 Hello everyone, welcome to theCUBE's presentation of Women in Tech's Global Event Celebrating International Women's Day. I'm John Furrier, host of theCUBE. We have a great friend of theCUBE here, Leah Bebo, vice president of AWS Product Marketing. Going to talk about taking charge of your career. Leah, great to see you. Thanks for coming on this awesome program for celebrating International Women's Day. Thanks for coming on. Thanks, John, it's great to be here, thank you. You've been at AWS for a long time. You've seen the growth years. You've had a great career. Before we get into it, and tell us about what you're doing now. What is your role as a vice president of Product Marketing? What do you do there? So we have more than 200 products and my team is really the team that takes those products. We make the messaging and positioning. We launch them and bring them into the world. And then we work really hard to educate customers and make them aware of all of these products, help them understand how they can use them. And really, because our technology with the cloud is something that businesses all around the world are using to really transform how they operate in this digital world. We get this opportunity to help our customers transform their businesses. You guys are customer obsessed and the product has been successful. And you've had a lot of different roles within AWS. The question is, what's the moment you can identify when you know there's a new challenge or opportunity and when to go for it? This is something that people talk about all the time is, is it the right time? Do I stretch myself? Pain is growth, all these kind of conversations. When have you been able to identify that moment? Well, I would like to say that there was an aha moment at all of these different points in my career, but I would say it's never that easy. I think a lot of things have to come together over time. But if I reflect on all the opportunities I've taken, usually they haven't necessarily felt comfortable. It's not common to look ahead and say, okay, in three months I'm going to be doing this thing. All the opportunities have kind of arisen and every time it's an opportunity to do something different, to maybe do something bigger, to work with really incredible people who I can learn from. And every time it's been, I'm going to try something new that's going to push me in a new direction and it's that uncomfortable feeling of, oh, this seems like it can be risky. That's usually been telling me that it's something I should take on. When do you have that internal clock or is it an internal feeling of, I've got to start taking charge. I can control what I can control. I'm going to go for it. I'm not going to kind of sit here waiting or sometimes it's better to wait and make a move. I mean, these are things that people go through in their career. Can you share your experience and when to go for it, when to pull back or when you have that kind of feeling? What are some examples? Sure. Well, I think I've been pretty lucky throughout my career to work for smaller companies. And when you're working in a small company, there's just a lot of opportunity to do things that maybe you didn't get hired to do or aren't in your job description. And if you look around and you spot those opportunities and it's usually you've got something new, you see a problem that needs fixing or maybe you have a skill or an idea that you want to put in place. I think those are some of the times where you really have the opportunity to take charge. And nobody's going to tell you, oh, look, we know you're really good at this. Why don't you take on this problem? A lot of times it's more identifying and seeing a need and saying, hey, I think that we could do this differently. I think that this is something I'd be interested in doing and that's your moment. That's your moment to take it on. Tell me about your thoughts on confidence, okay? That having that confidence to take that next step, when to go for it? What's the role of confidence play in this? And has there been times where you maybe weren't confident or had to get the confidence? How did that happen? Take us through that dynamic because confidence is key in anything, right? You got to have the confidence. But sometimes there's a lot of pressures to push people's confidence down. And I know I've personally felt that many times in my career, but confidence is key. Can you give us your take on when you know you have that confidence to take the next step and what's the success path? I think there's fluctuations in confidence throughout my career. How about that? I would say that anytime you're taking on something new or you're in territory that you haven't been in before or you're getting pushed, it can be tough to rally the confidence. I think what always worked for me is to really dive deep and to understand as much as I can to learn as much as I can, to prep as much as I can. And even doing that, you can prep all you want, you can read everything possible, you can meet all the people. There's always that moment where you're out there and you don't necessarily feel like it's enough, but you just go for it. I love that preparation meets opportunity kind of vibe. And that was going to be my next question. It's like, how do you prepare? And as people out there are learning and they're early in their careers and or maybe growing into a career, whether that's in academic college and then post college, what's the preparation like these days? I mean, has things changed? Is there a playbook? What's your secret to preparation meets opportunity? So these days, it's how you prep for things is kind of crazy. It's information coming at you all the time. Opportunities are everywhere. There's social networks for career development and career growth. There's mentoring networks. When I first started in my career, it was a little bit more analog back then. And prepping was a lot more about getting publications and seeing if you could call people on the phone and talk to them. I was in public relations in the early days and a lot of the preparation had to do with, could you find the contact information for a journalist that you wanted to pitch a story to? And then how well could you know the technology and have the story because you're gonna have to call somebody and sell them on your idea? I think today, we just have a wealth of information and ways to prepare at our fingertips. I mean, the internet is great. A lot of companies, especially here at Amazon, we have career development programs and internal networks, infinity networks where you can meet people who are like you or can mentor you or teach you things. You know, a big part of my role has been very visible in public. When you're in public relations or you're in executive communications, you're getting up on stage and the amount of prep that you can do and should do in a situation like that can be pretty intense. And even then, it's always you're gonna get up on the stage and have that moment and you may have prepared for everything but things can go wrong. And pushing in those times that are comfortable, uncomfortable for you is one way to kind of keep your career going forward. Yeah, that's where the confidence comes in. You always had great confidence, always admired by you, very inspiring on that front and great and you know the content and you do great prep. I got to ask you on your career progression, Leah, how deliberate have you been in that? Some people just float down the river of life, say yes to the universe and see where it takes them. Some are much more structured. Different strokes for different folks, as they say. How deliberate have you been in your career progression? What extent is taking on something new, a leap of faith? I would like to say that I had a master plan and I've been really deliberate but I would say I'm on the side of folks who kind of just float through and somehow have these lucky moments and end up in places. But I think there has been some consistency in that I'm always looking for more and what's next. I've never been a person that once I've mastered something or once I've done it for a certain amount of time, I'm ready for the next big thing. So I'm kind of looking for it. That said, I don't have the next big thing in mind. It kind of presents itself to me and I've been really lucky. As being part of the technology industry, so much has changed in the 20 some years that I've had a career. It's such a fast paced industry, the technologies are changing, the companies are changing, the opportunities and looking for what's next, there's a lot out there. So it's pretty easy to look for what's next. I want to get into the theme of this year's International Women's Day. This is called Breaking the Bias. It's a hugely important topic. It's talked about a lot, but it's highlighted this year. First of all, it's always been on the table, but this year it's being called out. Break the bias, that's the theme. How does bias manifest itself in your experience and how can we all help to break it? Well, I think that bias is, it's something that we all have, it's out there as humans that are different. We all come to the table with our biases. And if you think about it just in a general term, it was a journalism major in college. And one of the first things you learn is about bias and about looking at the media and trying to understand their lens on things and how to kind of think critically about things. So you kind of understand bias as a concept. I think then when you're a woman and you enter the workforce, you learn a little bit more about bias as in practice. But what I will say is that I was incredibly lucky in my kind of some of the formative years of my career, I worked in a women-run company. So all the leaders were women and most of us there were women. And I think that I was pretty lucky to have times where you go through uncomfortable things and you try new things and you're learning about being a manager and you're learning about taking risks. And I did all of that in an environment where there wasn't a lot of bias because we were all women. That doesn't mean that out in the world while we were doing our jobs, while we were working with clients and interacting with other people, bias wasn't a thing. But I think it was a good chance to develop myself and to really, I don't wanna say it'd be inoculated against bias, but to understand what it looks like when you're there in a place where there's not a lot of bias in the environment. How do you know when bias has gone? I'm asking you to go up against, but first of all, women in tech, it's male and male dominant and the number's getting better. But still a ton to go. I'm sure you've gone up against a lot of bias. How do you know when it's not there? How do you know when it's not there or when it is there? When it's there and how do you navigate around it? And what does the environment, what does success look like? What does the end game look like? Take us through some of your experiences. I know I see a lot of it here in the industry as well, but it's changing, right? So, it's changing for the better. It's absolutely changing. I think it's so much different even a few, like even then it was a few years ago. I think part of that is that there's just been a lot more attention paid and there's more of an understanding about what bias is and that it's something that is preventing us from having a really truly diverse and inclusive world and especially in the workplace. When I was earlier in my career, there were a lot of ways that you could tell that there was bias. I had a moment where one of my colleagues who was a woman, we were in a room and we were both in a PR agency at the time and we were meeting with a client and we did a presentation. We had a really great idea and one of the men at the client gave us congratulations and then he patted her on the head. And you have to step back and one, that's just a weird thing to do in the workplace at all, but you had to kind of step back and wonder, would that have happened if I wasn't a woman? And so that was many, many years ago. I've never, today that would never happen. And I think what's really encouraging is not only are we seeing more and more women leaders and women being moved into positions of leadership so that they can create a more inclusive environment. I think we're all talking about bias and we're examining it and we realize that it's there. Here at Amazon, we really do talk about that and try to question ourselves and step back from situations and say, is there some bias here or am I bringing some of my own biases into this conversation? And we are a very data-driven company and we're very, we really like facts. We really like to dive deep into analytical situations. And I think doing that, we all feel like that's something we really value. And so to begin to have the self-awareness to know that even when we think we're very clinical and going by the facts and the data that actually we're still humans and we're still bringing bias into the room. That's a really great point. It's a human thing, right? This data. Yes, it is. I mean, you can crunch the data all you want but people can make data look like whatever they want it to be. So I think this human element is super important. And I gotta say, you know, what's exciting for me is with, you know, one of the upsides of COVID has been getting more stories out there. And I think this day celebration in National Women's Day, it's just the beginning to get more stories out there. And I think your story is a great one because again, no matter who you are, your career or your life, you're in control of it. And you can control what you can control and you can't control what you can't control. That's like all the expression. So, you know, I guess in summary, what would be your way to encapsulate kind of like your experience to share someone watching who might say, hey, you know, I want to take control of my career. What advice if you can look back and accumulate all the best practices and trials and tribulations, what would you say to your younger self or someone out there who's just starting to break into the career path? Well, I would say first and foremost, and this isn't something that I mentioned before, is having people on your side, having people that have been there before you, you know, my first, when I first graduated, I had no idea what to do with this diploma that I had and what it would be like to get into the workforce. But I had a friend who had graduated a year earlier and she was the one that got me my first internship. And I think throughout my career, mentors and other people in my industry have helped me along. So I think that's the first thing is find people who are there for you and on your side and can give you opportunities. I think keep an open mind. I had big ambitions when I came out of school that this was going to be in the workplace and I was going to be doing big things. I was going to be making PR campaigns and the reality of it in the beginning was that it was really not that it was, I had my days making copies, but I was okay with that. And at some point, the time you spend making copies or the time you spend making lists, you learn and you think about what the next thing is and you spot opportunities and you just have to keep an open mind that wherever you are in that moment, things are going to present themselves that you can use to take yourself to the next step. You still got to grind. You got to do the grinding when you come out of the workforce, work your way through. Hard work is a big part of it, don't you think? I mean, you still got to have- I really do think, I mean, when you think about confidence or you think about taking charge of your career or opportunities presenting themselves to you, that I can't underscore enough, like you do really have to be willing to work. And hopefully whatever you're working in and what you find is something that you're passionate about because then it doesn't necessarily feel like work, but the value of hard work, of preparation, of persistence and not letting yourself get defeated is all something that you need, not just as a woman, but as anybody who's wanting to enter this world that is business and having a career, especially in the technology industry. Lee, it's been great inspiration to follow your career and others will be as well inspired. I have to ask, what's next for you in your career? For me, well, it's been a couple of long years of COVID and kind of navigating this hybrid work world and COVID happened to happen just as I was taking this new role. So two years ago, stepping into a new role and at the same time the global pandemic hit. And so I've had to learn how to do this job at the same time, I've had to learn how to be a colleague and a leader and a mentor on a screen, I guess. And so for me, what's next is as things hopefully continue to open up and things go in the right direction with COVID and we start thinking about what does the workplace look like? I have a whole team of people that I have not met yet that I'm looking forward to meeting and we get to figure out what does that look like? What does it look like to come back to work in a world that has changed so much in such a short amount of time? And so that's what's next for me, figuring that out. I mean, I have a lot to learn. That's awesome. Well, it's great to chat with you remotely soon to be in person as the pandemic starts to lift, hopefully fingers crossed. Great to have you on and participating in this awesome showcase product that we're going to put together around International Women's Day and continue it. And it's a global event with celebrating women in tech on International Women's Day. We want to do more and thanks for the stories and appreciate your time, Leah. That's been great. Thanks, John. Thank you, John. It was great to be here. Cube presentation, women's tech global event celebrating International Women's Day. I'm John Furrier, host of theCUBE. Thanks for watching.