Natalie Ruiz: Authenticity
Natalie Ruiz shares her story of authenticity rocketing into career growth. Once a used-car salesperson, Natalie entered AnswerConnect through a temporary agency in a sales position. Through her fearless honesty and proven track record of workplace wins Natalie has achieved something she never dreamed possible, she is now CEO.
We explore what happened when she opened up at work about changes in her personal life and the community that vulnerability can foster. A fabulous mom, an efficient “work from anywhere” CEO, Natalie Ruiz shares how she gets it all done.
Transcript
Podcast Intro
Megan Bigelow: Welcome to Breaking The Glass Ceiling, a PDXWIT podcast. I'm Megan Bigelow, the founder and board president of PDXWIT. We interview people to dig below the surface of their achievements and challenges, showcasing the story behind the story. We believe that focusing on the person and humanizing their lived experiences will help us shape the future of tech.
Kimberly:
Hi and welcome back to Breaking the Glass Ceiling, a PDXWIT podcast. I'm Kimberly Embry, a technical support engineer and podcast co-host. I use she/her pronouns.
Dawn:
And I’m Dawn Mott, a Software engineer and podcast co-host. I also use she/her pronouns.
Kimberly:
On our last episode. We spoke with Kila Slaughter Scott and Max Western who are both champions of community Cambia. And today we're going to talk about authenticity.
D. Here at PDXWIT we believe in engaging in accessible and clear conversation and storytelling reflecting our commitment to authenticity and serving real people.
Kimberly:
And today we have Natalie Ruiz, the Chief Executive Officer of AnswerConnect who uses she/her pronouns with us to talk about the meaning of authenticity. In the second half we’ll hear about how being authentic has helped her break the glass ceiling. But first let's meet Natalie. Thank you, Natalie for being with us today.
Natalie:
Thank you so much for having me. This is exciting.
Kimberly:
Yeah, we are really, really excited to have you here and also want to give a quick shout-out to Cast Iron Coding for letting us use their space. So Natalie if you could introduce yourself and give us a glimpse into the woman behind the title of CEO.
Natalie:
Absolutely. Well, the woman behind the title of CEO thank goodness that exists because that's truly who I am. The title is amazing and it's a great privilege of my life. But being who I am the goofy, nerdy, kind of weird person who has friends and family and a daughter that's really who I am. At my core I've always cared about and been interested in people and that's what drives me in my personal and professional life.
Kimberly:
And you being interested in people and how that’s driven you, could you dive into that a little bit more?
Natalie:
Absolutely. So I've been told by girlfriends when it comes to work that I kind of found and helped create and get to be part of the perfect job for myself. Because I've always been interested in people's stories. Who they truly are, what makes them tick, what their goals are. And so in my personal life, I love to volunteer. I give a lot of solicited and unsolicited advice. I love to jump in and help solve problems. So kind of seeing a problem or a process or a way that something is and kind of knowing how that could be better that's been a driver for me. I found through lots of different touch points that people no matter what their title is no matter what their position like, people are just people and we're all motivated by a lot of the same things and knowing that has really helped in my personal life and my career.
Kimberly:
And how has that helped you in your career?
Natalie:
So that's a great question. So When I started with AnswerConnect, I actually came in as a temporary employee through a staffing agency. So I joined the company as a salesperson and prior to this in a previous job I had sold cars at a car dealership. That had never been a life aspiration, but it was just kind of where I was at that point. And for some points, working at the car dealership, I tried to blend. I spent a lot of time wanting to blend in with the other sales people around me. Which meant I was trying to blend in with like 50 year old white men. And I am still a brown woman and I was a, you know, twenty something year old brown woman, but I thought if I wore a bigger blazer and wore pleated pants, maybe nobody would notice I was really young. But that didn't work for many, many obvious reasons but what I learned is once I just leveled with people and started being myself it was a lot more fun, and I was a lot more successful.
So when I started with the AnswerConnect I came into that company not expecting that it would be a lifelong career, but I came in because I wanted a change and within the first couple of days I thought I'd made a terrible mistake. Actually. I came into this company and I think as a young person I had this expectation that if there was a building and there were bosses and there were desks set up, that this company probably knew what they were doing. And very rapidly, I got a different impression. It was definitely a startup, it was definitely chaotic and I didn't think I was going to be successful there.
So I actually reached out to the agency and said, “You’ve got to me something else, this isn't gonna work”, but I needed a job. So I was going to keep working there until I found something else and instead of leaving I ended up meeting the founder of the company. And he asked me how things were going. And this was kind of a pivotal moment in my life because I had nothing to lose because I was already on my way out, I told him. I told him that I didn't think it was going to stay and I told him why. And I listed many reasons. And instead of him saying, “Well hit the road, you've been here for two or three days”, he did something pretty amazing. He said, “Well, can you help with any of that?” And for me that was a turning point. I didn't have a pedigree. I don't even have a college degree. I didn't have anything that told him that he should take a chance on me. But what I did bring to the table is curiosity, hard work, and like I said nothing to lose and started applying ideas and experiments and hard work to transform aspects of that business and all these years later, I have the best job in the world.
Kimberly:
And the best job in the world being a CEO and also a mother and I'm sure you have other roles in your life. Tell us about and our listeners about what that looks like and the impact of all of that coming together.
Natalie:
So being a mother was a game-changer for me. Having an idea of what life was going to be like and what life was supposed to be like in one hand and then actually living out a reality of what it would be. I mean from the moment of deciding that I was going to attempt to be a mother things didn't play out as designed and that's just what I've learned how life goes. Life is not linear, life does not follow a plan, and it was definitely not easy for the entire pregnancy I felt like my body was me. It was no longer mine. And then having this little person.
Prior to my daughter being born, I remember telling my bosses that I really didn't think that I would need to take any time off because it would just be really boring to sit at home and stare at a baby. I legitimately thought that and then of course I had her and that's all I wanted to do was sit at home and stare at her. Right? Uh oh, I've set the wrong expectation for myself. Now, what do I do? So my daughter’s now 5 and I juggle being her mother, getting to lead a company that I thoroughly enjoy, and then try to pack in a little bit of life outside of that, but I'm lucky enough to get to work from anywhere.
So anywhere can be my home office. It can be our Hub office in southeast Portland. It could be one of our other locations, but just that flexibility as we have a global company, so people are always on and every time zone I can start work in the morning before she wakes up. I can take a break to get her ready for school. I get to walk her to school and then I can come back to work. And when I began with answer connect, we didn't have this aspect of being able to work anywhere. Technology wasn't really there and it wasn't something that was happening on a wide scale. So I drove for hours a day in traffic just to go to an office and I think about what life would be like without that now missing out on those mornings with my daughter. Or so many parents are in that position. So while I still do juggle a lot being a mom and a full-time worker and all of these things I also know that I'm really lucky based on the way that that gets to be set up in my life.
Kimberly:
Yeah. It sounds like having that flexibility has been really monumental.
Natalie:
It's been huge and I've always been passionate about offering this flexibility to people who I work with. But it was a different story to actually live it and then need that flexibility. And that was a humbling experience for me. It was great being a leader that could tell people, absolutely take that time if you need it, but also somehow I didn’t need that for myself. Until I did. And then I just really doubled down on my passion for that model and flexibility and kind of reimagining what that work could be.
Kimberly:
I’d like to take a moment and kind of dive into that a little bit and ask how did you advocate for yourself because you mentioned that this wasn't something that happened currently at your company. So what did that look like setting up for yourself and for other parents in the future?
Natalie:
So this is something that I actually feel pretty, I felt guilty about at the time. It wasn't until I was probably seven or eight months pregnant when I realized we didn't have a parental policy because it just hadn't come up. And so at that point I did feel awkward about advocating for myself. Like well, sorry for everyone who's had a child prior, but now we're going to take care of this. So actually we didn't, you know, I was surprised to hear this but again also my ignorance to this whole transformation, that would be motherhood was that I wouldn't want to take any time off like who would want to sit at home and stare at my baby. So I got to live that reality. And when after I did have her I worked from home because I was juggling her and work, but I came back pretty quickly because I hadn't planned well.
I didn't think that I would want to take time off so that wasn't the case but a turning point for me was knowing that I set an example. I set an expectation and I remember there was another woman who I've worked with who came to me, let me know that she was pregnant and she said something that just was like I gut punch because she said, “Don't worry, I'm going to be just like you and I won't take any time off”, and for me that was like, that is I am not setting an example on this. That is not the example that I want to set. I had no expectation that I was going to enjoy being a mom, I guess. I love it. It's the best job of my life. But prior to that I really didn't think that I would want that and our company was still evolving.
So at that point, I really added fuel to setting up parental leave, to making space and time for other parents, and really just recognizing that I am an example. And if people are looking to their leaders for how they should be or what is the path to success. I in no way wanted it to be that you never take time off, or that you're always on, or that you skip those important events with your family. And so I've been really mindful and it's been a benefit for my life when work's done.
If something urgent comes up, of course, we have technology we can connect from anywhere, but I've also been approached by other women who I work with who will ask, “So are you just on constantly? Do work all night long? Do you work on weekends?” And truly, I don't. I spend time with my daughter, I spend time with my family and friends. I try to get outside and I think that's really important because it helps me be a whole person.
Kimberly:Definitely and thank you also for sharing that and giving us a blueprint in case that we need to advocate for ourselves or advocate for our fellow women or other people that want to have children or want to have children to be able to do that in their own companies hopefully.
Natalie:
Yeah, I think that at least for myself being an advocate for myself is not something that I was necessarily raised or cultivated to do and it was at a point of becoming a leader and somebody who I recognized that people might be looking at and modeling where me being an advocate for myself is then leading others to be able an advocate for themselves. So it's still uncomfortable for just yourself, but all of us have an opportunity to lead by example and to help others.
Kimberly:
Definitely. And I think that this is a good segue into our second half. So just to wrap all of that up, thank you so much for sharing your story and giving us some good examples to move forward. So during the second half of this episode we will be diving into authenticity with Natalie and her role as CEO AnswerConnect.
Dawn:
We’d also like to take a moment to thank Break the Glass Ceiling sponsor Kiva. Kiva is an international nonprofit working to expand financial access to help underserved communities thrive. More than 80% of the borrower's Kiva serves around the world are women. They are headquartered here in Portland, Oregon and are hiring engineers to work on blockchain and Marketplace projects. Learn more and kiva.org/careers.
Dawn:
Alrighty. Thank you Natalie for being here with us and talking about authenticity today. One thing I'm curious about is, you work for a “work from anywhere company”, you run it, and you told us the story about how your CEO gave you a chance on your second or third day. How do you pay that forward now that there are not those hallway moments with people?
Natalie:
That's a great question. And so one of the things that's really important to me is to recognize that I was given an amazing opportunity in that conversation. And having an anywhere company you don't have as many opportunities for those spontaneous connections. The hallway moments the water cooler moments. So you do have to create them. You have to be intentional. And at our company we do this in a lot of different ways. We have what we call Learning Meetups three times a week at least. Those are virtual video calls and anybody could join them. So it could be the founder, it could be the CEO, and could be Frontline employees. It could be different managers throughout and we come together for ten minutes and we could talk about what we've been learning, because we also have the benefit of paid learning time at our company. So these also kind of end up being hallway moments. In fact, many people have found a path to learn about another career opportunity or department or maybe just kind of reduces their fear of talking to a hiring manager and now contact with another department happened because of those interactions.
We do meet ups which are opportunities to actually see each other in 3D. We love anywhere-work. We love working from a home office. I love not having to wear shoes, but there's still something to be said for in-person and those connections are real. And we do travel to different population centers and bring people together for a day or for different events so that we can have those interactions. And then our software that we've created to kind of make this model work is literally an open door.
I always say my virtual door is always open because anyone in the company can reach out and chat with me or schedule time with me or jump on a video call with me at any time. We really work hard to engineer that as part of our culture and for me that is paramount. It's so important because again when I joined the company it wasn't because I was really fancy or well qualified or knew all of the answers. I just know that in our midst there are people who have remarkable ideas, great capabilities and if we don't work a little bit to meet people and to create those paths and that space for them, then we will miss out.
Dawn:
And does this philosophy work in your hiring practices as well?
Natalie:
Absolutely. Absolutely. So we try to promote from within whenever possible and that's been another kind of me paying it forward being I came in as a salesperson and now get to be CEO. That's amazing. And so we look internally and we work really hard to cultivate people internally as well. So we do things like job shadowing, we do internal internships. We also hire externally and bring people in as interns, but it's really part of our culture to understand that there's a growth mindset and it's not all about what somebody's already done over somebody who specifically went to school. For instance, it's really about their want to grow.
Kimberly:
So you came in to AnswerConnect and ended up being CEO. Was that something that was on your agenda?
Natalie:
That never something that I thought was even possible so it wasn't something that I necessarily aspired to. But I have always aspired to work hard to impact change where I could and to keep growing and so my career path ended up giving me this great opportunity to be promoted to CEO, but it wasn't something that I specifically had in mind as a goal.
Kimberly:
And to tie it back into being authentic, it seems like being authentic helped you. For sure. So what we'd like to hear also, is what does being authentic actually mean to you?
Natalie:
So authenticity definitely has helped me in my career path and what that means is really being myself. Bringing my whole self to work. It's not just business Natalie. It's the whole person. It's being able to be vulnerable. It's being able to speak to that vulnerability because I learned that that creates space for others to do the same. And it's through being real and being vulnerable and even speaking about the things that might scare us or intimidate us that really helps catapult growth.
Kimberly:
Yes. Definitely. And catapulting growth and your own growth and having those moments where you were rewarded in it, how are you creating that opportunity or space for other people?
Natalie:
I think that when you create an environment or a relationship where there's safety, that's when you can be authentic and that's when you can be vulnerable. So I think first and foremost it’s leading by example in that way. If as a leader, I was always perfect, never vulnerable, had it together at every touch point, that doesn't create a lot of space for others to maybe not be perfect. It's not real and I've definitely worked in places where that's more of the culture. So for me, it's being more honest, being more true to the reality of life. You know being a parent has been a humbling experience.
There are a lot of things that don't go according to plan when you add small children into the mix for instance. So that's a huge part of it. But I think that culturally after you've led by example, after you created those safe relationships with the people around you, then it is having a culture of continuous growth and continuous learning. Even one of our core values being learning has the kind of subtext that says, “We don't know it all”. So I think going into things and being okay with saying that really helps create that foundation.
Kimberly:
And as a leader to be able to create that foundation. Prior to being CEO, how has being authentic evolved as your career has developed?
Natalie:
So I get to be the best version of myself and the most authentic. I think that I have to say that I'm at a point of privilege now with my title with my position. I no longer have to try to hide or shrink or maybe blend in because I now get to lead the company. I have a track record of hopefully more successes than failures that gives me a seat at this table. So I think that authenticity has grown. There were times early in my career where you know, bringing your entire self, speaking up, or speaking out might have been something that I was a little bit more afraid of but now that I have grown through personal life and professional life to kind of see the benefits that bringing my full self will really provide in my life, there's no other way. And again modeling that for others. If I can impact somebody to see that it's okay to be real. It's okay to be vulnerable. It's okay to fail. Then that is really what success looks like for me.
Kimberly:
And can you share the story maybe of how that struggle or how you have been authentic in your role. Maybe a story where it was a bit of a struggle and maybe there was some concern around being authentic or maybe there was some unknown of what the results would be or what would happen?
Natalie:
I mean maybe sometimes. Sure, I'm thinking through because there's so many touch points and so many opportunities. I would say one that was probably very scary for me was a personal life change that I needed to communicate at work at some point. And that was me going from a married person to single parent and wondering if sharing that I was going through a major change would somehow cause people to think that I was distracted or possibly I wasn't as good at my job as I had been before or even just wonder. And so I was scared to share this personal life change. And when I finally did, when I finally decided you know, this is the evolution of life, I'm going to share it.
The amazing thing was people at work also started sharing things that were going on in their personal lives. I had women who said, I'm thinking about leaving my husband, but I've been afraid to talk about it. I don't know how to get over the hump. I don't know if I should take time off work. I don't know if I'm really firing on all cylinders because I'm going to this other major life change.
And again just kind of by me being vulnerable and getting over my own fear of that I created the ability to have those conversations with other leaders in the company who were also struggling and I think Berne Brown (https://brenebrown.com/) probably talked about vulnerability the best that I found and she talks about the gremlins. Those little voices in the back of your mind that tell you things like “you’re not good enough” or “if they find this out about you, you’re going to be sunk” or “ you aren’t doing anything that is remarkable”, etc etc. And What I’ve learned from reading and listening to her is once you speak it out. Once you kind of give oxygen to these gremlins, to these little voices, it's really not that bad because you find that people are people and everybody has vulnerability. Everybody has those little voices. It's what you do with them that matters and so for me that moment of being authentic about something that's really personal really scary and concerning. Already in my personal life, it was a big deal. In my professional life, I was legitimately worried that people might perceive me differently or think that I wasn't bringing my full self or my whole capability to work and once I said it, it was quite the opposite.
Dawn:
It sounds like you made a community with what you had and opened up the floor to others to do the same.
It definitely felt that way and again it was a big moment in realizing that everyone struggles with something. And there's a lot of that in a now global company that is open 24/7, 365 there's always somebody struggling over something and again by speaking about it by being vulnerable still the of course holding standards and expectations at work, but just understanding that we are all human that has made I think our company culture and the relationships even outside of work much stronger.
Kimberly:
It's apparent that being authentic has kind of catapulted your career, it’s giving you the ability to be an example and create community for other people. What other positive impacts has being authentic brought to not just your professional life, but your personal life too?
Natalie:
So there's a good chance at least in my opinion that we only get one life. So we don't really have that much time. What I realized as I've gotten older is that time plays tricks on you as well. And so recognizing that I don't have time to waste trying to be somebody else or trying to shrink or not being real not telling one of my friends how much I love and appreciate them or not putting myself out there for something that scares the hell out of me. Like time is ticking and at the end of my life, I want to be able to look back and feel like I have made a positive impact. The other aspect that's been huge when it comes to authenticity is having a child having a small person that listens to me, watches me, models me. It is my actions, my statements, my behavior reflected back at me. And the last thing I would ever want to model for her is to shrink or to not speak up or to not go at life a hundred percent and so in my personal life, I think in just recognizing that I have a lot more fun, I've done things that scare me, and I'm a happier person and hopefully we can all do it.
Kimberly:
Yeah definitely. I hope we all get there.
Natalie:
We can all do it.
Kimberly:
Yeah and with all of your help and sharing your story, I'm sure all of us will get even closer. So again Natalie, we really, really appreciate you coming here spending your time with us on this Saturday morning on a holiday weekend and just sharing how you’ve broken the glass by being authentic and being a model for so many of us. But to wrap up the episode and as Breaking The Glass Ceiling tradition would have it we have got to ask you this question,
Kimberly and Dawn:
What is your favorite lifehack?
Natalie:
Favorite lifehack? So this is a tough one because I don't know that I'm a big lifehacker. But if I had to think of something that makes my life easier, it's letting a lot of things go. It's realizing that it's not going to be perfect. For me, that means there's probably going to be dishes in the sink, but that's okay because it's a beautiful day out and I want to get outside. It's realizing that this idea that I could somehow literally do it all and do it perfectly is not reality. And so that's been my biggest lifehack, just letting some things go.
Kimberly:
Let it go. Sorry, I had to do that. Well Natalie, is there anything else that you’d like to share with our listeners?
Natalie:
It has been so awesome being here with you two thank you so much for having me. I'm available. It's a pleasure of my life to help and to assist and to advise and so if there's any way that I can help, if some of this has resonated or if listeners have questions they’re welcome to reach out to me. LinkedIn's probably the easiest way to do that.
Kimberly:
We've heard that listeners, we can bother and badger Natalie on LinkedIn.
Natalie:
You may.
Dawn:
Alrighty. Well, thank you so much, Natalie. Thanks to the whole podcast team. Special shout out to Max Ono, our sound engineer and producer, voice acting coach, multiple trades there. Thank you for listening. Kiva is our amazing sponsor. They help students pay for tuition, women start businesses, farmers to invest in equipment, and families to afford their needed emergency medical care.
Kimberly:
On the next installment of Breaking The Glass Ceiling we will be exploring the life and career of Gabrielle Blackwell, a former Portland woman now back in her native Chicago. Her story involves a talented young woman leaving the city due to experience of extreme isolation. It's a story that needs to be heard and we're honored to help her share it. Thanks for listening.
Dawn:
Bye
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