Leading with Intuition: Building Trust in with Tracey Mills

Tracey Mills brings fearless authenticity to her role as Vice President of Public Sector at CrowdStrike, where she leads with equal parts grit, empathy, and strategic focus. Her journey in cybersecurity isn’t just about defending networks - it’s about earning trust, empowering teams, and redefining what leadership looks like in government tech.

In this candid conversation, Tracey shares how her roots shaped her resilience, how she’s learned to lead with vulnerability in high-stakes environments, and why she believes credibility in cybersecurity is built long before a crisis ever happens.

From navigating the nuances of public sector partnerships to championing women in tech, Tracey’s story is one of intentional leadership, where relationships and results go hand in hand.

🎧 Tune in for a powerful reminder that in cybersecurity and beyond, how you show up is just as important as what you deliver.

Ready to explore more authentic conversations with the humans shaping technology? Subscribe to Humans of Tech on your favorite platform and check out our merch store here https://humansoftech.axomo.com

Transcript

Cold Open & Show Welcome

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Ever wonder what tech leaders would say if they had no prep and no redoos? Welcome to Humans of Tech. I'm Caroline and I'm Kelly. We're keeping humans at the center of technology through quick, authentic conversations with people shaping the industry.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

I got you. Tell and find her.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

There's a way. Well, it's funny because we had another uh person from this

CrowdStrike Connection & Fly Fishing Callback

SPEAKER_01 0:31

company. Can we can we tell them? She's about to come on. Did you say CrowdStrike?

SPEAKER_02 0:35

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

Yeah, CrowdStrike. So we had Debbie on last year about and so and she was amazing, talked about her passions outside of work, which you know got us.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Fly fishing, which is amazing.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Fly fishing.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

Yep. I've since met so many people who do fly fishing. I did I didn't realize it was a a real thing. I guess coming from South Florida, it's very different.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

It's just a different world. Could be fishing down here. Uh, but in Denver, you know, I guess like, you know, being outdoors, they have a lot of of the different types of hobbies

Travel Talk: Greece, Santorini, Crete

SPEAKER_01 1:10

around that.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Um, and you're getting ready to go on vacation, aren't you?

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Yeah, I'm going to Greece in a couple weeks. Uh, I'm fully trying to plan like the excursion part. That's my task of is finding out what to do when we get there. Um, so hello, Tracy.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Hey, where are you going in Greece?

SPEAKER_01 1:30

I am flying into we're going to Athens. We're doing Paros, Crete, and Santorini.

unknown 1:36

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Oh, wonderful. I've been to Crete and Santorini in Athens, and uh the people are wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

I can't believe I may have to hit you up on the side for some excursion ideas.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Yeah. Um gosh. Uh I have to tell you, like, I'll have to like go back in my memory uh on Santorini, but there's this adorable little square out in the middle of nowhere. We had our hotel or like Airbnb was like a block away, and we walked just randomly. That's my favorite part of vacationing. And like, I was like, there's a party in this square, what's going on? And there were people dancing everywhere, and it was just like just random and yeah, fun. And when I went to Crete, it was New Year's, so nobody ever goes there for New Year's. But my husband at the time, who's not my ex-husband, but we went and spent uh New Year's Eve there and like partied

Latin America, Patagonia, and a Princeton Book

SPEAKER_00 2:36

with all the locals. Uh, it was so much fun. Uh, because nobody was there but us, and everyone was like, Why are you visiting here? I'm like, I have no idea, but something told me to come. Um so um, it was pretty cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Speaking of party, Caroline's hosting her birthday celebration in Columbia. It's an open invite if you want to come.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

You're more than welcome. I sent it, I said, if anybody needs an excuse to go to Medin for the weekend, I'm hosting dinner.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

Oh my gosh, that's so awesome. When?

SPEAKER_02 3:05

Uh, in October, the weekend of October 26th.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Very cool. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 3:11

I'm turning 40, so I felt like I needed to do something a little bit more grandiose than the norm.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Nice, nice, nice. I don't know much about Colombia. It's actually interesting that's where you're from.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Uh I'm actually not from there. I'm from Argentina. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

Yeah, but I love I think the the Latin roots in general, you end up gravitating towards South America for a multitude of reasons, but I love Colombians and I love Colombia and I love Colombian fruit. Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

Um, I've been uh my kids and I went to Argentina and Chile uh a few years ago hiking in Patagonia. So we went to Buenos Aires, then we flew to Ushuaia and then got a cruise ship uh at Ushuaia and came up the coast and then stopped at uh I forget what the glaciers uh where everybody hikes in Patagonia.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Um, I don't remember that. I I wouldn't know that, but I did go to Ushuaia four years ago, I want to say.

SPEAKER_00 4:10

Wow. It was so much fun. Uh, we were just talking about it last night. Actually, there's a book. Um sorry. It's on the kitchen table. We were just thinking about it. My daughter and I just went to Columb uh Princeton to uh go tour Princeton, and there's a guy from Columbia who wrote this book. Uh oh, it's backwards.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

It's called Yeah, I see it where I see it.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Oh, I see it backwards. Uh every day the river changes. Um, and he's

College Tours, Perfect SAT, Big Dreams

SPEAKER_00 4:38

a Princeton grad, and all the Princeton grads do my daughter's a senior in high school, uh, so she's thinking of going, but all the Princeton grads do a thesis, and he did his thesis on this Colombian river that I guess has a lot of conflict, and it was opened for the first time to he was granted access to travel down the river, and then he uh wrote down all the conversations about the conflict in Colombia. Uh um, anyways, I haven't read it yet, but I I don't know anything about Colombia.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

Um I have to read it before I go.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

I would love to like the yeah, and like the history or like what's going on. I don't, I'm just totally out of it. Um, anyways, it was pretty cool. Um I love that area.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

So you see um you're kind of exactly what I hoped you would be. I was just telling Kelly, I'm like, you know, other reason I reached out is because I see you on LinkedIn and I've seen kind of your interactions with people and some of the things that you've posted about your daughter and whatnot. I was like, she's gonna be amazing. I love her already.

SPEAKER_01 5:45

And I was like, I haven't met her yet. We're connected on LinkedIn and everyone at our company raves about you, so I cannot wait to meet you.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Thank you. Thank you. That's interesting. Uh, I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

Um, Princeton's on the list. Any others, any other schools?

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Um uh beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 6:04

I I don't live too far away, so I've and I've gone a couple of times a year over the last couple of years.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

I've never been. So I grew up in upstate New York. Um, I went to Boston College and then I've lived in DC, New York City, and then Austin, Texas. And so I've had my kids, they're Austin, they're from Texan, Texas. Uh, but um I can't believe I've never been to Princeton. Um, but I got there, I have to say, uh it was interesting. My daughter wanted a

Parenting Two Paths: Autism and Honors

SPEAKER_00 6:35

tour U Penn. And so that's why we went. I uh she was hiking, she's got a very rough life. She was hiking in Switzerland uh and then flew back to Newark, and I picked her up in Newark, and then we went to UPenn, and I was like, we're gonna be passing by Princeton. Why don't we just stop in and see? Um, and it was definitely way above our expectations um in terms of the town and how cute it was, and just how small and quaint, but near New York and Philly. Um, anyways, it was wonderful. So, but you uh she took UPenn off. She's not interested, it was not the vibe she wanted. Um, but Princeton, UVA, and NYU are probably the top three on her list right now.

SPEAKER_02 7:19

Great score.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

I know, yeah. She's super lucky. She uh got a perfect score on her SAT. And so I know. Um, I feel so just lucky and blessed, but she just has the world at her fingertips in terms of that's incredible, like like what she can do.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

You think she realizes it?

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Show she does.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

She does that's what makes it more special. I feel like at that age, I didn't grasp that I could actually do and go and be anything.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

Yeah, no, she gets it, yeah, for sure. Um, like we were both in the Princeton um uh information session, whatever um you call it. And like I started tearing up, like when they started talking about this guy and like everything that he's done and what other people have done um with this thesis. Um and yeah, I'm sitting there thinking, like, oh my God, she just has like the world at her fingertips. Not that she's gotten into Princeton, but if she did, like they fund it. Like you literally come up with this idea of where you want to go in the world to do research on a topic. And she looked over at me, and I'm like got a tear in my eye, and she's got a tear in her eye, and she's like adding her tears,

Management, Grace, and Sales Reality

SPEAKER_00 8:40

and she goes, Mom, I could travel to the Middle East and study inequality on wages.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

And I was like, Oh my god, like like my heart just wanted that makes me so happy because it's like the future leaders of like our thinking this way, and that's incredible. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:59

Well, you you're doing a great job, clearly.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Yeah. Thank you. It's actually um it's it's super interesting. Um pausing just because uh I have a son as well. He's a year older than my daughter. Um he's on the autism spectrum and he needs to be like parented and managed and um just completely different. And so it's it's like I have a night and day, um, and somebody who's super like me, which is my daughter, but also trying to understand like how to foster and grow and like get him to where he needs to be, which he's going off to Arizona State University, take him to school in two weeks. Um he wants to redefine himself because he didn't really fit in in high school, and he got into the honors business program there. And when he was younger, um, I was told he wasn't even gonna go to public school. Like he was like supposed to be on this path of like needing assistance his whole life, and just to see him like being able to do everything on his own and even better, um, it's just like each of them have given me so, so much joy. But I like correlate that to my day-to-day in terms of work, um, and how like people need to be managed differently, treated differently, like just it's like to bring the best out of everybody. It's hard and unique

Hiring for Difference, Not Similarity

SPEAKER_00 10:38

and it's messy. Um, but yeah, I'm I'm very, very proud of both of them.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Um it makes me think it's a little off topic, but there was um I was I was watching uh Eva Longoria's new show, um, Finding Mexico, I think it's called. And so she goes back to her roots and she's um talking with a lot of chefs and whatnot. And one particular chef had emigrated to the US, gotten into jail, gone back uh to Mexico, and really had been destined for a tough and not a great life. And he had one person in his life, and the way she she put it was you just need one person to give you permission to be great. Um, and that just oof, and now he's a well-renowned chef in Mexico, um who's completely changed his life. But it's it's that kind of in line of what you're saying, where everybody needs to be treated differently, and everyone also needs to be given the the someone to believe in them.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the grace just to do things their own way, which is so hard. Um, especially in sales. Like you want to get from A to B quickly, you want to get to a sale quickly, you wanna like you think you know it all, you know how to do it. Um, it's a it's a definitely a a daily struggle for sure.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

And like the unique um experiences and diversification

Security Myths and Nontraditional Talent

SPEAKER_01 12:03

is really what's gonna make a team stand out in the end, especially from a sales standpoint. Like we were just talking about being disruptive in in a good way. And it's like those people that you know just have something different and can bring something different. And I'm actually hiring right now for a coordinator, and I was telling Caroline, I was kind of looking for someone similar to me as far as like they can just take on the tasks and help me with a lot of things I'm doing, not really filling the need of my biggest gap. And so I'm you know, considering this one girl who would fill my um, I would say my weakness.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

So it's hard though. I mean um like because I I think this simplicity of surrounding yourself with people who are like you, um it's just it it doesn't cause challenges, like you get tasks done quicker, like you don't have to ask everybody for like the pausing and getting group buy-in on things when there is diversity can be hard. I think long yeah, right, right, right. Yeah, I see it at CrowdStrike every single day. I mean, we are so white male, even just security, like uh focused on like you have to be like in security, you have to know security, you have to be technical, like those

The Question: Non‑Work Skill That Helps Work

SPEAKER_00 13:31

aspects of what they think make somebody great. Yeah, and I'm constantly reminding them like I've done pretty well here, and I had no security experience. Like uh I'm not stupid, I know how to get things done. Um, like you've gotta be able to accept that like I think grit and hard work and uh intuition and like an ability to like bite through tough problems can get you to a different place. And I don't necessarily know that everybody, I don't think everybody,

Intuition as a Superpower

SPEAKER_00 14:06

I don't know. I think in theory people believe it. I don't think they like to live it in practice, right?

SPEAKER_02 14:11

Well, I think it's hard to live it in real they believe it, but then the reality comes and there's a number at the end of the quarter.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:19

So all your beliefs out the window. Right. Um I think that's I think that's where people struggle. And it's it's you're really lucky when you're surrounded by leadership that gets it and protects you and trusts you. Because I've I had that scenario here where I am now, where I know I do things very differently, and I like my the way I I function is just very different. And I've been lucky enough to where people kind of are trusting my process the traditional process, and they they trust me and and it's working, and and it's it's working in the way it needs to. So, but it's not if you're right. It's we we say that we there's a lot of talk and not so

Gut vs Data: The 80/20 Balance

SPEAKER_02 15:00

much um in practice in order to facilitate those spaces to kind of do what you're saying.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

I mean, I feel like pulling a question out of note at this point makes no sense because we've had probably the best conversations.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

Like we we haven't gotten, we haven't pulled the question yet. And I put it in the bag because I um have a couple of like gift bags and I couldn't find my bowl. So um, but yeah, these are the random questions. Um, and we'll pull one from and then let's see what this one is. What's one? Oh my gosh, this is so timely. They're always so timely. The questions are so fit for the guests. This I so random, but what's one non-work related skill or hobby that has made you better at your job?

SPEAKER_00 15:48

That's a good one. Um, yeah, for sure. Um uh do so I have I don't even know if you guys have already been recording everything. Do you record this? Do you like I'm like I'm not sure. Sorry, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

So

How to Cultivate Intuition

SPEAKER_02 16:05

we we we were recording and we do the the question and then kind of we're done with the question and we're done. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

Okay, cool. So I'm cool you using anything that we've talked about up to this point as well, just FYI. Um pretty easygoing. I didn't even ask if we were recording, so all good.

SPEAKER_02 16:21

I meant to say that at some point, and then talking.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Um that's good. I mean, that's what it's supposed to be about, right? Um, so for me, I would say um my intuition is probably my biggest uh asset. I call it my superpower. Um, so I don't think that in sales or actually even in life, I mean, I think a lot of people don't believe in intuition. I think a lot of people don't trust their intuition. And I truly believe uh I would not be where I am today without being like

Everyday Meditation: Coffee, Walks, Dishes

SPEAKER_00 17:02

a little cuckoo, I'd say. You know what I mean? Like that piece of um a little bit of hippie in me where you know I tried to have my kids with a natural home birth, I see a Reiki therapist, I believe in acupuncture, I like, you know, uh Eastern versus Western medicine, you know, those kind of things. Um uh but uh I just believe that if you follow your intuition and you're a good person, those two things have to sort of be hand in hand, that you end up in the right spot. And that's whether it's at home or at work. Um but I feel like we spend so much time looking at spreadsheets and analyzing and um finding the right answer through the numbers, which I am also, I mean, my team will tell you I believe the numbers immensely. Like nobody can come to me and just say, I believe this. So let's do it. Like there has to be some basis for what you are uh presenting or your business case. But I feel like that like last 20% doesn't need to be perfection. Like if you get your numbers 80%

Summer Chaos, Villages, and Wrap

SPEAKER_00 18:15

of the way and what your gut says is do this, um you've got to trust your gut and learn and sort of foster it over time. I don't think, and I think it's more of a female characteristic than a male, but I think both men and women are born with that inner and innate capability. It's just, I think men tend to, based on societal reasons, sort of push it down. Um, where for whatever reason, I think women tend to foster it a little bit more. Um, and I think in business we we don't pay enough attention to that piece. Uh maybe people like George Kurtz, um, you know, our CEO, I think there's part of it where he's been so successful because he does trust his intuition, but he doesn't necessarily talk about it either. Like, yeah, and I think that's sort of a so uh here's a question.

SPEAKER_02 19:10

I'm I'm a big believer in intuition. Um, I've I've gone in and out of trusting my own intuition throughout life. Um, and I guess do you have because you're right, there is some sort of like woo-woo feeling to it, but if you had to put it into a you know paper, pen to paper, how do you know that you're trusting your intuition versus just like your head going back and forth on options?

SPEAKER_01 19:38

Yeah, maybe to the person listening, but what advice would you give to the person listening about how to like really channel that?

SPEAKER_02 19:45

Or to grow it also, right?

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Yeah. Um that's a tough one. I think you can only do it with uh experience and living by trusting it. I'd say like trust it in one-month increments or six month increments and see where you end up. Um, but the difference, I think, is is you have to figure out how to get out of your head and stop the analyzing and just sit and trust what comes from within in terms of uh this is the right decision. It's almost as if um it's a feeling that I believe sort of overcomes my body of this is what I need to do. Um and it usually is like take out fear, take out ego, take out um what I would consider a little bit more negative characteristics or emotions, those things that are like driving us to look cool or be better, or like um those things get our mind spinning, you know. Oh, money, you know, you like those those things that we're grasping for that are we think are gonna make us happy, um, don't. I mean, that's proven, but we all still grasp for those. You know, when we feel bad, we go shopping on Amazon. It feels good for about 15 minutes. We go to Target, we end up spending $300. It's like it's the most glorious feeling to fill your cup for a very short period of time. Um uh, but I think I I mean, I'm not good at meditation, but I think meditation comes in different forms. For me, it's coffee in the morning. So I wake up early enough that I can get my coffee, I can go back to bed, and I sit for at least a half hour to an hour just by myself thinking. Um, and I when I say thinking, I'm not thinking like the spiral thinking of, oh my God, I'm on this spiral, I need to get off. It's more of a calm thinking of like, where do I want to end up? What's really troubling for me? What difficult conversations do I need to have? That's probably another piece. It's like the intuition comes when you figure out like what tough conversations you need to have. Because most of the time we we don't, we sort of like, oh, I'm not gonna have that. I'm gonna make up this story about how this is gonna end up. And we make up so many stories in our life that uh I think intuition also comes from real having tough conversations so we can make better choices on where we want to end up being.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

I don't know if that answers your question, but I it does it's it's just such a I listen to a ton of podcasts on this stuff. So, like this is right up my alley, and it there's just so many different layers, so many different layers, and there's not just a quick button fix. That's why I said pen to paper, but it's really like pen to book at that point. Um, you reminded me, so I I read a book called Silence that I totally recommend to you because you just said that you're not great at meditating, and this one, it it's very short. It's you can read it in like two days, and I'm a slow reader. But it the the whole premise, it was it was written by a Buddhist monk, but the whole premise is that um you can find quiet and meditate in your everyday life as you go through things. So, one of the examples that comes to my mind, even though I read it a while a while ago, was um washing dishes. There are endless amounts of ways that you can wash dishes if you're actually just watching the water touch your hands and the soap go through your hands and picking up the plate and feeling what that looks like. And that simple act is in its own way uh meditating. So I I think we've all been conditioned to say, well, meditating is I'm gonna sit down for half an hour in silence, which I do, and I've gotten better at that.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

But um better and I can't do it. It's me and my spin class. Like, I mean, I'm active, but but that's your own your own thing.

SPEAKER_02 23:55

There's walking meditations now, that's what I do. I used to go for walks listening to music or a podcast. Now I just kind of ignore all of that and I'll just go for a walk in silence. Yeah, and that's good enough, right?

SPEAKER_00 24:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:06

So your coffee is meditation.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

Yeah, yeah. It's the way that I it's the routine that makes me feel better and gets me in a better headspace for sure. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

Oh, we're gonna have a visitor. Oh Emma.

SPEAKER_00 24:24

How cute. How old is she?

SPEAKER_02 24:26

Oh right, you can go. It's summer break. This is mayhem. I would say I'm surviving, not thriving right now.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

I know. I definitely know, um, for sure. Um, it gets easier. Um, for I mean, I remember when my kids were younger, I was like, I summer time, like whoever created uh what is daylight, whoever created daylight savings time and uh school hours. What schools from eight to three? Like who can take care of their kids from three to six? Like, what world do we live in that all of a sudden three months? Like it's summer break. Are we joking?

SPEAKER_02 25:11

But I have a great village. She's she's traveled. Listen, she also in my next life, I'm coming back as Emma. Um, because she's traveled like all summer all over the world.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

My child that just uh came into the room. She's like wagging her tail, like shaking my screen. Look at that.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

Um we should actually we should probably stop recording at this point. So hang on tight though. Thank you so much for answering our question. Totally changing our format today. How we normally do this. Thanks for hanging out with us on Humans of Tech.

SPEAKER_01 25:43

Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, or LinkedIn and join the conversation.

SPEAKER_02 25:48

Oh, and don't forget, you can now shop our store.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

Check the link on the show notes.