Episode 25 - Expand Your Opportunities: The Power of Learning

Welcome to the Women's Career Mastery Podcast, the show that's dedicated to empowering women to redefine success and break through barriers. I'm your host, Christine, and my co-host, Laura, along with our amazing guests and experts. We are here to shatter the myths that has been hindering women's careers.

Women's career fulfillment for far too long. So, if you're ready to master your career and take your life to the next level, join us in our journey together. The Women's Career Mastery podcast starts now.

All right, now I hand it over to Laura.

Thank you, Christine. In this episode, we're diving into the power of continuous learning and how it can transform your career. Our guest shares a compelling story of how her passion for learning has opened doors to unexpected opportunities and fueled her career growth in remarkable ways.

Join us as we explore how being a continuous learner can unlock your potential, create limitless possibilities for your career, and how you can leverage learning everywhere and in any way that enables you to balance personal and professional growth.

Let's get started!

Hello, listeners. It's great to be back for another episode of the Women's Career Mastery Podcast. Our guest is Karen Verelley. Karen is the founder and managing partner of Vaultimeter Group, a boutique product management and strategy consulting firm serving executives across multiple industries.

Prior to founding Vaultimeter and throughout her career, Karen has held executive global product management and marketing positions at leading organizations, and she has worked with startups to Fortune 100 companies and everything in between with a focus on accelerating growth and driving innovation.

Karen and I actually met several years ago when I was going through a career transition. We connected immediately, as we both are passionate about helping people with their careers. And within hours of meeting her for the very first time, she followed up with an email and shared a document that she created with all the key resources, information anyone could ask for when going through a career transition.

She is phenomenally brilliant and kind, and Karen is here with us today to discuss how to master your life and career and share her keys to success. So, let's get started. Karen, we are so grateful you're here with us today. Perhaps you want to start by sharing why you wanted to join us on the podcast.

Sure. Thanks, Laura. And thanks, Christine. I am really excited to be here. Laura, as you were so kind in your introduction, I really do have a passion for helping people. And when I saw what you and Christine had started putting together to really enable the Women in getting ahead in their careers and figuring it out as they go on their journeys.

I just thought it would be fun to actually participate with you and help you accelerate your listenership and, be a part of sharing just what I've learned to see if it can help other people and, help them on their journeys. So that's kind of where I am starting.

That's awesome. Do you want to maybe start with your story?

Sure. So, it started out really, I think when I was a kid, to be honest, I was fortunate to have really great teachers, from elementary school on up.

And one of the things that., was a big thing with me is just reading and that, passion was actually inspired by my grandmother because she never went beyond eighth grade, but yet had an incredible appetite for reading and she was always reading everything from history to biographies to mathematics to everything and she could talk about any subject under the sun.

And that really got me passionate about reading from a very young age. And as I evolved in my career and going through my trajectory. I found that, you know, early on. There was no internet, as we know it today, and you had no choice but to read, right?

So that was something where, okay, you had to spend some time going to the library and doing those things, but as I evolved, I was in the tech space. So, in my entire career, I've always been on the bleeding edge of technology, and it sort of forced you to learn things that Were not available anywhere else.

And so, you had to either learn from the people you were working with or learn from just doing something and breaking new ground and learning new technology to communicate to your clients. And so, it became this thing where I could never get enough of the technology. And it just fueled my passion for that.

I think I was also really fortunate to work with some extremely brilliant people throughout my career. Starting out early working with people at Bell Labs, including some Nobel scientists and people who have patents in things that we know today as, 800 service and, automatic call distributors that are used in, call centers and things like that.

People who. Started with a smart card technology and neural networks that are now like an everyday thing. So, it was always that that I think, kind of gave me the real passion to keep learning and learn new things because it kept opening doors to my career and to different opportunities that I couldn't have had any other way.

So that's one of your keys to success yeah, I think, you know, what I find in my career, I was always in, Different, industries that were really male dominated. So, I was in technology.

I was in, computer sales. I was in financial services. And throughout that time, there were very few women. And so, I did not have a lot of women mentors Unfortunately, this is still some of the case where women are always required to, to elevate themselves and perform at a higher level than what men are typically asked to do.

And so, you really have to take it on yourself to learn more. And there are, today, so many different ways of, helping you get your learnings, whether it's online or through finding mentors or joining groups, different networking groups. I mean, there's a lot of professional associations like, women in product or, women in technology or society of women engineers.

If you happen to be an engineer, there's a lot of different Organizations and ways to learn, whether it's reading, doing a webinar that a technology firm or other type of firm is presenting, whether it's just looking on the Internet every day, reading, news briefs and what have you.

There’re so many different ways of learning that can help propel your career. And it's also important to think about. It's not just for career. There's also like a lot of personal satisfaction in learning and continuing to fuel that passion. You can find things, in the. Area of personal learning, for me, for example, I really wanted to learn the real estate industry, just because I was fascinated with it.

And I thought, well, you know, this is kind of an interesting way. Maybe I could have a side career, or maybe I could, you know, another, way of having an income stream. And so, I happen to have some time in my schedule. Space to actually take continuing education to actually get my real estate license and, pass the licensing exams and so forth.

And then I never wanted to give up my day job because I love it too much. But I was able to then take that in and, parlay that into a real estate. Referral program with a local, real estate firm. And I do have another stream of income by doing that. And I continue to do the continuing education that keeps my license current, but it's just, again, just an example of how you can learn things just on the side that that can help enrich you, you know, as far as your personal life that can then kind of transcend back into your professional life too.

So, Karen, I have a question because I feel like your story is very interesting because I think you move different careers. Yes, in IT, but at different roles and stuff like that. And you kind of doing it by a drive to learn a drive of curiosities. And maybe because it's easy now, right?

Because when we look back, yeah, I learned this and then I have curiosity on this. Then, my career went up and all, all the stuff like that. Now, my question to you is how do someone can make learning so much fun? Like the way you do it, because sometimes, in our career, we just felt, oh, I have to keep up because things are changing.

I need to learn something, but it feels like should, or like, like forceful, like it's an obligation. So how do you do it in your life experience where you seem getting into a new thing and that new thing leads you into something else? That's a really good question. I think, you know, part of it has to be, you, you want to enrich yourself.

And so, if you think about it more as a way you can open up yourself to ideas and different kinds of points of view, whether it's helping you become a better leader or just helping you understand how to talk to people or how to write better or how to do whatever. If you're thinking that it's more.

Enriching yourself and not necessarily it's, it's a must do. I mean, in many cases, it's a must do. I will be a very honest. When I was at IBM, for example, in, helping commercialize Watson, you know, AI was a very new thing in the industry. People did not know what chat bots were as opposed to today.

Everybody knows what chat GPT is, it seems. But we were in an area of uncharted waters, and you had to learn to your point, you know, you had you had to learn, and you had to read every single day because every moment of every day there was a new enhancement or new capability or new discovery that was accelerating.

Everybody's knowledge of what I and machine learning was offering, and I think that can be very intimidating to people to your point. I think what you have to do is think about. Okay, it's almost like being on a diet, you know, no pain, no gain in a lot of ways. If you if you don't feel a little bit of pain, you don't have any gain.

And so, you know, there are going to always be times when you have to do learning in order to stay relevant to your business. I don't care what business you're in. If any business is stagnant, you're going to find that. That business is not going to be in business for long, you know, in order for businesses to succeed, they need to be constantly innovating and.

If they're not, then they're not growing. And so, what that does is it puts pressure on the employees to really keep up and do things to be innovative and one of those things that drives innovation is learning and continuing to expand on your knowledge base. So, I mean, I think, you know, one of the challenges I hear.

People say, oh, well, I, how could you possibly, you know, make time for all this stuff? This is crazy. Well, you know, the thing is that there are so many different ways of learning today. You know, you can hear a podcast like what we're creating today, and you can listen to that podcast while you're out exercising or driving the kids to school or whatever.

I mean, there are things like audible, where, you know, Years ago, these things didn't exist. And so, to be able to take advantage of all these things that kind of help you pack stuff into a day, but gives you sort of your own carve out of time for you.

And I think that's the other piece of it is to think about. This continuous learning as carving out time for you individually that it's your time and your space to even if it's a just an hour a day or half an hour a day, you're making time to make yourself better. Whether it's a personal thing that you're learning about or something for professional.

But either way. It can help enrich you because it opens up your mind and unlocks your thought process that can lead to all different kinds of opportunities. I'll give you an example. I had an opportunity to work with a guy who went off to work at a private equity firm, and became a CFO of a very, very interesting startup.

They startup that was doing Earth observation, which was a huge new area. It's actually called New Space. And he said you know he knew my background in financial services and was like, hey, you know come over and help us with this too so we can understand our go to market strategies for the U.S. markets in particular areas. And I was like, oh, this is great, you know, but it was because of that. Knowledge of that he had of my background in financial services and insurance and Homeland Security and things like that, that that helped him all of a sudden recognize my capabilities and knowing my services that I had provided in my company, gave me an opportunity that I never thought possible and to do some of the most interesting work of my career.

I mean, I would have paid them to do the work because it was so interesting. It was really, getting my space geek on and launching, satellites in a very new technology area. , but you know, the point is you, you can have, your cake and eat it too, if, if you will, if you are Thinking about your passions and your thirst for knowledge of no matter what it is.

Right. Does that answer your question?

Yes, very much. And I love what you're saying because it's related to. not just excelling yourself at work or in your career, but also it is for you, you know, feeling your own thirst of knowledge of curiosities and combining all of it together to improve or as growth.

And that's really, I think the most fulfilling part of things is, because, to me, there's so many new things that happen every day. I have such a curiosity about whether it's gardening to space exploration to, how to solve world hunger, to me, it just makes things so exciting.

And first of all, it makes great conversation. If you're trying to meet somebody , it opens up your ability to communicate more about different ideas and different, understanding of different concepts and things.

But. It's really important if you are in a leadership role or aspiring to be a leadership role. These kinds of things can help you open your ideas on how to deal with different people in different cultures and different learning behaviors and different ways of communicating, of writing, of helping elevate people in their careers.

It's just it can enrich you in so many different ways.

And what I'm hearing, Karen, two things, it creates infinite opportunities or infinite possibilities, right? In two aspects the connections and the opportunities for work, for things to do in your hobbies, or like, there's just so many ways to expand as an individual in your career and in your personal life.

And then there's also the ability to. Expand the way you do consume learning, right? There's no excuse anymore. Like it's so easy to pick up learn. I mean, I'm in the learning and development field and. You know, when I started my career, I was very limited in the types of ways we could get learning to the employees.

Now it's, it's limitless and we're creating even new ways to do it. Just this morning, I need to learn on a specific topic about something for me personally, and I wanted to take a walk. And so, I put my headphones, and I found a podcast on that topic and off I went, you know, I killed two birds with one stone, but it was, it was a very enjoyable walk because I was learning while I was walking.

So, to your point, yeah, it's, it's important and it's also, it's makes things limitless for us.

Well, and that's a really good point about, people learn in multiple different ways. And I think, what you find is that there's also just when people are trying to recruit individuals to work for them, right?

One of the things is that, a lot of companies have found that not everything is around a formal degree somewhere and that there is a whole, in fact, Harvard Business School did a really interesting study and they continue to do this on the future of work about there are so many opportunities to have talent that they don't have a degree necessarily, but they have done tons of learning on their own or, Through other ways and make them extremely valuable as workers, and it's just untapped talent that is out there that can help really fulfill some of these roles.

And so I think that, when you think about the different ways of learning, you know, even if you are, If you're a person that's like yourself creating learning and development, I mean, there are so many new things, besides just having podcasts and webinars and things like that for people, there are there's so much work being done right now in using virtual reality, for example, in helping train people on.

How to do installations of various things, for example, or how to be a picker in a warehouse. I mean, there's different things that are now really just excelling ways that can expedite. You're learning and understanding of how to build your skill sets and it's a very exciting time. You know, if you're a creator.

And like to create those kind of learning experiences. That's a whole other aspect of things that that kind of helps you as well. So, you can be a creator of learning content in different ways as well as consuming the content in different ways

And you learn by doing that to like we've learned.

I don't know if you've ever tried virtual reality for learning, it's fun. So, to your point, like it's really fun to be with the goggles on and doing a simulation.

Yeah, well, I, I actually, was consulting to a, CEO of a startup that is actually creating a virtual reality to do brain surgeries and removing, blood clots in the brain.

And so that's a really cool when you see that simulation, you put that headset on, you're like, whoa, that blows you away to a whole different planet of what the capabilities are. So, yeah. Yeah. It's just a really interesting place and interesting times, to learn. I mean, I think never before has there been such a great opportunity.

In fact, Albert Einstein once said, commit yourself to lifelong learning. That the most valuable asset you'll ever have is your mind and what you put into it. And that's really the truth. You know, I think that if you think about those kinds of things, the sky is the limit and you can really do whatever it is you want to do if you put your mind to it, as they always say.

It's interesting because, what you put into it grow, like what you put into your mind grows, so that's about learning. It's, it's growing. I have a question for you. Let's say this is from a learner perspective. Let's say I'm in a career and I know I need to kind of improve myself, open with different opportunities.

I think there's a two different thing about learning. One is spontaneous, meaning like, oh, this is interesting. I got to learn about this one. I want to find out because we do that a lot with like Google it or absolutely. Right. But also, there's also Plan learning where, for example, I want to be certified, like you said about, real estate, become, certified in real estate and I have a plan learning where I have to take this and that , so what will be a great balance on that.

Well, I think it kind of depends on the career that you're currently in, in terms of your time availability. I mean, I think, traditionally what I've seen is that anyone in tech is working crazy hours, but they are now learning new ways of optimizing their time through using AI tools and things. But I, I think what you have to think about is there are only certain hours in the day, and you need to figure out, how do you balance your personal life in your family commitments and obligations and so on to the time that you have to, to learn.

If you are striving to. Get certified in a particular subject area. Let's say you want to become, certified in cloud design, or you want to get certified in a particular specialty search engine optimization, whatever the case may be, there are programs and each of the ones.

Typically, where you go to get the learnings will have an understanding of how much time commitment is typically required for that. So that you could actually build out your own schedule. Some are on a live schedule that you would need to do in a certain period of time. Others have sort of a longer trajectory.

So, you kind of have to see what works for you and figure that piece out. But I think, when you when you talk about like trying to get. Healthy things into you into your mix, like a walk or an exercise or whatever into your whole schedule that you can double that up with, listening to a podcast or listening to a book on tape or doing something like that that can help.

Add more time to your, schedule, if you will. There's no real easy answer because I think, again, it really depends on the individual and if you're a part time worker, you may have more available time to do things. If you're full time and you just say, well, geez, I can't possibly fit another day, another hour into my day.

I'm already working 18-hour days. Well, then you might need to reevaluate. 18 hours is worth it, quite frankly, but my own personal opinion. But I think, there are different kinds of tools that again, if you want to learn about time management and how to use different tools to help you even compress, different Tasks into a certain smaller period of time.

There are those courses that are available that can help you also squeeze more into your day. So can we just talk a little bit about, I think you mentioned it before, because of the Internet and all of the options that we have, it's almost like too much, right? Like, I don't even know where to begin.

So, if I want to get certified, in search engine optimization, like, where do I, do I just Google that? I think, part of it is, I think you have to share with people like I shared with you, Karen. Hey, this I'm going through a career transition, and you shared resources with me. But how do you sift through that?

Like how, what's the, what's your advice for like the overwhelm of all of the learning that's out there that's available?

That's really a good question. In fact, to your, recognition of the document that I had put together a long time ago, I have now updated that and expanded it beyond just sort of the technology space, because I've talked to so many people in different areas, and it's a common question of, like, where do I even get started?

And so, I will make available for you in the show notes , to be able to have this updated document that has links to resources, whether it's an online learning. or whether it's directly from an organization, like, women in product or, various organizations have different, resources available.

Each of the online learning, platforms that are out there have very good. Summaries of different career tracks, if you want to go down a specific career track, or if you only want to accelerate in this particular area, they will have varying advice on whether you're a beginner intermediate or advanced learner, and they will have recommendations of what you should do, depending on that.

So, there's that. What I would also have in this document is also, things like, company webinars that are important, good podcasts that are relevant, suggestions on books and things as well. There are like a huge amount of things available.

And so, to your point, like, it is overwhelming. What I've tried to do in the document that I put together was given a little bit more focus to people so that they can more easily see just on one sheet of paper or two sheets of paper, kind of, okay, here's all this stuff for online learning.

If I, if I want to go through an online learning kind of curriculum, or, here are the different platforms that are available, and each one has lots and lots of. Tracks, depending on what's your area of interest, right? And then I have sections on, podcast sections on books. So again, it's just my recommendations and my personal, experiences of what I found to be valuable in my own career and, and things that have resonated with other people that I'm hoping can help people figure it out and narrow it in a little bit more than just, Googling something and finding thousands of search results and go, Oh, what do I do with that?

So that's awesome. And I have a little bit of personal questions because this is what I found. I don't know much about you. We met a little bit, but this is what I found very interesting of your, capacity, to learn and then to move your career .

And it seems this is what you do. You love to learn, new things. But at the same time, that's probably lead you to a lot of networking, like naturally. And also, a lot of, helping others or mentoring others. There's something in you that's wanting to share and to give and I felt that these three things are related.

Well, thank you. They are. I'm the oldest of five children, very big family, and we were always taught to share and nobody, Was like king of the castle or anything like that. You had to learn to share and as the big sister, I always felt like I needed to impart knowledge into my siblings as well as I learned them first.

And that's I think started it. I don't know, for some reason, I just get such satisfaction about helping people get to their next level. And I think, early on in my career, when I first became a manager, I was fortunate to have some very good manager training.

It really instilled in me, the best opportunities to help people. You, you got back in, in return in so many different ways. I mean, the satisfaction of seeing somebody succeed because of some coaching that you gave to somebody or the suggestion about here's some things that could help you know this.

Area better, or here's something that can help you get educated on a particular product or skill set or whatever. You know, every time that I've been able to do that, either where I've had direct reports or whether it's been just mentoring people outside of. My area, or just even in a personal level, it's always come back to me in, in ways that are just so enriching to my life that that's, that's why I just want to do this.

I mean, to me, it's a two-way street because I learned so much in the other direction from individuals as well. I have taught things all over the world, and I've had the good fortune of, being able to travel the world with my business. And learning from different cultures and different people and having that mutual sharing as well.

It just opens up so many different things. And I think that's why I constantly feel like I need to give back , I'm very grateful for the opportunities that I've had and some of them. I just wouldn't trade any of my particular opportunities for the world. I have been very, very blessed with some amazing, amazing career opportunities and working with some of the most.

The brightest and brilliant people out there. I learned about the internet from Vint Cerf, who was one of the fathers of the internet, I worked with him, and it was just amazing. You know, when you think about just Where you can go if you help people and mentor people and help lift people and this current environment of women helping women and really elevating our whole humanity is really an important subject to me.

And I think that any way we can help each other, whether it's, you know. Talking about controlling your career by learning and being a continuous learner or just helping people find resources to solve a problem that they might have personally or professionally. It will always come back to you in a good way and, and help you get to your next stop in your journey.

So, hearing you. And this is, I think the right statement. is sharing is also part of learning. Absolutely.

Without a doubt. And that's what I found. I mean, again, I think having early in my career started going internationally and working in different areas has really taught me a lot of that, I think as well.

Because English is not everybody's first language and, sometimes you have to put yourself in the other person's position to understand what challenges they might have. And so, it just sort of helps you be that continuous learner. And, as I went into other countries, I always wanted to learn about other cultures. So I would read, I actually attended classes on how to deal, how to go and, work in international environments. How do you do cross cultural business negotiations and so forth? I mean, there's so many different things that it can come back to you and help you. So, there's always an opportunity to learn to like, even if you just set a goal every day to learn something new every day, it doesn't have to be huge, right?

You're not going to get certified in one day, but there is always an opportunity to learn. And in those learnings, there's gifts, like you're saying, like there's a gift return. So, in indescribable ways as well.

Absolutely. That's the big thing. The one thing you have to think about is, is just never be afraid to ask questions, that there are so many people willing to help you.

If you want to learn something, you just need to ask. People are more than willing to help. And that's the thing that, a lot of women, I find they're kind of afraid to step out and ask those questions. And I think now with so many different people. avenues to pursue learning, um, whether it's finding a mentor or participating in a networking group or listening to a YouTube video or a podcast or whatever.

I mean, that does break down some barriers and, and help open you up to learning, but don't ever be afraid to ask the questions, that's the other thing that, learning can help you if you're not afraid to ask a question. Good advice, Karen. So where can people find you, Karen?

Well, they can find me on LinkedIn and there will be links, I believe, in the show notes. So, my LinkedIn profile, my website for Vaultimeter Group is down at the moment, because we're in the process of a big redesign, but it will be up, very soon. And you can always catch me on email and, and my phone number as well.

Both of those are on my LinkedIn profile as well. And I'm happy to send you a, a deck that explains my current business, which is in product strategy and, market research consulting. But I'm always happy to help network with people and help them in different ways. And as I mentioned, there will be, the document that I started a long time ago when I first met Laura. And that'll be available for your listeners as well.

Thank you, Karen. So, we always like to close our episodes with our lightning round of questions, which just helps our listeners and us get to know you better.

So, are you ready to start? You bet. Okay. First question. Where do you go for inspiration?

I go to the beach. I am very fortunate to live, just a few miles away from Long Island Sound and, great walking paths going there and walking and smelling that salt air is always so, so invigorating to me.

And, if I'm trying to muddle around a thought. process or whatever it just, it brings clarity to certain areas Whether I'm thinking about product design or I'm thinking about a project or just even personally just trying to clear my head it just has a sense of rebirth every time I Hear the waves and smell that salt air.

Nice being in nature.

Mm hmm.

What is one habit you adopted that has greatly improved your career?

I think that the idea of not being afraid to reach out and ask for help that has been something I learned early in my career, and it has served me well throughout.

What is one thing that keeps you moving forward each day?

I think it's my husband and my wonderful family. They, uh, they support me a hundred percent with unconditional love. And each day, I think about, the fact that we have an opportunity to change the world and you know, we only have so many days here on earth and so we need to make each day count. And to make a difference in someone's life can help fuel that and that to me is what I hope to do every day and what I aspire to do every day and that keeps me on a roll.

Very inspirational.

And last question, what is the most valuable piece of advice you ever received?

I would say, don't be afraid to reach out of your comfort zone. Too often we kind of want to stay within this little cocoon, and I had a manager very early in my career say, don't be afraid to push yourself, push yourself into something that's uncomfortable, and it opens up an amazing amount of capacity to learn new things if you do that.

And the other thing, , I know it's only one valuable thing, but I have a valuable thing on the personal side, and that was from my little Italian grandfather many, many years ago when we were kids, and he always would say to us, S. P. S. And we'd say, what, what is that? And he said, self praise stinks. So, he always would say, you know, to, to always think about others and not yourself and don't praise yourself and think about others and elevate others.

And so that's an early lesson that's always stuck with me. And that acronym always sticks with me. I never forget it. Oh, that's great. So, thank you so much, Karen. We really appreciate you joining us. Your words, your advice, just how you look at life and career. It's just so fascinating. And you do make it seem like it's really easy and fun to do.

And it just creates so much possibility for us.

Well, thank you. It has been really fun talking to you guys. And I really hope it's inspired some people to just get out of their comfort zone and, and really embrace some of the plethora of learnings out there. There's just so many things that can enrich your life.

Thanks again for having me.

Thank you, Karen. Thank you. It's an honor to have you here.

Appreciate it.

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