Ep 70: Kanika Tolver: Find Your Authentic Self

Diva Tech Talk Podcast

Diva Tech Talk interviewed Kanika Tolver, Washington, D.C. native, Founder and Product Manager at BrandDMV Inc., (http://branddmv.com/), a digital transformation agency that creates Digital Mobile Visuals. With a fascinating career in our nation’s capital, Kanika has consistently focused on improving U.S. government effectiveness. Along the way, she has developed impressive technology proficiencies, while consistently connecting those skills to improving the “human experience.” Kanika is also a career coach, author and mentor.

From high school, Kanika was fascinated by the interconnectedness of the world. “Initially my mom wanted me to be a pharmacist,” Kanika said. “But I said ‘no’ I want to go into computers! It was fun, to me, to be on the Internet.” Kanika went to Bowie State University (https://www.bowiestate.edu/ where she majored in computer science, with a focus on Internet technology, programming in CSS, HTML, and JavaScript. “That’s when I started to say, ‘wow, I really love creating Webpages and Websites’.” She worked part-time at the U.S. Department of Urban and Housing Development (https://www.hud.gov/) , while attending university.

After college, Kanika’s first opportunity was at Verizon (www.verizon.com/ ) as a leader at their network control center in Virginia. Then she returned to government service, first working for 2.5 years as a SaaS developer for the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics (https://www.bls.gov/ and then moved to the U.S. Department of Transportation (https://www.transportation.gov/ ). “That was where I really got into digital strategy,” she said. With a considerable tenure in the public sector, Kanika left in 2014 because “I had such an entrepreneurial spirit; I had an innovative way of thinking.” She was excited to take a role at Deloitte (www.deloitte.com/ ) and “learned the global aspect of business. “ In the private sector, for the first time, she faced the challenge of working in predominantly white male environments. “I learned I had to ‘boss up’ “, Kanika said. “I had to come to the table with subject matter expertise. If I was going to have a seat at the table, I had to merge my personal brand as a woman of color with my technical experience.”

Kanika has formed strong opinions about digital transformation. She believes it is less about the technology tools and “more about people, processes, and structures.” She sees digital transformation as pervasive. “It encompasses social, cloud, security, data, and governance. As a tech community, we haven’t caught up with digital transformation. It’s hard to get it right, because it’s so many pieces. And we work in silos, a lot.”

Evaluating her own success, Kanika’s credits her penchant for collaboration, laser focus on her goals, fortitude, and fearlessness. She also has changed her perspective, along the way. “Now I look at failures as accomplishments, rather than defeats,” she said. “If I learned something, and was able to move forward, it makes me a conqueror.”

In addition to founding her company, Kanika is also the author of LIFE REHAB: DON’T OVERDOSE ON PAIN, PEOPLE, AND POWER written in 2013. To assist others, Kanika authored this journey of self-discovery, which catalogued “letting go” of relationships which didn’t work, pain that was unnecessary, and superficial things which didn’t matter.

Kanika is a strong proponent of in-person networking, supplementing online connections. “For people who want to maximize their opportunities, it’s so important to go out and meet people at conferences, workshops, seminars”

Additionally, she meets people regularly online, using tools like LinkedIn, including the LinkedIn Groups function. She also gives back often through mentorship. “Mentoring shouldn’t be looked at as a job; it should come from a place of passion and purpose.” Her advice for potential mentees is to concentrate on creating a meaningful relationship with potential mentors, before asking for assistance. In her own life, Kanika’s “dream team” of mentors are diverse, spanning fields, ages, races, and talents.

Kanika is a champion of diversity in the tech field. In 2014, she expressed her candid opinion of tech hiring in a CNN MONEY ECONOMY column entitled “Google Should Hire Me” and said that Silicon Valley companies, in order to diversify, must “come out to where the people are,” including universities with large minority populations. Kanika is planning to develop a diversity roadmap and publish it in a blog. It would include other diversification recommendations like companies should join alliances dedicated to diversity (like Black Girls Code); create a database of HBCU’s and aim recruiting campaigns there; and also make investments in early childhood STEM education programs focused on girls and minorities.

Kanika recommends tools for keeping up-to-date in the fast-paced technology world. She reads a minimum of one tech book per month. Her other tools include podcasts which focus on tech, Udemy, the technology learning site (https://www.udemy.com/ ), tech information sites like Tech Republic (https://www.techrepublic.com/) and meetups which connect a variety of diverse tech experts, in a networking environment.

Kanika’s advice for other women is:

• “DEMAND respect in a respectful way. You want to be firm in who you are. You have to take the high road.”
• Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses; capitalize on your strengths.
• To keep up, read a minimum of one or two focused articles per day.
• “Look for ‘virtual’ mentors,” if you can’t find the right kind of mentor, in-person.

Her overriding message to women is “just strive toward equality --- with pay, and opportunity. Keep moving forward; keep evaluating what culture fit is good for you.” Her philosophy is “We need to evaluate what kinds of organizations work for us, so we can thrive.”

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