On today’s episode of Spilling the T, we’re discussing a topic that is close to our hearts at SheCanCode – the power of community.
We’re joined by Megan and Lauren, Co-Founders of TRIBE, to chat about how a community can help you grow, both personally and professionally; foster collaboration and innovation; and help you feel supported as a woman in tech.
As co-founders of their own community of women working in male-dominated industries, Megan and Lauren are keen to share the power of having a community behind you.
Megan is a transformation lead for a software company and Lauren runs a recruitment company specialising in tech and supporting companies to recruit diverse teams.
hello everyone thank you for tuning in again I am Katie bitman the content director at she canode and today we’re
discussing the power of community I’m lucky to be joined by two fabulous leaders in Tech Megan stoil bone and
Lauren windy Bank both co-founders of tribe to chat about how Community can help you grow both personally and
professionally Foster collaboration and Innovation and help you feel supported as a women a woman in Tech welcome Megan
and Lauren thank you so much for joining me today thank you for having us thank you for taking the the time out of your
uh busy days can we kick off with a bit of background um about each of you to set the scene please uh Lauren should we
start with you yeah hi so I’m Lauren um I’m the founder firstly of a tech
recruitment business called Roma black um and then obviously co-founder of tribe um I started my career in
recruitment which obviously led to me setting up my own business and through working in the tech industry I sort of
saw a lack of support for females working in male dominated Industries uh
and that’s where sort of tribe was was born if you like just as a a community a
membership a network to really help women Thrive and you started in recruitment I
take it when you left school you weren’t thinking I know I’m going to end up in the tech industry that just kind of fell
into you’re one of those ladies I hear it often yeah I don’t think anyone sets out um with a purpose to be a recruiter
but uh I had a few jobs you know before that sort of very very sort of sales-driven um roles and a friend of
mine worked in recruitment so you know very much fell into it um was very lucky that you know I was fast-tracked in my
career under a corporate company and really wanted flexibility knowing I was going to start a family so I have uh
three and four year old now um and I started the business before they were born um just really to build something
for myself and have the flexibility that I would knew I needed moving forward yeah amazing today’s conversation is
going to be good from what you just said Megan yourself did you fall in to Tech or did you have a plan oh no exactly
that so um I did I did fall into Tech um so my background I have a very supp my
pathway into Tech has been a little bit different um I actually was worked in the travel industry to start with um I
was a flight attendant for a few years is um I then moved into events which is
really where I spent majority of my career um I was fortunate enough to have
quite a few tech companies as my clients um when I used to organize large corporate events one of the clients uh
was the company that I now work for and I just fell in love with them I fell in love with their
culture um just everything about them and they actually had an opportunity that came up to work in their enablement
team and I just jumped at it so yeah I I suppose have fallen into but I jumped
into the world of tech um and I’ve been there the last five years with the same company um I’ve done lots of different
roles I started off as I say in enablement um then moved into sales
programs and my current role is transformation program lead for the Europe Enterprise team so yeah mixed
roles but it’s been an incredible journey yes amazing I I love hearing all
of the different ways in to Tech that people find their way in and do never know what people are going to say you’re
the first that said I started as a flight attendant I know I have to
say it’s a shocking one it’s lovely that eventually
everybody finds their way in in some way um and it it is true everybody seems to
think that you have to have a plan and you have to have a computer science degree and it’s something that we talk about a lot on this podcast that most
people that work in Tech that is not the way that they came into the industry um so the more that we hear the different
stories and the roots in um is something that we we love to promote on here um
both of you ladies met you had completely different parts you you you met um and you started tribe can you
tell us a little bit about uh tribe par came about and and and you know your
mission what’s it what what is it about yeah so I’ll um I’ll start by
telling you uh how it came about and then they can go into a bit more about tribe but Meg and I actually went to
school together and uh so we had you know mutual friends and we were in sort of other sides of the year um so yeah
wasn’t sort close friends at school but but knew knew of each other and had mutual friends and a close friend of
both of ours uh had a hendu and uh we sort of reconnected on that hendu and as
you know women that really care about their careers we got to talking and we agreed to set something in for for a
coffee catchup when we got back um and weren’t fueled with alcohol and
uh I said to let’s talk over coffee so um I said to Meg that I’d come
up with a a concept um of a company for tribe that would support women um you
know working in malale dominated Industries and I’d love to pick her brains as a female in Tech um as to what
that could really look like and you know we went back and forth with with a lot of ideas is and um Meg actually texted
me very shortly after us departing to say you know you need me and I need to
be a part of this and so essentially we then went on a path to create what tribe
is today um so yeah it was a it was a nice almost like a
accidental um Partnership if you like um but then very purposeful moving forward
so yeah Meg can tell you a bit more about actually what what tribe is and also what else happened on that
Hindu a lot this is not this is not the space that You’ business came out of that Hindu
so that’s for a glass of wine that conversation okay we Le that for another
episode yeah so um so tribe uh so ultimately it’s it’s an exclusive
membership um dedicated to building the next generation of female leaders in male dominated Industries
um we really want to put our arms around our members so we want to educate them
we have um partnered with worldclass coaching um and mentors to really give
people the opportunity to to develop and to grow um the other big part and you
know obviously why we’re we’re talking today is is around that Community piece that’s something that we really as we started to build tribe we really saw
that as something that’s going to be incredibly powerful is to create a community of likeminded women um to
really help each other um and to inspire one in one another and um you know creating that diversity of thought um in
that Community setting just making it accessible so you know as Lauren said um
you know when we first started talking about tribe you know over a year ago um
it is grown arms and legs um and you know another thing that we really really
wanted to incorporate tribe was the fact that yes this membership is for women
but if we really want to create change um lasting change then we’re going to have to bring everyone on this journey
with us um so that is male and females um so we also have programs uh running
alongside the the main core membership which is actually for men um to really helps give them the tools that they need
to be better leaders um or to be better team members to really help support women in their
organizations amazing because normally I’ve spoken to a few men who work in Tech and they said that a lot of that
training tends to be things that they’re not allowed to say and that’s kind of the training is very much don’t say this
and don’t say that and everything that you do is wrong and actually treating them more as an ally and showing them
how to be a better leader I mean you must have great success from that you know the feedback from from the men must
be really positive that can just want to get involved yeah and I think Meg and I actually were both um very fortunate
that we had sort of male role model role models and sponsors who allowed us to get to where we are today and so it was
quite important to us that you know there’s a lot of men out there who want to to support women they want to be an
ally they just don’t know necessarily how to shine a shine a spotlight on females and so for us you know our sort
of mission was really to create you know more women in leadership in Mal dominated Industries and and how do we
all work together to create that positive change so we target mainly sort
of um Mid to senior upwards um females because a stat that we came across when
we were sort of researching um you know a lot about the industry was that 50% of
females um abandoned their Tech Career by age 35 and obviously working in the recruitment space I could naturally see
the the drop off and the lack of female Talent so we knew there was a retention issue and we knew that something needed
to be done so in most cases we partner with organizations um who you know
utilize that L&D budget and want to create positive change and you know form
that culture so that we can help you know see more women progress in you know
not only Tech but other Mal dominated Industries um and you know essentially
create more women in leadership yeah and I love the fact you mentioned retention there because it there are two problems
bringing females into the industry and retaining them and and that leads into a little bit about the benefits of um you
know when you to ask bit about the benefits of network and finding your own Community assume some of that leads into
retention and and feeling sometimes like you’re not the only one that’s feeling a certain way um and you know Community
kind of all feeds into that doesn’t it the benefits of it yeah definitely yeah absolutely and
it’s really about when you’re part of a community of say the like being a part of community of like-minded women it
really helps to create that sense of belonging which is so important um especially if you’re working for a
larger organization um and within Tech a lot of organizations are predominantly
remote working as well so having that Community it just gives you that safe space and it helps you to feel supported
and when you feel supported you feel like you can really push yourself outside with com your own comfort zone
um we have this saying in tribe which is it’s the power of the collective so by bringing everyone together it’s amazing
what you can do um it’s incredibly powerful yes definitely and um on that
note how can our listeners get the most of networking I first networking comes
in lots of different forms as well doesn’t it online in person and things have been very different since covid
suddenly iners meetings are back and iners events how how can I
make the most of growing their Network yeah I think I’ll draw on a personal sort of experience here and I
think some people hear the term networking and they they instantly see it as like a daunting experience or the
unknown and I think actually if you look at how do I do purposeful networking you
know what are the areas that I you know really would love supporting who are the people that I would love around me to to
bring me up and to learn from and obviously networking can look in in many
different forms you’ve got internal networking you know within your own organization you’ve got external
networking you know events and things like that then you’ve also got online networking so for example LinkedIn and
you know really looking at okay who’s in my sort of strategic Network um
so I just think there’s so many different ways that that networking
can benefit you and it’s firstly about understanding what the purpose is behind
you wanting to network um which will enable you to do that purposeful um sort of reach out to people whether that be
you’re looking for a a mentor you know you’re looking for your tribe um or you
know you’re looking for people within your own organization um that you can you can learn from or maybe discuss like
common challenges with um I think you know it’s always good to feel like you
have that support system no matter how that looks for you um and it’s to it’s
to look at really what you want to get out of it in the first place not just aimlessly you know using the term
networking and just attending events with no real purpose of what you want to achieve out of it yes I love that
because how many events and we’ve all done it you turn up don’t really talk to anyone or you talk to the wrong people
um and you don’t really get much out of it and that doesn’t encourage you to to keep networking and keep keep finding
those connections um and you’re right networking is internal networking and
external networking and I think sometimes we forget that and as you said if you have a purpose and you know what
you’re going for that just makes it so much easier than a blanket you know Linked In connect connect connects until
they you know put a block on you and put you in ja or whatever it may be um but yeah having a a purpose for your
networking um is is such such good advice um Megan yourself have you have
you got any um advice you know how can our listeners get the most out of their networking do you think yeah I think
it’s um going back to Lauren’s point about just understanding what you want from that so say if you’re going into an
event um it’s making sure that you have a goal you know what you want out of it
um I’m quite I’m quite introverted so when I come to when I go to an inperson
event I can be a little bit nervous I’m the one that perhaps stands on the side I’m not as confident to go so what I’ve learned to do now is have a
list of a few questions that I want to ask people and that just helps me just to go in a little bit more confident um
also as well to I create myself like a little elevated pitch almost in my head as to who I am so all of a sudden I I’ll
start chatting to someone and I completely forgot my name what I do all kind of blanks so I just help it helps
me just to have like a 30 second almost like a little elevated picture of who I am what I’m what I do and kind of what I
want out that conversation as well so that really helps really helps me yes
that’s a really good tip just to know I I think as well when people ask you who
you are and where you come from you tend to say your name on your job title and that’s it and those job titles well don’t always really scream what you do
and it’s so much easier just to explain you know what it is that that you do rather than reading off some really long
job title that just confuses people um but just having that 30 seconds
think actually what is my pitch and if somebody does ask me what on Earth do I do you know and why am I here just
having that that prepared um would be so important I also love those events where
they share the attendee list um before and afterwards and then you can just if you are introverted and you don’t find
that you get talking to somebody or even you don’t talk to somebody in the cube of the toilets or whatever it may be at
least you can connect with them on LinkedIn afterwards and say Hey you know I attended this as well what did you
think um so it’s so valuable when they do share out a guest list um that that
that is super helpful for those uh that um might not um have the confidence to
to speak to everybody on the day I think about people to purposeful like purposefully Network as well because you
know who’s going so you almost can pinpoint you know who’s may be someone
that I would benefit from speaking to or who would maybe benefit from speaking to me yes exactly I think sometimes those
connections that you do make you don’t always realize that actually they’re going to be super helpful years down the
line they might not be beneficial for you at that moment in your career but then years later you suddenly think
actually I met somebody who works in that area um and just networking in in
any form is is super helpful especially uh in the women in Tech Community um
we’re seeing more and more internal networks which is a great thing um but do you think these could be a step in
the right direction to cracking diversity in Tech yeah I I really believe so um you
know I’ve been fortunate enough uh throughout my past five years in my in my current role um to be part of the
employee Resource Group um that we have internally and it’s just an amazing place to whether you are whether
you have a team that you go and meet in person or as I say if you’re a remote worker which a lot of people in Tech are
um because you kind of feel like you have this little Community like a little team inside your team um to to speak to
um and having these internal networks it’s again it goes back to that having
that safe space and there’s sometimes conversation that you want to have you want to be able to talk to somebody who
understands your challenges within your organization um but you don’t really want to talk to your boss about it or
you don’t really want to talk to you know the person that sits next to you but being able to have someone that can understand you and relate to you is so
powerful um and as I say you know as part of the the ERG that um I’m with
internally um you know we may be at all different you know all different parts of the world but we have a monthly
meeting that we get together and yeah we can talk about everything everything from work to you know personal life um
and it just creates this really lovely culture that sometimes if you don’t have it outside um to have it like a little
group is is is really good really good yes and is surely more likely to to make
you think I’ll stay at this company I feel like I but you mentioned earlier about that feeling of belonging um and
sometimes um it can be the tiniest thing that you might want to to share with somebody but that can really make a
difference to your day and the way that you feel at work um I completely agree
with just I love the way that you described it as a team within a team um which is exactly that just sometimes
especially with remote working it can feel very lonely not having people to to share that with um and I can’t say how
many conversations we’ve had on here and our webinars about imposter syndrome and as soon as you share that with somebody
and they say oh you know what I feel exactly the same way it just makes you feel so much better to think someone
else is feeling like an impostor it’s not just me and just to hear it from somebody else that works in your company
can make the world of difference that you know we’re all we’re all feeling that way yeah I think as well especially
if you’re working in quite a male dominated um company and you may youve
got a you know a female EOG it’s again comes back to that safe sort of space
and also just to feel like you know you’ve at least got room to talk about
some of the challenges that just specifically females might face working in a mald dominated industry some of those women might have children and
again that brings a whole new new um array of challenges trying to balance
career progression and you know running and managing a family so I just think
they’re critical really for the retention piece as well yes yes
definitely I I agree with the word critical there um and obviously as you
said women have different challenges and just to hear it from somebody else um and some advice from somebody else on
how they dealt with those challenges along the way as well could be so so helpful um to your to your every day and
Lauren you mentioned a little bit earlier about mentoring um and sponsorship and and I want you to ask
you mentoring is is another important aspect of community uh but what are your best tips for mentees looking for a
mentor don’t just walk straight up to somebody and say hey will you be my mentor it’s not gonna work no and again
I think it it first boils down to a bit of self-reflection you know what are you
looking to achieve if it’s it’s uh something you want to progress in a certain area or you want
to I don’t know have a bit more Spotlight Shan on you in your organization you know what is it firstly
that you’re trying to achieve yourself what are your personal goals and then try and look you know there’s there’s
numerous places you can look for a mentor whether that be internally um whether that be again externally so I
think firstly decide what it is you want to achieve and then try and look in your immediate you know network is there
anyone that is within my organization or within I don’t know my friendship group
my my LinkedIn Network that I could go out to to ask for support on this
specific um area if you don’t have anyone it’s okay
maybe come back to that networking piece and start to find someone that maybe has
the relevant job title that has you know progressed from where you are today to to where they are and you want to find
out what was their pathway how did they progress and what were the steps that they have taken to get there um and and
ask the question you know have a have make that connection build the the relationship because I do believe that
most um you know menty Mentor relationships Excel when you’ve sort of
got that trust there you know that relationship formed and actually sort of a clear value exchange what else could
they potentially learn from you you know the power of reverse mentoring um but I think you you need to firstly look at
what you want to achieve before just you know math messaging or asking just
anyone if actually they’re not going to help you achieve whatever your set goal is yes I love that having a purpose and
and the fact that you mentioned there the value as well because you are right I’m sure there are so many people that
reach out to mentals and they have a couple of coffees and that’s kind of it if there’s no structure to it it’s not
going to continue you’re not going to neither of you are actually going to get much value out of building that
relationship um other than saying I once had a copy with someone that was kind of a mentor so you need to express you know
to to them as well what is the purpose of this what do I want to get from it and as you said um reverse mentoring um
which is a phrase that I heard on here recently I like that’s absolutely brilliant learning from each other um
and just being open and transparent about what what you both really want to get from from the
relationship um obviously um Megan yourself do you have any tips for for
mentees looking for mentors have have you struggled to find a mentor in the
past or how how did you do that no um I think one of the things I learned was
actually um not just to have not don’t just be focusing on I mean just one
Mentor you can have multiple different mentors um that all serve a different
purpose so I I myself personally within my organization I have two mentors um
one who uh came you know that happened quite authentically we were working on a project together in two totally
different teams but working on a project together and we just realized actually we had a lot in common um outside of
work and I started to as Lauren says started to build that trust with her as almost like a friend um and then I posed
the question I said you know will you be my mentor um because I also looked at um
her pathway and I thought okay this is something that’s really inspiring um and then you know we set up a meeting every
two weeks we made sure that that was in the diary uh you know she was on a different time zone to me but like right
two o’clock every Wednesday that was our meeting and sometimes we’d have an agenda sometimes we would just have half
an hour to chat but by having that Cadence set really helped um and then
alongside that I then had a m Mentor who um you know he was he is part of the
organization but he has a really good coaching background um and he really helped me in another area and I was able
to meet with him in person because he was in my loal office and then we kind of have had that in person um catch up
kind of once a month or more ad hoc if we’re by the grabbing a coffee or something like that so um yeah never
never feel like it just has to be one mentor and it has to be very you know
very really structured and quite that you know it can it can form friendships
um so yeah just to have just be quite openminded with it as well yes I love and you are right I think people think
it it’s quite formal to ask for a mentor and and that your relationship back and forth is is going to be quite formal
especially if it’s internal and it’s come through a a mentoring program where
you’ve kind of been matched you might not even know each other but you’ve been matched on skills um uh you know that
your company thinks that this person is going to help you you in some way um I said it doesn’t always form out of
friendships um so I love that just having different mentals for different purposes can help so much that you don’t
have to have uh just just one and Megan you mentioned a little bit earlier about being introverted um and uh I myself
have the same problem when I go to networking events um because it’s always a bit daunting entering a room on your
own do you have any networking tips for our listeners when when you have to walk
in feel a little bit like I’m here for a a networking event but I don’t really
feel like networking today yeah so um as I say it’s all about
really setting what what you want from that event um who you want to go and see
I always as I said do my do the elevator pitch have that clear in my head um one
thing that I also learned a lot especially being a woman in Tech and you know as with my pathway into Tech it
wasn’t the most traditional I am not a techie um so there’s been times where I’ve beat at a networking event which is
full of techies and I’ve gone oh my gosh I cannot talk this language um and that
then triggers that impostor syndrome of going go I shouldn’t be here um and actually what I learned to do was to
that it’s okay not to be able to talk for talk and instead of feeling like
I’ve got to try and you know speak the same language if I just went and started to talk to somebody about something that
I am confident about which is you know perhaps things I enjoy doing you know I love I love hiking I love going away in
the camper ban and and I started to try and build a relationship that actually wasn’t um and a conversation that wasn’t
about work um that was also really good a really good way to connect with people
um so yeah if you if you are introverted or you have that imposter syndrome and you find yourself in a room where you
know it’s a little bit daunting it’s okay just to be yourself and just just talk and I guarantee you will build
those connections and be able to have really good networking um just just on that yes I love that and I think also
just starting those conversations about things that you loveed you probably also started to realize that not everybody in
that room was Technical and sometimes it’s just something that we think that everybody who works in Tech is going to
be Technical and I’m standing in a room full of techies and I didn’t say anything to anyone and actually when you
start talking there’s lots of different roles that people are doing at companies and there might be product managers or
just really good communicators um about you know business problems and um uh how
um their job in Tech really brings about impact and they’re not actually there as one of the techies um so it’s always
interesting to see when you do walk up to somebody in a room and start talking to them you realize actually you’re not
as technical as I thought you were going to be um but great to to start conversations on just things that you
love is a is a really good piece of advice and Lauren yourself do you have any networking tips for for our
listeners yeah I think just as a general acceptance of it’s likely that I’m going
to feel uncomfortable um but I’m not the only one you know there will be other people
in that room that are going to be feeling exactly like you and you know I don’t know about some of the listeners
but for me when I’ve seen real areas of growth in my life it’s when I put myself
in uncomfortable situations which have then made a return
you know if you know so it’s it’s really about going in with that purpose so
always coming back to that and even if you have to you know do little bite-sized things that just help you
overcome you know your own sort of battles you’re having in your mind okay today I’m going to speak to three people
you know just set yourself little bite-sized goals and then when you go to the next event you might increase that
Etc and you know just know that you’re going to a networking event to network
you know and if it’s if it’s another purpose where you’re listening to talks or you know sometimes that isn’t the
purpose to to speak to people but if you are attending a mainly networking event
it’s okay how do I break this down so it doesn’t seem so scary yes there might be
a lot of people there that I’ve never met before you know maybe you’re an int like Meg and actually you’re you’re a
bit nervous to start that conversation so step yourself a little mini targets
and just and just make sure to remind yourself you’re not the only one that will feel that way yes and I love that
use the word bid you are correct I think we seem to think that when you look at
the CEO the highflying female CEO is incredibly connected and you see she
posts something on LinkedIn and she gets 400 comments in about about an hour that you kind of think maybe she built that
overnight she obviously didn’t build that overnight it was done in bite-sized um chunks as you said and that
networking was done one person at a time um and if you start to break it down in
that way it’s it’s not as daunting but it is really difficult when you you I
think nowadays we tend to compare ourselves to everybody and if you are comparing yourself to somebody that is
really far ahead in their career um and already done all of that working that that’s just not a good place to start as
you said you just need to start with one person at a time um and and you said make yourself feel a little bit
uncomfortable um and eventually uh you will you will progress um obviously
we’ve said it takes a little while to to find um your tribe um as as we say um
we’re nearly out of time to say but I did want to ask you one last question about finding your tribe do you have any
last words of wisdom on why listeners should um actively go and find their
tribe um Megan should we start with you yeah do you know what it just it’s so
empowering to be in a space where you have likeminded people around you um to
support you to be able to discuss challenges openly um it’s it’s just an
incredible feeling and the takeaways that you will get from having your own tribe is you’ll get to learn from one
another um it’s amazing the ideas that can come come out of a
conversation um and you get New Perspectives on on challenges um it’s
yeah it it’s an incredibly empowering experience once you once you find your tribe and I and I guarantee you will be
with them for a long time as well it’s um you know my my own network who you know that i’ I’ve created around me you
know it’s been years and it’s just yeah it’s it’s incredibly empowering yeah yes
I love that and Lauren yourself yeah I think over the the past year I’ve done some really purposeful
networking and that’s enabled me again to find my tribe and create a bigger
tribe you know around it in terms of you know the tribe that Megan I are building and the community we’re building and
essentially you know there’s pre-existing communities that you can enter that then enables you to be in a
room or you know virtual room if you like or a physical room of women that
that network has been built over years but you you are now immersed in that Community you are now surrounded by
people like you you know opportunities can come from that whether that be employment opportunities you
know podcasts panel discussions you know all things that will help you progress in your career and I think that’s my
biggest Learning lesson and I guess um something that I really bang on about a
lot is the power of networking and and and you know finding that tribe the
doors that it can open for you it’s just about giving it you know enough time and
effort to actually then see the what that can that can bring to you not only
to your professional life but to your personal life especially if you’re like I said a female you know working in Tech
where there’s not many females in your organization how do you find your tribe which will see you get through some of
the challenging times but also Empower you and positively challenge you to you
know reach your full potential yes definitely and on that note I would I would love to know as well can you share
with us what’s what’s next for tribe what do you plan to do next yeah so we’re going to continue to
build our community um we’re at the women of business and tech expo so we’re really looking forward to seeing a lot
of people there um and for us it’s just about you know trying to create that
positive change trying to create um you know work with as many organizations as possible to work with both you know men
and women to create more opportunities for females to progress up into
leadership yeah I love it and I I would love for you to come back at some point and share your journey um with us um I’m
sure our listeners have found today’s conversation um absolutely invaluable
where can Our Ladies connect with you what is the best way to to get involved in in what you’re
doing so you can connect with us on LinkedIn um we do have a page on LinkedIn obviously our own personal
profiles we also um have a website which is linked to our LinkedIn page as well where people can um get more information
on tribe or apply for a membership amazing thank you so much Megan and
Lauren for taking the time to have a chat with us today it’s been an absolute pleasure so thank you so much thank you
for having us and to everybody listening as always thank you so much for joining us and we hope to see you again next
time
