Latest / Leaders In Payments / Women Leaders in Payments: The Future is Human with Kristin Reischel, Rapyd | Episode 507

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Women Leaders in Payments: The Future is Human with Kristin Reischel, Rapyd | Episode 507 · Leaders In Payments

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast, where we talk to sea-level leaders from across the payments landscape.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: We'll be discussing the products and services that impact the payment space today, as well as trends and predictions for the future of payments.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: We will also hear stories from our guests about their journeys to the top.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, everyone, and welcome to this Women Leaders in Payments Month episode.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Today I'm honored to have as our special guest, Kristen Reichel, the Senior Director Solutions and Partner Marketing at Rapid.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, Kristen, thank you so much for being here and welcome to the show.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Greg, for having me.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's very nice to be here.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: So let's start with a little icebreaker.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: So if you could instantly become an expert in one non-work-related skill or hobby, what would it be and why?
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: Well, this actually is a tough question for me.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: I have a lot of hobbies, a lot of interests.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: So I actually had to think about this one.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: I think maybe because I just went to the Hyde Park concert series over the weekend.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: I would say music.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: I am not a natural musician.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: I don't have a good musical ear.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_02: So I do appreciate good music.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate good musicians.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: And more than anything else, I really love how music brings people together, no matter what language, what culture.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: There's something universal about music.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: So I'd love to play a bigger part in music and understand music, be able to play music, maybe even be able to sing.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm far from that today.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_02: Far, far from any of that.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: I love the answer because I I've asked, you know, many people, we've got 11 episodes this month, and I have asked that question multiple times, and I always get a different answer.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's really cool to hear people's perspectives.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I love your answer because I'm the same way.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: I can't sing.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't, you know, I can't play an instrument or anything, but you know, I love music and do think, you know, it really does bring people together.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's a good idea.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's a real gift.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: It is all right.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's talk about your background and your career journey a little bit.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: So give us a quick snapshot of your background, maybe where you grew up, what you studied, and what led you into the world of payments in FinTech.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: So Greg and I were chatting right before we started the recording.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I actually grew up in Boulder, Colorado, a place that he lived very close to a few years ago.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: And growing up at Boulder meant I was a very outdoorsy person.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: I grew up skiing.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: I loved biking, hiking, backpacking, all of those things.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: So how did I end up in payments?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: It was very convoluted, honestly.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: It was not a direct path to payments.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: I started actually studying art in college.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: So I have a degree in fine art.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: I actually was an artist very, very briefly, found it very hard to actually make a living as an artist.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: And funny enough, it was through my hobbies that I found a friend who was a cartographer.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: And that's how I got into computers.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: I started getting very interested in computers, learning about computers, and I decided to get a computer science degree.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: Very, very different from art, but I always loved math growing up.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: I always was interested in engineering and how things worked and kind of getting into the details of things.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: So through my computer science degree, I actually met some interesting folks.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: And again, through these common hobbies outside of work, I ended up working for IBM, which is a very good place to start a career.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_02: I will say I worked in the services area of IBM.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: So from day one, every hour that I worked was actually billable, which created a very direct relationship for me as a worker to money, what the value of work meant.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: Every single hour that I worked, I build a client for that hour.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: So I took my job very seriously.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted to be accountable.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted to create good work.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: But over time, I found the work that I was doing, which is mostly software engineering at the time, I found less interesting because it wasn't quite enough collaboration for me.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: I wanted to have conversations with the clients.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: I really enjoyed that direct interaction with clients.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: And so over time, over the years, I found I had the most excitement at work when I was having conversations with those clients, understanding the problems that I could solve as an engineer for them through software.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: So that's kind of how I ended up pursuing marketing, actually.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_02: I worked on a filming project with a client that I worked with, actually.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: And through that, I kind of discovered marketing as sort of a whole new space and ultimately product marketing.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: And through product marketing, I ended up meeting again, someone through a common interest outside of work.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: I was hired on as a payment product marketer, actually.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I dove deeply into the world of payments and never looked back.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: And that was over 15 years ago.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, was there a person or opportunity or maybe even an unexpected moment that helped shape the direction of your career?
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, when I look back at my career, I think there's sort of three major pivots that I had.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: You know, early on in school, I just found a lot of my time.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't start my degree as a fine arts major.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: I actually started as an engineer because I did love math, or they would say maths here in the UK.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: But I found a lot of my free time was spent kind of drawing.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I had one art class that I was doing at the time.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I a lot of my free time was spent thinking about the next drawing, or, you know, I'd fill these sketchbooks quickly.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_02: And so more and more of my free time was spent in an area that I wasn't even really studying for my degree.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: And so it was kind of through this relationship with my teacher, and she really encouraged me that I kind of pivoted and pursued art.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: And then a second major pivot for me again was as a software engineer, again, kind of watching myself and looking at where I found the most joy and my work was through that interaction with people, creating stories, understanding clients' problems.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: And that's kind of how I found marketing was marketing, you kind of get to craft that story.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: You get to understand clients' problems and try to solve those problems for them through storytelling and working with product people, working with engineers and putting all that hard work that they're doing into something that's tangible, something that people can relate to and want to use and have.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: And ultimately the marketing turned into payments, my third major pivot in my career, through just sort of being inspired by a leader that I met.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: You know, he was a mountain biker, I was a mountain biker.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_02: That was our common interest.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_02: And then, you know, next thing I realized, you know, I just found that he was so inspiring, so intelligent, and I really wanted to work for him.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_02: So I ended up completely pivoting from one marketing career into a whole different industry that I didn't even know existed at the time.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Well, tell us about your role today at Rapid and maybe what part of your work are you most excited about right now?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_02: Well, there's so much happening in the payment space.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_02: But I'll start with my role at Rapid.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: I've done a lot of things at Rapid over the years, but again, my main focus, my main passion, what I get to do on a daily basis is still that sort of product marketing work.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_02: I love working with product people, with people that are passionate about technology.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: I love getting into the details of how things are created, why they're created, how they work.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: And then also working with clients and understanding what they're looking for.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: What do they actually need?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: You know, is it some obscure payment method from some country, or is it, you know, moving money faster or whatever the problem is that they're trying to solve with our technology?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: And so kind of bridging all of that together, I think some of the more interesting aspects of payments today are, of course, sort of this convergence of AI and cryptocurrencies and the speed of payments and the globalization of payments, I think are some of the most interesting things that we're doing at Rapid and then across the industry as a whole.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's pivot a little bit and talk about leadership and perspective.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: So this year's theme is the future is human.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: So when you hear that phrase, what does it mean to you as a leader in payments?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I think if you've ever dabbled in software or even was a software, you know, if you were a software engineer like myself or have used software, I mean, we all use software.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: We're on the computer, a lot of us at least, on computers most of the day, or devices most of the day.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: So we're interacting with software all the time.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: But software breaks, systems go down.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: So no matter how sophisticated software is, it's still written by humans.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, AI is starting to take on more of that, which is quite exciting.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: But still, even the best AI still has to be checked by a human.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_02: When a payment system goes down, there's still a human that brings that payment system back up.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: If there's a fraud event, there's still a human who's looking at that fraud event and determining if it's a bigger issue, is it a systematic issue?
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: Is it, you know, an outlier that they don't anticipate happening again?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: Or is this a common trend that they're starting to see?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_02: So everything behind any payment anywhere in the world has some human intervention involved.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: And not just when things go wrong, when things go right, you still need someone to decide this is where the company needs to invest.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: This is where we want to build more features, put more focus on, or expand, you know, into a new market.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_02: So there's always humans behind any of this payments infrastructure that we all get excited about.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, payments is becoming, as you kind of alluded to, more digital, more embedded, and more intelligent.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: So what do you think leaders need to keep front and center as this industry keeps evolving?
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: There's a couple of things that I think about with embedded payments.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that is an area that Rapid specializes in.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_02: Our technology is essentially designed as a tech of fintech infrastructure that businesses can embed into their existing system.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_02: So this is definitely top of mind for us.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_02: It always comes back to a couple things.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: Trust is a big one, right?
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_02: You have to trust each other.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: Payments is money and money is everything.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's what is why we get to do what we're doing today, right?
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's it makes the world go round, truly.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: So trust is foundational to payments and payments is money.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_02: So anything we're doing here, I think you have to ensure that we can trust the systems, that we can trust at rapid.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_02: Again, we're building a global network.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: So any additional partner we're working with, any additional functionality we're adding, we have to make sure we've tested it thoroughly, that we know exactly where the money is at any point in time.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_02: Because really, if you think about it, we're dealing with people's livelihood.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: We are working with small businesses, with big businesses, with enterprise businesses.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: All of these businesses, in order to function, they need funds, right?
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_02: They need their funds to get where they are thinking they're going when we say it's going to show up.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_02: So if money does not settle when we say it's going to settle, we start to lose that trust.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: So anything we build, any enhancement, we have to make sure it's been thoroughly tested.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what is something that you learned about leadership that you wish you had understood earlier in your career?
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: So many things.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm I like to think I'm learning something new every single day.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: But I mean, a few things that I wish I had known from my leaders early in my career is it's almost just as important understanding what you don't like to do as it is knowing what you want to do.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: I think some people are very lucky.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: They know early on in life exactly what they enjoy doing, what they want to pursue.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: I was not that person.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: I have a lot of interests.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: I love studying different things.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_02: So for me, a lot of my career is almost a reflection of things that I realized I didn't quite enjoy doing.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: I thought I would, but I tried.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't exactly where I wanted to spend my time.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that's one lesson I I probably could have learned earlier in my career.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: I think another thing is, you know, humans are complicated.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: People are challenging.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: Everyone is different.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: And that's, you know, the real benefit of working with people and managing people, but it's also hard.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you're working with people that have, you know, a different, they come from a different culture, they come from a different country, they have a different frame of reference, they were raised differently, they have different values, right?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not easy.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: And it's it's good to be flexible and understanding.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: But then also, I think one thing that I've learned over and over again is you have to have processes that keep people accountable.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_02: Of course, you want to be able to trust people you work with, but if you don't have processes or systems set up that allow people to be accountable and visible, you can see exactly what they're working on.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, we all miss deadlines, sure.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_02: But if it happens over and over and over again, if you have a system set up, it's easier to see that earlier on, and you can find tools to, you know, help this person grow in that area, or maybe they need to move on and try, you know, something different.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: So a couple of those lessons I could have could have used earlier in my career.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's talk about the human side of payments again.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: So behind every payment, you've kind of said this, is behind every payment, there's a person or a business or a certain need.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: So, how do you think about the human side of payments in the work that you do every day?
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I think that's probably one of the most exciting things about payments for me and why I continue to be excited about this industry is payments is money and money, it's a culture, right?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: Payments is a culture.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_02: I started my payments career in the US.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_02: I focused heavily on c processing.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: So I knew car processing really well, but in the US, most Americans have a credit card.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: You know, in college, I have my first credit card at 18 years old.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: So we're very comfortable with having debt, having credit.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: As soon as you leave the US, it's not the case.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: I moved to the UK three years ago.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_02: When I first moved here, I went to get a bank account.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_02: It was not easy.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_02: For the first time in my payments career at this point, it had been many years in payments.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: I understood why neo banks existed.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: I never really got it until I moved to the UK.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: And then I realized this is why they were invented.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's hard to get a bank account in a new country when you've just moved there.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: So a lot of people I knew who had moved to the UK, they were using Revolute.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: They were using Neo Bank of the Year because it was so challenging to get a traditional bank account.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: And also in the UK, I learned very quickly, I of course wanted a UK credit card.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_02: That's what you do.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: I'm an American, you know, where's my first credit card going to come from?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_02: They wouldn't even talk to me about credit for six months.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: And so as an adult, as a professional, you know, it just was so surprising to me.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I had three or four credit cards from the US, so it wasn't an issue for me, but I was just so shocked.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_02: But culturally, when you think about it, you know, the relationship to money is so different in the UK than it is for Americans.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: And then you think about any other country, Germany.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_02: Germany is a very cash-centric society.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_02: They really don't like to have debt.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: So even today, cash is very popular.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_02: You go to Africa.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: Africa, they've been on the bleeding edge of, you know, mobile payments for decades, right?
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_02: Because a lot of people maybe didn't have access to banks, right?
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: So they were using mobile pay to send money to each other.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: So getting very creative with how they transact.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_02: And Southeast Asia, the same thing.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_02: You know, there's all these sort of super wallets that you hear about.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: We're starting to see that in the US more, starting to see it across Europe more.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: But in Southeast Asia, this has been around for a long, long time where everyone has some sort of e-wallet, you know, WeChat Pay in China or Grab Hay in Singapore.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_02: There's, you know, all these e-wallets that have really taken over the payments ecosystem.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that's one thing that is so interesting with payments.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's very human and it's very cultural.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: No matter what border you're crossing, you are going to be introduced to a whole new way to have a relationship with money.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you've mentioned the word trust several times, and it's such a critical part of our industry.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: So, how do you think companies can build and maintain trust as the industry becomes even more automated and technology driven?
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, I think people still want access to a human being.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_02: I think any one of us, if we've ever had experienced fraud or was not able to use your credit card to pay for that hotel in that foreign country, the last thing you want to do is to try calling your bank or your credit card or who whomever it is and get a chat bot or an agent, right?
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: That you you'll you will lose trust if that's all you're offering your customers.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: So I think having access to human beings will continue to be an extremely important piece in all of this, even with agenda commerce, as exciting and fast-paced as it is.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_02: If something doesn't work, understanding who's liable and then having a human being who can course correct any errors in the system.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_02: So I think humans are still relying on humans and human relationships, right?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: If I say I'm going to do something for you, if I tell you your money is going to arrive at a certain day, you believe me.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_02: You don't believe the chatbots, right?
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: So there's still that human element in all of business every single day.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what is one trend or change in the industry that you believe will have the biggest impact on people or businesses over the next few years?
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: Well, gosh, I mean, right now, you know, I'm very interested in cryptocurrencies.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: Again, I think it's almost a cultural reaction to money and banking and systems, bureaucracy in a lot of ways.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_02: So I do think cryptocurrencies and stable coins specifically will have a massive impact and are having a massive impact.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_02: Stablecoins, I'll give an example.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_02: I think we've heard about democratizing payments for a long time.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's, you know, something we've been saying for a long time.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's definitely part of our mission.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_02: But I think stable coins is actually a step in that direction because stable coins are becoming more accessible by more people in more countries.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: So, in a place like Argentina, where we have watched that currency fluctuate tremendously over the last many decades, it's just not fair for someone working in Argentina to watch their paycheck shrink by 50% in a single day.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_02: So, why is it that just because I'm living in Argentina doing the exact same job there that I am in the US or the UK, that all of a sudden my work is valued less, right?
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's so having access to stable coins, to a more universal currency like a cryptocurrency gives people a big opportunity to kind of equalize, you know, living standards and having access to things that everyone who works hard should have access to.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that's a very interesting space.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_02: And we're starting to see, you know, the card brands really embrace stable coins and there's Visa MasterCard, you know, there's stablecoin backed Visa MasterCard.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_02: So the same rails that the rest of us are using debit or credit cards on, but you can now have a stablecoin account.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: And use the same rails.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that's an extremely exciting area to watch.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_02: And then also, one more comment in this space there's a lot of exciting things happening in payments today.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: But I think AI and payments and cryptocurrencies are converging.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: And this whole Agenic commerce, it's still early days, but we're really starting to see some real world use cases that are starting to take off.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_02: And it's when you think about a lot of agent commerce, it's sort of a that microtransaction.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_02: Well, microtransactions are still quite expensive.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: So once you have a cryptocurrency where those costs can be decreased and the speed is increased, it starts to make that whole agent e commerce a reality.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that's extremely exciting for a lot of different spaces in the payments industry.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's pivot a little bit and talk about mentorship impact and what's next.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: So who has influenced you along the way, whether directly or indirectly, and what did you learn from them?
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_02: Gosh, I mean, so many people I think I've learned from over the years.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_02: I think I mentioned earlier a lot of people that influenced my career, funny enough, were not people that I worked for or worked with.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_02: They were people that I had shared interests with.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_02: But when I think about, you know, there's a few people that stand out in my life.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_02: My early career as sort of a software person, you know, a couple folks that were willing to kind of be patient with me.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I was pretty young when I started my career and had a lot to learn.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: So just having someone who's willing to take that extra time to explain things, get into, you know, the details of things that I just couldn't wrap my head around.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_02: When I started, you know, it was we didn't have AI, we didn't have all these tools at our disposal.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: So it was a lot harder to learn about software and programming at that time than it is today.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, today it's so easy to just pick a YouTube channel and you can start coding and very, very quickly.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: So having those mentors early on really made a major impact.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_02: And then also having people that maybe I didn't necessarily love working for certain people, I still learned so much from that relationship, from that working relationship, whether it was discipline, whether it was that sort of process and accountability that I mentioned earlier.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: I had a mentor who was so process focused.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, for me, I'm not a process person necessarily.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: So it was, you know, not really my interest, but I so appreciated his discipline and having everything tracked and everything measured.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, I now looking back, I see the real value of that.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm trying to integrate more of that in my in my working life.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_02: And then, of course, you know, having those managers that are absolutely wonderful, that you learn so much from.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: I have a few folks in my, I mean, my manager right now is I'm learning so much from him.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_02: And he's so creative, so sharp, and always willing to try different things.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_02: And and his gift is really just trusting his staff to be really good at what they do and giving them the room to be good at what they do.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_02: I think some managers sort of overmanage, micromanage, but to work for someone who gives you the room to really explore and really get good at your job is is almost just as important, especially later in your life.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: I think early on, it's important to have people that are willing to kind of walk you through things step by step.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_02: But as you grow, as you mature, it's just as important to have those folks that are willing to let you experiment and make make mistakes and fail, because that's when you really learn the most, I think is those big failures.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_02: You won't do it again.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_02: Typically.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: Usually.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what advice would you give to the next generation of women that are entering the payments industry?
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, look, I I fell into payments by accident.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_02: It was not something that was ever on my radar.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_02: I think payments is such a strange industry.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_02: I think until you enter payments, you never really think about it a whole lot.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_02: But once you enter it, you realize there's this entire universe that you didn't realize existed and it's part of everything in your life without even realizing it.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: So I would give anyone who's interested in payments the advice that there really is something for everyone in this industry.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's not just because you're interested in payments.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, who really is interested in payments unless you're already in the industry?
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's unusual for someone to say, hey, I want to pursue payments.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: It's usually by accident or maybe a project you worked on, or maybe a software project you were part of where, you know, it becomes an enhancement or a feature of something you're doing.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: But once you're in it, there is so much you can do, no matter the personality, the skill set, it is endless.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_02: So if you're a technical person, you know, just building the systems, if you're interested in AI, you know, the data within the payment space is probably bigger than any other data set in any industry, because we're talking about trillions of transactions.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_02: So to work with that data set and think of different fraud models and you know, training data models, very exciting in the AI space.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_02: Or if you're in marketing, right, understanding, you know, the customers, the problems that payment systems are solving and you know, crafting that story or sales, you know, some of the best salespeople I've worked with are women.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_02: And the relationship skills is one thing, but being very, you know, sophisticated in how they understand the payment systems and being accountable, you know.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_02: So it's there's really truly something for everyone in the payments industry.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_02: So if it's not working for you right away, try something else.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_02: Get into the more technical side.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_02: If that the technical side isn't interesting, try the marketing.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: If the marketing isn't interesting, try sales.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_02: You know, that's a really fun space to be in too with within the payment space.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's wrap up the show with one final sort of fun question.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, what is one app or podcast or book, maybe TV show or hobby, or maybe even your favorite way to unwind that gives us a glimpse of who you are outside of work?
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I am a little bit of a creature of habit.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_02: I try to work out most mornings.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: So my gym is about a 30-minute walk.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_02: I live in London, so I walk everywhere.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I don't have a car here.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_02: So I have about a 30-minute walk each way.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_02: So I listen to a lot of podcasts.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_02: So my interests vary.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_02: I've listened to podcast Bloomberg some weeks.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_02: I listened to New York Times.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_02: A podcast that I'm listening to right now, we started last week was Lori Santos, the Happiness Lab.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_02: She's a very interesting professor who taught a class at Yale that exploded.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_02: And she studied psychology and basically wanted to give skills back to her students so they could deal with stress and anxiety and ultimately tying all of that back to your path towards happiness and what that means.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm finding her podcast very interesting.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_02: So that's one thing I love to do.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_02: And then for unwinding, one of the most relaxing things or interesting things that I like to do, especially here in London, is going to galleries and museums.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a member at the Tate, at the National Gallery, at the Portrait Gallery.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I love just looking at artwork.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's very relaxing.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_02: It kind of taps into, you know, my college days when I studied fine art.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I have a whole new appreciation for curating art.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: I think before art to me was more about the artist, the single artist that I studied and loved.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_02: But now the curation is almost more important to me than the artist itself.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: People that can translate that artist's history, that their story into something that's relatable to a wide audience is fascinating.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_02: And there's a real difference between someone who is an excellent curator and you know, not a skilled curator.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_02: So I have a whole new appreciation appreciation for that after living in London.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_02: Those are a couple things that I can think of.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: No, I appreciate you appreciate you sharing those.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I think that's a great way to wrap up the show.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: I know your time is very valuable.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I really appreciate you being here today.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: And again, thank you so much for being on the show.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Greg.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_02: It was so nice to meet you, and thank you for having me on the show.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: And to all your listeners out there, I thank you for your time as well.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: And until the next story.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for joining us this week on the Leaders in Payments Podcast.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: Make sure you visit our website at leadersandpayments.com where you can subscribe to the show and where you'll find our show notes.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: If you enjoyed listening, please share on your social channels as well.