Diva Tech Talk hosted engineer, tech expert, author and leadership coach, Farnoosh Brock, who shared lessons in personal development and career pivots. Having completed her master’s degree in electrical engineering at Clemson University (www.clemson.edu) , Farnoosh first worked as a design engineer at Atmel Corporation (http://www.atmel.com/), before joining Cisco (www.cisco.com), where she worked for 11 years. In addition to engineering, “I had the opportunity to move around, in other roles, such as sales operations, project management, program management. I got a lot of experience and am really grateful for that.”

Eight years into building her Cisco career, Farnoosh began to feel restless.  “I stumbled on my passion for writing,” she said.  That led to blogging and to podcasting. The light bulb went off when she attended a blogging conference in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2010.  “That changed everything.”  Coming home, she decided “to take my hobby seriously, and turn it into a ‘side hustle’ with no impact to my career.”  She started her first newsletter; and she immersed herself into studying how to run a business, which was “something I absolutely fell in love with.” After that, “there was no looking back. Eventually she consolidated her writing and coaching under Prolific Living.  Much of the material is meant to inspire entrepreneurship, empower startups, and stretch human potential.

Farnoosh emphasized that “if you feel you have an itch to do something, that has nothing to do with your career, and it is a strong urge, I recommend you follow that.”  She said that a key to being successful in starting a new endeavor is to “have one person in your life who believes in you, unconditionally, other than yourself.”  To select a coach, Farnoosh said ask yourself “how do I learn best” and ascertain what you need in terms of your strategy, your current weaknesses/strengths and the style that will help you grow, and reach your next level.

Farnoosh centers much of her coaching around “positioning yourself powerfully” with some simple tips:

• “You are not selling; you are serving.”  
• “Connect the dots from your work to the bottom line effect.”
• “Create a circle of influence around you.”
• Ensure that you begin with a positive picture of yourself and your strong contributions to your work and mission.
• “Know your ‘blind spots.’ When necessary, make the right adjustments.”
• Above all: “Cultivate trust, every day. The more trust you have the more powerful your position will be as a colleague, as a leader.”

The universal conundrum is that “Most of us already do a good job,” Farnoosh said. “But, how do we tell our boss, and others, where we want to go?” By being able to position ourselves powerfully, she asserted, we smooth our own journeys, and accrue the strength to forge our own unique paths.

Discussing gender inequality in the technical field, Farnoosh also shared that sometimes “you see it where it may not exist.”  Her counsel, for women, is “be curious, not defensive.”  She firmly believes that “trust is one of the main foundations” of successful careers, and women can be agents of change if they can learn to simply keep open, curious attitudes when encountering perceived discrimination.

Farnoosh recommends the audio version of widely-acclaimed Dr. Stephen Covey’s timeless Seven Habits of Highly Effective People as highly useful for our audience. In closing her last words of wisdom included “slow down; take care of your body; don’t sacrifice family or personal relationships for career.”  And finally, “trust yourself more.  You do have the answers. You know the right decisions. Use both your heart and mind. Trust that it will all work out.”

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