Bold and Fearless Leadership

Stacy Kirk has always had entrepreneurial dreams but she found that one of the biggest obstacles to growth was fear. Over her 15 years of technical leadership, she found that many of the women that she mentored and led had similar fears that blocked their career and technical growth. Stacy will share her account of how her fears stifled her career and how the realization of one of her deepest fears became her biggest change agent. In this open and honest conversation, she will talk about how she overcame her fears and utilized them to drive both her technical knowledge and business success. Many women have faced these same fears and struggle to try to juggle the priorities of marriage, children, extended family, and a career in technology. Stacy took her fear of not being able to have it all and utilized it to help move her forward. She also struggled with insecurities and wanted to be comfortable speaking and presenting at every level; to her reports, peers, executives, other experts, as well as in a public forum such as conferences. Stacy will discuss how she overcame those challenges and now frequently give talks, presentations, and keynotes. Stacy is the owner and CEO of a successful international quality assurance and DevOps consulting company. Since she changed her perspective on fear, her business grew dramatically with over thirty employees and growing, Stacy has learned the value of failure and lead with confidence, which have made her a bold and successful leader.