Shivani Gupta

Well, welcome to the Shivani podcast, I am so excited to have Maria Padisetti, today. She is the CEO and Founder of Digital Armour and also the co-founder, she started her career as an electrical engineer, we've got some things to talk about there, Maria, because I, too, started my life as an electrical engineer.

And she started in New Zealand, and in 2002, she and her husband launched digital armor. Their aim was to transform businesses through the use of technology. And using her expertise, particularly as a business transformational expert. They decided to set this amazing business up, that's now got teams across four countries. And it's making a positive impact on businesses of all sizes. Now, there's so many things about her, but I'm going to keep her CV short so we can get into a conversation of it.

She's a pretty regular speaker, she speaks to universities and schools all the time. She's very, very passionate about personal development, and helping others be successful and achieve things that might seem impossible. And Digital Armour, in terms of the business, I follow Maria, constantly winning enormous amounts of awards, they've got an amazing track record of working over for 20 years. And again, I could keep going here. But welcome, Maria, I'm so excited to have you and for us to be able to find time to do this.

Maria Padisetti

Thank you, by the way for that very kind and generous introduction. By the way, thank you very, very flattered and embarrassed all at the same time. But I'm really looking forward to this Shivani, because I've also watched you from a distance, social media is amazing, right? It connects people that you normally wouldn't connect with. And you get to know the person at a level that you underestimate. So, it's an absolute pleasure to be on this chat with you Shivani. Thank you for that.

Shivani Gupta

Thank you. And, and so when you give out this big CV, like you've achieved so many things, takes us through a bit of that journey. And when I talk about journey, take us through the positive, amazing highs, and some of the low lows, like take us through those key transformational moments, both in personal and business life.

Maria Padisetti

Yeah, you know, my husband always says, and I love this, right, they say if you really want to grow as a person, have a child. So that's one growth, right? That having a child I mean, there are many things, you don't have to have a child, but I chose to we chose to. So that really does make you grow up overnight. And then the second thing I'd say is if you really want massive growth is to start a business. And I actually started a business because my dad was always in business. As a kid, I watched him. I mean, I've seen the highs and lows, I probably didn't see the lows, to be honest, because I was so young, I think they didn't really showcase the lows as much. So, my view of business was very sexy from the outside. So, all I saw was it just looks so amazing. You know, you can become Bill Gates overnight, or you could set up a Facebook and I'm coming from an engineering and tech background, I was just all starry-eyed Shivani. But honestly, though, when I went into a career in engineering, I don't patients is not one of my virtues. And I think most entrepreneurs would say that and most people who are crazy ambitious.

So, when I went into engineering, I could see that, for me to get to the top, literally, the gentleman at the top would have to retire or something else would have to happen. So, I thought, oh my god, if I sat here and waited an engineering, I'd be 60 before I got to the top. So, I didn't have that patience. And luckily, there was an opportunity to, to do a project in IT and I put my hand up as I always do and got the opportunity to do that project. And because I did it well, I got poached by the IT department. And then the rest, as they say, is history. So that was my transition. So, I wasn't a trained IT person. But being an engineering, it's a tough degree. So, you kind of have got the problem solving ability, and the ability to pick up if you can do calculus, I think you can do just about anything just about anything is what I thought and I actually, I hate saying this because I sound like a geek, but I'm proud of being one I love maths and science. So that's why it and all of that made sense.

So, in terms of the highest have been for me, the biggest, biggest thing for me as an individual being in business is the personal growth. The person that I am today is not the person that I was in my early 20s when I became a mother and then in my mid to late 20s when I started this business, very different people and for the better. So, I think that personal growth, all of the lows gave me that growth. We've had probably two near bankruptcies, where and we've been evicted from our house, we had nowhere to go, and I had a complete stranger give me the deposit to go into a new property because I didn't even have the money to pay the rent but was have enough deposit to go to another place. So, we were this close to being on the street when someone helped us out. And the worst part is I had a two-year-old or at that time, probably five or six year old if I look at the timeline.

So, that was a massive growth thing for me, I really wish I hadn't failed until then. Not that badly in life Shivani. So, so many failures in business, if you look at it that way, and I don't see it as a negative, because as Oprah says, every obstacle and everything that happens in life is a lesson. And if you don't learn from it, then you'll be in trouble because it'll come back again to teach you and sometimes, I've actually been a slow learner, I thought I was bright. But through business, I've actually had to have that mistake happen two or three times. And now I'm like, never repeating that again. So, the lessons, so the near bankruptcies have been some of the lows being evicted, has been one of the low, not having enough money to feed my son, who I was responsible for enough money to pay for dinner one night, was one of the absolute extreme lows, I will never ever, ever forget that. And I told myself then that I don't ever be in that place ever again. So that was one of my lowest lows.

The highs have been the awards, as well, the recognition, I think one thing that I'm super proud of as a team is our reputation. Because in a services business, that's all you have Shivani. So, our reputation that track record is what has gotten us here. People always think overnight success, but it's been 20 years of overnight success. I did start in business thinking I'll be very successful within five years, kind of got there. And then I went crashing down because that success wasn't coming too quickly. But then it taught me a lesson and just went really crushing severely, and then learn again. So now, as I said, my personal growth, who I am today is something I'm proud of, our family and my son is who he is. And he says that now he's 22 Shivani, he says, Mum, being part of this journey with you has actually made me who I am as well, I used to feel guilty as a mother, because he saw all of this with us. And I used to take him to meetings, sales meetings, staff meetings, and I would feel terrible, because I would take him to 8am, Monday morning meetings with staff and I got I don't know what I'm doing. But when he tells me and he's told me over the last two or three years, I am in the career that I'm in, which is management consulting, I get business and I get all of this, because of all of those things that I've been through with you. So, so many ups and downs, Shivani.

And then you will know and I'm sure you ask me questions around being a female in two very male dominated sectors, electrical engineering was the height of it, I think it was the only female in that department. IT is slightly better, but not great. So that's something I'm super passionate about. And that I'm hoping will be one of the things that I leave as a legacy, the work that I do in that area.

Shivani Gupta

Amazing. That's extraordinary. Thank you for sharing that. So openly and vulnerably. I got really moved by your story about your son and when challenges come your way. And obviously so many hats. In businesses every day in personal life every day, do you have a system or a process or a philosophy, how you attack it? You know, some people break down problems? And we're talking about being engineers, co engineers here and yeah, and starting our own businesses up as well. And so, when that problem comes your way, like how do you tackle it? Do you have a way that you go about doing it? Some people sit in silence? Some people journal, some people think through it, some people start designing it? How do you go about dealing with challenges coming away?

Maria Padisetti

So, one of the things that's my absolute asset, and probably if you ask me, what is the most, the number one thing that I value in this journey is the people that the network that I have, like, there is no dollar value that you can put on that. So, the people that the coaches that I have the advisors that I have other people that I go to now, that wasn't available previously, when we didn't have money. I mean, it's okay now because we can pay for that advisor. So right now, that's who I tend to go to Shivani. But also, one of the things that I learned when we were in at our first near bankruptcy, and I was absolutely in tears. And I went to this consultant who was a consultant for bankruptcy. And he said to me, Maria, you're actually not broken off to declare bankruptcy. He says, you need to be several million dollars a year. I am freaking out about six figures and the negative and he goes - No, no, that's not broken up. And he said to me, he said, what I'd like you to do is just breathe, and then write down what your worst-case scenario is. And that was one of the best lessons I learned. Because when I actually wrote down what my worst-case scenario was, well, its declaring bankruptcy, which I wasn't apparently in a bad enough pickle to do that. But even if I did that back then you couldn't be a director for seven years or whatever. And then you'd have to work your way and he goes, but you'll still be young because I was still in my 20s. So, think about the worst case scenario and write it down, and invariably Shivani the worst case scenario is never as bad as you think it is. So that's one thing that I've learned. And so, when stuff happens, I always actually do breathe. So, breath work is something I do practice, I just close my eyes and I just breathe three deep breaths. I never react the way I used to in my 20s. So, as I said, I was a very different person in my 20s, so much more mature in my 40s now, so I just breathe. And then I don't respond immediately, no matter how bad the situation is, I don't react. So, what I have learned over time, is that pause between something happening, or somebody saying something awful to my response, there is a pause. It's not as instantaneous as it used to be.

So, I'm not nowhere near an expert. And I'm nowhere near like some of the sages in India, but I'm significantly better. I mean, my goal is to get better and better and better at how my responses to any given situation that happens. So just slowing down, which is a huge lesson for me, I can still slow down more, but again, 20 years of that has, like Maria 24 is very different from 40 something. So those are the two things. And another one that I actually learned from Tony Robbins, because as you said, I'm an absolute personal development junkie. So, I've read so much and been to so many things, and he taught me one thing, and that's the 90 second rule. So, if something really, really bad happens, and you're in that pickle, allow yourself 90 seconds to, you know, have self-pity or have a pity party, or whatever it is you need to do. But then snap out of it. I used to take hours, it's now down to minutes. So, I'm able to snap myself out of it or have somebody who will help me snap myself out of it. I've got a lot of accountability people, so I don't allow in that situation. Because one thing I've learned is the only way you can dig yourself out of any hole health, finances, relationships, is by taking action. So, I've gotten very quick at mediately starting to take action as opposed to wallowing in self-pity.

Shivani Gupta

Amazing, I love that, so much wisdom in that. And I know, so love the fact that you know, don't ignore the feelings when they come up with them, whether it's 90 seconds, have the pity party like don't, because some people come across you got it, you know, don't feel that you like yeah, I feel it, but not not for long. And if I can get that down to a minute, some people spent decades in it. So, the fact that you've got them down 10 minutes, that's amazing.

Maria Padisetti

So well, there are times when I don't behave Shivani. So, I might pity party a little bit longer. But then like I said, I've got enough people around me that remind me - Excuse me. Remember 90 seconds. So, I've got a very good, beautiful five bunch of people around me.

Shivani Gupta

Yeah, amazing. And so, in 20 years, you look at all the awards, you've won, really taking the business to where it's got to. And you recently won some awards as well. Where to next, like what are the future aspirations both in your business, but also in your personal life? So when you look at the next, whatever timeframe that is whether that's 20 years, or another 10 or five years, what are some of the things you go, I still really want to do that in my personal life, or I still really want to get to that in my business.

Maria Padisetti

I've realized when you actually break your life down into calendar months, there's not a lot of time Shivani. But I don't want to go into panic either. Because I think the blessing if you can live every day, because with health issues, that's certainly been a reminder but for the fight for the next five years, we've got plans to grow this business, and probably pivot slightly from where we're at. And we've got a really good strategy for the next five years to build it to x dollars in revenue, have as a really good senior executive team, we've got a great leadership team that was just literally hired in the last three to five months. So, the goal is for money and I to be the CEO and not be the people doing it. So already I can see in the last four months, I've been stepping back and really playing the CEO role as opposed to doing this stuff. And same with my husband, many was the CEO. So that's the five years for the business.

But in that time period, one of the things I love doing is doing what you're asking me to do here, which is speak, go and help people and do and I've got some idea of what that might look like. But I'm sure over the next I've got five years to really concretely define what that's going to look like whether that's speaking from stage being on television, I don't know what that looks like to me. So, there's lots of things. But I do know that my heart gets pulled in the direction of women and children always, always women and children. It's not to say that I won't help the rest of the gang, but I think there is a real need there. If I look at from a purely from a career perspective, there's still a very tiny, tiny, tiny percentage of women entering stem so I'm very passionate about that. I'm also passionate about helping women break that glass ceiling I can see women and women of particular nationalities particularly is even harder. I mean, I hate to say this, but I'm 2022 that is still affect. It's still an issue being female was bad enough. If you've got female and brown, you've got a double whammy. So, you've got and I'm saying this openly because it is a problem. And I'm still coaching as recent as last week talking to a couple of young ladies in large corporates who are exactly that women in technology of color who are struggling.

They don't know what to do that because with your culture comes certain limitations at the home front, whatever might be the case, right, but the world still hasn't caught up in that aspect. I mean, I'm seeing a lot of in the US, but we still in the Asia PAC region really suck. So, there's a lot of work to be done in that space. And how I do that I have to I'm formulating it Shivani; I'm working with a couple of consultants to see what that's going to look like. So that's probably going to be past that five to 15 years. So that, for me will be something that I leave, if I can make a difference in the life of one young woman or one woman of my own age. I mean, I don't just mentor younger women, but women who are my age or older, who are still struggling in the corporate world, because they've hit it and they just haven't been able to crack it for decades. So, what do I do? Do I leave? Do I stay? How do I talk to my boss? What do I do? So, it's so there's so much work to be done Shivani. I and my husband, as a family, we sat down probably exactly a year ago. And we did a family plan. And we had seven causes that we feel very strongly about. And that's also the charitable side of it as well. So, there's so much traditionally, there's a lot to do. So, I'm hoping if I take care of my health, I'll be on this planet for a little bit longer, then I'm hoping so that I could get to do the difference. And if I don't, it's okay, then I make sure I do what I can every single day, which I do.

Shivani Gupta

And not to pry. I know you've mentioned your health a couple of times, Maria. So, take us through a little bit of that from future aspirations as well. So, you know, where are you at? And what where do you want to see your health go to?

Maria Padisetti

The reason I mentioned that is because I think it's very important, not from a perspective of going around the whole planet telling them but it's about why I'm in why I got there. And it's because I am driven. And because self-care wasn't a priority. And as a mother and daughter and a sister and a wife and everything else, women are a classic example of putting themselves at the bottom of the list. So being crazy driven, and not taking care of myself got me into the pickle. So, I ended up with an autoimmune condition that was quite severe for four years ago. And here's the thing, right, I did a lot of things. And then I slipped back into it. So, I'm sure you've read this in many scriptures in many areas where they say, life gives you a feather, and then it gives you a break. And then it gives you a truck. So, and then most of us don't wake up until the truck slams you in the face. Because the feather is not a good enough reminder, right? So, I kind of got a brick four years ago, and I did a few things and then I slipped back. And then in June this year, that autoimmune condition and I've got rheumatoid arthritis, that's the condition I have. And I have a couple of things that go with that sort of impacts your joints. So, in a bad June or May, I could see from the beginning of this year, I was working super hard and slipped on the self-care.

And out of I wouldn't say out of nowhere, but I wasn't listening, June for about a couple of months, I could barely walk. I could barely do anything. So, when it impacts it impacts all of your joints. So, everything had to be taken care of, for me. The only thing I could do as podcasts and webinars because I could sit, and nobody could tell I was sick. Like the thing about autoimmune condition, which is actually worse for people who have it as it's an invisible illness. So, people look at me and I look perfectly fine, but they haven't seen me move. So, I had to get tucked in my husband, I checked to put my clothes on and off, I couldn't do anything.

So that was a reminder. And the reason I talk about is because I would really love for anybody, male, female, anybody who's listening to this, too, please put yourself as the first priority. And your time for yourself the meantime, and I know any 22-year-old who's listening, this is going to go yeah, whatever. Because I'm invincible. I don't want you to experience what I experienced. But if I could get through to one or two people to actually put themselves first and actually take care of themselves first before the entire planet, then that's what I'm hoping having this conversation about would help with Shivani because that's been my lesson. And it's been a first lesson and the second lesson were harsher. As I said, I'm a little bit slow.

Shivani Gupta

Yeah, thank you for sharing that. It's a hard thing sometimes to talk about it. But as you said, you know, for the listeners, but also to be able to go - okay, every time I slip up, like what is all of that until I have my health and be able to do that. And so, when you talked about some philosophies earlier, I'm really interested in some of the philosophies that you had. I know you talked about the pause, you know, the before between something happening in the time that you react and you're getting better and better and You get to see that a lot more. Are there other philosophies that you live by whether they're the way that you conduct yourself or what you believe in? Like, what are some of the other philosophies that you live by?

Maria Padisetti

So, there was one thing that I listened to 20 years ago, I still remember, I think it was probably 23-24. And my husband introduced me to those days, Earl Nightingale, and then it was Jim Rohn, who was one of the human beings who is no longer on this planet. I wish I had seen him live, but I never got to. And he said, Success is something you attract by the person you become, I really didn't understand their role, Shivani. So, when I keep talking about, I'm a very different person today when I was 20.

In 20s, I was chasing the revenue and the dollars, it's not that I was materialistically driven. I've never been 100% that way. But I really was chasing the numbers. And when people kept telling me that don't chase the money, because when you stop chasing, it will come to you. Intellectually, I got it, I never really got it in my soul and my DNA, I do now get that. It's not that I don’t like a nice holiday. It's not about that. But it's about the more work I do on myself, and the better human being I become, a better mother, a better wife - still work in progress every single day, a better boss, then I realize everything seems to fall into place much, much more easily. Because I'm not chasing the money. So, the better provider I am to our customers, the more they love us, the more awards we win, and the more money they give us, because of who we are as a business and who we are as individuals. So that properly is my number one philosophy is, if something is not wrong in my business, it's on me Shivani. If I was a good, it doesn't mean I'm blaming, but I'm taking 100% responsibility. That's another philosophy of my life, no matter what happens. And I had a pretty traumatic childhood. So, I could quite easily have gone down the path of self-destruction. But I think I was too scared to, but there's always two pathways, right? You could self-destruct or you could go crazy ambitious, and I took that path.

So, if you are, if you work on yourself constantly, then everything actually as I said falls into place. And also, everything flows. I was also of the philosophy that I had to kill myself literally work so hard to attract success. And I realized you actually don't have to. And that's another thing I'm really, really passionate about. Because I see so many young people 80 hours, 90 hours, 100 hours, and then at some point, you pay the price. And I've met people in you know, the top management consulting firms who are by 26, are burdened by debt. So that's the other philosophy is to actually slow down to learn to slow down, become a better person learn to slow down. And then the other one is actually managing my emotions as this because you can't control the rest of the world. But you can control your response or your emotional response to that. Those are my major ones, and also redefining success, because that's what I've done over 20 years is to really, and it's changed constantly. But I really do like where I sit today with what my definition of success is. And it's very little to do with materialistic stuff.

Shivani Gupta

Amazing and to hone into wellness. And some of the rituals that you have, you've spoken a little bit about that Maria, but really particularly also interested in the mental wellness, because, you know, whether it's trauma from childhood, and we can talk about that offline as well. Whether is, you know, having to come close to bankruptcy. You know, it takes a lot of that resilience, but to look after your wellness, not only from self-care, but that mental wellness part is so important. So, what did you do for your mental wellness to do and allow you to do all the things that you do?

Maria Padisetti

Many, many things. And I don't know that there is a silver bullet for every person because I think different things work for different people. That was a learning for me. I had to do many things to discover what works for me. So, what I'm about to share is what works for me doesn't mean it'll work for everybody else, because every person is different. So, I started off doing things like Tony Robbins, it was like it was great because it left me on a high for a temporary period. And then I would come crashing down. So, it was great while it lasted. But some of them left a lasting impact some of the teachings and learnings some of them didn't. And then I went and found people who worked on trauma.

So, I have trauma coaches. They have been probably by far the most impactful things that I have actually done, where I did one on one work with people. People talk about addressing stuff as opposed to covering it up. I used to say I have a PhD that's how I survive, right I have a PhD in sweeping stuff under the carpet. But not only did my ambitious nature end in the disease that I have, but it's also the sweeping stuff under the carpet that also contributed to that disease. So, it's not just one thing was many things you don't get to a point in your health or mental wellbeing or all of that overnight, it happens over time. So, it's working with coaches like that one-on-one attending different things. I did a course now, if I mentioned this, people have a very polarized view of it. But I did a course called landmark education. When I was again, in my 20s, it was probably the most cost effective, but most impactful because it dug so deep that they talk about peeling many layers of an onion, that's what I did. That was my first lot of feeling of layers. And I did over and over and over again. So, I peeled every single layer off so many things Shivani, and then meditation. I went and did TM many years ago, transcendental meditation, but I was so young that I didn't practice it.

But now, I just, it doesn't matter to me, because I was getting too attached to who the teacher was, what the what the philosophy was, and what and now I just go, You know what, because I'm a person who gets bored quickly, I'll just pick up any 20 minute meditation, and I'll do it for as long as I'm not bored with it. And then I'll find the next meditation, whatever voice is soothing enough, whoever the Guru is that I like, at that moment, I don't beat myself up over it. I just meditate. So, whether it's five minutes or 20 minutes, I'll do it. There are times when I've done all sorts of one-hour meditations, walking meditations, everything. My husband and I went to India, and we worked with a group of people, with a husband-and-wife team started this. We spent 14 days there. This was right in the middle of my severe illness. So, I couldn't sit for long, but I went there, and they took care of my special needs. So many things, meditation, breath work, I've done cold exposure by Wim Hof. So, I still have cold showers every now and then not full cold shower, but I might do a minute. So many things have contributed to my mental wellbeing because cold again, I didn't know. But exposure to cold and handling that can actually help a lot with depression and anxiety and many things.

Shivani Gupta

Amazing and great rituals. I'm going to do an ice bath experience for the second time this week. I’m forward to that on Thursday morning, being able to experience that and I know you're very active on social. I know there's so many pearls of wisdom that you share and great questions you ask. So, what's the best way for us to find you and follow you?

Maria Padisetti

LinkedIn, I'm probably the most active on that platform because we're in a b2b business. That's where I started. And that's where I love working.(https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariapadisetti/) So not many people know my name. So, Maria Padisetti, if you Google. I mean if you search in LinkedIn, sorry, you'll find my LinkedIn profile. I'm on Instagram and Facebook as well. But I've got the most number of followers on LinkedIn. So, I'm quite active.

Shivani Gupta

That's great and we'll put a link in there as well to be able to find you, Maria. Thank you. Such a great conversation. I could continue this conversation for a number of hours. We will ultimately hang back and have a quick chat to you but thank you for being on here today.

Maria Padisetti

You're very welcome.