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As the founder and host of the very successful podcast, Her STEM Story, Prasha Dutra loves to help women in STEM pursue a fulfilling and rewarding career in the STEM field. Her two websites, herstemstory.com and herstemconsulting.com, have the same goal.
Prasha grew up in India. After receiving her Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pune, she moved to the U.S. around eight years ago to pursue a Master’s in Chemical Engineering. Her goal was to work in aerospace engineering, but she found too many restrictions involved with visas, so she pursued mechanical engineering instead.
“I got married in 2017, and that’s when I started contemplating everything in terms of what am I doing with my career,” she recalled. “Where do I want to go? Even though I was doing really well in my 9:00 to 5:00, I was craving for more and that’s how Her STEM Story came to be.”
After starting the podcast, Prasha sought to make it sustainable. With sponsorships, there were too many content restrictions, so she was losing creative freedom. She also wrote a couple of grants, but quickly realized that she wasn’t cut out for it.
“How do I take all this inspiration that I have in the show and package it in a way that it can totally support people and help women with these lessons? Because I was getting a lot of messages around how much they’re inspired, how they’re taking action and I’m like, “There has to be something here.””
Last year, she hosted Wonder Women in STEM, an online conference, and charged for the tickets. When people eagerly purchased them, Prasha decided, as she put it, “If I can sell 100 tickets, then I can sell something else too, and that’s how Her STEM Consulting came to be in March of this year.”
She also hosted the third Wonder Women in STEM under the Her STEM Consulting business brand, and was able to sell 100 tickets once more, but this time the tickets cost more. Once again, people bought them.
“It’s just been a journey of discovering what I’m good at and playing on my strengths and monetizing it,” she explains. “I think that’s something that a lot of us want, but sometimes don’t put our best foot forward to figure it out.’”
Being a good coach meant seeking guidance from others
She acknowledged that being a good coach meant seeking guidance from others. Putting herself in the place of her ideal client, Prasha set about learning what she needed to become the best education for business people, specifically women who wanted to work in the STEM field.
“I think the biggest challenge that women have is I think we just don’t believe in ourselves as much,” she says. “I think the system is rigged against us. Whether it’s due to implicit bias or due to representation, it just doesn’t work for us.”
Fortunately, Prasha’s experiences in STEM had always been favourable, so she presented a positive and encouraging image to her clients. She attracted women entrepreneurs and encouraged them to pursue their career goals.
“I think women are hustlers anyways, so I think that’s just something we’re really good at,” she laughs. “We are not satisfied with one thing or one job or one skill- we want to stretch ourselves. We want to learn things. That’s why we can go from boardrooms to being moms like that is because we can really handle multitasking. We’re good at that and we enjoy it a lot.”
Be consistent and persistent
Prasha stressed the importance of being consistent and persistent. When she started Her STEM Story, there were five or six podcasts dedicated to the same subject. Today, none of them are active.
“They haven’t published anything in over 12 to 15 months. I think that’s just what sets you apart. Just stick with it a little bit longer and you don’t know what it’s going to turn into.”
She also advised against putting a timeline on one’s dreams, saying that timelines, boundaries, and other expectations complicate the process. Instead, she focuses on keeping things simple.
“I think we’re so caught up in these big numbers, like we should have million downloads, we should have all this money and this fame, and then we’re so caught up in really, really unachievable things that we just spiraled ourselves down. We just don’t know what little actions over time will do. I think it’s just back to basics just like when you were kids.”
Conclusion
Prasha says that this year and next will be busy ones for her. She will be hosting a TEDx talk about how to be a successful woman in STEM and increasing the sustainability of her career coaching business.
“That is my focus for the rest of 2020. Then 2021 is all about flaunting it and trying to bring in more clients, and again, hanging how women are thinking about their life right now. (I want them to be) believing in their brilliance and really going after whatever it is that they want in life.”
If you are a woman seeking to build a successful career in STEM and would like to connect with Prasha Dutra, you can reach her at Her STEM Story, Her STEM Consulting, and her own website at http://prashadutra.com/. You can also find her on LinkedIn, Twitter (@prasha88 and herstemstory) and Instagram (@prashadutra and herstemstory).
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