Beyond The Job Title | Underrepresented Career Stories

Episode Summary

Sharing one lesson from each of the first ten episodes. Enjoy!

  • (00:00) - Intro
  • (01:29) - Always be searching for gaps | Katie Penner
  • (02:21) - Life will put you back in your place | Dev Sim
  • (02:53) - Learn to tell good stories | Zach Horvath
  • (04:00) - What happens if you get laid off? | Kris Hughes
  • (05:40) - When you care people will care about you | Angelique Bolding
  • (08:00) - You can figure it out | Danielle Martin
  • (08:59) - Don’t compare yourself to others | Danny Luu
  • (10:13) - Bet on yourself and start a personal project | David Nebinski
  • (11:31) - Are you out of alignment? | Amanda Horvath
  • (12:51) - You are qualified | Carrie Melissa Jones
  • (13:54) - Outro

Referenced

🎙About The Podcast

Join Cesar Romero, as he shares the stories of trailblazing underrepresented SaaS founders, executives, and professionals who have broken barriers and achieved remarkable milestones. Whether you seek inspiration, mentorship, or actionable strategies to advance your career, our podcast is your go-to resource.

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Where to find Cesar

Creators & Guests

Host
Cesar Romero
Helping startups and SMBs build strong customer relationships that drive product adoption, reduce churn, and increase revenue | Community-Driven | Podcast Host

What is Beyond The Job Title | Underrepresented Career Stories?

The lack of diversity in tech can lead to imposter syndrome, bias, and a sense of isolation that hinders your growth and ambition.

Welcome to 'Beyond The Job Title Podcast,' where we shine a spotlight on the journeys of underrepresented tech professionals and allies within the SaaS industry.

Join us as we delve into the personal development and career insights that have fueled their success.

Discover the stories of trailblazing underrepresented SaaS founders, executives, and professionals who have broken barriers and achieved remarkable milestones.

Whether you're seeking inspiration, mentorship, or actionable strategies to advance your career, our podcast is your go-to resource.

Tune in to gain valuable insights, build your network, and navigate your tech career journey with confidence.

Subscribe now and take the next step toward your own success in the world of tech.

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10 Lessons Vol 1 | BJT27
[00:00:00] Cesar: Hey friends. Welcome to another episode of beyond the job title podcast. I'm your host. Cesar Romero. And remember, this is the podcast where we feature the relatable journeys of successful underrepresented professionals in tech. With the goal of providing you with the inspiration mentorship. Resources and strategies to advance your career. In this episode, I'll be sharing one lesson from the first 10 episodes of the podcast. And man it's such a diverse group of people from entrepreneurs to creators, community builders. Professionals in tech and my hope is that. You get to digest the lesson and apply it to your personal life, to your career. And. If you find the lesson impactful and you want to listen. To the full episode. There will be a link in the show notes. So you can access the episode. And before we dive into the episode. Please. I have two requests for you. One. Make sure to [00:01:00] subscribe so that you don't miss out on any future episodes. And that is one of the best ways to support the podcast. And number two. I welcome. Any feedback, questions, comments. That's how we continue and growing. And improving this podcast so if you have a question if you have feedback what is good or bad or any common Please don't hesitate reaching out my dms are open thank you so much for tuning in and now let's get into the show.
[00:01:28]
[00:01:29] Katie: There is opportunity to always be searching for gaps within your company. if you're looking for advancement opportunities. And if you find those gaps, be sure that you're going into those conversations.
[00:01:43] Katie: Very prepared, factual, not emotional, and sell yourself. Use it, use this as a tool to sell. And then when it comes to parenthood and being a parent and working as a parent, try to be more unapologetic. Make sure that you're [00:02:00] working for people who truly support you as a mother, as a father,and honestly, have fun with it.
[00:02:07] Katie: Right? Make sure that you're time blocking to, to give yourself time to not get overwhelmed, have time to really. Be one-on-one with them,and ultimately just go out there and put your head down and crush it.
[00:02:20]
[00:02:21] Dev: Still lift weights. I think a lot of the good habits I have now, I've always had. So it's kind of hard for me to think about that in that aspect.
[00:02:30] Dev: I think I was, at 18. Very cocky and I think. I think I would tell myself to be less cocky, the world has a good way of, of putting you back in your place. And I think when I came outta school, and couldn't find a job, it put me right on my ass and, and showed me that, I had to be a lot less cocky.
[00:02:48] Dev: So maybe. I would tell him to be a lot less cocky, a lot less earlier.
[00:02:52]
[00:02:53] Zach: If you could tell one really good four minute story about something that you've been through in your life that was hard or sad or that [00:03:00] you learned a lesson or was funny or embarrassing or something like that and you just tell it so well then you know, naturally other people are gonna be like, oh yeah man, like that reminds me of this one time.
[00:03:13] Zach: And as soon as that happens, as soon as that, like that reminds me of this one time in my life. Your life, my life. there's a connection there. Boom. There's so much potential there. And so I think, most people come to story night and they're like, I don't know what story I'm gonna tell. And I'm like, just show up.
[00:03:27] Zach: You're gonna figure it out. And so it's the same idea as for giving advice to other people or something, it's like just, tell stories from your life. Just like all of us have lived interesting lives. even if you don't think you have, like you for sure, like humanity is interesting.
[00:03:41] Zach: Being a freaking human on this planet is inherently like really weird and funny and hard and so all of us go through it no matter where we come from. And so for that reason, it's just just learn how to tell like a couple really good stories and then just tell it to people and see what happens.
[00:03:59] [00:04:00]
[00:04:00] Kris: don't be so reactionary when you do get laid off. I went through several in my time in the corporate world and, the startup world, they just, they happen, especially marketing. Take a few days, be mad first, go do what you need to do to boss team. In the moment, but instead of like the next day or two days later, like immediately diving in and applying to hundreds of jobs, take a little bit of time to step away, go sit somewhere and think about it.
[00:04:28] Kris: Like, do I really want to get back into that cycle? And if I do, what does it mean? Like, what type of companies should I be looking for? What type of roles should I be looking for? Is, The reason why I got laid off as it related to the role, was it related to the type of company? Like do some introspection as to what that means.
[00:04:46] Kris: So you don't like too quickly get in into something else. It's exactly the same and it happens again. Or there's a risk of it happening again. Or maybe it is that mode of inflection, like, do I wanna stay? In this world, is it time to [00:05:00] try something else? And I'm not saying you fully leap out of the corporate world into building something for yourself.
[00:05:04] Kris: You hear that advice sometimes. I think it's a little misguided. Cause if you don't have a cushion to fall back on, that's a big risk. But if you do, maybe it is. Or is there a side hustle you can build that's complimentary to your skillset. And if you do need the security of the full-time gig in the short term, like what can you build as a side hustle that can help you kind of almost build your own escape pod?
[00:05:27] Kris: Yeah. I mean, I think that's, you go one of three ways there, so Yeah. But you have to take the time to think about it because if you get laid off and you just dive right back into the pool, History can repeat itself.
[00:05:39]
[00:05:40] Angelique: So my mom was somebody that she, she made me believe that a woman could do absolutely anything that she set her mind to.
[00:05:50] Angelique: And she made me realize that when you care people will care about you. And I spent a lot of my life watching my mom. she was an [00:06:00] accountant, so she, had her own accounting firm for, it was the four or five months of the year. And then in the other months of the year, she worked in the cosmetics industry, in sales.
[00:06:10] Angelique: And those two experiences were really unique for me because I would see the people that would come in to get their taxes done and I swear it would become more like a therapy session for them. My mom was given, spearing off. Here's all the resources you need. You need to talk to Bob, you need to talk to Cindy.
[00:06:25] Angelique: I'm gonna connect you to Sarah. And like the amount of connections that woman made. Just by simply helping people. and they took care of her. They took care of her as well. And I think it was also watching my mom, she was very involved in our, on our church parish growing up too. And,it was very much a sense of we helped, she helped everybody.
[00:06:45] Angelique: if there was, a family going through something, if there was an elderly couple that needed something, she would take me to my aunt and uncle's houses and we'd be doing my aunt's, hair curlers, taking her grocery shopping and things like that. And, I think from the, the sense of her working in the [00:07:00] cosmetic sales, what it also showed me, just funny as I, I talk about this, I see so many parallels between my mom and I now, but, she was, she worked for Christian Dior and so part of her, experience with Christian Dior is she was this rep.
[00:07:13] Angelique: So she'd do a lot of traveling and her job was to create experiences. So she would put on these mega shows like in the mall or she'd,she'd run out these venues and hold fashion shows and she'd have all these gifts and like people getting their facials done and their hands massaged. And, she just created so many of those experiences for people that I think I knew that I saw some of myself in her for sure.
[00:07:39] Angelique: I mean, it's hard not to, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. but yeah, growing up watching a mom that built a business, multiple businesses on helping people, she really made me see that if I focused on community, then I could do anything. Because more times than not that community, they'll come in and they'll be there, right there for you.
[00:07:59] [00:08:00]
[00:08:00] Danielle: It's having to remind myself that you don't know something until you know something and everybody is always in the same boat, right? you can't move up in your career unless you're constantly challenging yourself and doing things that you've never done before. So ultimately, if I'm gonna do anything but stand still, I'm always going to be faced with challenges with things that I've never done in my life.
[00:08:25] Danielle: And so I think it's having that conversation with yourself where you say, we're not meant to be good at this. We've never done this before, but what we can do is try our best. And also what we can do is we know that, we have the skills to figure it out. And I think it's turning it around and putting that trust in yourself and flipping it on its head and saying, We're meant to be here.
[00:08:45] Danielle: And we got here because of our merit, because of the hard work we've put in, and reminding yourself of all the wonderful, the incredible things that you've done previously that you thought you, you couldn't do or that you never had an experience with, and then you smashed it out the park.
[00:08:57]
[00:08:59] Danny: My biggest [00:09:00] advice is the way that the world is structured right now, especially with all the social media. you can see one person, they look very successful, they look very happy, but.
[00:09:14] Danny: Deep down inside, you don't know what they're going through, how much work they have put in for them to get what they have today. So overall, my, my advice or any, the message that I wanna tell your community is never compare your chapter one to someone else. Chapter 20.
[00:09:34] Danny: because that's gonna give you a lot of anxiety, a lot of stress. And I feel like that can also cause a lot of, motivation, motivation for you to kind of get where you want to go. Live in the present, do what you can, and just pat yourself in the back because I feel like I'm a, I'm Buddhist.
[00:09:51] Danny: So one of the things my grandma had taught me is, as long as you're doing the right thing every day and you're being a good person, good things will happen to you. So I try to [00:10:00] remember that, all the time. And that's one thing that I'll,My takeaway for,your community. Don't compare your chapter one to someone else, chapter 20 because you don't know what they're going through, how much work and time to put in to kind of get where they, are at today.
[00:10:12]
[00:10:13] David: you gotta pick yourself and,For me with the podcast, it's every week is picking myself and investing into my own personal body of work.
[00:10:21] David: And it's really fulfilling and it's really great to have full creative control and to feel like you're learning and growing and building something, even if it's doesn't meet the expectations of what other people have, but just like doing it for yourself, is really empowering. And, I think I would love to see more people, try personal projects and take them seriously.
[00:10:44] David: I think taking a personal project seriously,is a, an incredible feeling and there's some ups and downs that we were talking about, but I think once you get to the other side or get to some over some humps, it's some really great stuff. So I would encourage people [00:11:00] to.
[00:11:01] David: especially in the last couple months, we've continued to see just like companies that are just, not being as human and are just like, doing what's in the best interest for their company in their bottom line, which is not, is at odds of the humans, the people that are behind, that are in those roles,
[00:11:16] David: So I think picking yourself and taking your own body of work seriously will continue to help you, navigate uncertainty and will help you lead to future opportunities and fulfillment and great conversations,
[00:11:31] Amanda: one of the things that I've realized is that if you're living out of alignment with who you are and you're sharing out of alignment with who you are, the invitations coming in aren't in alignment either. And so while I was getting a lot of invitations.
[00:11:45] Amanda: They, they weren't super exciting to me, you know, like, Oh, review this microphone or come like the amount of podcasts that I would do where I'd show up. And I would just talk about the exact same thing over and over and over again. It just got to the point [00:12:00] where I was like, ah, like I can't do this anymore.
[00:12:02] Amanda: And another element of my design. And I know I'm kind of weaving all over, but is that I need to retreat to turn a weak position into a strength. So like stop reflect. Journal, like slow down, disappear, like go into yourself. And so I've done that more than ever, especially in motherhood. Like, okay, let me just kind of like shut off the outside world for a little bit.
[00:12:27] Amanda: Let me like not say yes to any invitations and let me really tap into who I am and into my own energy and then come back and create from that place. So that new invitations that are in alignment with me can come through, and I'm still very much in that like transitional place of doing that, but it's at least started.
[00:12:50]
[00:12:51] Carrie: what I've learned over the years is that actually for a community to be successful, we all have to see ourselves as having a part in it. It can't just be the [00:13:00] community manager doing all of the community and, it's got to be like other staff members, members of the community stepping up into leadership roles.
[00:13:07] Carrie: it's a team sport. So, yeah, just over the years, I've kind of. Stepped out of that tactical work and more into teaching the principles and all that. And I think, like I was saying, the big shift in my work and my approach to it is that I didn't think I was qualified to teach those things.
[00:13:25] Carrie: I'm like thinking, somebody else will teach people those principles. Like it's too hard to teach anybody, how to do these things. And I'm not the right person to do it. especially given, I'm a pretty, I'm still pretty quiet introverted person. I'm just like, I'm not the person to do it.
[00:13:40] Carrie: And then I thought, you know what, no one else is doing this in the way that I do it. And I actually am qualified to teach all this. And, if we really want people to learn these skills, then we've got to teach them the principles.
[00:13:53]
[00:13:54] Cesar: [00:14:00] all right. I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you so much for listening all the way through. I appreciate you. And I hope that you get some valuable information that you can apply to our personal and professional life. If this story resonated with you and you would like to support the podcast.
[00:14:16] Cesar: Please make sure to subscribe. So you don't miss out on any future episodes. Thank you so much for the opportunity. I appreciate you. And I look forward to serving you in the next episode.