#156 - Mindset, Networking, and Personal Growth in Technology Careers with Louise Oprel

Introduction
uh learning to let go motivate yourself to motivate yourself to keep going on it's really a choice to rewire or debug
and that's something we all or at least I think we all need to learn our own way in this life to really get the best out
of yourself it's a mindset and we all face challenges we all face fear but
it's really having the faith and also the focus the mindset to push through
and when you have the right mindset you can really do anything or at least that's what I believe oh yeah mindset is
a big part hello and welcome to the pites podcast where we talk about python career and mindset where your hosts I'm
Julian squa and I am Bob beldos if you're looking to improve your python your career and learn the mindset for
Success this is the podcast for you let's get
started welcome back everybody to the pwi podcast this is Bob and I'm here with Louise oel say that well in English
Bob and Louise on Pybites Podcast
yeah I guess hi everybody hey welcome to the show I'm happy that you could
finally join because we have been talking about doing a podcast for a while and yeah it's going to be cool so
first of all do you want to quickly introduce you to our dear pites audience and what you do day to day sure so uh
dear pites audience nice to meet you uh I'm Louise I'm about turn 30 years old
uh living in Rotterdam the Netherlands I'm Dutch this is my first podcast I have a guinea pig and a cat and I've
been working in Cloud about eight years and during my career that's also how I
met Bob and Jillian both virtually as we were working at the same company at that moment and yeah that's it I guess nice
to meet you yeah no and and I think we met on LinkedIn and yeah that was in the Oracle days and and you out and uh
that's a bit of that networking we're going to discuss later on in the episode we're both Dutch so that's funny and we
never met in person not yet not yet hopefully that will happen one day yeah so yeah you're a cloud Advocate with a
In the Elevator With Cloud: Louise Oprel
mission to disrupt and innovate in the age of transformation so yeah could you share more what you do at that capacity
and what do you aim to achieve at that mission yeah sure so like I said I've been working in Cloud for almost eight
years and I have covered many different roles from more technical pre-sales to customer success to Pure sales and right
now I'm focusing on Partnerships because I see a lot of value in U Collective projects we are living in a very cool
time the age of information where we share and connect better than ever
through technology and that's why I really like technology and the value that it can bring also to larger
corporations so I'm working in the business World on Partnerships where we can bring more value together at a
corporate level and you can think of things like cost optimization through Cloud um finops making uh corporates
more sustainable by enabling them to exit their Data Center and then to move
to Cloud do large Cloud migrations optimize their architecture and make
them help them save more money and then also become more sustainable through things like Landing Zone we work a lot
on legal and security practices Innovation and modernization practices
through AI for example and yeah that's something I'm really passionate about because Cloud brings so much uh value
and potential for us as a spaces especially now and like I said Bob we never met in person but we have
connected so much through technology and that's exactly why I like to disrupt the
the more harsh corporate business uh world with Cloud um I hope that makes
sense yeah it does yeah I know and and like 20 years ago it was way less likely
that we could have even met or or interface like like we've been doing and it's also kind of the story with me and
Julian right I mean ultimately we've met a couple of times of course but yeah that all started like remotely and thanks to technology right the AI word
has fallen so of course I have to ask that question like if AI is already
A Taste of AI in the Workplace
impacting your work and and if so how or is it still pretty stable the same well
we were just uh talking a bit about Chad GPT right that is taking over uh almost
everything entire LinkedIn posts are generated on it so yeah everywhere I look there is AI and yeah it's
everywhere and it's up to us to make the most out of it uh I see a lot of power uh which we can use in a positive or
negative way and that's why I think yeah there's a lot of potential collectively to embrace it and to make the most out
of it uh especially now yeah being so passionate about tech but also how fast it's moving how do you stay up to date
with latest tech development well I think you're a great example Bob because even though I'm not really a
pythonista I'm not the most technical person but I do have very technical friends I have a very strong support
network and I meet people through events through online communities I always try
to look for people who I can look up to and who inspire me and uh yeah maybe the story how we connected back when I was
working in Oracle in Spain I saw a very cool post about Bob building a python
community at the time and I just added him on LinkedIn and said in a personal message like hey U Bob you inspire me
thanks for sharing that's how we connected and he introduced me to Julian and then over the years we kept
connecting we kept sharing books inspiration that's how I do it and not only with Bob and Julian but with many
people or with most people in my life I I try to look for mentors coaches people
who inspire me I've been traveling the world to go to events volunteered there as well did many different roles in
order to come into touch with the entrepreneurs with the inspiring speakers and yeah I read a lot um stay
curious and um I don't watch the news I just I just have people I have nerdy
friends and that helps a lot yeah that that's interesting and and thanks for sharing that story it's really nice to
know that if it wasn't for that post you probably would have connected to me because simply wouldn't have seen me on
the timeline right yeah and that's the knowledge sharing that I just mentioned the power of uh Information Age right
you share something and you make connections but then it's also on the other person to reach out where I think
a lot of people might well not shy away that's that's a bad expression but maybe just just don't take that initiative or
not being proactive about it and then leaving those opportunities on the table right that's exactly the mindset part um
and I can say myself I I'm the shyest person I know naturally so it's getting
out of your comfort zone motivating yourself to to motivate yourself to reach out and um I always just try to
follow the inspiration try to follow people who I look up to and you can look up to anybody actually you can learn a
lot from each other in this world and that's how I like to approach life yeah that's interesting you seem very uh
In the Elevator With An Introvert
sociable well you are but seems that you also characterize yourself a little bit more as an introvert so like reaching
extremely extremely and I'm highly sensitive as well I'm anxious I have
PTSD I have a lot but I try to work on it I try to be vulnerable I try to share
as well with others in order to help each other because that's the only way if you share your experiences be
authentic that's the way others feel safe to be authentic with you yeah so reaching out doesn't come naturally yet
you you develop the habit of keep doing it right yeah well what I try as well is
to not focus too much on myself also even through interviews I don't like to
brag about myself I want to be humble I don't think I'm amazing but I like to focus on the other when I reached out to
you it was because I really thought you were doing something amazing and I like others to feel good I like interviewers
to feel good so it's Shifting the focus for myself to the other and that's the way it's like a more positive exchange
and if there's one thing you leave with people it's the way that you make them feel so if it's not about you can be
about them and everybody likes to be hurt sometimes so m that's awesome yeah we often quote the Derek cers in this
context to be interesting be interested right so if you express interest and generally are interested in the other
person then and if you more interesting yeah if you need help you can just offer
help that's my way I what I learned in Sals I don't like Sals but it's about
helping others and that's when they start helping you and uh yeah it's an exchange so I really try to approach
life collectively so that's not just about me and that way I can step out of
my introvert bubble yeah I guess you know the book quiet right by sus of
course yeah yeah H he mentioned it on the podcast the other day and I thought it was for introverts it's actually also
for extroverts and anybody on that scale can benefit from the book right yeah exactly and I'm reading another book
called sensitive now it's like another part of also 30% of people are are
sensitive yeah that's a that's a good one because with code reviewing and how that c comes across can can be uh yeah
shattering it can be hard with all the impulses it's also the age of distraction there's information
everywhere you can you can be turned on all the time and how do you manage how do you stay balanced and especially when
you are more sensitive and how do you deal with sensitive people so I I try to focus a lot on the psychological Parts
as well and self- knowledge is a lot self-reflection awesome so I want to
The golden ticket to great events
Pivot a bit to what you said about well what basically came down to volunteering right yeah you wrote an article a few
years ago the golden ticket to Great events and um you discussed the power of volunteering to unlock extraordinary
opportunities right so yeah babbe talk a bit about your volunteering experience how it has helped you and um yeah may
start there and then I have a follow-up question it's nice that you refer to that article it's h eight years ago
quite cute I think but it's still an approach that I use so it's uh called the golden ticket to create events and
to give you some background when I was still studying I lacked confidence I was crying in interviews literally when they
asked me what can you do well I cannot do anything so I decided to work on myself to work on my confidence and uh
that's how I started getting into voluntary work uh I volunteered at events and I did many different roles I
was a door guard uh speaker escort wristband girl uh but I also did medical drug testing for for example just to
overcome my fear and to step out of my comfort zone and I realized that it was
a great way to enter into events for free so I would just write event organizers and be like oh I love this
event can I please contribute just give me any task I'm happy to work and help I
just love your event and um yeah that's how I got into all these different roles and can you imagine being a speaker
escort where you have to walk like really great entrepreneurs and they were talking nice to me it was such a
confidence boost so yeah my Approach was to volunteer at events and in my current
job I still do that work at events I still use the approach whenever I see a
project that I would love to work on I just offer my help and contribution hey let's team up do you need help and
that's how you can get into really great opportunities and also find really uplifting people because I've ended up
into VIPs with CEOs and really high executives artists all different
inspiring people and it's a really great way to get into events and also to boost
your confidence because when you're volunteering it's not so much about yourself especially at an event you you
don't have to participate and wear your business suit and be a personality no
you're the contributor you're the helper and helping makes me feel good and boost my confidence and that's what I learned
from volunteering that's uh the supporting role right yeah exactly and that's exactly what I do in sales as
well it's not so much about selling it's about helping so that you're more in like an enabling and empowering customer
success Ro and that's also how you get more traction from customers or even
interviewers when you're coding it's more technical of course but you also have your customers and yeah it's also a
lot about scripting your mindset so scripting coding I think there's a connection yeah that was my follow-up
How to Conquer Limited Opportunities with Mindset
question because um how significant mindset uh is there in overcoming limited opportunities and uh motivation
challenges that sounds obvious almost right like offer your help but why isn't
everybody doing that why isn't everybody succeeding that way what are some limiting because even you said that you
had to win that confidence to even approach people right so how what are some of the limited beliefs and and why
people are not succeeding that way well I think mindset can be everything and
one of the biggest blockages or I think even the biggest blockage people have or face is fair true mindset I was enable
to overcome fear trauma emotional barriers even the anxiety to be on a
podcast right now mindset really helps us to push through challenges with
discipline to make sure that you show up for yourself and yeah you can focus
better on the right opportunities so finding your drive uh learning to let go
motivate yourself to motivate yourself to keep going on it's really a choice to rewire or debug and that's something we
all or at least I think we all need to learn our own way in this life to really
get the best out of yourself it's a mindset and we all face challenges we all face fear but it's really having the
faith and also the focus the mindset to push through and when you have the right
mindset you can really do anything or at least that's what I believe oh yeah mindset is a big
part and if I don't say it Julian will will slap in the face um but yeah do you have practical
routines or rituals to help with that for example we we keep a wind spile right so we we log our we log our
successes and when things are tough you can read back things we have achieved and and maybe compare to our yesterday
selves and say like oh what I'm actually taking for granted now was three years ago like a very big deal so that's kind
of a tactic or tool right do you have certain tools or structures habits that that help you with this well I have like
How to Manage Your Personal Growth
more spiritual routines I don't know if it makes sense in the podcast but I I like to pray I like sports as well
Sports is such a huge uh routine or foundation in my life being able to wake
up early show up for yourself you have the control over your body your body is like your house in this life if you're
able to show up for that self is is the foundation being able to respect
yourself enough to get enough sleep it's the Small Things the small accomplishment that I like to reflect on
daily either through prayer I I like to write a lot journaling uh or through
Sports um it's also very valuable to have the right people in your life to
support you I have a lot of virtual friends who I can reflect with some people I just email weekly and we share
challenges but also things that we overcome and it doesn't have to be like oh I need to do this more and this more
I personally um trying to push myself less uh which is very hard for me and
then it's also a matter of perspective because if I share with people like oh I'm so proud I finally slept in it might
be very different for people they will be like oh okay but for me that's like
an obstacle so yeah it's all a matter about self-reflection and bringing
things into perspective because what might be a win for you might be an obstacle for the other and yeah just
checking in with yourself a lot through any routine that works for you whether
that is drinking tea sitting outside meditating or doing sports uh partying
even anything that works for you no that's awesome that's that's a lot of tips in one definitely want to call out
the sports it's not just doing the sports but I've been going to the morning routine again and doing it first
thing and it's just even though I go to the gym later in a day I just feel much better if I do it early and you get that
first you know um hit in the day and it's almost like building up that yeah it's just there's a self-respect thing
to it as well like respecting my body I'm showing to myself that I can have the discipline to to go somewhere work
out for even if it's just 30 minutes and come back right and it's these small well that's not small necessarily but
often it's Cadence of small things that then lead to something big but you as Jim Ron said right like small things
they're easy to do but also easy not to do and the other thing I like just said about the challenges with friends right
like we can do a lot of this alone journaling is also can be a solo activity but yeah sharing that that
accountability with friends is super powerful that's what I like to do with you as well every now and then re check
in yeah yeah whether it's about career or life or anything books books mindsets
yeah we keep growing I see the plans behind you I I love growth yeah oh that that's all the
wife yeah oh but the books then that's also growth oh yeah yeah
yeah cool yeah maybe a bit more on the volunteering so you you Rec to earned the RSM distinguished alumni award yeah
Rotterdam School of Management Distinguished Alumni Award
maybe you want to talk what that is you already spoke a bit about the volunteer work of course but yeah maybe you want to talk about that in specific award and
and what it meant for you and how how you got there yeah so I've been really grateful to receive an award a few
months ago RSM was my University rdam School of Management where I ended up by
luck I was the first in my family to study and I just uh randomly entered the university and I found my people there
even though I was so shy so imposter syndrome introvert sensitive I found my
people there and I've been so lucky to be surrounded by inspiring uplifting
mentors and coaches throughout the years I had my masters when I was 21 through
all the support that I received and I have been so grateful and proud of that
I felt like giving back to University but also I wanted to keep learning and I
was very curious about what students were doing so I connected with students through a relatively new at the time
online mentoring platform where I created a page and students started reaching out for mock interviews career
conversations uh CV reviews and I started with helping them and through that I learned so much about myself they
they ask you a lot of reflective questions about your experiences you have to share
vulnerabilities and also the advice that I was giving them was still applicable
for myself today and that's so much mirroring and learning it was more like
reverse mentoring so I've been doing that for years I had over 92 consults so
far I've been the greatest of all time RSM Mentor which is really great title
and I'm I'm so grateful that people liked to share their challenges with me there were a lot of young females as
well with imposter syndrome for example they wanted to enter the tech industry and I could help them the way I have
been helped and yeah through the years I've seen so much growth through the people as well makes me feel so proud
and grateful that I had an impact because the students kept thanking me and yeah that's exactly why I was
nominated and yeah I I really believe in mentoring it's like a positive ripple effect because I was mentored so I
mentor and they are also starting to mentor and guide and yeah I I do this through University but the way we are
conversing Bob is also kind of mentoring for me even as friends you can mentor
people in the supermarket even is so great that we are able to share knowledge this way and it doesn't all
have to be true technology but technology enables and empowers us and yeah that's something I'm very
passionate about that's super inspiring so thanks for sharing that and although you have the award and stuff I think
seems like the most fulfilling part is by mentoring you also learned a whole lot about yourself right so but it's
that gratitude the seeing the impact your advice has on them and how they
it's really fascinating about mentoring and coaching is how you enable people like it's not that the people don't have
the skills necessarily or don't know how it's it's more that you have to unlock them right and seeing that process so
again it's not like you sitting in a classroom have to teach a bunch of stuff it's more like how can I make this person succeed so they already have it
in them but how can I unlock this person right and then seeing them flourish is is one of the greatest feelings right
yeah but by working them and you learn as well they they although you're mentoring they teach us much in return
as well right about your approach and and you you have to well that's teaching overall right you have to rethink what
you're saying because you might have your own gaps and has a lot of advantages right exactly and I
personally always like to see the best in others so I try to focus on all the good things and I see Solutions
everywhere but then why am I being so harsh for myself it's very uh are own
worth enemies often very confronting yeah but then once I had like a really good mentoring conversation it's easier
to also think a bit more kindly of yourself and uh it's really great I can
only recommend everybody to mentor and you don't need any experience in order to Mentor because there's so much we can
learn from each other already yeah because you don't have to have a degree for that right it's essentially helping somebody get into the next level right
no actually on this platform when I started I only just had my masters and there were people with mbas who were 15
years older than me who reached out for support and I also referred many of the people who I mentored because they
wanted to work for the employers I was working at so then they become great
colleagues and that's how you really create a network a ripple I don't really like the work Network too much I I see
people as my friends my support friends and uh I think we should all support each other yeah so what what is the
ripple effect specifically in this context the fact that you you Mentor somebody and they yeah you expand your
network or or what is the Ripple so I get knowledge experience wisdom from my
mentors or through my experience at work I share it with them they can then experience themselves or put it in their
context and then they share it as well or I work at a company and they want to
work at the company then literally we become colleagues and now many of the students that I studied business
administration they are also in the business world and then we have great Partnerships which is exactly my role to
build that connection just like your community Builder so I'm sure you understand yeah yeah yeah so it's it's
that whole um Synergy aspect and and The Compound Effect like it teach it to two
they teach it to each to each and you get this exponential effect how how teaching not only affects them but it
affects their students and their students because they're going to you know move it forward right yeah that's
true expansion awesome so you're a vicious reader you like books a lot uh
Bob the Brain on Books
like myself and Julian so yeah before getting into specific titles uh what
type of books do you read and how overall has helped you become a better professional and person I read all types
of books really um from business psychology um a lot of spiritual books
as well I'm currently reading a a kit book series just to uh embrace my inner
child to be a bit more relaxed because I can tend to take myself and life very
seriously I like to laugh a bit more but yeah books are really they are everything to me it's so cool for me
that books are so historical even though I love technology books are like back to
basic they had it much before and also when people die there's still so much
knowledge and so much connection between the knowledges between the wisdom within
books I have grown so much as a person whenever I have a problem whenever I
have an issue with myself or anything you can just read and you don't need a decree anymore today in order to become
the person that you want to be and yeah books enable me to become a better person both professionally and
personally I really like to focus on my um inner piece inner work and books are
my fuel there awesome and did you uh start reading at a young age yeah
introver yeah I like to build tents and read books with my guinea pigs in the in
the tent nice yeah I started later I was not really drawn to books naturally I
just one day it clicked you know it was it was strange well actually I I like to
listen more to books tend to always be busy I have trouble relaxing so whenever
I'm doing stuff I'm listening to books which is actually really great for my listening skills normally I don't talk
as much as I do in this interview I'm more of the listening type and yeah the focus really expands through audio books
yeah it takes great concent I I find it hard Julian is a big audio book listener
um but happens I just zone out um maybe it's a form of ad8 I don't
know but I it it really is hard to for me to to keep the main thread in an
audio book um but that could also be that I'm just more a text or book type of learner uh than audio I don't know
but I I find it hard to to consistently go through an audio book uh how is that with the podcast then well those are
shorter episodes right so they're well you can also just listen to chapter book
yeah that that's true that might be mindsets that I just have to overcome may you listen to a mindset
book Bob I know I know but yeah you can take the chapters as individual podcast if you think about
it like that it makes makes sense cool no yeah I agree reading although I have
to say like sometimes I feel like I read a lot of stuff and where is it now in my
head right I cannot tangibly pinpoint is this very useful but then if I just look at holistically then how it has shaped
me then I have to I mean apart from the people and the work and and all that good all these good things there's just
a total net gain right but you cannot usually pinpoint it to one book it's just that total amount of
learning have you know what it's not knowledge then it's wisdom right nice
you're very wise person thank you well you too thank you
I much enjoy our chats so do you have um anything specific you're reading or you want to recommend on this podcast well
30:32 - Reading Books with deep Connection
like I said I'm reading more like a kids book Ser now is a life of a Wimpy Kid
it's really funny I can recommend reading Child books sometimes just to have a love just to have it a bit more
light uh but I'm also reading like really studying really deep spiritual work Like A Course in Miracles just it
might sound religious but it's the connection between Mind Body soul and they're still the mind so I think it's
all connected even though it's far from the coding in Python still it's mind and
when you're able to see the connections and lay them for yourself yeah you can become a master of life so I'm studying
a lot about inner peace and I think a lot comes from the inside especially now
there's so many external circumstances and it's important to focus on the inside as well to feel good because
there's so much we can get upset about and uh as long as you have your foundation at home inside that's what I
try to focus on even through books because books are also consumed in the mind awesome that's a great way uh to
wrap it up unless you wanted to share anything else but how can people reach out to you I guess you're in the P
Community yeah I am I am and for that LinkedIn yeah awesome we'll we'll
link that as well then yeah thank you well thanks so much for uh hopping on and sharing this great fun I'm sure the
audience will appreciate all the all the wisdom and Nuggets you have shared oh thank you for having me and uh yeah have
a great day yeah you too thanks thank you bye bye bye
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