Diva Tech Talk Podcast

About Diva Tech Talk Podcast

We are on a journey to share insights into leadership, innovation and breaking down the big issues women face in a tech-savvy world. We interview women leaders all around the world from CIOs and Founders, to creators and nonprofit executives, covering generations of innovation. Everyone with whom we've crossed paths has a story of success that we share with our listeners. Don't get tangled along the way in your journey; listen in and learn from dynamic divas who share everything from balancing life duties, to negotiating, forging their way in their fast-changing industry, to (most of all) finding themselves. Podcast currently hosted by Nicole Johnson Scheffler, Kathleen Norton-Schock, and Amanda Lewan. Follow along with us here at www.divatechtalk.com.

Publisher

Hosted by a Collaboration of Professional Women in Technology

Category

news · technology

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

20 Dec 2015

Latest episode

10 Feb 2021

Latest episodes

102 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   10 Feb 2021

   Ep 101: Catherine Tabor: Making Sparks Fly

   Diva Tech Talk interviewed Catherine Tabor, CEO and Founder of  Sparkfly, a cloud-based offer management solutions company maximizing customer acquisition by connecting real-time behavior with online and in-store sales. Catherine’s father was a physics professor, and she visited his university classes as a child. “I was mesmerized as he used math to solve real problems. I am a believer in technology solving problems, not just ‘tech for the sake of tech’.” That was demonstrated when, as a Georgia State University (https://www.gsu.edu/) undergraduate, Catherine was recruited by The Coca-Cola Company to manage their employee discount program.  “I grew it to manage 1 million employees, nationally, with companies like Delta Airlines, Suntrust Bank (https://www.suntrust.com/). It was a bulletin board, where companies would list offers.”  Employees would visit, use coupon codes, and make purchases.  But the system did not allow for customers to redeem personalized offers at physical locations nor enable merchants to get accurate data.  The resulting challenge was “how could we layer technology on top of antiquated POS systems, and make them do innovative things.”   Catherine began by convincing POS providers “that there was a gap.”  Her first integration success was with Radiant Systems, in Atlanta, (eventually acquired by the venerable NCR). Radiant “embraced my concept; agreed to integrate my platform; and then got acquired by NCR. By the nature of ‘being included in the fold’, it enabled build out, and networking.” After competing with larger, better-funded companies, “in 2017, we signed a contract with Chipotle.” Adoption of the SparkFly platform became the basis of Chipotle’s core digitalization transformation. The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted SparkFly, as it has many businesses. Fortunately, SparkFly’s platform pushes greater levels of digital participation/presence leading to stabilization. Catherine instituted a weekly “all-hands” phone call so that her team continuously feels close. “I tell them all the time: I cannot promise you good news, but I promise that I will always tell you the truth.” Key leadership nuggets from Catherine Tabor include: “The driving force for me is having passion around the objective.” In the face of setbacks, it is Catherine’s core belief in what she is achieving that keeps her going. “Know your own value.” “There’s no reason not to take a chance. You just have to go for it.” Catherine looks at any potential failure and asks, “what is the worst that can happen?” Facing that answer realistically allows her to shed fear. “If you truly believe in what you’re doing, you never give up. I believe that ‘grit’ is the most important character trait leading to success.” In juxtaposition, “I have had to learn to realize quickly when I’ve gone down the wrong path.” This has guided Catherine’s decisions about system nuances, doing business with the “right” customers, acquiring appropriate investors and advisors, and hiring/retaining employees. “Surround yourself with people who support what you want to do, and what you want to be.”

2. 

   12 Jan 2021

   Ep 100: Michelle Accardi: Jump in With Both Feet

   Diva Tech Talk interviewed Michelle Accardi, President and Chief Revenue Officer at Star2Star Communications (https://www.star2star.com/), a global VoIP telecommunications vendor. Headquartered in Sarasota, Florida,  Star2Star offers proprietary, hybrid unified voice and data communications solutions, in “the cloud.” A well-known aphorism is: “Life is what happens, after we make other plans.” Michelle’s original aspiration was to be a Broadway star.  Discovering that Manhattan was an exorbitant place to live, she took her first job in sales and “wound up, really liking it!”  In karmic fashion, the CFO of a small technology company was at the front desk when a young Michelle cold-called with her resume. Infresco Corporation, (a joint venture with CA Technologies/Computer Associates), was “willing to take a risk” on her. “When I got there, I was so intrigued.” The company was creating “interesting technology” to convert “green screen” mainframe applications and databases and “make them look like really beautiful Websites.”  Very soon, “I was doing things I had never done, before,” like creating Access databases.  Her boss counseled her to reconsider becoming an attorney. “You have a natural aptitude for technology and people.” She took his advice and “never looked back.” Within one year, CA Technologies merged Infresco into the larger corporation. Michelle began her upward CA trajectory. “They were starting a reference program at CA and needed someone who knew all the (Infresco) customers. I was recommended.” CA offered Michelle a $25,000 bonus to make the customers referenceable.  She misunderstood CA’s timeline for this, and beat it by a dramatic 11 months, enabling 200 customers to become referenceable in slightly more than a month vs. the year CA had forecasted. Within 6 months, she was managing a customer reference team in North America and, in a year, managing that globally. This was followed by stints in field marketing, product marketing, and sales enablement. All catapulted her into successively more important roles. Along the way, Michelle gained valuable insights.  In field marketing, she noted how much was learned by “getting close to the customer.” In sales enablement she implemented “fun projects to motivate people.” She eventually became Vice President for digital transformation, “the biggest ‘leap’ because this was  when digital marketing was starting, and I was asked to take on a technology team, lead web design, architecture, and IT team. I learned a lot about ‘agile’ as a methodology.” “Technology is always going to change,” said Michelle. Her mantra is “drop in with both feet.” Moving to Star2Star is a full circle story.  The company was co-founded by Norm Worthington, who was the co-founder of Infresco.   “It was Kismet,” she said. She started as the company’s Chief Marketing Officer. “Actually, I was marketing employee #2.  My job was to build a team and strategy. We built every piece of content, and the Website; and recruited a great team.” She became Chief Operating Officer, mandated to drive operational systems’ excellence, and then President and Chief Revenue Officer.  “It has been really challenging to learn different aspects of running a technology company, driving it to the next level.”  She describes the broad offerings of Star2Star. “We offer so much: collaboration, contact center, text messaging, workflow integration of communications into every business process you can think of, mobile applications, text-based alerting, desktop communications as a service, and more.”  Michelle noted “we also have the only desktop solutions certified to work in a Citrix environment. We help you with your entire network.” Star2Star offers an optimized SD-WAN service to ensure call quality, essential when people are working from home. “We have proprietary technology that allows us to do things that our competitors can’t.” Industry analysts have noticed.  Gartner, has recognized Star2Star for six years as a Magic Quadrant leader in unified communications. Michelle, herself, has been named a channel leader for the last six years by CRN (https://www.crn.com/). The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated Star2Star growth. In response to the crisis, Michelle is justifiably proud of the company’s stellar customer-focused philosophy.  All company employees moved into a work-from-home environment, using Star2Star’s own technology.  “Then we went to our base of customers.” Star2Star helped each customer deploy effective remote working scenarios and created innovative payment programs to support customers. “Communication is the lifeblood of any business. We didn’t want to be the bill that put any of our smaller companies over the edge.” Star2Star has also used this period to diversify even further. “We moved into digital transformation projects for customers in the restaurant and retail spaces, who needed curbside pickup applications.” Star2Star provided those. “Doctors’ offices needed testing.” Star2Star provided that.  Many customers needed enhanced employee alerting systems.  Star2Star provided them. For a nonprofit customer, and other health facilities, Star2Star provided text alert services. Michelle acknowledges that being a woman has only minimally affected her career. She and her husband juggle a large family of 6 children. Her husband serves as the “stay-at-home” parent, and “I see a lot of ‘reverse sexism’,” which is a challenge,” she says.  But she exults that “women are built to adapt” and feels capable of taking on many increasing responsibilities. If Michelle has a regret it is that “I should have gone into entrepreneurship” at her career advent. “I think balance is a fallacy,” opines Michelle. “Do things that you love, with people you like. And just have perseverance. Nothing is going to be perfect, anywhere.” Michelle’s essential advice is succinct. “Feel the fear and do it, anyway.” Seize opportunities; make the most of them. “You really have nothing to lose.” Make sure to check us out on online at www.divatechtalk.com, on Twitter @divatechtalks, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/divatechtalk. And please listen to us on SoundCloud, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting channel and provide an online review.

3. 

   11 May 2020

   Ep 99: Sandra Estok: Changing Perspectives Through Storytelling

   Diva Tech Talk interviewed cybersecurity expert, author, keynote speaker, corporate trainer, and entrepreneur, Sandra Estok.  Creator of the international book series, Happily Ever Cyber, Sandra founded her own company:  Way2Protect LLC, after an extensive corporate career. Originally from  Venezuela (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuela),  at age 11, Sandra and family were evicted from her childhood home. They found refuge in a shack.  “It had one window, one door, and no water or  bathroom inside,” she recalled.  She felt ostracized from other children in the neighborhood, who lived in more conventional conditions.  When she tried to join their neighborhood volleyball game, “one of the kids said ‘you’re never going to make it; you’re a loser.’“  Bruised, emotionally and physically, Sandra was grateful for a teacher’s inspiration: “Happiness is a choice.  No matter what, you can choose happiness.” She went on to master volleyball and life by choosing to become highly proficient at whatever she tackled, knowing that “whatever you put your mind to, you can achieve.” “Technology was, somehow, in my veins,” said Sandra.  When she graduated from high school at 16, with no money for college, she enrolled in a government secretarial training program that led to an internship at the Heinz Company.  There she rotated through departments including information technology.  She enrolled in night school, in a tech certification program, that led to full completion of college, and graduating as a systems’ engineer.  “Throughout my journey, I moved from company to company” (Kraft Foods, the Coca Cola Company,  PepsiCo (https://www.pepsico.com/) and SC Johnson), “in tech-related roles, building all kinds of things.” SC Johnson, where she worked for a total of 19 years, transferred her to Wisconsin.  “It was my dream,” to live in the United States. Sandra’s success secrets? “I was able to apply what I was learning at school to my jobs” and built a “connected” fabric between her academic and work lives. She also accepted new challenges readily.  Her hard work, focus, appetite for new technology created exciting opportunities along the way. Sandra advises ambitious tech women to anticipate the newest trends and evaluate them in terms of skills you must acquire. Then acquire those skills and “success will find you.” Her final role, before leaving SC Johnson, was reporting to it’s Chief Information Security Officer, as Director, Global Information Security Business Operations.  Sandra developed and coordinated overall worldwide security business functions for SC Johnson on every continent. Her leadership advice is: “Always walk the talk. Don’t try to evangelize with words. Do it with your actions.” In her transition to the U.S. with her working visa, Sandra underwent a watershed experience. Returning from Colombia, she was detained. Her passport was temporarily revoked.  A smuggler from China had appropriated personal information and had been smuggling women into the USA using her identity! Two weeks later, returning from a European trip, she was detained again.  Each time she traveled internationally, before she became a full-fledged U.S. citizen, Sandra had to prove her identity incessantly. “That negative experience ‘connected the dots’ and is driving me today.  Identity theft and cybercrime can happen to anyone!” Sandra’s gift for making complex tech concepts comprehensible to non-technical people, coupled with passion to make a much greater impact, outside of a single corporation, led her to become a startup founder.  “Leaving the corporate world is a big decision,” Sandra acknowledged. “But I say…just go for it!”  Like her 11-year old self, longing to play volleyball with kids who were rejecting her, she relied on internal fortitude, focus, faith, and fearlessness to make the leap. To transition, Sandra became a consultant in the first year of founding her company, which helped her evolve to the “entrepreneurship mindset” while maintaining cash flow. An outgrowth of consulting is Sandra’s first book: HAPPILY EVER CYBER: Protecting Yourself Against Hackers, Scammers and CyberMonsters.   Through the stories she tells, it is clear cybercrime can affect anyone, at any age or walk of life. But if you understand cybersecurity basics, on a non-tech level, you will be galvanized to take action to protect what matters most to you. Her book encapsulates a very timely, scary subject and transforms it to be both non-threatening and empowering. “It helps you pinpoint what is most important to you, that you most want to protect. You can take measures to protect it.” An extension of the book is a foundation she envisions to help orphaned and foster children.  “There are 153 million orphans in the world.  And we have a global shortage of cybersecurity talent. So many kids can find their way through technology.” Sandra exhorts listeners to always remember you are the architect of your own life. And you can build anything. She advises you to find a mentor, in the space in which you want to operate. Then cultivate coaches who can guide you to become better in any area you want to tackle.  Above all, marry the clarity in your mind with the feelings in your heart. “Don’t worry about the 'how.' Just get clear on the ‘why’ and act on it.”  Her final advice? “Practice gratitude in everything you do in your life.” Make sure to check us out on online at www.divatechtalk.com, on Twitter @divatechtalks, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/divatechtalk. And please listen to us on SoundCloud, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting channel and provide an online review.

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Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

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