An experienced business analytics veteran will provide tremendous value for today’s discussion. Her career journey goes with the flow, and today, she helps others understand stakeholders, manage expectations, and deliver actual value. Mo Villagran navigates through the obstacles with the transition from academics to tech and the value of utilizing statistical genetics and networking. She explains how her role bridges the gap between technical concepts and business objectives. Mo provides insights on how you could step up from your role and learn how to deliver value to your organization. You don’t want to miss this opportunity to seek value for yourself!

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Step Up From Your Role: From Statistical Genetics To Business Analyst Manager With Mo Villagran

We have a remarkable guest with us who symbolizes resilience and adaptability in the face of change. From a background in statistical genetics to becoming as a business analytics manager, our guest, Mo Villagran, has a story that will inspire and motivate you. Before we dig into this intriguing narrative, let’s set the stage and learn a little more about Mo’s journey.  

Born out of the desire to make a difference in their own life and the lives of many others, Mo embarked on a path in statistical genetics with the mission to find a cure for their condition, Tourette’s. However, as fate would have it, Mo found herself at a crossroads early in her PhD program realizing that the academic environment wasn’t the ideal fit. Undeterred, Mo pivoted stirring her career towards the vibrant world of analytics.  

In this episode, we’ll unravel Mo’s journey, the unexpected twists, the strategic networking, and the determination that propelled Mo from an inspiring scientist into a seasoned business analytics manager. We’ll also dive deeper into the intricacies of the actuarial profession, and how networking played a pivotal role in Mo’s career transition. Let’s get started. Let’s explore the fascinating odyssey of Mo. Let’s learn how Mo embraced change and how you too can navigate and succeed in the world of evolving careers. 

First and foremost, for people like me, Mo, can you please tell us what is an actuary? 

An actuary is a professional that sets the premium of your insurance. Premium is the monthly fee that you pay to your insurance company. They are car insurance, property insurance, health insurance, and pet insurance. Any insurance that pays a monthly premium, premiums to feed everything. Actuaries are the ones that tell you how much you should charge a particular person based on their situation if you're pregnant, you have a family, you have children, or whatever card you have.  

You mentioned that you saw an actuary available everywhere where you had moved in Connecticut. Tell me more about how you go about identifying these career opportunities. What motivates you to pursue each of these goals? Would you say you're working towards a long-term strategy or is this motivated by what is needed in the moment in terms of your life as well as the industry in general? 

In my early twenties, I wasn't very strategic. I was when I was a scientist. I had this whole thing planned out but as soon as that path closed on me, I went with the flow. I had the luxury of not working because my husband was working. I decided that I needed something to keep myself busy. I’ve always been very driven. I like numbers. This is something I like. I thought about it. If I had worried in New York, I would have gone to finance. It's most geographic. Anything with numbers in that geographic location, I would have gone into it. That was my thought, thinking back.  

I went to church, and this guy was doing actuary work. Left and right, everyone was an actuary. It's impossible to miss. It's a matter of if I want to be a healthcare actuary, a casualty actuary, or a life insurance actuary. Healthcare is more related to me because I know biological sciences. It’s not that close, but I try to make that dot for myself and also for them because they have to see my value going into it. If I were a random statistician, “We use stats but how are you going to contribute to our field?” I'm trying to see from their point of view. That helps me get the job because I'm talking about my value position. That is the baseline definition. 

Another way to think about it is that this is a person who is putting a number of your risks into dollars. How high-risk are you? If you're a seventeen-year-old guy driving a Ferrari, your insurance has to be high. Why do they know it? Based on claim experience. Who has filed a claim in the past? You can tell through some statistical models. There are so many ways to do it. Casualty insurance, I don't know how they do it, but healthcare insurance, I know there's a way they do it. Once they set the baseline, they can add the factors by age, gender, smoking status, or whatever, and then they come up with your premium every month. That's what I do. 

You mentioned you talked to around 80 people about getting this job. Some would not call that networking, but it is networking. Building a network can be significantly helpful in progressing one's career. Given that you did not have any previous experience in the insurance industry, can you elaborate on how you learned about establishing that network? I heard you mentioned at church, you heard everyone was an actuary. You talked to 80 people, but I want to learn more about it. If you can, share the tactics and the methods that you found beneficial. 

I had no training. I was an international student. I had no idea what was going on. Networking in academia is a very different path. My husband finished his Air Force training, and he was discharged. He finished his service. Before the military sends you off, they will give you a career training program. He went through it at the same time that I was going through it. He was telling me what he learned from these lessons. 

I was learning through him telling me, summarizing his one-week lesson from the military career training program. I thank the military for that. Thank you. In this second, I was thinking about statistics. If I can talk to as many people as possible, someone must know someone, and then something's going to work. That's my thought because I'm right there. It's not like I'm networking to try to get into an actuary role in Hawaii. I’m right there. 

That was before COVID. I even drive to the office at midnight in the lobby. I'm not like, “Give me a job.” I'm very open. I'm not asking anything. I'm going to talk to you for 10 minutes or 15 minutes in your office lobby. Sometimes, they will call me and ask me to meet their co-workers for a second. The security was not very strict. That was many years ago. It happened naturally. Also, my personality, I'm not very shy. I will say, “This is what I want,” and that helps a lot because if people know that’s what you want, it's more likely they will try to help you.  

They won't be like, “Mo wants to do this. I don't want to help you.” That's not a natural reaction. Usually, people will say, “Do you want something? I know someone who is an actuary down the street. It is my neighbor. Do you want to talk to my neighbor? Your children say that you want to be a doctor. Do you want to talk to my cousin? I talked to him. He’s going to medical school.” Usually, that's how people are. 

In terms of networking, you're not talking about going to conferences and things like that. Your idea of networking is reaching out and meeting people in everyday life. You're talking about even going into office meetings and just sharing them. 

I didn't go without being invited. I did message on LinkedIn first and they were like, “You can drop by.” I didn't just go into the credentials office. I message them. That's my proposition. I was like, “I want to do an internet information interview. It will only take fifteen minutes of your time. Can I meet you at your company’s lobby?” They're like, “Great.” 

You made it easy for them to help you and talk to you. You set a clear agenda. You were like, “I want to tell you what I bring to the table, how I can connect the dots for you, and how I can provide value. I can do it in 10 or 15 minutes. I can do it wherever you would like me to talk to you about this.” You're making it easy for them, and that is a very important part of networking. 

For me, networking seems such a big subject and a vague term that it's hard to figure out how and where to get started. What you're saying is that if you have a clear goal in mind, you can be jagged to people and write down your pitch, what you're offering, what the companies are doing, and what you're offering. Those two things meshed together and what the other person is going to get out of it. At the end of the day, if people are not good people, they can take leverage of the referral bonus. I'm pretty sure they get to that. 

You mentioned you talked to around 80 people about getting this job. Some would not call that networking, but it is networking. Building a network can be significantly helpful in progressing one's career. Given that you did not have any previous experience in the insurance industry, can you elaborate on how you learned about establishing that network? I heard you mention at church, you heard everyone was an actuary. You talked to 80 people, but I want to learn more about it. If you can, share the tactics and the methods that you found beneficial.

I had no training. I was an international student. I had no idea what was going on. Networking in academia is a very different path. My husband finished his Air Force training, and he was discharged. He finished his service. Before the military sends you off, they will give you a career training program. He went through it at the same time that I was going through it. He was telling me why I learned from these lessons.

I was learning through him telling me, summarizing his one-week lesson from the military career training program. I thank the military for that. Thank you. In this second, I was thinking about statistics. If I can talk to as many people as possible. Someone must know someone, and then something's going to work. That's my thought because I'm right there. It's not like I'm networking to try to get into an actual role in Hawaii. I’m right there.

That was before COVID. I even drive to the office at midnight in the lobby. I'm not like, “Give me a job.” I'm very open. I'm not asking anything. I'm going to talk to you for 10 minutes or 15 minutes in your office lobby. Sometimes, they will call me and ask me to meet their co-workers for a second. The security was not very strict. That was many years ago. It happened naturally. Also, my personality. I'm not very shy. I will say, “This is what I want,” and that helps a lot because if people know that’s what you want, it's more likely they will try to help you. They won't be like, “Mom wants to do this. I don't want to help you.”

That's not a natural reaction. Usually, people say, “Do you want something? I know someone is an actuary down the street. It is my neighbor. Do you want to talk to my neighbor? Your children say that you want to be a doctor. Do you want to talk to my cousin? I talked to him. He’s going to medical school.” Usually, that's how people are.

In terms of networking, you're not talking about going to conferences and things like that. Your idea of networking is reaching out and meeting people in everyday life. You're talking about even going into office.

I didn't go without being invited. I did message on LinkedIn first and they were like, “You can drop by.” I didn't go into the credentials office. I message them. That's my proposition. I was like, “I want to do an internet information interview. It will only take fifteen minutes of your time. Can I meet you at your company’s lobby?” They're like, “Great,” because of a little stress.

You made it easy for them to help you and talk to you. You set a clear agenda. You were like, “I want to tell you what I bring to the table, how I can connect the dots for you, and how I can provide value. I can do it in 10 or 15 minutes. I can do it wherever you would like me to talk to you about this.” You're making it easy for them, and that is a very important part of networking.

For me, networking seems such a big subject and a vague term that it's hard to figure out how and where to get started. What you're saying is that if you have a clear goal in mind, you can be jagged to people and write down your pitch, what you're offering, what the companies are doing, and what you're offering. Those two things meshed together and what the other person is going to get out of it, at the end of the day, if people are not good people, they can take leverage of the referral bonus. I'm pretty sure they get to that.

In fact, that was also a pretty calm referral bonus. Some were pretty motivated, I could tell, but I didn't fit the traditional actuarial intern. I didn't graduate from UConn. I didn't have the right degrees. Some were automatic rejections, which is fine. I don't care. You're right. The steps are pretty straightforward. You have to know what you want because I have to get going and say, “I can't be assigned this anymore. I don’t know what to do with myself.” I'm not going to say that to people. That's something I had to work out before I went out. I have what I want and I have a value offer. They didn’t think it was fine, so I made the connection, and that’s it. 

There's another piece there, which is how do you stay motivated as you're going at it? Is it your statistical background that tells you, “It is not a big deal?” I can feel myself getting demotivated and feeling rejected but your approach is very interesting. It's a numbers game. Tell me more about that. 

From a very young age, I learned that it's never personal. People have their problems. They are like, “I know I'm a good person. I deserve something that I want.” If they reject me, there are so many people on Earth, 7 billion of us. Something has to hit. Something’s got to make sense. Someone's going to click. I don’t have to go to 1 billion people. I live in that area and I have this statistical knowledge that is probably better than most actuaries, to be honest. 

My thoughts are either they take it or they don't take it. I have some backup plans, but I was so obsessed. At the time, I came from a career field that was not clearly planned out. In academia, it's hard to get posted on. It’s hard to get a position as a professor. It's very muddy. Actuary provides something that I wanted. I thought it was very attractive at the time because they had clear career progression. If you've passed all the series of exams, you are almost destined to be promoted. That's how they structure the career path. It's very clear. I wanted that because I never had that clarity. Here, I could follow this map and I can get it. Of course, it didn't work out. That's why I'm not an actuary. 

Let's talk more about that. From actuary, you went into fraud detection analyst and data architect. Tell me more about those transactions. What are the obstacles that you face? You've gone from academics into tech or not academics. How did you navigate the following transitions and the obstacles that came with those transitions? 

The move to fraud detection was a surprise at the time because I have been taking actuary exams every year. I study all the time. I never had a weekend off, and I was pregnant at the same time. I took tests before I gave birth and after I gave birth. It was very intense. In 3 or 4 years, that was very fast. It wasn't until I passed the big one. They said they had to add more tests. They were supposed to be eight, and I was almost done. 

They said they got to add more tests and I thought to myself, “I'm not playing this game anymore. I don't care,” because they could add more tests. I don't agree with the way they test people how to use R, the programming language. I know this language. You can test people in an exam with multiple choice. It doesn't sit well with me. I thought to myself, “Why am I playing this game? I don't care that much. Do I really care?” The answer is no.  

I started looking for new jobs. I was struggling with them until my husband and I visited Florida, where he's from. It came to us like, “Why don't we move here?” My son had never seen his grandparents more than three times his whole life. When he turned eighteen, he probably never saw them more than twenty times. That's sad. We said, “Let's move back.” I looked online. I found my first job. It says Fraud Detection for Medicare. I was like, “Perfect fit.” I took the job. That was the first job I applied and I got it. It worked out. 

It's interesting how your career journey is going with the flow and you talked about it. 

I never had a plan. I resent that, but at the same time, how much can you plan, to be honest? I didn't come from a traditional background. 

You made some choices that I'm pretty sure are beneficial for your family. I bet your kid appreciates time with their grandparents. 

It was a good move. My colleagues would not understand how I could drop this because the program, they got paid by the company. Fortunately, I don’t have to pay it back because every test is about $1,000. It's pretty expensive to take these tests. Anyone I know would be like, “Why would you drop everything for this?” I was like, “I don't want to do this anymore.” My boss was like, “Are you going to keep taking tests in Florida?” I was like, “No. I'm not doing this.” I can understand how they see it. 

You have started and stopped your career at least twice or three times and yet, you're very successful. You're doing amazing work, and that's very impressive. I hope you're proud of yourself. I've been going into software engineering for years. Tech takes a lot. I wonder how much of the different strains keep you motivated in tech. There's a novelty in starting something from scratch or moving towards something new and learning that field. How much of that keeps you engaged in tech? I'm wondering how that plays into it. 

There’s something I ask myself. I like to learn stuff and execute. It’s not just learning and it's delivering something. I don't like to deliver the same thing over and over again, which is what actuaries do. Every year, that has a price this premium. Every year is the same process. It’s like doing taxes, except they're doing different kinds of numbers that they run through. There are new ways of doing it, but every year, it's the same exercise all over again. I realize that drives me nuts.  

Learn and execute.

Tech, especially fraud detection, is not the same case every time. You can only detect the same fraud in that one year, and in six months, they're changing. The criminal changes fast. They're pretty quick. You have to change something. You have to pivot real quick. I enjoy, especially the feeling that I do have some effect on people's lives. That’s something I enjoy because I don't like to be just smart. You have to be useful. 

People are very book-smart. I can be book-smart, but I don't care about that. I want the knowledge to be applied, and that's something that attracts me. Every time I change my job, I realize what I do doesn't have the impact that I want. I can see that people are stopping me from doing it no matter how much I try. That's what I feel like. I don't want to be stuck. I have so much to offer. I don't need to be constrained to this narrow path. 

Let's dive deeper into the last time you felt stuck. What was the point where you were like, “Now, I am going to start somewhere else,” instead of trying to work around that obstacle or work with the obstacle? At what point do you decide, “This obstacle is not worth it?” 

When I was in fraud detection, I did enjoy the job. I like my coworkers. We still have lunch every month or so. I still meet with them. They're local in this area. What I don't like is working for the government. The government is slow. It’s just how it is. I accepted it for a while because my boss was happy to let me take initiative. I gave presentations to the FBI. I feel good. It's a cool experience. You detect fraud in the simplest manner ever. They don't even need to hire a statistician. 

My methodology will help them find it by doing it themselves. They don't even need an advanced program. I remember going to CMS Headquarters for a conference because what I do is prevent fraud in ways. This girl shows like, “The budget this year is $5.2 billion. Wait, is it $5.1 billion or $5.2 billion? Remind me, is it $5.2 billion or $5.1 billion?” $5.1 billion is a lot of money. This isn't something you just gloss over. 

The next one, I was on a trip, and I have always been very careful with company money when you go on a trip. To a point, people always try to ask me to explain why I had a bottle of Monster on my trip. I'm annoyed. I was stressed. Working for a government is very frustrating. On top of that, after that conference, I thought to myself, “I can't do this.” Maybe I don't like to be stuck. I know some people who are stuck and they don't do anything about it. I can understand why they don't do anything about it. 

If I were a different person, I’d probably be in the same position but I thought it was time to move on. Again, I started talking to my friends about this. How can I pivot? I have this idea. I have this actuary experience. I have life science experience. Also, during the actuary year, I learned how to program SQL and all these databases. Now, you can combine all these into something. 

I randomly saw this post while doing data architecture for a Virginia counseling company. I thought it was great because I attacked $200 million of fraud in genetic testing. What they want to do is to reduce the cost and misuse of genetic testing as genetic counselors. This matches perfectly. I reached out to HR directly. I reached out to a friend of mine who is the friend of the founder of the company. It just happened there is a network. They introduced me to her but she’s no longer with the company, so she introduced me to the actual CEO of the company. They picked me up, and then it just worked out. It was a perfect match. They said they had been looking for several months. It worked out. 

Again, I am in awe of your ability to reach out to people, share what you provide, and confidently talk about, “I know what I'm good at and what I can do for you. Let's make this happen.” A lot of people have a difficult time with it, especially women in tech. Thank you for sharing that. Let's pivot a little. Tell me about your role as a business analytics manager. How do you bridge the gap between technical concepts and business objectives? Before we do that, tell me more about your role and what your day-to-day work looks like. 

This role is very different from when I accepted the job. When I accepted the job, I was ready to be managing people. I was ready to transition into not doing the actual work or maybe less of that because I became interested in coaching and developing that side of me in leadership. However, it’s either miscommunication or whatever. I didn't know that the company didn't have anything but Excel in terms of data analytics capability. Also, I didn't know that they didn't have an immediate plan to hire new people.  

I ended up doing everything by myself for a very long time. I was hoping to be less of an individual contributor, which I have always been, to more of an individual contributor than I ever was. That was a disappointment. However, despite the obstacle, we did pretty well, the business, me, the contractor, and then some of the infrastructure teams and the IT. The relationship was pretty tense. I just listen. I don't pick sides because the two parties are butting heads. It's not that this side is wrong or that one's wrong. It doesn't matter who is wrong. It matters what they're trying to solve. That's the thing I want to see. What is the problem? I had no idea. I joined the company weeks ago.  

I realized that there was a lot of delay in the project because the progress was not communicated well. They had a few backlogs with the past contractors, which is understandable. It’s hard to find someone that is good, contractor-wise. I have a seven-step. I paraphrase, “This is what you tell. This is what’s missing. This is what you want.” They're like, “It’s this,” and then we go further back, “This is why.” I always nail it down. I said, “Where is your data?” 

Find the problem because they tell you the symptoms. They don't tell you the actual disease. They said their data is somewhere. The business doesn't know and they can't read this, which is fine. Finally, they gave me some flat files in Excel. Usually, people from my background, from a data perspective, don't like to work on flat files because that's not the typical way to do it. I don't care because they need to see value right away. I dumped the flat file and did some draft dashboards. I don't even know what they want. The dashboard looks good. It doesn't matter. I need to make something happen so people can calm down a little bit.  

Once I see that something happened, although that's not good, they see something happened in less than a week. They're like, “Now we can talk about what this should look like.” People start to engage, “I want this to look like this and look like that.” When they are telling me this, I have the time to go back and see what's going on with the data because we didn't have it data. I can build the deck slowly. Usually, what happens is, in our field, you build data and connect the data and then you make sure the pipeline's okay. Finally, bring it into production, and then you can finally connect the data to the Power BI. 

This takes at least two financial quarters or more if you're lucky. I don't think they can wait six months. They'll probably kill me. I said, “Let’s do the draft first.” Once they calmed down, every week, we had a progress meeting. I’ll meet with them regularly. Regularly is a key. It has to be consistent. They know what to expect, and if I don't know what they want, I don't email it like, “What do you want to look like?” I will say, “I'm going to demo in real-time. This is what it looks like. Do you like this color or does this make sense?” 

Sometimes, I'm always happy when people make me like a mock-off in PowerPoint or Excel because that can look good and copy the look into Power BI. Through time, it’s pretty intense but through this process, the regular communication helps with the tension. Also, my macro understanding, I'm from the insurance world. I don't know anything about SAP. I didn't know much about Salesforce. 

The tools they were using were new to you. 

Also, the data type was new to me. Fortunately, in this regular communication, what you are going to find is the stakeholders are pretty open to teaching you about what's going on. They explained, “This is Salesforce. This is how you use the data.” They're like, “SAP, this is how we lower revenue. This is how we lower the BIT file, the margin, etc.” They will teach you. They don't expect me to be an accounting expert. I am not a finance person, unfortunately. It was very intense. We then hired two contractors and things have gone better. 

I see a throughline in terms of your communication style, both in networking and here, with very clear communication in terms of, “This is what I want. This is what you want. Is it aligning? How can we make that happen.” This is what I heard you do when it comes to networking, everyday jobs, and engaging with the stakeholders. Again, clear asks, clear questions, and making it easy for them instead of leaving it open-ended. 

In every meeting, there has to be some interaction. You go into a meeting and this is what happened. I need an agenda. I don't have to post it. This is what we need to talk about. I know how to get oriented, but I have things I will go through. They don't know that I am going through my list. Before, I was like, “Can we commit to this?” 

I might not say the word commit but I will say, “Are you open to doing this? We'll meet again, or can you give me this and that? Let's pick something and do it first.” Sometimes, it's hard. Problems are not easy. It's hard to be locked down by this big problem. What’s the first thing that we can do? We'll do it. Let's do one thing at a time, a little thing, then the second one, and the third one. That's what makes you move forward, clear instructions. 

Let's do one thing at a time. That's what makes you move forward.

I'm ready for rapid fire. I am going to go through a couple of questions and we can try to get through those in a few words or a few minutes. Can you share a project or accomplishment you're particularly proud of in your own career? 

I'm especially proud of this very first Power BI dash I made for my company because I was at a point where I didn't know that data for the first time. I'm always an insurance claim expert. I'm like, “I did not know this data.” They showed me the dashboard, and I wasn't sure how I made this happen. There was no cloud architecture, but we did in two months with limited infrastructure.  

I want to thank the stakeholder. He was able to give me demos and show me Excel. He had all the formulas ready. I had to click in the format and see. He's always available to ask questions and tell me about the demo and I’ll demo back. It's real-time. Sometimes it was scheduled for two hours or do it real quick in one session. That was helpful. It was one of the most complicated dashboards I've ever made in my life. It was very complex. A global company will have FX rate conversion issues with all the different proposals, I would say. 

There are three different business units. There are timeliness issues. The bids come at different times. It's almost a real-time dashboard that then refreshes from the cloud. Also, Salesforce has some customized columns. They won’t let us use it outside of Salesforce. I had to recreate the same column and the same logic in the Azure data pipeline outside. I was like, “This is such a pain.” That was hard but we did it. 

Looking back, is there any advice you would give someone who wants to pursue a career transition or explore new roles but may feel limited by their knowledge or industry? 

There is no one to fill all of that. I feel that often. If you know what you want, you should have a plan. I'm not saying that you drop everything and do it. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is you know what you want. That's the first step because sometimes I struggle with that. What do I want? Once that is clear, you have to start doing these little things like, “Maybe I’ll talk to five people about why I want it.” A neighbor or going to the grocery store, all your friends, then you build on that. You have to know that you're going through that transition. If you want it bad, do more on LinkedIn or send out cold call, emails. I don't care. Whatever it takes, do it because you want it so bad. 

If you are making a case for tech, what would it look like? Why tech? Why should someone move to tech? 

I don't have a preference. People say, “Baseball pays better.” Maybe that's true in general. There are so many other businesses. Being a plumber can be very lucrative. It depends on personality. Deliverance is also a project-based stuff on a regular basis and you enjoy the intersection between business and this technology side of things. Maybe it's a great career but I don't think that anybody should try to fit into the hot things in the world. 

Anybody shouldn't try to fit themselves, defend, and sign into the hot things in the world. Find something you enjoy.

I was a data scientist and now, I’m a data engineer. Who knows what's next year? I don't know. You have to find something that you enjoy. I wish that I knew why I enjoyed it earlier because my true passion is writing. It took me a long time to realize that. I like to write and not just nonfiction. I write fiction and poems. I write all kinds of stuff. I never took it seriously because I thought, “How can you make any money from writing? Writing is communication skills. It's part of life. Who cares?” Now that I think about it, it brings me joy. It's something I want, but I wish I had discovered it earlier. My career would have been different. People should do something that they want. 

Having that knowledge, how has that changed your reason for being in tech? 

It helps with the communication side of things. In writing, you have to know what people want. You don’t want to write to any other people that don't want to read it. Tech is lacking this stakeholder engagement across the board, especially in data analytics. If you look at Gartner’s report, the fail rate is 80%. That's high. It's higher than the clinical trials’ fail rate for clinical stage three. I look at the report. You can look it up. Clinical trial three is so hard to succeed. Data analytics probably has a higher fail rate than a clinical trial. It's pretty bad, and the major problem is the communication. I don't know if it is a lack of training or a lack of will to do it. I am not sure. 

I can vouch for that myself. Communication is one of the biggest issues I see every day. Communication between different teams or within the teams. You're right on that. Speaking of communication, what are some of your hidden talents or skills that people might be surprised to know about, other than communication? 

I am pretty imaginary. I have a lot of story ideas. Even I surprise myself. I had this idea about Star Trek. It's silly but Star Trek always had these telepathic people but I never dive into how or why or if there's any consistency of these people. I decided to fill in all the gaps, not in the Star Trek universe but in my own universe. What will happen if telepathic and mind-reading abilities are real? Why would people interact with them? There's got to be two problems. 

If they’re going to read your mind, do you trust them? If you can read my mind anytime that you want, how do I help the people around them deal with that? That is the story I’m writing about. How do people deal with that? It's this multi-planetary story. Even themselves, they deal with it differently. One group that can read minds thinks that they should keep it themselves. They don't talk verbally. 

The other side thinks that they should conquer the world because they have been wronged. There are people who think that they're dangerous. They want to stop them anytime they can. There are people who are very welcome. They hire them to do things for them. I am interested in these relationships with people. I observe people. I write about it. 

I'm going to have you back and talk about your writing and your skills in terms of all these imaginary worlds and stories because I'm intrigued. I want to learn more about that. Lastly, where can people find you and learn all these things that you're doing because you've also written a book? 

It's easy. Find me a LinkedIn, Mo Villagran. My book is called Data Insights Delivered. It's a surprise. That's why I write a book. That’s what I do every day, deliver data insights. I also have a website, https://DataConcierge.co. I like this concept of Data Concierge because concierges are service-oriented. They’re trying to help out the guests.  

In the end, it's the same thing. Your staples are mostly clueless. No offense, but they’re mostly clueless and you're trying to help them get stuff. They tell you something. It’s not what that is. Figure it out. Throughout all this conversation, you find something fun. It's always customized work. It’s never going to be out of the box. I wish it was true but that's not true. It's always customized. If customized work is necessary, then customer service is even more necessary. 

If cosmetics are necessary, then customer service is even more necessary.

Thank you so much for this wonderful conversation. I had such a great time talking to you and learning more about all the wonderful things that you're bringing to the world. 

Thank you. Thanks for inviting me. I had a great time.  

Important Links

• Mo Villagran - LinkedIn

• Data Insights Delivered

• https://DataConcierge.co

• https://HiHello.me/p/8dc77462-aee5-4a19-8cb9-d27d8ad0ff3d

About Mo Villagran

Data concierge, an experienced business analytics veteran. Well-versed in data analytics and the healthcare business across sectors, such as pharmaceutical manufacturing, fraud detection, insurance pricing, etc.

In my current role, I established my company's first business analytics program and now manage global cross-functional teams to deliver ETL processes and analytic frameworks that provide actionable insights. I aim to deliver a world-class stakeholder experience in data analytics.