Currently Managing Director of the Chamber of Digital Commerce Canada, Tanya Woods' career has been a fascinating journey from law and policy to social entrepreneurship and advocacy at the intersection of technology. Leveraging her innate curiosity, persistence and a global view "from the get go", Tanya has become one of Canada's most prominent and vocal champions for Canada's digital innovation ecosystem, both at home and abroad.
In this Episode of Beginner Women, join host Katharine Cornfield as she and Tanya Woods discuss our digital future, demystify big concepts like Blockchain and Bitcoin, and explore what we, collectively, must do to ensure a new generation of diverse young women are not just included in, but are actively building our brave new world. Constantly evolving, technology will never stop, and it is no longer practical to 'leave it to the experts'. The key instead is to acknowledge its presence, dig into the learning, and stay engaged.
Tune in to this forward-looking conversation and learn why digital literacy means more than just learning to code, and what you can do to ensure the beginner women you know don't turn a blind eye to technology. No matter what they study in school.
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Unknown Speaker 0:02 Welcome to beginner women, a podcast where we throw out our adult agendas and focus on what it takes to shape a new future for girls and young women. From education and career to health and wealth. We talked to experts, thought leaders and extraordinary women who will change the way you think about girls, women and ambition. here's your host, Katherine cornfields.
Katharine Cornfield 0:25 Welcome to beginner women. I'm Katharine Kornfield, founder of ambiSHEous and that's ambiSHEous with a she where we take a unique approach to leadership and career development. We've helped hundreds of girls and young women to develop autonomy, agency and purpose by equipping them with the critical skills and knowledge they need to thrive today and in tomorrow's world. We started this podcast because we know how important everyday role models are. And we want to empower you parents, educators and other caring adults with smart, actionable strategies to help the beginners Women in your lives reach their full potential. Thank you so much for joining us. I am really excited to be joined today by Tanya woods, one of Canada's most prominent voices in the digital technology and social innovation space. She's a dedicated champion for Canada's digital innovation ecosystem both domestically and globally. Currently, Tanya is managing director for North America's digital Chamber of Commerce. And she brings more than a decade of experience as a strategic advisor to domestic multinational corporations, SM ease nonprofits and governments including most recently serving as the Interim Executive Director for the blockchain association of Canada. She is a four time founder, a global speaker and a published author. She has degrees from the London School of Economics, Ottawa, you and the American University of Washington College of Law. Tanya is an Obama foundation global civic leader, one of the government of Canada's top 10 leading tech women ACDC Trailblazer and a bootstrap Impact Award winner for her social venture startup called kind village. So thank you so much for taking the time to join me today Tanya. Welcome. I'm looking forward to this discussion. And I'm sure we're going to be talking about all kinds of stuff. As I as I said, we're going to start with your professional journey, which is so interesting. And then we're going to go into the world of digital innovation, FinTech and blockchain. And maybe you can help demystify that a little bit. And then we're going to get your perspective on digital and financial literacy for young women. So that's sort of the frame We're going to start with and I'm really, really happy that you're taking the time to join us because I know you're very, very busy. And we do celebrate beginners on beginner women. So today, I will be bringing my beginner mind to the conversation to be perfectly transparent. I have been watching your evolution over the last few years and wondering what the heck it is that you're working on. So I am dying to ask a lot of my questions. Today, and I will be learning right alongside with our audience. So if we could start, let's get started with your personal and your professional journey, you're now at the digital Chamber of Commerce and before that blockchain Association, and that you a little bit like me have had a long and winding career path. So I'm wondering if you can break it down for us in two chapters. How did you come to be one of Canada's most prominent voices for digital innovation?
Tanya Woods 3:28 You know, it's a great question. And looking back, I have no idea and then really thinking about it. I think it's just, it's a personality thing. Really. I am persistently and ferociously curious. And that serves me well, when I try and Tinker and understand things because I'm never satisfied with a one on one. I always want to get right into something. And really make sure I understand it from a bunch of different angles and then think through strategically How can I make it work? for, you know, for everyone, and how can I make it easy to understand for everyone because, frankly, a one person parties not that fun. And it's way more fun to build out our world and the world we want to see with other people and And ideally, you know, send out massive invites to everyone. So I think that's the overarching theme is is empowerment enablement for other people. And my first is curiosity. I really believe strongly that everybody has a chance everybody has an opportunity, regardless of where they start from to, to change their world to make a positive contribution to build something cool that they've always dreamed of. I don't see barriers, really, and I don't believe in obstacles. I think it's just a matter of empowerment. So So that's my that's my kind of focus. When I started in law school, I approached law school as an opportunity to get into something complex related to business. I wasn't really keen to learn about, you know, standard business. Stop, I wasn't gonna go do a commerce degree that wasn't my calling. I really like tough problems. And and I like to understand tough concepts because I am just this way, you know, so much curiosity. So I got into law school and you know, as I was there, I was looking at really complex ecosystems and how people moved art of all things around the world. And the world was global for me kind of from the get go of university. So the thing called the internet was evolving and commerce systems were in place and law was one of the overarching guideposts in every part of the world that was saying, you know, what can we and what Can't we do? And I lived adjacent to technology, challenging law and in saying, you know, well, doesn't matter what the law says we can file share. We can share with our friends music we love We don't need to know law to do that technology makes it possible. And therein lies. I think one of the big conundrums of my career is the space where I ended Around most and still to this day, I like to edge around in in that interplay between technology. Now policy and and law and how does it all work? And how does it work for us as human beings wherever we are. So I did law school, I did law school in different parts of the world to try and understand how different people think about things. Fairly streamlined places still, though, I mean, I didn't go to law in the Amazon, which probably would have been super cool now that I think back. But I did all that. And then I went into a career related to first it was immigration. Actually, I learned immigration law and financial, financial law, neither of which appealed to me at the time. So then I took a quick step over into technology and media law, but I really was always sort of interested about the interplay between systems. I worked for Bell after I left government. So in government, I did some law policy work. I worked as a trade negotiator and it got to do a little more global work there and then I went and worked for Bell and when I got to Bell, they kind of said to me, okay, so you're our new, you know, regulatory lawyer, you need to understand how the internet works. And and I got really technical with engineers and just fell in love with the complexity, appreciating, I probably wasn't going to become an engineering expert. But I was dangerous enough with what knowledge I had to be able to perform results for the business. From there, I went on to to represent the video game industry in Canada, representing pretty cool companies like EA and Microsoft, and Nintendo and Warner Brothers, all kinds of big ones and great Canadian companies like other ocean, and I really enjoyed my time there. Because it was, again, a really complex set of systems and technologies that engaged people that actually got them to play which is one of my sort of things I yearn to do most often but you know, work work work. So work has to be fun for me and and it has to be interesting. And so with the games industry, we learned about how so many people especially women, and marginalized people had no idea how to build technology. And I found that to be frustrating because if you can understand some of the basics, then you know why you have an opportunity to build the system out that you want to see in the world. So I worked with a number of nonprofits co founded some as well, they're really, you know, desired to empower people, again, to engage with technology with things that maybe don't understand, and to build out their world from there. And adjacent to all of this, I was always doing social impact and philanthropy. I think that theme of empowerment, transcends, you know, my day, job, my, my side hustles all of the things I've done. And I felt that, you know, charities were getting left behind as technology was evolving. charities and nonprofits which were so critical and are so critical to our community, or getting left behind and technology wasn't remember them and their needs and wasn't consulting them. And I became frustrated, I became flustered. You know, money was always the thing I was asked for. But at critical times when I really wanted to make a difference, I didn't have money to give, I had maybe 10 bucks. But that wasn't the kind of change I wanted to create. I mean, I gave it of course, but I really wanted to do something big and bold and, and just flip things a little bit around. Because I think there are more of us in the world, that that can innovate and make a difference than there are necessarily that have the money to give to charities, even though they care about, you know, we all care about the cause. And so that led me to kind village and we've innovated different kinds of events and technologies and projects, where we really do want to, you know, present a radically inclusive picture of our world that says, You know what, no matter who you are, you're important and you have a role to play in your community, and working and learning about your community with with groups that are so dedicated So president is absolutely the right place to start. So. So I think that's kind of in there in the process of kind village, what we saw happening was a shift toward transparency and technology. So we really felt it was it was hard to figure out how to help. And that was a technology problem easy to solve. But, but more difficult was understanding Well, what did it matter if I did something like what was the actual impact? Like, how did it change things? Well, how big is the system to begin with? And, you know, all of those questions, you know, that curious people have, when they want to engage in something just kept coming up time and time again. And they kept coming up in different sectors. It wasn't just you know, me and a few of my friends who are doing cool stuff. It was happening in in charity and philanthropy sectors was happening on boards, it was happening with businesses big and small that we were engaging with was happening with government, people, you know, people just kind of thinking like, we've got some big problems, like, how do we make this work for us, and what do we need to do and So blockchain became embedded in that conversation about almost almost five years ago now, where it was very early days, but it was like, imagine if the peers could be transparent about what they're doing to help. And what would that mean? What would government then learn? What would what would charities be able to do? What would people be able to do? And we started talking about it. Nobody really knew what we were talking about. They all thought were crazy. When we tried to fundraise for our startup, it was a social enterprise startup, which was still something in its own right, innovative and people didn't really understand. But then you go and try and get money for this. And they say, well, you're a charity. And you say, Well, not really, no, we're trying to help charities or, but we're committed to charity, because we're social enterprise and, and, you know, we don't understand you and we don't we're not going to pay attention to you. So, you know, persistence where we kept going. And blockchain was very fundamental in what we want to achieve and bring to the world it still is. And in one of my complaints to a friend he said, we'll Tanya you can fix this little You're crazy. And he said, No, you can fix this. You know how to speak to all these groups, you've done it in your career, help us to raise the volume on blockchain and share with people what it's all about. And then help us to make a strategy for our country. So that evolved into my role now is that Managing Director for the Chamber of digital commerce Canada, and it's an organization that has a relationship with the Chamber of digital commerce in Washington, DC, but also over 200 some companies around the world that are innovating in the space, and we work closely with government people, trying to make sure that our whole ecosystem understands what is blockchain and why it matters. And why it's so important. So I will pause there 'cause it was a super long answer, but
hopefully it covered all the bases.
Katharine Cornfield 12:48 I let you go because there's so much there. It's so rich and I kind of gonna back off a little bit because yes, you have a very long bio and you're very, very accomplished but but you started with I think a lot of people do, but you have it like in spades. And that's this what you said, I think you said, intense and persistent curiosity, with a global view from the get go. And that some to me sort of almost summarizes dramatically, that path. But then there's so many other drivers, you talked about sort of the enabling of people and the use of technology to do that, but in an inclusive and transparent way, and then the idea of trying to connect all the systems, the players within the systems to solve big problems and that resonates, I think, with a lot of people, especially the young women that I work with, in ambiSHEous , but even the people I meet, you know, walking down the street, literally, but to take that
Katharine Cornfield 13:50 sort of modus operandi that you have, and then to translate that into blockchain in particular and the Chamber of digital commerce. I mean, you You You have walked that path. So it makes sense to you. But for a lot of people in the world, including myself, we don't really know what what blockchain means or what it is. And so like I really I am very much in the learning mode when I ask you this question. What what does that actually mean? Yeah, you know, and you don't have to have as many words as you need, but how does it apply? Like what is the relationship between blockchain and FinTech? And, and are those sort of subcategories of digital innovation? They report to digital innovation or does do, nurse
Tanya Woods 14:41 so I'm okay I'm going to unpack that. So let's just do blockchain one a while complete. blockchain. blockchain is a software application that functions as a shared ledger distributed across the basically the internet or communications network, the network might be Be open or closed. But it's like, think of like databases talking to one another. And they work together. So they pass. They acknowledge transactions and value exchanges in a way that is different than we've been able to do before. So the internet, like the version we all work on right now, it was designed to pass messages. That was the point of it. But what blockchain does is it says, Now, wait a minute, if I want to pass you, Katharine, a contract, let's say so let's say you're going to buy a piece of my artwork. We can do all of this without ever talking to each other now because of blockchain. So you're, let's start like, I mean, we're going to make a block together. So hopefully this helps. I'm a visual learner. So this might not help your visual learners. But
Katharine Cornfield 15:55 let's give it a whirl.
Tanya Woods 15:56 Roll with me. Yeah, let's try that. So So Katharine, I have a piece of artwork for sale. Would you like it? You're going to say I like it. Yes, I would. Yes, you would. Okay, so pretend our computers communicated that to each other. And I want to say, okay, acknowledged, you're interested. Great. Katharine, it's $5. Here's the banking information. And it will come to you on, you know, January 1, do you accept? So, your computer is going to say yes, yep, yep, good. And then you're going to transfer the money, I will have given you an address. So let's pretend that we call it a wallet like a digital wallet. And you've transferred the value to my wallet, I've received it and the our workshops, and all of those points of communication are recorded, then their time and date stamped. So it's like pictures stamp like stamp a piece of paper, that's a contract and its stamp and our digital signatures, confirm it and then it's wrapped with a big giant digital lock. And that's our block. Now, when you decide that you want to loan that artwork to an art gallery, let's say you will reference that block that we made as title good title to you having to work so they couldn't steal it and then you will make your next contract and they will relate the two blocks and you can't unrelated the blocks generally in a block chain, blocks go and sequence so it's not it's not the case it would work out exactly like that. For my technical friends listening who know blockchain really well, you know, I will have just short handed that whole process. But But generally, that's how it works. And then you can just think of like every exchange, you could have in the real world could be put on a blockchain, which is pretty crazy. So if I'm selling a house, it can be on a blockchain. If I buy a car, it can be in a blockchain. If I buy Coffee, it can be in a blockchain, all of the growing from seed to cup of coffee, all of those transactions where the coffee passes from, you know, tree and farmer to be into roasted being to process, whatever package into the store, whatever all of those transactions are, are part of a process. And that whole process can be tracked and made transparent to the public on a public blockchain which is pretty crazy because then we get to know like where things come from and we can see like who had it before me and you can apply it to reselling clothing or you can apply it to ocean cleanup and you can apply to any process you can imagine. And and that's just one way we can use a blockchain. The other way is of course, our value exchange. So if you want to pay me money for something, you know, you can then buy into the system of the blockchain cryptocurrencies to molasses system and maybe you buy bitcoin and then I agree that for For the artwork, I will accept, you know, half a Bitcoin and you transfer me that half the coin to my wallet, and that's recognized payment. Okay, so cryptocurrency is like an application using blockchain, but it's not necessarily the same. Sometimes blockchain technology can be described also as distributed ledger technology, meaning that every every part of our ledger is distributed verification. So when we signed and closed up our block, in theory, people or computers really from all over the world would have verified that we did that at the time that we did that so you'd have like, three 600 however, whatever we decided was required computers acknowledging and verifying that that happened. So
Katharine Cornfield 19:46 that that's where that's interesting because my I'm listening and I'm hearing and I'm following to a point but we're where I think I my first question comes up is First of all, I know that you're drawing I can tell me your pencil scratching. So I wishing I would see what you're drawing. But can it raises the question for me when when you talk about the blockchain? Is it when you say it's visible? Is it visible? Like you use a login somewhere and see what is it a separate parallel internet? Like what does practically speaking? What does that mean when you say transparent?
Tanya Woods 20:24 Yeah, so when there's a public blockchain so blockchain can be public, it can be private. And it can be it can be Consortium, so some people can see it, but others can't. There's different ways to make a ledger visible, a ledger, if you think of like just an accounting book, that's a ledger. This is just a digital ledger. So So you look online and you can see the transaction records for public block chains, and they look you know, they might have a date, you know, the block number, whatever. And then any information that that was decided by that blockchain to be public. So, public block chains are, in my mind the vehicle of transparency, although You can have, like I said, this absence of consortium or private blockchains. But that's like a Wikipedia tour like tons of time on Wikipedia. It'll enter the nuances. But But I think the fact that it's, you know, you can see those lines showing the transactions, that is something you can do. There's music applications, I'll show you this. There's the Bitcoin blockchain, which shows you this. There's, there's variety of blockchain, so to speak, where if the group that built the chain decided that they wanted to make the ledger public, that it just looks like lines of information, but, but it's still public, where in most cases before it wasn't so, you know, in FinTech, like, we have our, you know, I think, a million years ago when I first opened a bank account, and we had passbooks. And we would take the book to the bank, and the bank would like print down that we put 10 bucks in the bank account, and it would give a date and they would print it right in my little paper book. And I would go back home with my cool paper book. And that was the record of my account. And then we got, you know, more smart and the same kind of thing showed up online, but I can't get into the nitty gritty behind my bank wall. I'm always curious what's happening back there. And I think for financial systems, you know, they're global. They're they're globalized in many ways. And that still, you know, there's a lot of historic systems that are well connected globally and blockchain because you'd asked me what the financial sector, blockchain does help to streamline some of those inefficiencies and connect those processes better globally.
Katharine Cornfield 22:24 Okay. So I guess what that that that's a good segue, I think to the next question, because what you've described is blockchain does have application in the financial sector, but it also has application in other in other places. So my, the part of the motivation for aside from the fact that I'm fascinated by what you do, and I was hoping you could explain it in simple terms, like you have is, is that it seems to me especially because I'm working, not daily, but regularly with with young women, as young as 13. I'm working with in post secondary and early career as well. And I'm working very, very hard to sort of equip young women with the skills and knowledge so that they can become sort of economically independent. So financial literacy is really key to that. And what what I'm curious about is what is what is the relationship between their awareness of blockchain and their economic independence? Like, is it absolutely necessary for young people these days to understand blockchain? Or is it becoming sort of part of the system that we will just work within just like, you know, an app or, you know, you talked about the passbook? is it part of the evolution or is it a separate set of concepts and knowledge that they have to understand, in addition to financial awareness and literacy in order to become sort of independent?
Tanya Woods 23:46 Yeah, look, as our world increasingly globalizes and, you know, we might think we've got all the tech we need right now. Remember famous interview with Bill Gates, and a late night talk show host and Bill Gates. was explaining, you know, email, and the talk show host was saying, you know, what, what's wrong with regular mail? Like, does the post office know that you're trying to put them out of business? And, and, and I think this is kind of the same sort of thing where at the same time point now, where it can be hard to imagine the world we don't know. That said, this is, you know, by some accounts, the next iteration of the internet, however, it is equally the next iteration of how we will exchange with one another with or without intermediaries. So with or without banks, with or without government, with or without real estate agents, with or without all those intermediary people in our world right now that can, you know, in part have some of their process automated. So, blockchain becomes really important because you want to be able to think critically about technology as it emerges. And I think it's absolutely fundamental that women Definitely immerse themselves into this space. Understand it. It's been the case for so long that women have not up, you know, taken up jobs in engineering, they've not been the primary builders of the technologies that run our world. And this is a problem because by by default, those technologies become biased. So if if a man builds my house, and I'm like, you know, just use an example right now, but if a man builds my house, and he's from the Amazon, and he ends up in Ottawa, and he's okay, I've got to build this house. Does he know that it needs to be winter proofed? Does he know that I need you know, a place at the front door? for lots of boots, and a place to hang heavy coats? How big is that closet? How big is the entrance of my home? How what are the qualities of the windows? Do they keep out the cold that you remember to put a heating system in because we need heat? I'm oversimplifying But I think that's what happens when you don't have a diverse group building out the architecture and technology. This is architecture blockchain is critical architecture and infrastructure. When you have the Bank of Canada talking about it, and central banks around the world talking about it, you need to understand this. And you don't need to be in love with finance to understand this. Keep in mind, this is equally applicable technology for your identity. So digital identity of people, you know, the licenses and the passports and everything we have, there is a very heavy heavy investment going into figuring out how one person can just have one identifier and not need so many different cards to identify who they are. And I can see a world where that will happen. I don't think it's going to take that long to achieve. I don't think it's going to take that long to implement, which means that in our lifetime, I do believe that will happen and we will have one identifier. Well if we're not thinking critically about how our data could be missing User misrepresented, or how the technology might have failings that the developers so far haven't thought through. If we're not thinking about how it works to be critical, when we're assessing if we want to participate, then we're making, you know, possibly a number of uninformed decisions. And that is never a responsible thing to do. So, I feel I feel very strongly if you can't tell that women in particular, but frankly, everybody, it doesn't matter if you're a woman or a man doesn't matter how old you are, you know, choosing to be ignorant and just calling this you let's tech stuff and letting it be sort of something for someone else to worry about isn't acceptable anymore, we really do have to be engaging with it. Even if we're only learning about it at a at a base level. That's okay. You don't need to be the experts in this technology, but you do need to think it through on the financial side of things. The more that we're transacting with digital currencies, we can think about them in some way as an evolution of the credit card or an evolution of the video game token. But if people are going to Except, you know, this kind of new exchange of value for goods and services, then it gives us a new renewed, we'll call it maybe renewed is a better term opportunity to think through how you want to plan out our use of our digital assets and our digital value. In the same way we should be thinking anyway about how we want to spend our money and what we should be investing in. This is a new form of asset and we should absolutely be feeding it through. So I see this as a great excuse to learn basic financial concepts to learn new financial concepts, new technology concepts, because it is a place where the worlds are colliding. And and back to my, you know, hope and dream of radical inclusivity. I think it's really important that that everyone's engaged.
Katharine Cornfield 28:48 So that's, that's really, I think, very helpful because as I'm listening I'm hearing that, yes, it is definitely a financial literacy. There's a component to it that is, but but on a broader scale, it's that it's that higher level of digital literacy that we will all need to sort of acquire in order to engage. And there's two things going on. It seems that while this future is being built out, as you say, there's there's the there's the the aspect of it being built out by a limited number of maybe homogeneous or less than diverse subset of our world that are sort of building it out. And then and then there's that secondary issue of like bringing the rest of the world along and into it, and that that digital literacy piece, So to what extent, like if you were to describe your role at the digital chamber, are you working more with those that are building out the architecture? Are you working with those that are trying to make sure that it's being built out in an inclusive way? Or are you also bringing along And doing sort of that digital literacy piece all the way back to young people or is it all three? I don't know if I've expressed that properly. But yeah, there's there's there's many dimensions to what to where we are with with blockchain and with this. Yeah, this technology.
Tanya Woods 30:15 So I think I think that the short answer is we're building the ecosystem. So the mission of the chamber of digital commerce Canada is to promote the acceptance and use of digital assets and blockchain based technology. So it's a very broad, multi sectoral conversation. You know, we are working with supply chain so think of like, you know, gate to plate for beef. One of our one of our organizations in Canada we love is called trust banks, and they're helping to create traceability and transparency in the beef supply chain. So we're using groups like that. We've got organizations that are working on oil projects and gas projects. We've got groups that are working on cyber security, we've got groups that are doing digital identity. We've got groups doing, you know, crypto asset and digital Currency exchanges. There's a variety of innovators and sectors innovating that we work with. But we also bring government to the conversation because, you know, in truth, I think most Canadians are beginners to this conversation. So, you know, Katherine, you're not you're not new, a new breed to me, you are, you're the norm. And so I feel that it's actually quite important that we, we focus on education, and we focus on the advocacy piece with government to make sure they understand what's happening in the world, because it's not just our innovation in Canada. I mean, China's very aggressive on blockchain technology, and they're doing incredible things. We've seen the UK and Europe say that, you know, they're going to prioritize this. And there's a lot going on Singapore as well and other markets, where we don't want our country to fall behind. But we know there's an education gap. There's also really great jobs in the space and Canada is set to really attract them. But we can't attract those jobs. We can't fill those jobs. If Aren't educated and have some of the skills needed to to lift this sector and this this vertical of integration of innovation rather. So it's, um, it's a broad answer to your to your question, but at the core right now, it's a lot about education. It's a lot about understanding where the knowledge gaps are and then trying to fill them.
Katharine Cornfield 32:20 Will you take a very systems level lens on on the whole question the whole space? And, you know, that's why I wanted to talk to you because that's where I think, right I like the system's perspective, I want to know who the players are, the stakeholders are and what it means that the sort of societal level globally and nationally and so on. We in my work they get with frontline with girls and their parents and so on. It's a little bit more granular, it's a little bit more sort of analog almost sometimes. So my Question for you would be and I know it might be a challenge, but and you might not necessarily have tackled this yet in the sector. But what would you tell a parent or an educator or an ally of a young woman? Like what? How would you make sure that they weren't going to quote unquote, miss the memo, something I talked about a lot on digital innovation and on blockchain, how do you sort of make sure they're not left behind?
Tanya Woods 33:24 Yeah. So we have a lot of resources on our website. So it's digitalchamber.org/canada. So definitely look at some of those there higher level, probably more parent oriented. There's organizations like the knowledge society, which work with high school students to get them innovating and engaging and they've had some incredible innovators that are, you know, teenagers, like yeah, anywhere from 13 to 17. ts is awesome. Like they're so cool. And then, you know, looking around for opportunities to just go to some meetups like just just start the The best advice I have is just start and understand this. You don't need to to become the expert in it. But just read a little bit. I mean, there's a great book, one of the first ones that I read it was one of the first ones published that I felt was a primer enough called the blockchain revolution by Don and Alex tab Scott. And I think that book is very digestible for people just wanting to get their, their appetite kind of wet for the for the space and trying to understand it, maybe more targeted toward at a level but it doesn't matter. I mean, you can google around the internet kids and blockchain. crypto chicks is a great program. They, they work with kids to get them trained up. They're not everywhere, yet. It's all growing. But I mean, you're here at the right time. And I think that's half the battle is you're not going to miss anything just yet. You know, the pace of innovation and technology is increasing. Its exponential, what might have taken 10 years before maybe takes only five now. So as long as you're listening are interested in I have a level of curiosity. I say just spend a little time on it, just learn about it a little bit. And if you're still curious and you still curious what you could do with this thing, keep going. Just Just be ferociously curious.
Katharine Cornfield 35:15 ferocious. That was your, that was the descriptor. Yes, ferociously curious. And that's, that's a great place to end. So you've given us a long list of resources, which we will make sure to post in our, in our show notes. But what I find is the perfect circle actually is when you started with ferocious curiosity, and now you're recommending ferocious curiosity as sort of the antidote. how, you know, you you did not start out as a woman in technology. You are now very much a prominent woman in technology. And you have a very sort of sophisticated understanding of technology and the role that it's that it plays, but you don't necessarily code. So I guess my question is You know, this is the always the inevitable question. How do you think that we collectively can get more young women at all the intersections and create a more sort of diverse and inclusive stem world so that these technologies are built out in a way that is inclusive, as you say, what's what's your sort of recipe or prescription for that?
Tanya Woods 36:27 Good? Well, I mean, I mean, it's a play to your strengths and take a growth mindset. And it might sound a bit simplistic, but my strengths growing up is I was highly creative. I was a competitive athlete, so that has a kind of built a hunger for competition, but I was competitive athlete in singular and team sports. So I developed some skills to be able to work independently and in a team environment. And I was a great writer, so I was always very good at research and writing. And there are no boxes in the future. There, there is no right way to do something. And nobody tried to tell me there was I mean, I also was like stubborn. So I just ignored it when they did. But if you know life is really amazing, if you want to do something, do it. That's it, period, just do it. And it doesn't matter if it's been done before, in fact, even cooler if it hasn't, but if it has, and you just want to make something better do it. And we put these human self imposed barriers on our, our thinking sometimes and it's so unnecessary and it doesn't advance anything. Right now the whole world is learning about technology. It's you're not behind. Nobody's new to this. Nobody's old to this. It's a it's an evolving state that we're in because technology is never finished. It's just always iterating. So I think for me, I've always iterated in my career. I've never been satisfied with status quo. Ever, that's a really scary thing to be sometimes, because you don't always know what's coming, man. But, but I have a growth mindset. So I, I believe we can change lots of things. And just I was I sucked at math like if we're clear, I was not good at math, I failed it like so many times. But that doesn't matter my special skills are still really relevant as you can see, and I just leveraged my strengths to the growth mindset and just kept going. So you don't need to be a coder, you don't need to like code. That's fine. Just think about your systems. Think about your world, people, what you're good at and how you want to apply it to make something better. And I mean, you're going to run into tech eventually so you might learn it and love it.
Katharine Cornfield 38:42 That is a great place to leave it you are going to run into tech eventually and just you know, your the idea that you would obviously play to your strengths as many, many young women do. But to not rule out tech, it might. You might not have been great at math or you might not have You know, studied computer science, but you're going to run into it eventually we all do. Yeah. And you don't have to be a technical expert. It's not world to be afraid of. It's just the world we live in. Yeah. And it's never too late I think is another sort of analysis that I take away from there is that you can start out with us, you know, a strong desire to change the world with a social conscience with you know, with this ferocious curiosity and a desire to make a difference and you can take whatever path that you you want to follow and you can someday wind up in tech. I think the key message though, is always have a parallel eye. Because you don't want to miss out it is evolving, but you don't also want to be left behind so thank you for taking the time to sort of not dumb it down because you didn't do that. It's it's really snipper by for for me and for our audience of parents and educators who are like looking at it like as beginners and to explain it to us and and to make it relevant, I think to young women, because that is their future, their their future is our future, frankly. And it starts now and we want them in the space and and engaged. So thank you for taking the time to share all of your knowledge and expertise with us. Do you have anything? Sort of one final thought that you would like to leave as a message for our audience?
Tanya Woods 40:24 Oh, that's a tough one. As you can tell, I talk a lot. And you know, I be fearless. Go get them. That's it. Like, just don't look for problems. Don't look for excuses. Don't look for barriers. Who cares? Just ignore those and keep going.
Katharine Cornfield 40:40 That's, that's great advice. Thank you very much.
Tanya Woods 40:44 Again, we'll talk soon. Thanks, Katharine.
Katharine Cornfield 40:48 ambiSHEous is a social purpose venture taking direct aim at the gender gap and leadership by providing leading edge training programs focused on the economic empowerment, leadership development. career advancement of girls and young women. We are currently developing a network of like minded partner organizations to deliver our proprietary startup self sessions, which combined financial, digital and civic literacy in a simulated entrepreneurial experience suitable for girls and young women aged 13. And up the startup self sessions are empowering a new generation of beginner women to become whoever and whatever they want to be. Qualified delivery partners are provided comprehensive training license curriculum, a full suite of program materials and access to an online community of practice. focused on real life learning. ambiSHEous programs are equipping a new generation of entrepreneurs, leaders and decision makers with the critical skills and knowledge they need to thrive today and in tomorrow's world. If you are a like minded organization interested in joining our next cohort of delivery partners, let's talk visit ambisheous.ca for more information, And to get in touch.
Thank you to our listeners for joining us on beginner women. A show where we throw out our adult agenda is to shape a new future for girls. Check out our show notes for the resources we talked about in today's episode, and for the actionable insights you can use to nurture and empower the girls you know, if you like what you hear on our show, write us a review on Apple podcasts. And don't forget to subscribe wherever you find your favorite shows. You can also find us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn at ambiSHEous . That's a MBISHE o us
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