourself up if you have not reached your 2018 goals if you have not worked on them since January. Thought about them since February. It's not that kind of show. What we're about is really empowering you to get what you want in your life with the goals that you have in mind. Not about beating you up. But I will make you accountable. I will hold you accountable. And that comes with Dr. Tammy let them know tough love because I think Laura Lila key was on here. So if you don't know Laura La La ke Laura is a realtor in LA. And one of her goals was to have a million dollar listing. She had a Million Dollar Listing this year. Did that come overnight? Nope. took about a year. From the time it took less than a year from the time she said what the goal was to her reaching it. Good night. Thank you and so it can happen but you have to be dedicated Laura was dedicated to making changes. She was dedicated Shawna for accountability meeting she was dedicated to writing now she was dedicated to asking questions to do our research to putting in the work. If that is not, you don't show up on Sundays. Because you you I'm gonna let you know you're gonna get your feelings hurt. And I don't mean that to be funny. I'm just saying you're not ready. So So I won't say don't come. Just say you know what, I don't know if I'm in the right mindset for this. But I want to be here and learn, then come for that. But if you're ready, truly ready to commit to this, be here on Sundays, which are pen and paper with your goals with your questions, which are frustrations, which are obstacles. And we will work through this. All right. I'm at 7%. So I gotta go. Everybody have a great week, and I will be back tomorrow with mentor Monday. So if you're a woman of color, STEM professionals, data scientists, technologists, engineer, mathematician you might be doing you may be a developer, but you deal with Python. So you're doing stats. I'll be back tomorrow with mentor Monday. I think hopefully I'll be back in time. I'll be back in a condo to do it. Alright everybody, I'll see you later. Bye.

View Details

Creating your goals using the smart method. Yes, my goals time tonight. So when we're talking, figuring out my schedule, how often and when I want to broadcast, need to get back. And Dr. Tam, and you can just commit to one day a week, just doing a show one day a week. So I do a show one day a week called mentor Monday. And all I do on at one day. On Mondays, I do mentor Mondays. And that's the only day I try to commit to live streaming. Now I'm doing Sundays as well, because I wanted to do six weeks, focusing specifically on goals, focusing on how not to beat yourself up how to really go through and create your goals. I'm going through daily actions. And I know it was something I did at the beginning of the year. But it's still something that we should always consistently do, because it is truly a process. Hey, Jeff, it is truly a process. So tonight, what I want to talk about is really how to create goals. I'll probably have to come back. And that's what I hope to do one day a week and a pair of relevant Yeah, come with it after tea come with it. Excuse me. So when you think about goals, a lot of people get very overwhelmed, just by having to write anything down. And the power with goals come and actually writing it down. Hey, Daria actually comes in writing it down. When you write a goal down, it makes it more real. So y'all know how we tend to overspend when we're using credit and debit, right? It feels it feels different than you when you write a check. It feels different when you're handing over cash. So when you write it down, it actually does something mentally, to you writing down your goals, and I keep I'm old school, I actually pay good money. And I get that this type cover. So it's the hardest, it doesn't tear off, like the paper ones. And sometimes I have the larger ones, like I have the larger one as well. And this is how I track my goals, my notes, and I tie things back to. But what it does, when I write them down, it helps me stay focused. And actually my goals are over here on a huge poster that hangs on the wall. It's not a I guess it's a three by four. And oh, I know I put $3 million, I hit 3 Million Hearts. Don't worry about if I hit millions of dollars, I would not be in here, unfortunately. So it becomes real when you're writing your goals down. And you're like, Okay, Michelle, I have these goals written down. But now what using the smart method really helps you write your goals down in a specific way. So that you are able to track them better, you're able to really understand what action you need to take to a certain degree. Yeah, I know, right? 3 million nodes, 3 Million Hearts, I hit 3 Million Hearts. So but if I say 3 Million Hearts, heels or whatever, but that's a $3 million. Actually, I actually put the dollar sign by accident. But hey, whatever. Okay, so we're looking at, we're talking about smart goals. And when you use SMART goals, it changes how you behave or how you really write down your goals. And it changes your behavior in in creating goals. All right, so what I'm gonna do, right click, and I've done this before what is somebody's goal they're currently working on and you'll see how it can work for you. Thanks, David. I'm just gonna call this creating SMART goals.

Yeah, I tell you, right. Okay, so creating SMART goals. And what does that look like? And what does that really mean? So when you're looking at smart, smart means Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and time bound. And being time bound is truly important. Because you need to see whether or not something really is realistic in the time that you have set up. Or if, and if you need to break out a major goal, it's to something less formal. Okay. So let me do this. There we go. So I'm gonna zoom in some. And so y'all can see this a little bit bad. I think 125 work best. But I don't want 75. So let's see. Okay. So let's say your goal is to make $10,000 in sales. Go to make $10,000 in sales. Now, that is not a very specific goal, because you could sell a lot of stuff. $10,000 is meaningful, and it's motivating. Probably for most of us who are here. I don't know if it's achievable, because well, we don't know what the timeframe in which you need or want to make the $10,000 in sales. And is it relevant? Meaning is it reasonable? Is it results base is a real listing. So let's take for instance, Dr. Tammy, you've written a book. So Dr. Tam is like, okay, within one week, I will sell $10,000 worth of my new book, right? The book is $10, which means you need to sell a minimum of 1000. We're not gonna include shipping. So we have a time, which is one week is measurable meanings to $10,000 of my new book. Now, let's say you're a new author. Is it reasonable for a brand new author to sell 1000 books? Nobody has heard of you. You don't have a platform. You haven't been live streaming. You don't post a social. You don't go to a church. You just don't have a following is. is selling 1000 books. really reasonable?

Y'all tell me y'all are so quiet. That scary Allah is this Tuesday. So I want you to think about it in those terms. So knowing how resourceful you are understanding who your network is, what resources you have, or the lack thereof of are some of your goals realistic now? Let's do this. Nope. Jeff like Nope. Now let's say you are Dr. Tammy. Dr. Tammy has a great following on Periscope. Oh, you're here. Okay. Daria is here. Dr. Tammy has a great following on Periscope so let's say she has 10,000 followers. Okay, she has 10,000 followers Yeah, she has 10,000 followers. On on Periscope. I'm gonna give her 5000 followers on Instagram and she has an email list of another 5000 followers
so now She does she does she's appeared that is very true. Exactly. Now so then you look at partnerships so some student says her social media bold and underline that. Now you can look at your partnerships people you can literally partner with. And I'm a bullet This is the let's say Perry girls, let's say your frat or sorority and I know something about Dr. Tammy. Let's say she sits um other Facebook groups I know Dr. Tam is part of other Periscope communities. Right? So she can do all of she can utilize partnerships as well. Now she could also do additional marketing AI What is she doing? She could be doing interesting. I don't have a book. So take this for a grain of salt. She could be doing podcasts she could be doing um gasps blogging.

Now remember, she only has a week. So are some of these really realistic? She could do live stream interviews. She could do TV promos. What else? I would say you could do meetups and Eventbrite. Or just a lot. And I'm just gonna do this Eventbrite many live events. Now. So what what I want you to think about even though we're looking at, let me Let me reduce this a little bit. So even though she is looking at a goal, that something that she pretty much has never done before. Right? She's never done this before. Her goal is 10,000 books. I mean, to make $10,000 in sales in one week.

While we I will sell $10,000 worth of my new book, one book costs $10. My sell $1,000 Once my sell 1000 books, let me right now in this books. Each Okay, so just additional details. So when we come back to this later, we will understand what I meant. Because trust me, I will not remember next week. All right. Now, like what Michelle, we talking about smart goals we are. So when you're creating SMART goals, and you're looking at specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound, you have to think through how specific well I want to make money off my book. How much money do you want to make? $10,000? Is it measurable? Is it saying $10,000? Gonna get you motivated to go out and talk to people? Is it going to get you motivated to create Instagram posts? Is it going to get you motivated to live stream everyday? Is it going to get you motivated to write emails to your list? What is going to motivate you so that you go after that $10,000 Now, what I did as far as the achievable and relevant and time bound is truly break down what it may take to get to that $10,000 So we're like well, if you if you've never sold a book before, this is your first book, and marketing and sales is not your ish is not what you're the best at how do you get there? What are the barriers? What do you need to think about and leverage that you have at your fingertips? Right? Because a lot of times I don't have the money to market they're true. But what do you have that you can utilize to help you make this 10 grand happen? You know what you do, you can come through and actually think about what you have, how you can leverage social media, how you can leverage relationships, how you can use other marketing methods. So part of the 10,000 to make that $10,000 in sales before Dr. Tami's book dropped, she should have been telling her followers, her Instagram followers, her Periscope followers, her email list that she had this book Kami, the books you've asked for the information you want me to provide to you in a format? Remember, you helped me pick the title, right? She has already created this whole process through social to get her community involved. That's 20,000 people. Right? Maybe some overlap. So we're gonna say it's 15,000. She does not even need 10% of the 15,000 to buy her book. She's just a little bit less than the 10%. Right? Then she's going to leverage her partnerships. She's going to look at her Perry girls and communities like the pair girl she's active. And she's going to look at her sorority or fraternity to for support, right? She's going to look at other Facebook groups, which she's a part of. She's also going to look at other Periscope bot really? Online communities.

Yeah, yeah. Jeff. See, Jeff has priorities. All right, Jeff, I'll see you later enjoy the fight. So when you're thinking about your goals, how you figure out whether or not something is achievable, you can't just do it. In one statement, you really need to think through the barriers that you may encounter and how to overcome them with the resources that you have. That is all I wanted to show you tonight. I noticed this a lot for some of you. And you may find that doing this during the sales in a week, meaning you're doing two months of pre work. In order to make the sales happen in a week, you may find that you're working six months to make the sales for $10,000 happen in a week.

Right? As you build your community as you build your following as you build your authority. As you build your know, like and trust, it may take longer. It doesn't mean it can't happen. But I truly, truly look and think about whether it's achievable. Is it relevant? And is it is it reasonable? Because let's think about it, the 10,000 books, if you started working on it today, and you want to sell $10,000 worth of your books by Christmas II, that may work out better for you. That gives you 60 days to hit that goal 60 days. And there are various ways you could do it in that 60 days. Or remember, you may see more of your $10,000 Show up closer to Christmas Eve than you will even on Black Friday. So always keep that in mind that really what you're doing is you're going to look at is it reasonable to hit a goal within that amount of time? With the resources that you have? I'm just saying the connections you have to help and support you. Okay. That is what I have tonight, when it comes to creating SMART goals, how to go through it and think about it a different way. A lot of times OH is specific is Pacific notice the ocean boat, but it's specific, specific meanings. It's is it simple? Is it sensible? Is it significant to you, not to people around you, but to you? How is it measurable? And does that measurement really motivate you to put in the work because you will have to work for it? Is it achievable? Do you agree that you can make those 1000 sales in seven days? Can you can you really do that? And meaning is it relevant? Is it realistic? Resource and result based So remember, we went through two resources, what resources

Dr. Tammy had at hand to help her before she goes spent $1. You're welcome, Daria, and time down. You can make the sales in a week, Dr. Tammy can make the sales in a week we agree. But growing her following on Periscope, growing her following Instagram, growing her email list will take longer than one week. So you may be looking at 30 days, 90 days, 180 days to get that following to buy the book. So you have to do some reverse engineering as they say, I don't know where I got that from. But sometimes that's what you have to do. And then when it comes down to it. Is that one week? Are you really gonna say you want to make the sales in a week? Because once you get that book, remember you can do pre sales. Right? So is that 1000 books, your first 1000? Are you trying to do pre sales? I'm just saying. So you really have to be strategic and how you want to approach that goal. And sometimes I just want to buy this house. Okay? Why that house? Why bad neighborhood? Why right now. And in asking yourself the five why's. So it's really good to go deep in yourself, to find out if a goal is really worth you going after. Even if you're using a smart methodology and you can truly achieve it. I'm just saying it's not done and over with. But it's definitely definitely worth you checking out. Thank you so much for sharing this out. All right, so any comments, questions about creating SMART goals for tonight? I'll be back next week when I'm talking about taking daily action. So we're going to use the same goal. And let me let me because I have some other goals stuff in here. q4, we're gonna call this q4 2018. I'm in we are going to go next week and look at what does it take on a daily action to achieve this goal? What is it look like? Daily to help achieve this goal? And y'all are like, I don't know, I didn't think about that. Because getting to a goal is not about a one and done action. It is about small actions you take every single day. Yes, everybody thinks is something big you do. It is truly small actions you take over time, that compound to get you that result. Right. How do you eat an elephant one bite at a time? How did you lose weight one pound one ounce at a time. And if you're in a metric system, what is it one gram at a time, one kilogram at a time.

So just just be realistic with yourself as much as possible. And don't beat yourself up because we got to talk about the emotions, the highs and lows of going after your goal. I'm a very goal oriented person. And trust me, I can be very, very hard on myself. And 2018 has taught me a lot. And the most relevant thing it has taught me is you don't know what you don't know. Meaning I set goals for myself not knowing what was in between them. So you know how I went through and I broke things down. I do that for every single one of my goals and there was still and I still didn't get 10% of what I needed on for that goal. And it took me eight 910 months to realize that talking to different people over and over again before I realized that spending so much money doing things that I didn't even have to do to get a result. And it's going to happen and I'm sitting here frustrated like Lord so do not beat yourself up. Alright, everybody. Have a great weekend. A great night. Hey, Michelle. I'm going to get out. Get out of here. Daria. Michelle, you ladies have a great night and I will be back next week to talk more about goals.

View Details

I? Have B, I don't know Sunday, what is up everybody? This is Michele Heyward, we are in for another session of gold diggers. Yes. Today we're going to be talking about how to take action every single day, just a little bit of action to help you reach your goals. So I talked about last week how to create small, SMART goals, S M, AR T, specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound, you can check that out here on my channel. And this week, you can go get a free guide to help you create your own smart goals, just go to bit.li Ford slash goal guide, 19. And that is case sensitive. So make sure everything is lower case. Alright, so we're going to jump into this so that you are ready to absolutely, positively create your own goals, you are able to not only create them, but you're also able to take action every day. And what does that look like? So I'm going to do a search. And we're going to look at the the goals you created, or the goal we created last week. And this will help put some context Yes, some context to how to how to create daily actions, what do you need to do? So last week, the goal was to make $10,000 in sales. The small goal SMART goal was in one week, I will sell $10,000 worth of my new book. And we say the books costs $10 each, and we must sell 1000 books, then, but before we came up with that smart goal, we went through and discuss like your social media. How many followers do you have on certain platforms? Do you have an email lists? Do you have partnerships with other organizations and how you will market? So today what I want to focus on? How do you take actionable steps to get to hit the SMART goal?

So the SMART goal is a little bit more than $1,000 a day. Right? Let's say it is 15. Now it's not 1500. Let's say Let's aim for $1,800 a day. We just want to aim for $1,800 a day. And hopefully I'm close. Because right now my math is not working. So $1,428 today, so we want to say $1,500 a day is is our goal, right? So what does this look like? In the seventh day of sales? We're going to look at specifically what we can do to market the book to make sales, right? So we know you have a we're looking at where you have partnerships where you are with social media. So weekly actions, and we're going to be very specific. And we're going to say Sunday, create and schedule email to go out to email lists Monday morning at 6:30am. That's what you're going to do on Sunday. Right? So we're going to actually create lists or tasks you're to undertake each day. You're going to create graphics, let's say seven graphics in Canva to post on Facebook, Twitter, so I would do Facebook and Instagram. So they can say they can take the same size graphics Twitter are about the same size Twitter Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Okay so then on for those graphics you got Let's schedule graphics on to post on Facebook
at 6:45am, Monday and we want to write those for each social media account. Instagram at 645 A am on Monday, we're going to Instagram share posts into IG stories at 11:45am. On Monday, Twitter tweet, share two times a day at 7:15am and 11:45am.

Pin posts to Twitter page, you got to do that? Yes, we're being very, very specific because you're like, oh, and so as you build these lists, as you look at what you can do, how to do them, where they come from, it really helps you get very specific. So what you can see what I did I did a, a when when you have to take action when you have to take action? Where are you going to take action, and specific to how you're going to create action. So create a schedule, tell you what actions are you going to take where, so you're going to schedule graphics, in buffer. And you can use any scheduler to post on whatever, right that's the tool. And what you want to do and you can block out you want to Sunday from 3pm to 5pm. You want to schedule out when you got to work on this. And you want to limit the time to get this done. And you want to limit this time because when you limit how long you work on itself, and you're more than likely we'll get it done. If Oh, I can do that tomorrow you will push it off and it will not get done. So you got to block out that time. Even if it's 20 minutes, even 30 minutes. I'm starting with a Sunday because it is done. All right. So this is what a Sunday. This is what we like to schedule posts.

Right so let's do something else I want to four we want to live stream to promo book on Monday, do a lunch and learn on Facebook Live at 12pm Eastern Daylight Time Eastern time. And then late night chat or late night show at 11pm Eastern time. Then on Tuesday, you may do a IG live for a chat which we'll call a chat and chew which is still a lunch and learn something at 12pm. Wednesday you can do working women wins they Facebook Live at 7pm Something like that. So you want to say where are you going to be each one of these days what time you're going to do it back and spell today. There we go. What time you're going to do it and you can come up also what what topics so depending on what your book is about, you may want to read an insert from your book you want to make you may want to drop do a frequently asked questions and you can do the same content in a similar format that fits that particular platform, or whatever you're doing. So just work out the details. So see we use a live streaming. We're using Canva. To create posts, we're scheduling posts. So literally, we're just going through our marketing. So we didn't do live streams where we're doing live stream interviews, where we're just talking about doing live streams. You can do TV promos, you can do event brights. But since you only have a week, you can do that live stream to promo book. The other thing I meant to say is you can create events. Hey, Bonnie, you can create events. So create events on Facebook and Eventbrite to help you really figure out what's going on. Sketch schedule last year, oops. All right. So that is part of what you actually do. And you're like, Michelle, this looks really nice and pretty. Guess what? You got to put this in your calendar.

So I actually use an old school calendar. Yes, sometimes your muscle mass, your memory works better. A lot of times when you literally write stuff down. So if I can slide this under the stuff that's sitting on top of it. This is the Passion Planner. And it's a PDF copy. So but I literally write in and block off Jim. I didn't make it there today. Some came up at it pitch deck. IB weekly live stream didn't do that. But I did have dinner. And they did meet my accountability partner. I'm scoping about goals. I did a goals Twitter chat. Then tomorrow, I have karaoke. I'm updating my website. So there are various things. So no, this isn't for me. So what I'm doing, Bonnie is I'm talking about people how they can take small actionable steps to actually reach any goals. So last week. Hey, Daria, last week. Where did it go? Let me click on it. Okay. Dinner. So last week, the goal was we had Dr. Tammy in here. So we selected to go to sell the smart, we created a SMART goal and a SMART goal was to it one week, I will sell $10,000 worth of my new book. So book costs $10 each. So you must sell 1000 books in that week. So what does that look like? So that's like 140, let's say 145 books a day. You got to sell 145 books today. So how do you sell 145 books today? Right? What are you doing? What action do you have to take to actually make that happen? So tonight, I'm talking about how do you make that happen? Taking small bite size, actions, right? And selling it $10,000 in books really could be part of your goal to actually become a Amazon Best Seller, right? So you're not worrying so much about the money you did in monetary amounts to keep to motivate you. But what you really want to do is sell 10,000 or 15,000 books in your category so that you are a best selling author on Amazon. And so last week, what we also did was we went through social, you know, and looked at what exactly, so okay, like, and that's exactly why it's a stretch goal. But if you're to sell that many books, let's really look and see if it's realistic. And so what I did was because we use a SMART goal Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and time bound, is it really is a real list for you to be able to sell 1000 books in one week. If you've done some promo, prior to your book, let's say you did your guest blog and podcast interviews and live stream interviews prior to the book. Then yes, it makes sense that you may be able to sell because you could have people pre order and they actually deliver the book, but this is assuming that you didn't do that. But what you do assume is you have 10,000 followers on Periscope That's probably not very realistic, you probably only have about 2000. And then out of those 2000, maybe 200 or active, you have 5000 followers on Instagram. If you use an IG stories binding like you and I know as well as Daria, you probably can pull a lot of sales off of Instagram, then your best bet, if you have an engaged email list, which means you're feeding them great content on a regular basis, whether that weekly, bi weekly, monthly, they will engage and open up and buy your stuff. So that's another reason to really, really look at the email this look at it, look and grow an email list. So that 5000 emails list. So that 1000 book sales out of 20 people, let's say all of these are unique people. So that's 20,000 people you could potentially reach to buy your book 20,000, maybe? Probably not. But let's say yeah, so let's say out of that 20,000, you only reach 10,000, you still need 10%

On average, on average, each person is only buying one copy of your book. So then we look at it said, Okay, you have this is what you have as far as social and your email list. Do you have partnerships? So So maybe your it was Dr. Tammy, she's a period girl. She's in a she's in a sorority, and she's active. She's in other Facebook groups and Periscope and online communities? Can she leverage those communities and get sales out of those? So let's say just out of her Periscope community, or Instagram community and her Facebook, her email list, what if she's able to get 200 book sales at a just Periscope, Instagram and email this fast 600 books? And then out of partnerships, if she's able to get another 200 books, that's 800. But what does that look like? And that takes you literally taking action. And so I'm talking about taking weekly actions. And I started here, I'll move it down because we're going to break this up and use it utilizing discussing these parts. Right. And we didn't even talk about up here Facebook, but I have our live stream. I have actually live streaming on Facebook doing a Facebook event, stuff like that, but we don't even have Facebook on here. But you probably shouldn't because she's part of the paragraphs community. So she would have had she does have she would have to have a Facebook account. Okay, and then we're looking at overturning a sorority, she may be able to sell, you know, half our books there. I like how you break it down.

Baby fast on my end, good night. Oh, trust me, I'm asleep. My eyes are just opening my mouth is just talking. That's I'm gonna put it but I am so asleep. All right, and then. Yeah, so that's just the thing, to break it down is really, really how to help really make it seem reasonable for you to be able to hit these tasks is not about you feeling overwhelmed. Okay. So we looked at Sunday task, we looked at, you know, creating content, creating graphics, scheduling them. And then on on Monday, actually, this number four could be on Monday. And you could do this some of this would have to be done on Sunday. But some of it can be done on Monday as well. And you could just, you could just break it down that way. So this is literally how you want to go back and create that goal. Go from that goal, and really break it down into bite sized pieces. It does not have to be alive. It does not have to be overwhelming. It does not have to feel as though you're drowning. Okay. I remember one night I was working on like I was really, really behind, but a year ago pulling together this particular event online. And I just hadn't even done the graph. It's one of my friends like look, I can do graphics but don't expect them to look great. So I tell her Okay, fine, I just need you something was better than other So she put together some graphics. And this year we're talking about she's like, Hey, I remember I helped Jessie Ooh, you did help me put together graphics. So we were brainstorming this year on the event and I decided not to do it. And I'm doing another event. And I'm using a messenger bot this year. So Facebook Messenger bots, so that should be interesting. So that's why I'm like an hour late on here we needed to meet and go over the messenger bot.

Okay, now if you were here last week, we were talking about creating SMART goals. And I have this smart goals guide is get so get your free gold diggers guide is@bit.ly forward slash goal guide 19 And it literally explains SMART goals in more detail. It gives you space to write out your SMART goals. And for you really need to start preparing one goal at a time of what to do and how to create goals so you can achieve them starting now not waiting till New year new me in January but truly taking hold of it today. All right, I am tired. I'm gonna get out of here. You can always tweet me over on Twitter. Same handle is here. Michelle want L and et Cie for civil engineer, and as Heyward h e y w ARD. Have a great night and I'll be back next Sunday. I'm talking about accountability. We're going to get into accountability when it comes to your goals. Alright, everybody, have a great week, and I'll talk to you later. Bye.

View Details

What is going on Periscope replay viewers, viewers on the web and Twitter. Thank you all for joining me. I'm Michele Heyward, woman of color and stem civil engineer and founder of the tech company, positive hire. I am here for mentor Monday. Why are you here? I hope you're here. Because you are here to be mentored. If you're not, and you're just hanging out. Welcome, welcome. Anyway, I'm glad you decided to join me today. Now. Today's topic. Hey, is that Kim? I don't know. Who is that? I can't tell. Okay. Hey, Kim. Um, so today I am talking about from the title, let them tell you now. And you're like, let them tell you no. Yes. I know, we all feel fear rejection. But this is the one time when it's truly truly important that you step out, thanks for the heart, super heart. Hey, Michelle, that you let them tell you now. And you're like, who is they? And why are they telling me no. Oftentimes, women will not apply for a job, if they don't have 100% or majority of the requirements for a position a man or read like I'm alive and I can read it, I'm gonna apply seriously, they see no reason in not applying, women will find several reasons not to apply. Do not do that. Let them tell you no, and you're like, Michelle, I cannot wrap my head around applying for something and I don't know the job. So let's break that down. Let's truly truly break this down for you to feel more comfortable in applying for positions where you don't think you would be successful at the job. Because number one, I don't think you should apply for a job if you know 100% of what to do. Because you're going to be bored and like 60 days is going to drive you bananas. By Why did I take this job it is too easy. I learned everything because well you knew every day when you took it have some room to grow, to have some room to grow. So number one, when you read the job description of somebody describes the job to you, you are interested and you're interested in two different ways. One way is you go and research that industry that position what it would be like to hold that position that is like oh my god this really so you start investigating and researching and your interest continues to grow about this position. Right? Or you cannot get that that position that opportunity out of your mind. You're thinking about all the ways you could do something you can make it better you can improve the world you can improve the process you can make an impact it just will not leave your mind that is the number one reason why you should be apply like the deadline is like in two hours apply.

Just apply do not tell yourself no let them tell you no. Okay, so just because let me tell you what's going to happen. We generally do not regret the things we do we regret the things we did not take the chance on. Yes. You're probably like oh my god, I remember when I was younger. I should have done this. Right. Now there are some things that we regret that we did. But most of the time we regret the things that we did not do the opportunities we did not take the risks. We did not take take those and if you are just joining me and you have not shared this out, press those three dots. Press those dots away is it those guys?

Yeah, those guys go ahead and share this out. So the second thing you know nothing about this industry. I still want you to apply, especially as women of color in STEM we have so much to bring and we can learn so much from But we offer so much. You may know nothing about this industry, but you may be able to impact it and grow it in a way that it's never seen before. Yes, bringing in different backgrounds, different ways of thinking really can change the way something is developed, how it's deployed, who it helps, whose lives it changes. So it's truly important to take the time like, you know what, I'm gonna do it anyway. Yes. So don't get discouraged. So you know nothing about this industry, you know, nothing about position, but you know, you can do the job. You like? Well, Misha, I don't know if I can do it. Okay. Let's talk about it. You already got a degree, you're already in industry, you doing some damn things? Yes, you doing some damn things? Why not continue to do it in a different industry and in different employment with the same employees, just a different division different business unit, that you can go in and still make an impact? You know, what happens? All you got to do is learn and grow, learn and grow at the very least that's the that's the smallest you got to do. I'm just saying. So what's the third thing? Stand? In your own knowledge?

Do I like what are you talking about standing my own knowledge? Michelle, I don't know how to do this job. You don't listen? Oh, you don't listen, you already know so much. So this is this is what I want you to do. So oftentimes, yes, engineers are sweet as fi. But they also very brilliant. Oops, very brilliant and very smart. Very smart. So what does that look like? So I want you to take the time to truly look inside yourself and figure out what you're really good at. And there are two resources I want you to check out. And actually, while I'm where I'm talking about, I can pull them up. The first is the Colby test a or I thought it was a Kobe, Kobe eight index. And it is a test is K O L B II. And the other is a book that she can get off of Amazon and they've actually updated it and added a workbook called unique ability. And both of these really look at what you do innately differently, some things that are innately unique to you. And I bring them up because there's really a different way to find out what you're good at. And it can scare the crap out of people, when I have them when I have clients actually do this from time to time, if they're really stuck. So back to the Kobe, let me see what this is say. So this is the code, neither one of these resources are free. They do cost money.

And what is the Colby a index, it is truly at assessment. And it looks at what we call our instincts, or our gut feeling. And it's truly what I natural strengths are. And it focuses on our natural strengths. And as women we have several of those, but when we know what what our natural strengths are, we know how to build a team around those natural strengths. We understand why we're drawn to take on certain types of work certain types of roles, because within our instincts, our beings, we now know exactly what makes us tick. And that is truly truly phenomenal. This is why I truly love this test. It costs $50. Like I said, it is not free. But it is truly It was truly pivotal for me understanding who I was and what I really did well, and I go back and I read this test over and over again. I took this test six years ago. I think it was 2012, six years or six or seven years ago. But I go back and I read the results like once a year. If I'm thinking they can I'm falling off. Now the next one is a book. And the version I read was this one called unique ability. It came out in 2003 I probably read it maybe 2000 2010 and 12 at the same time I did um The Kolbe a index, what I really liked about this book, and this is the paperback, it's $105. Now that book called 105, I did not pay $105 for this book. It did, I'll say mine.

Maybe it's a package together, let's click on us. But what's good about this particular book is, it really makes you focus on what is unique about you what is what are you able to do that others aren't able to do. And it makes you contact people whom you've worked with, whether it's been as an employer, you could have been volunteering together, maybe in church, and really ask different people who know you what you're really good at, and I send out emails and I go back and reread these emails, I had maybe four or five people respond out about 10 people that I sent it to. And they can write just words, short phrases, full sentences, but it helps you not only to understand what your unique ability is, but how people see you. So you may think that you're not a leader, that people don't see you as a go to person. And the feedback that you may get is like, yes, whenever I have an issue with this, I always think of the time when you did this are always reached out to you because I know you're so great at this. And you like Oh, I thought I was just helping you out. I never thought about that. I'm the one that everybody always comes to, to have this issue resolved.

Yes, it is so pivotal. Now they have the workbook that comes with this now unique ability 2.0 Define your best self, I have not checked this out. And this came out three years ago, just over three years, three years and 10 days ago. So you can check this out, too, I cannot tell you what it's about whether it's exactly the same thing on what's different about it, what they've added to it. So you can check into it. Again, this is selling for $50. I'm like, but for this to be 105 Yeah, I pay like $15 for this book, but you can buy used for a few dollars. Yeah, just buy a used copy. And pay to 1254 and 105. I don't know what the hell's going on. But it really is a great book, I've done live streams about the different steps in here on how to use how to you get through and go through it. It's been a couple years, actually, since I, I went through that. So maybe it'd be a good exercise to go through towards the end of the year beginning of 2019 to have everybody refocus and look at their their goals. So, those are the two resources. So let them tell you know, is about applying for positions where you do not have 100% So 90% at hell, you may not have 50% of the requirements, right? But you see, it has a great opportunity, you're really interested in that role, you can't stop thinking about it, you're doing research on it, you know that you have this skill set that you can bring in to there so this is a bonus. So you're like Michelle okay, I'm apply for this role.

But a way my resume is set up in a way my LinkedIn looks looks like this is why I want you to look at unique ability and the Colby a index because what happens with these two resources, now you know what you're innately good at a you can frame your cover letter and and redraft your resume so that they show your strong points. You can take what you previously done and been successful thus far in your career and frame it so that you are putting your best self as it relates to that particular position upfront. Because like you said, they're gonna look at you like, well, you don't have this, this, this, this and this. But if you know what you bring to the table is pivotal. Like, is no way anybody can be successful in this role, even if they have have all these other things even have 22 years of experience. If they don't have this, this and this which I have, they won't be successful. The other 70% the other 220 things they need they say they have to have they only need these five Guess what? I have those five hell I got one of those five. Let's go with it. Just apply let them tell you no. So you're probably like Michelle but how do you reframe a resume like that? So I'm and trust me, I did not do this. So don't don't send me messages, asking me I don't know if I want want to show you this, let me see. Let me see what is on here. But it is definitely if you pick up a great book

Yeah, this is not gonna help you, because I didn't write any of my SP questions and I'm not gonna be able to help you. But you can definitely pick up some resume books to understand how to change like not do a chronological order. Resume, there are different formats, so that you are selecting the one that works best for you. When you're applying to certain roles, especially when you're changing industries, you're changing roles in an industry that you've not done before. And you think it's gonna be tough, you need to change it to look at your accomplishments. And that usually comes to like, dollar save amount of money managed number of people manage, it could be a reductions in costs. So cost savings, safety, whatever is really pertinent to your, your industry, or even that industry is even better if you can prove a track record, but any way that you can show a percentage or dollars, do that that really really has to be in your resume. any questions anybody?

Hey, now there's a Alan, you're telling you Are you a night person? Cuz cuz you're up. And otherwise, I want to get off off of here. I still got a few things to do tonight. And eventually, I'm gonna go to bed. But not yet. All right. No questions, no comments, guess what I'm about to do. Deuces everybody. Have a great night and I will catch YOU on tomorrow. Bye, Kim. Good to see you.

View Details

Welcome, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. This is Michele Heyward, with positive higher ed in partnership for Women's History Month. I am here with Nomble Lee with SISTEM. SISTEM is a community of women of color in the water industry. So if you have not been tuning in for the series of conversations, for leading women in water, and you're like, Michelle, I don't understand what you mean, like you want like Reiki, water cleaning, whatever it has to water, these women are all foot knees, whatever. But what I'm saying is, they are professionals that actually many different water systems throughout the United States. And tonight, we have a very, very special guest who's going to be talking about forging new career paths, but I believe it to nobly you share with you who she is, and then we will bring up our special guests for tonight.

Awesome, thank you, Michelle. And Hello, good evening, everyone. My name is Nomble Lee I'm out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I'm an environmental engineer with a focus in water and wastewater treatment. Also focusing on P FOSS removal. I'm so excited to be here tonight. So not only focus on forging new career paths and water, but forging new career paths overall, outside of the water industry, I love plants. That's just something that I do as a hobby on the side. And I also love spending a great amount of time with my family.
Thank you. Perfect. And with no further ado, here's our special guests for tonight joining us.
Hello. Hello, Kathy, how are you this evening?

I think great. I'm glad to be here. Yes, yes.

So just start out if you want to give like a tiny tiny background, tiny, tiny space of your humongous background and all of your accomplishments just introduce to the people today.

Sure. I'll keep it short though. So I am Kathy Bernardino Bailey. I am the Executive Director of Greater Cincinnati waterworks, Cincinnati, Ohio. And I'm one temporary assignment for one year with US EPA as a senior advisor to help them establish their lead service line replacement accelerators across the nation. So I'm there with my utility for 31 years, I've seen the good, the bad, the ugly. And I've been able to have a great career in it. And I really enjoy what I do, not only for Cincinnati, but in the industry.

Wow, that's amazing. Um, so yeah, just to jump right into forging a new career. And just focusing on the definition of forging means searching and looking for a new career, over the span of your career. What do you think has been your motivation to keep reinventing yourself? And has this been intentional, or just something that you fall into while while gaining different skills?

So that's a great question. I think when I first tried it, my career, it was not intentional at all. You know, I just kind of went with the flow, you know, so I started as a chemist, I was in a couple different positions, I was in it. I did some strategic planning all of that, but reasonably years, it's been very intentional, intentional in the steps that I've taken to maximize the opportunities that have been given to me, because I've been thinking more about, you know, at this point in my career, what else can I do? It's beyond me, how can I help others come into this industry, you know, help them on their career path, take the steps that they need to get going in their career, in this male dominated industry, it's very challenging. And so I've been very intentional in not just my career, but in helping others at this point. For me, yeah.
What are some of those experiences that you say were really pivotal in making those changes, whether it's being mentored by others, or simply just that grit and grind to do more and have more?

You know, I'd say it's been a few mentors. For me, one was a mentor that I had many, many years ago, but he's, he's like family to me. And it's interesting, because, you know, in this industry, you're usually looking for a mentor that looks like you. And there's not many that look like us in this water utility industry. And so, you know, it's hard to find mentors sometimes, but for me, I've had a few mentors that have helped me, you know, get on the right path helped me make some decisions when I wanted to go from one step in my career path to another, and then just just really be there as a support for me, you know, as I made those steps?

Absolutely. And, you know, while making those steps, how important would you say your y is, when you're talking about flowing into those different career paths? And kind of having a goal at the end? What was your why? And how important was that for you to be successful in changing careers?

Yeah, so early in my career, I didn't have a y, you know, it was just pretty much let me let me do this job, let me get this check. Let me keep it rolling, let me have some fun, you know, I did not have that. That why I had, you know, family, friends and fun, right? Not that I don't have that now, but, but I, I was living differently if I put it that way. But now, you know, I do have a why it's, I'm trying to figure out how I can have a positive impact, you know, not just in it, my utility, but in my community, in my legacy that I leave, you know, and what can I do to have that positive impact in my community and in all that I'm trying to achieve, and so I do have a while, which then makes me act differently, walk differently step in my career differently. And I'm happy about that, because I really see myself as a servant leader, trying to help others, you know, along their path as well, but also to, to grow and do better in the community and, and leave it better than I found it for generations to come.

Absolutely, and leaving it better than you found it is one of the great benefits, but also outside of I guess, getting new skills and new experiences and higher levels, what do you say, are the benefits of forging these new career paths, or something that you found? Well,
for me, it's always an opportunity to grow and, and learn something else, to meet people to be, you know, of assistance to other people, you know, I think probably one of my greatest joys, is really meeting a lot of the women who are now in this industry, you know, many people of color, women of color, but it just gives me all kinds of energy to, you know, make myself available to help them, you know, and maybe they, they will have some of the missteps that I had along my path, but I can give them some of the insight that I have or share some of my experiences through storytelling, you know, but but that is something that's helpful. And so I think, you know, it's an opportunity to grow and make yourself available, you know, and as you grow, you learn new things, you experienced new opportunities, and then from that, you can figure out how you can, you know, take your next step along your career path.

I totally agree with that. And speaking of the women that you're now seeing, as a woman, myself, and I'm sure many others who wants to forge new career paths, what do you say, sort of the mindset that one must have or should have, or you recommend to have to be successful in that?

You need to be open. And, you know, as my mom was telling me, you know, you can do anything you put your mind to, you know, and at the time, it was like, Oh, Mom, what are you talking about, you know, but, but as I got I'm adult and thought about that, and now as I look back on my career, you can do anything that you put your mind to. And so, you know, I think it's important that that you are open, open to new opportunities. You know, I started as a chemist my degrees in chemistry, but I was in it for a while, as I mentioned, strategic planning, performance metrics. I dabbled a little bit in utility, mergers, performance metrics, you know, I've had all kinds of stuff going on, along my career in each one of the steps that I've taken to get to this point. And it's all been growth, you know, it's been growth and new skills and some skills that they, you know, probably fit me better than others, but but others at the time, it might have been something I didn't like to do, but then later on in my next step, maybe I needed that skill. And so then it became helpful and I appreciated it more. So I think growth and just a willing to change and be available and really know yourself know, know that you can take these steps and put your mind and your energy behind it so that you can be successful in all the steps that you take.

Yes, and when you speak about like, some of those steps and growing, we all know that growth can be challenging and not always fun. How do you say that? How do you You feel you can stay grounded and focused when you're probably uncertain of your next career change. I'm sure foraging isn't always just a beautiful process, he get very tricky.

Oh, yeah, I wouldn't say it's beautiful at all. But, but I think if you keep your eye on where you're trying to go, or that you know that there's something that's great or good, that's going to come from it. And I think that's what allows you to put your head down and keep going through it, right, because we all know that you often have to go through some stuff, right, in order to get to the other side, and have it be a good place to be in. And so I think growth and a lot of those, you know, those steps along your career path, some of them aren't good steps, you know, and you have to kind of sit down in it, and it's not good for a while, but then you rise up to that next step. And it's a good place to be, and then you appreciate, you know, what you just came through. And so I think, just having the right mentality and know, you're, again, I go back to knowing yourself, know how to talk to yourself and say, Hey, this is just a matter of time that I have to go through this, but I know the next step is going to be better, it's gonna be great, because I'm going through this now, and I can't be in this forever, you know, and, and, you know, if you're a faith based person, and of course, that gets you through as well. But you just have to know yourself and be willing to go through some of that that's not, you know, the greatest that it can be, but know that the other side is going to be a good place, and you're going to be better for it.

Yeah, that's so it's so interesting kind of knowing yourself and knowing where you are, I'm sure a lot of people have struggles at work, and maybe they feel unfulfilled or just simply unhappy. It's not always I believe, unnecessarily, a change in career that you need. It could just be a change in job and maybe a glass of wine. So like, how do you distinguish? Or how would you say you distinguish when it's either time for a new career versus time for a new job? Like, what is that term point? You know, that thing that lets you know, Okay, it's time for a new career. It's not just my work?

Well, I mean, if you know yourself, and you know, what challenges you, you know, what, what motivates you, you know, what gets you up in the morning, and get you excited for the day, you know, those things. And so, when that's not fulfilled, when you're getting up in the morning, you're like, oh, my gosh, I gotta do this again. And that's, that's happening more times than not, then you might know, it's time, it's time for you to maybe do something different, you know, or you're bored with what you got going on, because maybe it's not challenging you as much I remember, you know, some of those jobs that I landed in, Milan, my path, I went to my supervisor and said, you know, what, this, isn't it, this is not happening for me, you know, it's like, I can do this, you know, in a couple hours, and I'm bored. And what's, what else is there? And, and what can I learn, and I remember one time in particular, I did that. And then he took me down this path of this was a the CFO that I reported to, he took me down this path of teaching me all these spreadsheets and all this crap, and oh, my gosh, and always pro formas. And all this stuff that I didn't want to be bothered with. But in my mind, I was like, I asked for this, right. So I, you know, I gotta sit here. And I tell you, it was used. Years later, after we came out of an ugly merger, that didn't work. And the city manager separated utilities back out, we didn't have a financial financial officer she had left. And so we were coming out of that merger, into our own independent utility again, and everybody was saying, well, we don't know the financials. And for me, it was like, Well, I know these spreadsheets and I know where they are. And I think if I can get us to those, we might be able to figure it out. And and I go back to that often think about it, because at the moment, it was something that I didn't ask for. Well, I asked for something right, there was a little more challenging, but I didn't like what he gave me. Then later on, it was very helpful to me. And sometimes, you know, we get in the way of ourselves, and we don't let that new thing blossom, right. We don't let it grow. Because it's not what we really were asking for it. And I think I would say, you know, go with it, go with it and learn from it and know that everything that you're doing has a purpose and you're learning from it. You might not see the purpose right then. But at some point in the future, you will understand that and you will be able to use what you've learned. And that was definitely a case for me. So I think that's something that's important.

Yeah, no, absolutely. I definitely agree with that as well kind of it will all work out in in sort of what I heard from an open to circle back some time, I did also want to touch on, this is something that I know people in my generation, and even some others are dealing with now sort of like this hustle culture, when it comes into forging those new career paths, and you feel like you can't see need to have maybe two or three different jobs. And if you're not growing by this time, and that time, I was wondering, did you ever feel that pressure? Or was it all very internal? Or do you feel that pressure to constantly I need to knew this, I knew that and constantly growing and showing?

Well, I think is, is, is a black people, we always have a hustle, right? I mean, even when I was a chemist on the job, I actually years ago, I used to own a bakery, right. And so I had their door, you know, I'm actually I'm an artist, I have artists art that I sell, you know, so we all have a hustle, right. And that's something that we do to challenge these days, though, that we have two or three hustles. But COVID has taught us that those hustles could actually be your full time job. And so we've now seen people that are making some career changes, because their hustle has grown into way more, you know, then then just a side note. So it's actually turning into be something that could be the full time gig that they want. And so, you know, there's more opportunities there. And so I encourage people, you know, because I don't want anybody to be on a job that they they just aren't fulfilled. And so I'm people to be in tune with what they considered that their main job, but also pay attention to those side hustles because some of those are growing into being the main jobs and could be very lucrative, not only for the person, but for their family and their generations to come. And so it's just weird space to be in right now. But, but I like the weirdness of it, because I think we are more in tune with what's important. I think we have, in many ways, simplified our lives. And I think we are trying to get to a better place with work. And if we get to a better place with work, it's a better work life balance, which is a win for our families. And certainly, you know, the black culture, which is a, which is huge, because we often for many years, we haven't had a great work life culture, because we've worked two three jobs at a time. And if we can get to a place that offers something different and better than then I encourage people to explore all of that.

Yeah, absolutely. And definitely, like you're saying a better work life balance. I think sometimes that's what hustle culture, sort of, it makes you risk that. And even when when thinking about those risks, what would you say are some of the risks of when you are forging a new career, whether that be taking a pay cut? Or I don't know, maybe hopping into something that isn't quite right for you? What would you say some of the risks maybe you've taken or experienced when forging new careers, it
definitely some risks that come with it, you know, there's risk in putting risk in the job that I have now, you know, where I'm temporary assignment with USEPA for one year as a senior advisor. And so there's risks. So I've left my comfortable Executive Director, job, right. EPA has me on loan for a year, but after a year, there's an optional second year, I don't know if I'll take it. But then I come back to my utility. And so there's the risk of that not being what it was, because somebody else has been running the utility. It's the risk that I come back to something very different that I don't like it's a risk that they won't be warm and fuzzy when I get back because I left them for a year or two years, you know, so. So there's a lot of risk when you take some of these steps along in your path, but I think you need to, you have to wrestle, I mean, you have to wrestle with what's important to you, right? And what, what your feelings are about it.

And for me, you know, I had to think about what was important to me. And it's important to me, that across the nation, particularly in disadvantaged communities, that we get these lip service lines out sooner versus later, right. That's important to me. And so if I could take this one year assignment, and have you know, a role in making that happen sooner versus later, then I thought that risk was worth taking. Some might think differently, but, but with every step along their path, if it's important enough, there's going to be some risk with it. And so you have to really, again, come back to knowing yourself to know whether or not you're going to be comfortable with the risk. And then I always, always I got the positive Listen, I got the negative list and I'm going side by side to, to, you know, look at it and say, Is this worth it? Is it? Is it worth it or not? Is it worth it to me? Is it worth it to my family? Is it worth it to the organization that I represent? You know, I do all of that. And I think it's, it's important that people do that.

Yeah, I totally agree. And I really liked how we keep touching back on knowing yourself and kind of I would assume, being very confident in yourself, your abilities, and the fact that, like we said before, having the faith that it all will work out, in the end, was there ever a time maybe you can speak or your confidence wasn't as strong as you would like it to be while attaining or going for a new career?
Yeah, I've had moments definitely had moments. You know, I right out of college. I worked for US EPA for two years. And then I came to the city. And a couple of weeks after being at the city job, you know, my coworker said, Hey, you, you only hired because you're black. And we got in trouble because we didn't have any black people. And so now you're hit. And that's the reason you're here. And number one, it's like, how in the world do you say that to somebody, but for me, that hit pretty hard, because I had spent way more than four years getting a degree, right, and had put myself through college, two and three jobs at a time to get my degree, to have this confidence with this degree now to come onto this job and have them tell me that which basically said, the fact that I had that degree didn't mean anything. And so my confidence, wavered quite a bit with that, you know, and for many years, it sent me down a path to prove differently, you know, that that wasn't the reason why you hired me. But I got through all of that. And then my confidence has been, you know, going up ever since then. And, and that's something that I try to work with, you know, when I'm mentoring, particularly women and women of color, you know, it's like, hey, trying to work on their confidence and let them know, you got this, you walk in the room, and you know, the topic you have on the topic, you know, and how can you build confidence, but you have to be very confident. And I have had, I've had more than one thing, many moments, where, you know, your confidence does waver, but you have to figure out how to get back on track. And you know, you get knocked back. But, you know, get yourself back moving forward in, you know, again, I go back to knowing yourself, no, no, you know, what has happened. And then you know, get yourself through that, talk yourself through it, understand what has happened, be honest with yourself, so that you can, you know, realize what has happened, it's knocked you off your competence, trail, and then get back on it. So you can keep moving.

Yeah, that's great advice. Also, in just speaking to, to your intersectionality of being both a woman and a black woman, while forging those career paths. I know that obviously, you've just expressed some challenges in that. Can you tell me about some of the benefits? Or advantages you found?

Yeah, um, you know, I, I think it's a huge advantage for me to have had the experiences that I've had, and what I bring to the table, you know, you know, when we're, when we're talking about people who are struggling to pay their bills, well, I've had that growing up as a child and my family experienced that, you know, when you talk about making decisions on whether or not you're going to have enough to pay a water bill or or good medicine and some other stuff, I've experienced that, you know, so I think in many ways, my life experiences although at the time when when they weren't as pleasant as they could have been, they certainly have shaped me into being, you know, a more compassionate leader that is very much in tune with the community and the sub sections of the communities and the neighborhoods and experiences that they have. And so I look at that as a positive that those experiences might have been negative at the time, but they're positives now in how I can be a leader in what I bring to the table to be a leader.

Yeah, that's, that's excellent. And in that leadership that you speak on as well. I was wondering if you if you found that maybe you give different advice depending on where different women are in their careers, versus someone that is early on, or one that's a little further down the line because as you know, you can change careers or four through career paths in any one time in your life, whether you're in your mid 60s, early 20s 30s 40s, every decade, you can really change. Do you think that your advice changes as maybe women approach different milestones? Oh, absolutely.

Oh, absolutely. Your advice definitely changes. You know, as you as you change in your decades of years on this earth, you know, you, as you get more experience as you go through quite a bit, you definitely change with that in. So I think your advice changes to in, in your need for life changes. You know, I think early on in my career, I needed more advice on how to navigate, you know, a male dominated industry, you know, and how to not survive, but thrive in it, right, I needed to understand how to thrive. And so that then changed to, Okay, I'm sorry, I'm thriving. But now I need advice on how people will listen to me and hear that I have something to say, then I got that. And then it's like, okay, now I need advice on how to be more of an effective leader, I'm a leader, but I need to be an effective leader, right. And so needed advice in that way. And so I think you go through different phases, as you take all these steps along your career path, where the advice that you need, and the advice that you give, is very different.

Now that's so interesting. And I think about that now, mainly, because as I turn 30, like you're saying, just how you think and how you feel, how you approach different career opportunities, from starting off, where money is the goal, and then now you have an actual purpose, and the why all of that does change over time. With those new careers. If you were to explain, I guess, your career path and all the different, you know, different trials and all the different roads you've taken, what was a word you would use to describe that?

Um, I'd say intentional, intentional, early on in those first few years, not so much. But, but I had a couple instances, different things that happened early on, that then made me very intentional in how I engaged and what I engaged with. And so I've been very intentional, and opportunities, whether or not I take them or not, I've been very intentional in, you know, what I wanted to put a stake in the ground for and what I would not waver on, you know, different beliefs that I had, I've been very intentional in different projects and things that I wanted to do that had a legacy within the community, you know, and so, I say intentional, is probably one that comes to mind, I guess, I but I was intentional. And now learning space where I'm trying to inspire trying to inspire others to grow and go for different opportunities that might be before them.

Okay, and we are approaching that 630. Mark, but just to end with everything, are there any final words you would say to encourage those who are considering a new career path? And maybe don't have that confidence or question themselves? Just any final words to encourage inspire them? Like you just said?

Well, I mean, we are resilient people. I mean, we've seen that over the years and everything that we've been through in this country, right? We are very resilient. And so I think I often look at as an opportunity as why not, why not take that next step? Why not put yourself out there, go out on the limb, try something different. Try something different, that you can grow from, learn from, you know, and move on to the next thing from there. And so, I would encourage people go for it, go for it. Do not sit back and and be comfortable. Have courage, right over comfort. And get out there and try something new and different that will push you energize you, motivate you make you thrive and be more than you think you can be. Because I think sometimes we sit back and don't. This message came to me when I took this job when I was not going to take the job. And I was just going to do it temporarily. You know, I just thought oh, I'll step in. But they'll find somebody they'll do a national search and won't be, you know, a few months, and I was in church and the message It was all about we're given these God given talents, but we never fully use them. Right, we never fully use them, we just kind of dabble at it. But we never fully use our talents. And we need to step up and fully use our God given talents, and make sure that we are living the most in the best that we can be, not only for ourselves, but everybody else in the mess. It was as if I was the only one in the congregation that day. And that message just slapped me upside my head. And that next day, I applied for the job and got the job. But my point is, we often just get comfortable, you know, and I'd say, take the courage, get out of your comfort zone and go for it, you know, and find something new that you can grow from and be innovative, through that opportunity.

I love them beautiful. And, you know, maybe it was it was by God, that message was given out here today. I love that it's definitely necessary. Kathy, I want to say thank you so much. This has been such an eventful and inspiring conversation, something for everyone to take away. I love this. The sun has been getting.
marking it out. The
sun is showing off. So it's never been this great.
It must just be for you. Thank you so much. This has been amazing. Thank you.
Michelle, we can hear you. Yeah,

I could come off a mute. It really worked very well. I want to say thank you to Novalee so much for taking the time to have this great conversation and inspire so many of us here. I'm a civil engineer. Y'all may not know this. But I did other things. I built the facilities they designed right. And so I want to thank nobody so much for interviewing you. I'm going to we're going to switch over to the q&a session. And Nicole, the founder of system is going to facilitate that for us today over the Unicode.

Thanks, Michelle. I like everybody said already I've been very excited about this session. Kathy, you know, it's you. And I had a had a special moment the day I met you. And I was like, I have to know the woman with that fro. Is my goal, this conference? And it was it gave me life, right? Because the energy that we put into each other is what we what was needed at that moment because we don't see each other often. Right. So from across the room, and I can say I know you're there for me, and I appreciate. Absolutely. So I do want I think there was a question on on LinkedIn, where did it go? There it is. Were there ever any career jumps you made that you regretted, in hindsight, maybe you wish you stayed a little longer or in a previous role, or tried something to get something else out of it?

You know, there's one career jump I made. And I was I was, you know, the Yellowlees word titles, but I was the performance metric champion. And so I basically had to work with our seven different divisions, to figure out their performance metrics, and then track them and report out them on a monthly basis to our director at the time. And we we never figured out how to do performance metrics well in the organization. And I really felt like if I had more time in that before, we just said, forget it, that, that maybe I could have made something of it. And I wanted to learn more about performance metrics, right. And so I think that was a moment where I wish I had stayed longer. I think it would help me now because I'm struggling now to get my division heads to realize the importance of performance metrics. But I think that one probably would have been one that I would point to.

It's interesting, when you think about your career, there's nothing in my opinion, even if you whatever you learn, you learn for a reason, right? Like you were talking about earlier. So it's less about regret, but like you said, it's like I could have I could have I could have gleaned more from that experience. But performance metrics is just tough in general. I mean, every organization struggles with, you know, the wording, how they, you know, because you get different information from how you worded things and all that. So that's, you know, and if that's not, you know, what you studied, where you would start so I'm impressed that you did it. You pushed yourself right to try it and, and see what happens. So yeah. Are there any other questions? Michelle? Oh, here we go. Have you been able to get yourself out of that comfort zone and how have you been able to get yourself out of that comfort zone and take that Risk.

You know, like I said, I didn't have this, I didn't have this insight early on in my career, I was just trying to get a paycheck and, and survive. But I think in recent years, you know, I have had, you know, the vision that I want to be a positive change in the community, you know, I want to, to make sure that I can do something that lifts people up out of their circumstances and puts them on, you know, a better path moving forward. And so I think, knowing that there's a lot of work in that space. That gets me out of my comfort zone to run after that, to see what I can do, you know, at the utility, you know, to help people with their bills, customer assistance programs, more water main replacement projects, removed the lead service lines, think about what we're going to do against P. Foss, you know, all of those things, I think, because I want to have that, you know, that lasting legacy in the community. That gets me out of my comfort zone, because there's a lot of work in that space. Probably one new
rookie move. I know some people have that confidence, you know, out the gate, but I think it also comes with, like you said, experience, and saying like, okay, all right, I succeeded pretty well with that. Right? What, what else can I do? And even though it doesn't necessarily mean it's less comfortable, but you're more prepared to take on the risk if you if you know what I mean? You know, it's just, you deal with that discomfort and you plow on anyway. Yeah, yeah. Do we have any other questions? Here we go. I love it. As your power and influence has grown in your organization and industry, how have you used it for change in the water industry? And I think, Kathy, before you even say what you think you've done, you know, if no one is following Kathy, on, on Instagram, I mean, Instagram, Twitter, she's the first lady of water, and just her presence. She is like, she is unapologetically black. And she is very clear about what she finds value in. And so I will say that, that's the way that I've seen you use your power influence, just your presence, right? And just being willing to speak out on things and just be you. Because I think for so many of us, you know, as we're coming up, we're like, I don't know how much of me I can be, they might not be able to take all of this and so so someone else in the water industry, that's, that's watching you. That's what you have been a positive influence for me.

Well, thank you for sharing that. Thank you very much for sharing that. But But yeah, that's, that's dead on I Am I what you see is what you get, you know, I I'm showing up every day, you know, bringing all of myself, you know, all of my blackness to the table, you know, and in the industry. I call them on some of the craziness that they dish out, you know, and tell him he's like that. That's not true. It's not gonna fly. You know, I'm not here to hear all that crap. Let's tell the truth. It was so we have real conversations when when I'm in the room, in the room and on the boards and, and attending conferences, and it meetings, it's like, I'm not going to sit here and have you sugarcoat something, because it's what you like to hear. It's like, we're going to get down to the real deal. And what the truth is in certainly, I bring that to the table, you know, in the industry.
And it's refreshing. For sure. Now, I don't know how much more time we have. We have any more questions, Michelle. I don't I don't know about anybody else. But I want to say that my word of the Year has been intentional. So when you said that it spoke directly to me, because you like you know, I'm a planner by nature and all those things, but you have to like say this is what I'm going for this is I'm very specific about it, right? Because it things don't just happen, well, things will happen without all that but you have to be intentional with your goals and your desires. And I think that you know, we have watched you go through your steps and learned a lot from you and your intentionality, even when you aren't saying okay, this is what I'm gonna do. You just can see the determination. And it is a it's a breath of fresh air for sure.

Thank you. Thank you, you know, intentional is my word again this year. It's the only word that I've picked up when I pick a word. It's the only word that I've come back to. But But it's so strong in me to be very intentional, intentional, and where I am in my space because I've got 31 years in the industry. And so I'm trying to figure out what that looks like next. We're very intentional in what I do and how are pouring to others before I take that next step.

We have Michelle's back so she told us we We don't have anything else. Any other questions? No more questions. I'm
sad. I'm sad. But I did put your Twitter handle I went and found your shield. Is that the word that's too long is the number already before I started typing with those, you know, the Twitterverse. Like, that's too long. So if you're a little or you have pets that bark. Yeah, just go ahead and follow Kathy on Twitter. So now I got somebody else to do like what we talking about today. It's hard to take people over to talk and take, I'd be like yeah, okay. Do not without us. Yeah. Well, we would have folks have interesting things to say. Yes. Yes. I'm excited. Okay. Nicole, any final thoughts? Oh,
well, yeah, I'll let Kathy go. And then I'll close it up.

Yeah, I don't I don't have any final thoughts. I just want to thank you for having me here tonight. I appreciate it.

Thank you. I just wanted to quickly tell everyone, if you haven't seen the rest of our sessions, you know, this is been hosted by positive hire with an with System and System is a group of women of color in the water space. And it is a safe space for us to get together and talk about things and, you know, encourage each other talk about opportunities, technical breakthroughs, all of these things, because we found that a safe space was needed. Because we want to strengthen ourselves and then go out into the world and make it make this industry even better. And on one of those calls, we talked about having a word of the year. And we brought that up. And I was like that is a great idea. Because I don't do resolutions, right? But I can have a word. And that word is forged me forward. And that that little bit of inspiration has been you know, Pivotal, right? So those are the kinds of things that we share with each other and goals and dreams and all of that. So, you know, if you'd like to join an event, if you want to be an ally, feel free to reach out to us because we want to know that you're out there for us. That's one reason why we did this right. So everyone can see and see the power that a group like this does. So thank you so much for joining. Hopefully, you'll hear from us very soon. Everyone have a great evening.

Yeah, thank
you, everybody. And for those of you that follow us on LinkedIn tomorrow, we will be having at one o'clock Eastern time. 10am Pacific, we will have just a walk on. It is black maternal health month. And so we know how black women die often during childbirth, young woman 21, that delivery her only child at 21. So come join us. I have an advocate named Jessica Walker, who has been in this space for over 20 years, talking about what the disparities are, but also what are solutions. So come join us. It will be on a positive hire company page on LinkedIn as well as over on YouTube at positive hire coach. So we do all things not only for our intellectual being but also on an individual level as we talk about our health and wellness as women as black women as women of color. So everybody come over and join us. See you there. Thanks, Nicole. Thanks, Kathy. See ya

Thanks. For sure.

View Details

Welcome, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Michele Heyward. And per usual, I always bring y'all treats like Michelle. Really? Yes. Really? With me today I have Lisa Anderson. Lisa is an executive. She's also an executive coach, open women in the workplace, show up, show out and really drive their careers in the direction that she, they want to go. And so Lisa is back. I don't know, Lisa, you've done what three summits for me?

Yes. And this three?

If maybe this the third one, I think you've done a webinar or two with me, we've done a podcast episode. If y'all don't know Lisa Anderson, trust me, you are going to love her when I continue to bring people back is for a few reasons. Number one, the positive hire community are enjoying what she says or finding actual things from her. They're working with her to advance their careers. And I like Why y'all know us as engineers, scientists, analytical people. We like we don't like that many people like that. Especially not analytical like us. But I love working with you. Lisa, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for having me, Michelle and I, I have fun every time every summit, I like to educate, but we also have a good time. And we have some very juicy good discussions as well. Exactly.

Now, this, this year, we're talking about the from the glass ceiling to the glass cliff. But before we get into that, I want you to share with people a bit about yourself your career, and, and then we'll get into what you do in your organization.

Sure. So I am a Chief Human Resource Officer, and I've been in HR for over 25 years. So now I'm starting to date myself a little bit. But I grew my career. in HR, I started my career as a recruiter, and worked my way up the ladder through you know, becoming an HR business partner. They recall HR generalist back in the day. But now the new term is HR business partner, HR manager, director, VP. And now I'm a chief HR officer. And every step that I took on that career ladder, I needed to get some different things in my toolkit. And so I love just love working with women in particular, that are looking to move to their next level, whatever or however that looks, and just making sure that they have what they need in their toolkit in order to be successful as they're climbing. And everybody's not always climbing up. I work with a lot of women that are going lateral, and there are individual contributors, but they're still becoming experts in their field. So that's me, and I am also a leadership coach for women and I love to you know, help women find their voice, especially in male dominated environments, build their leadership, courage, and increase their leadership and executive presence. So that's my passion work. Love it. So
Lisa, business is positively in pursuit. Let's talk about that. That name. Why did you name your company positively in pursuit?

Yes. So that name came to me years ago, you know how you get that download. And it's like, came to me years ago, when I decided that I really wanted to help people. Back then it was really how to get jobs, you know, how to interview how to dress for success, you know, the unwritten rules of the workplace. That's where I initially started my work. And so that name came to me, because in everything that we do, if you have a positive attitude and a positive outlook, that's half the battle. And so that name came because I said, if whatever you're in pursuit of your dreams, your goals, your career, you want to be positively in pursuit of that. So that's where the name came from, and it stuck with me. And then when I started my coaching business, that name just there it is, came two years before. You didn't know why you came to you but all The stars align like, okay, that's the name I'm supposed to use.

I love it. I love it. We do vision start way earlier and calling start way earlier than we realize. And we don't know how much. I think it's like Atlas eventually holds up the world. But for for years Atlas was building the body, he needed to hold up the world. So you're often already doing the work, but you don't know really where it's going and where it's going to continue to go. So I love that. I love that. That story. One of the things that I think really resonates with the way you come into positive hire, because we're positive hires, she's positive, positively in pursuit. Yeah, y'all get that? Right. Because because it was funny what I'm just just beside my brand photographer. Her business, she's been in business 32 years, and her business called positive images. Because everything you would generally see a black people in the news, whether it's in print or on TV or hear on radio was negative. And she's she called her business positive images. When we met, and I'm trying to think of names it didn't even dawn on me when I came on positive height, that she probably like, oh, yeah, positive. Hi. And I'm like, Yeah, positive heart. She's like, Yeah, positive image. I said, Oh, I did. And she said, Yeah, you did. And it sounds good. So I hit No, I'm just saying I was first though I was hurt. So three of us, when we think about women, when we think about black, indigenous and other people of color, putting in that word positive is really important. Because we know the negative connotations, especially in the workplace, that happens to us. And so that's, that's an issue. I told you, I don't get along with like, I like a lot of people think, you know, I'm seeing the positive, the T in things. But the other part of that is you are always providing actionable steps. And that's what we have these conferences for women, we feel high, we feel good. And then you leave like, Okay, what do I do? There's just I was like, Yeah, but faith without works is dead. So what do we do? And so when you are in a Lisa Anderson conversation, when you're in a Lisa Anderson trading webinar, guess what you get? A it's not just for Anderson, it's for action.

So, yes, I love it. So yes, we you gotta take action, you have to have some movement. And sometimes we get overwhelmed, because the movement may be so big. And, you know, I encourage people break, break it down into baby steps. And if you can do a baby step that's movement, at least is one step further than you were, you know, before, but a lot of us get overwhelmed when because we're looking so far down the road, that is like, wow, look at the big giant thing I have to get to. And that whole thing sometimes just overwhelms us shuts us down. And then there's no movement, because we're overwhelmed. So yes, action steps are very important and small steps. They don't have to be conquering the entire thing in one movement. And so I strongly, strongly encourage that you break that thing down, and let's get some baby steps in there. And then celebrate the baby steps. That's the other thing. Sometimes we don't celebrate until we get to the end. Know the journey is all about that celebrate the baby step. That's gonna take you to the next step. I don't want to forget that.

Absolutely.

I am horrible with with cheering on at every step of the way. And being on a call, I was on a call with another business owner. And she was like, Well, I only had three people sign up for this. And then out of the three, only one showed up. She didn't even stay but she bought and I'm trying to figure out that hole up. So I ran out like let's run this back. Let's run this back. You didn't get 30 that you want it. You got three out of three. And when you know once one show and bought that's a win, win. It's a win. It's a win. win is a win. I need you she was like it. So sometimes for us what we're downplaying or not really seeing as an accomplishment. We need to go tell a three year old or five year old like but that's a good job. Mommy did good. It really have some else give perspective on because we're looking for the milestone, and sometimes just making to the grocery store or ordering the groceries. Right? Is the biggest thing for you is finding that time you like Yeah, but who gonna cook like whatever. But the hardest part was finding the time to or and you have to say, You know what, let me just have a glass of wine or something and let me sit down and rest. It really taking those wins. So I love that. I love that. I absolutely agree. Yeah,
I mean, it is it is Avex experienced it personally, you know, I've always been a goal, achiever. And, you know, I forget, I used to be like, forget the baby steps, I can't celebrate until I check the box that it's done. And I had a coach tell me, like, whoa, you know, let's let's back and back up a little bit. Because look at all the things it took for you to even get that baby step. And so let's not discount that. And really gave me a different perspective. Like, wow, you know, how many times have I have done that where my eyes on the prize way up ahead. And all the juicy nuggets, is, you know, is the within the journey within the baby steps and I'm missing all of that looking way down the road. So absolutely.

I love that. Yeah, we're too action oriented, and absolute in, you know, product driven. And sometimes you gotta wait, you're like you got you got unhearable you know, the herring done yet, but you get there. So I want to bring us back to one other thing people may not know about you, which is you're also an author, and you released a book. So I want to talk about a bit about your book, and then we'll get to the glass cliff.

Sure. So my book came out in October of 2020. So during the pandemic, when I had the time, when you know, when the world shut down, and things slowed down, I finally had the time to finish a book that I had started writing like the year before, the name of it is invisible professional to influential leader. And it's a tip book for women leaders. And it was very therapeutic for me to write that book. Because all of the experiences that I had coming up the you know, coming up that corporate ladder, I wish I had a book that could have shared some things with me that I wasn't number one comfortable and talking to anyone inside the organization that I was working in at that time. And so this tip book is really about where at one point in my career, I felt invisible. And for me, in particular, it showed up for me in meetings, where I felt invisible. And a lot of times I was the only woman in the room. And nine times out of 10 I was the only person of color in the room. And I went through this experience in this phase where I was like, wow, you know, I had something to contribute to that conversation. But yet I set kind of silent. And so a lot of the tips in the book. The first about the book is the action book. Michelle, we just finished talking about action. So for each tip, there's an action and a reflection. So there's something for you to do around each tip. And it really is to sort of force you to sort of think about you and your experience and where you are and then to give you some nuggets of okay, let's reflect upon it. But then what's the action? What are you going to do to go forward? So yes, so I'm very proud of finally getting that getting the book finish. And I've gotten a lot of positive feedback from it because of course I share some stories in the book. And I had people call me Did that really happen yesterday it I've taken out names to the you know, as people, but in the world of HR It is never a dull moment.

Now whatsoever So, I want to talk this, this year's theme for the virtual Summit is a little bit different, but it is very, I think, timely. But what we've seen since the murder of George Floyd, with so many women and black women getting jobs at mid management executive level. So this year's theme is talking really about women of color, specifically in STEM, because that's where we focus at positive hire. And Lisa, of course, has a crossover focusing on women leaders. We're talking about from the glass cliff, to the glass ceiling, breaking barriers and achieving leadership goals, and lead. And so when we talk about and think about navigating the glass cliff, Lisa's talk is focused on how to leave on your terms. Can you tell us why you decided to focus on that particular topic? Sure.

That topic stood out for me, because a couple of things. Number one, and Michelle, I'm gonna have to kind of define glass cliff in order to kind of talk through this. But what a glass Cliff situation? Well, let's talk about glass ceiling glass ceiling is when you know, a woman gets to a certain level in her career, and it's hard to break through to get to that next level. For a lot of women of color, sometimes you hear it referred as concrete ceiling, because with a glass ceiling, you can at least look through it, sometimes concrete ceiling, you can't even see on the other side of it. So that's glass ceiling, then you have glass cliff, where you do get the opportunity to move into a higher position. But normally, it's a challenging position with a high risk of failure. And sometimes, as women or women of color, we don't want to let opportunities pass us by because we may not get as many opportunities. So we may take that project or that challenge or that assignment to get that experience. But we're walking into kind of a glass cliff, where there's going to be a lot of challenging challenges there. So the reason why I picked the topic, how to leave you on your own terms, because sometimes we find ourselves in a glass Cliff situation. And sometimes we stay in that situation longer than we probably should, or stay in it. And it becomes detrimental to us personally. And that could be burnout, stress, or mental health. So when Michelle presented the topics, I was like, Oh, my goodness, I would love to do the topic on exit, you know, exiting and leaving on your own terms. But then how do you take that experience, and use it as an opportunity to get your next experience? Because a lot of people, especially women were like, Oh, we weren't successful in that glass cliff, a roll. So now it's going to be hard for me to go and try for the next opportunity. So that is why this is like who I yeah, I love to share some strategies around. Okay, you've had this experience? How do you really store it? You know, we talk about your brand, storytelling? How do you flip this because now you get ready to go interview for the next opportunity. And believe it or not, even though it might not have been fun when you were in it, the glass, roll with all the challenges, you really need to be able to articulate what you got out of that. And it's not always failure. There's a lot of lessons learn that you would take from that experience to your next. And so we're going to talk about that next week on Tuesday.

I love is pm Eastern time. So the glass Cliff can be looked at negatively and it is not necessarily a good thing. But I think it's important as analytical women as women in highly male dominated areas on how to leverage it, how to survive if you fall over, or maybe not. Maybe you gotta hook Good and you climbing your way back up, it is really important that we take different perspectives on how to do this. And I want to give a shout out to my friend Denise, she's like, Michelle, this is what you need to be talking about when it comes to the glass cliff. And like, literally, she jumped on a call for 2030 minutes with me. And I was like, ooh, ooh, I gave her an outline of similar what I shared with you, Lisa, and some in other speakers. And this is where we are like, literally somebody and she's like 25, about 28 years into her career in tech and engineering. And so she's seen a lot as well. So I really, I really think this topic, even if you're not, and you're still an individual contributor, maybe you still want to be a Smee. You know, like managing people and advancing isn't where you want to go. But I think it is still very, is still something that will help you in your career. So I have put into the chat, where you can register for the glass cliff, virtual Summit. It is free if you watch it live, and then you have another 24 hours afterwards to catch us up. And you definitely don't want to miss Lisa's. Because she is about that life. She is going to definitely definitely share with you actionable things that you can do in your career right now. It starts on Sunday. Yes, Sunday. And it's one speaker at night. So you don't have to like I gotta Carver like one hour a night. And you can come join us over for the virtual Summit. We will love to have you join us. And I'm speaking for Lisa. Right. Lisa, anything else you want to say? Because you've done the virtual summit before? You've done some other things with positive hire as well. Anything else you want to add?

No? Well, yes, one thing. So I strongly encourage you what I love about the virtual Summit is that the ladies are all interactive. So you know, we do the presentation, but we also leave enough time. And Michelle and I are famous for going over our time limit. Because we will stay until we get all questions answered. So I Yeah, so I love that's what I love about the positive hire summits because it really is about you coming and being able to interact, give us feedback, you know, from the content that we're presenting, and really just being able to answer any questions or even help or elaborate. So I love that about the women of color and STEM Summit. So yes, hopefully we will see a lot of folks and that will participate. Absolutely.

And if you need a shorter link, you can go to bit dot L y forward slash glass Cliff Summit. Yes, glass Cliff Summit. So yes, we stay on most of our speakers stay on and we try to answer most of the questions. Some of you will navigate it. I generally don't say your names during the recording to have privacy. And so we will work through that if you want to join and have questions if you want to join earlier, if you want to join that earlier. But if you want to come every night or if you're like Hey, I can't remember you have about 24 hours little bit more than 24 but at least 24 hours to catch the replay. So everybody, you got the links, you know where to go, you know where to show up. We are excited to have you and we will see you on Sunday 7pm. Eastern Time, up until Friday. So, so many y'all want to know, do y'all really want to know what the other topics are? Okay, now, what I know I forgot, I guess that's a good thing to share. Okay, so how to choose the right manager for you. Oftentimes, when we're interviewing for jobs into a new organization, we aren't asking the right questions like will who I got a new opportunity, I need to show up shiny, brilliant, and absolutely the best No, guess what they need to show up, shiny, bright, and absolutely the best to get you. You are the prize. So it's really important to go in and understand the questions to be asking, and how to assess an organization, because it may be a great opportunity. But now you have a manager that is setting you up to fail. And so what are the things you need to be asking for and how do you pre plan going into an organization pretty much known as the glass cliff and is not maybe the manager that is hiring you that you'll be reporting to has a different style.

And so we have Giselle Ben Azula, who is who is a software engineering manager at mail Jim, she's been in tech 25 years is going to be talking about this on Sunday. Then on Monday, we have creating your strategy to navigate the glass cliff, you're broke through the ceiling. Now you're walking on the glass ceiling and it ain't going too well. So how best can you navigate it? We have Evany Travis. She is an HR F. Austin scientific. She's the director of Global wellbeing and HR employee policies. She's done many roles at at Boston Scientific. She's been there over 20 years. So you definitely, definitely want to check us out. Y'all know who we got on Tuesday, y'all don't know. We have Mrs. Lisa Anderson, HR executive executive coach, she's going to be taught by NASA navigating the glass cliff to leave on your terms. Then we have my girl y'all like hold up? In my head. She is she's Afro Latina, Dominican, born and raised. She's a civil engineer.

She is a licensed professional engineer. Her name was Gladys Felix, she's gonna be talking about a little bit different. What happens when you can't get that job? Right. And you like what? Yeah, and so she is going to be talking about breaking barriers, Afro Hispanic Woman's Journey to the top. And it's a different viewpoint. And oftentimes during recessions and layoffs, it can be it takes a black women especially longer to get jobs. So what do you do in between, in between that time? And so she'll be talking about that. I'll be coming in on Thursday, February 23. How about embracing the glass Cliff turning a challenge into an opportunity? You know, they trying to set you up? You know what it is? But how do you set take the opportunity, that that negative and make it a positive? So I'll be talking about that. And then on Friday, I get asked these questions. So I do I know Lisa, United career coach, I do some business coaching, too. But I do it in a very niche specific way. And so somebody that literally DM me while I was planning out the virtual Summit, and it's like, how do I escape the corporate jungle to start my own business? I know. So I added this on the back end, on a Friday session is real chill, y'all come hang out. I know I have it on Zoom webinar, I may switch it to meetings. So you can ask more questions. But it's called the corporate jungle escape plan. You get out and how I found success as a woman of color business owner. And so really talking about what are some struggles? What are some things I would have done differently? Because I definitely would have done some things differently.

And what do I advise other women? And so we'll go through some five things that I have, you probably want to do before you get started. And you jumped ship, or if you've already jumped ship and you're trying to wade your way through the waters. Let's talk about or the jungle and see what that's about. And so we'll have that conversation on Friday. I added as a Friday session because I knew it wasn't gonna be a lot of women, but it's an opportunity for you to still ask your questions, and we can talk about it. So love it, and I'm really excited to have your joy. All right, Lisa, we ready? We're ready. All right. We will see you on Sunday. February 19 at 7pm. Everybody have a great week and we'll see you soon.

View Details

Hello, everybody, I am so glad you could join us tonight. This is Michele Heyward Women's History Month back with system. So if you don't know what I'm talking about, you're in for a fantabulous opportunity to meet Monique who's one of the founding members of system, which is si, si, T m is women of color in the water industry. So if you don't know what I'm talking about, um, you have drinking water, you have flushing water, you want to know which one to do and where, who Monique as part of women, engineers and professionals in the industry, that make sure we get the drinking water we need. During the month of March, Women's History Month, I've partnered with system and they are bringing on different fabulous women of color who are doing fabulous things, outstanding things, and really not getting the spotlight into recognition they should in the water industry. So we have the opportunity to partner together and really show it introduced to each of you what is going on. So I'm going to turn it over to Monique and she's going to and I'm going to bring up our special guests and I will see y'all in about I don't know when it's done. When they say I can come back. I'm gonna come back. So, Monique, over to you.

Thank you, Michelle. Hi, everyone. I'm Monique. Epi Tropo formerly Phillips. I am a water resources engineer and project manager currently on like an extended maternity leave about to start a new job at Jacobs, which I'm really excited about. And I want I'm thrilled to introduce you all to Ashley Matthews, who I've been able to work with for at least like the last four or five years. I think she's an engineering supervisor at the Philadelphia water department. So welcome Ashley, is there anything you want to introduce about yourself before we dive into our interview? Sure,

um, like Monique said, I'm an engineering supervisor with the Philadelphia water department. I am in the design support group. We do various work at the programmatic level of our group specifically focused on GSI, combating CSOs in the Philadelphia area, so I'll keep it brief.

Just like for the audience, what are those acronyms? Oh,

CSOs. Me, Philadelphia water department and CSOs is combined stormwater over, there's a question. I combined stormwater overflow, essentially, when we have large storm events. We have overflows that happen from our sewer system, because our rainwater and our drinking water, our toilet water, everything goes into the same system. And those massive storms over override the system and it's just too much and that they looted sewage goes into our rivers, streams and waterways. So to combat that and prevent that from happening. We're putting in small green stormwater infrastructure GSI systems throughout the city to prevent that hold the water, infiltrate it down into like our normal water water cycle. And yeah, that is essentially the initiative of the Green City Clean Waters program.

Nice. Nice. You said that better than I would. You also covered the other acronym G GSI. So green stormwater infrastructure. And so while we're on this topic, how did you get into this field? How did you start your career? And just tell us about your your current role? Sure.
So I started right out of college, I went to Drexel University. I was a dual major in architectural and civil engineering with a construction management minor. At applied with the city of Philadelphia, I was actually aiming to work for the Streets Department and bridge design. But when you apply for the city, they actually have a list of civil engineers, you take an exam, you get put on the list based on your ranking, and any department within the city can pull engineers from that list. So the water department pulled me before the Streets Department did an interview with several different groups within the water department and the Green City Clean Waters program. It's still in my heart. I was like, first of all, this is a massive and initiative no other city is, is doing this type of work. And I want to be involved with it. So that's kind of how I ended up there. A little more background, I started in program support what it was at the beginning, I was there for about three years. Then I moved to GSI design, and I was a program, a project manager. And I managed projects for a couple of years, I became a supervisor in that group, and I managed a team of three engineers. And this was all while COVID started. So I was managing a team remotely, and I was pregnant with my first child, I went on maternity leave for three months, I came back, I was there for about another nine months before I actually left the water department, I became a stay at home mom for about 11 months. And then eventually I came back to the water department. I've been here for about 10 months. So now my role is back in program support. But I run the design support group that is inside of that. And I manage once again, a team of three.

I mean, and this is why we wanted to talk to you for this life theme about work life balance, because I knew you just been all over the place, you know, being at the water department, getting this promotion, and then taking a break to start a family. And then diving right back in like, I'm like she's gonna have a lot to say on this.

Definitely. And I guess Yeah, with that in mind, how did having a daughter impact your career.

So in a lot of ways, like I mentioned, I've kind of been back and forth, I did two leaves one for three months for FMLA during maternity leave, and then again, when I left for a longer stay, and then I came back, I think the biggest impact is that you're stepping out of your role. For a period of time, you're missing opportunities. There's no way around that. Because as you're getting ready to leave, even though it's temporary, there's things that are like, well, we can't involve her in that, because she's about to leave. And while you're gone, things are still happening around you. I know one initiative that was starting up before I left was implementation of dynamic design in our program. And I was really excited about that. But I was about to leave. So I couldn't be as involved as I would have liked. Additionally, just your your how you approach your work your your work ethic, and your style has to change. Because when you come back, you're not the same person. And trying to hold yourself to those same standards is not not reasonable. I nursed my daughter for two years, so are nearly two years. So like that has a great impact on what you're doing every day when you have a newborn, you are nursing them every two hours. So that has a great impact on what you got.

So literally what I'm doing right now. Is this normal two hours.
Exactly. Yeah. So there's sacrifices on both ends, especially once you come back. When you're working, there's things that you're not doing in your family life. And when you're with your family, you're you're doing things that you may not have normally done because you may have stayed a little bit later at work. So definitely has an impact. But it's it's, it can be overcome.
And I'm like I'm going off script a little bit like how was that decision to, you know, stay home a little bit longer. And then the decision to then go back to work? Like how did that all play out for you? And you know, I'm selfishly asking because the weeks my baby's five months, how old is Sadie?

Oh, so CD is two and a half now. So she's almost three. So our decision was interesting, because, um, which I didn't mention, I started a business while I was a stay at home mom. And our focus was like building that business. And, but then we thought, Wait, like, we're gonna be in the city longer. We had planned on buying a house, the housing market was ridiculous. You know, life changes everything. And you kind of have to roll with the punches. So that's what we did. And we were like, well, we're still in the city. Let's go back and see if they'll have a see if they'll take us back. So I came back to the city and I came back I had, you know, I never left because I didn't love it. Like I love what I do. I love who I work with. So it was an easy choice to make to go back. However, at that point, I was home because even when I was off of maternity leave, I was still home. Like I literally had my baby right next to me while I was in meetings and doing different things. So when I had to actually go into the office that that was very difficult. But yeah, it was more like you know, financial planning for our future like this will be a boost for our our income and our finances. So it made sense to do at the time.

Yeah, it's, it's like it's so personal for everybody. There's so many different opinions and you know, it's all about your comfort level is sad and like daycare now that you're like going in and yeah, so she's, she's in a Montessori school, five days a week, and we have like, aftercare some days, and, you know, sending her to school for the first time, it was terrifying. I was like, This is my child. But I really liked the school. They even had like an onboarding section where they would meet with the teacher one on one before, like, class started and all these kids were there, they would have an indoor session to introduce them to the different activities and an outdoor session so they could see their campus. So I really, like my mama heart was happy to see her like, interacting with the teacher and her first day she went to the teacher because that was like a someone she knew.

Oh, that's so nice. And like what's I guess? What's a rundown of your typical busy day? And don't forget to tell us about your your side business. Oh, I heard that. So now we gotta hear all about that, too.

So I guess first about the business. I started plant based vegan baked goods, baked good online business called Mama's morsels. I'm vegan, I've been vegan for I don't know, eight. I've been like meat free for eight years or something like that. I don't remember I don't count anymore. I started this business because I felt like there was a gap in really good, like vegan desserts. So I was like, let me just let me just do this. And it's a passion of mine. I really enjoy building a business, all of the different parts of it. And I think I'd probably will continue to make businesses because I really enjoy it. So I know, but my my busiest day is actually today. So I actually took I left work early so that I could be here and do this because usually I would be on the train right now and I don't think being on the train would be would work. But i i On average, I wake up at 4am I typically the range is like 2am to 5am in the morning. from four to five I do my business work emails, social media content creation and planning orders. from five to 6am. I do my morning like workout I tried to do 30 minutes 15 minutes stretching an extra 15 minutes for those times that I'm just moving really slow and I don't feel like doing it. Six to 7am It's like shower, get dressed breakfast and then I open up my like pwd work laptop. I started to plan out my day. I'm very like, I like to write things down. So I have like my personal planner, I have my PW planner. I have my business planner and calendars and everything. Seven to eight in the morning. It's like getting my daughter up getting her dressed, getting her breakfast, getting her out the door by eight. Then it's taking her school eight to nine because her school is not close. It's like 20 minutes away. So like 40 minutes round trip. I come back home at nine and around 910 I catch a train to go downtown into center city into the office. I get to the office about for 940. And then my day is till about 540 I catch a six o'clock train home. And then the 630s dinner, seven to eight is more business stuff, increase new items. I do a lot of events. So it's like event planning, inventory tracking, things like that. And then eight to nine is me winding down for the day. I'm making my lunch for the next day snacks, things like that. And then nine o'clock is bed. Usually I go to sleep between eight o'clock and 11pm. And I've learned that I need at least five hours of sleep. So however that works out for that day.

Wow. Starting from the end, I can agree with you on needing five hours of sleep. Because that's what I learned recently. So I need at least that much as well. But you know, with a newborn waking up is a little bit different. Your day is extremely full. And when you said you started at four, I was like, where's this going? What does she need to do and more than more, but it's your it's so it's a it's your your person? It's because you're trying to fit in your personal business time before your, your work day. And then before that, you still have to drop your daughter off at school. It's a lot. It is, do you feel like it's it's it's worth it to have all of these things go in? And do you ever get overwhelmed with that? Like, how do you how are you feeling from day to day with this schedule?

So I definitely get overwhelmed. For sure. All the time. I think that's anticipated. I think, is it worth it to fit all these things in? Yes, and because everything is important to me to do, and a lot of things I strategically plan so that way I'm hitting, I'm hitting things that fulfill the needs that I have. So when I do get overwhelmed, and kind of like and I don't know what's happening right now, I try to change my perspective on it. Usually, I'm overwhelmed, because I'm thinking about all of the little things that I have to do in one like perspective, and I have to realize I can only do one thing at a time, I'm only one person. So breaking it down into a schedule, where it's like this time block, this is what I'm doing, I'm not thinking about anything else, I'm only doing this task, then I can be very focused, dedicated. And when I'm done that task, I put it to the side, and I'm not thinking about it anymore. So it helps to like clear my mind of like that thing is done. Or even if it's not done, it's like I've worked on that today. So I feel accomplished that I put the time that I plan to do on it, even though it's not done. And I can move on from there. And also just prioritizing all of those little things that I like or float floating around in my head. And then building in meantime is really important so that I don't feel overwhelmed. So like to getting my exercise and like moving my body in some way, shape or form. Every day is really important for me, because most of what I'm doing is sedentary, I'm not moving. And like getting that stretch and just really is a is the best way for me to start my day. And to feel like okay, I did something, I checked it off like it's done. And, yeah, same thing with like, winding down at the end of the day, it's reading a book, it's listening to music, doing a puzzle, I like to draw on sketch. So just filling that time with something that's like, just for me. Really helps to to not, it doesn't help the overwhelm, but it helps me to fill the blocks that I need to feel like okay, my day is done. And I've taken care of all the aspects that are me.

Yeah. And do you like, I guess what's the priority when you can't fit all of these things in like, which is the first activity that kind of goes out the window? And what do you make sure that you can get in if you can, um,

goes out the window. So if I'm like really grinding with okay, like I need to cut something. I personally I struggle with like, I cut myself out. I know I shouldn't do that. But your meantime at the end of the day, yeah. It's like, okay, especially if it's at the end of the day and I'm exhausted and I it's like, I don't I can't stay up and draw like I need to just crash right now because I feel like I'm too exhausted from everything. It also depends on what are the things that like I have to do, and and balancing that. Obviously, it's like, you know, I have to do my job. They're paying To me, that is my livelihood. So like, that is very important. I schedule in like time with my daughter. So like, this is a day where, like, I'm taking her to school in the morning, but then her father's picking her up at night. So that's why you don't like there's nothing in the schedule with like me, like dealing with her. But if it wasn't like where I had her from the time that I pick her up, like it's all her until she goes to bed at eight o'clock. So there's like it's doing dinner, it's doing play activities, like bath books bed, like that's our routine. So then you can see, it's like, well, eight o'clock, either I'm going to sleep or I'm staying up and I'm doing stuff.

Right? And like, how did you actually sorry, let me break. Michelle, did you? Were you going to hop in and say anything to the audience about questions? Or I can, if anybody has questions, just go ahead and post them. And I'm hoping Michelle can type send us what those questions are. Because I could not get access to the LinkedIn stream to multitask that good. So we have like, about 10 more minutes. If anybody has questions for Ashley, please, please send them through. And otherwise, I'll just keep going with my questions. But just how did you work your way up to this, this this routine that you have today? Like didn't have to start slowly? Like you added in like the business sounds like a really big deal. You know, did you work your way up to that over? Like, how much time and yeah, just have How do you go about achieving this? Because I guess as normal people, maybe not quite there yet. Would like to get there.

So I guess I will say that I've I'm really big on planning. I love organization. I've had a planner like since since they gave you the planners in elementary school, I was always so excited. And then when I went to college, and they didn't give me a planner, I was like, What is this nonsense. And then I realized, okay, I can go buy my own, I
am over that era of getting planners. That's true that was. So

I love that I love planning organization. At one point, I thought like maybe I can be a professional signer, or like, I don't, I don't know what the title is. It's a lot of trial and error. So what I used to do would be I would stay up at night until I think the my cutoff was like 2am. And then I would go to sleep and I would wake up later. What I realized with that is you start to sleep it like you oversleep. And you can't get that time back. I was more efficient if I just went to bed early and got to start fresh because I'm a morning person. So trying to force myself to be a night person and stay up late was very difficult. I would just be like falling asleep trying to get stuff done. I was like, this is a waste of time, I might as well be sleeping. So it definitely didn't start with the schedule that I have now. And over the life of my business, it started in 2021. But it really didn't get going until like may 2022. So in the beginning, it was just kind of like figuring out logistics and like how do I get my my business license and all these things. But it ramped up in the in the last quarter of 22. So I kind of was forced to figure something out because I got myself burnt out doing way too many events because it's the last quarter and everybody's everybody wants to buy stuff. So I kind of had to take a break, pause myself and be like, Okay, what am I doing here? Because this is not sustainable. And I think that's applicable in in anyone's life when you do get overwhelmed. pause and reflect and really assess and prioritize like what are the things that are important to you right now? And put yourself first I'm saying this to myself to put yourself first and make sure that you're good before you try to do anything else have have you built a support system? Most definitely. My my family and my my closest friends have been an amazing support system to me. Actually, I was I was like messaging them like I'm gonna doing this interview and they're like, you're great. And I was like thanks guys. I'm so yeah, I can With a degree a support system is so important to to help you when you're when you don't feel like you're that great. And when you don't know what to do when you don't know how to prioritize things, having someone that's a sounding board. Something I also like to do and like my wine downtime is journaling. That's really helpful to get your thoughts out on paper. I'm definitely an advocate for therapy, talk to somebody. Yeah.

So I guess back to the business that you have, like, how does that blend in with like, your engineering mind and like switching off from like, vegan treats to like, you know, CSOs and phones and everybody, um,
I think just the aspect of building a business from scratch, it's literally nothing and it doesn't move without you. So just I really enjoy like the recipe testing portion in the very beginning of my business, figuring out flavors and experimenting with different things. That to me was very much the like experimental engineering side of like, Oh, can I put this together this weird? So that experimentation as well as just you when you're a single business owner, you do everything? Your marketing, your social media, your you know, your accountant, every aspect of who is an animal? I can't believe he did that.

Night. Yeah, so it's just an extension of me. It's things that I love just putting them together. Yeah.
Well, you make it look easy. And I think it's really admirable, like, I have extracurricular activities and hobbies and things I like to do. But it would just take like, I think, a lot of courage to actually turn that into a business on top of, you know, your day job and your daughter and personal time. I think it's, it's really admirable what you're doing. And I guess what are your closing thoughts on just this topic of like, creating work life balance before we wrap up?

So I think with work life balance, it's forever a moving target. It's never going to be perfect. But that's okay. You have to understand that your your life, your responsibilities, the things that you're aiming for, will change over time. And like I said, pause, reflect, understand what your goals are now, and then adjust accordingly. I think getting overwhelmed and getting bogged down does not mean failure. It's a lesson that we can use to learn and grow and build better routines that help us do it better, like life doesn't stop. So we have to kind of just keep pushing forward. And yeah,

yeah, no, I love that like it's not you know, it's not a failure, just turn it into another you know, learning stepping stone. Most definitely, until you're able to wake wake up at four in the morning. Sorry, I can't get off of that. But yeah, it's amazing. Michelle, does you want to
Well, we can't hear you Michelle.

if I unmute that really does help if it makes a world of difference. I want to thank both of you for joining us. Ashley. I can't imagine having a child and doing the the nine to five and what we call it a five to nine or or the parallel printer. I've done it not with the with the infant so I'm the night owl. I'm the one that was going to work late. Late like I was at 1am Personal like what is the spirit job at 730 I'll get so out of out of cell phone at a company truck they needed me somewhere I drive through some cornfield so but I say thank you so much. Money. Thank you for coming on with system and bringing on this fantastic topic and discussion for tonight. For Women's History Month. Everybody be sure you join us a again next week, we have another fantastic guest is coming on and moderator front from system. If you are looking for a community of women of color in the water industry, you want to be sure to connect with Monique as one of the founding members that system. So you can find other women of color in this industry to connect with. We will be back next week discussing forging new career paths. What does that look like? And we really have a dynamic guests coming on next week.

We she actually it took I don't know if you can call it a sabbatical. But the work has one job. And now she's at the US Environmental Protection Agency as a senior advisor, but she can go back to our other job when she done there. So I can't wait to hear this story because like I could have done that. Tell me how to do it. So everybody, come join us next week, Wednesday, March 22 at 6pm. Eastern time. We look forward to having you and everybody have a fantastic week. We'll see you then. Bye,
everyone. Thank you Michelle.

View Details

What is going on everybody? This is Michele Heyward. Hey, everybody, it is actually snap national STEM Day. So science, technology, engineering and math. It is nationally celebrated here in the US to promote science, technology, engineering and math to the masses, mostly children. But I thought I would get on and talk about it with maybe some grownups. Yes. So, for those of you who are new to me, my name is Michele Heyward, I'm a woman color in STEM, I have a civil engineering degree did that was a civil engineer for many years, worked in heavy construction, actually building the power grid, here in the United States of America. So when you turn on your lights, they give me make of me. So literally, I worked construction, on a job site, usually in work trailer, a dirty white pickup truck. But I did not spend my time in a traditional office. So when it comes to national STEM Day, days like this, I highly, highly encourage women and people of color to step forward into the spotlight to to encourage others, Hey, Chris, to do something they may not see others around them do explain to them what they do in their career. So I have an older brother, who's actually an electrical engineer. And it's funny because he works. In utilities, he works nice for a utility company. Actually, it's a second utility company he's working for.

And I build the power grid, but I don't work for the utility company, utility companies use usually my client, that I'm helping to manage the construction of their project. And he's on the other side, once it's built, he operates it, hey, thanks for joining. So make sure it's maintained, it's functioning properly. So it's really interesting how we both unintentionally ended up working in energy at the same time for a few years, his employers have never been my client. But it was he's an electrical engineer, but I was out still as a civil engineer, building a power grid. So if you have young children, or maybe you're a parent, and you're really trying to see what this stem mean, and I can do more of the E in STEM, which is engineering, because a lot of things really around you are engineered, including this container, a packaging engineer will help determine the type of plastic you will use, the thickness of the plastic and the dimensions of it for for what will go in here, sometimes you'll see a mechanical engineer, chemical engineer do that as well. But it really, really varies. So then, so you'd have containers, then the actual plastic itself, you probably have a materials engineer, or maybe a chemical engineer, that will help develop it. So sometimes even a chemist, depending what it is, these are more vitamins. So a chemist may be involved in this. So everywhere around you. You see engineers play a different part, a different role in the world around you. A lot of times with civil people like Oh, so you build bridges and roads. And that's it, not me. But there are definitely civil engineers who do stuff.

But a lot of what you see even from the water that you drink, they are engineers, environmental engineers, wastewater engineer engineers who deal with the water systems in in the US. So there's very little areas, very few areas in the world, or things in the world, I should say, where engineers and or scientists and technologists, even mathematicians are not involved. How many of you have car insurance, or life insurance? You probably do not know a mathematician. Or actually they call actuaries, which work and do calculations to determine and collect data and really determine like payouts and doing different tables when it comes to insurance. And people like really, really, it takes a lot of math and there are some people who actually do that. Sometimes it's finance people. And then other times there are people strictly with just straight math degrees, they end up in that industry. So we do we can fall into different little places. Hospitals, and it's very like oh you build a gas but you can actually have engineers who industrial engineers who may look at the flow of a hospital, like from emergency rooms, how wide the hallways need to be, where do you put the sensors for the doors automatically open when they're doing moving patients around in beds, we do a lot of a lot of different things. Manufacturing, of course, how high the, the conveyors can be, how equipment is set up, and we don't just think of hey, and thanks for doing it, we don't just think of it off the top of our heads. And when you to join, we actually a lot of times in manufacturing, or just in general, we have as engineers talk to a lot of people. For those of us that have worked, I've worked in manufacturing as well, for a short period of time, we talk to the people who actually do the work, because we aren't using the equipment, we aren't on the manufacturing floor working. So for us to design it when we're sitting at a desk most of time, there's no benefit. Because we're actually doing work for other people.

So we're constantly talking to people. And we might be pissing employees, the other workers off. But it's really for their benefit for us to tell them, they're always slumping over or is too high. So they're reaching up and they're extending, which is bad for them and their health and their their body over time for doing that for 1015 30 years, right? So we go through and we do different studies, and y'all are like, Why are they sitting there just staring at me. And it's really to figure out what's the best way to help you. So a lot of what we do as engineers is really to help people I know we're not a hell out of y'all. And unfortunately, we ask You really weird questions. We say really weird stuff. But truly, we are trying to understand how to improve something that will help you overall. So when it comes to STEM Day, I'm really really excited. Because I am always online and looking at videos of different toys and games kids are playing with. And sometimes you don't even have to give kids anything elaborate to put together right, so we give them Legos and different things to put together. But sometimes if you give them nothing, or very little, and you just give them a picture of something and said make this. So one of the best games I love to play waves to teach engineering is called an egg drop. Any like Michelle that's that does not find sound good. So you literally give kids raw eggs. And you can give them something like tape, Styrofoam, peanuts, cotton balls, and just other materials and say, hey, you need to protect this egg from cracking from dropping 10 feet, 12 feet, whatever, and to the ground. And they have to figure out with the materials they have, how to do that. And you're like really intense come up with very, very creative ways of doing that. Exactly. And it's one of the most fun exercises or activities I used to do when I used to do a lot of outreach stuff through society, women engineers, and outside of Black Engineers.

I didn't like the circuit breadboard thing with a light light I lied and understand that breadboard, but giving kids just different materials. So they had to think outside of the box on how to how to how to get it to work or how to get the egg not to break really helps them understand teamwork. Start asking questions and inspecting the materials around them. Plus you're given them a time limit to get it done right. Some sometimes we will even do a game by beforehand. And so what happens is with the game, we'll hand them out Penny so like for every question they get right, they can get a penny. Well, for each penny they get they get to purchase different materials. Like you can give them the basic for for all the groups, but every time they win something, they can win a penny which means they can buy some more materials or resources to help them with their project. And you're like that sounds kind of crazy, right? But in actuality, when you look at the way projects are put together, you look at competitors in the marketplace. Some of them have better materials than others and sometimes those with better materials because they had a larger budget still perform as the ones with the smaller budget and less material meals. And you know what happens, the one that had the smaller budget and less materials, if they're selling their product or service about the same price, one is making more money. So sometimes getting more resources doesn't mean you're going to end up making more money. It just ends up, you spent it on other stuff you thought you need it to succeed. So it's really, really fun to play that with with young people in that aspect, so they understand the finances of being an employee and a manager and having a budget and understanding what you actually need to succeed when it comes to a project. So Natalie, what do you know about engineering it Chris leave? Yeah, he did. Okay. Hey, April. So what do I know Natalie, like Michelle, you did not ask me this.

So we can do anything environmental engineering, environmental scientists, who may deal with air and soil conservation, different things like that. We can talk about by all biologists, I don't know what they do. After they get a biology degree and don't go to college or and they don't teach. I don't know. I don't know what they do after that. No, there was another Chris. His name was Chris nella. I didn't say you laughed. There was another Chris that said, Hey, we see Natalie badly cracking up at me. So it's, it's really interesting. I remember my youngest nephew. A few years ago, he hated. He used to hate me because I was the only Auntie that were punishment. Punish him. He was the youngest, and he's so cute and adorable. And, and he used to get away with stuff, but I will punish him. Ow. No, all these dang friends of mine are, are freaking nerds. Yes. See, you got some of the best friends. Natalie, nothing breaks down. They come they see all your other friends. Like girl is broken. I got some duct tape. We show it with tools. We got a plan, right? Or we say you need to call somebody and get that fix. We don't we don't have time. So it really really. So my youngest nephew. So when he started really liking me, and I say this a few years ago because he used to hate me. He started crying when I would leave. And then the SpiderMan movie came out where Jamie Foxx was electrical engineer. And when that and he loved this movie. And so when that movie came out, I said, Well, you know what, Jamie Foxx doesn't a movie. He said, Huh? I said Jamie Foxx is electrical engineer and he works on a power grid.
Yes, we do share it with blueprints and drawings, because we try and understand.

We try to make sure we don't break ish. Okay. I'll make it worse. How about that? And I said, Well, I build a power grid that Jamie Foxx works on. And he goes, Oh, and so it then made sense for him because he could never, I could never explain to him what I did. And we'd be driving down the road. I said, You see those poles were over there with a powerline zone. He's like, Yeah, I said, I help make sure those get built and he will go Oh. But when he looked at a Spider Man movie, I had Jamie Foxx in there. And he could identify with Jamie Foxx is African American and African American little boy. And then, um, Maya and Jamie foster working on a power grid. And he really liked the movie, it kind of clicked for him but not but it made a little bit more sense to him and explain to him what I did. So sometimes movies help. But it's even better when you can really take them somewhere and show them what you do. So blueprints help a lot. Excuse me. So although kids can't necessarily read the blueprints or the drawings that I read, just how we read how to put together assemble, assemble toys for Christmas are a great way to really teach somebody about civil engineering, mechanical engineering, how we put different things together and assemble them so but it's always fun. So if you chemistry I got a great great tip.

If you're trying to teach somebody, a child about chemistry, and even how to work with fractions, Baking, baking and doing like pancakes and stuff are really really great ways to do stuff. Because they have to do like two thirds of a cup of flour. One A a cup and a half of water, right. So it helps them understand the measurements. And then you have wet ingredients and dry ingredients. So you have to use different measuring tools. So those are really, really great ways to learn fractions. And people thought I was crazy. But I use that because one of my nieces loves to cook. And so I will show us I will go get the, you need the measuring cup that is two thirds cup. And she's like, What is two thirds cup and so I showed her what the 1/3 Cup was to 2/3 cups were in the one cup. And of course I saw you the I hit f5 minute. So it was is really it's a great way to teach fractions. So that 1/3 Cup was to third cosy 1/3. But what also happens when you're doing cooking anything, you're doing a change of state. So that is always good, too. So you're boiling water. So it goes from water from liquid to gas. And then when you're baking something, you can't reverse it, right is completely gone like. So putting together ingredients and baking a cake or brownies is really really a great way to understand chemistry. So chemistry I did okay, chemistry, I like physics better. So like I can bake a cake. But my cookies turn out like bricks. So I don't do that. I've tried several times. And my family and I have agreed that I should not do cookies. And that works for me because I really am not big on cookies, or pies. But I do cakes and peach cobbler. And that is it. So take different things there are really really very minut things, very specific things that engineers do. And they're all around you in your home, from the carpet to the paint to your furniture, the electricity coming in. Even of course the internet. You know what, Chris?

I forgot she was on here. I was about to say something. I'm not gonna say this. And I do not need this bot to help me. But
is the season of faithfulness. So I'm thankful for that in button. All my broadcasts, that's what I'd be thankful for. But engineering or STEM is always around us. If you're if you like NASA, NASA has a great channel here to follow on Periscope. They show so many different people they do they show some of their technology they developed. And, um, so many engineers live, so And of course you can catch the replay. So definitely, definitely follow NASA here on Periscope. They have a really, really cool channel. I want to say GE has a good channel on here. I haven't watched I haven't seen them broadcast in a while. And also and you think that's funny? And also um Oh good. Is it seen that? Maybe it's not seeing that on here? I forget who who has it. It may be over on Instagram. But yeah, they will do live streams and Insta Stories and posts short videos. So you can still see technology coming from large companies now on social and it's really, really cool and be able sometimes to engage with their people. Sometimes a lot of times you're not they're not able to answer questions. They're doing more of a of a videotape and not in engaging live stream. I would love for them to do more engaged in live streams. So we can ask more questions, especially when it comes to SNAM. So any questions for me about engineering construction? Chris, you get to ask me no questions because you got jokes. That's okay. One day, the joke will be on you all right, no questions. I am Michele Heyward woman of color sim civil engineer, and tech, founder of the company positive hire everybody. Have a great night and Happy National STEM Day. Bye, everybody.

View Details

What is up Periscope? Yes. Okay, I'm coming on earlier than usual because well, I want to do other things in my nighttime. Hey misbehaving. So I want to talk about creating community and relationships, because oftentimes we just have them. But we don't talk about what they really are, how to create them, how to leverage them, how to maintain them. So I wanted to just talk about some things that I've learned, I've seen that have worked for me, hey, Squirrel Girl, what's going on? And thought we could truly, truly figure out and really have some dialogue about it. So first, let's talk about creating community. So in creating community, hey. And creating community is one reason why I liked Periscope so much is because of the community is because people show up, they do support you. And it can be complete strangers. And the dialogue and community that builds on Periscope doesn't necessarily just stem the the broadcast, or like I'm doing right now brings people in, but the people within that broadcast are communicating, right? They're exchanging dialogue, and they're laughing, having a good time. And I remember being in a broadcast a year or so ago, in the Bronx, and myself and another person watching, right, we were watching, we're having a dialogue, we just were having jokes in the person who was broadcast and got to add it to it. I was like, I don't appreciate y'all coming in here having jokes. It's a very serious broadcast. So you don't want people to have community within your broadcast, it's truly we may bring you together, we may initiate bringing building community, but the people are what make it last. Let me just say, after that person went off on myself and another viewer, and he was like, Ooh, marry me, I was like, how much money you have, we were doing a dot dialogue like that. And the broadcaster got very upset. So guess what happened? I unfollowed her and never went back into another one for broadcasts, ever, ever. Because if you understand community, you understand that people will not always pay attention to what you're talking about. within that community, people are building relationships among each other. And it may stem from you, right, you can be the hub, right? And then you have different spokes going around that hub, be the hub and shut the hell up. So or be the connector, a lot of times that hub is the connector, and you're connecting people to each other. And understanding that role doesn't mean you always have to be the center of attention. What it means is, understand that building community can come from you. But it does not focus on you 100% of the time. Let me just say that, okay, let's get that out of the way. But when it does come to community, it is absolutely a beautiful thing. And I say this, because people whom you just dialogue with every now and again can truly start sharing your content, sharing your message, having given feedback and suggestions to you, really being a support system, virtually, and in real life that you never anticipated. Because you show up. You add value, and you're connecting and building genuine relationships with people. And and it's truly truly in important to do that. All right. So if you are like so many others, you are like, You know what, I cannot go out and talk to these people. I have to stay in the house. And I prefer social media or it's wintertime and you're in the Northeast or the Midwest or the Northwest. It's just cold. And you're like I'm not going out. That is quiet. Okay. You can still build community and relationships being online. Hey, Natalie. So Natalie is my troll. She's my friendly neighborhood troll, which is why she's a moderator in my live streams. But what happens is we built community, I guess in 2015 I met Natalie online, probably 2015. And that's how we met and continued to build community. And what is so interesting is when you tell people what you do, and you're adding value, you're supporting them as well as others in the community. You are seen in a different way. So what what often happens on Periscope is people go, Hey, my, hey, my, um, they got an engineer. I know, everybody calls me the engineer. Because that's what I tell people I do. Hello on top. Yeah, it's been it's been a few years. It's coming up on four. I think no, I think we just hit three. We just hit three. And we met three years ago. We met in 2016. In San Francisco. Yes, it was Periscope Summit then. And now it's switched to Summit Live and does some other stuff. But yeah, we met in 2016 in person in San Francisco. But we initially met here. And so that's part of building community, sometimes even online, people want to meet you in person. So I have an online community. We're in I flown into the bay, some of oh, I'll just pick you up from the airport. I'll just pick you up from the airport. They picked me up from the airport took me to lunch, we looked at what planes doing or special whatever air maneuvers or whatever, we looked at that. And then they dropped me off my Airbnb. Yes, that is rebuilding relationship, genuine relationship. And this person and I we truly would be in our Facebook, DMS, we jump on zooms, brainstorming and helping each other build our businesses and just really having a good time. Right and cracking up on different things, whether it's here on Periscope or on Facebook, we just built a genuine relationship. So when I flew to tell them, Oh, no, I'll pick you up. I was like, Are you sure? Like yeah, no problem. So you can truly truly have that when it comes to building relationships, even on social. But what happens is now that relationship is like, two, three years old, like myself, and that young lady Natalie down there. And guess what, I spent over three hours yesterday with this person brainstorming and really pushing through some things I needed to work through in my business. And she did the same with her business. And I told her something that she hadn't thought of before. She hadn't thought of before. Um, as far as what her true strengths and gifts are. And I said, No, this is what you do. And she was like, can you explain it to me? And I explained it to her. She said, Oh my gosh, that's exactly what I do. She's like, how many people can do that? I said, not a lot of people. So what I told her her gift was she understands end to end processes. And yeah, I don't Yeah, like Michelle was the end to end process. You'll want to know, because what you got until you do sales, you do marketing, you do business development, you do design, right, this person can see what you need from beginning of your business or application to the end, like after, even after you've made the selling and have the customers the things you need to continue to do. Most people can't see that. And she understands and and processes. So now she's at a point where she has to figure out what does that mean for her next business. So I'm so excited because we spent over three hours on the phone to get to a point where she has to think about that. So that was so much fun. Then tonight, I'm at a happy hour local to my area is the tech Happy Hour people who either had tech startups working tech startups work in the tech field for a corporation or local company. We all meet up once a month. What was two guys standing there one was like, I want to sell this one business and another guy like you know, I should sell my other business. But how do we sell it? And who do we sell it to? Why isn't there a platform to sell this on? This is and so we're literally going back and forth the bills I'm just listing because I'm tired at this point. Literally going back and forth helping each other how to figure out how to sell one of their businesses. And one of them goes wow things I had thought about this time I wanted to do it but I didn't know how to do it. Right. So now he has a strategy or some tools to go out and actually do it and guess what that happens? That happens?

View Details

Welcome, welcome everybody. It is a another session of mentor Mondays. Today, as usual, I will be giving you and sharing with you different tips and tricks when it comes to your career. But I also have a special announcement. Yes. So let's first get started. And today we are talking about creating your career team, who is on that team? Who do you need, that really can help you push forward in your career? Now, you're probably thinking, oh my gosh, I don't know, I haven't thought about this. Right. So I am going to start where we generally start with is our community, our friends, our classmates, our family, right? Our social media community, people we know personally, we share great labs, we share information, even job opportunities. That is where you start when it comes to the what I call the five parts of your career community. And yes, it is truly truly important that you know what they are, and because they all play an important yet different part of you creating and helping you bill, a career you desire and deserve. So first starts your community, in your community, they oftentimes believing they, they can see you doing great things with your career. But they may not be able to answer your questions, provide guidance, provide information they need. And this often happens when it comes to people of color, not just women of color. Oftentimes, we may not be first generation college graduates, right. But we may be first generation to go into corporate America. So the barriers that we encounter, or this or certain things that we encounter with in corporate America, I parents haven't encountered, because they were educators, they work as civil servants. But you're seeing it differently and experience it differently in corporate America, but they are still part of your community, and they truly, truly support you in everything you do. The next one is really common and highly, highly recommended. I know I recommend it, I know I have been a mentor to many people, as well, as well as being a mentee. So your mentor is really you could have more than one I know I have more than one. And I've had them at different phases in my life. So whether it was before college, during college, and even in my professional career, I've always had a mentor someone I can go ask questions to someone who could guide me in the right direction, someone who kept an open dialogue with me, and guess what they always wanted to see me when, and most of the times I develop a personal relationship with this person. So don't think that your mentor has to be someone you you can't build a personal relationship with, they're only going to be there on the professional side. And that is not true. Your your mentors are someone you want to have within your life long term. And not short term. Some of them will be short term. Other times they will be there for the long run. So don't, don't give up. Don't be afraid. All right. Next, we have an ally. And you're like Michelle, what do you mean an ally. So in the workplace, you become friends with several people. Some of those people support you in different ways than others in your workplace. One of those ways is they give you inside information. They encourage you a different way. They really want you to succeed. But this ally Julie doesn't have power or a lot of power, or persuasiveness to get you to where you want to be. They make it inside scoop of something. They may understand some small things, or some very important information you're not privy to, but they generally aren't in closed door meetings, right? So let's say you want to get in a new department work or working on a new project. They may say, Hey, I know they're looking for somebody. I will see exactly what they're looking for who they're talking to you in your group in your department in your division, right, so they'll do some snooping for you some investigative work, but they can't directly impact or highly influence you getting that row, but they're out for your best interest. Next up, is really important. And they are harder sometimes to identify, they can be harder sometimes, because you generally don't pick your sponsor, your sponsor is the person who can advocate for you behind closed doors, they're invited to meetings, you're not invited to, they have the inside track, they know when it comes to the names on a list who is above the line and who's below the line. And what I mean by above the line, when it comes to promotion raises some of the best opportunities within a corporation, you want to be above the line. Those are the prime candidates for opportunity within our organization. Those below the line well, usually there is no line. If you're not above the line, you generally don't matter. You just kind of filter in Oh, we got a role here. This person is available. What uh, yeah, that's another body. Yeah, look at look at their salary, they won't eat that much of the budget, right? The below the on people really aren't paid that much attention to, but they may still make the list. So you want to stay above the line. And a sponsor is that person, they're taking your name into very important meetings, they are there, they're bringing you up when it comes to very important decisions within an organization. Lastly, is a counselor and you like Michelle, what do you mean a counselor, you mean a psychiatrist, a psychologist know what I mean by counselor, not necessarily those but you may need a life coach, a career coach someone to help you look into direction that you want to go and really push you into that direction, really help you accelerate, take some actions and steps you may not have thought about you hadn't developed a strategy to get there and you're just completely stuck or maybe not completely stuck. But you know, it's where you want to go. Oftentimes those people are only there for a short period of time could be 90 days could be a year, but they are there to push you along. And they are usually the ones that you invest time and money with to help you accelerate to where you want to go. Yes. So you do make that investment in yourself. Now you're like, Michelle, that sounds kind of interesting. And you may have more questions, and you definitely definitely should hit me up if you have questions. Because what is happening this Saturday is career strategy Saturday. Yes. On career strategy Saturday, myself and Aaron brada will be answering your questions when it comes to your career and crew and creating a career that you want. So if you have questions, if you want to push ahead in your career, simply comment below. And guess what? You will get the registration information for this live event. It is career strategy Saturday, November 10. At 2pm Eastern Time, 11am Pacific time. So Erin is out in LA. So to give her some time to kind of sleep in but not too much. She is going to join us. If you have questions, you can submit them early. If you can't join us live. Be sure to register so you can get the replay the what the replay. Yes, we would love to have you. I hope to see you on Saturday. And guess what? We will be permitted three ladies to get on. Live with us. Yes, you can join us be in the hot seat. We can answer your questions live. You can submit your questions beforehand, as well as submit them while you are there with us. So don't worry, we give you plenty of opportunity to engage in apps as some of your career questions that you haven't been able to get an answer for everybody. I'm Michele Heyward, founder of the tech company positive hire helping women of color STEM professionals find inclusive workplaces, in management, inclusive workplaces and management roles I should say in corporate America. I will see you next week for another mentor Monday. Bye everybody.

View Details

Welcome, welcome everybody to day two of the women of color in STEM virtual Summit. I'm Michele Heyward, the founder of positive hire. And tonight, we have Courtney Stoner, executive of a fortune 50 company, who's our guest tonight. But first, I want to have a few announcements. Um, we had a great time yesterday. We had Tamra Macklemore on y'all went bananas. And then we had an even better session, right after that at the roundtable, really empowering each other, supporting one another, giving strategies, tactics, tips and making connections, because oftentimes, we are the only one in our workplaces. And when we have questions, and we need support, we don't have anybody to turn to, which is why I added the round table to the summit. We did it by accident, last set last summit, because the speaker didn't show up. So I knew it was definitely needed. For every summit moving on, and I'm actually going to add it as a monthly activity to the community for women of color, where you can come on, we can hang out, we can ask questions, we can talk about Empire, but it's your opportunity really to get to know one another. Now, for those of you who actually went to the website, and share it with us, your career wins. I'm going to be sharing. I'm not going to say your name. But I am going to share every night starting tonight. Some career wins. So first one up, she received promotion to director from being a manager in one year. Yeah, yeah. Good to hear for you. I think to your follow up these ladies. She helped design an API to snooze alerts, doing maintenance, and release windows. Yay. She made it to Senior Software Engineer within three years. What's up? That's what I'm talking about. Yay. All right. She has a successful turnaround of failing projects, not just projects. Failing projects. That's sort of the best skill right there. I loving it. Um, how are you liking these wins? How are you liking these with, the more detail you share about your wins? Bid, I'm more than likely I'm going to share it. Now. This one I really love to negotiate a $7,000 Raise. What can you do with $7,000? It might go towards your student loans, your car note or your mortgage. So you had to get a little bit earlier. That's what I'm talking about. So everybody, if this is your first night, welcome, welcome. If this is your first summit, welcome, welcome. I am Michele Heyward. I'm actually going to now turn it over to Courtney Stoner. Courtney has a civil engineer civil engineering degree from Clemson University. She was actually one of my mentees many years ago, at Clemson and she was one of the best mentees. I like Courtney needed to think she said nope, and I still got paid. Those are my types of bets. So I'm gonna turn it over to her so she can share with you her experience. And be sure to add in your questions. And we're going to do q&a At the very end.
All right. Thanks, Michelle. Thanks for everyone for attending this event tonight. Sean, thank Michelle for opportunity to share my journey thus far and to congratulate you Michelle on the one for for doing with the positive hire. So I'm going to share my screen here. And I thought I'd start out by sharing a little bit about myself. And then taking you through a couple of highlights of my career with lessons learned. You know, I graduated from Clemson with a degree in civil engineering and I joined General Electric. Right after that I joined one of their leadership programs. And I stayed, I joined our initial program in the GE transportation business, and spent that time learning supply chain operations and how those operations impacted financials. Then I spent a couple years in audit and advisory and so at General Electric traveling or across various businesses, looking at their financial health as well as revenue recognition. And then I came back to the business unit in a specific functional role. Working in risk management for GE power and Atlanta, Georgia, stayed in that role for a couple of years, went to a commercial still with GE power and service operations, then I had the unique opportunity to join an acquisition. GE purchased Austin a couple of years ago, and I joined that integration team doing the due diligence work for for merging those two businesses together. And then most recently moved to Zurich, Switzerland and Howard piano for General Electric. So I thought, what I would do today is kind of walk you through those key roles that I had, and talk through the tests that I had to overcome on my road to for mobility, the relationships along the way, and some of the sacrifices that I had to make, or I had to decide if I wanted to make, so I'm calling is the road less traveled. And the way that I've laid this slide out, you know, visually, is for is to display that as I took each role, I was deliberate in ensuring that my scope of influence and my scope of responsibility was increasing over time. And when I say scope of influence, I'm talking about things like horizontal moving from vertical management to horizontal management, responsibility, in that I gained extra responsibilities and financial metrics, organizational size, or complexity of scope. So as I mentioned earlier, you know, I started building my foundation in a leadership program. And, you know, my first opportunity to move from an individual contributor to an actual people leader was when I was doing audit and advisory. And at this point in time, you know, I had communicated that I wanted to be a people leader. And I had had advocated for myself to be a people leader. And what I learned was that, you know, it was a very competitive field that year. But one of the things that differentiated me from others was my ability to help in training new team members. And the company felt that there was potential that I could execute through other people, because I displayed in my own work, a willingness to share information, to help my teammates, and to communicate the effects of my work to other other people in my group. So then, you know, as I'm moved into that leadership role for for the, for the company, but one of the first tests that I had was more of an internal test. And it was me trying to determine, you know, what type of leader I want it to be, and how I wanted my teams to walk away from the interactions with me. And during this time, is when I started to realize that, you know, my teams would function more effectively when I recognize them as individuals. And so I had made a conscious decision during this time that I would learn the individuals that worked with me, I would defend them. And I would instill a level of accountability with fairness. And I would help them reach their personal goals, in addition to us reaching the corporate goals. And then lastly, you know, always having fun. As I was preparing for this presentation, I kind of self reflected on, you know, that moment in time, and I realized that, that was probably smarter than I realized for me to do that. Because as I loved audit and advisory, and I transitioned to my next role, which was a little bit bigger, and it was a high, high, visible functional role in the business unit. I didn't necessarily have the business expertise, but I had the functional expertise. And I was being tested on if I could lead in an area that I had to learn. And this was probably the first time the first memory vivid memory that I have where I experience, I don't know you, I don't trust you, you know, I was an outsider being hired into a business unit. And I traveled a different path to be a lead in this functional area. And during this time, is when I realized the importance of having a personal strategy that was separate from the organizational strategy. And, you know, I think when I say personal strategy, I'm talking about things like you know, what's my personal learning plan? To understand the business to understand the key processes so that I can be effective. So I can overcome, you know, skepticism about my ability to leave this area. You know, seeking out one on one connection so that I can understand, you know, who are the key players, who are the cross functional allies that I need. And who also had a diverse journey to, you know, leadership, that I could, you know, discuss some of the challenges that I was going through with the, with the environment in the office. You know, in this moment, it, we're in moments like this, where you're late and transitioning to an area that you have to also gain expertise, you still have to meet, you know, the business objectives. And so this is where, you know, the skills that I've learned as a leader kind of kicked in, and I was able to demonstrate with operating rhythms and, you know, team building events that aren't my team could still execute per the expectation, and nothing was lost, if you will, while I was transitioning into into a new area to new expertise. With any leadership transition, you always deal with people moving in and out the door, especially if you're in a situation where someone who was there was hoping to get promoted up. And, you know, I just really took that as an opportunity to demonstrate, you know, my ability to career plan, and really put my mark, if you will, on the function, and use it to shape use that opportunity of open roles to shape how I wanted to recruit, hire and plan for diverse talent and doing things such as finding new sources to recruit. You know, I always had a diverse interview panel. And I was very much an advocate of having different thinkers, different functions, different backgrounds, in play, so that the team operated as a team of experts. Another thing that I did during this time that I found really useful was I use my sponsors that I had to learn the office politics, and to help me be ready for public settings or public report out so that I could start to demonstrate that I was learning and picking up things as well as I was adding value. You know, another thing that I learned during this time was, you know, as my expertise was recognized, you know, I started to get invited to meetings that necessarily were in my area of next or needed for my area, but they might have overlapped or there might have been some interdependency. And while I valued that, I mistook what that meant for me as a as a leader. And so I would attend these meetings, and I would listen to learn. But I failed to realize that this was an error, this was an evaluation, and the evaluation was on if I could contribute in a larger setting in a larger area. And so I had to deal with the fact that my ignorance at that time of the moment resulted in me being you know, tagged as reserved, quiet, and, you know, potentially lacking self confidence and larger settings where their leaders were, or have bigger scope than I did. And if I really could interact with other executive leaders in the business.

And so, you know, this is all this is, was a moment where I also realized that, you know, everyone was always watching. And it was really important that I understood how to change certain behaviors, when I was invited to meetings on strategy or cross functional relationships, such that I appeared, and I demonstrated that I could operate fluidly through any function at any functional meeting, and up and down the leadership chain. You know, I worked on this for several years. And I got to the point where I felt I kind of accomplished, you know, what was being asked to be in this functional role. And I had, you know, decided it was time for me to move on, and I want it to move on to something with broader scope, something with more responsibility. And I communicated that to, you know, leaders that I felt were sponsors to me, had an interest in my career. And around this time, I was also pretty vocal that I wanted to move up into the executive ranks, and I'd say, you know, this is where I started to learn about executive toolkits and being evaluated on my diversity of skills, cross functionally versus my, my skill sets functionally. And, you know, I received another test you You know, I was challenged on if I could use my expertise and grow commercially, and help the business receive top line growth, then that kind of led to my next role where I was being tasked, if you will, when you're coming up with new commercial offerings so that we could achieve more growth, find more customers, and he and a gas turbine service operations. And as I look back on this opportunity, and this, this role in the progression up into the right, it really was a question of how diverse was on AI? How fluidly could I move to another function, and was I deep to have the depth to use my skill set and grow broadly and solve customer facing problems? You know, this is actually the first time I thought I could actually fail, you know, I had yet to sit in front of a customer, I had yet to close a deal. But I also thought the feedback was somewhat valid. And I did have a desire to be diverse. And I also had a desire to have, you know, staying power and be able to have opportunities inside my function outside my function. And so I, I took this opportunity, and I said, you know, let's, let's see what's possible. And a wonderful thing happened to be here, where I just so happened to help a sales leader, close a deal, he needed someone to review the terms and conditions of the deal. And when I moved into this commercial, where I told him, I said, you know, I'm in this role, the company's asking me to help them come up with new offerings so that we can grow. I don't have any customer on my speed dial, I don't have any, I'm not interacting with any of the sales, operational planning. And I say, can you introduce me to your network? And can you help me with the commercial language? And then can you get me in front of a customer? And this turned into just a wonderful partnership, where, you know, we did some customer roadshows, we learned what their problem statement was, we presented that to engineering with data, we came up with an offering, and we generated, you know, millions of dollars of sales. Because we were able to solve a market need with with, with the product. And I actually gained more confidence as time went on, because I realized that even though this role was outside of my comfort zone, I was collecting information along the way that helped me be successful in an area that I had some level of expertise. I learned a lot about plays in this role, I learned a lot about presence. I learned a lot about managing other Ed peers, and learning how to communicate that my problem was their problem. And collectively, you know, how can we solve it also, truly learn the value of relationships and building relationships, not only with inside my function, but also across functions, to solve complex and cross functional problems. So we were, you know, enjoying the ride, in generating a lot of business because of this. And as great as I felt during this time, you know, I still had to deal with that self self confidence problem. Again, I continue to get feedback that I appeared reserved, I appeared quiet, and I wasn't engaging in the meetings that they felt that I should be engaging in. And, you know, I had to really spend some time and kind of dig deep into that. And what I learned was, you know, my approach to q&a was to, you know, listen to the question and, you know, respond in a manner that was appropriate. And I learned that my hesitation in answering questions was perceived as, you know, someone that didn't know what was going on, or, you know, a lack of a lack lack of confidence in the answer that they were going to provide. And I experienced a little bit of frustration as well, you know, during this period, but I also learned the value of pregame prep. And I changed the way I prepared for presentations. I started to look at who was attending, what role they played in organization, what was their level of authority? And what questions would they be asking based on their function and their level of authority? And my preparation turned into anticipation. You know, if I present this perspective, you know, how is I'm the engineering leader going to respond, or how is the global supply chain, we're going to respond. And that was probably the most powerful lesson I've learned in that role, because that's something that Trent tries to transfer with me everywhere the role after that. You know, so as I continue to work on number one, my commercial expertise, and then number two, my presence as an executive and my interactions, in meetings with senior executives, and sometimes even the CEO of the company, I started to feel pretty good. And I started to feel that I was solving the, the perceived deficiency I had, and being a diverse leader who could lead at the executive level. And so I started to go down the path of, you know, getting this saint you honored, you know, you know, I was told, if you saw, if I saw for this, then I would be positioned for brought more opportunities and position for larger roles. And, you know, at this part of my career is when I learned who the real decision makers were, when it came to, you know, executive level promotions, I learned about, you know, having supporters and having true sponsors. And I learned about who's really in the room when decisions are being made for executive level positions, and who's who, who's advocating for you. And so this was kind of like a, obviously a turning point for me personally, because, you know, I was trying to deal with the fact that I was putting in work to evolve as a person, but I still was challenged with not knowing about all of the office politics. But you know, what, thankfully, I had, you know, resources and, you know, leaders in the business that, you know, were supportive of me, and they were helping me navigate a pretty complex hiring process, if you will. And so one of the, the best advice I can give people is, you know, truly understand the office politics, but also truly understand the promotion process. And, you know, if your manager is advocating for you do they truly have the authority to promote you to the next band, or next level of leadership, if that's what your aspirations are, you know, this was my, actually, the year that I did get, when I had this commercial was a year I did get promoted into executive leadership. And, you know, GE had decided, as I said, in my bio, to acquire another company. And so, another role popped up, it was to do m&a For this deal, it was one of the largest industrial acquisitions to date. And you as I was turning along in the commercial role, you know, I was asked to, you know, take this m&a role. And, you know, at first I was not really interested in taking the role, because in my mind, I had the thought process of, I need to address my commercial skill set. And I was so focused on that, that I didn't stop and think on if I truly wanted to be a long term commercial leader, or if I really just needed to take this opportunity to build an expertise and move back to my first love, which was operations.
And so as I kind of went through that thought process, I realized that, you know, my first love really was operations. And while I do appreciate, and I gained a lot of insight and Intel, from the commercial role, like I really wanted to get back to where my heart was, and where I operated seamlessly, which was operations. So I moved into this, this role, it was a due diligence acquisition role to evaluate services business of Austin, because General Electric was interested in purchasing Austin. And, you know, this role was ambiguous. The scope was very much increased, and it covered every function in the business. And, you know, the test at this point in time was, could I truly handle scale? You know, one of the reasons why I was hesitant with taking the role was because it kind of mirrored the regional functional risk role that I had and stuff, it was global. But then I had to kind of think through long term and realize in the, you know, everything's building on the prior role. And so, you know, in this particular situation, I was being asked, you know, can you use your experience and can you scale what you know, and essentially merge two businesses together, merged? Two organizations together while meeting financial obligations. And at this point, in my career, I was completely removed from execution. I was still in Excel, but I wasn't really in Excel. And what I learned in this career job was the power of questioning. And being able to use questions to understand the teams on track, to understand that the team has depth to arrive at meaningful meeting outcomes, and then to make sure that we're going to hit our deadlines. No, this is also where I learned about dealing with age, and dealing with questions on why I was where I was at the age and I was managing people who are leading people who, you know, potentially how yours on me, and learning how to do that materially. You know, this is also where I learned about valuing the mission of the company, and really being able to connect to it so that you could empower the teams and motivate the teams. And the last thing I learned here that, you know, really helped me out was just learning how to decide not learning how to decipher between bad decisions, good decisions, and the right decision. And sifting through complex information to figure out, you know, what's right for right now, for the corporation. You know, this chart also shows that as I moved up into the right, you know, I was able to go from regional to go roles. And then, you know, my last role, as I mentioned, you know, with international one leading out of Zurich, you know, being responsible for a business unit financials. And, you know, at this point in my career, I really evaluated risk differently, you know, what I thought about international moves and leading business units are really evaluated from the perspective of personal time, and, you know, making sure that I was making smart decisions that helped my career, but also that I felt were meaningful based on the time I was willing to invest in the initiatives. And during this time, you know, some some lessons that I learned or, you know, connected with my EB peers, and learning how to foster those relationships, learning about dealing with conflict, in dealing with often office politics, when you're managing, you know, large budgets, I also had to deal with, you know, being quite frankly, the only female and, you know, navigating an environment where there really is just all men in here, they're alone. And dealing with that, and using that to my advantage. And so, you know, I invested early on, you know, a lot of time performance and expertise. But one of the things that I tried to do along the way was take each test, as it came, learned from it and use that to build upon those experiences, ultimately, to to navigate bands and to navigate broader roles. So I thought what I do after this is kind of walk you through a couple of reflections that I've had, and then keep moving through resources. I listed a couple here that were reporting to me as that self reflected, but if I could just pick a couple that truly stand out to me, is really sacrifice, you know, understanding what your level is, and when to say no, I always find that when people are invested in the job that they have, or they feel like they're working on meaningful things, a sacrifice makes sense. So just understanding what that boundary is for you. I think it's really important to stay relevant and to reinvent yourself. I think, media, we work for companies that we want to see them reinvent. And I think it's important for the talent to do that as well. I think it's really important to be balance. I could always tell, you know, when I was enjoying work when I had invested time, both in social and fitness activities. And I also think it's important to understand office politics, which is completely different than office gossip. But I think it can, it can really aid in your navigation if you listen and observe to what's going on around you. And then lastly, for those of you who are already leading teams, just remember to hire Well, you know, it really matters to have a strong team around you and As you you know, navigate your career journey. I'm also want to list a few resources that have been helpful to me throughout my journey. On the left hand side, I have books and on the right hand side, I have professional services. I've read a lot of books, but the ones that I keep going back to are listed on the right, you know, the first one here, the One Minute Manager, you know, this book really helped me deal with people who dump on you, or working with people who dump on you, they stopped you, they dump your problem, and they delegate the solution to you. And so I really use this book to kind of remind myself on you know, leading is empowering other people to execute in their area. And while I do believe in crowdsourcing ideas and workouts, you know, they're also the everyone has a role to play in this, this book really helped me understand the role that I played versus the role of those that were in execution. I do think it's easy for engineers who are finance, in the lemonade stand book is a great book for anyone that's trying to whip up on their financial skills, it just really breaks down the balance sheet. And the income statement. Well, in hopes you can enjoy it too, that the first time I had conflict with a manager, I was trying to figure out why we weren't getting along, I read this book, because this was got to the world of work. And it just really breaks down how to navigate challenging relationships, and challenging organizations and how to fine tune your communication. So people always listen, I just got to the bottom here, activate the brain. As I moved up in the organization, I asked more questions and did less work. And activate your brain is a great book on how to stay fresh mentally, when you still have hours to go. And so I really recommend that. And then on the right, I have professional services, you know, I am a product of all the people who support me in the past. I definitely like if she specific groups, whether it's, you know, engineering, affiliation, energy affiliations, or journalism, or the tech group affiliations that are out there. I do like structure mentoring and coaching for business leaders. I think if you see someone who has a profile that you like, or they have a skill set that you're trying to master, I think those are great ways to meet people potentially meet sponsors, as well as growing your skill sets. I'm also a big advocate for shadowing, I think sometimes when we're thrust into a new opportunity, especially if it's bigger in scope, we may not know the mechanics, if you will, those meetings. And so I do think shadowing can be helpful so that you can get your bearings before it's time for you to actively engage. And then lastly, you know, I, this year, I've decided to take apart professional coaching. And I'm using a wonderful expert in gala Jackson. And I just want to highlight that because sometimes in my experience, corporate coaching may be different than personal coaching. And I was really, you know, kind of hungry to do something that tapped into my personal values.
And so with that, you know, thanks for the time. It just a quick snapshot into my career and some lessons that I learned. And I think we're ready for q&a now. Michelle?
Okay, great. So we have four questions so far. So if you have any more, be sure to go to q&a. And I have like eight of my own. Couple of you already answered. But we'll go ahead and get started. The first question and just so you know, I'm not saying names and obviously zoom knows that so many of you are coming in with the name in a in a so welcome all of you that are in a in a in those transitions of leadership roles. Did you have a different sponsor for each stage? And if so, how did you initiate or determine who that would be?
Yes, I did have different sponsors for each stage, because at each stage, my sponsor had a different level of authority. And so when I was aiming to move from individual contributor to first time people leader, my manager who became my sponsor had that authority. But when it was time for me to leave, you know the audit advisory and go into a business unit If I had a different sponsor, who was a senior executive because he had the ability to place, and he had the ability to attend multiple sessions for career planning, and he could get my name out there and open doors for me to have the conversation. And so when I moved from the functional risk role to the commercial role, I actually had, that didn't have clarity on who my sponsor was more, because remember, I said, I wanted that role to be my executive role. And so that's where I learned. Maybe I have advocates for the work. But I don't know if I have sponsors for executive. And so my current my manager at the time, had the authority to sponsor me to executive because he was in the, the inner crowd where that conversation took place. And he could ask for executives, and I mean, a little bit of its timing and luck, but as I deliver it for him, you know, he was able to deliver for me.
Great. The next question is, Hi, Courtney, thanks so much for this. What are thought? What are thoughts on how to maintain the mental toughness of navigating the corporate space? As a person of color? That's the first question. The second question to this is what ways did you find to replenish to stay mentally sharp? Are the intangible hoops to navigate to navigate? And, or hurdle?
Yeah. You know, I remember going into meetings and watching people present, and watching them talk about their career journey. And I was curious as to how they got there. And then I was brave enough to go try. And I definitely got tired, because I felt like the company was trying to change me. And because there was a lot of diverse people, I didn't have a lot of examples of what a good response that feedback I was getting, looked like. So a lot of my mental stress was my psyche. On, you know, am I doing? Is this the Is this what it looks like? And how is it supposed to look like? And I think I ended up, you know, tapping into some of the affinity work that GE had, you know, they had affinity groups where they would foster an environment for people of color tattoos and for conversations. And I would ask for examples of how to navigate situations and environments where it appeared, I was doing what everybody else was doing. So if, you know, if my response looks like the room, then why does my feedback cool, so personal? And that, that was in again, my psyche? You know, no one was telling me that that was my psyche, but being able to offload that kind of freed me up mentally to kind of focus on the task at hand, which was how do I keep navigating? You know, the, the office environment office politics? You know, I, I will say that I did get tired. And I have been tired on multiple occasions. And I definitely, you know, thought thought about over those roles, like maybe I should go someplace else. But then I always came back to, you know, what, why couldn't it be me? Right? You know, why? Why couldn't I do it? If I'm already executing at that level? I will say that when I kept when I managed my calendar appropriately, I was able to manage the mental fatigue of it. But when I let loose on boundaries, was when I became more exhausted. And I mean, my Work calendar, you know, I went through a period of time where I was available to anybody, even on Saturday, and being too loose on boundaries made me want to give up. Because I felt like I was giving too much to the company when no one really asked me to be available for it. On a Saturday, I was having a call and I picked up. And so once I became more confident in setting boundaries and sticking to them, and live in them and tell people hey, look, I can't do that I'm out of the office. That's when I became a bit more at ease with my time and I had the mental clarity to kind of navigate things throughout the week because I was recharging if do on the weekend or on holidays and things like that. And the last thing I'll say is, I really think it's important to find someone that you trust that you can just really meant to, not necessarily on people, the environment, but sometimes you're gonna have a bad day, sometimes you might not get the job. And I do think networks outside the company are truly helpful, because it helped me remember that it's just a bad day, or it's just that one event and remind you that there is more, whether it's at a company or whether it's, you know, another project that have come up, but just really giving you that perspective on a well balanced living.
Thank you. Can you provide an example of some of your meaningful questions expecially to decipher if a team will make the deadline?
I think a great question is Can I see your project plan? Because if you don't have a project plan, I just don't understand how you know what the finish line is? And I think having? So that's number one. Question number two is, you could have projects that are cross functional, you could have projects that are vertical. But if you have a cross functional project, and the only person presenting is the person your function, I think a great question is where are the other key players that are responsible for delivering this project? And when can I get an update from them? I think the third great question is when you ask, Are we on track to also ask, can I see how you spent your budget? And can you reconcile that with me so that I know we have enough money to complete the project? And you'd be surprised? I mean, it's I'm not saying that people can't do that. But I think people get so attached to get to the finish line that they might forget some of the fundamentals of project management. I think another great question to ask is for, especially for something that you have to implement globally, is one of the pilot. And who's the pilot audience? Who are the regional reps? Did their bosses agree that their regional reps, when are we all meeting?
Okay, great. Yeah, people do forget, and I love milestones and projects, like you're not hitting, but your budgets way, way out of control,
or you're not spending so how are you going to finish?
I've had that contract anywhere to make an engineering design. Okay, I'm at leadership levels, delegation can be an interesting concept. Can you walk us through your relationship with delegating extra leadership responsibilities for?
So I think there's two pass with delegation. I think, in my experience, I had people hungry for it, because they also have personal aspirations to grow their career. So they were wanting to demonstrate that they could do portions of my role. And so they wouldn't, they would ask for the delegation. And then there's a delegation that comes with, you know, we have a task coming up, and I need to make sure that we have all hands on deck. So we get to the finish line. And one of the one thing that I really like to do is just really asked everybody, do we all know what the problem is? And what do we what do we all take away from the meeting? Because delegation without a common understanding is can potentially be fruitless? And so I'm an advocate of those post mortems. And then I would say, Okay, what's the problem that we need to solve? And then what's the potential solution? And then from there, in my experience, delegation makes sense. And it's not personal. Because if that's your functional area, or if that's your responsible area, then naturally that work goes to you. I think I've had more personality problems when I needed to delegate something that didn't fit nicely, I needed someone to do something extra. And, you know, in those scenarios, I would just try to say, or try to share, hey, look, this is the business need, and this is what we need to accomplish. And you have the best skill set to do that, you know, I need you to take this on. And you know, sometimes responses will be well, some people will just say yes, but sometimes you may get responses to say hey, look already, I'm already Lee and five high intense areas. If I take this one more, I'm going to fail. And that's where I have to go in and just talk through okay, what are you working on? And let's reprioritize because you know, this particular thing may be on the priority list, and I have found and I've done it that way, but in the beginning of being a people leader, I wasn't that mature, but what I just described, I found to mostly result in the outcome that you want. When I was earlier in my career, I would just kind of give, give it out. And that that didn't work well, at all. People felt like objects. And so I think my prior example, make people feel like they're a part of the team and part of the problem. And then when the work was done, I let the team pitch their work. So they have the credit.
Ready, ready, thank you made that switch from explaining to people you know, treating people on your team, like an object to saying, Hey, you have too much on your plate, let's sit down and figure out how to work this out. Was that through understanding how to communicate? Was that understanding personalities? Like where did you pick up that skill set to know how to how to delegate better?
I probably picked that up. In the functional risk management role, we said, do these evaluations on managers, and it would be a word report, they would tell you if you were Sunny, partly cloudy, cloudy, or thunderstorms. And I got a thunderstorm report. And the I was floored. And the team shared with me that they felt I was too transactional. And they didn't understand why they were doing things. And I didn't know them. And I wasn't invested, they felt that I wasn't invested because I didn't spend time talking through problems, solutions and how they're adding value. And I continued to get that thunderstorm report for most of that year. And then I was able to kind of really work at that communication. But I did a lot of role playing as well with my manager on how to overcome that.
Okay, thank you. How hard was it transitioning from engineering to executive leadership? are the goals rewards, more or less tangible?
Ask me that again.
How hard was it transitioning from engineering to executive leadership? Are their goals slash rewards, more or less tangible?
Well, yes, and no. You know, there, I was saying, number one, that transition was challenging because you have to execute throughout our people. And it the executive level, you're, you're not necessarily over small projects, you're over functions. And that means you're over processes. And so therefore, it was really challenging for me to to communicate effectively across my EB peers and what we needed to do so that my function could be successful. But the rewards I thought were greater because it wasn't just my work that was being recognized. It was like organizing my organization, and seeing people complete these projects or seeing people hit their financial numbers and being rewarded for that, you know, seeing people who work for me get promoted and hit some of their personal goals. You know, I found it to be more rewarding. I think what I wasn't prepared for was the amount of time that I needed to spend on relationship building and overcoming that. Like my peers
if you were giving advice to high school girls who are just entering college, what skills or activities would you advise them to engage in so they would begin so that they can begin their leadership career?
So freshmen in college? Yes. Um, I think they should join Toastmasters. You know, I think we ended up effective communicator, whether you decide to be an executive or not, is a fantastic skill.
You know, I, I enjoyed sports. And I played sports for several years in college, not for college, but intramural, but I think, you know, competitive scores, whether it's chess or basketball or some activity is helpful, because workplace is competitive. Being able to learn how to win and build self confidence in activities, I think helps self confidence. And the last thing I would suggest them to do is have fun.
Yeah, like the fun part. Yeah. And I love Toastmasters. How do you think race influence your leadership experience?
I mean, I've definitely had to play with several styles, you know, I am, I'm well aware of, you know, the angry black woman stigma. And then I'm well aware of being quiet and being reserved. And I used to have this saying all the time, or I would say you want to be a diva or doormat, you know, it's like, there's no one between here. And so I definitely struggled with that. And then I struggled with, you know, being too nice. So I think what I decided to do was not necessarily look at black women, or black men, and how they led, I just look for people who I thought were effective. And, you know, looked how people responded to them in meetings and looked how their information was, you know, being absorbed, looked at how they were promoted, and tried to see what attributes that they have that were being, what actions that they had to make them successful. And then did I have those attributes? And I think once I kind of settled on that, it helped me get out of my own psyche of, you know, if I do this behavior trade, am I going to be considered an angry black woman or reserve timid woman? I just said, Okay, this attribute is what's desirable. Let me work on having that.
Okay. How have you navigated situations where leaders challenge your management style, though, you are accomplishing the goals.
I mean, this has happened to me a lot. And it's going to happen again. And one of the unwritten rules of office politics that I was not prepared for was the challenge, and being challenged by my peers, especially in big meetings in front of the CEO, so they could exert power. And I just come back to being prepared. I mean, it. Maybe it might happen more, because I'm a female, I don't know. But I do know that being prepared, transcends genders, and being able to punch back with data, with sound strategy, being able to articulate why you're doing what you're doing, and showing the wins and then coming back and showing that you have hypothesis and you deliver. Nobody sees gender when you when you do that.
I love that punch bag with data. I don't know why. But that's, that's my favorite quote, for tonight. Okay. Um, hi, Courtney, great to see you. How do you maximize the value of informal leadership roles in an effort to secure a formal leadership role? I'm tied up here. And I have no formal leadership experience. But I have a plethora of in formal experience internally and externally.
That is frustrated. Does the are the people who are giving you this feedback able to hire you into a formal role? If not, maybe that's a path you can go down is that, you know, if your vows if your skill sets are valued enough to give you these informal and I'm hoping meaningful projects, then what's the path to a formal role? And you know, just letting to know, well, maybe, maybe I can do maybe I need to stop doing some of these informal things. I'm available to do formal roles. I think it's completely okay to have transparent conversations, challenging feedback like that in a respectful way. You know, so for example, thanks for the feedback. I heard so and so maybe moving out of their role. I'd love to be positioned for that. Since I'm lacking formal experience, will you help me do that? And just kind of put put, now there's a put people on the spot that give me feedback, but give them homework, if they're giving you feedback to help you get what you need, and the company can potentially benefit as well. Oh, that helps. I've been there. And it is extremely frustrating. So the more I think you can force formal opportunities that you can compete for putting the individuals to work to help you get there because it sounds like you're getting feedback, which means in my opinion, they value you So how can they help you get to that formal opportunity?
Yeah, buddy put in a circular path, right? Okay, in the beginning of your leadership path, would you consider yourself more reserved or introverted?
I'm probably a little bit of both. I prefer small meet small team meetings, I prefer small groups. I like small functional teams. And you know, I work in a company that large cross functional highly matrix. So meetings would be 4050 people, and there's a lot of energy in a room. And so I had to get used to that. And so I wasn't necessarily reserved, because I was introverted. I was reserved, because I was trying to get the lay of the land. And I failed to realize how I could use those meetings to make connections. I was managing my introvert nature by learning how to channel my energy in these high energy sessions. And just staying focused and not getting a drain suck because there's like 50 people in the room. At some point, everyone would be talking at the same time. And how do I stay on on top of my game and silly environment that I kind of, I don't mind but don't necessarily love.
Gotcha. Code Switching for executives of color is an is an open secret. How has this affected you as you navigate your career called seeking code switching?
What does that mean?
So you know how you hang out with your family and friends. Hey, y'all, how you doing? Hello, good morning. How are you today? Yes, this is Courtney Stoner.
Oh, I see. Look.
I think number one, though, this allows us to answer this number one, you know, is it the same personality, I think I think is like your personality in various settings. And so whether I'm at home, or I'm at work, it's the same personality, it's the same humor, it's the same interaction. But the topics could be different. But I will say, as I increased my level of influence, and moved up the chain, my personal and professional did mix. And so for example, when I went to Tesco, Switzerland, I had to talk to my boss about where I was gonna get my hair done. And he was just like, you know, we want you to move to Switzerland, like why I can't move there, there's no one that can do my hair. And then, you know, go go work. And then he, he's bald. And so he's like, I don't have hair. And so I had to walk him through my Saturday process of getting ready for Monday. So I look like I, you know, have some sense. And I'm more put together, and trying to figure out what that looked like for me if I moved to Switzerland, and how I was going to manage that. And so I'd have another example of where personal merged with professional when I started traveling with these other EB peers, mostly male on road trips, and they want to go out and party, then what am I gonna do? Am I going to stay home? Or am I gonna go out, you know, to the club with them if we're chatting over the weekend. And so, so one weekend, we went to a hip hop club, and I was like, you know, I'm tired of going to country western bars, you know, we're gonna go to a club club since you guys you know, say you love rap. And so I definitely opened myself up a little bit in terms of interjecting my personality and my, my personal interest into my work life, when my work life overlap with my personal time, like my weekends, or, you know, moves and things like that. I don't I know, there's a lot of talk about this and being being real or being or not, I just think it's about do you know, where you are, you know, if you're at work, is that really a work? Conversation? Is that really a work inappropriate term or appropriate demeanor at work? And I think once you if you're, if you know, it's appropriate, and you're interacting in an appropriate manner, I feel like that's what Metro leaders do.
All right. Now I have my own set of questions, so I can't type them in. So y'all can y'all can continue to add questions. But these questions actually came from when I posted that you were coming to talk. So you had four women on that post who had these questions. I would ask a female executive what she feels her role is in regarding to helping other women advance. I found that we garlis of industry, many women, women have told me that they feel they don't get as much help from senior level women. This could be because there are a few. So how have you helped other women rise or advance in their careers?
Yeah, that's a good question. You know, one of the, one of the things that I really like to do is have a diverse slate for interviewing. And so if, you know, my process was, you know, I would always try to ask, you know, who was performing well, in the company, who was up for promotion, who was receiving positive feedback, and they were ready for more. And if I had an open opportunity, you know, I would ask them to, to apply, like, you know, consider joining my team. You know, this is an area that you're interested in, and you'll, let's, let's, let's say, this is a great fit for you. I've also had opportunity had situations where some people weren't performing well, they were in the wrong role, maybe working in a team that didn't gel, and I couldn't necessarily hire them, but I tried to help them network out of that situation, into an area that, you know, they could thrive in. One of the moments of self reflection I do have is, I did wonder if I was doing enough, in terms of, not necessarily hard people will play some people, you know, once you have a certain level of authority over your order, you know, you can you can place people. And so I definitely did go through a period of where I was trying to figure out, you know, was I really doing enough to help people and wasn't really doing enough to place people? And, you know, I don't I don't know, I don't know if I did, but I try, you know, I tried to keep tabs on the talent, I tried to push them to apply for roles and my door. I tried to promote them in and you know, help promote them out. And, yeah, I'm still working on it. But you know, those are things I tried to do.
Great. Thank you. Next question, What can White women do or stop doing to help make space for women of color?
You know, I just really think there's room for all of us.
I think that we can't be so competitive that you don't want your sister friend to not succeed. And we can't look at someone else and think their competition, because the reality is, there's less jobs at the top, and everyone's competition, and everyone wants your seat. And so, you know, if you're in an environment and you don't feel like you have the female komak camaraderie that you deserve, then my my best advice is to do that in your own interactions. You know, if you're not seeing the type of support that other people should be given you, just make sure you're given that to the other ladies that are on the same journey as you trying to grow their career. And maybe by seeing, you know, some positivity, you know, some of the the hurt that you're seeing from these other women, they'll it'll make them self reflect, and they'll realize they're not doing enough.
Currently has shown a lot of vertical promotions during her career, how does she feel about horizontal career moves?
I think they're great, especially if you're tired. And so if you're someone and you're moving, you need it, you don't know if you're ready to move up again. Or you don't know if you're happy where you are, but you see a job to the right or to the love, and you think it'd be great for you to pick up that skill set or it looks fun, or you're interested. I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think that you know, if you're gaining skills, it's, you know, sounds fantastic. You know, my one piece of advice is, you know, as you stay on that level, make sure you continue to differentiate yourself. Because when you're ready, if you decide you're ready to make a move up, you want to show the growth and that you're you grew even though you say to the same level.
You mentioned that you have an executive coach, which answer that question. But did you go through an executive training program while you were advancing in your career? Did you spend a week? Or was it a external program that you were enrolled in, where you were coached and provided communication skills, executive presence, how to read a profit and loss statement, those things that really helped you advance in your career
did receive some corporate training I received on the job training, if you will, on how to do the financial analysis. But I, you know, earlier several years ago, you know, the company was pretty well budgeted for training. And so I did have the opportunity to go to training on communication. I would do training on leading large teams, and I did some webinar training on change management. But things like Toastmasters, you know, I paid for a lot of the mentoring that I received, it was, you know, people giving me their time. But I will say that training is also if your company offers training, it's also another avenue of office politics. So my one advice there is, you know, what's the process to get into a training class? And do you know what it is? And how can you get your name into that? Because that also can be a political process in a corporation?
I won't disagree with you on that at all, even if it's just for the budget, to get if you find your own class. Um, how did you get comfortable speaking to the CEO, or in meetings with the CEO?
Yeah, I still get nervous. Because I don't know like, where he's coming from, or what meeting he just had. And if I'm getting a good deal, if it's a good day, it's tough day. But I will say that I believe in the pregame prep. And you know, when I talked about earlier that the anticipation I was more afraid I couldn't answer questions. And I just really believe in that, you know, get it in a room for 30 minutes and just let people kind of tear apart your material to make sure that you can answer their questions. Because if you can answer the question of your peers, then you got the CEO because he really, he's not at your level, he doesn't have the time to get into your details. So if you can handle the challenges from your, from your manager, even your peer group, people on staff, then you're completely ready for the CEO.
Okay, the next question is a whole narrative. So just go with the flow. It it starts off clears through and begins to type. Okay, I'm going to bite the bullet. The number of hours worked at leadership levels can be daunting, it can sometimes leave little room for developing romantic possibilities. This flavor, Courtney, I'm not absolutely not asking you about your romantic history. Can you shed light on your thoughts on navigating the dating world at this level? What does the landscape look like? tiptoes back into the shadows in heights?
That question needs to be a social media man.
I mean, you know, there are some years where I worked a lot. And I put in a lot of time. And, you know, I give my girlfriend's a lot of credit, because they were like, you gotta, you gotta put some boundaries down, this isn't working. And then when I put those boundaries down, nothing fell apart. When they you know, you kind of chug along. And then there were a couple of years and there were Yeah, it was working a lot. And friends came in and says, This is ridiculous. You got to put some boundaries down. So that's one thing number two, you're right. It is a lot of hours. And it is a lot of time. And I don't think it's impossible. But I do think the quality of your staff and how well you manage your calendar are two things that can make or break you that make or break and get to dinner that night, make or break if you get to the gym the next morning. So if you know if you haven't invested well and you haven't had the opportunity, invest well in a team or be able to really manage your calendar aggressively, then it'd be a shallow on time on the dating case, or men and all that other stuff. What I will tell you is that it is true that there is a perception that working It results in being single. But in my opinion, the man I want to attract respects what I've done and values what I've accomplished, and they are not concerned about me having talent for them. Because if he just talks to me, I'm gonna talk to him, they become the priority, and then you manage your calendar appropriately.
Okay, it makes it tell him, Courtney, let them know. Okay. And Courtney, thank you for your honesty and sharing your story. Michelle, thank you for organizing the event. Sorry. Okay, so it says, was your executive coaching something you found and paid for on your own?
So I chose to pay for it on my own. But I will say that I do know of companies being willing to reimburse if you find a coach in an area that they agree is an opportunity for you to grow, and they see value in it as well. And so I've had people ask me, as a leader, you know, you pay for this coaching is really going to help me in this area, and I've done it. So I would consider pursuing that if you're interested in having your own coach.
Okay. One more question. How can we rise to the level of sponsorship? Whose responsibility is that, in order for us to have sponsors?
You know, I did seek out sponsors. And I've decided to seek out sponsors, when the company told me that I was good. So when they had communicated that they were pleased with the output of the work, and that they were pleased with my approach to things. Then I started to have the discussion around getting sponsored for for bigger roles. And I also believe I had sponsors and I didn't know about, you know, hallway sponsors or advocating for me. But I decided to make the topic a conversation topic. After I was told that and I was concerned about getting an equitable return on the value that I was bringing.
One more question about executive coaching. Do you have executive coaching companies you recommend?
I do. I'm using gala Johnson right now. I'm really pleased with the process. She's on LinkedIn. And she offers a suite of offerings. And she was referred to me recommended to me by a friend and yeah, it's gone. Well.
Okay, somebody says, Oh, gay, like used her. She is awesome. A couple other comments. I've been a Toastmaster for years president of my corporate club years ago, it is still very much relevant. Yes. Community. Yes. Yeah, Communication is paramount. No matter no matter what, and I wish I'd done it. Around 2,004th 2005. When I got my first job out of college, I didn't join Toastmasters until 2016. And it was tremendous change. And what I do want to know coordinates the way you present stuff. It's very serious thing is not a lot of side slides is to the point. Um, so it's okay like Jackson. Okay. Sorry, Gail, I put it
around. Oh, maybe I said John said I'm sorry, Kayla Jackson.
So, um, so and I love that it's very succinct. And to the point is not a lot of extra stuff. And I think we sometimes get stuck, or we have to have all of this information ahead of time. Okay. Any last questions? We have a few seconds left. I think I really enjoyed the session. Okay. Well, we're out of time. So it's 815. So everybody, thank you so much for joining us, Cory. I'm glad you could come through. We will continue with the summit this week. Tomorrow. Guess what we got to talk about communication in in hostile environments, or not hostile but um, what was it Was it was a word a situation, high stress environments. So this is a great lineup of how we're going to roll through this. And then on when and that's going to be tomorrow we have it with Lynne hurdle. And then on Wednesday, we will have Lisa Anderson who will go through the unspoken truth about how women of color gets into executive leadership roles. And executive presence is one of those things. So Courtney is in a very particular order for a very particular reason. And we added Tamra at the very last minute so but it's all gonna work out. It's all gonna play together. You're gonna love it. I'm sure. I'm sure. So Courtney again, thank you so much.
Thanks, Michelle. So proud of you. I can't wait for tomorrow.
I know. Right. All right, everybody. We will see you tomorrow. Have a great night and I'll see you there. Bye. Bye.

View Details

Tysha Tolbert is one of the Virtual Summit Speakers And what I love about her background is computer science, worked in corporate and is now running her own businesses. Not business. But this this says. So, so Ty, can you share a little bit with the audience, just something I don't know, something unique or different about you, but also just a little bit of what they can probably Google and find out on their own?

View Details

Welcome, welcome everybody. This is Michele Heyward with the oh my gosh, fifth day of the women of color in STEM virtual summit, where we're redefining fail. We're filming its foundation to advance impact in LEED. Today, our presenter is me. So I'm going to be sharing with you tips and ways to engage with executives. And I know this was a huge struggle for me early in my career. And I had a different outlook in a very short period of time. So I'm going to show you some tools that were available to available to me back in early 2000. Some of you like some of my girl yeah, remember before then, if somebody like I was very, you know, I wasn't in college yet, but it is still very, very useful. Welcome. So first up, this is the fourth summit. I started the summit. Coincidentally, the same year that Hidden Figures came out so it was a great hit. And ever since then I've done it at least once a year 2017 was the only year I've done it twice. We will have a roundtable again tomorrow night at 10pm East Coast time. We did it an hour later than on Sunday to allow for more West Coast ladies to join us. So we look forward to having you hopefully you'll be home you can you know rest at dinner, maybe you're just walking in the door. But we wanted to get an opportunity for you to be able to join us we will do it on the webinar portion. Where in I can still bring all of you on. I can bring you on when you have questions when you want to provide feedback, solutions, suggestions, connections, so we will do it here. It was a lot of confusion on Sunday. You live in learn I just have to figure out going for how to do it. Um, the replays will be available usually I'm just gonna say 11pm they're usually up at it by 11 I'm just working with slow net sometimes and slow people because I want to go have dinner okay? If you are a stem cell professional meaning your scientists engineer a tech work in technology medicine, you are welcome to join our Facebook group. I am very very particular about who joins the group. You must answer all three questions. Some of y'all like Michelle i didn't i that's because I knew who you were I'm not the only one who admits people to the group. So be sure you're answering those questions if you know you don't qualify you like what she said I'ma see a you know you have nothing to do. The community is built and created for those women while the issues we discuss are paramount across different industries. I specifically We're in serve that community in a niche. So the whole world has this issue I can only help this this man is still it's hundreds of thousands millions. So just keep that in mind. Um we have two giveaways and I will be letting y'all know probably on Monday, there was an issue and so I'm happy to go through and put everybody who registered and attended or probably just attended in for Courtney Courtney's sellers, she's given away gift certificates three, and land hurdle price is given away three of her books. So if you if I contact you, I already have Lin's book just and you still want it. Let me know you still receive it. But I will need you to turn over or provide like mailing or email address. So just be conscientious of that that I will need some personal information and you will have I'm going to ask you forward So we'll go ahead and sit in that now I need you to type it in, so that I have proof that you typed it in, and they can just copy and paste and that Michele Heyward said, Oh, we use this, because that's, that's part of your privacy. Um, then one last thing. So we part of the questions that I asked in the summit, and I will tell y'all real short story, my sister is the giveaway for positive higher attendees or the base is for summit attendees. It's for it's only for summit attendees, not for the Facebook group.

I'm sorry, I mixed that up. But then giveaways are only for people who have attended not just registered because then that that about 250 may register for a session and then 25 show up and that way it has increased your chances of winning okay. So what will we ask the questions in registration? They are Truly for a reason and a purpose number one, I asked what your wins are. And I'm going to read some shortly because we do not have the ability to do that. And every place I will be going to a couple places next month, one for International Women's Day, another I'm a vendor, and I literally will be sharing your wins. I won't be saying your names. So if you were very, very detail in your win and you said more than I graduated or I got a promotion, it helps show what are women who are Latina, black and indigenous in STEM are doing in their wins and I can do that for you. And that's really why I asked it. Number two and you're going to see it on social too on Instagram and we're going to share those out continuously through 2020. But also what those questions help us do is create programming so bring on speakers provide information to trainings that I don't do in areas I'm not proficient in or comfortable in doing. Plus, I believe there is enough room in this world for other people to help other people. So I'm not the only career coach, I'm not the only social media, LinkedIn person, right? There are other people and I will gladly see you and help you find the person that's the best fit for you. So I love sharing my platform with other people. So with that we want to get started. And that is tomorrow, we will have crystal Eva she will be going over harassment in the workplace. I know it is a Friday. I know you're probably coming home from work, but try to join that because it's all about the tactics you need when you encounter those issues in the workplace. So let me go to the screen share and lonely shell and count my tabs. I will talk about you How about that. All right, and my tabs aren't my workflow.

Alright, so here we go. We're gonna get this started. I got a question. I thought I was bad without my tabs we have maybe, um, you know what? You know, nevermind, I'm illegal alone. Okay, so um, and get started with this and I will answer questions. Okay, see, see people got me. Hey, all right.

So, here we go. five tips engage with executives, some of what I'm going to share with you at the end. Actually for interviewing process, gotten a job offer using this tactic back in the early 2000s. I still use I use some of this as well in corporate, and some of it I also use in my startup today. Okay, well come on in. Okay, so a little about me. I'm sitting in the great state of South Carolina, actually in Columbia, South Carolina, where I was born and raised. I'm actually the college here at Clemson, where I joined my first National Society of Black Engineers chapter. And while it clumps in national engineer's week is a big deal. And we did something every single day through identity chapter for national engineers week, which is why I generally hold this February summit on engineer sweet. I love social media. And this is when I was all over Snapchat, you won't find me on snapchat these days. But this is back probably 2016 2017 and I was just having fun. With filters, so I do love social. So if you messaged me, DM me, tweet me read. I, it really is me responding back on LinkedIn, if you send me a message, I'm the one responding back not my assistant, I still do a lot of high touch. Um, I work in construction, my degree in civil engineering, I ended up bulk of my career in construction building habits or transmission lines out in a lot of places you would not want to go. But I found my true passion. And I also built a skill set that I use in my startup. So we got to talk about really focusing on your skill set as well. And then while I was there, I came up with a business idea, but it transition into what is now positive hire and this is this is where I am and I want to find kids. So which is unusual in this day and age, but quite normal when I was growing up. So the agenda tonight, what I'm going to talk about when it comes to engaging with executives is remember, it's their human to human. I want you to use your stopper skills. Yes ladies and you get the stock somebody and it's okay, do your homework. And then we're going to talk about jab, jab, and then in with right hook, and what does that mean? So any of you that know anything about social media marketing, you may be familiar with Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook from Gary Vaynerchuk. And it's very, very similar to what he teaches. So what I mean human to human, when we often think about people in high ranking places, we see them as Oh my god, I can't make a mistake. Oh, I want to get this right. Oftentimes, people are asking these people in high level places For help, or they want them to invest in something, but they, they see them as an opportunity, not as a person, not as somebody who gets up and goes to the bathroom when they work wake up first thing in the morning, not somebody who has a good day or a bad day, not somebody who has a family or pets. So when you truly look at that white man who's an executive, first, no, they're human, and it's going to be a human to human interaction. And learning more about them really, really can help you. Okay, so what is that soccer skills are? So one thing I didn't have in early 2000s and I used use something then that was called Ask the typer. So Clemson Tigers and we had a network, we'd go look up on

alumni who worked at certain employers, you're looking at getting a job. So I would use that was kind of like the only type of stalker skills I could use. I'll ask like, what's the management like? And what are the benefits, but I couldn't dig in as deep as we can today with social media. So when you're looking at people on social, you can go and look at what are their community activities. You may be able to find out like what their goals are, maybe they run marathons, they can try at the lines. Maybe they do the walk for cancer, because of a loved one. You may find out that they come from very humble beginnings and maybe they don't, maybe they were military for 20 years before going corporate. You also want to look internally as to which initiatives they run, right? What business division, they're over a business unit. What part of the budget, they are responsible for a lot of times you can get this internal if you have like Yammer, you have other internal or intranet, similar to Facebook, sometimes you can pull this data from their profile, even family information. Sometimes they share it and maybe a Hey, my son graduated from Michigan State. My daughter is majoring in chemical engineering at Alabama has anybody you know, graduated from May I know we have a few graduates and you're just trying to tie into the community. So use what you have internal to your organization that can be newsletters that go out about organization and if they've been with the organization for a while, there's usually an archive, and you can probably find out something about them even some time that they announced new hires. So definitely definitely delve into what they do business wise internally, what their family and their background is and sometimes the furthest you can go with their back If they're if you can't dig deep in the net, it's really what college they graduated from, and what their major was. And sometimes that's all you need to know. And I'm going to show you somebody that I pulled up. All right, so I'm gonna pause here, because we're going to actually go look at someone on LinkedIn, a LinkedIn profile. So I picked Salesforce just to pick Salesforce is no strategy or anything. Actually, I just search for annual reports. And somehow Salesforce. I got led to Salesforce looks like that that'll work. So I went to pick Salesforce at the company's annual report we're going to look at and I tell you why we're gonna look at this annual report. So let's pretend that you work for sales. scores. Your BP for your business unit is this guy named Todd lessor. Todd is actually a second level connection to me. And he's in Falls Church, Virginia. Maybe I'm not in the same office as he is. But he's the solution engineering at Salesforce public sector. And let me tell you, I picked this dude by random and his profile is gold. Like, Tamra Thank you. Tamra. You're gonna love his profile girl. I don't know if he paid somebody but I'm thinking he did but he is pro his. Check this out. Okay. So you see what he says he does. He's VP solution engineering at Salesforce public sector. I noticed VP solution engineer I'm not sure what that is he sells for and he deals something with the public sector. Okay, cool. We're gonna go to this about section. So if you were in Tamra Macklemore, Sunday session,

Java was in his about, he says experienced, proven and passionate pre sales executive, highly recognized for developing, communicating and executed on highly effective and compelling solution presentations, demonstrations, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, okay. This is why I want to get to is the public sector market that he serves? Why? Because when you go to the annual report, you're going to look to see what is in the sales force annual report, when it comes to US and Canadian government. Got me and you're going to, you're going to search for Canada or right. You're going to search for US federal government contracts, you want to search for different terms, you may just search for public sector because of that. What he says as keywords in his in his profile? Are y'all with me put up a one if you're with me. And what this helps you do when you're pulling these keywords out of his profile because his profile was dope, I'm not gonna lie to you I really lucked up. I don't think many of you are going to get us lucky is this. His profile is dope. So if y'all are looking like for a profile to kind of figure out how to build yours, look at this man's and you can tell he does sales or pre sales, um, areas of expertise. I need y'all to own your areas of expertise. Don't put software, just say I'm an engineer. You can do project management you can do how we design for interstates, whatever it is, own it shit, for real and if you're trying to figure out What Oh, go look and see what your boss has and just copy and paste and stuff. Yes. And it will reformat it to that. I'm director of solutions engineer, we design and sell third party warehouse designs. See. Now, I'm only using a public set up a publicly traded company. If you have when you work for a private entity, it the smaller it is, the harder it is sometimes to find this information, but sometimes when it's smaller, you can build those relationships a little bit better. When you're looking at a company like Salesforce, I came from a company about 90,000 employees globally. It originally was one company with 25,000. Globally, we got bought, we went to 50,000. We got bought again, and then went to 90,000. So let's just say the larger it gets, the more difficult it can be to engage with VPS I was fortunate because The I was a, I was in a cost, I was in a revenue generating position, meaning I was in the field. They were the client had paid extra because I was on site. And so the VPS in the directors flew out, because we made money on top of money for the company. And when you notice, let me tell you how they invite you to dinner like okay, so how's it going? Michelle? So it was a different ballgame. And this is how that comfortable really talking to VPS because they showed up at my desk in a in a in a in a shed next to the Allegheny River outside of Pittsburgh. So I didn't have a choice really. But I had to research them to understand who, who they were, what they're responsible for, and how my role as a cost analyst to tied into this $350 million construction project for this utility company. And I'll get into that a little bit. Okay. So we look we're looking at this so let's just copy and paste public sector. You can just google annual report for the company you work for. You probably can find it internally. This is all I did. This is what Salesforce is. Looks like. This is the actual report PDF. I didn't download it. I don't need it. For right now. They're not one of my target customers yet, but um Oh, come on,

man. Okay, there we go. So I want to do the public sector. So this is page 16. I'm trying to see which section we're in. So first thing I should have done, which is taking you out to the table of contents. And I'm a backup actually let me not take out the table of contents. Let me take out to two resources that pull it up. First one is Learning how to read or what to read in an annual report. So because they can be this 140 pages, it's not that bad. I bought this one resource. This is that standard calm if if anybody else has a better resource to break out, I can't find my old notes. This gives you 10 important things to analyze in the annual report. And it really depends on what's important to you. Everybody wants to know if you're profitable or not, if you're generating revenue, and profit if you're profitable. So this report gives you the sections to check out it says whether or not it thinks value of information is media. It really depends on what you're looking for. In the report. Directors report, management discussion and analysis. One thing you do want to look at is the SWOT analysis for the competition. strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. We're seeing technology take over a lot of different industries. And it's very, very important that you look and see what the threats are. And then what the opportunities are. And what I mean by threats. Is it us is the market shrinking for a product or a business unit you're in is now there is an opportunity where you can take your skillset to a different business unit, a different team, and how to position yourself on LinkedIn, even in your office and start communicating and connecting with people in that that business unit has the best opportunity if you want to stay with that employer or if it's a new employer. So This to me is one of the key areas you always want to look for us that the SWOT analysis of the company, all right. So this will give you some ideas. Also, of course, it should have with the PDF here you also go to Wikipedia. And it it'll break out as well. I didn't look for any YouTube videos. A couple people generally do great breakdowns but on other stuff I had didn't find one that did it on financial on annual reports, but there probably is my I don't know Courtney see if Courtney, if you have any recommendations. Financial statements, I highly agree that you do need to learn those Courtney stoner gave a recommendation for a book. And I can't remember the name of it, but I'll definitely share it out. We sent out the follow up email next week with different resources that are mentioned, to pick up that book and understand your financial statements. Because as you grow your career you will be responsible for not only teams but also budgets. And it's important to understand what the corporate budget is. Your profit and loss statements, your income statement. So balance sheets, so you understand So let's cash flow. So that is, this will give you the breakdown for that now include the link for that. So we're going to go back to the actual annual report from Salesforce. And this is assess the index, my call it I call the table of contents, but it tells you to break down everything won't be worded exactly as what's in the resource I gave you, which is why I did a keyword search. Um, and so I'm gonna go ahead and it does public sector comes in once industry, specific regulation and other requirements, incentives problems. So you have to play around in here to look in see where you where certain things come. So I'm going to go to revenue, revenue comes out 372 times. So revenue is not a good word. To search for, but what they do in this report is they do highlight and they share with you what the revenue it was for 2019. Um, they talked about the cash flow when they tell you whether it's up or down, so it's 20% 26% year over year growth and you're seeing is up 24% for the cash flow. Cash Flow is truly important without cash.

Unless you're leveraging credit, you want as much cash as possible. And Salesforce after a 20 year old company is 36,000 employees. That's huge. That's a lot of growth in 20 years. So just take into account that you're seeing a growth in your your cash flow has increase, but also your revenues increase. The other thing is you want to see what your debts are. In your financials, but we won't look at that tonight. Okay, so we know dude was in government. So that's government comes up 32 times and our growth strategy. So this is your growth strategy. If you know he think government and we're in a growth strategy. He is probably tasked with some of the things that come up under growth strategy when it comes to government and targeting verticals targeting vertical industries to meet our needs of our customers in certain industries. We provide solutions specifically built for certain vertical industries such as financial services, healthcare and government. These three industries specifically are highly regulated. You have to All and I know Tamra gnosis, eyes and eyes dotted T's cross, having expertise or experience in government would help you. And if most of your team and employee, co workers in your division are not familiar with government documentation, processes procedures, let's just say that something you can leverage. And that's one way you can go in and address it. Okay. So you can go through and kind of play around with the keywords to figure this out. Is this somewhat helpful? Or is this more confusing than it needs to be? Just let me know what questions you have. Because we do have some time we'll go through q&a, but go ahead and get submit your questions. I can come back to this. I don't want us to get too bogged down. One other thing you can use industry resources such as engineer news or records, what were they right your employer, and this helps you understand how best how to look at it. Were you one, were you at the top, maybe you write one into for six years and then y'all drop completely off the board for rankings. So this is engineering news record, this is what we use in civil. And it really if we weren't in a top 10 in certain areas, I was concerned because if we weren't taught in, in power, if or energy if we weren't top 10 in like mining, if we weren't top 10 in in certain divisions of the company, I was worried because it indicated to me either we lost staff or we lost contracts and we lost contracts there were definitely going to be a reduction in staff. This is very helpful because you can see Where a company is going to how your skill? Yes, exactly. And as engineers, we don't look at this and we aren't taught how to read this. I'm the guy who actually taught did this nasty thing. His name is Carrie. I actually pull him up. And he was actually military. And he came in he did his workshop and Nancy like how to read an annual report and what to read. I literally remember up until like, three, probably three, four years ago, what he taught and I went and sent him a message. They literally said, Hey, I mentioned as he taught me how to do this, I love to connect with you. And, and he was at the time he was at UBS. He was a he became a Senior Vice President at UBS. Financial, he was there for 10 years and he just left a couple years ago to go out on his own. So there are people like us, they come to organizations like that once or twice to really teach us something that's There's nothing new.

Okay, so that is, so you can do your annual report, you can use industry. So if you're trying to figure out what what your industry thing is, again, utilize LinkedIn groups on Google, if you're also you're, you're engineering organizations. So if you're in manufacturing, they may have a standard. He literally, if your company rakes in anything they are going to send an email out isn't going to be on the website. We are number two in XYZ, right? And it'll just say number two listed but they won't say they may not even say what industry it is, or what this issue, but use that information to go find and see where they were three years ago, and just check this stuff at least once a year. I used to be really, really good about it. And In 2014, my former employer was purchase and when the keywords so yes, you got a keyword search an annual report and, and everybody's keyword is going to be different. So you want to have to test it to really figure out what that keyword is. Um, but once you figure out your keywords and once you figure it out, it'll be good. When we were purchased. One of the guys and I had been following the annual report because it was good for me. I had a job it was the great recession. And one of the guys like, we got bought, like, yeah, that other CFO, he quit, because he bought this oil and gas company, it was a tanker, and it it almost bankrupt the company. And I'm like, Oh shit. So I literally go Google the article to find out about the company. I bought it. The company that bought my former employer paid $6 billion for definitely that's a lot of money. 4 billion was in debt. And I said, Oh shit, I need to be making exit strategy. And that was 2014 because I knew it was coming, I knew was gonna be a lot of changes for them to recoup $4 billion as soon as possible, because the CEO of the new company had an accounting background, you should care how we did engineer, he knew how to count, he knew how to make money. So, um, okay, we got a question. If I can get it open, okay. And I cannot even share it open for me. So I'll come back to it to your question. Okay. So let's get back to the deck. So that is how does Transformers activate like you literally take that into action? Now, do your homework, the homework part of this you may think well Michelle, that was the homework that was in the homework. Now that you know what your bps are Or that director, whoever that executive you're trying to connect with that VP, executive VP, maybe it's a CTO, the CIO. You know what their initiatives are now once they go back know your roles impact, how does your role impact or influence the company? What is its significance to the company? How does it impact your employer by Team department division and globally? Oftentimes, we think what we do is small and insignificant. It can be if that's what we believe. But if you like mediocre man, and you say, Oh, I'm gonna shit and what I do this company I live and die by, you have a different viewpoint. So let's say you are a software engineering manager and the software that you create is to take transactions at point of sale at airport. You like what we do Make sure there are no fraudulent transactions but what if your software also identifies when there could be an another attack via airlines? What if it can identify and red flag when there are people that have been kidnapped or transporting children or women?

So you may think on a very granular level the impact of what your role does, but it could be much larger now know your MS your roles and impact but know your impact outside of your education, your jobs, how what is your skill set? This different differentiate differentiates you from others in your industry, organization and team? Now I know she's on here so Karen Yeah, no, no Karen Karen down the street. She just died 26 and she literally share it with us and I forgot to read these again. She shared about how she tore apart with a database and rebuilt it and nobody on her team was willing to take that risk. And the ability to do that the ability to take that risk and be like, Oh my god, how did you do that? Look at what that skill set takes. What is the is that skill set pre planning? Is it organization? Is it identify the tools? Is it identifying the team and build out when it comes to intricate steps and processes? Right. So what is that skill set? You also half maybe it's how to plan out a new product line from beginning to end meeting supply chain sourcing, designing, laying out the equipment, testing the equipment to manufacturing and you can do it in six to eight months as opposed to 16 to 18 months. What is that skill set that you have Want you to focus on that and if you can't figure that out, this is the one of the books that showed I can't think of the name of it right now. But this is one of the exercises in it. Email people and ask them what you do well, people that you know will be honest with you, they make you don't have to like them. They don't have to like you. But you know, they will honest, provide honest feedback on what you do well, because too often times our gifts are wrapped up in our innate to us and we don't understand what we're really good at. Alright. Then thirdly, know how to talk the language. So if you join Courtney, Courtney, Courtney stoner was using some language and I was like, What is that ebp is all executive vice presidents. Okay? And she that m&a is Oh, mergers and acquisition. So what's the language that they talk at that level but You also have a language that you talk internal to your, your company. And I remember working for a company way back when they actually had a booklet like the little mini Bibles, right? That you stick in your pocket. Of all the vernacular that you use in that, in that, in that organization. My first career coach had me do the pier exercise go, yeah. When people when you ask people what you do well, like really document do like, no, that's why we always come to you. If you're really afraid to do that exercise, go back through emails, and see what people are consistently asking you to do. Now, like order the lunch, really asking you to do, hey, we want to be in this meeting with such and such Can you come they want you to accomplish stuff after and you're going to sit there and you can figure out how to wrap it up. And you know who's to to pull it together. Other people don't know how to do that. Maybe it's actually convincing people to do the work. It is a skill set that you have so you can negotiate well with people that truly, truly ask people, okay, so speaking the language is truly important as well. Alright, so what is Jab, Jab, Jab, it is not hitting somebody. It's about giving before you ask. How many of you get asked, Hey, can you get me a job? Can you give me a hook up where you work? Hey, can you can you do X, Y and Z for me? If you're getting hit of extra level, what do you think Executive Vice President and higher up are getting asked to do, right? Is this they don't know who you are, except for maybe the Latina. I didn't know you as an engineer over there. Right? What you literally can do is taking that information where you understand the value of your role, you understand your skill set, and you're literally just sending them a monthly or weekly update that says

it could be an article on how a company in Europe is dealing with GDPR. And for those of you who take the time to collect data GDPR that privacy new privacy policy in Europe, maybe you're talking about the new financial, FinTech startups, and how do we as a 50 year old company, compared to them, and how do we keep on market share and still gain young new customers, right? So you could literally just be sharing content but pulling out one or two items, because these particular executives get hundreds of emails. They don't have time to read a lot of stuff. They want the high points. Right. And so if you can provide that value in a very short email, that they will find value Because it is part of their initiatives, their goals and tied to their bonus for the year, they don't listen to you. So, you also, by doing this, you also have proved that you are smart, and you can execute. So if something that you've done similar that you can show and prove like, Hey, this is what we did on this team. This is the data before we did it, this is the outcome after we did it. And this is how long it took us now is it five bullet points and keep it moving four numbers. Um, and you can put an app you'd like to discuss, let's schedule the time. I'm a 15 1015 minute meeting and put together three four slides and keep it moving on how to execute and do a small test in your organization on it. Right. Um, so you want to be sure you're providing data Phil reports and I say it reports is not a report. It's gonna be a very succinct and short email. Like, it should be a short, it should have no more onwards been on than what's on this slide. That is it. And I mean on the white part of the slide, so I'm given can mean sweat equity as well. So you're willing to do the testing for something you're willing to do to research, you're willing to do the work. I do want to put in one caveat, you may not get a reward yet, so they may take the ideas there's, but I want you to position it as though you're a thought leader and you can execute on this they may pull out one of their friends to leave this okay. Just let them do the work like no no nothing and try to figure out how to work that culture. So it really comes back to understanding your culture and your organization. Okay. Now, what is the right hook? That is your ask? Jab Jab, Jab is the gift The right hook is to ask, ask them to sponsor you. Ask them for promotion. You can ask them to help you get transferred to address workplace issues and connect you with someone in their net work. So the right hook is always asked. And it may jab is three jabs. But it may take something more than you sending them three emails, it may take 13 emails, but you want to be consistent in adding value. And there are different ways to do that. But this is one way to connect with them. And by having this information ahead of time, where you meet them in meetings, you know a bit about their background, you know a bit about their family, you know about their goals and you know about their initiatives for the company and you're able to find you oftentimes are able to find something to connect with with them on. And so it makes it a little bit easier because you're seeing them as a human. And that's, and that's important. Okay. So let me stop the share because I can't get to the questions. Okay. So I'm a federal employee currently with the Department of State as a passport educator. I just graduated from web development who can wonder what titles in tech I can easily transition into. So are you looking for federal jobs? Or are you looking for? Are you looking for federal jobs? Are you looking to go to public sector Are you looking to go and start up or even education? So it really depends on what your background is where you're trying to go? also.

So you're looking into private if you Looking into private, what skill set you have from the passport? So I don't know what that passport educator does. So, what does that job entail? Are you do you have a clearance of government clearance to do that? So then there are some certain companies that look for people with government security levels. Um, if so, what what level are you that may be attracted to them? Or I have plans we have to be accurate and fast. Okay. You could in in Do you want to code? Do you want to do product development? product product management, I'm sorry. Which part? I know you say web development, you could still do some other things. So it really depends on what you want to do. So do you go to his profile to get So so for job titles is going to it could be just to get your foot in the door, you could look for hiring manager roles that could be senior software. Okay, you like front end. So you you're looking for a UX. So you probably and Karen's on here, Karen, what are your thoughts? This is some of her her area of expertise. I'm Brian and you're still going to be looking at a software engineering manager. To me more than because they're they're going to be the hiring manager. listed first level connections

So maybe a project manager. Can you repeat? Yes. So she is looking to get into web development. And once the front in and with the creative background, she just finished web development boot camp and has experience working at the Department of State as a passport educator. So she's trying to figure out on LinkedIn, what job titles to search for, to find the right hiring manager. I would say trouble quantifying my impact. I built a data warehouse and ended up providing horses. Oh, yeah, I love that question. Okay. So Karen, I'm thinking software engineering. Manager. Um, it could depending if it's a larger company, sometimes CTO lead developer. Yeah, cio Chief Information Officer. Chief CIO, meaning Chief Information Officer, CTO, Chief Technology Officer, lead developer, software engineering manager. I tell you, I tell you the trick, start at the top. Because you know what happens at the top, they don't send it down. If you start at the bottom, it don't go anyplace. The hardest part with LinkedIn, though, if you're trying to connect with people at CIO, CTO, and any of the C suites, they are very, very difficult to reach on LinkedIn. They usually aren't on social, they just have somebody managing their profile. So sometimes I go Personally, I go for the VP level. Any still will filter down or they'll be the right person for you to work for. So just looking at a set, I can tell you on a sales perspective, we generally will go for the CIO CTO. And but because they filter it down, but they often are not on LinkedIn, so I generally target the VP level and that that's been more beneficial for me. Okay. I hope that helps. Yes, you can find a recruiter at that company too, as well, and they'll love you. They'll love it, actually. So just position yourself so that you don't come in as entry level because you already have experience. It may be experienced in in front end development, but to bring in other skills to bet you need to highlight on your resume to So that you get paid appropriately. Okay. Next question. So do you go on his profile to get keywords? Yes. So I went let me just make let me just make an exception. Like I pulled this dude up yesterday and I really got lucky like he was a tall I just go ahead and it says VP, you can go to his profile on LinkedIn and pull keywords. You also want to look him up in your global outlook. If you have global outlook or however you do communications, you want to use your internal languages as well. So your internal your intranet, internal and internal documents or reports that you share, to figure out what they're responsible for to get those keywords so you probably won't find it. We got lucky with this guy. You probably won't find it on LinkedIn, you're gonna have to use internal resources. and utilize those to find your keywords to search by. So be patient is going to take some time, pull out like 10 keywords that you think won't pull up more than 30 bit probably 50 results. Mom it once you get something like 2025, you know you're in there, you're probably going to find that a little bit quicker. All right, next question. I have, I have always had trouble quantify my impact. I built a data warehouse that ended up providing reports to the CEO that could not get consolidated before any tips looked, any tips to look to where to get the answer? Okay. What was the previous process? And how many people were involved in that previous process? What were their titles, job titles, and how long did it take them to create the report that could get to the CEO.

So then what you're going to do once you know the amount of time they can, so it took me like four hours, okay, four hours a week or four hours every time you had to do, is it a weekly report or monthly report. And some people work slower than others. So maybe it took them 40 hours in a month, they make $20 an hour or 40 hours, maybe took them four hours a week, whatever that number is, look at what the hourly rate is, you may or may not have access to that. So you can use like salary comm to get an S get an on average rate for that area they work in for their annual salary rate, multiply it out and just look at what's the annual cost savings, then go back and look at the productivity. It improved their productivity by a certain amount as well and calculate that. Then on top of that was The benefit to the CEO is the CEO able to make better financial decisions is more productive is less stress. And that can be harder to get and harder to quantify. Let me know let me know if you have questions still have questions on how to go about doing it. It's not going to be an exact science, but it'll get you started thinking about that. You mentioned sending an email to the higher level execs, tips, books, etc, or emails and presentation for people at C suite level. You know what? I do not, um, I really format it mine by what other people were doing. Like somebody asked me, Hey, I'm gonna be out on vacation. I need you to send this out for me. So I literally did nothing want more than five bullet points? I'm having a number and key internal words were important. So I knew our key internal wars were safety. Um, cash flow.

man hours burned? Where were the three major ones I reported on especially where we are all in its schedule. Yes. Um, so think about what language and keywords they focus on. One other way to kind of find out this information is how good a relationship do you have with the people other people don't see in office, and that's going to be your administrative staff. That is also going to be your janitors. That's also going to be your maintenance people. And people think I'm crazy for this Have you ever had a pet or a toddler go through your trash and pull out stuff my Oh shoot, I don't mean to throw that away when you have people that nobody pays attention to not necessarily disrespect them, but they don't pay attention to them directly disrespect them, they see things and they will share things with you if you have a relationship with them any respect you

Tamra got all sorts of stories. Um, so it's really, really important that how you cultivate relationships, in organizations, especially with other people who are not Because they are privy to information that other people don't think they know what the hell to do with. And I'm not saying use people, but I have I learned very early when I made this comment to my mother. I said, Well, you're just a janitor. Y'all. I almost didn't make it. Y'all would have never have met me. She said, nobody's a just a nothing. Nobody has to clean up after you. Girl is not a place I have not worked. I didn't know the janitors name. I had a co worker who wanted to know why I do the janitors name and I didn't I didn't work in our facilities. This is when a client's facility Her name is Maria. She saw she saw a my the two main reasons Got one nickname nickname is Snoop kid he had the ponytails like some I can't remember the other guy's name. It's gonna come to me in the clients facility in downtown Tulsa Oklahoma. I was like I'm cold so we'll get you a heater. I came in he was at my desk at Yeah, they also see it here. Exactly so be cacci inches because let me tell you that the first ones to know when a layoff comment we think I'm lying. Usually first of all I know it's coming because the enemy report only come out once a year. I agree in my purse, roll senior staff but let me hit banks to people to get he was. So build those relationships literally from the bottom to the top of the pyramid, and it was organizations to leverage some of this data to get the information. Okay. Another question. When you're doing your own projects to impress higher ups, do you have to inform your manager supervisor about how you're using your time?

Okay, let me do. Let me I meant to make this caveat a little bit earlier. Michele Heyward, a little bit different. I was the one that had a manager talk trash to me in my 20s. And I said, Look, I keep boxes at my desk, and I get tired of this face, I'll pack up and leave. And he was like, No, no, I'm just playing. I'm just playing and he was the one that got me to Raiders in one year. So let me let me make a caveat. I also worked in what I called the gray and my friends and so many people that know that went to college for me know this. So what's in the gray visa written rules? So you do this is the correct way you do this system wrong. Right? This is the white display. I work right yeah, mash them together. We call it don't ask for permission ask for forgiveness. I call it working in the gray and figure out how to do those projects that align number one to your performance plan. So if you are doing projects oh well we were going to do this like Okay, that sounds great. is part of your performance plan. So some things that you want to do right now in January go ahead and plan it out piece by piece. Because october november whenever September when you have to put together your performance plan and you want to go through your performance review. Put that in there because you already got plans. You already Is your research on this executive may not take the day? It literally could take three, four months, because life happens stuff stuff goes on. And so I make it seem like it's simple like you can pull the trigger point. You're like, Oh my god, I'm so frustrated, I got a headache. Why did I listen to her, and then you looking at other people getting promotional like you know, I'm going to hell in this because this June, and come January next year, I cannot be in the same place. So it's going to take you a little while. So write it up in your performance plan. If you can't get it into your performance plan. Go to other teams and departments, some organizations actually like for their employees to do projects. If you're working on something, let's say it's for a volunteer organization that your company partners with, and they actually cover your work hours to go work on stuff. I use it if you get accepted The interns like y'all treat the interns he'll have interns work on. Just look over the work just God mentor is is so many different ways to leverage this. Um, I love eager engineers. And I tell you why I will teach. I would I would teach a couple of my engineers so well, big job before I did, I was trying to leave and he was like, I thought she was gonna be mad like, Nah, I'm jealous. Like, literally I would be looking at their LinkedIn like, yo, Thomas. You know, this, this change to this, we're at this, this this dollar amount because you know, $1.3 billion construction project, he said, but it's an asset they don't know. It just put $1.3 billion transmission distribution distribution project. Bam when you go in, if you didn't tell you, you managed help manage $250 million of it. They all need to know it today. And if you don't notice structural engineer work your transmission distribution for a year and a half, two years, he would not stay with the company. He was commute like an hour from Philly to New Jersey City, New Jersey. He asked to get trained on Transmission distribution. He's a structural engineer, he, that's what he did. They were bringing in training into the New Jersey office, or one transmission distribution. He asked to be included in a training his boss told him now. He was the only structural engineer on his team in that group that was on a transmission and distribution project. And they refuse to train him. So needless to say, when he got off he told he said he told us about a unique sound to make when I asked you for training you said now deuces.

And then the young lady I trade after him who was a geotechnical engineer, she got a job to like, what am I doing wrong? Maybe I would do it right I was transform out. So just just keep, just share. So just keep working it and get other people to help you with it. And it'll, it'll get done. So it's meant to be a process. This is not a one day thing unless you've been with the organization for a long time and it's not government. Um, let's see the custodian step. Also know all the office staff already know who cheating and I don't mean within the Office outside office, who had the extra company cell phone that they belong to the whoever the extra company vehicle that espouses driving, they do an expense report, like they don't know how to read an expense report. Anyway. I was the shadow by working through college at night as a janitor. That's how I learned about several of my past jobs because they were posted by and also from the generation But my grandparents were the janitors and we were taught to respect your own people from the jet Yes, I might be from that I if I wasn't I am now. Tell you tell my 72 year old mom or dad. Okay, so What other questions do you have about being able to figure out what that gift is and who you're trying to connect with? When you are looking for this particular executive to work with? Look at their personal brand, meaning what are people saying about them behind their back? Or this like oh my god, I really love working with such law shit. your FICO Oh, hi, how are you? If they're doing it, that's probably not you want to go work with. So understand what this executives brand is, um, on a smaller scale, you may find out personal things about them I had an executive outline. He was on it. He's an introvert. And what this man like how he met his wife, he has a twin sister, y'all. This is the stuff. twin sister went to school for nursing, he went to school for engineering, she will bring a different one of her classmates home for him to meet one on one and si met his wife. So then you know not to have 20 people around him at one time unless we're in a meeting setting, right? So it's the little bit and I found out not to buy him a birthday cake because he was a chubby kid and he never wants to be chubby again. So do not buy him a cake. I almost ordered that cake. Um, but I also found that he was a Yankees fan. So there are certain things that you find out about people that you can then leverage in into as far as a birthday card. A trinket just small stuff and you personally drop it off to the When you see them in a hallway, getting coffee, water, whatever the parking garage, you can say, if you're not a sports person, don't fake it. But you know, they're a pet person because you see them covered in cat hair, right? Make those genuine connections. And it's like here. Here's a wet brush. I see you probably going to me You're like, thank you, man. I keep forgetting to get my admin ordered me one, right? Those things add up over time because you are making a personal connection. And you are not asking them for anything. And guess what happens? They hope so what do you do here? literally minutes that? Oh, I'm an engineer that does whatever. Really? So how long have you been here? Eight years. Anyway, gosh, I haven't shaved you But you knew that this for right? No. Okay. But you're usually busy and in conversation when you pass me. And so doing little stuff and having those small conversations, especially if you're an introvert really goes a long way. So that's really how to start leveraging being the only one or one of you, women of color in your workplace. start having those small conversations. Um, and you don't have to necessarily do gifts like if you think this is too much is those small conversations where you build rapport after you've stopped them to find out what their pets and kids are? They may even have a daughter and sell Girl Scout cookies this time of year go order cookies. And be like, Hey, I bought vanilla ice cream. Do you do you do to vanilla ice cream, the Thin Mint cookies.

I know I haven't tried to like hey, it's in the freezer. I might have some at lunch at 12 minutes, some other people so if you want to be sure you get your scoop. Be there. Whatever time If you can make it so those are the little ways to really like that's that's how I'm if you smoke when one of my former co workers that's how he met when an executive VP is the only one that was black in the building, do smoke, they both smoke and that's how they met each other and he's like, Oh no, he really cool. Like, he's executive VP. There's like smokey out there hanging out with us all the time. He does the literally those small connections, okay? So don't go into overwhelm. Remember the are human. Remember, you can doodle small connections with them, if you're looking for them to stop so you make sure they understand what your role is in the company, what value you bring to the company and the impact you have to the company. And you have to be able to convey that in the company language that they understand. Okay, any last questions? If not, I hope this was helpful. Um, oh, one last thing I want. I want to tell you. I know some of you are looking for jobs seems like private, it's more extroverted. I don't know. I thought it probably was more introverted, because I just talked to him anywhere. Um, but if you're looking for a job like literally this I got a job offer like 15 more than 15 years ago, I knew this company's mission and vision statement. And when I say the look for real, they went and reached over by the door on a table like, Oh my god, this is this. I had a job offer the next week. I didn't take it on with my former employer cuz that seller was not getting it it really really by knowing the vision and the mission statement of the company and how I aligned to It was huge. Where do you Want us to send our accomplishments? You can just email it to info at positive tire Co. How do you find out hourly rates for consultants? So it's going to vary by industry. I'm going to tell you, probably the industry, the industry you're in or the industry, you want to go and be a consultant. Do you have any friends that do work with consultants, they're not a consultant that will disclose their rates. I would start there, and I wouldn't price lower our price at or above. If that isn't helpful I was thinking There isn't. Isn't there a government site? Didn't somebody share with me a website? I think it was crystal. Um, send me an email about the hourly rates for consultants because I need to know industry and some other stuff. I think there's a website or government site and that's the bare minimum. Okay, two more. A couple more questions. Okay, I'm at a crossroads. I want to find someone to be a mentor. I've been the mentor to others like you who have moved on before me. I think I'm asking the wrong questions to executives, that I think will be a mentor for me what types of questions do you ask to know if this is the right person? Um, I don't generally ask them questions when I unless until I'm sure I want him to be a mentor. Generally what I do with them, I'm having a lot of discussions or talks with them and you're not long They can be three minutes, five minutes. And I'm really getting a sense of whether or not they're an asshole. Whether they're giving a lot to the company, I'm trying to get less. I'm trying to figure out their boundaries, like what? What is your goal? What is your personality? And what type of person would you learn and grow from? Because it's truly important that you understand what type of person you can work with. And then look at is this person, a good mentor in the mentor your selector has been? Is or has been, where you're trying to go?

Maybe they have the connections to get you to where you want to be, what is it about that person, so that you know how to how to navigate the conversation. Does that make sense? So I don't have a set of questions that I asked them or you get some things you can ask is issues that you may have maybe on a project managing multiple personalities or generations any tools or resources they have, right? Um, and just get a sense of number one do they work to get to the where, where the hell they are? Because sometimes you look for somebody to mentor you who was given something and so he can't even show you how to get there because it was given to them. And at the local you, are you I would probably say, Are you looking for a sponsor or mentor? I'm getting a feeling you need a sponsor. I like mentors. I've been a mentor. I'm being mentor met my local mentor here. roomful of black people, three, the three that had a million dollar generating revenue businesses or 300. Like what? What's the difference between a smart sort of mentor, a mentor can will hear you out will provide advice to you can connect you to resources, a sponsor or whatnot, the fuck out of barriers to get you to where you say you want to be and where they believe you should be. So, your sponsor may talk to you briefly in the hallway and ask you things go into meetings that your mentor can't get in and said, Oh, no, such and such is want to be on this project. This is who is going to lead this initiative. And so you can you can, there's definitely a need for both. But if you're trying if you have barriers and you're trying to get to places, that sponsors the one that generally can get you there, more than a mentor, and I follow this mentor rhetoric, probably till about 25 In 2011, when I got a sponsor, and I had that I knew up, I had sponsors before. So it was a great recession. And they were laying off left and right. I didn't get laid off. For seven years, it was 2017. And I got laid off. That was because the sponsor made sure I stayed the sponsors may thought I would be better. I was stepping out of position. He was like, hey, I want you to take this role. The manager that I reported to for the role, they want me to have it the spot and said she got it. The smoke let me let me explain to you what this Matsu did. The sponsors literally came to me and said, Hey, write the job description so that it fits you and nobody else can apply. This is what happened. I apply for the job right? I wrote it up. I applied for the job. If HR calls me This is doing a great recession said nobody else apply for this job except you. Now I'm already working on The project right? But nobody internal to a 45 50,000 employee company apply for this job. I want you to think about that. You want a mentor that has told you that has happened to them or you want a sponsor that can do that. So it depends on what you're looking for whether you need a sponsor, or if you need a mentor, and you may need both. But know what what you're looking to achieve. Is it risky to move eight to make a lateral move to start up? Whoo, how do I put this? How many of y'all felt secure in your job? In 2008, nine and 10 and got laid off
You're very well. You're very, very welcome. So, what, when it comes to startups? How early Are you so like, I don't have but one employee right now. I'm looking at bringing on a marketing person at least part time. So it depends on you the first five or 10 hires, what if you are adverse to risk and you know, your finances cannot sustain itself? Yes, startup as a culture is always risky. But I worked in construction, it was a risk every damn day. So you really kind of need to know yourself what I would say if you're looking at startup. See if you can do a part time for them, whatever they're asking you for. There are several startups that were part of Time does founders work they don't part time for six to eight years. They are not billion dollar companies. One of them is called MailChimp. If you received an email from me yesterday, with the right login to get on here to zoom, that email marketing system that email came from is called MailChimp, one of the co founders from that way. He's from Augusta, Georgia. It's a 20 year old tech company, they did not work full time in it for six, eight years. His co founders, it is a billion dollar company now. Only 10% of startups succeed. And as passed the five year mark, is the start if you're looking at going to pass that mark, um, are they still? Are they generating revenue and profitable? Are they even if they're funded, even if they have funding from venture capital, the meaning of succeed, that just means that they got runway, maybe They have enough money to go this way to last so many months. Do they have? Um, do you like the founders? Like literally do you like the founders, the culture is a culture meaning you will work you can literally work 80 to 100 hours. Um, then you have others that are funded and they have unlimited PTO, and they make you take a week, every single quarter you have you are forced to take a week off. So you really have to know what that startup offers as far as benefits and how risk averse you are. So I can't tell you yes or no, it really depends on you. I bootstrap my thus far I've been approached by investors I've been approached by friends who want to and I haven't taken any yet and I'm trying to see if if and when I will So yeah, you in because you're not publicly traded, which you do is go to crunchbase.com and search specifically for that startups name. Is it a tech startup? It'll be on crunchbase I don't know if it's tech or not. Um, if even if it's not today it may be on there. But um, and see if they've gotten funding When was the last round of funding they went through, um, some people get funded to build out their tech other people get funded to scale their company. I believe in scaling part. It a five year mark about 100 employees clinic.

Healthcare can be difficult. Um, I would say just keep your connections. If you decide to do this, keep your connections and your LinkedIn open for new opportunities. My dream is to create companies in African countries to help develop countries. There's a ton of Yeah, there's a ton of opportunity. There are a lot of Americans, black Americans going over to Africa. Yeah, it's not a one and done thing if Melissa, just just shoot me an email at info at positive hire.co. I'm not gonna tell you know, the opportunity if they're giving you equity. I would say go in and also ask for equity. If you want to do it. That's another thing. You may have a lower salary you may not, but definitely still go in and ask for equity, negotiate equity, if you do do it. Okay. What was the bps name you search on LinkedIn? Let's go see

Good, Todd lessor here I copy his profile and put it in messenger for you
All right. Okay, sounds like I need a sponsor an accountability partner. Okay. I think that is all the questions for tonight. Can Melissa and I connect? Hey, you sit back to Hill you sent me just at a panelist. Share that to panelists and attendees so she can see it. If Melissa is here, you You have a message coming from Phil. So one last thing before y'all get off of here. I should have had y'all do it early. I'm in a wrap up with this. Be sure to drop in your LinkedIn profiles, links, and I am going to celebrate and go out with your accomplishments for tonight. So, being publicly, one lady has written in being publicly recognized for a win on a project that came in under budget and resulted in a big bonus for me MIT. Let's write I'm talking about that money, honey. Make that money, honey. Okay. Another one advancement to current position based on past successes. Yes. Hello. Okay. I've been very successful with bringing on our employees. brand to new level since joining. Yes. Don't keep killing it. I'm becoming a senior engineer. That's what y'all y'all are doing this. I interned at Google last summer after my first year in college. What? Again, I'll tell people this. I'm like, What? Okay, but I'm gonna let the world know. I'm becoming a published author on a paper. We're going to be talking about white papers and y'all publishing white papers for your industry. Yes, I'm loving this. Yeah. I don't know how much fun I'm having right now. A year ago. I didn't think I'd apply to security. Privacy roles not interviewing for them. Yes. Yeah. Well, oh, energy savings of over 2 million dollars at Boone County School District over three years. saving taxpayers some money. We appreciate you my sister. Yes. Save us some dollars. Hello. Okay. received a proclamation from the mayor of Columbia, South Carolina as well as the governor, Governor of the state of South Carolina. Yes, my people that's hometown. See later who that is. Because I'm not looking at email addresses. I'm only looking at the accomplishments because we all went in doing a workshop at the Grace Hopper conference. Okay, I'm really okay. I'm know I'm extra excited, but those are some of the winds. I'm gonna give y'all a couple more minutes to copy and paste or click on all the links so you have as many tabs as I do in your browser, to start connecting with other ladies. As Tamra said, be sure to include that message when you go to connect with them. So they know we're working on revamping, they just asked to teach a workshop for proposal writing. Yes. That's what I'm thomassie snaps are all you guess they do rock. Right? And so this is why I asked you and let me tell you, my sister would not even register for my summit, y'all. She'd like us asking too many questions. I said I only asked three questions she said you asked for, but it's time I'm gonna answer all of them. The webinar was going to be over I look at her Yeah. So it's another reason to ask was quite a barrier to entry. People who really want to be here, at least putting in a if not now. You'll put in NA. But we do ask those questions for a reason because we really, really want to be able to help you. And there are a lot of people supporting this. And let me tell y'all if y'all don't customized your LinkedIn profile I am going to talk about y'all.

So everybody, thank you so much for joining. I hope these tips hurt helped or will help you to engage with executives in your organization. Tomorrow we will have crystal Ada who will be talking about workplace harassment so definitely come get the tactics and tools you can use in the workplace when it comes to harassment. See you then

View Details

Welcome, welcome, everybody. It is absolutely fantastic to be here with you today. I am Michele Heyward, founder of positive hire. And if you are attending the stem Success Summit, thank you so much for joining us here at the positive hire booth. Now, if you're like, I don't know what you mean, by stem Success Summit, I got you covered. I'm going to share with you a very special event that started on us November 17, and runs until November 20. It is called the stem Success Summit, hosted by stem media, which was founded by Dr. Nehemiah Marbury, who is a civil engineer. He's a licensed structural engineer. He's also an instructor at NC, a Northland State University. So definitely, definitely go and register for this job success summit. You're like, okay, great. Some engineer created us. Let me tell you why the stem Success Summit is absolutely fantastic opportunity for you. If you are young, STEM professional, they're going to help you even students, launch a successful and meaningful career is what this summit is all about. For you. What they're looking at helping you do is really hone in on your STEM career strategy, and certifications, having you look at technology and innovation, all his career opportunities, looking at securing finance, funding and financial management opportunities, as well as personal finance, personal branding, networking and resume building are going on at the summit to even talk about graduate school and research careers. But I'm in the entrepreneurship and startup side of it. But I'm having a booth here so definitely definitely can talk about startups. We can talk about what that looks like if you are a STEM professional or if you're STEM students so science, technology, engineering and math. That's what Ste M stands for STEM. They're going to have a healthcare and medicine as well as sustainability and environmental advocacy. But more importantly, it is usually last but it's absolutely the most important part of who you are is your mental health and personal well be we're going to cover all of that during this virtual summit that is completely free which blows my mind I got to talk to you Nehemiah you might need to be charging for this. You can also do job hunting in STEM. So today, I am here not only sharing with you the stem Success Summit, but what you can get from it and to engage with those of you that are attending the summit. So I'm really really happy to have you join us today. Now. I am going to be talking about something that is near and dear to my heart which is why Black Latinx and indigenous women are the best thing that happening to stem like truly truly what's up what's going on, is on and poppin they are truly the next generation. They are going to take stem by storm and it they're truly the future of STEM so science technology, engineering and math. Before I get started if you can in the chat share with us where you're tuning in from I'm in rural South Carolina, my home state Clemson University graduate maybe your student put in what university you rapid we want to know here at the stem Success Summit. We want to get to know you we definitely definitely want to see what's going on with each of you right now. Okay, if you have questions, definitely drop those in as well. And we will get to those as we go through the short time we have together but we want to make it as powerful as possible, as interactive and engaging as possible as well. So let's let's not get upset but let's make it the best that it can possibly be. All right. Now what I do want to do is let's get started with why Black Latinx of Indigenous women women are the future of STEM to me. I don't know you may have a different view. Definitely definitely let me know I want to know your your viewpoint on this as well. I want to know your thoughts I saw this as well. So definitely be sharing that, as we have this time together. And even if you're watching the replay, I still want to know. So the first reason why I truly believe black Latinx and indigenous women are the future of STEM is number one. They're solving community or societal problems. What Yes, they are literally just solving us a very niche problem. But usually that solution is impacting those people or people on a large scale. So oftentimes we talk about skin, I don't know how many of you remember, if you're my age, or tell nginx or older, we're in, you go by makeup, and we'll make you look ashy. Or there were medical devices that do not work for us. Even if you're looking at BMI, where they're looking at your weight, your body mass index, BMI, it is not based on African body bill, which is definitely different than what it's based on. And so we're coming in solving maternal health, because there's a high maternal health. There's a high maternal health, death rate for black women, for Hispanic women, for Asian women, how do we change that, and so they're really looking at solutions that have often been overlooked. But for the vast majority of the world, they will be, they will be solving that problem. So that is one thing that I'm really, really excited about. The next thing that I would say, as to why Black Latinx and indigenous women are, are the future of STEM their leaders. They are leaders in their communities. And when they go out, and they are doing work for the community, the community listens, the community response. And we see this often in politics. We see this often in fundraising, where they're able to really bring people together to solve a problem to to create movement, and really bring about change. And that is another reason why I see these women in these communities really being the future of STEM, because they as leaders, they, they they're listening to their community, and they're responding. And they're solving these problems in a very technical way, but in a very caring way, which is another The next reason why I think they will be the future of STEM, they will be the future of STEM, because they're nurturers, you cannot solve a problem in society, with our research without caring about people. Without talking to people without being able to relate to people, you will not be able to solve a problem. And if you're not able to solve a problem for people, if you're not able to do that, who are you solving the problem for? Maybe it's yourself, maybe it is you're in when you're looking at solutions, you have to be able to talk to people engage with people understand at a at a emotional level, what they need, and being able to connect with them for some of us right to create these solutions. Women have oftentimes a women have a great gift at this, and and being nurtured it. So it's really, really important to understand how to leverage that part of women, the nurturing part to bring about solutions that require science, technology, engineering, and a lot of math, high levels of math. And that oftentimes is oh, you're a nurturer. You shouldn't be doing this difficult stuff. No, they should be doing the difficult things because they have to be humanized, you have to bring in that nurturing side of what is going on. It's developing and changing what is what is in STEM. And one of the reasons I like civil engineering was a lot of people want it to
want it to change and build stuff, right. But one of the things I learned in civil was how you we were responsible as civil engineers for the public. Okay, you design it, but if it failed, the structure fail, what impact does it have on lives? If it isn't able to do X, Y and Z? What impact does it have on the owner? If it can't do 123? How does it impact the public? And so in su Will was always pushed upon me and others in my program that impacted the work we did a civil engineers on the public. And oftentimes that is removed, right? Having a sense of responsibility, or who's going to engage with your code, who's gonna engage with this process you're developing inside a facility to maybe produce the next level of I don't know, widgets or something, medical devices, hair products, vaccines, whatever that is. But nobody's really focus on it as much when you're talking about science, technology, engineering and math, like, Oh, that's a social science. We don't do you have to bring in the nurturing when you're talking about these solutions, okay. Next, the next reason, I think that women who are black Latinx, and indigenous, in STEM are driving the future is because they're underestimated. It's like, wait, what they're underestimated. They're tired of being gas lit. They're tired of being overlooked, they're tired. They see the opportunity to go into entrepreneurship, they see the opportunity to found their own startups, they see the opportunity to become consultants to go and solve these problems, they still see the opportunity, but it is no longer inside somebody else's walls. It is inside their own business. And so they're now then going out. And this is never that they're under estimating. So they're pissed off, and they're leaving. If you don't know, black women not only are graduating with more degrees, not as many in STEM as we'd like, but they're eating a lot of businesses, as well as Hispanic women. at enormous rates, like 270% a year, being able then to help them get funding and grow those businesses and generate is the next step generate, you know, six and seven figure businesses that are science technology, engineering base is the next step. And so I see people in the space now solving that problem, getting these women funding, helping them structure their businesses and helping them generate that wealth. That is why I see this as the next opportunity for the future of STEM with black black mixing digital. I said it, I said what I said, I meant what I said, I'm gonna go what I said, Okay, that's, that's that's how it is. That's how it's going down today. Okay. Um, the next thing. So I said they're starting to CES at record levels. But you know, what else they do? They get culture, right. They're creating these businesses and they're getting their culture right. Organizations right now we're talking about the great resignation. And employees are quitting, let me tell you something. Women of color in STEM have been leaving organizations have been leaving their STEM careers at high rates, like one in every three, we will have small population of a professionals one in three. There are out of all engineers in the US 3.94% combined, are black, Hispanic, and Native women come back. All 100% of engineers, when you get down to it 3.94% are black, Hispanic, and Native women with engineering degrees. I'm part of that 3.94%. I'm also part of that. Women of Color one out of three that leaves their STEM career as well. But I wanted to start off creating an inclusive culture. Because when you create that culture, they stay. And so organization like, Oh, it's a pipeline problem. It is a culture problem. You're seeing a high level of resignations of people leaving because you refuse to change the culture. And so this has not been all of a sudden the signs and signals have been there. What organizations did they ignored them why? Because it was black women quit. They she don't matter. There were Latinas quit. Oh, she don't matter. There were indigenous women quit sheet no matter what you know what happened? The white women were looking LGBTQ community employees. Were looking In the white men who no longer wanted to be there and be somewhere else, when they knew more people gonna be respected, were looking and watching. And you didn't change anything. And then what happens? A pandemic, where all of these people were continuously dying. And you were focused more on, where you're going to still be able to be productive, and generate revenue, because we still owe things to our stakeholders, you owe things to your employees first, and your employees are speaking. But because the vast majority of those employees who look like the C suite are now leaving, we're having an issue. But you still don't want to change sort of future of STEM is black Latinx Indigenous women, because they're creating inclusive workplaces where people are no longer overlooked. Their voices are heard, the ideas are not stolen while they're sitting at the same table as people who don't look like them. That is why Black Latinx and indigenous women are the future of STEM, highly educated, highly motivated, creating solutions for societal problems at scale. And the people they are worried about a people that are working in their businesses, don't get me wrong, they owe something to their stakeholders and their customers, but they're taking care of their employees first. And they're getting that right, because organizations refuse to make those changes. And organizations had decades to do this, but they want to grow profits. I remember I did a summit last year, in April, like right at the onset of the pandemic. And I said the best performing companies will be those that aren't inclusive. The other panelists had said other things, they looked at me I said because the people will stay, they will bring in new ideas, they will get the support they need. And they will get to this those comfortable iterate into markets and develop products they never thought about because they had not listened to the voices of black Latinx and indigenous women. Trust me on this. If you don't bet on anything, you're gonna bet on black. Okay. All right. Now, what is the next reason that black Latin X and indigenous women are the future stem different perspectives lead to different solutions, different perspective lead to different solutions, okay. I don't know if let's play this game. Make some of us may have been home school, some of us went to school on a bus, some of us may be dropped off by parents or carpool. So you're in a minivan or a car, somebody dropped you off your experience in travel all different, right? Some of us know to prepare for rainy days, because we took the school bus. So we always kept the umbrella on us. Those of us that may have been in a passenger car or private vehicle, you know, parents or carpool may not because the car usually came closer to us. And so our solutions and and how we view the world and how we anticipate things so differently, and our solutions. And I remember being somewhere. And we were having an issue with I don't I don't even remember exactly what the issue was. But the solution was literally was taking a piece of aluminum fall. And in some wood because we couldn't find any I was like looking for something that would flatten out but still be stiff. So why don't you just use a piece of aluminum foil, and he looked at me. But if you ever had this level anything or shimmy something paper only lasts so long.
And I know what we want something to form fit. So paper would end up being moved around. But if you could form something at the bottom of this leg on this table, the aluminum foil was going to form around it and stay longer and not be shifted and move like piece of cardboard or paper or wood. And people like I never would have thought of aluminum foil. But by having different experiences always trying to level out stuff. You come up with different solutions. So different perspectives, different experiences. You see different solutions. And oftentimes, we should diversify teams, women, you know, they always think in medical devices that are too large or women. They're always making these things for men. When you look at vehicle designs, these are all we design these vehicles for women. Yet when you look at studies, certain heights, which are usually the height that most women fall into, have to have the highest death rates and injury rates because the vehicle was designed for women, but the seatbelt, the steering column, the seat were not to help us help us live through a crash or are not getting severely injured. Right. It was just marketed to women. It was not designed for men, women in mind. They kept the same exact measurements that they've been using. But the woman that comes out with the Ciesla I'm gonna call it is Ciesla because y'all love Tesla's it's a Ciesla, the chef's law that was actually designed for women five, foot five and shorter maybe to 14 or nine, right? Who are sometimes pregnant. Right, who need to be closer to the steering wheel who need to have their seats raise whoever creates the Ciesla and gets it right will be a woman because nobody's developing those yet. They haven't listened. They don't have that experience of what it's like to be choked by a seatbelt, and having to figure out how to work around. They don't know what it's like to always try to keep two or three kids to sit down. And women are coming up with these solutions because they're living it every single day. So why is the future of STEM black Latinx and indigenous women? I run it back on my running back for it, I'm gonna run it back. Because we solve community or societal problems, right? We're in the culture, we're up the culture, and we're solving and bringing solutions for the culture. That's what we do. That's what we do. Right? Women are natural leaders. I said it not mean girls, but leaders. Women activate in their communities in the culture and they are change agents. Why? Because number three, they're nurturers, they're going to nurture people. And so when they come up with solutions, when they're solving problems, they're thinking about people in mind not profits. That's, that's a tool that's a double edged sword and business, right? You're solving a solution for people. If the people like the solution, then go back and ask them how much they'll pay for it. So it can be profitable. But if you're solving something and you're not nurturing, you're not being human with that solution. Nobody's gonna pay for it. They don't want it. Black Latin X and indigenous women, especially in STEM are underestimated, overlooked and just damn tired. They're not going to leave their their expertise, their education, their knowledge, when they leave their STEM career. They're just going to go to number five, and start their own businesses, whether it's a 10 tech startup, whether it's a small business, whether it's consulting firm, and you're going to take that with them. And you're going to leverage that to build a number six, an inclusive workplace, because organizations have not listened. They tried to fix black Latin X and indigenous communities, people and say you need to fit in here to how we do. You need to be more inclusive. So those organizations have not done work. So they're seeing not just black Latinx and indigenous women in STEM quitting. They're seeing everybody resigning and high numbers because you showed you did not care about people. It was profits over people. And those people have said you know what, time's up. I'm done. I'm going someplace else, because it is not here. And lastly, why Black Latin X Indigenous women are the future of STEM. They bring in different perspectives that lead to different solutions. Too often they aren't listened to an organization's and guess what? They are now leaving and taking those ideas and executing them outside of those organizations. they're still gonna solve the problem, they still won't get it done. Sudden, that's what they're going to do. So it's really, really important to understand. For organizations like, Oh, we're going to, we're going to make the change, you got to go saying that Michael Jackson song, but you're gonna have to go do some work. If you want to have black Latinx Indigenous women in STEM in your organization, to drive the future, you have to change our culture. And that is not what's happening. So hey, Dr. Nehemiah, I'm glad you could drop by. Thank you, Haley for joining me. Yes. Do you believe let's ask this question, do you believe black Latin X and indigenous women are the future of STEM? I want to know, I want to know your thoughts. Do you believe they are the future of STEM? I do, obviously, because I wouldn't be talking about it. But I want to know your thoughts on that I truly, truly do. All right. If you're just joining us, I want to let you know that we have our next event coming up this month, next week, Tuesday, where I'll be talking about how to level up your length in live. Not live just on LinkedIn. Okay. And you can join me over@vit.ly I'm at I'm gonna add this, I forgot to add this. But you can join me at this. This webinar. It is it is literally a webinar, it is going to go on for 75 minutes, about 40 minutes of 40 minutes of teaching you some tips and things you didn't know about getting seen and heard on LinkedIn. And then you can also ask some questions that we that I may about what you're doing on LinkedIn. And we can definitely, definitely talk about that. And then we can also just hang out, I don't know. We can also just hang out. I like hanging out with y'all. Well, the people in my community, I won't say all y'all, but some of y'all I do enjoy hanging out with. So you can go to bi T dot L Y You thought I'd like to say another word. I was not for slash up leveling on LinkedIn. That's up leveling, all lowercase. It is case sensitive. So up leveling on LinkedIn, all lowercase. And join me there. It goes down at 7pm. East Coast time on Tuesday, November 13. I'm going to be talking about up leveling on LinkedIn. So if you have not done that I want to share with you is is some really easy things you can do is not always I didn't know it worked like that. Yes, it really, really does work like that. And it's not anything you have to stress about. But definitely some some monumentous things you can do on your profile to get saved by recruiters and hiring managers even build out your network. So we're going to talk about that on the next webinar at positive hire. So I don't know I'm excited about it. I would love to have you all there. So come by up leveling on LinkedIn on November 23. If it's after November 23, you're going to have to come over two positive hire.co forward slash blog. And we'll have the replay posted there but you want to join live so you can ask your questions. Because I'm not taking questions before the event but I am taking questions during the event. Alright everybody, thank you so much.
If you have not registered yet, if you have not registered yet, you want to go join the stem Success Summit at 21 dot stem success summit.com I'm not 21 2021 dot stem success summit.com It goes on until November 20. So you got a little bit of time. They come in join the fun and really connect with others in STEM, young professionals in STEM as well as those in college learning and learning their craft and getting started. So everybody have a great time at the summit and I will catch you later. Bye

View Details

Find out how Brianne's curiosity about science and math and finally fell in love with engineering.

View Details

What is going on everybody? This is Michele Heyward. I am so happy you are joining me. Yes, no, really I am. So for those of you don't know me, I'm a civil engineer, founder tech company positive hire. And I'm all about retaining as many Latina black and indigenous women in their STEM professions. So that's what I work on every single day, for as long as I can, which will be the rest of my life. So today, I want to talk about just really focusing on three things, three things you can do to exit to exit your job, like, how do you prep to exit a job? Like, you know what? I'm done? So long? Does this this did not work? Like what do you need to be doing? How do you do it? Where do you do it? Or what do you do? Right? So first thing I want you to do, is really take inventory of every thing you do. And I don't mean like, oh, I plan this. Oh, I am, of course I get on, and I get a text because I gotta go pick somebody up. Oh, I do this. I managed, you know, I want you to go with the things that you manage that you lead that you create, your you've created, right. So if you create it processes, you manage teams, you manage processes, you help increase budgets, you increase revenue, you you improve productivity, those are huge things that you need to be collecting data on what systems and software's, do you know, do you have mastered and tell you the true Hell, if you know how to turn them on, sign up, get in and kind of work your way around? That's good enough. Cuz a lot of people don't even know how to do that. Right? So take inventory of all the things you do. And you know, from that current employer, as well as previous employers, maybe even your background, your education, maybe you learn how to do something with statistics, right? That you still somewhat handle, maybe you are absolutely a master at Excel key, keep that down, because it does matter. And it is very important. So now that you take an inventory, all this stuff, right, and you're trying to figure out like, Okay, what do I do next? What do I do next? Okay. Don't worry about what your job title is. Because for a lot of women of color, you are doing work outside of that job title. Because you have to prove yourself, right? Well, you know, you don't have the same experience, whatever, whatever excuses you're given. So they give you all have this stretch assignment work. Now, what you want to do is take that information, that inventory of stuff that you do, you go on, go over to someplace like LinkedIn like Glassdoor and look for someone or software she worked with, look for the level of excellence that the stuff that the daily responsibilities that you have, that things that you manage, the things that you have put you lead the things that you've created, and looking see what job titles pop up, you probably would will be surprised. Hey, I am Cambridge, you will probably be very surprised to find out you're doing work one, two levels above what you're currently getting paid. So what does that mean you need to do? Now you know where to start looking for jobs. Hey, Daria, were to really go to start looking for jobs to really go and say, hey, hey, this is what I do. This is what I'm worth. And you're like, Michelle, when they go to check to see if I work at this employer. They're going to find out my job title is x, y, z, Hey, your job title doesn't matter. Your ability to perform matters. So you want to take that inventory list that you had, right? We took inventory, and you go do to search in that inventory list I left off also include your kudos, where people say oh my god, I couldn't have done this part of the project without you Oh my God, without you, we would not have made this date. Right? What did you do for those people? Because that leads to how good you really are. So now you have the inventory of what you do. You found out that the job titles you really need to be looked checking for when you go to apply for things. So what do you do next, when you read, girl, you won't get your resume professionally done, based off of the key words or phrases that you're seeing in the resumes. And you're like what Michelle? Is a lot of okay, let me tell you how one easy way to figure out a way to kind of figure out what keywords to use. And you you shouldn't be tailoring your resume to each job. But let's say you're going to the National Black MBA conference. And they're going to be various employers there. All right, so it's like 10 employers 10 jobs.

I'm laughing at my mentee, because I met her place, she left to go to this event. And when she left, she told me to lock the door. She didn't leave me to key and she's like, well, you can come pick me up. Now. She realized that she goes home with her house, he when I come pick her up, I can't lock her apartment door. But no, I'm not telling you where she live. Okay. All right. So that's gonna be that's why I'm over here laughing because I'm reading her text messages. Okay. So now you you're going to use some keywords. So you can do a keyword search, just copying and pasting the words, copy and pasted a job post and put it into a Google Doc, right? And maybe do a keyword search and see how many of a certain type of software certain type of system a come up. Maybe they're saying lead supervisor, and Minister, whatever that is, pops up. When you copy and paste all of those job descriptions. Well, let me tell you a whole other trick. So you just want to take a certain portion of those job descriptions, like the most half from let's say, it's five job descriptions must haves from five job descriptions, copy and paste them you want to go do what's called a word cloud, a word where you can go I think is word cloud.com. And you've probably seen word clouds before, let me see if I can pull up one I just did a couple of weeks ago. Oh, hold on. Let me turn this off. Just a little bit. We're okay cuz I can't it hope I don't turn off my laptop at the same time. Course I don't see word cloud come up. But you want to do something. It's called a word cloud. And you've seen them before. And they'll be shaped like a heart or just be a circle. And it has all these words in hand, the bigger the words are, the more time it has occurred in wherever they're pulling this data from. So you can literally take the information from the job description, put it into a word cloud, not only will it make that designed for you, but it tells you how many of certain of words were repeated. Yes, so it gives you a list. Oh, this is repeated 15 times this is eight times this is twice. So the key words you need to be using, probably are those that I mentioned multiple times, and all across most of those job descriptions. It's not 100%. Remember, it's software, and truly some of the software's crap. Because even if you write down exactly what the job description says, on your resume, you still not getting hired, and you don't get to interview data, analysts doing nothing. So it's really important to at least try to beat the algorithm by being that specific. So those are some of the things you can do when it comes to really preparing to leave like get your resume together. And from that resume, like your LinkedIn shouldn't be just your resume. So here's a bonus update your rep update your LinkedIn. With those metrics, like how many people you manage the size of the budget, you manage improvement and productivity. Put some numbers in there because people resonate with numbers, but also put in your bio, who you help how you help them. Right write who you help, and how do you help them and what I mean? I improve out of motivation factories productivity so that they increase their revenue. So if you're a manufacturing engineer, you could say, I improve productivity for automotive manufacturers by improving productivity of their line workers in the paint shop. Right? Maybe it's on hanging doors. Hey, Becca, whatever it is be very, very specific. Hey, thanks. Hey, bubbly frown. So be very, very specific. When you do your headline on your LinkedIn who you help and how you help them and also what results you get them. But when it's time to go, it's time to go. Alright everybody, I'm gonna get out of here I gotta go pick up my mentee and leave her do a lot because this way my laptop in here she needed to catch a live back. She she gonna have a capital. I guess I could take my laptop. Oh, thank you. I know who that is. Hey, Pear girl CV I know who that is. All right, I gotta run. No, I'm not this is like a peach. Mango orange juice. It just looked really good. No sugar in here. The liquid liquid sugar. So I'm key I know you left him to like wait, I'm gonna leave my laptop in here. She can leave her pen on it. Alright, these young these young children. These young children I don't know how to do it. Alright, everybody have a happy Thanksgiving. I may be back on I'm really on a hiatus. But two nights in a row. Oh, yeah, it is good though. It is good. Brandon. I'm getting out. I'm doing like you do me Brandon when I come onto your scopes. I'm sure you can catch the replay. I'm leaving ba that's what Brandon do to me. Like really? You're not gonna hang up the two more minutes to go on with no brand like nope, gotta go. Like body and brand and be like that brand. So, but anyway, everybody, I really am going to get out of here. I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving. If you don't celebrate it, I hope you get the chance to spend it with family and friends. Just because if nothing else. I love it because I get to see family. I don't always get to see every single day or month. It's like that one time a year. You need a full 30 minute recap with great training is called the replay. Hello and it's only going to be 30 minutes long and I saved you 17 minutes call me Geico. Hello. Alright everybody, have a good one. Bye.

View Details

In this episode we have Lynn Hurdle, she's going to be teaching us how to communicate as a leader, as a woman of color in the workplace.

View Details

Ready for joining me. This is national mentors month, and it is an absolutely great month. If you are looking to mentor young people, even young professionals, definitely definitely reach out to some organizations or directly to someone you would like to mentor. Because it is absolutely a great thing to do. And it makes you feel good to give back. Today I want to talk about keeping a positive mindset in a toxic workplace. If you have ever worked in a place where in it is truly, truly toxic, it is difficult for you to even one a walk through the door, much less not quit on the spot. I have so been there with you. So these are some some of the things I've done. These are some things that other professionals recommend. And I wanted to share them with you so that you're able to cope with that toxic workplace. And hopefully, you're you're finding a way to get out of it. But these are some things that you can do. Right? So number one, have a positive mindset. Meaning go in there and say, you know, this is temporary. I have done more difficult things. I'm stronger than this situation. And I can make it through this. You can absolutely say that something I used to say was, this is a time for me to grow. Remember, we grow through difficult times I remember a pawn title, the rose that grew through conch crack in the concrete. And it's a poem that Tupac Shakur wrote many, many years ago, and I have the poetry book probably on that bookshelf. But it was truly truly important that you are in this very, very difficult situation. But it does not mean something positive cannot happen.

So keep a positive mindset. Something else that you can do when it's very stressful, when you're coming into this workplace is remembering to breathe it in through your nose out through your mouth, you can do that on your way to work. If you drive you in the parking lot. And really, really just breathe, even if you're in the office, just taking a moment to close your eyes, and to breathe, because it can truly help relax your shoulders. Take some of the stress and pressure physically out of your body just breathing for a few minutes. Yes, it absolutely absolutely does help. Something that always helped me was in music having these in where I could tune out the negativity. I could tune out the bad news. I could tune out the aggravating people, right. We're headsets and what it allowed me to do to not only I could listen to podcasts, I could listen to audiobooks, things that were positive that were feeding positive positivity in me. Even though I was surrounded by negativity, right by in a toxic workplace. Still having something positive. With me every single day is really one way I really got into podcasts. Audiobooks, not so much, because I like to, I'm still a physical book person, as you can tell by this bookshelf. And I really, really like having books, even though I read them very slowly, or they don't always keep my attention. But it was a great way for me to tune out the negativity. Now something else I did. When it came to being in a in a negative. A toxic and negative workplace was listening to music. What is music that is upbeat that makes you happy makes you feel good.

I don't know if any of you remember the song Happy by why? Why am I forgetting his name right now. But anyway. And that song just makes you feel happy? What are those songs that make you feel happy? Maybe it's a station you can find on Spotify. Maybe it's a station or playlists you can put together from a provider that you have. And you really just listened to that and put putting together different playlists. So you always listen to the same one, but maybe five to 10 of them so you can put them in rotation to really help you get through the workday news. It can absolutely change your mood and get you through the workday in a toxic workplace. Something else you can do is phone a friend. Yes, use a lifeline phone a friend. Finding a friend really helps somebody else. Hear you vent. They let you let it loose and then they feed back into you and they build you up to get you through that day through that moment through dealing and working in that
Toxic workplaces. So phoning a friend who is positive and uplifting, don't phone a friend who's always negative. And down around the world, that is not who Negative Nelly is not who you want to call, when you're in a negative place. Don't call another negative person. I know in math, they make positive. But that is not who you want to call when you're dealing with having to go repeatedly in a toxic workplace. All right. Next, prayer and meditation, prayer and meditation, find your favorite scripture, your favorite quote, and just go within right, I'll go with that go above, and really let that refuel, you keep you lit, so that you can make it through the day. Next, take breaks.
Even if it's a 1015 minute break, just go sit in your car, find a quiet place, some places have a lactation room. Some places have a cafeteria, where it's not lunchtime and just go sit there and just get away from the negativity so that you can re germinate and re energize yourself to continue to work there for as long as you have to take those breaks, it really, really helps. In saying that I thought about
something that some people do, they have snacks, and they end up gaining weight when they're in a toxic workplace. If you're either when it comes to stress, switch out those things that God will make you gain weight, so that you're eating things that are more nutritious, more, just as delicious. So maybe set up potato chips, you have sweet potato chips, on veggie chips, different things like that, to really really make you feel as though you can make it through the day. Now.

I know taking breaks aren't something that all of us can easily do.

But this is something that absolutely can work is speaking positively. Even in that situation. Remember I said you can get through it, you can make it happen even even having that right mindset but speaking it so that you believe it, going there and saying you know what I have I can truly do this. I believe in myself I'm stronger than I look alright. And you know, I will be stronger at the end of this. There's a reason I'm in this difficult place right now. And whatever that reason is, I will persevere I will overcome and I will win in the end.

So no matter what it is just know not to give up and you can absolutely do this. So let's go back over how to keep a positive mindset when you're in a negative workplace. Remember to breathe. Remember to think positively. Listen to music. listen to audiobooks and podcasts, which are positive even YouTube channels their various YouTube channels which are positive phone a friend gotta use another lifeline, right? Prayer meditation, take breaks and speak positively about the situation you're in that something good will come out of it. I'm Michele Heyward. This is your mentor Monday, and I will be back next week, talking more about how you can become better as women of color STEM professionals. I'll talk to you later. Bye

View Details

Hello, everybody, it is International Women's Day. This is Michele Heyward here from positive hire, we're so excited to be with you, not only on International Women's Day, but also Women's History Month, in partnership with system, I'm gonna explain who that is in just a minute. I'm really excited. For the next four Wednesdays, we will be going live with a fantastic group of women who are in probably an industry many people may not be familiar with. But you absolutely should be familiar with. And this is why we are absolutely it is an absolutely essential part of our world. So system is founded by Nicole Brown systems, a casual network of women of color in the water and green industry. See that you didn't know that was an industry, you're learning something new today, Women's History Month, system is a play off of the word system. So system that I'm saying is s i s t e m, which is a definition of a regularly interacting or entity, interdependent group of items forming a unified whole. But this system with an eye focuses on women of color in the STEM field, Nicole was motivated to create this group after hearing a common theme for women of color working in water within her network. And these were three things she was hearing. I enjoy what I do. But I feel like I'm the only woman of color and I'm not sure that I belong. The second thing she would hear, I would love a mentor that understood the unique challenges we have as women of color in this field. And the third and final, I don't feel like I can be my authentic self at work. Have you felt that way?

This is why Nicole created system sounds really familiar. So why I created positive hire, which is why we've partnered together during women's history month. What you're really going to be in for is a treat tonight, as we talk about this month, women doing well and really persevering in the water and green industry, but also making connections here, whether you're following us on LinkedIn, YouTube or Facebook, we're so so happy to have you here tonight. Tonight, we're talking about a very, very important topic. And I love when we when this topic came up because I think often forget, and it's about our you're aligning your why and your career. And we have a fantastic speaker tonight that I am going to introduce to all of you, and we're going to have this great dialogue and conversation. And so I'm really excited to have her join us. Kay Beeler is 20 has 20 years of experience in finance, accounting, and digital water working alongside major municipal clients across the US. She has worked in finance, parks and recreation, general city city administration and utilities. Her expertise includes identifying funding sources, grant writing, and financial planning. As a versatile and visionary executive. She has managed dozens of projects drawing upon her expertise in all facets of executive leadership, strategy, and complex financial management. I'm excited. Are y'all excited? Are you excited? Hey, I am I am. This is thank you for having me. It's great to have you here. What did I leave out? What should people know about you that that's not in the bio? Like,

like if if they want to get on your good side? Is there a treat? Or is it like don't call me before 7am? Or don't call me after 9pm? Like, like you'd at night at a morning person? I am definitely not a morning person. So don't schedule anything for me before eight and then we're okay. I love it. See, I'm before 10 We you want us to be friends? Don't don't not before 10. Not before. So as we talk about this subject, aligning your why your career I think is really important. Because as we progress in our careers, our goals change our lives definitely change. When you think about aligning your Y. What's the first thing that you would tell that comes to mind for you? We'll start there.
I think the first thing is you know what gets you up in the morning.

And what's your reason for being? What excites you? So my why is I come back to it all the time is, why am I doing this? What is it? And what drives me? I love it. I love it. Um, is that waking up? Because like, do I want to get out of bed or not get out?
So what would you tell women in your industry, when it comes to their their y?

I'd say you know, first, once you identify it, or once you think you identify it, realize that it's always going to be evolving, that is not static, and give yourself permission to change and pivot. And I think that's been the largest thing that I've had to learn, or the biggest issue that I've struggled with is just realizing that things change.

Yes, they absolutely do. Now, as we look at your career, early on, what was your why, for for, you know, in your career Early on, for being in the industry.

You know, the industry kind of found me, I was recruited out of college, so I didn't know much about the industry. And initially, it was really just proving ground. You know, it was I knew that there were not a lot of women, and not a lot of women of color, and not a lot of young women. And so when I layered those things on it was just, hey, I can do it, I'm going to prove to everybody that I can. And that was part of what drove me early on. Okay. I like that, like, you know, being the only one. Um,

it's really can be daunting sometimes. But I love how you say, You know what, I'm up for the challenge. I like that. When you look at your evolution and growth in your career has, how often has your why has your why change? And how often do you think it's changed?
Oh, well, I think initially, after you prove yourself, you know, that gets a little daunting to keep proving yourself. And so you get to a shift of where you know, you belong. And you recognize that and you feel like others should. So that was probably the first shift that where I really had to get comfortable with who I was. And what I brought to the table. I think the the change, the second change was being a mother. Because then everything comes into focus that maybe wasn't before, at least for me. And so it was not only did I have myself to think about but I now had my son. And so I thought about not only caring for him and being able to provide but what kind of example and what kind of legacy I had. So that was a big driver for me. And as I progressed, it was really It got to not only my son, but also my legacy other women, other people of color, how could I impact them? So those now are all intertwine. So it's not just one way, it's several different ones. And, and I love talking about the mother aspect. So now you're a mom, your Y has has changed. And I love I love this, I'm gonna get into it, not a mommy so.

So you're telling us a bit about your personal life? How has that driven your decision about where you live? Maybe even
the hours you may put in, like How's it changed those, you know, you're living as well as your work life? Well, it changed in that I had to really make some tough decisions at times, because once you become a mother, or once I became a mother, I needed different support. So whereas I started and when my career really took off, I was in the Midwest and Northeast, and his life changes happen. And I'm a mom and you go through splits and divorces and all of those things. I moved back to Dallas where I'm originally from. And so part of it was, you know, not only did my son need support, but I needed support. And so that really was a shift in my career. It really was a shift in my ownership. I was an entrepreneur at the time. But also my priorities changed. So sometimes I'd have to work late sometimes I'd have to work early, but I just have to get the job done. So I think that really impacted a lot of personal decisions for me.

Absolutely, absolutely understandable. When we look at
look at those times in your life because they've shifted who are some of your role models as you're going through early career, becoming a mom mid career and being an entrepreneur as well who were some of those role models for you? Well, it started with my parents. My dad was probably one of my closest confidants he was like a coach, or throughout most of my life and career early on from that
High school being a drill team running track to go into college and picking classes. He really was that grounding for us. He was a man of faith and or is a man of faith and an engineer. So always gave me that practical kind of foundation. My mom, she's an executive, she ran the VA Medical Center for several years. So I really grew up hearing about executive leadership and organizational behavior at the dinner table. So now I realized that a lot of those things were deposited in me.

Professionally, I think the game changer for me was going to work in Pittsburgh, and having alpha San, the utility in Allegheny County as my client. I worked alongside our letter Williams, who's, who's been so much to so many. But she really kind of elevated and helped me elevate my life as a consultant and as a professional just because she demanded excellence. And I remember started and I had, I just had all of this energy and just rough edges. And you know, people gave me grace. But she told me, I'll never forget, she said, Kay, why bark when you can grow? And why growl when you can just show up on the porch, you're enough. And so that kind of really started me on this journey of not having really curtailing my energy and realizing what my assets were.

I love it. I love it. Parents, young, you get molded young for many years. So this is really good. And that's what we always say Big Brothers, Big Sisters and mentoring programs play a huge role in our lives, especially as an adult. So I'm so happy that you like many of us, were able to have role models, early in life, but early in career, because they absolutely do help us.
You shared
some things that you are entrepreneur. So I'm a founder, Ramon tech startup, so I love talking about. So let's delve into the entrepreneurship. And then we're gonna come back to water industry. And just, and we'll come back to that. So tell us a bit about how did you end up as an entrepreneur, and being a mom, and an entrepreneur that you you mentioned a few moments ago?
Well, I started, I worked for a couple of firms early on. And as they changed as the environment changed, there was really an opportunity for me to kind of go out on my own, sometimes, you know, I had management, and then the scope change and a couple of projects. And as I got more disconnected from my clients, working for the corporations, I thought, wow, you know, I could do this. And at the time, I'm young, I didn't have enough sense to know, you know, crazy, you don't have any money saved. But I went out on my own, started getting clients doing analysis, getting involved in programs. And it just kept snowballing. I got so much work that I couldn't do it alone. And then that was the start of my firm. So I had to hire people, I got more projects. And I really had a knack and a love for people that I was able to combine with my skill set and able to connect. And so that is how I started. I had my firm probably about five years before I hit my son. So I had enough to be stable. And you know, starting that success kind of trajectory was starting. And it was a point of no return. I had contracts. So there wasn't, you know, as my dad said, you can't pack your tent and go home. So that's really it just got bigger than I could manage alone. And so my firm just started and I was successful. So I moved to Chicago first and then to Pittsburgh, and kind of follow up that Ohio for the water and sewer. So entrepreneurship. It wasn't my intent at first, but it definitely was part of my journey.
I love it. I love that, that that progression.

You also mentioned following Following the war, because I'm thinking Mississippi when he's
wrong, don't get me wrong here, but I'm not that bad of an engineer.

Understand the issue around water affordability. And how that became the opportunity that changed your career. Can you tell us a bit about that? Sure. And Texas, you know, you didn't have as many especially we're talking 1520 years ago, you didn't have the wet wet weather issues that you have now. And I saw an opportunity in the Midwest and Northeast they had most of the communities were under a consent decree. You had aging infrastructure you had transitioning
population, you had cost issues. And then you had really, you know, typography difference in typography. So they had the EPA was coming in, they were sewing most of the utilities and they were trying to figure out, Okay, we have all of these technical solutions, how do we pay for them. And up until that point, there really wasn't a concise nexus of where finance and engineering meet. So I had that background of both. But I really was able to use my financial ability and the ability to connect with clients and stakeholders. So we had to one figure out what the ratepayers could pay to what could the utilities afford to finance. And so because of those multi year programs, for small business, it was great because it was no longer $25,000 $50,000 RFP, you are a long term, multi year program. So that was the beginning of what I was saying was my career and the stability.

Yeah, so you want to climate change, but you didn't say I'm saying climate change. So we'll say that case said it say that Michelle said it. Okay.
That's it.

It and for those of you that I worked on capital projects, and utilities, I built transmission lines and fossil fuel. I worked in Pittsburgh to boughs out and fossil retrofit for fossil fuel plants. For those who don't know, coal is cold.
So I'm sitting here like, Oh, my God, that is so true. All of this is so resonating with me. So for those of you if anything that Kay is saying resonates with you, please drop it in the chat, I would love to see what your thoughts are. So she can see what you're saying as well. And I'll share some things on the screen. But I'm sitting here going through thinking of the opportunities that you found as an entrepreneur with these long term contracts. Because I agree with you to 25 and $50,000 are great, but 25,000, or $50,000 per month, over four years is even better. So what what advice would you give to someone who is in their career, they're considering entrepreneurship, and they're considering trying to figure out what steps they would take in the water industry consulting, to have more consistent revenue?
I like number one, identify the commodity what you're selling, you know, what can you add a value not only to the utility, but to other firms. Because partnering is going to be huge. Being a sub consultant is generally how most of us start. I think, also making sure that you're ready, you know, having money saved is underestimated. But having, you know, at least six months was saving because we deal in a pay when paid industry. And cash flow is a real impediment to growth into just the ability and staying in business. So you could have 10 million in backlog. But if you don't have your cash flow, right, you could go out of business. So I'd say cash flow. And then number three, be prepared to network, be prepared to always be in the position to partner and meet someone. Peter Drucker, the Harvard professor wrote about identifying your client. And I think as a sub consultant, as an entrepreneur as a small business, initially, I thought the client was the municipality, but I had to really once I did the exercise, my client oftentimes was other engineering firms. So I had to shift and not only market to municipalities, but also make key relationships with other engineering firms and people that I needed to be a complement to their services, because that's how the finance works so well, because most of them did not keep, you know, analysts and have a big robust financial capability for evaluating water and sewer projects. It was very nice. I think there are more neurosurgeons than people that do infrastructure finance.

That was a whole lot. So I want you all to come back. And I need you to replay that for those, especially for those of you that are going to go into entrepreneurship, whether you stick a toe in or hole leg. Kay said a lot about money, clients business development, that everybody on social media doesn't know you actually have to go out and meet people it
they're always surprised. They're always surprised. Um, we are going to continue to conversation because I'm having a good time. I don't know about anything. Anybody else.

So you mentioned having your own business. How did Can you tell us more about the business and a business growth that you had to now you found long term contracts or better your understanding, you know, business development, grant writing, what does that looking like for you? Now that your five year
Chris into your five plus years into your business, five plus years into my business it got where we really had to expand. And I really had to open up. It wasn't just analysis because there was one thing to build a financial model and tele utility, you know, 20 years out, this is what your revenue requirements will look like 20 years out, this is what your demographics will look like. But it was another thing to really educate and say, what does it mean? And say, Well, if we can't finance, what are our options, and so I think being able to evolve and be able to really identify issues that were not financial, that could have been disadvantaged communities that could have been historically underutilized businesses, legal issues, regulatory, so really to be able to take the finances as a base and expand. So that's what I would say that your five to 10 probably looked like is, is really getting in there and being able to understand the other issues other than just finance.
Thank you, thank you so much for that. So the business has grown.

What what happens next?

Well, I'll tell you, the business started growing, and it started for me, maybe not everybody else, but it started getting less fun for me. Because as your business grows, you know, you have employees, you have legal, you have HR, you have all of these things that you have to do, in addition to whatever skill that you had to run the business. And as you grow, no one tells you about what scaling really means. And scaling really consumes a lot of energy, it consumes a lot of thought and it becomes, you know, really less about you it's a really lonely place. And there are times where you have to really reconcile your why, why am I doing this? What makes this work for me. And so I think as I grew, it became more daunting, and the issues became more, although I loved what I did, I didn't necessarily love all the issues, because in our industry, as you know, it's very geographically driven. So as you want to grow, you'd have to get another office and you'd have to get certified in this place. And then you'd have to deal with a lot of that. So for me, that was when I didn't know it at that time was where I started to get a little burnout, because I started so early, you know, in my 20s. And as being a single mom and running the business that was really starting to kind of wear me down a little bit.

Gotcha. So tell us, what did you decide to do with the business at that point?

At that point, I was, I was right sizing it. So I had moved to Dallas and I decided, let me try to right size it because you know, you get to a point where it was large, and you're keeping all of these people busy. And you're spending more time going out and getting the business and the challenges you kind of start as a practice, which you know, is yourself, and then you want to grow it. But when people still recognize you as the business, you have to touch everything. So looking back on it, I could have created something more scalable, but because I didn't although you know, at this point, I'm doing 1.5 to two and a half million a year, it's still me having to leverage myself everywhere. Then COVID hit. So once COVID hit, it was like, Okay, why am I doing this? You are at that time really trying to scale trying to meet technology demands? Because we were trying to figure out how do you touch clients, and during COVID, you know, the larger companies, they could still figure it out and had enough cash to wait. So at that point, I was just like, I think I want to transition out of this, I think I wanted to, you know, sell the contracts that I have and just take a year or two to figure it out. At that time. I didn't know COVID was going to last two years. But that was when I started doing some soul searching deciding what I really wanted to do next.
So you sold the business.
You take some time off,
where's K now?

K was at an inflection point of okay, what next? And I talked about it, you know, with my mom and my family, my close friends. And I said, you know, I had a couple of mentors at the time. There was a couple and talk to Reggie and Lisa Perry about like, Okay, what do I want to do next? You know, they were huge mentors in my life. And they were like, Well, do you feel like you max out? And I said, yeah, they said, Well, maybe you know, it's time to go back to corporate in retool. And I was like, I never thought about that as an option. Because once you have gone that, you know, entrepreneurial route, it just wasn't top of mind for me. So I started kind of
have, you know secretly looking for a job and I had a, you know, sending my resume a couple of places. And I realized, you know, I was kind of it was dragging on, I wasn't getting the traction. And I realized, because I was searching, really an anonymity, you know, because I hadn't reconciled that, hey, this is what I'm doing, I still kind of had feelings of failure, that that was really used as leverage. And so one day, I just decided, you know, what, I'm going to rip the band aid off, I took a picture posted on LinkedIn and said, Hey, I'm ready to pivot. I'm looking for a job, let's go. And from that, it just kind of it snowballs again, and I had about 37 interviews over nine companies, and I ended up with seven job offers, wow, one post one post, but it was really just accepting, like, I didn't care what anybody thought, you know, let's go. I love it. I think when we were, the humility can hold us back. And, and the opportunities there, because you built a great career, you had so many connections and network, it was absolutely fantastic. So I love that. I love that. So what we're going to do, we're going to transition into the next part of the conversation. But I'm gonna turn it over to melody, right? Who is a member of system she's going to come on, she's going to really dive into some other parts of your career. So melody, how are you? I'm good. Thank you so much for Michelle and Kay, and thanks to everyone who has joined us this evening. So I'm Kay, I would love to talk a little bit about your why. Okay,
can you tell us a little bit about what you do in terms of being able to be a voice for others in your career space, and how you were able to sort of find a way to connect that ability to be a voice in your personal and professional life?

Well, I think part of it was taking my experience that I had as a small business owner, now that is,
I really have empathy and an understanding for other small businesses, and I feel like working for a large corporation, I am able to advocate and also educate as to what that experience looks like, you know, oftentimes, we hear there, you know, we can't find any MBAs or DBS or you know, we can't find anyone qualified. And I'm like, Yes, has have we looked. And so that became part of it. And also, other young women of color, you know, we, you know, voice and showing that it's not always pretty right in, there are experiences that you really need help on. And I think, for me being authentic, and being vocal about it doesn't always look good. But you can just, you know, be vulnerable, and ask questions and get the help that you need. Because I think being isolated really, really
kind of just impacted me, and then I kind of figured out like, hey, there are people that will help you. Thanks. That's awesome. And you know, you bring up the topic of vulnerability. And I feel like when we got to talk earlier in the week, you shared with me that shortly after selling your business, finding yourself in this new space, you also really got very much intentional and mindful about being vulnerable in that space. And I remember sharing with you that the, the renowned black feminist author, Bill hooks has a quote that says, The fearless woman is not afraid to be vulnerable, because she knows that it will destroy her.
Can you talk a little bit about how you apply that principle at work?

Well, I just live out loud. Now, you know, I'm a single mom, that is not always a straight task, or being a mom, you know, or being a parent. You know, you have school you have activities. And I think saying when you know you're overwhelmed, or when I can't make it or when you know, you have a sick kiddo, that sometimes your responsibilities at home don't necessarily align with who you need to be at work and being honest about that. That being said, when I can I give 110% But being vulnerable and not caring that shame of whatever your life circumstances, I think opens you up to a world of productivity and success. So that for me is where being vulnerable has lifted a huge weight. It has taken this time and it said, This is my life. This is what I do. But hey, we're ready to go. Right. Thank you so much. You know, it brings me to another question.

Another side of that vulnerability concept, right? One of the things that was talked about earlier in the conversation this evening was this idea of many of us, like you find ourselves as the only woman and or the only woman of color in these male dominated spaces.
And that can also create vulnerability is sometimes a challenging way. So I wondered if you could talk a little bit about that, you know, what we're talking about a little bit of the bad and the ugly. Right. Right. In terms of those experiences at work, right? Well, I think, you know, our industry has definitely changed. I've definitely seen growth and more women, but I do think that there has, there still needs to be some education, because there are some times when, you know, some people said things or did things, and that I felt crossed the boundary or legally crossed the boundary. And I just didn't know what to do. There wasn't a blueprint, there wasn't a role model. Did I always handle it? Right? No, did I always have the tools? Right? No. And so I think part of it is starting that dialogue, you know, me, too, is relatively new. And so you know, as a as an entrepreneur, you often feel that your back is against the wall, because at the end of the day, you're trying to make sure other people work, and they eat, and you don't know what to do. And so I think that part of the dialogue needs to be what are those protections? What are those kind of bumpers, if you think about bowling, where are they and I think for other women, part of it is kind of deciding early on what your boundaries are, and making sure that you have some safeguards in place if things don't work out, so you don't feel that you have to tolerate certain things. It's great, thank you. Um, you know, another part of our earlier conversation that stuck with me, are some of the pieces of advice that you shared, that you would give to younger professionals who are on par, to be able to go to your same career ladder.

One of the a couple of the things you said to stand out are, don't be afraid to pivot. Don't be limited by your job title.
And make sure you recognize the importance of having a network. And I would love to hear you talk about one of those maybe in particular, the one about not being limited by your job title.

Well, I think, you know, job titles are important as classifications, but I don't think they necessarily always convey what you do or convey what your limits are. I started you know, as as a technical person, but because of my personality, I was able to make connections, and I didn't wait for anybody to say, Okay, how are you going to talk to this client? This is the information, I was just myself. And I think sometimes we think that we have this title, or maybe the title limits us. And we allow that to limit our job. And I think that there are people watching, there are people that you interact with, that are saying, you know, this person, the way they move, actually, they're prepared for the next level. So I think it's important to not be limited and not allow your job title, I behave for the position that I want. That's the produce and not the position that I have. Fantastic. So you get the chance to go back in time, and you run into your 20 year ago. So in an elevator, so in just that amount of time that you would have, what is the piece of advice that you would give to that cave of the past?
Wow, I'd probably start by telling her I don't know an answer. You don't have to know everything today.
And then let's say you belong, that just because you don't show up and look like everybody there, you have just as much right to be there and you own it and you go forth and you walk in it.

Awesome.

So what would you say that you would leave our audience this evening with if there was just one key takeaway that you want to make sure six
I think it's important to really tried to put yourself in other shoes. I think in the workplace. Now we are so busy moving, moving. We're so worried about profits and clients and all of these things, that we often don't extend enough grace to our colleagues. And I look back early in my career when I didn't have the life experience that I have now to know that people have life. People, things happen. And people bring things with them that sometimes just a little grace could speak to so I think in this environment in this climate, that's really what I see is a lack of grace for maybe it's other firms. Maybe it's colleagues. Maybe it's for your co worker down the hall is extended race at times and really tried to work towards the
common goal because we just have so much more in common than we do different. Fantastic. Okay, I know that on behalf of myself and system and everyone watching this, we're so happy to have had this conversation with you today. It's been insightful. It's been inspiring, and it's been fun
doing it. Absolutely. Do we have time for questions?
I'm not sure
you're on mute.
I'm glad one of us knows.

So let me see what we have in the chat. I hadn't seen any yet. We did have some.
First off, Happy International Women's Day, everybody. So we're here.
Another comment, what an amazing conversation.

So yeah, I know the coals here in spirit. Oh, we saw that you get some shout outs to
my supporters were at least watching so yes, yes. But when yet they're excited. Like I'm here they like they've been waiting like they're in.
So I was like, you watch her fan base with you. And we have some engineers and training some professional engineers and engineers in the chat, that are definitely enjoying the conversation. So I don't see any questions. So if you have questions, go ahead and
say that it's great to see and meet system and everything that's going on. And that that kid I just missed each other. I think she left Oregon 2016. I got to Pittsburgh in 2016. And so we literally probably missed each other by a few months. We do have, we do have a question. And so I'll pop that up. And I'll turn these over to you
to
to the transition more from owning your own business to return into corporate.
You want me to take that melody, the question? I'm absolutely okay. Um, the you know, the transition, I think at first was more mental. It was more of just accepting that this is what I want to do and making my mind up because I didn't want to kind of vacillate
the transition. The biggest part was, of course, I think having a team and working with people. And so you know, the, the benefits was that I opened up my toolbox, it was no longer just me or selling, you know, key staff. It was now I work for a large corporation, Tetra Tech, and I have so many people, so many resources that I can bring to bear. I'm also having a boss and performance appraisals. You know, that was a little bit scary at first, because it had been 17 years since I had a performance appraisal. And so I had to really figure out what does success look like as an employee. And from that, it was really, you know, I went to work for a company that valued entrepreneurial spirit. So I think the schedule that was also a little different, but I'm able to work hybrid. So I think the biggest shift was mindset. But once I made up my mind that I had closed that chapter in my life, I was ready to do whatever I needed to do. So mindset number one decided that I wanted to be a great employee, having a team. And so you know, this kind of like a family you have to learn to, to work together, the good and the bad. And then number three, just the schedule, you know, it's every day, I can't just decide to necessarily take off when we have things to do. But it's definitely been fun. And I love it. I can't imagine. Now going back to be an entrepreneur, I am just ecstatic get excited every day.
So okay, I'll ask a quick question for the group as well, because some of the things that we talk about when we meet monthly can be topics around entrepreneurship, especially those of us who are members of the group, who are either considering or in the midst of entrepreneurship. So I wonder if you might compare what you just shared about leaving working on your own and going into corporate as compared to what it was like to take the leap in the other direction when you left corporate at first and started your entrepreneurial role.
I think when I first left, I didn't realize how much time it took to really start your entrepreneurial journey and the level of commitment and detail and everything you didn't know what you didn't know. And so people say, Oh, I don't want to be on a schedule. You know, being an entrepreneur. It really is you're working subconsciously. You know, I remember I just started not sleeping with my phone under my pillow after years of doing it.

because you never know what, although we weren't on call, you know, you were always waiting for an email or the other shoe to drop. And so I think, for me, it felt like I was always in that three point stance. And I think that's one thing that you have to consider when you're you're balancing life. And you know, you're making the decision of do I want to be an entrepreneur, you have to think about your family, you have to think about your bandwidth, because it's really something that the entire family has to be bought into. And I talk about money, not from the simple fact that it rules you but cash flow is a big deal. And as you expand and have a payroll, people are relying on you to feed their families. And so you can't take that responsibility lightly. And so I think really thinking about if you have a professional services firm, you know, your lack of collateral, you know, you're going to have to be credit worthy to get, you know,
to be able to get a loan or to be able to get a line of credit. And so all of those things that you don't think about that can be stressors are stresses. And also, are you comfortable asking for money? Because you will have to call and say, what's the status of my invoice? And that is very uncomfortable at times for people because you feel like you're begging. But it is actually what's duty you. And I remember a couple of times where I had to tell the client, hey, you get paid every two weeks, I've been waiting 68 days or 98 days. So it's really getting to a point where you are comfortable advocating for yourself advocating for your business and advocating for your employees. Awesome. So I think what you've pointed out here, k is really this.

This common thread that goes through all of the components of your career, and the same for many of us in our career paths is the idea that vulnerability is almost an imperative, isn't it? Right? You have to be vulnerable in conversations asking for money, you have to be vulnerable to step out there and do it on your own. You have to be vulnerable to change paths or pivot and go back perhaps a few steps or go forward or over to the side a little bit. Because I think that the other thing we touched on as well is that the path that almost never is and doesn't have to be linear, right? Right. It's never linear. It's not a straight line. And I think get comfortable with being uncomfortable. And I'd say if you want to be successful, you have to wake up every day and decide it's not a motivation thing. It's a discipline thing. And so you really have to take out, you're not always going to feel like it everybody's not always going to be nice. It's not always going to be fair. But you make up your mind of what you want. And I think that's important.
Do we have any other questions?

No, we don't have any other questions. This has been fun. I've enjoyed this conversation. I can't wait to the next one. And I won't be in the hot seat. But
thank you so much. So Michelle, for food and producing and putting an event together this evening. And thank you, Kay, for sharing your experience and your insights with us. This has been an awesome pleasure. It's been fun, it's been relieving to be able to share my testimony and experience. So thank you. Thank you. And thanks for everyone who tuned in. Thank you. So this is the first of four great conversations like this. So if you are not connected with Nicole Brown, you're not connected with me be sure you go through and do that. But more importantly, you need to be connected with Kay and melody while they are here. So be sure you're you're tapping into them. You're following them here on LinkedIn. And you're connected with them, because obviously they're fantastic women to know, in the water and green industry. Now for next week. We're still have some great conversations to come out. We're going to be talking about creating your work life balancing act. You don't want to miss that. We still have a fantastic speaker, and we will have a new moderator. But guess what, I will be sharing that link with you in the chat. So you can come over and join and register for that win now before you leave. Any other final thoughts before we close out for the night tonight, ladies.
Thank you.

You're very welcome. I will see you next or we will see you next week. hailed by I'll be an audience.
And we will take that we're happy to have you join us. Everybody. Have a great week. Again, Happy International Women's Day and talk to y'all 6pm eastern standard time next week. Bye everybody.

View Details

Nicole Brown created SISTEM which is a unique and long-overdue network for women of color in water.The organization provides a safe space to discuss challenges and innovations, and to learn from each other.Viewers can expect to hear about the challenges and successes of being a woman of color in the water industry, as well as gain valuable knowledge on this important field.Join this SISTEM session to connect with inspiring women in the water industry and learn about the important work they are doing to improve our planet's most precious resource.

View Details

Erin Browder a leadership and organizational development consultant, discusses her background and expertise in working with human-serving organizations, particularly in education and nonprofit leadership. She shares her experience of transitioning between positions due to the nature of grant-funded projects and how she developed a career strategy to continually progress toward his goals.

View Details

I greatly appreciate it. For those of you don't know, my name is Michelle, this one L. Michelle here in South Carolina. And I thought I would come on two nights in a row last night, of course I was on somebody else's account. If you didn't see I was on Laura Lala keys account. Tonight, I want to talk about planning for the future, like what are the things you do to plan for the future? And I don't mean like, necessarily 20 years out, maybe you have a 20 year goal, right? And then maybe that is to pay off your mortgage? And what are you doing to pay it off early, maybe like, I want to pay this house off before my kids go to college, and the youngest is 17 is seven. So you have 10 years or less to pay off your house? And so what are those things that you are doing to pay them off? Right? Or maybe you have goals or plans to go on a trip? Like how do you backwards like this is the goal, this is the plan. This is where I want to be and literally taking the steps backwards, to figure out how to reach those things. So whatever you do, you want to take the time to grab a pen, and a paper that might have some goals. Some questions? Listen, where do you see yourself in two to three years? Thanks for the hearts. Where do you see yourself in three to five years, five to 10 year what makes you happy? Like these are really seemingly easy questions. But most of the times we get wrapped up in our everyday lives. So take the time to really write down and you don't even have to start it two to three years, you can start in like in six months, where do I want to be in June, July of 2020? With my life, right? Do I want to have $1,000? Saved? Do I want to have $10,000 paid off my vehicle? What is it? Do you want to have a better job, and literally writing things down, there's power in writing things down. And so I encourage you to find a empty notepad, a journal, maybe you started to journal, NFL all to write down those things that you want to accomplish, you plan to reach in your lifetime. And put like dates when you want to hit those things. Because a dream is a goal without a date. And you want to have a date next to those things because they make them more realistic. They make them achievable when you have an actual date to them. So first question, where do you see yourself in two to three years, and you're like married with kids, my kids out of my damn house? My kids working part time, so I don't have to pay all this extra stuff for them? What is it that you want in your life in two to three years? Maybe it's like something that's not completely like, Okay, I want to have $10,000 less in student loan debt. I would like a New Earth car, whatever it is, write it down and really focus and really see where you want to be. Then the next question you ask yourself, Where do I see myself in three to five years. And this is really, really important for women to frame this. for themselves. Oftentimes, we are caretakers to our family. And that can be kids and spouse that could be significant other, even our parents, aunties, uncles, we become the caregivers. But it's truly important, especially for women to keep an eye and a pulse on what they want and where they see themselves in two to three years in three to five years and so forth. Any questions, any comments? Anybody that who does this already? Put a one up if you do planning a year, two years, three months in advance and let us know how far in advance you do planning? Where do you see yourself in five to 10 years? Maybe you're like, yeah, yeah, you dancer because your kids are out of the house. And you're like that's so I see myself traveling, I'm going on a cruise. I am going to sell this large house and by smaller house like where do you really see yourself? Then go back and ask yourself what makes you happy? Not like, Oh, if I'm having my kids clean up No, like what really makes you happy? Is it I don't know painting? Is it photography? Is it creative, creating a new business I one of my friends, I'm at her house, and she gets excited about creating new businesses come up with new business ideas. And so I'm making her it Again, our budget tonight because I'm making her do more work than I hate Jonathan. So do you need desire to go back to school, maybe you like my kids are going to go to school. So I'm gonna go to school to, or maybe your desire is to go to school in the next two to three years or to start applying now. So you're enrolled in a summer or the fall? All right, and have your definition of success. Yes, we all define success differently. Some people like Success for me is having all this money in the bank. So success for you is really having a feeling of being financially secure. So also look at how that definition makes you feel. Because oftentimes, we overlook it. But what is the feeling you really want from achieving these goals? From creating these this plan and executing this plan? What is that feeling I get that it gives you is a security, peace of mind, happiness, joy, or pain, right? So whatever it is, be sure you capture how these things make you feel. Then on the other side of that, do you desire to have family one day? If you don't? Do you want to be an entrepreneur? Do you want to be a home owner, or maybe you want to be mortgage free home owner, right? Because there's a difference. There's a difference when you that homeowner with a mortgage and and at mortgage free home owner because you're looking at your job, like my house paid for I don't really need to be here, I can find a way to pay the electric bill to taxes and insurance, right? So really, really think about home ownership in two perspectives at least. Is it one with a mortgage and one without a mortgage? All right, and then do you want to help your child or children with college if they choose to go. So there are all these college financial plans and options to save up for your kids to go to college. Some of them are specific that if your child does not go to college, you don't get that money, or you have to transfer it over to your other one of your other children who goes to college. So some people have opted not to select that because they don't want their financial money tied into one avenue. And neither one of their kids decided to go to college, we really don't know what 10 years really gonna be like when it comes to college education, not only the cost, but other than lawyers, doctors, engineers who really are going to be going to college these days, we were waiting to see how education is going to morph and change in this decade. Because I can guarantee you it will. So these are some questions to ask yourself. Write them down, put a date to plan them out. Take some action. Don't just sit on your plans for the future. make them happen by taking a little bit of action every single day. Alright, everybody, I'm Michele Heyward. I'm gonna get out of here. I hope you have a great weekend and I will talk to you later. Bye.

View Details

Welcome, welcome everybody to career strategy Saturday, I'm Michele Heyward, founder of the tech company positive hire where I connect experience women of color STEM professionals to employers who are looking for you to fill their management roles as middle management up to C suite. Today, I'm so happy that we have Daria Rosen here with us. She is an IT professional, and her way into tech into STEM is a little bit different than what many of you may have done in your career, which is why I wanted her to join us today. Daria, how are you doing?

I'm doing well. Thank you.

Can you tell the audience a bit about yourself and how you ended up in it?

Yes, I can. I'm dolly Rosen, and welcome to all of you. Thank you for having me here today. Michelle. And I came a very circuitous route. I have a business background. And I actually fell into it. Michelle, did you want me to share that story?

Yeah. So this is a really, really funny story. Okay.

So I was at a job a temporary job that I did not care for standing at a coffee machine. I overheard some gentleman talking about a company hiring. So I asked him, Hey, do you think if I give you my resume, they will take a look at it. They said, Sure. Now, footnote, I don't know who those gentlemen were, I still don't know who those gentlemen are. But they did take my resume. And they submitted it. I got a call from the hire from the interviewer, where he proceeded to ask a series of questions. At the time, I didn't realize it was for an IP position. So he's asking all these questions. And every question I would answer, no. And during the interview, he said, You know, I have to buy their policy. I have to ask you every single question once I start, so it became a game, because each question he asked, I answered, No. So we're laughing and chatting. And he says, I have one more question. I said, Okay, let's go for it. And he asked the question, do you know, Microsoft? And after asked, answering about 49 questions, no. I said, Yes, I can answer that one. Yes. He said, Oh, my. Now I have to ask you another series of questions. So as you can imagine, if you've been talking to someone, and they told you no 49 times, what are you expecting for this next series of questions? No. Well, as he asked the questions, I could answer each and every one. Not only could I answer them, but I could tell him they were asking things like, under what File menu? Can you do this functionality? I could give him one option, I could give him two options. The reason why I knew the answers to the Microsoft questions, is because the job that I was in that summer, my only responsibility or my primary responsibility was to make sure I didn't break a report. What I did not know was that that report was in Excel. And so for the summer, I had purchased the Excel Bible, and I read all summer long, how to work in Excel. So I basically taught myself Excel, and the other Microsoft suites, so I could answer. So in short, he said, Oh, you answered all those questions. This is wonderful. So at the end of the interview, I said, What am I interviewing for? He says, oh, IT project manager. Now remember, I answered 49 questions? No. I said, what is that? And he described it. And I said, Hmm, let me ask you this. Because I was also a wedding coordinator. I said, you have a budget. You have a client, you have a start date and an end date, and it is your job, to coordinate everything. To ensure that it's done. He said exactly. I said, Well, I have the transferable skills, like okay, so I was hired as an IT project manager. The story gets funnier, because remember, I don't know it. So I'm sitting in these very technical meetings with I'm in a foreign country because they're talking things that I don't know what they're sharing. And I would say, could you please stop, pretend I'm a kindergartener and explain to me what you're talking about. And that's what they did. So I fell into it. But just because I didn't know anything about it, and the way that I had to learn it, it became a string. Because I could then go back to the, to the clients and the customers. And I could talk to them about the very technical things that they were asking in language that they could understand.

So Daria, What year was this? This this is the part that I want other people to understand what year? It is. She finds it buddies.
This was in 1996 96. Yes. So this was prior to y2k.

Yeah, so y2k. So so if you're thinking like, wait, I could not do this. But she has been with it since 1996. Learning what it is literally, in the mid 90s. And I can tell you, there were there were a lot of IT groups back then. So it was really IT consulting companies, right. And you're ordering large equipment and racks and stuff. So it was really interesting. She shared this. They're like, Oh, no, I have to have a career strategy Saturday, because a lot of us have a traditional track into STEM, we went to college for engineering or computer science or IT management information systems, computer information system. And so we ended up in it or something related, and you're like, I can answer the fifth question. But it goes to something I wanted to focus on, which is communication, the ability to communicate as a technical lead, and I wanted and I liked the way you said, you were able to take say, hold up, I need you to explain to me what it is. And and there's two questions in there. One is the communication skills. And the other being an African American woman in a room say, I don't know what you're talking about, you're gonna have to break it down to me. So I want us to focus on first on the communication part of being able to talk to other people who aren't as technical who or who don't have the technical. What I want to say understanding for what's going on, and how does that and how has that helped you in your career?

Okay, so I'm going to tackle the first part, in the communication, I have never had a problem in in speaking and being in a room full of men and feeling intimidated or that I was not worthy. So for me to be able to speak up and say, Okay, stop. I just need you to explain it differently. For me, that was just normal. And I think because I did wasn't fearful, I was not shy. I was even though I didn't know it, I was never looked at negatively. In fact, they kind of thought it was a joke. A joke, but they were laughing with me, not at me. And there is a difference. And so when they would explain, and I would parrot back what I understood, and they're like, Oh yeah, you got it, you got it. So the the, the thing that that communication is, is one is confidence. And two, sometimes you do have to laugh at yourself, because others are going to make might laugh at you. But just knowing it was my job to help them be successful, and that they were aware of so it was actually us working synergistically together. Because I remember I came from a business background. And when they would go into meetings, and they would talk to the business side, it would go over the business people's head and they come out going we are so frustrated. And I got to be the bridge because I understood what the needs of the business were. But then I also began to understand the limitations and what could be done or could not be done on the technical side.

I like that the ability women oftentimes have a great ability to communicate and connect with other people. And I think sometimes we don't leverage it as much as we should. And I was that person like you were especially in construction. I could talk to the design engineer, but I had to translate it to somebody who was operating a bulldozer or it real He does, it really does help. And so let's talk about the community, the communicating with your customers. And because you had internal and external customers, internal customers, still were like the business unit, the business department, the sales department. And then other part of that, were your your customers, which had hired your company. So how did that communication work? And what kind of styles or suggestions could you give to other women when it comes to dealing with internal customers as well as external customers?

Customers? First, I'm gonna say customers or customers, whether it's internal or external, it, the conversation changes, the internal of setting expectation of what can be done, of ensuring that the customer knows that you are listening to them, because like most, most customers, most people, when they know that you're listening to them, and you're, you're hearing what they're saying, and taking that back. If you can tell them, if you can gain what it is that they are asking for, and translate that to someone who's technical, they can tell you, you know what, that piece of it isn't even possible. This piece is, but then being gone, going back to explain, okay, this part of your request, we can do this part we may not be able to do. So setting the expectation, both from the external clients, the internal customers. Now, there are those times when people are like, we don't care if it can't be done, you figure it out. And so that is the way in talking to the builders, the technical folks was being able to come up with ideas to give them ways to think about the box to draw questions from them, well, if it can't do this, what about that. So when I talked to it doesn't for me, it has always been when I talk to you as my customer, I am talking to you the way that one I would want to be treated that too, I'm letting you know that I'm listening to you. And that I'm going to work with you to the best of my abilities best both internal and external. But that's just my style
very informative. I like the way you said customers or customers and definitely communicate with them now, through your 23 coming up 23 years and it more than that in industry 30 plus years in industry at this point, what has been one of your biggest struggles and what have been one of your biggest triumphs wins in your career.

I'm gonna go with the wind first. And the wind has been. So when I started out, I was one of the technical other than the project manager, I actually transitioned to actually becoming one of the builders in the medical it in the medical it world. And because remember, I can I can I can think business I can think technical. So the win was Daria, we want you to become a manager. Now that was not what I ever wanted to do. I wanted to do my job, my job only. But I was convinced by a very, very good and dear mentor, to take on a team. And I did. And so when I say a win, is that throughout my career has been been the fostering and the encouraging of others to step out and to do more than they believe that they can do. So when I see many of the people who were on my various teams throughout the years and I see where they have gone. That to me is my biggest win. Because it's translating my belief in them to they believe in themselves. And then they many of them are just shining. That is my biggest thing and most of them are still in the IT field.

I love it. When you plant that seed. You honor it but you aren't always there to see it grow. And to see the fruit there. Yeah, I absolutely agree. It's good to go back like oh my god, the tree is there and has apples on it. Good. It's so good. Yeah,

absolutely. So the greatest struggle. The greatest struggle is when you know or when I knew what I was capable of and others didn't I didn't think that I could. And would would actually even tell you, you can't do that. And try to, I won't say sabotage, but to put things in to put in roadblocks to make, to try to make sure that I wasn't successful. That is, that was a that has been a challenge throughout my career, both in the IT side and in others. Now, the good thing is that it's like, okay, you put a roadblock, I made a sturdy your stuff than that, I'm going to try to figure out a way to get around it. And most times I have, so without, in most instances, messing up the relationships.
I would best cope. Corporate culture gatekeepers. So they, they're telling you what you can't do, because the culture of that organization is Daria, can't do that. But you're like, that has nothing to do with me. And and it's really important to identify who those gatekeepers are. And when you see those barriers, figuring out how to work around most of those we get into discussions, oftentimes, we're like, you know what, they don't want me to do it, I'm not gonna do it. And, to a degree, you have already proven them right. And, and, and it's not a right or wrong answer. Because sometimes you're just in a place emotionally and physically, we're in you can't work away around that barrier. You could be emotionally drained. So I can completely understand like, you know, I worked my way around, some of the other ones is like, it didn't happen. We were happy. We were having another discussion where it's talking about women of color, have a very small or if any window to fail. Correct. So we take into that as well into account as to whether or not we're going to try to do go around that barrier. Because we understand the high risk we then face when we do so. So yeah, absolutely.

Let me give you two examples where I was specifically not even subtly but very verbally told, on one instance, I was told, you will never ever be able to do this job. So don't even know why you apply. To in an interview, in an executive interview, one of the one of the interviewers said, when when asked by the person who was conducting the interviews, do you want her on her on your team? And to my face in the interview, he said, she's not going to be able to cut it at all, don't want her. Now, the person interviewing said you don't want to I do. Now, that is where I spent nine years. So I've worked with the person who told me, she's not going to cut it. And I always very nicely reminded him. Don't you wish you had gotten me on your team? So yes, you're sometimes told specifically and other times, it's very subtle, but you know,

you definitely definitely know who you are. Yeah, you can see a lot of mediocre progress further than you. Just mediocre coworkers. Let me clarify progress further than you just because of people's biases and inability to believe even even when you're doing it that when you somebody must be helping you know. So I absolutely agree. I want to go back to something else. You said that was really, really important and key you said mentor,
and I was like,

oh my are we getting into the mentor and discussion and we we Daria and I have known each other guests. It's been over a year now. And virtually I haven't met her yet in person. We have talked, I talk often about mentors, but I want you to talk about mentors because remember, she's 30 plus years and this is something we're still telling women of color especially about mentors. Can you tell us how you found your mentor? Why did that person become your person because it's probably more than one become your mentor and like what was that thing that says you know what, I want this person as a as a mentor for me.

The first person that that my greatest mentor the one who who convinced me that I should go into IT management there's I've always got a story. It's actually One of my girlfriend's husband. And at the time when I was working at the same company, I was in a completely different division. But due to downsizing, I ended up working with him. So at the very beginning, and this is a segue at the very beginning, I went into his office and I said, Okay, I am your wife's friend, now you are going to be my boss, you know how I am? I'm not going to change. Can you deal with that? He said, Yes. Then he said, I'm your friends have been, you know, me, I'm not going to change. Can you deal with that? Yeah. So we set the ground rules of business and pleasure. But he knew what my strengths were, he could see things that they were there all along, I just, they just weren't really being utilized. So when he convinced me and actually it was more he basically because I kept saying no. And he said, No, this, this promotion is yours. And I'm like, Okay, I'll do it. But what as a mentor, what he did, and what I learned from him and do for others is let people do their jobs, do not micromanage. When they have problems, the door is open for them to come to you to feel comfortable with you to be able to say, What am I doing right? What am I doing wrong? Or can you give me some pointers, and then let them go. And that is what he did. So I was able to do things that I never ever imagined on that project, because of his mentorship. And the second mentor that I had was actually when I became a consultant, and it was that same type of, of management style of, you know what your job is, you know, what the company's goals are? You do you do you. And so when both of those people have let me be me have let me manage my teams, the way that I saw fit within the realm of the corporate structure. And it has worked. And that is how I in turn, mentor the people who have worked for me, and worked with me.

Absolutely, absolutely love it. I have a similar mentor and style. Some days I miss it. Oh, yeah. And for some reason, even on Twitter, I pick up mentees I'm like, what I do
so because they know they do to them.

Yes, that is very, very true. So I want to go into our last question, which is talking about finding corporate cultures that are inclusive, and diverse. And in your vast experience? What have you found to be your level of comfort or when it comes to inclusiveness and what that that diversity in that workplace looks like for you.

I've experienced both I've experienced the ones where there was not diversity, or nor inclusiveness. But the last two companies that I worked with were very, very diverse and very inclusive, with women, of all minorities all the way up to C suite. So I've seen both in those areas where it has been inclusive, you can see that it's not just in the ones that work. It's not just lip service, you can actually see it, you can see women, you can see women of color, in different leadership roles at different levels. And when you are a young woman starting out on your career, and you're looking around saying, is there anybody like me if they bring me in one to fill a quota to fill to fill a number? Can I see myself? And when you look around and you see other women in those places, you're like, Yeah, I can see myself if they can do it. I can do it. There's a vast difference. All right.

I believe that I haven't experienced it, but I believe it is easier to see yourself doing something if you see somebody else doing it. I absolutely do agree to that. And sometimes it takes that one or five to come first to do it. And it's like, alright, am I that person that could be cut out for this?

You might be that one. Yeah, if you're currently in a place where you don't see it, you might be that one because You may have what that company needs. And they can see, oh, you know what, there's a lot of benefits of diversity with color with with women. And, and to make it not just lip service. So you could be that one if you're finding yourself in a company that doesn't currently have it.

And I want to go back to something, some things that Daria specifically wrote down when she said she was in a workplace that was diverse and inclusive, she could see the diversity in all levels of management, and it wasn't lip service. So it's all levels of management is so many, it's not just white women in HR, right? It was not just, you know, a few women of color in middle management, it is all the way up through to the C suite.

So it's really, really important when you are out looking at employee, as you're looking at your next career move, that you take into account what is currently in that existing workplace, because you need to understand what an inclusive workplaces can look like. But also understand and be true to yourself, Would you be willing to be that person to go in before it's diverse and inclusive, to make that transition, because it could be 15 years before it gets to that place? And, and and you can say, you know, I can stay three, four years and work on it. And then it's 12 years in and it's still not there, what do you do? So you really need to have make some internal decisions, when it comes to the type of workplace you want, where you want your career to go. And really pay attention. And the great thing is, back in 96, this wasn't always easy as pulling up a company's website, and seeing all of their people in management, especially with pictures, you might get a name. But if you see everybody name is Bob, Joe and Jim. Really good. And I some days I get married my mother, she named me, Michelle. And because of my pictures not up there making a certain assumption to that picture shows up. And I want people to know what I look like. And in some days, I'm not always happy. She named me Michelle. But anyway, she's happy, I guess. So we are going to take some questions. But first, I want to say Daria, thank you so much for joining us today. This is a great discussion on a non traditional track into it, but still encountering encountering some of the same barriers and wins that women of color face in corporate America. So thank you for having me. You are quite well, everybody. We will be back in April, focusing on financial literacy. This April is financial literacy month. So definitely, definitely join us then.

View Details

This is the dear corner office podcast for workplace leaders learn why Black Latinx and indigenous women lead and how to get them back. I'm your host Michele Heyward. They, I am so happy you are joining me today because I have another treat for you. I have another trophy, okay. You can tell somebody had me laughing in the green room. I won't say her first day started Marissa or her last day start with Li Mei be somebody with a similar name. So everybody, I want you to meet Marissa Lee. She is one of the virtual summit speakers for this year. And you don't want to miss her session. So first of all, Marissa, can you tell the people just just a couple of things about you like one one really like fun fact. And then everything else can kind of be like a little, just a little bit of your, your your back your biography. I'll say,

I'm gonna start with my fun fact, I'm giving you two because one, it's a proud fact, I am a firm parent, I have a Rottweiler named domino boss, Lee, he is a righty ambassador. So always put him on display because I'm proud of him and to be his firm mama. And the other fact is, I'm really into songwriting and singing me. So when my book came out, I had the opportunity to write a song to go along with it. It was my first song that was ever released. And I've been writing since I was in middle school. So that was something that was huge for me that I really liked to do. But it allows me to tap into the creative side, which I incorporate in the work that I do. But that's definitely something that I speak to. And it gives me the upper hand when we do karaoke. So if you're trying to do karaoke, call me up.

Because I will know the songs, and I can hold a tune, it's just a little bit. So um, so those are my, you know, my fun facts, but a little bit about me been in HR over 12 years. And it's always been HR for me. So when I started and I'll share a little bit more about my background, when I graduated, I graduated in 2009. And you know, the recession was going on. So I thought I was going to be able to land a job immediately, that did not happen. So I learned quickly about being resilient and being able to be strategic about gaining experiences. And he's positioning myself for the roles that I want. And so it was really a blessing in disguise for me, because it helped me lean into owning my narrative, owning my professional story out the gate, so then I could really set the tone. And then once I got that full time job, which was two years later, yes, my career accelerated. So that was I looked at that as my prep preparation season. And then that allowed me to be as be able to execute as I went forward.

So y'all heard that two years, and I know, some of you are like, Oh my god, I can't do it. And like you said, it's being resilient. Unfortunately, especially as black women, especially as like seamless, especially as native women. We often times are so as I call the company positive hire because we are often not looked at positively. And I refuse to let and so I literally named the company positive hire because that's what we are. And so, if we can be they can see us very negatively as as a candidate, and so I really like that. So it takes us longer than average, to get jobs unfortunately, even in a good economy. So thank you for sharing that much. So you got to to HR hunchy, and human resources. So what was like What was your first like gig like in HR? Like, what was that like?

Um, so my first one will after my internship was just like a standard HR internship, I would say I was doing high volume recruiting. And most of my HR experience is in the business partner space. I'm a business partner through and through I have experience on the I would say the Center of Excellence or expertise side more in talent. But I had the chance to start in high volume recruiting for a big retail company doing peak seizing recruiting for them. So that was quite interesting. doing screenings. Were for people sitting there too. You may keep the other guns they're leaving and they're not moving forward and having to manage to do that and all So with the group interviews and taking them through that process, but while I was there, it gave me the opportunity to expand because I knew I needed more experience. That's where my mind was focused, I was trying to position myself to get a full time job. And you already know, when you you don't have the experience. They're like, well, you need experience. And I'm like, that's what I'm trying to get, like, help me out here. That's what I'm trying to get. So in that role, I really look to see well, what else could I do? So I started doing zip code analysis, I started doing social media, I was doing orientation, I was really picking up additional responsibilities on my own. So then I can better position myself. And so I talk a lot about those additional responsibilities, or the responsibilities that are assigned the invisible labor that you get, and how you leverage that, to be able to position you for the opportunities that you're looking for.

Yeah, sometimes those invisible responsibilities are definitely more than we we want to carry. But that's a whole other discussion. So but I think it's very important that you bought up that utilizing the invisible responsibilities as an opportunity to position yourself because during your talk, you're really focused on position for impact, leveraging your power to pivot, promote, and post up. So I'm trying to figure out what is this poster was posted a post up is where you are in your position, and you are owning your space in your role. So where you are getting the recognition for the work that you were doing, you are being able to, are we still there, I will see you my show, I'm gonna keep going just in case. But post op is where you are able to position yourself, you get that recognition, you are operating in your full capacity as you are navigating in the role that you have. So it's being able to embrace where you're at at that time, and make it optimal, and make sure you're getting the best and the most out of it. So that's what post up means to me, promotion, of course, is you're looking to move up, or you may be looking to move out and up somewhere else. So really understanding as you look to excel in your career, where is that best place to be able to do that and what organization is going to nurture that and give you the opportunity to be able to do your belts in that space. And then pivot in is for example, if you've been out of the market for some time, you know, I shared not long ago when I started in my career, I it took me two years to find my first full time job. So being able to use your experience identify those transferable skills to be able to position you as you go forward. I see your back.

I was never gone. I was okay. Star first say she said she knew karaoke. I was like I'm gonna get the star her stage and go where did you go?

Like okay, well, okay, I'm on okay. Tell me Beyonce you gave we gave her roll it Okay.

On it on it all day. I mean, you got it. You got to do that. I can't get the the OutKast song out of my head, but you get you get the point. So So you learn the skill set very, very early in your career. How has this information helped you further in your career? How to post up pivot? Like what what have you done later? And maybe even shown one or two people how to do it as well? Because you do career coaching as well?

Yeah. I think understanding where you're at in the journey is important. And that's one of the things I'm going to talk about during the session is knowing your lane, what are you really looking for, and sometimes people feel like it's the promotion, but it's not the promotion they need. It's, they need additional experiences to really position them for the role that they're going for, or they need to sit down and really get vision about how they're trying to grow in their career. So what my experience and expertise has helped me do is evolved the process of expanding how people look at talent growth and talent development. It is not linear. It's all over the place, but even with it being all over the place, it should be intentional. And so that's where I look to help people focus in on really getting clear on where they're trying to go. But staying open to how they gain that experience and expertise to best position them, and then own own their space on their power wherever they're at in their journey. Because you can get power from a position, yes, but you can get power from other places. And a lot of times people look at it as Oh, well, you know, I have this positional power, but you have so much other power, you can be tapping into some of the most influential people in organizations may not be all the way at the top, they may be in other places, but they know their craft. So they could be an expert that they go to or and other than that known entity, or they just have the ability to build those relationships so they can influence and share their perspective and opinion. So when we talk about power and speak about it, I want people to think about power more broadly than just you know, that one dimension of okay, well, I'm this leader, and I have this title, it goes far beyond that.

Thank you. Thank you for that. So I want to back up to a couple of things you said about your career. And because you mentioned some words, and and I know I was like I don't even know what that is, or you know, before when I initially heard it, and others may not because my audience is scientists, engineers and technology professionals. So you said the word talent, and we were talking about karaoke. So I want you to like first decipher, like what talent, what is this talent you're referring to?

So when I'm talking about talent, I am talking about the resources and I hate the use of resources, people in the organization that are executing on a certain job, you will see differentiation in talent, when you hear top talent, or you have your value performers or high performers. And what that means that is speaking to the aspect of when somebody has that talent or top talent, they have the potential to be able to move up in the organization, they shown aspiration, they shown the ability to be able to perform consistently, they shown the desire to want to be able to move forward. And as they continue to do that, then that helps to better position them as a talent and usually talent are connected to roles that are going to help an organization drive their strategy. So based off of data, it usually supports. Having top talent in your roles helps increase profitability. But that doesn't mean if you're not labeled a top talent, you don't have anything to offer, you can be a high performer you could be you can like what you're doing and just don't have the aspiration to continue to move up in the organization. That's what I mean, where people have to understand what they are looking for, how that connects with what their organization is looking for. And then being able to be okay with, okay, if my organization wants me to continue to go forward, but I'm happy here. What does that mean, for me in my career journey? Am I okay with that? And if so, being alright with that? If not, then what things do I need to do to position myself to, to be aligned with how the organization is trying to develop me and grow me? So those are different things people have to kind of pause and reflect on because a lot of the times what I've, what I hear when I'm talking to people, is there's this view of, you know, I just want I want to grow my current company, and I grow me, but what does that mean? What does that mean to you? And then how is your organization looking at growth, because they may be looking at that differently. And they may be differentiating the growth on whether you're a top talent, or you're a value performer, or, you know, whatever you you know, you provide to the organization. So there's a lot of things that are taken into consideration when you're discussing talent.

Thank you for that. And I love I love how you you pull that together. So if you're just joining us, this is Marissa Lee, she is one of the speakers at the women of color in STEM virtual Summit. This year, we are talking about raising the power in your career. That's how she is so if you miss the catch in the connection to power, that's what she was talking about. There are different meanings to power and to think broadly. And so I didn't mean to I like they know if they haven't seen it yet they're not going to understand what what you mean by power. Like, I like what you say, but what is what does that have to do with this? So last year, if you were with me last year, it was the power of you. And now that you have the power of You it is now raising the power. And so everybody, nobody don't follow this. I know it because I go yes, my right. On a journey, it really helped us grow. And so if you like, but I didn't go to the power of you still show up here, because you still have power within you. And Marissa and other speakers are going to be helping you raise that power, not only in 2022, but throughout your career. So definitely, definitely be sure to join us. So Marissa, before we get out of here, before we get out of here, what is one reason people should attend your session.

One reason people should attend my session is they want to bet on himself. And double, double the way out triple the payout, because you should be investing in you. And showing up is going to allow you to do that. So you can position yourself in the best way so bad on you and show up.

I love it. I love it. So join Marissa she will be live wins Wednesday, a week from today, again is Wednesday, February 23. At 7pm. Eastern time, you can check her out, you got to go register though, you got to go register where that's a good point. And I got a long link. So I'm gonna drop it in the comments. If you catch my assistant, we made a short link. But me being me, I was like, what's that? Like? When I go make up? I just drop him in when I gotta go look for somebody else stuff. It's not difficult. It's on the graphic. I just don't be paying attention. Delegation is delicate. Should you trust people and they were like, Oh, I gotta go copy and paste it. Yeah, don't follow me. Do better than me. Don't follow me do. Delegate. You're proud of me though. I delegate it. So it's sometimes that's raising the power in yourself is delegating work without a title to other people. Because, like, Yo, Mike, I need you to go out and check out the crew. It's such a such location. Like, okay, like, he did it. He did it. He didn't say nothing. Like okay, I like this delegate. Great, what you need Michelle, can you I got you like, man, it was nice to that nice and warm in that office during the winter time. I can see. I would just call their buddy. I was like it was that delegation came in good. Everybody, let me stop. We're gonna get out of here. We will see you next week. The Summit starts on Sunday. I want to get jumped to march February 20. At 7pm Be sure you go register. I will put up this banner. So you can go check it out. It has some link on there. And again, I will drop the link in in the comments. And again, it's summit 22 Women have got women of color and stem.com. It's a long link but I will definitely share it with y'all. So everybody, have a great night. Thanks for ReSSA for coming on and we will see you starting Sunday. Don't forget to rate review and subscribe to the podcast. It helps me grow. Visit positive hire.co That's positive hire dot c o

View Details

What is up everybody, it is a another mentor Monday. I'm Michele Heyward. I'm so happy you have joined me here for mentor Monday, what is up. So it is end of summer, but it is still absolutely great time of year. I'm always excited to get on here and have dialogue with you about mentor Monday. So I want to talk about the struggle you can have sometimes with a mentor, and not the struggle being bad, but the struggle being you not being prepared, because I wasn't prepared. So from my meeting last week with my mentor, I thought I would switch it up and really focus up on the things that you should share, hey, dashboard, on the things you should be sharing with your mentor. So let's talk about that. First, share your goals with your mentor. And I know oftentimes they're like, Well, I just want to go talk and kind of get some information, see who I can, who they can connect me with, who they know how they can get me ahead. But if they don't understand what you're trying to achieve, they may be leading you down the wrong path. They may be connecting you with the wrong people, you in your mind think that you know what is best, but they may actually from their experiences in their connections, have somebody better for you. They may have some other resources that can help you move ahead in your plans and goals.

Yes, that's number one. The second thing you need to be sharing with your mentor is your struggles. Oh my god, are you struggling with managing your team? Are you struggling with meeting deadlines? Are you struggling with a new software, a new system? Are you struggling with, I don't know your boss, your manager. Whatever that struggle is, or struggles are, share those with your mentor, get his or her feedback on things that you can do to get through the struggle, what actions you can take, what resources you can use, because it is truly truly important that you use your mentor to help you grow. They're not there, just to look cute peg our head. But they're really there to help you.

And they're spending their time effort. They're using their personal resources and connections to help you grow in your career as a woman of color STEM professional. Exactly. That is what they're doing. Now, you got to tell them about your struggles. But you also have to accept their help. There's like, but I can do it. Look, ya'll. What happened was, I went to my mentor. We hadn't met in like a month because she's been on vacation. And she had meetings and it was just really hard to meet with her because she's the president, CEO of this company. And so, we met for an hour. She's like, what? So how can I help you? Y'all I didn't have an answer. Like literally, she gets businesses all the time. She talks to people. Exactly. So you have to and I didn't know what to tell her. She was like, Well, yeah, well, this is how I'm doing my marketing. She's like, why I didn't know that. She's like, so when you talk to people when she's a wild give them my brochure. She said, I didn't know you had a brochure. Yeah, so she's asking me what how can she help me? I'm actually looking for a mentor a real estate or financial services. Ooh. Real Estate? Are you looking for somebody virtual in person? Financial Services, I don't know. Real Estate, uh, may have a few people. If you if you tell me what if you want to in person, or if it can be virtual, I might have a couple people who'd be willing to do it. Otherwise, I have to think about it and what kind of real estate are you doing commercial? Are you doing residential? That also helps you and and what and what kind of what are you looking for in your mentor? So I might I might be able to do that. All right.

So you also have to ask them for help. But guess what you also get Hey, Alan, what's going on? You also get to share with your mentor your wins. And I know so so often in corporate law, well, I'm not going to tell my mentor until I get a new job or that new position or that new array, that new project, no, you are to share with your mentor, your small wins, because what happens is, they can help you leverage those small wins and build momentum behind them. So that you keep building up until you reach guess what the number one thing we started with your goals. So you're going to have to tell them your small wins, like Michelle, what is a small when you present it in front of a client?

Oh, I do that all the time. But this time you did it by yourself. You set up the meeting, you had everything scheduled ahead of time you coordinated all of it yourself, right? Or maybe it is your first time presenting to the client, that is a win. Are you responsible for now really putting together the detail report that goes internally or externally about your project? Are you managing a team for your project? What are your wins, no matter how small or maybe your boss is out and said, Hey, you conduct the meeting, just send me the meeting minutes. Those are still wins, you need to share those. Now. You're probably like, I don't know about that. You have to share the small wins because they do add up. And you may not understand how to fully leverage running the meeting. Now, when you're tasked with running a meeting, especially if it's over, I don't know, a department a division, a billion dollar project, a $50 million project. take that very seriously, because you are being watched and maybe vetted for something going on? And you don't really think you are and even if you aren't you have to leverage that position. Residential says I want to open my own brokerage here. And here in New York, it's hard to connect with owners. Okay. New York, New York. Okay. I'll see if I can find somebody New York. I don't know, I just heard about somebody on a podcast. But that's a whole other story. Ask around. Okay. So be sure number four, you're sharing your wins. This is truly truly important. And most people do not do this. You need to talk to your mentor about how he or she is mentoring you? Are they meeting your expectations? Are they exceeding your expectations? Is it not a good fit, and you're both wasting your time, because you're not getting what you thought you were gonna get. And you need to have that conversation.

Because the mentor can be like, Yeah, I completely agree this isn't a good fit, or the MS torque is say, I'm not leading you down that path where I think you need to be as here, you're a bit premature and trying to get there. So I want you to take these steps or do this type of work. So you may have to have a discussion about you reaching your goals and the path they want you to take. Because remember, your mentor is only giving you advice, it's up to you to decide if you're going to take it. In addition. In addition to that, guess what happens? As you're building that relationship with that mentor, he or she could say you know what, you're right is not a good fit. I know somebody else who is a better fit to mentor you. And I've already been talking to that person. I want to talk to you about that today, you will be surprised how when you communicate openly and you're sharing your goals, you're sharing your struggles, you're sharing your wins, right? And you're asking for help. Your mentor will understand whether or not he or she is really able to help you. They're able to direct you they're able to support you in getting what you want to get. I'm just saying. But if you aren't willing to communicate these things, it will not happen. So what is Michelle doing this week, I'll be sending over my marketing plan to my mentor. I sent her my brochure while we were meeting. I will be sending her a pitch email I want to send out so I can do presentations to organizations and I it really in a quiet state area. So I'm gonna go to Georgia. So in Georgia, the Carolinas and North Florida, I might go to Central Florida. I like the beaches. I'm just saying. So what are some of your goals? What are you working on? All right now that you need assistance with, right, what are some of those goals where you're trying to reach people?

So if you're in corporate and you know, for many, you're getting close to your review period. So what we're going to focus on next month is preparing for your annual review. Because you probably have not looked at those goals that you set back in January. If you are a very diligent person and you look at every single month, okay, every quarter, you may find out you have not reached any of them, you have not even touch them. You just wrote something down. We're going to look at what do you need to do to prepare for your annual review? Yes. And next Monday, I will not be on here it is a holiday and I'm going to enjoy the holiday. So if you happen to see some tweets go out, I'm gonna beyond if I am, it is not going to be mentor Monday because I want you to enjoy next week, Monday, if you're in the US, and or if you celebrate Labor Day, take time off, enjoy it, like I'm gonna be enjoying mine. But definitely, definitely enjoy yours. If there are no questions about finding a mentor, about sharing your goals, your struggles, asking for help, because that could seem like something scary. And it's not. The struggle is real. When you aren't asking for help. Make the struggle less real. Yes, make the struggle less for yourself by asking for help by seeking help. And sometimes that help can come in the form of a podcast, a book, a YouTube video, a seminar, and sometimes it can come in the form of a person that you call your mentor. So if you have questions, you need assistance with anything be sure you DM me over on Twitter. And you can also find me on Instagram and linked in as well with the same handle. Everybody. See you in two weeks. Have a great one. Bye

View Details

I hope you're having a fantastic weekend, just like I am. Today, I want to come on my account and talk about how to prioritize in your life in your business. And really some things that you need to consider. If you have not shared this out, go ahead and press those three dots. Um, share this out to you, your Twitter followers, your Facebook community, your Periscope community, I would love to engage them. Hey, no else garden. Thanks for joining me. Okay, so when you're looking at what to prioritize in your life, in your business in your career, these are three things you need to think about. Number one, does this thing person people activity? Cause you on necessary stress? Yes. So when you're looking at prioritizing something, does it cause you unnecessary stress and unnecessary meaning is a better way to do it? You could do it from a different perspective. Hey, Garmin appraisers. What is it? And why is it that you are going through this stress? Michelle, it's a job it pays my bills go get a different job. Most of us can, whether it's finding a job online, a different employer. But for many of us change is hard. But if the stress is unnecessary. You need to make the necessary changes to move away from that stress. That is how you need to prioritize the Hey, I hope you're having a great weekend. Number two, does this person do these people? Does this activity this this thing add value to your life? Yes. Does it add value? Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for joining. Does it add value? Hey, Realty goddess. When I say add value, meaning, oh my god, let's say Hmm. I don't mind being in the newspaper, being connected to this thing. I don't mind telling other people about it. it uplifts me, it makes me feel good. I smile with it, I laugh with it, I can hug it. I appreciate what it brings to me as a person to me mentally, physically, emotionally, does it add some type of value to your life, I go over three things to consider when you're prioritizing things, right. And sometimes it's gonna be directly to you as a person. So, so one thing that adds value that many of us don't like to do, or don't look like we like to do is work out. But it does add value to us. It helps us fight off illness, it helps us stronger, helps us live longer. Working out has many benefits. We may not like it, but it does add value to us. Eating fresh fruits and vegetables. Meats, for many of us are some way of taking a protein may not be meat. So let's say protein adds value to us. It helps nourish our bodies what? We may not like eating a lot of green leafy vegetables, right? But it does add value to you. So what are those things that that person those people who add value and who are those that you're connected to? Who dot who do not add value through banks consider when setting priorities. Yes, that's what I'm talking about. Thanks Noel's guard, I love having a scribe in here. She's been so helpful today. Number three, and a lot of us this is the easiest one to do, especially if you're in business. Does it add money to your pockets. And now remember, I started out with number one, meaning it causes you stress, right? And a job may cause you stress and it adds money to your pocket. But it's the stress you have to find that balance between the money and the stress. If you're in business, not all money is good money. So you need to understand the differences of when you're willing to take money for what you're offering. And when you're not willing to take money because it's causing you undue stress, right? Because you can be getting great money from a client that is causing you undue stress and you need to figure out in the next 90 days, 180 days how to get clients you can you prefer to work with Get into your business and get rid of that one client that is causing you undue stress. And I've had so many people, but they're paying me like 5000 10,020 $5,000 a month, I can't get rid of them. I said, Well, you, you want a heart attack, you want to be hospitalized, you're always there. That money that client is really causing you undue stress, is it truly worth it? And you really have to figure out how to get them out of your life. And guess what your priority then becomes how to get rid of them, and replace what they're putting into your business, what that they're putting in your household income, how to replace it. So really, really prioritize what is important to you. So three things to consider when you're looking at how to prioritize? Does it cause you undue stress? Does it bring value to your life, and doesn't add money to you? So the different perspective different ways you can look at it. I just wanted to come on because I was talking to somebody, and I was like, Well, now you have your priorities clear. You've got everything you need to do. You got what you need. Your Diet done, move on. Right, move on. Alright, everybody, I'm Michele Heyward. Have a great weekend. And I will see you tomorrow here tomorrow night around 10pm 11pm. Eastern Time, and we will be talking about goals. Yes, I talk about goals all the time, not just at the beginning of the year because it is a systematic process. It is something you work on every single week, not just the month of January, or the first five days of January of every year, the first five weeks of a new year. It is something you work on every single day, doing small action action items every single day, and it builds up so that you are winning and you are achieving your goals. Alright everybody, have a great weekend and I will talk to you later. Bye

View Details

Welcome, everybody to our session on conflict, managing conflict as a rising executive. Today I have one of my favorite people. Again, I like Michelle, everybody's your favorite piece. Let me tell you about Lynn. Here. I just finished up last night before women of color in STEM virtual summit. Lynn was one of the original speakers from that back November 2017. So when I say she's one of my favorite speakers, like she has something come up, she was literally on zoom in the car, making sure she was delivering content like she was she didn't cancel. She like I got you. I'm still going to deliver, I'm still going to help your people. And that is her level of commitment. Since then. We've done she's been in psychology today. She's what you've done TED Talks at least twice. So she is about that life. So Lynn hurdle is from the Bronx. Yeah. To get to New Yorkers in one day anyway. You get new yorkers, it's the New Yorker day. That's all I say. And she literally has been doing conflict resolution for 40 years. Now. She's not new to this. She's true to this. And she's really about you being able to not only manage the conflict and de escalate the conflict between yourself and someone else. But as a leader, how do you manage conflict? When it's other people that you're with? It's your team? Or you're on the phone and ensure client and another stakeholder? How do you manage that kind of I've been there, I don't know if I did it, right. But I didn't get fired. And the client was happy with the result. But it's really important to understand how to best manage it, especially when you're a woman, you are under represented a woman of color. How does that come about? And what does that look like? So Lynn is here today to share her expertise, do not be afraid to ask questions, do not be afraid to really dig in, we have her for three and a half hours. So I'm gonna hand it over to Lynn, this is her zone of genius. We're gonna learn so much. And I'm really excited about having her here. Welcome, Lynn,

thank you so much I love when Michelle introduced me because it just comes from no more personal space, right? You know, like, you know, as executives or rising executives, sometimes it's gotta be in this order, and look like this and all that kind of stuff. And I just love to teach in a way that's more familiar, right? Because I feel like it's applicable, more to what you are going through day to day. So when warming hurdle from the Boogie Down, but my soul is also California in Southern California to be exact, and I lived by Coastal life last year. And I will be living it again, once we're through the whole COVID. And, you know, definitely live in it again. But I'm thrilled to be here, just to let you know, first of all, that this is a real working session. So when Michelle says if you have questions, that's fine, but also because I like to not only teach the work, but practice the work so that when you have to use it, right that you feel like Oh, right, I did this with Lynn. And this is the feedback I got. So let me apply that now rather than freezing in the moment saying it seems so easy when lencho does the slide, right. But I don't know how to do this. In the moment, I want you to feel like that when you leave here today. So the first thing that I do, and I never do anything accidentally, it's all part of the work. And the first thing that I do is I start with breathing. And I always tell people that the most powerful skill that we have when it comes to resolving conflict is the breath. And people seldom if ever use it or even know about it. Because with the breath, we are able to manage the body. And we're able to put ourselves in a place where we are ready to participate and engage in conflict in a productive way. I've used it myself to lower my own blood pressure when the doctor wanted to give me put me on medication. And she literally gave me 15 minutes and said you figure out something to do because it's too high and you need to bring it down and I use my breath. And so we're going to start with a breath. So all I ask from you is that you just follow along and I'll be instructing you and guiding you so much Let's just get comfortable first or whatever that means for you to get comfortable. And I'm going to get ready. Now, if you are comfortable enough to close your
eyes feel free. If not, you can focus on a point in front of you. And then what we're doing is we are going in. And so we're going to notice, first, any feelings that are coming up for us right now.

And then notice any thoughts that might be racing, and none of this is what needs to be fixed, it simply needs to be noticed.
And then let's move to the body. And we're just going to do a scan of the body to see where there might be tension starting at the top of their head, and going to the forehead area on the ground, every notice, sometimes we have, we can feel a headache coming up, it's already just strong notice thing going down to the eyes. And now it is the jaw and down to the neck. place where we often keep tension and if you need to move it a little bit free to take care of yourself in that way. And then shoulder area, another really big tension place for some of us. Again, if you need to do something there, to down to the back. Again, a place often filled with tension and then shift around to the abdomen. Because when we have unsettled conflict, a lot of times it sits there. So just noticing that the legs or the ankles and toes, want to wiggle your toes moving around. And then turn your attention to the breath. just noticing how your breathing, chest rising loads your belly rising. Just notice
we're going to do a series of breaths. So how it goes is we're going to breathe into the bore count through the nose. And we're going to hold it to the fourth count. And then we're going to release through the mouth again to the fourth count and we will do that four times. So breathing into the nose 234 and hold 234 many ways to the mouth.
Breathing 234 hold on to three, four. Breathing in 234 Hold it, hold it, hold it. Release 1234 Hold on, hold on, and let it go. And then to stay there, stay focused, and really noticing them. And then open our eyes and come back together. Yeah. Beautiful. So I'm going to see what people noticed. And then we're going to move from there.
So,

Michelle, did
you notice anything?

I noticed I had, well already knew, but that I had a lot of tension in my shoulders. But it gave me the opportunity to really stretch out my body because I've been on the gogogo all this week. And while I have sciatica that's been bothering me, that's what mainly focused on. But then I can feel other places, you know, from the top of my head, maybe a sinus headache coming on. The other things, I was really part by part, understanding where my tissue was, and maybe popping because I'm getting a little bit older, you know, as I was stretching out, yeah. Back crackling pop sounds that aren't serious.

Yeah. Thank you. What am I used to make? Did you notice anything?
I did, I am feeling really anxious. So it's great that we started with this, because I have a lot of anxious feelings. I have big interviews coming up on Monday. And, yeah, I have a lot of preparation to do. To make sure that I'm fully ready. And I've got a full day today of just, you know, things that I've committed to and yeah, that the thought process of all of those things is like.
Yeah, yeah. And where is that said? Right. It's in your body?

Yes, yes. When you said and bring it back around to Gormley. Yep. Right there.
It's right there.
Right there.

Yeah. And we ignore our body so much. Sometimes we use them simply as a place for, you know, to travel our heads, right to keep our heads going from one place to the other and we forget about what's happening with the body. Absolutely. Thank you to Mika Simone. What was the joke? What happened? What happened?
Is that I took it down.

Uh huh. So what does that tell you?
I got kids, you know, I get it.

Right, right. And Simone, let me tell you something. I can't tell you how many times when someone else was conducting the breathing or meditation that I took a nap? Are you kidding? Like, the body's like, really?
We're closing our eyes. And it's not bedtime. Okay.

Let's do this. Absolutely. But I am actually wonderful first sessions. A couple of days ago, we had done a similar exercise. And when closed our eyes and went through Sasha, he went right back there. And I realized I was I quickly went back to that place, and I didn't know. I was like, Oh, I know what this was like, let's let's do this. I so which is which is a, a departure for me. I'm usually tension here, you know, like, anxiety about different things. Um, so it was it was, it was kind of interesting to like, almost like full circle to go back to that. That very quiet space very, very quickly. I went there, apparently. Yeah.

Yeah, that's when we allow our bodies to take over. They do what they need. Right body does what they need. Yes. Beautiful. Josie.
Yes. So I really noticed that, like, I've been having a couple like difficult conversations and conflict at work recently. I always feel it like right here in my chest. And I did talking about oh, we're gonna practice this a little bit. Like I started feeling it a little bit. And then I started thinking about some of the conflicts I've recently had, and then just like going through the breathing exercise, like all of that went away.
Yes, yeah. It's such a great skill. It just is, the better you get at it, the more you can Make it make it work for you, particularly in conflict situations. Yeah. Thank you and Mary, would you notice if anything, good morning, so I feel like I have a lot of stress on my mind related to work and an upcoming trip that I'm making. But one of the biggest things I feel, like I've noticed is that there's a conflict that I need to raise. And I'm nervous about raising it, because I feel like the outcome is going to result in me having to be responsible for the solution. I'm at all for the quit to be responsible for the solution. But I just kind of had an awareness that okay, I just need to identify what I need in order to be successful. So, um, I don't know, I kind of felt like I was still a little bit stressed.

But I gave him clarity and just like being steel for a moment. Yeah, thank you. And, and, and hope Anyway, hopefully, the, you'll get some also additional support here through the work that we're doing today. So thank you think you, was someone going to say something? Okay. All right. So I am going to, to start us off a little bit right here, just know that I am not going through PowerPoint, for the entire presentation, right? Because I really want to be able to have that kind of back and forth conversation with all of you. So I'm Maureen hurdle, I'm known as the conflict closer. And what's the interesting thing about that is I think people have a sense of what conflict closer means in terms of that you are really there to close conflict, right to make sure that it gets resolved. But the other play on that word is closer. And the way that I work is I bring conflict closer to you. So that you can really understand the relationship that you have with it and have an even better one, because most of us do not have good relationships with conflict and conflicts not going anywhere, it's always going to be a part of our lives. So we might as well be in better relationship with it. So I'm a strategist on conflict resolution, best selling author, facilitators, speaker, writer, TEDx speaker, and I make conflict less scary for you. Because what I do is just to get you to know how to be in relationship with it. Because that's the only way you can use it to help you, for you to transform your team to transform if you have one, and yet 40 years in the work. And really what I am interested in doing, and 40 years in the work is to really mix different methods of how I teach conflict resolution, and all that goes along with it. So I'm a theatre background. So I bring some of that in where we do our role plays. And really, the role plays are around practicing the skills that we're learning together and bringing in real life situation. So a couple of you a couple of you sound like you might be sitting with some actual conflicts that you're experiencing. And we may be able to bring those into the practice of the work today.

And then one last night, okay, now, I'm gonna leave us there.

Right. And so, I want to do a go around. And I want to find out from each of you an observation of yourself in conflict, an observation of yourself in conflict, and I never asked you to do anything I'm not willing to do so I will start off and then we'll go from there. So an observation of myself in conflict is that if I do not get in front of the emotions that come up within me, they will take over. And I have to be aware in the moment, you know, this is fear, or this is anxiety, whatever it is, and so how do I manage that oftentimes, I manage it through the breathing, but sometimes it's just enough to know that it's there. And that is creating, whether it's creating heat, or it's just creating this kind of anxious anxiety that shows up and just wanting to kind of pounce on the moment, but whatever it is, I know if I don't get ahead of it, and even expect it, you know that that's what's going to come up for Me, then the conflicts going to go in the wrong direction for me. So that's an observation that I have of self, someone else when if someone want to share their observation of themselves in conflict,
I can go. I'm similar like I just, and when I start getting into conflict that I get, I get very worried I'm going to either get very angry or break down in tears. Mm hmm. And so that in and of itself then makes conflict even scarier, because I don't want to get there. Yeah,
yeah, absolutely. Thanks, john. Someone else to make peace?

I'm most find myself in the midst of conflict when I'm tired. Hmm. As I'm at a lesser degree of thought, is that Yeah, I'm just kind of worn out. So my fuse is short. And who knows what can happen? But yeah, when I'm tired, and, or even just feeling overwhelmed, like I said, I'm, you know, I'm feeling pretty anxious about Monday. So yeah, everything, you know, leading up to Monday until I get through Monday, we'll have some kind of I don't know the word, but there's gonna be some some, you know, like, I can't give it
at all. I don't think I want to. But it is still like, it's, it's, it's, it's within me. Right. So. Yeah. Nice. Thank you certain skills, you're gonna practice those skills?

And yes, we will take break. Yeah, absolutely. We will not be working for three hours straight, or there'll be some additional conflict that I'll have to deal with, I'm sure. Right. But that's where we're going to be today. So I want to, and I'm glad that piece came up about recording, right, I want us to work on the next skill. Because the first skill was breathing. The next is going into conflict with agreements on how we're going to work and handle that is really important people take for granted something like community agreement, something we're going to make together here to talk about how we want to work together, in order to feel safe enough to be able to bring our whole selves in to the work that we're doing together today. So if you were to use agreements for conflict, if you were to say, listen, we're going to talk about this conflict, let's talk about how we are going to do that so that it isn't just this free for all, and we get to just really vomit on each other. Right? But that we actually are working at this in a productive way. So let's talk about how we want to do this. So having said that, I'm interested in knowing what agreements do we want to make together today in the work and the time that we're working together? What's going to make you feel comfortable and safe enough to bring your whole self to this discussion? And Michelle, if you don't mind? Can you jot them in the chat for us? Great. Okay, so anyone can tell us what, what's something you'd like us to agree to as a community and doing our work together here today.

And this is Mary, I'm not really sure about how the session is
gonna flow today. So really, you know, know what type of agreements I need to consider.

Mm hmm. Okay, great, Mary. So the way it's going to flow is that we're going to delve into ourselves around complex. So that will mean that there'll be discussion around something like what I call the conflict stories, which is conflict really starts for us our opinion of it, our view of it our mindset around it starts from the time we were raised, and it's set by the people who raised us whoever that may be, and then reinforced by more and more people as we continue to grow up, right, and we continue to grow in general. So that will be a discussion and you will say as much as you feel comfortable to say around it or not, and then we will work into some skills around listening and around, responding versus reacting and really, I'll be teaching The skills and then you get to ask some questions if you have them. And then what I'll do is, I will give you the opportunity to practice it, because we're on zoom. And because we're a small group, and I don't want to break you up into the breakout rooms for a small group, then I'll give people a chance to actually practice using this skills on a situation where I'll roleplay with you. And that would be to the benefit of everybody in the group to learn from that experience. And I give feedback on that experience. And then we'll have a time when you can do questions and answers. But primarily, that's how we're going to work through it, we're going to talk about barriers as a as a woman, right, rising, executive, rising executive of color, we'll talk about that as well. And that's really how the session is going to flow. So is that helpful to you, Mary? Yes, no. Great. And then and I think that one of the things that I would say is, if we could agree that it is alright, it is okay to say, I'm really not understanding right now. I'm really, it's really not clear for me, right, that we really look out for ourselves in our own understanding, by feeling comfortable enough to ask for clarity, and understanding.

So thank you, Mary, for bringing that up. Yep.
So someone else just one more thing. So I just hope that today's wash day, so this is why I'm not sharing my video, but I just Okay, everyone, since everyone else is on video as well. So thank you.

Thank you for doing that. Yeah. Beautiful. Understood wash day, whatever day, right? Absolutely. All right, someone else let's add to our agreements together.

Um, I would say maybe, like being being open to like asking questions. And and not ascribing like any assumptions, or whatever, like, is just a question for clarification. And I don't know, I mean, the sessions, we can ask each other for clarification on their stories, or is it just you know, directly to you, but we're open to asking questions.

All right. Beautiful. Thank you, Simone. And thank you for asking, too. Like, can I ask a question about someone's story? When we get to conflict stories? I actually don't tend to let us ask questions, because I want people to be able to put it out. However they want to put it out. And, and although questions often come from curiosity, sometimes they inhibit us, because we, in our minds feel like it might come from a place of judgment. And so we try to clean it up right or omit things. And then that really stops the learning. Right. But what tends to happen, though, someone I will say that as we continue to work, things kind of circle back around. And often the person in doing the work will relate what we're learning to their conflict story. And so we often get answers to our questions sometimes in that way, as well. But yes, let's be open to asking questions. Yeah. You can ask me anything. For certain. Yeah. Something else we want to put, let's let's do the piece around confidentiality, meaning recording. So what are people's thoughts around that?

Okay, I mean, to be honest, I, um, if you want to get into that level of detail, I would rather than none of this like dark subject.
Because we don't tend to like it much. But we can have some fun in here. And even with ourselves in how we handle conflict, because people I think, tend to come into these workshops trying to impress me. And so they may not say when they blown it and listen, 40 years in, I still blow it. Right. I'm a mother of two sons, and I still blow it. So that's not anything that is going to change. It's just that you, you tend to engage better and better as you gain the skills And then use the skills because you can gain a whole bunch of skills, but if you never use them and if I'm blank, you're never going to get better at it. Alright, so, Michelle, do you mind reading off our agreements?

I surely can. First agreement, it's okay to say I don't understand and request clarity. Second agreement be open to asking questions of each other to get clarification and not make assumptions. Okay. Third one is, and I know I didn't have it on here is to request stopping of the recording, so that you can participate and really get the most out of this opportunity to understand how to close conflict or get closer to conflict.

I'm like, Yeah, you're right. All right. Thank you. All right. So is everybody feel like they can agree to those? Give me some kind of reaction or hand raiser, thumbs up or whatever, however, you want to let us know. You're good with that.
Okay.

Mary, are you there with me? Yes, I'm good. Okay. Haha, sir. Okay. All right. So let's start with what's your definition of conflict? Right. And we are going to work on it. But what how do you define it? How would we define conflict?
This is Mary, I define, I guess, I define conflict is not being in alignment or
not being.

And it doesn't necessarily have to be, you know, an angry type situation, right? As it relates to when you're going to schedule the meeting, or who needs to be involved in the meeting or how something's going to be delivered.

So there's just not alignment or agreement. There is a complicated alignment
and agreement. Mm hmm.
Okay, thank you.

Someone else have anything they go ahead, please to make?

Sure. So like Mary just mentioned, I thought of not being in alignment, I also feel like conflict is a lot of indifference. So there's, you know, just this indifference and you're, you want to be aligned. But you're says that a difference and to work through it?

Mm hmm. Okay, thank you love adding to our definition, what else? Anybody else have anything they want to add to it before I weigh in on it? Okay, so I want us to think about what what I call conflict, which is the different when different ideas, perspectives, views, come together, but then they stop the progress of moving forward together. Because we can have different I don't know, if anybody's ever experienced just getting along really well with someone who just thinks very differently from you sees these very differently, but somehow you still get along, it doesn't manage to cause conflicts where you're not moving forward together. But the conflict really lies in when those different ideas perspectives come together. They're not aligned. Right. But they're so unaligned that, we're not able to get it done, whether it's a project, right, whether it's that this relationship moves forward, that there's a conversation that we can't seem to have, we can't move forward because of the difference in the room, right? It's not aligning, and we have to find a way to work toward resolving the conflict that's there. And it's also an opportunity for you to get to know yourself better in relationship to conflict, as well as others in relationship to conflict. And a lot of times people really don't view it as that opportunity. But I am asking you to view it as an opportunity and to really be able to when you have a conflict afterwards to do the work of checking in with yourself on what came up for you and how you did in that conflict situation. Not just what has whether it's Oh, thank God we resolved that Okay, moving on, right or, oh my god, we're never going to resolve this and moving on. It's really doing the afterwork as well to say so Lynne, what did you think what was happening for you when you said so and so like, Oh my god, yes. I was willing Getting angry with them. But what was underneath the anger? Like why? What? What is it? Right? So it's really interesting for us to look at conflict as this awesome opportunity. Okay, it just really is. So I want you to see both the difference of opinion not aligning and the opportunity for me to really get to know me in a conflict situation. And I don't know if folks know that in. In the Chinese language, the symbol for a conflict is both crisis and opportunity. And it truly is both. It depends on our mindset. All right, so let's talk about mindset. Where do we even begin to develop a mindset around conflict? Because I'm going to tell you that the opportunity for the mindset to be different, was always there. It's just most people didn't take that opportunity, because they too, were taught that it's negative. Right? And so let's start to think about the people that raised you. How did they do conflict? Because that's what you learned first, right? So the people that raised you, how did they do conflict? I'm going to tell you, so you may get an idea, a better idea of what I'm asking you for. I grew up with both of my parents and my older sisters, she was only a year older than me. And the way that conflict was done in our home. My mother yelled, she yelled at absolutely every opportunity there was that conflict presented or with that was her skill, yelling, and my dad stayed quiet. And on the side, he would come to us and try to work it out a little bit, but never was it that strong model that we had of my mother yelling, right. So I learned.

I learned that number one, I hated conflict, because I hated yelling, right? I hated the yelling. And number two, I learned that it was bad. Right? Something to absolutely avoid. My dad was clearly avoiding it. Right. So I learned that from him. And that it was something that if you did dare talk about it, it was like behind closed doors kind of to the side to the person does. I learned that as well. And so for me, the view around conflict was not a positive view. Okay, so that's really what I'm asking you to be willing to share whatever you're willing to share about how people do did conflict in your when you were growing up. So who would be willing to share with us? This is Maryann reading be inquisitive child, right makes you the troublemaker, and how that extends itself. Even maybe in your mindset today. Right? Being that inquisitive adult, that woman that, you know, whatever, however you identify, ethnically, right being that, wow, that's the troublemaker, as opposed to that's the person that's really curious about what is this about is about, right? Just one comment on that
I can say I was fortunate early in my career, you know, being the only female only black person in the fold of engineers who have children older than me. At the time. Someone said, You're asking good questions, but sometimes people can take your inquiry as
judgment.

So I, I've just learned some things along the way to try to, you know, try to manage judgment being something people can take from my
inquiry. So that was good. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here judging people, you know, people would feel judged. Yeah. Beautiful. Thank you, Mary. All right, someone else want to share their conflict story, had the people raised you do conflict. So how is this applying today for me as an adult, and so again, so the work of really resolving conflicts, masterfully involves you're going back to where the mindset was created. And then being able to make the connections to where you are now and recognizing too that it is going to come up even if even with all the skills that I had. Even when you get skills and you start to address your gaps, right in resolving conflict, recognize that because it started so early in you, right? That it's still there. And so the potential for you to want to yell, right, for instance, can come up the potential for you to hide and want to hide from conflict or to even do it can come up, which is why after you're involved in a conflict, to be able to look at what came up and how you did and how you feel about how you did is so important, because you get to catch that Oh, my goodness, right, I still have this gap. So I may want to work on getting some skills in this area, or Wow, that came up with that come from? Well, that comes really back to my conflict story. And that's still coming up for me in some ways, right? Maybe it's not as overt. But it is coming up for me. And I've got to be able to address that. So thank you all for taking that trip. And I see. Yvonne has joined us. Hi, Yvonne. Pay attention to yourself, why throughout this entire workshop, and in relationship to us doing this work around complex. So I want us to start off with what I think is something that people do not enough and need much more practice on. And that is we're going to work on some listening skills, because my experience around conflict is once we decide to engage, we want to get our point across. And we listen up into the point at which we wish to interrupt. And that usually comes pretty early in the conflict conversation, right? Because especially if they hit something that triggers us, right? If the F is like, oh, what Wait a minute, I let me say that. Right, which really interrupts the moment of listening. And then also, what it does is that it takes away from the opportunity to really find out what the conflict is about from their perspective, because now we've switched it to us. And if we're honest with ourselves, let's face it, we already know what the conflicts about from our point of view. So why do we have to jump in there so quickly? To get our point of view expressed, what we really don't understand yet fully, is how they're viewing the conflict we think we do because we assume more than we listen, we assume we know what they meant by what they said, We assume we know how they're going to approach this conflict, we assume we know all about who they are in conflict. And so we're going to work on getting some listening skills under our belt that'll help us to really start to understand the conflict and the person or people that we're in conflict with. So let me introduce to you.

Okay, so I want us to work on some two deep listening skills. The first one is listening for feelings and values, I want to say to you that for the most part, we listen for content, but we aren't listening to the feelings of this person and what they vow you. We I can't even tell you how many times I've been coaching someone who feels like either the person has no values, or that they don't think the only value they care about is that they don't seem to value my opinion in this conflict. But what do they value? What is what they're saying coming from? So in order to find that out, we have to listen to what's not being named. And here's what I mean by that. How many times have you ever heard someone who's in conflict, and they're having a conversation with you? And they say, and I value this, and I value that? And I bet like that's not usually how it goes, we might on occasion, hear them say, like, I value you when your service. But as they're talking about what the conflict is about, they don't tend to use that word. They don't talk in those words. So you have to listen for what's not being named as a value in the words that they are using. So I'll give you a for instance, if I say, you know, coming late is just not negotiable. I feel like you've just missed A lot of things, and it is just really, I think offensive. It tells the person or tells me that you really don't care about how I view things or what I have to say. And so I'm really I'm really getting on you about this lateness thing. So what is it? They've named lateness?
But what's the value? If you were to respond to them and say, so it sounds like you value what?

Respect? Okay, respect. So isn't that interesting that in in the words that I've said, you hear respect? Yes. Did I say I value respect? No, but you could hear from the words that I'm saying about what lateness says to me that I feel disrespected. Right, and when you come in late, so the value for me is respect. What else because there's other values there. What other value Did you hear?

punctuality, punctuality. Yes. Right. I value punctuality. Anything else? Any other value? Yes. Can you say where you heard that? Do you remember the words? Over Give me a minute, I think. Hold on. What did she say? I didn't quite hear that. communication, communication. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So do you remember why why you picked up communication? No, I
just feel like that came to me.

Yeah. Right. Like you don't want to hear what I have to say or you miss what I have to say. Right. When you're not there for it right when there's lateness so clearly, right. All right. So really listening for that, because you want to be able to speak to that, when it is your turn to speak. All right. So listen to what's not being named. Listen for feeling words. Sometimes we do a mountain sometimes we don't. But one of the things about feeling words, what we tend to do is throw out the safer ones for us. And believe it or not, anger is one of those safer ones because anger sits on top of the ones that are much harder to express. But the ones that often do not get fed. And so then it builds to an angry so listening for feeling words. So I'm going to ask you what do you think anger sits on top of what kinds of feelings build to anger when they don't get addressed?

resentment,
resentment? Yeah. What else before I resent you What might you have done
disrespected me

Okay, just respect what I owe. does not say Oh, dismissal. Yeah. What else? Okay, so what's the so unsupported is the feeling what else?
not heard. ignored,
ignored. Yes. There you go. Hurt disappointment. All of those things lead to anger when they are not addressed, expressed and addressed. Right. So listen for feeling words. And you're listening again to what said and on set. Yeah. Okay. You didn't have my back in that meeting. And I'm, I'm really angry with you about that. Because here we are the only two black women in the company. And when I express an idea, I'm looking for you to have my back. And you did not say a word you sat in that meeting and acted as if what I said was so unimportant. And I never do that when you have an idea. Okay, what feeling words Did you hear that? What what what one feeling did I express? Did I say it in words? important? Okay, that's not a feeling. What's the one feeling I said? In the actual word.
upset.

Close enough angry. I said I was angry at you. What are the feelings that sit under? neath that that if you were really hearing my words you could get what am I feeling you think?
Give it a try. What do you think? What's the feeling underneath feelings? It's lots of feelings in anything anger that I feel like I expressed in more rejected. Okay, reject it. What else? I am always there for you when you have an idea. But you weren't there for me. What's that feeling?
appreciated
and appreciated a stronger one than that
starts with the be
great
saying again, betrayed betrayed. Don't you feel like I've been done you can you hear betrayal in that? we the only two black ones up in here. And anytime you got an idea, I'm right there. But turn around and it's my turn. And you're quiet. betrayal. I feel betrayed. What else might I feel? I'm hoping expecting that you will have my back. And when you don't I feel
let down lack of support.
Yeah, let down disappointed. Right. Maybe I'm even hurt. Yeah, so. So do you understand that listening for feelings is so important. If you're really going to be able to start to address what this conflict is about for this person. Listen for what's important to them what they value, name it, and then do a check in. Did I get that right? Any questions about this before we practice?
So I just have a comment. So I have a bias.
You don't really have
nothing in the way. So being able to bring them out on the table can be an important way to at least get them acknowledged for that person and then begin to work on. So how do we resolve this situation? I can't resolve your feelings for you. But we may be able to resolve the situation between us. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm was it Yvonne that that brought this up?
Um, no, I think it was.

Who was it? Who? I'm sorry? Who? Who? Who said that? Mary. Okay. Sorry, Mary. Okay. So Mary, does that make sense to you? Or? Yes. You have? Yeah. Yeah. Because people are not, trust me. And age has nothing to do with this. Right? If people have not
been taught how to manage their feelings, then they are the feelings are what's going to actually fuel the conflict, and keep it going. So yeah, naming them is going to be important. All right. Thank you for bringing that up to anybody else. question or comment before we actually do a practice. All right. Okay. So it's going to be listened to what's not being named. Listen for feeling words, and I'll guide you through it to name them and do a check in Did I get that right? So I'm gonna stop sharing so I can see each of you to be listening for whatever feelings you might be hearing or, and whatever you feel like, what you're hearing that I might value. And then I'm going to ask afterwards for folks to try to see if you can name it, and then do a check in so doing that, here's what that would look like. So when I heard this particular value, and it sounds like you feel like this, right, these this feeling I've heard this feeling from you. Did I get that right? That's really what I'm looking for from you. Okay. All right. Are we ready to listen to me? And And listen, while you're listening, I want you to observe and notice what might be coming up for you whether it's a trigger or bias, right? It could be Mary, what could come up for you is like, Oh my god, you know, this is not therapy. She needs to just go someplace with all that because that's what comes up a lot of times when we're doing the work like this, but the truth is, it's really valuable to do the work in this way. So you have that at least those skills to be able to guide them. You have to Mika says, I love there. But I know I love therapy too. But sometimes it feels like crossing the line when you do the work in this way. But I know that it's valuable, because if people don't know how to manage their feelings, I have to manage it, I have to manage mine, and then manage there's getting on the table so that we can really work past that and get through to resolving this conflict. Right. Okay, so I'm going to, I'm going to, like I said, I'm going to do a little monologue, and then I'm going to ask for volunteers to see if you can name value and feelings. Okay? All right. So, you know, I'm really, I'm really unhappy right now. Because one of the things that I notice that happens is, you do not share anything about you know, something that is a big project, whenever there's a big project, you're like, really like keeping it to yourself, I don't know whether it's because you want to be the big shot here. And you want to make sure everybody knows how important you are and how smart you are. But it's a team effort, right? We're supposed to be working together. And yet, and still, I cannot seem to get information from you about what in the world we're actually doing. It's like, you have this little private conversation with yourself, that never happens with me. So then I get to look stupid, or I get to look unprepared. And that's not who I am. I'm very professional in the way that I work. I really am someone who's very accomplished, and I want people to understand that. And yet, us working together doesn't seem to get back there. I mean, I'm really, I'm new, you know, I'm new here, you already know that. So I really do want people to understand who I am and how valuable I am to the company. And yet, I feel like you're standing in my way. And I'm almost gonna say that I feel like it's personal sometimes, like you have something against me. And my thing is, if someone has something against me, then be upfront, say what you got to say, you know, we're adults here. And it really does bother me that you have all people you know, come on, you know what I'm saying about that you have all people are standing in my way, it seems like and you're just I think it's just totally unprofessional, the way that you're working. And you need to just get it together, I'm really unhappy here, I'm just like, really unhappy here, getting ready to take some other actions, if you don't get it together, and include me as a team member, because I'm not looking like this, I'm not going up like this.

I said, so you have that authority, right? You can do it that way. Or you can really try to use some skills to problem solve this out. So the person feels heard, so that some solutions get on the table, and then you work toward getting this done, it's resolved in two different ways to listen, those are two different ways to listen. You can choose to leave out all that information, and just going authority, or you can choose to use the information, right extracted and then use it to have a good problem solving conversation.
Does that make sense to folks?

All right, so then, with that said, I want to do one more, one more practice of that, okay, because I really want you to be able to pull it. What was that most typically love to solve problems most of the time, right? Yeah, build on the fact that all these are tech people, right? And so absolutely, there's a problem solving mindset anyway. But feelings and feelings can get in the way, right? feelings can get in the way. And so that's why being able to pull them even if you feel like you know what, I'm not going to put them all on the table. Let me see what's the most valuable one to put here. Right. So maybe you feel like you really felt excluded from getting the all of the information necessary for this particular project. Right? Is that what I'm hearing and then see where that can get you? Because you may not want to go to the more deeper ones that you probably know is happening here. But the exclude it might be a safer one to put out on the table, please Simo? Well, I actually think you did great on this. So I'm gonna move to the next to the next scale because I think you all were able to pull them out. So let me move to the next listening skill, and then we'll take a break. Okay, so listening beyond our comfort zone, feel into the point at which you are not comfortable. Take three breaths and pay attention to your non verbals. Right. So first one feeling to the point in which you are not comfortable. Like I said, that tends to come up pretty early for us. In the conversation, I'm asking you to listen past that point, even if it is really uncomfortable, but it's a point that you want to come back to addressing, but you are letting them give as much information as possible before you address that point. And to get past it, you may have to take those two, three deep breaths, but still listening. And then pay attention to your nonverbals. What am I talking about there?

Body language, I would say like I'm crossing my arms, leaving your head to the side, maybe your eyes are going in a certain circular motion. you're exhaling I get the stance, maybe you chant, you're you're moving back and forth. Like you have all this energy, you're trying to figure out what to do with it. So you move in your, you know, shifting your body from left to right, or back and forth. Mm hmm. I pay attention to those two.

Yeah. And what about Yes? Anybody raise eyebrows you ever been told? Or? I know my mother used to say you can't play poker because it shows all over your face. Right? Like, haha, that was that is not a lie. I know that my face is very expression. But my answer would be well, I can't see my face. So how do I? How do I know what's going on with my face. But know your nonverbals is very important. Because if you don't and you're doing them, then people may have reaction to it, like the crossing of their arms and the legs. I do that as a way of being comfortable. But I have learned that that can tell people if I'm in conflict, it conversation that I'm I'm closing off to what they're saying, right? I'm close. So I don't do it. When I'm in a conflict conversation, because I know that that could happen. You know, I check out their nonverbals you know, like, it's like, Okay, wait a minute, did I do something with my face? Because I noticed you kind of changed and how you're looking at me, like yeah, you raised your eyebrows are? Right. Okay, that's feedback. For me, these are things that I know, in conflict conversations that I have to watch out for these things. Because if I really want to pursue this, this conversation to the end where we really are problem solving, then some of the things that I'm doing, I'm not really helpful to that. All right, so So all of that makes sense to folks. Yep. Okay, beautiful. So, I do want to give I do want to give a break. Michelle, How long had the breaks been?

You have a three and a half hour session. So you have 30 minutes for break so if you want to do 310 to 15
I would like to do 215 if people do not mind doing 215 I think 15 minutes can give you something you know something a little bit of grace time Okay. All right. So we are we're going to come back to we're gonna come back to the to East Coast time if you I'm sorry to east coast on here I am thinking only of me. Yes to East Coast.

So if you're on West Coast, then it's what 11am Lynch should know because she's been by Coastal.

Yes, it is 11 it's somewhere
in between there. So just 15 minutes, just look at whatever time it is instead of 45 in the hour and be back at the top of the next hour.
Yes.

Opportunity aspect of it as well as the divergent ideas perspectives that keep us from moving forward. I want you to please name for me. Something in nature. Anyone? A butterfly, a butterfly. Okay, and one more thing in nature.
Birds,
birds, okay. All right and then give me a household appliance.
Microwave.

Microwave. Okay, one more.
Another washing machine and oven.
Can we know when with a washing machine since oven and microwave? Okay, so here we go folks. Conflict is like a butterfly because you're gonna complete it not me conflict is like a butterfly because
it goes through several stages tonight to it.

Yeah, yeah, nice. Conflict is like birds because
it goes south this like the
I can go south.
Alright.
I love that.
I love that. Okay, great conflict is like a microwave because
you can heat things up in a matter of seconds.

Yeah. As it can eat up in a matter of seconds. Yep. All right. And then complic is like a washing machine? Because
someone who has an answer, Yeah, come on, give it a try. Stretch that stretch that mindset about conflict conflict is like a washing machine because
conflicts like a washing machine, because you can get very, very wet and then confused as part of the conflict situation. But it can also make things cleaner.

Yes, yes. Absolutely. And it goes through cycles to get to that cleanliness. Right. You see, it agitates. Yeah. So this is about this is called the synaptic complex connected and it's about, it's another way to stretch your mind to how you view conflict. Because if every time conflict comes up, all we're thinking about is Oh, God, I hate conflict, or this is going to be bad, or whatever a negative view is, I don't want to deal with this or I don't, I'm an imposter. I don't have the skills to deal with it. If that is always our view, then we're really never going to get to that place where we see the opportunities that it can present. Right. So stretching, stretching the view is a great way to help you to do that. Yes, I do, too. I do, too. This is actually the first time what was the first time anyone said birds, and it's the first summer it goes out. It is so true. Yes. Beautiful. Okay. So let's keep moving. And all right. So we are going to go back to our PowerPoint, and we're going to look at Oh, I'm sorry. Let me take us one further right on, let me finish up listening beyond our comfort zone like listen, one point further past your discomfort. Right. So that's part of the listening and then reflect back to them what you heard. Right? It sounds like what I heard is, which is the paraphrasing, which we did in the first step, when we were reflecting back the feelings and the values, right? It's the same thing and reflecting back on the content of what you've heard someone say. So let me give an opportunity for that before I move forward. And that is that. What I want to do is to go back to the scenario, and I want to ask if you will reflect back on some of the content now, not, not the feelings and the values, but the content of what you're hearing. So, to going back to that scenario, I'm going to say. So the problem that I'm having right is with you as the project manager, not sharing anything with me, or at least keeping things secret about what you're doing and what I'm supposed to be doing in this situation. I don't understand why You can't simply tell me all of the things that I need to do and the things that you're doing. If we're a team, this isn't how the team functions. For me, it doesn't make me look good. And I'm certainly not happy about the fact that you being who you are. And being the one who's the manager is conducting yourself in this way, I need to be treated very differently, I need to be treated as someone who's important on this team. And that means I need better information from you. So I'm going to ask you to reflect back content like and when I say content, like what is this about in terms of content? Because it's about feelings and values to? But in terms of content, what are you hearing?
In terms of content?

You know, moving on.
Oh, there,
get there. Get there. Yeah. All right.

All right. So

we're at the place of respond rather than react. It is really important to understand that most of us react in conflict rather than respond. And the way that you get to respond is that you do have to manage your emotions, in order to get to the place where you're now thinking about what it is that you want to say, and then saying it as a pod as a, as opposed to the emotions start to lead you there. Why so give yourself time to think a lot of us feel like it makes us look bad if we're not able, with the ready answer to get there. I mean, think about even as we we talk about culture, right? And we think about cultural norms, think about even growing up, what was what was a cultural norm around if someone says something to you, about you that you don't like? What's the cultural norm in terms of how you engage? I know, for me, it was, you know, people around like, don't let us say that about you, you gotta say something back. Right? It was that kind of like, you got to come quick. And even in today's society, with social media, it's that quick response. And making sure that you have the perfect clap back. And so nobody gets the best of you. But responding is going to require that you actually take a step back, and give yourself time to think in the moment and understand what you are feeling and why. But there are trigger words that make some feelings come up in me. And if I don't take a moment to think about what I genuinely want to say, as opposed to what my feelings want to say, you understand what I mean, between the two? My feelings have a lot. But that's not what we're trying to come from. We're trying to come from the place of what's going to make the most sense to say if we're trying to move towards resolving this conflict, by engaging in the conversation. So understanding what I'm feeling and why Oh, right. That's what my mother used to say, or do or that's what so and so said, or did, and that's triggering me, right? Here yourself. So when I say hear yourself, if you've reacted already, because believe me, you can go to response, even if you've already reacted, you can circle back. But if you've reacted already hear yourself in that reaction? And is that really what you want to say? Or is that even the best thing to say, in the moment, you can practice a pause and breathe. So if you're going to pause it, give yourself time to think, take some really good, deep belly breaths in that moment. And I've seen people like I need a moment, or give me a moment. Right? Let me get back to you in a moment. Why own a bad start? I can't even tell you how many times the feelings just ran away with me. And it was just bad. And then I came back to say, hey, that is just not what I really want to say or that is that was not helpful to the situation. I own that I apologize for that. And then do a rewind, can we start again? Here's what I really meant to say. Do a rewind. Like let's let's have this conversation again. And then we Mind yourself through out of your desire to have a meaningful conversation when it starts getting tough to say to yourself, Well, what is the goal? What's my goal here? My goal is to have a meaningful conversation about this, and then to problem solve it. If that's my goal, how do I stick to that? While I'm going to have to remind myself several times throughout a very difficult conversation, that that's my goal, if my goal is to win feelings will lead you to reaction, if my goal is to make them look small feelings will lead to reaction if my goal is to remind them that I'm in charge. And what I say goes, then feelings will relieve will lead to reaction, if your goal is to have a meaningful conversation about this, and then resolve it, then your work to go to respond, rather than react or your work to circle your way back to respond.

Rather than react.

Yeah. Does that make sense? Okay, so I want to go I want to go back to you, Simone. Because the reason why I put this he put us back to I said, I would like to address what you were talking about in this slide. And this situation, is because in order to address it don't know, when for a better word, for lack of a better word, do something else other than this, and here we are. back to square one. You hear me reacting? I'm not saying that you don't feel like that? I'm saying that it doesn't feel good even to say that. But I'm saying if we're having meaningful conversation and engaging in resolving conflicts, where's that going to lead us in relationship to this? If that person can respond in in the way that you're reacting, then fine, then that's the kind of conversation you're going to have. But if you really especially rising execs, you got to be the one that really has the skills and puts them out there. So respond rather than react. So this person is still doing the same thing, right, Simone? Yes. Okay. So what do you want to say? This is all of us, we can use this approach.

Yeah. I just want to say yeah, if I'm having a similar conflict situation when somebody and I got to a point where I just I got really angry. Oh, my nose. Okay. Yep. Cool. All right.

So I want to share this piece, because I think that, okay, how to take the parts of conflict that everyone dreads, and turn them into learning experiences. Because when we start talking about why people avoid conflict, so these are some of the reasons right emotional outbursts, that's the last thing that people want, either from the other person or for yourself, like, I'm afraid, I'm just going to lose it. Right long silence. There's a real fear of silence when we're talking about conflict, or fear takes over, like, you're really just petrified to have this conversation or maybe fearful of the person and the way that they conduct themselves. Now, I had a manager who was just out of control in the way that she engaged in conflicts and, and very me, it's very, very mean. And it's interesting, you know, just by accident, I learned that she was using cocaine very heavily. And so I was like, oh, okay, like, this is where that is coming from. But it definitely the fear would take over anytime I felt like there was going to be conflict between us, or the part you dread is that you've just made it what like, something you're going to do is going to make it worse. Right? And so you don't want to deal with that. So emotional outbursts. Here's the deal. I know most of us don't like it, right, whether it's from ourselves or from others, but emotional outbursts give us information. There is something happening here for this person, either you've hit on something that is really important to them, but somehow they do not have the skills to articulate it in a way that you could be helpful to helping them with this particular thing. Or an emotional outburst can tell you just as You set them on, they do not have, they weren't prepared for this, right? There's something else that's getting in the way that most likely has nothing to do with this conflict. And so this is not something that I'm going to take personally at all, this emotional outburst is not about me, it's about something else. So being able to look at that when I was doing, I used to mediate civil complaint cases. And in particular, in the black and brown communities, emotional outbursts were part of that all the time. And I started to really just recognize that sometimes people just really need to get it out in that way. Or sometimes it's most of the time is just really not about me. It's really about whatever they're feeling that they're not able to articulate. So it comes out in that way. And when I was able to clear the air with myself around that, I was able to literally sit back and try to see, is there something in this outbursts? That's going to be helpful to me? Right? And what I mean by that is, I can say, Ah, you know, Michelle, I'm gonna tell you, I really don't like that you do this. And I mean, like, this is ridiculous. This is so silly. It's just ridiculous. Now, you don't get a lot out of that, because there's more name calling than there is information. But if I'm saying, Michelle, oh, my God, this report was so out of line, like, we didn't do anything right in this report. And the report was late, and I thought you were going to be doing this part and you didn't do that part. And so when you didn't deliver the charts to me, I'm standing up there looking stupid. Now, that's an emotional outburst. But did you get information from that outburst?
What information did you get?

They are feeling pretty hurt. And, um, you know, you you're upset, and you're part of is you just feel like you need to be heard.
Yeah, but what else did I say? I gave you content in there. What was the content?

Um, you were upset about just Josie,
I'm gonna stop you for a minute. Why don't you think that content is not the clearest part for you? What stopped you from hearing the content?

I was spending a lot of time trying to pay attention to the field. Okay.

Right, because it's an emotional outburst. So you're trying to pay attention to the feelings? Yeah. Yeah. But okay. And this is new, right? Trying to listen in so many different ways. It definitely takes practice, right. But also whatever comes up for us when someone gets emotional, and this was a roleplay. But think about when people are having emotional outbursts. There's barriers for you because you get triggered by that outburst. So you have to really hear them, all kinds of things are working for you. Like for me, it could be You got to be kidding me. You're behaving in this way. And you're in charge of me, you're the manager like that. Whereas I really need to focus in and listen, can I can I get something else from this, as you said, you listen for the feelings. The content is also there to anybody get any of the content?

I think what I heard was the represent drove the ball and giving you the charts and the spreadsheets or whatever for the presentation on so you were supposed to present something without the required information. Right? You're very upset about that.

That's right. Absolutely. So the combination of things What do you got Josie and what you got some All right, that combination says that there's no reason to be intimidated by this emotional outbursts, because you were able to get something from it where you can hopefully try to use that as a way to have the conversation. One way to de escalate someone is to let them know that they've been heard and to start really giving back their words and working towards Can you really try to resolve this particular thing, Simone? Why you laughing?Michelle?

Oh, Michelle had to come in. What is it really to me? The other people, but when you do have it, you absolutely stand out. So as you said, Simone, like you can really appreciate when you see somebody One that has that you can really appreciate that. And I'm the same way when I see parents who have that, I really appreciate that it's a switch, it's a switch that I made in parenting, my sons, and was that I much prefer to be the parent that would really go the distance and trying to have the conversation and trying to understand rather than using my power to shut it down, and I say that to parents, and I say that to managers, no one can take that card from you, you know how you play cards, if you got to play cards, and Oh, God, I have to say the word you have the trump card, right? And you know, you can play that. And it's gone, shut it down, right, but you don't have to play it, you can decide to hold on to it. And that's the piece when you know, you're in the power position. If you put up that power as long as you can, and try to use the skills to actually engage in the conversation, it becomes much more powerful. Because the conversation actually helps to build the relationship, which is what is the thing that you're going to be able to draw on, right and getting things done again, and again and again. So really working on looking at right using this what I'm talking about now. So when you have an emote, when somebody has an emotional outburst to look at that when you are the one having it, look at why. What came up for me what got in the way, right? What took over? And why did that take over, so that you can use that as information for yourself going forward? Not to get carried away like that again, right to use the skills to stay in? long silence. How many of you hate silence? Like that is really you really hate it? Yeah. Okay, so you've got to figure out why Simone. Why Why do you? Why don't you like it? Just Just talk to me.

I don't care if you're shouting, just silence kills me
that okay. Silence really triggers you. Okay, Josie. Why don't you like it? Oh,

I mean, I think specifically, because my leg has been will just go into silence for like, 20 or 30 minutes. And like, when we're having an argument, and I'm just like, say something to me. I'm like, I can't I can't deal. response.

Yeah. Yeah, it's a, it's a personal, it's a personal trigger for you. Right? Yes. And it is for a lot of people. But one of the things around conflict, and I'll make a connection with culture to their cultures, in particular, Asian cultures, weird silence is actually not so much that you're you're doing it intentionally, it comes from two places I find one is that culturally, you do not want to say something that's going to embarrass or shame that the other person. And so conflict is often looked at in that way, if you really speak out that you are making yourself look bad, and that person, the other is that silence can be an active way to do the work. For instance, I want you to notice something that I did earlier. And that is when I asked a question of everyone. And I sat in silence, until someone responded, I could have used that silence to make myself uncomfortable and say, Okay, well, I'll I'll say something, you know, or I'll give an answer. But what I did was I use the silence to allow you time to work on a response, right? rather than be uncomfortable with it. And I've learned to stretch that silence longer and longer. It's something that I use with my sons bringing them up is because I believe that the answer is somewhere within there, there may be discomfort in sharing it. But if I give you the space to reach for it, you might just take that space, and then you might just say what it is. But if I if I allow myself to be intimidated by the sidelines, then I'll answer it for you. Or I will assume that I know what this is about, or I'll avoid again, okay, well, you know, they don't want to talk about it. So let me we're not going to talk about it that right. So really recognizing that long silence doesn't have to be intimidating or deadly or mean that they They're actually trying to get back at you. And that there are, there are different meanings to silence and the way that you counter it is to get comfortable with silence
and let it work for you.

And then fear takes over, right. So if fear is taking over in a conflict situation, it's really important for you to know what you're afraid of.
Because a lot of times what we're afraid of is really up
to our imagination of how bad this is going to be, or what this is going to lead to, as opposed to the reality of the situation. So to tap into, what's my fear? If I'm afraid if I say, X, Y, and Z, then they're going to think, ABC of me, right? Is that really what's gonna happen? Is that really true? What's it based in? What's it based on? Where's that coming from, for me? To really be able to take a look at that, and then made it worse. So what happens if you make it worse?
What's the fear of making it worse?
Like there's no coming back. There's
no recovery. Yeah,
good. That's a common one.

But a lot of times there is. We just convinced ourselves that there isn't, like I said to you, and respond versus rather than react on a bad start. And then we whine. Lots of times, that is really possible. But we've convinced ourselves that it's not that there's no that there's there's no coming back from this, I really messed it up. And there's no way that this is going to be resolved. And the truth is, that first way is owning, owning it. That was really bad. Right? Even as I will say, even not even even as, especially as parents, we really are taught that that there's no need to own them. Elena bad start, we are the authority figure. So we just said we sat and we might say to ourselves, yeah, well, I messed up, but I'm not gonna tell him that because I'm the mom. They're just the kids. So I don't have to tell them that I did the wrong thing. Right. But owning a bad start is is such a high level conflict resolution skill, that when you can do that, it is a it is often very appreciated and often received in the spirit in which you're giving it and then responded to by, okay, let's start over or let's continue the conversation. All right, but you got to be able to be willing to, to do that. And I find that a lot of managers are not, they're not good at that particular piece of saying this, this came out wrong.

So you want to be that manager that can do that.

Alright, so I want to talk, I want to talk to flip to this, because this is absolutely what I'm teaching. But the flip to this is barriers to doing this work in this way. What are some of the barriers, and I want you to think about cultural norms when you think about barriers as well. So you could think about tech culture, you could think about your, you know, ethnic culture, or religious culture or whatever. But think about the barriers to doing this.

Someone want to name one.
I would always share that I'm gender wise, sometimes I'm not too sure feedback,
but it just makes you feel terrible. How do you manage your emotions around that to get benefit from that feedback? Right, and to not go into the place of really making yourself feel badly because you need work? Like everybody needs work? Everybody needs work. Everybody needs work. You You could be at the highest level and you still need work right? Everybody needs work. So. So I'm looking at the time, wow. So fast, I just want to see if there is anything that anyone wants to really ask at this point. Because I would like to get a quick closing in, but I want to make that the behavior. If we're if we go for the person, then

First of all, they're most likely going to react in some way, and that behavior is not going to be addressed. So think about what's the behavior, and what's the effect that it is having when you are on others, and formulate your sentence, or, or two or three, wherever many sentences it takes to put that on the table, but shot out with what I call a door opener. A door opener is really the invitation to have the conversation. So it could be there's something that happened at the meeting that I would love for us to talk about, or I'd really love to have a conversation with you. About. Right. So that that's the door opener, the invitation to the conversation, and then it is so so Simone, what I really wanted to share with you is that in this last meeting, when you called me out on the mistake that I made, here's what didn't work for me. Right? You raised your voice. And, and you you chose me in particular. Right? If that's, you know, that's the sentence that I've decided to formulate, right, and you chose me in particular, as opposed to some mom? What a terrible way to manage that you would call someone out. You know, you call me out, and you single me out in front of the entire team. I don't, I'm really stunned that you would do that. That is just such a poor way to manage people. Now, I've said what you did. But I've also made it personal. Right. And while it is the person doing it, so in that sense, it's personal. If you really want to raise conflict, you don't want to go for the personal, you want to go for the behavior and see if you can get them to talk about that. So that would be my response to that, Mary. Hi. All right. So I want to say thank you to everyone. I've really enjoyed spending the time with you. And I'd love to add just no take away anything that you're taking away from this time together.

So Josie, do you have a takeaway? Anything the rest of your day is wonderful. Thank you for this opportunity. Michelle. You're very welcome.

Thank you, Lynn for coming through, as usual for being a plug. This has been really great. So y'all have seen the last I don't know this is week four. The speakers are the fourth day Have you want to look at it. So hopefully they are helping weave together for you. strategies and tactics and techniques you can use as you're advancing your career as you're encountering different barriers. Now you know how to deal you have some tactics right to use when dealing with conflict. So Lynn, thank you so much for joining.
My pleasure. See everyone

View Details

Hello, everybody, I am back again. Tonight, we are going to talk about some very important areas of your career, we're really gonna focus on your area where you're an expert, you're subject matter expert, and oftentimes, especially for analytical people who may not even have PhDs, right? When you have a PhD, like, Oh, I know exactly what I study. I'm this narrow, right. But for others of us, who are scientists, technologists, engineers, mathematicians, you still have a place a lane, I like to say where you're a subject matter expert.

And oftentimes, especially when you're in the work, you forget, you don't realize that you've developed a certain set of skills, and you have certain experiences, which have led you to become a subject matter expert. And too often, we don't realize that and I work with a lot of Latina black and indigenous women who don't realize it, because they're always tasked with doing so much work. And they're really good at it.

They're actually excellent at it. And they don't understand this. So what I want to do tonight, is really spend some time talking about where your subject matter expert. And what is that skill set that you've developed to become a subject matter expert. And so some of you are going like, Michelle, I'm not a subject matter expert, I've only been working in this field five years, 10 years, 12 years 15. Trust me, when I say this, you're putting in time. So oftentimes they do a number like oh, it takes 10,000 hours before you're an expert in something.

Maybe it's an average. I'm just saying, y'all know, numbers and people. So if you think about the average job, right, the average job that you're working, you're going to see, let's say 40 hours a week, there are 52 weeks in a year. That's 2000 hours. You haven't a year. So in five or six years, when you take some vacation has holidays, you're an expert in something. What is that something?

So now you can't tell me? Oh, I'm only done 1015? Year? I'm giving you six? Okay, so what is it that you are? You're an expert in? So you're like, Michelle, I don't know what you mean by this expert, this subject matter expert. So let's just talk about a formal definition. A subject matter expert is someone who is an authority in a particular area or topic, what is that area of topic? Is an instrument and controls? Is it some type of Java, right coding that you're really good in, but you do it in a very specific niche, let's say in Health Tech products, right.

So you coat products that are used in hospitals, let's say, in cardiology, like that, that like we're getting that specific. And it could be a bit broader as well. But you have this particular and you're able to create this code to, to find anomalies right in hearts. Right? Maybe that's something you're really good at?

I don't know, is that a thing? This term is used when you're developing materials about a topic expertise on the topic is needed by the personal personnel developing the material. So let's say if you had to give a speech today, at a professional conference here on a live stream, to your family, specific to your industry or anything in life, what is that thing that you could talk about?

And literally do it without putting together a presentation off the top of your head, you could talk for 15 to 30 minutes to an hour even to to break down and explain to other people what this thing is. That is your area of expertise. Right? Some of you is going to be manufacturing.

Right. Others of you is going to be how to project manage something, but they're in there you have your you're an expert in this. So if we take you out of let's say this, Mitch, you're in. Let's look at that skill set that you've developed. What skill set Have you developed in your career that now has led you to become the subject matter expert. Now, when we talk about skill set, we're talking About your competencies, your knowledge and your abilities to do certain types of work that's also wrapped into your experiences, right. So certain things you will learn, you will learn in a classroom, you will learn by doing. And you will learn by using it in particular instances. So those experiences.

Now, oftentimes, when we think about skill sets, we think about communication or computer skills, right? Time management, but we also be talking about Leadership, Research and Planning, and of course, engineering, development, developing something as well. So what is that those core was that core skill set you have, that you've developed, that you possess, that you still now roll over into your area of expertise, where you are subject matter expert, write those down, and you're like, Michelle, I'm not sure what it is. Okay, so let's take a step back. Go through your emails, text messages, voicemails, and even recall conversations or meeting notes, where people have asked you to do certain things, what is what is the recurring things they're asking you to do. And sometimes it is at a higher level, and you have to dig deeper to understand, understand what their skill set is, what type of problem you're solving, what are you truly bringing, but it'll start you to get to, to really think about what is your skill set? And what were your subject matter expert. And it's really important to hone in on that because it helps you to understand how you can take that skill set and go to different industries and attack different problems. And also where you're a subject matter expert that you want to own in your technical space, and to drive you to different places in your career. All right. So that is the message for today. So go and find out where you are a subject matter expert, yes. Because you truly are. Remember, we did the calculations?

What are your subject matter expert? And let us know, let me know in the comments. Also assess what skills and experience you have. What are your top three skills? I won't have you do your entire entire skill set? But what are your top three skills? Is are you able to negotiate well, are you able to figure out Re and I and I've run into a couple of developers who are very good at taking apart current processes within their organization that are very intricate, and figuring out a way to write code that truly transform decision making within their organizations. And they have literally done it alone and their teams have been like, Oh, you're going to screw this up. That's not going to work. And they literally did what I call the Henny Penny, if you don't know what a Henny Penny story is, my mother had a daycare for over 30 years. So let me tell you the story. So Henny Penny is on a farm. Henny Penny is a chicken, a man hen, I'm sorry, hitting is a hand.

So hynny buys a piece of wheat. And she goes tell the other farmers Hey, I got this piece of wheat, who will help me grind it to flour, and then go like that's too much work who has time for that. So she goes and she grinds that wheat to flour. So she comes back to the farm animals again and say hey, I have the flour, who wants to help me make this into DOH? Doh, who has time for that that's too much work. I'm not going to do that. She then goes and makes the dough bakes the bread. And now everybody wants a slice.

So understand you are putting in great work. You have this level of expertise. Others are not don't have it, they don't have the drive for it. And you don't even see the talent that you really possess. So I want you to think about what what areas are you a subject matter expert and then go assess what your skills and experiences you've had to make you a subject matter expert and what are your top three skills? Yes, do that let me know because I'm truly truly interested in finding out. Alright everybody have a great day and I will be back later.

View Details

Hello, everybody, I am back. All this week, I will be talking about your career trajectory, what direction you want to go in your career? And how do you really find that? How you find out where you want to go is where we're going to focus tonight. And then later in the week is some things you can do, we'll discuss things to do in the workplace, specifically, having conversations with your manager, about your career trajectory in your current place of employment, or wherever your next move may be. So first of all, the first thing I want you to think about is which career opportunities excite you and why.

Oftentimes, we take a role, or we get into an industry and you're like, Oh, my God, this is so boring. I have so been there. How about you? I remember doing getting a technical sales role as inside sales. So it's inbound calls. And so what do you do in between calls? Right. And as an engineer, and being young and early in the career, I was bored, right? It didn't excite me, there was there were challenges once I got on the phone. But what was going to challenge me when I wasn't on the phone, and that was, that was a big, big issue for me. And a lot of my team actually turned over a lot of us were just bored. So if you're in a role, or you have previous roles, which didn't excite you, what were those things? What was it about that role that did excite you? Or do excite you? And what didn't so you know, what to stay away from? And you know, what you gravitate towards? Now that you know, what excites you? Why does it excite you, I can literally remember thinking I would never ever do construction?

And I actually did. And so when you think about it, what what is it that really makes you or get you excited about your career? Right? What is it I know one client, she wants to plan the power grid. And as the excitement is coming, by planning the future, right, about impacting lives by planning the power grid, and she has done some fantastic things from substation design, transmission design, some smaller things in between there, right, you know, working for a utility company. But what really excites me right now, 15 plus years into our career, is planning the power grid, and being able to look into the future, and help drive and cultivate the future as it relates to the power here in the US. So when you think about that, think about your role, and the things that excite you, and that you've had exposure to what are they, maybe you aren't sure, maybe you're just interested in something, write it down and write down why you're interested in it. And maybe you'll find some similarities in other roles that really excites you, or that you find interesting.

The next thing you want to do is look at your current career path. Do you want to be on that career path in two to five years? Or even tomorrow? Do you want to be on that career path? And really reflect on? Hmm, I don't want to do that into into more years. Like, it's okay for now. And so now you have, you're trying to figure out what your next step is. I had a great conversation recently with some lady in tech, and she had been a software engineer for years moved over the product, and really is enjoying the challenges of being in being in product after being a software engineer for 15 years, and just wanted something new and different to do. Same things. Another woman in tech 30 plus years has done anything from programming and data architectures now machine learning. And so you can really, really think about what excites you. And sometimes it's just growing and learning new things. And and that can be what excites you about that, especially if you know where you currently are is not where you want to be two to five years from now. And you want to think two to five years so you can kind of plan out, see if you need to get a new skill set, identify if you need a new employer to really go and find those roles or explore new roles that you are excited about. Now, when you doing all of that also look at what do you want to master?

What do you want to be a master of and oftentimes, especially when it comes to technologists and engineers, we usually focus on technical aspects as well as scientists something technical, but sometimes we find or you may have found that you have a difficulty in explaining to others why something works a certain way, and why the company should be spending money to build it out to make it more efficient. And you don't know how to to, to explain it. So you may want to master negotiations and communications, right? Other times you do want to master something.

And it could be maybe it's something in DevOps, maybe it's something in structural design, and you want to be a PE, but you want to specifically design and become a master abutment or something. So what is that thing that you skill you want to master as well? And so when you think about your career trajectory, you want to think about opportunities that excite you and why and even the ones that don't, so you notice you're away from them? Do you like the current career path you're on? Where do you want to be in the next two to five years? Take a look at that. And lastly, what do you want to master? Because looking at all of those will really really help you figure out where you want to be and what direction you want to take your career. So that's what I have for today. I will be back more this week, talking about your career trajectory, everybody. Have a great day and bye

View Details

What is going on everybody, thank you so much for joining me again, we are going to be talking about getting your manager on board or better yet even finding out if your manager is on board for your career trajectory, the things you can the actions, you can take the things you should be asking questions, you should be asking to your manager. So it's really important that you at least find out if your manager is on board. And we're going to take the path veteran manager is on board. So just so you know, because if your managers not, it's a whole other segment, whole other steps you would have to undertake, in order to get the support you need internal to your organization to grow your career, if you're looking to stay there. And as these are the same things you would do if you go to another organization as well. And, and most importantly, that you want to ask when you're in the interviewing process. Okay, so first of all, you want to set times to actually meet with your manager about your career progression, your career advancement trajectory within an organization. And you want to do that a minimum of two times a year because you already do your annual review. But you need to do it really, once a quarter. What happens is, I don't know if any of you do this, you set these great goals, right? That you want to achieve in the year. And then stuff happens like your job and you don't get to that, those extra things. And you forget about it up until like six to eight weeks when your review is due. And you're like, I can't get these all of this done, maybe two out of the five or one out of the six, whatever it is. And so by meeting with your manager on a quarterly basis, you are then more accountable to making progress in what you agreed to in the previous year, whenever you do your performance reviews, and you set your annual goals. So that's one reason. But on top of that, when if you're meeting with your manager prior to your performance review, you are already laying the path to what is going to be your goals for the next year, your manager already knows where you want to go. And that way you can build it into your performance plan for the next year. Or you can tweak and change your current performance plan that you've already created. Some places let you do it, others don't. So managers like look, this is what we know happened. So those things are gonna fall off. And they work with you to get it submitted and put into your, your own online system. So don't get stuck on Oh, I have to wait for the next review cycle No, start now because it makes it a whole lot easier. Because you'll know what to write in there as opposed to trying to do it and have do your review and then set your new goals all in the same time. So a minimum of two times a year, but really, once a quarter is what you want to aim for. When you're meet with your manager found find out where he or she sees your career going. And you're simply going to ask this question based on my skills and strengths. What direction do you see my career going in the company? Right? And they may ask you some questions, and they may ask you some more in depth questions about where do you want to go? Be sure you get their idea. And this is why because I'm talking to those of you who are in engineering, you're in tech, you're in science, right? You're in very technical fields. And a lot of times I've talked to women and their managers are the one that's pushing them to do less technical work. What does that really look like when that happens? So you want to pay attention to what your manager is where they he or she is seeing you go and ask them why. And you can use the by wide method and really like just ask them. Okay, so XYZ but why this division? Why this role, why those duties and to figure out what really, sometimes are their biases for pushing you out of a technical space and making them aware of it as well. So you definitely, definitely want to ask them where they see you going in the organization. Now also in that discussion.Ask them if they're on board, and you're able to think you're telling them where you want to go. And they're agreeable, like Yeah, I can definitely see you doing that. You have XY and Z skills. Ask them what specific actions you need to take to be qualified for x row, like, what gaps do you need to fill in? And even how long do they think it'll take you to fill in those gaps. And so now you know what your gaps are, and they know where you want to go, right? So you literally can take your performance plan now and cultivate it around filling those gaps. Yes, it can be that simple. And that easy, just to at least document and having that discussion. Oftentimes, we're waiting to perform, it's time to do this, I highly encourage you to literally make an appointment with your manager, if you're remote. And they aren't doing regular weekly check ins with you anyway, they should be doing weekly check ins with their team on an individual basis to see how they're doing. during a pandemic, if you are going in the office, you're probably not going to meet face to face anyway. But it is still a great thing for you to do and engage with them in. So those are the things you want to do you want to set to meet with your manager two to four times a year for being out small, which is once a quarter, you want to go in and ask your manager, where does he or she see you going in the organization and really make that a lengthy conversation and under and asking them why they see you going in a direction, especially if it's in a non technical role, and you want to go into technical space? And then lastly, what actions do you need to take in order to qualify for X role? And some of you may find that you're already qualified. And they're gonna say, Well, you don't have anything open. And then now you're trying to figure out how can you turn determine when a next opportunity is going to be available? How can you just slide on in and just wait for that to open up? And so you could just tell your manager, hey, well, why don't we call Jessica who's the departmental manager and director over that group, and talk to her now. Because if you if we know when a role is going to open up in that team and that department for me, I can go ahead now and we can start training somebody to replace me when that positions open. So you're not trying then to be trained on a new position, as well as training somebody to Bill you're currently so make it a win win to when you're talking to your manager and you talking about your career trajectory and advancement, that you're going to help them out. But it's better if you're planning together and really leveraged, just planning period to help both of you out. Okay. That is all I have for this segment. I will catch y'all again later and we will still be talking about career trajectory, more things you need to be having discussions and questions you need to be having with your manager to make sure he or she is on board. I will talk to you later. Bye

View Details

Now that you're meeting with your manager, what are the questions you should ask?Do you want to test the waters? Or do you want to start growing new skills?

View Details

What happens after the meeting you have with your manager, and it doesn't go in the direction you want to go? Find out as we dig in and talk about it in this episode!

View Details

There's so much information out there when it comes to the traits of a leader, the behavior of a leader, and creating becoming a leader in the workplace. In this episode, we talked about being a leader. As a leader, you're looking at the organization as a whole, you're looking at not only what is going on in your location, your team, your business unit, but the organization as a whole.

View Details

As your level of expertise has grown, as you have gained more experience in the workplace, in your field, and in various industries, it may have grown wider, How do you focus back on what you've achieved? Come join me in this episode and listen to how I ended up with what I have now and what I've achieved in 25 years. . .

View Details

Lee Anne is a Sales Director full time for a large manufacturing organization and also the Founder fo Crockett Consulting. Inspired to make a larger impact with women, Lee Anne combined her passions for leading, coaching, and professional development with her MBA in Entrepreneurship and launched her coaching practice.

View Details

Theola Debose is one of the speakers at the Women of Color STEM Virtual Summit2021 where the theme is The Power Of You. Theola DeBose is the founder and CEO of JSkills, the learning community and forthcoming tech platform for career changers that reframes their skills and matches them to new careers. Get to know her more in this podcast episode!

View Details

Join us in this episode, we have our Women of Color Virtual Summit Speaker Francesca Escoto. She is a serial entrepreneur who started her professional journey as an engineer, way back in another day. And started her first venture writing software to track the performance of aircraft engines, which was a great learning experience crashed and burned. Listen to this full episode to know more about her!

View Details

Mental health is critical right now especially for children. While parents are worrying so are their children. But what can parents do to help their children during these uncertain times?

Christina Broderick is clinically trained Licensed Social Worker, a Psychotherapist and a Certified School Social Worker. She’s worked in K-12 educational settings for nearly a decade. She is also the founder of  IgnitEDU.  It helps every student to learn, build and strengthen their mental health foundation within their education journey.

When Christina started working with students, she realized there’s a consistent gap that existed related to mental health. Christina established IgniteEdu which she’s the founder that helps every student to learn, build, and strengthen their Mental Health Foundation within their education journey.

View Details

There are different types of sponsors. But I'm specifically talking about career sponsors, those people who help guide you through your career, and they make things a whole lot smoother, a whole lot easier.

View Details

What is a Sponsor? A sponsor truly does have power, authority, and respect from a lot of people. A sponsor’s authority and power allow them to remove barriers. What now are the characteristics of a sponsor? Follow along as Michele discuss about A Sponsor's Characteristics in this episode.

View Details

In this episode you'll learn where to go and how to get to the people you'd like to network with for your career.

View Details

Networking in real life can be difficult. Being online is supposed to be easy and less stressful than going out to events. But it is NOT!

Listen to "How To Network Virtually" in this 1 hour interactive webinar.

View Details

“I have to go after every opportunity that is available to me or create my opportunity because I owe it to my family, my parents, my grandparents, everything that they went through to help me get to this point.”

Is this something you’re carrying too? The thing though is that we still have some baggage in terms of what is possible for us.

Listen to this episode and get some Self-care tips.

View Details

Did you know 22% of resolutions fail after about a week? Yes a week! Then another 40% after a month, 50% after 3 months, and 60% after 6 months!

This does Not have to be you! Why? Because you’re in it to win it!

Uhm...I know it’s so difficult to get focused.

But I got you! Learn 5 Steps To Creating Your Career Goals today.

View Details

In this episode, we talked about sponsors. Not a sponsorship for any event, but an actual career sponsor, someone who helps you in your career, somebody who helps guide you, so that you understand, or you can progress quicker in your career, or even just see progression in your career via a sponsor, and about the characteristics of a sponsor what they do for you and how you can go about finding a sponsor.

View Details

Dr. Shellae shared with us why she's studying what she's doing with the research, why she's doing the research, and then how we as black women can help her in helping ourselves. She is Somebody who's really working to change us as a people as women as a culture how we are often sidelined and not thought of or we are afterthought after things have been built out and created.

View Details

Inclusive VS Accepting Workplaces

View Details

MentorMonday Characteristics of An Ally

View Details

How to pivot from engineering to tech. Meet Danielle Pollard who is an industrial engineering who pivoted her career into tech. Find out which engineering skills she uses in her current role as SCRUM Coach.

View Details

Michele Heyward discusses how mindset is pivotal is reaching your goals. With all the planning and accountability, you won't reach your goals without the right mindset.

View Details

PositiveHire isn't about just getting jobs. It's about building community and supporting underrepresented women in STEM to remain in their careers while advancing in the workplace. https://www.pscp.tv/w/1lPKqdvVEOExb?t=1m25s Subscribe to Her Career Ladder on Soundwise