Latest / Women Who Make It - A Females in Food Podcast with Angela Dodd / 18. Building a Portfolio Career: Finding Purpose Beyond Your Job with Tamanna Ramesh

Transcript

18. Building a Portfolio Career: Finding Purpose Beyond Your Job with Tamanna Ramesh · Women Who Make It - A Females in Food Podcast with Angela Dodd

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: For anyone who's even thinking remotely about online present content creation, don't think of it as a task or a goal.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: Just think of it as something that's an outlet to express.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Women Who Make It.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: Real conversations with women in the food and beverage industry who are building careers, leading teams, and figuring it all out.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_02: After years of building females on food, I've had conversations with some of the most brilliant women in the industry.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_02: And they shared the real stuff.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: The pivots, the boundaries, the burnouts, and the moments of is this even walking before it finally clicked?
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: So I hit record, and now you get to hear it too.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: We're women who make it.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: So let's dig in.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome back to Women Who Make It.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Angela Dodd, your host, and today we're talking about something I think more professionals should be thinking about.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: And that's not how to leave corporate America, but how to build something beyond your job title while you're still in it.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: My guest today is Tamana Ramesh, a business transformation leader, career coach, and a founder whose career spans leadership roles at Kraft Heinz, the Coca-Cola Company, and other leading organizations across the food and beverage industry.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: Over the past decade, Tamana has helped companies develop, commercialize, and scale innovation across B2B ingredients, consumer packaged goods, and food service, along with Omni Channel businesses.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: She's delivered more than 50 multi-million dollar innovation projects and led five multi-billion dollar commercial transformation programs.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: I had to slow down to say that.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: You and I have known each other for a long time.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: So I know we're going to have a ton of fun.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: I'm really grateful to be able to bring this conversation forward, though.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: No, thank you for having me, Angela.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm excited for all that you're doing and to be part of the podcast as well.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for having me here.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, this is this is a conversation that I relate so deeply to.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: You know this.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: And it's especially meaningful for this season in my life.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm excited for our listeners to spend some time or the next 30 minutes really learning about where you've been and what you've built.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: Because in this day and age, right now, I think what you're about to share is so relevant and needed by so many women in the industry.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: So if you're joining us, like hang with us.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: This is gonna be packed full of a ton of a ton of insights.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: But before we jump into like the specific questions, like let's ground everybody in your career, your career journey.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: Where did you start?
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_02: Where are you at?
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: Tell our listeners what you're doing today.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: Hi everyone, I'm Tamana Armesh.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: I've been in the food industry for over a decade now and a little more.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh started off as a food scientist in RD and then transitioned to a more commercial business strategy path.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: Worked in a couple of different companies, including Kraft Heinz, and my current role is with a Coca-Cola company where I support our food service on-premise commercial side of the strategy and operations.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: I've had a pretty exciting career path where I've built a dual career right now.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: So, in addition to my day job, I do personalized coaching and I've built a library of self-self-paced courses and resources for women in the industry as well as international talent.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: Two identities I carry, and there are different nuances to each of these two identities, especially in the sense of my career, that I've learned a lot from, and I've tried to do my best to leave the little, you know, like guides and roadmaps to how somebody else who's following in my footsteps can get to where I got to a little bit easier.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: So that's been the fun aspect of creating something from scratch and building it outside of my work.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: I love that so much about you.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I can't wait to dig into these different pieces of your career and also these identities that you hold.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I guess before we jump into that, maybe take us back one more step.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like tell our listeners where you grew up and how did you actually get involved in the food industry?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like, where what did that look like?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: Because not everybody's just like, oh yeah, let me let me have a career in food.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: So it's so interesting.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: So when I completed high school and when I was looking to choose my college degree uh specialization, I had lunch with a family member who told me about a new institution back in India, which is where I grew up in, start this course called food process engineering, and my mind was blown.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like I was like, I've always been a foodie since I was a kid.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: I was just like, if I could just study food and work doing something in the food food industry.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, I had very little knowledge about the industry side of things, but I started with small steps of just following my heart, and that's the one big decision I appreciate my family supporting me with because there was no clear career path as such when I chose the program I chose in the place I chose to study it.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: And interestingly, the school I went to, I was in the second batch, so nobody had actually graduated with that education and built a career path before that.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a startup of a college that set me up with this mindset to go figure things out, build things from scratch.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, we have built curriculums with our professors, like we would literally like work with them to see what that looks like.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it's just started off there, and then my curiosity got me to the US for uh my graduate education.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: I've made uh US my home and I've been in the industry, food industry is my other home.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: So it's just started off with small steps of listening to what my interests were, following my heart, and then I'm just looking back, I'm just amazed by the career path that I've been able to build with those little curiosity and small steps adding up.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_02: I think it is very inspirational because it's one thing to build a career being in the US, being born here, right?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: And being and being around.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: But like, you know, you built this career and and then immigrated into the US and and built the career here outside of your home culture, outside of your home country.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_02: I I think that's a whole nother it's a whole nother journey in itself, which I think we're gonna get back to as to like um how you're helping others do that today, because that is no small feat in itself, um, and not to be minimized, because that's that's at a full-time job, just to figure out how to how to transition here and and build a build a career in an entirely different country.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: So one thing about your story, as we were just talking, you weren't just building a career.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um and if people don't know this, like I how I discovered you, right, is that you were so intentional.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: I got I first got introduced to you through a mutual friend at IFT, at which point you were leading various programs for IFT and showing up in a in a really big way.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I'll mention at a very earlier part of your career, too, right?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like in taking on big initiatives very early on, but you were building a presence.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: You were showing up online, um, you were serving within the IFT community for those who don't know what that is, Institute of Food Technologists, and then you started transitioning and creating content and building this business and with Spark.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um at what point did you realize that you wanted to invest in something outside of your day job?
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I think this is a really strong pivotal moment that I think all of our listeners need to pause and really think about because I think a lot of people have this feeling inside that should I be doing something more than just investing my time and energy into the day job?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and maybe there's a this calling inside your heart that's like, I could be doing this other thing and serving a creative outlet or making more impact than um what was that point for you?
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like I've always been a very extracurricular, heavy, sort of focused person, whether it's at school or outside.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I think this goes back to when I was in grad school, when I had moved from India.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: I moved to the US with zero network, zero understanding of the you know, the extent of the cultural transition that was going to happen to me and zero desire to actually live here.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to study, go back.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: That was the that was my small step goal of coming here.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: But once I came here, I got introduced to IFD.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: And because I was in a grad school with in a small town, I went to the University of Maine, so the college town was super small.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: We had like 20 Indians, 20, 30 Indians overall who shared my cultural background, who I had a lot of like cultural familiarity with.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: So most of my social life started relying heavily on my professional network because there was no scope as such for personal connections outside of school.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: So it started off like that, and then over the years, I started picking things up within the organization more intentionally.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, for example, there was a time when I was a food scientist and I was heavily into product development.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to be involved in the product development division.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I was, I think I was involved actively for over seven years with the product development division and really found different things to do, built things that there was a need for as a talent, as an end user of that program.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: I saw a need for different mentorship programs, different ways we could do things as an organization.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I just poured myself in for various reasons, but predominantly just to make friends, have that community, have like people you grow up with professionally.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: On a personal level, it took me a while to like build a family here in the US, like finding my partner, all that was a journey that took some time, a lot of time and effort, and it was in the making, but the professional one was more organic.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I think just keeping up with that.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: And to go back to the content creation part, again, not very I didn't start out to be an influencer or a content creator.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: I just started posting things that felt right, uh, whether it's personal inspirations, whether it is career tips, resources, especially as an immigrant navigating the US food industry careers.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: I had to be like a thousand times, you know, more hardworking, more smarter in how I navigated the systems.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: Whether it's looking for a job, interviewing, finding like how to build a network, I had to just be stronger because there was no blueprint handed over to me or no path as such I could just follow.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it made me a lot more stronger in that area, and I wanted to share that knowledge.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm I'm an older sister, so of course I'm always thinking about okay, like how do I make my you know younger siblings life better?
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, what did I learn that I can like, you know, share with her, right?
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: So that nature in me and that like attitude in me, like made me think about okay, like if there are other international talent or women, what can they learn from my journey that's uh going to make it a little bit easier for them?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: So that's where that like spark started.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I named my uh coaching business Spark and gave it an identity.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm just so happy I built something outside of work because all of us, like you said, have that little voice in our heads that that speaks to what our purpose is.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes it's so easy to like wash that away or you know, put it under the carpet because we have so much to do in all the different identities we carry, it comes with a checklist of things to do every day, and we are in this like constant hustle mode between life and work.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: So to build something outside of it is challenging and demanding, but it is so fulfilling, especially when you see the successes coming out of it.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: So for anyone who's even thinking remotely about online present content creation, don't think of it as a task or a goal, just think of it as something that's an outlet to express what you know.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: It could be in your functional area of expertise, it could be anything, right?
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like we have very limited food industry content out there.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um limited.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then communicating science or communicating science-based information is so, so like minuscule and limited right now.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: So I think there's a huge there.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: I keep most of my communications to career, but I think there's a huge opportunity for all of us to become the voice of this industry and continue to shape how consumers and customers perceive it.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: And we have to, right?
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's so much noise that okay, noise might be a little strong, but there are a lot of people's opinions who are shaping this industry without the people who are actually working in it and on it, you know, with without their voices being heard.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, we're the ones it's directly impacting.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: And so I I couldn't agree more in encouraging, encouraging people that there's this white space to like come up with your thought pillars and and sharing more online as to what you know.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's going to be really important for our industry.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_02: You said something earlier, though, around, you know, listening to that voice inside, because early on in my career, at least, it became very evident that like no company was going to fulfill 100% of my creative energy or you know, or quest for impact.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, I think generationally as we grew up and what we should expect out of a job, out of a company, is not fully aligned today.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I had to really change the way I was thinking as to, you know, it's not the company's responsibility to find ways to maximize my creativeness and consume 150% of like what I have to give, right?
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_02: Like they need a job done.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: And so when I started reframing that for myself, as to, you know, I can be a really good employee and I have a lot to offer there and I can make a big impact on this job and for the organization, but it's not their job to ultimately make me happy, right?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: Or to know what is going to be a calling for me out beyond this and to fulfill all of those desires.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: And so when I start repositioning that into like, what else can I build?
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_02: What else can I create?
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like it makes me it for me and like that journey with females and food, it made me a better, a better employee, a better, um you know, just sharper in the industry overall.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: And you've created a created an amazing space for other women to find each other, talk about, you know, things that that exactly what we are doing here, right?
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like that are real conversations.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm just so proud of what you've built and I'm so glad to be like on the front seat to seeing it sort of like shaping up and growing over the years.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: No, it's and more and more to come.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, all the exciting things.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: But let's okay, back on track.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, because there's still so much that I'm I need to like pull out of you to uh for our listeners here.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um let's go back to LinkedIn real quick because I think one of the things people say the most is like, I'm super nervous to put myself out there.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what are my peers gonna think?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_02: My boss, they're gonna think that this is a distraction.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: Like, did you have some of those fears initially as you started putting more of yourself out there in your advice?
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: When I well, I think I started posting very actively three years ago.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that was right about when I transitioned out of like Kraft Heinz RD life to Coca-Cola on commercial strategy.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: A part of what kept me going was also to keep my connection with the root of who I was as a professional, a STEM professional.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: I was a researcher, and there's a lot I had to offer to the food science community.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I was making a 180-degree pivot, which made this my coping mechanism to get through that major transition in my professional journey where I was a newbie in a new new different area and function within the industry.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: I had that fear.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: What I ended up doing was having a conversation with our legal team.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: I literally like explicitly told them, hey, I have this business that I'm building and I'm focused on XYZ aspects of the talent uh development and it has no conflicts with my work at Coke and blah, blah, blah.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I just had that like transparent conversation and I was prepared to turn in my resignation if they said I couldn't post things on LinkedIn or anything else.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: I was like mentally, there was a moment where I was like, okay, I know I want to do it.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: If you're going to not let me do it, I'm going to leave this company, sort of thing.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't that funny that that's where our minds go, though?
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I know.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's a po and I think there is the fear is valid, right?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: There are going to be perception that things that you need to manage because I've been posting during working hours for three years straight.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: But what I do is over the weekend I schedule the posts to be like published during working hours.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not live posting.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm constantly thinking, very occasionally thinking, oh my God, what if like a colleague of mine looks at it and wonders what I'm doing 10 a.m.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: on LinkedIn?
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but over time I've just started relying more on my own model compass rather than trying to think about like the perception uh challenges.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: So everything I do, I try to do it during lunch hours or before after work or predominantly in the weekends.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not, it's the church and state is very separate, right?
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I'm just so glad that my employer was super supportive.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: They were so excited.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_01: The legal team set up a call with me and I was like mentally prepared with my two sentences of okay, like I'm going to tell you that I, you know, I might leave the company and all that.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: But they were so supportive, they were so excited to know what I'm doing.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they're very supportive and encouraging.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that made a whole lot of difference in how I show up at work, knowing that I'm supported and my voice can be my voice, and I don't need to worry about things.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's appreciated, right?
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: And valued.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I think organizations have to look at their employees as an extension of their brand and how to amplify their brand in the market, right?
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_02: Because it's it's not, you are their greatest marketing asset, is their employees.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_02: And so when you feel supported to be able to share your authentic self and like what you're building and creating, and that you're a whole human, like that's how engagement is built, right?
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: That's how loyalty is won.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: And it's it could be quite simple, but that that conversation, yeah, could have gone very differently.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: I um I had a very similar, this was, I don't know, good five, six years ago.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: Uh in the very beginning of FIF, maybe in year is actually before, like, even before Females and Food became a name, I was operating more that career platform under the everyday reel.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_02: And very similar, but my that's that conversation went very differently.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: And it was, it's actually kind of funny.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: The manager I had at the time, I'm kind of spilling the tea, but um, I think it's a I think it's a wise lesson here for a lot of people and how that conversation can go.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: I was approached about posting during business hours.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_02: Oh and the individual approached me very, very direct, very aggressively about the topic.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_02: And um, and it was almost I I it took everything for me to not laugh because at the time there wasn't there wasn't as much knowledge out there five, six years ago about these scheduling platforms.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: And and I just had to, I'm like, I really appreciate the concern.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, let's get to the root cause of what the concern is, if it, you know, if it's per what is the concern, because there's always the baseline there.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: But like if it's really just an issue with perception, like let's clear that up because you know, I can let you know five months from now at what time and and day I'll be posting because it's all scheduled, right?
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like I've I've done this in my own time, and there's these scheduling uh platforms that allow you to do this at any time of the day.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm also like nobody has the time to sit on LinkedIn and post FED.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like I schedule posts for a month straight.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: I have a virtual assistant now, so it's almost like uh, you know, like an absentee influencer, but my words and my voice are what I share, and that can be done asynchronously.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um that also like brings me to a very interesting thought.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: As you were talking about it, I think there is a there is a female-centered way of feeling fulfillment that I think a lot of women don't get at work because we are chasing revenue, profits, money.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I think there's a level of fulfillment that women get with chasing purpose that's rooted in like real people impact.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, was that a case for you in how you like I love chasing business growth?
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: As a business leader, I love it.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_01: But it intellectually fuels me and fulfills me, but not necessarily, you know, inside me.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so there's always that like missing piece of how do I build like this portfolio career where different elements of it fuel my other aspects, which are very important to me as a human, as a woman.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm curious if that was part of, as you were talking about your dual career journey, as like was that a root cause and how did you like realize it?
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_02: Because yeah, actually, I spent, I've just spent a lot of time in the past year really, actually, maybe in the last couple of months, reflecting on this.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I think there's a feminine side to it.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_02: I I don't I don't disagree with that.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_02: But the one thing you and I both have in common, and why I think this is this is coming into question is we also went from technical careers into commercial roles.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: And for me, what I've deciphered is that if anybody's thinking about that transition, I think one thing that's underappreciated is why you get into food science.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_02: And for me, that food science and the technical side of it was all about creating something, building something, launching it.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_02: It's very exciting to launch a product onto the market.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_02: That was so rewarding to me.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: And when I moved into the commercial role of sales, the sales aspects that were very exciting to me was when I could be very close to a sale that, like where I moved something forward and got that win and got to see that product on the market.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: But a lot of times in today's day and age and sales in the food and beverage industry and the ingredient segment, you very rarely get that visibility as a salesperson.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_02: And it starts feeling a lot like, you know, supply chain management and um and supply chain management and um just account execution, account maintenance, um, just answering emails without really, you know, you can you can go through all the sales trainings and tell you all day long the right sales process.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_02: But the reality in the world, like if you're doing large accounts, they start protecting as much information as they can about that project that they're working on.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: You know that at Coca-Cola, like you don't always, as the ingredient supplier, get the full brief or the full creative direction.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: You you kind of get told, I need this functionality out of this ingredient for this reason, you know.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_02: And so you're solving a technical problem, but you're not necessarily collaborating on the creative process.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_02: And what I realized in where I lost some of my joy in what fueled me into this other path is like I like to build and I like to launch.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: I really don't enjoy execution.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_02: And even within Females and Food Today, um, my team members, thank God I have such amazing team members who are quite a bit more type A than I am, because they are so strong at the day-to-day execution.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_02: And don't get, I think we can all lean and pivot and get strong in different areas when we need to, and I certainly can, but like ultimately, what's that piece that gives you passion?
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_02: And for me, I know it's it's the visionary, it's thinking five years out, it's and then coming up with that idea and building, building, building.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like I get into creative energies where I'm up till two, three in the morning, just like moving through creative processes, and that's when I think I do some of my best work.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: And and then I love taking something all the way up to launch.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_02: I love announcing it.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_02: And then there's like a lot of times that's when the work starts is after launch, and that's where I burn out.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like that's where I need people really strong around me to carry that idea forward because that's not where I'm strong at.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I I think that's what you and I have in common.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_02: And like when you move to that commercial role, a lot of times it can be like very execution portfolio.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like you don't always get that creativity, and I think that's what a lot of us go searching for.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think there's definitely an element of leveraging science and technology to build things and come up with consumer solutions versus having that behind the scenes of execution.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, I do agree there's a lot of similarities in our career paths there and how we sort of figured out this way to like build a career that fuels all different aspects while, of course, like maintaining a day job and navigating that together.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_02: Well, let's let's actually go back because I took a long tangent about my about my story, but let's actually move into what you have built because we've only told our listeners a tiny bit about the coaching piece of it, helping um individuals through that immigration process.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: But I would love for you to touch on, you know, what is Spark?
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_02: What are you doing today?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_02: And what has that journey?
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_02: Because what you've started and where, you know, where you pivot and where you find your voice in that journey, walk us through that.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I started Spark in 2023.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: So it's been about three years now, and I've had the privilege of coaching over 200 STEM professionals, predominantly, 80% or more from the food industry, and then the rest from health and biotech and some of the allied fields.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: Predominantly, I go between my two identities of being an international talent and coaching high-skilled immigrants on talent visas, which are self-sponsored visas that these individuals can apply, and they are very competitive, very hard to get, and a lot of what I do is helping them communicate the impact of their work as a scientist or engineer to the US immigration officer in a way that they can understand and interpret.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, because of course this there's a big gap in how science folks can communicate, especially about their impact to non-science audience.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: So that's where I come in and help them almost with like branding, how they can like talk about their work in a way that resonates, etc.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then the other piece of me, through and through being a woman, I've coached several women, again, personal branding, building their online presence, building their in-person executive presence, and continuing to coach them on strategic career pivots and development.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: So, right now I do two things.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: I offer self-paced courses based on my very many success stories in this uh journey of coaching others, uh, whether it's job search, navigating LinkedIn, networking, etc.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: So there are self-paced learning playbooks, which are super simplified, just getting to the action of what you need to do to get to where you want to go.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: And then the other piece is the personalized coaching, which I've really like scaled down to like fewer, bigger, uh, better focus.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I coach executive women and international talent on personal branding, whether it's for talent pieces or for their career growth.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: I have a lot of passion for coaching and I've discovered that over the years of doing it.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: Every time I think about, oh my god, having a job and building this is so hard.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe I need to take it easy, maybe I'll put a pause on this, and somebody will come to me with like a coaching request.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I can never say no to that because I enjoy helping people thrive and bringing out their talent and helping them communicate what they do in a way that resonates and helps them, helps lift them.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: So it's been a journey of starting off with just doing one-on-one calls and consulting, not knowing what I was building, to seeing a clear pattern of the people who come to me, the problems they come to me with, and things that I'm able to actually solve.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: So that's this spot that I'm in right now.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_02: I've got to see have this front seat for your journey.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I've I've loved seeing where you've taken this.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_02: But also, like, can we just pause a minute because the first time you told me about the work that you were doing, like how how ingenious, number one, but how how isolating that journey must be for somebody to go and try and self-sponsor their work.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: Like, we all know, like I was a food scientist, communication and branding of your work is not taught to you.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like it is absolutely it's very difficult.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I just think you've identified such a big need in such an impactful way.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: No, thank you.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: I think I think there is a huge disconnect between when I went through the journey, I had to write a ton about myself.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: It was a 300-page document about everything I did and the impact I've created.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I had to write a ton of it and share it with my attorney who didn't necessarily comprehend the impact of the work.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: And they created their own version of what they thought the impact was.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I went back and forth trying to like get to that right communication spot.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then over the years, I've I've read so many of these petitions, and honestly, it's such a it's such a disheartening moment when candidates who are highly skilled have accomplished a ton in our industry, go to attorneys who don't necessarily understand food science or what they do and the impact they create, write about it like a chat GPT would write about it, um, and then get denied because the communication was the gap.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it's one of those like nuanced niche of where I come in and help them communicate it better.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of what I do looks like 200 comments on like the 300-page document, or sometimes a thousand comments saying, Hey, can you say it this way or can you position it this way?
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_01: But over time, doing it over and over, now I can read a whole petition in like less than an hour and tell them exactly all the things they need to fix.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: And it's been amazing.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: Isolating, challenging, emotionally draining because with every client I relive my journey over and over.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: Oh gosh, I can imagine.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, honestly, this I immigrated in one of the most difficult categories as an outstanding researcher in food science.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: Ever since I got my green card through that category, is when my imposter syndrome started.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: Because I feel like I was challenging whether I was I was questioning whether I was extraordinary over and over when I was putting that 300-page document again.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: There's a whole lot of like mental health impact that has on immigrants because you're trying to prove something that you are actually doing to someone who don't who doesn't know what you what your field can impact and how it impacts them.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um so it's almost like you're fighting this battle of proving yourself in a very, very challenging way.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_01: And in current circumstances, the rejection rates are all-time high.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_01: We have great talent in the industry who move from many different places in the world who don't get the support from their employers.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: So if I I want to put a plug in here, if you're listening, if you have the power or influence to support global talent in your companies, um, as simple as, you know, like just having a conversation with them to understand how you can support, that will be huge.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_01: Because one of the biggest gaps is we need to get letters, international talent need to get letters from people they have not worked with, who are from the field, who are experts in the field, who can speak to the importance of the work.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: And it's such a weird spot that puts international talent in a position where they have to reach out to strangers and ask them for attestation letters for immigration purposes.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because US immigration officers need that independent opinion to make that decision.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_01: So just throwing it out in the universe.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um I had no idea that level of complexity to that process.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_02: I love that plug and call to action because yeah, I learned something new right there, too, right?
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_02: These are all small ways we can support individuals that are around us and contributing every day that you know you just you don't know what somebody else is going through unless you ask.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_02: Well, time is flying here.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, man, there's so much more.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_02: There's so much more I want to ask you.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um just a couple closing questions, though, because I do think it's it's important when we think about digital today, um, AI today, visibility.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_02: Like I feel like digital visibility has changed so much in 12 months.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what have you learned and what are you telling people today about personal brand in the age of AI when all of us kind of just want to remove ourselves from digitization and be a bit more analog?
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_01: No, absolutely.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_01: I think this is a big dilemma that I'm sort of right now reflecting a lot on.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_01: Being a digitally visible person makes you drain because you're isolated and you're speaking into screens and you're not necessarily spending quality time with people as much.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, at least for in my own experience, like content creation, writing, speaking on things like this.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_01: I would love to have a coffee in person with you.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so much more than all the different times we have talked over screens, but it's a double-edged sword, right?
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_01: I also have the privilege of building our relationship digitally over the years and sharing my voice digitally over the years.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I think first most important thing is finding how much time and space in your life you want to dedicate to your digital visibility.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: That is the way of the future.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_01: And you will see awkwardly, there are a lot of like industry leaders who are pushed by their company to become visible at like a C-suite level, and they don't have the practice or finesse because they necessarily they didn't necessarily do it all their careers.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_01: But I think, especially with millennials, we are in that like mid position of where we have the exposure, we could do it, but maybe we are shy, or maybe we I think we can build our careers without necessarily having that confidence.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_01: But the Gen Z are so much more digitally forward.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I think there's a there's a nice opportunity here for especially millennial leaders and talent to change the way we show up or add one additional thing of having if you showed up 100% in person, maybe do 80% in person, 20% digital.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: But have like a forum, whether it's a blog, whether it's a website, whether it's LinkedIn, whether it's a podcast.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_01: Podcast is an amazing way to do it.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like it's the most naturally positioned way to like build your presence online because you're having a conversation, you're not doing anything awkward.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I think And people can listen to you.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_01: They don't even have to watch.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: People can listen, people can watch, uh, you know, like if they want to watch, they can watch.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_01: If they want to listen, they can listen.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: If they want to just see the content, eventually AI is going to be able to tell them the top highlights.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_01: So there are so many different ways we are consuming information.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_01: So put good things out there so others can consume good things is my like way of thinking about it, because there's so much of content that's just not authentic or real or valuable.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I can agree more.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_02: And also, like, there's not necessarily going to be the instant gratification.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I feel like you have to put something out there and be okay with it, might be a few days before somebody sees it, or it might be a week or a month, but like it will continue to live on and be found.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_02: And that's kind of the meaning of it.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_02: Because I do think to get yourself over the nerves of doing something and then not having kind of the traction or the comments or the feedback can discourage people from like continuously doing it.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that's the biggest secret in this whole thing, consistency.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: You post every week, maybe once a week, but just consistently, and then or and then slowly increase to twice a week consistently.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the more consistent, it's like a I think that's the biggest challenge, is you're working to show up for the algorithm as well as for the audience.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: For the audience, it's easier to show up for the audience than the algorithm, but I think both are important to build that visibility over time.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I can agree more.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_02: Gosh, yeah.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_02: Which one, which one to satisfy?
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's that is the that is a double-edged sword right there.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I am so, so grateful.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like we we have covered so much.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um before we close out, because I feel like people could carry on this conversation for ages with you.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_02: Tell our listeners where they can connect with you, where they can learn more about your work, um, both in the industry, but also with Spark, um, if if they are looking for additional support.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, LinkedIn is the best place to find me.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, DM me, reach out, and then I have a new website in the works which has all my services, self-paced resources.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's going to launch in the next couple of weeks, and I will always have my LinkedIn reflect the latest website or where to go.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_01: So highly encourage you to connect with me on LinkedIn and follow me for all things career in the food industry.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you so, so much for sharing your journey with us today.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_02: If you've enjoyed this episode, the best and easiest thing that you can do to support us is to like, comment, share to get this message out to even more people.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, really, it's that simplest act of not just closing out, but taking that one extra second to um to let us know your thoughts or sending it on to a friend.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_02: It really does go a long way in supporting this podcast, but also all the women in our industry and making sure that their message gets heard.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_02: So we'd really appreciate uh a follow and like and share.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_02: Be sure to connect with us across all the platforms: Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_02: And you can always learn more on the website at femalesandfood.community about our work.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_02: Because at the end of the day, we're not just making food, we're making moves.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_02: We're women who make it.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_02: We'll see you next time.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for listening to Women Who Make It.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_02: If today's episode inspired you, please follow the podcast so you never miss one of these powerful conversations.
• 41:13
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• 41:22
  SPEAKER_02: For even more connection and inspiration, follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn at femalesandfood.community.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_02: Or join our global community of women by visiting the website femalesandfood.community.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_02: We're not just making food, we're making moves.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_02: We're women who make it.