Shubhangi Srivastava - CTO of NEP Services

How does a girl from a small Indian factory town become the CTO of a thriving U.S. tech company? In this inspiring and honest conversation, Shubhangi Srivastava—“Shoey” to her friends—shares her powerful journey from her humble beginnings to leading as a woman in tech at NEP Services. We dive into the cultural shift of moving to the U.S., her early challenges in tech, and the moments of burnout that shaped her leadership approach.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to rise through the ranks in a fast-moving, male-dominated industry—or how to stay true to your roots while building a bold future—you’ll love Shoey’s grounded wisdom and practical insights.

“Burnout isn’t just being tired. It’s when even your passion feels like a burden.”

Shubhangi Srivastava is chief technology officer of NEP Services. A visionary leader with deep technical expertise, Shubhangi is the driving force behind the creation and launch of Connect Plus+, NEP’s employee management and empowerment solution. She not only architected the platform, overseeing it from concept to reality, but also spearheaded its intuitive design and led a cross-functional team to overcome technical challenges and ultimately achieve the project’s goals. Shubhangi began her career at NEP as a web developer and received several promotions leading to her current position as CTO. She is an advocate for women in STEM, serving as a mentor for girls pursuing STEM careers. Shubhangi holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from California State University, Long Beach, and a Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science and Engineering from SRM University in India.

https://www.nepservices.com/ 

https://www.facebook.com/nepconnects 

https://www.instagram.com/nepconnects/# 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/srivastavashubhangi/ 

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Transcript

Jason Frazell: 0:12

Everybody. My guest today is Sanghi Triva. Sanghi is the CTO of NEP services, and we're gonna talk about a variety of things. Today we're gonna talk about working in tech. We're gonna talk about being a woman leader in tech. We're gonna talk about burnout in tech. So for those of you listening who are interested in tech or women in leadership, we're gonna talk about all those things and sh and forever you'll be known as shoey. We're gonna call you Shoey from this point as you gave us permission to, I'm sure we'll be talking about some other things. We don't even know what we're talking about yet. So welcome, so good to have you here today.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 0:48

Thank you. I'm, I'm happy to be here. Happy to talk to you. Glad that I can be of service to anyone out there who's looking to dive deeper into the world of technology.

Jason Frazell: 0:58

Yes. Awesome. I'm gonna, I'm gonna own this for the audience. I don't know when we're gonna release this, but we are recording this on election day here in the United States. Yeah. Tuesday, November 5th. And there's some stuff going on, and you and I have decided, let's just record a podcast because why not? Because we've done our, we've done what we need to do and there's nothing we can do to change of, so we're gonna record a podcast and have a great conversation, and we're doing it on election day here in the United States.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 1:25

That's what democracy's about. You know,

Jason Frazell: 1:27

that's what democracy's about. We do our, we do whatever we need to do, and then we go in. And we wake and we'll wake up tomorrow and the next day and the next day and keep doing our thing. Awesome. So before we get into some of the conversations, point points that I just mentioned, what would you like us to know about you? I.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 1:43

Let's just go dive into a little bit of a background. I, like Jason said, I'm Chubi. Born and brought up in India. I came from a, come from a very small town in the north part of India, and did my school there, did my bachelor's there in computer science and engineering for about four years. I've worked for a year in India. And then I moved to United States at the prime age of I believe about 21. Mm-hmm. And decided to dive further into science and technology and do my master's in computer science and engineering. And I did that from California, Cal State Long Beach. Mm-hmm. And then I joined NEP after my graduation. So I've been at the same company ever since, which is a very, very. Contentious point for a lot of people in technology.'cause people are, yes, it is very, very, you know, fast paced switcher people and I'm I'm, I'm an anomaly in that world. I, I like to see through the things that I've started and that that's how I joined iep. And I joined as a software engineer and currently like.

Jason Frazell: 2:51

CTO. So you've had a nice climb. First, first pointed question, so you said a very small town. How small was the town that you grew up in?

Shubhangi Srivastava: 2:59

Very small. We, you know, when I place I grew up, it's, it's basically a factory. It was a factory town. Mm-hmm. And Dan, everyone else in that town goes, used to go to the same place to work. Mm-hmm. We, we would, you know, they would all wear their uniforms at 8:00 AM in the morning. There'd be a siren. Everyone's gonna go into the factories and they're gonna come back for lunchtime. It was like a very methodical time period. Situation. Yeah. I loved it. And. That, that was the core of the entire town. That was, it was a factory and it was based in science and technology because

Jason Frazell: 3:34

Yeah.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 3:34

They, the, the primary function of those factories were to create turbines for the hydroelectric dams.

Jason Frazell: 3:41

Sure. Yeah.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 3:42

And that was like a new booming thing that was going on in India at the time where we were trying to switch from coal power plants and other things mm-hmm. To a more, you know, better for environment version of energy. Mm-hmm. Which was solar and hydroelectric. And my dad was, a part of that creating turbines and generating all those stuff.

Jason Frazell: 4:01

Very cool.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 4:02

So it was very cool for me. That's, that's where I cool. Think I bought my knack for all things science and curiosity as a very curious child from the beginning. And this just made it even better.'cause then I would see like all these huge machines going and these dams being built and to see how it actually functions. And it was very nice. Everyone knew everyone. It's like, you know, the small town books that you read about is like, it's a whole community on itself. Everyone knew who we were and, and if I would miss school one day and go bunk it with other my friends and other. Aunt from another neighborhood's gonna call my mom and be like, your daughter was in school today. So it's a tight knit community. It was, it was really fun to grow up there.

Jason Frazell: 4:47

Yeah. So I'm really curious about the culture shift for you. Living, growing up, going to your primary school and then your, some of your college mm-hmm. In a small town in, in India, and then moving to the largest metropolitan area Yeah. In the United States. And what that was like for you moving to the LA metro area. Mm-hmm. What was, was that something that you did by choice? Like did you, did you think yourself, I want the exact opposite experience. I wanna be surrounded by. A ton of people. Mm-hmm. And, and as I don't know if you knew a ton of traffic in the LA metro area I of

Shubhangi Srivastava: 5:24

traffic.

Jason Frazell: 5:25

You do? Yeah. You'd probably be like, we need flying cars in la. That's the first place we need flying cars. So what was, what was it like for you making that shift as just as a person going from. You know, arguably like two opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of the amount of people around.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 5:39

Yeah. I mean, you know, not something that I think about at all honestly, because when I was gonna school, it was still something that I talked to my parents about or my grandparents about even. Mm-hmm. Is never in my wildest of dreams would I have thought as a high school girl growing up where I grew up that one day in 20 years of time. I would be in United States as a CTO of a company. It is so beyond. The thought at the time that even getting out of the town was a big deal. Yeah. And, and to think that, you know, I would come to a place where I am today. I'm very grateful and very appreciative of the opportunities that I was, you know, I, that I could get the support that I've had from everyone, from my parents, my family, to even here, all my friends at work. It's just, it. It's immeasurable. The, the, the, the surrealness of it when I think about it. And when, well, I, I finished my high school and then I moved to a metropolitan in India as well to do my bachelor's for four years, and that's where. I, I think I learned the most because I moved outta my parents' house. You know, I, I sure went into a hostel. It's a whole situation with dorms and

Jason Frazell: 7:03

mm-hmm. Other

Shubhangi Srivastava: 7:04

kids from all over, all over the country. Learned a lot over there about ways of living by yourself and, and mm-hmm. Growing out life by yourself, but also learning all the cool things about computers and science and technology. And that was. When I decided I wanted to move to United States, it was purely on the basis of opportunity because mm-hmm. At the time I was working in India as a software engineer, and my project the company that I was working for was primarily a French company, and their projects were for French defense. And it just got me very curious about life outside India. You know, like there's, there's stuff outside this bubble that I'm in out in the world. There, there are things that are happening. There, there is more to learn in, more to, more to know and more opportunities to be had. Especially being a female, it's not something that is easily accessible. Especially in India at the time, definitely. Mm-hmm. And so for me it was like, you know, I wanna go to the land of opportunities as people say. Yeah. And get myself over here on the other side of the ocean.

Jason Frazell: 8:25

Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about what you now do. Mm-hmm. You work at a company called NEP Services, and I happen to know what that is, but I don't think most other people would. So what is it you all do? What kind of NP service? Yeah. What kind of development do you do?

Shubhangi Srivastava: 8:43

Yeah. We are a pioneer, I would say, in unions and nonprofit world for mm-hmm. Organizations across North America primarily. And we build software applications for them and. That, that allow for these unions and nonprofit organizations and labor organizations to manage their membership and effectively communicate and engage with their members and make sure that providing the best benefits that they're providing to their members and the members know about them.'cause a lot of times, yeah all of these. Labor organizations are so busy doing the things that they're doing, it's really hard for them to communicate the value that they're bringing to the table to these members. Sure. And that's what we do. We try to engage with the membership. Awesome. We try to create a better system for their people in the office staff. Mm-hmm. Because a lot of these systems are very archaic. Very old. Yeah. Unions. Unions in America span like. You know, centuries, decades. Yeah. And a lot of these systems, especially on the East coast side, I've noticed they're, they're very old applications.'cause these cities are older. Yeah. And it's fun to advance them to a newer, more efficient, better technology platform that allows them to do the job that they do. Just better.

Jason Frazell: 10:05

Yeah, just better. Yeah. So just to, just to throw this out there for the audience, you all serve fire department, fire, fire unions. Mm-hmm. Police unions and Yes. Being on the East coast, and I know you're on the East coast now as well, a lot of those things are very, those things have been around for over a hundred years, sometimes over. I don't, you know, I think the New York City, the New York City. Police union has been around since the 18 hundreds, if I'm not mistaken. It's been a, been a very long time. And then you also do this similar work for nonprofits, as you mentioned. Mm-hmm. Like nonprofits that are looking to engage their community through something that is, looks and feels modern on whether it be their phone or on the web. Where historically, maybe they've just been on social media or something. Mm-hmm. So giving them expanded reach to have to stay engaged, which is very important to have

Shubhangi Srivastava: 10:54

more engagement. Yeah. We, we have a vast suite of technical product applications available. To serve multiple purposes. You know, we've got mm-hmm. A crowd funding platform that primarily the, the target audience for that is essentially our client base. It's basically first responders you know, veterans, law enforcement officers, firefighters that were maybe unfortunately injured during a line of duty or veterans that need medical assistance and need, you know. Help in that process. A a lot of over the last three or four years, the funding platform has, has been a really big help to, to a lot of our client base in, in general. Nice. Quality financial support for them. So that's, that's a big one that I, I think I'm, I'm very proud of personally.'cause it's a true Yeah. You know, direct impact to whoever needs it in, in a very immediate manner. And, and then of course, the web applications, be it mobile apps especially for fire departments and police departments. We're also trying to branch into. Electrical unions, you know, I BWS and, and some of the other steel fitters and, and just all the unions across the world.

Jason Frazell: 12:15

Yeah. Uw, uw, UAW, United Auto Workers. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yep.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 12:19

So that, that's been very fascinating.'cause you know, as I've moved to the East coast my. In interaction with some of the East Coast clients have increased quite a bit where I'm like going to the New York offices or like meeting clients on the, on Long Island and, and meeting clients in DC whether it's like international firefighters or Stream Pitters or Yeah. Or anyone else. And it's very cool to see all the platforms that they currently use and how we can problem solve for them to make the. They're doing on a daily basis, less painful.

Jason Frazell: 12:55

Yeah. So would you, would you add to your list of things you'd never thought possible as a high school student? Oh yeah. Meeting, meeting with the head of the meeting, meeting with the head of the union for like Nassau County Police Department or like the sheriffs department or something. Oh, absolutely. It's

Shubhangi Srivastava: 13:10

so funny you bring up Nassau County'cause I literally, you know, we would become best friends over the last couple of months. I, I did, they're one of our clients. That I hope they do. And I go see them probably every other week.

Jason Frazell: 13:23

I had no, and by the way, that was, that was a setup. Yeah. That wa that wa I mean, that was not a setup. I had no idea. But I'm also playing the odds that it's either Nassar or Suffolk. There's only two choices for counties. Yep. In Long Island.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 13:35

We work with both of them, funnily enough, so that's awesome. Nice. Yeah. But no, absolutely, you know, this is a, a dream in every which way. I, I wouldn't. Even, you know, if I, if I think about it young girl who would listen to stories from her grandmother, and then we would decide, oh, you know, where we, we would play this traveling game and, and we'd be like, she, she'd ask me, where do you wanna go today? And then just imagine that I'm gonna be in New York one day, or I'm gonna be Los Angeles one day and I'm gonna be in London one day. And to actually be here. Is is as accomplishing as one can imagine it would be.

Jason Frazell: 14:16

Yeah. It's beautiful. Chubi, let's, let's dig in on that a little bit. I, I'm sure there's people listening that they, they relate to that, like they're living, they're either living a life way bigger than they could have hoped for or they're not. Mm-hmm. Either way, what do you attribute, what do you attribute? You know, you're sitting here with me talking today and we're talking about meeting with, you know, the head of the union of Nassau County and, and like we mentioned before, you are the CTO at a decent sized company creating solutions that people across the world use. What do you attribute that to?

Shubhangi Srivastava: 14:55

I think a lot of it has to do with resilience. Mm-hmm. I wouldn't personally for me not negate the absolute enormous support that I've had'cause it eases your path, however, that, however, whatever that path may look like for you. Yeah. If you have support it, it's a lot. You know, it's a paved path instead of you trying to grovel further the road in front of you. So that I think is, you know, I'm very fortunate in that sense that I have had mm-hmm. Support in every way, in every step of the way in my life, whether it is personal or professional. And then also I'm, I'm a, I'm a top cookie in that sense. I, I do not give up. I, I, if I put my mind into something, i, I will not let go until it's done. And so I think for me personally, it would be, you know, those two things where and, and also as a, as a person who is just constantly. Thinking all the time. Every time. Mm-hmm. About all the things that I see in front of me. It's all problem, problem, problem. And as a person to not overthink and believe that, that it's, it's, it's okay. It is what it is, and believe that you can do it. That if you're here doing something, then truly believe that you can because it, it, it matters. It makes a huge impact. Being positive about your own role and your. You not just your role professionally, but just your role as a person on this earth. To believe in that and, and attest to it with, and, and look back and, and give yourself applaud. I think very few of us take the time.'cause,'cause a lot of us, you know, in our state of anxiety would look back and. Count faults. I could have done this better, should have done this better. Of course, maybe I would've done that. Maybe I should have done that. But instead flipping the switch on that and thinking, I I did do that. And that's remarkable.'cause

Jason Frazell: 17:07

Yeah.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 17:08

To, to be able to do that is not a small feat. And, and I think it's important to give yourself a pat in the back once a while.

Jason Frazell: 17:17

Yeah. Offer, offer something that I. That has made a big difference for me over the last few years, and I heard it in what you just said there is there reaches a point where your intellectualism and you're think and thinking your way in and out of a problem doesn't work any longer. Like there's, and that's what, what like some people would call it faith or courage. It's like that thing, that personality trait that. You know, people go, oh, how do I, and you probably have, I don't know if you do any mentoring, people are like, how do I get promoted? How do I do this? How do I do that? It's like, it's not just a how to. Yeah. If it was a how to, if you want a, how to go read a book at on Amazon. Yeah. And then you'll go, well that didn't work for me, so it must be wrong. Or like, there must be something wrong. And, and I think this is something, you know, as we kind of pivot into talking about tech here mm-hmm. There's the intellectual. Ization of things and there's the analyzing of things and then you reach and there are some things that are That's great. And there's other things you reach where you have to really know how you feel about it. Yeah. Or you have to, like you said, you had to internalize what I heard you say and all that is you had to end up owning that you like your grit created opportunities for you. And that's not really a thinking thing. I don't say grit is not a thinking thing. Amazing. So let's talk about, let's talk about your career path here. So you started, you went, came to school, you did your thing. You started at NEP at NEP Services, and you've been there ever since. And you started as a software engineer. Yes. Which I would assert means that you are very good at, technically at software engineering. I call it fingers on the keyboard. You can probably do some, do some cool stuff. Yeah. So you did that and so that, and you were a computer, you said you were a computer science, you have education that, so that was in your sweet spot? Mm-hmm. And you did that for a while? Mm-hmm. When did you realize that you might wanna do something more specifically potentially lead. People or lead something greater than you doing.'cause there's a lot of amazing people that can have amazing careers just doing that work. Yeah. And they never have to do anything else. And it's a well paid career like you, and you don't have to. So I'm curious for you if you remember the inflection point for you or if you had an aha of like, oh, I'd like to lead a team, or I'd like to set strategy, you know, as CTO, you're, I'm sure you're setting strategy. Walk us through how that went for you.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 19:36

It's, it's very interesting because as you say that I'm thinking about, you know, so many colleagues, friends, other people that I, that I know from the industry that. Are, are truly like, no, I don't, I don't want to go into the realm of project management or software manager or, you know, and, and that definitely, I think is an inclination that people have or they don't, whether it's a personal choice for a lot of people, whether they mm-hmm. They want, they love development and they want to continue to progress in that world. And that's amazing because. Technology can do wonders. And then there are people that I think for me, I. I think I said it before have a thing about problem solving. If I see that there is something out there that is being done that I can improve in any way, shape, or form I would volunteer. And so that was something that was happening within the company where. At the time when I joined, a couple months in, we were working towards mobile application and there was a bit of a struggle with the mobile application launch and I went to. Our now CEO Stacy Den and it was like, you know, I know I'm new and you have no reason to trust me in any way, shape, or form, but I've done a lot of this work before in my school with projects on mobile applications, and I would love to take this on and see if I can make this a little bit better. And it just naturally progressed from then to finding more challenges that I thought I could help create better efficiency for, or as I'm talking to at the time, some of my team members and then they had issues, whether it be. An SOP related issue or a work related issue or something that they're technically, you know, struggling with. I noticed myself getting gratification from. Positive impact when other people had more positive impact with their job. Mm-hmm. And I felt that more strongly than when I did something, and that was for me. Mm-hmm. When I realized that I probably want to go more into the realm of. People management

Jason Frazell: 22:06

mm-hmm.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 22:07

Strategies and, and all of that. And less into the world of development.'cause,'cause I realize that if I solve a problem, I'm happy about it, but if I am maybe coaching someone else to solve a problem. Then I'm doubly happy about it because

Jason Frazell: 22:23

Perfect.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 22:23

Because I impacted, you know, whoever XY Z's job and, and, and thought about themselves to be like, oh, this is amazing. This is so cool. I finished it and it's, it's such a, it's very fulfilling for me, I think.

Jason Frazell: 22:35

Yeah.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 22:36

And that, that's, that's where it all started. This very nice.

Jason Frazell: 22:42

The worm, the wormhole of leadership. That, that, that's your first book. You can just, just take the wormhole of leadership.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 22:48

Yep.

Jason Frazell: 22:49

So let's talk about lessons learned. Mm-hmm. Moving from individual contributor role to. Leading a team doing, going from tactical, more, not necessarily tactical work, but again, fingers on keyboard to more strategy. And as CTO, generally, CTO, you're probably making technology decisions. You're making strategic decisions on removing technical debt and like what's the future of the platform if we're gonna make shifts and all those things. What's been the, what's been the mindset shift that you've had to really empower in order to make that move and be successful?

Shubhangi Srivastava: 23:25

I think one of the biggest ones for me was that I don't have to do it all by myself.

Jason Frazell: 23:33

So hard, isn't it?

Shubhangi Srivastava: 23:35

It's one of the most basic core seems very logical. Like duh, obviously. Totally. And as a person who is. Who has done this for like, what, four years of engineering, two years masters a year working, you know, seven years of just practicing and, and doing all this thing by myself to then getting to a place where now I have a team that is here to support me and there are issues to, instead of I'm just gonna do it by myself. It's okay. Yeah. Instead of that being like. Hey, let's talk through it. Let's see if we can solve it. So I think the shift on, you know, the mindset side for me and I attribute that to, stacy and other people that, that were my colleagues at the time at np to have helped make me realize that, you know what? You, you don't have to by yourself, should we? You, you got people. And I'm like, yeah, you're right. And that, that was a, that was a really. Beautiful thing in my head because it was like, I'm not alone in this. It's okay. There are other people. Yeah. I have a very a lot of people at work are like, how are you not stressed about this? There's like so many deadlines. We've gotta hit so much in so short amount of time. Like, how are you not? Stress and like,'cause I trust my team. I, I trust Yeah. The work that we do, that we can come up with solutions together that we'll figure out a way and that we're not alone in this. And at the end of the day, it's, it's that, that's what's important, you know? You Yeah. Wanna make sure that. You're not burning yourself to the ground, trying to figure out solutions and, and getting stressed and anxious over deadlines that might get made and might not. Yeah, of course it's important, but I was like, I don't, you know, there, there are so many other things to stress about. I think this is okay. This is gonna be this.

Jason Frazell: 25:36

Any best practices or learnings that you've had or also pitfalls around how you've managed stress, anxiety, tight timelines. Mm-hmm. Burnout, if you've experienced in your career, both as an individual contributor, and then how do you, how do you look at this? And balance this, and let's just normalize this for everybody listening, and you and I know this, that in tech there are times when the deadlines are tight and you have a, a feature release, something out or an upgrade and it's gonna require some additional time. Yeah. Some additional, like literally energy and time. Mm-hmm. How do you as a leader, and maybe this is for the entire executive team too, and I'll, I'll ask, I'll ask Stacy this as well, she's gonna be on here on the show shortly as well, is how do you. Where you're balancing business output business outcomes with our people need a break. Yeah. And have you, you've likely learned these lessons for yourself is my guess. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. As most of us in our, in our early in our career, do we learn to like, oh wait, I don't have unlimited energy, and suddenly my energy is gone because I spent it all.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 26:47

Yeah. That's a, that's, that's a rough lesson learned. When you do learn it and of course, I mean, I, I am a perfectionist through and through. Mm-hmm. So I like to just run myself through the ground until I get to a point where I am absolutely a thousand percent happy with what I produced. And that never happens. And not just in technology, it just never happens. Period. Yeah. And so learn how to. Dissociate from you wanting something versus what is happening, I think is a very important skillset to, to learn. Whether it be in development or anything else. Especially when we work in a dev environment and we've got, like you said, really tight timelines or there's, you know, like a big push to get something done. And you're thinking, okay, well there, there are two ways to go about it. I can either pull people and get more people involved or I can get more overtime. Or it's gonna, because this is not a job where you can be passively involved. That's right. This is a job where you have to be cerebrally available and involved the entire time in front of a computer. Coding a solution to a problem. You, you can't be like doing 15 things at the same time. It has, you have to be present and for someone to be present, you are just naturally gonna do better if you are not stressed if you're not anxious, if you're not burnt out. So for me, my priority has always been the team. When there are strategies around it, when there are pushes that goes through functionality, of course there is stuff that, you know, we, we say, okay, we've gotta get this done in a month, and it's, you know, there's deadline, blah, blah. I, I personally, when comes time like that, try to, you know, put myself in the position of the other person and make sure that I'm doing whatever it is that I can do to make their life. During that time, a little bit more comfortable whether it be me being more involved in, in any type of coding or any type of testing phase or any type of architecture phase to just having half an hour of like a chitchat session to decompress, like, you know,

Jason Frazell: 29:13

nice.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 29:14

Let's not talk about work at all. Let's, let's. Share pictures of our vacation and talk about what's happening.'cause you know, with the remote culture, that's something that that's something that I've, I've learned to do a little bit more in, in order to create more personal relationships with people, because these are people who are spending pretty much an entire date was. Yeah. For, and it's always nice to like people that you work with instead of Absolutely, yes. It's touch them all the time.

Jason Frazell: 29:42

Yeah.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 29:43

You know, we, we do like small chatty sessions where we're just talking about, Hey, you had a new kid, or what's happening? And it, it just makes things a little more lively and a little less stressed. Yeah. Personally, I have. Learned the hard way that this is not the end of the world and that it's, it's gonna be okay. And yeah, a a lot of times priorities are just priorities and if we stop panicking a little bit. And figuring out a way to get through to it. There's only two options. You either can or you cannot.

Jason Frazell: 30:21

Mm-hmm.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 30:22

And it's as simple as that. If you cannot, you just tell people you can't. And if you can't, then you do and

Jason Frazell: 30:28

then go do it. Yeah.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 30:28

And, and, and I think a lot of the, the anxiety and the burnout and the stress, it comes from the unknown. It's like not knowing how far this is gonna go, am I gonna work on harder sprints for three weeks, six weeks, a year? Is this push gonna go on for. Seven years at a time. Versus having leadership that, you know, is supportive, you know, that they will intervene if stuff goes a little to the south too much. I think trust is a really big factor when it comes to any place. But especially in, in a development environment, it's important that your team trusts you as a leader to have your back. Yeah. And that's all that matters at the end of the day.

Jason Frazell: 31:15

Yeah, I. More questions for you to wrap up here today. Mm-hmm. Number one, what's something that you and the team are working on that you get excited about? And you can keep it, you know, high level, I'm sure you're working on things that aren't public yet. Yeah. What, what are you excited about that you're working on?

Shubhangi Srivastava: 31:31

All the secrets.

Jason Frazell: 31:32

All the big secrets.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 31:34

Yeah. They're, we're excited about a lot of things I think we're NEP excited about incorporating more artificial intelligence into our platform. Sure. That, that is a big one for us. It's a little bit of a challenge because of the client base that we serve.

Jason Frazell: 31:49

Yeah.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 31:49

Owing security and other reasons. That's Yeah, of course. At the utmost forefront of my thought. Anytime we're trying to do something.

Jason Frazell: 31:56

Sure.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 31:56

But AI is something that we're all I. Very, very hyped about,'cause the, the, the minute someone says the name, there's like glitter in the eyes and it's

Jason Frazell: 32:07

very,

Shubhangi Srivastava: 32:10

And there are some other cool features that have been on the pipeline for a really long time that we're finally gonna get to do probably next year. And I'm personally very stoked about it because this has been like years and making, and to see that come to a fruition. With our new Connect Plus platform. Mm-hmm.

Jason Frazell: 32:29

It's

Shubhangi Srivastava: 32:29

very exciting because we've, you know, been whiteboarding this and, and filling up all the windows and the walls of the offices with all Yeah. Of garbage gibberish. And to finally have a thing that's tangible and running and, and working and helping people, it's absolutely immense. We've been. We sometimes get testimonials and stuff from clients, and one of the ones was so, so amazing that it. I feel very proud of the work that we do at the company. You know, there, there are cops out there that are, are touting that the platform allowed them to reach out to the rest of their membership to find a suspect that shot a police. Wow. Yeah. Within That's amazing. Two hours of time just because they were able to reach out to other precinct members in a more targeted. Communication then Sure. Blasting everybody's radio. Sure. And that's such a, that's such a real life impact that you, nothing can top that and Yeah. So we're excited when we see, you know, results like those, and then other things that we can do to improve that. Excited about any options to include mental health resources for our mm-hmm. Responders. I think that's a big one that I, I'm personally invested in a little bit to see. Yeah. Through the finish line on that one. Suicide support and mm-hmm. And all of those things. PTSD, trauma related stuff. So that's, that's something that we're, that's

Jason Frazell: 34:00

for those amazing people keeping us.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 34:04

Trying, we're trying to fulfill as much as we can with the little, you know, little service that we can provide.

Jason Frazell: 34:11

Yeah.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 34:11

Because it's, it's a tough job out there. It's a tough world. Yeah. And however, NEP, whatever we can do to make their lives even 10% easier. Yeah. It's definitely worth it.

Jason Frazell: 34:24

Yeah. To wrap up and this, you're not, you don't know this is coming, but I'm so curious how you balance. All the stem and all the really technical things you do with also being an artist or like, what about the, the other, the other, the other side. It, it's, I'm, I'm really fascinated by that and we'll just spend a couple minutes on this. So first of all, what kind of, like, what kind of artist do you consider yourself, or what kind of art do you focus on?

Shubhangi Srivastava: 34:49

I am usually an acrylic abstract. Person.

Jason Frazell: 34:56

Okay.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 34:56

So I like to I started very young in, in arts and craft, and I always. I enjoy it. It, I've always liked it. I started with oil pastels when I was younger. I moved into every type of medium imaginable, you know, from glass to oil, to acrylic, to landscape portrait, you name it. I've, I've dabbled in it. But now I find myself gravitating more towards abstract acrylics. Nice. It's. I don't know. It's just a way to, I guess I, I like the calmness that it provides me.

Jason Frazell: 35:37

Yeah. I was, yeah. I think we're, and, and thanks for sharing all that. I was, I was wondering, you, you said before you're a problem solver. You're really good at that. Do you really, when you're doing, when you're creating a new piece of art, do you relate to that as a problem to be solved?

Shubhangi Srivastava: 35:53

No, I think that's when I shut off my brain on that, on that, yeah. Particular aspect of things. Although the perfectionist creeps in a lot where I'm like, you know, of course I would not consider a painting finish until I'm genuinely very happy with it and an ira. So I have to decide. This is the point. You gotta let, let it go, man. But

Jason Frazell: 36:12

yeah.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 36:13

But I, I think when I'm painting, I, I try to just. It's, it's a, it's a me world at the time. It's like, you know, yeah. Noise. Do not think about anything else. I, I love colors. I love the, the, the calmness that it brings me in that process. I, I love not knowing what I'm doing.'cause mostly Yeah. Is, there's no plan to it there. It's full chaos. Yeah, you go in and you have no idea. You decide on a whim, okay, I like this color and I like that color, and I want this, this edge, and I want that, you know, texture. And I just do it on, on a whim. And fortunate that it turns out good or it could be really bad. Yeah,

Jason Frazell: 36:59

yeah. Beautiful. But when I'm

Shubhangi Srivastava: 37:00

doing my job, I think the artist in me creeps up a lot.

Jason Frazell: 37:05

Yeah, of course.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 37:07

I, I, I do tend to think of a lot more outta the box creative ways to solve something that I would not traditionally if I am just thinking about traditional solutions. Mm-hmm. I was like, you know, hacks and things and switches or how about we don't use any of this and how about, mm-hmm. Do a complete 180 and flip like the number of times I have absolutely changed the entire project. Just like that is astonishingly crazy to me. Yeah. Because the rest of the team is like, you spent two months making this and you're okay. And I'm like, yeah. Yeah. As long as whatever we're doing gets us to a better finish line. Absolutely. Yeah.

Jason Frazell: 37:57

Is it just my opinion, I think that's so healthy. I. To have something where you're spending time in, you're spending time in, in like quantitative and coding and managing other folks like that to have some sort of outlet that is the opposite. And I had a feeling that was gonna be your answer, so I'm like, oh, abstract. Like, that's not a problem. You have no idea. You're you. No, you're just like. Turn off that part of your brain and just allow it to free flow. So my encouragement is, and I'm, I'm gonna speak for you'cause I'm sure you'd say the same thing if, if you are a, you know, kind of a right brain problem solving, you love that, find something that allows you to get to turn that off, that's really healthy for your brain and for staying in your executive state for longer. And the other thing that I heard in all that is like, the science of that is we're only creative when we're under the executive start part of our brain. Mm-hmm. When we're in survival state burnout. Yes. Deadlines stressed. We lose our creativity and we go to the thing we know to do, which is intellectualize things, the, the things we've done. But our brain goes, Hey, it's not important that we're creative. We shut that off. So my encouragement to you, I wanna give a quick shout out to this. If anybody's listening and they're interested in that. My friend Dr. Eugene Choi, he is been on the podcast a couple of times. His whole episode is about executive state and survival state functioning. Oh, that's so cool. Yeah. And yeah, it's very cool in the human brain. He does a lot of, he does a lot of neurology things. Well, SBY, amazing conversation. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations to you and the team. Thanks for doing all the, the great work you're doing. Like I said, to our first responders and all the people you're keeping safe and connected with their, connected with their communities. And enjoy your next trip to Nassau County. That was so, that was so random. I had no idea. And yes, and keep, keep up the good work with you and the rest of the team over there at NEP and we'll, we'll talk to you again soon.

Shubhangi Srivastava: 39:42

Yeah, I appreciate your time today. It was absolute pleasure.

Jason Frazell: 39:45

Thanks.

Speaker: 39:46

Thanks for listening to another episode of Talking to Cool People with Jason Frizzell. If you enjoyed today's episode, please tell your friends, follow us on Instagram and Facebook and give us a shout out or take a moment to leave a review on iTunes. If something from today's episode pique your interest and you'd like to connect, email us at podcast@jasonzell.com. We love hearing from our listeners because you're cool people too.