Be Bold Podcast - Episode 6: Careers, Diversity, Mentorship

Introduction

0:04 [Music]

0:09 hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the bbold podcast today I

0:15 have the great privilege to be speaking with Lis austo Global Chief Operating

0:20 Officer and the head of cyber security strategy for the information security division at bny

0:26 melon if you don't know bny melon is one of the country's oldest Banks and today

0:32 it is 240 years young I'm super excited to learn more

0:38 about Liz her professional Journey including how she went from risk management all the way to the world of

0:45 cyber security and we will learn about her passionate topics her passion for Dei

0:51 initiatives welcome to the podcast thank you how are you thank you so much for having me I'm really excited to be here

0:57 with you today thank you Minos first off Liz please introduce yourself and tell

0:04 [Music]

0:09 hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the bbold podcast today I

0:15 have the great privilege to be speaking with Lis austo Global Chief Operating

0:20 Officer and the head of cyber security strategy for the information security division at bny

0:26 melon if you don't know bny melon is one of the country's oldest Banks and today

0:32 it is 240 years young I'm super excited to learn more

0:38 about Liz her professional Journey including how she went from risk management all the way to the world of

0:45 cyber security and we will learn about her passionate topics her passion for Dei

0:51 initiatives welcome to the podcast thank you how are you thank you so much for having me I'm really excited to be here

0:57 with you today thank you Minos first off Liz please introduce yourself and tell

Who is Liz

1:03 us about your current role and also about who Liz is I would love to thank

1:08 you very much so um Li Gusto um I am the uh Global Chief Operating Officer head

1:15 of cybercity strategy at B melon um for the actually for the and I was saying I

1:21 was actually correcting before for the information security division at bny melon sorry um so in short my my role in

1:29 short is that we have the you know the talent the systems the processes procedures and more importantly the road

1:36 map and strategy right our plan of how you know that whatever we need to to be

1:41 dynamic and effective in our cyber security response so basically the behind the scenes uh making sure that

1:48 things are working orchestrating the big picture um on a personal level I will

1:55 say I was born and raised in Queens New York so I'm a I'm a New York girl um I'm one of six girls uh I am married uh now

2:04 for 17 years I can't even believe I I married for 17 years long time but it's been amazing incredible human being um

2:11 who happens to also be my uh biggest supporter um I uh my entry into into

2:18 cyber security um and techn and the technology world you know will we'll get into it

2:24 deeper in a little bit but has been extremely unconventional were are you the oldest of the six

2:31 no I'm right in the middle like right in the middle so it's that middle child syndrome um I guess is what you call it

2:38 right but somehow or other I was always the problem solver right so um I was a little bit wise beyond my years for some

2:45 reason so I was always the go-to person for um you know Sound Advice uh

2:51 unbiased couple of words couple of words I picked up from the chat was you know unconventional almost unorthodox and

2:58 also intentional in what you to do so I'm going to dive into those topics a little bit later but let me just first start with you know all the guests in

Early Career Path

3:04 podcast we typically start off with you know early career trajectory you know the schooling years the College Years

3:10 how it kind of shapes into your eventual experience of who Liz became right so do you want to share something about your

3:16 early you know school or college experience which allowed you to prepare for your career in this big Financial

3:22 World sure absolutely so like everything else in my journey um my college Journey

3:29 was a bit different somewhat unconventional as well in that um right after high school I took a about a year

3:35 or so break to pursue an acting career um I had all this ambition I wanted to

3:41 be an actress and so I I pursued that I did a lot of you know acting training commercial technique all of that stuff

3:48 um my dad being the smart man that he was said you know he suggested I have a plan B because you never know hey this

3:54 may not work uh or at a minimum you want to make sure you have something to fall back on so I decided to attend college

4:01 part-time I I went to NYU I put myself through school um I did this while working full-time um so there were a lot

4:08 of stops and starts if you will I had a different experience um when you're working and going to school it's it's a

4:15 much different experience and that you know I I didn't take it for granted um I

4:21 was really present right and um given that I was working at the same time it really was great because a lot of the

4:27 topics and the coursework in finance was really relevant for me so I was able to sort of you know leverage that

4:33 experience my school experience my work experience interchangeably um it helped me throughout so more importantly I I

4:39 just you know I wanted to learn I wanted definitely to learn I wanted to make sure that it wasn't if some if this area

4:45 if my life didn't work out that I had something to fall back on um and so I just did it you know I did it

4:51 differently um but I guess you'll find out through my story that that's kind of myo um I do everything a little bit

4:59 differently so Spielberg never called so here I am you know I'm beginning to get a flare of that doing everything

5:05 differently but first off let me tell you you would have done fantastic as an actor too so oh thank you I appreciate

5:13 that thank you one of the topics is like you know I was speaking when I was chatting with you earlier you know one thing which struck up me struck with me

The Handshake Story

5:19 was the great story you shared about your dad you know the story an important lesson in many ways you know taught you

5:25 and your sisters and I think it's in a fantastic story and a Fant lesen would

5:31 you mind if you share that with the audience here oh sure uh and I'm going to assume you're talking about the handshake story right right okay so

5:39 there were a lot of lessons I mean I could tell you um my dad if if we were to talk about all the lessons I learned from him we'd have a podcast on that

5:45 alone um but my dad was a very disciplined man who never missed an

5:51 opportunity to create an experience so um I didn't realize this at the time because I was so young probably was like

5:58 five or so um but my dad taught me the art of a handshake and apparently it's a

6:04 thing um and I have to tell you when I write a book I'm G to dedicate an entire chapter on this alone so he was really

6:10 obsessed um about you know what what the the the idea of a proper handshake at

6:15 what it meant and so he set off he's like we were all trained all of my sisters were trained on this so at five

6:21 he taught me the proper way so you have to you know he says the most important thing you're going to learn is that um

6:28 you know a person's handshake really tells a lot about who they are in terms of the confidence or lack thereof um so

6:35 he would say you know when you meet someone especially men in your life don't trust anyone that doesn't have a

6:40 firm handshake um there was a whole process to it so it was like pm to pom you know firm grip look the person in

6:46 the eye squeeze um and you have to look him in the eye when you do this um he

6:51 would have us practice this you know from time you know every time we visited relatives and stuff just to show them how you know don't just go hug and kiss

6:58 everybody go you have to practice your handshake very seriously so um he would say to me you know one day you're going

7:04 to trust me and you'll see that in your career

7:10 and throughout your life um you'll you can tell a lot about an individual

7:15 person um and it takes and it takes just but seconds for that person to create either an experience or an impression um

7:23 and you can you know and so that has stayed with me a lot I mean I have to tell you I I will go to conferences um

7:29 business meetings um just different experiences throughout my life and if I go to a conference and I shake someone's

7:35 hand especially if it's early career people a campus experience of some kind of summit and someone gives me like that

7:41 jellyfish handshake I will literally make it a point to say okay let's do this again

7:48 and here's why and I and I explained to them the importance of that first impression you know and making sure that

7:54 that it's The Branding opportunity in other words I it's really great that you know you not only practicing it but also

8:00 sharing that wisdom with the you know with folks you meet especially early in the career so now I'm going to see you

8:07 in a couple of weeks in New York now I'm going to be really really concerned about my handshake with

8:13 you that's right taking a different tangent you know talking about your career trajectory and like you know the

Early Lessons

8:19 amazing well-known financial institutions you've been part of what was some of the early lessons in the early years as we got into the

8:26 professional world what were some of the early lessons you learned oh wow there's so many um I I learned I learned to

8:33 trust myself that was a big one and I think that is something that you know a lot of people can relate you know you

8:39 have to stop being afraid of you know what can go wrong oftentimes people don't go for an opportunity because

8:45 they're like well what if that happens what if this happens what if that happens um and I learned to you know to

8:50 to trust myself um mistakes are great learning opportunities you know things can go wrong but I get more excited and

8:57 curious about what can actually go right right um You have to take risks you have to be you know be courageous and and by

9:05 being Fearless it doesn't mean you're not afraid it just means you know what I I know this is scary it's something

9:11 unknown um but I'm going to trust myself and I'm going to put in the work uh to

9:16 do it so you know at the time when it's happening you can't really see all the potential and everything all the good

9:22 but as you go on some of the biggest lessons um you'll learn happen when you stretch right so I really think um it

9:30 needs to scare you a little bit that's when you're really learning and growing from an experience um I think really

9:36 really important lesson is to own your narrative and this becomes extremely important as you move up the ranks right

9:43 your ability to tell your story don't let anybody narrate your story and and and you know determine your you know

9:50 your worth um I think it's really really critical um this will help you advocate

9:55 for yourself right you you know um as you as you move up in your career it

10:01 becomes less about you you know sort of doing and executing and having your hands in the clay and more about leading

10:09 um leading teams inspiring teams to do things so knowing how to Advocate and

10:14 talk about your successes is really really crucial um and so I and the last

10:20 one actually I have two more I would say one is invest in yourself you have to you know curious curious you know be be

10:27 curious like a child um um there's a lesson in every life experience so take

10:32 the time to learn from people from books from podcasts from from mistakes right

10:38 so um the other one is to go the extra mile I like to say that there's never

10:44 any traffic in the extra mile ever right because very few people take that route

10:49 um and it's really the differentiator right it's what sets you apart especially now in technology every you

10:55 know you'll meet a ton of people with a lot of skill set in technology and they know how to do this and they know cloud

11:00 and they know all these things but it's it's your ability to differenti

11:05 differentiate oh God that word is not coming out for me differentiate yourself from that will set you apart from others

11:12 um and I I have one more I'm sorry I really have to say this one um

11:19 authenticity so why this is one of my favorites and it's so powerful because

11:25 um when you dare to be yourself and you do things in the way

11:31 that only you can do them that's like your fingerprint right it's like a you think about it it's Unique to you it's

11:36 it's it's your distinct competitive Advantage there's not going to be anybody out there that does things like

11:42 you or speaks like you or talks like you um and so your ability to do things in a

11:49 way that's completely your own is really um is really critical and important and

11:55 it sets you apart in a different way for every small question I ask you you have

12:00 at least 10 nuggets of this I know I can't stop so you know I can't keep track of everything you know

12:05 authenticity I completely th% agree with you on authenticity yes and you know risk taking I want to kind of dive a

12:12 little bit into it but I picked up the interesting point you mentioned about the extra mile in the extra mile there

12:18 is no traffic there's not many people who are doing the extra mile that's a great great uh you know topic by itself

Risk Taking

12:25 tell me an example of your that extra mild thing which you did so that the audience can relate to as you went into

12:31 the world of risk management and eventually I think I want to touch how you PR it to a different topic but as

12:37 you did that you know give me give us an example give the audience an example of that risk-taking thing you did I think

12:43 because of my unconventional entry into Financial Services in general right

12:49 because if I think about it I mean my my career started really early in financial services I mean I started as a receptionist and you know putting my way

12:56 through school putting myself through school and everything else um and so one of the things that I I've always done

13:03 and I think again it speaks a lot to my culture my background my upbringing my father's lessons um is is just trying

13:11 things like being comfortable with the uncomfortable and just taking a risk and I think just that ability to be

13:17 vulnerable so I used to you know when someone would say Hey you know does someone want to help out with this

13:24 project or whatever and I didn't have the background or experience or knowledge in it

13:29 I'd raise my hand you know my dad would always say you know do the things that nobody else wants to do and then when

13:36 you do them do them like your life depends on it just be a master at it it doesn't matter how small the the the

13:43 task just do it because how you do one thing is how you do everything and then that's how you build your brand so make

13:50 those mistakes you know don't be afraid fall ask questions what lesson did you learn um from those mistakes and I it's

13:57 become sort of my philos ophy right I I I just go into it in a really vulnerable

14:03 way and I learn along the way and I I I use every experience every mistake um as

14:10 an opportunity to think back and say well what did I learn from that you know what's my how you know that's a that's a

14:17 teachable moment how do I pay it forward how do I share this with a mentor or a sibling or a friend and say hey if you

14:24 ever encounter this don't let this happen to you kind of thing um so that

14:30 concept of falling um and learning and then sharing those experiences with

14:36 others I think it's it's critical yeah and important I again 100% agree with

14:41 you on the fact that I know from your successes you do not learn that much but from you know taking a risk and maybe

14:48 something doesn't pan out you learn a thousand things really comes from that that's right and the other thing I

14:54 picked up is like you know putting the hand up right and I think the biggest example of you putting your hand end up and taking a risk was moving from your

Putting the Hand Up

15:01 risk management pedigree to a completely different world of cyber security right and that is putting the hand up so tell

15:09 us how that came about and how did you you know it was a huge risk and how did

15:15 you start thriving in this new world oh this is a story all right so this is one of my favorite uh questions to answer

15:22 because I think it really speaks to my why and who I am as a person um my

15:28 decision to take this role in some cases I think was a little bit crazy but at the same time um just Innovative right

15:35 it was just a a when I talked about earlier trusting myself um that was the

15:41 biggest example of trusting myself right just really trusting myself and being vulnerable um so I had you know prior to

15:50 to the phone call to come to b&y melon I had 20 years of experience you know in

15:55 areas of risk management marketing client service new products all that stuff um and so I I took you know the

16:04 opportunity presented itself about 9 years ago I was hired to lead to grow the cyber security division at one of

16:10 the as you mentioned earlier one of the largest and oldest Financial companies um I was at Barkley's at the time in a

16:17 new products role and the mission at the time was you know hey we're going to stand up this uh cyber security Global

16:24 program improve the cyber security posture across the organization I had to SK scale because it was really small

16:30 there were like 18 or so people not even 30 I think with contractors there may have been 30 people in total because

16:35 they had just started um but I was afraid I be very honest I was very very

16:42 afraid but I was like you know what I I think I can do this um what I I didn't

16:47 have the technology background but what I did have was a strong Foundation as you outlined in Risk um I had all of the

16:53 experiences I had a a a passionate curiosity to learn and grow discipline

16:59 and I had a vision and it was interesting because when I think back now it's really interesting

17:05 um when I sat down through the interview and they were telling me what they wanted to do and all of the things and

17:10 what they what current state and everything else I said to myself oh my God you know as I'm sitting there thinking about my Approach I was like I

17:18 could do this like I I'm already thinking about all these different things I can do to bring this to the

17:23 next level because I think what they didn't have at the time was processes and procedures and place because again

17:29 you know you have the tools and you have these subject matter experts but I think that what was lacking was that Vision

17:36 setting up this you know Center of Excellence that's going to help us drive and deliver right and so I was like wait

17:42 a minute that's my sweet spot this is I come into an organization and it's all about organizing setting up a culture

17:48 building a community getting people to do things in my head as I'm talking to them I'm like this is all me I've I've

17:56 I've done this you know I could do this so crazy enough I came in um I put my 30

18:02 60 90day plan together based on a lot of those conversations came in spoke to ciso what are the things that you want

18:08 me to focus on um and when I think back now and I think oh my God I everything I

18:14 said I was going to do and everything I planed to do I did and then some um and within a very short time we scaled a

18:23 division from 18 people to over 600 people globally in 11 countries

18:29 um it's truly one of my my proudest accomplishments I have to tell you um

18:35 just basically leveraging your experience from all these other roles

18:41 and opportunities and lessons and mistakes that you've made and then coming somewhere and accomplishing this

18:48 and having a purpose I think it's it's really for me where passion truly met uh my purpose

18:57 right because now it allowed me platform and when I came in and seeing that there weren't a lot of diverse people in the

19:03 organization I set out to make that difference and I said I'm going to make sure that um I'm going to let more

19:09 people understand what an incredible opportunity because if I can do and I can come in here and make a difference can you imagine how many other people

19:15 can do the same um so I've learned a lot about myself through this yeah I like the way you explained it because

19:22 initially I was thinking it's a you know pivot which is like fundamentally different but I think the way you kind of dissected the problem it's almost

19:29 like you know you very proficient in a language say English now you're going to a different language say learning say

19:35 French or something but the same roote uh because risk management and the principles and the processes of risk

19:40 management can be applied to cyber security to new technology World things are different hackers and all that stuff

Curiosity

19:47 but I think the framing is has and the constructs are very similar so that's really great to know that you use those

19:53 same you know framework and the principles and applied it here and started thriving one picked up for three

20:00 times now in our short conversation is the word curiosity or passionate curiosity you keep using so I want to

20:07 dive into that I mean there's something special about that passionate curiosity and the secret source which defines Liz

20:13 as a person tell me a little bit about that so that the audience can completely internalize what are you're talking

20:18 about sure sure I think it's part crazy too I don't know but I I think um I I

20:24 have this thing and I'm I I do a lot of work internally because I think that

20:29 success in anything it's it's an inside job right it's it's you have to work on your internal Compass your your mindset

20:38 um and you have to believe it to see it so you know how people say oh you have to see it to believe it no I think you

20:43 have to believe it first you could you have to believe that you can do it and then you set out to do the work and so

20:48 I've always been really curious I want to learn I feel like I can learn anything I really do it's and that goes

20:54 back to me thinking that insane idea of I can learn anything I can if I put in the work if I put in the focus and the

21:00 time and the commitment and I'm disciplined um you know I I can accomplish accomplish anything so very

21:07 similarly when I came into this industry and even before I joined I had a few months before I I was coming in I just

21:14 focused on everything you could possibly want to learn about cyber security I researched it I bought books I talked to

21:21 people and then when I came in I took this sort of consultative approach where

21:27 I would sit down with my peers um my sister those directs and I would ask them about their respective service and

21:34 how you know what was important about it you know why was it important what do you do and how does it impact overall

21:40 security and how does that role interact with me and how can I help and all of that stuff so I took sort of the

21:47 approach to I want to learn everything there is about you um I want to learn everything there is about your service

21:52 and then I want to understand how do I fill in the gaps and then I want to understand how do we in cyber cruit an experience because it's about experience

21:59 um and so it was it was it was an amazing opportunity I I feel really

22:05 grateful and honored to have been given the opportunity and it speaks volumes about being why melon as an organization

22:10 an Innovative organization that even though hey we're here with 240 years here were Innovative and they saw

22:17 something in me and to your point earlier when you were talking about the risk management they looked at my background and they saw here's an

22:23 operational executive with experience in all these different places hm right um

22:30 and they saw something and they trusted me to do this so that passionate curiosity is just wanting to learn

22:35 wanting to do wanting to be more um and you have to know to learn unlearn

22:42 because that's important sometimes you have to unlearn and change you know you have to be a little agile in your

22:48 mindset so learning unlearning and then relearning and that's really important in security because sometimes you know

22:54 you can go and have the best intentions and know things how to do things a certain way and then a new cyber

23:00 security threat comes out and you know that goes out the window and you have to think differently so um it's important

23:06 to to to have that Curiosity you in security you have to be a lifelong learner you have to be you have it's a

23:13 perfect match you know the world of cice security with all its complications you know the pre and the Predator you know constantly trying to out withit each

23:20 other you know fashionist curiosity really fits right in there yes you mentioned your leadership noticed that

Mentors

23:27 in okay she's really good at this she can do this other stuff so let me just

23:32 pick up on that you know were there any key figures you know mentors or people

23:38 who really were part of shaping your journey did anybody stand out as you

23:43 know somebody who helped you in this journey if so can of share some nuggets of wisdom you learned from a mentor sure

23:52 are you are you meaning um in this role or in or in previous any roles it's

23:57 completely open open for you somebody who stands out as you know someone who helped you navigate your career help you

24:04 in a moment of you know okay lack of clarity you know folks like that yeah no

24:09 I mean there have been I've had you know over the course of my career I've had uh

24:15 tremendous amount of um I would say mentors both formal and informal um

24:21 because sometimes you know you can learn from people they don't even know that they're mentoring you but in some way um

24:27 they are and have an impact in your life um I would say that in my career um I've

24:33 had tremendous amount of of of mentors but two in particular that stand out um

24:41 I want to say there was the the at Leman Brothers I worked um with the chief risk

24:48 officer and I'll name her because she's still to this day um probably one of the

24:55 uh the people who who've inspired me the most as well one of the two um her name is meline antonic and she

25:01 was a chief risk officer at Leman Brothers uh she was she was actually the one who tried to prevent the liquidity

25:07 bubble um at the time you know what happened there in 2008 um and she was

25:12 she was Fearless I mean she was a uh you know a a strong woman um she pushed my

25:19 limit she saw something in me very early on in Li Brothers in the beginning when I started working for her uh and she

25:26 provided me all kinds of opportunities she taught me how to be a little bit fearless and not even a little bit she

25:32 taught me how to be Fearless um how to take risks um to to not apologize all

25:39 the time I used to have this habit of when I would walk into a room I'd be like oh you know I would knock on her door and i' say I'm sorry I have a you

25:44 know and she'd be like stop apologizing you know stop apologizing um so I

25:50 learned the greatest lessons from her and she to this day she's one of my greatest um mentors um I also I had a

25:58 before I joined Leman Brothers um I I had taken I had left I was working at a

26:04 JV and then that dissolved and I took a one-year Consulting gig at a at a uh

26:09 futurist uh company it was called brain Reserve um and she's a she's what they call a trend futurist right she predicts

26:16 future consumer Trends I learned so much in that one year about preparing for the

26:24 future how to look at things in a really simple way um that to this day I still

26:30 leverage a lot of of her her her thinking and her just just everything of

26:36 her Outlook so when I came to being y melon I was I was thinking about these two individuals one they're both very

26:43 different backgrounds and Niche areas of expertise but nonetheless still very impactful with with mateline I learned

26:51 you know to push outside of your comfort zone and to make yourself heard and all of that and with faith I learned

26:58 um that the future is important that you know if you're planning for what's going to happen this year today you already

27:05 behind right so when I came in I was thinking what does cyber security look like in I don't know three five six

27:11 seven years from now and I was recruiting a lot of people we didn't have a lot of folks and I was thinking What's the culture and community that we

27:18 want to build here so that these people can come in and want to you know build their careers here and so it was always

27:23 with that future in mind thinking as we automate what happens to the people here how do we create opportunities

27:29 internally what are some of the learning Pathways that we can create so their

27:34 mentorship has been something that I've leveraged in uh my career in a tremendous way yeah it's great now

27:42 taking a little bit of a different tangent to get into one of the areas which you're truly passionate about

27:48 you're very passionate about diversity inclusion and you I know you're involved with a variety of different groups like

27:53 the Hispanic Latino leadership Forum women in technology the national you

27:58 know Hispanic cooperate Council and of course the association for the Latino Professionals for America why is this an

28:05 important Focus for you and what drives the passion why is this so such a

28:10 passionate topic for you I I mean I could tell you as a leader I can tell you that over the

28:15 course of my career um my focus has always gone beyond de Beyond de and

28:22 right um and I really believe that 100% of it contributed to more Innovative Sol

28:28 Solutions and better outcomes um I'm you're right I am extremely passionate

28:33 about it um and how I create the trust is through action right I have a deep

28:39 respect I invest a lot of my own personal time um to advance you know the critical work which is super essential I

28:46 work with organizations like Hightech I'm on the board of Hightech it's a the hispanic information technology

28:51 executive Council um year up is another networking organization um trying to

28:57 help close the opportunity divide for people in underrepresented areas um so many others right um I'm with the NYU

29:05 Tandon School uh for cyber security which is you know I help them sort of build a curriculum for some of their

29:12 fellowship and and uh cyber Security Programs um so through all of that I'm

29:17 an ambassador right and why this is important is because if you really want to have lasting change or if you want to

29:23 create change and you want to you know have people look at your organization and say I want to work there they need

29:29 to see that representation that is so critical so if they don't see the representation um then they're not going

29:36 to want to join your organization so early on when I came here I couldn't understand why I was getting all these

29:42 different Awards it was just like I'm not really doing anything like like I don't understand um and what I started

29:47 to realize very quickly was that when I would go to these panels and speak about security people would always ask like oh

29:53 my god did you always know you wanted to be a technologist not really I actually didn't even think about it

29:58 it kind of came to me um I think it's a way to give back um I I you know there's a saying

30:06 that says people don't care uh what you know until they know you care right and

30:12 so you know everybody who knows me knows that I'm passionate about making a difference I'm passionate about opening

30:18 the door and creating opportunities for everybody for people just in general um

30:24 I think it's a business imperative it's a mindset for me and I make it a point to keep this is the front front you know the Forefront of all discussions that I

30:31 have with employees with peers so at the at the heart of it I'm I'm just an ambassador across the board beautiful

30:38 talking about topics which you're passionate about I'm also passionate about topics you know specifically on

30:43 mentorship and allyship you know specifically given you know the topic which you're discussing on dni you know

Allyship

30:50 uh women and Leadership and areas like that what has been your experience on

30:56 Ali ship you know because personally that's a very important topic for me because Men advocating Real Change is equally important in this whole picture

31:03 so any any nuggets of wisdom from your experience on what your peers especially

31:08 Men at Work can do 100% and actually I I had forgotten about this you just

31:14 reminded me when you use the word allyship um when I first joined um being

31:20 melon in this role um coming in as a non-engineer not a technologist um it was a little

31:27 intimidating right so I would sit with you know my peers and I had to lead some of these meetings in fact you know

31:33 making sure I had the agenda and what we were all going to talk about and I was learning so it was insane to me for me

31:38 to be the person to do this and so when I spoke about when I spoke earlier about the taking a consultative approach and

31:46 you know getting to learn know people and learn about what they're doing there were two men um who were incredible

31:54 allies and um both who I they're no longer in the organization but I still

32:01 keep in contact with um they sponsored me they put me up for awards early on

32:07 they pushed for my promotion i' been promoted here about twice since I joined I want to say yes twice since I joined

32:14 um and they were at the Forefront of that and they and they would actually you know they were there as a sounding

32:20 board they I you know they were Confidant I can go to them and say hey I I have an interesting question or I

32:25 don't know how to look at this and how should I be think about this and um they again saw in me a lot of things I didn't

32:32 see in myself and coming in I kept focusing on well I'm not a technologist and they would say Liz do you know how

32:38 much we're going to learn from you are you kidding me you look at you're you're changing the way we look at you know the way we think about these things it's

32:44 great we don't want the sameness we don't want a sea of sameness we want someone to come in out of the box

32:50 thinking and be creative and so two very uh powerful men who very smart I learned

32:57 tremendous amount um uh and I and as I mentioned still to this day so all ship

33:04 is critical it's important if you have a seat at the table um definitely make

33:10 sure that you uh advocate for someone else it's important beautiful I can go on and on but you know we we got to wrap

Advice for young professionals

33:17 up some time so as you wrap up what advice do you have for all the young professionals you know coming into work

33:23 in financial services or other aspects of this very fast-paced world

33:28 and what should they be looking out for and how can they best invest in themselves to use your you know earlier

33:36 analogy about you know you investing in yourself so how can they do the same I'd say you know work on yourself more than

33:42 anything else even more than than than your job right is it's it's like it's like you're like you're depositing money

33:50 into an account right and it just keeps building it's compound interest right you build build yourself invest in your

33:56 learning your mindset Network really important go where the people are who

34:03 are already doing what you want to do right and why that's important is because you know you start to talk to

34:08 people build that connection they can help you um do research know where you're going you have to have a plan you

34:15 have to know yourself um know what your superpower is like what's your

34:20 superpower right and then hone that skill and sharpen that as much as you possibly can um and you know if you know

34:28 your if you know your worth um you don't risk someone else

34:34 sort of discounting the valy that you bring to the table so that's like that's emotional intelligence right being

34:40 self-aware knowing yourself knowing what you're good at being vulnerable and giving back so as much as you get you

34:46 give I really believe that's probably the most important thing ever it's been it's been important for

34:52 me very Sound Advice know your superpower keep investing in it and then give back awesome it's an absolute

34:58 pleasure to talk to you Liz thank you thank you so much I appreciate it I appreciate the opportunity thank you

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