Kristen Hosman on The MVP Show

[mark]: 3:02
today's guest is all away from denver denver colorado in the u s a she's a president and senior consultant at mount evans consulting she's and i'll get it to correct me if i'm wrong but second as an m v p she is a co host of the microsopt n v p woman in tech the untold stories which we're going to unpack that in a moment because i think that's fantastic you can find her on twitter christine holman or her blog christine hlsman dot com welcome to the show christen

[kristen]: 3:32
thank you mark for having me happy to be here

[mark]: 3:37
so good to have you on the show um let's correct anything i got wrong there first of all the podcast is that correct v p woman in tech the untold story

[kristen]: 3:49
yeah that is correct

[mark]: 3:53
awesome because i was just on with mary thompson doing another podcast recording and is she one of your co host with you is that right

[kristen]: 4:01
yeah mary thompson and shannon mullins they're both co host with me

[mark]: 4:06
awesome so now this is just purely coincidental that she mentioned

[kristen]: 4:12
okay

[mark]: 4:12
the untold story and then coming and i'm getting ready for this and i'm like well hang on you are one of the people running that show that's fantastic now did i get your name and everything your website and your twitter handle correct

[kristen]: 4:25
yes you did

[mark]: 4:29
awesome good to go people can find you will make sure but that is details in the show note so before we get started always like to get to know who you are where you're from and and that type of things kind of like tell us a bit about colorado i've not been there yet denver i've not been there yet tell us a bit about family what's your favorite food and what do you do for fun

[kristen]: 4:52
all right well so denver colorado is actually known as the mile high city so the

[mark]: 4:59
oh

[kristen]: 4:59
elevation is fifty two hundred seventy nine feet so if you've never been to vern you come into

[mark]: 5:05
wow

[kristen]: 5:05
denver and you're not used to being at a little bit of a higher elevation than you're probably you know going to get headaches or something like that so i always tell people coming to denver o make sure to prep at least a week beforehand by drinking just a lot more water right um i actually

[mark]: 5:24
okay

[kristen]: 5:24
live about forty five minutes south west of denver in a small community called pine junction and we're actually at eighty four hundred feet in elevation so quite a big quite

[mark]: 5:37
wow

[kristen]: 5:38
a bit of difference b between denver and where i'm at um another fact about

[mark]: 5:44
yeah

[kristen]: 5:45
colorado is that we have fifty eight mountain

[mark]: 5:49
oh

[kristen]: 5:49
peaks exceeding fourteen thousand feet

[mark]: 5:56
wow

[kristen]: 5:56
so

[mark]: 5:56
that's

[kristen]: 5:57
yeah

[mark]: 5:57
amazing that's amazing

[kristen]: 5:59
it's

[mark]: 5:59
i can see why you get so much snow

[kristen]: 6:01
yeah yeah it was actually sixty degrees at my house yesterday

[mark]: 6:04
yeah

[kristen]: 6:05
and then today it was snowing so um people like to joke that colorado has very big polar weather so that's always fun

[mark]: 6:17
it's that's

[kristen]: 6:17
but i didn't always

[mark]: 6:18
yeah

[kristen]: 6:18
live in colorado

[mark]: 6:19
oh

[kristen]: 6:19
i actually moved here about five and a half years ago and i was born and raised in minnesota so i'm used to bitter cold and no longer winters

[mark]: 6:31
yeah

[kristen]: 6:32
so i moved here about five and a half years ago with my family i have two little boys nine and eleven

[mark]: 6:38
oh

[kristen]: 6:39
and you know some of the things we like to do here since moving here is snow arding dart biking deeping you know uh people want to go hike you know a fourteen

[mark]: 6:52
oh

[kristen]: 6:52
er and i just want to get in my

[mark]: 6:54
oh

[kristen]: 6:54
jeep and drive up right um

[mark]: 6:57
nice

[mark]: 6:58
nice

[kristen]: 6:58
so those are just kind of the fun things that

[mark]: 7:00
wow

[kristen]: 7:00
we like to do you know camping very outdoors y area we live in so

[mark]: 7:06
yeah i love it my experience of course with colorado is by david and julie yak because i've done a lot of work with them because of any peas for a very long time and so that's kind of my total exposure and the other fun fact or like about colorado which i found out when i went to do a bungy jump is that colorado has the highest bungy jump platform in the world

[kristen]: 7:34
oh i'm gonna have to look that up

[mark]: 7:38
have you done bungy jumping

[kristen]: 7:40
um i haven't bungy jumps

[mark]: 7:42
oh

[kristen]: 7:42
but in los vegas the stratus phere you can jump off of the stratusphere and i have done that i'm all about like going to the extreme

[mark]: 7:54
yeah

[kristen]: 7:54
rill seeker you know so

[mark]: 7:56
yeah

[kristen]: 7:56
i'm going to look it up because i haven't heard that one yet

[mark]: 7:59
yeah i did i've done the highest bungy jump in new zealand and that was phenomenal but when i was looking like who has the highest in the world colorado comes up as as the location and i don't know that it's open all year round it's only opened for a certain period of time but it's the highest in the world so

[kristen]: 8:19
okay

[mark]: 8:19
it's a lot of time free falling before the rubber band pulls you backwards

[kristen]: 8:22
yeah

[mark]: 8:23
that would

[kristen]: 8:24
oh

[mark]: 8:24
be pretty phenomenal

[kristen]: 8:26
yeah that would

[mark]: 8:26
yeah

[kristen]: 8:27
be pretty crazy

[mark]: 8:28
um anyhow

[kristen]: 8:30
uh

[mark]: 8:30
i'm very keen to know about your podcast and really get the listeners to go take a listen and and subscribe to it tell us around tell us about what microsoft mvp woman and tack the untold story is all about what's the angle i love this title the untold story so keen to hear about it

[kristen]: 8:48
yeah so the podcast was born actually by shannon mullan so neither mary or i can take credit for that but shannon

[mark]: 8:58
oh

[kristen]: 8:58
had approached us up a year and a half ago

[mark]: 9:01
yeah

[kristen]: 9:01
with the idea of actually you know having

[mark]: 9:03
yeah

[kristen]: 9:04
this monthly meet up where

[mark]: 9:07
oh

[kristen]: 9:07
us three would get together we would invite another woman within the community usually an m v p m to come and just join the show and in what we really talk

[mark]: 9:19
oh

[kristen]: 9:19
out is just how to empower women

[mark]: 9:22
ah

[kristen]: 9:22
to get into tech um so we've had a couple meet up where we've actually talked about

[mark]: 9:29
ye

[kristen]: 9:29
starting blogs

[mark]: 9:30
oh

[kristen]: 9:31
you know starting social media how do you get

[mark]: 9:33
oh

[kristen]: 9:33
yourself out there you know where do you go to speak and in different things like that you know and we've also had some of the harder conversations as well about you know things in our career that has happened to us as women but we try and

[mark]: 9:50
oh

[kristen]: 9:50
keep it very light we we are not trying to bash

[mark]: 9:54
okay

[kristen]: 9:54
anyone gender in particular we've had a lot of

[mark]: 9:59
yeah

[kristen]: 9:59
males actually join our meet up and what we found talking with them afterwards is

[mark]: 10:06
oh

[kristen]: 10:06
that they found it they just it was an eye opener for them right like

[mark]: 10:11
yeah

[kristen]: 10:13
one of our first ones mary had talked about a situation where she she worked for a partner that kind of made her feel uncomfortable when she was going on client visits and it was a real eye opener that conversation just to see how you know women are treated out and about at conferences you know network in events and different things like that so um and we've also empowered

[mark]: 10:37
okay

[kristen]: 10:37
a lot of women to like join

[mark]: 10:38
oh

[kristen]: 10:39
and teck more recently we've had teachers who have i mean we don't know them they found us somewhere along the way and they've joined our meet up and um they felt empowered to get into the tech industry so

[mark]: 10:55
oh

[kristen]: 10:56
i think really the cool

[mark]: 10:57
oh

[kristen]: 10:57
thing about it is that you know we're just empowering women you know people who have never really been in tech as well to take a look

[mark]: 11:08
oh

[kristen]: 11:08
and see what it has to offer oh

[mark]: 11:12
this is so cool this is so cool and and we need we need more of it you know ve been to a range of conferences where there there have been women in text sessions and i've attended s and you're so right there's some discussions that a lot of people sorry some discussions that need to head that a lot of people are unaware of there's a need for education and i think you know very compelling that people look to people that look like them you know in that position so the more the more that woman see woman in teck and males as well can assist and and you know create the right environment and safe you know level of trust and safety because you mentioned about conferences and i know there have been some um you know feedback from conferences i've been to in the park where women have talked about being approached and appropriately and things like this in a marcofftec conference and that kind of thing needs to be brought more into the light right and and talked about and and prevented from happening

[kristen]: 12:26
yeah exactly i was just at directions north america last week and i was on the panel for the women and dynamics luncheon

[mark]: 12:34
oh

[kristen]: 12:35
and very light hearted you know light

[mark]: 12:38
oh

[kristen]: 12:38
conversation and taking the audience

[mark]: 12:41
okay

[kristen]: 12:41
questions and just really talking about my journey coming in technology which happened gosh it's been like thirteen

[mark]: 12:51
oh

[kristen]: 12:52
years ago already i started as an accountant and then you know kind of moved my

[kristen]: 12:56
way up but throughout

[kristen]: 12:58
my career i've always been mentored by by men um and you know if i look back at my career i don't know that i would

[mark]: 13:07
oh

[kristen]: 13:07
be exactly where i am today if it wasn't for specific men on the way and i told this story during this luncheon and right

[mark]: 13:17
yeah

[kristen]: 13:17
afterwards i had this gal come up to me and she was crying and everyone had kind of left the room it was

[mark]: 13:24
oh

[kristen]: 13:24
just her and i in there an she told me that i told her story like you know it was nice for her come and actually

[mark]: 13:33
right

[kristen]: 13:34
be in a room with other women and men and feel empowered and i think that's that you know

[mark]: 13:41
yeah

[kristen]: 13:41
that's that's what we need right now you know

[mark]: 13:43
oh

[kristen]: 13:44
we're not trying to bash one under like i said before but we're just trying to get everybody to feel empowered

[mark]: 13:49
no

[kristen]: 13:50
in that is where they belong if they want

[mark]: 13:52
yeah

[kristen]: 13:52
to be here

[mark]: 13:57
i love it i love it so

[kristen]: 13:58
ah

[mark]: 13:58
tell us a bit about the show format how do you run it what's your type of frequency and where can people find it

[kristen]: 14:04
yeah so we try and run one

[mark]: 14:07
yeah

[kristen]: 14:08
once a month and it's just through a met up

[mark]: 14:11
nice

[kristen]: 14:11
so you can go on me up and i can get you that link to include as well in and we have a couple of hundred

[mark]: 14:17
awesome

[kristen]: 14:17
people that that are on the meat up and it's very low key we usually like i said earlier have

[mark]: 14:24
yeah

[kristen]: 14:24
a guest and we always kind of

[mark]: 14:26
yeah

[kristen]: 14:27
come up with some sort a topic beforehand um cameras are optional people are just so active in the chat you know we're going back and forth answering questions and it's

[mark]: 14:38
yeah

[kristen]: 14:39
it's very just low key you know usually an hour we record it so if you miss it you can catch it on youtube later on so you can go out there and find

[mark]: 14:51
nice

[kristen]: 14:52
find all those out there that we've done in the past yeah just just a good time good time and

[mark]: 14:59
awesome so

[kristen]: 14:59
if

[mark]: 14:59
we'll

[kristen]: 14:59
there's

[mark]: 14:59
make sure we include that in the show notes

[kristen]: 15:02
right right and there's someone mark listening you know to to this podcast right now and you're interested in

[mark]: 15:10
oh

[kristen]: 15:11
now becoming an m v p or even interested in co

[mark]: 15:15
yeah

[kristen]: 15:16
hosting with us you have something that you want to talk about

[mark]: 15:18
oh

[kristen]: 15:19
you now feel free to reach out to one of us because we definitely would love to have one who wants to talk about something you know on on there

[mark]: 15:28
oh i like it i like it tell us about your journey to becoming an m v p

[kristen]: 15:35
my journey started about two two years ago i got a phone call from

[mark]: 15:43
oh

[kristen]: 15:43
steve endow he's a microsoph v p out of harry's based ota lafornia and he had given me a call and basically

[mark]: 15:50
yeah

[kristen]: 15:51
said hey what do you think about this do you want

[mark]: 15:56
yeah

[kristen]: 15:56
to be nominated and at the time i was just shocked that he would even think of that i had been talking with belinda fallen you know months previously about working my way to kind of get to this point as she had some good advice for me at that time and i was working towards that and never did i think you know that someone would approach me um kind of thing so he approached me and it was summer of twenty to one m and i took about two weeks to get back to him because i was just kind of like so shocked and just trying to process at all and talking with everybody about you know was at the right time was i doing what i needed to be doing you know i was speaking at conferences at that point i was blogging i was active with user groups so i was doing all the right things you know to get that nomination i just didn't feel like i was doing it enough so i gave him the green light and september first twenty twenty is when i got that email and you know after you get nominated you're kind of on these pins and needles right because every month like and you're while you know first thing in the morning and i took my boys to school that day

[mark]: 17:17
correct

[kristen]: 17:17
and i don't have any reception like once i leave my house and then take them the opposite way i don't get receptions i took them to school and that wasn't until like i don't know like nine o five i got home in the morning and i checked my email and i had i had the email you know but but kind of going back to steve in do you know talking with him at that time he had went to um the m v p summit and he didn't see very many females there at that time he's been very open about you know wanting to get more them m v p so he's on a mission um mary shannon and i are on a mission i specialize in business central there's about thirty b c v p is world wide and only five females and i think all the men they're all developers i'm not sure if a lot of them are functional but you know we're on a mission and over the next few years you know especially with the b c i think we're going to see a lot more women m v p s coming coming into the space

[mark]: 18:33
i love it i love it i love it this is so cool any advice just as we wrap up any advice you'd give to folks that either they don't know how to become an n v p or they want to become an n v p m that you that you kind of give to people

[kristen]: 18:51
yeah i mean i think the biggest thing is putting yourself out there right so starting a blog and you can start a blog on anything i like to tell people take issues that you've seen in business central like it could be like a support case that a client sends you turn it into a blog um some of the highest hip blogs i have are some things that i would think you know everybody would know how to do but you know they're they're hitting my blog and i'm not a great blog writer so you don't have to be the best writer you just have to put it out there the other thing i would say is is speaking at conferences or doing interviews like this um you know if you're nervous about speaking out of conference there are tons of speakers out ther m v p is non m v p s um that are willing to co present with you there's a lot of conferences out there that you can reach out to and just say hey i have an idea but i'm not really you know wanting to do it by myself and they can find you a co speaker so those are the two things that i would say you know just get yourself out there get comfortable out there and ask for help that's the other thing so many people are out there and they're just willing to help you in this community