Tech Exec Wellness Podcast: Conversations to Reignite Your Soul
In the fast-paced world of technology, where innovation and disruption are the norm, tech executives often find themselves caught in a whirlwind of high-pressure decision-making, long working hours, and constant connectivity. The relentless pursuit of success and the demands of their roles can take a toll on their mental, emotional, and physical well-being. However, a new narrative that emphasizes the importance of tech executive wellness as a crucial component of sustainable success is emerging. This is the story of the tech executive's journey to rediscover balance, prioritize well-being, and ultimately thrive in their personal and professional lives.
If you're ready to embark on a wellness journey that will empower you to live your best life, I invite you to subscribe to Tech Exec Wellness, Navigating the Digital Balance, wherever you listen to podcasts. Together, let's cultivate harmony within ourselves and radiate positive energy to the world. Each week, we'll explore a wide range of topics related to wellness, inviting experts, thought leaders, and everyday individuals who have transformed their lives through mindful living, self-care, practices, and holistic approaches. We'll dive deep into areas such as nutrition, fitness, mental health, spirituality, mindfulness, personal growth, and more.
Tech Exec Wellness Podcast: Conversations to Reignite Your Soul
Championing Cybersecurity Education in Africa with Confidence Staveley
Embark on a riveting journey with Cybersecurity Woman of the World 2023, Confidence Stavely, as she imparts her vibrant energy and profound knowledge within the digital security realm. As we revel in her stories—ranging from her passion for Afro beats to an electrifying Alicia Keys concert—you'll quickly find that Confidence's enthusiasm is as infectious as her expertise is formidable. She peels back the layers of API security with her YouTube series, API Kitchen, making complex concepts accessible and engaging. Confidence's zest for life extends into her mission-driven work, where she champions inclusivity and education as pillars of empowerment, especially through initiatives like the Cyber Safe Foundation and the transformative Cyber Girls Fellowship program.
In our conversation, we celebrate the power of sharing knowledge, a practice that cements one's understanding and uplifts others. Confidence and I scrutinize the pressing challenge of nurturing cyber talent in Africa, likening it to guiding a child tasked with maneuvering a sophisticated vehicle. We shed light on the substantial gaps in cybersecurity awareness and the dire need for a diverse workforce. The success stories from the Cyber Girls Fellowship program underscore the capacity of education and practical skills to alter lives, painting a hopeful picture of the future of cybersecurity in Africa—one where every individual is equipped to navigate the digital landscape safely and confidently.
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Welcome back to another episode of the Tech Exec Wellness Podcast. I'm Melissa. Today we are delighted to bring Confidence Stavely to the show. Confidence is Africa's most celebrated female cybersecurity leader, api security professional talent developer, international speaker and inclusion advocate. She has achieved numerous professional certifications and industry recognitions. What sets confidence apart is her innate ability to merge profound cybersecurity knowledge with impeccable communication finesse. She excels in translating intricate cybersecurity concepts into digestible, jargon-free insights for diverse audiences. Her unique approach is brilliantly showcased in her YouTube series API Kitchen, and I love it. We're going to talk about that, thank you.
Speaker 1:Here she employs culinary metaphors to illuminate API security intricacies. Within its debut season, the series has amassed over half a million views across social media and I'm sure after we launch this podcast, there'll be more. So, yeah, she's done this. She's masterfully served up a banquet of API security wisdom.
Speaker 1:Her exceptional contributions are frequently celebrated. Recently, she clinched the title of Cybersecurity Woman of the World 2023. Her previous recognitions span awards like the Cybersecurity Woman of the Year for 2021 and 2022, a nod as the International Security Journal 2023 Influencer, a spot on the top cyber news 40 under 40 in cybersecurity, a LinkedIn top voice distinction and a ranking amongst the top 50 women in cybersecurity Africa. An alumna of globally renowned fellowships such as the 2021 Obama Foundation African Leaders and the International Visitors Leadership Program, confidence's voice is echoed across 120 global platforms, reflecting her expansive influence and thought leadership. Beyond her advisory roles on various brands, confidence is the driving force behind Cyber Safe Foundation, which we're going to talk about, a leading NGO devoted to fostering a digitally inclusive and secure landscape in Africa. She is also the founder of MiracleFence, an application security as a service consulting company. So that was a lot.
Speaker 1:A lot Before we begin. Can you share your favorite music genre with us and a memorable concert?
Speaker 2:Oh, my favorite genre would be Afro beats. I love Afro beats a lot, and I mean, for the record, I'm Nigerian as well, so it's sort of music that's local to us, but it's just very groovy, feel good and just dance and be happy sort of music.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Do you spend your time in the US as well, because I think you and I've talked before that you spent some time over in the States. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I now spend a lot more time in the US than in Nigeria, but I still shuttle between both.
Speaker 1:My goodness, you're such a busy woman. I'm sitting here as I'm talking about you going. Wow, what does she do to manage all of this? But a question for you since you've been in the US, have you been to any concerts here? Is there an artist here that you saw and you're like, wow, this is so cool.
Speaker 2:You know what's funny? I just came from the RSC and maybe the organizers didn't know, but they had that full concert as in closing celebration. It was just for me. I know there were thousands of other people, but it was just for me and this is why I say so. I absolutely love Alicia Keys. Girl on Fire is-.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, yeah, it's sort of like a music theme for my life. It got. It's gotten so bad that I've gotten cyber girls as well to love the song so much. So at every orientation, every major event, you're playing girl on fire. It's such an empowering song so just watching her performing for the first time live on stage, girl, I lost. I forgot to read the room and I couldn't be bothered to. When everyone was sat down and just sort of enjoying the song sitting, I stood up and I was vibing and I was dancing too, because it was just an experience for me.
Speaker 1:My goodness, I love that so much. And yeah, I do love, I do love Alicia Keys and I love that song that she did with Jay-Z Empire New York I don't know the name of it but you know which one I'm talking about.
Speaker 2:In New York? Yeah, In New York.
Speaker 1:Something like that yeah, hey, keep going, keep going. I love it.
Speaker 2:That's sick to see in my life.
Speaker 1:My goodness Well, for the listeners out there, confidence approached me to participate in the Cyber Safe Foundation, which we're going to talk about. I really admire this woman and one of the reasons is her energy. I'm such a person, for if I see the way you interact you're smiling, you're laughing that's kind of my jam. So before we get into like some of the questions, what makes you so happy?
Speaker 2:jam. So, before we get into like some of the questions, what makes you so happy, Melissa? You know, when you first said, you know you admire me, I'm like that's very much because I mean you're amazing, You're just very inspiring, implicitly, Like it's it's it just happens, it oozes out of you.
Speaker 2:And speaking about what makes me happy I think I've heard this remark quite a lot that there's so much joy, even in my voice. I think for me it's, it's what feeling, the buckets of fulfillment, the things that that make me live, more than for myself, I think, has been very, very instrumental to the kind of joy experience I got to a stage in my life, you know, five years ago, when I just wanted to, when I realized a lot of the things I was doing were for myself. You know, um, they were just for me and I just wanted to be able to, to, to be more for other people. I think that in that whole process I unlocked a new level of joy. I mean, I've always been, um, a happy person by default, but I mean that whole transition to leading for myself, of course, taking good care of myself and prioritizing myself, as well as living wholly and able to be there for other people at scale even, I think, was a new level that you know all of that unlocked for me.
Speaker 1:No, I love that and I and I, I have watched your API kitchen and I think I don't know if you remember, but I said, hey, I need an invite Cause I love to cook you, just, you're just a natural for me. I, I, just, I gravitate toward those type of people. I love positive people, so confidence. I just want to say that keep doing what you're doing. It's amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, melissa. So walk us through your journey in cyber. How did you get started? What drives you? What's your passion?
Speaker 1:Tell us all about it for those that are learning about you.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm an accidental, if there's any one word that basically describes how I got in here. I mean, I just stumbled on and just found myself in this lovely lit room with so many problems and I said I love it here. I'm going nowhere else, you know literally to share a bit more of the story. I initially thought I was going to be a medical doctor. My parents had sold me the idea for so long. Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I thought it was mine at some point. And then my parents told me to take a gap year between going to university and when I just finished high school, and in that gap year I was exposed to computers for the first time and I loved it. I went from learning how to use basic computer applications to learning how to program in Java, in C, in C++, went on to C, sharp the works, and I loved it there. So I made this presentation to my parents using cardboard paper, cause at the time I could not afford a laptop. So I made my presentation using cardboard papers, like slide one and I lift it up. It's like two, I lift another one, that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:You're so darn innovative, you're so innovative.
Speaker 2:Thank you. So I had to tell them how technology was was going to be the future because again I'm saying going to, because at the time for the rest, for a lot of the world that was present, but for us it wasn't right. So I had to tell them how that was near future and how it was going to be very profitable for me to be there and how I loved it so much. And again, a bit of perspective. So you know where I'm coming from. My parents do not have a university degree, both my parents. Already I'm the first graduate of my whole lineage um so yes.
Speaker 2:So my parents didn't understand a lot of what I was saying, but I could see that the spark in my eyes, the passion I'm sure you can feel by just listening to my voice. Yes, like, uh, okay, let's, let's, let's give a shot. And there's something I say often because I learned it from my mother and I also used it in this speech because, yeah, I had to use her words, you know, to sort of win this argument, because if you know anything about, um, nigerian parents, they're very, very insistent on their ways and the things that they want. And I caught them that slap because they generally just want the best for their children and is the best from their level of knowledge. You know which, at this stage where we're talking about these things, I was better pleased to tell my parents what I wanted than they would have been, you know, but it had to take some level of humility for them to accept that right. So, um, I told my mom something she always says, which is that you cannot outperform a passionate person. So I told her that you know that's something you've always told me. So this is something I'm passionate about and I need to go chase it. Thank goodness they let me go chase it.
Speaker 2:So I got her an advanced diploma in software engineering at first, which is something I'm very grateful for because it really informs you. You know my, the area in information security that I'm very passionate about, right, and so after that I got a scholarship to do a degree in IT and business information systems. I mean, I went to schools that my parents would never have been able to afford because, again, scholarships were made available to me. And it was during my master's, when I was doing a master's in IT management, that I got to pick an elective called cryptography. Now, melissa, you know that that is like boxing by fire to get in touch with cybersecurity and know about cybersecurity from such a technical place like cryptography. But literally.
Speaker 1:That was what piqued my interest.
Speaker 2:I started off there. It was just an elective and I was going to classes and you know things were being connected from there to, you know, the whole field of information security and I was like this is where I want to be. I want to niche down, you know, to be in information security. Kimi, my lecturer at the time, became my mentor. He's doing so many amazing things in the UK right now, just leading the research institute, just really researching and helping to bring the best innovation around protecting critical infrastructure of the UK government right. So that's what he's currently doing, but at the time he was my lecturer and he mentored me, really helped me, help my hand to basically self-study and what direction to go, and I just continue to grow my skills from there until I landed my first role. So that in not so short a nutshell is what my journey has been like and I've absolutely loved it here for two major reasons. One, I love to solve problems like yes it feeds my adrenaline right.
Speaker 2:My adrenaline junkie gets fat, you know, from just having all of those bombs of solving problems. I also love the fact that I'm never bored here. There's something always changing, something always new. That sort of novelty and that quick pace of change is something I absolutely love. For some people it's not something they like. For me, the fact that I'm always wanting to learn new things because things are changing, it's just new levels of excitement and joy for me.
Speaker 1:No, that's amazing and I've got two points. When you talk about you wanting to be a physician, if you think about cybersecurity, it's like a practice. There's so many different specialties and it's continuous learning. It's like a practice. There's so many different specialties and it's continuous learning, so similar, yeah. Yeah, it's like what new malware is coming out tomorrow, but one thing, yeah. One thing. You said, though, and I wrote this down you cannot outperform a passionate person.
Speaker 2:What does that mean to you? I mean for me, it just means that I never touch things that I don't enjoy doing and I don't have a deep reason for so. That deep-seated reason for doing everything means that I follow things through to the end. It also means that I'm genuinely fulfilled from doing those things, and it also means that I do them to the best of my abilities and I'm constantly looking for better ways to do the things that I'm doing. So for me, that that has always been it, and that particular you know saying also fit into my mantra, which I share very often, which is just a very simple nursery rhyme. It says good, better best. I will never rest until my good is better, my better best best.
Speaker 2:Both of them sit together and sort of form like pillars for my life, and it just means that for me, excellence is a journey and I'm having fun. I'm having fun literally living and doing all the things that make the world better, make my life better and make the world better than I'll live it.
Speaker 1:The world better than I'll live it. I got to tell you in these few moments that we've been together. You've reinvigorated just my whole expectation of cyber, and one thing that you said that really resonates with me is solving problems. I don't I mean, I guess that's why you wanted to be a doctor, because they're solving problems too. So I see online from you, you're constantly sharing knowledge. You're not hoarding it, You're not keeping it. Why do you? You're constantly sharing knowledge. You're not hoarding it, You're not keeping it. Why do you share so much?
Speaker 2:knowledge. Okay. So I'll give you two reasons. One of the reasons is for self, and then one of the reasons is for other people. No-transcript, so I mean, it's a hack that I learned that reinforces knowledge. So if you look at the pyramid of learning, the highest retention of learning exists when you share. Yes, so if you want to understand something to a new depth, share it, teach someone. So for me, that is one reason. Two, I also don't want more people to struggle with certain things that I've struggled with as well. So if I'm sharing that knowledge, I'm helping someone else understand something faster. I'm helping someone else see another perspective of it. I'm helping someone um, you know, just basically see something differently and help them. And for me, that's also I.
Speaker 2:I'm also a very I mean, I'm a Christian and a very strong one at that. I believe that sharing knowledge is one of the key things God has commanded us to do. It's like city on top of the hill. So if I'm sharing my knowledge and I'm shining, I'm inspiring another person to shine. I'm giving another person permission to shine. I'm helping the person to shine. I'm giving another person permission to shine. I'm helping the world stay lit.
Speaker 2:So for me, whenever I share knowledge is also because I want to reinforce the learnings to. I want to impact the world by just living freely and giving freely and helping more people be better at whatever they're doing. If it's an experience that again experience that would help your own experience be better than mine or make yours easier than mine, then definitely I'll be sharing it. So for me it's those two major perspectives, which is one reinforcing my own knowledge and two also helping others. But it comes to benefit and I wouldn't even lie to you right Thought leadership has come naturally because I'm sharing that knowledge. So top of mind opportunities will come in certain areas because I have been consistently sharing a knowledge in those areas that I mean things I love to do and I know how to do well.
Speaker 1:That is outstanding and that is probably the best answer I've ever heard and I think know you know that I was in the military, but it's like being of service to others and I don't know if I learned that from being a baby or whatever, but I've always just wanted to help people and I love how you articulated going out there and pushing people up. I think that's just so phenomenal. Thank you All right, so let's talk about the Cyber Safe Foundation, which I was a part of and I still keep in touch with my girls.
Speaker 2:So let's talk about it, thank you. So Cyber Safe Foundation is basically my response to the gap between what the private sector is doing around cybersecurity on the African continent and what the government is doing. There's a gap there on many levels. There was a very strong gap when CyberSafe was founded around awareness, cyber security awareness. People were adopting technology at scale really, really fast. You know, record speed that technology was being adopted from mobile phones to computers. Record speed that technology was being adopted from mobile phones to computers.
Speaker 2:But it felt like we're putting um, a nice Mercedes-Benz, um, we're putting a five-year-old child to drive a nice Mercedes-Benz literally that's how it felt without even showing the five-year-old where the brakes were and even wondering if their hands would be able to be long enough to use the brakes when they need it or if they'll be coordinated enough to use it. You know, and what happens when you do that? You crash a car. You know, possibly that's caused a lot of harm, not just harm that is replaceable like buying that car again but possibly loss that is irreplaceable, like that child dying. God forbid it, you know.
Speaker 2:So that is the best analogy I can give, because there are some things that happens when you know there's a cyber attack that you may not be able to recover from, especially small and medium scale enterprises, which are typically the kind of people we, businesses that we service. We service underserved communities and underrepresented communities, as well as businesses that you know are typically not taking on cybersecurity like they should. So for us, it was just taking that on and helping the ecosystem. Another major issue that we saw again post-COVID and during COVID was also the issues of talent. You know, cyber talent, the cyber attacks skyrocketed around that time, but then if you, if you look, if you look around, there was not enough talent and if you looked at the talent base, it wasn't diverse enough. As we speak, although women make up 50 percent of the population in africa, we only make up nine percent of the cyber workforce on the continent.
Speaker 2:So only one in every 10 cybersecurity professionals is a woman on the continent. So I mean I've looked at all and, by the way, that start is from the World Bank. So I mean. So, if we look at that context, for me it was something that I really wanted to do a lot to change the continent in terms of build capacity for awareness around risk when we're using and leveraging technology, and also to build the talent that enables us to innovate securely and ensure that that talent we're building is also diverse, because we do not have enough women. We do not have, uh, people that represent us, and I walked into so many rooms that I wasn't. I was the only woman and there was nothing to glory about there.
Speaker 2:So, for me it was making sure that those different buckets get filled. That was what started off the Cyber Safe Foundation just facilitating pockets of change that ensure inclusive and safe digital access on the African continent.
Speaker 1:So are these women and listeners out there? I participated in this when I was at Dell Technologies and I loved it. I think what I love most about it was I was learning from them as well. Post-graduation are these ladies landing cool jobs? What are they doing once they graduate from the program?
Speaker 2:My God, god, that has been the most phenomenal part of this. I mean I I've also learned something very, very strong from the cyber girls fellowship and success story so far, and the one thing that I've learned very strongly is that success is very intentional. When, when we started off, we wanted to make sure that we were providing very premium cybersecurity training and mentorship for young women for free, young men who would not be able to afford such a training but be able to give them access to resources and people like Melissa as mentors, thank you. You're set up for life. You know that literally was the case. You know. Thank you, enterprise systems. You know, ensuring that we don't have these breaches but also see it as a tool for socioeconomic improvement, socioeconomic impact, and that was the lens through which we saw this capacity building program. So placement was a key thing we needed to see. We needed to be able to show and draw a line between finishing the program and having significant improvement in socioeconomic well-being, and so the placement leg was the toughest part of delivering this program and, I would say, the most fulfilling.
Speaker 2:A lot of women went on or go on to get, or get get jobs or get an advanced uh, get into an advanced program to study, so going to say, do a master's in computer science or do a master, a first degree, in computer science. So usually they come out, get jobs or go on to do these other amazing things that actually gets their feet or keeps them on the path to get into the industry. So, for example, I'd like to share this story of a girl in South Africa. Her name is Kachipa Masipa. Kachipa used to wait tables at a pizza restaurant and it was quite a struggle for her to do, take care of herself and her family and just even to live a good life, right, fair enough life, um. And then she came through our program, started for the eight months she was on, came out and landed a role with a cyber security within the cyber security operations center of a company that's listed on the largest stock exchange in africa what happened?
Speaker 2:yeah, what happened?
Speaker 1:there was.
Speaker 2:She then got a 450 increase in her income and the day she reported that increase in income I was like, oh my god, this is amazing. But she, she's just one of several stories and that's sort of like the average. You get 400 as average increase, um, in income that girls that come out of our programs get. So you can see a very strong trajectory between completing the program and living a better life, which Kachipa says she's able to live today. So I mean for us it's getting those jobs, getting placed, getting started in the industry, helping the girls get started by providing the connections and creating the platform for them to be connected to hiring organizations, and also just teaching them how to catch the fish themselves. How can they leverage LinkedIn, you know, to position themselves to attract opportunities. How can they maximize their CVs and begin to apply to roles and interviews. Those are the sort of supports we also provide, aside the core training delivery, and I'm very proud of the successes we've been able to achieve.
Speaker 1:You know I love a good story like that. Thank you so much for talking about that. That's just incredible. So the cohort is growing annually, right? I mean it's getting bigger and bigger, is that correct?
Speaker 2:run the biggest cyber security training and mentorship program for women, because we have 500 women each year, 500 young men each year. Uh, this year in our fourth cohort, we have 500 women across 27 african countries. Um, so that is huge, um, the girls also sort of like carry cyber girls as a badge of honor, because it's become one of the most prestigious programs you can be on, uh, on the continent to receive the sort of quality of training that we give. Our partnerships are global and so we can bring global partnerships to these ladies in terms of resources, in terms of networks and just about the would I say, the brand equity, because once you're a cyber girl, people expect excellence of you and you're sort of like set up to to do well. So everybody expects, or we have this reputation of producing just about the best female talent you would find around and it's very clear.
Speaker 2:I mean melissa. I looked at a recent program that was a recent conference that was run in africa, um, for young african cyber talent. Year after year, cyber girls have been the only females in those conferences doing technical demos. That means it's possible that without cyber girls existing, we would have had all males doing demos at those conferences, but those girls are filling up, and they're not just numbers filling up a gap. They're delivering quality presentations and quality demos. So the impact across the ecosystem has just been very outstanding across all of the countries that we have fellows in.
Speaker 1:We have to have you back on the show there's just way too much information. So what are you doing to stay well, in the US, and I'm sure you've seen this people are burned out. Cybersecurity especially, doing more with less.
Speaker 2:What are you?
Speaker 1:doing to take care of yourself.
Speaker 2:I mean I have little habits. For one, I have the habit of working 30 minutes each day. Some days I enjoy it too much, so it becomes about 45 minutes. I also use one of these desks that I get to stand often. Excuse me please, I'm currently sitting, but I usually would stand, um, yes, you know, and just some part of my day, just allow the blood to flow also. Um, I also would I say I respect seasons. There are some seasons that are very, very high demanding and I make exceptions for that, but do not keep the habits from those seasons. Um, when you know it's not one of those very high demanding seasons, then I definitely make sure to have eight hours or more of sleep a day.
Speaker 2:So sleep is very important for me. I also take regular breaks from work and just shut up. But one very major thing that I do that I absolutely enjoy is I try not to take on um commitments or commitments in the weekend, um, so I'm able to spend time with family and we have certain things that I enjoy doing so much. So, for example, I get to make comfort food for my family on Saturday morning. On Sunday afternoon my husband is making some of the meals that are special to him to give me a treat with um.
Speaker 2:I get to play football with my son. You know it's just, I just run, I just be, you know, just enjoy that time with him, uh, as a very active child. So those are things that I absolutely. I mean I travel every time I said maybe I miss, I miss playing football with you. It's just something special because as far as the exercising that it does for me, it's also bonding time, something that he misses when I'm away from home. So those are the little things I have that helps me, um, you know, balance things out.
Speaker 1:No, that's. That's terrific, and I know you've got another commitment to run to, but I'd love to have you back on the show in the fall. So we appreciate you stopping by today.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:You're such a remarkable person. I could just go on about you.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Melissa, so listeners tune into this. Check out Confidence Stavely on LinkedIn. We'll have her information there and don't forget to subscribe to our podcast on a variety of platforms. Take care, and thanks for tuning in.
