Emily Carlson

I attribute my success to my family. I can't do what I do without a strong backbone supporting me every single day. They are the foundation that allows me to pursue everything I do professionally, from running PBA Consulting to hosting my podcast and advocating for diversity in technology. Having that support system has been absolutely essential to achieving what I've accomplished in my career.

The best career advice I've ever received is really just to keep going and give it a try. The most impactful people in my career, when I go to them with concerns about a direction or worries about somebody saying no, they ask 'but what if they say yes?' There's so much that can happen in a 20-year career, and once you learn the power of just trying, it's a magical thing. The most powerful advice is to give it a try, because you don't know what's going to happen, but if you don't try, you know exactly what's going to happen - it's never going to be something that's successful. So I think it's just get up, keep going, keep trying, and see what happens. The worst they can do is say no.

You deserve to be in the room. You deserve to be there, your voice deserves to be heard, so do not let anybody tell you otherwise. And in the days where it feels like nobody's listening, keep talking anyways, because you deserve to be there. Don't let anyone make you question your right to have a seat at the table or to make your voice heard in technology. Even when it's difficult and you feel like you're not being heard, persist and continue speaking up, because your presence and perspective matter.

One of the biggest challenges remains the lack of diversity within the room. Females within the tech sector represent a very low percentage - I think we're still only at like 20% representation when it comes to technical fields. Some of the really core tech, the programming and things of that nature, is an even more terrifying number. At the C-suite level, it's really less than 17% of senior leaders who are women when it comes to the top-tier tech organizations and even the smaller ones. That has to change. It's a known fact that when an organization has strong female representation in leadership, they're more innovative, there's higher revenue associated with the organization, and you have lower turnover. So there's very strong data that supports the fact that we need to get more women involved within the tech sector, give them opportunity to grow, and see what happens to the industry as a whole. I think the biggest issue, but also opportunity that we have in technology, is looking at the representation of who's in the room.

The most important values in my work and personal life center around what I call my 'effed up life' - which represents my faith, my family, football, fun, and food. It's all the things in life that matter most to me, and it's also a way to take a term that's sometimes negative in connotation and put a positive spin on it. Family is at the core of everything - I can't do what I do without that strong backbone supporting me every single day. Beyond my corporate life, these values guide how I live authentically and balance all aspects of my life, from my professional responsibilities to my personal passions like cooking, supporting the Buffalo Bills, and spending time with loved ones.