Being Heard and Giving Others a Voice

Lakeisha grant the CEO of virtue Enterprise architects were an IT consulting company based in the Washington DC area enterprise architecture is a discipline with NIT and which you take an organization strategic goals and you sort of pilfer out those strategic goals and ensure that the operational processes fall in line with the strategy we look at an organization and then determine on whether or not their infrastructure and their technology supports their vision the real catalyst for me was the fact that I felt that I didn't have a voice I felt that I had good instincts and in most cases when I did provide recommendations eventually they would adopt it they would congratulate me and thank me after the fact but you know I had that instinct to just go and be entrepreneurial I really wanted to create my own environment where others can be heard and if they have great ideas to really foster that and really help support them in those ideas I can't be a jack-of-all-trades anymore back in the day when you know I was actually doing day-to-day work I was a jack-of-all-trades now it's impossible so I have to really rely upon my staff and others within my organization to help guide our strategies and whether or not we should enter into new markets we're always looking for our next customer I'm consistently out writing proposals meeting in people when I talk to other entrepreneurs and people who are just starting their businesses the first thing asked are you passionate enough to when you wake up in the morning go straight to it and then before you go to sleep that's the last thing that's on your mind the entire day all 24/7 you're going to eat live and breathe this business but if you're really passionate about what you do you're going to love it I can't give a generic response you know for other you know young women you know who may enter into IT because it's a difficult field I think one of the issues with some women is the ability to assert themselves in certain environments I was raised to assert myself not a lot of women are as assertive in asking for certain things or maybe negotiating certain things but I think that largely is a result of education I'm already span multiple categories I'm black yes I'm a woman yes I'm technical I'm analytical I believe and have faith in my own skills and abilities to be such a great entrepreneur it doesn't sound humble to say that you know I'm a great entrepreneur because I have a lot of you know where to go but I'm proud of myself for being successful in running my business so for other females other entrepreneurs other minority potential entrepreneurs despite the industry it's all about itself once you're comfortable with yourself and your innate abilities you'll make other people comfortable