 From the VMware campus in Palo Alto, California, it's theCUBE, covering women transforming technology. I'm Lisa Martin with theCUBE, and we are on the ground in Palo Alto at VMware for the third annual Women Transforming Technology event. Excited to be talking with Stephanie Joe, next Vice President of Operations in the networking and security business here at VMware. Hi, Stephanie. Hi. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me today. Absolutely, our pleasure. So you've been in tech for a long time at VMware for about five years. Tell me a little bit about your journey in tech. What did you want to get into software and technology many years ago? So being actually a native of the Silicon Valley and being raised in California, my father worked for a high tech company for 30 plus years. And so for me, it was natural to go into technology. I'm very much of a finance person and numbers person, so it gave me the opportunity to take my desire for math and my desire for finance and be close to products and be close to innovation. So I would say yes from early on, it was no question that I would be working in technology and it's a great place to be in the Silicon Valley for that. It is, it really is. So you were in finance for a long time and then moved into operation. Yes, a couple years ago. How did you get that courage to go, you know what, I've been doing this for a long time and you mentioned your dad working in for 30 years and I think our parents generation was, you get a job, you do the same thing for 30 or 40 years. In the same company. Yes, how did you get that courage internally to go, you know what, I want to try something different. Yeah, so being in finance, I had the opportunity to work in many different groups within the finance organization. And as I worked in finance, I got the opportunity to take a look at what was important to me and what was interesting to me and I, although I love my numbers piece, I also was very much interested in process and operations and holding people accountable. And I got to a point honestly where I was in finance and I tried many different pieces of finance and I got to a point where, okay, what am I going to do next? And there's also something that's been important to me is constantly reinvigorating myself and rebranding myself, not rebranding, but continuing my brand. And as part of that, operations was just the next natural piece. And I had thought about making that dive many different times in my finance career, but there was always either that risk of, oh, it's a little scary or there was something else I still wanted to do within finance and an opportunity came along a couple of years ago and specifically in the networking and security space and VMware it is one of the highest priorities within the company. And because of the technology and because of the opportunity, I said, you know, now's the right time to go do this. Now's the right time to take that leap, take that chance. And at the same time, I also knew I had the backing of supporters and mentors to help me be successful in that move. I knew it wasn't going to be a slam dunk. I've always told people, you always have to do that next thing that you know you're going to be able to contribute, yet at the same time, it's a little scary and you have to have the confidence and the planning around that confidence to go for it and take that risk. And it's been worthwhile. It has been a nice change. It's given me new energy and I think I know I'm contributing to the company. And that must feel good. Yes. Well, you talked about a touch on a number of points that we've heard today at the Women Transforming Technology event where things were kicked off this morning with Leila Ali, who talked about having, finding that courage and that confidence, but also needing to be mentioned, being around us, an organization, whether it's an organization or just a group who support whatever change that you're thinking of making and I do think some change that's scary is good. But I think that's one of the hallmarks of women transforming technology is this consortium of industry, nonprofits, academia coming together to confront head on the issues that the diversity issues that we're facing, not just as women in technologies and a lot of different gaps, but also providing that support and enabling women and men to have mentors to learn from because it isn't just challenging to get women in tech, it's very challenging to retain women in technology who leave at very high rates for other careers. So how did you, you said Cisco for quite a long time and now VMware five years, did you have women in leadership positions that you looked up to that were mentors to you? I think, so it's interesting, when you dive into your career at the very beginning, long time ago, you don't necessarily think about, okay, who are my mentors or who do I look up to or is there women specifically who can support me? I think for me it's become just natural and I've had the opportunity where I've had a combination of both leaders, men and women that have been mentors to me and supporters. And as I moved forward in my career, I discovered what was important was having even a diverse set of mentors, men and women, but a circle of women around me too that were living the challenges I was living and I also don't think I realized some of the diversity challenges I was living until I got to a certain point and I looked back and went, wow, and I listened and part of WT2 allows you to listen to some of the other challenges that other people are having and you realize I'm not alone and that person is experiencing the same thing that I'm experiencing and I've now turned into a position where I'm like, how can I help you? How can I help that you live through the same things that I've lived through? How can I help you and help you contribute? And this is a form that allows us to come together and create new mentors to get away from the everyday busyness and be selfish for a day and think about myself and how can I improve on things? But really to connect and to share our stories. I didn't think over that. So we're at accountability earlier too and I think one of the things that's great about women transforming technology, women who code, we also, we got to cover a lot of women events, women in data science. It's at the VMware level, VMware's a huge organization, very successful for many years. But this long standing partnership with Stanford and the Clayman Institute and now the new innovation lab from an accountability perspective, you're starting to see it. I shouldn't say starting, but you're seeing it in a big way. That's a big investment. By a big corporation with 20 plus thousand people and of course Stanford University to look at what are these big barriers that affect everybody? That affect everybody. And how can they start to identify them and start to eradicate them? And having companies participate and step up to be accountable to that is huge. It's huge. And I think it's a journey, right? And I think we all started a couple of years ago just looking at the facts and looking at the data and not pushing, but I think presenting the facts of this is what our own diversity metrics look like. Not just men versus women, but different diversity factors. In addition to, okay, as a result of these facts, then what should we do as far as the next step? And I think over the past couple of years there's been a natural progression around we're going to start looking at this and we're going to start asking questions and we're going to start holding people accountable to doing what they said they were going to do from a people perspective, diversity being one of them. And so it's been nice seeing that involvement. Exciting to me is the partnership between the VMware and Stanford because I think it takes it to the next level of it's not just the data, it's not just the facts, it's not just we know it's important, it's what are the underlying behaviors underneath it? What are the underlying actions that we now can take? Not just for VMware, not just for Stanford, but for the whole entire community, right? And that's what it's all about. It's about coming together as multiple different companies coming together as a great institution like Stanford coming together and saying, how can we make a difference in the community that we live in and make a difference from a technology perspective? So it's exciting to me and I think it'll be interesting to be a part of the journey, but also see where we are a year from now, two years from now, right? So you've, sounds like you've sort of found your voice with wanting to be inspirational to other women, whatever stage of their career. That just seems like something that sort of occurred to you that how I've been through this, I'm not the only one. A lot of people go through this. What was that kind of aha moment like where you said, I have an opportunity here to give back? Yeah, I think it's interesting because I look back and I'm like, there wasn't, well maybe there were a couple moments where I'm like, wait, wait, that comment you just made, that was because I was a woman, not because of what I was contributing and either it was like, okay, that was an interesting comment, how do I handle it? But it really wasn't, I think until I was up in the higher ranks, right? And I started saying, okay, I've done a lot, we've been very results oriented, how do I start giving back? And how do I start mentoring others? And it started out as mentoring others that way, maybe new college grads or maybe just new people to the company. And then as I started mentoring others, then I started realizing too that some of the women that I was mentoring, wait, they're living through the same things that I lived through. And there was a big time where I just thought, oh, it was just Stephanie, right? Oh, it's just unique to me, nobody else was dealing with this or I also went through a period of like, I wasn't any different than anybody else, right? And then as I started going through this, I realized, no, there's others that are living the same path that I lived. And I think I can help them grow and contribute to their own growth. And by the way, at the same time, me learn from them, which is what it's all about. Very symbiotic. Yeah. But it takes events like this, like WT Square, to identify, hey, there's a lot of commonality and challenges that we all face regardless of gender or sexual orientation or whatnot. The more you're aware of some of these challenges, the more we can identify how do we hold organizations or why not accountable? It takes that courage, though, to come together and be the one to raise your hand, thinking you might have a dumb question when, of course, there really are no dumb questions. And finding that support, I mean, the strength in numbers, right? This is what would be a Golden State Warriors, exactly. Who's the team I love? But it's really true. And it's a very pervasive feeling when you come to an event like this, you walk in and you feel that there's this inclusion Yeah, you feel the power of the people in the audience, but you also feel the affirmation from the panels or Leila Ali, who is speaking today, and her struggles and her journey, and just saying, I can identify with that, right? I'm not alone, but also how do we together come together and have a voice, right? How do we hold others accountable? And doing it in a way that is fair, I think that's what all of us are asked for, is not, I never have asked for special treatment because I'm a woman or because I'm an Asian, but because it's fair, right? And I'm treated the way that my peers are treated. And I think that's what we all want. Yeah, you mentioned Leila Ali. Her keynote this morning was great. I think it's so, you can tell, even if I hadn't seen her speak, that you know Leila Ali's a very strong woman, physically, mentally, but it was really refreshing for her to say, hey, there's moments where I got to recheck. What's my purpose here? What am I doing? My inside warrior. Yes, and I love that she said, we got to find that inner where she's in there. Sometimes she's quiet. Maybe he has some tape across her mouth, but seeing a naturally, innately strong female say, he sometimes I don't always feel that way. I think that's a very important message to get out to all of those people, regardless of gender or orientation who don't have this sort of natural confidence that a Leila Ali has that, that's normal. Yeah, yeah. And for me, hearing somebody else say, a couple of things she said, having that interior warrior or inside warrior who, okay, give yourself a day to feel bad. Give yourself a day to deal with it. And then it's time to go back for the fight. It's time to go focus on what's important to you and bring out that passion and go. And how many times have all of us felt that? Many a times. The other part that for me, that really hit home for me was confidence. And it's funny cause some people will say, oh Steph, you have very high confidence. And I'm like, no, I don't. And she said something to confidence is in planning and being prepared. And as I think about that, that is something that is very true. It resonated very close to me. And I think about as I talk to women and they, I say, okay, you're going to go into this meeting. Think about how you're going to prepare for that meeting. Cause then it allows you to immediately say, yep, this is what we should do. Yep, this is my idea to be able to have that voice. And so I would say for me, those were probably the two pieces, right? Confidence and preparation or being prepared to have confidence. And then the inside warrior just really hit home for me. The preparation thing I thought was really cool too, because you know, we talk a lot about imposter syndrome. And it's a real issue that a lot of people face, whatever stage of career that they're at or industry, but she's right in that if you're prepared for whatever it is you're doing, that confidence will kind of come up. Preparation is really key. I chuckle a little bit, because when you say the imposter piece, I will admit, I think there was a time in my career where I acted a certain way, and I was in meetings as a certain way, or I went down a path because that's the path that you should go down, right? But it wasn't true to myself. And so I think the part around being prepared, being confident as a result of being prepared, really allows you to be true to yourself and allows you to bring out the passion that's important. And that applies to everybody, not just us, right? So in your kind of wrapping things up here, what are some of the cultural shifts that you've seen being in tech industry for 20 years, and some of the things that you're looking forward to in the next year at VMware? Yeah, so I will say cultural shifts just from the standpoint of awareness, right? I think that's a very important piece of people being respectful and aware of the environment that we're in and people having the conversations. I don't think we would even be having these conversations 10 years ago. And there's multiple different reasons for that, whether it be results of showing with inclusion and with diversity, you have better business results. Or whether it be people speaking up and saying, hey, we have a right to have a voice, we have a right to be treated in a certain way. And so from a culture standpoint, that voice and that awareness has then led to being able to have the conversation of how people should be treated, how they should be respected, and how we should even have the discussion with each other, right? Looking forward, I look forward to the fact of being able to have a stronger voice. And when I say a stronger voice, I don't mean, hey, let's go for the fight and let's make sure we've got the right numbers, but it really is the voice in the room. I think we still have the discussion around the numbers. We haven't necessarily had the discussion of how do we make sure that the people in the room that is a diverse set of people, that their voices come out, so we get a diverse set of suggestions and ideas to come to the best outcome. Stephanie, thank you so much for stopping by theCUBE and sharing your backstory and your history. And it's really nice to hear from other mentors who recognize and are proud to be in that position. So thank you. It's a pleasure. Thank you. We want to thank you for watching theCUBE. Lisa Martin on the ground at VMware for the third annual Women Transforming Technology. Thanks for watching.