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Hi, welcome to another episode of Power the Network. I'm your host, Tim Locker, Vice President of Broadband here at CBM. Today we have a special guest, Ms. Julie Fitzgerald, Director of Agents for Siemens Energy. You know, we truly enjoy being able to highlight the manufacturers that we work with, but today we're going to have a conversation with Julie about how she's been on a 30 year track with Siemens, ended up in such a high level leadership position.
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and talk about some of her challenges in such a male dominated industry. So women in leadership today in the industry is gonna be a big focus for us. So follow on and hear what she's got to say.
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Julie, thank you so much for being here today. I know you're real busy, you got a lot on your plate, but we really appreciate you joining us here on the show. So thank you. I just actually appreciate the invite and being able to represent women in this industry. Well, that's awesome. That's why we're glad you're here. So we'll get, let's get right into that. Let's get right into that. I think it's fair to say the electric utility industry is and has been a male dominated space for years.
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What are some of the unique challenges that you have faced or you feel women in general have faced in the industry? I'm glad that you asked me that question. So I am coming up on my 35 year mark with Siemens. Remarkable. I have been in the industry a little bit longer than that and I've seen a lot of changes, right? So when I first started in the industry, if they saw a female come in, they
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I shared a story once where I had somebody that had called in and they, oh, I have a technical problem. I need to speak to somebody right away. And I was like, sure, you know, what's the problem? No, no, I have a technical problem. I need to speak to somebody right away. I said, let me know what's the issue. It's like, no, I need to speak to a man. I said, well, let me tell you, there's me and the copy repair man here. Which one would you like to speak to? I know the product. He does it. So, you know, we've come a long way since then, for sure. But, um,
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I have to say that that is because of a lot of women that have been in the industry before me and the different things that we have kind of done to kind of perpetuate women being in this industry and for men that have supported us and others that have supported us. And so I think it's been a kind of a collective growth process. Are we where we want to be yet? No. I think we could use a lot more women in the industry.
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But in truth, I'm going to elevate that. I think we could use a lot more diversity in this industry. Yeah, that makes sense. Not just women, but people of all kinds. Yes. Different ideas, different takes on things. Completely agree. I think that we're all recognizing that people that can come at us from different ideas and different places just allow us to have a solution that's a little bit more thought out. Each of us have strengths. I think that
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women and men in this industry make a great pairing. I mean, CBM is a great example. You have Marla as a president, and I obviously work with Tim all day, every day, and it's a great pairing. Siemens as well has a lot of that. Look at our executive board. We have some phenomenal men, and we have a great woman, Maria. And I love to see how they collectively have taken our team. And I would say they even kind of took it a level above, right? It's not just women. It's not just...
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diversity, it's inclusivity. And I don't know if you're kind of familiar with that, but I kind of think of it as a enlightened term for diversity, which means people recognize that having differences is a good thing, right? But inclusivity actually means, you know, we're not hitting quotas, but people actually need to feel like they belong, that they're respected, that they value, all of that. So...
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I think it's great the more that we can bring into this industry and it's an exciting industry right now, right? Who would think that electricity would be exciting? Well, it's, I mean, everybody has to have it. It's just the way life now. So it's, it's definitely a big deal, but you touched on something there inclusivity and, and you know, me just kind of beginning in my leadership roles here at CBM, you know, something I think about quite a bit, but
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One thing that I hear a lot of and I found to be true is, it's obviously very important to understand what each individual is here for on your team. What do they want for themselves? And I think you have to understand them at a personal level and understand what their wants and goals and dreams are so that you can make sure that they're attaining that to keep people satisfied. First of all, I guess, what is your leadership style?
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And do you struggle? I know I hear other people say, you know, to leave personal things out of, out of work, you know, out of the workplace. And so to me, it's a little bit of a double-edged sword because, you know, without having that personal experience, you really don't know what their true goals are. So my personal take on it, being a manager, is I say to my employees, give me the gift of being a good manager to you. And what that means is
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you're responsible for your career, right? So if you want to have a meeting with me to talk about your career goals, please set that up. Don't wait for me to come to you and give me an idea of what you would like to speak about and how I can help you in your career because any good manager wants to help you, but to assume that we just naturally are going to know what you need and when you need it, it's just not a true fact. And so I've said to my whole team,
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This is how we should start a conversation for me. And I suggest you do it with each other. At the beginning of a conversation, let me know, do you just need me to listen or do I need to solve this? Because it puts me in two different states. And sometimes we just need somebody to listen, right? Versus solve. And as far as personal versus not, I think personal is okay. I have no problem with that. My team, we are very personal. We treat each other like family.
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But I don't think that that means that as a boss, that I necessarily always have to be your friend, right? I can respect you as a person, you can respect me as a person, but we all have jobs to do. And so my expectation is the responsibility of you to do your job so that I can share different parts of me and not have to worry about, oh, well, that's gonna buy me something, right? Yeah, yeah, because that's kind of a double-edged sword. Obviously it's...
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human tendency, we want people to like us and we wanna be friends with everybody we work with, but it does kind of put you in the middle a little bit if the boundaries are crossed. So how do you set those boundaries? So basically, like I said, I do try and set my team up with understanding how I work best. So with saying, all right, I just need you to listen, or do I need you to solve?
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my other kind of rule for things are is if you're going to come to me and you have a complaint or something that needs to resolve, if it's important enough to you to bring it up to me, have it be important enough for you to give me an idea of how to resolve it. Right? I'm willing to team with you, but I can't take your monkey. This is, you know, I have enough of my own. I'm willing to work it with you.
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And I think too that as a boss, if you're willing to see that I'm willing to put myself in your shoes, like I'm not above anything. If you need me to help you out, I will help you out. But you know, it's a little bit of a give and take. Yeah, for sure. Well, and two, like you said, if you're gonna listen or if you're going to solve, there's a slippery slope there too between doing the work for someone and also then coaching them how to do the work too.
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If they can solve the problem, they're much better off in the long run. And I don't, yeah, you're right. You haven't done anybody a service if you completely solve it for them. Yeah. Because part of it is to also teach them, right? You got to teach somebody how to fish, not just always feed them. So definitely. But I had an experience last year and it put me in a very vulnerable spot where I agreed to allow my team to do a, it's called a 360 feedback, right?
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where my team met with HR. Exactly, my team got to meet with HR. I was not there. And we were all given kind of, what is it that you think your boss does well? What is it that you wish? And they talk about that and then they come back to you and kind of say like, hey, here's all the things that we think that you do well. And then here's some things that we would like from you. So to be able to put yourself in a vulnerable position,
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to be able to hear the feedback and utilize it and not get defensive, right? And then to be able to allow your team to feel safe enough and to trust you enough to be able to let you know what they need. And I have to say, my team was stellar. I mean, I think the worst thing that they said about me is they wish they had more time with me. And I'm like, if that's the worst thing that you guys can say, I'm golden, right? But I will admit there was a part of me that was like, gosh, what's going to come back, right? And you felt like it was honest.
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I felt like it was honest and there was nothing that didn't surprise me. So during these times of my team is scattered throughout the United States, we don't all work in an office. And I do feel that after COVID, we've kind of lost this idea of connection. And so while we do have a team meeting each month and all these kinds of things, it's not the same as seeing each other in person, having activities. My
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team likes to do escape rooms. Okay. But you get to learn and appreciate something about each person and the way they come about thing and how they problem solve and all of this. So we're starting to get really good and cocky actually about our escape rooms. Yeah. We've only lost one. Are you setting records? We are, we're setting records. I think we're going to make t-shirts, right? That shows like all the different rooms that we've done in our times. Well, I've got some t-shirt ideas if you need some. Oh, I have a t-shirt ideas.
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No, I think that's great. Let's step back a little bit here and go back to women in the industry, women in leadership. And as a male, it's kind of a tricky subject. I'm fairly naive when it comes to the world anyway, so I'll be the first to admit that. But to me, there's a slippery slope there where, I don't feel like you would wanna be, I don't know what the word is, but,
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you wouldn't want to be noticed just because you're a woman. I would think you'd want to be noticed because you've done a great job. Exactly. And so when we talk about women in certain positions, how do you balance that into the discussion? Well, you bring up a good point, right? So there's a lot of people that think, oh, because you're a woman, you just naturally want women to be in your company. And that's not true.
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as a woman, I want the right person in for the job. So I don't care your gender, your ethnicity, any of that. I just want everybody to have equal opportunity for the right jobs. And you're right, I wanna be recognized for the work that I do, not the gender in which I am that does it. But I will say, if I were to tell myself stuff, you know,
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20 years ago that I know now, I was naive enough to think that doing good work was enough. And it's not. So I kind of missed the element of the self-promotion. And I will say that that didn't come naturally to me because it feels like you're bragging or you're boasting or you're not, oh, look at me, look at me. And that's not somewhere that I go naturally. So I remember walking into my boss's office and I said, I don't want you to answer this right now. I just want to know.
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When does doing good work get me more than just more work? Right? Because I was the girl that everybody wanted on her team, but it didn't take me anywhere, right? I just got more work. So, it really took me understanding, number one, it's okay to say no. Number two, it's okay to be able to say, you know, I am good at these things. I enjoy these things.
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And then I started getting myself involved in women's groups. And we started doing things like, how do you make your voicemail message put out words that you would like associated to you? So if you're uncomfortable saying like, hey Tim, can I tell you how great I am? Right? Nobody wants to do that. But if you end up calling me and you get my voicemail, it's like, hey, you've reached Julie Fitzgerald and I'm going to provide you the most excellent service.
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please leave me your name and number and I'll be sure to get back to you within 24 hours because I care about your need. Did I self-promote? Did I put into your mind what I wanted to be associated with me? Yes, I did. But I didn't have to be in this embarrassing situation of, look at me, look at me. No, that makes a lot of sense. Very deliberate too. Yes. Is that what your voicemail says now, if I call it? Yeah, you want to call my voicemail right now?
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Could be interesting. We'll do it after this, but yeah, I'll let you. Give me the pin and I'll listen to the voicemails. How about that? Yes, yes. But even what you put in your LinkedIn profile, how do you present yourself on social media? All these different things really weigh in to the perception that you give out to people. And perception, unfortunately, is very important. Yeah, perception, I always say perception is reality. It is. Because that's whoever's belief of
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of the truth. Perception is someone's individual belief of the truth. So that's really what we're up against. I think though what you pointed on too is probably a good point for anybody, not just male or female or whatever, but how many of us lose sight of important things like that, being deliberate about your actions, your words, and so on. So that's an excellent point. Well, thanks. So what groups are you involved with when it comes to?
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women in the industry. I'm glad that you asked. I will say it took me a while before I got involved in women's group and different things, because I think that there sometimes is this aspect that when women get together, we're just all going to get together and complain, right? That, ooh, we're going to complain, or that somehow or another it's about empowering women over somebody else, or this whole philosophy of the way to get somewheres by stepping on somebody else.
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So I wanted to be very cautious about the different groups that I associated with. And so my first group that I got into was through NAD, which is the National Association of Electrical Distribution, but it has manufacturers, distributors, reps, anybody that's kind of in this industry. And they have a phenomenal niche group that is a women's group meets once a year, and it's about a week long. And they have...
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speakers that come in and talk to you about the idea of promoting yourself as being a woman. Yes, you're in a male-dominated industry, but that doesn't mean we have to become men, right? Sure. But how do we leverage our assets in this kind of environment? And how do we promote other women to be in this industry? So how can we be there for each other and help each other with resources? So we did things such as books.
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Lean In is a great book to read about sometimes we will show up to a meeting, and I don't know if you've ever had this, but there's way more people at the meeting than there are chairs, right? Like you each brought your armies, you're all there. And my natural tendency was to give up my chair, right, for somebody, like, it's okay, I'll sit in the back. And it became like,
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Well, why am I doing that? Like I have as much right to sit in this seat as anybody else. And if I don't, then I shouldn't be at this meeting. You know, I'm not here just to warm up a chair. I have something to say. But part of that's just being a good leader doing something for others. You know, that's just naturally, you want to do something nice for someone else. So here, you know, take the chair. You know, I can understand the thought, but. Yeah, no, no, I'm going to sit at the table just like everybody else. And obviously you have to.
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If it makes sense, yes, but just naturally thinking that somebody else was more deserving was more the point. So also in this book, it talked about getting an accountability partner. So we all talk about, ooh, you should get a mentor, get a sponsor, all these kinds of things. But an accountability partner is something completely different. And so I had another female colleague and we traveled together quite a bit and we would hold each other accountable. Like...
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you get to sit at the table or we would after the meeting was over, what did you think? Or we would do different techniques called like amplify, which I don't know if you know what that is, but Nope, fill me in. Sometimes you can be in a meeting and let's say that your idea was to have some big, I don't know, you're going to have a meeting to train everybody at CBM. Sure. And everybody's like, that's great.
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But I'm thinking, ooh, I have something I want to do on that. So instead of just being like, yeah, let's have that meeting and we're going to do X, Y, and Z, and I think we should have blah, blah, blah, to amplify is to be like, you know what, Tim, that was a great idea you had about having this meeting. You know what I would like to add to that is I have this idea that why don't we do it over two days? We can split it so that we can have both sides of the teams come, but we still have coverage. So.
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Now what I'm doing is I'm recognizing you. I'm giving you credit for your piece of it. I'm not trying to say, oh, this is my idea. I'm trying to add to it and say, you know, like, hey, I recognize you, I see you. So, and you can even amplify people that aren't there for that day. Like, oh, last week, you know, I was talking to Joe and he had this great idea. What do you think of this? And so it's very positive way of promoting people.
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in the company and letting them know that you value their opinions. Rather than the alternative of, you know, I like what you're saying, but, you know, because there's always that one word that changes the direction. Yes, we try not to say, but. I mean, how many of us have gone to classes that that, but just means erase everything I just said. Here's what I really mean. Yes, exactly. So, and that's part of being deliberate. So yes, you know, I think we all need to be more thoughtful of that. So.
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I wanted to take a second and explain what is a manufacturer's rep. You know, it's still funny to me sometimes our role is often misunderstood. But in a nutshell, what a rep does is we are a subcontracted sales force for multiple manufacturers. Our lines are complementary to each other and not competitive. And what this does is, you know, it often gives us the opportunity to...
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to sell a full line solution. So it really brings value to our customer when we can represent product from one end to the other. We're not a distributor. We work with distributors to get our product to market, but we're really an extension of those factories. So just in a nutshell, if you're looking for a great manufacturer rep with
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years of experience and great folks. Look us up at cbmrep.com.
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Anything you're doing specifically within Siemens or within your team, you know, to help the women in your organization? So Siemens has always been a very big proponent of women in this industry. We have our own internal groups for promoting women. We actually, like I said, we are into inclusivity now. So we have groups that are not just women, they're every other different kinds of ways that you might want to associate as a group of collective people.
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So we definitely do that and I promote my team to take parts in that. Let's see, what else do we do? I definitely promote these outside sources. And there was a group, Kathy Jo and Stacey, who I had met through the women's group through NAD, who've kind of decided to pay it forward. And they have started a company, it's called Empowerment for Women, and it's a mentorship.
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So I'm going to give you guys these links. So any women or men, it really doesn't matter. If you would like to apply to be a mentor for somebody that's in this industry, that's great. And if you would like to apply to have a mentor, so let's say that your company doesn't offer something or you would like it to be outside of your company because you're maybe not trusting that it might not hurt your career or whatever. So I highly recommend.
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both sides of that, because even as a mentor, so I've been doing the mentor side of it now for several years, you still learn a lot, and it also kind of keeps you relevant, because typically speaking, I'm with somebody that's newer in their career, right? And hearing kind of what they have to face allows me even to apply that to my own team. What happens if my own team is too shy to tell me that this is an issue? Yeah, so it keeps you updated on kind of the current status of how things are. It does. Yeah, that's awesome.
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Let's circle back a little bit here. So 30 years with Siemens. Tell us a little bit about that. 35 years with Siemens. 35. Tell us, walk me through how you got from, you know, day one to where we are today. Give us a little background. Yeah, that's a fun story. So I was hired by Siemens to answer the phones. And I did that for a little bit and found that to be beneath my capabilities.
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So back then, and for those of you that are too young to even know this, I feel so sorry, but we used to get faxes. And that was how people would ask us for quotes, is they were faxing a request. So I used to take those off the fax machine, and I would price those up manually using a catalog. And I started turning them into the sales guys and just said, you know, I just be curious, like, how well did I do?
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And all of a sudden I was promoted to inside support. It was amazing. Like, woo, there you go. Thank you very much. And so I started doing that and I'm just curious by nature, right? So the more I could learn and why and how do you bring this down so that somebody like me can understand it? Because let's face it, some of this stuff can get pretty complicated, right? Absolutely, yeah. And then one of our outside people left and they took another opportunity.
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I was fortunate enough that our customers actually went to Siemens management and said, hire Julie. She does all of our stuff anyway. So I went from inside sales to outside sales. And I did that for many years. And then Siemens came and said, hey, you know what? We would like to bring you down to corporate and have you come in and work our corporate structure on why Siemens should partner or why you should partner with Siemens. So I did their corporate marketing program and their partnership program.
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for several years. And then I moved to the business unit and focused again on how can I help support salespeople in selling Siemens and our customers in navigating Siemens. So I did that. And then in 2016, so that was all in kind of the low voltage construction, industrial market. In 2016, I was approached to move over to the utility side of the world. Yep, which is where we live.
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So I did that and was shocked that within the same company, the two worlds could be so different. And so I went to work for the business unit, Medium Voltage, in 2016. And in 2019, I moved from that into my current position now, which is in sales. So I currently manage 14 different sales agencies across the United States that covers both Hawaii and Alaska. And I also currently have eight.
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inside support Siemens personnel that does the inside support for all of our Siemens employees, Siemens Energy employees that are in sales. So it's been kind of a neat journey because I have done inside sales so I can relate to my team there. I've done outside sales so I can relate to my teams there. And I've been at the business unit. So I understand what it means on needing to hit numbers and forecasts. And so, you know, it kind of really allows me to come at it from a pretty rounded point of view, I think.
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Well-rounded, I would say. Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. Tell us a little bit about how you handle relationships with your reps. Obviously, we're one of the reps that work directly for you. And Siemens is one of our top lines that we work diligently on all the time. But give us a little bit about your management style with reps, your expectations.
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And some of the pluses and minuses for, you know, there's a lot of manufacturers that may not understand what a rep model even looks like. So maybe touch on that a little bit. So for us being at Siemens Energy and Siemens, our rep model is very important to us. And as far as we're concerned, you're an extension of Siemens. So our expectations of you being a rep is the same expectation we would have of a Siemens employee.
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from compliance to how you relate to our products to how you present us. So, customers who think, oh, I can only get good service if I work with a Siemens energy employee, that's incorrect. We invite you guys to our national sales meetings. You guys are invited to our trainings. All of this, the additional benefit that you guys give is that you also have an additional insight support team.
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besides ours. So you guys are actually doubling down on the resources, right? And you guys are local. So you guys have more people that can go out and kind of do the daily where a Siemens person, you know, may not be able to hit them as frequently. So it's really a partnership. And our, like I said, our expectation is that you act and conduct yourself as though you are a Siemens employee. You just happen to work for a different company.
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And that's a great philosophy. For our side of it, obviously the relationships are critical for us and those relationships we bring our factories into. But also, how you set it, as we're an extension of the factory, that's important for us too, because that gives us the ability to make decisions. And we know that you're going to stand behind us. And
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things like that are important as well. Definitely. And if you don't think that you guys aren't calling directly into our factories and talking to the same people that I would, I mean, that's our expectation. You need to have those relationships too, right? Not just with your customers, but with Siemens and the people that can get stuff done. It's interesting though, you know, I don't think everybody, well, I know everybody in the world doesn't understand a rep, what a rep does and how it works. And so, you know, anytime we can kind of spread the word a little bit and just help people understand, I think it's...
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I think it's helpful. So I don't disagree. And I'll even be honest, people who are not used, even in Siemens, there might be teams that don't work with reps. That might be other business units. Sure. But Siemens takes it very seriously. And I'm not even sure if the agent community actually recognizes everything that's done behind the scenes. So not only do we give you a contract that we have to keep updated.
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Every three years, you guys are reviewed, and we go through what are the reasons, what value do you add, why wouldn't we have a Siemens person? We also do a lot of web crawling to make sure that there's nothing out there that is looking like you're doing something that we wouldn't approve of. And I have to go through those every month and say, yeah, is this relevant? Was this something we should be concerned about?
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So there's a lot of vetting that goes through this process. We just don't accept anybody to rep Siemens. And we're fortunate enough to say that of my 14 reps, 13 of them have been with us for decades, right? It says a lot, yeah. It does say a lot. I mean, so for both sides. So you guys can fire us just as easily as we can fire you. So obviously it's something that's working for both teams. Yeah. Well, we know you work hard for us, so we appreciate that. We didn't want to let that go.
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Unmentioned but we appreciate everything you do for us My philosophy is to treat people the way I would want to be treated So I don't really care what company you work for. I don't care if you're a customer. I don't care if you're my rep I don't care if your employee works for me. Everybody needs to be treated like they're respected and seen and heard and valued and That's yeah how I roll. I appreciate that. Absolutely So we so we've covered quite a bit here today, but I got a couple more things I want to get to before we let you go. So
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First, I want to give you the opportunity to talk about a little bit more specifically with Siemens, anything new and exciting coming out in the technology space or green energy related that you'd like to touch on before we let you go. If I touched on everything, we would be here for days. But if I had a message that I could give is that when I got into the industry, this was pretty manila and boring. I mean, I kind of fell into it by accident.
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That's not so today. Today, things are so different. You've got people driving electric cars and what does that mean? And do we electrify roads? And you've got people working from home now and what do we have to do to build up the grid? And how do we make things work and not fall down? And how do we automate? And how do we keep up with how much we're changing?
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So now I would say things are getting to be extremely exciting. And every time we turn around, there's a new product. That's why we're always training you guys on something new. So I would just tell people who had potentially a thought that this might be a boring industry to tell them, give us a chance. I think that you would be shocked with solar and renewables and how do we do clean energy and just all these different ways that we can kind of give back and make our world better.
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and how do we get more progressive? It's not just flipping on and off a light switch anymore. There's a lot more to it. Battery storage and, you know, just, it goes on and on and on. I told you we'd be here for days if I really went into it. So tell us then, what would your message be? How do we attract and recruit more women to the industry? So what I would say to that is,
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I would like to attract and recruit not just women, but anybody who would find this industry exciting. So again, kind of the inclusivity. Sure. So not just women, but qualified people who are willing to do good work, who are willing to learn and ask. Like I...
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ask those of us who actually find the passion in this and see what it is that makes us happy to get up every day. You know, how we define success anymore, I think has changed. I used to think that success was gonna be, oh, I'm going to run Siemens. I no longer view that as success. But you know what? I have a job that I get up and I'm happy to be here. I'm proud to be a Siemens employee. I'm proud of my management. I'm proud that I have a life. But my title...
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isn't what I thought it was going to be. So I've redefined what success means. And that is what I would like to contribute to others is, you know, figure out what success means for you, and then be a person that promotes other people and recognize that success doesn't come from pushing others down, but from partnering with people that maybe have.
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attributes that you don't have. And so you guys make a great team. This is not a place to be competitive, but this is a place for all of us to strive and thrive. That's awesome. I couldn't have said it better myself. So yeah, I did it. Yeah, you did all the hard work, but no, we appreciate you so much. And thank you again so much for coming in today. It's been a pleasure taking the time to get to know you more. Well, I just thank you for giving me the opportunity to represent.
34:07
Right. Absolutely. You're welcome. I'm just one, but there's many of us that have paved this path. That's awesome. Thank you so much. You're welcome.
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Thanks again to Julie for joining us today. I really appreciate her input there on women in such a male-dominated industry. So, thanks again, Julie, for that. Remember, if you like what we're doing here, like, comment, subscribe. We'd love to hear your comments and let us know what you like, what you'd like to see coming up on the show another time. And if you need expert advice from an expert sales force, look no further. Reach out to us here at CBM. That's cbmrep.com.
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And until next time, thanks for joining us on Power the Network.
