buddy. My name is Mona Patel s. So I started out, uh, premed on. I studied biochemistry when I was in school, and my main goal is to really help people. And, you know, there was so much prestige around medicine, and it was a high paying career. So it was always something that I felt like I could dio. And towards the end of my senior year of college, I started to feel a little burnt out by all the school work. And so I wanted to just work for at least a year just to get a taste of what it's like t b in the workforce. Um and so I started working at a start up, and that's when I realized I had an entrepreneurial itch and I really liked working, um, and being able to learn and apply right away. And so I started working. Um, but I remember one experience distinctly. I was two weeks into my job and I was not performing very well, and both the co founders brought me aside and pretty much told me that I was being too casual. I wasn't working hard enough. And if I didn't get my act together, Um, they would fire me. And, you know, I remember that experience. I called my older sister, who was always a great, um, leader for me And, you know, she looked at me and she said, You know, welcome to the real world. This is This is what's gonna happen. Um, and I always remember that experience because a couple years later, things were going well and my company, my startup, ended up getting acquired. And when we got acquired within 3 to 4 days, everything changed. I had completely new leadership. My role was a little bit different, and it was a different office and everything that's kind of flipped upside down. And that was another really big experience for me because I hadn't really experienced change when I was working. And when I was at this new role, we started toe have production issues at this main company, and people started to leave because we couldn't sell the products and it was really difficult because there was a lot of tension. There was a lot of fighting, and it was very, very hard to, uh to know what to do next. Eso Fortunately, I decided to stay with the company. I showed loyalty. I short leadership, and I was able to really get the eye of some of the people higher up in the company on. I was able to really earn their respect. Uh, not so much on what I did, but just the way I carried myself. Um, I've always been taught that, uh, you know, your true character has shown when, you know things are hard. Um, And so because of that, I was able to make an internal move to the current role that I'm in now, which is a global product manager. Um, so those are some of the experiences that I've had it sort of how it brought me to worry.

each of my work is focused on new product development and really launching new technologies. So that really involves working cross functionally with different teams and different members of the organization in order to make sure that we fulfill our goals and our objections. And once the product has launched, a big responsibility I have is downstream marketing, which is really being able to support our sales team when, um when the product is launched. So how can we best find different avenues in which we can get these products to customers to really be able to help My weekly hours? I tried my best to be efficient and then to be done within eight hours because I do believe that there is a life outside of work and you really should should enjoy that. It's been obviously very interesting during this cocotte 19 period. I've been full time remote for obviously safety purposes, and so I continue to try to work 9 to 5. Um, but of course there are times where you'll have to work a little bit longer, But I really love my team because I'm able to manage my own hours, and I think it really helps to stay to that

challenges that I have is working cross functionally The way that my team and my organization works is everybody reports to somebody different. Yet we all need to work together in order to launch products and to really complete projects. And so, you know, this concept is called lateral leadership. You know, how do you really leave people that you're not directly in charge? And it's a skill that I'm still continuing toe toe learn than to grow in. Um, but one thing that I've learned is you really can't tell people what to dio. Um, nobody likes being told what to do, and especially if you're not there, boss, it just isn't something that's gonna be effective. Um, and so one thing that I've really been implementing that's worked really well is just getting to know people outside of work, just asking about their families and their hobbies and what really motivates and excites them because it's funny. You know, once you really ask about somebody's life outside of work, it makes your life and work so much easier because people are really receptive to you when there's that human to human, you know, spirit to spirit interaction. That's just so powerful. Um, and I also think that just being genuine and authentic about it is so important. I think if I'm just asking you about your life just because I want something from you, it's gonna come off is very arrogant. And I mean, nobody is really gonna respond well to that. So just being genuine, being authentic and taking a real interest in people's lives, I think will really help them help you, uh