Women in Tech: Tech Careers & Flexibility

🌟 Live from Meet Magento Florida! 🌟 

Join us as Nicole Donnelly interviews Thien-Lan Weber, a seasoned e-commerce leader. 

Discover Thien-Lan's outlook on empowering women in tech, the importance of male allies, how to overcome imposter syndrome, and practical tips for building confidence. Plus, learn why a tech career offers surprising flexibility and work-life balance advantages!

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Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00)
You're listening to the e-commerce edition of Hello Moxie. In each episode, we speak with leaders in the e-commerce industry on promoting diversity in the tech sector, the latest e-commerce trends and how B2B brands can innovate through e-commerce. Hello Moxie is sponsored by DMG Digital, a woman owned marketing consultancy dedicated to helping B2B companies create exceptional experiences.

Speaker 2 (00:02)
with Nicole.

customer

Speaker 1 (00:25)
Hello and welcome back. am so excited. I have been waiting to interview Thien-Lan since last night, all day, even before I came to this conference. I was like, I want to interview her. So thank you so much for coming on the show. First of all, love to have you choose your team. Oh, yes. Do you need some positive energy? Do you need some stress relief? What's your mood today?

Speaker 2 (00:47)
Maybe, yeah, energy would be great because there's an after party.

Speaker 1 (00:54)
After party is so great. It's poolside. It's got Robbie does a fantastic job by the pool. It's amazing. So, Thien-Lan how are you doing? What's new with you? What's what's lighting you up lately? What are you most excited about the conference or just in general? What are you excited about?

Speaker 2 (01:12)
Yeah, I'm very excited about this conference. My first time was last year. Same! Yeah. And I just love the venue, the weather. It has that imagined feel.

Speaker 1 (01:25)
That's what I've heard. I've never been to Imagine, but I've heard that's the case.

Speaker 2 (01:28)
And our fathers are very happy, they get lots of leads, lots of merchants are here, lots of case studies. So yeah, very happy about this event and to be back.

Speaker 1 (01:39)
Yeah, it's always great to come to Florida in the middle of February, right? Escape the cold. So tell our listeners a little bit about who you are and tell us about Huba. Huba is such an exciting, wonderful, innovative product. Tell us about what you're doing and about you and your life. I know you have some really cool hobbies. She's a fantastic musician, by the way. Spoiler alert. yeah, tell our listeners about you.

Speaker 2 (02:00)
Yes,

I'm Thein-Lan Weber and I'm French born Vietnamese. I've been working for 25 years already in lots of different countries and markets. yeah, I was born and bred in Paris and then I moved to Australia, moved back to Europe, spent some time in Switzerland, in Norway and now back in France on the south coast. Similar way that you hear, so that's pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (02:29)
Beautiful,

yes.

Speaker 2 (02:31)
I've been in the Magento community since 2016 and before that I was already in e-commerce, worked for eBay and PayPal in Australia and before that I had seven years more in offline, retail and consumer goods. So yeah, I kind of understand the challenges of brand manufacturers and retailers.

Speaker 1 (02:58)
absolutely

such deep experience that you have in e-commerce and in the tech space. And I'd love to hear from you as a woman in this space, it can be very male dominated, right? In e-commerce and in tech. What advice would you give to women who may be considering a career in e-commerce? Or maybe not even considering a career.

Speaker 2 (03:18)
Exactly, so that's my point.

So, yeah, I'm mentoring a couple of teenage girls. So basically, a lot of my friends have teenage girls and they are looking at career options. A lot of them are attracted by fashion, cosmetics. And I used to work in fashion and cosmetics. And let me tell you, the culture is not as friendly, collaborative or inclusive. Interesting. And so what I tell them is that you will feel very comfortable and you'll have a lot of flexibility.

if you work in e-commerce. So some they love organizing events and they want to organize in the music festivals and so on but it's a very harsh industry and it's really draining and I said you could organize events like in e-commerce so you know work for a payment provider and do amazing booths at NRF and you feel more rewarded because the company cultures in tech is a lot more what you call that.

work-life balance is more important. It allows flexibility, mental health. They're more progressive.

Speaker 1 (04:26)
interesting. Isn't that interesting? That's what I've heard from several women is that in the tech space there is so much flexibility, which is women is so, important because this idea of a nine to five is pretty antiquated, you know, industrial revolution. like, I love that in the tech space, women do have a lot of flexibility to work remotely, work, you know, modified hours and all of that is so, special. And I think that's such a really innovative way to kind of like teach these younger women that look, when you think about being in the tech space,

there's not just one pathway. It doesn't mean that you necessarily need to be a developer. Right? Yes. There's a lot of other job opportunities that you can pursue that may be more in line with what your natural talents or gifts are that you can consider. So think that's really cool. Yeah. So I'd love to learn more too about, you know, men being allies in the tech space. You know, I've heard some wonderful stories and I've experienced personally men in this, especially in this Magento community, really stepping up and doing wonderful things to support

So I'd love to hear if you have advice or stories of experiences where men have been allies and then what challenges do you think are still present that we should be thinking about or that men should be thinking about.

Speaker 2 (05:41)
So I'll be very cheesy and my biggest ally is my husband. So he cooks, he does the laundry, he looks after the

Speaker 1 (05:46)
love that.

Speaker 2 (05:51)
Yeah, so when I'm away for a week, it's easy for him. He does everything and I don't feel guilty at all. And he's checking in, are you having fun and how's it going? When he goes, I'm like struggling. I'm like, I have to do the school runs because he does those. So when we are both at home, he does the school runs and he does most of the things. And when he's not there, I'm like, I have to do all that.

Speaker 1 (06:14)
He cooks, he

does the laundry, and he does the school runs. And you don't feel guilty. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (06:21)
So yeah, so he's been supporting me a lot and yeah that helps

Speaker 1 (06:26)
tremendously.

Yeah, when you have a good partner to support you in that way, it makes such a huge difference. I can relate to that. My husband is the same. He does the laundry and he's so great. He gets up in the morning and helps get the kids ready to and it's just such a great support. And even like he checks in with me, how are you doing? Hope you're having a great time. How did the workshop go? He's just so supportive and wants to see me shine and I'm sure your husband is the same. So I think that's great advice.

just any opportunity men, if you have wives, what can you do to support them with some of the like manual labor, the caretaking and those kinds of things.

Speaker 2 (07:04)
So I have a funny story. I'm organizing an agency dinner in Berlin, in Germany. And there was one lady who I wanted to invite.

and she's a magenta master and so on. And so I asked, so first I asked the agency owner and he couldn't make it. I said, can we invite her? And he said, you know, she's got a young child and I'm not sure it will be possible. And I said, maybe her husband could babysit. And then he said, I'll ask her. And next thing was her emailing saying, yeah, my husband gave me the green light, I'm coming.

Speaker 1 (07:37)
Love that.

Speaker 2 (07:39)
So yeah,

as a man don't assume and just make it happen and encourage husbands to help.

Speaker 1 (07:46)
Yes, that's how change happens. very cool. I love that. Do you see like being in the space, what are the challenges that are still present that you think like needs to change or that you think would be important for women to focus on, just men to focus on? What do you think is there that's still kind of a barrier?

Speaker 2 (08:04)
So what

we spoke about yesterday at a Women in E-commerce event was a lack of confidence. So it's not so much the men, it's the women themselves. They their worst enemy and they're like, I'm not going on stage. I'm not good enough, blah, blah, blah. And so we need to help that. We hear a lot about imposter syndrome. within my team, we've been trying to combat that.

So one of the tips is we run the Clifton Strengths Finder.

Speaker 1 (08:40)
Yes, I love that. What are your strengths finder? want to know yours. Okay, I'm gonna guess strategic.

Speaker 2 (08:47)
Not in the top five.

Speaker 1 (08:49)
Not in the top five. Okay, achiever.

Speaker 2 (08:52)
That would be the rest of the team. Not my age.

Speaker 1 (08:56)
man, analytical. Is that one of them? Shoot, I'm failing.

Speaker 2 (09:02)
More superficial than that.

Speaker 1 (09:04)
Positivity.

Yeah Okay, so positivity what else okay, no, I don't

Speaker 2 (09:10)
Communication. Woo.

And then my last two changed. So I've been doing this maybe three times. And now it's more Maximizer and Learner. But it used to be, so in the beginning of my career it was more Activator and Arranger. And after I had kids it was more Harmony. yeah, kind of changes.

Speaker 1 (09:37)
little bit.

Beautiful,

beautiful. So I love that. just for listeners on the Strengths Finder is a gallop, right? It's a gallop tool. It's a kind of a survey that you take that helps you identify what are your five core strengths. So rather than focusing on building your, know, building, strengthening your weaknesses, the concept is how can you identify what your strengths are and really lean into those. And so through this tool, can identify your top five strengths. And so you were saying that you have

the women on your team take this and what if you know it's taking everyone takes

Speaker 2 (10:10)
Everyone.

And so what's very interesting is that those strengths, natural abilities you were born with. Yeah.

So for example, positivity is when you see the glass half full and not half empty. And I thought everyone was like that. And then I realized, not everyone is like that. But you know, it's so easy for me. And then then you read that, it motivates everyone. And you come and you say hello and so on. And like, that's what I do. Like, it's what people do. And you realize, no, so everyone has those strengths that they were born with that they do naturally without even knowing it and without, you know, spending energy. They gain energy by doing that.

And so by knowing that those are strengths, you gain confidence. Because it's not something you acquired, not something you learned. You were born with this. So you never lose them. So based on that, men, women can build confidence and then build on that in their roles.

I love that. And also understand that some things they're not very good at, so some are introverts, they don't like to go to events and speak to people. That's fine, I'm here to do that. Sana is here to do that. Exactly. But then you are analytical or you have input which is like collecting lots of things. Why don't you help us do benchmarks? Yes. You know?

Speaker 1 (11:26)
So, so true. have someone I work on the team with, she's fantastic. She's like the yin to my yang. Everything I suck at, she's fantastic at. Like operations, getting the details done. I start a project and she just finishes it and she like knocks it out of the park, right? That's perfect. And it's so important to have those complementary skills when you're working on a team. And what a beautiful way to really help the women on your team also gain that confidence so that they can feel comfortable to speak up. Because imposter syndrome, you're right. And I will tell you, I was literally just talking to Paul about

this literally before you came over. was like, I will go up to the women and ask them to come be on the podcast and they shrink and they hesitate and they don't want to do it. But I will ask the men and without they don't even hesitate and they come and they sit and they're fine to do it. I think to myself, the women that I ask, I'm asking them because I know that they are deeply competent and I've seen them, you know, and I know that they have so much value to offer. And so I think that's really important. Like you mentioned that sometimes we're our own worst enemy as women. And so it's important for

us to see the possibilities and have the confidence to just step in. So that's really wonderful advice. We just need more women speaking up, right? We just do. So I would love to know, okay, who is a woman in history that you love that's really inspired you?

Speaker 2 (12:43)
So yeah, to be honest, I didn't really have any. But you asked the question and I prepared because that's the type of person I am. And so I thought, maybe Sheryl Sandberg is one. So she's not in history, history, but she's in tech history. And I feel that, yeah, she's very confident. She doesn't have that imposter syndrome. She's a more senior person with a lot of corporate experience.

stepping into Facebook so I started with a lot of potential so that's how I feel I am with Huva right now and also yeah she uses that confidence to help other women so yeah and then she also shared a lot of vulnerabilities and all the yeah like live events that happened to her and Plan B and so on but yeah I really admire her and

Speaker 1 (13:29)
I love

Yeah, and I can see lot of similarities to her path and your path. Like you in many ways have really shined and excelled in the corporate world the way that she has, which is incredible. such a, you know, we've talked about a lot. If you can see it, you can be it. And I think you really represent that very, very well. Like you're such a leader in the Magento community. You know, I've seen across the board how much respect everyone has for you and the work that you're doing. And it's really, really cool.

Speaker 2 (14:05)
That's other thing, women can't take compliments, right?

Speaker 1 (14:08)
You

That's true. But anyway, I just had to say like, I've noticed that how respected you are. And I think it's so great for other women to see that in you, you know, because they can stand on your shoulders, you know, on people on your team. So thank you. Thanks. a wonderful role model. And what are your five strengths again? Let's see. You said positivity and woo, which we both share. I'm like so jazz that I share two strengths with you. That's like lights my whole line, like all lit up by that. And then maximizer, you said learner and maximizer. And then the other one was, it?

Speaker 2 (14:36)
Yeah.

Communication. Obviously.

Speaker 1 (14:42)
Very cool. Well, thank you so much for joining us. This has been such a pleasure. Do you have any final words of wisdom that you'd like to share with our listeners today?

Speaker 2 (14:49)
No, just be confident, enjoy everything that happens to you in life.

Speaker 1 (14:56)
Enjoy everything that happens to you in life. What wise words from someone whose strength is positivity, right? Like, you know, I think that's great. We're all gonna have bad days and bad times in our lives, but so important to like, we've got someone behind our video camera right here who's just, anyway, I forgot what my thought was. But anyway, thank you so much for joining us. And I hope you enjoy the rest of the conference. And I will see you poolside. We'll share a drink.

Speaker 2 (15:24)
The club.

Speaker 1 (15:25)
I will be at the club tonight. I will be there this year. will be dancing with you. So let's do it. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (15:28)
Yes.

That's a wrap.

and celebrate them.