Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Now we're going to explore inspiring stories of women in financial services that had the courage to do a 360 degree shift, completely changing their careers. Some even start their own successful businesses. They will share success strategies to make, moves defy odds, and bring a unique, successful plan our business to market. Our first story is about Deborah Taylor, founder and c o o of Open Sparks and co-founder and c o O of Pax Technology and Android Payment Terminal. She's also a non-executive director of Stone and Chalk FinTech Leader of the Year in 2019, and innovative of the year in 2019. Debra, what's your advice for women in finance who also want to start their own business? Tell us your story.
Speaker 2 00:00:55 Hi, I will certainly, the first thing I would say is do not be afraid to fail. In fact, if you never fail, you're probably not achieving your full potential. So over the last 30 odd years, I've started over 12 businesses. I've sold four, I've morphed some into others, and I have had two spectacular failures. So one of those included nearly three years of litigation in three different jurisdictions. So to keep going through such a challenging time, I had to keep focusing on my future success. I didn't know what that was gonna be, but I know I always come through. So that has what has kept me going. My belief in myself and my eyes are always on the future. So I left school at 16, started my first business at 21, and I was really naive, but I soon understood how much there is to business.
Speaker 2 00:01:46 So I became an autodidact. I've taught myself to be a specialist generalist in business, and I've had to do so. I've had amazing and continue to have amazing teachers, mentors, and I surround myself with people who believe in me. I took every opportunity to learn in my companies. I'm the head of legal commercials, operations. I'm also the chief problem solver. So I, once I scoured the earth for a computer chip to go into an atm, that made my cut me a lot of money. But the personal satisfaction I get from being able to solve a problem is one of the things that really, um, which I love. So, but the biggest challenge I've had to face was when my two year old daughter was diagnosed with leukemia. Now I had to dig very deep. I had to learn how to manage my personal life in such a traumatic environment and operate a business as well.
Speaker 2 00:02:46 So I was very much in the present with my daughter, dealing with doctors and hospitals, and I had to keep my focus on the future. We would get through this and be stronger for it. So now I know any issue that comes up, I know I can deal with it. So now I have a very healthy 18 year old daughter and two successful scale up businesses, and I also have a great team around me. So for me, resilience has been the key. And how do you teach someone that? Well, I think you can teach buyer inspiring people by sharing our personal stories. And I think these stories are what can inspire others to achieve.
Speaker 0 00:03:27 Our next story is PAA Patel, managing Director of Fin Trail, which is a compliance advisory service to FinTech and blockchain companies. Pile, what is your story? Tell us.
Speaker 3 00:03:41 Yeah, thank you. So I was in banking before I pivoted to start my own consultancy. Um, this was actually my second attempt at starting a business the first time I left my job. And, um, I had my e prey love moment, if you will, in Bali, and hoped my business idea would come to me like an epiphany. Um, and it didn't. Uh, and I ended up going back into banking. Um, I loved my job at the time, um, but after I returned from maternity leave, the role and the team had been restructured and it definitely was, um, not the right fit for me. I found working life as a mum extremely difficult to navigate. I wanted to be challenged by work and have a meaningful trajectory, but I also wanted flexibility to spend time with my son. Um, and it turns out that perfect setup just didn't exist, so I decided to set it up, uh, for myself.
Speaker 3 00:04:33 Um, so starting your own business is much harder than anyone could have described, and nothing really prepares you for it. I had to quickly get comfortable marketing myself and building my own brand and my profile, and also attaching a price to the value that I could bring to an organization. Um, and this is definitely not something I got comfortable with overnight, um, but I continue to put myself out there and find the style and approach that worked for me. Um, failure and rejection is a natural part of that learning curve and something I consciously now, um, don't take personally. Um, and I think this is what's allowed me to continue to build the momentum of, of, of, you know, my business and sort of scaling now, um, fin trail across the region.
Speaker 0 00:05:23 Wow, what a great story. Could you let us know what strategies or tips you recommend for women who are interested in either going through starting a business or who are faced with some very challenging decisions about their exit strategy for their business?
Speaker 3 00:05:41 Yeah, sure. So in terms of starting your business, my advice would be just to get started. Um, even if it's steps you take, the steps you take are very small. So carving out 30 minutes in the morning before you go to your current current job to to flesh out an idea and to do this every day for a month, and then add more time as things evolve, is definitely something I think anyone can do. I think there's an incorrect perception that starting a business has to involve diving with both feed in, um, and committing to it full-time at the outset. I don't think this, I don't believe this to be true, and I don't even think it's right for everyone. Um, I also don't believe that there's a perfect time to start a business, which is why I think starting small, but remaining committed is something that anyone can do in terms of sort of the emotional aspect of, um, uh, you know, leaving a job, um, selling a business. I think what's really helped me is actually just stepping back and thinking about the commercial opportunity in very black and white and practical terms. Also, if you've got a partner, a, um, a spouse, a family member or friend that you can bounce these ideas around, um, that's also helpful. I'm a great list maker to making lists of pros and cons and really trying to think about things objectively, um, has helped me.
Speaker 0 00:07:03 Our next story is about Stephanie Foster, 20 nineteens, e t a 40 under 40, and product manager at Fiserv, a leading global tech provider serving the financial services industry. Stephanie, what is your success tip for making a 360 degree shift in your career in financial services? Tell us your story.
Speaker 4 00:07:25 So, in making a career move, you should build and cultivate your network, reinvent yourself, join industry boards, and ask for the title and the salary that you want. I once heard someone say, growth and comfort cannot coexist, and I live my life by this quote. Now, I started my career in corporate America at the age of 17. Were an internship. I stayed with that organization for nearly two decades. It was fulfilling work. I was promoted every other year, and life was good. I had incredible opportunities to successfully manage a 50 million business, launch a new brand, and travel on business to places where most people vacation, like St. Barts, for example. So life was good until I was passed over for the big promotion that I wanted so badly, and that was my wake up call. I needed to take action and make some hard decisions, and so I did.
Speaker 4 00:08:25 I put in the work, I leveraged social media, family members, friends, and started to network. I said yes to every coffee invite every lunch, invite every phone call, and every networking event. I completed a number of certifications. I even ended up as a finalist and the money 2020 RiseUP Academy named ETA 40 under 40, and received the WNET Emerging Translator Award. I'll now hold two industry board seats with women driving innovation and women's network and electronic transactions. I've had the amazing opportunity to become more active on the speaking circuit from podcasts like this one to blogs and panels. I love to speak about payments and FinTech as well as diversity and inclusion in our industry. In summary, I really went from a nobody to an award-winning FinTech professional in under two years by reinventing myself and growing my personal brand. If I can do it, you can do it too. Growth requires you to leave your comfort zone, but that's all right and it's worth the effort. If you want to make that career shift, you should leave your fear behind and start speaking up, asking for what you want, expanding your network and building your own brand.
Speaker 0 00:09:52 Now we have the story of Lucia Gido, founder and c e o of Emerge, a company providing customized, socially impactful blockchain solutions to clients based in emerging markets. Lucia, what is your success tip for women in financial services who want to start their own business? Tell us your story.
Speaker 5 00:10:14 Hi, well, thank you so much for having me. Um, I think my advice really comes down to three key components. The first is to have clarity and certainty of purpose. I think that's the fuel that you need in order to really venture off and go on, um, on your own. The second is to really develop breadth and depth of knowledge across multiple disciplines. Honestly, you know, we work in the financial sector for years at a time, but I think we constantly need to expand, uh, what it is that we know and sort of have a little bit of detail, um, in terms of new technologies, in terms of business practices. So really expanding what that depth and what that breadth of knowledge is before you're ready to venture. Um, and the last is to be really brave and in control of the volume of what surrounds you. So you turn it up when you really need to listen to people and consider what they're telling you, but you turn it down when you feel it's taking away from your focus and your certainty of purpose. So I think those three kind of come together into this, this one lesson that I think I've tried to apply throughout my journey.
Speaker 0 00:11:14 Thank you.
Speaker 5 00:11:16 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I, I think the rest is, uh, sorry, I know you're gonna have to edit this, but the, then I just dive straight into the story or was there a question?
Speaker 0 00:11:24 No, dive straight in.
Speaker 5 00:11:26 Oh, crap. Okay. <laugh>, sorry. We'll just dive in now then, and you can cut all of this out. I'll pause in between. So by 2018 when I was 28, I had already worked in both the public and private sectors. So I had had jobs, you know, that facilitated trade and commerce between Honduras and Canada. Um, I had worked in artificial intelligence for consumer products neurotechnology, and I had had a job in early stage investment. And so some people, they'd look at my CV and see a flight risk with way too many curiosities who was trying to be everything to everyone. Um, so I think that I was just absolutely certain that I wanted to launch my current company and I wanted to create something that was at the intersection of all of these experiences that I was looking for. I wanted it to be technological and innovative.
Speaker 5 00:12:16 I wanted to be sustainable and viable as a business. And then I also wanted it to be applied to humanitarian issues that I had cared deeply about my whole life. So obviously it was quite challenging. I was regularly working semi successfully at two jobs over 80, 90 hours a week. Um, but I launched my dream company and I did it without savings and without funding. I ran it by myself for almost a year and completely over extended myself at times. Um, and I experienced, you know, sexism, people telling me that I was being too ambitious or that, you know, we weren't quite ready for what I had in mind. Um, and by 2020 I had both spoken on global stages and cried on hotel room floors, across boards. So, um, you know, this is what it looks like when your dreams come true. It's highs and lows and, and in all of that chaos, it's important to look up.
Speaker 5 00:13:03 And by then, I had picked that up as a tip. And so I looked up and noticed that, you know, the very method that I had taken to heart, both pers personally and professionally, this breadth and depth of knowledge guided by a certainty of purpose. It was what was propelling my company's traction. And so I constantly pursue new knowledge, new skills, and it doesn't really matter what the discipline is. And I sit across clients and stakeholders and can answer hours worth of questions. And the the real sense of trust that I'm creating is not in the core competency of our product, but in the core competency of our methodology and the ideology within which we even created that product in the first place. So, um, you know, it's an honor of, of women founders. Uh, you know, it's a reminder that dreams don't come true, they're made true.
Speaker 5 00:13:47 And, uh, you know, co what would it, you know, what would it take? Well, it would take bravery and work ethic and compassion and self-compassion, resilience and integrity and clear purpose. And coincidentally, all women, uh, you know, have those traits within us already. So who would've thought that this little girl from Honduras would grow up to be, you know, a founder and, and MIT 35, under 35, I think. Um, but looking back, I knew, um, because I could have only ever ended up here running this company that's one half justice movement, one half innovative startup and growth mode, and it's to my heart's content. And so I can't, uh, encourage women, women anymore than I already do to just go for it. Um, and to be brave in that, in that way. With that certainty,
Speaker 0 00:14:28 Our next story is about sema, Kenda Johnson, co-founder and c o o at Nuggets. Seima, could you share with us your story as well as some of the challenges that you faced?
Speaker 6 00:14:40 Yeah, absolutely. So I've been delivering tech products and go-to-market strategies globally for the last 20 years, and really felt it was time to deliver something that I truly believed in and almost like was a change for the better. Um, you know, I'd been working at organizations like Microsoft and Skypes and really large corporate organizations and felt I needed to be in a more entrepreneurial environment. Um, and in 2015, my Hoffman's credit card was used fraudulently, and we've all been there, right in that horrible, frustrating process of waiting for your card to come back two weeks, you know, and then plugging it into all of those services online. And that really was the challenge that we'd been searching for. Cause we just realized there had to be a better way, right? It was absolutely bonkers how we were doing this and protecting data. So in 2016, I co-founded a business called Nuggets, which is all about taking back control of your data with my husband Alistair.
Speaker 6 00:15:38 Um, and there's been lots of challenges along the way. Um, and, you know, I'll start with probably number one that we all grapple with, which is our work life balance, you know, or our life balance. I worked constantly, you know, as you do when you set up a business, you know, uh, day and night. And my mobile was almost like a liability. Um, and I had no balance at all, you know, and it was really unsustainable because when you are juggling a business and you've got a small family, or you've got friends and family that never get to see you, it, you know, you really do feel quite cut off and isolated. So I just realized that it was unsustainable and I needed to come up with a better way of working, right? I, I no longer was working, uh, for a corporate so I could absolutely have my own type of day.
Speaker 6 00:16:23 Um, so that's what I did. I created my own type of flexible day, and that's really one of the challenges that I overcome at the time because it was unsustainable, um, with what I was doing before. And then really one of the other big challenges, and you know, lots of you are probably facing this right now, is on the fund raising side. You know, when you're setting up a business, and especially as a female founder, you know, with only one to 2%, um, of female founded businesses, you know, getting funding, it's tough out there. Um, and you know, we all know that diverse teams deliver better results, but still, you know, it's tough. So really how we overcame this was that I came up with a strategy really on trying to not convince people that don't share your mission. Um, and essentially it's less time with them and it gives you more time to go and find the types of people that, you know, do share your vision and do want to invest in your product. So that's just a little bit about my story really, and how we got to where we are today.
Speaker 0 00:17:26 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I love that. And that's something that you can use in business as well as in life in general. Don't spend time trying to convince people who, um, quite frankly, have a different mindset or who are not in your community in that way. Could you also share with us a couple of tips or strategies for other women who are interested in entrepreneurship?
Speaker 6 00:17:48 Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I've got lots here, but given our time constraints, you know, just very, very top level, I think if you stick with these, I've got one major piece of, you know, the strategy, but just very quickly, you know, always, always, always trust your instincts. That's personal life and professional life. You know, it's no different in your professional life. Um, and one thing that I now absolutely stand by is that always expect the unexpected, the good and the bad, but it also, you know, it's really good to know that anything can happen. Um, but my real key piece of advice for those of you that want to start a business is always start with the why. You know, what's your purpose? What's your mission? You know, why should anyone care about what you are doing? Because everything is then grounded in a purpose, whether it is your decision making, your fundraising effort, your recruitment, but also the people that you recruit, right?
Speaker 6 00:18:39 And you know, the why, why customers should buy your product. Um, and some of that really comes from having a confidence. And in my case, just to bring that to life a little bit, you know, I always started with our why, which was around taking back control of your data. But every time I briefed, whether it was a copywriter or a marketeer or an investor, they would all, they were always trying to describe the how and the what, you know. And in my case, it decentralized self-sovereign ID and payment platform. It's not wrong, but it's also not that inspiring, right? Um, and nor does it allow you to obsess about the problem that you are solving, uh, versus the product. So really I think the difference is start with your why. Um, and that just makes things a hell of a lot easier when you are recruiting or trying to deliver a product that you know that you can take to market and that will be successful.
Speaker 0 00:19:32 Wow, such great information. Sema Kenda Johnson, thank you so much. We'd love to hear your thoughts about this special Women's Day and Women's History Month episode. You can be part of the discussion and share your story. Just email me, r reach out on social media with hashtag RS podcast. Get the opportunity to share your story about career entrepreneur entrepreneurship are as an investor. Thank you for joining.
