Empowering Latinas in Tech: Yovana’s Journey from Layoff to Latina Leader in Tech

In this week's Episode of Inclusive Cyber, Join Yovana opens up about her transformative journey during the pandemic, losing her job, and finding solace and strength within her community. In this heartfelt video, Yovana delves deep into how community connections have been pivotal to her personal growth and mental health. As a passionate community manager, she shares her experiences within the Latina community, underscoring the urgent need for Latina representation in the ever-evolving fields of AI and technology.

Get ready to explore topics that matter: from overcoming gatekeeping and embracing vulnerability to the enriching power of face-to-face connections. Yovana takes us through her inspiring quest to forge a vibrant space for Latina women to thrive, network, and collaborate, stressing the significance of being intentional and patient on the road to success.

Dive into Yovana's first encounters with AI, her initial fears, and how she came to understand the critical role of cybersecurity, especially for small businesses in today’s digital age. Plus, don’t miss out on exciting insights from her podcast, 'Making Lieder Moves,' where each season breaks new ground, tackling diverse themes and promoting diversity of thought in corporate America.

This video is a must-watch for anyone looking to make meaningful impacts and embrace diverse perspectives in their professional and personal lives. Tune in and be inspired by Yovana’s journey of resilience, leadership, and empowerment.

SHOW NOTES:
Newsletter:
https://yovanarosales.substack.com/

AI Course Waitlist:
https://yovanarosales.podia.com/prompt-engineering

Podcast:
https://www.youtube.com/@makinglidermovespodcast1427

LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/yovanarosales/

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/ai.latina/

BOOKS

Chapters

• 0:00 IC Mission
• 1:02 Introductions
• 2:24 Background
• 10:59 Community Mentors
• 14:13 Gatekeeping within Our Own
• 15:32 Finding a Latina Community For Wellbeing
• 17:30 Latina Brilliance Summit
• 21:37 Honor the Sadness & Tragedy
• 22:41 Embrace Generative AI
• 25:23 Will Gen AI Take my Job?
• 27:10 GenAI and Cybersecurity
• 28:58 Recommendations for SMBs with GenAI & Cybersecurity
• 32:51 Making Lider Moves Podcast
• 37:02 How do we increae Diversity of Thought in the workplace?
• 39:45 Book Recommenations
• 43:05 Closing Remarks
• 44:22 Final Message for Latinas

Transcript

IC Mission
---

[00:00:00] IC Mission: Welcome to inclusive cyber your front row seat to understand how a diverse mix of voices is not just necessary, but essential to protect our most sensitive computer networks And personal data. I'm your host, Danny Magallanes, and through my podcast, we shine the spotlight on the heroes and trailblazers from every corner of society who are redefining the diversity, equity, and inclusion frontier. Every episode is a step towards a cyber community that's as varied as it is united, where everyone has the keys to unlock their potential. And the power to protect our digital world. Join us on this journey where every listen, every share, every dialogue inches us closer to this new reality. 


Introductions
---

[00:01:02] Danny: Yovana! Good morning. Welcome to the show. How are you doing this morning? 

[00:01:07] Yovana: Buenos dias everyone. Very good. Danny, thank you for having me on. I am Excited and just really, really ecstatic to be able to share whatever gems or nuggets of information and humbleness I can give to the audience. 

[00:01:22] Danny: Yeah. And we'll definitely get to that. And how we start off the show is how we initially met. I know I'm building up my community in Chicago and I'm kind of angry at them because they're always doing all these awesome community events to bring in Latinos, Latinas and tech and cyber. And I think we met through some LinkedIn posts and I'm partnering with Latinx digital leaders now, but I think we met through, um, through that community.

So it's really awesome to have you on the show. You have a unique story that as long as it resonates with one person, that's a success, even though this YouTube channel, it might not get to Mr. Beast numbers with. You know, they dropped one in one hour. He's got millions, but eventually we'll get there. We'll definitely get there. But with that being said, Yovana, can you just provide a quick background on who you are and what you've been doing these past couple of years? 


Background
---

[00:02:24] Yovana: Yeah, hopefully five minutes synopsis of who I am and how I came to be where I am today. I used to be in experiential marketing. So heavily in the trade show world would travel six to nine months out of the year, got very, very comfortable how to live out of the suitcase and how to pack efficiently.

I did that for 10 plus years of my life. And so that took up a very big chunk of my life. Then COVID happened and we were the first folks. Lose their jobs. I remember we actually got furloughed before the city itself had shut down. And so at that time I was like most Americans are, I believe that I was my job title and I was my compensation losing both simultaneously.

Without warning and without having a game plan took me into a very deep spiral very quickly because that's the only thing that I let validate me were those two things. It was very dark. It was a very grim time in my life. Additionally to us dealing with the whole COVID thing of the unknown, me losing five people with less than a year, losing two of those within 16 hours apart from one another.

The black hole became very, very black. And during that time I was doing scrolling on Instagram and I stopped upon this Instagram post that had said Latina entrepreneurs, a networking soiree, and I remember telling myself, well, so Latina, but I'm not an entrepreneur, I'll make it happen. Let's see what's up.

So ended up going. Some amazing women, some of them are still in my life. I just finished seeing my girlfriend Moira out in Orlando back in November. So we were able to celebrate Halloween together this year, which was pretty cool, or 2023, and she was the one who invited me to another Latina community.

She's like, you know what? I think you're going to really love this community. There's a lot of Latinas there. We're all kind of trying to find ourselves, you know, in this really. Yucky, murky, icky world right now. Took her up on the offer, ended up going, it's called the Mujerista. I believe they're 95, 000 followers on Instagram now and ended up falling in love with the community because all the Latinas that were there were from different aspects of life.

Some were corporate, some were entrepreneurs, some were trying to find themselves. I was one of those included. And It was a community that was safe enough to be vulnerable and speak things that we didn't realize were hindering us in our growth, in our healing, in our acceleration. And what I realized while I was in that community was what I was missing and why I was so dark and why I felt that it was such a depressive state for me was because I didn't have community.

I traveled six to nine months out of the year. So I really didn't get to see my friends. Even when I was here, I was so exhausted. Sometimes I wouldn't even tell my friends or some of my family members that I was home. Cause I w I wanted to sleep. I had to do my laundry. Like sometimes I would tell my mom, like, can you just cook for me?

I'm tired of trap food. So I didn't have community. But being in the presence with so many Latinas and us being brave enough to speak our truths, speak our worries, speak our desires, speak our first generation traumas was so healing and it was able to help me grow. It was also able to help me see I am so much more than my job title.

I am so much more than my compensation. I'm actually a human being. I'm not a human doing. And I think that's where we're all programmed to think is if you're not a human doing, who are you? Quien sos? Because the more you produce, the better you are. The more creative you are, the better leader you are. And sometimes it's okay to just breath delajarar. Be tranquila. And so during that community time, I showed up, would get feedback, would let them know, I love this. We need more of this. And there came an opportunity where the director, she approached me and said, you're a superstar community member. We have an opportunity for a community management position.

You would be great at it. I never thought about it because again, I was in the trade show industry for so long. I remember thinking, me? We sure about this? And she told me again, you're the one who shows up. You're the one who lets us know what's working, what needs to be implemented, what we need more of, what the community needs, what they desire, where they feel seen and heard the most.

Except this time you're just going to get paid for it. And I was like, you know what? Someone believes in me. They see something in me that maybe I don't see yet. Let's do it. Ended up being a great community manager there. Ended up making my own firm for community management and ended up leading other communities that were in the tech industry, that were in the wellness industry, and were in the nonprofit industry.

And then back in August of 2023, every other article that I started reading was, AI is going to take over your jobs. This is how AI is going to take over your jobs. Do you know AI yet? Because it's going to take over your job. And so no matter how much healing had taken place, that PTSD of, you're going to lose your job started coming into play and started the fear started going into my head and circling into my head.

And I would ask other Latin entrepreneurs, do you think AI is going to take over your job? How do you think it's going to take over our job? And so fear almost became panic by asking them. And the consensus that I thought was, I don't think so, but I don't know. And then the real question became, well, why don't we know?

And it's because we're not asked to be in those spaces. We're not asked to be programmers. We're not asked to be engineers. We're not asked to be designers. We're not even asked to be sampling and get the feedback within these. Large language models within other AI platforms that are out there. That's a real concern.

Finding out that only less than 1 percent of Latinas are in the AI industry, less than 3 percent are in the technology realm as a whole is a scary fact. And then I started realizing we will get so left behind if we don't start knowing how to use this technology and using this technology. So I took it upon myself to start taking courses, start learning.

I still had that fear within me, but reframed my thinking of it's okay to be fearful, but we still have to keep going. And so fear turned into curiosity, which turned into education, which now full circle, I go into. Either small businesses or mid scale businesses and teach folks how to use AI to leverage or leverage AI to scale their profession or how to scale their business.

And so what differentiates me than other people that are doing this is that I'm self taught. I'm self made. There are still some fears. I read different newsletters. I read four different newsletters every morning. And some of these statistics or some of these stories you hear, it's scary. But at the same time, if it's not going to be us, or if it's not going to be me, who shows my Latinx community in general, how to use this and benefit from.

It's not Sam. It's not Microsoft, right? It's not Google. It has to be one of us who comes in and does it. So acknowledging the fear, but still moving forward and creating curiosity has what helped me get to where I am today. 


Community Mentors
---

[00:10:59] Danny: So many great nuggets of information, Yovana, but we'll actually discuss them throughout this episode, but I want to start off with community.

And healing because I think building or being a part of a community. Is so important for our mental health that a lot of people don't really realize that if we don't have a community and it doesn't matter what background you're coming from, what country you're from, you don't have community. It's going to be really hard to function as a person in whatever society you find yourself in.

So I love the fact that you found community in a very low part of your life. Obviously through the pandemic, a very traumatic experience, not only here in the U. S., but globally and everybody individually. So I just love your resilience. And again, not to say that it was easy to be in those spaces, but you quickly recuperated and built that community.

And then everybody, you know, the leaders started seeing. Your light and your optimism to say, okay, there's something special in Yovana. So thank you for sharing that. So when you started that community or went into that community, can you describe, did you have mentors? Did you seek them out or was it just a well balanced, everybody was taking care of everybody?

[00:12:28] Yovana: I want to say everyone was taking care of everyone at that time. And it was so beautiful to see because. Community can accelerate all aspects of your life. And I think that's a piece that folks miss a lot of the time. And so within community, while being vulnerable, while sharing my story of losing five folks within less than a year, 16 hours to them apart from one another, right away, some of the people in my community, yes, I feel your pain.

I see you. I hear you. Here's a reference, here's a book, maybe here's a podcast. And so even though they might have not been able to do it in a professional form, they still sought out resources for me. So in essence, they were part of my healing because they were able to guide me to the resources and tools that were out there started talking about, Oh, I think I want to start making my own business and community.

Did you read this book? Did you hear about this coach? You should start following X, Y, and Z. They're great entrepreneurs. They share their journey on their platforms, resources, and. A lot of the times that you see in the Latinx community is a lot of gatekeeping, and we've kind of almost been programmed to be like that, the crap mentality.

I'm going to make it up top first, and then I'll see if I can help you. But the more you're vulnerable and the more you believe in your community, the more everyone can accelerate. So letting folks know what you're thinking of doing. They're not going to take that idea away. They're going to end up helping accelerate that vision that you have. 


Gatekeeping within Our Own
---

[00:14:13] Danny: It's interesting as you were saying that I thought just our community is so open to giving back and just from my personal experience. I've never seen the gatekeeping within the community. I've seen gatekeeping from other groups, but 

[00:14:28] Yovana: I think we're getting better at it now. I definitely saw gatekeeping when I was younger in corporate America.

[00:14:37] Danny: From, from the Latin X community. Okay. Now that's interesting. I appreciate you sharing that. But it makes sense that you're going to have communities, you're going to have individuals or groups that want to be at the top, whether it's power, fame, money, everything above, and just hoard that and not share the wealth.

Uh, I know it was a very traumatic experience outside of the community. Did you seek any mental health? As I'm doing this podcast, I'm talking to a lot of people that, hey, we need to take care of ourselves so we can have that best representation and do exceptional work, whatever that might be.

And then also my previous episode was somatic. Healing, uh, transformational self help coach. So did you do any of that or was just the community providing that as well? 


Finding a Latina Community For Wellbeing
---

[00:15:32] Yovana: So I ended up joining a community that was specifically for Latina women and their wellbeing, their spiritual wellbeing, which ended up being the best investment of my life.

Shout out to Angeli who is the founder of manifest house. If you're not part of it. Please be a part of it. She created this community for women of color and has all of her instructors be women of color. So we see ourselves. It is a very inclusive environment. We hear ourselves. We show up for ourselves.

And so having the yoga instructor look like you having the sound bold healing instructor. Sound like you having the cacao ceremony instructor give honor to your ancestors in native tongue is so transforming and so powerful and it touches your heart because it brings you back to who you were in the beginning.

I think we forget a lot about that when you get stuck in. Where my mentality was, I am my job title. I am my compensation. I am my job title. I have my compensation. I'm in this rat race to keep on climbing this corporate ladder. And when you take a step back and intentionally find. A community that represents who you are, game changer. And that starts showing in all the work that you do. 

[00:17:01] Danny: But a lot of people chase titles, they chase that money. And again, everybody has the reason to get money. So I really love that, that, that background. I wanted to kind of transition to the Latina brilliance Summit. So is that based on this community that you build or that you are a part of, or was it some other aspect that kind of introduced you to creating that summit?


Latina Brilliance Summit
---

[00:17:30] Yovana: The community that I had cultivated and created was all virtual because it was during the time of the pandemic. And even though I was stuck here in Chicago, I, you couldn't really go out. And then again, at that time, my grandmother had cancer. I was part time her caregiver. So I was just very, very cautious as to what I was doing at that time.

And so when things finally settled down, weren't as intensive, I realized it's time for me to grow my community here. If I'm going to be in Chicago, it's time for me to make in person connection because Virtual is amazing. I have great friendships out of it. I have had great opportunities out of it, but if I want to get un cafecito or un tecito, I should say, cause I don't drink coffee.

I don't have anyone that I can drink with in person. And that kind of sucks. I remember meeting my partner cause that's a partnership. Latina Brilliance. It's not just mine. I'm a co founder of it. I had met her a few years ago. I want to say maybe three years ago. And we knew we wanted to do something.

Within the community. We just didn't know what and our paths didn't cross for about three years and I ended up seeing her at one of her events that she had curated in September I was like, hey, I would love to do something with you. And then again a few months passed And when we finally made the intention of meeting, we both were at that stage in our life where she had built her community.

I had built a community and we said, let's forge these communities together. Let's shed light on two important topics that we don't speak of or that we don't really know about in our community. So there were some heavy topics that we hit within our summit. We talked about We talked about tech, we talked about microaggressions, not just from within our communities, we talked about microaggressions within the Latino community itself, and these were heavy topics.

So we also realized we need to bring in wellness if we're going to be hitting these heavy topics. So we started off with a sample healing and we ended up with somatic dancing and it was great. Everyone had an amazing time. We are in the talks of doing Latina brilliance 2. 0 in September. So that's where the birth came in.

And I think it came in at a time that really, really needed to be, because even though her and I had an idea and we knew we wanted to work together three years ago. It took us this long to finally plan, execute, launch, and be successful. We sold out our first summit within two weeks. We sold out all of our sponsorship slots within two weeks, but that didn't happen overnight.

That took three years in the making. It took the intentional groundwork. It took me being more of a leader, having more experience, my partner, whatever experience she had to go through. To be able to create this space for Latina women to be able to shine, connect. and create collaborations with one another.

[00:20:57] Danny: Just two points come to mind, Yovana, the intentionality. Some people might say they want to do X, Y, and Z, and they're just sitting back and then putting in an effort, right? Um, but here you're being intentional and it, the other component is patience. Success is not going to come overnight. I'm probably overgeneralizing me here, but the younger generation might think I want success like yesterday, but it takes a lot of hard work.

It takes up a strategic partners, whether that's with people, with companies. So I really admire everything and congratulate you on that success. 


Honor the Sadness & Tragedy
---

[00:21:37] Yovana: I just want to close out with the like mental and wellness stuff. There is resilience. Yes, there is perseverance. But it's also okay to just honor the sadness and honor the tragedy that you're going through.

I think we, as a society, try to rush that or ignore that or put that to a side. Grief, in my experience, will be a lifelong journey. There are days that I honor my ancestors and there are days where I mourn my ancestors still. And those days are very hard. And so we have to realize it's not black and white.

It's not X amount of days until you start feeling better. Grief is a wave that you will ride for the rest of your life. And that is okay. Honor that. And sit with it. It's okay. It's okay to ride waves. And not mask grief. What you are going through in life. 

[00:22:37] Danny: Thank you. That's a powerful statement there, Yovana. So thank you for sharing that. 


Embrace Generative AI 
---

[00:22:41] Yovana: Yeah. And speaking of sitting, we speak on the fear of AI and again, how it happened. It was just reading all of these articles. Seeing Forbes come out, the New York Times come out, Washington Post come out, and you start scrolling on Instagram or whatever platform, and then you start seeing AI all over the place.

That's when the fear really started kicking in. And then, like I had mentioned, just asking Latino entrepreneurs around me, and then telling myself, okay, it's either going to be the machine or me. It's one or the other, and in corporate America, Latinas only make 53 cents to a white man's dollar. That gap will only get wider if we are not using the same tools and resources that they have.

So, took it upon myself to get on Coursera, start taking courses, get on edX, Start taking courses. I had even signed up for a course at a community college. Couldn't handle it, had to drop out of it. And then that scared me even more. The negative talk started coming. You are a failure. You could not even, you couldn't even do three weeks.

What makes you think that you're going to be able to do this? But I realized that schooling wasn't my pace. That didn't work for my brain. I needed other types of education. , and that is okay too. So again, Coursera worked very well for me. edX worked very well for me. I think the self-paced courses were the ones that worked very well for me, right?

Because it was on my own time. I live with a chronic condition, so sometimes my brain doesn't work normally. My levels of serotonin, dopamine, estrogen, and just. They fluctuate. And so sometimes I'm doing really great. And then there's other times that I just have to take it back. So knowing that alone, being in a live class wouldn't help me, but being self paced would reading these articles now, not from a place of fear, but almost highlighting what words they were using the most and starting to Google those, and then just one day opening that chat GPT and saying, Let's see what this is all about.

And I did it on my own time. I would play around with it periodically and just grew from there. Right. Because again, of course, you're going to be scared of something that you don't know, and then you can only absorb so much knowledge, but if you're not actually putting the knowledge into practice. That you will never gain experience.


Will Gen AI Take my Job?
---

[00:25:23] Danny: I know you mentioned this before, you took that fear and channeled it into that curiosity aspect. I think that's a fantastic way to really dig deep, understand what these articles are talking about. One particular colleague was just ranting and raving about this. I'm like, ah, whatever. It's not going to be anything.

And yeah, the first time I got on chat GPT, it just blew my mind is just amazing. And now the technology is there. Advancing so fast. Those fears I think are still present. I do agree when people ask me, will AI generative AI take my job? So I'm like, maybe. If we sit back and let it run its course without doing what you did, jumping into, Hey, let me see what this is all about, then it will take your job.

But if you're knee deep understanding, not only its limitations, but its capabilities, then you're going to have a better understanding on how you can weave and build again, just the amazing avenue that you built for yourself, a career, In navigating AI, I guess for me, my biggest concern is minority, small businesses that do not have the funds or resources to really look at this because it's a game changer.

So my concern is more societal and holistic that the haves and have nots from a business perspective is just going to get wider when people come up to you and say, Hey, is AI going to take my job? But let's. frame it from an I. T. Specialist or somebody in cyber security? What do you tell them? 


GenAI and Cybersecurity 
---

[00:27:10] Yovana: Well, as we know, there has been a growth of 125 percent of cyber attacks that we have seen alone ever since A. I. Has seen. That's very scary and very dangerous. If, if we really start thinking about how many attacks have been happening, because we don't know how many of those attacks have actually been resolved, how many have been contained and how many have been able to be fully closed. Do we remember what happened at MGM and at Las Vegas?

Has that been contained? Has that been closed? Do we know? No one talks about it. So as much as AI is here and it will continue to be here, cybersecurity will be here and stay here. And it's, and it's almost a marriage. I feel the more AI you have, the more cybersecurity you have to have. As hyped as you are about AI, and I talk about this in my consulting all the time, it's As hyped as you are about AI and we can create systems for you to optimize your sales funnel, you also have to put in your budget what cybersecurity is going to look like.

Because as soon as you implement AI, there will be a lot more hackers coming in. And depending on what your business is, as a small business, whether that's lawyering, but realtors, this is pivotal information that these folks have from us. So it's not something that's in the wayside anymore. It's not something that you can think of in the background.

It's something that has to be imperative. If you're going to implement AI, you have to implement cybersecurity. It just goes hand in hand. 


Recommendations for SMBs with GenAI & Cybersecurity
---

[00:28:58] Danny: And then just to add to that, Yovana, there have been, at least for the past two years, a lot of layoffs in IT and cybersecurity. So that's going to compound the issue even more.

There's less defenders. I've been talking to dozens of people, so if you were not part of those layoffs and the person to the left and right of you were laid off, now these companies typically you use the phrase, you have to do more with less. At the end of the day, it's less with less. Right? Yeah. Um, but now.

To our early discussion and just about mental health, the person remaining there, they're going to be looking behind their back. Okay. Am I next, but now I have double or triple the work and now burnout and mental health to your point that I am my title. I am my salary. And that is how we define ourselves.

That just creates a bigger systemic issue or mental health issue in the I. T. And cyber security sector. So but everything that you mentioned about small businesses and cyber security. Yeah, they definitely need to step up. But I guess. How do we educate them? Typically the resources for small, medium sized businesses, they might not have the money to go to security conferences.

What recommendations would you give SMBs to beef up their security or at least just do the basic minimum. You don't have to spend millions like these big corporations do, but just doing the basics. How can we. Help them, uh, navigate that space. 

[00:30:41] Yovana: What I've been able to do personally, when I walk into these spaces is again, let them know, Hey, we're going to bill you this, you need cybersecurity.

Let me give you a list of folks that I know. Are within this expertise. I'm not an expert at cybersecurity. I don't even pretend to know that's a whole different beast. However, I'm starting to build a community within cybersecurity because I know how important and pivotal it is. If I'm going to create this service for a small business, I also need to bring in me, my cybersecurity for that community.

And start creating package deals. And this is where I go again to community, collaborate, collaboration, partnership. If I'm getting this, I'm going to make sure that you're also getting this. Or it's gotten to the point. Sometimes I was, I was actually talking to a cyber friend of mine. And I told them, you know what, I'm just going to create a package.

I'm going to price it at X amount, and it's going to include cybersecurity and it's going to include you. Now, the business thinks it's getting a two for one great deal, or it's getting an all inclusive deal and it is, but we're also not only being credible, we're holding our reputation. I'm not just coming in and showing you the cool gadgets and gizmos, almost shiny object syndrome.

You're also going to get what's needed in the backend. And so now working with the folks that were laid off. Who are starting to do more freelance work contract work or starting to build their own businesses within cyber security. These are the folks that I keep in my network. So I can create these packages, these 2 for 1 deals, these all inclusive deals, however you want to call it. But we're both getting paid at the end of the day. I 

[00:32:22] Danny: love that community and that collaboration, Yovana. There's a lot of guests in inclusive cyber that just are doing exactly what you described, whether corporate America pushed them out or it wasn't for them. They're creating their own companies, their own spaces and making an impact.

I wanted to Transition. Um, and I know we didn't talk about this right before hitting the record button, but I know we talked about this before. You are doing a podcast too. 


Making Lider Moves Podcast
---

[00:32:51] Yovana: Yeah, so I already have three seasons in and it's called Making Lider Moves, Lider is in Spanish, so L I D E R.

[00:33:00] Danny: Awesome, and what is the overall premise of that podcast and is it you with a co host? Is it you just playing? Primarily given information, or do you have guests on the show? 

[00:33:10] Yovana: Yeah. So the first season, I was a co founder for making me that moves. It was me and my partner, Paula Pinheiro at the time. And we were just normalizing topics that aren't normalized within the community.

Such as going to therapy, not being able to start your financial journey until your mid thirties. Because as a first generation child, you just don't know. Automatically give back to your family, whether they've asked for it or not. You just do how fat phobia starts within the community. And we don't talk about that kind of stuff.

Paulette after the first season ended up pivoting her business. And so she was going to do her own podcast and told me, no, not you stay with the podcast. You keep doing what you're doing. You're amazing. That's what bravery had to kick in because all of a sudden it's a one woman show. And it went great.

It went amazing. But March of 2023 is when I got diagnosed with my chronic condition called PMDD, premenstrual dysphoric disorder. And that's where, again, one to two weeks before my menstrual cycle, my estrogen levels, my serotonin and my dopamine levels drop, it's to the point where 38 percent of women who have PMDD have suicidal attempts.

Because that's how much they lack in serotonin as well as dopamine. So it's very severe. When I got diagnosed, it put a light bulb in my head, making me realize this whole time. I knew I was different and I knew that there was something different about me, but because of the medical industry and how it's set up, it's not set up for patients.

It's set up for capitalism game. Got neglected the help that I needed to for 20 years. And so this whole time I was always thinking there's something wrong with me. And then as soon as they gave me the diagnosis, it was like, Oh, I'm as normal as I can be considering I have this condition. And so being aware has helped out my life a lot.

I can tailor my business now to my needs, to how my body reacts to how my brain responds. And so. I realized how many more of us are out there who have this and don't know, or how many of us have been misdiagnosed with something that we don't have because of the fact that again, we're dismissed as women of color in the medical industry.

So season three became very personal to me and I had women entrepreneurs come that are thriving in their businesses. who deal with chronic condition. We had women with postpartum depression, women with PCOS, women who weren't diagnosed with autism until their late twenties, early thirties, and still kicking ass and taking names in their businesses.

And so realizing that we're not alone, this is all normal. Don't feel like you are alone. And if it's not you that has it. Your prima probably has it or your mom had it. And so now you can make them aware and let them know that there are other women out there that are within that same community. Season four, it's going to be on technology.

I don't know when that one's coming out. I'm busy working on some other stuff like the summit, like courses I'm building. Like the workshops I do for small businesses and I'm one person, even though with all this AI leverage that I use every day, it's still only one person, but season three was, it was very important to me to do with the intentionality of knowing you are not alone and you are not, you are. chronic condition or your disability. 


How do we increae Diversity of Thought in the workplace?
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[00:37:02] Danny: Yovana, thank you for, for sharing that personal story. I can only imagine how difficult it was. You mentioned the healthcare system who we can have a whole separate conversation about that for sure. I listened to one that was phenomenal and season one, but I like the different seasons, it takes a different theme or motifs.

One other thing I wanted to transition into. How do we increase the diversity of thoughts in the work that you do in corporate America? Because the way I define diversity of thought is bringing in people from diverse backgrounds, from different socioeconomic backgrounds. How do we increase that? Because I think at least I can only speak on, on cybersecurity.

The homogeneity of cybersecurity in the workforce, I think, is a part of the root cause on the MGMs, the UnitedHealthcare data breaches, because we're only looking at the problem one way, and we're not incorporating innovation into the solution. Perspectives on how to tackle in this case, cybersecurity challenges. So how do we bring that diversity of thoughts, um, into the limelight? 

[00:38:22] Yovana: I think being vocal about it. And unfortunately, when you are working in bigger corporations, not only do you have to be vocal about it, but you already have to come up with the solution. When you speak on this, they don't just want to, you know, hear the problem, you already need to not only have the solution, have the strategy for it and have the step by step process as to how this is going to happen.

I've seen it over and over again. They don't have the time there. They don't have the budget for it. But when you come in with the strategy, showing them step by step, coming in with the data, coming in with the analytics, because we all know corporate loves their data. So when you come in and speak us to why diversity is important, why inclusivity is important, why we just can't have one point of view, why this is actually a hindrance for the corporation and have data to back that up, that's when folks. Hopefully we'll start listening. 

[00:39:29] Danny: You're right when it comes to corporate America, they love their data and money, right? It's how 

[00:39:35] Yovana: it's the bottom line. They're always about the bottom line. If the numbers. If the data can show that the bottom line will increase, then they'll start lending in here.

I 


Book Recommenations
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[00:39:45] Danny: understand that. But thank you for your perspective on that. Yovana, this has been an amazing conversation and I wish we were in person so we can be drinking our Tecito or Cervecita. How I end this show, for me, it's all about this growth mindset. And these past couple of months, just been reading a lot and not only cybersecurity stuff, but just other genres. I'm in the middle of a book, new Mexican ghost stories, volume two. So just crazy outlandish, just things to get me out of my headspace when it comes to cybersecurity. So with that being said, what books have you recently read that you'd like to share with the audience? 

[00:40:31] Yovana: I really love. I don't know if any folks in your audience have heard of Arlen Hamilton, but she is a far away mentor of mine.

She was the first black queer woman who ended up creating her own venture capitalist firm. and when they have asked her, How do you cope with imposter syndrome or how do you deal with imposter syndrome? She made a very good point. And I always keep this in the back of my head before I hit a stage or do interviews like this.

She said, I don't have the time to be focused on imposter syndrome. I should not be the only black queer woman in this venture capitalist space. There has to be more of me. There has to be more of us. So the more I focus on that, the less energy I have to create strategies, to create the plans, to get my people into these seats, to get my people into these spaces.

And I sat back and thought, she's absolutely right. The more energy we spend, and again, acknowledge it, know that it's there. But try not to give it too much energy because your energy needs to be focused on other things. It needs to be focused on these partnerships, these DEI projects into place, finding the sources and the funds for your corporate leaders so you can start implementing this change.

That's where the energy needs to go, not why am I here? Should I even be here? We all trip in our sentences. We all fumble here and there. That doesn't mean that you stop going. That doesn't mean that you're not good enough. And so once I heard that, I thought, I love this. This is genius. I'm going to take with me because I am less than the 1%.

I am a Latina in an AI industry. If I really start thinking about it, that can get very scary. Uh, considering that I started, that I pivoted my career in my mid thirties. According to data, once you're past 35, you're old in the tech world. If I would have known that, what if I haven't even started? I don't know.

So because of Arlen Hamilton, she has this book called It's About Damn Time. That was a very impactful book for me. I actually ended up finishing it on the plane. And the woman next to me was like, I'm gonna take a photo of this book because you were reading it so quickly that I was, I literally asked myself, are you reading it or are you skimming it? And I was like, this is just a very powerful book. I 


Closing Remarks
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[00:43:05] Danny: love the trailblazing Aspect of that book. So I will make sure to put that in the show notes. So this has been a amazing conversation. You're doing amazing work. You're giving back to the community. You're understanding that we're not all perfect.

Right. But you're embracing that and acknowledging it with intentionality and say, Hey, it's okay. Well, we're not going to be perfect all the time, but we're going to do our best when it's time to step up and perform in the stage, if you will. And we're going to knock it out of the park. So that message definitely resonates with me.

I would love to continue this conversation. I need to go to Chicago at the end of the day. That's There's just a lot of amazing people there that I'm building community in Chicago and in Seattle and I need to do a better job here in my hometown of Denver, which I plan to do in the next coming months.

But gracias, this again, I know you're messaging. It's going to resonate with the audience. So thank you for being on the show and hopefully we can get you quickly back on, but I know you're doing a lot of great things. 


Final Message for Latinas
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[00:44:22] Yovana: Yeah. And I just, I want to leave folks with this, especially my Latina women. Once that imposter syndrome kicks in or once, if you're wondering, am I doing enough?

And just remember this statistic right here, Latinas and Hispanic women generate 175. 2 billion for the U. S. economy, which represents 6. 5 percent of women owned business revenue. So when they tell you you're not enough, when they tell you sos una gota en el mar, like no, you are the changing force. Your dollars do matter. Your voice speaks volumes. 172. 5 billion. It's a lot of money. It's a lot of impact 

[00:45:07] Danny: to force, uh, to be reckoned with. So, 

[00:45:12] Yovana: so keep that in your head. I am part of 1. 7, 2. 5 billion. I am. We need our listeners and your audience to know that they are a part of that billion too. It's just the empowerment part. You can create change and we're not talking about moving mountains here.

We're just talking about remembering who you are and being authentic to yourself. But yeah, Danny was great. I do have a lot of projects coming up. I'm ready for a nap, um, to keep the momentum going. But yes, a lot of great things. I have the newsletter. We can definitely put the newsletter out. I not only talk about AI updates, but I also talk about self care, mental health, and entrepreneurship.

So it's a curated newsletter. We hit those four different topics in the newsletter, and then. Creating AR courses for our community. We need to have examples that sound like us, examples that look like us. So launching those in June, you can find those off my website or even find them on LinkedIn. I'll be showing the top off of my LinkedIn.

So yeah, I'm here for community. If anyone has any questions, feel free to send me a message on LinkedIn. That's The platform I'm always on. 

[00:46:22] Danny: Love it. Yeah. I'll make sure to put everything on the show notes. And again, gracias, Yovana. 

[00:46:28] Yovana: Absolutely. Everyone take care.