Angie Smith

My main area of expertise is relationship building, being able to grow relationships that help me become a trusted advisor to strategic leaders. The beauty of my current role is the flexibility - I work with state agencies, but I also have the opportunity to scale up business in the private sector as well, and that's really where I've been spending a lot of my focus lately. One of my favorite parts of my job is I get to do a lot of networking, so I'm meeting a lot of really neat leaders, especially in the startup industry and the female founders. I'm mind-blown - every conference I go to, I'm always meeting people that are just up to some amazing things. Getting to know them and having an opportunity to partner with them as they scale their business is really exciting. A lot of my role is the outreach and the rapport building. I spend the beginning of the week setting up what my outbound activities will look like. I have the flexibility to go to conferences - recently I was at South by Southwest, and this week I'll make my way to Bastrop for a Y Texas event. It's really just filling in the day with as many opportunities to meet leaders, whether it's at a conference or the follow-up one-on-ones, whether they're virtual or in person.