Insights about women in tech, mentoring, and digital inclusion - ETI
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December 14, 2022

Insights about women in tech, mentoring, and digital inclusion

Joe Coldebella:

Hello and welcome to another episode of The Broadband Bunch. I’m Joe Coldebella and we are at SCTE Cable Tech Expo 2022 in the city of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Joining me today is Zenita Henderson, the CMO of Segra. Zenita, welcome to the Broadband Bunch.

Zenita Henderson:

Thank you. Thank you for inviting me.

Joe Coldebella:

Hey, it’s so great to have you and finally get to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you. Before we sort of dive into the topics today, I would love it if you could give us just a history of yourself in terms of in the industry and just some of the things that you’ve done.

Zenita Henderson:

Sure. I’ve been in the industry for about 35 years. 34, 35. Came right out of high school, started with Toner Cable in Horsham, Pennsylvania and then moved over to Jerrold, which eventually was General Instrument around 1988 and was with them straight through, I started out in customer service and was with them straight through to Aris until 2016 when I then went over to SCTE.

Joe Coldebella:

Okay, that’s fabulous. And then now you’re currently the CMO at Segra, correct?

Zenita Henderson:

Absolutely, absolutely.

Joe Coldebella:

Wow, that’s amazing. And so you really are like you started just out of high school, which is amazing, and then you just worked your tail off and now you’re a CMO. That must be really gratifying in terms of that you know hard work will get you where you want to go.

Zenita Henderson:

Absolutely. I mean, I never dreamed that I would be a chief marketing officer. I initially wanted to be a nurse, so I actually started out going to nursing school first for a year and a half and then on a summer break, got a job with Toner Cable as a data entry operator of all things, and then simply applied for a job at Jerrold for customer service. Got the position and that’s where my love of marketing started, believe it or not, being in customer service.

I think I came in at a great time at Jerrold because they were just starting to do pay-per-view and they were launching all these great new technologies and I got to see like every job in the company because we would have these teams where they would pick someone from each department when they were coming up with the new technologies. So I don’t know how I got on the list, but for customer service, I was always on those teams and I got to see other areas of the company and marketing was something I really zeroed in on. And from that point on, bless his soul, he’s departed now. I chased him for years to be a part of the marketing team after working on all of these different technical teams. And when he was retiring from the company, he actually had me brought over to marketing as he was leaving.

Joe Coldebella:

So yeah, that is an absolutely awesome story just in terms of, but it’s true though. It’s like if you want to take yourself somewhere, all you got to do is work hard. And I love the fact that you were always sort of learning the industry and so it got you to the point of a CMO. So prior to Segra, you were at SCTE, correct?

Zenita Henderson:

Yes, I was. And I had a wonderful time there. I started at SCTE as I was in negotiating our cap agreement for ARRIS, and I’ve known Mark Dzuban for many, many years. And I was asking him a lot of questions about data because I had really gotten into Salesforce big time when CRM got really big around 2010 forward.

And so I was asking for a lot of information and he was like, “Zenita, why are you asking for all this information?” And I was telling him about how we were doing all this ROI modeling around our marketing and events and he loved it. And so I had been there at that point with the whole transition. We went from Jerrold to General Instrument from General Instrument to the Next Level for a split second. And then we went from the next level back to GI and then went to Motorola and then we were, Motorola had a wonderful time when we were Motorola, then we went to Google for a short period of time, and then ARRIS came in. So I went through the ARRIS transition for about two years, had a great time, but when this opportunity came up to go work for SCTE and he really wanted to get into this new era of the whole data collection.

Joe Coldebella:

Data is everything, right?

Zenita Henderson:

Data is everything. And I just happened to come along at the right time and Mark said, “Hey, would you come over?” And I said, “Absolutely.” So after 28 years of being at one company that was many names, I went over to SCTE and it has been wonderful. I had a great six years with the SCTE. I started out just doing marketing for the first year and then the second year forward, then I got more into Expo and just got to learn. I had always gone to the SCTE show from the vendor side, so I was always here. But I had never run a whole show. I went from running one booth and worrying about one booth to worrying about 400 booths and it was like, wow.

Joe Coldebella:

Wow. That is just crazy. So it must be, I don’t know, kind of a little fun to now be on the other side and not be stressed out. So just would love to get your general impressions of the show.

Zenita Henderson:

Okay. So I’m still stressed out, but I worry about it just only from the fact that we had, Covid came and I hate how we got here that we had two years where we had to have a virtual show, but we had the best virtual shows those two years. I think we probably did virtually too well sometimes.

Because we didn’t say it was a virtual show, we called it an experience. We wanted people to come on the platform because SCTE is a teaching show, it’s an educational show which shows you all this great new technology that’s coming out. We have 40 fall technical form sessions, we have all these great auxiliary sessions that come in from around the industry and around the world. So to be able to broadcast that, I got super excited about that.

Joe Coldebella:

No, that’s great.

Zenita Henderson:

Even though we had to go virtual those years, I had to literally sit on my hands when Freeman, who’s our partner, who helps us produce our show, when they were telling me about all the data that you could get out of a virtual show and how you could do all these great experiences on the platform, I got excited about that.

Even though we were in the middle of Covid, I understand that we need to be in person. I understand you want to shake hands and take your customers to dinner. I had so many people that were calling me that were telling me, “Yeah, we could do really cool experiences on the platform, not just show off to all this great technology and presentations, but you could do some really cool interactive things on the platform.”

So I hate how we got here, but I think that the virtual or hybrid experience will only be in the future better for us SCTE.

But yes, I was still worried about things, but I got here this week and it’s been fabulous. I’m so proud of the team for the fact that I’ve only been gone four months and look what they were able to pull off and get people in the place they put aces in their places and they pulled this show off. And the floor has been packed. The rooms have been packed. The sessions that I’ve been to have been packed. I’m extremely, extremely proud of this team.

Joe Coldebella:

Well, that’s fantastic. It’s like it’s leading up to it. It’s sure that it was on all those things where you probably had a little trepidation leaving but obviously, you left it in good hands because it’s been a great show.

Zenita Henderson:

Well, I left at the perfect point. We were planning everything. We literally leave the one year, and as soon as the show was over, we’re planning for the next year. It is a year-round planning cycle. And so I left at the perfect time that we had put everything in place. We had picked our theme, we had put our teams in place, and we had put the vendors in place. We pretty much had everything laid out. Had this opportunity come up a month later, I probably wouldn’t have left because then I would’ve been really into it.

Joe Coldebella:

Been full in the thick of it.

Zenita Henderson:

Exactly. But I left with a really good roadmap that they could just literally just follow in their footsteps and just keep it going.

Joe Coldebella:

That’s great. And I love how you framed your online as an experience as opposed to a conference. Because I think you’re right, definitely there was positive and negatives to pull from Covid. Unfortunately was a horrible tragedy. But I think it also showed that people could adapt and people could grow and then come out from it, hopefully, is that if you want to still do virtual, you can, but also you’re a hundred percent right. People want to come to the shows, they want to see friends because everyone definitely had Zoom fatigue where it’s like, all right, you see everybody on the screen. But it’s one of those things were just meeting you and having your energy is just something that I think that everybody needs, especially in this industry as it’s growing so rapidly.

Zenita Henderson:

Absolutely. Everyone that I’ve been meeting that I had met during Covid, I’ll be like, “Oh my God, you have legs. And you’re tall.” So it’s been really great to see people as you said, in the cable industry, I have to say we are more of a family. I’m not sure if I’d make it in any other industry because I am such a friendly person. I hated Covid because everybody was home and I tried to make my team and we stayed together online as much as we possibly could because I get it. I am a very person, I’m a hugger so I’m known for that in the industry. That’s what I do. So I get it right. But there were benefits because you may have had customers that would, oh, you show up at their location, they would say, “Oh, I’m busy. I can’t meet with you.” Over Zoom or over whatever medium you were using, they were always available. It was a lot of times that we got speakers that we couldn’t get before because “Oh are you doing it virtually, I’ll do it virtually.”

Joe Coldebella:

Right. No, that’s a really great point.

Zenita Henderson:

That’s the thing, I don’t want people to lose focus. Virtual can help you to get people into your events that typically would’ve been like, I can’t travel, my company, the budgets might be tight and you could get some superstars. Look, the one year we had the gentleman, the CEO from Zoom that came in, right? And that is what you want. You want to get those superstars to come to your events and I’ll say, get them there any way you can, whether in person or online.

Joe Coldebella:

I love it. I love it. Yeah, because just in terms of what SCTE and the event does is so I think that it lays out or gives you the opportunity to showcase innovation.

Zenita Henderson:

Absolutely.

Joe Coldebella:

Has a chance for folks to network.

Zenita Henderson:

Absolutely.

Joe Coldebella:

It’s all about education.

Zenita Henderson:

It is.

Joe Coldebella:

You walk up there and it’s literally, I don’t know, a master’s course in technology.

Zenita Henderson:

You are seeing the future being demonstrated to you right in front of you. And here on the show floor, you’re seeing it, you’re touching it. But online, again, Technetics was phenomenal during that phase because they would set up cameras. And they gave a lot of our other vendor partners ideas because when you went online for their virtual tour, we wanted to do CTO tours again. And so over those two years, we did them because we were able to bring everybody in online in large groups. And Technetics had set up a camera and literally as their CTO was doing the demonstration, you felt like you were right there in the room with them.

Joe Coldebella:

Oh, that’s great.

Zenita Henderson:

As they went across, CommScope did the same thing. There were several others that just really, as it evolved and as the virtual thing evolved over Covid, everyone got smarter about how they could get in front of their customers and still give them that experience online.

Joe Coldebella:

That’s awesome. And just finally in terms of, one of the other great things I found about the show was the thought leadership in terms of all the different speakers, the 10G challenge. I’ve interviewed a bunch of those folks. So it’s been a really well-rounded show.

Zenita Henderson:

It has been. And the industry has rounded out. Covid bought about a lot of things, and I laugh about this because at Motorola and GI as well, we were showing a lot of the stuff around fixed-mobile conversions. How you could just go from one would’ve one device that would just take you ubiquitously across everything you were doing across your day and you never worried about your device or what it was connecting to. It just automatically connected. The company I was with had been telling that story for the past 20 years and then it came to life during Covid. So we were probably really ahead of our time back then. But to see all of the technology that I had been helping to market or helping to ship or support as a customer service function, to see it now come to life 20-some years later has been amazing. But again, I’m going to say I hate how we got here, but it happened.

Joe Coldebella:

No, that’s absolutely awesome. Really appreciate you giving us a top-line view of the show. But obviously, you did say that you did leave four months before the show for a new and exciting position. And I would love it if you could share with us a little bit about the opportunity. And you moved to North Carolina, correct?

Zenita Henderson:

I have, I have. I was asked to take on a position as chief marketing officer for Segra, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cox Communications. So they’re a FiberCo for Cox Communications and they’re business services only. So there’s no home. We don’t do fiber to the home, we do fiber to the business. They are a fantastic organization. There were about three companies, again, during the Covid period, they had three companies in the southeast that came together that formed Segra. And Segra is a Swedish word for it to win, to prevail.

And I have to tell you when you walk into that building in Charlotte, North Carolina, the walls are alive. Everybody in there has a winning mentality. They’re going to slay the world with fiber. It is just an awesome environment. There are about 900 employees strong. Kevin Hart, who was the previous chief product strategy and CTO for Cox Communications was asked to take on the C to be CEO for Segra to really grow that business. Fiber is everywhere and you definitely want to make sure they own their fiber.

We have a million 0.2 million miles of fiber that runs between Pittsburgh and Atlanta. Awesome, awesome organization. Awesome, awesome technology around managed services with cloud security. They’ve got nine data centers. So I’m learning a whole new part of our industry that’s kind of in the industry but kind of adjacent to the cable industry. But it is phenomenal. I got all types of new terminology on the net, and off the net. We’re building the towers, we’re working with T-Mobile, we’re working with Verizon, we’re working with AT&T, we’re working even the cable operators. And a lot of our vendors are the same as well because they’re serving that carrier wholesale space. So it’s a really exciting industry and I’m having a lot of fun learning it.

Joe Coldebella:

Yeah, no, I can just totally tell from just your demeanor. It’s like this, you’re embracing the challenge. I would love it if you could tell the story in terms of when Kevin decided to bring you on. You didn’t think that you were a possible candidate.

Zenita Henderson:

No, it came out of the clear blue sky. I had obviously worked with Kevin’s team and he had chaired the show a few years. And I know that Kevin has a wonderful reputation for my fellow friends in the industry. I’m very close to a lot of people in the industry, especially women. And I knew who Kevin was obviously, and he knew who I was. But when we were working with him for the show and stuff, we’d work with his team and he would show up for meetings and stuff. But I really was working with this team so I never really, and I’m been very guilty of this across my career and everyone gets upset with me about this because I love what I do. I’m not paying attention to the stuff that’s going on above my head or who’s looking at me or watching me. I just don’t pay attention to that. So I’m very slow on the uptick on that.

So one night I was driving home and the phone rang and it was Kevin like, okay, so number one, how did you get my cell phone? Okay, Kevin Hart’s on my phone. And, I know it’s funny because he’s the other Kevin Hart, we joke about that. So I knew who it was and believe it. I think my Kevin Hart is more important than the other Kevin and I tell everybody that.

But it’s funny when he called me and he said he had this great opportunity for me and I was like, I did not know he was watching me. I did not. I was like, I know I had worked with him, We had some great shows with him. I loved marketing him as part of the Expo and had a great time with his team. But I really didn’t think that he was paying attention to me that deeply.

And to see that he was and that he thought that I could come over and help him as part of his team. He has a great reputation and energy for supporting or putting together really good teams. Also making sure they’re very diverse teams and making sure that he picks the stars that are up and rising and then they ultimately rise.

So I was very flattered and very surprised. I was just as surprised that everybody else was, that he had reached out to me to do this and you had that imposter syndrome moment. Sure. And you kind of go, well it was automatic, yes because it was Kevin because of his reputation, but inside I was kind of like, wow, am I going to be able to do this? But yeah, I’ve found out that since I’ve been always been a CMO, I just didn’t have the title. So it’s been great. It has been wonderful. But I do have to say that Kevin is amazing. He’s put together an amazing team. And I uprooted myself. I had never lived outside of Pennsylvania and I’ve traveled the world because of my job, but I’ve never lived outside of Pennsylvania. And it was a very, because of Kevin, it was a very easy thing to just pick up and go.

Joe Coldebella:

Well, moving away from the Eagles must have been tough.

Zenita Henderson:

Oh, I’m still an Eagles fan. I rigged my house to be able to get all the Eagles games down there. So it’s been great.

Joe Coldebella:

Fabulous. So Zenita, you talk about how Kevin helped you, but one of the things that are really important in terms of what you do is mentoring.

Zenita Henderson:

Yes.

Joe Coldebella:

And as someone who’s a pioneer, as an African American woman, it’s one of those things where it’s super important as a woman, it’s super important to make sure that everyone gets an opportunity. I would love it if you could talk about your feelings about mentoring and then some of the programs that you’re involved in.

Zenita Henderson:

You got it. So I think the cable industry is just the most wonderful industry in the world. I grew up in Horsham, Pennsylvania, which was the next town over from Hatboro, which is where Jerrold was headquartered at the time. And I was always very surprised At one point, at Jerrold, I took on the role of community relations because we were moving from Hatboro we were 400 people when I first started there. And then all of a sudden we were like 1200 people and then we went global and it just got big and we had to move to Horsham. So they were looking for a new building. We ended up going from one single three-story building in Hatboro to a whole campus on a golf course in Horsham with four buildings that could fit 1200 people each four stories. It was crazy.

And so I found out, and I had grown up in that area as well, that no one knew that we were there with all this technology, the cable industry started in Pennsylvania, number one right up in the mountains of Pennsylvania. Jerrold started because of the loyal order of the 704 field strength meter and he’s right here in your community you didn’t know that all this great entertainment that you’re getting was started right here in your backyard. And I used to ride my bike past Jerrold and didn’t know what they did.

So I was like when I got into the community relations position, I said I am going to go to schools in the area and make sure they know all of this. And that was what kind of woke my head up. Then being at General Instrument when I was in customer service, I really had not gone to trade shows. But right around that time the industry got really big in diversity. So the Name It came along, Women at Cable came along, they start all this came in and me, I had always grown up in Horsham, which was not a very diverse area. So I was always one of very few African Americans in my community. But finding that out in the industry, they started working on that as well. So I went on two fronts. African Americans or people of color need to know about this industry. This is a fabulous industry, you need to get into this. And number two, making sure that people knew about the cable industry and what they were contributing to the world. Even in my local community.

Joe Coldebella:

That’s a great point, it’s one of those things where I encounter a lot of folks that are sort of like they’re silent heroes in terms of what they do. Everyone expects their phone, for their connection to work perfectly. But there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes that people, they just expect it to be there and they don’t know how well they have it because the folks in the whole broadband industry in general work really hard to make sure that you have service when you want it.

Zenita Henderson:

Absolutely. So I just start on that kick and then as we got into making sure that women were in the industry, we were willing to get more women into the industry. So that’s just been my passion other than doing my job and loving marketing and doing what I do, making sure that the industry became more diverse. Making sure and making sure that everyone knew what we were doing became just a passion for me.

Joe Coldebella:

Awesome. And one of those is One Day Immersion. I was wondering if you could just share with us what exactly One Day Immersion is.

Zenita Henderson:

Sure. So the One Day Immersion conference, our organization now is a nonprofit, actually started with the Cable Center. So it actually started with the Cable Center with Dolly Wolf who was working for Diane Christman at the time. And it got into an area where they really wanted to bring in fresh new talent into the industry. So how do you do that? You go to the high school students, you go to college students, and let them know about the cable industry.

Again, we had this problem not just in the Horsham or Pennsylvania area, but everywhere. So they really wanted to start driving new and fresh talent into the industry via high school students and college students. So the Cable Center started the program and then eventually because it got so big, it spun out. It’s on its own. And so recently over the last couple of years, it actually became a nonprofit under Dolly, which is great. And when it spun out from the Cable Center, there were like three or four of us, myself, Evan Shapiro, and Craig. So Craig. But it was four of us that were really, really, really, really passionate about the organization. So we ended up hooking up with Dolly and kept it going on our own.

Joe Coldebella:

Fantastic.

Zenita Henderson:

And because we really wanted to keep this going. So Pace University approached us maybe about the third or fourth year in and was like, “This is a great program, we would like to work with you.” We held our event at the Pale Center every year.

And then at one point we first started with Pace University and they would let us use the actor studio, which was really cool. And then they would push the event to all of their students. And literally, there are literally about maybe 300 colleges that are associated with ODI. We have Syracuse that will send a bus of students down every year, a whole busload of students. Just bring in executives to tell them about all the different facets of the industry. Both from the production side, the video in front of the camera, behind the camera, and also from the equipment side to let them know that there is a ton of careers in the cable industry that are a lot of fun. Even being a security guard in the cable is a lot of fun. But we would tell them there’s a diversity of people as well as the diversity of jobs in the cable industry.

Joe Coldebella:

And just listening to you, that’s great because one of the things that I hear as I go to shows when I talk to folks is that workforce is a huge challenge for everybody because for not just this industry but in general currently. But I think you’re exactly right. You’ve got to open them up to the opportunity, you’ve got to share with them and find ways to say, “Hey listen, this is not only a job but this is a career, a well-paying career.” So I actually love the One Day Immersion idea.

Zenita Henderson:

Oh, it is amazing. And we’ve really expanded it now. We actually have moved from Pace University to Fordham. Fordham had been coming after us for a couple of years to kind of bring it to their campus in Manhattan campus. So we are going there now, so.

Joe Coldebella:

That is awesome.

Zenita Henderson:

During Covid, we ended up shifting a little bit over to Fordham. So the conference this year is October 15th in New York City at Fordham.

Joe Coldebella:

Awesome. And you’re also involved, we briefly touched on it, Women in Technology.

Zenita Henderson:

Yes.

Joe Coldebella:

Could we just talk about that a little bit?

Zenita Henderson:

Sure. So the Women in Technology Award is produced by SCTE Foundation, the WICT network now, and Cablefax. So every year for the past 25, now it’s 27 years, they have chosen a woman who’s made outstanding achievements in the cable industry. So what happens is those people who are selected for that end up becoming mentors and then they put out a call throughout the cable industry to say, “Hey, do you have rising leaders in your organization that would be mentored by these women in the industry?” And so the women that are in this organization are fantastic. You’ve got Yvette Kanouff, Nomi Bergman, Jennifer Yohe, myself, Stephanie, Mitch, the names are just endless.

Joe Coldebella:

Sounds like an all-star lineup.

Zenita Henderson:

It is. Sally Kinsman, Charlotte. I mean everyone. The women in this industry that by first name only basis, there’s almost like a Cher organization is a part of this Women in Technology group. So every year we pick mentees and we meet with them for over a year. And we just graduated from our last class.

Joe Coldebella:

That’s phenomenal.

Zenita Henderson:

While we were here. And then we all go to the awards lunch and hang out and network with each other. But it’s a really, really fantastic way to help bring up and not only mentor, but also sponsor. Because the mission of this organization is not only just to mentor them to get them to their next level, we’re hoping they get promoted right. And they get into the C-suite as well. And we’ve got a pretty good track record with that.

Joe Coldebella:

That’s phenomenal. Just hearing that story just must be so gratifying.

Zenita Henderson:

It is. Now I got my award in 2019. It’s a very rigorous voting process to become a Woman in Technology. And the year that I got it, I was chasing them to, get the winner, we got to get the press release going, I got to put a name in the press release and I’m chasing everyone to do this. And the year that I won in 2019, they all got me on the phone and they went back and got as many as the last 25 years of winners they could get. And we get on a conference call and I’m like, “Okay guys, we got to get this press release out. We’re getting ready to get to Expo. I need to know who won this year.” And they were like, “Well, Z, we do have a winner.” And I went, “Oh great. Give me the name. I can get the press release out, I got to go.” And they were like, “Well this year we talked to Maria and we didn’t go through the normal process.” And I said, “Okay, okay, just give me the name.” I just really wanted a name. And they were like, “Well this year it’s you.”

And I fainted. I almost fainted. I was so surprised. And again, as I said earlier in our conversation, I am not the one to be out there pushing myself. I’m not paying attention to who’s watching me. And they just said the loveliest things as far as the fact that I, okay, I don’t do that. They were tired of me sitting back in being the wingman or wing woman. And that they really wanted me to be acknowledged for all the work that I had done in the industry. And I won in 2019. So it was very special for that to have happened. But yes, so I am also a mentor and I’ve had two phenomenal mentees since then that have since been promoted, which was a fabulous thing.

Joe Coldebella:

Awesome. And Zenita, I’ve only been talking to you for about 25 minutes, but I totally get it. I absolutely get it. You are just awesome.

Zenita Henderson:

Oh, thank you.

Joe Coldebella:

As someone who’s been in the industry for so long, I would love it if we could just talk a little bit about the industry as well in general. And you can take it from whatever perspective you want. But I guess in terms of the industry, what are some of the challenges that you think the industry needs to work on?

Zenita Henderson:

I think right now, and I’m going to say this, obviously coming out of SCTE and a teaching association, I think that the workforce is huge right now. And just keeping up with the technology and being able to serve up training and tools as they’re working, right? Because you’re going to run across something that you never ran across before. You’re going to be out there.

I loved the whole as I was leaving out of SCTE, the proactive network maintenance tools were becoming like everything. And I love that because right now with the way the world is moving, no one wants to be down. You have got to keep that broadband network running and you’ve got to keep it efficient and clean and always upgrading. We’re going to the 10G Air, we got everything. We got 5G on the wireless side, you got the 10G on our side of the house. And I really love the fact that we’re working towards having tools that are almost on demand, right? And being able to get, number one, for the current workforce, getting those tools in their hands so they can always be keeping our networks running. We’ve got to be always on. So we’ve got to find a way to keep constantly educating the current workforce as they’re working. You got to ride the train and build the tracks at the same time.

Joe Coldebella:

Love that.

Zenita Henderson:

You got to jump off of the building, building your wings as you’re coming down. We got to keep that going. I do see that movement afoot. Mark has been leading that with the SCTE side to make sure that everyone can get training on demand when they need it.

But then on the flip side to that we got to get new people into the industry. So we got to continue the track of, especially in the field tech area, working with high school students to get them certified. It doesn’t have to always be on the cable operators to have them come through SCTE and get certified. So SCTE certifications can start in high school. That way when they graduate, they’re simply applying for the job saying “Hey, I’ve already got my broadband certification. I can start working for you and start making money.” There’s a whole path to students, I found out recently that there’s like 20% of students that are not going to go directly to college, they can’t afford to, right?

Joe Coldebella:

Yeah, absolutely.

Zenita Henderson:

They’re not going to but they could go get a job working for being an installer and make a lot of money right now. So we really need to hit that segment and then colleges get better at making sure they know that these careers are in the cable industry. I think that is a big gap that people think of these big companies to go work at, but they don’t think of those same jobs as an accountant, a lawyer, customer service, or any of those types of positions, they don’t even think about the cable industry. And I think we need to get more into that as well.

Joe Coldebella:

No, that sounds like a definite win-win and it’s a win for the students, and then it’s a win for the industry. So it’s one of those things where you’re planting the seed to hopefully eventually grow into an oak tree because it’s one of those things where when you get somebody early, they love the industry, they feel comfortable, it’s something that they stick with.

Zenita Henderson:

Absolutely. And there’s a whole nother segment of the population that we’re ignoring or not ignoring, but we need to ramp up our focus on are handicap. The whole inclusion thing, accessibility. We have people in tech who are visually impaired, right? I’m on a board for Blind IT. They are doing amazing things. They can be software engineers, they can be coders, they can do this, right? Just because they’re visually impaired, they can work in technology. But we are ignoring a whole segment of the disabled and just people who are visually impaired, disabled that are fully functioning if you just spend the money to modify their workstation. If you’re okay with giving us a desk that you could push a button because you want to stand up because you’re athletic and you want to stand all day and your company will spend a couple of grand for you on a desk so you can stand and work, I think you can spend a little less money to get a screen reader for someone who’s visually impaired, but also can do the same work that someone who’s a hundred percent visibility could do.

Joe Coldebella:

Well and it’s one of those things as well if a company does that, they make that little extra effort. Just imagine the loyalty you get from that person. It’s like this person understands that I’ve got some challenges and they stepped up and I’m going to go to war with these people. And then you build that loyalty and you’ve got a great customer and then you also have a great story. Because it’s like, “Hey listen, this is what they did and now I’ve got a great career.” So again, it’s another win-win. It’s awesome.

Zenita Henderson:

Absolutely. There’s a whole segment of that population of the disabled that we do need to really bring into the inclusion story.

Joe Coldebella:

Awesome. As we begin to wind down Zenita, excuse me, phenomenal conversation. Love it. But what I always like to do is I like to ask all our guests two questions. And the first question is our back-to-the-future question. So if I were to give you the keys to the DeLorean and you could go back to the beginning of your career and whisper something in your ear to make the journey a little bit easier, what would you tell yourself?

Zenita Henderson:

Pay attention. Look up. Because like I said earlier, I did not. I was so into my career and was having and have such a great time, I still do that I did not pay attention to who was paying attention to me. And I think in some ways I like that because I am not going to toot my own horn. I’m going to sit here and tell you right now I’m 54 years old. I am not going to do that. But I think your work speaks for you.

Joe Coldebella:

A hundred percent.

Zenita Henderson:

I’m a total of that. Where I’ve flipped that to in the last probably 10 years is that I didn’t need to do it. My work spoke for me. I’m just not that person. It’s not going to happen. But I do believe that the work that and the successes of that is what shines through.

Joe Coldebella:

No, I couldn’t agree more. It’s one of those things where it’s like if you focus on what you’re doing, people will notice.

Zenita Henderson:

Absolutely. So I think that’s better than you promoting yourself or putting yourself out there. I think your work should speak for you.

Joe Coldebella:

Awesome. And then if I could ask you the crystal ball question if you look sort of three to five years into the future, where do you see the cable industry? Because we are definitely at a crossroads in terms of just the technology’s obviously shifting to fiber and it’s one of those things where it’s an interesting time for sure.

Zenita Henderson:

What I’m going to say about technology is that what we should really focus on is the experience. I had a wonderful leader years ago who focused on the experience. Who cares about the transport?

Joe Coldebella:

Love it. Yeah.

Zenita Henderson:

It’s the experience. What the cable industry or any industry should do is focus on the experience and focus on giving people the best entertainment experience for them to live long, work, and play, little CableLabs plug there, but who cares about the trans-? No one’s asking that. I have friends who say, “Oh, Z, I have cable.” And I go, “No, you don’t. You’ve got Verizon, you got Fios.” But they don’t care. They say they have cable.

Joe Coldebella:

It’s like a light switch.

Zenita Henderson:

No one cares.

Joe Coldebella:

As long as the light comes on.

Zenita Henderson:

No one cares. Just don’t worry about fiber, don’t worry about HFC, worry about the experience. And being able to get people the best experience that you can possibly give them and build the best equipment on the best network that’s available to you at the time. And make sure that you hit the underserved.

Joe Coldebella:

Love. I love that last point. It’s one of those things where we’ve got to make sure that inclusion, means everybody. And so it’s like that’s super.

Zenita Henderson:

It’s the inclusion of people. And then for our industry, it’s the inclusion of technology. Just build the best product that could work across any network to get the best experience possible for whatever your company is selling. That’s what I need people to focus on. Don’t get hemmed up in the technology. Focus on the experience.

Joe Coldebella:

Zenita, this has been a fabulous visit. If someone wanted to reach out and just maybe bend your ear or whatever, where someone could go to reach out-

Zenita Henderson:

No problem. You can reach out to me on LinkedIn, feel free to link in with me, or contact me at zenita.henderson@segra.com Always happy to have a conversation. And also with Segra, with Kevin being there, we have an amazing senior team. We have probably one of the most diverse senior teams in the industry. We have four men, and four women, three of the women on the team are women of color. So Kevin actually walks what he talks and the team is a rockstar team. And I think any of us would be happy to, we’re trying to figure out now how to get in, I’m in the cable industry, Kevin’s in the cable industry, and how can I get these other superstars on our team to be more active in the industry? And they’re young, just wonderful people. And reach out to me. I’m happy to introduce you to any of them. They all could be mentors of any level or have conversations with others. Just reach out to me and we’ll get connected.

Joe Coldebella:

It’s a perfect place to end it. Thank you so much for your time. Really do appreciate it.

Zenita Henderson:

Thank you. It was great talking to you.

Joe Coldebella:

All right, well that’s going to do it for this episode of The Broadband Bunch. Until next time, we’ll see you later.

© 2022 Enhanced Telecommunications.

About the Author

Priscilla Berarducci - Sales and Marketing Coordinator

Priscilla manages digital content and supports sales/marketing efforts for ETI. She also serves as brand manager for the Broadband Bunch podcast where she books industry professionals who want to share their broadband stories.