Tech Me Seriously!

In this episode, Sarah Tenisi speaks with Vanessa Allen, Director of Demand Generation at RevCult and Principal Consultant at Allen Associates. She is a growth marketing expert and brand builder who has successfully created multi-channel and online integrated marketing programs. She is known for her industry experience in SaaS technology, sports and active lifestyle, travel, gifts, home and hard goods.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:12] What was marketing 10-15 years ago and what is it today?

●      [04:32] How marketing technologies have evolved over time

●      [11:56] Why today’s social media are perfect brand-building tools

●      [13:33] B2B marketing challenges on social media

●      [16:06] Navigating cancel culture while building a brand on social media

●      [19:08] Letting discussions on your social media posts happen freely

●      [23:30] How marketers’ responsibilities changed with access to big data

●      [26:07] How should companies break through the noise?

●      [30:09] Looking at negative feedback as a gift

●      [33:40] The most important marketing tactics today

●      [38:12] Measuring the impact of marketing activities on your bottom line

●      [40:52] Developing a marketing strategy

●      [44:38] Balancing form and function with regard to your branding

●      [47:53] How a small business can offer an enterprise-level experience

●      [51:40] The true value of authenticity

Key quotes:

●      “There are so many elements in marketing that it’s easy to take your eyes off the primary goal, which is to connect with your audience.”

●      “It’s pretty well established that people make emotional decisions and rationalize them afterwards.”

●      “As a B2B brand, getting access to your audience, building your database, and finding the channels where you can reach them is harder work than it is for a B2C brand which has a lot more latitude to create a brand that is more emotional or fun.”

●      “Forget about B2B. It’s still human-to-human, so find a way to connect in a human way.”

●      “If you can use your customer’s voice, it’s always more powerful. That’s why social media is powerful. It lets real people be real.”

●      “Marketing is a strategy. Sales is tactical.”

●      “Social proof isn’t social media. Social proof is a real person benefiting from your product or service.”

●      “There is so much noise and it’s difficult to understand who really has something important to offer and who doesn’t. So, the better you get at telling your story and what you believe your value is, and the more authentically you can do that and the better you connect with your audience, you’ll be more successful.”

In this episode, Sarah Tenisi speaks with Hernani Alves, a public speaker and the Founder and Chief Motivation Officer at Balanced IQ Leadership. He serves leaders to help make the most complex business skill awesomely simple, by helping their teams fall in love with accountability to maximize workplace culture.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:19] How Hernani’s work was impacted by COVID-19

●      [03:35] The origin of the name “Hernani”

●      [04:40] Is enthusiasm innate or developed?

●      [06:22] The importance of listening to your customers and employees

●      [09:31] The lack of accountability in American workplace culture

●      [11:58] What to do if an organization’s culture is nonexistent

●      [15:05] Defining your company’s Purpose, Values, and Vision

●      [17:09] The First P: Positive Accountability

●      [18:40] The story of Hernani’s terrible nickname as a first-time manager

●      [23:53] The Second P: Personal Accountability

●      [31:27] Why love and accountability is the same thing

●      [33:20] The Third P: Performance Accountability

●      [37:53] The problem with “carrot and stick” leadership

●      [43:28] How to get people to stop making excuses

●      [46:19] Is there a limit to how much a leader can teach or inspire someone?

●      [51:45] Why entrepreneurs need to regularly check their ego

●      [56:05] The Fourth P: Peer-To-Peer Accountability

Key quotes:

●      “The most important customer you have is your internal customer—your employees.”

●      “People can’t make you feel the way you do. You make yourself feel that way.”

●      “If you want to be a really good salesperson, you stop the talking and start listening to your customer.”

●      “You can’t have a high-performance culture if you don’t have accountability standards.”

●      “You’ve heard of soft skills and hard skills. Accountability is neither—it’s a foundational skill.”

●      “The definition of leadership is to make others greater than themselves.”

●      “People want to be where they feel like they’re being heard. It’s seldom about the money.”

●      “What you permit, you promote.”

In this episode, Sarah Tenisi speaks with Tracy Jackson, a SHRM-certified HR executive with decades of executive leadership experience working in large organizations in the retail and banking space. As the founder of HR E-Z, Inc., Tracy recognizes a company’s most valuable assets are employees, and helps companies develop HR practices supporting the success and culture of the organization. She is also a speaker who helps people have uncomfortable conversations around diversity, inclusion, and other tough topics.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:19] Defining “uncomfortable conversations”

●      [02:30] How to tackle an uncomfortable conversation

●      [04:37] Why it pays to ask questions first before offering solutions

●      [07:22] How Tracy tackles or moderates tough conversations

●      [12:14] A primer on microaggressions

●      [19:58] The importance of titles

●      [22:22] How key events in 2020 impacted how companies should evolve their culture

●      [26:38] How can employers can better emotionally support their employees

●      [31:28] The power of feedback in creating more inclusivity in the workplace

●      [34:48] Becoming more mindful of offensive jargon at work

●      [36:57] The role of listening in creating a diverse and inclusive environment

●      [42:06] Receiving information in a way that encourages people to talk

●      [47:33] How to achieve inclusivity in the workplace while respecting other people’s beliefs

Key quotes:

●      “When you’re expecting perfection of yourself, what you tend to do is play not to lose versus playing to win.”

●      “Racial injustice has happened over the years. It’s just more visual now.”

●      “How you receive information will determine how much information you’re going to get.”

●      “I don’t tell people what to believe. I tell people how to act and engage with others and treat people with respect.”

●      “Once people feel more comfortable and accepted in their own skin, you’re going to get more optimal performance. It is so exhausting to wear a mask to work.”

In this episode, Sarah Tenisi speaks with Deanna Kosaraju, founder of Global Tech Women, an online community with over 16,000 members. The network offers resources, inspiring role models, mentoring, and community-building in every corner of the world. Deanna herself has a long history of working in technology and developing communities for women across the globe.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:20] Deanna’s thoughts on the historic inauguration of VP Kamala Harris

●      [02:22] Why all of the 156,000 jobs lost in December belonged to women

●      [05:10] How and why Deanna founded the Global Tech Women community

●      [10:09] A mistake Deanna made along the way that turned into a great story

●      [11:37] The values of Deanna’s global community

●      [17:10] Specific issues Deanna wanted to solve in the beginning

●      [21:58] Growing the community and keeping every member engaged

●      [23:52] Why women join the community

●      [25:15] Great developments happening in the community around the globe

●      [27:53] What’s next for Global Tech Women?

●      [29:18] How the 2021 Women Transforming Technology conference began

●      [34:36] Staying relevant and on the cutting edge

●      [37:24] The opportunities that are still out there in the tech world

●      [41:19] How women can help each other with their careers in the tech world

Key quotes:

●      “We have to really look at how we can help women given where we’re at. We’re having a conference in May where we’re talking about resilience. I’m hoping that we’re going to come up with great ideas on how we can structure Global Tech Women and all women in tech communities to be more supportive and be more pointed towards action to help women wherever they are, whatever they’re going through, and to come up with a plan for themselves because they deserve it.”

●      “You need to keep your skills and certifications fresh, otherwise you’re not going to find yourself as employable as you want to be.”

●      “We have an opportunity to be mentors and role models to everyone. We all have experiences. We all have ideas. Put yourself out there, connect with other people, and talk about your story and what you’ve learned.”

This week, Sarah Tenisi (CEO of Tenisi Tech) chats with Jill Stelfox , the CEO of Panzura in Silicon Valley.  Panzura is the fabric that transforms cloud storage into a high-performance global file system. The conversation ranges from listening with curiosity, trusting intuition, going on the offense and being kind to one another at work!

0:17- Introduction

1.32- Working with Zebra Technology, Location Solutions and player tracking in the NFL

4:42- How the project  changed the way broadcasters used stats

5:59- Applying technology that has never been applied before

7:15- The two types of listening and how it influences a company ( Listening for curiosity and listening to respond)

8:00- Intuition and how it helps

9:11- Listening with curiosity is also listening to learn

11:30- How did you reach the point where you decided to trust your intuition?

14:30 – Nobody knows anything - just say yes and then figure it out!

16:11- Writing job descriptions that are more friendly to women

17:23- Where does competition come to play?

21:24- How to become competitive from a business standpoint and also harnessing defensiveness and turning it to competition

21:53- Using offense rather than defense

24:00- How did you surround yourself with good coaches and good mentors

25:00- How people impact lives in little ways without even knowing

31:22- Having different coaches as you progress

32:03- How do you connect being a good listener, trusting your guts and getting a good coach to enable a great team?

32:27- As a person who has been in different companies and top leadership roles, do you think the culture that we are trying to build as leaders has changed in the last 10 to 15 years and what are those elements that are changing?

40:18- Being kind in work makes employees loyal

41:13- Are there qualities that women or men bring to the table to enable them lead through the pandemic?

44:58- How the pandemic has made people become authentic

46:23- How Pandora is incorporating working remotely and breaking the circle

52:23- Enabling that family feeling in work

55:52- Appreciation and conclusion

Contact

LinkedIn: Sarah Tenisi

Email: [email protected]

Welcome to this episode of Tech Me Seriously with Sarah Tenisi  -  candid conversations with women exploring their passion for what they do. Our guest in today’s episode is Marilou Macfarlane who is the founder of women in sports technology, nonprofit organization focused on driving opportunities for women in sports technology. 

 Episode Highlight and show notes

1; 12- What is sports technology?

2:17- Sports performance and fan engagement in eSports

3:16- Breaking down the broad umbrella of sports tech into 6 categories

5:11- Biomechanics and sports performance

7:22- Artificial intelligence and sports technology

13:12- The concept of aptitude

14:18- The difference between Sport Tech and Fit Tech

18:51- Some game-changers in the overall sports industry that helped in adoption

21:43- Wearing GPS trackers during practice

25:14- Balance with technology and how to correct it when our lives get off balance

28:15- Democratizing access with women in sports technology

33:22- What did you think you were going to do when you were growing up?

42:05- Going for your passion as a woman

43:08- You can get various materials and resources from the website : https://www.womeninsportstech.org

44:20- Appreciation and Conclusion

Conclusion

Thank you for listening to this amazing episode with Sarah Tenisi and our wonderful guest Marilou MacFarlane. We believe you enjoyed this episode and look forward to having you again; until then, Stay safe.

Contact

You can connect with Sarah Tenisis via LinkedIn at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/stenisi/
or send an email to her, at [email protected]

Antonia Mora: Why User Experience Defines the Success of a Product

In this episode, Sarah Tenisi speaks with Antonia Mora, Sr. UX Program Manager at Google Cloud Platform. She has spent her career working within big program management organizations at some of the largest well-known software companies in the world such as Adobe, in addition to Google.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:26] The difference between “program management” and “project management”

●      [02:36] What is “user experience”?

●      [04:30] Pillars of user experience

●      [08:17] Challenges when developing a good user experience

●      [13:26] An example of a great user experience

●      [17:06] From a UX perspective, what causes a user to bail on a product?

●      [20:45] To what extent is user experience instrumental to driving revenue?

●      [23:38] The importance of figuring out who you are talking to

●      [28:56] The recent prioritization of user experience in tech companies

●      [30:40] Finding a problem to solve

●      [31:53] All-in-one versus best-in-class products

●      [35:05] The advantages of working with millennials

●      [36:55] Do cultural norms influence trends in technology?

●      [40:42] One key takeaway

Key quotes:

●      “User experience is the most important thing that we can think about, because if they can’t use it, who cares what kind of feature it is?”

●      “Vision work is taking the time to understand your user by doing foundational research. It’s kind of like the North Star of a product.”

●      “Research is so important. That’s all you can do: Go to the customer, find out the problem, and figure out what’s best.”

●      “User experience trends are like fashion trends.”

●      “If you have the time, you should be talking to your users first to find the problem you’re trying to solve with the thing you’re trying to create.”

In this episode, Sarah Tenisi speaks with Stefy Bau, a seven-time women’s Italian Women's Motocross Champion, the only woman to hold a male professional motocross license from 2000 to 2007, the first woman to be featured in two video games (Supercross 2000 and Freakstyle), and the woman invited to compete against male pro motocross racers in Japan.

Now, Stefy is at the forefront of the booming eSports industry. She is the Co-Founder and CEO at InIt Esports and InIt Sports as well as an advisory board member of Women in Sports Tech, Inc. (WiST).

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [01:26] How Stefy became a leader in the eSports industry

●      [03:01] Are eSports “real” sports?

●      [06:53] What it takes to get into eSports

●      [10:23] How eSports is encouraging diversity and inclusivity

●      [15:46] Staying outside the “box” of societal expectations

●      [20:46] Bridging the gap between eSports and traditional sports

●      [25:45] Rethinking the word “sports”

●      [26:52] How eSports builds community

●      [29:04] The evolution of eSports communities on social media (i.e. Twitch)

●      [36:31] eSports announcers

●      [38:52] Finding success in spite of COVID-19

●      [41:49] How COVID-19 has impacted the evolution and adoption of eSports

●      [43:23] Bringing gamers and Formula 1 drivers together via eSports

●      [47:50] Twitch’s upcoming Race Me event

●      [49:29] Recent big wins in the eSports industry

●      [52:17] How Stefy encourages women to follow their passion

Key quotes:

●      “If you put yourself in a box, you give permission to the other party to look at you as being in that box. But if you stay outside the box, you can truly be who you are and express yourself.”

●      “eSports is a new vehicle that can potentially get people into traditional sports.”

●      “It doesn’t matter whether or not you want to call eSports ‘real’ sports. The sticker is not important. What matters is the community, what you can do to get involved, and what you get out of it.”

●      “COVID has been a bad thing for a lot of people, but I am a positive person. In reality, we have an opportunity to change the way we do things in business. You can stay stuck in your ways because that’s the way it’s always worked; but all of a sudden, history is teaching us: ‘What if something totally unpredictable happens? Who is going to survive?’ The ones who survive are the ones who will be able to adapt.”

In this episode, Sarah Tenisi speaks with Val Langmuir, Director of IT at large nonprofit based in San Francisco.

Val describes IT specialists as the people who “work on the plumbing” that allows your device (specifically its computer system) to function securely and productively. Sarah agrees, saying that it is the job of the IT practitioner to “make IT invisible”; however, this opens up a whole world of misconceptions regarding what IT really is and how the general public perceives professionals in this space. Val says that preconceived notions simply come with the turf. In fact, if the consumer begins to “notice that the IT is there, something is not working.”

Listen in as Val discusses why IT should be “invisible”, how IT professionals go about disaster recovery to tackle single points of failure, future-proofing for changes of all sorts (ex. hardware, software, company transformation, economic downturns, etc.), and how to know whether the IT field is a fit for you.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [1:04] What exactly is “IT”?

●      [3:24] Why IT should be invisible

●      [6:49] Defining “digital transformation”

●      [9:15] Troubleshooting and disaster recovery in the IT space

●      [12:53] Tackling change management

●      [15:34] Moving to a more remote workforce

●      [18:11] IT for nonprofits versus for-profit companies

●      [21:16] Capacity planning for IT

●      [23:36] Technology as a tool versus technology using you as the product

●      [29:30] Val’s path to the IT field

●      [32:38] Challenges that Val encountered throughout her career

●      [35:31] How to know if IT is a fit for you

●      [38:14] Val’s parting nugget of wisdom for IT professionals

Key quotes:

●      “IT is not fixing computers. IT is the infrastructure, the plumbing, that goes underneath all of the systems that people use to do business these days. In fact, today, it’s more than the plumbing. It’s like the air that we breathe.”

●      “The majority of problems that we see when systems go out are the results of planned changes that were not executed correctly.”

●      “Just because you can’t see IT doesn’t mean it’s not there. IT is there and there’s a tremendously fun career in making that happen. You can definitely get a great several years, many decades if you’d like, of doing this, and there’s always going to be work.”

●      “In order to do your work, you need to have IT. In order to have good IT, the IT should be unobtrusive and should let you do your work. It should keep you safe and secure. It should keep you productive. But even though it’s unobtrusive, you must not forget that it exists.”

In this episode, Sarah Tenisi speaks with Kristi Royse, founder and CEO at KLR Consulting. She is a leadership development consultant for a wide variety of well-known companies, including Workplace by Facebook and Rodan + Fields.

A great leadership team, according to Kristi, is defined by vulnerability and passion. Every individual on the team—especially during these challenging times—needs to be willing to be willing to ask the important questions and be open to receiving answers that they may not always want to hear. Active listening allows us to drop our egos and become authentic, vulnerable, and passionate members of the team committed to the growth and success of the organization.

Listen in as Kristi discusses why she disagrees with The Golden Rule and why she prefers to follow The Platinum Rule instead, a primer on the four DiSC communication styles and how understanding each type can help you communicate better at work, and lead amid the pandemic.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

●      [0:27] Kristi’s role at KLR Consulting

●      [1:14] What a great leadership team looks like

●      [3:12] What open communication and collaboration looks like

●      [4:24] How Kristi helps teams of all kinds tap into their full potential

●      [5:48] Kristi’s number one tip for uncovering core leadership problems

●      [6:56] Tools and methodologies for helping a team reach its potential

●      [10:00] The four DISC personality types

●      [15:02] The advantages of a balanced team

●      [18:14] Handling disagreements

●      [22:16] Unique challenges in training tech organizations

●      [25:46] Management versus leadership

●      [28:37] How KLR Consulting evaluates their success in training a team

●      [32:34] How different situations call for different leadership styles

●      [37:36] Kristi’s parting words of wisdom for building a great leadership team

Key quotes:

●      “Allowing for authenticity is a key success factor in effective leadership teams.”

●      “When we think about effective communication, you really need to think about how you’re adapting and adjusting your communication style to meet those that you’re working with, whether it be employees, colleagues, clients, or potential clients.”

●      “Awareness leads to understanding, leads to acceptance, leads to change.”

●      “What makes a strong leadership team is balance.”

●      “Sometimes, the best answer is to walk away.”

●      “Managers do the work. Leaders figure out who is the best person to do the work.”

●      “The biggest leadership challenge I’m seeing this year is lack of clarification and lack of alignment. That’s when people can get really frustrated. Different meeting management can lead to greater communication and collaboration and, therefore, less stress.”