impostHER

Bhavini Soneji, current VP of Engineering at Headspace, discusses putting people first and fostering a safe, inclusive company culture. We talk about the hiring funnel and all the drop-off points along the way that cause women to lose out on jobs. Taylor exposes creepy messages she's received and we talk about moments of bias that are less public.

*EDIT: We introduce Bhavini as having a decade of experience. That should've been decadeS, plural. She's a queen.

Lupe Gonzalez, VP of Member Experience at Headspace, shares how she builds relationships by having vulnerable and uncomfortable conversations. As a prime example of an empathetic and compassionate leader, she discusses how she provides a space for her team to unload emotions in order to turn them into productive action. Monica and Taylor also discuss what will happen if you tell us to “smile”.

Sabrina, a life coach who incorporates mindfulness, meditation and Reiki practices into her coaching, joins us this week. She teaches us what Reiki actually is and how her approach to coaching helps her clients feel complete and whole, paving the way for professional and personal success. She drops wisdom on concepts she uses in coaching including “naming the monster” and “borrowed love” and urges us all not to compare our first chapter to someone else’s twelfth. Also, Taylor almost goes viral on LinkedIn.

Find Sabrina on Instagram @lightofmori or her website https://www.morilight.com/.

Monica and Taylor are joined by CEO and Founder of Ascend, Shivani Berry. Shivani gives incredibly valuable advice for women in leadership including getting buy-in from dominant personalities and winning respect. We also cover why introducing yourself can be so cringey and how to stop saying sorry at work.

Ascend's online leadership program teaches a community of women the skills and actionable frameworks to get buy-in, overcome imposter syndrome, and lead. Find more information on the program here.

Monica and Taylor answer questions live at a Codesmith event and encounter a hater in the comments! Watch the YouTube recording here.

Monica and Taylor chat with our first Founder and CEO, Riana Singh of Boss Women Collective. Riana discusses how she grew her business from a coffee meetup of 15 people at Blue Bottle to a community of 25K Instagram followers and events with 100+ attendees. She also shares how she feels being referred to as a "female CEO" and how she maintains balance between running her company and still having a full-time job. 

Follow Riana and BWC on Instagram at @bosswomencollective.

Monica and Taylor talk to Headspace’s former QA Manager, Jasmine, about her experience being an introvert and leader. Jasmine discusses how being an introvert is a superpower in itself and how she’s learned to deal with the challenges it brings. She also gives great advice for managers to best support each of their reports’ unique working styles.

Jasmine Sureddi has been in the tech industry for 20 years, at companies like Intuit and eHarmony, with a specific focus on delivering quality products to customers. She has 13 years of experience leading and building QA teams from the ground up and introducing automation strategies. She’s recently pivoted from management to Senior Software Engineer at Headspace.

Monica and Taylor chat with Maya Hope, currently a Product Manager at Square, about feelings of imposter syndrome while leading a team. Taylor and Maya reminisce on their time together at a startup and discuss whether or not getting into a selective college at 17 says anything about you in your 30s. We discuss how the idea of “should” is a trap, and how imposter syndrome can be a negative feedback loop as you seek out evidence proving you aren’t good enough. Maya shares how her imposter feelings have evolved throughout her career and how she no longer feels the need to overcompensate by picking up every menial task around the office. We also talk about how growth mindset may not be for everyone. Lastly, we wonder if question marks and smiley faces in emails actually reduce the clarity, or can we all just write emails in the way that feels most natural to us?

Maya is a product manager at Square, where she leads a team that is responsible for moving millions of dollars a day, instantly. 

This week we have our first *gasp* MAN on the pod, Frank Bach! Frank broke the internet and went viral on LinkedIn (that’s a thing!) by posting a picture of his adorable baby girl, and we talk about double standards for parents and the world his daughter is entering. As someone we consider to be a male ally, we ask Frank to share some things he does to lift up the women around him and give others space to excel. We discuss how an experience running a business with his wife and observing how she was treated primed him to be on alert for microaggressions in the office. We also touch on performative workplace antics and how counterproductive toxic positivity can be.

Frank is a product designer who also works at Headspace in LA. Originally from Canada, he founded a digital agency with his wife before moving to the US. He speaks regularly at conferences about design and mindfulness. Find his infamous LinkedIn post here.

Nathalie explains how making website skins on Neopets at age 12 prepared her to study Computer Science at MIT, though it took her awhile to come around to declaring it as her major. We talk about being our own worst critics, how to flip the script through self-love, and combating imposter syndrome with self-affirmations. We also get into how advocacy starts with the relationship with yourself, helping you build the confidence to advocate for others who may be unable.

Nathalie Huynh is a software engineer at Apple (previously Headspace), an MIT grad, and designs and creates beautiful jewelry. Find her on Instagram @nathaliehuynhjewelry.