Analiza: Welcome to the Women of Color Rise podcast. I'm Analiza Quiroz Wolf, proud Filipino-American executive leadership coach and former CEO of a nonprofit and Captain in the U.S. Air Force. I'm also the author of The Myth of Success: A Woman of Color's Guide to Leadership. It's based on the lessons learned by many women of color leaders, including those on this podcast. We talk with successful CEOs and C-suite women leaders of color and learn about their leadership journeys. I'm on a mission to support having more diverse leaders at the table. If you're a woman or a woman of color who wants to sit at that table, you're in the right place. Now let's get into today's show.

I am so happy to be here with Christie Wong Barrett, she and I were graduates of the stakeholder impact Foundation, where we went through corporate board training. And it's a thrilling feeling to have Chrissy here. She serves as an independent board director for DMI companies. She's also a lecturer at the University of Michigan Business School, co director of amplify D, which incubates startups with minority and women founders. Before this,Christie was the CEO and owner of MacArthur. It's a world class manufacturer of innovative labels and functional components, and it was actually acquired by EWT labels and packaging. Christiewas also appointed to the White House Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, and she has had a huge career, including consulting roles at McKinsey and also engineering roles at Raytheon. In addition to so many other roles, Christie, I'm so excited about this conversation. Thank you for being here.

Christie: Thanks for inviting me. Analiza, I'm really looking forward to our chat today.

Analiza: So Christie,I start with this question, which talks about identity. I'd love for you to share. How do you identify and how does that identity shape? How's it shaped your career?

Christie: Yeah, well, maybe a little background on my heritage and upbringing. So my mother is Caucasian, and she was born and grew up in a very small rural community in North Carolina. So the south my father is is Chinese by heritage, and he grew up in Hong Kong from about age four after escaping some pretty rough government interventions from China when he was a very young boy. He came over to the United States as an immigrant for his college education in his young years, and met my mom on a blind date. So it was kind of fate that put these two people together from opposite sides of the planet. I grew up with a family representing different races, very different socio economic realities and upbringings and some histories that required them to overcome major hardships of poverty, of persecution, of escaping, different difficult government regimes. And I think that backdrop really set in me a very firm perspective of, firstly, appreciation for the personal freedoms that we have in the United States and the opportunities for prosperity that you have in this country, that we have in this country with hard work and determination. So that's kind of a backdrop, I think, of just coming from family members who maybe had had some hardships in their life and some differences in their upbringings. I think another funny story just about my identity is, I'm biracial. It's got a lot of different names. We called ourselves mixed race kids when we were growing up. So a funny story about growing up in North Carolina, I moved there when I was about three and a half years old from Hong Kong, and we lived in Winston Salem, North Carolina, and I grew up in a community where there were very, very few people of Asian descent. And now I joke. I often tell my friends and colleagues to tell people that together, myself and one of my friends from high school, she was half Japanese. We were the one person in our high school of over 1200 students of Asian descent. So I just kind of told you, I was another. I didn't quite fit in, or at least I felt I didn't quite fit in in high school. And it just sort of highlighted how this childhood of being kind of biracial, a very underrepresented group, racially, virtually non existent. It really taught me to seek ways of connecting to people that were not specific to your gender or your race, your ethnic background. So what are those elements of commonality? Were you in the same interest group? Did you like to play the same game? Sports, did you like the same music, bands? How to build relationships that are not based necessarily on your ethnicity or your gender, but other points of connection, and how that can really, I think, help you in your future, to actually build connections with others, in your friendships, in your career. So basically, don't be insular. I think there's a power and a comfort in being with a community that's like you. But if that's the only community with which you build your relationships, you will be limiting yourself in terms of your opportunities for personal growth and your opportunities for career progression.

Analiza: I see, I appreciate this advice to not be insular, because I think, as I'll speak, from my Filipino background, being part of the community is really important, so part of the value, and I often think that I believe that if I stick with my own people, then I will be more successful, because they'll be more likely to take care of me. And I'm curious for you, what in this did you grow up believing that you realized in your career actually are not true?

Christie: Yeah. Oh, that's an interesting one. So I grew up I'm a Gen Xer, so I'll kind of allude to my age by saying I'm a Gen Xer, but I had these beliefs as a young woman growing up that I could do it all by myself, independent woman. And, the world was my oyster. I could do everything. I could have the fulfilling, jet set career, perfect marriage, thriving family, amazingly kept household ability to contribute to the community at large. And that was what I was kind of told from, my family is very supportive. You can do anything. And also from, obviously, media and movies that, it's like, Hey, you can grow up and have all do all these things. And I think that was actually a myth. It was very encouraging, right? Very motivating. But what I learned over time, there's a little nuance, is that you actually can do everything, but just not at the same time, and often you need a lot of help. So it's hard to do it all by yourself. And I still constantly kind of fight against that default mindset, even today, like I have this tendency of, like, trying to take it on all by myself. So I have to kind of remind myself, I can't do everything at the same time. I have to sometimes pick a few priorities, work on those, make some progress, and then switch gears. And then also, getting help, not being afraid to ask for help from others or work with your partner, your family members, your community, your employees, to get the help that you need to achieve all those goals, because it is really hard to do it all by yourself. And if you expect that you're not successful because you're asking for help, then you're gonna kind of end up burnt out.

Analiza: Chrissy, those words are not just powerful as a person and personal life as a mother, but also as a leader. And I'm curious, did you aspire to be CEO? I mean, that's where you ended. Were you young? Christie, wanting to be owner, CEO of a manufacturing company?

Christie: That's so interesting. Are you familiar with the little miss and Mr. Men cartoons? Someone once got me a t- shirt that said Little Miss bossy like a kid. So I think maybe it was in me somewhere, but I didn't realize it at that young age. So I didn't have a goal of being a CEO. I think I always liked having responsibility. I liked developing the organizations around me like whether they were clubs in high school or activities in college or departments in the organizations I was working in or at special events, and also expanding the scope and scale. So I have this kind of entrepreneurial, natural drive. And while I was in management consulting, I had this opportunity to shift to a more internal role. Partly, it is driven because of some personal needs. I had a family member that wasn't well and I couldn't really. I didn't feel like I could balance the travel schedule that was required to be a successful consultant with some of my personal needs at the time. So I was able to identify and the company was able to find an internal role for me where I had a chance to develop and grow and scale a functional practice. So it's sort of like an internal mini CEO position. And if you can imagine being in the bosom of a large consultancy, you have things like a very insightful board of directors. So the partners that I could work with to help shape our strategy and execute were incredibly talented. You had so much growth potential with the work we were doing, world class talent at my fingertips. So it was almost like I got to do the sort of mini CEO role within the context of a larger well support organization. And so after doing that for five or six years, I. Had an outsource external opportunity present itself. A family member was working in a business. Is actually my husband was working in a business with his father, and his father was kind of thinking through some different succession alternatives, and he approached me and asked if I would be interested in taking on the CEO role of this family business, privately held company, and I think at that time in my career, I felt like I was ready. I had already successfully proven I could grow an organization, and I think I was ready for the next kind of entrepreneurial challenge. And on top of that, I'd been telling other corporations how to do work, how to make their companies better. For 12 years, 15 years of my life as a consultant, I felt like it was time to kind of put my money where my mouth was rather than just kind of telling you in a PowerPoint presentation, here's how you can improve your company, I would have to go do it myself, and I knew that I would get some new learning skills by doing it as well. So it was a combination of kind of career unfolding, opportunities opening up and feeling ready enough to take on the next challenge.

Analiza: Would you say that the training that got you to be accelerated? I mean, you've had engineering roles. You've had consulting roles at big brands. I mean, what do you think was the key to accelerating the career? Getting, yeah, I know you get. But really, what was besides the experience and the luck, we'll call it, but like, there was real skill. What would you say that was the step?

Christie: I think some of it is just knowing an opportunity. When you see it, I think there's part of it that was hard, like hard work. You have to work hard. Everyone knows that nothing comes easy. You have to be persistent. You have to have an impact. So, do what you say and deliver on time. But I think there's a piece around just recognizing opportunity and not letting them go to waste. So whenever you're presented with an opportunity to work with some some partner who might be, particularly well regarded, or a topic that you're super interested in, or an assignment that takes you to seven different countries in eight weeks, and you see those as stretch opportunities, because it's something you've never done before. One person might say, I'm not ready for that. Another person might say, Hey, I haven't done that before. I want to build that skill set. So kind of leaning into those opportunities at the same time, I think being realistic about how much energy it takes to be successful at something new. So when you are, whenever I've sort of taken on a new opportunity, I've always tried to think, is there at least one leg to stand on? For example, if I'm taking an international assignment, do I at least know the industry, or do I at least know the team, or do I at least know the client? So do you have one leg of comfort to stand on so that you're not learning three or four different things at the same time, right? So what is your basis of comfort zone that you can just put on autopilot? Maybe so. So thinking about, what's your kind of autopilot zone when you're stretching into some of these new areas? Because if ever, if everything is brand new, it's a little higher risk, right? It's very exciting, but there's a higher risk that you might not be successful with your goals. I think the other secret, aside from having kind of the one leg to stand on, kind of thing in the back of my head, on all the times, is trying to double up and triple up with how you spend your time and let me give you an example of that. So let's say, for instance, you're approached by a nonprofit, which I'm sure you are every day, there are probably tons of organizations saying, Hey, will you be on our board? Will you do a strategy project for us? Because you're super talented, right? And you can add value on day one to that organization, but that's going to be time you're not spending somewhere else. So it's thinking about, what can this particular investment of my time and energy also create, not only value for that organization, but is it going to create value for either my career goals, my family, or my personal goals. And if you can find a double up so it's helpful for that organization, you're gonna maybe get a chair, Chairperson role, which you've never done before, and it's a powerful network in the community that you want to start building a relationship with. So there are, like multiple facets of that opportunity that can be accretive and accelerate your either progression in the community, in your career, your relationships that you're trying to develop in your community, perhaps a cause that you're very, very passionate about. What I found is that if an opportunity only has sort of one thing like, Oh, I'm going to have a positive impact on this community, it becomes a little harder to make real space for that, or you end up diluting it. Diluting the space that you do have. So I think you can accelerate just by being really intentional, right, finding these double and triple up opportunities. And I'll give you an example. I was very young at the time. I was an early parent. I think one of my kids was three years old, and I might have been pregnant with the second one, and I had an opportunity to . I'd never been on a board before, and someone approached me about a board opportunity in our community so I had never been on a board. I was working full time. I was juggling a toddler and pregnancy, and I thought, Oh, my God, the last thing I can do right now is like, take on another responsibility. But I kept thinking, this is such an opportunity, do I have time for it? And so I had to, I got really thinking about it and said, Well, you know what? This is an organization that supports my community. It's something I can bring my kids to, because it was around the arts and around summer activities. It's going to give me my first experience at a board role to get some of that kind of exposure and practice and see how a board works. So it's accretive to my career, and I'll get to know more people in my community, because I'd only lived in this particular community for three years. So there was enough there, right? There were these. I found, like, three things that could be super helpful, not only to me. So I was getting three sources of value from this opportunity, while also being able to put my strategy brain to work to help that organization so I would say yes to those kinds of opportunities. And you know, you can still get presented with loads of opportunities, and it sits around. Can you find those, those opportunities that have this win for the organization, but also these multiple sources of wins for your life.

Analiza: Christie, with that, are you ready for lightning round questions?

Christie: Oh, sure, sure. I'm terrible at these, but I'll try my best.

Analiza: Chocolate or vanilla?

Christie: Okay,Chocolate, if it's chocolate in its like chocolate bar state otherwise, vanilla.

Analiza: Cooking or takeout ?

Christie: Cooking 100% .

Analiza: Climb a mountain or jump from a plane?

Christie: Definitely climb a mountain.

Analiza: Have you ever worn socks with sandals?

Christie: Maybe once with Birkenstocks a long time ago.

Analiza: How would you rate your karaoke skills on a scale of one to 10,10 being Mariah Carey.

Christie: Five.

Analiza: What's a recent book you read?

Christie: Net positive by Paul Polman.

Analiza: What's your favorite way to practice self care?

Christie: Getting a massage.

Analiza: What's a good professional development you've done?

Christie: Ah, most recently from the stakeholder governance Institute around governance of public boards. And then earlier in my career, I did complete my MBA full time, but also continued to do executive education throughout my career. Kellogg had a great program, and Dartmouth, Dartmouth tuck program were fantastic. Both of those had excellent executive Ed.

Analiza: What's your definition of a Boss Mama?

Christie: Oh, a boss mama. Be persistent.

Analiza: And then where can we find you, like LinkedIn? Anywhere else..

Christie: LinkedIn is the best place.

Analiza: And then lastly, do you have a final ask recommendation or parting thoughts to share?

Christie: Oh yeah, maybe just to keep it simple, nurture your relationships, continue your learning and help make the world better for everybody, beautiful.

Analiza: Thank you so much. Christie, for this conversation. I really, really appreciate you.

Christie: Thanks Analiza.

Analiza: Thank you so much for carving out time to hear today's podcast. 3 things before you go. First, if you found it helpful, please leave a five star review. Second, you can get a free chapter of my book, The Myth of Success: A Woman of Color's Guide to Leadership at analizawolf.com/freechapter. And lastly, if you're interested in executive coaching, please reach out to me at analiza@analizawolf.com. Thank you so very much.