Pioneering Perspectives

Building a STEMpire with Missy Lazo Aveytia

• Pioneers21 • Season 2 • Episode 9

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Welcome back to Pioneering Perspectives! In this episode of “Building a STEMpire,” we are joined by Missy Lazo Aveytia, Mechanical Engineer at Marathon, the Founder of SheCreates, and Business Owner of the Melissa Aveytia Insurance Agency LLC. Missy shares how the El Paso region is primed for aerospace innovation and why engineers with entrepreneurial vision are perfectly positioned to lead this transformation. From leveraging industry opportunities with companies like Virgin Galactic and Lockheed Martin to overcoming challenges in leadership and business, Missy’s insights offer a blueprint for engineers and founders ready to make an impact. 

Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, seasoned founder, or STEM enthusiast, this episode is packed with inspiration and actionable advice. Don’t miss it!   

Now available to watch on YouTube! Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-JEQB4ubFA 

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Music: ♪ Onion (Prod. by Lukrembo)
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGQNrzqrGqw 

SPEAKER_01

Howdy y'all, welcome back to another episode of the Pioneering Perspectives Podcast. I'm Michelle Kristen Tupps and I'm here with the program assistant and intern of Pioneers21, Destiny Caldera. We're your hosts for today's episode. In case y'all didn't know, Pioneers21 is one of the first and longest running incubators in the border region. Our mission is to inspire and incubate entrepreneurs and businesses through mentorship, training, and connection. In today's episode, we are joined by Missy Avetia, mechanical engineer at Marathon, the founder of She Creates, and business owner of the Melissa Avetia Insurance Agency. P21 admires the work that you've done, and we're so honored to feature you on our podcast. Hello, Missy. How are you doing today? I'm good. Thank you. Thank you for having me here. I'm very excited. We're honored to have you here, and we have a good conversation ahead of us. So let's go ahead and jump right into this episode. So, as someone who has transitioned from technical roles to leadership, to entrepreneurship, I've seen personally in the engineering field as a Utop engineering student, how it's difficult for those who focus on solely technical roles to transition to other roles. So, what's been the biggest shifts in mindset or skills required for you to succeed in these areas?

SPEAKER_00

So I think when we all start off in our careers, especially you're an engineering student, and I started off in engineering mechanical, when you go into your first job, you always start in a technical role. And I think that starts with everybody because that's where you gain all your skill sets. And that's you're barely new to the industry, you're new to the corporate job, or maybe you're going to start up your own your own company. But you start developing a skill set, and once you start mastering that skill set and you've been in that role for about a couple of years, then you can start looking into the leadership positions. Um so that was in my case. Once I mastered my skill set and I knew exactly how to do my job role proficiently, I wanted to go into the leadership role. And you can choose to stay in the technical role or go into the path of leadership. But I think as you continue on and you progress, you have to kind of choose which role you want to go into. Um so mine was in the leadership role. And when you're in a leadership role, your mindset kind of changes because you're not only doing your job, but you're kind of managing other people. And then that's a big shift because you have to take care of other employees, make sure they're happy, answer their questions, and that's where your skill set comes in because they're going to be coming to you for questions. So you kind of have to know those answers or how to navigate your way to find a solution for them. And as far as going into the business field, um, that's something that's very different from going from technical to leadership, because then you're going away from corporate. And that's something that you have to keep in mind is you're not working for corporate no more, especially when you start. You're not receiving that steady check. And that's something that's really hard when you're first opening a business because you're receiving that steady check, you're used to that steady income. And once you start opening up your business, it's like, okay, you're investing your own money in here. How am I going to make it profitable? Because this is my own money. I can't let this fail. And I think your mindset changes. And if you believe in what you want to do and your mission and you believe in your business margins and your profits that everything's going to work out correctly, you actually work a thousand times harder than you were before because you don't want to see it fail. You don't want to see the money that you're investing in that go down the drain. And so everything kind of changes, but you adapt to the different environments. But everything that you learned from the technical role to the leadership, it all helps you go into the entrepreneurship. And everything just kind of combines together and you end up succeeding in what you do if you truly believe in it and you work really hard.

SPEAKER_01

I love how you bring up the point on um leadership when like you have to, you know, grab those soft skills that you end up learning on the field. And even like during college, I've been able to gain a little bit of those soft skills, even through studying like such a technical role, like when it comes to engineering. And uh, I've been able to see like how I could transition that into entrepreneurship working here at Pioneers 21, learning a lot of the entrepreneurship skills, business skills, um, learning the business model and applying what I've learned to college and to here and seeing how I could translate that to the real world. And drawing from your path as both an engineer and an entrepreneur, what do you see as the biggest opportunities and challenges for engineers aiming to launch a tech startup or an innovative solution to the market?

SPEAKER_00

As far as opportunities, especially here in the El Paso region, I think it's a great opportunity for those who want to do a tech startup, especially in the aerospace industry. Um, I think it's really booming right now. We have lots of aerospace industries surrounding us, although we seem like we're far from the bigger cities like Dallas and San Antonio, but you have Virgin Galactic, you have Blue Origin, you have Raytheon, you have Lockheed Martin, all in the surrounding areas. You also have the New Mexico and Texas Space Coalition, which really is aiming for the space industry and for commercial space. So that's a really great opportunity for those who want to do a tech startup to really focus on that, especially here in the El Paso region. Um there's lots of hubs that are also working on profiting for that and helping people who want to work on the industry industry for the space.

SPEAKER_01

And could you tell me a little bit more about your time at Lockheed Morning? Because you were an engineer there, right? I'd love to hear a little more about that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so I started off that as my first job back in 2016. I was a manufacturing engineer. And when I went there, I was in Fort Worth. I started off on the flight line. Um, and then from there, I was there for about two, three years. Um, I was also in the aircraft final finishes. So my job as a manufacturing engineer was really to help come up with innovative solutions that would help reduce the costs of the F-35 because it does cost a lot, but you would see at the manufacturing process and figure out how can I reduce time? Whether it's an operator or a machinist that's working on a specific part for the aircraft, can you develop a tool that will help reduce the cost or the time and the efficiency that it makes to develop it? Um, so we would just come up with different solutions. I was part of a program called uh mold in place, which was a robot that would put on the aircraft and then you would inject um like a sealant and a paint into the to that mold and it would adhere to their aircraft. And so it would make it the exact thickness that it had to be. And so that was one of my biggest projects working there at Lackey Martin for the aircraft final finishes. Um, I did get awarded for that during my first year, so which was really cool. And I think um working there at Lockheed Martin, as long as you really show that you know what you're doing, you work hard and you're always asking for work, you're never afraid to just sit at your desk, you're up there on the floor, on the manufacturing floor, and you're trying to figure out innovative solutions, you can really get noticed. And I think that's how I got my first promotion there. And then from there, I wanted to come back home because I am from El Paso. Um, so I found a position out in White Sun's Missile Range. So I got a position as a missile systems test engineer where we would test um parts for the PAC-3 missile, and so we would go out in the middle of the desert and put in certain components and we would test these missiles. So they would go up in the air and it'd be an intercepting missile, and so it would go off. And so that was there for about another three years. And so my time at Lockheed Martin total was about five years at Lockheed Martin, and I think it was a great experience there, and I really recommend it to anybody who's really looking into getting to engineering.

SPEAKER_02

So, as someone who's also an engineering major and minoring in business, I've taken a few business classes, so I've gotten to see a little more of their learning style and how to communicate with business students. I wanted to know how interdisciplinary um collaborations and chat can be challenging, like for you as an engineer, but also owning your other businesses. Like, how is it working with people from different industries and trying to complete these engineering projects?

SPEAKER_00

So, when you're completing an engineering project, sometimes you're working on two million dollar projects and you're the project lead on it, you're the project manager. Um, you can't really complete it on your own. You have to take charge of it. But in order to do that, you have to talk with all the other disciplines, whether it's um industrial engineer, mechanical engineer, and not only that, but supply chain, the construction group. You're working with so many departments. You also have the other parts where you're ordering material from, so you have to get quotes from them. You have to make sure that the material and the components that you're ordering are per the specifications. So you're working with, I mean, a group, a diverse group of people. And I think there's not a really good way to, in my experience, that I learned how to talk with all these different fields. I think you just learn and you adapt to it. Um, and sometimes you go in there and you just don't know exactly what they do. And you you say, Well, I'm trying to look for this part, but I really don't have any knowledge in it because you're not going to know everything when you go into the field. And so it's okay to go in there and ask them, can you explain it more? Because they specialize in that. And you specialize in your own subject and they specialize in their own, and that's how you kind of learn from each other. And so you just once you start going into those fields, you learn from other people. They teach you, and it's okay to feel like you don't know everything because that's how it always is. You don't know everything, you'll always start off in that position. But once you start gaining more knowledge, you'll feel more comfortable. Um, but at the end, once you're that project manager for that $2 million project, everybody's still gonna look up to you. And they're not gonna know whether you knew everything or not, but they're gonna see did you get everybody together? Did you collaborate with everybody? Or did you work as a team player? Were you the lead on the project? And did you complete it on time? Um, and it can be difficult because you have other things that you're working on, and you're not gonna only have this one project, and this could be in the corporate world, right? You have this one project, we can have 10 other projects on the side of it. And in my case, I have this one project with other 10 projects that I'm working over here, but then I also have um the nonprofit where I'm working with other nonprofits, and they're different people, they're different cultures, they're different backgrounds, different experiences, and it's such a diverse field, and you just learn to adapt and speak with everybody in different ways because people have different needs and you're looking for different um different goals. And so I think the best way is to just always ask for help in areas where you don't know what you're doing, and at the end, everything will come out pretty good.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I think it's great that you say that to ask for help because a lot of the times it can be intimidating as we're starting out, even in at UTEP right now. It's intimidating to ask for help, but it's very helpful. So, kind of shifting gears now, um, there's a lot of great innovations. I know we at Pioneers 21 we talk about AI a lot. So I'm curious about your perspective on a particular engineering innovation that excites you the most and that you think could transform the industry of engineering.

SPEAKER_00

AI is really um big right now. I think everybody is definitely talking about that right now. Um, but one of the innovations or programs that I'm really excited about was one that was briefly talked about in the Women's STEM conference, which is the Artemis program. Um, so the Artemis program is where they're getting ready to send humans back to the moon. Um, so Artemis II is about to launch in 2025, and that's gonna be a manned crew where there's gonna be a 10-day flight system, and they're gonna go around the moon and get more knowledge and really to understand how much more we can do for deep space exploration. And in 2026, it's targeted for the Artemis III program, where we're gonna actually land on the moon. And this is something that just really excites me because this hasn't been done for nearly half a century since the Apollo missions. And so I think going on there, getting samples from the moon, or really understanding more about the deep space exploration will really help us understand what we're really aiming for. And if that is really successful, that kind of shows more of what people are wanting to do, which is landing then not just on the moon, but landing on Mars. And can we even do that? And so I think it's a really good innovation, especially with the type of space shuttles that they've created for that.

SPEAKER_01

I love that you bring up the Women's STEM conference from She Creates, which actually leads perfectly into my next question. So you've been able to combine both engineering and entrepreneurship in such unique ways, and I want to know what pivotal moments led you to beacon She Creates and to found She Creates from these two very different worlds, and how that has been able to refine your purpose.

SPEAKER_00

So I think it all started um back in 2018, 2017. I had this idea of creating a nonprofit. So I've wanted to do it for a very long time, and that was probably two years after I graduated, because I think it just combines all of the characteristics that I have in myself is I love engineering. I've always loved volunteering. Um, anytime when I was in high school or in college, I would love to go volunteer, I would love to go tutor, and I love creating little designs. So all these things put together, I thought, well, why can't I just put enough profit together and give back? Because that's what I like to do. Um, but I never did it because I never knew how to do it. And I was always just so scared, like, it's not gonna work, it's gonna fail. How do I do it? I'm working a full-time job, but then I want to do this. Will this even bring me profit? I it was just something that was always there, and I would come up with ideas of a STEM kit for kids, and I came up with the prototypes, and I just never went for it, ever, ever, ever. And then fast forward to 2023, 2022, um when I gave birth to my daughter and I was in maternity leave, and this energy in me just came out and said, you know what? Let's just do this, let's fulfill it. Um, this is something I've always wanted to do. So I started the nonprofit, got all the paperwork done, got people to be um part of the board members, told them my mission, told them what I was looking for. And from there is when I just started and I created a business model and I thought, well, what's the worst that can happen? I wanted to do this five years ago. I never did it. If I don't do it now, I'm gonna say this five more years from now. Hey, I should have done this five years ago. Um, so if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. At least I tried, you know, but there's nothing to be scared of because it wasn't gonna happen in the first place if I don't try. So putting all these together is really what led me to open sheet creates. And I really wanted to create a foundation for women, for girls in the engineering industry, because engineering is really what I like and I love giving back. And so all of this combined into just the mission that it stands for.

SPEAKER_02

And I'd love to hear more about your long-term vision for Sheet Creates and the impact you hoped it will have for the next generation of women in STEM. I know for me, I first heard about it when you had your first annual conference. Um, I wish I could have gone. I know Michelle went to that. Um, but yeah, I would just love to hear your long-term vision for that.

SPEAKER_00

Of course. So we will have another one next year. Want to do it annually and we want to do um more events. It's been a little bit slow because I bit do work my corporate job and then I do work this nonprofit, and then I also have the insurance engineer. So it's everything is just um you put time into where you can, and not everything is always gonna be 100%. Some days it's 20% on the nonprofit, other days it's 50%. Um, but uh in the long run, I would really like to focus on this full full term for a long time and eventually move into this um as my full-time job because I really do believe in this. But I would really, especially here in the Paso region, the the reason that I started this conference is because when I used to work in Dallas and there used to be these conferences where all these companies would go, they would provide these tools and these conferences and these keynote speakers to all these women, and it was filled with thousands and thousands of people there. And you can go and get more job opportunities. And I thought, why is there nothing like that here in El Paso? Of course, the conference that I did have was very small compared to those other conferences, but I would have it or love to have it grow to be that big where we have name brand companies coming here, where it's a hiring event and thousands of people come here. Um, because especially you have you may not have as many companies here, but you do have it in the surrounding areas. And I think the El Paso people, um, we feel like there's nothing here for us. So we always tend to leave El Paso for a job, or we try to go out somewhere else to get those resources because may they maybe they may be provided in the bigger cities. But I want to provide those resources here. I want to be able to show that El Paso does have that. Um, so in the coming years, I hope it does get bigger and only better. That's the only thing that can we can shoot for. Um, but 10 years from now, I would love to see that this um nonprofit growth chapters in other cities. I would really love to expand the message to other cities in Texas.

SPEAKER_01

That's wonderful. And I remember personally going to the conference and walking out feeling inspired and feeling, you know, encouraged to pursue engineering as a woman and to, you know, also dabble in other endeavors. Uh, and one piece that stayed with me was how all the speakers collectively said that you should find a mentor, whether that's something formally or whether, you know, like you listen to someone's advice and it just kind of happens naturally. And one thing I would love to learn is how the role of mentorship has played in your career, and if those mentors have been able to open doors for you professionally in your career.

SPEAKER_00

So I started off at Lockheed, and I remember going to a meeting, and it was a bunch of new new hires, and it was a quarterly meeting. And I remember Kelly DeFazio was speaking. Um, she was the director there for the F-35 program, and she talked specifically about getting a mentor. And I never thought about getting a mentor during college. It was never really mentioned at that time until I really went into the field. And she said, get a mentor because a mentor is going to help you. It's going to be able to direct you in ways that you don't have the answers to, or maybe you need those answers to, because you're out there alone and you're starting in a new city, you don't know what to do, you don't know the direction. Um, but there's other people that will know more than you that have been in your position and have failed and learn from those mistakes so they can help you gain um positive experiences from that. So I thought, why can't she be my mentor? You know, I don't have to choose anybody else. I think she's a great role model. What's what's the worst that can happen if I ask her and she says, no, I'm too busy. I said, okay. So I sent her an email and I felt inspired by her speech, and she's agreed to be my mentor. So I met with her about every two weeks, two to three weeks. And every single time I would bring up a paper and just say, Okay, these are these are my roadblocks here. What can I do to go around them? Or what can I do to be better in my job and to excel? And it was always her her goal for me was to gain as much um experience from her and really get the correct knowledge to set me on the right path. Um, because she would tell me, okay, what's your three-year plan? What's your five-year plan? Or what's your one-year plan? Where do you want to be one year from now? Really look out there and see what you want to do a year from now and five years from now. And I don't know if you remember in the conference, she asked, have you worked on your five-year plan? Um, and so it's really important because you really want to envision where do I want to be five years from now and ten years from now? You want to be a successful person, you want to be a business owner, you want to work for corporate. Um, and so with that, she gave me a lot of great feedback, a lot of great helpful resources. And I was able to really excel in my job and I think choose the right decisions that helped me get um two promotions within three years. So I was able to get to a level three engineer, um, which typically to get to a level three engineer in Lockheed Martin, you have to spend at least two to three years each year. And I was able to really excel that. And every year I got a promotion without really applying. For any type of job. And I think it was really just her giving me those good um feedback, those good resources, and directing me in that path forward. Um, fast forward once I left Lockheed Martin and I opened up this conference, I thought who could be the keynote speaker, I reached out to her again, and just knowing those people, knowing those mentors, because they're not only going to be mentors, but they're gonna be people that you can rely on at any time. And sure enough, she did. She was easily, you know, accepted the offer and she wanted to come on board. And she, without any hesitation, she decided to come to the conference. Um, so it does open doors because I've even asked her for other advice, other feedback, other avenues to help me with the nonprofit. And right away, she gets on her phone and she gets those contacts that she knows. And so just having a mentor not only helps you with your career, but things outside of your career if you're doing other ventures. And that not only goes for mentors, but I think that goes for any person that you meet. Um, never burn a bridge with anybody, always be in good hands with everybody. Um, stay connected with people because you never know when you might need them or they might need you.

SPEAKER_01

And I remember um her giving the five-year plan. And I remember like the day but the day after I started like working on my five-year plan, I was like, okay, where do I see myself? What accomplishments do I want to have? And that was also something that uh I remember impacted me at the conference.

SPEAKER_02

That's also great to hear because ever since I've been working here at Pioneers21, I've really understood the importance of mentorship and making these connections with, I don't know, even if they're not in the same field, you know, like the industry that you are, I think is very important and something really good that I've learned while being here. Changing the topic a little bit. So it's exciting to like imagine what the future holds for mechanical engineering or engineering in general. Um, if you could time travel, I don't know, let's say like 30 years, um, what would you love to see as a new normal as far as sustainability and innovation in engineering?

SPEAKER_00

Well, I think as far as with the aerospace industry, um, 30 years from now, and let's say in 2050, something that they're really aiming for is the net zero carbon emissions. Um, so lots of companies are currently going towards that for a more eco-friendly environment. And so I would love to see that really happen. Um, they're working on new propulsion systems and electric systems so that really we don't have to use as much the fossil fuel resources. Um, that is something that I think we're still going to use, but I think it is a good thing that we can at least try and see if we can make it a more eco-friendly environment. Um, so since the space industry and the aero defense industry is looking towards that towards 2050, I would really like to see that be accomplished.

SPEAKER_02

That's great to hear. So finally, since I'm barely starting on my mechanical, I'm about to graduate with my mechanical engineering degree. I'm starting to think like what legacy can I leave as a mechanical engineer, as a woman in STEM. So I wanted to know what long-term impact um you hope to have with the engineering community. I know you have she creates as we discussed, and especially just for the future generations of women in STEM.

SPEAKER_00

I think um something that I just want to leave behind is just for people to when they see the words she creates or see my name, that they feel empowered and they left out of a conference or out of a meeting or out of a conversation, really inspired and empowered to continue that. Um, whether it was in engineering or any other type of discipline that they want to be in. Um, I think it's really hard sometimes when when we're in school and we don't really know what path to take, and it feels really hard because we're thinking the real world's gonna real world is gonna come and am I gonna be able to do it? Or is this something that I really want to do? I think just always remember why did you get into engineering and go forward from there? Do what you love, um, create the world that you want to live in, create your dreams. Um, don't feel really that you're uptight and you have to do this specifically. Um, as in my case, I wanted to do so many other things besides engineering. So I wanted to create that. I wanted to really create something that makes me happy. So create anything in your life that makes you happy. Um, especially remember why you went into engineering in your case, and in your case, you both are studying engineering and focus on what makes you happy. So choose a job or create that job for yourself.

SPEAKER_01

I definitely uh what's five-year plan that I made. I made sure that that was like one of my focuses. Pick a career that I'm happy in, whether that's engineering, whether that happens to be, you know, like a job that I have down the line in 10 years. And this has been a great conversation. I've loved speaking with you and, you know, getting to learn you better. And I know definitely our listeners are gonna love to hear what you have to say. So thank you so much. It's definitely been an honor. I see you as the you know the embodiment of someone who could do it all, especially with the three positions that you currently hold and you know being a mother. And it's been inspirational and powerful to have you here. So thank you. Thank you for coming on this podcast. Thank you for your time.

SPEAKER_00

I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.