May 6, 2024 • 32 mins
Women are not only natural entrepreneurs, they’re also uniquely equipped to solve the world’s future problems, according to author Brooke Markevicius. In her new book, “The Future Built by Women: Creating a Brighter Tomorrow Through Tech and Innovation,“ Brooke encourages and empowers women to live at the forefront of technological, social, and business change. Plus, Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes talk about parenting at an “older” age, and dopamine decor. What’s your take? Hit us up: hello@thebrightsidepodcast.com.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Today on the bright Side, author and entrepreneur Brooke Markovicis
is here to show us what's missing from tech today
and how women are going to transform it. It's Monday,
May sixth. I'm Simone Voice.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
I'm Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side from
Hello Sunshine. All Right, how was the weekend?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
It was amazing? Okay, you know how I've talked about
my gaggle of GORP girls, the GGG. Yes, yes, So
a founding member of the GGG was in town this
weekend and she was staying at this really nice airbnb.
I picked her up. We went to go get Margarita's
and Mexican food for Cinco de Mayo. We had fun.
We had a fun little Sunday.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I feel like the GORP girls always have fun together always.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
That's the number one rule of gorping. Yeah, how was
your weekend?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
I had a preparatory weekend because you and I are
headed to New York for the podcast upfronts. And I
got a massage, a facial, I did a manny petty
damn girl. I haven't had like that kind of a
prep weekend in a while. It was great. Now I'm
ready to go to the East Coast with you.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
I see that fresh ballet slipper manny girl.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yes, you know I've been getting this color for the
last ten years.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
You're a creature of habit Simona. Did you see that?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Ava Mendez told people that she was so happy she
waited to have kids until her forties.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
I am so glad that you brought this up, because
I really want to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Me too, because you know I have anxiety around it,
so this already.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
No.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I tell you to quell that anxiety, because you have
plenty of time. You're only thirty three, and you can
have a family.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I like wake up from my sleep every morning and
I think about coffee and the fact that I'm running
out of time.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Maybe you should chill on the coffee, maybe because maybe
you'd feel like you're running out of time less.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Maybe that's the problem.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
What was interesting here is that she said she took
a lot of heat for starting a family at forty
that people were really brutal with her, especially when she
got pregnant with her second child at forty two, and
they told her that she would be too tired to
have kids after forty That's a common thing.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I hear every older parent, like every woman who becomes
a mom later on in life, they all say it's fantastic.
They all say it's great.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Statistically they live longer.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
That's interesting. I didn't know that. Yeah, I became a
mom at thirty three, at your age, and I'm so
glad that I waited. I can't imagine being a mom
in my twenties.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Would you have been ready?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
No, See, there's this saying like, oh, you'll never truly
be ready, BS. I think you definitely reach a point
where you're like, Okay, I'm ready, and you're also you
can recognize when you're like, I am totally not ready.
I don't feel like I have enough structure in my life,
enough stability.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
So yeah, that age is different for everybody.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, definitely. But I think this is so cool that
she's normalizing it, like she's doing things on her own time,
on her own timeline, and I think that that's I
think that's really refreshing, especially in an industry like Hollywood,
you know, like we have this obsession with expiration dates
for women, and I think we need to call BS
on it.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Also, I totally agree with you, and I love that
she's talking about it because I heard Hoda say that
she thought that she was too old to be a mom,
and then she saw Sandra Bullock do it. So when
we see and hear other people do things at ages
that feel maybe past, like the median age of doing stuff,
it feels like, oh I could do it too.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, totally think about it. You have more money when
you're older most of the time, hopefully hopefully, you probably
have a partner that you trust.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Hopefully hopefully ciss your fingers.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
But speaking of partners, I just I love talking about
this family, Avia Mendez, Ryan Gosling. They are totally relationship goals.
You know Ryan, can't you say he was your to
hear me out? No? Now, No, Ryan is not to
hear me out. Ryan is a straightforward crush.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Oh I don't think so. I think he's a hear
me out.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Are you serious?
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah, he's not for me. This is not the point.
Oh we'll get back to this.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Says the girl who's hear me out as Drake. Ye,
your metrics are all off.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Good point, good point. I cannot be trusted.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Cannot be trusted anyway. So you know he's doing the
rounds for his new movie, The Fall Guy.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
So he came out and talked about how he's actually
been turning down roles where the character is like too
psychologically distraught or wherever the role is like too dark.
And this is a decision that he's come to alongside
Ava as he's become a dad, because he just realizes,
like he doesn't want to put his family through that
(04:40):
distress that often comes with doing those really heavy weighty roles.
And I just thought that was really cool, like again
for a father now to be normalizing factoring his family
into decisions in such a big way.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
I feel complicated about this because, on one hand, I
fully agree with you. I think oftentimes we hear mothers
talking about how they're going to pause at work or
make decisions for their family. It's super refreshing to hear
a father talk about it. But at the same time,
like a lot of people don't have these options, you
know what I mean, Like, it's definitely a privilege that
(05:19):
he has to be able to say yes or no
to work, and you know, sometimes it's hard to hear that.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I think he's acknowledged the privilege, though he has acknowledged that,
like I wouldn't be able to do what I do
without my wife, Ava, who has made a lot of
sacrifices as a mother and has decided to stay home
and be more present with our family.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
He's such a good feminist. I remember when he won,
was in an oscar a golden globe and he said
this is for my wife, and he talked about how
she had like a brutal moment when her brother passed,
and he's just he's a really family oriented person. Okay,
So before we dive into our interview with Brooke, which
I'm really excited for because you know that I'm not
such a but she makes all of this really digestible,
(06:04):
I have to bring something else up that we saw.
There's this trend that reminded me of our conversation with
Courtney Quinn. You guys know her as color Me Courtney.
It's called dopamine decor. So if you've been scrolling through
TikTok or Pinterest lately, you've probably seen it popping up
all over your feed. Basically, it's feel good decor. It's
(06:25):
bringing back memories of carefree childhood bedrooms. So, like favorite
celebrity posters playful signs, Lava lamps a deep sense of joy.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Why are you shaking your head? This is this trend
gives me anxiety. I mean, there's no taste involved here.
If you're bringing knowledge is about if you're bringing a
lava lamp into your homes as an older person, like
as an adult. Oh my god, major red flag.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
All I wanted was a lava lamp when I was younger,
and my parents would not get me one.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
The keyword in that phrase was all I wanted when
I was younger.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Have you seen hustle and flow?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Of course, lava lamp doesn't belong in a house that's
owned by an adult. I am a minimalist decorator. My
house is all neutrals. It's very soothing. I cannot imagine
being surrounded by all these colors, these loud colors and textures.
I wear my colors. Did you have.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Posters on your wall when you were growing up?
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Of course? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Who do you have?
Speaker 2 (07:24):
JTT? Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Jonathan Taylor Thomas. I finally we
agree on Finally. I kissed him every night before bed.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Is that how you learn how to make out?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
No, it was paper, It would have gotten too socy.
I didn't try. But yeah, JTT, I mean Devin Sawah
Backstreet boys. I didn't have any teenage hear me outs
because they were all.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
No, when you're a teenager, you're allowed to crush on anyone.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
They were all tiger beats, every single one of them.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
No, for sure, when you're a teenager, you don't look
at beauty in in like character or differences. You're just like, Oh,
that's the guy on the magazine that everyone else thinks
is hot. That's who I think is hot.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Well, I just liked pretty boys. I like these feminine
pretty boys.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
They all did.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
They all had that like that, Like.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Jesse McCarn Yeah, Jesse McCarthy was such a pretty boy.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Yeah. So wait, let me just get this straight. You
loved pretty boys as a teenager, but not into Ryan Gosling.
What's wrong with you?
Speaker 1 (08:27):
No, I grew out of pretty boys. Now. I like
character in the face.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I like like.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
A bigger nose, or bushy eyebrows, or like something different.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Just say you like an age gap, Daniell, Just say
I like an age gap. That's the only way you
get character in the face is time.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
No, you just start to look at people like I
like like an energy, I like a confidence. I don't
even care about what they look like that much anymore.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Wow, I'm learning so much. What do you think about
dopamine decorating?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
You know what's funny? This is gonna sound strange because
you know I like monochromatic everything. Yeah, I'm sort of
for this.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Well, you're you have that library at your house where
it's all rainbow colored books. They're all arranged in rainbow.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
It makes me really happy. It's very home at it.
I kind of love the idea of lava lamps, of
candle holders, of tied I. I love tied I anything.
I don't wear it a lot, but I really.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Do love it tied I in a home.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
It's just so fun makes me happy. Maybe I need
to have children and then they can decorate their rooms
like that, and then I get both the best of
both worlds.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Next up, we're going from brighter decor to a brighter
future with tech founder, entrepreneur and author Brooke Marcovicis. Stay
with us, We're back, Danielle. We are talking about women
(09:58):
in tech today, and I feel like I often have
a i don't know, like a physical reaction to that
phrase because it's typically followed by all the ways in
which women are underrepresented in the tech space. But this
is the bright side, So that means we're going to
be focusing on the solutions. We are making a point
of talking about solutions today and bringing you a vision
(10:18):
of what tech in the world would look like if
it were led by women.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
If it were led by women, all right.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
So.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Brooke Marcovicis is an entrepreneur, startup founder, and the author
of the Future Built by Women, Creating a Brighter Tomorrow
through Tech and Innovation. Her book is actually inspired by
her own journey from nonprofits to having her company Alabi acquired.
And what I love about the book, Simone, is that
Brooke not only talks about how women are just as
(10:44):
capable as men I mean, duh, but that we actually
have an advantage in the tech space because we see
fundamentally different problems that need to be solved. So Brooke,
welcome to the bright Side. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
I'm so glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Your book even has a tagline with the word bright
in it. You were meant to be here. Yeah, of course,
the future built by Women. That's such a huge phrase.
What does a future built by women look like?
Speaker 3 (11:12):
I think it's one where we're using our innate abilities
as women with empathy and kind of our intrinsic problem
solving abilities to create something that we don't have right now,
something that's brighter that we want for our kids, for ourselves.
We've leaned in, but I think now it's time to
(11:33):
really build instead of just focusing on leading, how can
we also get our hands a little dirty and start
solving the problems in ways that women can kind of
dive in a little bit deeper to Maybe we're going
to bring more empathy to the table. Maybe we are
going to bring problems that need solving with women's health
(11:53):
that hasn't been addressed in a long time. I think
that we want to dive into issues that men are
not solving.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Brooke, I want to rewind a little bit and talk
about how you discovered your why So you actually had
an entirely separate career working in nonprofits. How did that
work lead you here?
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
So, I think that women oftentimes have these career pivots
and jumps because we discover new things that we want
to achieve, that we want different impact. For me, I
was always fixing everybody's tech problems in our nonprofit, so
I was always the one everybody would call and say, Brook,
can you come to my office? My computer crash and
(12:36):
I don't know what to do. But the thing that
kind of flipped the switch for me is I was
watching a video about how Microsoft was setting up tech
centers and third world countries, and I was like, Wow,
there's so much power in giving people the ability to
use technology. It can allow them to increase their income,
it can get them out of poverty, it can do
(12:58):
so many really amazing things, and why are more people
not using tech for good? And with that nonprofit background,
I was like, there's a lot of problems that need
to be solved.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
And so that's really.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Where I decided to kind of take that leap into
tech and found that it wasn't as hard as I
thought it would be and that there was a lot
of potential to do good with it.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
How did you take that leap? Because I think one
of the barriers in people's minds to getting into tech,
if they aren't already in it, is how do I
even learn those skills?
Speaker 3 (13:28):
I think the first thing I did was kind of
reframe it for myself. So I did go back up
pretty traditional route, went and got my master's in computer
information systems and dove in from there because I felt
that I needed that education label to be able to
step into tech. But what I would discover as I
went through is there was a lot of things that
(13:49):
I could learn and hack together as I was going
just by purely focusing on solving a problem. And so
I stuck with one programming language that I learned, focused
on and taught myself called Rubyon rails. I saw that
that was kind of the one that a lot of
platforms were using to build fast. And they have a
cool thing called gyms, which is pre programmed code that
(14:12):
helps you build faster. So we always look for those
little things that we can do to build faster, move faster,
get our leg up in our career, and for me,
I found that that would help me to build what
I wanted to faster.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Did you have moments of feeling discouraged along the way, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
I definitely struggled a lot, especially in grad school. There
were hardly any women there that were learning tech to
begin with. I had all male professors except for one,
and it was really easy to just want to throw
the towel in. My husband's an engineer, and so I'd
often be like, can you just help me with this assignment?
(14:52):
He's like, no, you need to figure this out yourself. Wow,
that's tough love, bro, It's tough love. But if he
had just helped me, I never would have learned it.
And so I am really appreciative that he kind of
forced me into figuring it out myself. But I always
was asking just where are the women? And it's because
we didn't see it. We didn't see it as a
(15:13):
path when we were younger.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
When I was younger, I think I was in fifth grade,
my teacher had us do an exercise where we all
had to draw a picture of a scientist, a business leader,
an engineer, and everybody in the class drew a man.
And I think we have this picture in our mind
that men are business leaders, men are venture capitalists, men
are engineers, And you are really trying to disrupt that
(15:36):
by having us picture a world in which women are
the people we imagine in those positions. What do you
think makes women such great leaders?
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:45):
So I am the same way. You know, growing up,
I never saw that path to being a builder. Then,
so what I hope that we can kind of see
as women is that we have just as much ability
as men to build and to learn how to code
if we want to go that route, but we also
(16:06):
have these abilities to take a problem, Like I see
different founders right now, like Rushmasu Johnny, who is the
founder of Girls Who Code. She saw a problem with
paid leave and she worked to advocate for it and
try to solve it in Congress, but that didn't happen yet,
and so she took AI and started to build an
(16:26):
AI platform to help with getting people paid parental leave
in the New York State area. And so taking these
small problems that we see that are facing our communities
or facing our society on a daily basis and saying okay,
I can use technology to make an impact right now,
whereas maybe a male founded company would be like I
(16:48):
want to get a burrito to your door faster, which
I worked at Postmates, so I can say that. But
we're the ones that you know are at pick up
and drop off often, we're the ones that are helping
in our commun unities and we see the issues that
are being faced and we want to step in and
try to solve them. I think that women have this
innate ability to keep going. I know that for me
(17:11):
becoming a mom. I always say that it was a
superpower for me and helped me step into entrepreneurship because
you just get it done as a mom that you
just have to figure out a way to get it done.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
In a lot of ways, the Future Built by Women
is a response to some of those hurdles that you
faced launching your own company. Who did you write this
book for?
Speaker 3 (17:32):
As I dove into really writing this book, I was like,
what do I always share with people? And it always
came back to these stories. It is hard out there.
There aren't very many women that are building. There aren't
that many women in tech. Less than twenty seven percent
of women enter into STEM fields and so like less
than that actually end up and doing that in their career.
(17:55):
And so I really wrote it for the woman that
is wanting to make an impact. Maybe she is looking
to switch careers right now and she's trying to figure
out what's next for her, or she's just jumping in
after graduation, but she might be faced with a lot
of problems. And so I really hope that as women
(18:18):
dive into this book, they're able to see that there
is a framework. There have been people that have led
before us, that have been building and that it is
possible to build a brighter future. We just really need
to collectively kind of lean into each other for support
and encouragement as we dive in.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
I really love that you focus on women's stories in
this book, because, at least for me, tech sometimes feels unapproachable,
and hearing how other people have done it feels really inspiring.
There's this one case study that you talk about with
a computer programmer. Her name's Ada Lovelace. Why did you
profile her and can you share a little bit about
(19:00):
her story.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Yeah, So in the beginning of the book, I talk
about several women that made an impact in tech that
we don't often talk about. There's so many that actually
led the way. And Aida was the original programmer in
many ways. She was a mathematician by trade, and she
this was, you know, hundreds and hundreds of years ago,
(19:22):
but she led the way for all of us. And
so Aida is kind of our like Queen Bee when
it comes to programming, and she was the first one,
but we don't really talk about that women were actually
the first one of the first programmers. There's also a
key study about the Eniac team, which was a team
of former secretaries in World War Two. That are actually
(19:45):
who developed the programming language for one of the first
computers that we ever saw that came up in World
War two, and their stories were kind of buried because
the men took the credit for it. Yet they were
the ones that wrote the code for why we probably
won World Were two.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
I love that you brought up the history of programming
because this is something that I nerd out about. Tell
me if I get this right. I remember learning that
women made up the majority of programmers in the beginning
and STEM at that time, and then with the onset
of the eighties, certain toys that were marketed as STEM
(20:22):
toys were marketed directly to boys instead of girls, and
that's where we started to get excluded from STEM.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Yes, so STEM is science, technology, engineering, and math, And yes,
you are correct, and honestly, as I researched so much
for this book, I could have written a whole book
on the history of why women were left out of STEM.
It shifted significantly in the eighties, and the reason that
it was prominent even during the World War two era
(20:52):
was because women were brought back into work because men
were fighting in the war, and we also had paid
childcare which was a huge reason why women could go
to work, and so, yeah, it definitely shifted significantly back
in the eighties. We went back to more of the
focus on the family unit as well, and so society
(21:13):
really shifted and left women out, even though there were
tons of women that had been working on STEM careers
at that point.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
We're going to take a quick break and when we
come back, we're talking about how we envision the future
built by women and the incredible female entrepreneurs already paving
the way.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
We're back, so brook thinking about the impact of those
images in our society, in media, in advertising, movies. What
needs to change in order for us to really realize
a future built by women.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Yeah, that's a great question. We as women right now
it could look really bleak. And I think that if
we focus too much on trying to fit in to
the way that tech is going, it's going to be
hard for us. It's really hard to get venture funding.
We get less than two percent of funding. I was
(22:08):
one of the lucky ones that was able to raise funding,
but then it hit a hard time when I couldn't
raise funding.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
We really need.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
To lean into building bootstrapped companies as much as we
can leading into working together to build because I've seen
a lot of really great female founders shut down their
companies because they focused too much on trying to raise
funding and didn't have a focus on bootstrapping that company
and building that product in another way, because it's just
(22:39):
the money is not there for us. The system is
not set up for us, so we need to figure
out ways to build around it. And I think that
we really can if we lean into building together.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
I think of all the tech founded by women that
I utilize, I think the not comes to mind. All
of my friends say that it revolutionized the way that
they plan their weddings. Vote dot org was founded by
Deborah Cleaver, which simplifies political engagement and uses technology to
(23:09):
do so bumble like change the way women date. I
didn't know this, but the founder of Canva, Melanie Perkins,
which changed so many people's lives in terms of graphic design.
There's so many of these examples. What tech founded by
women do you utilize? What's changed your life?
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Well, Melanie's one of my favorite people, and I'm convinced
that you could do anything if you have Canva. I
can make presentations, I can completely market myself on a
regular basis. And I also absolutely love event Bright and
always have. I think Julia's genius for bringing that platform
to life, but seeing that it stayed around even in
(23:50):
this era of the pandemic, but also in all of
these different platforms that came out, event Bright always kind
of stuck there. They knew what they were building was
solving a major problem. And all of those women have
had such successful companies that lasted. They didn't just you know,
hit unicorn status and fall apart. They've lasted the test
(24:11):
of time and continue to be amazing companies.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Will you quickly share what unicorn status is? I just
learned about this.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Yeah, so there's a lot to unicorn status, but ultimately
it's where they've hit this like multi billion dollar status,
either through venture capital funding or through actual revenue. So
like Serena Williams is known for investing in tons of
unicorn status companies because she sees that potential. She knows
(24:38):
what grit is and so she often invest in those
gritty women.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
You have something in your book called the entrepreneurial equation.
Can you explain that to us?
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Yeah, so it really is this passion and purpose plus
technology really will equal that impact for you. So this
can look different at different times. For me. As I
dove in to building my company, my last company out
would be I had this really big passion to solve
flexible work for women. I did not see a platform
(25:09):
out there. There were all kinds of different ones, but
they weren't really hitting on the issues that women were facing.
So we were leaving our nine to fives, oftentimes having kids,
and we wanted to still stay in the workforce, but
we wanted a place that added community plus flexibility to it.
And so I wanted to solve for that problem. But
(25:30):
I like to break that down in the book to
remind us it doesn't have to be a complicated thing.
That we could be working on a problem without even
knowing that we're an entrepreneur. And so in the middle
part of the book, I literally talk about how to
build how to be just dangerous enough with technology, And
so I really wanted women to be able to reframe
that and see that. So there's a ton of ways
(25:52):
that you can use that entrepreneurial equation.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
What did you mean by that when you said I
want women to learn how to be just dangerous enough
with technic That sounds really sexy. Can you elaborate on that? So?
Speaker 3 (26:04):
I think that technology is not as complex as people
make it out to be, especially in this era of AI.
You can literally ask it to code you just about
anything that you want. You just need to go to
it with the right question and problem that you want
to solve. I think that if you know just enough,
just enough of how programming works can help you solve
(26:27):
a problem if you just note these core concepts.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
AI is one of those spaces that you mentioned that
you want women to show up in more. I think
a lot of us right now are so mystified by
it or even fearful of it, but we need to
change our attitude around it. Right what would you say
is the attitude that we should be adopting around AI.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
So I've been using AI for over five years, way
before Chad GPT came out in January of twenty twenty three.
But one thing that I want to encourage women is
that we were not there when a lot of the
era of technology took off with social media apps prior
to that, which was generally the World Wide Web, and
we've been left out. We've been left out in the data,
(27:12):
we've been left out and how products have been built.
And I don't want us to be left out in AI,
because AI is going to completely change the way that
we work our society, and if women's voices are not
a part of it, and women's data is not a
part of it, we're going to be in trouble in
the next ten years. And so I encourage women to
(27:32):
make it really simple. Open up chat GVT at least
once a day and start asking it questions for things
that you're stumped on. Maybe you're trying to write an
email or an article, or you are trying to figure
out what place to travel next. Just start using it
and asking it questions. And one that's going to allow
(27:53):
chat GPT to hear more women's thought processes and things
that we're interested in and looking into because it keeps
all of that data. But it also allows you to
see how fast you can do things with AI and
how much faster it can help you to move forward
and save you time.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Danielle, you know that experiment that you were talking about
when you were in fifth grade and you had to
draw what a leader looks like, Well, that is exactly
what's happening with AI right now. The images that AI
is producing of leaders are predominantly men. Even the prompt
of a productive person, let's say, AI will generate a
man and predominantly white men. So if women don't get involved,
(28:33):
now we're going to get left behind with this technology
as well, and we're not going to be able to
implement the change that we need to see here.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
There's huge gender bias already. I mean, I think of
autocorrect actually a lot, because that's AI, and it doesn't
recognize certain words specifically, like names of people in minority groups.
Like all of this technology is completely informed by the
people creating it, And so I think we're so with you, Brooke,
(29:02):
Like it's so important to use chat GPT so that
it recognizes women's thought processes.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
I see the cover of your book, The Future Built
by Women, and the pink It makes me think of Barbie.
And when I think of Barbie, I think of the
matriarchy that we saw represented in that film, and I
honestly have never experienced a matriarchy in real life. We
just have never had that in America. And I'm curious
when you think about what a future built by women
(29:33):
might look like, what are the images that come to
mind for you, what do you envision.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
I envision that we look at women as the builders
where we don't even have to do exercises. We're in
the classroom for you, Danielle, that it's just an automatic
thing that women can be what we want to be,
and that we get the credit for what we're building.
I think we need to continue all so to tell
(30:01):
these stories. We need to talk about Julia and Melanie
and all of these people and name drop the heck
out of them so people can see that that is
possible and that they can build these things.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
You know, there's this meme online that says, surround yourself
with women who would speak your name in rooms where
you're not, And I think about that all the time.
It's so important to speak other women's names. You're doing
that so well in your book, Brook, and you know
you continue to do it in your work, so thank
(30:34):
you so much.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Of course.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah, I think that's a huge thing.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
I've been lucky that women have spoke my name in rooms,
and I hope that we can continue to do that.
And I think a lot of times we can put
too much ego into it. As women, we try to
like be too masculine in many ways, and I think
one of our big traits is that empathy, but also
that community building, and when we can lean in and
(31:01):
pull each other together and help each other get to
where we're going, I think it can be a really
beautiful thing. Women want to support each other, and women
want to see a future where we're all included and
where we're talked about and where we're lifted up.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Thank you so much, Brooke.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Thank you, it was so great to be here.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Brooke Marcovicis is a tech entrepreneur and author of the
Future Built by Women, Creating a brighter Tomorrow through tech
and innovation.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
That's it for today's show. Thank you to our partners
at Airbnb, and tomorrow we're joined by Hollywood Royalty y'all, Oscar,
Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Regina King and her
Rockstar producing partner and sister Reina King.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
I'm Simone Voice. You can find me at simone Voice
on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok. That's r O
B A. Y we'll see you tomorrow. Keep looking on
the bright side.
Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Today on the bright Side, author and entrepreneur Brooke Markovicis
is here to show us what's missing from tech today
and how women are going to transform it. It's Monday,
May sixth. I'm Simone Voice.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
I'm Danielle Robe and this is the bright Side from
Hello Sunshine. All Right, how was the weekend?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
It was amazing? Okay, you know how I've talked about
my gaggle of GORP girls, the GGG. Yes, yes, So
a founding member of the GGG was in town this
weekend and she was staying at this really nice airbnb.
I picked her up. We went to go get Margarita's
and Mexican food for Cinco de Mayo. We had fun.
We had a fun little Sunday.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
I feel like the GORP girls always have fun together always.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
That's the number one rule of gorping. Yeah, how was
your weekend?
Speaker 1 (00:53):
I had a preparatory weekend because you and I are
headed to New York for the podcast upfronts. And I
got a massage, a facial, I did a manny petty
damn girl. I haven't had like that kind of a
prep weekend in a while. It was great. Now I'm
ready to go to the East Coast with you.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
I see that fresh ballet slipper manny girl.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yes, you know I've been getting this color for the
last ten years.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
You're a creature of habit Simona. Did you see that?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Ava Mendez told people that she was so happy she
waited to have kids until her forties.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
I am so glad that you brought this up, because
I really want to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Me too, because you know I have anxiety around it,
so this already.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
No.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
I tell you to quell that anxiety, because you have
plenty of time. You're only thirty three, and you can
have a family.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
I like wake up from my sleep every morning and
I think about coffee and the fact that I'm running
out of time.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Maybe you should chill on the coffee, maybe because maybe
you'd feel like you're running out of time less.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Maybe that's the problem.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
What was interesting here is that she said she took
a lot of heat for starting a family at forty
that people were really brutal with her, especially when she
got pregnant with her second child at forty two, and
they told her that she would be too tired to
have kids after forty That's a common thing.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
I hear every older parent, like every woman who becomes
a mom later on in life, they all say it's fantastic.
They all say it's great.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Statistically they live longer.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
That's interesting. I didn't know that. Yeah, I became a
mom at thirty three, at your age, and I'm so
glad that I waited. I can't imagine being a mom
in my twenties.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Would you have been ready?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
No, See, there's this saying like, oh, you'll never truly
be ready, BS. I think you definitely reach a point
where you're like, Okay, I'm ready, and you're also you
can recognize when you're like, I am totally not ready.
I don't feel like I have enough structure in my life,
enough stability.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
So yeah, that age is different for everybody.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Yeah, definitely. But I think this is so cool that
she's normalizing it, like she's doing things on her own time,
on her own timeline, and I think that that's I
think that's really refreshing, especially in an industry like Hollywood,
you know, like we have this obsession with expiration dates
for women, and I think we need to call BS
on it.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
Also, I totally agree with you, and I love that
she's talking about it because I heard Hoda say that
she thought that she was too old to be a mom,
and then she saw Sandra Bullock do it. So when
we see and hear other people do things at ages
that feel maybe past, like the median age of doing stuff,
it feels like, oh I could do it too.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Yeah, totally think about it. You have more money when
you're older most of the time, hopefully hopefully, you probably
have a partner that you trust.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Hopefully hopefully ciss your fingers.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
But speaking of partners, I just I love talking about
this family, Avia Mendez, Ryan Gosling. They are totally relationship goals.
You know Ryan, can't you say he was your to
hear me out? No? Now, No, Ryan is not to
hear me out. Ryan is a straightforward crush.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Oh I don't think so. I think he's a hear
me out.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Are you serious?
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah, he's not for me. This is not the point.
Oh we'll get back to this.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Says the girl who's hear me out as Drake. Ye,
your metrics are all off.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Good point, good point. I cannot be trusted.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Cannot be trusted anyway. So you know he's doing the
rounds for his new movie, The Fall Guy.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
So he came out and talked about how he's actually
been turning down roles where the character is like too
psychologically distraught or wherever the role is like too dark.
And this is a decision that he's come to alongside
Ava as he's become a dad, because he just realizes,
like he doesn't want to put his family through that
(04:40):
distress that often comes with doing those really heavy weighty roles.
And I just thought that was really cool, like again
for a father now to be normalizing factoring his family
into decisions in such a big way.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
I feel complicated about this because, on one hand, I
fully agree with you. I think oftentimes we hear mothers
talking about how they're going to pause at work or
make decisions for their family. It's super refreshing to hear
a father talk about it. But at the same time,
like a lot of people don't have these options, you
know what I mean, Like, it's definitely a privilege that
(05:19):
he has to be able to say yes or no
to work, and you know, sometimes it's hard to hear that.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I think he's acknowledged the privilege, though he has acknowledged that,
like I wouldn't be able to do what I do
without my wife, Ava, who has made a lot of
sacrifices as a mother and has decided to stay home
and be more present with our family.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
He's such a good feminist. I remember when he won,
was in an oscar a golden globe and he said
this is for my wife, and he talked about how
she had like a brutal moment when her brother passed,
and he's just he's a really family oriented person. Okay,
So before we dive into our interview with Brooke, which
I'm really excited for because you know that I'm not
such a but she makes all of this really digestible,
(06:04):
I have to bring something else up that we saw.
There's this trend that reminded me of our conversation with
Courtney Quinn. You guys know her as color Me Courtney.
It's called dopamine decor. So if you've been scrolling through
TikTok or Pinterest lately, you've probably seen it popping up
all over your feed. Basically, it's feel good decor. It's
(06:25):
bringing back memories of carefree childhood bedrooms. So, like favorite
celebrity posters playful signs, Lava lamps a deep sense of joy.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Why are you shaking your head? This is this trend
gives me anxiety. I mean, there's no taste involved here.
If you're bringing knowledge is about if you're bringing a
lava lamp into your homes as an older person, like
as an adult. Oh my god, major red flag.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
All I wanted was a lava lamp when I was younger,
and my parents would not get me one.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
The keyword in that phrase was all I wanted when
I was younger.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Have you seen hustle and flow?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Of course, lava lamp doesn't belong in a house that's
owned by an adult. I am a minimalist decorator. My
house is all neutrals. It's very soothing. I cannot imagine
being surrounded by all these colors, these loud colors and textures.
I wear my colors. Did you have.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Posters on your wall when you were growing up?
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Of course? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Who do you have?
Speaker 2 (07:24):
JTT? Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Jonathan Taylor Thomas. I finally we
agree on Finally. I kissed him every night before bed.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Is that how you learn how to make out?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
No, it was paper, It would have gotten too socy.
I didn't try. But yeah, JTT, I mean Devin Sawah
Backstreet boys. I didn't have any teenage hear me outs
because they were all.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
No, when you're a teenager, you're allowed to crush on anyone.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
They were all tiger beats, every single one of them.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
No, for sure, when you're a teenager, you don't look
at beauty in in like character or differences. You're just like, Oh,
that's the guy on the magazine that everyone else thinks
is hot. That's who I think is hot.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Well, I just liked pretty boys. I like these feminine
pretty boys.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
They all did.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
They all had that like that, Like.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Jesse McCarn Yeah, Jesse McCarthy was such a pretty boy.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Yeah. So wait, let me just get this straight. You
loved pretty boys as a teenager, but not into Ryan Gosling.
What's wrong with you?
Speaker 1 (08:27):
No, I grew out of pretty boys. Now. I like
character in the face.
Speaker 2 (08:30):
I like like.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
A bigger nose, or bushy eyebrows, or like something different.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Just say you like an age gap, Daniell, Just say
I like an age gap. That's the only way you
get character in the face is time.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
No, you just start to look at people like I
like like an energy, I like a confidence. I don't
even care about what they look like that much anymore.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
Wow, I'm learning so much. What do you think about
dopamine decorating?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
You know what's funny? This is gonna sound strange because
you know I like monochromatic everything. Yeah, I'm sort of
for this.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Well, you're you have that library at your house where
it's all rainbow colored books. They're all arranged in rainbow.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
It makes me really happy. It's very home at it.
I kind of love the idea of lava lamps, of
candle holders, of tied I. I love tied I anything.
I don't wear it a lot, but I really.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Do love it tied I in a home.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
It's just so fun makes me happy. Maybe I need
to have children and then they can decorate their rooms
like that, and then I get both the best of
both worlds.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Next up, we're going from brighter decor to a brighter
future with tech founder, entrepreneur and author Brooke Marcovicis. Stay
with us, We're back, Danielle. We are talking about women
(09:58):
in tech today, and I feel like I often have
a i don't know, like a physical reaction to that
phrase because it's typically followed by all the ways in
which women are underrepresented in the tech space. But this
is the bright side, So that means we're going to
be focusing on the solutions. We are making a point
of talking about solutions today and bringing you a vision
(10:18):
of what tech in the world would look like if
it were led by women.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
If it were led by women, all right.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
So.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Brooke Marcovicis is an entrepreneur, startup founder, and the author
of the Future Built by Women, Creating a Brighter Tomorrow
through Tech and Innovation. Her book is actually inspired by
her own journey from nonprofits to having her company Alabi acquired.
And what I love about the book, Simone, is that
Brooke not only talks about how women are just as
(10:44):
capable as men I mean, duh, but that we actually
have an advantage in the tech space because we see
fundamentally different problems that need to be solved. So Brooke,
welcome to the bright Side. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
I'm so glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Your book even has a tagline with the word bright
in it. You were meant to be here. Yeah, of course,
the future built by Women. That's such a huge phrase.
What does a future built by women look like?
Speaker 3 (11:12):
I think it's one where we're using our innate abilities
as women with empathy and kind of our intrinsic problem
solving abilities to create something that we don't have right now,
something that's brighter that we want for our kids, for ourselves.
We've leaned in, but I think now it's time to
(11:33):
really build instead of just focusing on leading, how can
we also get our hands a little dirty and start
solving the problems in ways that women can kind of
dive in a little bit deeper to Maybe we're going
to bring more empathy to the table. Maybe we are
going to bring problems that need solving with women's health
(11:53):
that hasn't been addressed in a long time. I think
that we want to dive into issues that men are
not solving.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Brooke, I want to rewind a little bit and talk
about how you discovered your why So you actually had
an entirely separate career working in nonprofits. How did that
work lead you here?
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
So, I think that women oftentimes have these career pivots
and jumps because we discover new things that we want
to achieve, that we want different impact. For me, I
was always fixing everybody's tech problems in our nonprofit, so
I was always the one everybody would call and say, Brook,
can you come to my office? My computer crash and
(12:36):
I don't know what to do. But the thing that
kind of flipped the switch for me is I was
watching a video about how Microsoft was setting up tech
centers and third world countries, and I was like, Wow,
there's so much power in giving people the ability to
use technology. It can allow them to increase their income,
it can get them out of poverty, it can do
(12:58):
so many really amazing things, and why are more people
not using tech for good? And with that nonprofit background,
I was like, there's a lot of problems that need
to be solved.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
And so that's really.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
Where I decided to kind of take that leap into
tech and found that it wasn't as hard as I
thought it would be and that there was a lot
of potential to do good with it.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
How did you take that leap? Because I think one
of the barriers in people's minds to getting into tech,
if they aren't already in it, is how do I
even learn those skills?
Speaker 3 (13:28):
I think the first thing I did was kind of
reframe it for myself. So I did go back up
pretty traditional route, went and got my master's in computer
information systems and dove in from there because I felt
that I needed that education label to be able to
step into tech. But what I would discover as I
went through is there was a lot of things that
(13:49):
I could learn and hack together as I was going
just by purely focusing on solving a problem. And so
I stuck with one programming language that I learned, focused
on and taught myself called Rubyon rails. I saw that
that was kind of the one that a lot of
platforms were using to build fast. And they have a
cool thing called gyms, which is pre programmed code that
(14:12):
helps you build faster. So we always look for those
little things that we can do to build faster, move faster,
get our leg up in our career, and for me,
I found that that would help me to build what
I wanted to faster.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Did you have moments of feeling discouraged along the way, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
I definitely struggled a lot, especially in grad school. There
were hardly any women there that were learning tech to
begin with. I had all male professors except for one,
and it was really easy to just want to throw
the towel in. My husband's an engineer, and so I'd
often be like, can you just help me with this assignment?
(14:52):
He's like, no, you need to figure this out yourself. Wow,
that's tough love, bro, It's tough love. But if he
had just helped me, I never would have learned it.
And so I am really appreciative that he kind of
forced me into figuring it out myself. But I always
was asking just where are the women? And it's because
we didn't see it. We didn't see it as a
(15:13):
path when we were younger.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
When I was younger, I think I was in fifth grade,
my teacher had us do an exercise where we all
had to draw a picture of a scientist, a business leader,
an engineer, and everybody in the class drew a man.
And I think we have this picture in our mind
that men are business leaders, men are venture capitalists, men
are engineers, And you are really trying to disrupt that
(15:36):
by having us picture a world in which women are
the people we imagine in those positions. What do you
think makes women such great leaders?
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:45):
So I am the same way. You know, growing up,
I never saw that path to being a builder. Then,
so what I hope that we can kind of see
as women is that we have just as much ability
as men to build and to learn how to code
if we want to go that route, but we also
(16:06):
have these abilities to take a problem, Like I see
different founders right now, like Rushmasu Johnny, who is the
founder of Girls Who Code. She saw a problem with
paid leave and she worked to advocate for it and
try to solve it in Congress, but that didn't happen yet,
and so she took AI and started to build an
(16:26):
AI platform to help with getting people paid parental leave
in the New York State area. And so taking these
small problems that we see that are facing our communities
or facing our society on a daily basis and saying okay,
I can use technology to make an impact right now,
whereas maybe a male founded company would be like I
(16:48):
want to get a burrito to your door faster, which
I worked at Postmates, so I can say that. But
we're the ones that you know are at pick up
and drop off often, we're the ones that are helping
in our commun unities and we see the issues that
are being faced and we want to step in and
try to solve them. I think that women have this
innate ability to keep going. I know that for me
(17:11):
becoming a mom. I always say that it was a
superpower for me and helped me step into entrepreneurship because
you just get it done as a mom that you
just have to figure out a way to get it done.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
In a lot of ways, the Future Built by Women
is a response to some of those hurdles that you
faced launching your own company. Who did you write this
book for?
Speaker 3 (17:32):
As I dove into really writing this book, I was like,
what do I always share with people? And it always
came back to these stories. It is hard out there.
There aren't very many women that are building. There aren't
that many women in tech. Less than twenty seven percent
of women enter into STEM fields and so like less
than that actually end up and doing that in their career.
(17:55):
And so I really wrote it for the woman that
is wanting to make an impact. Maybe she is looking
to switch careers right now and she's trying to figure
out what's next for her, or she's just jumping in
after graduation, but she might be faced with a lot
of problems. And so I really hope that as women
(18:18):
dive into this book, they're able to see that there
is a framework. There have been people that have led
before us, that have been building and that it is
possible to build a brighter future. We just really need
to collectively kind of lean into each other for support
and encouragement as we dive in.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
I really love that you focus on women's stories in
this book, because, at least for me, tech sometimes feels unapproachable,
and hearing how other people have done it feels really inspiring.
There's this one case study that you talk about with
a computer programmer. Her name's Ada Lovelace. Why did you
profile her and can you share a little bit about
(19:00):
her story.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Yeah, So in the beginning of the book, I talk
about several women that made an impact in tech that
we don't often talk about. There's so many that actually
led the way. And Aida was the original programmer in
many ways. She was a mathematician by trade, and she
this was, you know, hundreds and hundreds of years ago,
(19:22):
but she led the way for all of us. And
so Aida is kind of our like Queen Bee when
it comes to programming, and she was the first one,
but we don't really talk about that women were actually
the first one of the first programmers. There's also a
key study about the Eniac team, which was a team
of former secretaries in World War Two. That are actually
(19:45):
who developed the programming language for one of the first
computers that we ever saw that came up in World
War two, and their stories were kind of buried because
the men took the credit for it. Yet they were
the ones that wrote the code for why we probably
won World Were two.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
I love that you brought up the history of programming
because this is something that I nerd out about. Tell
me if I get this right. I remember learning that
women made up the majority of programmers in the beginning
and STEM at that time, and then with the onset
of the eighties, certain toys that were marketed as STEM
(20:22):
toys were marketed directly to boys instead of girls, and
that's where we started to get excluded from STEM.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
Yes, so STEM is science, technology, engineering, and math, And yes,
you are correct, and honestly, as I researched so much
for this book, I could have written a whole book
on the history of why women were left out of STEM.
It shifted significantly in the eighties, and the reason that
it was prominent even during the World War two era
(20:52):
was because women were brought back into work because men
were fighting in the war, and we also had paid
childcare which was a huge reason why women could go
to work, and so, yeah, it definitely shifted significantly back
in the eighties. We went back to more of the
focus on the family unit as well, and so society
(21:13):
really shifted and left women out, even though there were
tons of women that had been working on STEM careers
at that point.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
We're going to take a quick break and when we
come back, we're talking about how we envision the future
built by women and the incredible female entrepreneurs already paving
the way.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
We're back, so brook thinking about the impact of those
images in our society, in media, in advertising, movies. What
needs to change in order for us to really realize
a future built by women.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
Yeah, that's a great question. We as women right now
it could look really bleak. And I think that if
we focus too much on trying to fit in to
the way that tech is going, it's going to be
hard for us. It's really hard to get venture funding.
We get less than two percent of funding. I was
(22:08):
one of the lucky ones that was able to raise funding,
but then it hit a hard time when I couldn't
raise funding.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
We really need.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
To lean into building bootstrapped companies as much as we
can leading into working together to build because I've seen
a lot of really great female founders shut down their
companies because they focused too much on trying to raise
funding and didn't have a focus on bootstrapping that company
and building that product in another way, because it's just
(22:39):
the money is not there for us. The system is
not set up for us, so we need to figure
out ways to build around it. And I think that
we really can if we lean into building together.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
I think of all the tech founded by women that
I utilize, I think the not comes to mind. All
of my friends say that it revolutionized the way that
they plan their weddings. Vote dot org was founded by
Deborah Cleaver, which simplifies political engagement and uses technology to
(23:09):
do so bumble like change the way women date. I
didn't know this, but the founder of Canva, Melanie Perkins,
which changed so many people's lives in terms of graphic design.
There's so many of these examples. What tech founded by
women do you utilize? What's changed your life?
Speaker 3 (23:26):
Well, Melanie's one of my favorite people, and I'm convinced
that you could do anything if you have Canva. I
can make presentations, I can completely market myself on a
regular basis. And I also absolutely love event Bright and
always have. I think Julia's genius for bringing that platform
to life, but seeing that it stayed around even in
(23:50):
this era of the pandemic, but also in all of
these different platforms that came out, event Bright always kind
of stuck there. They knew what they were building was
solving a major problem. And all of those women have
had such successful companies that lasted. They didn't just you know,
hit unicorn status and fall apart. They've lasted the test
(24:11):
of time and continue to be amazing companies.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Will you quickly share what unicorn status is? I just
learned about this.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
Yeah, so there's a lot to unicorn status, but ultimately
it's where they've hit this like multi billion dollar status,
either through venture capital funding or through actual revenue. So
like Serena Williams is known for investing in tons of
unicorn status companies because she sees that potential. She knows
(24:38):
what grit is and so she often invest in those
gritty women.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
You have something in your book called the entrepreneurial equation.
Can you explain that to us?
Speaker 3 (24:47):
Yeah, so it really is this passion and purpose plus
technology really will equal that impact for you. So this
can look different at different times. For me. As I
dove in to building my company, my last company out
would be I had this really big passion to solve
flexible work for women. I did not see a platform
(25:09):
out there. There were all kinds of different ones, but
they weren't really hitting on the issues that women were facing.
So we were leaving our nine to fives, oftentimes having kids,
and we wanted to still stay in the workforce, but
we wanted a place that added community plus flexibility to it.
And so I wanted to solve for that problem. But
(25:30):
I like to break that down in the book to
remind us it doesn't have to be a complicated thing.
That we could be working on a problem without even
knowing that we're an entrepreneur. And so in the middle
part of the book, I literally talk about how to
build how to be just dangerous enough with technology, And
so I really wanted women to be able to reframe
that and see that. So there's a ton of ways
(25:52):
that you can use that entrepreneurial equation.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
What did you mean by that when you said I
want women to learn how to be just dangerous enough
with technic That sounds really sexy. Can you elaborate on that? So?
Speaker 3 (26:04):
I think that technology is not as complex as people
make it out to be, especially in this era of AI.
You can literally ask it to code you just about
anything that you want. You just need to go to
it with the right question and problem that you want
to solve. I think that if you know just enough,
just enough of how programming works can help you solve
(26:27):
a problem if you just note these core concepts.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
AI is one of those spaces that you mentioned that
you want women to show up in more. I think
a lot of us right now are so mystified by
it or even fearful of it, but we need to
change our attitude around it. Right what would you say
is the attitude that we should be adopting around AI.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
So I've been using AI for over five years, way
before Chad GPT came out in January of twenty twenty three.
But one thing that I want to encourage women is
that we were not there when a lot of the
era of technology took off with social media apps prior
to that, which was generally the World Wide Web, and
we've been left out. We've been left out in the data,
(27:12):
we've been left out and how products have been built.
And I don't want us to be left out in AI,
because AI is going to completely change the way that
we work our society, and if women's voices are not
a part of it, and women's data is not a
part of it, we're going to be in trouble in
the next ten years. And so I encourage women to
(27:32):
make it really simple. Open up chat GVT at least
once a day and start asking it questions for things
that you're stumped on. Maybe you're trying to write an
email or an article, or you are trying to figure
out what place to travel next. Just start using it
and asking it questions. And one that's going to allow
(27:53):
chat GPT to hear more women's thought processes and things
that we're interested in and looking into because it keeps
all of that data. But it also allows you to
see how fast you can do things with AI and
how much faster it can help you to move forward
and save you time.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Danielle, you know that experiment that you were talking about
when you were in fifth grade and you had to
draw what a leader looks like, Well, that is exactly
what's happening with AI right now. The images that AI
is producing of leaders are predominantly men. Even the prompt
of a productive person, let's say, AI will generate a
man and predominantly white men. So if women don't get involved,
(28:33):
now we're going to get left behind with this technology
as well, and we're not going to be able to
implement the change that we need to see here.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
There's huge gender bias already. I mean, I think of
autocorrect actually a lot, because that's AI, and it doesn't
recognize certain words specifically, like names of people in minority groups.
Like all of this technology is completely informed by the
people creating it, And so I think we're so with you, Brooke,
(29:02):
Like it's so important to use chat GPT so that
it recognizes women's thought processes.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
I see the cover of your book, The Future Built
by Women, and the pink It makes me think of Barbie.
And when I think of Barbie, I think of the
matriarchy that we saw represented in that film, and I
honestly have never experienced a matriarchy in real life. We
just have never had that in America. And I'm curious
when you think about what a future built by women
(29:33):
might look like, what are the images that come to
mind for you, what do you envision.
Speaker 3 (29:38):
I envision that we look at women as the builders
where we don't even have to do exercises. We're in
the classroom for you, Danielle, that it's just an automatic
thing that women can be what we want to be,
and that we get the credit for what we're building.
I think we need to continue all so to tell
(30:01):
these stories. We need to talk about Julia and Melanie
and all of these people and name drop the heck
out of them so people can see that that is
possible and that they can build these things.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
You know, there's this meme online that says, surround yourself
with women who would speak your name in rooms where
you're not, And I think about that all the time.
It's so important to speak other women's names. You're doing
that so well in your book, Brook, and you know
you continue to do it in your work, so thank
(30:34):
you so much.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Of course.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah, I think that's a huge thing.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
I've been lucky that women have spoke my name in rooms,
and I hope that we can continue to do that.
And I think a lot of times we can put
too much ego into it. As women, we try to
like be too masculine in many ways, and I think
one of our big traits is that empathy, but also
that community building, and when we can lean in and
(31:01):
pull each other together and help each other get to
where we're going, I think it can be a really
beautiful thing. Women want to support each other, and women
want to see a future where we're all included and
where we're talked about and where we're lifted up.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Thank you so much, Brooke.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
Thank you, it was so great to be here.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Brooke Marcovicis is a tech entrepreneur and author of the
Future Built by Women, Creating a brighter Tomorrow through tech
and innovation.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
That's it for today's show. Thank you to our partners
at Airbnb, and tomorrow we're joined by Hollywood Royalty y'all, Oscar,
Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Regina King and her
Rockstar producing partner and sister Reina King.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
I'm Simone Voice. You can find me at simone Voice
on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
I'm Danielle Robe on Instagram and TikTok. That's r O
B A. Y we'll see you tomorrow. Keep looking on
the bright side.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.