Heidi Culbertson, CEO, Marvee
@hculbertson

As the founder of a successful voice-design company, building a business, creating impactful experiences, and bringing voice AI and the 50+ population together, it beats everything. I am most proud of finding the right blend of doing good business and social good at the same time.

Keri Roberts, Branding Strategist, Host of Inside VOICE Podcast
@kerinroberts

I work in the branding, content marketing, and community building side of voice AI. So, my favorite achievement is providing a space and opportunity that allows people to be heard through podcasting and social media. Voice is still new and it’s important to include the perspectives and opinions within the full community and help educate the world on voice.

Nithya Thadani, CEO, RAIN
Nithya

I hope that I’ve made some contribution to evangelizing and creating momentum for the potential of voice AI. Given how nascent the market was when we started, my mandate has always been equal parts evangelism and execution. RAIN invests a significant amount of time in shepherding brands to this emerging technology and its applications. We understand where our customer is along the adoption curve and meet them there—which has led to greater and more meaningful adoption of the technology.

Claire Mitchell, Director, VaynerSmart, VaynerMedia
Claire

I’d frame achievement in terms of working on challenges that I enjoy. I love solving puzzles, and that’s a big part of how I think about innovation or designing experiences—whether for voice or any other type of user interface. It’s pretty cool to work on briefs that require new ways of organizing information, delivering relevance and empathizing with the context of an audience—staying ahead as our digital interfaces evolve. 

Q: How can the voice community better support women?

Listen. Recruit. Look at the numbers horizontally and vertically. Retain amazing talent through great work cultures. Make work-life easy for caregivers, parents, and those with mental health challenges. Create flexibility in work hours and remote work. Create transparency in pay structures. Value mentorship and support senior and junior folks creating connections. Diversity. Inclusion. Retention.

I believe the voice community in general has been supportive of women. We’ve seen women participate at the Voice Summit, voice-first events and within SoundHound Inc.’s many voice-education webinars and publications. Diversity, be it gender, age or ethnicity is critical as we move toward a voice-enabled world. There are visionaries, executives, developers, designers and other brilliant talents, who just happen to be women. We need to see them on the main stage, part of every panel, at every event, on every product team, within every user-testing pool. Everywhere we look, we should see diversity. Diversity breeds strength, innovation, and success.

I think it’s important that we actively ask women to join in on the conversion and remind them that their opinions and expertise are valid and necessary in order to improve this technology and community.

The key word here is community; we need to continue to create opportunities for women to meet one another, build relationships, and create support systems. Studies show that women are hardwired for friendship and community. I believe it! I’ve met the most incredible and inspiring women these past few years working in voice, and those bonds have made me exponentially better at what I do.

From my experience working with partners and clients and attending conferences, there are so many talented, encouraging, and driven women working in voice. That’s also reflected in the support I’ve seen in the voice community generally, whether folks are just entering the field or have been in the space for years. However, there’s always an opportunity to amplify more voices—gender, background, industry, age, etc. We’ll ultimately see more interesting experiences emerge if a broader range of perspectives are heard.

Q: The theme this year is “Each for Equal.” What does that mean to you?

All humans support all other humans. 

To me, “Each for Equal” means everyone matters. Each “one” has a voice. Each ”one” deserves to be listened to. Each “one” is invited to participate. Each “one” adds to the health, wealth, and future of our world.

To me it means that we have to include each person in the community to create an equal playing field. All genders, cultures, religions, and backgrounds, etc. should be included in developing the voice tech space or any space, really. Everyone has a unique background—that’s what makes our world beautiful. And yet, we all crave the same thing equally, to belong and to be recognized. So, let’s actively include each person and create an equal representation of the world as best we can. 

To me, this means not just Women for Equal, but rather, Everyone for Equal. Men and allies, too. Gender inequality is a systemic problem, and we’re going to need the whole system to come together to solve it. When we have gender diversity on teams, we get to bigger, more creative and innovative answers—something everyone should care about. To the many men and allies who are engaged in closing the gender gap: keep doing what you’re doing—we can’t make progress without you.

Everyone has something to contribute. We can all spend a bit more time listening to each other.

Q: What, if any, gender challenges have you encountered and overcome in your professional life?

Microaggressions occur all the time. Being dismissed for being perceived as too young, being perceived as a woman, being perceived as someone who cares about aesthetics. Salient material that has been said to my face: “Oh, you’re actually technical.” “Are you really the person behind Women in Voice? Who actually is it?” “Oh, you do know what you’re talking about.” To combat how this might be received, I have a strong support system of people in my personal and professional life who support me as I process how words, actions, and other things do or do not affect me.

Having spent a 20+ career in male-dominated fields, I have often been the lone female. There have been multiple challenges but my focus is lessons learned. I learned to speak up and to own my voice. I learned the value of establishing networks outside of one’s’ business silo, and the importance of finding mentors and champions, male or female

 I have been told I’m too strong or tough when I’ve stood my ground or was direct in my communication. I have been called “honey,” and “sweetie,” and have heard suggestive comments by older men at professional dinners and been asked in interviews if I’m married, have children or want to have children. I’ve had a male boss yell at me with his finger in my face. I will say in comparison to most, I’ve been lucky in not experiencing as many awful experiences in my professional career as some others have. But in situations like those I’ve described, I always remember that I am strong and I am confident in who I am, in my abilities, and in my worth. I always speak my mind in a calm way about things like this and when it continues, I leave people and situations. Unfortunately, there are toxic people and the only thing you can do is leave negative situations and associate with companies, clients, and people who respect and appreciate you.

Early on in my role as CEO, I received feedback from my team that I was not “warm.” This really impacted me, because it was at odds with my personality, both personally and professionally. One of my mentors was quick to point out that you wouldn’t hear anyone ding a male CEO for not being warm; it’s not one of their criteria for good leadership. Women are often faced with gender perceptions and expectations that can ultimately affect how they are viewed as leaders. I addressed the stereotype—and also shifted my behavior to squash it, but today I am much more attuned to these subtle gender challenges.

Everyone has probably had moments of self-doubt in a room full of people who are all another gender, more senior, younger, louder, silent, cooler, nerdier, feminine, masculine, different. Realizing that everyone is finding their place has allowed me to embrace the beat of my own drum. 

Q: What unique perspectives do you think women bring to the voice technology conversation?

Wildly brilliant, disruptive ideas do not come from one small homogenous population. Voice tech is poised to disrupt technology as we know it, and including a respect for diversity can be brought to the forefront from the first waves of voice technology in the tech ecosystem.

Women have a unique characteristic deeply embedded in our make-up. It is empathy. With that, comes the perspective needed for the voice conversation.

 For the most part, women have always been conversationalists. I think on average most women are very good at having conversations and understanding how language works. I think that’s very valuable in the voice technology space. I also think most women tend to be problem solvers and multitaskers—able to handle personal and professional life well while also finding the balance between being emotional and creative and being structured and logical.

It’s so important that women play a role in shaping how this industry evolves. Voice technology and conversation is about human connection at the end of the day, and women are 50% of that equation. Women also over-index on the desire to contribute to society in their work, and voice technology can accelerate social innovation in so many ways. Women have a unique and important lens to bring to the way these human interactions are designed and built.

An understanding and passion for communication, an inclination toward curiosity, and an ability to empathize with others. Any human with these characteristics is a huge asset to the team—in voice, in design, in tech, in life.