From Farm to Silicon Valley: How One Turkish Immigrant Turned Grief, Grit, and Education Into a Life Beyond Imagination with Nuray Krein Yilmaz

What does it look like to build a life from scratch, not once, but again and again? Nuray Krein Yilmaz has done it more times than most people ever will, and her story is one of the most quietly extraordinary ones we've shared on this podcast.

Nuray grew up in a small farming village in eastern Turkey, the eleventh of twelve siblings, in a community where girls' futures were largely pre-written. She lost both parents to cancer before she turned 13. She taught herself to dream inside boarding school libraries and across chess tournaments — and she never stopped.

In 2018, she moved to the United States through a cultural exchange program with limited English, no safety net, and an enormous amount of courage. Today she is a content analyst in tech, a published author, and the founder of What If You Can — a community for people navigating immigration, grief, career transitions, and the question of whether they belong.

In this episode, Lori and Nuray explore:

• How losing both parents to cancer before age 13 became the unlikely foundation for a life built on education and agency

• The role her father played in naming a different future for her — in a place where most men didn't

• What chess taught her about being underestimated, competing, and winning on her own terms

• The layers of learning agility required to navigate new languages, new cities, new countries, and new cultures

• Practical advice for first-generation immigrants: mentors, community, salary negotiation, and the courage to ask for help

• Why storytelling and community are not soft extras — they are the infrastructure of belonging

• The vision behind What If You Can and what she most wants to say to the girl she once was

Nuray Krein Yilmaz is a first-generation immigrant, content analyst working via Highspring at Google, a published author, and founder of the What If You Can community. She holds a degree in business administration and builds spaces for people navigating uncertainty with curiosity and hope.

TIMESTAMPS

• 00:00 — Introduction & welcome

• 02:00 — Growing up on a farm in eastern Turkey; losing both parents before 13

• 05:00 — Her father's pivotal role; chess as a gateway to confidence and travel

• 10:00 — Arriving in the United States in 2018; navigating visa challenges and a new culture

• 18:00 — Education, self-learning, and tools for first-generation immigrants

• 22:00 — Salary negotiation, unwritten rules, and asking for help

• 24:00 — How storytelling builds belonging and motivation

• 29:00 — What If You Can community and the difference Nuray is making

• 33:00 — Where to find Nuray, her book, and her community

Find Nuray Krein Yilmaz at:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nuraykreinyilmaz

Instagram: @nuraykrein

Book: Notes From My Mind (available on Amazon)

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