In this conversation, Shaytoya Marie interviews Christian Marie (Elle), a senior IT project manager, about her journey in the IT field, her experiences at MGM Resorts, and her insights on project management and leadership. Elle shares her early interest in technology, her career progression through various organizations, and the importance of effective communication and team management in IT project management. She discusses the evolution of project management practices, the significance of upskilling in the face of technological advancements, and her aspirations for future roles. In this conversation, Shaytoya Marie shares her insights on creating an ideal work environment, the importance of leadership in solving problems, and the need for constant learning in the IT field. She discusses her experiences with successful projects, the significance of employee feedback, and how to adapt project management approaches to fit different organizations. Shaytoya also emphasizes the importance of mentorship, the value of building trust in communities, and her vision for smart cities and collaboration in technology.

The Las Vegas IT Management Podcast is brought to you by K&B Communications. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guests and hosts and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of K&B Communications. The information provided on this podcast is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered as professional advice. Listeners are encouraged to seek professional guidance tailored to their specific needs.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of K&B Communications and the Las Vegas IT Management Podcast.

Mentioned in this episode:

K&B Communications

K&B Communications is a professional data cabling company specializing in low voltage contracting. They provide top-notch installation services for data Cat 6 cable, fiber optics, and advanced security systems. Hiring Announcement: K&B Communications is currently hiring experienced project managers. If you or someone you know has the expertise and is looking for a new opportunity, please reach out.

Welcome to the Las Vegas IT podcast.

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And today I have the pleasure to be speaking to Christian Marie, but she does go by Elle

and she is a senior IT project manager.

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And I know today we're just going to learn more about exactly what is it that you do.

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And just like looking at your, your career, it seems very, very impressive from the things

that you've done.

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including your time as a senior IT project manager at MGM Resorts.

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Can you just tell us a little bit about how you got started in IT and what led you into

leadership roles?

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Yeah, so I've always been interested in technology ever since I was a little girl, started

on a Commodore 64, so I'll tell you how old I am.

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My parents are in telecommunications, both of them are Army, so they've kind of like

introduced me to the world of technology and from there it just blossomed.

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I am prior military.

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there.

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I worked at the Pentagon, but not doing technology stuff.

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My big dip into it was working for the State Department for the Foreign Service.

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I managed a particular messaging system for the embassies and consulates there.

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It was more like logistics and IT.

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It was this beautiful marriage of all the things that I was interested in, not to mention

being 20 years old and dealing with $685 million budgets, which my allowance was never

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that much.

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So it was kind of cool.

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And from there, I just skyrocketed.

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I...

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And it's crazy because I know what the consensus is about women in tech and stuff like

that.

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But some of my biggest supporters, or most of my biggest supporters have always been men.

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And they just saw potential in me and they would elevate me and push me and help me in the

areas that I was not good at, which was usually communicating.

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But I always had a love for technology.

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So from...

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the working at the State Department to work for Department of Health and Human Services,

doing trainings, the World Bank, doing big global rollouts of IT systems and user

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upgrades.

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And then that led me to working for Baltimore County for eight years at the local county

level of government.

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And then I ended up at MGM because I was on this beautiful app called Clubhouse during the

pandemic.

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In this room, I was talking to somebody.

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We were always having project management discussions like methodology and theoretical

conversations.

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And he was like, could you come work for me for MGM?

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And I was hesitant because I've only done government.

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I never worked for private sector ever.

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It was only government or non-GMO, non-government entity, which is the World Bank.

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And from there, I was like, you know, I want to get a different change.

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My son is about to graduate high school.

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I've never worked in a private industry, so this is my way to get out of the government.

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So I ended up working at MGM for about two and a half years up until earlier this year.

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Then I ended up working for the Venetian for a very brief moment.

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And now I'm a free agent, so I'm just upskilling and stuff right now.

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Because like I said, I love technology and learning different in and outs.

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My thing right now is Smart City and IoT.

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That's very, very interesting.

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So thank you for sharing that with me and especially kind of what you shared with us.

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Being a woman in IT, that's not a lot of what you see.

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So having, you know, men that are actually willing to help you like that is amazing.

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And just just just hearing that your story of how you got started.

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So thank you for sharing that with us, Elle.

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You know, at MGM, could you share with us some of the most important projects you worked

in?

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and how did they improve the company's technology?

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So one of their big initiatives that Nurture Projects was trying to consolidate their IT

backbone, which is usually its pre backbone infrastructure.

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So that way they can better manage or be able to counter if there are security incidents

that they have to mitigate.

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So having all of their properties on one backbone would allow corporate IT like the

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the nucleus, parent IT be able to manage those incidences as well as work with all the

different properties.

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you know, MGM is one of the larger casino hotel resorts.

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So they have their Las Vegas strip and then they have places all over the U S not to

mention outside the U S.

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So this would help them be able to mitigate issues.

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So that was like one of the bigger initiatives that we were working on.

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got partly through it, but they're, you know, that's what the biggest thing is, was trying

to secure against other cyber events and things like that.

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Got it.

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I've heard, and I'm sure that's it.

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That was a huge project just from the things that I've heard for in the past, in the last

recent years.

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And then, you know, you worked at several places like Baltimore country and Technica

corporation.

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How has IT project project management changed over the years and what has stayed the same?

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I think more attention to the detail from beginning to end.

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During my time at Department of Health and Human Services, most people don't know there

was a human capital initiative where the federal government was trying to see like what is

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happening to our projects when it comes to monitoring and things like that because they

were losing all this money.

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And I think now there's a closer eye to budgets and they want to have more.

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You just can't be a regular project manager.

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mean, you can in some places, because the beautiful thing about being a PM or a project

manager or program manager is that you could be in any type of industry.

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And as long as they have SOPs and things like that, you should be able to pick it up and

go based upon if you can do the basic project management stuff.

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But nowadays, they need more flavor to their PMs, or you have to have a little bit more

color where.

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People like technical PMs like me come in at like my forte is mostly infrastructure and

enterprise system doing like global rollouts.

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You don't have to be an SME in it, a subject matter expert, but you still need to know the

puzzle pieces and put them together so that way you can have a successful project.

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So I think that's like the biggest thing is that they want you to have.

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bit more skill.

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We don't need you to do the work because we have resources to do it.

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But you need to be familiar enough to know what's missing in the project.

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That's what they're moving towards now.

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They need somebody that's not just sitting on the bench or just barking orders.

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They need somebody that's going to know,

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This is, they need to be able to see down the road like, okay, I need this piece, I need

this piece, I need to get these resources and I need them to do this.

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So more of that is happening now and it's kind of growing.

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I'm happy to see the change in that.

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And then the other thing too is for the requirement of certifications.

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I'm not going to go into that whole theology.

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I'm not really a big supporter of certain certifications, but there's some that you do

need in order to be a successful PM.

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But yeah, most of the stuff's just stayed the same.

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I there's not much has changed as far as like what you do.

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It's just how you go about doing it.

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Got it.

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Understood.

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Well, thank you.

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And as a product owner for Atlas and Suite and Splunk, what challenges did you face and

how did these tools help your teams build work better?

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Yeah, so Atlassian is like a

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a platform that helps you manage projects as well as work is for development.

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That's like, it's very good for developers.

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So you're working with a team of engineers and if you ever work with them, all of them

have wonderful ideas and sometimes they want to implement them, but they can't or they

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can't right now.

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So Atlassian is this environment that's created for not just the project manager product

owners, but as well as for developers to be able to manage the flow of work.

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And then there's also some other AI or RPA robotic process pieces that you can add in to

help automate a lot of things that you would work with.

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That was a cool project.

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And Splunk is a network monitoring project, a network monitoring tool that allows you to

be able to be more attentive to things that are happening in your infrastructure

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environment, whether it's in your Syslogs, it reviews your Syslogs for different stuff.

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being able to monitor your applications, things like that.

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So it helps organizations be a bit more attentive.

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And that's what they were trying to do at the government organization I was with.

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They were trying to be a bit more attentive to their environment, considering the

heightened risk of all the different cyber events that are happening and all the other

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gaps in upgrades and firmware updates.

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It helps them keep track of that and respond to it.

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Got it.

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totally makes sense.

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So thank you for sharing.

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And these platforms are key for many companies today.

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How do you help these businesses run smoothly and stay secure?

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Well, it's a team effort.

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It's not necessarily just me.

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It's all the teams.

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Like, you're literally just somebody that is helping guide the ship, not necessarily

telling others what to do with it.

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You bring everybody together and we actually have discussions about what's going to work

and what's not going to work.

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And you as the PM, based upon your knowledge and experience, you actually help facilitate

those conversations.

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As an IT PM, based upon your

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background and your knowledge of whatever sector of IT that you're in, it'll help you

better form questions and also add more color to the conversation.

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You're able to do more of the why questioning.

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I don't know if you heard of the six why's, but you can ask why, why, why to get your

answer.

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You can help facilitate those conversations.

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Not necessarily you making the choices yourself, you bring the teams together.

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to make those sound decisions and then you go get the approval from your stakeholders,

which is usually your higher ups because they're the ones that are ultimately responsible

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for the project and the monies that go with it and they have to be responsible for that.

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Got it, which totally makes sense.

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So just the importance of your team and the decisions that you make together, is that kind

of what I'm hearing?

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Yes, yes.

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Got it.

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You can't make decisions in a vacuum.

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Some places do, but you shouldn't.

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Right.

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Yes, it's very, very important.

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So thank you for sharing that with me or us.

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And so when it comes to, you've led IT teams at places like the World Bank and Baltimore

County.

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How did your leadership style grow over time and what worked best when managing to these

teams?

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Surprisingly, again, my route to project management and the types of teams I manage was

unconventional.

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I grew up in a military household, very strict, very, very strict, not to mention my

family being first generation American, parents being from the islands.

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I grew up in a strict household.

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When I run my projects, my dad used to always never like...

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If there's something for me to do, there would never be a question mark at the end.

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of it.

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And I kind of run my teams like that sometimes.

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Like, did you do this?

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How about this?

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And I kind of give directions like that because your team is full of different

personalities.

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And yes, you should cater to some of those personalities.

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But when it's time to get the work done, you need to get it done.

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I'm not somebody that is, you know, quick to seek blame to others and things like that.

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And I feel like my team is my teams are always happy about that.

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They know that I'm a champion for theirs.

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They're in my conversation.

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I'm very transparent.

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That's a very big thing is being transparent and your team being able to trust you.

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That's like a huge thing because that's the only way you're going to get work done.

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And that's not the only way that they're going to want to work with you or for you and

getting things done is when they have that, you know, they really feel like they're part

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of the team and

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I hate to say it's almost like parenting.

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And a lot of times they want to do good because they feel like they're part of it and they

feel like they're for you.

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So they don't want you to look bad.

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So they'll, they do their best to get stuff done.

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And I've always had teams where it was mostly men, which I know some women always talk

about, some women talk about like how it's difficult, but for me it's never been that

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difficult.

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I'm very straightforward.

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I always have curiosity when it comes to technical things.

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I ask questions.

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I'm not bashful about it.

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And I think I always had like a kind of strong personality, which got developed over time

because of my male mentors and them bringing that stuff out of me.

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So a lot of my teams, though they are men, they actually enjoy that.

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They like that I am very candid, I'm straightforward, I'm transparent.

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I am at least knowledgeable in my areas and they know I'm there to help them.

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I'm not there to just like...

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get asked you what this data is and that's it.

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I really do, I go out my way to help my team.

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And if there's something that they can't do, they know that they can come to me and just

tell me honestly, like, I can't do this.

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I'm like, okay, you can't do it.

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you tell me why?

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Is there a solution?

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All right, I'll go do that.

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But so that's really it.

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It's about building trust and being a champion for your team.

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Got it.

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And that, yes, that's, that's very, very, important.

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And I can see where that could be very, very beneficial.

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So thank you for sharing, Elle.

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And then what do you think are the most important skills for leading IT teams through big

projects, especially in large organizations like MGM Resorts or the World Bank?

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Really bringing all the teams together like a project manager's bread and butter is

communicate, communicate, communicate, identifying your different audiences.

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Not every audience has the need to know everything and you need to understand that.

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Another thing too is like not everybody needs to be in a meeting.

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Like you don't need to have everybody and the great grandmother in a meeting and not doing

death by meetings.

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Meetings should be, there should always be a clear outcome of what you're trying to do in

that meeting.

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Having meetings for the sake of meetings, just to look like you're working.

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I've never been a big fan of, that's one of the first things I tell my teams when I get on

board to an organization, I go around to all the different teams.

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I become familiar with them, the names, what they're working on, and I really make sure

that they know that they're going to be heard.

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So having that personal engagement with your resources is important.

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I know some PMs just see IT as just tools.

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These people are just tools to get something done.

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But there's so much more than that.

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You are a servant leader.

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You are there to remove obstacles for them.

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And that is very important for an engineer or developer or whatever type of team that

you're on.

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So doing stuff like that.

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And the other stuff, the small being stuff, you know, being technically, you know,

inclined, those are just things that just add on to the cake.

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They're just like additional toppings, but your foundation is communication, effective

communication and getting all that stuff done.

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Because if you're not communicating across the teams and letting people know,

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then your project's going to fail.

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Got it.

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And because you don't just see these people as being a tool, I'm sure you get more out of

them as well.

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Yes, I get more out of them.

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Yeah.

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I think my, will say one of my favorite teams was working at the World Bank.

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I love doing diverse projects.

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I love diversity, meaning diversity of thought, not just diversity, like physical

diversity of how you look.

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I was working with people from all over the world.

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and I learned from all of them as well.

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So having those different engagements, I think helped me become a better PM, working with

all these different personalities, all these different cultural differences, and being

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able to accommodate those cultural differences within reason is what needs to happen.

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And not to mention having those candid conversations, if there's any disagreement or any

derision, being able to talk it through,

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Let them explain their thought process with something and then also counter it with yours

and you know, having these conversations to be heard and not just to kind of like enforce

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what you want to happen.

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Got it, which makes sense.

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So thanks for sharing that with us.

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And then looking ahead, what do you think are the top trends in IT project management?

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Again, PMs needing to be so much more than just getting a PMI certification.

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I will tell people right now, I've been a PM for 20 years.

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I took a project management class because it was required for this new culture.

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You do not need a PMP to be.

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It's just a cert to say that you test well.

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Some of the best PMs do not have that certification.

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The certification I have is like Lean Six Sigma.

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which is big, that's more of a scientific one.

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If you're doing like data projects or some more the clinical, which is helpful.

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I have my scrum and my product owner product.

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And it's great for if you're doing development projects, especially if you're in like

DevOps and things that's development operations.

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So you're developing something to move into operations, things like that.

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like having more, so much more than that, like I said, other certifications, like right

now I'm getting my Google analytics, my Google data analytics.

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because things are going to be moving to the cloud soon.

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I'm already familiar with SQL, so I know how to do SQL coding.

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The other thing is I will be getting my cloud engineering one, because I already have my

network certification as a PM, and I have a few other, I have AWS and things like that.

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So those are, you have to be so much more than just project management, and it will

behoove all PMs to start upscaling.

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We are in a world where,

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AI with designed right can replace you.

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It replaced you in the sense that some of the work that you do, they don't need you to do

that.

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They can actually run stuff.

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There's Chatuchakutee, there's Co-Pilot.

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You can ask it to do different things and it'll give them that output.

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You can have it do a project schedule based upon like, these are the tasks, this is the

iteration of it.

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Create me a project schedule and stuff.

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So.

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PMs need to, they need to up the ante and get more familiar with the technologies that are

coming or else people are going to get steamrolled.

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I tell people all the time, you're not going to get necessarily replaced by AI, but you

will get replaced by somebody that's using it effectively.

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So you need to upscale.

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Yeah.

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Upscale, upscale, upscale.

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Got it.

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And like, when you say upscale, like what are some ways that people can do that?

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Google and Amazon have great training platforms.

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think the training on Amazon is free and you just pay like hundred bucks or so much.

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It's been a while since I got on there to just take the test.

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Google, $29 subscription a month to take whatever courses that you want.

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Another $2.99 to take, I think, the course and whatever tests you want because they give

you like credit to the test.

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So the information is out there.

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You don't necessarily have to go into a university environment.

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to take these classes.

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can if you want to.

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I'm not saying anything about these institutions, but there's ways that you can get this

upskilling.

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LinkedIn has training as well.

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I think it's part of their premium package.

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You can do some training.

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They have LinkedIn certification.

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I haven't used it yet, but I've heard people have been using it.

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I know Google and Amazon, those are kind of like recognized by other employers.

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So you can easily do it.

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But the stuff is out there.

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You just got to go and do it.

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know, don't get the people, PMs do not get complacent.

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You're going to have to be, they're going to be asking for different PMs.

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And if you go look at the job boards now, they're asking for IT or technical project

managers.

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That's what they're asking for.

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They want you to be familiar with these enterprise systems.

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They want you to know about SaaS software as a service or IaaS infrastructure as a

service.

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And that's stuff that's in the cloud.

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You don't have to do the work.

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but they want you to be familiar with it.

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So go get those certifications.

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And also you can do them at home.

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You don't have to go to a testing facility to do this stuff.

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Stuff is open book, it's right online.

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It's just up to you to do it.

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Yeah.

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totally makes sense.

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there's so much.

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If online is been a blessing for me as well.

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And so earlier you did mention that you are a free agent.

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So I guess like, what are you currently looking for?

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And then how do you see your skills helping you in the next thing that you get into?

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So, yes, I'm a free agent as of like two, three weeks ago.

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I very much, like remote work roles or either hybrid because I guess I am somebody that

likes to travel and be in different places.

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So if there's a role where it requires me to travel, because I'm one of those people that

I love to be in different environments.

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I love meeting different people and because I feel like I kind of get energy off of

learning that stuff.

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I love diverse projects, even difficult ones.

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I worked on one of my coolest projects.

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was doing video management systems for Baltimore County.

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And that's what the police and fire like bringing in camera feeds.

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I put almost 2000 cameras in all the schools and card readers and stuff for the safety and

things like that.

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So I love really cool projects and I love to learn on my projects.

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When there's like diversity of technology inside of an environment, I feel like those are

the best environments I thrive in.

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because I'm one of those constant learners.

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I'm always reading something.

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I'm always watching a video to upscale, to learn more because all you're doing is adding

more stuff to your arsenal as a PM.

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That'll help you, not just help you, but it will help your client or your employer meet

their business strategic goals for whatever year or the next 10 years.

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So that's what I'm truly looking for.

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As far as industry, because I'm an IT PM, I can kind of thrive in any...

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any industry.

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I've done a bit of construction project management, Baltimore County.

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And I lean on that one because most of the government, are, I like to say a full stack PM.

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You don't get to decide like, I only do development projects or I only do this type.

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No, you do everything.

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Whether it's doing construction stuff and you're working with the construction team to

build IT closets.

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and to run fiber and different cabling.

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you're negotiating with them about price.

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You're telling them how you want stuff done, even down to like the physical stuff with

like the cameras.

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You're working with security teams to identify where you want the cameras and blockages

everywhere.

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So you become like an almost like an expert or a jack of all trades when you're doing all

these different types of projects and you're not sticking or pigeonholing yourself to

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this.

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one thing.

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I can do stuff from development to software implementation to upgrades to physical and the

physical as well as the non-physical systems.

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it's rare that you come across PMs like that, but that's the type that I am.

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And I am grateful for the government for not giving me the option of choosing what type of

stuff to do.

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They just give it to you.

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So I'm open to be in any environment as far as industry is concerned.

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I don't have one that I'm picking right now because there's only so much you can choose

from it here in Vegas.

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I was living on the East Coast for many years of my life and there there's more diversity

of industry you can go to here.

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It's every casino, resort, hospitality driven.

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So it kind of is what it is, but I would like to kind of get back to my roots and work

with, you know, like heavy technical organizations.

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I don't mind going back to government and stuff, but I would like to have a remote role or

hybrid role and I would like to travel again.

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I'm mostly even applying for roles that may require 75 % travel, 50 % travel and stuff so

that way I can work on stuff, I can come back home and things like that.

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Sorry for the people who messaging me.

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should turn on to not serve.

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My apologies.

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But yeah, but that's where I am.

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Like literally, like I most definitely can't say that I can't do something.

347

I can.

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I might have something preferred as far as an industry, but.

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I literally, and it's going to sound cocky, but I literally can work anywhere.

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And I pride myself on that.

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I can work anywhere.

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I can work in any type of environment, whether it's a male-driven, a woman-driven,

whatever.

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I can thrive in any type of environment.

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I will say it's very true as far as leadership is concerned.

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People do leave because of leadership.

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So one of the important things to me in environment is having leadership.

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where they're very, they're always continually improving.

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Kaizen, I'm a huge fan of Kaizen, continual improvement.

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And it has to be somebody, an organization that's driven by technology, but in a human

centric way, meaning that they do not put technology in there just for the sake of putting

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it in there because it's the trend.

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It's because it's centered around improving either

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the user's task in their day-to-day so it can enhance their workflow, or it is to enhance

the business, but never to hinder somebody.

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So that's what I want.

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I would love to be in an organization that really listens to their employees'

recommendations and stuff and justifications and getting stuff done.

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So that's what I'm looking for.

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That's my ideal environment.

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Got it.

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Hopefully you'll get it.

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I know you will.

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Yes, pray for me.

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Pray for me.

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I will pray for you.

373

And maybe someone who's listening will know exactly where you should go.

374

Can you share a success story when your leadership directly helps solve a major problem or

improved a system?

375

I will do a more recent one because I love these two gentlemen.

376

They're like, again, some of my male mentors.

377

So Jim Jones, who used to run the network infrastructure over at MGM.

378

And my other favorite is Greg Williams, who's the VP.

379

He ran mostly the operations side, data center, data storage.

380

He made sure like the day to day stayed improving.

381

So that's operations.

382

Like I was telling you DevOps almost, and then Jim was the one that actually, he also

implemented some of more new technologies for improvement and stuff, mostly networks

383

centered.

384

And one of the projects that I had with them where they both kind of collided was the, let

me see, it was a network infrastructure upgrade for all the different properties,

385

including the Las Vegas strip, which I think they're almost done now.

386

but working with both of those gentlemen and upgrading like the switches and stuff, and

also working with the teams, doing the cross collaboration with training, with the

387

operations to let them know what we're working on, and then being able to see like in real

time that the properties have improved communications, improved networking.

388

This not only helped us on the backend, which is I've learned, I'm still learning some of

the game industry tech.

389

terminology, but back of house, you know, working with them and back of house to improve

like functionality and systems and communicating there, but also seeing like how on the

390

front end of it all, how customers are able to have better internet service or some or

better in-room technology.

391

That was one of my projects with Jim Jones is upgrading the in-room technology, which was

like the switches and stuff.

392

And the switches are connected to the panic alarms and to the TVs and to everything that's

within it.

393

So that was like a really cool project.

394

One of my passions is seeing my projects actually have instant impact.

395

I will say when I worked on the federal government side, you really don't see the instant

impact of your projects day to day.

396

You probably see the impact like five years later, seven years later after it's done.

397

But when you work at the local state, like county level, or you're working with a company

like MGM, or even the World Bank, you see like what you did.

398

how it is improved.

399

And sometimes you get instant feedback, whether positive or negative.

400

And so that's one of the things I like in working with Jim Jones and Greg Williams on

those particular projects, whether it's the networking infrastructure, data migrations,

401

like the consolidation of casino, like when they do an acquisition.

402

And you necessarily don't see that particular one on the customer side, but I get to see

how I improve the users or the employees.

403

like the way they work and they give you instant feedback.

404

mean, instant feedback.

405

They didn't like it, they didn't like it.

406

But yeah, those were my successful ones.

407

My network infrastructure one, that was an upgrade.

408

And my data migration, which they both kind of, the worlds collide.

409

So that was kind of cool.

410

Got it.

411

And I'm sure, I'm sure with that, with getting instant feedback, I'm sure it caused you

guys to solve those possible

412

issues that you had faster.

413

Yes, they do.

414

If you're an attentive, that's why I go back to community, if you're an attentive PM and

you're in constant engagement with your customers, which are the employees, and your

415

customer can also be your resources on your project and you hear about their issues or

issues that they've come across, getting that instant feedback and resolving it, know,

416

bringing the parties together to resolve it is like that is your bread and butter.

417

That's the only way your projects will be effective and be successful towards the end of

it.

418

So that's what I like.

419

Got it.

420

I'm sure that's pretty awesome.

421

And then technology is always evolving.

422

How do you stay updated with the latest IT trends ensure that your teams are prepared for

new changes?

423

I watch videos.

424

I have lots of friends in various industries.

425

I'm in some technology groups that we talk.

426

I read, I follow the trends.

427

There's a

428

an app that I use called TLDR, Too Long Didn't Read.

429

So it's all IT centered and you can choose what you want to learn about.

430

And they send you like one minute snippets of whatever the latest trends is and you can

choose to read more, but it just highlights like this is a new trend and it'll highlight

431

it and you can go and read more.

432

So TLDR is like such a great help.

433

I follow daily science that more does like a deep dive in some of the technologies that

are out there.

434

It's not just tech.

435

It's also physical tech, like technology, there's like a science, like medical science

that's on there.

436

You can learn about things that they're doing in space.

437

And like I said, all those worlds kind of collide because we kind of have to work hand in

hand.

438

So I love the daily science website.

439

So that's what I do.

440

And just listening to others, you can monitor what's going on out there.

441

And as far as like job trends to see like what technology is out there.

442

So if you are paying attention, if you're attentive to following those trends, you know

where the direction is going.

443

Like I said with upscaling, I see there's a lot of jobs out there that's asking for people

to know data or to know cloud.

444

They're asking, I had a job one that says, PM needs to know SQL.

445

They need to know how to do testing.

446

So if you're reading that stuff in the job postings,

447

then that's what you should be getting the additional training on.

448

Got it.

449

And with you receiving those constant notifications, how do you not get overwhelmed?

450

you overwhelmed.

451

There's no way not around it.

452

TLDR does help me.

453

Like I said, too long didn't read of giving those snippets.

454

OK, of course, sometimes you need to take a step back and breathe from all of it.

455

But I can't even say that there's a way to like get around it.

456

know, anybody's easily overwhelmed.

457

There's no way around it.

458

It's all of the, you can do is take a step back, put your phone or your notifications on,

do not disturb and go to sleep.

459

That's all you can do.

460

No, totally understand.

461

And I'm someone that also, you know, always learning as well.

462

So I totally understand that.

463

And, know, with your experience across different industries,

464

How do you adapt your project management approach to fit the unique needs of each

organization?

465

First thing I do is you should ask them what their business strategy is, like what is

their focus?

466

What is important to the organization right now?

467

Is it improving their bottom line?

468

Because let's be honest, companies are about money and making money.

469

Is their focus their employees and improving them?

470

Because if you have happy employees, employees who feel like you're making their lives

easier, that actually improves your bottom line.

471

So it has.

472

you know, the effect of your finance, it affects your financials, is it, you know, doing

use, right?

473

So it's really asking the client or who your employer is, like, what's important to them

right then and there.

474

And then also, too, I go around and I talk to the different teams, whether it's the

network, the server, others firewall, I talked to the different teams and I asked them,

475

you know, like, what, how can I make your life easier?

476

What are you?

477

What, what issues do you see day to day that you feel as though need to be?

478

be resolved that I can help you with.

479

And they're very candid about it.

480

They'll say like, you know, there's not enough communications.

481

I will say with engineers, one thing that they, you know, that's harmful to them getting

work done and also demotivates them is having too many places to put the same information.

482

know, so helping them consolidate that stuff so they're not spending their time, you know,

writing tickets or doing comments on different stuff all the time in different places.

483

is helping them to consolidate that stuff.

484

So really getting familiar with what your team's needs are in the beginning is really,

really helpful.

485

Got it.

486

And as a small business ourselves, how would you or I guess, what are your tips to help

business to streamline those so that your employees aren't putting it in multiple

487

locations?

488

Because I do feel like that's a problem with a lot of small businesses.

489

Yeah, really asking your employees like how do you operate?

490

What works best for you?

491

Lana, if you have Microsoft, a lot of say, I rather communicate through Teams.

492

Let's communicate inside Teams.

493

think besides all the issues people say with Microsoft, but I think Teams has like really

matured over the past few years with how it's created an environment where you can

494

actually work, communicate, and keep track of stuff.

495

all in one place.

496

then, and because it connects to all the other different systems that they have where

they're or apps they have like Outlook Word, any of that stuff, it's all connected there.

497

They have a new thing called loop with meeting minutes.

498

You can assign work tasks and stuff like that.

499

That's just one example, but creating an environment where your team doesn't feel

overwhelmed, where they're looking in a thousand different places, that little, it seems

500

small, but that one step.

501

of trying to make your workers or your engineers or your employees life easier.

502

Well, you know, I can't even tell you how much doing that one little thing helps them

exponentially.

503

And it actually, you know, helps them with their day to day work so they can focus on

what's really important.

504

Having moments where you're talking to your teams, like bringing them all together and

having a retrospective where it's like, okay, this is where we are this month.

505

Okay, we want to hear your feedback and like really listening to that.

506

I think that's what businesses need to do.

507

They really need to start listening to their people because, you know, despite all the

technology out there, you still need a human to do the work and stuff.

508

And if your workforce is having problems and stuff, you want to hear about it, you know,

early on so you can resolve it.

509

And I hear about it when they're leaving.

510

They've already taken a job somewhere else, and then you get to see on glass door the

problems.

511

Because it creates this type of negative environment.

512

So really having those retrospectives, whether it's once a month, it builds morale.

513

It makes them feel like they're heard.

514

And it just lets them know that you are there to care for you.

515

Because I think we've lost that in a lot of the way the work culture is now.

516

Because people stay at places for like no more than two years, not even a year now,

especially in the tech world.

517

And we're in a place where human capital is just as important as anything else.

518

People want to retain knowledge.

519

There's countries facing right now like a shortage of knowledge workers because they go to

other places where they're going to be paid more, you know, because the cost of living is

520

high.

521

And that's another thing as a business, you really need to, I know not every place can do

it, but you need to

522

pay people what they're worth.

523

If you're going to be expecting them to really carry a lot of work, you should pay them

accordingly so they'll want to stay.

524

They'll feel as though that they're being compensated for what they do because it makes

them feel valued.

525

You're paying somebody $20 an hour to run this multi-million dollar project and you're

overworking them, the cost-benefit analysis just isn't there.

526

So they're going to up and leave and go somewhere else.

527

then you've lost that knowledge, which is important.

528

Totally understood.

529

So thank you for sharing that with Eel.

530

That was very useful.

531

And then, you you did talk about the certifications.

532

You did talk about a lot of different things, but what advice would you give to someone

that's just starting out in IT who wants to manage big projects like the ones that you

533

have worked on?

534

I said, I have such an unconventional sort of like crash course into all of this.

535

So it's hard for me to say like where you should enter at.

536

would say you should probably, whether you want to be on the project side, is more admin,

the project management side, which is more administration.

537

If you want to be more on the technical side, I feel as though that you really need to sit

down and get a taste for all the different spaces and find out what your passion is, you

538

know?

539

It could lie on both sides.

540

I think it's great.

541

know schools are now doing more like cross job, like allowing kids to come and, you know,

shadow for a day.

542

did that at Baltimore County where I I forgot what they're calling it, AGI or something,

the student government, SGL, they were coming and stuff.

543

were mostly supposed to be around the government.

544

Like the legal entity, but they actually came to IT and I would take the kids around to

all the different areas so they get a taste of it and I would explain to them the

545

different projects we did, how important it was, and it actually gives them a flavor of

what they can do with an IT.

546

We're not just there pushing buttons, plugging stuff in, we're actually problem solving,

we're keeping stuff running, know, really putting that once and I think adults should go

547

through that too, like they really should think about like.

548

you know, is this something I want to do?

549

Because if you are in tech, you have to remember you are constantly learning.

550

Like constantly, you cannot just like learn one thing and then don't learn anything else.

551

This is not that type of industry.

552

You have to constantly be upskilling or else you will be replaced by somebody else that

has the skills.

553

So there's that too.

554

That's the biggest thing I can tell is my one entering the field.

555

You have to have a passion for it.

556

You have to want to learn and you need to like,

557

read about all the different areas you can be in before making a decision.

558

Because maybe this isn't for you, maybe not learning all the time isn't for you, or

managing people or communicating all the time.

559

Problem solving may not be your thing and stuff like that.

560

you know, making a sound decision.

561

Got it.

562

Understood.

563

And you, you know, you've been in leadership positions for many years.

564

How do you mentor or support the growth of junior IT profanish?

565

professionals within your teams.

566

I necessarily don't mentor a lot of them and more do like within my teams.

567

I do like a lot of inspiring, encouraging more than anything, because depending on what

they're trying to do, like I want them to like, I want them to want to get the stuff done.

568

So again, that's really having those communications, removing the roadblocks for them.

569

I have done mentorship, not necessarily like in my role.

570

I have a young lady or a couple of young ladies that I've been toward.

571

One is actually in South Korea now going to grad school for communications.

572

And I have another one who grads.

573

She went to school at Korea, Korea University, which is one of their top schools, came

back, graduated from South Carolina.

574

Now she's going to get her grad degree.

575

I was mentoring her talking about technology and things like that.

576

It's more like putting the ideas in front of people and telling them what the potential.

577

is and what the impact is, and then them making the decisions, not making the decisions

for them.

578

But I more so try to be the type of person that I needed when I was their age at that

time.

579

That's the most of the time where I get to really inspire and mentor.

580

But within my work teams, just being like a servant leader, that whole concept of servant

leader, removing roadblocks and stuff, I really serve more of somebody to inspire.

581

versus mentor because they're already at a certain point in their careers with the teams I

work with.

582

There's not any mentoring I can do.

583

A lot of times they're not looking to be in like leadership positions.

584

They're there to get the work done and all I can do is encourage, and just make their

lives easier.

585

Got it.

586

That makes sense.

587

And you shared a lot with us.

588

So thank you.

589

Is there anything else that you'd like to share with us before we go?

590

Yeah, I would like to say, look, don't, everybody has their own journey in life and your

journey is the experiences that you need to make you the person that you need to be.

591

So don't just listen to the rhetoric from different podcasts and blog posts and stuff.

592

You can have, as a woman, as a woman of color, you can have a really great career in

technology.

593

As long as you're able to pivot.

594

When I am, I've never thought about myself or when I go into a room and it is just most of

the time it is just men.

595

And a lot of times there's no men of color.

596

There's just me.

597

I don't think about that I'm a woman or a woman of color.

598

I am there to bring my knowledge and my skills to the table.

599

Cause at the end of the day, that's what a lot of people respect more that you're able to

come to the table.

600

You come there to problem solve and to come with the solutions.

601

that's what they're paying you for.

602

you know, that's really all I can say.

603

Like I said, I had a very unconventional career and I'm so happy for it because, you know,

I wouldn't be getting the jobs or being in the spaces in, you know, that I have been in,

604

you know, if I haven't had those male mentors, whether they were black, white, Asian,

whatever.

605

So don't focus on like what that person looks like.

606

Focus about what they can.

607

how they can excel you.

608

And if you feel like you're in a room where you're the smartest person, my dad used to say

this all the time, if you're in a room and you're the smartest person, you need a new room

609

because you're supposed to be, you need to grow.

610

You need to become so much more.

611

And the environment we live in, you cannot settle anymore.

612

You cannot just settle for this.

613

Constantly be learning, know, put yourself in uncomfortable positions because that's when

you grow the most is when you're uncomfortable.

614

Get comfortable being uncomfortable.

615

That is my bread and butter.

616

I tell everybody that.

617

Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

618

Got it.

619

And I actually agree with you.

620

I'm always on that as well.

621

So that's so awesome just to hear that from you.

622

And if someone's looking to reach out to you or for whatever reason, they're looking to

connect with you, how can someone do that?

623

My email address, I do have my own startup that I've been working on for the past couple

of years, but it just hasn't come to fruition because I was

624

getting this kid in college and moving over here and stuff like that.

625

But you can use C as in Kat Nickens at si-space.com or you can reach out to me on

LinkedIn.

626

If there's any young women or even young men out there that want to talk about being an

IT, hear more about trends and stuff like that, I'm always open to helping.

627

literally, I want the world to be a world that I would like to live in and that is having

better educated, better informed people.

628

So, you know, better creation for the future and all that other jazz.

629

So yeah, like, please have a reach out to me.

630

You have my LinkedIn and my information.

631

Please share it.

632

Whether it's a company, a startup, or even somebody that wants mentorship, I am here.

633

Awesome.

634

And we will share that with within our podcast.

635

And you did mention your startup.

636

I mean, did you want to share that with us as well before we go?

637

Yeah.

638

Yeah.

639

I'm sorry.

640

I never, I'm always bashful despite like sounding like I

641

I've had this illustrious career where I was at the forefront, a very shy, introverted

person.

642

So my startup is focused around smart city and IOT, but it's not necessarily just the

technology.

643

It's about creating, helping cities, organizations, or even countries create a program

where you're running a sound and cost-efficient smart city or IOT program.

644

It's more like to help them on their journey.

645

So they're not spending these astronomical amounts of money.

646

on Smart City because maybe the technology you're using is not right for your environment.

647

Something that is used in New York may not necessarily be something that you use in

Ecuador or in different places.

648

So I want to help countries, organizations, and cities get on that digital transformation

journey in a sound way.

649

And then the other part of that is the B2B.

650

all about collaboration and innovation.

651

So I want to bring businesses together, especially if they're creating different projects.

652

And if there's somebody else that's working on the same technology, why not work on it

together?

653

We don't exist in the vacuum and nothing is new under the sun.

654

So why not work with other people, do that cross collaboration so we can build better?

655

Got it.

656

Now that makes sense.

657

Also, thank you for sharing that with us.

658

And then one more question since you did bring up, how are you

659

helping other countries do that just before we go.

660

so I was, I attend CES every year and you end up just talking to people and I've talked to

different people, representatives of different countries.

661

And we just, like, we had like this little conversation about like, you know, what are the

gaps in smart city, especially if you're going to, I call them First Nations or I hate the

662

word third world, I call them first world, because some of them are the oldest places.

663

But I talked to them about some of the gaps that they're having and how to mitigate those

gaps.

664

And whether it's like, you know, whether it's corruption and the funding, how they can

mitigate that, whether it's how to engage, mostly a lot of that stuff is engagement

665

because there's distrust of the government, distrust of third parties coming into

countries to implement what they think that they need.

666

I talked to them about, you know, building that trust, having

667

conversations with your citizens is so, important because ultimately you're building

technology for sustainability and you need adoption.

668

A lot of places don't worry about the adoption and whatnot.

669

And so if you don't have adoption of your technology, it's going to be a failed experiment

and you just wasted this money because nobody's adopted it.

670

So I talk to them about what they can do about adoption, how they can build trust.

671

and also recommending them in certain areas with technologies and stuff.

672

So I put them in contact with people that I know, friends of mine that are running

businesses with technology that might be of use to them.

673

right now it's like a lot of free information I've been giving, but my friends was like,

you know, you really need to put a price tag on that because you give out way too much

674

free information and you don't get any money for it.

675

But I just like doing it.

676

I love improvement.

677

I love seeing everybody rise.

678

Like, you the best thing you can do is, you know, when you help one person, you help the

people, you have all ships rise.

679

I can't remember the exact quote right now, but that's what I like to do.

680

And that's what I've done before.

681

I've spoke to people in Ecuador, I spoke to people in Colombia, within the Caribbean,

where my family's from, also in Africa and in places like Korea and stuff.

682

And I had the opportunity of doing that at CES because that's where everybody's

represented.

683

So I get a chance to talk to everybody and we cross collaborate, we exchange information

and we built like a group chat right now where we actually have discussions with each

684

other and problem solve within our little community.

685

Of course, everybody needs to make money and whatnot too, but it's nice to build those

incubator environments where you are sharing information versus putting a price tag on it

686

all the time.

687

Got it.

688

Now that's so awesome.

689

So thank you for sharing with us.

690

And today has been a pleasure.

691

I'm super, super excited to share everything that we've learned from you.

692

So thank you so much, Elle.

693

And yeah, thank you.

694

yeah.

695

Thank you.

696

And also I want to say shout out to my friend Sam, Sam Durfee.

697

He actually put me in contact with you and stuff.

698

I'm so sorry it took a long time coming between work and then I was moving.

699

I'm so sorry it took so long to get to this point.

700

But yeah, this has been great.

701

This is my first video.

702

podcast, I'm open to having other discussions about stuff or, you know, to your audience

if you have questions or you have some young women and young men that want to be inspired

703

in tech and they just need somebody to encourage them.

704

I'm always open to doing that.

705

Well, thank you.