Confidence Staveley shares her journey into the tech industry and her mission to bridge the gap between cybersecurity and underrepresented groups in Africa.
Guest: Confidence Staveley, Founder and Executive Director - CyberSafe Foundation
On LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/confidencestaveley/
On Twitter | https://twitter.com/sisinerdtweets
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Host: MK Palmore, Host of The Leadership Student Podcast
On ITSPmagazine | https://www.itspmagazine.com/itspmagazine-podcast-radio-hosts/mk-palmore
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Episode Description
Confidence Staveley's passion for solving problems and doing difficult things drives her leadership in the cybersecurity industry.
Inclusion is crucial for closing the gender and skills gap in cybersecurity and driving innovation.
Cybersafe Foundation's Cyber Girls Fellowship program has had a significant impact, with participants experiencing a 400% increase in income on average.
Access to hardware and learning infrastructure is a major challenge for underrepresented groups in cybersecurity, and crowdfunding and donations have helped provide laptops for training.
Leadership plays a key role in driving innovation, coordinating efforts, and securing resources to solve industry challenges.
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Resources
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A Conversation with Confidence Staveley | The Leadership Student Podcast with MK Palmore
MK Palmore: [00:00:00] Hey folks, this is MK Palmore. Welcome to another edition of the Leadership Student Podcast. As if you've been a subscriber to this podcast, we try and get folks on that have a variety of experiences in the leadership realm. I'm excited to have in the virtual studio Confidence Stavely, who is a leading leader and practitioner in the cybersecurity industry.
Confidence, uh, has a super interesting story, I think. And I'm hoping that the listeners and guests will get a lot out of hearing her talk about her frameworks and how she approaches the subject of leadership. Confidence, welcome to the studio.
Confidence Stavely: Thank you so much, MK. It's a pleasure to be here.
MK Palmore: It's really wonderful to have you.
So I've been watching you, your star shine on the internet and social media now for the better part, probably two years or so we've probably been connected and I've been back and forth. We had the opportunity to actually meet in person not too long ago. And that was exciting to get an opportunity to meet you.
Talk to us a little bit about your start in the, in the tech industry. And maybe pepper in a little bit [00:01:00] about where you're from and what it looks like from that vantage point.
Confidence Stavely: Okay. That's a very interesting question and I hope you're ready for the answer because it's quite a bit of a long story. I try to make it as short as I can so I don't bore our listeners.
So I'm not going to sit here and say, Oh, I've always wanted to be in tech or I've always wanted to be in cyber. It was just sheer happenstance. I'm from the African continent and if you're. Asian or African, you understand what I'm about to say. Um, a lot of times the parents make up their minds about what you should become and then advise you with like, they're suggesting, but not exactly suggesting to pursue that career path.
So I'll give you examples, uh, quite a talkative when you were growing up, they would say, Oh, you should definitely be a lawyer. So that was what happened with me. My parents thought I was going, doing great with the sciences and said, Oh, you should definitely be a doctor. And so that sold the idea to me for so long that I thought that actually, that's my dream.
I want to be a doctor. So to give you again, another bit of [00:02:00] a background about where I'm from, neither of my parents are university graduates.
So I am like the first in my lineage to be, to hold a degree. Right. So
MK Palmore: tell the audience what country in Africa you're from.
Confidence Stavely: I'm from Nigeria.
MK Palmore: There you are growing up as a, as a young woman in Nigeria. Your parents had some thought or idea as to what kind of career they thought you might matriculate into, but you were telling me offline that you had a little bit of a gap year that, that you had some exposure to STEM technology.
Talk a little bit about that and what kind of impact it had on you.
Confidence Stavely: Okay. So I went off to learn about computers and begin to explore how to use them. Started off with you just learning basic office packages. And then I graduated to learning about CSS, learning how to code in Java, learning how to code in C and then C sharp and Java at some point.
And it was in that time I knew that. I wanted to be in tech because I felt alive just [00:03:00] creating things, just writing little programs and having things move on my screen that I had programmed. I felt very happy about it. Around the same time as well, my, my admission had come in, the gap year had ended and my admission had come in to study medicine.
And so I needed to do some convincing to my parents that. I wanted to be in tech, but unfortunately for me, there was no reference points as compared to medicine where we had people around us that had become medical doctors and were successful and were leading good lives for themselves. But we didn't have a reference point for technology, especially women in technology.
It was an uphill task convincing them. But what I did was I bought cardboards. At the time, I also didn't have access to a laptop of my own or a computer of my own, so I couldn't do PowerPoint slides or something like that. So I just had to buy cardboard papers and made my presentations using the presentation, using the cardboard.
But a key thing that I think caught my parents attention was my passion. And I used my mother's words [00:04:00] against her. My mom used to say that you can't outperform a passionate person. And I keep saying these words because these words have been like Guiding. They've been guiding pillars for me. Being passionate always put me at the forefront because that's exactly what I would live for, right?
I would do everything to keep gaining knowledge and things like that. So my parents could tell that I was very passionate, whether or not they understood what I was saying or whether or not they could see the prospects I was trying to paint. And so they said, you know what, go on and do what you want to do.
And I went on, I got an advanced diploma in software engineering, got a scholarship to do, uh, A BSC in IT and business Information systems because for me, I've always wanted to have the technical skills and, and the business skills as well. And I think that was one of the best things. I also, best decisions I made.
I wasn't, I wasn't, I didn't know how impactful that combination was. Now I'm beginning to see how it is and from there on, I went on to do a bit, a master's again with a scholarship in IT management. It was during my master's that I got my [00:05:00] first exposure to cyber security through an elective called cryptography.
So that in a not so short nutshell is exactly how I got into tech.
MK Palmore: That's, an awesome story. And I love that quote that you count. They say it again. You can't outwork, you can't outperform a passionate person. I love it because I think there's so much involved in, there's so much of a person's grit, resilience, their desire to really be successful, certainly in the technology industry, that, that makeup.
The qualities of someone that's able to, to, to grow and thrive in this industry. And you are certainly an example of that. That's a, that's an outstanding and interesting pathway. Can you talk a little bit more about the perception of women in STEM, either in Nigeria or on the African continent? Because I know it's part of how you show up in the industry now in terms of, we're going to get to a conversation about the nonprofit that you stood up, but talk a little bit about the perceptions of women in STEM.
Confidence Stavely: Um, the perception is changing. It [00:06:00] is getting better as we go along, but it was before now very, very manic, if I was to put it that way, you needed to be a certain way to be seen as, as good prospect, maybe more like a tomboy, basically not having a life, someone who was You had to be, you had to be someone in a particular mode to fit.
And that's why when I came along, I, I made sure to stay true to myself because I don't look like what was the norm. Yeah. I went, I don't look like what was the norm. I'm not wearing makeup today, but I wouldn't make up on a good day. Right. And be glamorous. Most times where my very nice dresses really fitted when there's some nice shoes.
Back in the day, that wasn't a thing. It was, you would find a woman who is stem or is it tech? Her hair has to be a mess for her to look like she really knows what she's doing. Walking up this way, glamorous, is she here for some fashion show or something? She definitely won't have anything upstairs. So that [00:07:00] is like the stereotype that has been you have to look a certain way.
You maybe you need to dress more like a man, wear clothes that are BADLY FEATURED and things like that. Then it was okay. I think she knows what she's doing. She'll look like she has something to share, something of value. So that's one side. There's also , the issues around women being underestimated, especially from the technical front, right?
It's just most times, it's seen like you're being thrown the bone or you're just being pitted up to the table, not necessarily that you have value to bring. And so for me I've gotten a sense of that over time and I think it's been a good and a bad problem lumped together. It's a good, it's a good problem because when you're always underestimated you almost always overperform because people don't expect you to To be the way you are.
And then they, they, they have an experience of you and it's mind blowing. So I look at that as I look at that positively and I choose to look at it positively and I look at what the, [00:08:00] what's been underestimated does for me. I also find that women at certain ages in their career, they're usually discriminated against.
Just a few weeks ago, I would say two weeks ago, I had a young lady who was very good. She had, she did so well at technical assessments for a role, but she was not offered the role because she was a married mother. So those issues still really are things that we see, especially for roles in CSOCS. For example, where they work 24 hour shifts, women are not given those opportunities because there is this thinking that they will not be able to balance their lives out.
But these women have properly thought through how to work their different phases of life, how to juggle all of their balls and keep them in the air. But somehow these women are not exactly given opportunities like they would, like the younger versions of them would have gotten if they put them side by side.
These are some of the issues and some of the few issues aside the fact that, for example, Women are less prioritized for education as well. [00:09:00] And I'll share a bit of this story because I always share it when I want to make, I want to help people picture what the issues are. When I was seven years old, I won a competition and ace a competition and I got home.
My father, by the way, is one of the, my biggest fans ever. One of the biggest people in my life that is constantly cheerleading me. And then I came home, my father had gotten wind of the fact that I had gotten this thing. So he was waiting for me outside. And then I ran into his arms, and then he hugged me.
My father said, In you, I have ten sons. Now, at seven, I didn't understand what he was saying. I was like, okay, so he has 10 sons in me. What does that mean exactly? But as I grew older, I began to find out that having, being a boy or being a young man was more valuable. In quotes. And, and that it's even worse than being a woman.
So you find that a lot of families were prioritizing, educating the young man. If push came to show, for example, sometimes even taking out the push, coming to [00:10:00] shove financially, right. Aside the hard times, but whenever there was a hard time, the person who paid the price for that hard time will be the girl that doesn't get education.
So there are all of these combining factors and why women are very disadvantage, generally in tech on the continent of Africa, and also why we even have way fewer women. In cybersecurity on the continent. And if you're looking, if you're looking at my sweatshirt, I don't know if you're going to have a video of this, but then if you're looking at my sweatshirt, you will see the statistic here that we have 50 percent of the population as women on the continent, but just 9 percent of the workforce is made up of women.
So these are the issues combined.
MK Palmore: I love that sweatshirt by the way. And yes, we will be using it, but we will be using the video. So the audience will get an opportunity to see it as well. We all are fully aware, or at least folks should be, of the disparities in terms of the cybersecurity workforce, the absence of representation from women and people of color in the workforce.
So let's use that as a pivot point. Let's jump right into the [00:11:00] CyberSafe Foundation that you founded. Talk to me a little bit about why you thought it was important to start up that foundation and a little bit about what you guys do on the landscape.
Confidence Stavely: Thank you so much, MK. So the thing is for CyberSea Foundation, again, like with a lot of things that I've shared on this call, at the time I was leading the cybersecurity practice consulting in Nigeria and.
I was doing great work around protecting enterprises, but then when I had a cyber attack hit really close to home, I had my mom as a victim. I knew that I should do more to protect more people. And so I looked at really bridging the space between the gap between what the enterprises were doing to ensure that data is protected and information systems are secured.
And then. The gap between that and what the government was doing to protect the citizenry. And so that is exactly the space where CyberSafe plays. And what we do is we drive safe and inclusive [00:12:00] access to digital. Now, the inclusion is actually the biggest portion of the bit of work we are doing. Um, because we've seen that With all of what I've even shared, um, earlier on this podcast, that there are certain groups that are underrepresented and left behind in some way, or that are disadvantaged from this socioeconomic angle, for example.
Um, and so we wanted to make sure that those groups of people or organizations are catered to because they still face cyber attacks. And so that is where we play. And we do this across the continent. We're reaching 22 African countries, but then bringing me back to maybe one of my favorite programs and on CyberSafe does, and one that is very dear to my heart, which is the Cyber Girls Fellowship.
For me, it was doing two key things with cyber because we always think about cybersecurity and we think about protecting enterprises, but what we may not see is that cybersecurity can also be a socioeconomic impact tool, right? And what do I mean by this? It's a It's an in demand skill. It's a high [00:13:00] paying skill.
And so when we bring in women, for example, underrepresented groups, and we bring in these sort of people and skill them up, what happens is they're able to earn significantly more, live better lives, and then have that ripple effect in their community. So we've seen historically that on the average, uh, most of our alumni come out of the program and they have At least a 400 percent increase in the income.
Now that's a big deal because, and that range is way higher than that. But on average, it's 400 percent that we get to see very often. So 400 percent increase in income means they get to live better lives. They get to live decent lives. They have decent work opportunities. And so for me, that was exactly what I was looking to do.
Close the skills gap that exists on the continent and also close the gender gap that exists on the continent. And I like to say this a lot. You should count as a soundbite noun for me is that I don't want women to get jobs because they're women. I don't want any underrepresented group. Get the job because [00:14:00] they are underrepresented groups, but then we should get the job because they are the best for the job and they are skilled for the job.
But then how do we get them skilled for the job in the first place? That's where programs like cyber girls then exist to make sure that they are competing favorably. Because they are skilled and not that they don't have the skills, they keep going for the job opportunities and they don't get them because again, they are not the best for the jobs because they are not skilled for the job.
So the Cyber Girls Program exists to provide mentorship and cyber security training for young women on the continent age 18 to 28 for free for several months and then walk these people right into the workforce.
MK Palmore: 400 percent increase in earning capability is a phenomenal statistic. You are literally changing people's lives.
400 percent increase as you were. Touching on, we're talking about changing the trajectory of people's lives by just exposing them to and preparing them for a career in cybersecurity. Take me back though to the leadership component of this, which is [00:15:00] what gave you the strength to understand that you could stand up an organization like this?
Pull the elements together and then build something that might be impactful the way that you're describing, because you're talking about current status quo, which is, as you indicated, in 22 other countries, uh, on the continent of Africa, probably have impacted scores, if not thousands of trained individuals.
How do you get , the genesis for the idea and talk to me about actually standing it up? And maybe I'm going to ask you about funding for it as well, but talk to me about standing the organization up.
Confidence Stavely: Okay, I don't know exactly how to answer that question, but I would say that I'm generally very pulled in and very motivated by the problems.
I'm again, just speaking to my Optimism as well. I'm I like to see opportunities, uh, problems as opportunities. So if there's a problem, then, uh, and that problem is challenging to solve. I want to be there. And if it's something that [00:16:00] really, I feel changes something significant and it's within my power to, um, whether immediate power or.
So, because again, sometimes you take on things to tackle and you're not, you don't know that you have it in you sometimes to do those things. And you find out that you stretch yourself a bit and you're able to do them. So I enjoy challenges. I live and breathe and get my adrenaline from solving. problems.
So this was one problem that I saw that was very dear to my heart and I could see the ripple effects of doing this work and doing it well. I get countless messages. Today I woke up to a message from a girl in northern part of Nigeria that she finished a program eight months after she got a job which is actually a very long time to wait given her data.
Usually it's within, uh, first six months, a majority of our fellows get hired. But she waited eight months and she got this job. She's currently working with threat intelligence team of the law enforcement in the country, and she's doing well for [00:17:00] herself. And she sent me a message talking about how she's now an international, she said she's an international cyber security professional because she's been flown around the place now for different, um, other things.
And she was explaining, expressing how life changing it is. There's a girl in South Africa, for example, that went from being a waiter at a restaurant to working for a company that's listed on Joanne's Box Stock Exchange as a cyber security professional. And looking at all of those people, they were not people before, they were visions.
Right? There were people that had possibilities that I imagined because I needed to solve the problem that I had seen. Walking into rooms and being looked at as though, what exactly are you doing here? We're expecting a man. And let me share a very funny story. It wasn't in my maiden name at the time. It usually is known.
to be a name for men. So I would get things like Mr. That. I'll be called Mr. A lot of, a lot of times because you, you won't guess that it's the woman you're emailing with. So I got a lot of that because that [00:18:00] was the norm. So I wanted more women because I knew that the problems we were trying to solve required a more diverse group of people, innovatively collaborating to solve the problems.
And for me, it was about that challenge of, and that, that beauty of. Picking up that, picking up the problem and trying to solve it. The joy of solving that problem every day. I haven't finished solving it, by the way.
MK Palmore: Sure. I'm not sure there's an end to this.
Confidence Stavely: Exactly. There are many challenges along the way to getting that on, but it's rewarding every day to wake up to those sort of messages.
The ones I don't know about, for example, that are happening around the place because of the work we're doing. It's just very exciting.
MK Palmore: How have you been able to scale? I. I also lead a, lead a nonprofit and we're just based here in the U. S. We have ambitions of exploding beyond the borders of the U. S. But when I think about 22 different countries on the continent of Africa, one, how do you get folks to stand up and lead in all of those various regions? How do you scale your efforts or what's the, what's that look [00:19:00] like? How have you been, was that intentional or was that just grassroots growth?
Confidence Stavely: I would say it's grassroots growth, a combination of things.
There's something about the African continent, a lot of people. We are very hungry people and that's not a negative thing. It's a very positive thing in the sense of what I'm saying. We're hungry for change. We're hungry for good. We're hungry for getting better. We're hungry for doing better. And that's the general thing for most young people.
So you'll find that. Young people gravitate towards things that improve their lives. And when they see these kind of opportunities, they'll just grab it. So what, that was exactly our experience starting off the Cyber Girls program. Initially it was just in Nigeria and we scraped bottom of the pot to make sure that we're able to have this in six physical locations.
We had partners that came together and just supported us in the beginning. But then it was. We started getting very huge demands from outside of Nigeria. I know that's another key thing as well. The [00:20:00] continent has very similar underlying problems. So half the time, if you're able to solve a problem, one part of the continent, that is a very major part of the continent.
So I'll say major, the biggest drivers of. Of the economies, African economies, which, for example, one of the bigger GDP, GDP is from Nigeria, from the continent, right? So you're looking at Nigeria, looking at Kenya, looking at the South Africa. For able to solve problems in any of these places, you're most likely going to be able to replicate that solution across the continent.
And for us, that's what we experienced from the next cohort. We, it was just a fluid thing to move across border, change the model. Again, what we're doing is we are learning. And adjusting the model as we go along and we're able to then move across. But I would say that we've had, we've been lucky with some supports from organizations that we're able to get funding for.
We have also been very lucky with getting some sort of volunteers [00:21:00] to really help with, with the work we're doing. And then I think what has also really helped us is the quality of. Training partners, we've been able to secure across board as well.
MK Palmore: What have you done in the way of hardware partnerships?
Do you have corporate sponsors that support hardware or do folks show up with laptops? Do they show up with the capability to engage from a hardware standpoint?
Confidence Stavely: We've had serious challenges with devices. And when I share about the barriers. Access to entry for women in cyber. One of the key things I speak about is access.
And from the access point of view, it's not just access to the trainings, it's also access to the learning infrastructure and the tools. And the hardware just falls right in. Actually during our first cohort, the girls that we're training, so economically disadvantaged, young women, most of the time, right.
And they can't afford a laptop of their own, but they can learn cybersecurity on their mobile phones, for example, you need a [00:22:00] laptop to do just about anything that's meaningful. So what we have done in the past is we have used crowdfunding models. We have people. Donate laptops sometimes to us in bulk.
And then we have also people. Throwing donations over time for laptops for fellows. So I was sharing just before we came on live about a time when my heart was broken by the fact that in a particular hub where we had 20 girls learning physically, there was only one laptop that we could provide, which was what we provided at the beginning.
But then they were learning Linux and they had to practice the commands and things like that. And the girl in question text me saying, Oh, I didn't get a chance today to practice. And it just tore my heart in pieces. So on that day, that was the first day we started our California efforts. I put out a tweet asking for people to donate their fairly used laptops.
They were in good shape and we got such a rousing [00:23:00] response. That tweet, I think, reached over a hundred thousand people. Because other people picked up on the, I think the energy in the tweets, because I was really, my heart was really torn. I poured my, my, my heart into the tweet. And I think it must have read that way.
And it just flew, it became viral. And we've got a lot of laptop donations and we've been getting a lot of those. And then what we do is maybe we upgrade the hardware. We spend a bit some time to upgrade the hardware and get it up to speed and then ship it off to the people who need it the most. But that has been a challenge.
It's still a challenge now because we can't still provide laptops to all our girls. In the current cohort we have 500 of them in 22 countries. Not just the laptop, but the logistics of getting the laptops to them in different countries can cost an arm and a leg. So we, we're trying to do as much as we can and hoping that with more funding down the line, we'll be able to, as part of the welcome pack to come into the program, give them laptops that they'll be able to use.
But for now, it's still a work in progress.
MK Palmore: Tell me [00:24:00] where you are five years from now. What's the, what's your career look like? What are you engaged in? What's on the horizon?
Confidence Stavely: For in five years, I think I really want to move more into the policy. I know that a lot of the work I'm doing is action oriented, but getting Skills into skills for the right people, designing programs that are for the people that I really need to reach.
But I think that scaling that up would be through policy. What sort of policy allows, what sort of policy influence can I. Can I contribute that makes it easy for us to have the best of talent have access to opportunities within the continent and outside of the continent? What sort of policies would drive, say, digital infrastructure exploding on the continent and outside of the continent in a way that really helps us to grow cyber talent?
What sort of policies really protect and drive the ecosystem towards innovating and creating solutions as well as against just [00:25:00] consuming? Security tools created elsewhere. That is where my mind is. Being able to sustain the ecosystem, sustain the community both in Africa and outside of Africa to innovate more.
So I think that policy is a key area that I really like to move into and really provide value to the industry from.
MK Palmore: What role do you think leadership will play in helping to solve the cybersecurity workforce challenge?
Confidence Stavely: The first role leadership is going to play in solving the challenge is visionary thinking and bringing those visions to reality or to fruition.
And I think that's a major job of leaders, being able to dream and envision something and being able to pull people together to make that vision a reality. So I believe that's the major role that leadership is going to play. The quality of leadership, the quality of innovation. That we're able to experience as an industry in the next five, 10 years is going to be dependent on the quality of leaders [00:26:00] that as an industry also have.
Another key thing that I think that our industry needs to get better at and also the leadership needs to contribute to is Managing stakeholders. We have issues where, for example, we are not able to secure enough funding for our programs. When programs, cybersecurity programs, are not from a not for profit perspective, yet from an enterprise perspective, we're managing, say, a cybersecurity program, for example.
So these are the key, some key areas where we need to be able to drive uptake of our cybersecurity programs from a leadership perspective and get the right stakeholders around. Getting us the resources required to secure the enterprises, for example. So leadership for me, the major role that leadership is going to play is in innovation and in coordination of efforts and support towards solving the industry's biggest problems.
MK Palmore: So I've seen you. But at least it appears from the outside you're flying around the globe evangelizing and messaging this challenge [00:27:00] to to folks I've seen you spend a ton of time here in the US on it Do you think that we're doing all of the things that we need to do to help close this gap or are there?
Are there clear things missing from the current efforts that you see underway?
Confidence Stavely: I think something very clear that's missing is there seems to be quite a lot of leap service around inclusion. Inclusion looks very nice. Pardon me also to use this word quite sexy noun, then going past that and past sticking the box and looking good.
Do we truly understand how inclusion helps the bottom line? Do we truly understand how important inclusion is? Are we doing what we need to do? To drive inclusion, backing it up with action and sustain action. I find that's a question that a lot of times gets it. Maybe we need to do past talking.
Evangelism is great and that's what we're doing. I am doing that as well and I'm not tired of it, [00:28:00] but we need to, at this point in 2023, we need to begin to move past just talking about these things as problems and things that we need to do to beginning to see more uptake of and very intentional moves around solving the inclusion challenge, because not only will inclusion help us.
to close the talents and skills gap that we're having currently. But inclusion is also going to really drive innovation. The data is there to prove it, right? So we need to do more around intentionally driving inclusion, making sure that action is followed up with our talking, and that action is not for the time being, that is sustained.
I want to begin to see three year partnerships of funding partners for diversity, go three year partnerships. Those are the kinds of things that I'd like to see. I'd like to see companies say, you know what, we want to make sure that we, you get 2 percent of our profit will go towards your programs, you know, for [00:29:00] the next three years, because this work needs to be done and needs to be done systematically.
And it needs to be done thoroughly and it needs to be done over time.
MK Palmore: Everything he said is music to my ears, the, the idea of making intentional and sustainable support of these various efforts that are underway. Your organization, CyberSafe, the one that I lead, Cyversity, other organizations on the landscape are doing such, I think, great work.
But oftentimes I think we're constrained in terms of how it is that we help folks because we're limited to this funding cycle of raising money every year to fund individual programs. And I think we're all looking for those, those partners that are willing to make a multi year commitment so that we can really begin, I think, to drive impact.
Uh, around the industry. So everything that you said just totally resonates with me. it sounds like your dad might've been a pretty impactful person in terms of your, in your mom as well, your ideas around what it meant to lead. Any, any thoughts around like [00:30:00] things that they might have told you over the years or things that they told you when you were young that have helped build your leadership character and your leadership profile?
Confidence Stavely: Yes, my, my father always believed in doing hard things. I say that my father did raise me like a girl. Because I now get what the difference was, because I didn't see the difference in my house then. I have brothers, by the way. But then, I'm coming out of society, I'm coming out of that house, I came out of that house, say, 30 years ago, and I can now tell what that difference is.
And I can tell you for a fact that my father always said something around solving difficult, or rather doing difficult things. He said that the harder it was to do something, the more rewarding it was. Sometimes I don't quite agree with him because sometimes the, the Roomba does cleaning the floor more than I do.
Looking at it from another perspective. It's a perspective of taking on very tough things. I'm hardly ever afraid of anything. If I want to do something, what I just do it, [00:31:00] what I just do is start with it in bits and I get it done. But there's another thing that has really played a major role in my leadership journey is it's a simple, it's a simple prep, very simple.
You most likely would know it. Uh, and this is how it goes. Good, better, best. I will never rest until my good is better. Am I better best? So just that mindset of that growth mindset and just wanting to always be better and always asking myself, is there a way to do this better? Has just really enveloped everything I've done, every single thing.
I'm always asking, how can this be done better? I'm always looking back. How can this be done better? Oh, I did great here. Yeah. But. After this chat with MK, are there better ways I could have answered this question? Sometimes you can feel like over beating yourself up, but yes! It's just something that has become a major part of my growth journey as well, so I would say that has really shaped me.
MK Palmore: That's a fantastic note, I think, to end the conversation because you touch on What resonates with the [00:32:00] naming of this leadership student podcast, the idea that we're all on an eternal journey certainly as it relates to leadership. And that idea resonates with me and I think others. How can folks find you?
That's actually a silly question because you're all over social media. But if folks want to find you on social media, what's the best way to do that?
Confidence Stavely: I live on LinkedIn.
MK Palmore: It's amazing. Keep it up. That's how we found each other. And I love the collaboration and look forward to really working with you in the future. So LinkedIn and where else?
Confidence Stavely: LinkedIn, just search for Confidence Stavely on LinkedIn. Um, I've become more active on, on Twitter and on Instagram as a senior tweets.
But if you check, if you still search my name, Confidence Stably, you'll find me easily there and on Instagram and yeah. That's about it. I also have a website, so you can check that out as well. Confidence. Stavely. com. Yeah.
MK Palmore: Confidence, you've done some amazing stuff in the cyber security industry, STEM for women, not only on the African [00:33:00] continent, but obviously your impact has reached the shores of the United States here as well.
So I look forward to collaborating more with you in the future. Uh, appreciate you taking time to join, uh, the Leadership Student Podcast. And for folks listening to this, uh, these are the kinds of conversations that we're driving towards. We're trying to bring in leaders from. across a variety of business verticals and confidence is a strong example of the variety and type of backgrounds that we're, uh, that we're looking to, to flourish.
So thanks for joining us for this episode and we look forward to seeing you guys
Confidence Stavely: on the next one. Thank you so much MK for having me.