A Journey of Empowerment with Elisa Ochoa

[00:00:00] Welcome to Automation Ladies. Today, our guest is Elisa Ochoa from Skellig. She's on the west coast, uh, based in LA. Is that right? Yes, LA. Very cool. And we have, so both me and Allie are on the episode today. I think we might have a gangbusters week of us actually meeting three days in a row to record.

We'll be meeting at Automation Fair next week, but by the time this episode airs, it might have already happened. So we'll do a recap episode. Of our experiences at Automation Fair at some point. Anyway, Elisa, thank you so much for coming on the show. How are you? I'm good. Thank you. And thank you so much for having me.

I'm so happy after the ICC events that we met. I saw your girls presentation. I'm like, I think for me personally, that was the best presentation of the whole events. Like I worked from beginning to end. So I'm very happy to be here. Thank you. I need to, Record that and use that clip for my, I don't know, sizzle reel as a [00:01:00] speaker.

No, I'm just kidding. People ask sometimes about keynote speaking and stuff and I'm not a professional. Neither one of us are professionals at it. That was actually the first time that Allie and I ever shared a stage. That's amazing. And I thought it was great. I had a lot of fun. I know I made her laugh a little bit.

So that was my goal. Well, you girls make me laugh. I think it was. Like, really cool presentation, because from beginning to end, I could see that you girls were being yourself, you didn't care, I mean, of course, you care about what others think, but you didn't care, to look like, you know, we don't, we don't, I think we've said it enough, but like, we wouldn't be able to do this.

Yeah. So thank you for that. We were really stoked by a how many women we met at that event. Even though, for us, we're just conditioned for there being none, so more than one or more of them are always better and we're getting impressed by these small numbers that, people coming from some other areas, they [00:02:00] have the feedback.

They're like, oh, my gosh, there's no women here. And I'm like, Oh yeah, totally. There's a lot of women here compared to, they, they left us one of the restrooms at least after they, and a lot of supportive men, even if there is, yeah, there was a decent amount of women though, but like plenty of supportive men.

But I still wish we could see more, you know, it is for real a men dominated world, like in the engineering world. There's always improvement that can be made. Exactly, exactly. And I was really happy, like with Corso Systems putting, they had two women on their team during the, that build a thon.

I think that was amazing. That they've actually been up there on that stage. That was pretty cool. And, Alex Marcy actually asked me afterwards at the dinner, he said, you know, does that matter to you, like whether you see them up there or not? And then I was just like, yes. I mean, unless you asked me the question, I wouldn't have really [00:03:00] thought about it, but thinking about it, absolutely.

It made a big difference for me anyway, feeling like there was some representation up there, rather than just in attendance. That's really cool. I think we're all seeing some positive change and we want more of it. Right. I mean, I think it's not only seeing them, they're representing women, but showing them that the smart part of it comes in all shapes and sizes and forms, you know, it doesn't have to be specifically men or women, or it has to be like 50, 50, it's just about showing Hey, we can be as competitive as you, but.

Yeah, right. That's what I typically don't prefer to see them in a panel or a discussion that's specifically about women. We want to be there talking about the same stuff. Everybody else is, not just about ourselves, you know, that's what I thought, like, when I saw you girls in the event that said automation ladies, and I'm like, oh, my God, are they making these about like, Then I went to the presentation.

I [00:04:00] was like, okay, this is not what I expected. But of course I was like, I'm going to attend to see what they have to say about ladies in the automation world, you know? Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people read the name. Allie actually made a suggestion recently. She said, can we rebrand as the automation ladies podcast?

Because people don't really realize that it's a podcast. They think it's an industry group or membership group or a women's. Empowerment group, or in some cases, I think they think we're machine builders, which I'll take that over the other assumptions for sure. And that's probably also because we put our company page as machinery manufacturing or something along those lines, on LinkedIn.

Cause I guess that's what we have to put something. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, yes, we are stoked to meet you. And I think we have two, at least two other guests coming up that we met at ICC. Really fun to be able to reconnect, have a deeper conversation with people that we met. And then sometimes we meet people for the first time on the podcast.[00:05:00]

Because we saw their work or we saw their LinkedIn profile and we're like I want to know you and talk to you what you're doing. And our guest tomorrow is going to be like that. But since we got a quick intro, when we met, why don't we introduce you to our audience as well? I don't like to read people's bios.

I always feel super awkward when people read my bios to introduce me. So can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your story and how you got to be doing what you're doing today? Uh, yeah, sure. Well, I'm from Mexico. Uh, I'm from Monterrey, Mexico, which is like two hours border of Texas. Yes, I actually studied in Monterrey for like six weeks.

How long ago? Uh that was in 2000 and How did you like it? It was a while ago. Did you try the food? I did, although I didn't try as much as I should have. I was really broke and so I know that one of your specialties is like a lamb, right? Oh, yes. I didn't go and experience that and I really wish I [00:06:00]had. So I've been on my way back for about 15 years now.

Um, well, it's supposed to come from there, so. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah. Kings of carne asada. Yeah. Well, I love it. That's from there are. Outstanding. I extremely recommend it. Absolutely. Well, thank you. Sorry. I interrupted. Oh, it's totally fine. So yeah, my wish was always to go to a school like a university in the United States.

I will see the movies. I will see like the American dream. And I was like, I want to go to a university of the United States. So I applied. I went to USC, I got accepted to see, I was so happy. I studied chemical engineering there. I'm not going to lie. Like, I did cry sometimes some nights and what made me proud is maybe I was not like the straight a student there, but.

I made it because not that many people made it. I saw so many people like, change majors or change from the [00:07:00] engineering school to another school. So I am proud of that. Straight out of college, got a job, automation world working for, the pharma industry and at the beginning, I'm not going to lie. I was, uh, students that have just graduated, like, oh yes, I'm going to love my work. I'm going to love what I'm doing. And I didn't like that much like the day to day. I felt like everybody was like, everything needs to be for today or for yesterday and my environment and that's when I was like, looking for another job.

And when I moved to Skellig, I realized. That's Kelly. It's all about the culture. They first, you want to have a culture where it's like more human, more work life balance, respect for each other kind. Like, if there's someone that is, crossing the line, it's not like, why are you doing that?

But it's more like, Hey, what happened? Is there anything that we can improve process wise? So that really motivated me. And now we've been working with Scully for a full year. Actually, when I was interviewing to be a Delta V [00:08:00] engineer and I saw that they have a sales engineer position open and in my interview, I was like, hey, I see that.

You guys have that position open. Is there a chance that I can. Moving to that position, I feel like my skills are more with people, like, more talking, strategy, business, and they're like, okay, sure. Like, why not interview? And they gave me the opportunity. And from there, I started, my. Skellig West Coast Client Advisor, based in the West Coast.

And basically most of my clients are in San Diego. So I get to drive to San Diego once a week, enjoy the ride, put in a good podcast. Yeah, that is a good, that is a nice ride. Yes. So basically that's.

Did you know that, so when you got your chemical engineering degree, did you have any idea that you would go into automation or what was your initial thinking when you decided to go for that major? I love fashion and I love makeup. Um, [00:09:00] back in Mexico, I used to be a makeup artist. So my dream was to work for like a makeup industry.

But of course, straight out of college, it's so hard finding a job. So you just go for the first job that someone accepts you, you know? So I have no idea, but he had a good salary. Straight out of college and I have no idea, which honestly, like. It is an industry that you're always going to find a job.

You're always going to have a job. So, it for sure, it gives you job security, but the culture sometimes it's not what you expect. Yeah, and it's great to hear a success story in that sense that you didn't exit the industry. You just found a better position and a better company with a better culture for you.

Right? Yes. And that can make all the difference whether, you know, you feel satisfied in your job or not. Yes, 100 percent because honestly, my past job, [00:10:00] I saw my coworkers getting promoted. I saw them, but at the same time, they're the ones that work behind the desk. Like, for 10 hours straight, you know, and even though I want to be a successful person, I just didn't saw myself behind a desk and behind a computer all day without.

Having, this box of skills that I really wanted to, show to the world and just being, like, stored, you know, I also wanted to have something where I can use, maybe my engineer brain behind a computer, but at the same time, develop all the other skills that I knew I had. So, I mean, I just was, like, manifesting that job and saying, God, like, it appeared and I got the opportunity to work on it.

Yeah, I had the opposite sort of route is in that I went to business school Oh, really? I had no idea! Yeah, I'm actually not an, I'm not a credentialed engineer of any kind. I used to say I'm not an engineer at all, but people have [00:11:00] talked me into, the fact that a lot of the work I've done has been engineering, so It is.

And that's divisive, right? So I actually, in my first job, when I first started, we used to be called Like sales executives or account executives or something or other. And then they changed the title to sales engineer. And there was a bit of an uproar because a few people were like, well, not everybody here has an engineering degree and it's not okay for you to call them an engineer if they don't have an engineering degree, but I think sales engineering is one of those things.

It's a hybrid type of role. That really, it's more about what can you do in the role than exactly where your skills come from, right? You may be a really accomplished, you know, I gotta say the person that say that was jealous. Yeah. I agree. You have to go through an engineering degree to get what they are and you didn't like, I call that jealousy.

Yeah. I could never felt jealous of that. And I think that's really funny that some people are [00:12:00]just like, no, you have to get the degree. And it's like, no, you don't. No. You know what? I did an internship in a winery and of course you have to run like a plant. You have like, they say you have to be an engineer.

My boss was not an engineer. He just studied from books and he was very passionate about the process. But, of course, he told me, it took me longer to get there, but I am here, you know, and that doesn't mean that you're not an engineer. Like, you're doing engineer work. What's the difference? Yeah, right.

And sales engineering is one of those great places where you get to use different, you have to use different tool sets, right? You have your communications, you have your relating to other people, you have to figure out how to translate the technical into the right terms for whoever is on that buying committee, because it's typically going to be another engineer and their boss or a business unit person that maybe is looking at the results, not the process.

So you really, you know, it's a skill set that I. [00:13:00] It's hard to teach, I guess, in a nutshell, right? Because it's a combination of your understanding the engineering behind what you're selling, or the solutions, and then the ability to somehow present that and work with all the different stakeholders. I'm not going to lie, like, sometimes I talk to a client and they have no idea that maybe I don't know the profounds of the topic, but I know, the overall, like, layer and just start giving me these keywords that I have never heard before and they go into the detail and of course I have to, I don't want to act like I know everything because I mean, you know, I don't mind not knowing everything, but of course, I'm like, sorry, I'm going to stop you right there.

Like, I wish I knew every single detail, but I have not done this that part of the job in so long because, I mean, from going to Delta V engineer, I know. From what 4 years of experience brought me, but then after that, you kind of put a pause on the learning, like, going from into Delta [00:14:00] V. But so it's that communication where you have to know that a lot of the broad topics, but then you don't go into the specifics, right?

And really what you're doing is also being a connector to the right people that are the right people to answer that question and it's almost I thought about for a while getting a project management certification or something because I was like, what I do is not so much sales as it is about managing everyone.

And everything in the process of the sale, which in a technical world is more so about finding the right fit to the application or the solution to the problem than it is about selling anything, uh, you know, yes, at the end of the day, you are selling and hopefully if you do the right deal and the work, you can close it.

And that's, you know, there's a skill to that. Um. Well, they say that the worst thing you can do is actually sell. Yeah. Like, what you have to do if you want to be like a good sales engineer, you have to demonstrate the customer service by.[00:15:00] Actually doing it demonstrate the knowledge demonstrate the quality, but then at the end, and once you see that the client showing interest and the 1st thing you have to do is ask questions about their challenges about their pain points about, what do you think they can improve and just see from those answers, like, where you think your services or your software or hardware, whatever.

Fit into that table, but again. Don't try to sell at that point, it's until the end and like, maybe after a couple meetings, maybe after and maybe even you don't even have to sell. Maybe they're going to start asking. So, okay, we can start this or we can and that's when you are like, okay, my business is on.

Yeah. That's how I realized that sales was something I could actually do, because my dad's an engineer, and I kind of grew up with this mentality that like all salespeople are, I don't know, not useless. You just want to sell, right? Yeah. And so they can't be [00:16:00] trusted. They're not there for you to help you.

 And then it turns out my dad actually got a job and we got, ended up moving here to the U S because he was so good at selling. He sold a really big project. Basically, by being the sales engineer on the project without having that title or you know, his intention wasn't necessarily to sell, he was just one of the engineers that could present and talk and walk through the solution and all of that stuff.

And I think at some point I started, when I was interning for his company, I ended up Picking up the phone one day and a prospect was calling and the salesperson wasn't there. So they were like, hey, you just run with it and let us know when you need help. And I ended up closing this sale. And my dad afterwards, because they didn't know that the boss was my dad.

They, we have different last names. They sent a really nice, follow up unsolicited email to my boss telling him how happy they were with the process and that the solution will help them. And just, just a note of [00:17:00] like, Hey, we really, you know, I forget how it was worded, but it was just, it was like what I would call today a testimonial.

 And to me, I, and this was before, I think I was in college already, getting my business degree. But that's where I was like, you know what sales when it's this type of sales, when it's technical, when you're really just helping somebody sort through a bunch of stuff that they don't know about in their day to day to fix their problem.

Because now I relative to them, right, the customer and the expert at this, I may not know everything, but again, I have a whole, network of people that I can go to my applications engineers, you know, the people around me that can help this customer solve this problem. That they don't have in house.

And that's why, we are a partner. Why we have something to sell the value and it completely turned me around to the idea that sales actually, when it comes to when I call it technical sales, right, it's something really good. But we, I have this negative connotation to sales. And I know I hear this a lot in the engineering world was like, if somebody goes over to the [00:18:00] sales side, they're like, Oh, you've gone to the dark side.

Um, yeah. I'm like, I don't know, I don't know what you're calling the dark side. Uh, I mean, I, I remember hearing like in my previous company, the guy that was doing most of the business, part of it, it's like, he doesn't do anything he just takes people to lunch and just talks, talks to them.

And it was like, dude, then you go and try and do that. Like sometimes it is like. I mean, sometimes we talk to very introvert people and it's like, good luck having an hour and a half lunch with that introvert person, you know, you're going to have to find a way to connect with that person and find something valuable to talk about to him, you know, without even knowing or to her or without even knowing the person, you know, so it's, It is a skill that you have to like, start practicing and I didn't know about that, but I remember my first lunch with someone that's very introvert.

And I was like, Oh, my God, I even was [00:19:00] sweating more than that person. You run out of things to talk about in like the first 5 to 10 minutes. And then you go, Huh, what do I do now? Exactly. I've also gone through that. I pride myself on being able to connect with most people. I'm just generally a curious person.

So whatever people are into, I really would like to learn. And if they're really into something, then I can, I'd be happy to listen to them all day with interest because I want to learn about whatever that is that they're so interested in. And even engineers, you know, it can take a little longer to crack the nut, so to speak with people that are really introverted, but you really have to just understand what drives them.

Um. What, you know, a little bit about what their personality is like maybe, and then you find those common threads of interest, but there's still, and I tie this back earlier to your comment about the drive to San Diego. In my first job, I did ride alongs with other salespeople, to go see, you know, go on sales, call it [00:20:00] joint calls with them, shadow them.

And there was a gentleman that, I shadowed in the LA office and his territory was San Diego. And we went down there for a sales call. And we had just, he had taken me to a Chinese buffet for lunch and then it was a beautiful day as it always is, right? On the drive down to San Diego, you're driving down, you know, the coast with the sun beaming in the car and he's one of less than a handful of people on the planet that I have not been able to carry on a conversation with for more than like 10 minutes.

And it's like, this tested me. So I tried. I don't know for how long I tried, and then eventually, I'm not proud of this, but I completely just fell asleep the rest of the ride because I couldn't keep a conversation going, and I was so full and happy from my Chinese buffet meal, probably in an MSG coma.

 With the nice sunshine and the, you know, the drive, he drove a nice car that I [00:21:00] didn't completely see the mountains, the ocean. Of course, you're gonna fall asleep, not exactly what you would hope to do on a ride along with someone that I was like, eager to learn from, but sometimes you just. Yeah. You can't win them all either, you know, no, no, no.

And that's something that I also learned is like in a job like this, you cannot take anything personal, like seriously, anything, neither a complaint, neither like a silence, neither like someone that takes three weeks or that goes here. You know, I've had clients, well, I have non clients, but people that I'm trying to win over and it's going great.

And then suddenly ghost. Like, ghosting is really in this industry as well, you know, and sometimes you wish, like, hey, you can just be honest, you know, hey, right now, I'm not interested in the service. Thank you. And that's it, I'm not going to take it personal, but I also understand that I'm talking to engineers that maybe don't understand that part of, like, just.

Being honest, it's also okay, you know, [00:22:00] but yeah, it is funny because some of this, I mean, I was their first sales engineer that they hired the whole company. So, like, yes, so it's like, whoa, there was like a new position that they were opening and they basically, I was the first engineer that they hired me in the West Coast.

I was like, oh, my God, they hired me without any previous sales experience, but of course, I have like the podcast. I had other things that prove my kind of talking skills, I guess, and interview and I'm always interested. I'm always reading books. I'm always hearing podcasts. I am always interested about how, 

companies run and strategy and things like that, but I was like, Oh, my God, I cannot believe they hired me to grow like their West Coast. I felt so intimidated. And I remember the 1st time that I took like, 1 of the directors for my client to launch. And of course, it's me that I'm like. 27 years old with a guy that it's been, like, 20 years in the industry.

Like, oh, my God. I remember, [00:23:00] I left that launch, sweating so much because it was 1 of my 1st ones and I had no idea. what this role really is. But now I go confident into a lunch like, Hey, you don't have to talk about business all the time. You just ask questions, just ask them about, I don't know, their family, their hobbies, whatever, like just initiate a conversation.

Yeah. The point is really to establish a relationship and get to know the person a little bit more because then also when you do work with them, the more you know somebody, the more you can anticipate how and when they need things to be done. What drives them, right? What makes them successful?

Or, you know, just gives you it's nice when you all day in and out, talk to people about work to be able to have a little bit of that personal touch. And people do say, you know, our industry as much as it is a tech industry is built on relationships. That is very true, you know, people, it's not the only thing and I think we're well past the era where.

Just [00:24:00] having, you know, taking somebody out to the fanciest dinners or being golf buddies, like there's, that will take you to a certain degree, but it won't be enough to sustain the relationship. If you don't also perform, do the right thing, you know, have the technical capabilities and all of that, but they do play together.

 One of the things that I focus on most is to provide good customer service, because basically I'm like. The client manager, you know, I'm the 1 dealing with all the issues and with all the good things and we, like, all the requests with each client. And I want to make sure that every single part being good or bad, I give exactly the same service, like a good response time.

If they're asking for something attention to detail as well, like, make sure you address, even the. Tiniest little detail, like, hey, just letting, you know, I'm sorry. I have not gotten into this. We're working on the behind the scenes about that. But just keeping the client up to date, like, some people think, oh, it's fine.

If you don't communicate what's [00:25:00] going behind the scenes for me, it's like, let's communicate everything. That way, they know exactly what we're doing. It's not like we're doing something wrong. We're just taking a little bit longer because I don't know, we haven't found the right candidate or because we haven't.

Found someone to be on site and that person wants strictly on site and we have only find a remote resource per se. So it's about communication. I feel like communication is key to a role like this. Do you think that in general, our industry provides good customer experiences like that? Or do you feel like that you stand out by doing that?

I'm going to be honest. Um. There's some, like, some companies. I want to see the company, because I think it's more like the person that it's reaching out that they expect contractors to be, like, give me everything that I'm asking for, within a second. Yeah. And that's the type of clients where I feel like you're never going to satisfy [00:26:00] them because they're like, their standards that are really real.

And even though you do, everything in your power to. Comply to what they're asking for, they're always going to find something to complete, but I feel like. I don't know everything that you have in your day to day, in a job, you also bring it home. So I'm pretty sure that person also find something to complain at home but I don't want to say it in a bad way, but it's like.

What your values you practice them everywhere, you know, in every single corner, like, I'm a full believer of that. And sometimes I've been inclined sites will honestly, they trick contractors. Not in a good way, like, they expect them to not have a work life balance. They expect them to be like, hey, you're here.

I paid you to be like that. That attitude, you know, I'm paying you to be here, which. I feel like that's. And there's companies that comply to that type of clients, but then their engineers or their employees. Are not happy and they're always complaining [00:27:00] about how they're being treated and things like that.

So I feel like. It's not only me that's giving that customer service, it's also the clients how like they're also like their values are also like shown since meeting one and also the engineers that we have, because at the end of the day, I could be giving them as best customer service, but if my engineers go and do work, like, they're never going to trust me again.

So, of course, thank God, I mean, a company that I do believe in what. Like doing and selling per se, but I feel like I wouldn't be with that same attitude if I was a company where I knew what I was saying was not going to comply. You know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely. Because yeah, you as the client advisor, you're a bridge and you really have clients on both sides of the house because you also have to make sure that internally you get the right resources for your projects for your clients.

 [00:28:00] And you have to work with the engineering management who probably manages the project from an engineering standpoint, but then there's always that bridge between you and the customer and your team. So it is a complex role that I think people that really do have, people skills as well as the technical understanding of what's going on.

are needed for this type of role. And you get it right and everybody on both sides is, you know, you get that right, the expectations right up front, you know, that they want to collaborate. Those are the relationships that are so rewarding, right? Because you can, you keep adding value. And when things go wrong, which they inevitably will somewhere, somehow, Everybody can work together to figure it out rather than, you know, just immediately start pointing fingers and blaming each other and yelling and whatever that is, right?

 I honestly cannot tolerate the pointing fingers and I'm not going to lie. Like, I was part of that at some point, but then I realized hey, this does not work. Like it. It does not work for me. It does not [00:29:00] work for, my boss does not work for anyone. And I thought, I don't want to be part of that culture.

And that's when I was like, okay, I need to change. If you want to have a change, you have to change your environment. What has been your. Experience with customer service. Like what? What do you think I have? So in my career, I've also experienced like various different cultural environments and found that I work better in some than others.

And my first job wasn't my long term job, obviously. Even though I kind of thought, Hey, I wanted that I want to try to, go with one company and stick around forever. And then I realized that the world is more complicated than that. Yeah, I'm just going to stick with 1 boyfriend forever and ever.

What you really want might not be the right 1. You know, maybe you get lucky, but. Customer service wise, yeah, so that's interesting. I have been surprised, I guess, in some cases, how low the bar has been set [00:30:00] by what's acceptable in the industry. And then I guess more so for me lately, I deal a lot more with the world of like distribution rather than systems integrators, but yeah, I tried to help my customers as well as, you know, ourselves by components a lot of the time.

And I. Find that most people I deal with are not very happy with their jobs and what they're doing. And therefore, like, I can hear that. It's very clear to me and it comes to me as the customer and. it unfortunately doesn't leave a whole lot of room for people to have positive interactions. Yeah.

And I, I really love having positive interactions with people at work. I enjoy my work a lot. My work life balance is kind of whack, but that's also because partially like I just, I enjoy my work so much and I'm so invested in it that I do more of it. And it doesn't feel like a work life balance issue.

It's just that I choose not to. have a whole bunch of other like hobbies, for instance, that are [00:31:00]completely unrelated. Because you have to focus on one thing. Yeah, I get so much out of what I do with AutomationLadies, with QuoteBeam, like I get to do all these things and I'm constantly learning.

AutomationLadies, of course, is something that like, it's... Yeah, what do you call it? Another job? A hobby? I don't want to call it a hobby, but it's work. I feel like a hobby is something that You enjoy doing it, which a podcast can be, but then at some point. You have the obligation to continue it, even though you feel sick, or even though you don't want to do it, but if it's a hobby, you can cancel your yoga class.

You know what I mean? In this case, you cannot just cancel and stop doing it. Like, now you have the commitment to pursue it. Exactly. Well, speaking of that's actually a great segue. I want to ask you about your podcast. Can you tell us about it? What made you start it? When and how has that played into? I know it's not related to your job, [00:32:00] which is obviously different from what Allie and I do.

What, what got you into starting a podcast and how's that been going? Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, I don't know if this happened to you, but I've been thinking of when I was in college, for me, it was so new, the university of experience and so much diversity, like, even though I come from a big city.

In Monterey, like, it's also has, a small town mentality, you know, it's always the same people. It's always the same culture. There's no change. You do something. Everybody knows about it. You know, I feel like you don't have that much freedom to, go out of the box and at the university at USC, like, I was.

Meeting so many Latin Americans that were going out of the box and find it that like amazing and also like in a city like L. A. you, you can be whoever you want and no one's going to stop you. Like, no one's judging you. I mean, of course, haters are always going to hate. Yeah, I felt it's fascinating [00:33:00] how you can be whoever you want and proceed your own path and.

Everybody was happy about it and was even, encouraging. So I, since I was at the university, I was always thinking about that. And suddenly, after I was unhappy with my job, I was like, you know what, I have to do something else. I have to do something else for me. I have to do something else, for the community, you know, I always love feeling part of something.

 That's for the greater good. So I was like, you know what, I love podcasts. What if I start my own podcast? But I didn't have the balls for me to do it by myself. So I told My roommate, like, do you want to do it with me? And she was like, sure. So we were like, okay, let's do it. And of course, I met some people at USC that I knew how to interview.

So I was like, okay, let's start with them. Let me, just send them a message. They were like, yes, of course. Okay. Perfect. And when we started this podcast, we were like, okay, let's interview. We're both, um. For Mexico, let's interview Latin Americans that are here in [00:34:00] the U. S. and, show their experience, of course, from, moving from 1 country to another.

I mean, if you come from Peru or from Paraguay, it's like a. 16 hour flight, you know, completely change of culture. So talking about, that experience and then coming. It's I feel like it's easier sometimes to pursue something. If you have your friends and family around. Yeah. Sometimes when you move to a new city, it's just you like, and you have an issue and you don't even know who to ask, or it's just you and you're like, just asking around.

See, what it takes you to so I found it very empowering talking to those people that like, left their friends and family to go and pursue something that they really were excited or dreamed about and we interviewed these girls that started this company called hype and vice. Where they saw, an opportunity in college to do [00:35:00] more athlete, like, how do you call it?

Like, tailgate clothes. Yeah. Because before, you will only buy, like, the men's clothes and you will cut it yourself or things like that. Right, you take the jersey and you try to, like, make it something cool. Yeah. Exactly. And they were, they were just, and the Y Combinator, which is an incubator that, like, Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Big companies come from, so I thought it very interesting and empowering, like, let's talk to them because, she comes from my city and talk about, what she has done in just, 4 years, 5 years, you know, and after we recorded that episode, we were like. Oh, my God, like, this is amazing. So many people can learn from this.

So we just started to be more and more. We interview someone that works for Tesla and someone that works for Amazon and someone that works for, so many different companies and I just want something create something that inspires. Other people to pursue their dreams, regardless of wherever you are, or whatever you can do, because [00:36:00] those people are pursuing your dreams.

They're not getting like, oh, they're the smartest or they're just so creative or they're just so talented and it's like, no, it's just people asking around and. Finding a way to do it, you know, it's like me, if I didn't ask in my interview, hey, can I ask, can I interview for the sales engineering position?

You know, that would have never happened. And I will still be a Delta V engineer, which is not wrong, but that inspired me. So, so much to be like. To grab the courage and pursue your dreams. And I was like, hopefully that does something for more people. Yeah, no, I think sometimes people just need to feel like it's okay to step out there and try.

We have somebody in our community on LinkedIn, that just started his own podcast and He, like, reached out to me and was asking if I had some advice and this or that and, my main advice was just try it, and he just recorded or published the first episode [00:37:00] yesterday and I don't think I did anything, I did, I mean, I'm not an expert, I don't know anything, I didn't do anything other than made me show him that, you know what, it's okay to not know exactly what you're doing and just do it and I realized that in hindsight, right, everybody tells their story like it's You know, when you have to tell it in a nutshell or somebody else recounts your accomplishments, it all sounds kind of easy, or they were, they must have been meant for it, or they must have been super talented.

And that's why, you know, they had this success and I realize a lot of people that have had success. They had a lot of failures ahead of time, right? They're not as fun to talk about, but, um. Consistency discipline now, like, not losing focus. And that's something that I have learned to like, is if you want to accomplish something in life, stay focused, focused on it, and find a way to be consistent, consistent at it.

And yes, maybe the 1st. 10 times are not going to go great, but if you like it, if you're that's why now I [00:38:00] understand why they say, do something that really passion. You really feel passionate about. Yeah, because. If you're not passionate about it, you're just going to give up. After the 1st failure, you know, but no, it's about.

Continue doing it, be consistent, be disciplined because imagine if athletes were not disciplined, they wouldn't wouldn't be. Where they are, you know, imagine if, like. CEOs of companies, they stay consistent. They wouldn't be where they are, you know, so take focus on your goals of, where you want to get.

And I feel like that's what. I'm so happy that I interviewed so many people and that's what I learned the most. It's like, don't care about what people are saying. Just pursue your dreams. Stay focused and just ask around. People are always so nice and people are always there to help and whoever gives you a bad taste of mouth.

Like, leave it in the past and really good people are going to come your way because if you're trying to do something good, [00:39:00] like this podcast, which is amazing, like you're building a community of people, like automation, ladies are not that many. If you think about it, it's a big community, but at the same time, it's small within itself, so if you're building something good, the magic is going to come behind it.

Yeah, that's what this. Thank you and I tried to, you know, when we are feeling a little down or, you know, oh, we haven't had a whole lot of success lately, or it's been hard to schedule recordings or. Uh, you know, too much going on. I also just try to step back and think about that, like that's okay.

Let's just get the next one out and we keep doing it and some days you feel up and some days you feel down, but on the whole. You keep doing it, you're gonna get better at it. Um, and then the longer you do it, the more people see it, the more people it becomes easier too. Yeah, yeah. No, it's absolutely true.

 When I first tried to read an ad, I felt so uncomfortable and it sounded so bad and so wrong that I was like, we're never ever gonna do ads. And then, you know, [00:40:00] now we have an ad that airs at the beginning of the podcast and it just took me. To feel finally comfortable with it. I've been talking enough.

I've been, you know, figuring stuff out long enough. And it's still not, you know, anything super great or professional, but. It was about what about a year that span of me going from I'm never ever ever going to do it to Oh, yeah, I guess I feel comfortable with that. I can make that work and it really is exercising that muscle.

Yes, I was telling this person. I'm a random person that I met at a restaurant. You know how sometimes I feel like since my job is talking now, I get so comfortable talking to strangers that like restaurants. I'm just like, yeah, and we were talking about what I was doing and. Something that I mentioned to him is like, you know what, people don't understand that sometimes there's a plateau of the imposter syndrome and getting to ground zero.

So, like, you have this imposter syndrome, you're in negative numbers and it takes practice for you to get to ground zero [00:41:00] and now you're in ground zero. It's like, okay, you have this clean canvas. It's like, okay, now you get to create, because now you have, like, the, Thank you. Confidence or now you have, a little bit of that muscle and maybe your 1st creation is not going to be that great, but then you create more and more and more and more.

And then, you again, you start seeing the magic of it of, the things that you feel like unstoppable sometimes, but at the same time. It's like that imposter syndrome it takes. Like a lot of courage to get over that hill and then it comes another hill and then comes another hill But each hill is like taking you to higher places Yeah, but it's a bunch of small hills and it's like I feel like I mean hill maybe number one and there's like 99 It's an infinite number of valleys.

Yes on the whole you keep climbing as long as you keep going But yeah, you'll never not have a downward slope at some point, you know, in your future trajectory as [00:42:00] you're on your way up on the whole. I think that that's also something that, as you're young, you kind of think like, Oh, once I get over X, Y, Z, then everything is going to be good.

And it's like that never, everything will never just be good. I think even when people get really rich and successful, they get their dream job, they get there, you know, perfect partner, whatever it is, there's always challenges ahead. And because life is life. Yeah. And it will never be perfect. So I've tried to make sure that my happiness isn't tied to whether it's a high or low, period in some journey.

Because at that point, you know, you're never going to be happy. Because if you think you're gonna, fill something and then be happy with it, after the fact, you get to the point and you're like, Wait, wait, where's that feeling that I thought I was gonna get? Well, after I accomplished this? Yes. And also like happiness is an emotion, you know, so It's like sadness.

You feel it sometimes, but not always. Happiness is the same way, like, you feel it sometimes, but not always, and it's completely fine. As I, again, I love podcasts. I love [00:43:00] books. So I'm always like reading and trying to inform myself about what. We came to doing this life and I mean, I sometimes talk to my therapist, like, why am I feeling like I'm procrastinating?

 I feel like the last 2 months. I'm just being procrastinating. Of course, I still do some things here and there and my day today, but. You know, how sometimes you feel in your highest and you feel like so productive and you're getting things done and I don't know, like a lot of opportunities, but then sometimes when you're in your lowest, you feel like even the easiest task takes you like 3 hours.

Yep. So, and she told me, like, it's normal, it's so normal and it's 1 of the greatest, like, people get so stuck in it. But the thing is. That's when you have to start simple again, don't worry about the big things because that's you got so used to the big things in the big picture because you're wearing that the top of the heel, but [00:44:00] that's just momentary.

So, make sure to start simple again and I'm like, oh, okay. So, okay, start simple again. But then, of course, you start simple and then you start getting up on the heel and you're again. At the top of the hill, you feel like, Oh, my God, I can rule the world. But then you're like, Okay, I'm in decline right now.

Yeah. And you make a good point, too, about, you know, the muscle, right? And having that consistency. Personality traits. are also something that can change. I think one of the things that I really appreciate about our modern times is that we now have a whole bunch of research about how the brain works or these things that we didn't know before because we didn't have a way to look at those interactions, right?

We have so much technology now that we can track all kinds of things, see trends. And one of the things that we learned, you know, maybe in the last few decades is that Things like neural plasticity and how, you know, as we practice our neurons, firing a certain way, we can learn these things and we [00:45:00] can get better at learning certain things, whereas before it was like, you're dumb, you're smart, you're like, your IQ is fixed.

All these things are just like, we thought that they were fixed, right? Yeah. And now we know most people can do most things. Some people have very specific, right? Yeah. Not, you know, they're atypical or they have certain challenges and it will be harder. But most people if they set their mind to something and they really, have the consistency, the support, the resources, they can get good at almost anything or, you know, change certain things about their personality.

So for me, it was, I used to be extremely introverted and shy. Really? Yeah. I would have never imagined that. Right. People think that I'm a natural extrovert and that I just, you know, naturally gravitate towards making friends with people and I have no problem walking up in a conversation. So my boss, Roman sometimes says this, he's like, Oh, I can't go to this networking event unless I'm with Nikki.

Cause I just, what am I going to do? I can't talk to people and [00:46:00] all that stuff. And he's like, it comes naturally to her. And I don't correct people all the time, but it really does not come natural to me at all. Like, even all the way through college, I had, you can count my friends on one hand, I was not outgoing.

I did not go to social events. I think that's why I also got along with engineers so well, because they didn't expect me to be too social and outgoing. And I was okay being awkward. Yeah, as long as we could play cards or talk about something, whatever, how obscure it was the sales job.

that made me exercise that muscle of figuring out how to talk to everyone, how to build relationships with people, because I realized I couldn't sell. Even though I worked at a company that really did not emphasize the relationship at all, their stance was our technology is the best and that's what's going to sell the application.

 But of course, you know, just when you work with people, you realize it works a lot better if you can get along and you can know a little bit about them and, that sort of thing. So I started developing this muscle [00:47:00] also in a way of just, you know, that first job out of college, your cold call in, like it's, you're generally going to get the crappiest job, right?

It's your starter job. The tasks that nobody wants to do, you're going to get to do them. Exactly, exactly. They're not going to hand you the thing that everybody's worked for for years on a silver platter. You gotta, you know, pay your dues, so to speak, or whatever that is. And so, just getting used to constant rejection is another thing that you get used to in sales.

And you have to learn how to just bounce back, not take it personally and still be willing to do business with that person, whether it's tomorrow, three weeks from now, a year from now. Right. And you start to think about these and I'm like, this guy was kind of a jerk to me today, but it wasn't about me.

It was about them or their day or what I was offering or how I was calling. Right. It's not about me. And I really exercised this a lot, and I've gotten pretty good at being extroverted and making friends, but it really took me a long time. No, and it does [00:48:00] take a long time, but just imagine, those skills.

Regardless, wherever you are, regardless, like, wherever you go, you're going to take them with you. You know, nobody can take that away from you. And that's also something like that. My boss told me. It's like your relationships or like anything that you built. Even if you change industries, like, you're always going to take that with you, and that's also part of the magic because it's your own personal brand.

Yeah, you can create anything you want, like a candle business and at the end of the day, people are going to buy it because it's your own personal brand. You're going to show who you are, you're going to show a part of you, you're going to show, what you want to change with. Candles or what candles are out there, you know, and at the same time, like, as you say, if someone is being a year, you're going to not going to take it personal, but at the same time, you're not going to give them.

Your highlight of your day, you're going to focus on people that are there with your same [00:49:00]values and same like ethics and you're going to start realizing like, hey, I can also build my community with people that have the same values as me. But, of course, it takes time and effort and like. A skill set, because there's so many people that and I was 1 of those people that if somebody was, I don't know, like a jerk, I wanted to see why and wanted to fix it and wanted to, get on their good side.

And right now I'm like, you know what, I'm not going to waste my energy on getting on their good side, you know, because I'm not a year to everyone. And if I was, I'm sorry. I'm not like, I don't feel like anybody that serves that. Of course, it's very hard when you're having a hard day and somebody asks you something that you were not expecting, you know, but it's like that dynamic of being consistent with.

What your values are, what you want to focus on, you know, it starts getting full circle. No, that's true. Because if you are [00:50:00] your authentic self, then people will also the people that. Match those values, that energy, they're gonna be attracted to work with you more. And then the more people like that you have in your customer base, your circle of friends, your support, your tribe, whatever that is, right?

Yeah. It's also like a network effect, right? And then you end up, it's so much easier to exist and do business when you have that kind of authenticity around you. Rather than trying to. cater to somebody else's way of doing things or values that don't align with you. And I think that's something that you also learn across, you know, over the course of a little bit of experience in your career.

 Well, when you're like straight out of college, you feel like whatever your boss is telling you, it's the right thing to do or the right way to do it. Yeah. And you realize like, He's wrong, you know, people around you can be wrong. You can also have your own opinions, which at the beginning I was like, cross your opinion, delete it because he's telling you that this is a way of doing [00:51:00] things.

And I was like, you know what? I should not cross my opinion. I should give it a 2nd thought and understand why you think that is wrong. You know, and of course, if there's some self reflect, it can be either you're wrong or he's. And at the same time I feel like there's no wrong or right.

It's just. Where is he coming from or she coming from? And where am I coming from? But. I started learning, you know what, it's okay to give your own opinion. So anybody out there has, a different mindset, like, challenge it, because maybe, that's your authentic self and that's where, your new opportunities are going to come from, like, your way of thinking, your authenticity, you know.

Yeah, and I think, too, as we increasingly live in a more and more automated world, like kids nowadays, they expect things to be so quick and easy because we've made a bunch of apps and a bunch of things to bring them things immediately. They have so much selection of everything compared to, like, when we were growing up and.

Even, you know, I'm a millennial. So we were the generation [00:52:00] that people started complaining about, you know, the people older than us. And then now I'm like looking at younger kids than me and things are going so fast that I feel like the old person that doesn't get what's going on. Or I see my kids and I, they want to.

My daughter wants to be good at everything, like, right off the bat, and if she's not, she gets upset. And I'm like, you realize that person that did that YouTube video, they probably practiced, like, a thousand times before they got good at that. That was me. I had to go to therapy because of that, because I was like, I want to be also good at that.

And they're just like, hey, chill. It takes practice. Yeah, but the point that you made about your personal brand kind of even if you're not thinking about your personal brand as a way to bring business or brand yourself or anything like you really out there in the world are your own personal brand, no matter where you are or how you think of it and as the future becomes, you know, a lot of what we do can be automated, whether it's at work or at home or whatever.

The thing that makes [00:53:00] you authentically you that can never be automated. Is your personality, like what makes you, you right? Otherwise, everything that you do as a transaction or as a, skill that you learned a hard skill can be taught to a machine at some point. Like, like, especially in the era of child GPT, you know, you can ask them, like, I don't know, give me a marketing plan for automation ladies that we're going to post daily on Instagram.

Exactly gives you, what you're asking for. So you don't even have to think about it. But at the same time, it's like. What are you then bring in different to the table? Like, like, okay, yes, you can use that as a basis, but. You're like, add your spicing this, add your creativity, add your way of saying things, you know, or add your.

An authentic self, like, unapologetically self, into the table as well, because I feel like sometimes. Especially me. I have to practice this a lot. It's like, [00:54:00] should I say this? Should I not? Is this going to affect someone? Is this not going to affect someone? Is this going to have lights? Is this not going to have lights?

And it's like, no, do it for yourself and practicing that. And you're going to start seeing day to day, you're going to be like more yourself and more yourself and more yourself. And that's then later when people are going to truly love no. And then you people will the people that really. Yeah.

Gravitate towards you being really you, they'll stick with you and they'll probably become even bigger fans of you or supporters or, customers, whatever that means. Right? Um, and then other people will self select to not be in your orbit or your network. And I think that's a good thing, honestly, rather than all of us trying to act in like a uniform manner.

Right? What we used to think. Oh, you know, this is how to be professional. It's to wear a suit. It's to follow these rules. It's to say the right things. It's to be detail oriented on your resume, even if you're not. That's me. Um, all those things. It's like you [00:55:00] say what you think they want to hear, but then we are all trying to be this generic person that nobody really is.

And automation can really easily replace the generic person that does the thing that the majority rules are supposed to do. So I, you know, I love playing around with chat GPT and stuff. And I personally am super, Excited about because it's coming whether you like it or not, right? So you can be able to stay about it, or you can try to figure out.

Okay, how do we be part of making this change a good thing for us? The coming, like, Microsoft just announced, Siemens just announced a partnership with Microsoft. They're bringing copilot to things like PLC programming. So, it is coming. The question is. Are you doing something that's so generic that anybody that any computer can do it or are you doing something that's uniquely you that can never be replaced by a robot or a software because it is, you know, it's your personality that's coming out and just think about it, like, I don't know, in the industry.[00:56:00]

I'm going to invent a word. Yeah, do it in the industrialization era or how do you call it? Machinery, we're replacing men that we're doing, the manual labor right now or is replacing. People that know how to do a skill in the computer, you know, yeah, and it's. Of course, there's so many people going to complain, but at the same time, it's like, how can you use it in your favor?

Like, yeah. How can you like, again. Use that, like, okay, instead of spending 10 hours coding this, I can now spend maybe 2, but what are you going to do with your other like. 8 hours of the day, you know, like, and that's when you're like. Okay, I can get a hobby or I can specialize in this, or I can start learning this, but I mean.

I'm a person that loves learning. I truly love learning and a variety of things. And just think about all the things that you have learned through your podcast, like GPT cannot give you that, you know, like. [00:57:00] Not there's no way and also, like, how you learn about all the different personalities, too, and all the different people that, like, you talk to, and you now learn how to process things from, oh, this personality process things this way, or this personality process things this way.

So, I don't know, I think there's also, like. People skills is something that also can take away from you. Absolutely, and it's a big focus on stem careers and things like that. And I think that that's. That's really great, especially trying to get more, uh, underrepresented communities into STEM fields for me.

It's also like, it's a bringing the opportunity of of the income potential and all of that to those communities. But B, we need the. The perspective of those communities in the tech that we build, right? Because stem. Those professions are inventing the technology that is going to redefine, you know, define our futures.

And I think we need a bigger variety of perspectives as we build [00:58:00] tech, right? So that it can work for all of us. But I recently thought about this and it's like, you know what, at this point in time, though, if I'm speaking to my five year old daughter, I'm not going to try to push her into a STEM field necessarily, because I also know that by the time she graduates from school, whatever that looks like, maybe college, right?

 If she has a purely stems based skill set, she could be out like what is her advantage against a computer in any of those areas? Right? Or, or a robot, probably not much. So for me, I'm like, learn the fundamentals of these types and if you're really into science or technology, right?

Coding, whatever that is, like, learn it, but not to skip out on the soft skills that the human stuff that really makes us constantly different. Human, yeah. Because that is now going to become the differentiator more so. And I really hope that we can get to a point where they Where our commonality as humans is what makes us like brings us together because it's a lot easier to [00:59:00] gloss over or not focus on the differences between people when there's a non human like entity or group that we can call the other because I think as human beings were always going to want to point to something as the other and if we can not point at each other as the other but the robots or whatever that is like maybe that'll be an advantage to us being able to get along better and Yes, but just going back to our previous point, like, it all starts with even not pointing fingers on our day to day jobs.

You know, if we cannot even do that in a small scale. Yeah. How can we do that in a big scale? You know, and I'm so happy that you have that mentality to have, whatever my daughter wants to do, like, as long as she's developing, this human skills, because at some point, like, I was after 3 years of being in engineering.

I was like, did I do the right decision? I feel like I'm behind a book all the time behind a computer, and the ones that are successful in engineering, like, are the ones that are doing most of the job behind a book and [01:00:00] behind it, stocking a library, and of course, like. I'm, I'm an extrovert, like, that was not the way I was seeing myself, in college, you know, and I always loved fashion.

I always loved makeup. So, of course, the way you express yourself is out in the streets, not in a library, like, stuck behind a computer again, and that also made me feel a little bit like. Out of my comfort zone, because I felt like I didn't even fit in engineering because I wanted something else.

And I feel like sometimes my people around me were like, oh, but you have to be studying more or you have to be doing more. But then, at the same time, my other friends that were not in engineering were like, you have to go out more. You know? So I always felt I was in a limbo that I didn't belong.

Neither, the people that were non engineering versus engineers. So I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna be myself. We need to send you a mug that Jordan Yates made. It says fun engineer and it has, an arrow. We [01:01:00] create the Fun Engineering Club, which is people that, like, are into engineering but also want to have, I don't know, I don't want to say a social life because I feel like I don't have much of one.

 But I am a people person. Is this a social thing? Exactly. No, this is part of, like, a big part of my social calendar, so to speak, is I get to have these interactions with people that feel, like, they recharge my batteries when it comes to people. And sometimes I'm in the, middle of a trade show where I'm supposed to be talking to everyone and I'm just not in the mood right now.

Like, I don't want to talk to anybody that I don't know. I mean, that's the hard part of the job too. When you're not in the mood to talking to people, you have to force yourself to people, you know? And everybody has those days. And I think that that's okay. And the more we realize that, you know what, it's not just me.

It makes it easier to just, realize it's a temporary thing. You get through it. And then, you know, you wake up another day and you do it all over again. With that, I think we're pretty much at time. This was a really, really enjoyable conversation and [01:02:00] with most guests, we could, I would love to stay on and talk to you for another two hours.

I understand there's a time limit. Thank you so much for coming on. I will ask my last question. And Allie has dropped off at this point. If somebody hasn't noticed that she's not, uh, probably her Wi Fi or maybe she got a call or something. But what should we expect? Where can people follow you if they want to connect with you?

If they heard this and they're like, Hey, Lisa is one of those people that I want, you know, just want to be around. Where can they find you? And what should we expect to see from you going forward? Yes, for sure. My LinkedIn, um, so my full name as a true Mexican is Edna Elisa O. That's a long name, but most people call me Elisa.

Okay. Uh, so LinkedIn is my preferred way of communication, but email I prefer to give email just for business. But yeah, anyway, like my email is elisa ochoa at SK com, so they can also talk to me through there. But if it's business. [01:03:00] Email if it's something more casual, let's open up the conversation, LinkedIn for sure.

Uh, but no creepy messages. LinkedIn is not a dating site. Don't start inboxing Elisa because you saw her on the show and you thought she was cute. Okay. That's not what we're here for. Yeah. PSA from me after I got some like, yeah, we get it. Probably Nikki has received some messages after this.

Well, thank you so much Elisa. We appreciate you being part of our community. Best of luck with your podcast. I will attempt to get better at my Spanish so that I can start listening because I'm sure you're having fantastic conversations over there. And yeah, thank you for being who you are. And being in this industry, staying in it, I'm sure you'll serve as an inspiration to plenty of other people that see this and I'll hopefully see you around soon.

 If not in person, then on LinkedIn. No, and thank you so much for opening a space like this. I'm so proud of the project that you guys are that you are building. It's an amazing space. [01:04:00] You just talk and. Connect with other people, so thank you so much. Thank you.