Hello, everyone. And thank you so much for having me. I am so excited to be a part of this uh event. It is exciting uh to know that this is a topic for women and women in tech, which I'm so very passionate about, so very passionate about.And I want to share with you a few words uh for you women because for me being a woman in tech has meant many things. It has meant that I have needed to create and find my voice and to share that voice. It, it's definitely not easy. It's definitely a, a journey I've been in tech for uh over 10 years now and it, it, you know, it's, it's been some that I've understood as women in tech. We have to create our own platforms. Nobody is going to do that for us. And so I wanted to share with you just a few, few notes of a few uh nuggets of wisdom of things that I have learned in my on my own in my own trajectory uh as as a woman in tech uh so that we can also come together as, as sisterhood so that we can also pave the way for our daughters and our daughter's daughters because that is also important is what is the legacy that we leave for ourselves as women in tech?

What are the things that we can do uh to leave that legacy as hard as it is? It's not impossible. Uh If you don't, if you don't mind, I'll share my screen real quick and I want to share, share some nuggets of uh of information that I've learned in my own trajectory of building my brand. And why that's been important for me and I want to share this with you because I believe it is also very important that you do the same that you actually think about building your brand, that you think about how important it is uh to build your brand. And why I've learned in my trajectory that building your brand is not only what you say you are. Uh It's not who you say you are to people is how you make people feel. And as women, we, we evolve ourselves so much in our journey. We become mothers, we become sisters, we are uh friends, we are, you know, we're so many things and, and each of these things define us but define us collectively. And so we have to think about how we make people feel with that, that brand. How are we enabling each of these facts of who we become and how we evolve of ourselves through our trajectory. How do we not allow other things to define us? But we enable us to define ourselves.

Because when we allow society, culture, religion, uh people to define who we are, we lose our essence as women. And it's really important that we don't do that. So I just want to share with you again, some key nuggets of what I've understood a brand is and why that's important keys of a brand is including a mission. It's having attributes, it's having character, it's having a story and it's having a digital presence which is extremely critical today. If you googled yourself today, what shows up if anything, if nothing shows up? That's, that's very scary. We, we live in a digital world today.

You know that you're in tech digital is driving everything your digital presence is so important. It is a platform you have, it is the voice you have today. If you don't have a mission, then you're not driven by anything in particular. We have allowed other things to intercept that, to give us uh a purpose and it may not even be ours. You get to actually build up for yourself. You get to build your own mission of who you're going to be. Uh what are the things that you want to be when and where you get to define your success? What is success to you? To some women. It may be to just become a mother to others. It may be to become the CEO and own their own company and they're all good and they're all perfectly acceptable. But you have to know what you want and you have to know how you want to achieve it and celebrate your victim in between as well. Give yourself attributes that you, people recognize you for, find out what it is that makes up who you are and play up the good things, the strengths and, and think about the shadows of those strengths and how are you gonna play that up as well? You know, I, I show up certain things certain ways. Uh I can show up sarcastic at times and that serves me in some areas that serves me with some audiences and it doesn't serve me with other audiences. So I have to play it down.

So you have to think about your strengths and who you are. We are multifaceted as women and in the industry, we get to play that up. Have your character, who are you in your own story, who are the other characters that play in the story? You know, as women in tech, I have found as a woman in tech that it's if there's not a lot of sisterhood, not a lot of people uh coming in and showcasing this hand to hand approach. So when you become part of a community and hopefully you're part of this community, you get to also extend your hand to others. You get to also build that community and extend your sisterhood and fix somebody else's crown. What is your story? How are you going to use that story? A lot of times we shy away from this idea. We think that if we don't give ourselves the, the platform, uh you know, that's being pompous, uh men do this all the time. They speak about their accomplishments all the time. And you as a woman, I know you've experienced so many great things and the world needs to hear these things. The world needs to hear of your accomplishments. Nobody is going to tell you a story better than you do and you will not your boss, not your husband, not your partner, uh Not your friend. You get to do it.

Sco find yourself in the digital space, find your story and tell your story in the digital space. That is extremely important. This was me eight years ago when I uh when I started this journey, I can tell you that it was a very daunting journey. I almost quit tech. I was being bullied by four women actually within the tech industry. And when I decided to quit that day, uh I found myself with all of this. I had none of that. I had none of the things that I was telling you that you need to have. I had none of it. I had lived my life. I had given my story to the people to write the next chapters. And then I realized I couldn't do that anymore. I had to give myself a purpose. So I want to walk you quickly through what you can do to build your own story. Start with your origin story, start with who you are and what moments in your life have built up to who you are today. Give yourself a mission. This is what I used back then. Eight years ago, it doesn't have to be this one. But you could say, hey, you know what, what am I gonna go do there for the world. We all want to leave a mark. We all wanna leave our footprint, but we have to be targeted in our approach. And when you are targeted, the world is a big place. So you get to act to target your audience and say, who do I want to impact? Who do I want to inspire?

Who does my story serve? I've heard multiple stories of women being abused, being bullied, uh having just so many, so many things that have happened to them and here they are strong. We don't hear these stories. We need to hear more of these stories. The world needs to hear these stories. So think about how your story serves. You think about how you can give yourself a mission, what those attributes uh that you have, how they serve people, ask people, hey, how do I show up, you know, learn that baseline and then evolve it from there. We begin to evolve ourselves. Our story never ends until, until we're no longer here. And hopefully, we actually immortalize ourselves with that story. So think about that and think about empowering yourself. The world is a big place where you get to build that. You get, you get to, you get to intentionally say who's going to be my world. For me, it actually became younger women in tech. I thought, well, if I was getting bullied, maybe other women were. And in fact, they were so I began to think about storytelling. I began to tell my story so that I began to tell my story so that other people would communicate and connect with me in that community. And so use storytelling.

I'm gonna walk you through five steps of storytelling and how that serves you to tell your story, to go out there uh and to connect with other people and build your community. It is a long term approach. It's not an instant gratification idea. It is the idea that you will be bold enough to recognize that your story, that your insights that your lived experiences can serve someone else and they will serve someone else. I haven't gone to the moon. I have, you know, I haven't, I haven't saved a life. I have, I don't have an extraordinary story. I have a very ordinary story. But even at that ordinary level, it's helped me and it's helped others connect and build community so quickly. I want to walk you through what an origin story may look like. Your origin story uh is something like this. You could just grab a piece of paper, you could just write it. This is not gonna be the entire story. For me, it's only half the story. Uh but just the moments, the moments in your life that has have marked who you are, have shaped who you are up until this point. That's what storytelling is. Even the moments that you think are not important they are. That's why they were encoded as a memory for you. And you get to look at these moments and look back and go wow, this shaped me like this made me this, this happened to me and it, it, it created this in me. It built who I am.

It built the core of who I am. And then you take that and you begin to talk about what storytelling is and what it isn't. You begin to build your character, your plot and your conclusion to share with the world. So again, quickly, I'm gonna show you how you can start this. This is basically a design thinking approach uh in tech, you know, this, you may know this very well in the UX space, we use this a lot. Uh It's a five step approach to storytelling. It's empathizing, defining dating and prototyping and testing. Basically what you're doing is you're going to test your own story with the world and it's gonna be little stories, prototypes, not one big story, you can have multiple stories to share, think about them, think about how they serve people in your community. Think about how your stories can change someone's life. Empathize with your audience. We've learned that there's different types of audiences that we serve. Find a universal truth. How does my story serve someone? What is that truth that can help inspire them or empower them?

For me, it was belonging. We need to belong in tech. We need to feel like we belong, we need to feel like we're not alone. That was my truth. So I gave myself that mission as a Latina woman in tech, I added intersectionality. It gets harder when you're a woman of color in tech. What else can I add to my story? What feelings can I add? So people can connect with me? And so that's the way that you begin to build your story again. Empathy is different ways that you can connect with your audience. You can become an empath, have empathy at the cognitive level. Understand that your audience is human as you are human, understand that you are human and you can show up, not polished, not perfect, you can show up human, you can show up with all your flaws. It's OK. Right? As women, we, we want to perfect ourselves. We want to show up consistently. A certain way it's ok to abandon ourselves a little bit and show up the realness of who we are that is authentic. We have bad days. We have really bad days. Uh at the compassionate empathy level, we get to also check in with ourselves as women. We tend to also hold down the fort. We have a lot of things going on, multiple things that we juggle. Uh It's time to step back a little bit.

Let ourselves be for a moment, understand our feelings, understand how we are, how we're feeling. Because if we're feeling great, we can help others feel great. If we're not at our best, then we can't serve others. So taking care of ourselves is important. That is empathy, designing the story with empathy is understanding how you let others experience who you are. That's the user experience that's defining the story as well. So step two real quick, you get to define your story, your story mission, who your audience is going to be who you are as a character in your story. You get to, you get to tell the people why you're telling the story. And people will tune in. People will tune in. It's not how extraordinary it is. It is insightful to others. Content that you share is content that you've lived. It's your own experiences and people will tune in. It's so important. Uh Story mission is you dedicating your story to someone so it can help them do what? And it can help them feel what again. Give yourself a mission. Give your story a mission very important that you're intentional with that. And then you get the idea it. Hey Mary, how should I tell the story? Should I tell her on linkedin? Should I go on medium? Should I go on in tiktok? On Instagram? I don't know. You get to build it, you get to create what you want for your audiences.

You get to give it layers. As you can see here. Scamper is one of those brainstorming tools that I use a lot in my story and practice, create this tool, create empathy, create an audience and then you empower yourself. I've had many people say, hey Mary, why are you putting this on linkedin? This is not Facebook and I'm like, hey, thanks for stopping by your opinion. Doesn't pay my bills and this wasn't for you. This was for another audience. So I get tested, you empower yourself with your content and your story and you no longer have this impostor syndrome weighing on you saying you're not good enough or this is not good enough or this is not for them. It is for them. You've intended for it for them and you've created the space for them. So you get to prototype content and have fun with it. Uh And I've had fun with it. As you can see here I go on linkedin, I put my dog on his birthday uh on linkedin, I get on Twitter and I get a little sassy on Twitter because I have some uh good technical audiences there on Instagram. I actually show a lot, a lot more of my feminine side of my mom's side of my daughter's side uh of my kingdom side, women empowerment. And then people get excited, curious who is this me putting dogs on linkedin?

And then now I have a Google panel, a big panel. Right? Again, I didn't go to the moon, but I began to share my story. I gave myself a platform and it saved my career. It saved my career in tech. I did not marry Microsoft and I won't marry a company. I married myself. I married my mission. I married who I'm here to be for the world. And I use Microsoft as a platform. I use the industry as a platform as a woman in tech. You have a voice, you have a strong voice. And especially today we are listening, demand the platform. Ask people to give you the platform. I have six mentors at Microsoft, all white males because women would not be mentoring me. They wouldn't mentor me. And so I said, OK, these men have power, they have platform. They've been here, their legacy, share your platform with me and they have, I gave myself a platform test it. Ask yourself, hey, did my story evoke the emotion that I want for my audience and if it didn't, that's OK. Go back, do it again, do it again, do it again, learn yourself through the process and involve yourself through the process. But certainly you have to give yourself the permission to go tell your story. So remember if it doesn't have a character, a plot and inclusion, not a story, but stories are for your audience not to them. That means you're gonna take time to empathize to be authentic.

You're gonna create that character, you're gonna have a conclusion, you're gonna idea, idea ways to tell your story, but please tell your story and do it with heart. That's one thing that we have as creatures as women. We are divine creatures created so special. And so we have intuition. We have these core values that we can share with the world. Please share your stories with the world. We want to hear them, we need to hear them. We need to know what you're doing, especially in tech. The more we think about leading with empathy, women will do this more and more. 98% of our technology is done by men. Think about that. 98% of our products and our services in te tech are led and created by men. We need to do more and we need to empathize more and we need to uh deliver our stories more and more so that we can pave the way for other women and for their daughters and their daughters, daughters. Thank you so much for having me.

Wow, Mary. That was fantastic. I, I can't imagine we would have didn't have a chance to speak on our stage today. That was so wonderful. People are sharing so many positive comments in our chat and um, saying how it resonates with them that they love it. And it's a great speech and this is very good. And so I'm already asking a recording for later. So this is fantastic. Probably some people want to re-watch and it totally resonated with you what you said and especially not being married to your job, but being married to yourself. And you are so you can, you are powerful, you can do so many things and you are through role model for many who are thinking of starting something in, in that direction by empowering others. That was amazing. Thank you, wonderful sessions and great energy. Thank you very much, Mary.

Yeah. Thank

you for having me. And if you have some time, stay with us, go to the networking area and try to connect with some people. I, I feel it will be a great surprise. If they will manage to connect with you. The audience feels super calm for your talk. Absolutely. Thank you very much and see you at more at our events.