Heather Newman
Hello everyone. Here we are again for another episode of The Mavens Do It Better podcast, where we interview extraordinary experts who bring a light to our world. And I am so excited today to have on Nikita Carter. Hello - how are you?
Nikkia Carter
Hello, I am fine. How are you,
Heather Newman
I am really good. I've got a fabulous tech Maven -I've got so many things I'm so excited to talk to you. Where are you coming to us today from?
Nikkia Carter
Currently I'm in where I've landed into the Redmond area, and/or Seattle-based area for those of you that don't know Washington state that well.
Heather Newman
Yep, absolutely. And I'm at Marina Del Rey creative Maven HQ. Again, I've been doing a lot of podcasts moments and it's so nice to be home. So gosh, we've known each other now for a while. I was trying to think of where exactly we met.
Nikkia Carter
I'm thinking it was probably a SharePoint conference?
Heather Newman
I think so to think so, too, because I was like, gosh, you're an author, you're a speaker, you're a strategist - you do all kinds of wonderful things and I've seen Nikkia speak so many times and she's awesome, first of all.
Nikkia Carter
Thank you.
Heather Newman
You're welcome! And I know so it's close to a year since you took your role, right?
Nikkia Carter
Yeah, very close to a year - be a year March 11 that I started at Microsoft.
Heather Newman
Congratulations again, that's so awesome.
Nikkia Carter
Thank you.
Heather Newman
Absolutely. Will you tell everybody, the listeners, a little bit about what you do over there?
Nikkia Carter
Well, currently my role, and what I was hired in, was to work in the One Commercial Partner organization. And that's the field of PTAs, which are partner technical architects, CSAs, which are cloud solution architects, and PTMs, which are partner technical managers. But only those that are in the modern workplace focus.
Heather Newman
Gotcha.
Nikkia Carter
So, I basically am the one responsible for leading them and the care and feeding of the fields in that regard.
Heather Newman
That's cool. So, for Modern Workplace you're talking about Microsoft Teams, security, compliance, all that good stuff.
Nikkia Carter
Yep. So, the big three right now are Microsoft Teams, Security and Compliance, and Modern Desktop. But as you know, more falls under Modern Workplace, like Office, like SharePoint, like Projects, even though, you know, people don't talk about Projects as much in the Microsoft space, but all of that still, if you think about M365, that's basically the space. Even if it's not this, like, SharePoint Online, but there's a SharePoint on prim? So, it could still be on the prim side, we just tend to focus towards the cloud right now.
Heather Newman
Yeah. Gotcha. Absolutely. So, you're taking care of OCP (One Commercial Partner) and you're doing partner engagement there and getting people, you know, help them ramp up with their tech capabilities and then also enabling the field. That's super cool. How many people are you working with at any given time?
Nikkia Carter
Well the field consists of about 85 folks so far. We'll see what we end up with, because we'll be entering a new FY in the next few months. So, we'll see where we land there, but I think we have roughly about 85 folks. Those people in the field, they're the ones that mostly focus on the partner. But there are times where I like to say for example, I've been in contact with two partners that I'm trying to help out a little bit because I still have a lot of love from myself being a partner as well.
Heather Newman
Yes, absolutely. Wow, that's so cool. So how do you like Seattle Redmond Pacific Northwest, because this is new for you right?
Nikkia Carter
Oh yeah it is new. I was born and raised in Baltimore City, lived in Virginia/DC area since 2001, and then moved here last March. It is a culture change, but it's a it's a very much welcome culture change.
Heather Newman
Yeah, and a big weather change too I'm sure.
Nikkia Carter
Yeah. rain all winter! But now we're starting to get to the point where a sun is starting to come out. So, yeah, happier times.
Heather Newman
Washington DC is such an amazing place, and you went to Howard, which has such a rich history and what a cool University. And you were an ROTC as well?
Nikkia Carter
Yes. I went to Howard my first year and returned back to my hometown, went to Towson to complete my time but yeah, I was through ROTC in high school my last year, and in two years of college, but then family changed. I had to make a decision: do I want to continue with my military career, or do I want my family to stay together? Family... military.
Heather Newman
Hmm....
Nikkia Carter
Yeah. I chose family.
Heather Newman
That's a big decision, and going through ROTC what were you focused on?
Nikkia Carter
It's funny because I learned early on that I was very good at computer science, and I was very good at science. Why oh why did I start my first year in aerospace engineering? I don't know. And then I was like wait a minute, three months. Well, maybe it was more like six months, and I was like, what? What am I doing? So, I changed focus back to computer science and I stayed there.
Heather Newman
Okay. Gotcha. And you also have a masters as well in project management? That's so cool. You've done a lot of great like educational things, and I see you worked as a partner before going and joining Microsoft about a year ago, and I swear, I think you've taken every certification I could ever see - like you know this stuff inside and out.
Nikkia Carter
Yeah, I definitely try to stay immersed as much as possible, and I think a lot of my technical ventures, especially in being a speaker. It kind of forces you - and you know this - it kind of forces you to know what the heck you're talking about, because if you don't, you're getting called out on stage in front of everybody.
That is very true. Yeah, absolutely. And you said, transitioning you have a lot of love for partners. What was what are some of the maybe big differences from going from Partners to Microsoft? Or things you loved about working for Partners?
Well, I just really like the way Partners, especially those that are all about collaboration, really focused in on collaboration. Everybody has their specialties, and those that are really into partnering, they will partner with you big time, and figure out which gaps they have that you can fill, and which gaps you have that they can fill. So that it's a it's a real true synergy. And it can be between multiple partners and you just get to really know, especially if you totally immerse yourself in the community, like I was part of IAMCP, which is the International Association of Microsoft Channel Partners, and that community can be so tight-knit with those that are willing to work together and you know that as well.
Heather Newman
Yeah, absolutely. I've been really enjoying, you know, moving to Los Angeles over the last couple of years and being here and dipping into our SoCal community. They're just great. So, I think we both would highly recommend anybody who is a partner or involved with Microsoft to check out the IAMCP. It's terrific and there's lots of chapters all over the world and it's a huge organization, and I find that the networking is great, and people are just so eager to answer questions.
Nikkia Carter
Yes, and just as a kind of side or add-on to that, don't just join. Be a part. Like actually get to know people. They will get to know you. Be there for them, they'll be there for you. Don't just show up and expect stuff, because sometimes that's where people fall short. They come to one or two meetings and they're like, Oh, I should have gotten all this stuff. Well if you just sat there and you cried the whole time, then nobody got to know you so they're not going to trust. You don't trust who you don't know. You have to know people.
Heather Newman
Yep, absolutely yeah - What is that? Like, know, trust, you know? I did a networking class and it was like, do you like these people? And have you gotten to know them? And now do you trust them? All right. Well, what's next? Let's do some stuff, you know?
And you have lots of volunteer experience. Will you talk about maybe Voices for Innovation, and what that is? And you did some stuff with Adopt A Soldier. Those are so cool. Thank you for giving back. It's really neat. Will you share what Voices for Innovation is for our listeners?
Nikkia Carter
Voices for Innovation is a Microsoft committee/board/task force that focuses on political advocacy. So, if you are, and I know the climate right now politically is not the greatest, but it's not going to be like that forever. And if you're not helping to move the needle, then you know complaining is not going to help. If there are things that you feel very strongly about in an innovation, whether it be STEM, whether it be re-educating military folks that have left the have left the military and now they're trying to figure out what's next, to changing over folks that work in maybe the oil and gas industry and that's starting to dry up, or coal mining or something like that.
Retooling folks like that, bringing technology to your community like say for example, you live in a place where there's low bandwidth, and you're like, How the heck do I get some providers to come here and give us some real internet service, instead of just satellite or dial up? You have to lend your voice and lending your voice as a business is an even stronger incentive to our legislators than just being an individual person, although that is really strong too. But if you're a business and you're bringing money to their state, the state they're supposed to care about, they're gonna listen if you talk to them. You get to do a lot of activities like visiting the Capitol, and they actually give you the Easy button. They give you like scripts, they give you training on how to talk to the legislators, they give you coaching on Okay, so you're in this state. This legislator is of this specific leaning. They care about these things. Stay away from these topics because it's gonna, you know, cause fires and anarchy. So, you get a lot of help. And then after a while you're able to just do it on your own, so I actually visited my congressman a few times, after receiving training, when I was in Virginia. But it's open to all Microsoft partners. There's a way to sign up it's at voicesforinnovation.org. That's where you can sign up.
Heather Newman
That's cool. I've dipped into it a few times and it is great and that you're right: there's a lot of really great programs out here, you know? It's about jumping in and not just joining but getting involved too. You get I think so much out of it when you do.
Nikkia Carter
Let me caveat that - I'm sorry, open to all US partners. Right now, there are there aren't any branches internationally. Just the US.
Heather Newman
Fair enough. Do you remember your first speaking session, and where?
Nikkia Carter
oh, Do I remember! I believe what happened - I think you know Rima Reyes.
Heather Newman
Oh yeah. Shout out!
Nikkia Carter
She's a sweetheart. Yes, shout out to Rima! Yeah. But she was the one that actually convinced me because at first, I was just like, I don't know what I could talk about. It seems like everybody's covering all these topics. What the heck can I talk about? And she was like, feel free to talk about anything else everybody else is talking about because you're going to add your own flavor. But one thing that you could probably do is talk about how you became a partner, and the steps that you went through to open your business, and how you continued on through all the hoops and ropes and all the stuff that Microsoft puts up for you to become a partner. So that was my first my first speak at a user group - at a SharePoint user group.
Heather Newman
Wow! That's awesome. And you've been a business owner as well. So, what was that business?
Nikkia Carter
When I opened the business, I started off to just be a SharePoint practice. I don't know if I should say this on air, but I worked at Booz Allen. I found out how much they were paying and getting paid. First, how much I was getting paid and I felt some kind of way about that.
Heather Newman
There's nothing wrong with going after paying your bills and getting income.
Nikkia Carter
So, I decided to step out there. And after setting up, it took a few months because I ended up staying at Booz Allen for a little bit and then I jumped to another company where they didn't care that I had a company. But in the process of me finding out how to start the business and everything. I was looking around like okay, I want to do SharePoint. That means I need a SharePoint environment. Let me look around and see how much this costs. Oh my god, SharePoint enterprise costs a whole heck of a lot. What other options do I have? And Office 365 came up at that point. We were just ending the b pos phase, so kind of like in the middle when it was really ugly and clunky and what the heck is all this stuff? But luckily, I entered at the point where it was just at the point where it started getting good, so I jumped into office 365. I learned some very valuable lessons about how SharePoint Online and SharePoint on prim are not the same thing.
Heather Newman
Right, right?
Nikkia Carter
And then my practice became around SharePoint and Office 365.
Heather Newman
That's so cool. Yeah, well and you know it is an interesting jump around. You know I had a podcast with Andrew Connell earlier this week, but you know I talk to a lot of our folks in our community and it's always fun to sort of see how people came up, you know? And what they like and then really looking at what do you not like? Or, you know, do you want to run a business, or do you want to work at a "job" job, like a full-time job? And I think it changes over time.
Nikkia Carter
Definitely.
Heather Newman
And then it's family, it's where you're living. It's all that kind of stuff and choices about all of that, and what you want your quality of life to be and your family's quality of life, so I think we all kind of have an interesting sort of web that we use.
Nikkia Carter
Oh yeah. Oh yeah, I learned after a while that I made a lot of mistakes, in how I jumped into the business, how I handled it moving forward. I didn't want to take loans, so I'd never did. But finding out that clients don't always pay on time. Oh, I learned that the hard way. And by the time I learned that that lesson fully I had to take on a lot of loan factoring loans, which come at a super high cost. And my credit got so messed up. So, one of the things that I always tell people that, One, I have a presentation that I do about how I became a Microsoft partner that I told you that I did with frame-up. But I've added on to it since a lot of information about my lessons learned. About what you should probably - the books that you should read that would help you decide whether you want to even do a venture. On partnerships, because being a sole owner is really, really hard. Having a partner is easier, but then there's also the flip side of the coin: you have to have a partner that you trust and hopefully will stay on the same page with you.
Heather Newman
Yup.
Nikkia Carter
But there are things like when your credit's good, get a credit card that has a really big balance. I mean a really big available balance because when I started to try to grow every time I started trying to grow and I would bring people on, somebody wouldn't pay on time. So, then I'd have to let them go, which was, you know, just the math. So that's what made me change my mind on continuing on, because I didn't get the financing that I needed early enough, and being a woman-owned business, we already don't get financed as easily as men do. So, I had that against me too. There's a lot of things that you should do early on, if you if you want to start a business, but I think I would have continued on if I had secured the funding early. If I was able to grow in the way when I was ready to grow. Then I probably would have stayed, but it didn't work out that way.
Heather Newman
Yeah, no, I get it. I wrote a piece not too long ago that it was all about what I call the Wimpy Syndrome. I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today. You know that old Popeye cartoon? I run a small business and yeah, when people don't pay on time, go belly up, don't pay you ever....
Nikkia Carter
Mm hmm.
Heather Newman
It's tough. It's very tough and I agree with you about the funding stuff and the loans. You know it's a very slippery slope and you can get a lot of credit and it's how you manage it and I think that cash flow right?
Nikkia Carter
Yep, cash flow is hugely important.
Heather Newman
Yeah. Do you have that presentation up somewhere that we can put in the show notes?
Nikkia Carter
Oh yeah, I can definitely give you the link to that.
Heather Newman
Wonderful.
Nikkia Carter
I don't know it offhand but yeah.
Heather Newman
We'll get it later. That's all right. I'm like, I know where you are.
Nikkia Carter
You know where to find me.
Heather Newman
I do, I do! You brought up women and getting funding. I know something else that you and I talked about before and I'm involved with is a lot of the diversity and inclusion programs. You have a great Twitter account as well and you're always sharing really great things. A couple days ago, sharing that there's a gal, talking about inclusion matters and Microsoft advocate, and really, thanks for sharing all of that stuff. It's great to see what Microsoft is doing and then just things that you're observing in the world, you know. Are you involved with some of the women in tech, women in SharePoint, women and those sorts of things as well? Have you been?
Nikkia Carter
Yeah, I mean, I was heavily involved when I was a partner. And of course, that was through AIMCP, and that chapter has actually branched off to becoming the WIT Network. As a Microsoft employee, Gabriela had come to one of our internal summits, and they're putting together with another company (Tech Mahindra) and a few others, another WIT initiative for the Seattle area at least to start off with. So, she asked for volunteers to be on the committee. I raised my hand and so did another colleague that works in Azure. So, we've been working on that effort. So far, we're only in the super beginning stages. But we have a website. But the website isn't published yet. Yeah, we the logo and we've got our Twitter account, so be on the lookout for LaFemmeTech (@tech_femme), depending on if you're on Twitter or Facebook, and then we'll have our website up soon.
Heather Newman
Very cool. That's awesome. I know Gabrielle is such a champion in that area and it's always great to see her speak. She was down here for the IAMCP SoCal celebration of our 10-year anniversary and came down.
Nikkia Carter
And that was where I was too, and that's where I saw you last!
Heather Newman
Yeah that's right! I think she's always so gracious, and my mother was so impressed. My mom and dad came - I think you met my parents and they were running around, and my mother was like, "I have got to get a picture with her." And of course, she did - you know the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Nikkia Carter
Yeah, I'm getting that picture.
Heather Newman
Yup. Totally where I get that from. So, let's get a little bit more origin story for you. So, you grew up in Baltimore and stuff, so will you tell us a little bit about like where you're from growing up even more?
Nikkia Carter
I grew up in inner city Baltimore. Like a lot of people in the inner city, I grew up poor. But my dad (I'm from a divorced family) made sure he stayed in the picture. My mom and my dad and my grandmother and my dad's side especially, were very interested in making sure we had all that they could give us. So, if you remember Radio Shack, I think there's probably a few of those left. But they pretty much got killed in Maryland, but that used to be the spot to go to, and we used to visit that a lot and we found out about this computer, and I had to have been like around nine or 10. I was somewhere in the eight to 12 range. I can't remember my exact age, but there was a Tandy color computer 1, 2, 3, and 4. Of course the 4 cost the most, so my dad scraped together money for months, and he got us the color computer 4 because he wanted us to have the best one that he could get.
Heather Newman
Right.
Nikkia Carter
But we had to share. And oh, I'm the oldest of four, so you know sharing sometimes... it became a little less sharing than "I'm taking the computer for right now because I'm the oldest."
Heather Newman
I love it. I'm the oldest too. I get it.
Nikkia Carter
It came with a Visual Basic book - oh, not Visual Basic, Basic book.
Heather Newman
Right, right.
Nikkia Carter
So, I taught myself Basic out of that book. And that was my first touch with computer science. And then my next touch was when I went to high school, I went to Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, which some places call it a magnet school, but what they call it in Baltimore is a citywide school. It's the top public citywide school in in Baltimore (might even be in Maryland), but I'm not exactly sure. It's a science/engineering focused school. So, in my junior year, we had a computer science class. It was supposed to be Advanced Basic, and I you know I aced the class without trying. I was basically tutoring people, some people that didn't get it I was just doing their work a little bit, like enough for them to get a C.... Just take this and get out of here.
But that was my second brush and I realized that I was really good at computer science. I also realized that I was good at science. So, I took genetics as well. And I got the highest grades in science, so I got awarded for that at graduation. But my genetics teacher, she ran a lab and she wanted me to work at her lab. And I was like, I love genetics, but looking at the pay, I gotta get a PhD before I can actually (because I wanted to work on the Human Genome Project).
Heather Newman
Right.
Nikkia Carter
I was like, oh coming out the break $20,000? I don't know about this $20,000 salary thing. I need to do.... So, I look at Computer Science and I'm like, oh okay, $40,000 coming out of college? Okay I need to do that. So that's what made me go to computer science as opposed to science, especially the genetics side.
Heather Newman
Well, big yay to your parents, you know? What a cool - that's great that they handled this together and it's nice. It's a really nice thing. Not everybody has that and that's very cool that they did that for you.
Nikkia Carter
And especially once they get divorced. Sometimes it gets really messy, so my siblings and I were really blessed for the support that we got.
Heather Newman
Yeah, for sure. You also are, you're an author, and you have some books out in the world. Gosh, and you've been going through - is it Packt? Packet Publishing?
Nikkia Carter
Yeah Packt. They're pronounced packt: PACKT.
Heather Newman
Okay. And you got a user guide? 462 pages, 532 pages - my goodness, you've written big books.
Nikkia Carter
Yeah, one of them was a was a co-authoring with two of our friends, Thomas Carpe and Alara Rogers, that have a company called Liquid Mercury in Baltimore. So, we co-authored the book together. That was the Mastering Office 365 - I think that was the title. And then I was crazy enough to go and write a user guide for Office 365, like I didn't have other things in my life to do. Insane of me to do that but I made it through and of course, you know, the books are extremely old now, because the cloud, you know, moves at the speed of you breathing.
Heather Newman
Do you have any guidance for I mean, you're like I can't believe I did this but anybody who's thinking about checking out a book, any guiding words from you?
Nikkia Carter
If you're thinking of taking on a book, know that it is a lot of work. It is a lot of work. And if you actually decide to do it, and you devote yourself and you say that you're going to do it within - normally the publisher will give you six months to nine months, sometimes as far as a year. Don't put off your writing! If you can help it! You do not want to be that last three months like oh my god my book is due in, you know cuz they will get you - a lot. They will ride you until you get that thing done. So, I would highly consider also using co-authors, if you can, because it's easier when you have somebody else writing the book with you and somebody that can help with bouncing ideas off of, instead of you doing, which I did like I said, like a crazy person, that last one by yourself, and it's all on you.
Heather Newman
Yeah, I haven't written a book as of yet per se, and definitely not you know in the technical realm, but I've heard you know it's just, it's one of those you get behind you're in trouble.
Nikkia Carter
Oh, boy. Are you. They do not play when it comes to Oh, you better get her done. Because deadlines.
Heather Newman
So, you're busy, like most people in the world, and how do you take care of that house, what's your self-care secrets or you know what do you do to kind of chill out kind of thing, you know? I know everybody's always kind of figuring out.
Nikkia Carter
Oh my gosh, I had to, I definitely had to figure it out. After being a business owner for almost seven years. I hadn't had a real vacation since my son was born and he is nine now, about to be 10 this summer. Even when I was on vacation I still wasn't on vacation, so you know, you take a vacation, but the computer is still in your lap and your family's looking at you like, "really?" And then after a while they don't look at you at all, they're like whatever.
Heather Newman
I've been there, and I don't do that anymore.
Nikkia Carter
Yeah, you definitely have to take time daily. Meditation is really good, but I tend to exercise a lot and that's a lot from my youth as well. That was something my parents were very big into. I used to do martial arts, and I did that for years so that kind of trained me. And doing sports in high school. That kind of got me into the training early of making sure I stayed as much in shape as I could at any given moment. Of course, those 40s right now are kicking my butt but it could probably be worse.
Making sure you take that time, I mean even, even if it's like taking a walk sometimes. Just getting away from the computer for 30 minutes a day, sitting down with your family or with your significant other, or even by yourself and enjoying a TV show, because sometimes you just got to veg out and not think about anything not read anything. And know it can be hard, but you can really blow yourself out. If you're, day in, day out, no kind of, rest at all. I also had to get out of the habit of working, and I still sometimes do it, but it's not all the time now and I don't feel this serious - I feel somewhat of a drive, but that the serious drive that I did before. Try to keep your days down to 12 hours. I know that can sometimes be hard to do when you're very passionate about your work. Or your work as a business owner, you know, your kids being fed relies heavily on you getting the work done. But if you're blown out, your effectiveness goes down.
Heather Newman
Yup. Absolutely.
Nikkia Carter
And this is, you know, me being a person that was a developer, that used to write applications before I started in SharePoint. Being up for 24 hours, trying to get something done and my husband/significant other at the time, was like, "are you coming to bed? You need to go to sleep." Forcing me to go to sleep, and then wake up with the answer, because all I needed was some sleep. I know it's hard because it's hard for me at times, but you really got to take time and take care of yourself. Only one you.
Heather Newman
Exactly. And, you know, time ticks way faster than we ever like it to anyway.
Nikkia Carter
Right.
Heather Newman
I know you have kids. Are they into tech and science stuff as well?
Nikkia Carter
Yeah, one of them likes robotics. The other one, he's still kind of young but he loves like anything tech. All of my kids actually love anything techie. That's a lot of my fault. They were on my phone or computer since they were able to hold one.
Heather Newman
Right.
Nikkia Carter
And they all have at least two devices. And I'm talking a computer, and a phone for my girls because they're the older two. For my son, he has a phone too, but it's not connected. He also has his computer, and they have a Surface as well.
Heather Newman
Wow.
Nikkia Carter
And then we have Xboxes up the wazoo. So, it's about like trying to focus them, but they love tech. Like any kid but you gotta tell kids that (and I try to tell them all the time) it's not always about consuming the tech - it's also about creating some yourself.
Heather Newman
Right. Yeah.
Nikkia Carter
If you can.
Heather Newman
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. You know what? I mean it is one of those things, like I look around and I got three screens going and a Surface. You know? I gotta tell you something funny. I had my niece and my cousin's over, and they're in ninth grade and sixth grade and I was like, "phones down phones down" you know? My house, my rules you know? And they were like, "Whaaat?" and I literally have an old rotary phone.
Nikkia Carter
Oh man!
Heather Newman
And I pulled it out and I was like, "Do either of you know what this" is and my cousin's a couple of years older than me, he starts laughing. And I was like, "well, this is a phone" and they're like "okay." And I was like "So. What do you think you would do?" And watching them trying to figure out how to deal with his rotary phone - I nearly wet my pants it was so cute. And then when I finally, you know, showed them how to put their fingers in and dial, they were like, "this takes forever."
Nikkia Carter
Oh my gosh yes. And don't mess up. Don't mess up.
Heather Newman
No! And every time they messed up, I was like "you gotta hang up" and they're like "how do I do that" I was like "push that you got to start over." And they're like "we got to start over?" I'm like, Yeah,
Nikkia Carter
Oh man, I love the times we're in now, because that used to drive me crazy.
Heather Newman
It's like a number with a lot of nines in it, you're like really? Come on.
Nikkia Carter
Or zeros.
Heather Newman
You don't know how good you have it, y'all. Come on!
Nikkia Carter
Yeah, pretty much. And the real video games? Remember Pong back in the day? Oh my god.
Heather Newman
Yeah and Atari. All that for sure. I do. I had one of those. What was that? Pitfall and Enduro. Kaboom and all that stuff - I loved all that for sure.
Nikkia Carter
Oh, me too.
Heather Newman
Yeah. So, you're really social as well. Any tips or favorite things, social media wise for folks that you can give them some tips on? Places you like to play?
Nikkia Carter
Well the places I mostly play in are LinkedIn and Twitter. It's especially the best places to play when you're in the tech field. Twitter is very fast and moving. But there's a lot of techies there, a lot of people that are consuming because they're trying to learn about the cloud, they're trying to learn about this and that tech. They're trying to learn about how things work. It's always important as well to have a LinkedIn profile, and not just a LinkedIn profile but a good one. That tells people what you actually do and translate it into their language. And also try to like refresh it every six months. Look and say, "Wait Whoa, I don't do that anymore," or "Whoa, that is worded really weird." Now that I know better, maybe I should reword that.
Heather Newman
Yeah.
Nikkia Carter
But, personal brand, in every space, but especially in our space, if you want to become somebody that is known, that is trusted, whether you own a business or you're somebody that's the individual contributor, somebody that goes and works for somebody else, either way, if you're known you're always giving back. You're always contributing your knowledge, you're learning from others, you're not just being the "I know everything, and nobody can teach me anything" type person. All that will shine through. Try to keep up with your blogging as well, which is another thing I need to get back to, but your personal brand is very important, so I've always stayed on my personal brand. Like I said that the blogging part has fallen down a little bit. Facebook can also be good for those people that own businesses because there are a lot of people on Facebook looking for services and products.
Heather Newman
Yeah, and I was looking at yours and what I love about your LinkedIn profile, your headline, you know, a lot of people will be like, you know, project manager, comma, for blah blah blah company and that's it. I love yours. You say, "I help empower our architects, so they can empower our partners. Strategist, author, speaker, tech policy advocate. That tells me a heck of a lot about what you're passionate about and who you are.
Nikkia Carter
And it took me a while to come up with that. That was not off the first try.
Heather Newman
Yeah, I mean it takes some massage to get there you know? And you know the About Us is same-same. You know it's like who are you, what are you passionate about, and of course you know what have your roles been and all that stuff. But yeah, I think you're on the money there for sure. I'm always curious. I go and look everybody up, you know, do my homework and I was like yup, look at her. Yeah, she got it.
Nikkia Carter
And you know I learned that from our friend Jeff Shuey.
Heather Newman
Okay!
Nikkia Carter
Yeah, big ol' shout out to Jeff Shuey, the storyteller.
Heather Newman
Absolutely. For sure. That's cool. I love seeing you. I love talking to you. I love seeing you speak. I mean, everyone, if you see Nikkia on any, you know, roster, make sure and check out her sessions because she's terrific, and we'll put all of her follow stuff in the show notes. And thanks for sharing your history with us. It's cool always to see how people come up and get to where they are and become the Maven experts that they are in their fields. It's great.
Nikkia Carter
Always a journey, and the journey can be fun. And scary as heck!
Heather Newman
But you gotta take those leaps, right?
Nikkia Carter
Yeah, yeah, definitely, for sure.
Heather Newman
And thank you for the stuff about starting a business too. I think that'll be super helpful for our listeners, so we'll make sure and grab that too. And the last question I ask everyone is I'm interested in sort of the moments our lives and sparks that have driven us to today, and so would you share, maybe a person, place or thing, or a spark, you know I know you shared some of this with us already, but is there anything or any couple of things that stand out of like "this person or moment, really seats me and kind of who I am today and how I got here?"
Nikkia Carter
Well, besides my parents and my husband... he has been the most awesome, because he lost his job during the recession, and he helped raise our kids. And when I couldn't homeschool them anymore when they got older, he took that over, and then it got to the point where we had three and he couldn't do it anymore. But I would not have been able to have a business, and not be able to run it as long as I did if it wasn't for him. I would not have made the career moves if it wasn't for him and his is always "What? Why Can't you do that? You could do that. I don't see why you can't do that." What the heck, you know? Sometimes when you're just in that dark place and you're just like, I can't do any more, I don't know what else to do, or I feel like somebody's bashing you or something like that. And he like "the heck with that person! Go do it. What you waiting for," you know? Without his support, I don't know that I would be where I am and have the loving children that we have today. That's another thing.
Yeah, absolutely. Well shout out to him - how about that? Yeah, I think, you know, there's something about creating deep lasting relationships with people, you know, friends, colleagues, you know partner - all of that.
And colleagues. I have mentors in IAMCP to help me along, to help me stay in business as well.
Heather Newman
Yeah, absolutely. I think, as of late for me in my personal life, I think about the words of affirmation. You gotta, you know, pick on the love languages. I didn't realize sometimes how that is so important, especially when you work really hard and you're out in the public eye - I'm out in the public eye - and we're doing stuff and you know, you have moments of like, "Oh, well I'm not sure if this is gonna be awesome but I think so." It doesn't matter who you are, you could be, you know, I was looking at your Facebook profile - you could be Michelle Obama, you can be Madonna, you can be whoever - you put stuff out in the world and you're still like "I'm hoping!"
Nikkia Carter
Everybody has those doubts. It doesn't matter who you are. It's just about overcoming them.
Heather Newman
Yeah, Absolutely. And having people in your life that are like, "why can't you do that" or whatever, like your husband.
Nikkia Carter
Yeah like "I don't see what the problem is."
Heather Newman
You know it's great, so I'm giving him my own personal shout out - thank you for that. We all need that, and I think as women we need that too when we're building businesses and doing things that are sort of outside our comfort zones and stuff, and in fields that are, you know, not necessarily full of women, so it's really cool. I'm glad for, Doll. It's great.
Nikkia Carter
All you males out there, we do need our male allies. I mean we do it up. Trust me. But we still appreciate you.
Heather Newman
Absolutely.
Nikkia Carter
And need you.
Heather Newman
Yeah. I have a lot of male mentors in my life and good people. My father's amazing. Ah, so great! I could probably talk to you for another three hours. They're gonna be like okay they just kept going. Okay.
Well, I appreciate you and really, I love that we're friends and colleagues and get to do things together sometimes, and hopefully we'll get to do more soon. What's next for you? Anything major coming up? You told us about the D&I stuff. Anything else rockin?
Nikkia Carter
No, nothing major. Hopefully I'm just going to continue on with learning my role. Just as being, like I was saying to you earlier, I've been so used to be the techie and now I change, being touched, or touching tech but not necessarily being in the tech and having to lead techies is a whole other ballgame. It's fun and interesting but it's also scary. So that's what I'm doing.
Heather Newman
Yay! Well, I can't wait til our next encounter so that's awesome. Yeah. All right, you keep on keeping on and keep teaching people. That's what you do, I know. So, thank you so much for being on the show.
Nikkia Carter
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Heather Newman
You're welcome. Absolutely. Everyone, that has been another episode of the Mavens Do It Better podcast. And here is to another beautiful day on this big blue spinning sphere. Thanks everybody. Bye!