The following transcript has been edited for length and readability. Listen to the entire discussion here on The Broadband Bunch. The Broadband Bunch is sponsored by ETI Software.
Joe Coldebella:
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Broadband Bunch. I’m your host, Joe Coldebella. Joining me today are Holly Ruser and Alexa Edens. These two women are part of a growing organization in the world of broadband, Women in Fiber. Ladies welcome to the Broadband Bunch.
Alexa Edens:
Hi, Joe. Thank you for having us.
Holly Ruser:
Hi, Joe. So excited to be participating today.
Joe Coldebella:
Yeah. So happy and excited to have you guys on the show. Before we learn about the Women in Fiber and all the great things that you guys are doing as an organization, I think our audience would enjoy learning about each of your backstories. How did you find your way into the industry, your current position at both the Women in Fiber organization, as well as the company that you’re currently at? So Holly, let’s start with you.
Holly Ruser:
All right. Well, thanks again so much, Joe, for having us on today. As you mentioned, my name is Holly Ruser, and I manage the broadband business for Graybar in the St. Louis district. We refer to it as the St. Louis district, it’s the Midwest portion of the country. So Graybar’s a wholesale distributor of electrical, industrial, and communications products. I have to tell you that when I started, I really did not come into the communications industry with any knowledge whatsoever. So I had graduated with a business degree and knew absolutely zero about telecommunications or certainly fiber. I was lucky enough, I would say, to come to work where they were investing in some of those areas, so Graybar did a good job of giving me the tools that I needed. And really, my first experience with telecom was just I was actually programming phone systems internally here at Graybar, so an interesting play.
Holly Ruser:
Since then, certainly had multiple roles, but now really managing the broadband business from a sales perspective has been interesting with all of the investments and the demand for really bridging that digital divide. So, that’s exciting. And then, just from a Women in Fiber perspective, speaking to how I became involved there. Really started having conversations in the fall of 2019, and then went on to be on the steering committee, elected there, or selected in March of 2020. And so been very excited to work with some of the other female leaders on this steering committee. So Tamara Davis Brown, as well as Alexa Edens. So it’s been a lot of fun. I think we’ve learned a lot from one another. I’ve always been involved here internally with Graybar, our women’s organization, which is WINGS, which stands for Women Influencing Graybar’s Success.
Holly Ruser:
So when I was given the opportunity to help steer that with Alexa and Tamara and some of the other ladies, I thought what a great opportunity, what a great experience to take some of the things that I had learned, and then hopefully move that forward. When you think about the Women in Fiber goals or some of the things that we want to try to achieve, we know that historically a lot of these roles have been roles that haven’t really had good representation from women, and so being able to promote some of those roles and highlight some of the different career paths for women within this industry is certainly really exciting. So just very excited to work with the other leaders and just helping to move this forward within the industry is going to be very exciting. So really looking forward to the call today and really appreciate the opportunity.
Joe Coldebella:
That’s awesome. And then Alexa would love to hear your story as well.
Alexa Edens:
Sure. We’ll give a little bit of background. Thanks, Holly. And I’m probably going to echo a couple of things that Holly said that I think are so important that we get the message across from where our roots are, where we came from, and what kind of formal training you need. But I think we have those things in common, and I think it’s important that people know. So I am Alexa Edens, committee chair for Women in Fiber. I work closely with Holly and Tamara Davis Brown also, as the co-vice chairs for Women in Fiber. I’m also the senior director for cloud service provider accounts for KGP. Here at KGP, we provide services to the US and also European based with our sister company Cersei. So we’re huge in Europe for the Cersay side, big in the US, and combined it’s a very, very exciting time right now for a story that we’re telling with new mergers that are happening and what that means for the world and our industry. And it’s just a really, really fun time to be on the front lines of what we’re seeing here.
Alexa Edens:
So time and place have really just made me happy in my career, so I’m happy to be where I’m at with Women in Fiber and also just positioned within the industry. It’s such an exciting time. But let me get into a couple of things that I think are important, right? Holly, I think you mentioned you came out of school with a business degree and maybe not a formal telco with a trade background. I share that as well, and I think that’s something that’s very unique and something that people should know whenever they’re entering this industry is that you can come and we can teach you how to do it and it is an exciting place to be. So that is a little bit of a message that I think is important. I as well started with the telco route. I started off doing repair give and take back with the telcos in an inside position, and that was really great, but I think everybody self-identifies and finds their way and the way that they do things.
Alexa Edens:
I did really well with that because I had a personal passion for seeing bigger things and having to chase those things and just develop over time. So naturally, if you’ve got that passion, this is an industry where your passion can take you all the way because the sky’s the limit right now. Everybody’s growing. We’re all defining what this is, so it’s very, very exciting. It didn’t take very long for probably where Holly and I both come from to look left and right and notice that it has been very male-dominated.
Alexa Edens:
So anyways, from the time that I started to where I am right now, I’ve been able to be a part of the THRIVE community at KGP, so we have a women’s affinity group where we’ve got prongs all over the place and I’m heavily invested there within our organization. So I was happy that I had that background behind me and what I could do for what FBA was doing for Women in Fiber, and the stars just aligned. So you can start from the bottom, and I started from the bottom. You can see and learn and grow, and I love that so much about our industry that we’re really making a place where this glass ceiling isn’t maybe what it may appear in different industries. The sky’s the limit around here. And we’re making sure that we’ve got all of the tools as women to come on into this industry and shake things up. So Holly and I are making that effort, and I’m pretty proud of what we’ve accomplished.
Joe Coldebella:
Yeah, no, it’s awesome. I got a little bit of a taste of it while I was in Nashville and just saw a little bit in terms of some of the things that you were doing there, but if we could take a step back, I would love it if we could talk about the genesis of where it all started in terms of was it one of those things where a few ladies got together and said, “Hey, listen, if we are going to get our voice heard we need to be a unified voice.” I was wondering if you could talk about that.
Holly Ruser:
So I can jump in, Joe, and talk through the process of what that really looked like. So I mentioned earlier that we started talking, I became involved in the fall, and I think Alexa, you did as well in 2019, and really the group for FBA, the Women in Fiber steering committee, was put together because when you think about having a diverse talent base you want to empower women, but that diversity is obviously really, really important. So I think the impetus for starting this group was that we know that historically a lot of these roles, so we talk about telecom, we talk about the engineering side, they really have been predominantly roles that have been held by men. And so we wanted to provide a platform to really be able to enhance and promote an inclusive, engaged culture.
Holly Ruser:
I think the opportunities speak for themselves for personal growth, for the company’s growth, and then also just the need to attract and retain and develop both the women in all of those areas if you will. Ultimately, I think what we wrapped our head around, and Alexa, I know you’ll jump in with some great ideas as well, is really providing opportunities to engage. So we do that locally. We do that regionally. We just wrapped up Fiber Connect, which was a great time to have all the leaders in the room for Women in Fiber, as well as the other members. We also had great attendance from a lot of the men within the industry. So I think just really promoting that inclusive, engaged culture and really providing opportunities for women within the organization across all job opportunities, whether that’s a technical fiber splicer, an engineer, you name it, we really just want to provide a diverse and engaged culture within the companies that the members are engaging.
Joe Coldebella:
That’s great in terms of just raising awareness is something in the industry that I think everyone needs to do as well. So you started the project in 2019. Alexa, your project is up and running, but it’s always important to have something that grounds an organization. Do you have a vision that guides your group?
Alexa Edens:
We do Joe. That’s a great question and I think it was a primary driver for us getting started. We knew that we needed to have a solid foundation of the direction that we were headed. So we were pencil to paper on making sure that we had identified those correctly. We’ve got them posted on Women in Fiber. You can Google up Women in Fiber to see where everything is formally laid out, but a few of them that I particularly love and that I think are so important would maybe be that we’re making a place where women feel encouraged and we’re rewarding people to meet their full potential out there. We’re identifying women, we’re working on developing, and promoting women in our industry, as well as technology, even communications, construction, and manufacturing. We’re so multifaceted in what we do as an “industry” because we’ve all learned that communications is now really pronged out to just about every other industry.
Alexa Edens:
What used to be the “telco industry” has now really touched all industries. So it’s neat what you can learn here, what you can bring in, and what you can also provide outgoing. So we’ve had women from adjacent industries maybe that really want to know what’s going on here, what we’re doing. We’re making big strides, making big waves, doing things a little bit differently, being proactive, and also working with different organizations. So we’re making sure that we have all the groundwork that we need there. We’re committed to using this Woman in Fiber forum to help women and give everybody the confidence that we need. We’re supplying with the webcast that we do for updating everybody on what’s happening in the industry, making sure that we’re layered, and I think we’re going to go into in a moment how we’ve got about five different subcommittees that are really focused on what we’re doing for carrying these things out. But we do have our vision statement, and those are a few that I particularly love and are driving what our efforts here are for Women in Fiber in year one.
Joe Coldebella:
Alexa, that’s great. It sounds like it’s a really collaborative effort, which is really important as well. Holly, as you’re working to amplify the voices of your membership, you’re using a two-pronged approach that I think is really good. I really like it. I see that you’re speaking to the industry from one side, and then also you’re speaking to the women of your organization as well and I was wondering if you could speak to the idea of using a unified voice to communicate with the industry as a whole.
Holly Ruser:
Absolutely. So you bring up a great point of how we are really communicating it. So if you think about it, from the Women in Fiber steering committee, or even at the Fiber Broadband Association, we are working with some of the best in the industry. So we’re talking to industry leaders, so it might be a manufacturer, it might be a distribution partner, it might be an engineering firm, but all of those pieces really come together to make a full puzzle. So we know whether you’re looking at the positions that we’re looking to recruit for there really historically have not been a lot of women in those positions.
Holly Ruser:
So for instance, I’ll just speak from the perspective of a distributor. So labor is a challenge right now, right? It doesn’t matter where you are. Labor is a challenge. And so what we say is, listen, whether you’re a woman or if you’re a man in the industry, these are opportunities that we have available. We can share those with our supplier partners. So within the industry, I think there is some information sharing, if you will, to say, hey, listen, these are the opportunities. These are some of the challenges that we’re seeing in our industry. What are you guys seeing? What are some of the challenges that you’re also facing? And so we have an opportunity to collaborate, again, with some of the leaders within the industry. So if that’s Corning or CommScope, if that’s Wolf Line Construction, if that’s some of the other distribution partners, such as Graybar and KGP. We all have an opportunity to really share those best practices and the challenges.
Holly Ruser:
I think from that we’re able to then, in some of our monthly meetings, to be able to highlight to some of the women in our organization, “Hey, these are some of the trends that we’re seeing. There’s a great opportunity for networking, for highlighting some of the positions that are available and some of the challenges within the industry.” So really the ability to share, from both sides, is very, very helpful. I know we’re going to talk shortly about some of the different groups and channels that we use to highlight some of those, but just in various ways. So is it through social media and marketing? Is it through our mentorship programs? There are so many things to your point on that two-prong approach that we’re really able to collaborate and share across two different platforms, which I think has been very, very effective.
Joe Coldebella:
No, that’s great. And it’s also one of those things that I think that you can specifically highlight challenges that women face that might go under the radar for someone. It’s the quintessential walk a mile in my shoes. And so I think you guys have an opportunity to highlight that.
Holly Ruser:
Absolutely. Someone said to me as a mentor, a few years back, he said, “How important, or how significant is it to see someone else that looks like you, or that has the same experience in a leadership role?” So as members of the Women in Fiber group, it’s nice to know that you have resources across other companies, other I guess you would say divisions that you can ask, right? So maybe someone’s already in that position that you’re very interested in, or maybe there’s someone that’s experienced that can share their story and help with providing a runway to where you’re ultimately trying to arrive at.
Joe Coldebella:
No, that’s a great segue in terms of so you guys do a great job of speaking with the unified voice to the industry in general, but you also speak to your membership as well. And I think that in terms of the focus, there are three areas that I’d like to focus on, Alexa, and the first is networking in terms of your organization and the importance of it, especially for women in an industry that’s fairly dominated by men.
Alexa Edens:
Yep. Certainly. So I think everybody is recognizing out there and we’re proud to see what’s happening. We’ve had a lot of eyes on Women in Fiber and a lot of hard work put in, but networking specifically, we’ve had some events and incredible turnout this year, and we’re anticipating much more to the tune of weeks before events are happening we’re at capacity trying to figure out how we can make rooms larger. So that shows a lot for the efforts that are going in, the memberships are going just at a rapid pace, more than we’d had to even track for. So that makes us very happy. But what we’re making sure that we’re doing with all of those incoming memberships is making sure that everybody is connected. These can be national events that are happening. We’re working on regional events that are happening but making sure that we are staying very relevant and in tune with connecting people as far as networking.
Alexa Edens:
So we’re providing opportunities for connections and building relationships with other women at all levels of the experience, right? Thinking at a large level, thinking at a small level, and keeping people involved long-term through mentoring experiences. And we have several different ways that we’re relaying that back to our group. It’s definitely not a downstream activity. It’s all-encompassing. We’ve got so many volunteers and everybody’s hard at work. That makes me very happy that some groups will maybe have quite a long list of people that are rolling up their sleeves and making this happen. And if you see it on paper from an organizational chart perspective, it’s like, this is fantastic. Everybody thinks that the same way that I do, and to see it happen is fantastic.
Alexa Edens:
So we’re happy to see those things happen and networking is definitely happening in these events, but also I would encourage any women who want to get involved with us, to get involved on these volunteer committees because these women are turning into a family. We laugh on these calls, we make things happen, and I think that’s just icing on the cake of doing the job in general, right? We need to have fun in doing what we’re doing, and we feel like we’re doing the right thing. So that’s exciting. Networking is huge and we’re making sure that those dots are connected for women in the industry.
Alexa Edens:
Also, professional development and leadership, I’ll touch on that. We’re delivering professional development and leadership opportunities and emphasizing pathways for success and advancement for women within the industry, and this may come in form of outlines that other companies have used. How are they making sure that women are tracking correctly, and what do you need to do in your career? We’re all learning, we’re giving and taking. And we’re seeing it play out in real-time, and being able to utilize tools that each other’s companies are using to make the whole effort a better place. So it’s exciting whenever these things start really rolling and we’re starting to see just a major shakeout from those activities, and people bring those back to their organizations and create things. And from a macro level, we may see it very large, and we’ve got these plans, but really it’s put where the rubber meets the road is bringing these back to your organizations, making sure that they’re hiring and everybody’s being a part of the idea.
Alexa Edens:
So that’s exciting. And then maybe one to make mention of, because we’re very, very happy that this is happening as you might be familiar with our Women in Fiber spotlight, we’ve got so many talented women in this industry and they deserve a platform. We have a spotlight that we’re doing that Women in Fiber is putting out, and we have a fantastic group of names that we review. We’re getting in these nominations every month. We’re reviewing them. If you’ve got somebody out there that you’re not sure if their nomination is in, please make sure that their nomination is in because we want these women to have a page. We want the message out. And then, that ties back so much to what Holly was saying that young women need to see women. They need to see an example to envision themselves being what that example is, right?
Alexa Edens:
We’ll all fine-tune those things and we’ll get better at it, but I think it’s very, very important that we provide these spotlights, and these women who are doing fantastic things in our industry, they need to be a statue of sorts for the young women to look up to. And so I’m really happy about our recognition, our spotlight programs, and what we’re doing to make sure that there are examples out there for young women to be looking up to. But those are a few things that are on the inside that are happening, and we’ve got a whole lot more that we’re rolling the carpet out for that we are going to see by the end of this year, and then also we’ve got plans for 2, 3, 5 years out of where we’re looking to go. So it’s an exciting time. It’s been a very fun year, and it’s nice to see these efforts really starting to show up with results in what we’re doing.
Joe Coldebella:
No, it’s a great three-pronged attack for networking, personal development, and then recognition when things are done in the area to acknowledge someone’s hard work, and then also to your point, share some inspiration to those who can use it as fuel to excel and improve their own careers. So I’d love to shift if we could talk about, Holly, just recently, we were all in Nashville for the Fiber Broadband Association’s Fiber Connect. You guys had an event there as well. I was just curious, can you talk about the type of response you received? Not only from the Women in Fiber but also just in general, because there was a great buzz around it.
Holly Ruser:
Absolutely. That was really a great success. We were very, very excited. So we have, as Alexa mentioned, had different events that before we may be several weeks out and we’re at full capacity. And so the exciting thing for Fiber Connects with the event that you speak about was our Women in Fiber luncheon. And so throughout the year we do monthly calls, we have speakers, we’re doing things, as Alexa mentioned, to just promote opportunities, talk about networking, it might be any various subject, but really around development and promotion. But the Women in Fiber luncheon is actually the opportunity where we all get to come together and meet, put a face with the name and really get to know each other a little bit more in-depth.
Holly Ruser:
And so we did our Women in Fiber luncheon. Obviously, it was sold out several weeks before the actual event. So what was nice there was it’s a good feeling when you have a very large room that will hold… Alexa, it was 200, is that the right number? Do I have that number right?
Alexa Edens:
I believe that it was 200. Actually, I know that they even upped it the day before, because we were thinking that might be happening. There was a standing room outside, so yeah. It might have been 230 actually.
Joe Coldebella:
Wow, that’s fantastic.
Holly Ruser:
Yeah. And I got to tell you, Joe, so the day of the event we were waiting and we’re hoping that it’s going to be well received, but there was actually a line and they were letting people in because there were so many people outside of the registrants that really had a desire to go. So to talk about that, we did have a speaker that was very captivating that was just talking about your passion within your role within your company, how you move forward, and how you implement change and continue to make sure that you’re targeting the success and the objectives that you’ve set out for yourself. And so we enjoyed that with all the other members over a nice luncheon at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. Very, very well received. Again, to Alexa’s point, about 230 people were there.
Holly Ruser:
So I think that there was a lot of enthusiasm and just passion coming out of that luncheon to encourage, I can’t tell you how many people reached out to me. Alexa, I know you had the same experience on the show floor where they came by and said, “Listen, how do I get more involved? I couldn’t write quick enough.” So that was well received. And I think, again, just the ability to finally get together after having the last year of Zoom calls, I think we would all agree that we’ve had our fair share of Zoom calls, so it was nice to actually be able to meet in person. But a great event. And I think from that, we take that momentum that we have and I’m certain that next year at the event where we probably target closer to 300, which is a great problem to have.
Joe Coldebella:
No, that’s great. So are you definitely going to use other events like workshops or retreats around the country to just expand your base?
Holly Ruser:
You know, I think it’s something that we’re always considering. I think that we’re in our infancy, if you will, of knowing exactly what that looks like, but I would tell you it’s a constant conversation of how do we reach more people, how do we do more things? So certainly I would tell you to stay tuned because the regional events would certainly be something that we are talking about.
Joe Coldebella:
Sure. And, to that point, Alexa pointed out earlier that you’ve got a number of committees and I just had a couple of questions because they sound really intriguing. One of them is are you trying to create partnerships with folks in the industry just to expand the voice and get more people involved?
Holly Ruser:
Absolutely. So that goes along with, and Alexa, I know you’re involved with this as well, but the reach of the different manufacturers, distribution partners, engineering firms, there’s great collaboration across those different companies, and so I think putting those partnerships in place, really having a collaborative approach is just something that’s that probably historically has been very underutilized. But it’s really nice to see us putting those partnerships in place. I want to make mention of when we were at the Fiber Connect show, we actually scheduled Alexa and Tamara, I should say, and myself, we had a meeting with just everyone that could make it just to talk about what you think’s going well, what do you think could be improved upon, and it was so nice to see there are a lot of competitors in the room and we’re all collaborating in an effort to move women forward and to just have a more engaged and diverse organization. So I think it’s really exciting, and those partnerships are going to be so important as we continue to move forward.
Joe Coldebella:
That’s awesome. And then I saw that one of the committees was social media and marketing. Now, is that in terms of how members should use it or apply it to their positions at their companies?
Holly Ruser:
The social media and marketing group, it’s internal to the Women in Fiber as far as how we promote and engage with those that are already members and those that might be interested in becoming members. I’m certain that they take some of those best practices back within their organizations, but for the sake of this example, it would be internal to how we’re promoting Women in Fiber.
Joe Coldebella:
Okay. That’s awesome. And then finally, which I thought was great is that you’ve got a specific committee set aside for STEM promotion, and I was wondering if you could just talk to that as well because I think that’s critically important moving forward to make sure that those voices are heard.
Holly Ruser:
Absolutely. So the STEM promotion for women and girls is part of a subcommittee that is really focused on ensuring that we are making a big push for awareness for young girls that are coming up that might not be looking at some of the more historically male-dominated roles. And we know that there’s a place for those young ladies at the table, and so how do we promote that? We have gone as far as talking about putting together curriculums, and I know that we’re not just ready to share some of the organizations that we’re working with, but there’s certainly a desire to continue to drive awareness for young girls that are coming up through grade school, junior high, and high school to realize that there are some really great opportunities within the industry.
Holly Ruser:
I think that will continue to be front and center of some of the available positions. And they’re great career opportunities to earn a great living and to have a challenging and engaging role. So that really is around the education and promoting those roles and just really driving the awareness that maybe some of those young ladies might not know of today, right? They might not know that there’s an opportunity or that job really even exists. So I think awareness and education are really part and parcel of that subcommittee.
Joe Coldebella:
That’s awesome. As we begin to wind down the conversation if someone wanted to get involved in Women in Fiber, what’s the best way for them to get started?
Alexa Edens:
Sure, Joe. There are several ways that everybody can reach out, and we keep it super simple. If you go to Women in Fiber’s page, you can send in an email, Jennifer Vassil is a person from Fiber Broadband Association who is inbounding those. So there’s a click-through if you want to just reach out and say, “Hey, I’m interested,” and that’s all it takes. We can take it from there, we can get you plugged in. We’ll ask some questions, “Would you like to volunteer or would you just like to be membership?” In a quick back and forth, we can get you positioned, and very quickly you can be involved with subcommittees and on your feet. And we’ve got a place for everybody to help out. So just pop over to the website, click through, and that should get you with Jennifer Vassil. You can reach out to any of the leaders there too. We’ve got contact information there on the page. We’ve got the Women in Fiber webpage. We’re also available on LinkedIn. You can find us on social media.
Joe Coldebella:
No, that’s awesome. So what I’ll do is I’ll put those in the show notes and then that way folks can just click through and then send emails or just follow you guys on LinkedIn, which is something that I do and I recommend for everybody. So, just out of curiosity, if you’re not a member of the Fiber Broadband Association, can you still join?
Alexa Edens:
So we do have the requirement that everybody’s got to be a part of FBA in order to have membership for Women in Fiber. So we definitely would like to see everybody come over, join with FBA, and get your companies plugged in with Fiber Broadband Association. It’s a huge tool if you’re in the industry, that’s the meeting place, the beating heart of our industry. So it’s a great place to start. And we are committed as a branch of that. So go ahead, get involved with FBA and come on over. If you need any help in maybe getting the wheels turning on those things, you can take it right from a start with us and just say, “Hey, we’re interested in working with you or getting involved with Women in Fiber. We do not have membership status at this point,” and we can get through those things really quickly too. But it’s a big one for everybody to get involved with FBA, and we’re happy to be a branch off of FBA. And that membership will get you plugged in right with Women in Fiber.
Joe Coldebella:
Awesome. Well, this has been, an awesome conversation learning about Women in Fiber and all the cool things you’re doing. I would love to issue a return visit, hopefully, either next year at the Fiber Broadband Conference or somewhere else down the line, because I think the story that you guys are telling is an important one. And it’s important that we are very inclusive in terms of just bringing everyone along because the industry is just only going to get bigger because we’ve got so much money coming in. So it’s been an absolute pleasure talking to both of you today.
Alexa Edens:
Same Joe. I’m so excited to see what conversation looks like next year. And I think we’re all happy to be here and just watch this play out. So thank you for having us today. We appreciate everybody for listening in and come join us at Women in Fiber.
Holly Ruser:
Yeah. Thanks so much, Joe. It’s been so much fun and I think to Alexa’s point, we’re so excited about all the different members that have recently joined and the opportunity to just continue to move this forward. So thanks again for the opportunity. You guys have a great day.
Joe Coldebella:
Awesome. Well, that’s going to wrap up this episode of the Broadband Bunch. Until next time, thanks for listening.