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The Obsidio Podcast explores the people, ideas, and real world challenges shaping hardware security, semiconductor trust, supply chain resilience, and deep tech innovation. Through candid conversations with founders, engineers, security leaders, manufacturers, investors, and industry experts, the channel looks at how critical technologies are built, protected, and trusted in an increasingly complex world. From counterfeit components and electronics supply chain risk to AI, cyber-physical security, and emerging technologies, Obsidio brings practical insight and thoughtful discussion to the issues that matter most across modern industry.
Shelli, welcome aboard to the show. Thank you so much for joining us here today.
Speaker 2:Excellent. Thank you for having me. It's such a pleasure to join you and get to meet all your listeners.
Speaker 1:So, so many years ago, I will not disclose what year, you joined the air force. Tell me about that first day. Tell me about bootcamp. Tell me about your worst moment that you remember from, you know, that initial phase.
Speaker 2:Well, as I like to say, that's the first chapter of my journey, and I wasn't ready to go to college right off after high school. I'm sure many of your listeners have been there or are there. I also did not have college money, and I wanted to see the world. And when I joined the air force, we'll say it was in the eighties. The best way to see the world was through the military.
Speaker 2:So I joined the air force, was looking for an adventure, looking for just four years, see the world, get some college money and some experience and then separate, to, go to college, get a life and move on. As you know, from probably my background, that's not exactly what happened, but it was wonderful. You got to meet new people from around the world at bootcamp, hear stories, listen. This was at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas. I had grown up in Wisconsin, so it was great.
Speaker 2:I also like Texas. I have family in Texas, so it was great experience. And again, it was just part of the journey. Get through the six weeks of bootcamp, go to tech school, then go to your first assignment. First assignment was Turkey.
Speaker 2:So in the 1980s going from The United States, Wisconsin, Texas to Turkey was quite an adventure. And then I went to Germany and then reenlisted, stayed in the air force and came back to The United States. So that first part of my journey as an enlisted airman was fabulous.
Speaker 1:So I'm not going to let you pull a fast one on us here. What was your worst moment? Was there any moment here where you were like, oh my God, what did I do?
Speaker 2:You know, I think we're all young and when you're 18 years old, you're a little headstrong and the first thing you learn is you don't know everything you think you know. And so going off to bootcamp and being told what to do, again, make your bed, make your bed, you're not doing it right, Cleaning, cleaning and doing things right. Getting things proper. And again, that is the start of teaching you how to be a good listener, how to follow directions, because you have to be a good follower before you can be a good leader. Now, of course at 18 years old, we don't know those things, but the great part is, is you're with a team, right?
Speaker 2:It's not just you, you're with this flight of other women. You have a sister and brother flights as well. So you have people to rely on and talk to, and that is one of the wonderful things I loved about the air force is the camaraderie that we all share a mission. So again, it was different. I will say for your audience, I'm an only child.
Speaker 2:So going from being an only child to I'm in a flight of, you know, 60 women was different. 60 sisters sharing the shower, sharing the sinks, sleeping in a dorm room together, very different environment, but it's good to be adaptable. Especially when you're young, you should try different things. Maybe the military is for you. Maybe it's not, maybe it's college, maybe it's tech school, maybe it's going to work right away and getting an apprenticeship, try different things.
Speaker 2:The best time to do that is when you're young. And so I got to experience it. And as you know, from my background, the Air Force, which started out as a four year gig became a twenty nine year gig.
Speaker 1:And for me, I mean, my drill sergeant, he had like the eyes of a hawk. He could see if my shoes weren't shined or tied or if I wasn't shaved, he would take out like a credit card and go like this on my neck but he would scream at me from across the whole base and he's like soldier and then I had to walk all the way to him it was so embarrassing but the breaking moment for me was in the mornings was getting out of bed and be like, oh my god, I need to do this all over again. So you know it's not easy and I think you know the military has the philosophy, You gotta break it to make it. So we've all, not we've all, but if you've gone through it, you've gone through it. Through that process, right, you had your breaking points, I'm sure.
Speaker 1:What was the big lessons that you learned that then kind of became pivotal for you into the future that taught you something about yourself and maybe even other
Speaker 2:I think the first lesson you learn is, as you said, you're going through that experience and when you're 18, 19, 20, you don't know anything else. You're like, oh my gosh, this is forever. But in the big scheme of things, when you look back, everything is temporary. It's, there's always change. So embrace the moment, live in the moment.
Speaker 2:I don't know how it was for you. I think you were in the army. Was in the air force. What I learned from people is you got to bloom where you're planted. Most people I met in the air force, they only had two good assignments.
Speaker 2:The one they came from, or they're one they're going to. It's never the one you're in. Enjoy the moment that you're in. Enjoy every door, every day. You may not like the job.
Speaker 2:You may not always agree with the mission, but it's the people are
Speaker 1:Can I looking stuck you there for a
Speaker 2:moment? Yeah.
Speaker 1:That is like such an important point that you're making now because I would make the argument that that is maybe not the secret, but definitely one of the secrets to living a happy life. And I think everybody has this concept of like, oh the past that's on them and then the future that they want. But if everybody just took a moment and figured out that the thing that's happening right now is just pure joy And I would make another argument that sometimes the worst possible thing of pain that you're feeling actually in retrospect is one of the most amazing moments you have. And you know, my story is always like the worst trip my wife had. We literally had like fleas in the bed and mosquitoes everywhere and like like that that is like one of the favorite stories that we reminisce over and it's when you're in the trenches that you build relationships and bonds with the people around you.
Speaker 1:So I mean this idea of suffering that causes joy and bondship is so so important. I just wanted to pause on that for a second because so much wisdom in what you're saying. So I deeply appreciate that.
Speaker 2:To say I give all the wisdom credit to my mom. You know, growing up, you always thought your parents didn't know anything. And then as you get older, you're like, wow. They really were smart.
Speaker 1:Did you ever tell that her tell that to her while she was still around?
Speaker 2:She is still around and I She
Speaker 1:is still around? Oh my god. How old She is
Speaker 2:is 80. And she's still active. She's a active real estate agent. Still sells So I I hope to be that way. My grandmother has passed on, but she lived to be 96.
Speaker 2:Also very active so I have a very strong line of female role models and growing up. So yes, my grandmother and my mother, they were right.
Speaker 1:I am sending this small little snippet to your mom after the show so she can hear you say that. That's brilliant. I have no expectations for my children to be appreciative in my life but I think that or it will be like a thing they say for like three seconds you know when I'm 60 and that will be it, it will be that one thing. Mentorship, connecting, embracing the moment, absolutely, your lessons from
Speaker 2:When the Air you're not ready, you're not ready. So even in the military, at 18 years old, I wasn't ready to realize I didn't know everything. It takes a process to learn that, the military helps to break you down so they can build you up. That's part of their process. Not only did I have enlisted boot camp, but I went to officer training school.
Speaker 2:So I got to experience that not only once, but twice. But the thing that's really good is you have to be ready for it. You can't just say, I love when people say, oh, I want a mentor. Well, what do you really want a mentor for? And your kids, same thing.
Speaker 2:I've had a lot of people say, oh, I want you to talk to my son or daughter or my niece or nephew. But if they don't want to talk to you or they don't want to listen, it doesn't matter. So this mentorship coaching role models, it's all about a relationship. Both people are giving and both people are getting when I mentor people. I get so much out of that experience and relationship.
Speaker 2:Plus I'm one of those people less a mentor, a mentor is somebody who says, hey, I want to get into college to get my PhD. Will you help me? Okay, I help you and it's done. I'm usually more the coach like you want to start a business, but then I look at, well, let's talk about your life journey. Where are you?
Speaker 2:What do you want to do? Why do you want to be an entrepreneur? Your next step, and we really dig into that. And then maybe we don't talk for a while, and then three months later you send me a note and say, hey, can we talk? And so I call that more being a coach or a champion and I just had that happen.
Speaker 2:Last year for World Space Week, they had astralpreneurs. Several of us mentored entrepreneurs. My protege was in Azerbaijan and we connected for six, seven, eight months and then we've had a break and I just did an interview with Azerbaijan news service and so that article came out. So my protege reached out and said, oh, I just saw your article. Can we talk?
Speaker 2:I want to tell you what's going on. So I think you have to be open to that relationship and also be flexible. Like I said, we talked for seven, eight months. Now we've had a break, but now we're going go back and talk again. That's okay.
Speaker 2:You can have those breaks, you catch up, but it's similar to being in the military. My protege is not alone. Our time is not over. I'm still here for her. She's got my WhatsApp number.
Speaker 2:Let's talk. You can always send a note. So I think that's the type of relationship, whether it's with your kids, with your spouse, with other people, how you want to build that relationship. You have to be able to be flexible with the relationship. Some people are not ready to listen and you have to, you as a
Speaker 1:How do you know if the person that you're engaging with is ready? Cause that's tough sometimes unless they come out and ask for help, but even when they ask for help, sometimes they're not ready to listen.
Speaker 2:They're not ready. Many times I listen to people, they say they want to be coached, they want to be mentored, but then you can see the steps they're taking. So I'm also about what's our plan together. So we're going to meet, but what do you want to get out of this time? You know, what does success look like for you?
Speaker 2:Because it's not success for me. I mean, love meeting with people. I love hearing their stories and you might end up in a book or in an article or something I write or an interview, But really, what's success for you? Is it just getting into that PhD program or do you you know, a letter of recommendation? And I've had several people, I wanna go to Harvard.
Speaker 2:Will you write a letter of recommendation? Now I do wanna highlight, I know these people. I've worked with them, not just random people reaching out saying, will you do a letter to Harvard for me? But sometimes that's what they need. And then you don't hear from for a while, but some people need more and you know, the more you coach and mentor, you can tell when people are ready and are you meeting the goals and objectives?
Speaker 2:And I will even say I have an executive coach and every time we get done, it's like, okay, here's what I plan to do by the time the next time we meet. Here's what I've done, What I've done since we last met and here's where we were a year ago and where we are today. Wow, I can really see the growth. If you as a mentor or you as the protege are not seeing that growth, maybe you have the wrong mentor. Maybe you're not ready for that mentor's insights.
Speaker 2:Maybe you need somebody else. And if you're the mentor, whatever you're trying to help that person accomplish or what success looks like, it's not working. And so you need to retool and relook at it. Again, I've had a, there's a program I'm in Colorado as well. I know you are, there's a program in every state called SCORE, which has a mentoring program.
Speaker 2:I have a mentor through the SCORE mentoring program. And I go back to where we were a year ago when we started in September and I benchmarked that too. Wow. When I met you in September, I was asking these questions and now here we are in August and I'm asking these questions and I can see that strategic growth that's happened over the last eleven months.
Speaker 1:I will mention that score.org. Go check it out. And let me ask you this. Why does a mentor need a mentor? Like what's the need here?
Speaker 1:Is it, is it accountability?
Speaker 2:I don't know at all. I mean the older I get the less I know. Like when I was 18 I told you I knew everything. Now the older I get every year I've realized I know less and less.
Speaker 1:I gotta tell you I miss being 18 and then that feeling of like, just know that or it's like, it's kind of frustrating figuring out that you don't. Know, this journey of self awareness, I only recommend it to those people who are really ready to feel the pain. It's not a fun journey, but I think it is a very rewarding.
Speaker 2:It is, and I share that in one of my books. It's my book on being an interstellar guide to success is for those young professionals and they had four main pillars, leadership, awareness, access and action. And that first pillar leadership is really about self leadership, really understanding yourself. Some people will call it emotional intelligence or self awareness. I even say take a personal SWOT analysis every year.
Speaker 2:What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? What are the opportunities? What are the threats out there? Some people only do that for a business, but you should you are your business.
Speaker 2:You are the CEO of your life. Every year, you should be doing a SWOT analysis. And how are you growing? We need to continue to grow. We need to continue to learn and develop.
Speaker 2:I was watching one of your podcasts earlier with an AI expert talking about AI and developing. Yeah. And, and yes, and, and AI is a great, as he said, it's a tool. You have to learn how to use the tool and the prompts, but the only way you know it's accurate or correct is you have to be smart enough to know that. I mean, I love chat GPT but you know, he he's, he's a kiss, but right?
Speaker 2:You know, we used to have those in the military, Brown nosers chatty bt. It's like, and I love that he's so polite, but I have to go back and say, okay, Chad, I'm not sure that's right. And then he comes back, oh, you're right. So you have to be knowledgeable enough to understand that that AI is not right or something doesn't seem right. And when young people use AI without really understanding that they can be led down a wrong path.
Speaker 1:This is the art of going down the rabbit hole. It's totally cool.
Speaker 2:So be a lifelong learner. Need, you know, as I said, I thought I knew everything at 18, but the older I get, the less I know there's AI, there's quantum, there's emerging technologies. How are those converging? How do CEOs take those converging technologies, create new businesses and opportunities? So we really have to be constantly self aware and that can mean formal education.
Speaker 2:You know MIT and others have great certificates in quantum and AI. You can also just do a lot of reading and there's lots of great webinars. Youtube is fabulous. You obviously have a great podcast. So that's one of the things I'll say.
Speaker 2:A mentor needs a mentor because we don't know it all and the world is changing and so have a good mentor, not just one, maybe several that help you in different aspects of your journey.
Speaker 1:I would agree. I would say single handedly having great mentors is one of the things that's gonna help you grow and progress as a person. Maybe more than anything else, but definitely together with one thing that you mentioned, which is reading, right? Reading books, listening, learning, just being in that mindset of I just don't know so I'm gonna learn and more than that I'm gonna test my knowledge. I'm gonna assume that some things in my knowledge are wrong so I'm gonna be open to that.
Speaker 1:One of my famous sayings is you know two conflicting things can both be right And that can break some people's brains. In fact, you know, it just doesn't compute. I want to ask when did the fascination with space start and when did you take the kind of solid, strong step towards a career in space?
Speaker 2:So I'll say when I joined the space industry, there were only two ways to come into the space industry. And so you either came in through the military or you came in through civil space through like NASA or a commercial space agency. So I told you about my enlisted time in the Air Force when I was enlisted for twelve years. I was a personnel specialist, so like human resources, but I also went to school at night and on the weekends earned my college education, applied and became an officer. So for army people that would be called, you know, green to gold.
Speaker 2:And the air force made the decision for me to become a space acquisition officer, which even today it's like, what does that mean? That means I was one of those people who purchased the satellites, ground station launch vehicles, which are rockets, and became the procurement side of the space industry, the business side of the space industry. So the air force made the decision for me. I did not really want to do that because I didn't know what space acquisition was and specialist. I wanted to be a personnel officer.
Speaker 2:I kept trying to see if the air force would reassign me. At the end of the day, you know how the military works. They don't really give you a vote. They really needed me to do space acquisition. And I have to say how grateful I am because that started my twenty five year career in the space industry.
Speaker 1:What was the moment where you fell in love with space? Where it wasn't though, you know, the Air Force is making me do this, but it became a passion for you. Was it one moment that it just like oh my god or did it just happen slowly over time?
Speaker 2:I would say it happened slowly over time because initially you're starting, you're working in a program office so as a program manager for your audience So if you join project management institute or you're an acquisition, a project manager, loved working with the teams, working not only with the military team, but the contracting team, the defense contractor, whether it was Lockheed Martin or North Brumman or Raytheon, loved working with the team, solving big challenges. But when it really became reality or became that pivotal wow moment is when I was a legislative liaison and I worked on Capitol Hill for secured the budget for the air force, I would work with congressional staffers and explain the importance of space to our military warfighters. Importance, like even today, you and I are using telecommunications that's from the space industry to communicate. Our, you know, military service members need that telecommunication. They need earth observation.
Speaker 2:They need to have pictures of what's happening. They need to have weather forecasting. They need to know what's happening with the, with the weather and working on Capitol Hill, having to explain that mission because space maybe even to your audience, like what does that really mean? But being able to explain what space capabilities are not only for military, but even for now the world we live in. How many of you have taken an Uber or ordered Uber Eats or used an app or done financing or got money out of an ATM?
Speaker 2:You are using space technology. And so for me, that moment was working on Capitol Hill explaining to congressional staffers and members of Congress why space is an invisible infrastructure that's running our everyday lives, not only for the military, but for everyday Americans and citizens around the world.
Speaker 1:Let me ask you a really difficult question. I'm going to make an assertion that space really hasn't had a seat at the table as it comes to military operation. That has changed recently, which is to me it was a huge surprise. I would expect, you know, that it would have always been like that and that unfortunately is untrue. Tell us a little bit about you know that struggle of explaining space to the decision makers.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to say explaining space is similar to other things that are difficult to intangible to explain. Space, cyber, blockchain, fintech. So I, so it's not space is this anomaly over here by itself. There's a number of these emerging technologies quantum that we have to explain not only to maybe leaders, members of Congress who make laws and pass laws, to everyday citizens who are paying, you know, The U. S.
Speaker 2:Budget, that are paying military service members, paying for NASA, why it's so important. So one of the things I highlight is during the Apollo era, for every $1 spent, it was a $7 return to the taxpayers. Now, obviously NASA did not pay the taxpayers, but the technology, the thousands of patents that are waiting at NASA to be commercialized by entrepreneurs and investors on your show and around the world is staggering. Those patents and technologies are there. Healthcare applications, one of them is osteoporosis.
Speaker 2:Women suffer from osteoporosis. There's been technology from space to help not only stop osteoporosis, but mitigate it and reverse it. So it's really hard sometimes for people to understand this hidden infrastructure of how we're running our economy, our whole banking system, agriculture, agriculture is running on space technology with precision agriculture. Those John Deere tractors are running with GPS tracking. Logistics is running with GPS.
Speaker 2:There's not an airplane that takes off in America that's not running on GPS. And believe me, every passenger wants that safety feature. But these are all hidden, hidden things that people
Speaker 1:I want to talk about that first point you made because it's incredibly important because my company is built on one of these technologies. In fact, there was an SBIR coming out of DARPA and you know, it would be like, why are we wasting our money on DARPA? Well, DARPA comes up with a technology or asks you know, the community to solve a problem and then they do and then a company comes and they hire people, they build a product, they sell that all over the world, right, so that's tax money that is coming out of revenue from other countries, that's employees that are hired here in The United States. It's all these things that are happening that are bringing jobs, bringing in tax revenue, bringing innovation, training our, you know, next generation on, you know, these super advanced technologies and all of that is just net good. So there's this idea around, you know, one to eight, one to seven, it sounds amorphic.
Speaker 1:It sounds like out there, this doesn't make sense, but it's very tangible, right? It's very real. It's people's jobs. Tell me about Space Foundation. It's one of my favorite conferences every year.
Speaker 1:When did you join? What did you do? What is your like most fun memory from your time?
Speaker 2:Excellent. So I shared you know that that start of my journey was an enlisted airman. Then I became an officer, did space acquisition. And after twenty nine years in the air force, I retired and I went to work at Space Foundation as the chief operating officer in Space Foundation, global nonprofit that does business around the world. But one of the things you're highlighting is their annual conference that takes place every year in April in Colorado Springs, the space symposium that brings together the global space community to talk about what the future looks like.
Speaker 2:And I have to say that was my favorite event because for people who may not get this space is a small industry. We know each other. If you're a space military person, we know each other. If you're space at NASA, we know each other. If you're space at DARPA and I do a lot of things now on the commercial side, the investor side.
Speaker 2:So really looking at what are the space companies that are solving hard problems, not only in space, like orbital debris, and we can talk about fun things or health care, but actually solving those real challenges here on earth as well. So it's really a fun thing. And so I love space, symposium. There's a couple other conferences. Obviously, the International Astronautical Congress is just around the corner.
Speaker 2:That will be this year in Turkey, and that'll be in October during World Space Week. I believe that's the fourth through the tenth of October. So there's a couple really great space conferences to go to. Obviously IAC, international astronautical congress is fabulous space symposium. And then of course, I also really love space congress that takes place in Orlando every January.
Speaker 2:So those are a couple of the three main space conferences I love. And you learn all this when you work at an organization like Space Foundation.
Speaker 1:Our final question that we ask every single guest is this, and it is a hard question. If you had to go back to the hardest moments in your life, whether it was two years ago or twenty years ago, what advice would you give your younger self?
Speaker 2:Excellent. So what I'm going to say is failure is okay. That is something we learn in the space industry. And I say cut that off, just F A I L, first attempt in learning. It's okay to fail.
Speaker 2:It's okay to try something and not be successful. You learn something and you move forward and you figure out how you do a better job next time. So I would say don't be afraid to fail, don't be afraid to try new things, it'll be okay, just keep moving forward.
Speaker 1:Brilliant. Shelli, thank you so much for your time today. This has been an absolute delight. Do me a favor, pick up one of your books, tell us the title and where we can find it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. So the books are out there under the brand name, What Space Got to Do With It. It's based on my TEDx talk with the same name and the first book that I have holding, this is for your young professionals out there, high school, college, early professionals starting your first or second job, an Interstellar Guide to Success, and for those leaders out there next month, Out of This World Leadership is coming out. So pick up one or I also have interviews with all the people that are in the book on my YouTube channel, so no pressure to purchase. This is really about sharing information and inspiration from global thought leaders around the world.
Speaker 1:Shelli, thank you so much for joining the show today. I appreciate you.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. And until next time, I look forward to seeing you around the galaxy.