How to Succeed as a Woman of Color in Tech - ICAN Keynote

Noelle Russell is an AI evangelist and futurist. She is a multi-award-winning technologist who specializes in cloud computing, conversational AI, applied AI, and responsible AI practices. She has also helped hundreds of brands develop strategies for voice platforms such as Amazon Alexa. Please welcome Noelle to the stage. Hi everyone, so excited to be here. Whoa, okay, so they've obviously done this before because this is— hi— back there. Wow, okay, I stood back there, so you all are my people. We like fist pumped and stuff, so, so great to see you all. I hope I'll get a chance to fist pump, well, maybe not all of you, but a good, good plenty of you by the end of today. My name is Noelle Russell, and I am here for a slightly different reason, I guess. Maybe I had a very interesting career. I had an opportunity to do something that everyone told me I shouldn't do or couldn't do. And I want to tell you a little bit about what that means. And I want to start very quickly with something I started my career in, dare I say it, Y2K. Anyone? Like the first time we thought the world was going to end. Yes, so some of you remember. And back then, similar to now, there weren't enough people doing the needful things around computer science. So they were like, we'll take anyone. It doesn't matter, boy, girl, know how to code, don't know how to code. And I ended up, jumping into that world, I worked at IBM, and in my very first 2 years at IBM, I was teaching, can I say, old dogs new tricks? Where I was teaching a bunch of people, mostly men, I'd say all men, maybe there was 1 or 2 women in the 2 years, but I was a young Latina, and the first thing I did was put this hair in a bun. I wore it in a bun for 2 years. I then bought a I bought glasses. Now these are the cool ones that you actually, I took a video of you as I was walking on stage, they're the new Ray-Bans that go directly to Instagrams. I know, so cool. But I wore these glasses for years pretending, what, I don't know, I think they call it code-switching now. But luckily, I evolved, as you probably have and will over the next part of your career or chapter in your life, But luckily I ended up finding a spot in the most unlikely place. Isn't that sometimes just how it works? So I want to share with you a video of a campaign that I was a part of. And when I saw this video, I was like, this, this is why I'm here. So I wanted to share it with you so I can kind of set the stage for what I'm going to talk to you about. So here it is.

Today, right now, you have more power at your fingertips than entire generations that came before you. Think about that. That's what technology really is. It's possibility, it's adaptability, it's capability. But in the end, it's only a tool. What's a hammer without a person who swings it? It's not about what technology can do, it's about what you can do with it. You're the voice and it's the the microphone. When you're the artist, it's the paintbrush. We are living in the future we always dreamed of. We have mixed reality that changes how we see the world and AI empowering us to change the world we see. You have more power at your fingertips than entire generations that came before you. So here's the question: What will you do with it?

Oh my goodness, I like get choked. I've seen that hundreds of times, right? That's a clap for sure. That is the future, right? How cool is that? And it, oh, and it's actually right now, right now. Like all that is happening right now. So I was given an opportunity and I'll set the stage. As many of you may have experienced, an email went out. I was working at Amazon and an email went out to the crowd of people. It was on the heels of a gigantic failure at Amazon. You might not remember it. It was called the Fire Phone. It was awesome. But anyway, everyone was worried and scared that they weren't going to be on a successful project. So no one wanted to do the cool new thing except me. And I was like, oh, I'll do it. But I was a lowly training manager at the time, but I didn't care because I was like, this is cool. I want to do it. I went to my manager and my manager said to me, have you ever had them like in their face pat you on the head? We're like, no, no, you're not. That's not for you. You're not technical enough for that. You could not. I mean, and it's funny because in that moment I almost believed him because he was so nice about it. Like, you're so good with people. You're so good at this job you've got. He didn't mention that if I left, his job would get harder, right? And that he probably didn't really want me to go. But that project, that little-known project, I was employee 10 on this project that eventually became a household name. Amazon Alexa. Anyone know Amazon Alexa? We do now, right? But how exciting. Like when I started, I was one of the only females on the team. I got to speak at Harvard. I literally told my kids for years, I was like, yeah, I teach at Harvard. I was so proud of it. But the funny thing is, lots of women and people of color went to their managers that year, and lots of them heard the same story. It gets me emotional. And almost all of them believed what they heard. I call it wing clipping. Many of us have experienced it, where you get into a situation and someone comes in ever so subtly and is like, probably not that thing you want to do. You might— now might not be a great time for that. Do you know how many people are unemployed right now? Do you know how many people failed doing that very same thing? And it gives us just enough to go, yeah, you're probably right, I shouldn't do that. Unless, like me, I took a step back and go, but I really want to do this. Now granted, over years decades, my entire life. At the age of 6, my dad raised me on the golden age of science fiction, and I'll give you a picture of him. Here he is right here. He introduced me to talking robots, C-3PO, R2-D2, even though he didn't talk back. Well, anyway, but we could talk to him. I knew already as a young kid that I would talk to robots one day. How weird is it that I was given an opportunity and how sad it would have been if I listened to that voice, not just inside myself, but the one I trusted, my coach, my manager, who was like, yeah, this tiny window of opportunity to be who you were meant to be. I'm not sure you're ready for that. And how many times do we say that to ourselves? These are my people. I always like to talk a little bit about my why. I think it's important that we all— it's what drives everything I do. Why do we do what we do? So these are my people. I have 4 children. One of the main reasons I got into technology was my son. He was born with Down syndrome, and being born with Down syndrome— he's now 17— 17 years ago meant that I had a geneticist come up to me and say, "You know, I'm really sorry. It's really unfortunate. You probably should put him in institution. They have great adoption agencies." I was a first-time mom. Needless to say, I Tried again and again and again. And so I have a few now, a gaggle of humans, but he was my first and I was worried, but I'm a Latina, number one, and number two, I was a technologist and I said, oh no, no, this is not for me. So when that manager told me you're not technical enough for this, I said, okay, let's just, let me see what else I could do. I went around him. Of course I ended up joining that team. I went to another manager who saw promise. And maybe that's one of the things I hope you take away today, is that when you see something you know you're meant to do, or have even a glimpse of a desire to do it, that you don't take the first answer, even if it's yes. Find cooperation. Women supporting women. Like, should I have come out here and Bollywooded, whatever that's called, on stage right before my talk? Maybe not. But I'm a supporter. I'm a woman supporter. Like, I'm doing it because I want, I want I want someone to do that for me. Don't worry, we are not dancing. That's not happening. We can dance later, baby. No, I'm not a dancer, but I will become a dancer if I can serve someone, if I can help someone, if I can make them feel better about whatever they're trying to do, and it felt good doing that. So these are my people. This was my years of work, of code-switching, of being told no. The reason I show this is because it comes from a very interesting place. I am not classically trained in artificial intelligence, though I just got a Responsibility in AI and Ethics Award. I never graduated from high school. I never graduated from college. I went.

Thank you.

You know, here's a funny thing about shame. It took me decades to say that out loud. And I'm the same person. I'm the same hard worker, fingers on a keyboard, put something in front of me, I will work until I know it. Same person. But it took me a decade to say out loud, the truth is I didn't learn well that way. And I was strong enough to leave that environment and figure out a way for it to work. One of the reasons I was so successful on Alexa was because all of my peers who were male were building one application for Alexa. I built over 100 applications for Alexa in my first year. The reason— yes, right? Here's the sad— thank you, you guys are awesome. Oh my gosh, I'm gonna cry. The reason I did that though, and it's an unfortunate— I mean, you guys are my people. Like we sometimes, and I dare say all the time, have to work twice as hard to be seen as just as good. Like I have not just done a little bit more than my peers, I did 10 times more. I actually now see it as a strength. Many of you, right, are like, oh my gosh, I run circles around them. And that's great. It's why we're called to do the things that we're called to do. But I got lots of certifications. I'm currently an MVP, Most Valuable Professional at Microsoft in the area of AI. And I just think it's amazing because I didn't do that for a living. It started 7 years ago when I was like, Wait, there's a computer that my son could talk to that would better his speech? And they're like, no, no, no, it's a kitchen device, Noelle. It's a kitchen for the 1% of the 1%. It's not for classrooms. Guess what it is now? It is in classrooms today. Back then, I would say my dad suffered a horrible injury. He got hit by a car as a pedestrian walking across the street in Seattle. Yes, Seattle is dangerous. He's fine, don't worry, he's a Marine, so he like recovered and he's fine, but he became like Dory, lost his memory, his short-term memory, and Alexa saved us. How many of you, I mean, if you're a caregiver, there's only so many times you can answer the same question, like over and over without changing your tone, right? It's Thursday, Dad, right? Like, and you don't wanna be that person, I don't wanna be that person, right? But Alexa, same tone, happy. I know some of you think she gets frustrated with you, but she doesn't. But my opportunity to join that team, and I'm— there's so many things about my journey. I went on to do the very same thing at Microsoft. I now work at IBM as an executive. I mean, my journey to becoming an executive— do you know how many Latina executives there are in technology? Less than 1%. 1% of all of them. Like, kind of, right? But then we're like, thank you so much. Like, it's a great achievement, but I had to actually fight for that role. I had to tell them I won't take anything less. Luckily, I'm now in a position where I'm like, I'm not gonna take it. When I was younger, I didn't do that, right? When I was younger, I was like, give me less of what I'm capable of just so I could get my foot in the door. And I actually was very grateful to do it. I was like, I'm here, I'm going to work twice as hard as my peers. Oh wait, I have less of a title than my peers and I have less money than my peers, but I didn't care. I went to work at National Public Radio as my first executive position. Do you all know National Public Radio? It was phenomenal. I went there as a fangirl, like Nina Totenberg, Susan Stamberg, anyway. And most of the people on my team did not know these people. I grew up with them. But I went there, and one of the things that I heard from Nina Totenberg, which I— it sticks with me, and many of you might resonate with it, is that she said to me, she goes, we are part of the suck it up generation, you and I. We look at this situation, we see bad behavior, and we suck it up. We work harder. She was one of the first correspondents on Capitol Hill when they were all men. And they were catcalling her, and they, like all the nonsense that we can't even imagine. This was in the '60s and '70s, right? And she was like, you just suck it up and you work harder. You get the better story. And she did, of course, and she's one of the best now. But it's interesting to me because thank goodness we are in a room full of leaders. We're raising a new generation of those that don't suck it up, those that say something when they see something, and that gives me hope. Because so many times I was just like, that's fine, I see you, but I'm gonna go do my own thing. I'm gonna figure it out myself. I used to always say, I'm going to work hard in silence and let success be my noise. Every promotion I got, I'd be like, I hope you are watching, right? That person who told you you couldn't. So it's very interesting, I mentioned this. One thing I want to just share with you is the concept of success, and it's maybe what I'll leave you with today. What is success? Now this quote was actually referenced by Jeff Bezos, regardless of what you think of him. Alexa was his pet project before the rockets, and so he helped me make a dream of mine come true, so I have an affinity. But he shared this on Twitter, But he took a picture of his fridge and it had this quote on it. He said he has his kids read it every day. I also have two other CEOs who shared it with me in all-hands meetings with hundreds of thousands of employees. And so I wanna share it with you because I think it's really important that we know the leaders of technology are, are thinking about things maybe differently than we might presume. So we'll go ahead and, and read it really quickly. I know you're not supposed to do that, but I want to. 'Cause, you know, we could do what we want. All right, so what is success? To laugh often and much. To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children. To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate the beauty, to find the best in others. To leave the world a bit better. Whether by a healthy path, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition. To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded. Yes, they were men and they were white, but they introduced this to me. And guess what? The person who got the credit for this quote is Ralph Waldo Emerson. Do any of you know who he is? Like, he's a pretty well-known guy. Turns out, shocker, He didn't actually write it. A woman did. And I was told this. I got off stage one day and a guy came up to me and he's like, "Look it up." Oh, alright. I did some research. Sometimes just below the surface of what you think is true is another thing. Not bad, but different. And it changes the story, it changes your story. If you could please, my AV people, go to the second to last slide. The most important thing— oh, sorry, the one right after that. Thank you. The most important thing is learning to tell your story. One of the reasons that I do what I do today, I mean, this is pretty cool, but I help a lot of women one-on-one and in small groups. I help them build a brand, mostly in tech, because we're so quiet in tech. But the reason I do that is not because, you know, we want to like be famous. It's because there's someone one step behind. Oh gosh, I might cry. There's someone who fell, right? And it's like when you go skiing and someone falls and your coach comes over and they're like, you'll be okay. And they just pick you up. In tech, in business, we don't do that. I don't see it. I don't have— I've never had a woman go, it's okay. When I got fired from Microsoft, they never— no one came by and was like, Dust it off, babe, come on, let's go, let's do this. I didn't have that community. There's no reason. And then I found you guys and I got to speak on your stage. So I feel like there's such opportunity in this room, right? We've pumped fists and said, you can count on me. And I want to tell you as I end today, you can count on me. I know you think like I'm up here and You're there. We are so close in so many ways. So I hope you'll find me on LinkedIn. I'm just Noelle Russell Russell, easy to find. Connect with me on social. But I'm your friend, and I believe in women supporting women, and I hope my story has helped you. So thank you for letting me share it.