In today’s episode, Lorie Jones sits down with Shriya Josephsen, the inspiring group vice president of business transformation at Huge. From uprooting her life in India to conquering corporate America, Shriya’s journey is a masterclass in resilience and grit.
She opens up about overcoming imposter syndrome, thriving as a single parent while building an impressive career, and the invaluable support of a strong community. Don’t miss her powerful insights on taking risks, prioritizing self-care, and investing in your self-worth.
Join us for an episode that promises to ignite your ambition and fuel your professional growth!
Show Highlights:
- How navigating the unknown can lead to unexpected success. [00:04:01]
- Did you know about GE’s FMP summer-intern opportunity? [00:10:40]
- Why habitual consensus-seeking may limit a woman’s growth. [00:14:32]
- Tips to discern when to seek advice in work and life. [00:16:55]
- The transformational power of self-care and community strength for women. [00:18:54]
- Is gracious self-discovery the missing piece in your career? [00:23:33]
- Insightful advice on continual holistic personal investment. [00:26:08]
- Actionable steps to decisively defeat impostor syndrome. [00:29:22]
- How to survive your working-mom multiverse of roles. [00:33:25]
- Tap into the pivotal superpower of being unstoppable. [00:38:16]
To connect with Shriya Josephsen, go to https://www.linkedin.com/in/shriya-josephsen/.
If you enjoyed this episode, please go to Apple Podcasts and leave a review! For more information about Lorie Jones, go to http://fearless-females.com/
00:01.58
loriejones7
Good morning. Thanks so much for joining us here on Fearless Females. Today we have Shreya Josephson, GroupWise President, Business Transformation of Huge, Inc. And I'm so excited that she's joined us today. I'm really looking forward to getting to know just a little bit more about your journey. Thank you so much, Shreya.
00:23.18
Shriya Josephsen
Thank you so much for having me, Lori. I am so excited to be here. This is my very first podcast. I'm a little bit nervous, but um you know excited for for our hour together. So thank you.
00:34.92
loriejones7
You'll do great. It's all about you. And I can tell how great you are already. So we'll be fine. You'll be great.
00:42.74
Shriya Josephsen
Thanks.
00:43.15
loriejones7
so My first question is always, I'm a reader. I love reading. I've got a huge stack of books that just keeps getting bigger, honestly, because I can't read them fast enough. But what is your favorite book?
00:55.70
Shriya Josephsen
um You know, that's a great question and I would say in the world of podcasts that we live today It's always still fun to pick up a book in and read it I used to be a very avid reader when I was younger before kids ah So I will give you some suggestions that might be a little bit older, but I still think they're applicable um And I've started to pick back up on reading again So I'll share some of the the books that I am i'm reading now
01:19.38
loriejones7
you
01:21.39
Shriya Josephsen
So my all-time favorite from a nonfiction perspective is Good to Great by Jim Collins. It's a great book. If you're in business, if you are learning about business starting to get there, if you're leading a company, it's got great principles, very easy to read. I've read that a couple of times and someone suggested it to me once since it's always on my um um my table. ah the ah My all-time favorite fiction, I actually have two of them. One is The Nightingale.
01:49.31
loriejones7
you
01:49.90
Shriya Josephsen
It's a great, great book about ah World War and two sisters and their story, their passion, survival, grit. So lots of just hard stuff to read, but a great engaging book. The other one is a more recent one that I read, and that's called Lessons in Chemistry. That's super vibrant. It's by Bonnie Grims.
02:10.26
loriejones7
Mm
02:10.99
Shriya Josephsen
It is a very fast read. If you're passionate about roaming, if you're passionate about chemistry, ah it's a super fun read.
02:13.98
loriejones7
hmm.
02:19.50
Shriya Josephsen
They actually made an HBO series about it or an Apple TV series about it, one of the two. I can't remember which one. which I have not watched because I love the book so much and I don't want it to be tainted by the show. So those are my some of my favorite books um I've read. And most recently, I just started reading Courageous Calling by Ryan Holiday.
02:38.19
loriejones7
um
02:38.33
Shriya Josephsen
So we'll see how that one is. That's that's the most recent one I just started.
02:42.57
loriejones7
Well, good. Thank you for those suggestions. I love it. for not For being, you say, I don't read very much anymore, honestly. That's like like three or four suggestions right there.
02:51.16
Shriya Josephsen
okay
02:52.45
loriejones7
So I'm kind of embarrassed. I say I'm an avid reader and I don't have three or four suggestions that I'm going through.
02:56.60
Shriya Josephsen
so
02:58.82
loriejones7
So thanks so much for that. Tell me a little bit about your journey. How did you get where you are today? What do you do? Just talk to us a little bit about how you got to where you're at.
03:10.46
Shriya Josephsen
Yes, would love to share my journey. It's a little bit long and a little bit complicated, so I'm going to break it down. um So my journey actually starts in India. I was born in a town called Amritsar, which is about eight hours north of Delhi. and um I lived there until I was about 17, so grew up there most of my life. And then at the age of 17, my parents, a little bit planned, but mostly unplanned, decided to move to Chicago. So we moved, the entire family moved, packed our bags, and we were in Chicago when I was 17 as a senior in high school.
03:46.41
Shriya Josephsen
Our trip was planned, our stay was not planned. So I found myself starting high school in a new world, in a new culture, in a new system. um And I would say that year was probably one of the hardest years of my life. You know, as you can imagine, as a senior in high school, you're leaving your friends behind, you're leaving um everything behind to start brand new. um It was, while it was a tough year, it was a great learning experience um and I ended up turning that adversity that was faced into an opportunity later on. ah Finished high school in Oak Park River Forest in in Illinois and ended up going to University of Iowa for my undergrad.
04:28.19
Shriya Josephsen
I will say the reason I was there was because it was the only college that would accept me that late in the game, but I could not be more thankful to to the University of Iowa for taking my application, trusting me and and letting me be part of their their journey. So I studied undergrad. I was there for finance and management as my business degree. and I had a wonderful experience, loved the state of Iowa. After that, I started my business journey, my professional journey with GE. So my journey in the past 17 years has been GE to General Electric to then NBC Universal, which was owned by GE at that point. And I helped in the sale of GE and NBC Universal and Comcast. From there, I went to Deloitte who reached out to me asking me to join their strategy and operations practice. I was with them for over a decade.
05:20.70
Shriya Josephsen
I left Deloitte for a couple of years to go get my MBA at UT Austin. So I moved to Austin from New York. I went back to Deloitte for a couple of years and, um you know, had a wonderful time with Deloitte, loved the experience, learned so much. And then most recently, the past two ah years or so, I've been with my current company, Huge, as their Group Vice President of Business Transformation. And I am more than thankful to all of the different companies and the the experiences I've had and really how I got there and got where I am today because of it. So that's ah a lot in a nutshell, but that's a little bit about myself and kind of how I got here.
05:59.67
loriejones7
That's a really cool story. I love to hear a little bit more about ah an unplanned move to the United States at age 17.
06:10.81
Shriya Josephsen
Yes. um it's It's something I think about quite a bit now that I'm older. So at 17, my parents decided to come to the US because my dad's brother's son was graduating from Georgetown. And we had applied for tourist visa just like any other family would. um they actually The United States basically rejected our application and they said, you have a green card application and process, you cannot apply for it. It kind of surprised my dad because he had applied for that almost 17, 18 years ago, so when I was born.
06:49.99
Shriya Josephsen
And he was like, I forgot about it. I thought you forgot about it. So how are we here 17 years later talking about this application? Well, it just so happened that it got lost in the shuffle. They looked at it. They were like, you're a family of four. I'm not sure why we didn't approve you. It seems like it was a mistake. You've been approved. So miraculously, 17 years later, I had a my parents had their application approved. So we came to the US knowing that we had green cards in progress, but we had already planned this trip. We were going to go check out the US, check out a couple of states. We had never been here.
07:27.26
Shriya Josephsen
my two weeks into our vacation, so-called vacation, my dad decided that and my mom decided that it was going to be really hard to go back and forth because once you're a green card citizens, you really have to come back to the US s every year to maintain your your residency.
07:43.05
loriejones7
Mm hmm.
07:43.15
Shriya Josephsen
And it was going to be really hard financially to do that. And ah so they decided by talking with other family members that we were just going to stay. So we never went back. um I came with one suitcase and that became my sort of closet for the moment. um We came here August of 2002, so school had already started. So I was already a month behind when I joined high school. So not only was I new to high school, I was a month behind. I had to pick up classes. It was my graduating year. I had to do the requirements.
08:15.25
Shriya Josephsen
Luckily, I spoke English because that's a question I get asked a lot, but I will say the accent was what I practiced that year because I had nothing else to do. I didn't know a lot of people, so I was like, hey, I'm just going to do this. Why not? ah And that was it. that was That was the story of how we ended up here. My parents you know started starting a new life on their own, which was very hard for them. all about really taught me about resilience and that you can really overcome whatever situation you're in, um no matter what it is, if you just keep looking forward and moving forward.
08:39.02
loriejones7
Mm hmm.
08:49.03
Shriya Josephsen
So it was a very interesting time for our family, but I will say looking back, that things happen for a reason. It it just so happened to be a tough time, but we've come a long ways and we all turned it into an opportunity for ourselves.
09:04.31
loriejones7
That's it's really funny. I've got a few kids and I think they would think like yeah I don't know, and not getting an invitation to the prom or currently my daughter's car is has needs a new clutch and it's been down for like two weeks. Like that is the worst thing that could possibly happen in your life. and And you moved and a whole new culture, a whole new country and assimilated and got to college.
09:23.39
Shriya Josephsen
Yes.
09:33.78
loriejones7
And what a testament, how how brave that is, how fearless.
09:39.66
Shriya Josephsen
Thank you. No, I appreciate you saying that. It didn't seem that way at the time when I was 17. I was very angry. um But I would say yes. ah Over time, I've learned to realize that that was an opportunity for me. So instead of just complaining about it or being upset that I was here, I had left all my friends behind. i um I turned around. I was like, I should look at this as an opportunity. This is going to open so many doors for me if I wanted to. And I should see what I can do about it and and where I can take it. So yeah.
10:08.90
loriejones7
Yeah.
10:09.87
Shriya Josephsen
Appreciating that.
10:11.30
loriejones7
What is the best investment that you've made in yourself Shriya? Is there something that you can kind of look back on and you're like, Oh my goodness, if I hadn't done that, I just wouldn't be where I'm at today. Is there something you can think of?
10:24.90
Shriya Josephsen
um So let me talk to you about an example of a turning point that I had very early on in my career. I would say that was probably how I started my career. um um So I was a sophomore at the University of Iowa. you know studying finance and management. I had done a lot of odd jobs, mainly because I wanted to work, I wanted to earn money, so I had worked at a restaurant, I was a server, I sold bonsai trees, I filed insurance claims, so you can just think about any job, and I was like, I will raise my hand and do it for the experience and for the money. um But I obviously, as a sophomore, needed to apply for jobs for an internship.
11:05.03
Shriya Josephsen
So I went ahead looking at the um the job forum. I applied for a number of jobs. There were a few that I didn't meet the criteria for. And unfortunately, I couldn't get in and couldn't get an interview. ah One of them so happened to be General Electric or GE's summer program, which was their part of their financial management program, so FMP. If you know anything about that program, it's a leadership program that's over 100 years old. So it's fairly renowned. People know about it. um and they were recruiting at the University of Iowa. Well, I really wanted to apply and I couldn't. Well, so happens that somebody dropped out and they had a slot available. So we all got an email the night before saying, we have one slot available. Does anybody want to sign up? And I obviously jumped on it. So I signed up, I got the interview and I realized it was for the very next day at 8.30 in the morning.
11:59.22
Shriya Josephsen
So as a sophomore in college, you can imagine you're like, crap, how am I going to do this? So I studied, I prepared, did the best I could, ah showed up, and um I did get the the offer. I did get the summer internship. It obviously went well. I was the only one from the University of Iowa to get an internship with GE, specifically for the financial management program that summer. And I would say that for me was a very not only a pivotal moment, but it was a turning point because it started me on this career trajectory that has led me to my job today and to be the leader I am today.
12:36.16
Shriya Josephsen
And I didn't know what I was really signing up because you really don't know when you're 19, 20 what the job is going to entail. But you're like, it sounds really exciting. I'm going to be in Stanford, Connecticut for the summer. This is so cool. um It was so eye-opening. It was wonderful to have that experience. And um I will say since then, one of the lessons I learned and have continued to to work on is making in small investments. in myself, you know whether it's professionally or personally, making sure that I'm doing, taking risks, I'm continuing to move forward, whether it's finding the right mentors, whether it's raising your hand for a job, whether it it's taking a risk and applying for something you don't think you qualify for, um taking a role that nobody else wants. you know Whatever it is, doing that is is really valuable because you never know
13:25.68
Shriya Josephsen
what door is going to open for you and where are you goingnna it's going to lead you. And had I not done that, I have no idea what my journey would be, but I don't know if I would be here. So I owe a lot to for me to be like, I may not be qualified. I'm just going to try it and see what happens.
13:40.52
loriejones7
ah I think that's a really interesting idea too. I feel like like the worst they can say is no. like like What's the worst that can happen?
13:47.69
Shriya Josephsen
Yes.
13:49.65
loriejones7
right They're not going to take away your birthday.
13:50.63
Shriya Josephsen
Yeah.
13:52.01
loriejones7
They're not going to do anything.
13:54.51
Shriya Josephsen
Yeah.
13:54.57
loriejones7
The worst they can say is no, just try. I love that that you were that. and Maybe some of the the fact that you had had such a ah exciting experience at 17, 18 prepared you to be willing to take those risks.
14:13.88
Shriya Josephsen
Yeah, it definitely helped, probably. It's like, well, what's the worst they can do? I mean, they can't send me somewhere else. I don't want to go, so.
14:22.82
loriejones7
What about the worst advice that someone gave you? Can you think of a time that you've got some really bad advice and and did you take the advice or did you not take it? and What did you learn?
14:35.25
Shriya Josephsen
You know, this is a very interesting question. um I don't know if I have a specific advice to share, but what I will say as a as a girl, as a woman now raised in India, you know, you are raised with a very different mindset that society has set for you. um And I think women in general, it applies universally. We are always told to get approval. You have to get approval from your family, you have to get approval from your teachers, you have to get approval from the people you work with. um And that is something that was really part of my DNA as I was growing up.
15:08.98
Shriya Josephsen
Couldn't really do without talking to five, 10 different people.
15:10.77
loriejones7
Mm hmm.
15:12.15
Shriya Josephsen
And breaking that has been really hard. Is making a decision without having to get advice from someone has been really hard. And I've made it very intentional more recently in my in my life to do that. But when I was younger, especially when I was first moved to the US, that was one of those things where I was like, everybody has to agree before I do this.
15:34.01
loriejones7
Mmhmm.
15:34.09
Shriya Josephsen
So I would say it's one of those things where what I've learned over time is you can make your own decisions. What's the worst that's going to happen? Either you don't do it or you do it. so um knowing that people are going to tell you certain things and you might disagree or people are going to say that this is what like society expects of you, and it's up to you to decide, well, that's cool for them, but I'm just going to go about doing it the way I want to do it. It makes a big difference, but you don't realize that until you're older and you've been through life a little bit. um So I wish you know that was something I did earlier on, but I obviously am still learning. It's still part of my DNA, so it's still hard to get rid of it. it still
16:14.79
Shriya Josephsen
I still think of it at times, getting approval, consensus, not all the time, but it's still there. So I would say that would be maybe not the worst advice, but a big part of upbringing and just professional and personal journey is is being held back because you're looking for approval. You're looking for that and acknowledgement from others that you're doing the right thing.
16:36.35
loriejones7
Well, and you can always find a lot of different opinions as to what you should do. And sometimes, you know, I find that those opinions are all biased on one side. And I think that I should be doing this and everyone else thinks I should be doing this. So do you still ask for the the opinions of others? and And then you just kind of take it with a grain of salt, so to speak. Or do you um have you gotten to the point where you're like, I can make this decision without asking a bunch of people?
17:07.35
Shriya Josephsen
I think it's both. I think they're I'm getting to the point where I have a gut feeling now where I know what I want to do, like doing your podcast. It was a little bit of like, I'm going to do it. This is my very first one. and It's going to be probably a little bit nerve-wracking, but I'm just going to do it. And then I'm going to share it. But there are times where if I'm making a much bigger decisions like taking a job or looking to get promoted, I will find my mentors and ask them to guide me. But I try to diversify it. It's not someone who's always going to be like, absolutely do it.
17:37.88
Shriya Josephsen
I always try to find multiple opinions so that I can make the right decision that's going to help me succeed longer term and thinking ahead. So I think it really varies. Sometimes I'm like, especially now as a mom of two boys, I'm like, there are times where I'm like, I'm just going to do this and we'll ask for forgiveness later. But then there are others where I'm like, I should just ask what people have done and see what people have done and then decide what's best for me, my family.
18:01.45
loriejones7
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I, ah as a mom, I've, I've got five kids, but three boys. And I hear you right there because I'm like, they don't give you any instruction manuals. They don't tell you what to do. And most of the time you're just basically winging it and hoping you and you don't mess up. So, so you're, you're going to do great.
18:19.75
Shriya Josephsen
Yes.
18:20.70
loriejones7
They turn out great at the end. I promise you.
18:24.01
Shriya Josephsen
So I imagine all your kids are older, all five of them.
18:27.23
loriejones7
I do. My youngest just graduated from high school, so I do have ah older kids. So I've been through the the three little boys stage where they just, I felt like I probably didn't sleep for months straight.
18:32.11
Shriya Josephsen
Wow.
18:39.68
loriejones7
I bet you ah bet you i bet you have been there.
18:43.88
Shriya Josephsen
Yes, yes, mine are seven and four. So I would say I'm i'm coming out of that phase, but it's exhausting with them because they are just go, go, go all the time.
18:54.58
loriejones7
So what about a situation, if you can look back over your journey in your career and you say, Oh gosh, if I had known then the same, you know, what I know now, I would have handled that so differently. Is there something you can think of like that?
19:11.21
Shriya Josephsen
um
19:13.54
Shriya Josephsen
I don't know if I have anything that I would say I wish I had done differently. i What I would say is I wish I had more self-care and self-compassion.
19:21.55
loriejones7
yeah
19:21.62
Shriya Josephsen
We are so hard on ourselves as women. We want to do so many things. We're juggling so many things. We're playing so many role roles at the same time. um I would say knowing that I can invest time in myself more, i would that's one thing I would remind myself. i get i Again, like I feel like as you get older, you just get better at certain things, and this is one of those things where I take the time now to work out, to read, to go hiking, to do things that I like, to go out and try a new restaurant. You're so busy trying to go from place to place, and even especially when you're raising a family, that having that and in um time for yourself is just so important, and we lose that over time. And I would say, wish I'd done more of that.
20:06.92
loriejones7
Is it giving yourself permission to spend time on yourself that's hard or is it finding the time? like i I'm not good at this. I was just talking to one of my sisters and I'm like, I'm bad at balance. I don't have any, I'm not great at this.
20:20.28
Shriya Josephsen
No.
20:21.24
loriejones7
So how so enlighten me, how do you do that?
20:25.68
Shriya Josephsen
I think it's a little bit of both. it's You feel the the mom guilt a little bit for spending time on yourself. Like I go out to the room like I should be with my kids. I think you have to realize if I, for me personally, I've realized if I don't do that, if I don't invest time in myself and carve out time, I Well, I'm not going to be the best version of myself for my kids or my job because then I'm doing things for everyone else. Like when is it time for me? So finding an hour or two, I wouldn't say every day, but intentionally finding time has become so important for me.
21:01.24
loriejones7
Mmhmm.
21:01.33
Shriya Josephsen
And it could be time with your friends. It could be fine time alone. It could be time working out. um It's become a part that I've started doing more so very recently, like I would say in the last year. So this is not something that's been going on for a while. In the last year or so, I've realized that if I do it, I'm a happier person, and then everything around me seems a lot easier to manage. um Obviously, it's really hard when you have kids nonstop asking for things, but even, you know, I'm okay with them watching TV, so I can just have that time to myself.
21:35.02
Shriya Josephsen
And I think that's okay, that balance and and having that boundary and not being too hard, like, no, I'm always having to do things with them because that's what's expected of me. um Because I do think we play so many roles and are expected to do so much, that i having those boundaries has helped.
21:54.52
loriejones7
Yeah, I love that idea. And I'm working at getting better at those sorts of things too. But I really think it's important that you, you know, sometimes as women, and especially as professional women, we just get overwhelmed and get, we we get to the point of burnout before we're willing to stop and, and adjust and take that time to recharge and, and fill our own buckets, so to speak. And I i love
22:20.78
Shriya Josephsen
Yeah.
22:21.36
loriejones7
that you have figured out that before you got to the brink of insanity.
22:30.14
Shriya Josephsen
100%. I think the other thing I would add is having a good tribe is really important. I found a my community that I live in, I found a group of moms and ah some of them are working professionals, some of them are stay-home moms. And we found each other and we rely on each other for for things as well. So going to a birthday party and dropping my kid off to be like, okay I'll be back in two hours because I need those two hours to go for a walk to run to the store and having the ability to do that has is another way that I find you can really spend time on yourself it doesn't have to be perfect it just has to be the break that you are looking for for a few minutes to just reset yourself find your ah new rhythm or take a break from something um whatever it may be I think having that community and tribe has
23:20.40
Shriya Josephsen
been phenomenal, especially since I've had kids. So that's another thing that I would i would suggest um outside of just finding time for yourself. If you can find people that help can help you find time even better.
23:33.55
loriejones7
Yeah, I think that's a good point to like a lot of times you don't see yourself heading to that to the burnout phase or to the, the really too busy and, and, and happy phase and, and your girlfriends do, you know, and they can say, Hey, you know, maybe you just want to take a minute.
23:47.66
Shriya Josephsen
Yes.
23:52.29
Shriya Josephsen
Yes, yes, it's it it is true. And if you have some good friends, they will tell you that.
23:56.96
loriejones7
yeah What about if you could go back and talk to your younger self in like 20, 21, 22, like you choose the age, but if you could talk to yourself at the beginning of your journey, what would you tell her?
24:13.86
Shriya Josephsen
I would tell her that it's going to be okay, not to be too hard on yourself, ah that keep moving forward the way you are. ah I would probably focus on more self-discovery. You know, we, again, as women, we tend to start playing so many roles, whether it's the family role, whether it's the mother role, with the wife role, the caretaker role, the professional role that a lot of times we forget to recognize who we are as as women and Knowing that early on and keeping that even though you are going to change is so important so I would remind myself if I was 20 to you like you you are great as you are and you are going to grow and you're gonna become a better person and it's okay to let change happen and
25:02.75
Shriya Josephsen
But at the same time, don't lose yourself because you are starting to play all these other roles at the same time and because you want to do so much and society is expecting you to do so much. So continuing to sort of invest yourself and and finding time. um And slowing down when you need to. You know, I was in my 20s, I obviously wanted to make the professional leap. And then later on, when I had my kids, I realized I needed to slow down a little bit. Because I needed a pause for them and I couldn't do all of it all the time So something had to give and knowing that it's okay to do that because it's a journey that you're on um And you will get back on track like it's it may take a little bit longer and that's okay um But you it might turn out to be even better than you expect it, you know I'm sure at 20 I thought I wanted to be a C-suite executive by the time I was like early 40s and um
25:59.02
Shriya Josephsen
Hopefully I can still get there, but if it takes a little bit longer, that's okay. you know Having that ability to adjust and be versatile is so important, but you don't realize that when you're 20 because you don't know what life has got ahead for you. and That's something that I've learned over the years too, is just to just slow down when needed um and learn about yourself and and know where your boundaries are and where your limits are. so
26:22.71
loriejones7
I think that's a really important point, too, to understand that that you aren't just you know vice president. You aren't just mom. You aren't just wife. You you you are Shriya as well. You've got your own unique needs and wants. and and plan. How do you get in touch with that though? Like, like, how do you say, sit down and have like a, ah I don't know, an interview with yourself and say, Hey, where are you, where you want to go? Are you do, are you heading in this direction and like course, correct? Like, how do you do that?
27:03.64
Shriya Josephsen
ah You know where I've started to do that is I've started to listen to my gut more. um I've started to listen to myself more. There are times where I'm asking myself the question of, am I happy doing this? Like, am I happy making this decision? Do I want to do this? Even if it's as simple as friends inviting you to go out for a brunch or a lunch, or you're like, do I really want to go and do that right now? Or do I much rather sit and watch and binge watch a show on Netflix or, you know, at a prime? What I may be, I think making some of those very easy decisions and knowing that you are the decision maker and you are the one who controls your destiny
27:40.66
Shriya Josephsen
and can stare at whichever way you want, even for smaller things like that. I think it's how you do it. It's how you figure out how you're going to invest your time. And because if you were deciding where all your time goes, you're probably very happy at the end of the day. If everybody else is draining your time um and you have nothing for yourself, then you're always constantly trying to fight it and then you're exhausted at night you don't get good sleep um you know one of the things most recently i realized is working out is how i.
28:12.24
Shriya Josephsen
am able to sleep through through the night. If I don't work out or break my momentum, I wake up in the middle of the night. And that was a self-discovery for me after not working out for a week or two weeks, and realized it was like, why am I suddenly not feeling great? And it was that. So just doing, you know, self-reflecting a lot, and not about your family around you, the world around you, it's about the one thing you can control, which is you.
28:38.03
loriejones7
Mm hmm.
28:38.15
Shriya Josephsen
And how can you do things differently and then starting to make that change because you will see that if you change within you, the things that will make you and do things that will make you happy. I mean, everybody else can do whatever they want.
28:49.01
loriejones7
Hmm.
28:51.76
Shriya Josephsen
You will look at things differently. And I think that to me has been a lesson that recently became more obvious.
29:00.54
loriejones7
That's really insightful. I like the idea of, and I had another woman on that mentioned the same thing, like you're in charge of your time and you're saying you're in charge of your decisions too, like check with yourself. And I think if you make those smaller decisions very thoughtfully, like, you know, do you I want to join this group or go go with this friend or do this thing?
29:15.38
Shriya Josephsen
Okay.
29:25.22
loriejones7
If you make those smaller decisions very thoughtfully, maybe it makes it easier to make the bigger more you know complex decisions.
29:34.68
Shriya Josephsen
100%. You're happier making decisions because you're doing things that you want to do. um And even bigger decisions of do you want to go back to work full time after you have kids? Do you want to take that promotion? Do you want to continue climbing the ladder? Are you happy where you are? Do you want to retire early? All of those decisions in my mind, you want to add more to your plate, become easier when you are in a place that mentally you're Clear about what you want and that only happens when you have the time to think about what you really want and what makes you happy Um
30:10.96
loriejones7
What about, um, what scared you the most when you started on your journey? Is there, like, from listening to you, Shreya, I'm not sure anything scared you. Moved to place, started a new thing.
30:28.01
Shriya Josephsen
um I would say i what scares me and still to this day is imposter syndrome.
30:34.78
loriejones7
Okay.
30:36.84
Shriya Josephsen
I think as women we all have Probably more so than men have imposter syndrome, where we are always continuously self-doubting. Do I deserve that but ah comp that I'm getting? Do I deserve the salary I'm getting? Do I deserve the um the raise I'm getting? Do I deserve the promotion I'm getting? Do I deserve this new position I'm applying for? I mean, going back to when I started ah even my professional journey. I think that is still something that scares me and interestingly Michelle Ashby was the one who was talking to her about this a couple weeks ago and she's the one who told me she's like somebody told her that a little bit of imposter syndrome is actually not bad.
31:15.06
Shriya Josephsen
And I had never thought about it that way, you know, because you're always thinking about things black and white. And what I realized is actually true. Because you are a little bit of self-doubt, it makes you want to work harder. It makes you want to do better. So having a little bit of imposter syndrome is not bad. Now, when I was younger, I'm sure I had a lot of it because I was like, can I even be with these group of people, like starting my journey with Deloitte? Like, yes, Deloitte reached out to me. Yes, they wanted me to come join their practice. ah finance practice within and strategy and operations, but Deloitte has some really qualified, brilliant people and they hire it from the best schools in the country.
31:52.43
Shriya Josephsen
And I was always like, do I meet that criteria? Am I qualified to be here? I mean, I was with Deloitte for 13 years. So clearly I was, but continue to question myself over and over again.
32:01.96
loriejones7
Yeah.
32:05.40
Shriya Josephsen
um So I think that's the part that still scares me. So I have to keep that in balance. And I would say for people that are starting out, um you know, raise your hand when you see ah something that you don't think you're qualified for because of the imposter syndrome and go for it. You might learn it a lot faster than you realize, and you might be more qualified than you realize. But having that self out is not the worst. Just knowing how you can overcome it is is probably
32:36.30
Shriya Josephsen
what has kept me going, I would say.
32:39.62
loriejones7
And so how do you how do you overcome it? like um you You try it anyway, and you've been successful, and that's worked. But but when you're you know when you're trying it, when you're to the point where, oh, I'm not sure I'm good enough, is it just fearlessness? like how do you
32:56.70
Shriya Josephsen
Um, so a little bit of overconfidence, hopefully, yes, but I think it's a little, it's also finding, um, having that tribe, having the mentors and people that can give you the confidence and the support of, no, you are amazing. You're fearless. You can absolutely do this. Like look at all that you've accomplished. Look at everything you've done. Um, finding those people and surrounding yourself with them. So when you do have that self doubt, even a little bit, And you can trust them to share it with them and for them to be like, no, I don't see it that way. I see it this way. And this is what you've done because you are going to have moments of self-doubt. You are going to make decisions that are going to be wrong.
33:34.41
Shriya Josephsen
That's the only way you learn. Hopefully they're not big decisions. They're small decisions. um And really how you yourself correct and you move past ah where you think you are with imposter syndrome because a lot of the times others don't have it or others have it, they just don't share it. And I would say men tend to be really good about hiding imposter syndrome more than women do. So even having men mentors is is great because they will give you confidence and support you that sometimes, you know, you may not be able to find with other women. And so diversifying that way has, that's what I found helpful is some of early on some of the mentors that I had a Deloitte, some of the partners there were so keen in um and helping make sure that I was able to move on giving me the confidence you can absolutely do it. And having that is is also, I think that's probably the best way to get get past it.
34:32.67
loriejones7
Yeah, that's great. That's really, great you know, a great idea to think about that, about um finding the tribe that will support and help and push and and give you the confidence to try.
34:47.24
Shriya Josephsen
Yes, 100%.
34:49.55
loriejones7
What about any unique challenges coming up, you know, through the ranks and along your journey as a woman? Did you face anything unique because you were female?
35:04.42
Shriya Josephsen
Yes, that's a great question. So um I'll throw in something more for my story for you. um So i one of the hardest years, other than when I was 17, was when I had to raise my son alone. So I raised my older son, who's now seven, um for the first 16 months of his life all by myself. I lived in Austin. I had a full-time job that I didn't want to stop working. um My parents lived in Chicago. They even asked me to move there. And I was like, nope, I'm going to do it here. And the reason was my um husband at that time, now ex-husband, was getting deployed with the Texas National Guard to Somalia.
35:47.30
loriejones7
Mm.
35:47.41
Shriya Josephsen
And so he was leaving three days after our son was born and I was probably not prepared for motherhood because I just raised my hand. and I was like, how hard can it be? Well, mother is the hardest job. A newborn is a whole other ballgame. So I found myself in a situation where I was like, all right, I signed up for this. This is absolutely impossible. But I have to do it because I have a newborn to take care of and raise. ah That was a challenge in itself. ah what Obviously, I survived it. I don't know how I survived it, but I survived it. And I came a lot stronger on the other side. And I think a lot of what since then, i've what I've talked about on this podcast so far, what I've become is probably, for that reason, the resilience and the grit and all of that has really just
36:42.84
Shriya Josephsen
I think pulled together for me and and helped me get through that ah those 16 months. But I would also say that having a great ah support system, so you know obviously my friends around me, family when I needed them, but then having an employer that was willing to let me come back, but being less flexible. So if I needed to go do daycare pickup, if I needed to take care of a sick newborn, which happens all the time, if I needed to wake up in and and take them to the doctor, all of those things they were okay with.
37:08.14
loriejones7
Yeah.
37:12.50
Shriya Josephsen
But it was a long 16 months, a lot of weekends, Raising a newborn by myself a lot of long days and nights um I would say that was a very challenging year and that's when I realized I needed to kind of take a step back from my career you know I needed to focus on just this and I I would say at that time is when I really lost myself too right because you don't have time for yourself That's been self-care, self-compassion, just go out the door, because how are you going to even think about it? And you find yourself in a very difficult place at the end of ... I found myself in a very difficult place at the end of it, and I think that's where some of this self-reflection took place, and I realized if i have to be if I want to be successful, if I want to be better and happy, I need to make i need to change things both
37:59.17
Shriya Josephsen
by myself and you know um the situation around me. So it was it was ah an awakening, but it was a very interesting, challenging time. It's probably the the one thing I'm the most proud of as well in my life, I would say, um even more so than the moving here at the age of 17. And he's wonderful. He's turned out to be great. yeah He's a great grade seven-year-old, so yeah.
38:23.95
loriejones7
Yeah, I know. they It hits you like a ton of bricks when they put that little baby in.
38:28.40
Shriya Josephsen
Yes.
38:31.55
loriejones7
I'm not sure any of us as parents and you know probably others can back me up. like None of us know what we're getting into. We all praise our hands and we're like, sure, how hard can it be? And then we figure out how hard it can be.
38:42.72
Shriya Josephsen
Now, really hard, like the sleepless nights, but figuring out whether you're pumping, you're breastfeeding, you're formula feeding, among all the other things, um recovering, like I ended up having a C-section with him.
38:44.43
loriejones7
ah
38:58.03
Shriya Josephsen
so self-recovering myself and in it, that goes out the window. You're like, what, me? I don't need any time for me. How do I do all of the other things I'm supposed to do as a mother? So I think that ah did not know what I was signing myself up for, but got a very quick lesson in it.
39:14.07
loriejones7
it um and It sounds like your company was really supportive though during that time. And that that was early on and before you know the day onsite daycares and the maternity leave or paternity leave, family leave act even was born. So so that that's nice that the company had those already.
39:37.97
Shriya Josephsen
Yes, yeah, my company ah Deloitte at that time, I was was one of the early ones that was starting to give, you know, four and a half, five months, and then you can add additional time on it. So having that and having very supportive people at the company itself. um being like, hey, it's okay if you need to do it. If you need to step away, it's okay if you can make that. um But not penalizing me for it, right? Definitely slowing down my career because obviously I'm not doing as much work, which is expected of them, but not penalizing me for it. I think it was a big part. It was a big relief um for for the time I was going through. So yes.
40:13.65
loriejones7
Yeah, that's great. Shriya, you kind of alluded to this before, but can you tell us what is the thing you're most proud of?
40:24.29
Shriya Josephsen
i am I would say yes, so so ah surviving those 16 months is what I'm most proud of. um But I would add to that is, you know coming out of that, it I had my second, he's now four. At the end of those four years, which was a COVID baby, so that was a whole another challenge in itself. Coming out of all of this, you know I had to really step back and focus on who I wanted to be in the next 10 years, 15 years of my life. And I had to reflect on things that had happened. And in doing so, you know I decided to make a change. um My husband and I separated at that time. We've been separated for a few years. We have a great relationship. We are great co-parents to our kids. ah We help each other out where we need it. We support each other. So it's been great, but really proud of obviously surviving all of these moments in my life. But then at the same time,
41:18.91
Shriya Josephsen
making sure that I have my goal in mind and where I want to get to and having that to look forward to and making myself more and more valuable as I move forward in my life and not just looking at the things that happened and pausing and being like, this is it, you know, I can't do it anymore. I think that is what makes me proud of myself. is that I have the ability to continue to move forward despite all the things that life throws at you, and you just never know what it's going to throw at you, um is is something that you know I'm really proud of. And I'm very proud of who I am today, and I don't think I would have gone there had some of these things not happened to me and what I did about it. so
41:58.63
loriejones7
Yeah, that sense of grit of just getting through and coming out on the other side with not only intact, but better for having gone through the experience. That's an accomplishment.
42:11.94
Shriya Josephsen
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that.
42:15.74
loriejones7
Any advice for a young woman who's just starting down this path that you've been so successful at to help her
42:26.03
Shriya Josephsen
um For women starting, or young women starting, I would say a few things. One, have grit. in and whatever you're going whatever you're passionate both personally and and professionally, try and be resilient when life is going to be hard. um and Those are the moments you're going to learn the most. You're going to learn who you are in those moments. ah Continue to invest in yourself. you know Find yourself to be more valuable as you go on this journey. It is a long journey. so don't get
42:56.70
Shriya Josephsen
don't Don't get defeated if you do something and it doesn't turn out to be your way. Find another way to to go around and maybe you'll end up doing something differently that um it will be even more valuable. And I will also say, lastly, just so go for it. you know Apply for that job, go for the promotion, go talk to that person, network that with that person that you've been wanting to. Take some risks because you just never know what opportunity will end up opening up that door for you and where you end up going from there.
43:28.33
Shriya Josephsen
So some of those things are things that I've learned that I've done, whether that was intentional or or not, and it's it's paid off. And I continue to keep that in mind as I move forward. So having that in your in the back of your mind is great. And then obviously, find time for yourself.
43:46.39
loriejones7
I love that.
43:46.80
Shriya Josephsen
Do that.
43:46.93
loriejones7
That's the one I'm working on. I always take something out of these interviews to kind of, I'm like, okay, that's the thing I'm going to try to do better at. That's the thing I'm putting on my list to work on. And I i love that, that idea of self reflection that we've talked about today and, and kind of, um, checking in with yourself and, and trying to see if you're still on the path that you want to be on or if you need to adjust. So I really appreciate your time today, Sri and I appreciate all your insights. um If I have a young lady listening to this that wants to get in touch with you, how does she do that?
44:24.23
Shriya Josephsen
Oh, absolutely. Well, she can reach out to me on LinkedIn. So if she just looks up Shriya Josephson, she can find me on LinkedIn, but I'm also happy to share my email, which is just my first name dot last name at Gmail dot com. So hopefully that's fairly easy to find.
44:38.76
loriejones7
Well, perfect. Thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate you joining us and sharing your journey.
44:44.68
Shriya Josephsen
Thank you.