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. Hi everyone. I'm thrilled to be with Melissa Santoro today. She and I are in the board directors program, corporate board directors program, which is how I know Melissa. Melissa has a background in finance and strategy with 20 years of experience, primarily with Fortune 500 companies in the retail and consumer goods industries. She's had recent roles in startup-like divisions, newly formed legal entities, bringing something new and innovative to the organization. She's also dedicated to promoting diversity in leadership, and she's involved in Angel investing, board membership in various leadership groups. Melissa, I am so excited for you to be here. Thank you for joining us.

Melissa 1:38 Thank you so much, Analiza, for having me. I'm thrilled to be here with you today,

Analiza: Melissa, let's talk about how you have propelled your career. You've taken many different directions, everything from startups to Fortune 500 companies. What has been in your back pocket as a skill or a mindset that has helped you be successful?

Melissa: So I think one of my strongest strengths is I'm able to go into something, anything, and figure it out. So being a really good problem solver, having a lot of curiosity to understand something, asking a lot of questions, and being able to build and rebuild. Often, in business, you learn and you pivot and you grow also. I think throughout my career, I've been the one where there's a project that no one on the team wants to do, and I just say, oh, I'll just take it. I'll work on that. And you never know where that leads you, because it could always lead to something really interesting, and you learn something new, but an exciting new project, a new pathway.

Analiza: I want to talk about that idea, because often there is uncertainty. A project comes up as a woman, it's often if it's not a project people want. Hey, Melissa and Analiza, can you take on this project? So I'm curious, what's the difference between being the person who proactively wants one of these projects that feel risky, that feels uncertain, or being a person who gets dumped on, what's your perspective there?

Melissa: Well, you certainly have to have boundaries. You certainly have to understand the difference there and and know when other people need to be involved in the project and have some accountability, but I'll give you some examples. One of my roles in my career was I ended up taking every project, and it started really small, like someone's like, Hey, can someone put together a list of fine jewelry doors? And I was a director at the time. So what? Oh, okay, you want me to spend time pulling a list of doors. You wouldn't expect that to be a project, but I didn't think of it that way. I just said, Oh, if that's fine, I'll do it. And then what were we doing it for? Well, we ended up launching a whole pilot program around fine jewelry, and I was able to be involved in the whole project, doing all the ROI analysis for it. And as it turned out, my responsibility from then on was doing all the ROI analysis on the new initiatives. And at the time, I have to tell you, that was such an exciting role, because we were going, I was in retail, and it was not to date myself, but it was like 2011 RFID buy online in store, Omni channel. Those were all the new hot initiatives that were coming up, and I was the one with my team doing all the analysis on those projects for the company, which ultimately led to the decision making of whether like which direction to launch in on those on those initiatives, and which ones were going to be first, and how we were gonna if we were gonna get capital allocation for them, but you never know what a little task will turn into.

Analiza: I hear Melissa's curiosity that it's not just about taking on projects that feel risky and maybe are not popular. It's actually also about being curious you've navigated in. In many different not only types of companies, from startup to Fortune five hundreds, but also in different industries. And I'm curious how curious. I'm curious how Curiosity has played a role in taking on what feels like a zigzag type of opportunity. It's not just a project to find jewelry now that I'm talking about, but actually a big decision in terms of what jobs to take. How has curiosity played a role here?

Melissa: Yeah, I've never had that fear that I can't change industries, and in finance and strategy, I've always looked at it as a very transferable skill, where some people do think you're very pigeon holed to your industry. And so I started out in consumer products. I went into insurance for a while. Went into retail. But even within those industries, different industries, the functional teams that I worked on, I went everywhere and just had the curiosity to learn and to engage with new stakeholders and to help influence the decision makings in the organization.

Analiza: So let's try to get even more. Drill down to your superpower. This idea of curiosity is about being open minded, that even if you don't have background, contacts, expertise, relationships, you're going to be curious to try it. Be curious to try it. So there's a curiosity to learn about it and try it. So I feel like that is a theme that you're talking about. The other thing that I hear you saying is that there is, along with the curiosity, a confidence that you can do it, and even if you are new to fine jewelry, I'm definitely new to that, this confidence that your curiosity and your skills will get you through. So that's definitely something I'm also hearing and would you say there's another thing that has gotten you to success on top of having strong skills, confidence and curiosity.

Melissa: Definitely having a strong support system and a strong community, and stepping into something new and figuring it out, part of it is having a resource to go to to teach you. I'll give you an example when my last role in Macy's, I worked in Macy's backstage, and it was unique in that I covered the whole entire financial profile of the company, of that legal entity. And so I ran the whole piano, whereas in Macy's, because the organization was so large, you were very siloed into one specific, almost a line item on the piano, because it was so large what you managed. And so I would, I got this package, one of my first Okay, fill out the the the s1, package, which is the whole entire package of financial statements and so okay, this tab I am really familiar with, and this tab, I know what it is, but how do I fill out these, these different lines? And I was calling people from different departments, like, come to my office right now, and utilizing your network and having a support system is going to be critical also in achieving success.

Analiza: It's almost like you say, Let's take big leaps. That for you, when you explain it to me, don't feel like huge leaps, changing industries, changing jobs, taking on a new role, new company, and for you, curiosity, confidence in your skills, but also knowing that even if you don't know how to do it, you can call phone a friend, or phone something, someone who's not even maybe yet, a friend. And I'm curious because I'm curious. I'm curious because of these skills, the curiosity, the confidence, and then the community. Were they things that you had already been when you were young, say, six year old Melissa, were you always curious, always confident, always knowing and relying on your community? Or was this, or any of these skills you had to build over time?

Melissa: So as an example, as a young child, I had a really large family. I have a really large family. I'm the oldest of five. My parents both come from large families, and I had a large extended family. My mother's side of the family, we had 16 cousins all together, and two, two male and 14 female. And I also always had a very supportive community in my personal life. I always had really close friends from a young age growing up that acted as a really supportive community, and then over time, learned to grow that in business as well, through your college network, your. Early Career Network, and then just I would say, in the early part of my career, I was very good about having a supportive community and a network within finance, within the functions that I supported or the organization I worked for. But more recently, I've expanded well beyond that, and built my community out further and and so the network, and through curiosity and the network, that combination have have grown and supported it and the confidence, the confidence it's there, but it gets stronger over time as you really embrace your authentic self and you just show up as who you are. I think that that's where your confidence really comes out. And I would say that comes for me. Anyway, I came later in my career, even though I was really good at my jobs and very talented, I never was overly confident or felt totally comfortable in my skin, where now I'm just like, here I am. Here I am everyone.

Analiza: Melissa, I want to talk about this offering that's coming up. And I know we both share a passion for diverse leadership, diversity and leadership. Could you talk about the program that you're going to be offering?

Melissa: Yes, thank you for asking. So I'm, for the first time, I just completed my instructor certificate, and I'm launching a workshop, and it's called cultivating a growth mindset in the modern workplace. It's very much topic oriented to what we've been talking about today. So it focuses on the importance of your network and building your network, having curiosity, and following that curiosity on your career path. And then as women, specifically, finding that balance in our personal ecosystem between our career, our health and our wealth, and just based on some interesting statistics, also that as women, we're projected to have a long lifespan right now, and over that time, we may have one to five different careers. So how do we get there? What do we do? How do we have curiosity and use our network to fulfill that and to and to do that? And also the fact the great wealth transfer that more money is going to be moving into the hands of women to make those financial decisions, and that has the power to really shape and change society. So what's that going to look like? 90% of women in their lifetime, whether they want to or not, will be responsible at some point for managing their own finances. So knowing all of this, how do we prepare ourselves? How do we give ourselves the knowledge, and how do we set our expectations and prepare ourselves for what's to come in the future? So that's what the program is about, focusing on those three pillars. It's 45 minutes long, and it's going to be live on March 5, on the Z school platform. And I think, and Analiza, we can share the link. Is that okay?

Analiza: Absolutely, we'll definitely do that. Wonderful Melissa, let's go to lightning round

Chocolate or vanilla.

Melissa: Ooh, vanilla

Analiza: Cooking or take out.

Melissa: Definitely take out.

Analiza: Climb a mountain or jump from a plane.

Melissa: Climb a mountain.

Analiza: Have you ever worn socks with sandals?

Melissa: Never - anytime I don't have to wear socks, the better.

Analiza: How would you read your karaoke skills on a skill one to ten, ten being Mariah Carey.

Melissa: Yikes. Four, which might be generous, unless I'm in the car, then I give myself a 10

Analiza: What's the recent book you read?

Melissa: I'm reading Triumph by Talila Millman.

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

Melissa: Yoga. I love yoga.

Analiza: What's a good professional development need done

Melissa: The CFO program at Columbia University, and also Anna Lisa our program, of course, stakeholder impact foundation.

Analiza: What's your definition of a boss mama?

Melissa: Boss mama, someone who is leading by example for women of the future.

Analiza: What advice would you give your younger self?

Melissa: Be fearless, be curious. Get out there. Do it sooner. Build your network. Start earlier.

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

Melissa: I think LinkedIn is the best. And then the new workshop, which the link will share?

Analiza: Do you have a final ask recommendation or any parting thoughts to share?

Melissa: I think as women, we have to learn to build community and support each other, to be our authentic selves and to self advocate, but to create a community of support. And support each other. Be a mentor. Find great mentors and I love to connect with people. So please reach out on LinkedIn and connect with me. Send me a message though on how we met, so I know who you are.

Analiza: Wonderful. Thank you so much, Melissa for sharing her story and all this great advice. Thank you, Analiza.

Melissa: It's a pleasure to be here and an honor.

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.