Her Story
About Traci
I currently work in a customer relationship management role at Cognizant, where I'm on-site three days a week serving a financial insurance company headquartered right here in Carmel, Indiana. Throughout my career, I've had the opportunity to work across different industries, primarily in payer, provider, and pharma, and now I'm in the financial side of insurance. I've worked with large global clients and for large global companies in both the manufacturing and reseller space. After COVID, I made the decision to take a year as a sabbatical because I wanted to be home with my kids before they left for college. Now as an empty nester, I'm back working in a hybrid role that's much more team selling rather than direct sales. What's exciting about Cognizant is that they're actually creating AI innovation and developing engines, so it's a whole new learning curve for me. I'm 60 days into this new role, and when I met my skip level manager, I asked him what would make him say in six months that I was a great hire. His response floored me - he said he decided the day he met me in Starbucks during the interview that I was part of the team, and I have nothing to prove. That really resonated with me after spending my whole life trying to prove myself to somebody.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Traci
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would say fear of failure. It's not pretty that that is the motivator, but I've definitely been driven by it. In sales, it's actually a good thing, I guess - you want to have something to inspire you to always keep going and trying new things and thinking what could go wrong. Pain is always a powerful motivator too. So yeah, that's it, simply - fear of failure has been what drives me.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
I had a mentor that told me I make everything into a wedding cake when people are just asking for cupcakes. She was like, Tracy, not everybody wants a wedding cake. You just want a bite of a cupcake. That really made me think about why I make it so hard on myself. I've realized that I put a lot of time into things that men can just do good enough, which is perfect. It's that perfectionism that can hold you back. Another powerful piece of advice came from my skip level manager who told me, after just 30 minutes of meeting me, that I have nothing to prove. He said he decided the day he met me in Starbucks during the interview that I was part of the team. I feel like I've done everything my whole life trying to prove to somebody, and hearing that I have nothing to prove was incredibly meaningful.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Don't listen to the lies in your head. There's so much pressure that we put on ourselves, and so many doubts that we have, and they're not true. I've had all these lies in my head that I'm not good enough, I don't know enough, I'm not connected enough, I'm not dressed the right way, I'm not saying the right things, I'm not concise enough - all these things. What I've found is actually, in some ways, I was too much. I tried too hard, and the value and the relationships continue to reinforce that. I think women are especially hard on themselves. We don't take the last seat in the boardroom, or whatever it might be - we leave room for others, and we let others go first. I would just say not to listen to the lies in our head, and to believe in ourselves as much as everyone else does around us. There's nobody harder on ourselves than ourselves, and so it can be good, it can be like a superpower if you harness it, but it also can hold you back.
Keep Exploring
More Influential Women · Indiana
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.