So thank you so much for taking the time out, to listen to my story today.I only have about twenty minutes, so it won't be too too too in-depth, but I'll do the best that I can. So in 1995, I had my son. I was age 21, and I was working in the retail field making $8 an hour in the Washington DC Metro area, which if anybody's aware of that area, it's very expensive. And I knew at that time that I I was not gonna make enough to be able to raise my child and still be able to support myself. So I made the decision to switch over. I actually thought, what was the what was the quickest way to make the most money? And I felt computers and technology was the way to go.

So my mom happened to get me a job over at Computer Science Corporation, CSC, as a, at the time, secretary admin. And I started doing that, but I fell into the compliance land, surprisingly so. Started doing compliance, CMMI, which was back in the day, CMM. TMM. And due to unfortunate events, I ended up becoming homeless around that time with my oldest son. And didn't know what we were going to do, but I continue to work, and, I was so blessed with some really strong resources in the DC Metro Area, the women's center, for example, who helped during that time frame. My son, Christopher, and I were in a homeless shelter for about a year a year. And while that was going on, I still worked full time, and I went to school three quarters of the time.

Not quite full time, but I had a very heavy course load starting in the com computer science technology area. I never did finish my degree, but I kept working hard. And fast forward, about two years after, that happens, I had learned so many different things in the technology field. I started doing self taught web development. And at that time, I was only making about $35,000 and struggling. When we were homeless, there were weeks that I didn't even know if I was going to eat. And I remember one day that I went to HR, and I said I was overwhelmed. I was struggling at work, and I didn't know how I was going to pay for formula for my son.

And I remember at the time that the HR woman, she opens up her purse, and she pulls out a crisp $50 bill. And she hand it hands it to me, and I was embarrassed, of course. But at the same time, I knew that, I was desperate. I needed some formula for my child, and I didn't know what else to do. And that story stuck with me. That period of time, that moment in time stuck with me. And years later, when I was in a position that I was able to give back later on in my in my journey, I reached out. I found that woman, and I thanked her. She was somebody that was pivotal pivotal in that journey of life.

Over the years, I've done a lot of certifications and continue just pushing my way forward, reaching forward. And when I was learning all those skills early on, I knew that I was worth more in terms of my salary, in terms of what I brought to the table. The skills that I learned at that time were so vast that I knew that I needed to I wasn't gonna make what I needed to make in terms of what industry was, so I needed to find a new job. And so I started the the hiring journey or the the recruiting process, really. And I remember going to an interview one time, and I asked for almost double my salary. And I remember that the hiring manager, he looks at my resume. He looks down at my resume. He looks up at me.

He looks me up and down, looks back at my resume, looks at me again, and he says, you can't make that. You don't even have a college degree. And I thought to myself, I've done all my homework. I've researched the value of what I bring to the table with experience. And so I stood up, I shook his hand, and I said, thank you for your time. I will find that salary. It might not be here, but I will make that happen. And I left. And I did get a job making a little bit more than what I asked for, actually. And that was a success for me that that reminded me that I could do I could reach for here and get here and not reach for here and look here.

So all I had to do is keep looking up, keep moving forward, keep pushing forward. Over the years, you know, we all go through troubles, tribulations, trials, challenges, and that's always going to be the case. And one of the things I've really learned in life is that you're always going to run into those speed bumps and mountains, and you're going to be knocked down. But I would challenge you to keep getting back up, keep reaching for the stars. Because if you all look back in time in your journey of life, and all of those moments where you've undergone some sort of transformation or you've experienced some really difficult thing in world in your in your life. Have you gotten through it? Were you able to now look back and realize, I overcame that challenge? The answer is going to be yes because you're here today. Right?

So have faith that you got through that journey before. You've had practice. You've had experience. You can get through the next journey in the future. In 02/2016, five years after I had, lower right abdominal pain, And I kept telling the doctors something was wrong. Something was wrong. I was diagnosed with stage four neuroendocrine cancer. It's a rare cancer, and I kept working. I kept pushing forward. Now I don't always encourage people to do that because I think I I'm a little bit I charge for a little bit too much, and sometimes I forget about my own self care. But having stage four cancer, having two children, now a grandchild, it's been overwhelming. It's been an emotional journey. And having to work through that and continue my progression in my career. Over the years, I've become I've learned software development. I've learned the software development life cycle.

I've learned and managed IT, IT service management programs large scale, and really expanding upon my compliance journey, my compliance career, really finding my niche in that area. Understanding compliance was a good selection for my career journey because it gave me so many different perspectives into the world around me and into the business. And so eight years ago being diagnosed, five years ago going after my COO job and getting it through the diagnosis, with the diagnosis, with the medical journey. I've been blessed with here at r three, my boss, Rob, my CEO, He gives me that flexibility to be able to handle whatever comes with this cancer and but still be able to contribute to the organization. And so I've traveled a really far journey. And interestingly enough, over the years, I happen to come across through work organizations that have maybe been sponsoring the national area Capital Area Food Bank, the food bank that gave me food and my child food almost thirty years ago.

And so I was able to volunteer there. The women's center, which is a an organization in in Virginia that gives resources and support and counseling and so to people who, like myself, were going through those challenges. I got to speak at their annual gala about six years ago and gave back then. So it was really awesome to watch my life come from one area, progress, and be able to give back to the world around me, which I love. So that's a little bit of insight into my journey and challenges, but I wanna really focus on here on resiliency and overcoming adversity. And so to be resilient is to be able to recover, to re be able to bounce back, adjust no matter what's thrown at you, and to be able to grow from your your setbacks in your in your journey.

I I think because I'm in the compliance world, I'm always about process improvement, continuous improvement. And so I take that into my personal life as well and see how in the world can I do better next time? Because I'm going to have mistakes. I'm gonna make mistakes. I'm not the smartest in the room, and I don't intend to be, but I'm gonna build a support system around me. I'm going to have that growth mindset for myself and for others that I am also encouraging and mentoring. I'm adaptable, flexible. Although some people would argue that in my COO job, I can be a little more inflexible. It's my, cross to bear, I suppose. But it's more about, I believe, being able to see because of all these challenges, being able to see the potential risk, the potential problem on down the road, and be able to navigate through and to try to prevent.

You know, it's like you have children. If you have children, you don't want them to jump off the bed because you know that they're gonna get hurt, or you don't want them to do x because you you are afraid of that path for them. So you try to get them to push them into that other path. It's no different. So how do you navigate? I face my fears. My boss took we, spoke at a conference recently in Utah, and my boss is like, let's go skiing. And I'm like, I don't know how to ski. I've skied on the Bunny Hill. So we go up on the Green Hill, which I think is the bunny hill, and it's not. And I look that picture on the left there is me. I look. That's my Instagram worthy picture.

But in the meantime, in reality, that picture in the center was me the entire time down what was the green Hill, which was at the very top of the mountain all the way down. I think I still have neck pain from that day. Plan it out. Plan things out. Make a decision. Make a decision and stick to the decision because you can improve from that later on. Fail. Without failure, you can't have that resiliency, I don't believe. I think all of the failures, all the mistakes I've made in my life have enabled me to be successful because I've continued forward. There you go. There's a little us laughing. Laugh at yourself. Maintain perspective. This here is you know, bull's eye is typically the center, but little did you know if you can zoom in there closely on the right hand side, there's a little teeny tiny circle.

I was doing ax throwing with one of my, employees, and I kept hitting that little teeny tiny circle up the outer edge. Turns out that it was more points than the center bull's eye. Keep a center sense of humor. This is me. I had a difficult surgery two years ago. Part of my colon resected, and I had my wounds opened up for months and four months of two holes in my abdomen. And, of course, then I do the joke here is nothing beats a Dyson because I had to get it wound back. So, you know, we, my friends and I, we jerry rigged the picture and, of course, laughed about it. Live life positively. I get a lot of that from people. Be positive. Be positive. And at at some point, I was really frustrated because I do. I am positive. But I get the the idea of that.

You may have to fight your battle more than once to win it. So find your peace, find your self centered gravity. Believe in yourself. I was always afraid to swim in the ocean above my shins. And after my diagnosis, I was challenged with bucket list things that I was afraid to do. And so someone called bucket list on thank you. Someone called bucket list on doing scuba diving, and I was petrified. But I ended up doing it. Not only did I do that, started six years ago, I've become a master scuba diver, and I thought, that's not enough. I'm gonna do it without a tank. So I did freediving, and I ended up becoming an advanced freediver as well, and I overcame a lot of those fears. And one of the things that I found in this journey is to the more that I do the things I'm afraid to do, the less afraid I become.

Somebody asked me once what was my favorite book, and it was in a podcast. And I know they expected me to come up with a business book, and I all I could think about was the the monster at the end of this book. And I challenge you to go and find it. And it's all about Grover who, at the end of the book, he's afraid of the monster, and he spends all of his time trying to get you to stop turning the pages. And you get to the back of the book and you realize that Grover was afraid of himself. And so it has a really good message, and I encourage you to read that. So face your fears. I lead with gratitude and forgiveness as much as possible.

I'm open, I'm transparent, and I'm direct. But at the same time, I wanna make sure to, lead by example as best as I can. Create a supportive work environment. Have open communication, celebrate diversity, provide opportunities for both mentorship mentorship and sponsorship. Don't be afraid to go for it. In the poll that I wrote earlier, many, women are, struggle to go after positions and jobs because there may be one or two items in the job description that they feel that they don't meet. And so men who will go after a job may not have 70% of that item, and they'll go after it anyway. And they'll get the job. So I'd encourage you guys to just go for it anyway. Some daily reminders, practice practice mindfulness, set realistic goals, seek support, don't be afraid of counseling even, and embrace change, and find your joy. I have a grandbaby now.

So one thing that I, was really sad about when I was diagnosed was would I survive long enough to have a grandchild? And I did, and he is the joy of my life. And we have three minutes left, so I wanna make sure that I open it up for any questions. I know that was very quick. Thank you guys so much for your time.