Dalia Asterbadi is a relentless problem solver. She has not been short of experience and achievement and began to prove her merit as early as when she was 8 years old, when she submitted her first marketing plan, managed a non--profit event at 12, led a team of marketers in one of Canada’s best managed companies at 24 and was a Director at a Publicly traded company at 25. All before founding her first company with her sisters in the green space of Software as a Service (SaaS) when they would refer to it as ‘rental software’ leading to its global market share of non--profit customers for communication and membership management. A systems engineer by trade, Dalia transitioned into sales and marketing, where she was a pioneer in technology--driven marketing communications and sales analytics. Dalia’s unique leadership and skills in the high--tech industry lead her to be recognized by different associations to consult and strategize on ROI, customer retention, and customer segmentation. Dalia has published several papers on dynamic customer segmentation, funnel response and is the author of several books including a contribution to “Making it in High Heels” and her latest “The 31 Immutable Plays of Prospecting: The Truth Behind a Winning Culture and Bridging the Gap between Sales and Marketing”. Today, Dalia is working on a new company, realSociable, focused on social insight for deeper engagement with customers. She calls this new value--driven approach the next phase of sales and marketing automation – Perpetual Prospecting. She is helping companies achieve greater sales capacity without process by simply becoming intuitive to engagement opportunities provided by her platform and breaking down the methods and innate characteristics of modern--era business. She claims its getting back to basics with new skills and selling the NEW old fashioned way. Customers who have worked with Dalia include HP, Vodafone, Microsoft, Cisco, Salesforce.com and more including wealth management organizations. Dalia is an inspiring entrepreneur who defies odds in a male--driven industry and has many thoughts on changing this status quo – rather than focusing on issues, she collaborates with organizations such as Camp Enterprise to provide a gateway for young people to develop interest in technology and entrepreneurship. She is a long-time volunteer of Rotary International. **Below are the words of a colleague, Laura James, who's daughter decided to study engineering. Beautiful and hope it can inspire you! "1. Engineers have to work with teams - which is frustrating so they learn to cope with disagreement and conflict easier than others - if they change to any other career, they can quickly rise the ranks and lead a team as they are used to doing it. 2. Engineers learn logic and critical thought processes (i.e. math & feedback loop) in tandem with creative soft skills (imagination). 3. Engineers know more about the world... not because they studied about it, per se, but because they use language that most of us do not understand (without a science / math background). i.e. they can watch a show about pyramids and understand the minutia of what is being shared. Thereby seeming more intelligent than others, even though they can tend to be at a loss when it comes to some basic life skills that many others have (i.e. communication or the arts or pop culture). 4. Engineers have to get past a lot of drab bullshit in order to get to the good stuff - not just in university, but in every project etc. - they learn patience and how to have vision for the final product --- not only can they see the rainbow at the end of the down pore, they can see the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, whiles others are stuck complaining about the rain. 5. Engineers skills are all easily transferable to virtually any field. They are invaluable and instantly demand a higher pay scale, which earns them more respect -- moving them more organically but quickly up the ranks -- thereby learning faster and adapting to new challenges. 6. Engineers are lonely in their intelligence so they stick together and support each other. They know stuff that 90% of the population doesn't know so they have a sub-culture of their own and they support one another. They have a deep respect for the work that others have achieved because they know how difficult it was for them to achieve in their pursuits. 7. Engineers are geeks. They don't want to know surface stuff... they want the details... they need to know it all or it makes them crazy. This is a valuable trait for any employer... knowing they can leave someone to a task (even if its' to fix the coffee machine) and have them dig in and get all the facts and then come up with a useful solution. 8. Engineers aren't naturals at business, per se, but they are instantly respected which is half the battle. 9. Engineers have a right of passage... the ring. Another bonding mechanism that helps them stay true to each other. 10. Engineers make money early in their career, thereby allowing them to pursue personal dreams or have leverage in another job for higher pay etc."