Ep. 263 Trailblazing in Tech with Adrienne Wilkins

[00:00:00] Welcome to Hustle in Faith, this podcast is dedicated to helping women who want to analyze,

[00:00:18] apply and amplify their God-given gifts. We accomplish this by discussing topics such as

[00:00:24] business, self-improvement, health and beauty and my random thoughts about life from a Christian

[00:00:29] perspective. I'm your host Latasha Johnson. Are you tired of feeling less than enough just because

[00:00:37] you're single? Then you'll love my new book How to Live an Extraordinary Life with or without

[00:00:43] Mr. Wright, a Christian woman's guide on how to survive and thrive on single avenue.

[00:00:49] It's time to acknowledge, address and dismantle the harmful limited mindset many single Christian

[00:00:56] women have internalized. Take the first step to discover and embrace the plans God has in store for you.

[00:01:02] If you want to be notified when the book is released, please check out the Hustle in Faith website.

[00:01:07] I cannot wait to share this with all my single ladies. You have everything you need to live an

[00:01:13] extraordinary life with or without Mr. Wright. This week's episode I have the pleasure of

[00:01:23] speaking with Adrian Wilkins. Adrian is a published author in head of National Security Professional

[00:01:29] Services at Google and is a recognized executive coach for women in tech. Recently honored in Washington

[00:01:36] DC's 40 under 40 class of 2024, Adrian is also the founder of intrapreneur school at Digital

[00:01:43] Professional Development Academy dedicated to fostering diversity in tech. Through her innovative

[00:01:48] coaching program, Adrian guides women on a transformative journey equipping them with the tools

[00:01:53] and confidence needed to advance their careers. Welcome to the show Adrian. Thank you so much for

[00:02:00] having me. I'm really excited. Of course, of course. Well, you have a very impressive bio. So why

[00:02:06] don't you tell the audience about yourself? Yeah, so my name is Adrian Wilkins. I currently work at Google.

[00:02:14] I'm the head of public sector professional services there. I've been at Google for just

[00:02:19] six years actually this month. I've had a bunch of different roles all in professional services

[00:02:26] working directly with our federal government customers and before Google. I was at the Central

[00:02:32] Intelligence Agency so that was interesting. A complete 180 from the Google culture but yeah, all in

[00:02:38] like the tech space. So it's like my quick bio. Okay, you know, I'm nosy on that central

[00:02:46] intelligence part. I'm diving in line on that central intelligence. Like how did

[00:02:50] how did you go from A to B on that one? Like that. That's crazy. It was an interesting pivot. So

[00:02:57] what happened with this whole CIA thing is when I was in undergrad, a recruiter actually came to my

[00:03:03] college. I went to Norfolk State, HBCU for undergrad. We had a recruiter come to one of our

[00:03:10] senior symposium courses like preparing you to go out into the world and there was a recruiter

[00:03:16] from the CIA and I had literally never thought about working there before. Like most people don't

[00:03:21] really think it about working with the CIA. Yeah, so the recruiter came and I had been interested

[00:03:28] in. I applied just to see what would happen. I got hired at a different job out of college but they

[00:03:35] came back like a year later and they asked me to go through their process and that took almost a

[00:03:40] year because you have to do a polygraph and all this other stuff. But yeah, I got hired. I think like

[00:03:47] less than 3% of people that apply get hired and I got hired. That's amazing. Absolutely amazing.

[00:03:56] I mean, I have a million questions on that one but I'm gonna let that ride. There's a lot of

[00:04:03] questions that I probably can't even answer. You know what? I figured that was you and you know

[00:04:08] what? I don't want to step into any waters that I shouldn't be stepping into. So

[00:04:14] so what inspired you to work in technology? I have always been a science and technor

[00:04:22] just being honest like, I don't know where it came from but I literally used to sit in the floor

[00:04:27] as a kid and take apart the computer to figure out how it worked and I ended up majoring in computer

[00:04:32] science in college but like I always like telescopes and microscopes and my first job was actually

[00:04:38] at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in DC. So I've literally just always been naturally drawn to

[00:04:45] tech. I don't know what it is about it but I like solving problems and it just was destined for me

[00:04:52] to be a tech I think. Wow, that's phenomenal. So when you were when you were younger, did you take

[00:04:58] additional classes or what kind of foster do you? Wow really, you just said you know what I'm

[00:05:05] a break apart this computer and reverse engineer this today. Is that literally? I took the screws out,

[00:05:11] I saw what the screws would do and that's like kind of figured it out and of course back then they

[00:05:17] had like like Bill and I the science guy and all the science skills were on TV so okay I love

[00:05:24] you watching though. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, which is like natural exploration which is really

[00:05:31] cool because I have a two year old son and I see him doing similar things he's very very curious

[00:05:37] so I'm interested to see if he goes into the tech field too. That's awesome, so cool, so cool.

[00:05:44] So there's a lot of press about women especially women of color encountering various barriers within

[00:05:51] the technology industry so just curious has that been your experience if so what is your advice

[00:05:58] for overcoming those hurdles? I have absolutely experience. I can't figure it as much but 100%

[00:06:09] gender hurdles race hurdles it is not uncommon even to this day even though it has gotten a lot

[00:06:16] better it is not uncommon for me to be the only woman in a room to be the only person of color

[00:06:22] in the room to be one of the youngest people in the room maybe even all three of those things at

[00:06:27] the same time. So it's basically just something that I kind of built a tough skin for I think it

[00:06:34] deters a lot of people from putting themselves out there especially women just being in a space where

[00:06:41] you're the only woman that's around and people assume in a lot of cases if you're in a tech

[00:06:46] meeting that you might be the person taking the notes or something like that not that is anything

[00:06:51] wrong with that but yeah like those assumptions they aren't necessarily cool if you're like actually

[00:06:56] the developer or the engineer on a project and people are assuming that you're taking notes so

[00:07:01] I just kind of got used to that culture and kept putting myself out there kept pursuing

[00:07:07] opportunities and I basically got comfortable with being like the token black girl

[00:07:13] I'm fine with being your token black girl because I'm going to bring other women and other people

[00:07:17] of color in once I get into those spaces. That's awesome love that love that and I'm just kind of

[00:07:24] curious have you worked on specific projects or anything of that nature that enabled you to

[00:07:34] really something that you're most proud of on those projects if you will because here's the thing

[00:07:40] you come in there and they're not you're the underdog right if you will and then you just

[00:07:47] outshine them all is there a project you're most proud of? Yes this was a big one so when COVID hit

[00:07:54] the state of New York's unemployment system crashed like the whole thing it was like decades old

[00:08:04] that were using mainframe computers which are super super old but the whole system crashed and

[00:08:10] because of that the citizens of New York were not able to file for unemployment insurance it was

[00:08:17] a whole thing. I feel like governor yeah it was a big thing the governor reached it out to google

[00:08:25] and we built their unemployment system and I was one of the lead technical program managers on that

[00:08:33] project so that project we were working around the clock I think the longest day I had on that

[00:08:40] was like 18 hours we had like a global team of people we had to have people in shifts so there

[00:08:48] were different Tiger teams and one team would work like nonstop for a week and then another team

[00:08:53] will bunge in and then a different team will bunge in and we were working with the governor's office

[00:08:58] and the New York State Department of Labor and it was it was so cool to see one all the people at

[00:09:04] Google that were willing to work the long hours and like sacrifice time from their family because

[00:09:11] we understood that other people couldn't eat if they didn't have access to the system so it was

[00:09:16] a really good like sense of purpose tied to that but also that project showed me that I can literally

[00:09:23] do anything because to be able to to be sought after to work on that project like people literally

[00:09:32] sought me out to be one of the technical pms to oversee that and to go in and to write things

[00:09:40] that were not going well and to just be able to coordinate across all these people like that project

[00:09:46] showed me there's not a problem that I can't solve so it gave me like that confidence to tackle

[00:09:53] really complex things. That's amazing and kudos and congratulations and thank you for your service on

[00:10:00] that problem. It was it was honestly a pleasure I would do it again and it was just it was just

[00:10:06] really cool to be a part of. That's awesome that's awesome so you know there've been so many

[00:10:11] advances in technology right so I feel like every day something else is popping up especially

[00:10:17] in terms of AI. Yeah. Curious the majority of the people at least what I've come across

[00:10:25] that are involved in the advancement of AI are not people of color and from what I've read they're

[00:10:33] not engaging with people of color so what are your thoughts about the impact of AI on the black

[00:10:40] community maybe some of the effects and do you believe that AI could hurt or strengthen the black

[00:10:47] community and I know that's a long question bad there's a couple of them in there but yeah just

[00:10:52] figured out throughout all that. So the biases with artificial intelligence and just with tech

[00:11:01] period aren't new but I think there being resurfaced because AI is becoming something that

[00:11:06] consumers can use like it used to be something that like Google will use it in their search and

[00:11:12] in like YouTube and stuff like that but now it's becoming something that everybody has access to

[00:11:18] and some of the gaps that have persisted are more prevalent now because we can all see them

[00:11:24] and I think it is even more important now to have diversity of thought with the people that are

[00:11:30] working on these projects because computers learn what people teach them so like there's a person

[00:11:37] that is gathering all this data and there's a person that's programming these algorithms and

[00:11:43] there's people that are feeding the data to these algorithms and if you have people who look the same

[00:11:48] or who think the same or who come from the same backgrounds doing all of these things your results are

[00:11:53] not going to be inclusive and we live in an incredibly diverse world and we need to make sure

[00:11:59] we're accounting for that diversity by having people working on these solutions that are from

[00:12:06] different backgrounds that look different that think different so I definitely think that

[00:12:11] there are some obvious gaps there but I also think that there's opportunity for

[00:12:17] the black and underprivileged and brown and underserved communities to leverage artificial

[00:12:23] intelligence to close informational gaps and to close access gaps that were previously left open

[00:12:32] because these tools most of them are free at least right now you can just go in and make an account

[00:12:38] and you can use them to understand really complex concepts to break down contracts to understand

[00:12:44] legal language that you probably would have needed a lawyer to interpret for you so I think it's

[00:12:50] a really good opportunity in form of accessibility that we now have that we should be taking

[00:12:57] advantage of because that access kind of levels the playing field. And now we're from our sponsor

[00:13:04] for this episode lovemehair.com. Regardless of your style lovemehair allows you to slay

[00:13:11] everyday without spending a fortune. Lovemehair is a women-owned business with nearly a decade of 100%

[00:13:17] human hair wig expertise they develop high quality beautiful easy to install undetectable glueless

[00:13:24] lace wigs. Lovemehair offers exchanges and returns of unused wigs within 30 days of receipt.

[00:13:29] For this week only go to lovemehair.com and use the promo code hif27 to save 27% off of your

[00:13:36] purchase it's time to experience effortless elegance with lovemehair back to the show

[00:13:46] To an extent like it could help you with your work product it helps you understand things

[00:13:51] that you would have understood before so I think there's definitely pros and cons on both sides

[00:13:56] yeah I'm actually starting to see I thought I read this somewhere but they're starting to actually

[00:14:01] have AI as one of the concentrations in universities which I thought was super interesting it's amazing

[00:14:08] looking back it's been a while but like I want to date myself too much but uh but looking at the

[00:14:15] concentrations that were available when I was in college and now is just nine day. It is amazing

[00:14:23] amazing to me amazing amazing amazing yeah yeah I can't even stop thinking about that but uh

[00:14:32] so here's the thing some people you know there's a lot going on the technology field and

[00:14:41] people you know identity theft is on the rise just there's a lot going on right so

[00:14:47] what can individuals and businesses do to protect themselves online?

[00:14:54] yeah this is important to me because one of my I guess domain areas that I kind of specialize in

[00:15:02] at Google is security and I think it's really important for people to think twice before they

[00:15:09] log into sensitive websites when they're connected to public networks so public networks are things

[00:15:16] that don't require password not saying that you shouldn't use them but you probably don't want to log

[00:15:21] into your bank account while you're on a public network which people do and the reason why I say

[00:15:28] that is because there are tools out there like a hundred bucks that can basically mimic a wifi

[00:15:36] network so like you set it up it sees that there's an open network and like a Starbucks or something

[00:15:43] or wherever you are and it can copy the identity of that network and you will then connect to

[00:15:51] that fake network instead of the Starbucks network and whoever has that tool they can

[00:15:57] they can see whatever you're doing online they can collect your passwords and all that stuff so

[00:16:01] it is like super important to not log into anything sensitive when you're using a public

[00:16:09] network like that is rule number one just don't do it oh my goodness yeah another tip that I think

[00:16:18] is important for everybody to do even me working at Google like people who still credentials or who

[00:16:28] like try to spam your email they are getting a lot more sophisticated like some of these emails

[00:16:34] look legitimate so like they'll they'll copy an email from a reputable company like Netflix

[00:16:41] Netflix will send out an email they will literally copy the body of that change a couple words

[00:16:46] and then purchase a domain that is maybe movies dot netflix.com instead of netflix.com

[00:16:55] and they'll send you something and you'll log in and they'll take your information that way so

[00:16:59] if you get an email that looks suspicious or if you weren't expecting an email from a certain

[00:17:06] entity click on the sender like click on the two line to see the actual domain that's attached

[00:17:15] to because a lot of the times they will have a spoof domain that looks like it could be close

[00:17:20] to the real thing but it's not really the real thing so those are two things that I think if everybody

[00:17:25] adopted them we would have a lot less stams out there yeah that do we know it and I do both of

[00:17:32] those two because I especially with the banks because oh my goodness they to your point they are

[00:17:39] really getting sophisticated because I still warn that looked like it was from my bank and I

[00:17:42] looked at it closer and I'm like mmm that looks that's back I always just go to the fight myself

[00:17:49] but you're saying oh click here I just go to the site I don't even play while with that

[00:17:53] because I just know yeah I just know yeah I'm not trying to mess around with that in any way

[00:17:59] shape or form okay I'm glad that you take the new diligence to go to the site

[00:18:05] well you know what believe it or not I actually had um when I was getting my condo

[00:18:13] I found out on my credit report I had like two accounts that were I had no idea

[00:18:17] wow what it happened so I think of it's because our names were very similar but then I'm just like

[00:18:23] but if you want to look closer I mean anyway long story but I'm just like yeah I've always been

[00:18:29] like very paranoid after that so yeah yeah totally get it get it get it get it yeah you know

[00:18:36] curious what do you think your thoughts what are your thoughts on where technology is headed

[00:18:41] in another five years what do you think we'll be doing technology wise AI is here to stay um

[00:18:49] you can always tell you can always tell what the next big wave is by how the majors change in college

[00:18:57] like when I was in school a computer science was of course huge but cybersecurity was like the new

[00:19:03] thing like everybody wanted a degree in cybersecurity and now it's AI and I think that we are going

[00:19:09] to see AI more embedded in our daily lives in our daily viewings like I think it's just gonna be

[00:19:18] everywhere so yeah I see that becoming the norm and I actually think that could be a good thing if

[00:19:24] we use it appropriately because I use it almost daily now just to make my emails sound better

[00:19:32] or to make my write-ins sound better yeah like chat gpt or google's version is called

[00:19:37] jiminai it's called bar you just type up what you were thinking and put it in there and say make

[00:19:44] this sound better and they make it sound better so I could have higher quality work products if we

[00:19:50] use it appropriately but yeah I definitely see that as being huge I think health tech is gonna be

[00:19:58] will continue to be huge with Apple putting out all their devices and all the apps that monitor

[00:20:04] basically everything that's going on in your body and then fintech automated investing and

[00:20:11] all the things that help you manage your finances and stuff like that I don't see that going

[00:20:16] anywhere either so those are probably the three areas that I think will persist over the next few

[00:20:20] years interesting interesting well you know we're in 2024 we are getting ready to start with Q2

[00:20:28] is coming up with I cannot believe it right like I like that's crazy to me I

[00:20:34] wish if I look at the calendar I'm like wow where does time go because it's fine

[00:20:41] but if you had to choose one word to represent your goals for this year what would it be in why

[00:20:48] I love this question because for almost the past decade I have picked one word that like defines

[00:20:56] my goals for the year okay all right and this year my word is momentum

[00:21:01] so I've been working on a lot of things I just released a book I just released like one-on-one

[00:21:09] coaching for women in tech I just have a lot of stuff that's happening okay this year is the

[00:21:15] year that I'm rolling a lot of that stuff out that I'm intentionally connecting with people to help

[00:21:20] them get better at accomplishing their goals and to help bridge the diversity gap in tech in particular

[00:21:28] since I'm passionate about it and I see that there's a need in order to just have more representation

[00:21:35] like I saw statistic that said that women make up 51% of the population but we only make up about a quarter

[00:21:44] of the population in tech oh wow which means that like 75% of the people that are making the

[00:21:52] decisions in tech don't represent most of the world so I want to do my part in helping to close that

[00:22:01] gap while also helping people to build confidence and momentum in their own lives and in their own

[00:22:06] goals so my word for this year is momentum I love that I love that that's great I love that so much

[00:22:15] and last but not least what is your best piece of advice for women who want to pursue a career

[00:22:21] in technology yeah so there's a couple things one tactically I think it is really important to

[00:22:30] identify what area of tech you actually want to be in so you hear people say I want to be in tech but

[00:22:37] you don't have to be an engineer to be in tech you don't have to be a developer to be in tech like

[00:22:42] any professional role that's available just in other corporations it's available in tech so

[00:22:48] there are lawyers there are project managers there are trainers there are people who do logistics

[00:22:55] so what does that actually mean like define what that means when you say you want to be in tech

[00:23:00] and then get the foundational certifications or training that go along with that role especially

[00:23:08] if you want to work at a company like Google not saying that you should or have to work at a

[00:23:12] company like Google I think less than 5% of people that apply get hired so they want to know that

[00:23:20] you are really adept at whatever your area is and that might mean working somewhere else first

[00:23:27] so like I said I didn't go straight to Google sure there are like consulting agencies that supply

[00:23:34] resources to places like Google so Deloitte Accenture Lidos there are a lot of different paths to

[00:23:41] get to tech and I think it's important to like think through what that could look like but from

[00:23:47] just like an ambition perspective I think that women should be really intentional on betting on

[00:23:56] themselves I think we often write ourselves off or discredit or discount the strengths and

[00:24:04] the skills that we naturally have because we feel like they aren't good enough we aren't

[00:24:09] technical enough we don't have the experience and I think that it's important to quiet that noise

[00:24:17] and to lean into what your core strengths are like the worst thing that could happen is that

[00:24:23] you won't get it and you already don't have it so you're not losing anything so just have the

[00:24:30] confidence to bet on yourself and to take a leap of faith because you won't know unless you actually

[00:24:37] try I love that I tell people all the time you've got to make that you've got to invest in yourself

[00:24:43] because honestly no one else is you know what I'm saying you've got to make your number one

[00:24:49] priority no one has that that that passion that drive like you're going to have so yeah I completely

[00:24:56] completely completely agree well I have thoroughly enjoyed our conversation if other folks are

[00:25:04] looking to connect with you how can they go about doing so I appreciate the time this was really

[00:25:10] great anybody that wants to connect with me just go to Adrian Wilkins.com my book is on there my

[00:25:17] coaching is on there my LinkedIn is on there so definitely reach out I will respond I will add you

[00:25:24] I'm happy to answer any questions so yeah Adrian Wilkins.com fantastic Adrian thank you so much for

[00:25:31] taking time out of your very busy schedule. Come on to the show I truly appreciate it and I know

[00:25:36] the audience learned a lot as well so thank you no problem thank you for having me.

[00:25:46] Thanks so much for listening to this episode if you enjoyed listening to us and made them

[00:25:50] would like to support the show please consider sharing it with your friends great or leave a review

[00:25:56] donate or make a purchase at our shop starring you crew remember if you're everything to everyone

[00:26:02] there is being no one you never know who you will inspire see in the next episode