Career Growth Advice from Tiffany Beers, Product Development Leader | Career Tips for Women in Product Development

2B Bolder Podcast – Episode 88
Featuring Tiffany Beers

Episode Title: #88 Tiffany Beers, a Top Innovator of Shoe Design, Materials, Sustainability and Gaming shares her Career Insights

Host: Mary Killelea
Guest: Tiffany Beers



Mary Killelea (Host): Hi there. My name is Mary Killelea. Welcome to the To Be Bolder podcast, providing career insights for the next generation of women in business and tech. To Be Bolder was created out of my love for technology and marketing, my desire to bring together like-minded women, and my hope to be a great role model and source of inspiration for my two girls and other young women like you, encouraging you guys to show up and to be bolder and to know that anything you guys dream of, it's totally possible. So, sit back, relax and enjoy the conversation.

Hello, To Be Bolder listeners. Today we are in for a real treat. We have with us a woman who has been at the forefront of innovation for some of the world's leading consumer brands. A woman who doesn't just think outside the box, she redefines it. Please welcome the incredible Tiffany Beers. Tiffany's journey is nothing short of inspiring. She's led global teams of over 100 people, managed a multimillion dollar projects, and brought groundbreaking products from mere concepts to the retail floor. Remember the world's first auto lacing shoes? That was Tiffany and her team at Nike. But her innovation didn't stop at Nike. She's been a driving force at Logic Tech, where she's currently the head of engineering for materials, sustainability and gaming audio. Under her leadership, Tiffany's gaming audio team has launched a number of incredible initiatives, one being the Aurora collection specifically designed for women gamers.

Tiffany's also played a pivotal role at Saysh, where she helped the brand transition from can we build shoes to we are selling shoes. She developed the SpikeOne, which was worn in the Olympics and the SayshOne, the brand's first athleisure shoe. And let's not forget her time at Tesla Gigafactory One, where she led a program management for the entire facility and directed various automation installations and startups. Tiffany's passion for innovation and her ability to solve impossible problems is truly inspiring. And today we're lucky enough to have her here to share her insights and expertise with us. So, without further ado, let's dive into the conversation. Tiffany, thank you so much for being here.

Tiffany Beers (Guest): Thank you for having me. I'm so excited. I've been looking forward to this.

Mary Killelea: Oh, good. Okay. So you are indeed a woman being Boulder. Tell me what does to be Boulder mean to you?

Tiffany Beers: It's so interesting. I love that word, actually. And I find I can relate to it in so many different ways. But for some reason, it reminds me of a time when I was a little girl, and I had gone fishing with my grandma and grandpa. And I'm sitting on my grandma's lap and we're driving back in the front of the pickup truck, right? Everyone's in the front. And she was like, you're so brave. And for me, I heard brave and I heard bold and she's like, it's just so remarkable. And so it takes me back to that moment. And then obviously, as I was preparing for this, I was like, oh my gosh, that's bold. That's bold. That's bold. I'm like, wow, this really, if I had a theme word, it's probably bold.

Mary Killelea: That's amazing. That's why you're on this show.

Tiffany Beers: Awesome.

Mary Killelea: Tell us about your career journey, how you went from studying plastic engineering to leading innovation at companies like Nike and Logitech.

Tiffany Beers: Well, I think I was in the right place at the right time. I made a series of pretty good decisions but also worked really hard. And so, when the opportunity came, I was never afraid of it. And I always went after it. So, for example, like I picked plastics engineering because I knew I had to work for the rest of my life. There was no trust fund or anything like that happening. So, I was like, let's assume we're going to hate it. And this is pretty negative view. If I'm doing like working at McDonald's or fast food or retail, making minimum wage, or I can go down this path of plastics engineering and still hate it, but at least I'll be a minority. And also I have a better chance of having a higher paying salary. And so I did it, and I was one of six women and it was difficult. I had to constantly remind myself like, okay, this is job security at the end of this.

Then I went to Rubbermaid and I started there designing plastic boxes and squares. You either put trash, food, or store things in them, but really they were all basically the same. And they were having some layoffs and I didn't get laid off, but I kept getting moved around. And I was like, what if I could do anything? What would I do? And I literally, this was a bold moment for me. I like, I'd want to go work for Nike. I love sports. I want to go work for Burton. I hear you can have your dogs there or Oakley. Like I was like going big. And so I got a bunch of interviews and I got a job with Nike and I went 3000 miles across the country by myself with my dog, knew no one. And I spent 13 years at Nike and I started designing airbags. So, the little air pockets that go into the shoes for the cushioning. And then I got into their innovation kitchen was really eye opening. It was so difficult. I actually didn't like it at first because everyone else there had 15 plus years and I was so new. Everything I said had been done before and it was just really hard.

But then one day the, one of the main designers Tinker said, Hey, we have this auto lacing shoe. Do you think you can make this happen? And maybe it was night. Some would say it's night, but I said, I don't see why not. You guys obviously made it before for a movie, not knowing movie magic. And so, I dove into that. And so that I learned electronics. I learned firmware and software and I learned all these things. It was a 10 yearlong project before we launched it. And then I got to launch it, and I got the publicity and I got to be in like Wired magazine and things, these things that I never thought I'd ever see. And lo and behold, that Wired magazine got put on the desk at someone at Logitech and they're like, we need someone like her. So TO go back to Nike. I kind of got bored at one point of making shoes. Like I would get these amazing projects, but I was like, Oh man, I don't even like feet. What am I doing?

And so Tesla came up and I'm like, wow, that's amazing. We're going to save the earth, right? So I joined Tesla at the gigafactory and it was an amazing experience also, but not what I expected. And my values just did not align with the company values. And so I was out of there. And then I started my YouTube channel, just reviewing sneakers, which was a whole other experience. And those guys at Logitech who had picked up that magazine, they started to reach out. And I was like, this is so weird. I remember saying to my husband, this mice and keyboard company wants to talk to me. I'm like, I don't care about mice and keyboards at all. And I never have. So I'm like, but I like gaming. I've always kind of been a gamer. So, I talked to them. They were amazing.

They're like, you want to lead audio engineering? And I'm like, to be honest, I don't know anything about audio engineering, but I love to learn. And this was another super bold moment for me. I was like, if I don't know anything about it and I can learn it and they're like, you'll figure it out. We're not worried. And I'm like, okay, I'm in, let's go. And so that was five years ago. And so, I'm still leading audio engineering for the gaming team, which is the gaming headsets and stuff. And so, that's how I got to where I am today. I got to work on all those projects. I think it was bold enough to say yes to probably some things that a normal engineer may not take the risk on.

Mary Killelea: That is an amazing example of boldness for sure. I love it. Very inspiring. And so, tell me what it was like to be a part of the innovative projects like the auto lacing shoe at Nike and some of the others that you worked on.

Tiffany Beers: Yeah, they all have commonality to them, right? They're all a struggle. They're all difficult. They're all filled with ups and downs. It's like a roller coaster of you're solving a problem. At the end of the day, you have a customer and you're solving a problem. It's the same with the Aurora collection for gaming that was targeted for women and people who just like to play for fun. You have a customer, they have a need. For auto lacing, the need was a little bit of magic, right? Everyone saw this movie, their expectation was they step into it, and it auto laced, right? So, they had all imagined in their mind what that felt like. So that was a little different because you kind of had to meet that expectation. And the first time I got a shoe auto lacing, the team got it working. I always got to try them first usually. And I was just like, oh my word, this is amazing. So that would be like a super high, high.

Then the next one would be internal politics or someone saying, no, we're not going to do it. We can't do it. It's silly. And it's just like, low. And then you make another breakthrough and then you're getting the costs down. And then, so it's this journey of struggle that you can tell you're really innovating kind of the bigger the struggle is and you're still willing to stay in it.

Mary Killelea: How do you overcome those challenges when someone, let's just say, who's in a boardroom, unattached or detached or too far away from knowing what you're going after in the trenches? How do you keep forging forward or how do you change their mind or help me through that? Because those are challenging times for sure.

Tiffany Beers: Yeah. Yeah. You have to, and I learned this from some of my awesome mentors and managers at Nike, you have to show them there's no point in talking. If you can put a product on the table. So, every time with auto lacing, when it wasn't happening, here, try this sample, and you just have them step in it. And in the beginning, we were faking it. And it's the same with the Aurora collection. Watch, this is our key consumer. Watch this video of them using this product and the joy on their face. So, you always have to keep bringing it back to the customer. And then sometimes you have to do a lot to bring costs down and make it an act, something that can really be sold and profitable. That becomes tricky. The auto lacing shoes were very expensive. And plus you had to charge them, which people don't really like charging their feet or their shoes. So yeah, it's a lot of times just putting the product on the table and letting it speak for themselves. If it can't speak loudly enough for itself, it might not speak to that consumer either. And that maybe isn't worth going for.

Mary Killelea: No, I love that you bring it back to showing how the customer could engage with it or benefit from it. That's really smart. You've grown your team at Logic Tech from 12 to 75 engineers. What strategies did you use to scale your team effectively? First for me, since it's primarily an engineering team – more women, women in every interview, more and more women coming in. I wanted 50% women, but that's very difficult. So my leadership team at one point was 50% women. I think there was 10 or 11 of us and five or six were women. And then there were women in every discipline. And then of course you have people coming and going.

So a lot of it is relationships and communication. That is what kind of also painting a vision as you're growing a team and then taking risks. Like we're going to try this. You want to be a manager? Okay, let's give it a go. Here's one or two people and try and teaching them. It's so funny because thinking of me being a manager and having a team of, I now have a team of a hundred plus people back in my Nike days, never would I guess. I didn't care about people. I was literally like, we got to get the project done and that's it. Move on, get out of the way. And sometime in my life it completely shifted. And now it's so much about the people and I love it. But it also seems like, I shouldn't say this out loud, but should I be getting paid to really help mentor people and coach? This is fun and challenging. But also it's like, are they really paying me also? That's awesome. So yeah.

Mary Killelea: You've landed in a good spot if you want to work for free. Yeah. So you talk about that kind of the two different mindsets, let's say, so you've got your manager hat on where you're nurturing and leading and developing, and then you've got your project where you've got timelines. What advice do you have for people in those two different roles for, I guess, excelling within those two different roles?

Tiffany Beers: It's communication for sure. So Logitech, even Nike, every company I've been at were a global company. And you have people that English is not their first language and you have cultures that are different. So, the way you approach directness and, or I just more recently in the last year learned that how people define the word trust is actually very different, right? In some cultures you have to earn trust. You don't get it, but for me you get it until you break it. And understanding how different people in different cultures deal with just simplest trust helps you tailor the communication. And it's also about engineers tend to, like in school, it's about knowing the right answer and getting there fast enough, like all the answers exist. But in the real world, they don't actually exist. Like no one knows the answer. Otherwise, someone else will be doing it. One.

And two, it doesn't matter how smart you are. And if you sound smart when you're talking, it matters that everyone on that team and everyone that you manage understand what you're trying to do. And they understand it in a way, in a language that they can then take action on. And that's really been, I mean, that's been my last five years. I have such a global team now, people in five different countries. It's constant effort of simplifying communication so everyone is on the same page.

Mary Killelea: That's great advice. Can you share some insights or advice for those who are looking to follow in your footsteps in the field of innovation and engineering?

Tiffany Beers: Oh man, I guess be open to saying, I don't see why not. It was the same when I got for Saysh, so Alison Felix's brand of women's footwear. She reached out to me on Instagram and said, Hey, I got a project. Are you interested in chatting? And I'm thinking, Oh my goodness. I said to my husband, who's also, he's a footwear designer also. I'm like, I bet she wants to make shoes. What do you think? I bet she wants to make shoes. And at once she's like, so do you think her and her brother, Wes, who's awesome, amazing with the words, do you think we can make a shoe and make our own and bring it to the company? And I'm like, well, I don't see why not. I mean, this is everything I know. This is who I'd contact. This is what I do. And they're like, okay, let's go. And then a little while later, they're like, Alison doesn't have a spike for the Olympics. Do you think we can make a spike that she can run the Olympics in? And this is like September before the Olympics. And I'm like, Oh, that's hard. And I'm like, we can try just to have a backup plan.

So, I think being bold enough to try it, but then always have backup plans. I always have backup plans for things. And I think as a program manager, you learn to do that. And I do that for my work, but I do it for myself too. So, like, have a financial backup plan, have a job backup plan, have a communication backup plan. And it's kind of nerdy, but I use spreadsheets to organize. I love spreadsheets. Spreadsheets are like my hobby. When I want to just chill, I'll build a spreadsheet with formulas and it's super nerdy, but yeah.

Mary Killelea: I was on a call the other day and someone was showing a Gantt chart and I was like, God, this is a good Gantt chart. It's something about organization on paper. It's just really a beautiful thing.

Tiffany Beers: It is. It is.

Mary Killelea: How did your YouTube channel start?

Tiffany Beers: Well, so I knew I was leaving Tesla and I was leaving it without another job. And I was a little bit concerned. So it was like backup plans. And I was telling my husband, I think I bought an Adidas shoe actually. And it was my first shoe after Nike. It hadn't even been a year since I left. It was like only months. And I felt so like I was cheating when I opened that box. I was like, oh my gosh, but I'm like, look at this. This is amazing. And I'm like, I'm going to buy tons of shoes to just check out. And he's like, you should review them on YouTube. And I'm like, really? I'm like, no, that's so nerdy. No one's going to pay attention to that. And he's like, just give it a go. So I was like, okay. So as I was getting ready to leave Tesla, I was like preparing for it. And I started doing it. And I was just reviewing Nike shoes, Adidas, all kinds of brands. And I put an Adidas shoe head to head, the number one Adidas shoe. So it was Ultra Boost at the time against the Nike number one running shoe. And someone from GQ picked it up. Ex-Nike engineer reviews. And it wasn't even a great taped video. The lighting was off, the focus. So I was just learning because I was taping, editing, and everything myself. And it would take me like at the beginning, four or five hours to make a video. Now I can crank them out in 30 minutes. And so I enjoyed the heck out of optimizing that process.

But that one got a hundred thousand views and then it just kept rolling. And I was offering technical, I was looking at it from my technical. So, I measure durometer, I measure with calipers, I measure the weight and no other sneaker reviewer was doing this. And they even liked it. And some of them knew me from Nike because they had interviewed me for their YouTube. So, Jacques Slade and some of the other ones. And they were helping me. They were like, okay, I'm like, I'm struggling with this and this. And they're like, so they were actually helping me and directing people to my channel. And so it was, it was amazing. And oh my gosh, it got hard to deliver a video every day. Oh man, it was so -

Mary Killelea: You were doing a video every day?

Tiffany Beers: Yeah. Yeah. For a while I was, cause that's how you build. Luckily, I monetized within a couple of months after GQ got that video, but then I would make it efficient. I would tape 10 in a row on a Saturday. Like I do all the prep the day before I taped 10 in a row on a Saturday. And then I would spend the next few weeks editing them when I could and then putting them out there. And it was all about how do I make this more efficient? And then in the beginning, the commenters are brutal almost. And so that took a while to figure out what would happen there, but it wasn't too long after my own community. I ended up with a community came in and started defending me and telling them to get out of there. And so, like I just launched a bunch more videos and my community is so positive and they're so nice. And I love just making and sharing more info with them. I'm on and off with it. Sometimes I get in a role.

Mary Killelea: That's fantastic. I'm going to make sure that I keep, I link to it in the show notes. And correct me if I'm wrong, because this is what kind of I get out of this podcast is, you can work for a corporation and you've got your brand guidelines and you've got all that, but then you have your baby that you created that you have free creative expression and no one to answer to but yourself. Did you feel that?

Tiffany Beers: Yeah. Yeah. And it made, I mean, I think at the brands I've been at, they're very good at training you to protect their brand. And I had lots of great training. But also, you know, when you're reviewing your own shoes, I make mistakes sometimes in video and I used to get called out big time, like, that's not what that's called. And it's like, well, yes, you're actually wrong. So, what do you do there? But yeah, you definitely, I'm more cautious on what I post now anywhere, because I've kind of got this little brand going, but at the same time, it's a shoe brand. I feel like that's the shoe side of me and no one, I can't really post about the personal side of me because that's the shoe side. So, I have this internal conflict on it.

Mary Killelea: Interesting. Well, okay. So I'm going to get you back on track. I just really had to ask you that because I think it's so fascinating. Every career has its highs and lows. Can you share some of the pros and cons that you've experienced in your career journey?

Tiffany Beers: Yeah. I mean, pros are easy, right? They're the, the launch of the Nike mag. I got to be at the auction for the Michael J. Fox Foundation and I got to present a Nike mag with Tinker Hatfield and an auction for $200,000. And it was insane. And I was standing backstage. I got to present it with him. So fancy dress and the full nine. And I remember standing backstage as the auction was going and the price is going higher and higher. I'm just like in disbelief and I get the step on the shoulder and it was Michael J. Fox. And he gave me a huge hug and said, thank you. And I was just like, this is the best day of my life, you know? So, during the launch of products, that was, those were always highs.

A breakthrough in engineering was always a high, super fun. Like the Aurora collection, when you first see the customer use it in testing, oh man, what a high, like you have the gut feeling and that's a high. Managing people, when someone succeeds and they learn and they surprise themselves, oh my gosh, I'm not sure anything beats that actually. That is like something so special. Then I pay a lot of attention to the energy I have with people. I don't want them going home and stressing and losing sleep over the weekend or overnight about something that was said. So always make sure like that's good energy and positive. Again, some people at Nike that I worked with, they'd be like, who is this? That's not the person we know.

And then the lows, the lows, I mean, I think it's hard to separate your personal life from your work life on some level. So anytime there's a low personally, it can bring work lows in, right? So, a death in the family or a divorce or sickness or even dogs passing away. That's been some of my hard ones. And then deaths in the family. Also, your employees going through some of those things is heartbreaking. It's so hard, employees being sick, things like that. Then of course, bad news, we're canceling your project. Those are cons or lows. That's really hard to do. And then layoffs, I've had to do layoffs in the last couple of years and those are not fun, very difficult to do. So, but equally the lows and highs you learn. You learn a ton about like someone in my family actually, as I was preparing to do layoffs, got laid off. And I was like, oh my gosh, I feel so betrayed. I feel betrayed for them. And I had realized like, okay, when I have to lay people off, they're going to feel betrayed. And I hadn't realized that until I felt it myself. So, you learn from these highs and lows to get you a better foot in everything.

Mary Killelea: You sound so passionate about what you do. It's so nice and refreshing to hear that. Where do you think your passion comes from?

Tiffany Beers: I don't exactly know. I think it comes from my upbringing being pretty modest and there wasn't a lot of expectations. You know, I grew up small town in Pennsylvania, everybody sort of had like factory jobs. So, like everything that I've gotten to go do has been such a blessing, such an amazing thing. And I've had tragedy. I had a boyfriend commit suicide when I was in my 20s. And that really shifted my entire perspective on life. It took years to kind of come out of that. But when I finally did it, again, it was about the energy. It was about the energy of every single moment being joyful. Like, so that's my goal in life is like, how much joy can I get? Like how much can I have a little bit of joy every day? Because that's hard. That's actually quite hard to do.

Mary Killelea: It's quite hard. You're giving me goosebumps because if everyone could just have that outlook, the world would be amazing. What advice would you give your younger self if you were starting over again?

Tiffany Beers: This one cracks me up. I would tell myself, just calm down, just calm down and chill out. Like, I think when I was younger, just wound really tight and not caring about people. And I think if I would have learned that earlier, I would have maybe had a different path, although I wouldn't change my path ever. Like I love my path. So, I think I would just be a little more patient. I was always in a hurry when I was young, like my first career, my first few jobs, like I'm going to rush. Okay, now I got to, you know, I got to get that promotion. It's taking eight years. This is ridiculous. And maybe that is, but like I was always in a hurry and maybe not enjoying it as much as I do now. So just slow down. It'll happen. Just give it some time.

Mary Killelea: Yeah. Mentorship and sponsorship can play a crucial role in career development. You mentioned, you've had a mentored a couple. What impact did that have on your career and how did those relationships come to be?

Tiffany Beers: A few of them just happened. Like they were people that I made friends with that sort of became friends and mentors. And then some were provided to me. Like when I was an early manager at Nike, they're like, yeah, you're doing this wrong. So here's someone to help you. And I'm still friends with her today. I still reach out to her. She's a fantastic mentor. And some of them were old managers, actually, I still reach out to some of my old managers who have become my mentors.

More recently at Logitech, I've taken kind of a different approach and I sort of make everyone my mentor because I'm not afraid. What I've learned is one, I'm not afraid to just be like, you know, I think I'm screwing this up. How do you handle this? Or like, you are so chill under such high pressure. How do you do it? You know, and then even my mentees, I learn as much from them as they learn from me. And so, I'll say, you know, I'm struggling. We'll talk about that. And I'm like, I'm struggling with this. What do you think? And it just like, so now I kind of use everyone as a mentor sponsor. I think they're critical. If you don't have them, find them. It can be simple as a short little chat here and there, or as extensive as a professional mentor program or coaching program.

Mary Killelea: I love it. You mentioned when you were building your team that you consciously tried to get women on board. How important is it to have a diverse group to your projects and to your innovation?

Tiffany Beers: It's very important, but I think you can't have that without having really good communication too, because you can have a diverse team, but you still don't hear from them and you still don't hear honesty from them. So again, like different cultures, you have to pull it more out and make it safe and make it a habit. In other cultures, you have to slow it down a little bit. Like, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. Not so loud, you know? And so having that diversity is critical, right? It is absolutely critical, but then it has to come with great communication. I've been on teams where I'm the diverse person and they don't want to hear from me at all.

Mary Killelea: Right. So, it's not just checking a box on diversity. It's about welcoming the inclusivity.

Tiffany Beers: Yeah, yeah, yep, absolutely. And I've learned so much about this at Logitech. They do so much to educate you about diversity, inclusion, how to handle conversations, like the tools and stuff they have available. I feel like I've had a job for five years, but I've also got another education. I don't know what degree it is, but it's like in being a human almost. And I just treasure that. I've never seen another company.

Mary Killelea: That's awesome. And throughout your career, did you know where you were headed? I think we talked about this. You didn't imagine yourself or you didn't take a straight path. And I know you said you wouldn't do anything differently, but what advice do you have for a woman in engineering who may be looking at exploring or pivoting to different areas within engineering?

Tiffany Beers: Yeah. Yeah, I never could have guessed where my career would take me. So that, yeah, don't even worry about planning it out, I would say. Have planned Bs, have the backup plans, but I think part of, if I had to say, I would say, if you're interested in, if something peaks your interest, let people know. I always used to think, yeah, well, that peaks everyone's interest, but that wasn't true. It was never true. And it was like, oh, I kind of like that. And then you find out, oh, I'm kind of good at that when I try it. And then you leap. So, like electronics, integration of electronics, am I good at it? I would say no. I mean, I'm clever, but I always say I'm clever, but I'm not smart because I'm not very book smart. But I can figure out a million solutions to any problem you give me, and I enjoy the crap out of it. But if you have an inclination towards something, tell people, ask about it, try it. Like the electronics, I can't say I'm good at it, but I'm fascinated by it. I just love it. I'm like, what does that do? And then wow, this is like magic. It literally is like magic. And so I just absolutely love it. And so that passion for enjoying it is why I'm in it. It's not because I can wire or architect anything. I can't. And so I would say follow that passion. Just keep following that pull that you feel towards something and tell people, Hey, I want to try this. I want to try this. Even like, I want to be a CEO. I want to be a CTO. I want to be whatever, because they'll start to tell you everything that's involved. And then you just educate and you're like, well, maybe actually, I don't want that. That's crazy. So you keep going, just ask those questions and go after those little like interests.

Mary Killelea: So you've worked in various industries from sports apparel at Nike to technology at Logitech and then automotive at Tesla. And how, tell me how these diverse experiences have shaped your approach to innovation?

Tiffany Beers: Well, initially, when I was leaving sneakers and I went to cars, I thought it would be learning like a totally different way to innovate, if you will. Same thing, cars to tech. And it's not, it's exactly the same process, no matter what. It all comes down to the customer. You have to have a way of understanding and knowing the customer and what they want or the problem you're trying to solve. As soon as you know the problem, it's project management, man. They break the problem down into smaller pieces. You solve this, solve this, solve this. Some of these projects are so complex that there's 10,000 things, but it's really about knowing that customer. And then I think it's a little bit of magic, right? Like they want this, but how do you sprinkle some magic in there? And the Aurora collection does that. Like when you actually see it all in person and you're using it and the lights are on, like gamer lights, I was like not a fan of, I was like, that's kind of silly. But once you actually have a full setup in a gaming PC and all the lights are on, I don't know, it's super cool. Like you're like in the future and space and it's just really something. So I always knocked it before until I actually try it now. I'm like, I quite like it. So that's that little bit of magic though, when these things are changing color at the same time, it's simple, but it's a little bit of magic. So, know your customer, figure out the problem you're solving for them, and then sprinkle in that little bit of magic. It's consistent across cars, shoes, tech, I think everywhere else.

Mary Killelea: That's fantastic. Anything you would like to share with women to motivate them and encourage more women to become engaged in your industry?

Tiffany Beers: There's a lot of, because there's still not 50% women and all the tech and sneakers and everything, there's a lot of, I don't want to say rumors, but a lot of bad stuff has happened over the years. And you tend to hear about that and worry about that. But like, there's tons of us who made it through it just fine. And sure, some crazy things have happened and some weird things have happened, but I feel like I'm a better human because of it on some level. And so don't worry about that. If you enjoy solving problems, engineering is for you. And sometimes you get to work just with the materials and not the humans. So, you don't even have to worry about them. And then other times you have to work with those humans. But that's the beauty of being an engineer too. If you want to be a principal engineer and only focus on your problem solving, you can go totally up to the top of the ladder, no questions asked.

Likewise, if you enjoy people and want to deal with them, but you can be the change, actually. I didn't get into engineering expecting to change anything for anyone, but I have, I've opened doors for other women that I didn't even know I was doing just by being here. And you will too, like every woman will. So, if you like to problem solve, just do it. Don't even, I know that's Nike thing, but it's a good one. It is, right? So, you know, the brilliance is going to happen. I think, I think most of our future is going to be brilliance from women, frankly, but just me.

Mary Killelea: What are some of the resources that you would go to to learn and grow tech acumen or advice or share with other people?

Tiffany Beers: YouTube. YouTube has it all. Some of its crap, but you can find some really great stuff in there. So anytime I want to understand the new business concept or even when I'm learning acoustics engineering, what is acoustics? YouTube, YouTube, YouTube. I'll use that. I'll do Coursera. And then I'll, talk to people, right? Just, just talk to people at work primarily, probably for a lot of engineering skills. But I'm using YouTube to learn things daily basis, basically. Okay.

Mary Killelea: So what's next for you? Are there any upcoming projects or goals that you can share with us?

Tiffany Beers: I'm not sure exactly. I mean, I can feel this energy building. Like, I know something's coming. I know it's going to be something big with my career, but I don't know what it is yet, but I can feel the energy building. It was the same thing when I transitioned all the other times, like I could feel like this excitement coming. And I can feel that. So, something's going to change, although I'm super enjoying my job right now. Loving it actually. So that's a little hard to believe. So, I'm not sure on that front, but I am, I'm starting to coach. I'm actually getting a certificate to do coaching because I want to start to work with middle schools, high schools, and then even professionals on just working through some of these problems so that they get through the system faster and feel like they belong. Like all the things I didn't get support on, I want them to just get through there smoother because they're going to bring such bigger, better things and ideas. And so if I can help do that by coaching or providing info, then I'm all in. So I'm going to, I'm going to give it a go. We'll see.

Mary Killelea: Amazing. I mean, you're amazing. Thank you so much for being on the show. I appreciate it. The support that you do for women. And just, it was just fun to get to know you. Thank you so much for being here.

Tiffany Beers: Yeah. Thanks for having me.

Mary Killelea: Thanks for listening to the episode today. It was really fun chatting with my guests. If you liked our show, please like it and share it with your friends. If you want to learn what we're up to, please go check out our website at 2bbolder.com. That's the number two, little b bolder.com.