Latest / Money And Wealth With John Hope Bryant / From Compton to the C-Suite: The Blueprint for Black Excellence

Transcript

From Compton to the C-Suite: The Blueprint for Black Excellence · Money And Wealth With John Hope Bryant

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome The Money and Wealth with John O'Bryant, a production
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: of the Black Effect Podcast Network. iHeartRadio Network, and it
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: is season three. I want to thank you all for
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: making this one of the top podcasts for business and
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: entrepreneurship in the country and on every continent around the world.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: And for our NAACP nomination. We lost to Michelle Obama,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: but I'd be willing to do that any day of
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: the week. We have talking about amazing women, and we
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: don't feature women enough. We want to do more of that,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: and I feature women in my upcoming book on my
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: book that's out now, that's Capitalism for All. And right today,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: we have an amazing woman with us who is also
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: a good friend. Chrissy Ferko is senior executive vice president
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: ed Wells Fargo, which I believe is a Fortune one
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: hundred company, maybe Fortune and fifty, one of the biggest,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: one of the four biggest banks in the US and
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: by extension, one of the ten biggest banks arguably in
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: the world when you take out Chinese banks or government
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: related Now that title I just gave you. And she's
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: also head of Financial Inclusion and she's on this is
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: very important. The operating committee for the bank. Now, for
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: those who are listening to this in their car while
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: they're going on a jog or whatever, in a traditional
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: podcast environment where most people are listening to it initially,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: and you won't get around and seeing this on YouTube
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: until later or on social let me help you out.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: She's black, she's a sister si Sta, and like me,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: she's from Compton, California. Can't make the same. So this
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: is going to be a really a powerful episode because
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: we're going to go from Compton to the c suite,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the unlikely journey and what does that take? What does
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: that involve? How does that what does that require of
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: someone to be made of the kind of material to
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: be made of? What kind of material do you need
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: to make yourself of along the way? How do you
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: feel in the gaps? What to do? What to not do?
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: In that high powered position. Now, I'm going to give
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: some backgrounds so you have some context for her. But
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: people hear vice president at a bank or whatever, or
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: senior vice president of a bank. Oh, I've seen that before.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: I've seen a business card that had senior vice president
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: on it. Yeah, you might have you seen it, might
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: have been in your local branch network in Houston. It
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: might have been in a local market in Miami and
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: you might have saw, oh, this person is a vice
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: president or a senior vice president. By the way, no
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: dis expected intended to what I'm about to say to
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: those people hold those titles. Locally, that's very important, and
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: locally they have enormous authority. What I'm talking about is
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: a corporate officer. I'm talking about on the operating committee,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: which is where the CEO of the bank Charlie Sharp.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: In this example, since I'm talking about again, I repeat
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: this senior executive vice president. Anybody knows corporate structure. That's
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: a big baller, shot caller. That's not an official phrase.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about her prior rode before we getting
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: the living Christy talk. She's head of home lending. She
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: was head of home lending for Wells Fargo, leading twenty
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: five thousand professionals, so she was basically in charge of
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Wells Fargo Mortgage. She was essentially the CEO of Wells
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Fargo Mortgage. Actually, will ask where the title was. I
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: wouldn't be surprised if it literally was CEO well Christy.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: What was the title with Wells Fargo Mortgage?
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the CEO of home Lending.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: I told you big BALLI shot called the asset size
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: of Wills Fargo Mortgage when you were ceo.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Well, we had one point two trillion in our servicing book. Jesus,
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: we did eight billion in revenue that year and two
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: point two billion in that income.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: See. See, when you got the power, you don't need
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: to need to use it. She she I was all loud,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: like appreaching. She's like, yeah, just eight billion here and
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: I'm trillion there, and see, she's just so cool. When
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: you got the you got the power, you don't need
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: you She just low key. I want you to Anybody
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: riding their bicycle listening to this, she might have read
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: off the road, I need you. I need to buckle up.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: This is a black woman making history and she's nice.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: By the way, she's a nice person. She's authentic. So uh,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: let me get into a bit more of the backstory,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: and then I'm gonna something I don't typically do. I'm
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: gonna shut up and give her a couple questions and
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: let her just rip because she's got a lot to
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: share with you and a lot to teach. School is
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: in session. Backstory, Christy grew up in Compton, California. And
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: if you want to doose some research on her. On her,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: it's K not C k R I S t y
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: f e r c h O. The H is silent furc.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: It took me like twenty years to say fer croperty
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: and Christy Ferco. First time I called her Christy with
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: a C, She's corrected me, it's with a K John
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: She's She had no self esteem problem. So Christy grew
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: up in Common, California, and then moved to where I
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: grew up, and moved to Tucson, Arizona, a completely two
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: different worlds uh, and she never stopped traveling after that.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: She mastered what I called code switching before there was
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: a language for it. She became a finance major who
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: dreamed of Wall Street. It ended up rewriting with leadership
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Financial services looks like for a black woman everywhere. This
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: episode is not a career retrospective. It's a survival guy.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: It's a Swiss army knife for women and anybody who
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: is striving. It is a masterclass and how to be
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: excellent in any room where no one looks like you,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: and how to use that position not as a burden
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: but as a platform. I'm going to bring my own
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: experience to this where I need to layer in context,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: maybe telling her a phrase that she mentions that it
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: needs to be defined, or saying something that she says
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: very casually, like billion or trillion that needs a little
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: bit more emphasis. But other than that, I'm gonna let
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: her rip. So she is really singular. I think you're
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: the highest ranking black female certainly at the bank.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: I am, and the first ever on the operating committee.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: Amen. I have an immense respect for this lady. I
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: like her, I admire her, I respect her. We laugh together,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: we we scheme together about making the world better. She's
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: been a protector at the bank, supporter behind closed doors
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: and for me and for others. She when when somebody
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: like Bishop td Jakes, the great spiritual legend icon in
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: the world, when he says he talked to somebody, well,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Fargo Bank, nine times out of ten is Christy. He
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: can get to the CEO. But the CEO really asked
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Christy to to do uh, to do the heavy lifting
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: really for these relationships, to make them work and bring
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: and make them real. So here is some context and
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: some questions for you. Oh and I guess before we
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: get in that we should go a little bit more
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: on the backstory you worked also other places you were
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: at Fanny May, But tell the audience is a little
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: bit more about the different roles you played before getting
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: to Wells Parget before I say that, by the way,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: thirty years of experience in fincial services industry, even though
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: she only looks thirty five black dog crack. She's number
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: seventeen on the American Banker Most Powerful Women's list in
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, the first after American Chair of the
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Mortgage Bankers Association, and led in her prior role twenty
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: five thousand team members. Again, that was her prior role.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: She's doing much more now, tell us a little bit,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: take us a bit back and filling the blanks, Christie,
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: on your prior corporate roles, I think it included Fannie
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: May and PepsiCo. If I'm not respecting mistaken.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: Yep, Yeah, so I've Wells Fargo is a fifth company
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: I worked for. So I started at Baxter Healthcare had
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: rules of sales, operations, total quality management back then when
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: that was a big thing. Went to Pepsi kind of
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: the Fridolay division first, and then ended up at PepsiCo headquarters.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: So I spent about eight and a half years there
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: at the Pepsi companies. After Pepsi, I went to Fannie
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: May and spent fifteen years there. The first five was
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: in human resources and then got the opportunity to actually
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: move into the line business at Fanny May. So my
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: last ten years there was running a P and L
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: in the line business and L sorry, profit and loss statement,
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: So you are a business manager. You're making the decisions
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: about the business. And then left Fanny May and joined
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: a regional bank up in Detroit, Michigan called Flagstar and
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: went in as the president of the mortgage there. When
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: I got to Flagstar, they were really and they started
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: as a mortgage bank that actually bought a savings alone
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: to actually have a stable funding source for their mortgages.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: And so mortgage was eighty percent of the revenue of
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: the bank when I got to Flagstar, and so it
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: was really a mortgage bank inside of inside of the bank.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: And then was there for three years and then got
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: the call about Wells Fargo. So, as you've already said,
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: came into Wells Fargo almost six years ago now as
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: the CEO of the mortgage business. And did that for
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: a couple of years, and then got the opportunity to
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: get promoted onto the operating committee and did a role
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: with diverse segments, kind of bringing in diverse customers across
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: our five lines of business, and then for the last
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: year have been in this financial Inclusion opportunity role.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: My guess is when you got the when you were
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: at Wells Fargo Mortgage as CEO, you thought, my god,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: I've hit the lottery. Is the top of the of
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: the top I've never thought, I mean, this is it.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: I'll never go any that I'll need to. I'm at
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: the I mean, I'm at the pinnacle, Am I right?
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah? It was well And when I got the call
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: to for about the Wells Fargo job at Flagstar, the
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: Wells Fargo job was ten times the size of the
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: revenue that I was doing at Fannie may or at Flagstar,
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: and it was Yeah, it was a big role. It
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: was the number one bank lender and number one servicer
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: in the country. It was the biggest mortgage job. And
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: so yeah, I thought, I thought I'd made it for sure.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And then then the call came to do something
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: bigger and more pronounced, and you stepped up and stepped
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: into that. And we're gonna get into why how in
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: a minute, what's a servicer? You mentioned another phrase, people
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: don't know what's the loan servicer?
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So when people get a mortgage, it's when they
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: pay their payments every month. The servicer actually disperses those payments,
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: pays taxes, pays your es, bills, and services the mortgage.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Basically, so the mortgage servicer and the mortgage company that
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: funds alone could be in many cases are different. Correct, absolutely, Okay,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: all right, let's go back to Compton, California. Yeah, and
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: you know what did money look like growing up? What
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: did you see on those corners growing up? And what
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: did you make of it? Now we're gonna put the
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: postcript that I grew up in Compton, and I didn't
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: see ladies like she's fine. All the pretty girls were
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: on the down in the stuccle houses. So be real clear,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: it was it was all the pretty girl territory. I
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: didn't know where for her dad was hiding. Her dad
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: was hiding CHRISTI because I'd have been all over on
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: a serious how'd you get? How do you become so nice?
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: I'm sure that in kind and decent. I'm sure that's
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: a parent thing. By the way, Christy is happily married.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: So guys back off. But look like at Compton and
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: tell that story. What did money look like growing up?
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: And what do you see on those street corners?
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it, and it certainly changed over kind
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: of my upbringing there. But my dad was a track
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: coach at Compton High actually, and so that's kind of
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: where it started. My mom, you know, was a stay
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: at home mom kind of at first. But my parents
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: got married when my dad was in college, his sophomore
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: year in college, and so my dad was on scholarship
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: at San Jose and so scholarship athletes had to live
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: in the dorm, and so my mother worked a job
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: and held it down. My brother was here at the time,
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: I wasn't here yet. And then when my dad graduated college,
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: they moved back to Compton. My dad got the job
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: at Compton High and I was born and so, you know,
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: growing up on the streets. It evolved over time. I
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: think when you're a kid, you don't realize what's the
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: environment that you're, you know, growing up in. But as
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: I grew and got older, a lot of the kids
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: that I grew up with that were friends like, started
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: going to jail, started selling drugs, started being killed, and
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: we just had a different path. My father ended up
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: getting the track coach job at the University of Arizona.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: In fact, he has a distinction of being the first
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: Division one black head coach ever. And we moved to Tucson, Arizona,
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: and so it was ninety nine point nine percent black
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: to ninety nine nine percent white in Tucson. So my
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: life really was you talked about code switching. My life
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: really was traversing both of those versus those worlds. But
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: no matter where I was, it was like, these were
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: the kids I grew up with. And I think that's
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: the beautiful thing about kids. They are resilient. You don't
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: realize if you have money or if you don't have money.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: You don't realize what you have or what you don't have.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: I always say all unhappiness is caused by comparison. And
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: my parents, Yeah, my parents really didn't let us focus
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: on comparison. It was like, what you have is what
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: you have, be grateful for it. And so grew up
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: with this mindset of appreciation and gratitude for what you
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: do have. And never worried about what we didn't have.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: I think it wasn't until later in life. Actually I
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: went to USC University of Southern California, which was Los Angeles.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: That's when I saw what real money looked like. That's
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: when I was first aware like, oh, there's kids that
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: have things that I do not have. Like my roommate
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: my freshman year, you know, her father pulled up her
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: car and it was a BMW on a flatbed truck.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: Like I did not go to school with a car,
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: and I didn't have a car my whole four years
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: of college. That just that wasn't something for us. So
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: it wasn't really until I went to college that I
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: really realized the difference in people with money. Let's go
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: back money a little bike.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, let's go back to conflict for a minute, because
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: you had something in complent. You didn't have money. If
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: you had wealth, you had wealth of spirit. Who who
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: your family told you they loved you, gave you, confidence,
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: gave you. Were you a daddy's girl?
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: I was a daddy's girl. Yeah, very much.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: So.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: I think in our family, actually we didn't use the
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: word I love you in our house, and in fact,
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: I have no memories growing up of hearing my parents
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: say that they loved me. It was just a word
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: that my parents didn't use. And that sounds crazy, but
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: it wasn't. But we felt very very loved and we
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: felt very very secure in that it just the words
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: weren't spoken, and so we were. We grew up with
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: this belief that we could do anything that we wanted
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: to do, anything that we put our minds to. My
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: dad used to always say what the mind can perceive,
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: the will can achieve, and it was the statement of
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: constantly believing that you could do whatever you put your
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: mind to. It was about hard work, it was about sacrifice,
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: It was about you know, doing what you needed to
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: do to be successful, that hustle, that grind, and so
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: we grew up believing that there wasn't anything that we
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: couldn't do if we put our mind to it. We
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: worked hard and we believed that we could achieve it,
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: and so that was the richness. Obviously, we grew up
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: in the church, and so you know, we had a
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: spiritual grounding and knew where our gifts came from, believed
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: that our steps were ordered, and that it was our
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: job to use the gifts we were given to make
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: the world a better place. And so growing up with
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: that as the upbringing, you just believe that you not
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: only can do things, but that you're required to do
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: things to make things better for people.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: So fascinating. Your parents didn't physically tell you they loved you,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: but somehow you knew it anyway through I guess through
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: their actions. Right.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we were hugged a lot. Yeah, a lot of
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: a lot of affirmation, just not the words I love you.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: And let's put your parents in history, historical record. Let's
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: say their names, please.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: Yes, Willy, Willie and Margaret Williams.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: Thank you Willy and Margaret Williams. You did a good job.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: You had to not transition, you had to transplant yourself
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: from a black world to a white one. You just
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: mentioned that earlier. How did you survive that and what
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: did that teach you that allowed you later on to
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: survive and thrive in the corporate setting that I want
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: to go back to college.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think what became really fascinating very quickly is
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: is as we traversed those worlds, and so we would
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: spend nine months in Tucson and then we'd go back
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: to Compton for and spent our summers in Compton. The
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: practical reality was it was one hundred and ten degrees
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: in Tucson. But the other is, when your dad's a
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: track coach, you know, kind of summers are the only
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: time he really has has off after the track season ends.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: And so our life was very much traversing back and
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: forth between those two worlds, and I think very very
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: quickly we realized we weren't black enough for the black
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: kids anymore, and we weren't white enough for the white kids.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: So all of a sudden, the black kids started saying,
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: you talk funny. Why are you talking like that? You
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: talk with an accent, you know. The white kids, you know,
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: were like, your hair is different. Why is your hair different?
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: And so the going back to what you were saying
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: earlier with good parents, My parents were very grounded in
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: the fact that you don't change who you are depending
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: on what your environment is. You were always who you
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: are and allow people to adjust to you. You don't
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: adjust to other people. And again I didn't realize it
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: at the time, but what that instilled that has served
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: me very very well in my life and especially in
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: corporate is I show up authentically who I am. Like
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: when people talk about imposter syndrome, I'm fortunate that that's
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: something I've never understood because my parents kind of beat
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: that out of us at a very early age, right,
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: which is like, you be who you are, You be
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: authentic to who you are, and the world will adjust
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: to you. You don't adjust to the world. And I
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: think that was really foundational for us as kids, and
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: so it gave us permission to be who we were authentically.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: Quincy Jones once told me God bless us, soul rest
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: and so al He said, not one ounce of myself
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: esteem depends on your acceptance of mem That's reminds me
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: of how your parents raised you. Yeah, very much said
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: fifteen years of Fanny May. And so we should probably
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: describe very briefly what Fanny May is. Fanny May and
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Freddie Mac. Fanny May is the bigger of the two
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: entities in a culture, the rewards jumping in title stacking.
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: What made you stay? What were your building blocks there
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: that you couldn't get somewhere else? Why was that important
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: to stay there for fifteen years? And again that's unpacked,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: just very briefly what Fanny May is.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So Fanny May take. So they're in what's called
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: the secondary market, so wells Fargo's in the primary market.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: We lend directly to consumers. Fanny May and Freddie Mac
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: then take those loans and lenders actually sell them to
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: Fanny May and Freddie Mac. They take a bunch of
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: loans and put them together and then put them out
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: into the capital markets as a security. And it's those
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: securities and investors investing in those securities that then allows
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: rates to go down or rates to be lower as
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: a result of the efficiency of the investors getting those returns.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: So Fannie May had a really critical role to play.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: Always tell you a way you can tell the effectiveness
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: of Fanny and Freddy is if you look You don't
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: have to look in the paper anymore, but if you
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: go online and look at what rates are for a
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: jumbo mortgage or what rates are for a conventional mortgage,
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: which is which is what Fanny and Freddie secure. That
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: spread difference is the value or that gap is the
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: difference of what the value of a Fanny May or
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: Freddie Mac is to consumers.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: It subsidizes the rate it buys down the cost of
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: getting mortgage. When so Fanny Main and Freddie Mack are like,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: they're not government entities. Well their government.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: Related, government related, Yeah, government sponsored entity m g S.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Okay, So you ran worldwide Oh this is so sexy.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: You ran worldwide, worldwide corporate HR at PepsiCo. Now that's
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: all cool. If you come to Atlanta. You can't come
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: to Land talk about Pepsi but co color. But that's cool.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: You were a worldwide HR human resources at PepsiCo. Uh.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: That's not typical move for someone in financial services. What
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: did a role like that teach you that no finance
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: job would and was that intentional to take that role?
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah? So Pepsi was before my financial services career. So
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: I went for Baxter Healthcare yep. Yeah, So I went
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: for Baxter Healthcare to then Pepsi. Uh, and was in
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: my whole eight and a half years at Pepsi, I
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: was in human resources and so I had been with
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: the Freedolay division in the field for six years and
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: then got this move to move to corporate headquarters and
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: manage worldwide. I think was what was powerful about having
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: worldwide responsibility was getting the international experience, like really trying
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: to figure out how other countries how they actually operated,
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: how the culture was different. It was all PEPSI, but
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: the culture was different depending on the culture or the
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: country where people were from. And so it was like
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: learning how to drive results and be successful in cultures
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: that had different values, that had different systems than kind
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: of what we had at PEPSI. So that was really powerful.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: And then I left PEPSI and went into financial services.
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: So I think the building blocks John when I think
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: back on my career, there's a common thread that goes
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: through it all. Whether it was healthcare or consumer products
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: or financial services, the common thread really was this understanding people,
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: understand the needs of people, and figuring out what solutions
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: were to make that make things better for those people.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: And so, you know, whether if it's in sales, it
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: was actually selling a product to be able to deliver
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: that and understand what people's needs were around that product.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: In human resources, it was around kind of putting talent
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: together and helping kind of drive results for the company
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: or making sure we had the right people in the
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: right seats to deliver what the company needed. And then
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: when I moved into then managing you know, a business
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: and actually running a business, it was about how do
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: you put all those things together. How do you get
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: the most out of people? Take this incremental effort that
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: people have and have them give it to you so
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: you can get better results, but then deliver for whatever
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: the stakeholder needed. And so you talk about building blocks.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: It looks like diverse jobs, but it really was building blocks.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: On in each job, I learned something that helped me
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: be more successful at the next job, right Learning how
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: to get along with people, learning how to get the
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: best out of people, learning how to design systems so
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: that the company could work better. Each one of those
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: jobs taught me how to do that so that when
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: I was then running a business, I was able to
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: take all those experiences and put them together.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: You know, it's really wonderful about listening to you unpack
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: all of this, putting this fact that I'm a personal
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: fan of yours aside. If I had taken off the
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: visuals here, we weren't just doing a simple podcast. I
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: hadn't said you were an African American. And if we
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: even had AI mask your voice so that it was
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: neutral and you can tell whether you're male or female,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: no one listening to this here around the world. We'll
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: be able to discern because you're just talking to us. Excellence.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: It's not black excellence, it's not female excellence, is not
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: some asterisk excellence. It's just excellence. And you come ready
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: to and I like that. And what hit me also
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: about your story? And I really hadn't thought about it
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: until this interview. I think because I think about I
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: try to be president. I think about you in the
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: current context. You went from you You've traveled industries and
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: you've traveled the world. You went from healthcare to a
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: government sponsored entity, I mean, not necessarily to a beverage business,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: a government sponsored entity, not necessarily in this order, a
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: mortgage operation. Uh, really an operating leader and of regional company,
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: a balance sheet, running a balance sheet in an income
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: statement at a pretty young age. Then running a national
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: company and sorry, yeah, a national company, uh with in
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: the in the banking, in the finance and mortgage space.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: And now and then internationally, whether it's the second time
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: in international PepsiCo in this one, uh with Wells Fargo,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: and and you're going from Compton to Copenhagen. And bring
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: anybody listening to this who want to know how to
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: play it in a high level. You never want to
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: pay for stuff yourself if you can avoid it, Like
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: you don't want to pay for a corporate jet, you
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: want to go on the company's corporate jet. Right. You know,
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: if you're swapping your own credit card, you're doing something wrong.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: If you don't want to pay to travel all around
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: the world, you want to get a job. If that's
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: your passion that takes you around the world, let them
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: pay for it. I mean, you're it's fair changing the robbery.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: You're not cheating them. You're their emissary, you're their ambassador
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: around the world. You're doing the job. You're putting the
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: work in ninety percent of your travel, it's gonna be business,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: but you'll take ten percent while you're there and explore
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: the culture. And that makes you, as you're hearing from Christy,
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: a well rounded person. There's a version of career advancement, Christy,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: where you're always sort of playing offense, getting the next title,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: the next check. And then there's another version where you're
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: playing chess and not checkers. Which one were you playing
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: the was the answer? And at what point did you
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: know the difference between which one you were playing.
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good question, John, because I don't I
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: you know Steve Jobs said, you can only connect the
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: dots looking backward, and I think as I was in
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: it and living it, I was always really focused on
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: doing a good job at the job that I had.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: I was always very cognizant to my job was to
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: make my boss look good and to make my boss's
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: life easier. And so I not only was doing my work,
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: but I always tried to understand from my boss, like
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: what are we trying to achieve and how do I
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: do my part to help you achieve that? And I
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: think what that did for me and maybe this is
• 29:48
  Speaker 2: a little bit of the chest as I was thinking
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: about next move, I never was focused on what my
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: next move was, but by really being intentional about making
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: sure my boss was successful and sure we were doing
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: what the company needed us to do. I was always
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: thinking broader about the company, never just about the role
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: that I had, and so that really helped. When an
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: opportunity came up, my boss would say, hey, I hate
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: to lose her, but Christy should go on that or
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: special projects. I would get nominated for special projects that
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: then got me exposure to other people in the company
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: that then just led to my next opportunity and my
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: next job. And so the first job I ever applied for,
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: and really the only job I ever applied for, was
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: my first job out of college at Baxter. All my
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: other jobs has come from somebody reaching out and saying,
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: will you come take this job or we think you'd
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: be created this, and so the movement happened by other people,
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: not by me applying applying for jobs, and so I think,
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: you know, that is the I was focused on doing
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: a good job. I was focused on leaving an impact
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: and having an impact broader than the role that I
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: was in, but trying to have a broader impact on
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: the company and really trying to understand what were the
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: problems of the company and how could I help solve them,
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: even from my chair. And that just made people notice
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: me and say, let's give her the opportunity to go
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: do more, and that just afforded me continued opportunities to
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: go do more.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: So you and I never had this conversation before. You know,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: this is the first time. And it's ironic that you're
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: answering in ways that just are very consistent with top
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: line leaders. It's not ironic. Maybe I writing to the audience,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: not I writing to me. It is pleasing to me
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: that all these things are pretty much the same. What
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: do I mean by that? At never, at one time
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: that you infer this was about you, This is about
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: making your boss look good. And you know this is
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: about to give. And I say about about relationships a
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: give A giver is exotic, A giver or take her
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: is neurotic, and a taker or take her is psychotic.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: And when I'm hanging around you, I see you around
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: other givers. And even the way you just talked about
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: leading is leading through service. It's how do I make
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: my boss look good? You talk about your husband when
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: he's not there in very admirable ways. You're always giving
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: him props. By the way, let's give him his Let's
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: give him his props. Public that his name is Steve,
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: Steve Ferko, good brother. And and so my guess is
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: and I'm the same way in the way I think
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: you're going to answer. You never asked for money, Sorry,
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: you never asked for what? How much were you going
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: to get paid in these different jobs? That was never
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: one of the top three questions. Let me back up
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: before I say that. Let me say that I've you've
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: also mentioned relationship capital and I often say if you
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: hang around nine bro people, you'll be the tenth. So
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: you you were around the right people. You didn't fill
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: out an application. But one time it was people saying,
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: you know what, Chrissy is pretty talented and these might
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: be white people. Just be really blunt here. These might
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: be an oftentimes white people because they're in the power structure,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: and they weren't.
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: Most of the time there was you go.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: So they were just recognizing, here's a very talented person
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: who can help me grow my things respect. It's irrelevant
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: that she's black female. It might have been positive because
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: it makes them look good in some way, but they didn't.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: That was an afterthought. It was like, oh no, she's confident,
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: and I want people to hear that. And I also
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: want to now go to this question about was it
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: ever about money? Because at the society, this generation behind
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: yours and mine, I'm so I'm just getting so tired
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: of everything being a conversation about money, money, money. Even
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: relationships now are getting transactional, and that's just wrong. You're
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: gonna lose lose, losees the taker mentality. Am I right
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: that your top three four questions when asking about a
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: new position, new job you did. It not even cover
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: the issue of what does this position pay?
• 34:03
  Speaker 2: Yes, never, it never came up. It was always about
• 34:07
  Speaker 2: the experience. It was always about taking an inventory of
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: what I had in my toolbox and what skills I
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: wanted to learn. And if it was about learning new
• 34:19
  Speaker 2: skills and new opportunity, I was all for it.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: That's payment.
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: Actually, yes, that's payment. Yeah, it's a different level of currency.
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: It's a different currency.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: That's it. Where did you feel genuinely powerful in your career? When?
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: At what point? And when and where? When did you
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: feel not comfortable or powerful? It might have been a
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: different day in the same position, who knows. Yeah, what
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: did like and what did you feel like in that
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: that moment? Like?
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: What?
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: In other words, share the audience that you if you
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: ever felt not enough?
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well I'll start with the I'll start with the
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: powerful one first. I definitely have felt both, but I
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: think the and it was it had to do with
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: my coming to wealth. So I got the call about
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: the job at Wells, and I went into the interview,
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: and interestingly, the job about the or the call about
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: the job at Wells came one week to the day
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: after George Floyd's murder.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: And I had spent that week really really struggling. And
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: I don't know if people remember, but taking people back,
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: we had had a succession of murders, with people being
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: killed in their homes on the street, And it was
• 35:40
  Speaker 2: this awareness for me that my blackness all of a
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: sudden made me uniquely vulnerable in this world in a
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: way that I hadn't thought about before, because again going
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: back to my upbringing, we traversed both of those worlds.
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: So it wasn't about being black. It was about being
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: excellent to your point. That's how I was raised, and
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: so that aireness was like and I'm a big runner,
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: so it was like, you mean I can go out
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: on the street and run and somebody shoot me or
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: run me over with the car. So after the George Floyd,
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: I was I was really in a bad way, and
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: I just kept thinking about how do I contribute, what's
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: my role? How do I make this better? What can
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: I do to change the plight for black and brown families?
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: And I just kept hearing a voice that said, it's housing.
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: It's housing, You're where you need to be. Home Ownership
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: is still the single largest financial purchase that many people
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: will make ever make. It's still the quickest path to
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: wealth and generational wealth if you keep the home in
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: the family. And so it was about is what the
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: single largest or the fastest way to wealth and wealth,
• 36:53
  Speaker 2: gender building, generational wealth that most people will ever have,
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: And so it was I was in the right place.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: So when I got the call a week later about
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: the job at Wells Fargo, in every interview when people
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: asked why did I want this job, my answer was
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: because I want to put more black and brown people
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: in homes. And to my great surprise, every interviewer said,
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: that's really great. Come do that at Wells Fargo.
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: And the powerful part was is I had a job.
• 37:28
  Speaker 2: I had only been at Flagstar for three years. I
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: had a job and was perfectly happy at that job.
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: And while Wells Fargo was ten times the size and
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: the biggest mortgage job in the country at the time,
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: it was that that wasn't important to me. I was
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: searching for bigger legacy, how to make things better, bigger
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: better for others. And so the boldness the power that
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: I felt in saying my intention is to put more
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: black and brown people in homes and to have that
• 38:00
  Speaker 2: and say that's great. Do that here? That that made
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: you know? That was like, wow, that's what using your
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: power looks like. And so then stepping into mortgage, there
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: was never a question over what my intentions were because
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: I had been really clear about that up front. And
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: so I think the learning from that, and certainly the
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: message to your listeners is you always have more power
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: than you think you have. Use your leverage for good
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: and to make things better for others. Don't be afraid
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: to hold on to what you have or what you
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: might lose. So that was the first thing I would say.
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: The place where I felt pretty vulnerable was the first
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: time I actually left Fanny May and went into Flagstar
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: again as the head of mortgage. It was my first
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: time truly in a standalone running my own income statement
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: and balance sheet, and every day I felt overwhelmed. Every
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: day I had the question of am I good enough?
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: Do I have the knowledge and skills to do this?
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: It was one thing to run it inside of a
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: company Fanny May or to be a part of. I
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: was running a division inside of Fanny Mae, but somebody
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: else was responsible for the whole thing. All of a sudden,
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: I was responsible for the whole thing and so, and
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: we were a publicly traded company and so it was,
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: and with eighty percent of the revenue coming from mortgage,
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: So that was an enormous amount of pressure that I
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: was feeling about am I good enough? Do I have
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: the right knowledge? Can I pull all this together? And
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: that's where, to your point, this relationship capital really fell in.
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: It was leaning on people, being very open and vulnerable
• 39:46
  Speaker 2: about how I was feeling coming home every night talking
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: to my husband, and you know, he would boost me up,
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: like are you kidding me? You haven't like, you know,
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: you know what to do, you know the right people,
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: you have the right team, like relying on them. And
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: I think that's what I've learned in my career, John,
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: is success isn't about the contribution of any one individual.
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: Like any career success I have, it is a culmination
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: of the great relationships I've had, the people that I've
• 40:15
  Speaker 2: invested in, and what I've been able to achieve with
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: other people. It's also the most rewarding part of a
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: career as well. But it is you know, not being
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: afraid to ask for help, not being afraid to lean
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: on other people, because wherever you feel you have a gap,
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: there's somebody who's got that information, that knowledge to be
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: able to fill in the gap where you might feel lacking.
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: And it was a really powerful lesson on we don't
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: do anything, including this life alone.
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: Amen. So Christy, as we began to come in the
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: home stretcher and an incredibly good interview, and I want
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: to switch from head to heart as we've got in
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: their home stretch can get it real personal. But as
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: we do that, let's take a zoom out for a minute,
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: and let's not mention the elephant in the room. There
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: was a time where Wells Fargo's reputation was in the
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: tank and I was on the community board in Los
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: Angeles where a lot of these shenanigans were dreamed up
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: twenty years ago, and I advised people not to do this,
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: and they ignored me. That was two Wells Fargo's ago.
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: Even though it has the same name, I think without
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: those problems, I mean, as I look back, the management
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: was almost entirely white, and they had some white females,
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: but it was entirely white. And if it wasn't for
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: those problems, for I want the listeners to understand this,
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: rainbows only follow storms. You cannot have a rainbow without
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: a storm first, and nobody's perfect, so don't look for that.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: But without those problems that wells Fargo new leadership, I
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: don't believe Wouldham said in more enlightened way, you know
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: what we need to change that make sure that never
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: happens again. We also need to change the people and
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: make sure they're more reflective, and I think that's part
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: of the reason why the management committee and two layers
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: down also was much more diverse under Charlie Sharf. Would
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: you agree with that, Yeah, I mean.
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: I think Charlie was really clear about you have to
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: get people in who I mean we had to fix
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: the problem. So you have to get people in who
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: have the skills to be able to fix the problems
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: and could be laser focused on that. But as you know,
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: we think of ourselves as you know, kind of a
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: large super regional bank, like we are the main Street.
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: You know, we do Wall Street or also the Main Street,
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: and so we have forty one hundred branches in communities
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: all over this country. You have to be on the
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: ground in those communities and look like those communities to
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: understand the needs of those communities and develop product and
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: solutions to be able to serve those community. And so
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: I think that's critically important that the company reflect the
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: customers that they are trying to serve. And that's at
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: the front line, all the way into the c suite.
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: And I think that the bank is now best in class.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: I mean, everybody makes mistakes every now and then, but
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: I'm i'd put right up there at the top. And
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: and it's She's right. It's Wall Street with with a
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: touch of main Street. So let's go.
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: Personal, now main Street with the Wall Street.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: She's gone once up first, you flipped it. For those
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: who who understand code switching, she just flipped the code
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: because they really are a huge Wall Street firm, and
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: even to give them the complement that they understand main
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: Street would be a complement, she's flipped it. So no, no,
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: we're main Street. Don't get it twisted. Who Yeah, yeah,
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: that's that's that's uh. You've used the term double only
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: the only black person and the only woman in the room.
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: Of course, I know half of that feeling. What's the
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: emotional cost of carrying that role? How do you not
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: let it crush you? And you've also said that because
• 44:14
  Speaker 1: you're the only person in the room. People listen that
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: you were never afraid to be the challenged voice. Talk
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: to me about and us about what it takes, what
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: that actually looks like, and what it took to learn
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: how to use that voice that way, because a lot
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: of people in your position go completely quiet.
• 44:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I think two things.
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: One, the double only is the only thing I know, right,
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: So being the only woman in the room, being the
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: only black in the room, especially in mortgage banking, you
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: just get comfortable. And I think my upbringing had a
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: lot to do with that. Given our upbringing, we were
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: comfortable in every room because we were just authentic to
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: who we are. I think the value though, when you
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: are the double only, the value is no one else
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: in the room has your lived experience, and so when
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: you're there, you represent your experience. You also, I think
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: you have an obligation to represent your experience in a
• 45:18
  Speaker 2: way that can help inform and educate others, so it
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: can improve the decision making or whatever is gonna you know,
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: gonna happen. I was never afraid to ask the tough question,
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: especially the questions that were difficult, that got to the
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: heart of the matter. If that's what was important for
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: us to be able to move forward. And it was
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: just really important that you understood that when you're in
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: the room, you have this responsibility to bring others right.
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: So as the double only, I had responsibility to make
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: sure that that perspective was represented in the room. If
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: I tried to just blend in with my peers or
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: with the other of the room, then I wasn't really
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: adding the unique value that I could add.
• 46:04
  Speaker 3: And I think that's what people miss.
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: When they're quiet in a room, which is you have
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: a unique perspective that can actually help solve the problem,
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: or add a different perspective to move the problem in
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: a different way. That different lens with which you see
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: the world could be exactly the lens that.
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: Is needed to solve the problem.
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: And so for me, it was always this responsibility being
• 46:29
  Speaker 2: in the room to make sure that the doors were
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: opened wider so that those who came behind me could
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: come through with more ease and opportunity than I did.
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: I I'm gonna ask you a question I never asked anybody,
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: and you're uniquely able to answer it. And the audience
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: is thriving, is desperate for these answers. I'm gonna give
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: you both questions at the same time. Answered, However, you like,
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: what's the most dangerous thing that a black executive can
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: do in corporate America? You sort of almost already answered,
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: what's the most dangerous thing they can't do, which is
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: to not be representative? So what's the most dangerous thing
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: that a black or a Latino or a woman fill
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: in the blank executive can do in corporate America? And
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: has there ever been moments when you you were misread?
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: I know the answer this where your confidence was labeled
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: something else, your directly is mistaken for something it wasn't.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: How did you handle that without compromising who you are? Boy?
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: These are loaded question. Yes, come on, let's go at it.
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I get misread all the time, even to this day,
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: I get misread all the time. People think they know
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: my story. People look at me, and I think they
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: make assumptions about me based on how I look, or
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: based on how I talk or what they see of me,
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: that they have no idea what my story is. And
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: so when I say I'm from Compton, when I say,
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: you know, my father committed suicide when I was fifteen
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: years old, and I was raised by a single mother,
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: people are like, Oh, I just assumed you grew up
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: in a two parent household. Like people make assumptions all
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: the time, and so I am the embodiment of don't
• 48:33
  Speaker 2: judge people because you never know their story. And so
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: what well I always try to do when people misunderstand
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: or misinterpret, I do two things. One, I don't overly
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: worry about it, because it's not mine to control. Their
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: perception of me has nothing to do with who I
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: actually am or what I actually am, and so I
• 48:59
  Speaker 2: think of it more is that's their problem than mine
• 49:02
  Speaker 2: to the extent that is impacting then my ability to
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: get stuff done.
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: I lean into relationships.
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: I try to either engage them directly and understand what
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: the problem is and how we move forward so we
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: could focus on the work. Or I engage somebody that
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: I know has a good relationship with them that I
• 49:25
  Speaker 2: also have a relationship with them to kind of be
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: a broker or a bridge to be able to get
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: us kind of on the same page. But I think
• 49:35
  Speaker 2: my entire career I've been underestimated or labeled, and it's
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: about it's about just staying.
• 49:45
  Speaker 3: On your path.
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: People's view of you doesn't actually change who you are
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: or what you are. You know what is true, and
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: so you just keep lean in. And if that door
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: isn't open for you as a result of someone's perception
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: of you, then that wasn't the door you were supposed
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: to step through. I believe that what's intended for you
• 50:08
  Speaker 2: will be and that no one can actually stop that
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: from happening.
• 50:12
  Speaker 3: So if that door is closing, then maybe that's not
• 50:15
  Speaker 3: the place.
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: You should be. And what's that dangerous thing that a
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: black executive or a minority executive can do and needs
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: to avoid? And I mean, let me, we're running out
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: of time, and this is so rich I want to
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: get as much in. I'm gonna join that with another
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: question for efficiency sake, what is the one mistake you
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: see brilliant young black and brown professionals make most often
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: as they try to move up. So you have any
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: black executive that's in the seat, and what's the thing
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: they must not do to avoid? And what's that thing
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: that young people do that you're like, ooh, you know,
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: I really would suggest.
• 50:50
  Speaker 2: You not do that. Yeah, I think what is dangerous
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: and mistakes I see people make. It's not being true
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: to who they are. I am always really clear about
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: where my line is, and I have defined upfront before
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: I go into a situation, what my non negotiables are,
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: what's important to me, what do I stand for. It's
• 51:12
  Speaker 2: rooted in my faith, it's rooted in my values, it's
• 51:15
  Speaker 2: rooted in who I am. But I never move that line.
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: And the mistake that I see people make is compromising
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: on where their line is or moving it. And you
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: justify and you just make one normal decision, but you
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: keep moving your line. That's really really dangerous because you'll
• 51:32
  Speaker 2: wake up one day and not recognize yourself or not
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: recognize what you've become.
• 51:38
  Speaker 3: And so it's always important to be true to yourself.
• 51:43
  Speaker 2: Because at the end of the day, when your career
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: is over, or when you leave that company and you
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: go somewhere else, what you what you are left with
• 51:52
  Speaker 2: is your integrity and who you were, who you are,
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: who you were, and what was most important and what's
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: most important at the end of the day. No one
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: ever says on their deathbed, I wish I had more
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: time at work, or I wish I would have made
• 52:09
  Speaker 2: a different decision at work. Right, it's about what's the
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: legacy you're leading behind, who you loved who you. You know,
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: it's about family, it's about legacy, it's much bigger. It's
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: about who you loved and loved in return and where
• 52:25
  Speaker 2: you loved in return. Like that at the essence of
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: our life is kind of what's critically important.
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: So the advice, so the thing that you would not
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: want the corporate executive to do and the young person
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: coming up is the same thing.
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: It's the same thing. Got to be authentic to who
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: you are, and you've got to know where your line is.
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: And would you agree, don't be emotional in your decision
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: makings at work because it's going to be probably be misread. Yes, yeah, yeah,
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: trick to be a person of color. Yeah, so I
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: was gonna.
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: Emotion is important though, but you got to know when
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: I said sometimes emotion is important.
• 53:02
  Speaker 3: So you got to know when to do it, and
• 53:04
  Speaker 3: you got to know who to deal it with, and
• 53:06
  Speaker 3: you have to have relationship to do it.
• 53:08
  Speaker 2: That's right, when things are really unacceptable, you have to
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: let people know that that's unacceptable.
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: Boom. That part your value system, your value system. So
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: Operation Hope is a partner of yours, and we are
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: in the Hope inside of branches and you and Darlene
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: and others have really kicked the door in there and
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: made sure that we had a presence. And it's a
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: real partnership and it's indirectly tied to your current role. Let's,
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: as we wrap up, help the audience understand your current role.
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: Why is it meaningful in this moment that I think
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: is a historic moment third reconstruction from civil rights to
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: civil rights. And if I just left you Riff for
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: the last few minutes of your podcast and whatever you
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: wanted to share, this was your this is your ministry
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: of finance, if your this is your pullpit of Hope,
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: what would you say to the audience.
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: Well, first of all, just as I talk about Operation
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: Hope and the relationship that we have, I think it
• 54:05
  Speaker 2: is one of the greatest examples of public private partnership
• 54:09
  Speaker 2: coming together to really make a meaningful impact. The Hope
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: inside centers that are in the Wells Fargo branches. I
• 54:18
  Speaker 2: think we have over forty now we'll have fifty by
• 54:20
  Speaker 2: the end of the year. Really is about a free
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: service letting people walk in off the streets and get
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: the help that they need to create the financial future
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: that is going to make their life better and going
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: to serve their families for generations to come.
• 54:38
  Speaker 3: It's about giving the.
• 54:39
  Speaker 2: Knowledge and investing in people with the knowledge, the tools
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: and the resources, and being a real partner to help
• 54:47
  Speaker 2: them be able to do the hard work right, building
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: those daily habits to reduce debt, increase savings, start investing,
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: buy a home if they so choose, And so that
• 54:59
  Speaker 2: partnership is create important. Operation Hope brings the plan and
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: Wells Fargo helps with the scale by being able to
• 55:05
  Speaker 2: do it in our branches, in those communities where people
• 55:08
  Speaker 2: can walk in and get help. And I think that's
• 55:11
  Speaker 2: when I'm so passionate about the role that I have
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: with financial inclusion. It is recognizing that people can have
• 55:18
  Speaker 2: the financial future that they desire. They just have to
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: be willing to work hard and do the work, make
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: the tough choices to be able to do it. And
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: the first thing we have to do, John, is people
• 55:32
  Speaker 2: have to get over the shame. There's so much shame
• 55:35
  Speaker 2: and guilt about how we have managed or haven't managed
• 55:38
  Speaker 2: our finances. We've all made like those money mistakes that
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: have set us back or made bad choices. Maybe there's
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: some of your listeners who are in that place right now.
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: It is never too late. You can always start again.
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: And I think Operation Hope the Hope in Side centers
• 55:55
  Speaker 2: are a great way for people to get the help
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: that they need to be able to start again.
• 56:01
  Speaker 3: And so I've just come to this understanding.
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: My mother is eighty six years old and she lives
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: in her home that is paid for. So she paid
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: off a thirty year fix great mortgage, never refinancing one.
• 56:16
  Speaker 2: But she is eighty six years old living in a
• 56:19
  Speaker 2: house that she is paid off, her car is paid off,
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: and the most my mother ever made in her life
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: was forty thousand dollars a year. And so my mother
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: is the embodiment of what is possible when you make
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: the choice to sacrifice, to align your money decisions with
• 56:40
  Speaker 2: like your values.
• 56:42
  Speaker 3: Home ownership was a value. Education for her kids was
• 56:45
  Speaker 3: a value.
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: So I'm a product of a mother who sacrificed so
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: I could have an education and do what I'm doing.
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: And so it's all possible. People just have to believe
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: that it is possible. And once they have that belief,
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: then and seek they write help and support to be
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: able to get the attention and the support that they
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: need to be able to make that a reality for them.
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: Beautiful if you can believe it. I actually had more questions,
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: but I'm gonna we're We're over time. This has been fabulous.
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: Can I ask one one final bonus question? Please? Sure
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: folks are listening to this, they've been intrigued by you,
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: inspired by you. By the end of this podcast, they
• 57:33
  Speaker 1: trust you. They feel like they have their relationship with you.
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: So they wanted to put the guards down, no shame.
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: Somebody out here listening to this wants to be a baller.
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: They want to access capital at a significant level. They
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: want to be a preferred customer. They want to be
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: able to get a credit line that's one hundred thousand,
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: five hundred thousand, a million, five million. They want their
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: business to be able to be business that the operating
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: committee knows who they are in a capitalized way. As
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: somebody sitting inside one of the biggest banks in the
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: world and having a dual focus and being bilingual, can
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: you tell the audience what, in your opinion is the
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: key is to operationalize and I dream first of all,
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: is it possible as a personal color to access capital
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: at that level at a bank like Wells Fargo or others?
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: And how in summary should they think about doing that.
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: It may take them a two, three, five years, ten
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: years to get there, but how do they get how
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: do they go about getting to your table?
• 58:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's really simple. I think people should
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: develop It's about relationship. So develop a relationship with a
• 58:49
  Speaker 2: banker in this case, develop relationship with a banker and
• 58:54
  Speaker 2: tell them your dreams, tell them what you're trying to do,
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: and create a roadmap for how you're going to get there.
• 59:01
  Speaker 2: That person then will invest in you. They'll invest in
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: your dream they'll help move you along the path. So
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: as you need capital to scale your business, as you
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: need the information, the different tools and resources, they'll be
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: helpful to help you move along. So no matter where
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: someone is in this path, Again, none of us gets
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: to where we are by ourselves. We need people who
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: this is what they do, to partner with to invest in.
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: And so I would encourage people to develop a relationship
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: with a local banker. I would love it to be
• 59:40
  Speaker 2: Wells Fargo, but if not, then get it somewhere. But
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: you've got to get with people that have access to
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: the resources, the capital, the information that you need.
• 59:52
  Speaker 3: And people think you have to have money to go
• 59:54
  Speaker 3: to banks. You don't. Banks are here to.
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: Help people get into the system, develop the resources that
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 2: they need to be able to realize their dreams.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 3: And I didn't get a banker to invest in your dream.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: So as we wrap this up in Bassador Andrew Young's quote,
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: that's coincidence is God's way and remaining anonymous rings true
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: because she didn't know. I didn't know what her answer
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: was going to be. She was going to answer the question,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: But that line's completely up with. My first adult bank
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: account was at Wells Fargo AD a branch from Picco
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 1: Boulevard in West Los Angeles, and I think it was
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 1: eighteen years old, and I remember the bank branch manager, Shapiro,
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: and he gave me my first credit card and all
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, and and he had he could.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: I was bousing checks, but I was floating. I was
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: floating chick, and he might cover me for a day
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: or two. He get dinged himself if I didn't cover
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: that check, but he had enough credibility to say, John,
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: don't give you a couple more days. And then as
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: I every level I went up, I had somebody else
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: i'd meet who was appropriate for that level, who said, John,
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: I got you, and I would. My job was to
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: inform them, educate them, keep them updated about the good
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: news and the bad news of my life. There was
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: no surprises ever. If there was any bad news, I
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: told them first. But what you heard here, she didn't
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: tell you about financial statements and p and ls and
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: all that stuff. All that's important. She can tell you
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: about a business plan, all that's important. She told you
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: to build a relationship. Yeah, and that's what I've been
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: telling you.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 2: So.
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: Christy Ferko did not wait for the world to make
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: room for her ladies and gentlemen. She walked in the
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: rooms where no one looked like her. She spoke when
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: speaking had a cause, and she made herself indispensable, not
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 1: by shrinking, but by showing up fully. That's not just
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: a career story. That's a blueprint. That's why I call
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: this a master class. Today. If you're navigating a space,
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: it wasn't built for you, and let's be honest, most
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: of the spaces weren't. Christy just showed told you what
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: it takes and what it looks like to survive and
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: to lead. Now I can be written off, maybe as
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: a one off, as an entrepreneur and all that kind
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: of stuff. But Christy's a blueprint. She's inside of a
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: fortune I think one hundred company in search of five
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: hundred for sure, and she's done it for thirty years.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: With competence that's replicable. You can be the next Christy Ferco. Christy,
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: thank you for joining us. This is Money and Wealth
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: on the Black Effect Network on iHeartRadio. And this is
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: a masterclass from Compton to the c suite. Thank you, Christy,
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: Thank you. Money and Wealth with John O'Brien is a
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: production of the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: from the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit the iheartwaredio, have
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.