Interview of Stephanie Choury, Choury Enterprise Account Manager

Episode Summary:

In this episode of the InPowered Women Podcast, sponsored by Superior Water Services, host Sharon Lee speaks with Stephanie Choury from Buckman Digital Water. Stephanie shares her journey from history major to enterprise account manager, breaking barriers in water treatment. We explore her involvement with Women of Water, discuss Cheryl Sandberg’s “Lean In”, and reflect on pivotal moments of resilience.

Quotes from the Show:

Resources Mentioned:

• Buckman Digital Water
• Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg
• LinkedIn Women of Water

Episode Transcript:

Sharon
Welcome to the InPowered Women’s podcast, where we tell the stories of Unstoppable female leaders who Excel, uplift, and secure a clearer path for female leaders in the future. And I’m your host, Sheron Lee. Hello, and welcome to another episode of Empowered Women, where we share the stories of women breaking barriers and leading the way in business. But Before we get started, I wanted to take a moment to express our gratitude to the sponsor of this episode, Superior Water Services, whose mission is clear, the design and implementation of full-service Hydronic Water Treatment programs for industrial and commercial facilities. They’re dedicated to protecting their customers’ equipment against scale, corrosion, and biological fouling, ensuring optimal performance and longevity. It’s sponsors like Superior Water Services that allow us to continue bringing you empowering stories of women in leadership positions and fostering a community of support and mentorship. A big thank you to Superior Water Services for their support of the InPowered Women podcast. Now, I’m thrilled to introduce today’s guest, Stephanie Shuri, with Buckman Digital Water. Hi, Stephanie. Thanks for joining me today.

Stephanie
Hello there, Sharon. Thank you for inviting me to join this podcast, as well as a big thank you to Superior Water Services for sponsoring this episode.

Sharon
Absolutely. So first of all, why don’t we, or why don’t you share a little bit about Buckman Digital Water and what you Sure thing.

Stephanie
I work for Buckman, which has been around for over 70 years. I have been here almost two years, which is actually hard to believe. In June, it will be my two-year anniversary. I am an enterprise account manager working with water treatment companies across the United States. About four years ago, Buckman Digital Water, a division of Buckman, began to harness Digital 4.0, integrating our manufactured chemicals in combination with advanced technology such as automation and data exchange, seen in our turnkey business software platform known as Acumen. Acumen really anchors our existing business offerings into a digital offering, combining data as well as a team of chemical engineers who manage water treatment sites remotely 24/7, 365.

Sharon
Okay, but let me get this straight. Water and technology, that’s not what you’d call your wheelhouse, correct?

Stephanie
Let’s talk about your background. Definitely. When I was in college, a long time ago, I actually went to get a degree in history with the intention of being a history teacher. I figured this out probably three years into being in college. At that point, I realized I might still be in school an extra couple of years. At that point, I decided, You know what? Staff, just graduate. I ironically landed at a company here in Fort Collins, Colorado, that was primarily working with schools, education distributors, publishers, curriculum providers. It was really pretty awesome because I originally wanted to be a history teacher, ended up not going down that route, but then ultimately started working in the industry as a supplier, which then got me into another company as their supplier, but their primary business was industrial water treatment, but they were getting some placement in some education accounts, so I started working for them.

Sharon
I think I followed all that, maybe. But let’s talk about it a little bit more. So you stayed on that side of the business for a good while before moving into the industrial side of water treatment. Take us through the transition.

Stephanie
For about 11 years, I was primarily working in education as a supplier, looking at curriculum and publishers and things like that. And then finally, one day, I was like, I really enjoy the industrial water treatment space. I enjoy the people that I’ve been at conferences with. Maybe I need a change. Maybe I need to just migrate from one division of our organization to the other Then I spent my last three years with that company really focused in the industrial water treatment business. That’s how I eventually got to Buckman Digital Water.

Sharon
Now I’m back with you. I’m caught up. What would you say are the key benefits of the solution that you provide? Efficiency.

Stephanie
We can really see that in our customers’ operations, their sites, communication and services. As we can see today, you and I, we have some technology literally at the tip of our fingers. That’s where the Acumen software platform can ingest as well as store data that these water treatment sites use daily, but more efficiently with the data being in one location and not only showcasing data points, but also gaining a team of experts who help triage their alarms, looking at notifications and summarizing where their sites can focus on their next site service. With this, we allow water treaters the capability to customize all of this data in one report as well as one platform.

Sharon
Another bottom line that you could say is that you’re in a very male-dominated industry. It was fantastic to hear about your involvement in the Women of Water organization. Tell us about that.

Stephanie
Sure. We are part of the Association of Water Technologies, which is an international organization representing over 500 companies that specialize in applying water treatments for industrial and commercial cooling and heating systems. This last year, we were accepted as a committee where we will meet each month. This is a very inclusive group, and our goals are to support women in their knowledge and skillset, encourage women to pursue leadership roles within the Association of Water Technologies, placing their knowledge in their employment, pursuing their leadership there, creating a sense of belonging to the association as well as the industry itself.

Stephanie
We really want to continue to pave the way for women as well as men to see the value that we both play in this circle. We can only continue to grow if we include each other and help define and shape the next chapters for all of us to be part of. When I started in this industry over 15 years ago, the benefit of Women of Water was that I had someone like me that I identified with immediately. I was in a new industry. I’m not a water treater, and I just felt comfortable having that environment space then with them, as well as all of the men that were already available today and when I started.

Sharon
I’m going to shift gears a little bit. We have talked all of twice before this recording. No question that we were cut from the same mold, so that’s going to continue. I can tell you that. But I love that you shared that you had recently finished a book, Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, formerly COO of Facebook. That’s not a new book. But when you mentioned it, I immediately grabbed it on Audible and listened to it as well. Even though it was written 10 years ago, there are several themes that still ring true. What were your thoughts after you read it?

Stephanie
I agree. Some of the things that stood out was performance bias, skill sets being viewed differently between a man and a woman, and really feeling comfortable with being uncomfortable, understanding that it’s okay to own our achievements, allowing ourselves to not doubt our abilities, but also showcase that there are going to be some of those performance biases, but understanding it and recognizing it, bringing to the table a lot of the things that we offer to our organizations.

Sharon
As I was listening, I was in the car and there were a few ideas that really stood out to me. One of them was, let me see, I wrote it down. What would you do if you were not afraid? Then do it. And honestly, that’s the reason I wrote it down. This is the goal of this whole podcast. You hope somebody out there listening is going, I’ve been thinking on this in the back of my mind. I’ve been wanting to do this. I take that leap. But you know what? Listening to other stories, hearing about people like you, you hope that they will just do it. But that’s easier said than done.

Stephanie
It definitely is easier said than done. When I was reading that as well, I had the same thought process. One thing that I thought about was, was it afraid or was I holding myself back? Was it a roadblock? That’s really where it all ties again to the mentorship of both men and women, because that’s what’s so great of having a tribe of women that you can count on, as well as a group of really good guys that help you your career. When you have those moments of, Am I afraid or what’s holding me back? You can really lean in to your group around you to keep you from being afraid and that encouragement to make you push through to achieve what you’re looking to do.

Sharon
Oh, 100 %. And I remember when she was interviewing at Facebook, and she really, really wanted this position. And Mark Zuckerberg gave her an offer, and she really wanted to take it. She talked with… It was either her brother or her brother-in-law and was told, You need to negotiate this. And she was really concerned about it because, again, she wanted that position. But he said he was the one that said, yes, man would do. Go in there. And so she actually positioned it as, you are going to ask me to negotiate on your behalf. I hope that we are never on the opposite sides of the table anymore. More, but I need to negotiate with you. So he respected that. I thought it was great. I think she took a female approach, but she did it. So that was fantastic.

Stephanie
That’s what I really loved was the fact that she did have those people in her life. Wasn’t just her tribe of women. It was a family member that happened to be a man that then discussed to her, Hey, would anyone, nonetheless, a man just walk away with the first offer, or would it be to your best interest to negotiate? That was really awesome because being afraid and/or having your own personal roadblock on even situations like this could have held her back from negotiating, for one. But because she had someone in her life that helped get her there, she went back and then she was also strategic in how she implemented that with Mark to use it as a negotiation strategy to showcase the value of what she was going to be bringing to this company.

Sharon
And that just boils down to confidence. If we take a step back like that and we have our collaborative conversations, I think that we will come out more confident. I also love that she shared her other side. She is a mom, and she loves being a mom. There’s always that difficulty of balancing family career. She clearly is at the epitome of that. Before kids, she had marveled about listening to a speaker was female, and that speaker was talking about, this is how you balance. Sometimes I just put my kids to bed and the clothes they’re going to wear tomorrow. And I remember saying out loud, I’m like, That’s genius. That’s fantastic. And then, of course, I’m listening or I’m thinking back about going to the baseball field, grabbing the baseball uniform out of the hamper and going, this is a straight from the hamper cat of day. And so I’m like, You know what? I didn’t think of myself as so genius at the time. But now I’m like, You know what? You got to do what you got to do, right?

Stephanie
Well, and even with that, too, the balance in career. That’s yet another thing that I feel like we sometimes put in our own lives as a roadblock sometimes. Book is not recent. It’s a few years written past. But just understanding and acknowledging that you can do both if you can understand how you can manage it. But I did love that she mentioned that because I’m with girlfriends now that are in professional careers that are also mothers that have this burden on their own heart of, Well, how do I tell my boss I need to do this? Or how do I do that? Without feeling like they’re taking away from their job. Knowing that they’re going to go home put in that extra time. It really is understanding that it’s just a part of our day and managing it like she had mentioned.

Sharon
Here we are blazing other trails by talking InPowered women podcasting, and we’re having our little book club. But you took things a step further after you read this book, you started a Lean In circle, which is a nonprofit that Sheryl Sandberg actually created. Tell us about that.

Stephanie
The Lean In is a nonprofit organization. What I love about reading this book, honestly, I have a girlfriend in the industry who introduced this to me years ago, and it took this long for me to read it. But I guess I just wasn’t ready. But her last even ending is, don’t put down the book. Take this as an opportunity to continue developing and showcasing and creating these types of circles of women to talk about these types of issues. So yes, there’s Lean in Circles that you can implement within your own professional organization, as well as you take it as far as your own personal group, how you and I are talking. Showcasing some of those pieces into our women of Water Committees and/or bringing it to my company, talking about how do we continue these conversations.

Sharon
This right here is what it’s all about. You’re putting yourself out there, you’re discovering new things every day, trying new things every day, constantly growing, helping others to grow. And that leads me, of course, to the idea of mentorship. I bring this up on every episode as well, because I’m always really wanting people to push to pull those women that are entering their industries and all of that and showing them the road so that they don’t have to go their own route. They can make it a little easier. So tell me about your approach to mentorship as a whole.

Stephanie
So my approach to mentorship as a whole is I really do see it as an everyday opportunity. Every day you’re going to run into somebody that’s either going to have a question and/or some obstacle that we may have already faced. Identifying those where you can either extend a hand or be that voice of, Hey, I’m 10 years older than you. I was there. Or, We’re the same age and we’re facing this at the same time. What do we need to do together to band together to be heard and or seen? And how do we continue that momentum? With ourselves, our groups, and others.

Sharon
And you do find out that you go about that relationship to mentor someone, and then you realize they’re mentoring you right back.

Stephanie
Absolutely. It’s reciprocal. I never just knocked on people’s door and been sharing, Can you be my mentor? You were put in my life. It just happened. And now we’re mentoring each other and experiencing these moments talking about it on this podcast for others to hear.

Sharon
Exactly. It was funny. You shared this story with me that you’d almost forgotten about, but it was really in your college career. So we have to share this. You were a history major in college. You mentioned that in one of your last classes, it was focused on World War II. There was you and two other women, and the rest of your classmates were all men. And the professor, I mean, I’m still surprised about this, says, Women don’t take war classes, right? Yeah. You’re going to tell the story from there. Here.

Stephanie
Set the tone first day. I’m already in an unfamiliar subject because my focus was Latin American studies. So I was like, Great. I got to take a World War II But then he continued to just open the door with that statement. It was interesting, and yes, I did almost forget, Sharon. Over 20 years ago, this happened, but we ended up all being assigned an oral presentation. Weirdly, three of us had to redo it in front of the class, two of which were women, one was a man. At the time, he had presented a word doc explaining to the group who had to take the speech over. Then with his notes of recommendations, how are we going to do it better? He had said for me that I needed to be not as wordy, but have two pages of notes. One of my girlfriends, she needed to do it over, but she had to have four pages of notes and not sound like a real estate agent. Unbleible. And then for the one male that was asked to do it over, he said, No notes, wing it, look them in the eye and give it to them forcefully.

Stephanie
At that point, Sharon, there were multiple things leading up to this. This was the final straw. That’s when me and the two other women decided, We need to do something about this. This needs to be brought to the dean. We have to talk about this. But the one thing that was pinnacle on that decision was, remember me and the other ladies looking at each other and putting our hands out, making this truce of, Listen, if this affects this course, we all know that we might be in school another semester because this is our final class. We only have to take this to graduate. And if we’re already filling this way with him, he might actually retaliate and make it even harder for us. And we weren’t trying to get him in trouble, per se. We just wanted it to be acknowledged. Looking back on it, I’m very proud of the women we were. There are still women that I consider friends. But I mean, we literally had to take a moment to understand that that might affect our future. But we didn’t want it to affect another woman’s future. We stood up and defined ourselves together, empowering each other and making a stance. I wouldn’t say that changed things too much, but it did at least bring some visibility to the class.

Sharon
When you said it didn’t change things too much, I mean, you still are a little wordy, right? Absolutely.

Stephanie
I guess it’s worked to my advantage. I have a lot to say around here.

Sharon
I’m guessing she’s not a realtor.

Stephanie
No. Honestly, that’s where I was just like, we all have this place in him going out of his way to make subtle jabs over an industry or women. There was no reason for that because everyone has a place.

Sharon
Exactly. And you’re doing just fine. Let me tell you, those types of things, once again, they give you that confidence for the next time that you ever encounter something like that, then you speak up, you be confident, you pursue what you want to do. But let’s have a little bit of fun, and I’m going to put the words free time in quotes here. So when you do have free time, tell me what you like to do.

Stephanie
When I do have free time, my husband and I are both social butterflies, and we are both very wordy together. So anytime that we can get into any environment where we’re just meeting new people and our own friends, we love to do that. So we’ve got teenage boys, so anytime they’d like to hang out with us, we definitely take the opportunity. Perfect.

Sharon
I feel your pain on that one for sure. If someone is interested and wants to reach out to you, what’s the best way to contact you, Stephanie?

Stephanie
I would look me up on LinkedIn, Stephanie Shuri. I don’t know if you’re going to share this within the podcast whenever you post it, but definitely LinkedIn will be a good connection for us.

Sharon
I will absolutely share that. I could continue this conversation for hours on in, but thank you so much for joining me today and sharing your story.

Stephanie
Honestly, thank you. I mean, it’s things like this that keep us moving forward. I’ve had so much fun, Sharon, so let’s continue our conversations, and we can record them in the future if we’d like. Perfect way to end it.

Sharon
And by the way, you’re coming to Atlanta soon, so I look I’m looking forward to seeing you when you get here.

Stephanie
Yes, I’m excited to see you in person. Sounds good.

Sharon
All right. Thanks again. Thank you. Thank you for listening to InPowered Women. If you like what you heard, please give us a five-star review and subscribe to the show wherever you listen to your podcast and share with those you think can benefit from this information. Please email all questions, suggestions, and compliments to sheeran@pinnaclestrategicadvisors. Net. The Empowered Women podcast is produced by the podcast laundry production company and executive by Sheeran Lee.