Hey everyone, welcome back to Top5 brought to you by to Defined Talent. We are a results driven service working with clients to connect them with quality talent as well as working to make an impact within the recruiting industry. We talk straight about today's professional world with real world professionals, experts in recruitment, job seekers and business owners alike. Have a question for us? Send it in and we might and that might spur our
next conversation. I'm Tara Thurber, Co Founder and Director of Talent Partnerships at DefinedTalent. And joining me today are three amazing ladies. Alison Lamano and Brittany Jacobs, founders of Jersey Shore Women in Tech, along with Jenna Gaudio Executive Director of Jersey Shore Women in Tech. Welcome ladies. How are you?
Thank you.
It's so exciting to have you ladies on. I'm just going to kind of pass it off to you ladies at to share a little bit about yourselves and your professional backgrounds. Alison, why don't we kick it off with you?
Okay, sure. Hey, everyone. I'm Alison Lamano. I am Product Management Competency Lead, at DefinedLogic. Been working in the tech space for over 20 years in a variety of different industries. And it's one of the things I'm passionate about.
Awesome. Welcome, Alison.
Thank you.
Brittany.
Sure. Brittany Jacobs, Senior Engineering Manager at Vydia. I have a background of about 15 years in tech, all software engineering. Started off kind of doing POS systems at a couple of different companies, military messaging software for the Department of Defense for a little while. Ended up at kind of like a web dev shop with client work, did some teaching of coding to kids for a while, and then over at
Vydia. So I've been at Vydia for five years now started off as an Individual Contributor, moved up to Manager and now Senior Manager.
Awesome. And Jenna.
Currently, I'm serving as the Co President of Vydia, a media technology company. I've had various positions started about seven years ago as the Head of Marketing, then I moved over and helped the development team set up an Agile process and kind of change our way we approached development and then built the product management team. Then I moved into SVP of Operations to oversee both product and marketing, and now then Chief Operating Officer and took on
our people ops division. And now we've had a recent acquisition. And so with that, I've moved into a Co President position which oversees the technology, marketing and people division, as well as like the executive KPIs and things of the like.
Awesome. I'm super excited to jump in and really talk to you guys about Jersey Shore Women in Tech and really women in technology. Can you share with us the origin story of Jersey Shore Women in Tech? How your partnership evolved? And where you guys see Jersey Shore Women in Tech moving over the next few years?
I think I'm gonna let Brittany take this one because I love Brittany's story (laughs).
(laughs)
Um, yeah, I mean, we have a bit of an origin story. And you know, I mean, Alison's goes back even further. But um, essentially, when I moved to Asbury Park, I think around like 2010, I saw an article in the Tri City News about Brett Morgan and Kevin Provaski, who you guys know, we're doing Jersey Shore tech, and it was literally like two
blocks from where I live. And I just walked over there one day, and I saw that they were doing these great meetups and I would go and it would be mostly men (laughs) and, you know, but I would see Alison and I think it was like the first one that I went to, you know, she introduced herself and which was like very nice and very welcoming. And yeah, I just started regularly going there. And they started doing Asbury
Agile as well, once a year. And again, like I would go to these things, and Alison would be like one of the few like regular women that I would see there. And so we kind of like developed a bond in that way. And then like randomly iCIMS was having this women in business and tech event at Bell Works. And Alison and I were like yeah, we should go we've never seen Bell Works before is our first time there. And so we're really a big part of the reason was excited to see
the building. But also, we walked in and we were just like amazed there was like, I don't know, like 250/300 women there or something like there was like a ton of women and we were like. Where have these women been? Like, we want to see these women at the tech events. And we're like, we want to know these women. And we I think we're just like craving that support. And so, you know, we're talking about like, let's just like do an event and like, see if people
show up. And I talked to Brad at the time, who I was working with, I kind of like just turned around at my desk and was like, What do you think about this idea? And he's like, yeah, if you guys go for it, you can use our co working space, which was amazing, because that really allowed us to do the events for free. As well as like some wonderful sponsorships for like, you know, food and drinks and
whatnot. But yeah, we were just we're like, if five people show up, it's a success, because we know five more women, you know, in the area that are in tech and the first one 30 women came to.
Wow.
We were blown away. And that's the first time we met Jenna (laughs).
(laughs)
And, you know, her and I and Alison, we were all just like jamming out about it. And so she ended up being our very first speaker. So this was back in let's see, 2017 is when we first started 2018 is when we had in January was when we had our first Meetup.
Wow.
Jenna was our very, very first speaker. And then luckily, about a year later, she came on board with us.
I'll stay on top of that, like I was the other side of them. I was one of the women that were not going to the Jersey Tech Meetups.
Right.
One of the rising women that were making a name for myself and technology, but crippled by impostor syndrome. And by them launching Jersey Shore Women in Tech and me going to that event where I felt like I was going to find the community and it would be like a safe place. It completely changed the trajectory of my
network. And potentially, you know, my career, some could say, and obviously, I have this amazing friendships with Brittany and Alison, and was able to go to every single Meetup and then eventually kind of see their growth and know that it takes a village and want to kind of partner with them and, and helping this thing have legs.
That's so awesome, ladies, and coming together and still going so strong. So you know, where do you as this partnership has evolved. And as you know, getting post-COVID. And now kind of getting into more in person meetups. Where do you see the organization moving over the next few years from here?
I have so many ideas.
(laughs)
I mean, obviously, you know we stayed providing monthly events during the entire pandemic, we switched to online format. And that was great, because it really gave us the opportunity to meet other tech professionals and get speakers from around the country, which was really, really, I think, you know, we had some great, great people that we were able to, to get. But you know, it's still a
little slow getting back. I mean, we're three years past COVID And the people who are coming out, it's not as much as I would expect.
Yeah.
So I just need to get back to the point where people are excited about being out in person and networking and coming to our events. And just keep providing that space for everyone. Almost every month, we get somebody new, who has found us either on Eventbrite or through a friend or they saw a post somewhere and they're always like, wow, how long have you guys been doing this?
(laughs)
And we're like - For like I think it's like five years now? (laughs)
I think that that's great to be able to keep pulling new people in. You know, I definitely want to see that growth happen a lot faster, I find. Like going to meetups like this. It's like why isn't everybody here? But I do think, too as people are kind of, they're learning what's out there again, almost they're relearning what's out there. So that's really awesome that you guys even kept it up through COVID I mean, silver lining, right? You guys got to expand the audience. You got to expand
speakers. Super amazing. Now we're for the three of you with technology - technology is moving so fast and the landscape is changing so quickly nowadays. What are some technologies you guys are excited about? Whether it's AI, VR, Chat GPT what kind of is there any specific technologies that kind of get you guys super excited nowadays?
Birttany you know you want to, you can go first.
Um, I mean, yeah, we've talked about AI a
(laughs) lot. You know, we just had a MeetUp a few Months ago regarding it. You know, I'm a software developer. So I've already been using it, just you know, in my everyday life. Chat GPT is awesome. You know, there's, there's tools for coding, even within, like, the programs I use for coding. And, you know, sometimes I'll get like, stuck on something, and I can put it into ChatGPT and it'll help me diagnose the
issue. Not always accurate and sometimes hard to get, like the right answer, but it can help, you know, point you in the right direction. So and even in just my personal life playing around with it, it's super fun. And it's fun to get to know how to use it and how to use it better.
You know, I've always been a short cutter, I guess, you know, like, show me the fastest quickest path and I don't want to read the whole book, just I want to do it, I want to, you know, learn by doing, learn by having a conversation about it. That's just how I learn and so having like, a conversational thing with like, Chat GPT is like, really great for somebody like me with ADHD. (laughs)
So yeah, I mean, I've been loving it. I'm really excited about it.
Awesome.
I would agree. Um, that's probably the newest, well, not new-new but that's probably the technology that I've been reading the most about. And, you know, when I do get some spare time, or if I'm like, Oh, I wonder what what kind of answer they would give me for this, whether it's, you know, summarizing, for a report or, you know, just trying to figure out the, you know, 25 best ways to do something, even for your personal life. It's very interesting. It really is.
And I think, I think from a product perspective, you know, I'm a business analyst/product owner by nature that's about the foundation of my career, I think there's going to be a lot of opportunities for the people that know how to ask the right questions.
Yeah.
Because that's, that's really the key, you have to know how to phrase what you're asking to get the right results.
I feel like it's a little bit nostalgic to I mean, talking to Chat GPT reminds me and has the essence of like the AOL chat bot. Like, hi, we respond back to you, only now
(laughs) we're intellectual adults that are trying to solve complex problems with a computer, that's very helpful. So I think that's obviously a very cool technology, I think we're gonna see that, you know, have its way into our life in so many different ways. I also still think that VR is still having a moment and will continue a moment, I just bought a house
recently. So the idea that I can see a piece of furniture or a paint color or something by holding up my phone into a room, I think is just the tip of the iceberg on what's possible in leveraging VR for being able to make decisions on shopping and things like that, which I hate going into a store and having to shop. (laughs)
But I also want to see if a color is going to look bad on me. And like, I just think that kind of is the beginning of the Jetsons age.
Yup.
Where you can accomplish something without having to go there and kind of, you know, do the labor of something that could be done with technology. So I think those are, those are kind of just previews of what's to come.
I find all all three of them super interesting. And you know, when I attended the meetup group, the meetup back a couple of weeks ago, or a couple of months ago now, around AI, I was mind blown, like I left that meetup, just speechless. And as I've kind of let it all absorb, and sink in, but also do my own poking and playing. I just find it to be fascinating between, you know, VR, and then being able to have a conversation with the machine
and get answers. And even though they may not be fully correct, it's still, definitely interesting. And I I agree to on asking the right questions. Because you need to learn how to do that I feel in order to get the most out of it. But always learning and I feel like tomorrow I wake up the next day and something else is different, or something else is new. And so it's all happening super, super
fast, too. So, at the end of the day, it's talking about women and technology and why is it important to highlight women and technology? You know, 25.1% of the 329,559 currently employed software engineers in the US are women. That's a low percentage, I think, how do you all feel that that the scales are tipping towards women in the tech industry? Are they tipping?
I want to say something just off the top and bringing in Alison, I'm sure You have tons to say. And the fact is, I think a big part of it is rebrand. I mean, even in the question in saying, like, women, software engineers, like women in technology are not just software engineers, especially kind of what Alison touched on. And being able to be a prompt engineer is different than a software engineer, which is different than a product manager, which is, there's a
million jobs in technology. And I think the fact of how technology is branded to women, scares them completely. I know it's me, sometimes it still scares me. But I think that is the impact that I think is having on women, where you already know that women are not likely to apply for jobs, if they don't meet the perfect amount of credentials.
Yup.
I think it's kind of the same thing. So what if, oh, I'm a designer, a woman in UX and you know, a woman in product management a woman in go to market strategies for product launches, like those are all women in technology. And I think, opening up the like, barriers that say, you have to meet these requirements and parameters to be qualified as women in technology, I think would invite people into the layers. And I think that more people would actually learn to
code. I've for a decade now I've been trying to undo the, you know, societal, and maybe internal messaging that like, I can't code and like, that's just not for me and not built that way. And maybe that's true for me, and maybe it's not, but it's a hard barrier to have to walk back that talk of like, this is
not for you. And so if we start by saying this is for you, there's plenty and there's room and growing, I think that would start having women layer deeper and deeper into technology world is from my vantage point.
Yeah, and there's still a lot of mixed messaging. I mean, I think the reason why women are feeling more comfortable getting involved is because the culture has improved a lot, but there's a still a long way to go. I mean, you know, if you go on Blind, there's still a huge I hate to say, well, like, Bro Culture on there. And I actually even like reached out to their team. And I said, Listen, if you don't moderate this better, you're going to have fewer and
fewer women using this app. And that's going to contribute to the problem even more. And they took me very seriously. And I had a back and forth conversation about it with them. So you know, that's like, you know, scary and intimidating to think about going into and, you know, Jenna, you know, spoke
recently on an on a panel. We were talking about culture, and at what point do you feel like, it's your responsibility to like, stay and change the culture, or leave someplace because the culture is so toxic?
Yeah.
You know, obviously, like, we need men as advocates, but we also need women, you know, to also like, as much as we we've gone through, you know, step up to the challenge of when we're in positions of power to make sure that we're also taking the responsibility of helping to change the culture and make it more inviting for women.
Yeah, I love that. I feel like there's such a stigma to that is attached to it, that women, it's almost like, they they're fearful to even dip their toes in sometimes. And that, I mean, even within HR and recruiting, I find so many women that have that gusto that want to go to these coding boot camps, but then are intimidated to apply what they've learned. They think, oh, maybe I'm not good at
this. There's so many, you know, men out there and there's not, you know, I feel that even with candidates that I speak to, what do you think? Oh, go ahead, Alison.
Yeah, I was just gonna say, you know, I did, I went to school for coding, and I fell on to the business side, which happens to a lot of women as well.
Yeah.
And it's either because, you know, the opportunity just wasn't there at the time that you were looking for a job and you fell onto the business requirements product side, and maybe you just never went for that software development position. Because, you know, I mean, that happens
to some women, too. I don't want to generalize, but, you know, some sometimes if you're a woman, you can speak better to people to relate to people, you know, multitasking is supposed to be not that it's a good, good skill, but many women are very
good multitaskers. So a lot of times, you know, maybe you fall onto the business side of tech, you know, but that's one of the reasons that we started Jersey Shore Women in Tech to not just be for the developers and the coders to be for anyone who has a job in tech.
I love that.
It's interesting, too. You know, like Vydia is, is hiring and we've been hiring for a while as we're growing and I'm interviewing people and looking at resumes all the time and I get hundreds of resumes and, you know, this is for a coding position and maybe one out of ten, if that are women, maybe - that's being generous.
Wow, yeah.
And not just that, but I noticed that men will apply to positions, that that's not even the position that they're going for, just in hopes that you might have something else, or just in hopes that their resume might spark, oh, do I need this person? So like, you know, a junior might apply for a senior position just in case you might need a junior and vice versa.
Mmm hmm, yeah.
A UX person might, you know, apply for a back end position, just in case like you've been thinking about maybe a UX person, and it sparks your interest. And women don't
do that at all. And so there's like, a certain boldness to that, you know, and I think that's part of like the networking issue, too and you know, why, again, like we, as you know, Jenna spoke to before, why it's like, very intimidating to be like, in a room full of men who are talking tack, you know, they have, like, a certain boldness about it, and women are a little bit more reserved, and question themselves a lot more.
Yeah. You know, going back too, thinking like knowing both of you very amazing women, at Vydia, it goes back to the culture and branding, as an employer, branding, and sharing the culture letting candidates or you know, anybody get a gist or get the idea that it is not a scary place, right? It's more
inviting. And I think the way that jobs are marketed out really plays a big point on who really applies to it, how they're marketed, who they're where they're posted, even to change the types of people that are applying, but I do believe it does too start within each company.
Yeah. And I think we need help with that. And if companies need help with that, you know, we just think, Oh, we're just posting the requirements, like, we're not trying to, you know, attract one person or another. These are just the requirements, but it's very much more nuanced than that. And I think it takes, like a certain skill and probably help for most people to tap into that.
It's something we're very thoughtful about. I mean, again, it can be improved, I think, guidance. And I think that's why like leaders in like this type of community are important, because if we don't tell them how well they know, which is what I say all the time, is like, sure, like, of course, I mean, you hear all sorts of companies wanting to hire women and people of color more and better. And the pool is just not big enough, the applicant pools is not big
enough. I know at Vydia we've tried a multitude of different things to increase that we have. Even when I first started. It was a very small early stage startup, I was hired, I was being interviewed, there was an a Head of Finance position, Head of Marketing position. And I saw that they were interviewing a woman for the head of finance position. And there were no other women at the company at the time. And they said, you hire her, then you hire me. And we'll we'll move things in the
right direction from there. And they very much wanted to do that. The founder also had a second company that was female led, which gave all these good indications to me that this was a situation that was on its way to being really powerful and having a lot of diverse opinions in the room and valued opinions in the room. But it's harder said than done. Because I remember immediately after that, you know, obviously we went on a hiring spree and and obviously diversifying was top of mind.
And I remember there was a woman that came in, I think she was I think she was actually interviewing for a coding position. I can't remember what is was, it was either coding or client success. But um, she got to the final interview. So she was talking to me, even though I was new, obviously, also a woman, you know, you want to have that conversation. And I remember her sidebaring and me and like, you know, looking around the room, and she was being like, Is this really a
good place for a woman? Like, it doesn't really look like it. So, you know, I know, you're new, but what are you thinking? And I said, you know, it was it was, I was like, the first time I'd gotten such a pointed question.
Yeah.
I like knew that, like, we were going to get there. But I want her to know that and all women to know that, like, you're gonna have to be part of the change, you know, this is a great place to be, you're on the ground floor of a rocket ship, and like you have an invitation to get on. And so like, are we going to have to culturally move things in direction we want? Of course, but like, I'll be here as a partner to you. And I remember thinking like, got her you know,
and she didn't take the job. And I was broken over it. And I and, you know, that really kind of put me on like a more even focused path of like, what Brittany was saying is like, we have to get ahead of the messaging, upfront, we got to kind of have the right people have the introductory conversations, we got to have more candid q&a from not just me, but also the men because of course, a woman can say, Yes, this is going to be a good
place. But really, you want to know that the men are going to be good allies and good support systems, because that's like playing roulette. Some of them are amazing, and some of them are a nightmare.
Yup.
And so you want to make sure you're in a company where you're I think good guys, because that will change your life.
When you're posting jobs as well as getting branding out and everything, yes, it's getting those men to be the allies and making sure they talk the talk as well as walk the walk too, and I do feel the interview processes can be daunting for women in any type of a role, but I think I agree with you 100%, you need to it has to come wholeheartedly as a whole together within each individual company, each individual business. And it does
take time. I mean, I've been a part of, you know, the the boys clubs and getting rid of all that getting rid of all those. I mean, they're still gonna have it but being more open to having equal grounds almost, right? And I think that that's really important for a lot of women they want to come in, and they want to jump on that rocket ship. But who else is on that rocket ship too that may not be as kind as you are, or may not have that?
The interview process tells you a lot. Yeah, if you're going for a job, and they're just giving you algorithms and judging you on that, like think about what's their hiring, you know, if they're like, making sure that you're like a good cultural fit and asking you like really important questions about like, what kind of worker you are like, that's amazing, like that company that you want to work for?
Yeah. Totally agree. Yes. I mean, yes, all the way for that. And I now I want to try and sprinkle some fun questions in here for you ladies. And I think I'll do we'll do we'll start with the one offs. And then if we want to, some may want to answer and some may not want to. So if you could have invented one technology, what would it be?
My answer is silly. I feel like I spend a lot And why? of my day trying to coach and mentor, one of my key skill sets, which is like executive summary, and communications. And so I've loved Grammarly forever, like my spelling is atrocious. Anybody that has like worked with me on a dock or taking notes and constantly like fixing my spelling errors knows that I like to move with efficiency, not necessarily perfection, and Grammarly has helped for that. And then I remember the day that
I wrote an email. And the AI gave me guidance that I had also gotten on like a 360 performance review is that sometimes I have a tone issue. And so when the AI in the email said, like, you might want to reconsider your tone, I was like, this is amazing! Like, this is amazing. And so I think even take it a step deeper. I spend a lot of time on this. I'm working with
senior management. And Brittany has been doing a lot of this lately, as well as like you want to make impactful change and proposals inside of a company so that you can, you know, increase, you know, resources, benefits, policies, culture, all these things. In order to do that you need to get in front of and influence senior decision makers across the board. In order to do that you need to communicate really efficiently. And so that takes a lot of work.
And I think people don't really understand is that you have to let you have to research, gather all the details, outline it, and then make sure you have all like a 360 perspective on everything and you have everything you need to answer any question
collected. And then in order to get people to listen to you, you need to go through that and cut that down to the most minimal impactful handful of words that you possibly can to get in front of people for them to understand entirely what the situation is, how it's going to impact the organization and what you need for them in order to get approved. And it's a grueling process, but I think technology now is being launched and iterating to a place where it's
really actually beneficial. It's helping people check their emails and helping them say you don't need this sentence, no one's gonna read this paragraph, like get to the point man and like honestly, I think that for communication management is the most important thing in relationships in organizations. And that's technology that I think I could have and wish I had invented and I'm excited to see where it goes.
(lauhs) Awesome. Alison, Brittany, do you have any inventions or inventings of technologies? I mean, I in terms of like what I get the most use out of and like wish that I invented so I could take the clout for it (laughs). I mean, I would say like Audible or something like that anything related to like you know, people reading books to me. (laughs). Yeah.
I wish it was invented earlier I would have done much better in school (laughs).
(laughs) Well, and it's different learning techniques too, right? People learn differently. So listening to audible books, some somebody might get more out of that than actually reading it. Whereas some people like actually having the book and the weight of the book and being able to highlight stuff, but yeah, I agree. Audible is, I need to take more advantage of Audible.
Yeah, I love Audible. And I think I need the tone plugin for my Outlook emails because, like, does that sound harsh? But why should I question that it sounds harsh? (laughs)
Ah, so yeah.
I'm sorry, technologies. I mean, I really couldn't. Name one. But I would like to say that. I feel that I had the idea for the original Instagram. But it was about shoes to just scroll through pictures of shoes.
(laughs)
This was about she had no fur before Instagram came out. But I was like, Wouldn't it be cool if you could just see pictures of shoes and shop them?
Check it all out. Yeah, so talking about Instagram. If you ladies could get rid of one social platform. What would you delete?
TikTok? Because I'm not on it. I guess, so then I wouldn't feel bad about not using it.
Don't say that! TikTok is great for content!
TikTok's my favorite.
Yeah!
I just can't do another platform right now.
Entertainment, education. I love it. I mean, obviously, it's got its controversies. But ultimately, like top line, I think it was obviously much appreciated technology. For me, I wouldn't say deleted, but I don't know that I agree with their product roadmap. And you know, obviously, from the outside looking in, who knows. But Snapchat, when it first launched, I was at another startup and I had just on boarded a bunch of interns. I
was young at the time. And so obviously, these interns were like, fresh, like, just graduated college, and they were all using Snapchat, which was brand new. And I was like, Alright, I'm too old for this, like, I'm not gonna use it. And they were like, you got to, like, you got to Snap me. And I was like, Well, if I just hired like, 20 of these people, like, if I'm gonna connect with them, I gotta get on their level. So I
downloaded it. And like, whatever the the messaging thing, like, I don't know, seems like especially for me, like felt like low brow for what was being used for like wasn't, I didn't really see a path to it being really successful technology, long term. They're innovating on that at any, like, real way. But the thing that I loved was that people and this was before IG stories or TikTok or anything like that is people could take snippets of their day from their vantage point from
their lens. And then they could upload it and Snapchat curated into these stories. And I thought it was better than Twitter, at like news casting. Like, I remember when the women won the World Cup and Snapchat did a montage of all collected videos from people that were there that day in the stadium. So I saw videos of people goal side, in the stands, from the box, from the press line on the field, in the locker room, and like, it was the coolest thing
I've ever seen in my life. And I was like, this is the future of technology, we're going to be able to capture any event in the world, any destination in the world, you know, we're gonna be able to go places without
leaving our houses. And we're gonna be able to do that, because it's going to be crowd sourced, you know, collection of videos, and Instagram when they rolled out story, they also kind of had a thing where you could like, click on a town and see everyone's like, things, everyone's videos from that town, I thought that was pretty cool. They seem to have scale that back, I haven't been on Snapchat a whole bunch, but like, they definitely deprecated
most of that feature. And or at least limited it significantly. Same thing with Instagram stories, I don't know, if it's a compliance issue, or a data privacy or a geo compliance issue where, you know, you don't can't really know where people are, unless, you know, it's just not safe. I'm not really sure what the issue was with it. But I do think that that I thought that Snapchat was going to end up being the future of news more than anything because of that
feature. But I think they deprecated it and went a whole nother way so and Snapchat's not doing that great right now. So honestly, I think that that was a missed opportunity. But I'm, you know, hoping that eventually we get back to a place where you can just pick any place in the world and you can see anybody's videos that have been there recently or today right now.
I love that idea. I think that that's a really cool thing to have that be able to have that experience.
Especially if you can't like afford it like I mean.
Yeah.
You know, going to the Super Bowl is like what like $30,000 but could you imagine if like how many there's so many people there of course they're all taking videos and uploading to Snapchat. How cool would it be to see 100 different videos of people at the Super Bowl the day that we're watching the
Super Bowl on TV? Sure you've got the professional programming but how just the same way that we talk about different perspectives is important in any room, different perspectives and entertainment education all for some things like, I just feel like it's such a rich opportunity to provide people at a low cost, you know?
Yeah, I definitely agree. If you ladies could meet one female leader, who would you sit down for an interview with?
I feel like it's always changing. For me at the moment, it would be Marianne Williamson. I won't get too much into like the political thing. But at you know, I just, I'm in awe of her. Like, every time I see her speak, she just speaks so eloquently about things that most people only can yell about are too frustrated to properly articulate. And I always think that that's like such an amazing skill, Jenna's really good at speaking too, you know, she has that same thing I'm in awe of.
But you know, Marianne is she never loses her cool, she apologizes if she misspeaks Instead of like, doubling down, and, you know, she leads from morals. So I just think she is just like, such a powerful force right now. And I would, I would love to meet her and, and interview her.
Jenna Alison?
Um, for me, I love like, right now I'm into like reading and content. I'm also like a really big fan of another women community, Women in Product. And it was launched by these women leaders in at Facebook, and now they have a lot of them have graduated and become CEOs and other companies. And so one of them is Deborah
Liu. And she has also recently wrote her own book, and launched a really amazing newsletter that I think is missing, was missing from the kind of the business writing space and it really tells a very detailed viewpoint of her journey to the top and challenges that she's had a real honest look at her own flaws as a leader, which I appreciate because especially as a woman, you know, you have to be so much better than what's expected in
order to be taken seriously. And I think for her to kind of walk through her missteps and the kind of the feedback she got from her mentors and how like her journey wasn't this like fluid line to the top. And then obviously, turning around and helping a bigger community of women, I think Women in Product is now 30,000 Plus, you know. Yeah, it's an incredible organization, I'm
Wow! very active there and help them with a lot of different things. And I think the fact that you can kind of grow as a leader, and build a community and find different ways to help others, maybe not one on one, because your scope has increased too
much to what you can do. But just putting out a newsletter that can reach so many people, I send them actually often to people that I work with, when they're when they're, you know, relatively relevant to something that we've been talking through a product we've have, or something that someone brings up in a one on one, it really has inspired me to start seriously considering something that I've always said that I'm going to do, which is like write down kind of the things I've learned
and like my the conversations I have over and over again with people one on one, and try to share more on a broader base. Because I do think that that's how we win as women is sharing these perspectives in these journeys, so that more people can kind of understand them and
map them. And that therefore accelerate their journey because they kind of know where those landmines might be, or those mistakes that have been made previously, and kind of accelerate them and fast track them to get to that spot. Nothing else say like, look at me, I can be a CEO, I can be a president, it is possible. And I am genuine, authentic proof of that. And I think that's been very inspiring for me to see myself in that position long before that I was able to kind of get to that rank.
Yeah. Amazing. And Alison, did we touch base with you on one of those?
Oh, you know, there's several women that I follow that I am very interested in talking to, from a product perspective, or we always think Teresa Torres is really, she's got a lot of really good information. She has a couple of books out there. She's if you go to Product Talk, you can learn more about her. And then also, you know, Girls Who Code Reshma she's doing this whole mom thing right now. I think it was called the Marshall Plan for Moms. But
now I think it's Moms First. So if if you have kids, you should check, check out what she's doing with that. Really, really interesting stuff.
Very inspiring, very inspiring. So collectively, ladies, what would for our audience right now what would you say your Top5 Tips are for Women in Tech. And I know between the four of us we could probably come up with five on our own each but let's See what we can group together for Top5 tips for this podcast?
We probably all agree on networking, right?
Yes.
Number one
And very important.
Number one networking. It just, it opens so many opportunities. And it's, it's so inspiring too, you know, just please network. It's so important.
I would also say, you know, maybe not formal mentoring, but you know, try to coach others in your organization, you know, I have some coworkers that do get frustrated from time to time from some of the boys club things that go on. So I just tried to encourage them and, you know, look at things from another perspective, and how can we solve that problem? You know, I mean, some days people just want to vent but you know, always like, let's, let's figure out what the real issue is, and
how we can solve that. So I would definitely say that if you are a leader in your organization, or even if you're not, you know, coaching, mentoring.
I love that. I was just gonna say, I love the mentoring aspect, because I do feel as a woman within the professional world, I'm, I want to speak to those experienced women, I want to know because maybe I get Impostor Syndrome, and then I get into my head, and then you spiral out and you get to that point, you're not going to go out in network, you're not going to go out of your comfort zone, you're gonna if anything, kind of close yourself back in. So I definitely agree on the
mentoring aspect. Jenna, sorry about that.
No, I would say I think it's been a theme here. We've talked about it a few times. And I think Brittany really highlighted it for us, which is be bold. I mean, I've made the mistake I've learned from
Yes! it. And I think that that is the make or break thing that is going to get you where you want to go or to places you didn't even know you could go. So send your resume, go to the event, talk to that person, you know, connect with someone on LinkedIn, send a message, like do the things that you're not sure make sense. And worst case scenario, you get feedback, and
you learn from it. And, you know, I think that if you don't, you'll never know, or you'll never know that that opportunity was there and waiting for you. And I always feel like I would much rather know, and go and do the thing, then wonder what if and I think being bold kind of puts you in a place where you don't have to wonder. I love that.
And to piggyback on that it's kind of the same line. Be comfortable with being uncomfortable?
Yes.
Well, I was gonna say practice the practice being bold, right? So it's not just like, oh, do one scary thing once and see how it goes. Like, you know, take multiple interviews, take, you know, have practice in it so that when something that you really do want comes along, you're like very well equipped to handle it, you know,
And I think Allison definitely had number four, which is would you say be uncomfortable with being uncomfortable? Right? I'm sure we can all say that. Because I know you're notoriously comfortable in your own shoes
(laughs) And I admire that. But I think for the large part of women we've spoken with being uncomfortable something you have to get really comfortable with in order to make a way in this world for yourself and to change things for the better and to just continue to evolve as a human and be better than you were yesterday.
Well, one thing, Jenna that you don't give yourself credit for, because I know you talk about imposter syndrome a lot is yes, sometimes it has paralyzed you. But also it's motivated you, you know what I mean?
Yeah.
Absolutely.
And so whenever I see these, like panels of really powerful women, and every single one of them says I have impostor syndrome, I'm just like, but you have it and you used it, you know? So I would say like, that's a big tip, like use your imposter syndrome as a motivator, don't let it paralyze you. And do you have to do to help yourself with that mindset. Because once again, the mentorship and networking, the doing uncomfortable things like all of that.
I love it.
I think I think I think our fifth one's probably there with Brittany something about mindset and making sure you manage your mindset because I think Brittany's right. Like, my mindset goes like this. I don't you know, I don't have a straight line. And I've worked with a lot of executives, across all different kinds of companies across all different kinds of
industries. And even the ones with the best gravitas and the most composure I've absolutely seen them lose their mind on days where they just boiled over and it happens. But I think the same thing with imposter syndrome with fear with just being overwhelmed or overstressed as a woman with so many responsibilities and things going on in life and stuff like
that. Like you have to just be able to say, Okay, this is where my mindset is, it's not in a good place, and how can I recalibrate in this moment so that I can be more confident going into this room or I can take a moment for myself or like Brittany has taught us all on Vydia to like, go for walks, and come back refreshed to our
computers and things. I think managing your mindset will help you have the endurance to continue and succeed in technology instead of, you know, maybe tapping out when you just feel like you can't go on like, your mindset is the key to unlocking that future growth.
I absolutely love that last one, Jenna, and just that managing the mindset encapsulates the rest of them. And I mean, you hit it right on the head right there. I got goosebumps actually, when you went into that, and I couldn't agree more with you. And I couldn't agree more with you ladies on all of this. I think there's a lot that goes into it all, but mindset where it
starts, right? It's that's your core, that's your truth, you have a you can shift your mindset to so being able to manage that mindset and shift it when you need to. I couldn't agree more with you.
And we help each other with that ya know, and that's a big part of it too.
Supporting one another and lifting each other up when we're feeling not so ready to be bold, you know, supporting that because I know if I've got somebody pushing me in the back corner, like you got this, even though I may not feel like I'm ready, that little support will push us so much further.
And challenging, which I think is important, as well, I know, Brittany and I are both big proponents of self growth. And so we have clocked many hours in supporting each other, but also challenging each other in our lives. And I think that has deeply rich and our ability as managers to other employees, and leaders of this
organization and friends. I mean, I just think that being able to be a supportive community of women and provide that because, I mean, sometimes men will tiptoe around us, especially post, you know, the Me Too movement, I think men have started to feel a little bit more cautious some of them (laughs) are more cautious in their approach, which could be to our detriment, which, you know, it's a double edged sword.
And I think that's why women really need to step in and play a prominent role in helping each other.
I agree. Oh, ladies, let's wrap this up. I am so excited that the three of you joined us today on our Top five tips for women in technology. Thank you for joining.
Thank you.
Thank you for having us, Tara!
We are DefinedTalent a DefinedLogic service coming to you at Top5, make it a great day. All right, let me stop that. Thank you ladies. So so very much.