Let's get this party started. So my name is Kumar David Reddy. I currently serve as a CEO for Lucid Technologies.And before my current role, I was with various organization, most recently with General Motors Financial, heading digital transformation, procurement, and, program management. And before that, I was with Six Flags and before that with Prudential and from there before that, Aviva. So I've led a digital transformation program management and learning and development for various, various corporate companies. But today, what I'm here to talk to all of you is about what truly makes me who I am, what really transformed my leadership skills, or rather what makes me the leader that I am today and what brought me here. So I'm gonna take you all through a little bit of my personal journey, and I'm gonna share my screen.

I hope you all can see my screen and you can see the right screen. K. So this is this is me, and the topic today would be adversity to advocacy, the journey journey of resilience. Now the introduction of what resilience to me came to me at a very, very early stages of my life. That was just when I was still in my high school if I was wrapping up my high school oh, what happened? Okay. When I was still in my high school and wrapping up my high school. Now at that point in time, I was an extremely introvert student. Within my own classroom, nobody really knew I existed.

However, what I didn't realize was at that age when I was in school, that was my perfect time to learn that resiliency comes by not being perfect, but being more purposeful. Right? When we look at making everything perfect, when we look at making everything, oh, how do I really make sure this is absolutely right? That's kind of where we lost in the details. So my exposure was when my teacher pulled me out of the classroom of just 20 people. It wasn't a huge group. It was just a classroom of 20 people, and she had me talk about a topic. I was trembling. I was nervous. I was completely unprepared. I was the kind of kid growing up who wouldn't even raise their hand for anything. You know, the person who was next to me, the person on the front of me wouldn't even know I was part of the same classroom.

So being somebody like that suddenly in a high school when I was put on the stage, and when I say stage, it was a small little classroom, it still completely broke me. But that also was what built me as a person. From that moment onwards, a lot of things in my life started to shift a little bit because that day I realized what I thought would kill me actually didn't kill me. It only made me stronger. And so from being somebody who, please let me know if you can see my screen. Okay? So from being somebody who went from an extreme introvert from an to being able to being put on the stage to somebody who was a con who comes from a conservative Indian family to navigating through okay. Thank you for confirming you can see my screen. With a little bit of those technical challenges, I was a little bit worried where we were going. Okay.

So coming from an introvert family navigating through those financial struggles and truly not, has a has a came through my upbringing, I was like, okay. I'm an extrovert. I'm going through all these financial struggles. I'm going through all of that stuff. And then the major reality hit me hard, and that was I was going through a progressive spinal disorder. Now what happened at this point in time for any for anybody is why me? And that was the same thing that happened to me. For me, I was like, why me? Why should I go through all of this? What's going on with me? And all of that stuff. After asking a million questions, after going through all these emotions physically, you know, emotionally and socially, all of these emotions of why me?

Why why what what did I do wrong? What happened? And all of that stuff. I started learning that what happened to me happened for a reason. And these were the adversities that I had to convert into an advocacy and become a better leader. And leadership leader leadership for me doesn't really just mean in the corporate space. It's not about just leading people. It is also how I lead myself. It's how I lead my kids as a as a mom. It's how I lead my community as a community leader. So the whole definition of who I was as a person, what leadership meant to me at that this point of time changed for me to leading while I was also focusing on healing myself. That wasn't an easy transition. Right? Because I had to focus on healing. I had to focus on simplest things like, am I getting a good night's sleep?

Simplest thing like, what food is right for me? Yet I was also a mom of two daughters, also a community leader, also a corporate leader. How do I transition and convert my adversity into my strength? And that's the journey that I navigated through, and I'm hoping what I did would help you in some way. So before we get started, I have a a quick reflection question for all of you. Has there been a time in in your life that you felt like, you know, something challenged you? Something challenged you drastically. And if you did, how did that challenge become your strength or it introduced you to your own strength?

And I can bet every challenge that each one of us would have faced would introduce us to a core strength of our own that we never knew we really had. And that's kinda what happened with me. I was introduced to my own core strength, which I realized, even till date, is resilience. And resilience is not really about not wanting to deal with something, but resilience is understanding that I'm dealing with this for a reason. Right? What can I really learn from this? How can I convert this adversity into an advocacy through my story? It's each of us have a story. Each of us have our adversities that we we sometimes hide, but then how could that become our strength? It could become our strength by sharing it with the world. It could become our strength by looking at what from that have I learned, what from that can I apply in my day to day life and convert the way I lead today?

So with all of this, when I transitioned into the technology space, I come from a financial services space. And then from financial services, I was into the insurance sector. And after all of that, almost, I wanna say, twenty twenty years back when I initially transitioned to the technology space, that's when the reality hit me hard. That's when I realized the system wasn't really built for us. But we are not here to fit in, are we? We are here to lead that system. Right? It isn't about really taking a chair with us to the table if there is no chair for us, but it is actually building the whole room and saying, this is where everybody sits and this is where we all belong. And how do we do that? What really will help us not just look at the system, but to say how can we lead that system? Three most important things that I learned was, one, it isn't really about mentorship. Mentorship is dying. Again, this is a very strong statement I'm making, but hear me out.

We, as women, do not need to be mentored and mentored and mentored because mentoring is all about saying, right there, there is a door. Go there. Take a ride, and you will land where you need to land. That's not what we want. We want somebody to say, come on. Let me walk with you. Let's walk together, and I'll speak to you while we walk. I'll share with you my journey as we walk. We need advocates. We need sponsors. We need people who will say, I am going to bet on you on this job. I'm gonna put you into this job because I know you can stretch yourself, and I know you can do this better. Are we ready to be advocates to somebody else? Can we be allies? Can we be advocates and sponsors to somebody else?

Can we convert our current mentors into advocates and sponsors? What would it take for us to convert our current mentors into advocates and sponsors? And anytime there is a rejection, rephrase that. It isn't a rejection. It is a redirection. And what should the new redirection be? Where do you wanna go? Own your own values. Don't ever give up on your values just to seek that validation from somebody else because then you lose yourself in the process. The more you own your own value, the more you are authentic, the more people will want to work with somebody who's authentic, and the more you claim your own space in the space in this industry. So how are you all advocating today for yourself? Think for a moment. What are you doing today to advocate for yourself? Because if you don't advocate for yourself, nobody else will. So what am I doing differently to advocate for myself?

You know, one thing that I have noticed growing up is we women are the worst at advocating for ourselves. We always if I'm applying for a CEO role, the part that comes into my mind when I did that to myself when I was applying for the CEO role at Lucid Technologies. They're like, maybe not me, but why not? What's the worst that can happen? They're gonna say you're not ready, then I'm gonna ask them why. What's gonna what's what's needed for me to be ready? And then I'll go work on what's needed to be ready. But to do that, you have to apply. Advocate for yourself. Advocate for what you're passionate about. What you're passionate about, you definitely will be good at it because anything that we are passionate about, we will work towards making what we will work towards sorry.

I I was looking at the chat, and I'm getting distracted. So we whatever we are passionate about, we will work towards really making that right. If technology is your passion, if leadership is your passion, if building other women is your passion, go all in for it. You truly believe somebody is really right for this job, go all in. Advocate for them. Because the more allies you build, not not mentors, remember, the more allies, the more advocates you build, you're building a pipeline for your own self. Because it's a ripple effect, it will come back to you at some point. So I'm gonna challenge all of you today to think about what are you doing today to advocate for yourself, or rather, what are you not doing today that you should be doing?

Just one thing, if I can challenge all of you. We want almost towards the end of the month. We have ten more days. Within the next ten days, if you can commit to doing one thing to advocate for yourself. And maybe in the next three months, committing to at with being an advocate for somebody else. There are so many interns out there, so many people who are coming into the space. Can you be an advocate to somebody? Because then you become a role model to your mentors, and you have them start following your path. I'm trying to move my slide a little bit. Okay. How can you advocate for yourself? The best way to advocate for yourself is just being you. Nothing else. Right?

And as much as we think of just the EU is easy, it isn't really. We all have a story. We every one of us my my story could be struggling with my spinal issues, or my story could be, you know, becoming a leader in a in a way where I have to heal and I have to lead and how was it different? Your story could be something totally different, but every story is transformational. When we add a tinge of vulnerability, when you are open to being vulnerable about your own story and we start sharing those stories, those sta stories can be transformational. Acts will inform people, but stories will transform people. Your story, you never know who it's going to transform. So what's stopping you from seeing that story? What are you holding back from? Can your stories help you build advocates? Can your stories help you create more sponsors?

In the chat, I would love for you all to respond to just this one question. What I want the world to know about me is What do you want the world to know about you? What I want the world to know about me is I'm healing, but I am leading because my journey through healing has taught me to lead as a leader by heart, not by mind. And that transition happened for me because of my ethnicities. That's what I want the world to know about me. What do you want the world to know about you? Your story could become someone else's survival guide. Build your community. Don't seek mentorship. Seek advocacy. Seek sponsorship. It is not what you built, but it is who you're building it with.

The projects, the programs that you work on, the code that you're building may not have to be perfect, provided the people that you're building that with, you're building a connection. When we women help each other, we're building that ripple effect. I may not directly benefit from somebody that I am advocating for today, but you never know. My daughter might. Somebody else might. It will always come back. It may not come back from that same person, but pay it forward. They'll always it'll always come back. So the three most important things that I wanna leave all of you with today, one, move from adverse adversities to advocacies. All of us, pretty much every one of us who are in this phase of our career have gone through some of the other advert adversities. It could be personal. It could be professional. It could be day to day challenges. No matter what those adversities are, how do you convert those into advocacy for yourself?

How could you become the advocacy for others around you and lead with your heart and not your mind? And how can you lead with your heart and not mind? The more you become human and not just a title of a leader, you will start to lead with your heart. And that'll completely transform the way not only you tell your story, but also the way someone else would receive your story. And trust me, if you don't tell your story, somebody else will write it for you. But it wouldn't be it wouldn't hold your name. You wouldn't get the credit for it. So start sharing your story. What's stopping stopping you from sharing your story? Share your story. Be authentic. Advocate for others. Lead with your heart, not with your mind.

I know there might be a lot of books, a lot of people who will say lead with your mind, but let's change that. We're all humans ultimately. Right? The more you can lead with your heart, you will truly see transition. You will truly see an impact. I've seen impacts with my team. The retention rate in the last five years in our company has been zero. And with this market condition, I'm super proud to say that. We have had a lot of people that we wanted to let go, but instead, what did we do? We moved them around. We've had technical recruiters who are now doing sales, not because they like to do sales, but because it's ultimately about who they work for, what organization they work for. And that is a culture you will create when you start leading by your heart, not by your mind.

And that's