Series
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Ana Corrales

In this episode of "A LA LATINA: The Playbook to Succeed Being Your Authentic Self," hosts Claudia Romo Edelman and Cynthia Kleinbaum Milner chat with Ana Corrales, the dynamic COO at Google Devices and Services. Through their enlightening dialogue, they unveil three profound takeaways that can illuminate and guide anyone striving for success.

1- Process of Elimination in Career Growth

Ana emphasizes the essence of advancing in one's career by a process of elimination. This means diving into roles you might not necessarily cherish, but ensuring you always leave a positive impact. The golden rule? Always leave them better than you found them and, importantly, never sever ties.

2- Embracing Constructive Feedback

The second pearl of wisdom Ana shares centers on the power of feedback, even if it stings. It's about learning to extract what's beneficial for personal growth while sidelining the rest. Anna's candid narrative on being told to "be a little less" serves as a testament to this principle.

3- Finding Your True Calling

Ana delves into the art of identifying one's genuine passion early in their journey. By pinpointing what truly invigorates her, Ana demonstrates the importance of aligning career paths with personal energies and passions.

This episode of "A LA LATINA" is an arsenal of insights for those determined to flourish while remaining genuine to their identity. Ana Corrales' seasoned perspectives, channeled through our hosts, offer an enticing and educative blueprint for navigating professional terrains. Dive in for these enriching lessons and a whole lot more in this stimulating dialogue.
Show transcript
00:00
Ola. I'm Claudia Romo Edelman and I'm Cynthia Kleinbaum Milner.
00:03
And this is a podcast,
00:05
a La Latina, the playbook to succeed being your authentic self
00:08
today, Anna Corrales,
00:10
amazing leader. She's a coo at Google for Devices and Services
00:14
And we're gonna have three main things that you're gonna learn
00:17
from this incredible podcast.
00:19
The first one is how you can climb the ladder by process
00:22
of elimination. This means having jobs you may not like,
00:26
but making sure you always leave them better than you found them
00:29
Never burn bridges.
00:31
Number two, embrace feedback that hurts.
00:35
Take what is useful for your growth and disregard the rest like
00:39
Anna did when she was told to be a little less.
00:42
And the third one is remember that we can't live life backwards
00:46
but you can make sure to identify your true calling early
00:49
on. She did it by identifying what gave her energy and
00:53
all of that and more here in the podcast.
00:56
A La Latina stick around Hola,
01:06
welcome to a new episode of the podcast,
01:09
a La Latina, the playbook to succeed being your authentic self
01:13
today. We're absolutely excited.
01:15
We have a stellar guest,
01:17
Anna Corrales she's the coo of Google devices and services and we're
01:22
so happy to have you here today.
01:23
Thank you so much.
01:24
I'm super excited to be here.
01:25
Excellent. So what does the coo of Google devices and services
01:30
do I work? the part of Google that makes
01:33
consumer hardware? So I'll just show you because it's easier.
01:36
So, you know,
01:37
this is our new phone that we just actually released yesterday in
01:40
New York. So super excited to be in New York with
01:42
you guys that yeah,
01:44
exactly. You know,
01:46
we do headphones and Fitbit Nest products.
01:49
So I hope many of you have our products in your home
01:51
and we spend a lot of time making them for people
01:54
to love them and use them every day.
01:56
So that's what I do,
01:58
but here, here's my place.
02:02
I love it. So that's basically what you're leading all devices
02:06
of Google. So my manager Rick Osterloh leads the entire devices
02:12
and services and I run all of operations for that.
02:14
So that includes, you know,
02:15
managing our development process,
02:17
managing all of our supply chain,
02:18
customer support it like sort of end to end,
02:21
kind of making sure that it all comes together.
02:24
So launch time is kind of,
02:27
you know, our biggest moment of the year because everything we've
02:29
been working for, for 18 months,
02:32
12 months really has to come together for people to be able
02:35
to get their devices on hand and you know,
02:38
we actually have a couple of stores here in New York.
02:40
So people just want to go after the launch and buy their
02:42
thing. And so many things need to come together to make
02:45
that happen. And my team is responsible for ensuring that all
02:48
comes together. I just have to say you just boosted my
02:51
ego big time because you're here the day after lunch.
02:54
This is like looking fabulous,
02:57
but also all roads lead to you.
03:00
We've been talking for many,
03:03
many years to different companies and you're the most senior Latina in
03:07
Google and probably in STEM in the entire industry.
03:11
So it's fantastic to have you with us.
03:12
Tell us more about you,
03:13
your upbringing, what led you to be who you are today
03:17
and what you do today?
03:18
Well, I'm originally from Costa Rica.
03:19
So Central America, I grew up there my whole life and
03:22
I think how I ended up here,
03:24
you know, I always joked that you should live life backwards
03:26
because you would have so much more insights about things that you
03:29
should have seen earlier in your career that you were probably too
03:32
busy to pay attention to it.
03:33
But I think for me,
03:35
you know, my parents are both,
03:36
really, were both scientists.
03:38
My dad was an engineer,
03:39
he passed a few years ago and my mom is a phd
03:42
in Botany. So,
03:43
you know, they were really stem people and I think they
03:46
you know, we sort of inherited that love for science
03:50
and for math, it's something that was a huge part of
03:53
you know what we did.
03:54
And then when I was probably 15 or 16,
03:59
because Costa Rica is such a small country at that time,
04:01
they show you how to try to be an entrepreneur because it's
04:04
unlikely you're gonna end up working in a big multinational company.
04:07
And so I was elected to do that and they taught us
04:10
how to sort of run little companies.
04:12
And I was nominated to be the GM for my little company
04:15
And we made scrunchies which,
04:17
you know, you all know,
04:18
in Lati, in Latin America,
04:19
they're very popular. Everybody has a Oh yeah.
04:22
Oh, for sure.
04:23
They're so fun. Everybody has long hair.
04:25
And so basically we created that and,
04:29
you know, my mom really liked sewing.
04:30
She had all these fabrics that were free.
04:32
So for those who are in finance,
04:34
that's free cogs, right?
04:35
So free, free material is always a great thing.
04:38
And the grandmas were willing to help us because they,
04:40
you know, love helping little girls.
04:42
And so that was free labor.
04:44
So our margins were amazing.
04:45
And, you know,
04:46
we end up running this thing and then we were supposed to
04:48
shut it down about six months later.
04:51
But we were having so much fun and we were making frankly
04:53
a lot of money for teenagers,
04:55
especially in Latin America.
04:57
So we kept, you know,
04:58
we kept it going and then,
04:59
we kept it going for years and I sold it,
05:02
you know, when we came,
05:02
when I came to study in the US and we did this
05:05
deal with like the national supermarket and it was great.
05:08
You could see your product when you went to the supermarket.
05:11
It was amazing. So you would have thought super obvious.
05:14
I love product. I should have known that at that moment
05:17
Didn't have a clue.
05:18
Just was like, oh,
05:19
that was fun on to college.
05:21
And I was,
05:22
you know, intimidated by coming to college in the US.
05:25
You know, it's a big step for sure.
05:26
But it took me many years later,
05:28
probably a good decade later to really realize,
05:31
I love products. I love doing things.
05:33
I love creating. I studied engineering but I just,
05:37
you know, all these connections didn't really happen until much later
05:40
So, yeah,
05:41
it's a little bit about me and Costa Rica.
05:43
You're talking about this idea that you've introduced in other podcasts or
05:47
in other interviews about finding your calling by process of elimination,
05:52
right? So you're saying you should have known that you loved
05:55
product when you had your business with Scrunchy.
05:58
How did that process of elimination feel?
06:01
And I'm asking you this because I've found myself many times in
06:05
jobs that I don't like.
06:06
And I bet you a lot of our listeners are feeling the
06:09
same word sometimes you're like,
06:10
I made this mistake.
06:11
Why am I in this role?
06:12
How do I get out of this?
06:14
What can I learn from this one that will position me for
06:17
a different role? So,
06:18
if you can help our audience have a playbook when they find
06:21
themselves in a job that they don't love to take the next
06:25
role that will get them closer to their calling.
06:27
Yeah. No, I think that's great.
06:28
I think that basis for me is that I really love learning
06:32
I mean, to be honest,
06:33
I was, you know,
06:34
pretty nerdy then. I'm still pretty nerdy now.
06:36
I mean, so I just love any new topic.
06:39
I will just go into it and go deeply into it.
06:42
And I think that was the genesis of me change roles a
06:44
lot was I would do something,
06:46
I'd learn it, I'd hopefully contribute and then I want to
06:49
learn something new and learn it and contribute.
06:52
And the reason I say it was a process of elimination is
06:55
that I would go into these roles and exactly like you're saying
06:57
sometimes you would love it and sometimes she would be like
07:00
wow, this is really not for me.
07:02
But I think you need to be,
07:04
you know, the advice I would have for people if you're
07:06
in that situation. One,
07:08
be really honest about it.
07:10
Like, you have to be brave enough to say,
07:12
I don't like this.
07:13
I want to make a change,
07:14
but it's also important that you have a responsibility.
07:16
You took that role.
07:17
You need to, you need to leave the place better than
07:19
you found it and you need to contribute.
07:21
I don't think it's ok for you to just jump from Lily
07:24
Pad to Lily Pad and not really give back to anything.
07:27
It's super important that you learn.
07:29
You have to be open to the fact that you may not
07:31
know everything you very likely won't and you have to go there
07:35
and learn. And actually I've had jobs where I didn't think
07:38
I like them probably because I didn't know what I was doing
07:41
Then I learned,
07:42
you know, over time and then I actually started to like
07:45
it more. So you have to give it a bit of
07:46
a chance. But I would just say it takes courage to
07:49
change jobs. It's disruptive in your,
07:51
you know, in your daily life,
07:53
in your routine. If you have a family,
07:54
it's disruptive. And I think you have to be super comfortable
07:57
with saying I'm gonna be,
07:58
I'm gonna be uncomfortable.
08:00
And when people say that like,
08:01
hey, go be uncomfortable,
08:03
I think you hear it but you don't really like absorb what
08:06
it means, it means like you're gonna really not feel great
08:10
you're gonna really be disruptive.
08:12
And so you need to be able to have the courage
08:14
to do that. And what I see is that people don't
08:17
really, they really react instead of being,
08:20
you know, proactive they wait until the manager has the conversation
08:24
Like, look,
08:25
I don't think you like it or look,
08:26
I don't think this is working out when in reality,
08:29
you probably knew that long time ago.
08:32
And so if there's one skill that I think I had to
08:36
learn for myself, I'm such a busy body.
08:39
I love what I do love being busy.
08:42
It was to slow down and have the white space,
08:46
which is still a challenge for me today.
08:48
And I try really hard to do that because when you do
08:51
that, you will be able to hear yourself better and say
08:54
actually, I don't like this job and make that conclusion
08:57
We've heard from almost every one of our previous guests that
09:00
careers are long. And when you're like in a job that
09:03
you don't like, you're like,
09:03
this is going to destroy my career.
09:06
It, it will not,
09:07
it definitely. And I think that's the other.
09:08
I think you bring up super point.
09:10
It doesn't. And I think people will look at how you
09:13
exit a place, whether it's a huge success or sort of
09:17
a medium success or not a great success.
09:19
But they will always remember how you ended up leaving a role
09:22
And if you're in a role that you don't like,
09:24
and you leave it in a very graceful way and you leave
09:27
in a way that you've contributed back,
09:28
right? They made an investment in you,
09:30
you need to give back.
09:31
But you're also making a decision,
09:32
a very conscious decision to move forward.
09:34
I think there'll be a lot of respect for that and you'll
09:37
end up learning something may not be what you want to do
09:39
for your career. But,
09:41
you know, but you'll learn something and careers are,
09:44
you know, they were long before they're now longer.
09:46
So, don't worry about that.
09:48
You definitely, it's definitely not gonna decide anything in your career
09:51
You know, I have a like a personal example
09:54
of that. I,
09:54
at some point I didn't know what I wanted to do when
09:57
I left consulting, I was working at BC G and you
10:00
know what happens after consulting?
10:01
You're like, I'm burned out.
10:02
I need to just take a break.
10:04
And I ended up working with my dad who has a textile
10:06
trading company and I was going to Asia to the factories and
10:10
every time I was on a plane,
10:11
I was like, what am,
10:12
what am I doing?
10:13
Why am I doing this?
10:14
This is not marketing,
10:15
this is not what I love my next job.
10:18
I got it because I knew how to search private label brands
10:22
I worked at Guild Group and they were launching their private
10:25
label and I had 90% of my job was something else.
10:28
But the 10% of private label I knew it because I worked
10:32
with my dad before.
10:33
So you may not see it while you're working on it.
10:35
But if you can learn something,
10:37
you can use it later.
10:38
100%. And I,
10:39
how many of us have gotten jobs up to 10%?
10:42
A lot. You know,
10:43
and I hope that there's many more because I think as Latinas
10:46
we tend to aim actually for the 90%.
10:49
I see this at work all the time.
10:50
They're like, there's 10 requirements.
10:53
I have all 10.
10:54
But I, you know,
10:55
I think I should also have 11 and 12.
10:57
And do you think I should apply even though you were like
10:59
12 out of 10?
11:00
You know. And I think people need to get much
11:03
better, especially Latinas,
11:05
much better at saying like I'm just gonna go for it.
11:07
I mean, to be honest,
11:09
guys just go for it just being honest that they do.
11:12
And you see that when you're interviewing them,
11:14
they're like, I know nothing about this,
11:15
but here's why I'm gonna be awesome.
11:17
And then you have the next candidate who says I know everything
11:19
about this, but I'm really nervous.
11:21
So it's really interesting to see that and,
11:24
and the data indicates that man 90% un match with that
11:29
job. And nevertheless,
11:30
they go, so with 10% they feel like I can swing
11:32
this lower that women,
11:35
women is like 50% Latinas is really high.
11:38
Unless you feel that you're a 90% competency,
11:42
which is like a real difference with men,
11:44
then you don't go and,
11:45
and we do impose that in post or syndrome a lot more
11:48
But I wanna go back to,
11:50
we've heard that careers are long and a lot of people have
11:52
taken lateral moves or even backward moves in order to learn the
11:57
operations of a business.
11:58
Even if it was so scary for Latinas,
12:00
that is almost unheard of because we don't have the luxury of
12:04
the salary, you know,
12:05
like downgrade and so on.
12:07
But it seems that knowing the operations of the place where you
12:10
are are more than that 10% even if it's that it's gonna
12:13
leapfrog you in a bigger way.
12:16
I I'm a huge believer and maybe this is because I've worked
12:20
in, you know,
12:20
multiple start ups and also,
12:22
you know, bigger corporations and I've been really fortunate to work
12:24
in some great places,
12:25
but I, I'm a huge believer.
12:28
You need to understand what business you're in and you need to
12:32
understand how that business is running and how that business is succeeding
12:36
or not succeeding. And what are the metrics that matter and
12:38
how are you going to make,
12:40
you know, your product and company better and you don't do
12:44
that by being sort of surface level under understanding and that's why
12:48
they say, you know,
12:49
and I'm super biased,
12:50
right? I'm, I'm an operator.
12:51
There's many people who are and so that's our bias.
12:55
But I think if you really truly know,
12:58
how do you bring an idea,
13:00
you know, how do you start with something that says,
13:02
hey, I have,
13:03
you know, idea for this project and how do you actually
13:07
make it from there to something,
13:09
you know, physical or a software or a service that you
13:12
really are going to deliver?
13:13
And then what's all the go to market to that and really
13:16
sort of end to end understanding of that?
13:19
I think it makes you so much better.
13:20
I think the other benefit of doing that at some point in
13:23
your career and earlier is better,
13:25
by the way, I would say is that you then get
13:28
to say, oh,
13:30
I like this piece but not much that piece and I like
13:33
that other piece much better.
13:35
So for example, for me,
13:36
I'm an engineer but,
13:38
you know, I did enough tours of,
13:41
you know, different roles that I ended up really liking finance
13:44
Like I think it's such fun and they can be really
13:46
influential and there's so much to learn there.
13:49
I was really humbled by how many different disciplines there are in
13:51
finance. I would have never known that had I not rotated
13:54
into that role. So,
13:56
you know, I think you get to understand deeply how to
14:00
make your business successful and,
14:01
and whether you're passionate about that business or not.
14:04
And so I, I do think going,
14:06
you know, into the operations and understanding it makes a big
14:09
difference for sure. And earlier is better in a personal note
14:13
I am thinking about this a lot because of it took
14:17
me this amount of years to come to the realization of that
14:20
But when I when I remember my father,
14:23
God bless him, he was never intended to,
14:26
you know, like to put me into that position.
14:27
But he did two things.
14:29
One, he told me what a great copilot I was because
14:32
I always went in the highway.
14:34
He was an engineer.
14:35
So he was always taking me from Mexico to Acapulco and to
14:38
Iapa. And I was like the oregano,
14:39
an engineer. I feel like what a great copilot you are
14:43
And only five years ago I saw my resume and I
14:46
was like, oh,
14:46
I've been the right hand of someone my entire life without any
14:50
intention. He gave me that piece and it took me a
14:54
real effort to become the pilot or even try to become a
14:57
pilot. So how do you discover that if you are a
15:01
young Latina, how do you have that moment?
15:03
What is a tweak?
15:04
I think that I think I have two tricks.
15:06
But again, you know,
15:07
this is after, I wish I had,
15:09
I would have had these.
15:10
I didn't, I think one of them looking back now is
15:13
and you maybe can,
15:14
can, you know,
15:15
see this too, whatever is easy for you.
15:19
Like, you don't really tend to count it as much because
15:22
you don't even notice because it's sort of easy for you.
15:24
So for example, for you,
15:26
you know, being able to rally people and you know,
15:29
being loud and getting people excited and giving energy,
15:32
giving all that energy probably gave you energy.
15:34
But you didn't sort of realize that because it was effortless.
15:37
So I think what's super important is as a person to sit
15:39
back and say in those quiet moments saying what gives me energy
15:43
and what doesn't give me energy.
15:45
Like I love, for example,
15:47
being in product reviews and,
15:50
you know, in some boards I sit in,
15:51
we know we do product reviews there too and I've realized it
15:54
almost doesn't matter what product it is.
15:56
It's just so cool to be there in that creation process and
15:59
making it real and making it possible and touch it with your
16:03
hands, isn't it so pretty?
16:05
Yeah, exactly. So I love that,
16:08
but I didn't realize that that gave me so much energy.
16:11
There's other activities I need to do that I can do and
16:15
I work at it.
16:16
But when I leave that activity,
16:17
I'm exhausted, I'm so tired.
16:20
And so I now realize noticing where your energy just naturally goes
16:25
up and where your energy naturally goes down gives you a really
16:29
good indication where you like spending your time.
16:31
It doesn't mean you can't do one thing.
16:33
It just means you're spending energy when you do that.
16:36
So I think that's one big piece.
16:38
I think the second big piece is to sort of write
16:41
down how you're feeling about these roles because when you,
16:45
I, at least for me,
16:45
when I write something down like this bothered me or this made
16:49
me really happy and then I sort of look at it over
16:52
time, you know,
16:53
maybe over a six month period or something.
16:55
I feel like it gives me insights that I normally because we're
17:00
too busy. Oh,
17:00
everybody, let's go.
17:01
You know, you're,
17:02
you're so busy. You don't really get to see those insights
17:05
And for me,
17:06
there's something about just putting on paper,
17:08
it really comes together for me.
17:10
And it's giving me insights that I didn't really know.
17:12
In fact, that's one of the reasons I decided to leave
17:14
One of the roles I had and go to a start
17:16
up was I just sort of realized,
17:18
oh, this is a trend for me and I don't know
17:20
that I would have had,
17:21
you know, perhaps the insight to,
17:23
to realize there was a trend.
17:25
It's sort of the Boiling Frog syndrome,
17:26
right? But when you,
17:28
when you write it down,
17:29
you sort of see these data points that are unrefuted,
17:31
said by an engineer.
17:32
Of course, I'm like,
17:33
give me the data points.
17:34
OK. The conclusion is,
17:35
but that's what happens to me personally.
17:37
But I think the majority for me is the energy.
17:40
Like I, I can just tell when I Elmo Metro,
17:44
you know, when,
17:45
when we had the lo entro la Latina here we have a
17:47
cocktail party and we spoke and after I spoke,
17:50
my husband approached me and he said,
17:52
like you were a different person.
17:54
I feel like this is what you were born to do.
17:57
And I'm like cocktail parties.
17:58
Great. But you know what I will tell you,
18:01
let's pick on the cocktail party.
18:02
Cocktail parties are one of the ones that I can do.
18:05
I'll have fun. But the second I leave that door,
18:08
it's like somebody sapped me of all energy.
18:10
I don't know why.
18:11
Like I'm a social person.
18:12
I like people but I just,
18:14
I'm not just talking about cocktail party.
18:16
I was talking about like Latinas,
18:18
Latinas. But you know what I mean?
18:20
Like, but these,
18:21
these are examples of things that,
18:23
you know, that's a skill frankly to be able to,
18:26
you know, talk to people and get people.
18:27
And you know, it's just that networking.
18:29
And I realized for me that networking is actual work versus if
18:33
I am in a product discussion,
18:35
that's zero work. So it's just interesting to see where that
18:38
energy comes from. You said you love product and nevertheless,
18:41
you came to the US instead of leading that and you came
18:44
to the traditional route of academia.
18:46
Tell us more about that.
18:47
Yeah, I mean,
18:47
well, first of all,
18:48
my parents were both academic.
18:49
So there was no chance that I was gonna be like,
18:51
oh, I've decided I'm an entrepreneur and I'm just like,
18:53
gonna skip college. They were like,
18:55
oh, no. You know,
18:56
I'm a master's and they were like,
18:58
mm, ok, that's kind of acceptable.
19:00
It's not a phd but,
19:01
ok, you know,
19:02
that's acceptable. So definitely college was,
19:05
in the cards for us.
19:06
And I think my parents,
19:07
I was super fortunate they wanted to give us an education outside
19:10
of Costa Rica because they felt Costa Rica,
19:13
you know, was a very small country at that time.
19:15
So it still is and very limited in opportunity.
19:18
So I think they really wanted us to experience just how broad
19:21
the world really is and how broad the opportunities really were.
19:24
I think the one thing that they did very well for us
19:26
was they just had no limit on,
19:29
you know, I think they,
19:30
they allowed us to dream big.
19:32
I mean, I just don't really think they had anything like
19:35
you know, you should be this or you should be
19:37
that or don't do that,
19:38
don't do this and huge credit to my dad,
19:40
you know, my dad,
19:41
you know, grew up in Costa Rica,
19:43
very traditional person. And so to send,
19:46
you know, there's four of us,
19:47
my sister, my brother,
19:49
me and my little brother,
19:50
but to send his two daughters,
19:51
I mean, you guys know the culture to a different country
19:54
when they're 18 was like not normal.
19:59
I think it was a big exception for him and I
20:01
knew that. Yeah,
20:02
so I came to the US to study,
20:04
I should have known I wanted to study engineering but I didn't
20:07
I ended up just kind of going to school,
20:10
figuring out what I liked and like,
20:12
did kind of math econ because I was good at numbers.
20:15
And then I took a class that was sort of a little
20:18
bit into product design.
20:19
And so I decided,
20:20
I really like that and that's why I decided to grad school
20:23
and engineering. So that's how I ended up choosing my degrees
20:26
But I wish,
20:28
I mean, I just should have been so obvious and I
20:30
would have taken probably different classes if I had,
20:33
had the moment to listen to myself.
20:35
But I just didn't.
20:36
So maybe you wouldn't be here,
20:37
you may be successful.
20:39
So, you know,
20:40
you never know. So let's go back to your first job
20:43
Cisco. You were there for nine years.
20:46
You got promoted seven times.
20:48
I think. I'm not great at math.
20:49
But that's a lot.
20:50
Yeah. Well, actually Cisco was not my first job.
20:53
My first job was HP.
20:54
But yes, I went to Cisco very early on.
20:56
I was super fortunate to go to Cisco and Cisco was just
21:00
you know, like a rocket.
21:01
Right. It was just growing so much.
21:02
And I think that's one thing,
21:04
you know, people look at my career and they think there's
21:06
some magic sauce that I have.
21:07
I'm sorry. But that's just not the case.
21:09
Right. I think I'm a hard worker and I definitely want
21:12
to do things. But I was also super fortunate to be
21:14
in the right place at the right time.
21:16
And Cisco was growing a lot.
21:17
I think the other thing that I would highlight about my journey
21:21
in Cisco are 21 is this love of learning.
21:24
I was so young.
21:25
I just wanted to learn.
21:27
So I would do a job and then the person I was
21:30
working with, I'm like,
21:31
oh, what do you do?
21:32
And that's interesting, let me go do that job next.
21:34
And so then I,
21:35
I just without realizing,
21:37
was trying to understand that end to end.
21:40
And that's how I ended up in so many different functions
21:43
because I, oh,
21:44
what does engineering do?
21:45
What does finance do?
21:46
What does operations do?
21:47
You know, I didn't really hit all the way to marketing
21:49
but I ended up,
21:50
you know, doing a lot of rotations on that.
21:52
And I think what happened is that allowed me after a while
21:56
to basically do big start up efforts within the company where they
22:00
there was like a massive problem.
22:02
They don't even really know how to articulate the problem,
22:04
like, you know,
22:05
spill an ALE four and they're like,
22:08
send a SWAT team to A L four and see what's going
22:10
on in A L four.
22:11
And I was like part of that SWAT team.
22:13
So I always say I was running towards the building that was
22:16
on fire instead of running away from the building that was on
22:18
fire. And I think that's one of the reasons I ended
22:21
up getting, you know,
22:22
a lot of opportunities because I would,
22:24
you know, deal with these very difficult ambiguous things and be
22:28
able to sort of make sense of it and structure it and
22:30
be able to then manage it in a way that it could
22:34
exist long term and hand it off to somebody else.
22:36
And then I go do the next bill and,
22:38
you know, aisle seven.
22:39
So that was an interesting thing.
22:41
And then the second thing I would highlight in my tour at
22:44
Cisco, I was incredibly,
22:46
I mean, better lucky than good.
22:48
I had the super good fortune of having two incredible mentors there
22:52
who really believed in me.
22:54
I didn't work for them directly.
22:56
I just did in one case,
22:58
I did a project for the person and,
23:01
you know, they just sort of really took,
23:03
took me under their wing.
23:04
And then the second one,
23:05
it was the, the person ended up being Ceo of
23:08
Cisco. And when he was earlier in her career,
23:12
I was in his organization but not directly reporting to him.
23:15
And I was doing one of these big crazy projects.
23:19
And, you know,
23:20
I think they after,
23:21
after that was successful,
23:23
they really invested themselves in,
23:25
in my career and those mentors have made a huge difference.
23:29
They're still mentors of me today.
23:30
I can call them and in literally under a minute,
23:34
they know me so well.
23:35
They can just say like this advice or that advice or yell
23:38
at me if they think I'm out of line,
23:39
which they do. And in five seconds,
23:42
they can just like read you.
23:43
I feel. So they've been incredible people that I admire
23:48
long term mentors, long term mentors.
23:50
They still do it like I will still call them.
23:51
I'm like, hey,
23:52
I have this issue,
23:53
you know, I don't work at Cisco anymore.
23:54
They don't either but struggling,
23:57
you know, with Xy and Z and they're like,
23:59
OK, tell me the scoop and so I'll tell them,
24:01
you know, whatever the problem might be and they'll just give
24:04
me incredible advice in like under five minutes.
24:07
It's really impressive. It sounds like they were your sponsors and
24:10
now they're your mentors when you were,
24:12
they were your sponsors.
24:13
You're right. What she mentioned about running towards the fire to
24:17
projects that are ambiguous and difficult.
24:19
We've heard from other guests that Latinas like just growing up in
24:24
Latin America gives you a sense of like,
24:27
I, I have to fix it.
24:28
Like there's, I know,
24:30
right. So unshakeable,
24:32
you can navigate conflict this year because it's always,
24:35
it's always, it's always,
24:37
that's one of the things that we and to tell corporations like
24:40
Latinos are more comfortable with ambiguity.
24:42
We are not shaken by a problem.
24:46
Exactly. We go and fix it and change pretty well.
24:50
We can, you know,
24:51
and do like, yeah,
24:52
I, I definitely think so and I think it,
24:54
it helped me actually to be,
24:56
you know, to be loud,
24:57
to be very gregarious and get people excited and,
25:01
you know, just you gotta have your team believe that it's
25:03
possible. And I think that's super important.
25:05
They see the leader.
25:05
If the leader thinks it's possible they're gonna go around that hill
25:08
you know, but if they see a leader that's shaky
25:11
or uncomfortable, you know,
25:12
it's a lot harder.
25:13
And so I think having that conviction of like,
25:15
oh no, this is not happening in my house and we're
25:17
gonna fix it, we're gonna fix it right now like that
25:19
was so motivating I think for the whole team and it was
25:23
a blast too. I mean,
25:24
we just created such fun memories.
25:25
So yeah, it was really a great time.
25:28
You mentioned your mentors as being crucial in your being able to
25:32
be comfortable and going to the house where there was fire.
25:35
Probably those mentors like your parents encourage you to dream big.
25:40
We've also heard from other guests that they are not running to
25:45
the house of fire but trying to solve the big agenda items
25:49
of someone else and over volunteering.
25:52
And I think that I heard good and bad and that.
25:55
Yeah. Yeah. No,
25:56
I definitely think first of all,
25:58
I do want to just say one thing on the mentors and
26:00
sponsors because you trigger that thought for me,
26:03
I think they were first mentors became sponsors and mentors again because
26:07
it's hard for somebody to be your sponsor without knowing you.
26:10
They have to know that you are a person that works hard
26:12
that has integrity,
26:14
that, you know,
26:14
really wants the right thing and that,
26:16
that's, they wanna sponsor that type of leadership and then eventually
26:20
they sort of give you the sponsorship.
26:21
So I just wanna highlight that.
26:22
They also don't look like me.
26:24
So I think if I had waited for,
26:26
you know, a female Latinx leader to take me under their
26:30
wing, I mean,
26:30
I, I would still be sitting,
26:32
I'd still be waiting.
26:32
So I just, I think it's super important that they,
26:34
they look generally nothing like you.
26:37
somebody that helped me a lot was a sales person that
26:39
you know, I didn't,
26:40
I didn't mean a first sale person until I was like 30
26:42
because I came from a stem background,
26:45
right? And they think so differently than,
26:47
than I did. And so that was super helpful.
26:50
They look nothing like you generally and they generally have different backgrounds
26:53
and that's really helpful.
26:55
And then to your point on the over volunteering and overdo that
26:58
that has gotten me both huge advantages and also in trouble
27:03
right? Because earlier in my career and I'm hoping that
27:06
I'm better at this now,
27:07
I would, you know,
27:09
you're with your peers,
27:10
you think it's like a big Latin family,
27:11
right? So your brother,
27:12
you're like, hey,
27:13
II, I work mostly with men.
27:15
Right. So it's like he's your brother.
27:16
So you're like, hey,
27:17
you missed a spot,
27:19
da da da, you know,
27:19
do this, do that.
27:20
And that shockingly gets annoying to them.
27:23
Of course, I didn't think so.
27:25
Right. I'm like,
27:25
I'm helping you. Like,
27:26
there's a pothole right there.
27:28
You're about to run into it.
27:29
And so I had to sort of realize when over volunteering is
27:33
helpful and when over volunteering is not helpful.
27:36
But what is true is that when there is an issue and
27:39
there's a problem, the problem doesn't necessitate people looking at it
27:42
and admiring it and describing it perfectly.
27:46
They need somebody who's going to go fix it.
27:48
And I think it's super important as a leader.
27:50
You can see that in your own team,
27:51
you have an issue,
27:52
you have 10 people on your team.
27:54
There's gonna be, you know,
27:55
five who are like,
27:56
oh my God, that's,
27:57
that's really bad. That accident looks that train wreck looks bad
28:00
You know, there's maybe two or two that are like
28:03
I could maybe help,
28:04
but I'm like, waiting to be asked and then there's like
28:07
one or two who are going to be like me.
28:09
I like this is my idea.
28:11
This is my proposal.
28:12
So I think there's a huge difference between admiring a problem and
28:15
proposing a solution and the more you propose and the more you
28:19
actually help people are going to notice that because it's that initiative
28:22
of saying, you know,
28:23
not under my watch,
28:24
not happening under my watch.
28:26
And so I think that's really important for,
28:28
for people to see if you're sitting there and you're like,
28:30
I have this idea,
28:31
I think I could do it.
28:33
You know, you're thinking in your head,
28:35
nobody else can hear what's happening here.
28:37
You actually have to say I have an idea and I can
28:40
help and I have a proposal,
28:41
you have to sort of move instead of just sitting there thinking
28:44
and analyzing or over analyzing,
28:46
which is probably you're doing at that time would love to know
28:49
a little bit more of being a Latina in stem in tech
28:54
the highest ranked in your company probably of the entire
28:58
industry or maybe what has been an advantage for you of being
29:04
a Latina to get you there.
29:06
And what has been a disadvantage?
29:07
Where had you had pains,
29:10
bruises, dial downs and how did you fix them?
29:14
I think that's a great question and I definitely have had both
29:17
I would say for me,
29:18
it's been by far an advantage more than a disadvantage.
29:22
I'll talk about the bruises because there are some and we'll definitely
29:25
talk about those. But I would say for me,
29:27
what has been just the energy,
29:29
the positive, you know,
29:30
like you have positive energy,
29:32
you're super energetic. People are excited,
29:34
you know, you're a happy person.
29:35
I mean, let's,
29:36
let's be honest. Right.
29:37
You just put music,
29:38
you're like,,
29:38
it's not that bad.
29:39
Let's, you know,
29:40
like nothing, music can't fix without music.
29:42
Exactly. We do it.
29:45
But, you know,
29:45
I think just getting people excited and to believe that something that's
29:49
very hard is possible.
29:51
And I think also frankly,
29:54
for me, when I became a mom,
29:55
you know, family is a really important part of our culture
29:58
I think people understand and respect that and it made me
30:01
a better leader. So I think overall by miles,
30:04
people will feel super comfortable coming and telling me things,
30:08
they'll tell me their life story.
30:09
You know, that's one of the funny things people say about
30:11
me, like, and it just happened the other day,
30:13
I was getting my haircut,
30:14
this lady told me her life story and at the end,
30:17
she's like, I have never done that.
30:18
I don't even know what happened.
30:19
I just, I don't even know what happened.
30:22
Yeah, I trust you and I don't know why,
30:23
but I just trusted you.
30:25
And I felt really,
30:27
you know, really privileged that she had done that actually created
30:30
sort of a different bond.
30:31
So I think it has allowed me to create these really genuine
30:34
bonds because I do care and,
30:35
and that's sort of our culture and,
30:37
and also like you guys said,
30:39
you know, we don't really mind a mess because generally speaking
30:43
there's a lot of mess,
30:44
right? And how we sort of grew up.
30:46
So I think it's been an overwhelming positive thing for me.
30:49
I think the bruises have come exactly what you said.
30:51
Hey, can you please speak less?
30:54
Like number of times,
30:55
can you? Oh,
30:56
yeah, for sure.
30:57
Yeah. So can you just be like a little less?
31:01
And it's really interesting when I was first told that I was
31:04
so insulted, I was just like,
31:05
I can't believe. Do you,
31:06
do you say this to other people?
31:08
Do you say this to my colleagues?
31:10
Like, you know,
31:11
and so it's interesting in that I was very offended,
31:16
but at the same time,
31:16
there was a bit of feedback that was real,
31:19
that could have made me more effective.
31:20
So I think when you get this,
31:22
when you get feedback,
31:23
that hurts, it's been my experience that generally speaking there,
31:27
you're gonna have to figure out which part of the feedback you're
31:31
gonna really take in and would be actually beneficial.
31:33
And it's actually an evolution of you as a leader without giving
31:37
up your genuineness and what part of the feedback that you're like
31:40
you know what?
31:40
Thanks. But I just,
31:42
I mean, like I disagree with you respectfully,
31:45
I disagree with you and I'm not going to change who I
31:47
am at the core.
31:48
And if that means I don't fit in here,
31:50
then I'll just go somewhere else like including making my own thing
31:54
But it is the one that hurt the most at that
31:58
time. For me,
32:00
there was feedback and it was around,
32:02
you know, it,
32:02
it was around, I think they said it the wrong way
32:05
and I don't appreciate the way it was said.
32:08
But I think the feedback was helpful in that.
32:11
I was basically not,
32:12
it was like the peer thing,
32:14
right? Like, let's make sure that everybody has a voice
32:16
Let's make sure you,
32:16
you know, pass it around,
32:18
pass the opportunity around and I just,
32:20
we just get excited.
32:21
So we're like, oh,
32:22
and this and that and da,
32:23
da da and they're like,
32:24
ok, too much,
32:25
a little less. Yeah,
32:26
I think they could have done it 1000 times better.
32:29
But there was some feedback there that was real and it was
32:32
more like share the oxygen,
32:34
maybe let's just say it that way.
32:35
And that was a real feedback.
32:37
But I just wish they would have done it in a much
32:39
nicer professional way. But there is a stereotype I think,
32:42
particularly for Latinas to please try to be a little less.
32:47
And how do you deal with that and yet succeed?
32:51
You know, how do you not heal so much of yourself
32:55
that you can still be yourself and use it to your advantage
32:58
Because I think,
32:59
you know, I,
33:00
especially as we get older,
33:01
I think, you know,
33:02
who you are, you know,
33:03
part of the thing that they're telling you to dial down.
33:06
Is the thing that makes you very successful too.
33:09
And so I think you just need to be genuine,
33:13
but you can be genuine and still continue to become a better
33:17
leader and a better person.
33:18
And so I think the option of saying,
33:20
well, they said it in a night in an awful way
33:22
And so I'm going to just be hurt forever and like
33:25
I don't need to change because the way that it was
33:27
said was awful is a bit of a cop out because to
33:32
I mean, in,
33:32
in a way telling you that feedback is hard for people to
33:36
tell you that nobody likes giving feedback.
33:38
Let's be honest, right?
33:39
Especially a real one.
33:40
So, you know,
33:42
whether it was good intent or bad intent,
33:44
how it was said,
33:46
you know, is there something out there that you should listen
33:49
to and a song I think for me,
33:51
the bar that you're asking for the bar is like,
33:53
do I still feel like I'm who I am and my genuine
33:56
self? And if so proceed?
33:58
But I have learned and I will,
34:00
I'm sure there's things I can learn to be much more effective
34:03
today and much better today and you have to be humble enough
34:05
to do that. I mean,
34:06
if you look at professional athletes,
34:09
I'm always so impressed.
34:10
I, I love their stories because they're like at these crazy
34:14
top of their game,
34:16
but they're always learning,
34:17
they're always practicing. They're always making themselves better and talk about
34:20
tough feedback. Right.
34:21
You don't have a good game one day you're out and that
34:25
doesn't happen in my industry,
34:26
at least, you know,
34:27
I don't thank God.
34:28
Right. And so I'm like,
34:29
how do they do that?
34:30
And they're so humble in that and I think there's a lot
34:32
to be respected about that and there's a lot to be learned
34:35
about that. But,
34:36
yeah, I mean,
34:36
have I been told things that were absolutely bruising 100%?
34:42
You said something, Anna that we haven't heard before.
34:45
Claudia. And it really resonated.
34:47
I, I think we have to maybe include it in the
34:50
in the list.
34:51
Yeah, or in the list of things that Latinas are
34:53
great at, at least because I've heard it from others.
34:56
The trust I've heard for many,
35:00
many years from people that when I ask them something and they
35:03
open up to me and then they tell me,
35:04
I have never said this to anyone.
35:06
Like there's something about how I ask the question.
35:08
It's almost the reason why I was like,
35:11
maybe I should start a podcast because I have this ability to
35:14
like get people comfortable to people talking.
35:17
And I didn't realize it was a Latina characteristic.
35:20
So maybe that's one of the things that we have to flip
35:23
the script to. And it's also with human,
35:25
I think the way that it's asked or like there's care,
35:28
people can sense that no judgment,
35:30
they can sense that you care and that there's not like a
35:33
mother, you like a mother,
35:35
you take people within you care,
35:37
you're not going to leave anyone behind.
35:39
If you live like a mother,
35:41
then you're going to create trust for the relationship.
35:44
Strong teams bonding where people are going to go against the wall
35:48
and they definitely will.
35:50
Right? And I think,
35:51
and it comes in all teams,
35:52
right? That's, you know,
35:53
your leaders, your peers,
35:55
your own team, they all have to trust you and that
35:58
trust is slightly different.
35:59
But at the end of the day,
36:01
you know, the decisions will move with the speed of trust
36:03
they definitely will move at the speed of trust.
36:05
And so whatever trust you have is how much faster you and
36:09
more successful you can make some of these really tough decisions.
36:12
I want to talk about the industry stem but just to finish
36:15
on identity, what are the biggest misconceptions that or stereotypes that
36:20
you find for Hispanics,
36:24
particularly in tech? But incorporate America in general?
36:27
I mean, I would say one of them is what we've
36:29
been talking about, which is that there's this feeling that they're
36:34
you know, loud and happy and like,
36:36
you know, and it's just like,
36:38
can we just sort of dial it down and,
36:40
and the feeling is that you can't give that if you give
36:43
this feedback, you know,
36:44
you're gonna like the flowers just gonna,
36:47
you know, die if you will.
36:50
I feel like we're really tough and we can take feedback and
36:53
so, and we can do hard things.
36:55
And so I feel like these are not shrinking violets.
36:58
Like if you have feedback that's going to make somebody more effective
37:02
please tell them.
37:03
And I think you will find that they're extremely resilient,
37:07
more resilient than I think we get credit for and they want
37:10
to grow and they're,
37:11
you know, they want to make a career and they wanna
37:14
like move forward. And so they're waiting for that.
37:18
Can you do it in a kinder way?
37:19
Absolutely. But whatever it is,
37:21
give the feedback because there's a lot more resiliency than I think
37:24
people give credit for.
37:25
And I think, you know,
37:27
I feel like people tippy toe around a little bit too much
37:29
and it's just like,
37:30
you know, I think we're so used to the Latin culture
37:33
and parents are like Mijita,
37:35
like da da, da,
37:36
da da, you know,
37:37
so you're just used to that,
37:38
so compliment, compliment that one.
37:41
Exactly. But I love you.
37:44
So anyway, I think that's the,
37:46
the thing would be is you could say,
37:48
hey, here's some real three pieces of feedback,
37:50
but I love you,
37:51
you know, so,
37:52
and I think that would go a lot better than this tippy
37:54
toeing that's happening pieces of data.
37:57
Number one, according to a book that we're quoting a lot
38:00
here. Grit,
38:02
what Latinos have is grit you can like,
38:06
you can shake the entire thing.
38:08
We're gonna be standing there.
38:09
What we need is two things when you're a mentor,
38:12
number one is to know the rules of the game,
38:15
someone and turns on the light.
38:16
Number two, that they tell you,
38:18
but I think that you can get there.
38:20
And number two, and that's a data point that comes from
38:23
google.org many years ago is that the barriers for Latinos who get
38:27
into tech were number one access to education.
38:29
But number two encouragement,
38:31
no one told them,
38:32
no one told them I can see you like Anna Corrales leading
38:36
Google. How do we do that?
38:38
You know, I,
38:39
this is an incredible question and I spent a lot of time
38:43
on this because I'm actually one of the executive sponsors of Ola
38:46
which is our Latin X er G and some of the
38:49
data you shared. I see it.
38:51
I see that every day.
38:52
I think it's so important for us to get early access to
38:55
to education. There is like that digital divide and making
39:00
sure that we're, you know,
39:01
Google has a ton of programs to try to do that.
39:03
We're working on like doing start up efforts and making,
39:06
you know, training accessible to everybody with our tools.
39:09
And it makes a huge difference because they need to know that
39:11
it exists. They need to know it's a possibility.
39:13
I'll tell one quick story because,
39:16
you know, I was once asked Hey,
39:17
you know, why,
39:18
why have you done,
39:19
you know, Ola at Google and Coni and Cisco and all
39:22
these, er GS for a long time.
39:23
It's a lot of work.
39:24
Like what fuels you to do that.
39:26
And for me, it actually was a story that happened to
39:29
me. I graduated grad school.
39:30
I went to work at HP.
39:32
I was there in my first week.
39:33
I mean, what an innocent,
39:34
I had no idea what I was doing.
39:36
And my manager like,
39:37
hey, come over,
39:38
you're going to this event with me.
39:39
So we went to this event and it was an event for
39:43
high school kids, Latinos to try to get them to
39:46
know like, hey,
39:47
stem is a possibility.
39:48
You two are good at math and you could do that.
39:50
And he's like, don't get in trouble,
39:51
don't say anything, just stay over there,
39:53
right? Because I had been there five minutes.
39:54
So I'm like, OK,
39:55
I'm just gonna sit here and not do anything and Milo be
39:58
pretty, let's hope so.
40:01
Anyway. So basically I was there and do not doing anything
40:05
And this young girl came to talk to me and she
40:08
spoke Spanish of course.
40:09
So we're chatting, you know,
40:10
we're chatting up having a great time and back to the trust
40:13
thing, she starts telling me her life story.
40:15
This is in the Bay area.
40:17
And so she then tells me she's like,
40:18
so, you know,
40:19
I was asked my high school counselor was telling me that I
40:22
should consider applying to,
40:25
to colleges. And I'm like,
40:26
yeah, that's a great idea.
40:27
You definitely should. There's so much you can do da da
40:29
da. And then she's like,
40:30
well, she encouraged me to,
40:31
to apply to this call called Mitt.
40:33
And I'm like, Mitt,
40:33
I've never heard of it.
40:34
I had no idea what she was talking about.
40:36
So then she's like,
40:37
but my family wants me to go.
40:38
Do you know, my mom is thinking maybe I would be
40:41
better off helping them in the car wash because they had like
40:44
a car. They,
40:44
that's where they worked in the car wash.
40:46
So, what do you think?
40:47
And I just remember thinking like,
40:49
how is that a question?
40:51
Of course, you should go to college and I felt so
40:53
bad in retrospect because I had,
40:55
I mean, what an ignorant,
40:56
like, I didn't realize what she was really asking.
40:58
I just had so little thought in my reply and I'm like
41:01
yeah,,
41:02
you should go to college and then later it came to me
41:05
like, 20 minutes later I went to her.
41:06
I'm like, did you say MIT?
41:08
She's like, Mitt,
41:10
I'm like, in Massachusetts.
41:11
She's like, yeah,
41:12
I'm like, yeah,
41:12
that's MIT, you should definitely go to MIT.
41:15
And so if your counselor thinks you should go to MIT,
41:18
you should definitely go to MIT.
41:19
And she's like, is it a good school?
41:20
I'm like, yeah.
41:22
Mhm. It's a really good school.
41:24
You should go and again.
41:26
But I didn't have a lot of thought about what else I
41:29
was breaking in her family or her mental model or her challenges
41:32
I was just like easy chocolate ice cream.
41:34
I like it better than vanilla ice cream.
41:36
And I just felt so bad saying that many years later,
41:40
I was actually at work and I got this letter and it
41:44
was from this girl who had found me and sent me a
41:46
letter and said, I just want you to know I graduated
41:48
from MIT and I was like,
41:50
you know, I thought about that moment.
41:51
I'm like, I went there by chance.
41:54
I had no clue what I was doing.
41:56
I wasn't intentional. Like I literally stumbled across this girl,
42:01
right? And had no interest in understanding her situation.
42:06
I just like spoke without thinking,
42:08
which I felt really bad about and it was still a good
42:10
outcome. So imagine if I put any points of intention,
42:14
if I put any energy units of intention,
42:16
what you could do.
42:17
And I think that is the inspirational thing that you need to
42:19
like these kids need to know that it's possible.
42:21
And, and so that's one of the big reasons for me
42:24
And I think that's one of the big challenges we have
42:26
I think for Latinas,
42:27
the other big challenge to be honest is when they start getting
42:30
to like I'm getting married or I'm thinking about getting married or
42:32
I'm thinking about having kids.
42:34
You know, I've had so many one on ones with super
42:37
talented young female Latinas.
42:40
There was one that she's like,
42:41
I, I'm really worried,
42:42
like, if I get married and I have kids and then
42:44
you know, what is like,
42:45
it seems really overwhelming and what is like after that and,
42:49
you know, can I be successful and have kids?
42:51
And, you know,
42:51
I mean, that's a tough transition,
42:52
let's be honest, it's a tough transition.
42:55
And then I remember asking her,
42:56
I'm like, oh,
42:56
are you, you know,
42:57
are you expecting? She said,
42:58
oh, no, I don't even have a boyfriend but I'm
43:00
just like, planning to make sure,
43:02
you know, and so they plan so far ahead and they
43:05
want to meet their family's expectations and I think having family for
43:08
them is such a big part of that,
43:10
that I see a huge loss in the pipeline there because they
43:14
what they see is the really tough part.
43:16
They don't see what door they're closing 15 years from now,
43:19
or 20 years from now.
43:20
They just see the immediate,
43:22
the immediate window today.
43:23
And so I think educating on that piece also is a really
43:27
important one to do.
43:28
And how are you doing that?
43:29
I mean, I tried to do that through our,
43:31
er, g so we are,
43:32
you know, my,
43:33
cosponsor and I,
43:34
basically are doing a lot of programming on specific topics
43:39
that we think where we see the leaks.
43:40
So we're just trying to like plug programming where we see these
43:44
leaks that will at least will allow an education and a choice
43:47
versus just not knowing.
43:48
And so we have converted our er G from,
43:51
you know, a fun community thing to,
43:55
you know, work and skill building.
43:57
We also try to interject some of the fun,
43:59
but we're trying really hard to create skills,
44:01
not just this community where you can go complain,
44:03
but more so let's give you skills,
44:05
especially where we see these leaks.
44:07
So I'm gonna do a little plug for our social media channel
44:10
because you, you just said something that reminded me of
44:14
questions I had before I went to H BS which is like
44:18
somebody not knowing what mit is for you.
44:20
It's so obvious how can somebody not know but they don't know
44:23
obvious, they don't know.
44:24
And if you, if you are in a family that maybe
44:27
you're the first person going to college,
44:29
how do you know if this is a good school or it's
44:32
not a good school?
44:33
And it's far away from home,
44:34
it's far away from home.
44:35
I didn't know which schools were good,
44:37
which were not good.
44:38
And I, we are actually now asking or like opening the
44:42
door to our audience to ask us those type of questions on
44:45
social media because one of the barriers that we see is the
44:50
weak networks that we have and if you don't have somebody in
44:53
your family that can answer those simple questions,
44:56
then who do you ask?
44:57
So ask us if you have a question and you don't have
45:00
somebody to ask something,
45:02
ask Claudia and I,
45:04
we're gonna answer, our guests are gonna answer,
45:06
we are your network.
45:07
Ok. Got it.
45:09
Right. And I also want to just like before going
45:13
to the end, I wanna ask about that piece where you
45:17
identify the leakages and you identify the gaps.
45:20
I think that the biggest gap we find is no longer at
45:24
entry level or mid level is actually getting,
45:26
you know, like the promotion and the retention at the senior
45:29
level. That's why this is our response to that to make
45:32
sure that Latinas can make it and make it in half time
45:36
and stay and being able to also recognize that getting high in
45:40
a company is not scary.
45:42
There's a lot of fear about that.
45:44
Because you fear you're gonna lose family,
45:47
lose yourself, how to compromise totally who you are.
45:50
And also because the higher you go,
45:53
the lonelier it gets,
45:54
how do we demystify getting to the top?
45:57
OK. Well,
45:58
you asked a lot of thoughts there.
46:01
I would just say,
46:01
first of all, I remember when I was a director,
46:04
one of my mentors,
46:06
actually not, not the two I spoke about,
46:07
but somebody else asked me or told me they're like,
46:10
hey, you know,
46:10
I think you're gonna,
46:11
you have a chance to go really far in your career.
46:14
And as I think about you,
46:15
one of the things that I think is going to be hardest
46:16
for you is that it's really lonely and you're such a social
46:19
bee. I'm worried and I'm like,
46:21
what do you, what do you mean lonely and,
46:24
oh, my God,
46:24
they were so right.
46:25
I'm so grateful this person told me that because I really didn't
46:29
realize. And it is,
46:30
it, it can be really lonely.
46:32
So I know you want me to demystify.
46:34
But that one is a real one.
46:35
I mean, it does get lonely and I think it's because
46:38
you're, you know,
46:39
you have to make tough decisions and the number of peers that
46:42
you have sort of starts disappearing.
46:44
And I remember, you know,
46:45
when I used to have a problem at work I could call
46:47
10 people and, you know,
46:49
then between the 10 of us we'd figure out,
46:51
you know, sort of what the right thing to do was
46:54
when you are solely responsible for something in the company.
46:57
Of course, you have peers outside of the company,
46:59
but sometimes they're your competitors.
47:01
Sometimes they're really busy.
47:02
You know, it's just,
47:03
you feel like you have more weight in your shoulders and it's
47:06
like a start up right when you have,
47:08
you know, maybe 50 or 100 people working for you and
47:10
you're responsible, not just them their families.
47:12
I mean, the,
47:13
the decisions you make really,
47:15
really impact people's people's lives.
47:17
And I think that makes it much lonelier.
47:20
I do think that the,
47:21
the myth busting can be in many ways,
47:25
the work is different.
47:27
But I think what people feel is like,
47:29
ok, if I'm a director and I'm doing all this work
47:33
and I've become a VP or I become ac level person,
47:36
I'm just gonna have to do more of this and I don't
47:39
have one minute in the day anymore.
47:41
So like I can't add more minutes to my day.
47:43
So therefore I'm not going to go for that because that's not
47:46
what I want. I think that's a total myth.
47:48
I think the work is very different.
47:50
Yeah. Yeah. The work is different,
47:52
it's not more hours,
47:54
it's just different work.
47:56
And I think that's what people need to understand.
47:59
And I think the other thing in many ways,
48:01
it's so hard to explain,
48:02
but there's more flexibility while having less flexibility.
48:06
And so because you own a lot of what your agenda is
48:09
and your schedule. So you can say,
48:11
look, I, you know,
48:12
my son is 12 and you know,
48:14
he wants to me really,
48:15
really important. I go to this one event,
48:17
I can pretty much make that happen.
48:19
Whereas honestly, when I had my daughter who is seven years
48:22
older than him, that was a lot harder because,
48:25
you know, I didn't really control my schedule as much.
48:28
So, I think there,
48:28
these are some of the,
48:30
the myths, it's just different.
48:32
It's not just plus plus plus model and you don't have to
48:36
make it a plus plus model.
48:38
I think knowing that would make people take that leap.
48:40
The other thing that I have found for me,
48:42
that was a huge surprise.
48:44
You know, you talked about,
48:45
people would tell me,
48:46
encourage me and things like that.
48:47
But, you know,
48:48
I thought I was sort of dreaming big for a long time
48:51
I really did.
48:52
And I ended up having this lunch with this headhunter guy,
48:56
this was like years ago and he was talking to me about
48:58
boards and things like that.
49:00
And I had never really thought about that because I have kids
49:03
and I was busy and la la la,
49:04
you know, I don't want to put more on my plate
49:07
And in that he asked me a set of questions and
49:10
I realized I don't have great answers for these.
49:13
I don't think I'm dreaming big.
49:15
And so I think the other thing that I would say for
49:17
these women who have the opportunity to go and are sort of
49:21
holding themselves back is to really question you probably had to dream
49:25
big to get to where you are.
49:27
But are you still because I,
49:29
I just sort of realized that I was tested and I,
49:32
I sort of failed that test.
49:34
I fixed it, I think.
49:35
But now I realize ever so often I need to sort of
49:39
rethink about where I'm at to see if I'm still boiling the
49:42
frog or if I'm really actually,
49:44
you know, thinking,
49:45
thinking big enough about what I wanna do.
49:47
So those are my initial thoughts.
49:49
Yeah. OK. So before we wrap up,
49:52
you gave us a lot of good advice.
49:54
Is there anything that you didn't give us that you would like
49:57
to give Anna when she was 30 years old?
50:00
I think, let's see,
50:02
Anna of 30 let me think 25 th better.
50:06
I love my thirties.
50:08
I would just say,
50:08
you know, I had my Children in my thirties and I
50:11
just feel like I was,
50:13
you know, I was scared,
50:14
I think in that time frame for a bit and I just
50:17
sort of now being on the other side of it,
50:19
I just think, I wish I would have known to your
50:22
point. It's not as scary as I think it is.
50:24
And I think I wish I would have had that confidence because
50:28
I probably spent so many energy units that I,
50:31
I really didn't need to spend at all.
50:34
Being scared, being worried about being scared.
50:37
Should I be scared?
50:38
I'm not scared but should I be scared?
50:39
You know, I mean,
50:40
all these things that I just,
50:42
they were useless now.
50:44
And I wish I would have just,
50:46
you know, had more conviction at that time that dreaming big
50:50
is OK. And you know,
50:51
here's the thing like you dream big,
50:52
you're gonna get us something like I've gotten opportunities where I'm like
50:55
I can't believe this opportunity is at my doorstep and I
50:58
can't do it right now.
50:59
You can say no,
51:01
but it's just like getting that option is so valuable and it's
51:06
so fun. It's so fun.
51:08
I get to do really cool stuff that I never thought I
51:11
would do and I think everybody should deserve that chance.
51:14
That's what I would think.
51:15
And I think that there's a number of Latinas,
51:18
not a lot but a number of Latinas that like you are
51:22
making it and are willing to open the door for others,
51:25
share their knowledge with others.
51:26
So that not only they can,
51:28
we can all make it in half time but also create a
51:31
network of Latinas that support each other,
51:33
mentor each other, open the doors and share the access code
51:36
So I am very hopeful that we might be the last
51:39
generation really. I hope so.
51:41
I hope so. I am very hopeful.
51:42
My daughters 19 and I look at that generation,
51:45
I'm super hopeful and I think we all probably feel this way
51:47
but nothing more rewarding that seeing somebody you mentored and you sponsored
51:51
be successful. I mean,
51:52
it just like the work I do at Google in that sense
51:55
is one of my most rewarding.
51:57
It just makes me so happy and it's just so fun because
52:00
you feel like you,
52:01
you know, you can,
52:02
you know, with very little investment,
52:04
sort of change people's arcs of their life.
52:07
So that's, that's just so rewarding.
52:08
And I love doing it and we love having you here and
52:12
we've heard so many great pieces and some similar,
52:16
very similar. We're coming to a decalogue,
52:19
a playbook, a real playbook of what it is like.
52:21
How can you make it as a La Latina Latino style and
52:27
lead and succeed in your authentic self?
52:29
So who else shall we have in this podcast that is going
52:32
to give us another wave of wisdom.
52:34
I was super into Yvette Moreno I think is her name.
52:39
She was the producer for Encanto.
52:41
I love that movie.
52:42
Have you guys seen it?
52:43
Oh my God, it's adorable.
52:45
I love that movie Encanto.
52:47
And I was super impressed that to learn that she was
52:50
the producer. I don't know her personally.
52:52
So if you guys get her here,
52:53
let me know, I'll fly into New York.
52:55
We'll, we'll hang out.
52:56
I just love that movie.
52:58
I thought, you know,
52:58
it's about magic. It has so many cultural moments of,
53:01
you know, Latin America.
53:03
So many stories, I just thought it was the life on
53:06
I remember watching it and thinking,
53:08
wow, somebody really,
53:09
they really just captured it.
53:11
And then to realize that the producer was,
53:14
you know, from a Latin a Latina was just amazing.
53:19
So I, I would love to hear from her.
53:21
I'm sure you guys will too and we'll reach out to her
53:23
Yeah, thank you.
53:24
We to be more grateful for today.
53:27
Oh, thank you.
53:28
It's so fun. I really appreciate you guys having me here
53:31
and you know, it's really a pleasure.
53:33
So thank you so much and for everybody,
53:35
give it to Anna Corrales leading and helping us to lead a
53:40
Latina.