Latest / AccessCo Leaders Career Conversations / International Relationships & Pizza
Transcript
- speaker-0: Welcome back to AccessCo Leaders Career Conversations on Ilyne. I get to host this session with our students from Freire Charter School in Wilmington with our amazing guest. I'm excited to hear more of his story, DeShawn Haynes, who is the Vice President of International Strategy at Raymond James. You're in Florida. Welcome, DeShawn. It's good to have you. speaker-2: Good to be here. Thanks for having me, Ilyne. speaker-0: Awesome. So DeShawn, tell us in about two to three sentences, what is Raymond James and what are you doing there? speaker-1: Yes. speaker-2: So Raymond James is a full service investment bank wealth management firm. So we have the Raymond James Bank. We have an investment bank, ⁓ predominantly our products and services are catered towards ⁓ advisors and their clients. So the wealth management. I ⁓ am honored ⁓ in international cross border team. speaker-1: It's a sorry. speaker-2: So my team caters to our international clients. So we have both subsidiaries and staff as well as clients that are outside the US. my kind of team and staff looks over that group. speaker-0: Right on. Okay. Where did you grow up, DeShawn? And where are you located now? speaker-2: So I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I'm a massive Steelers fan, everything Pittsburgh. Grew up there, went to Penn State, proud alma mater, and then moved to DC and then kind of slowly started working my way down south speaker-0: Awesome. All right. So tell us what activities were you involved in in the middle school and high school time frame? speaker-2: So I was a big sports athlete. So I played three, four sports a year. I played basketball through a little bit of college as well. So ⁓ basketball, swimming, track, like you couldn't keep me, anything to get me out of class to be quite honest with you. I probably shouldn't be saying that here, but that get me ⁓ with group of friends is what I focused on. speaker-1: Very good. speaker-0: Alright, so now you were super involved in sports and academics. because I know you personally, I know that you're a big golfer now and that you also, I won't call it a side hustle, but you stay busy. Like you're also an at one of the colleges here. Can you say a little bit about that? speaker-2: Yeah, I do like to ⁓ stay busy. I don't like using the word busy, but I like to stay engaged. I like to keep kind of my finger on the pulse. I like to stay active. Golf is a way that I get to compete still. I don't get to compete at like a college level or high school level or anything like that. So golf is a way to get me out and keep me competitive. then I love working with students and youth. I've been doing and volunteering it, you know, 20 plus years now. then I kind of worked currently, as you mentioned, at Valencia College, which is the largest kind of community college or university here in the area. We have about 80,000 students, I want to say, and I teach introductory business courses. speaker-1: to be. speaker-0: One more question before we hop over to the students. What inspired you or who inspired you to get into finance and become so passionate about ⁓ management? speaker-2: I was ⁓ lucky enough to have a business owner as a father. I got to see him grow his business from a five-year-old of five people working there to upwards of a couple hundred now. He's also in the nonprofit space, so really giving back to inner city communities in Pittsburgh, families, children, everything else. So that was really a passion project of mine. speaker-1: for. speaker-2: which led me to go into business school, which kind of got me to where I'm at today. speaker-0: Wonderful. Well, thank you for that. All right, we're going to hand it over to the students. Hassan, what is your first question for Dishon? speaker-1: Would you say the process was hard or easier since your father was a business person taking into finance? speaker-3: I speaker-2: I don't think I had, I think I had an upper hand, you know, with my father being in business, just because everything, situations that I would go through as a youth would always be put into kind of like a real war context. So, right. I wanted to, I wanted to get a car. All right. Well, what's the plan for you to get a car? How are you going to pay it off? What does insurance look like? How much money do you need to earn this in order to do that? Right. Like, you know, you want to, I wanted to go to a certain college, all right, where you're not getting a full scholarship. So how are you going to bridge the gap between you know what you're going to go to school and what you're able to bring in everything needed to be. With with my dad so that's something that was really you know from one in the by a pair shoes that were $20 over the budget that I was able to have as a 11 or 12 year-old right like wanted to get the Jordan's our you know 130, 140 at the time. But only have $80 how was I going to work it off or bridge the gap between the two so really started early. So I think that definitely gave me an upper hand. speaker-1: business case. speaker-2: But then when you do get into college, you really put it into the technical space and you really have to have a grasp. speaker-1: on numbers and on concepts. speaker-2: And that was ⁓ really difficult for me. I was not the greatest high school student. was not the greatest studier. So I really had to when I got to school, really suffer first year. then after that, I kind of had to relearn some new study habits so I can kind of be on the same pace with all my other college peers. But it's a speaker-1: Bye. It's been a while. speaker-0: That's super encouraging to know that, hey, and you're being honest about your study habits. So it's encouraging to know that you can still be successful even after those challenging first years. Hi, my question is what does your day to day look like for you and your career? speaker-1: I appreciate that question, Janiyah. So I actually work remote. So I live in Orlando, but our office is in St. Pete. So me, it's spent right here in my home office, sitting down, a lot of calls, a lot ⁓ team management. have some ⁓ folks that work with pretty closely. I'm enough to have a ⁓ speaker-2: video. speaker-1: group in a team that's really spread all over the US and then work with a lot of our stakeholders outside the US. So hours can fluctuate depending on who I'm talking with at any point in time. But there are just a lot of things, a lot of phone calls, a lot of Teams messages, you know, throughout my day to day. speaker-2: media. speaker-0: Awesome. And again, as you said earlier, you stay you stay engaged. So I know that you do a lot of volunteering at your church and and you travel a bunch. So staying engaged. Let's go to Kashish. speaker-5: My first question is, what skills do you think are the most important for someone entering your field? speaker-0: What? speaker-1: It's great question, Kashish. The attention to detail is something that you can't overlook. When you're presenting numbers, and I have the pleasure of working with lot of the executives here at Raymond James, when you're presenting numbers or you're presenting your ideas, you really need to understand what you're putting forth because people are making some pretty big decisions off of that. So think attention to detail is big. speaker-2: I think it's. speaker-1: I think the ability to multitask is huge, right? You're typically not, at least I'm typically not just working on one project at any point in time. I need to be able to juggle three or four or five different projects with different teams and different stakeholders. you know, understanding where I'm gonna put my time on any one portion of the day, I think is really important. speaker-0: Good, multi, you know, there are some people who say you can't multitask, but I think that there's other people like ourselves who just, hey, you just got to compartmentalize and keep things moving, keep all the little machines going. speaker-1: I agree. Also the nature that there's no such thing as multitasking. Your brain literally shuts off as you transition to a new task, but I'm very good at stopping and starting the brain functions. And that's something that serves me well. Not everyone can do it. So you and I, know, we got something, something confident. speaker-0: superpower. All right, Riley, is sort of similar to Kshish's question, but I wanted to ask for interested in joining a firm like Raymond James, what should they focus on developing earlier? ⁓ speaker-1: Wow. Yeah. I think depends on how you want to join. Right. So one thing I will say about the banking environment in general, we have every job here at the bank that she would have anywhere else. Right. We have marketing people, have HR, we have finance, we have operations, project manager, we have IT. I just spent an hour on IT. They're trying to fix my computer, which is one of the reasons why my camera wasn't working. But, you know, so we have everything. So it really depends on what area you want to join in on. I would just say have a general interest, especially as you guys are gearing up to go into college. first couple years may not necessarily define what the rest of your career is going to look like. ⁓ had a very hyper focus on business and ⁓ ⁓ and economics, but not everybody's like that. And I don't think that everybody needs to be. But one thing I will say is just have a general interest. If you're interested in working at a large ⁓ Fortune firm like a Raymond James or any other national bank or investment bank, you know, do a little bit of research, see if it's something you want to do, talk to some people that you know are in the field. But again, I will say like, just because you want to work for a large firm, there are plenty of places from, you know, we have nurses, you know, and we have cooks and we have all sorts of things that are a part of our, our infrastructure here at Raymond James, it takes a lot to, you know, orchestrate 10 or 15,000 person campus, right? So there's all types of stuff going on. speaker-0: Dishon, I'm so glad that you said that because all these large companies have different types of people working there. So even though that's finance, you will still have an attorney working there. You're gonna for sure have human resources working there. So thank you for bringing that up. And our seniors at Freire Charter School in Wilmington for sure know that as well. Let's go to Kahnae, your first question. My question is how do you motivate speaker-1: question is speaker-4: stay during setbacks or failures. speaker-2: You have to have and I get I think speaker-1: For me personally, being an athlete, I had to learn it really quickly, right? Like you're only as good as your next shot, you're only as good as your next opportunity. You gotta have that kind of next up kind of mentality. So I think you're gonna make mistakes, right? If any of you guys play any sports or do anything creative even like you're gonna mess up on a drawing, you're gonna mess something up, right? But that doesn't mean that has to be all of the outcome. can always make it up. Typically you can make it up the next day. You just can't spend a whole lot of time being sorry for yourself. You just gotta have that kind of self-confidence. So, I some ways that I like to keep motivated is I like to celebrate small successes. So I don't wait until I may have this big project, this big goal. I don't wait until a year later when it's done. I may celebrate some milestones in between. It keeps the motivation up. I think also having... trusted peers and partners that you guys can talk to and you guys can share experiences that you're going through. also think it's very important as well because your friend group is really going to be the ones who kind of motivate you. And then lastly, no job, no school, no education defines who you are. So I really think that's family, that's your relationship, spiritual context, whatever that is. Those things should define you, not necessarily what job you have. speaker-0: Yes, DeShawn. That's amazing because that kind of is applicable to any ⁓ and to any career that our students are heading ⁓ speaker-1: What is one major finance project that you succeeded in? ⁓ I can't talk too much about particulars here. ⁓ I've worked with private equity shops, know, purchasing other companies, running other companies, things like that. I've consulted on a lot of large engagements internationally as well. One the projects is at a prior firm, actually Ilyne, when I was living in DC, I think that I'm quite proud of is my job was lot of relationship building for things to get speaker-2: in the past. speaker-1: ⁓ I won't go into the long detail, but basically, banks want access to the US market for a whole host of services, better products and services, the ability to trade and do payments in USD and dollars. So a lot of my role was facilitating some of these introductions between some of these foreign banks and some of the US banks. And these are banks that people, if you've ever traveled maybe to the Bahamas or you've gone to some parts of Europe or Africa, you'll see these banks just like you'll see Bank of America, right? But they all work on relationships and money moves cross-borders. So I had the pleasure of setting up some programs that allowed some of these foreign banks to be able to come into the US or for some of the US banks to go out and visit foreign banks to start creating some of these connections. speaker-2: Ram. speaker-0: That's amazing too, just having those international travel opportunities. And I actually do remember when you did, you know, were traveling a lot, but just that sounds exciting to be able to do your job you know, get to see these different places ⁓ be exposed to those different cultures and languages. Let's to Janiya, What are one of the aspects in the finance industry that most people don't talk about that you wish somebody would have told you? speaker-1: back to, the whole finance question, right? There are a lot of roles, even within the finance world, even within the banking space. I don't do quote unquote finance and accounting on a day to day. I do a lot of business models, a lot of structure, a lot of risk reward business case sort of, ⁓ presentations. That's really exciting for me. not necessarily like accounting, accounts payable, accounts receivable, balancing the budget, know, things like that, right? So I find ways to pull on my degrees in finance and economics to be able to facilitate like effective decisions. So yes, I may need to, I need to be able to read a profit and loss statement from a bank or from an institution or from a family office or something like that that wants to do business with us. But oftentimes it's just what information can I take from that and then put it into a larger business case that either says do business or don't do business, you know, with this group. So I think that's the nature that people don't a lot of times talk about. They just talk about the X's and the O's of finance. They just talk about the numbers, but it's really like, what are the numbers telling you that's going to help you out with this larger decision that you have to make? speaker-0: That's awesome. ⁓ Let's go back to Kashish, speaker-5: If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be and how would it have affected you and where you are now? speaker-2: You know what? speaker-1: I oftentimes I think if I could go back and do it all over again, would I? Probably would if you gave me the opportunity to, but not because I would do anything differently, just because I had so much fun doing it. And I think one of the things that I think about, especially, you know, when I was you guys in high school, you would have told me where I would be at today, ⁓ may not have believed it necessarily, because I may not have had that vision. But at each step along the way, you know, something was revealed to me that, you know, something could be greater. We could do more. You could do more. I think I would like that opportunity to have that same kind of ⁓ ambition or drive, you know, and I try to, I try to, you know, get that inner ambition right now. And, ⁓ of the things that I'm doing ⁓ my work. But if I had to tell my younger self something, would just be a, going, right? Like don't quit, keep going. You're gonna, you're gonna have some, difficult times. You're gonna have some. difficult teachers, difficult semesters, but just keep going. Everything will be okay in the end. speaker-0: right and you're you're the prime example of being resilient even specifically academically and and being successful in your seat that's amazing. go to Riley. What's something you enjoy the most about working with clients? speaker-1: I think I'm an ⁓ I'm probably closer on the introvert scale than a lot of people ⁓ imagine, but I'm just like right in the sweet spot. So I love engaging with other people. I love getting to meet folks, right? I love sitting down and having like coffee and asking questions and just listening. ⁓ do very well with that. And I think that's what you get when you sit down with a client. Oftentimes they have speaker-2: lot of people. speaker-1: a ⁓ issue or a challenge that they're trying to overcome. what you need to do as someone that's in relationship management, you really need to understand a little bit more about them in the background story. Often people want to present to you just ⁓ unique problem or situation that you're dealing with. But when you're dealing with complex individuals, ⁓ can't just pull on one ⁓ and expect everything to be perfect. There's a lot of different cords you may need to pull. So I think the working with clients and working in relationship management kind of functions is really fun for me because I get to figure out all the different levers I get to pull when trying to make decisions and help people ⁓ make the best decisions for themselves. speaker-0: That's so interesting, right, DeShawn, because working with people, regardless of the industry, it could be fun, it could be the greatest joy in your day, but it could also be the toughest part of your day is dealing with people. So that was a really great question, Ryleen. Thank you for sharing that, DeShawn. Let's go to Kahnae, your next question. speaker-1: or speaker-4: Raymond James for young people just starting their careers. speaker-2: So we have. speaker-1: And I'm not the perfect person to answer this question, but we have a pretty massive intern program. So I would encourage everybody to go to our intern. It's mostly for, I think, like sophomores through seniors in college, though. We do do some partnerships in the Tampa area, I believe, with some high schools, but don't quote me on that. But particularly for colleges, every summer we bring in a couple hundred interns. I think last year we had our largest group of interns come in, but that's one of the ways that the organization kind of works with young professionals. speaker-0: That's a great question too. Can I as always use those opportunities to find, know, where you can get some exposure and some access to these different companies. All right, let's go back to Hassan. And this is Dishon, I want to introduce you to Hassan just a little bit, but I want him to be able to share with you what it is that he's most interested in. I shared with him before you hopped on that it was important for him to be here because he is also interested in finance. So Hassan, why don't you share with Dishon your experience. in finance and what your plans are in just a few weeks after high school. speaker-1: Okay, so I don't really have like major experience with finance, but pretty much all my life I've loved math. I've been great with numbers and I've just, it's just, it comes to my head. Like an equation can get done quickly. I plan on going to an HBCU to major in finance to hopefully one day become a financial advisor. I mean, a financial analyst, sorry. That's awesome, man. I think, I think obviously you need to know a little bit of math if you're going to be in finance. So I think that that is phenomenal. I think also going to HBCU could be a fantastic experience for you as well and a lot of great universities out there that are in the business realm. Look for when you're at these HBCUs and when you get to universities for sure, look see what kind of finance or math clubs or maybe already maybe find some internships on school on campus that may allow you to work in the finance office or in the accounting office, any experience like that. plus the education will really set you up to like a true internship when you get ready for it. You're a junior or senior year. And then obviously all that on your resume looks really good for that kind of intro ⁓ financial analyst. But I got bigger pictures than you for just an analyst, man. I see some some VP titles for you if you keep going with it. speaker-0: All right, Hassan, what other questions do you have for Dashaun? speaker-1: My question was going to be, what did he recommend for somebody who wanted to be a financial analyst? It kind of just gave me the ⁓ answer to that. But what a ⁓ like key concept to being working in finance? So I think the ability to, so for the analyst, right, so hear it. someone that works more in what we call capital markets. So working more on like investment banking and trading and things like that. are people on Wall Street and all that kind of stuff. Those are what you typically make here on TV as financial analysts. But I have financial analysts that work for me that aren't on Wall Street. They're people that are good with spreadsheets, really, really good with Excel. speaker-2: really r- speaker-1: phenomenal with, you know, chat GPT and all the AI concepts that are out there right now, right? Building formulas, building spreadsheets, working in that stuff like that, that will be the future eventually, but we need a human in the loop to be able to help us, you know, come through through what's good. But I use a lot of that stuff in my everyday. So I think a couple of those things really getting really good with Excel, learning how to use AI. ⁓ with the Excel, with building PowerPoints is really gonna be a key for you, especially earlier on in your career. speaker-0: That's good. Hold that tight Hasan. know you guys have some things in common being athletes and into finance. So nice connection there. Janiyah, let's go to you. Janiyah is also waiting to where she plans on going to school next in the next few weeks. ⁓ is interested in psychiatry. Can you share with little bit, share with DeShawn a little bit about what your plans are? So yeah, Janiyah. ⁓ And my after high school are to go, I will say am going to HBCU and I'm going to be majoring in psychology. And then we'll see how that goes. And then I plan on possibly minoring in criminology. as well. ⁓ speaker-1: Well, my wife's an attorney. she was a criminology major, I believe, when she was at undergrad. One thing I'll say about ⁓ being psychology, whether you go into criminology or whether you want to open your own practice, at the end of the day, everything is a business. So whether you are studying business, you're going to be working for a business, you're going to be building your own business. So I would encourage you, as you take your next steps into school, get speaker-2: inch speaker-1: Show the business course, learn a little bit about what's going on. I'll also add there are a lot of psychiatrists. I have a performance coach. I used to have a performance coach, right? Like I would speak to somebody once a quarter on what's going on, what's going well, what things can I work on? That's a psychiatrist that's supporting the business field. So, you know, there are different ways to blend, not to say that you need to be focused on business at all, there are different ways to blend some of that stuff in. So, ⁓ so congrats and good luck. speaker-0: Thank you. My dream is I want to move on to be a forensic psychiatrist. speaker-1: There you go. There you go. There you go. won't do anything bad for you to have to do some of research or look up on me. speaker-0: That's right, because now she's going to find you. Janiyah, what's your next question for Deshawn? What makes your firm different from its competitors? speaker-2: I think so speaker-1: So we are a very people oriented space. Raymond James, you know, founder and CEO, just, you know, older guy. You can still find them every single day in the cafeteria, you know, sitting down, lunch amongst the associates, you know, the us, you know, little people in life, right? This guy, people come up, he's worth all types of money, but he's still very comfortable in space and shake your hand and talk to you in the elevator and very pleasant. You don't get that at most, you know, large banks. You're not going to see that. You know, don't want to say any, any bank's name, but you're, probably not going to get there. So Raymond James is also a top employer in Florida, top employer in the United States from a ⁓ resource, like take care of their employees standpoint. So I think that's one thing that sets us apart is our people. We also do a really great job with, you know, what we would call like inclusion networks and things like that, the Black Financial Advisors, and we have different ones for women and also veterans and all sorts of things that they really encourage folks to get involved in. And they put a lot of money, time, and effort behind it. speaker-0: Ooh, I love that you shared that, DeShawn, because often when you start a career, you're looking for your people. You're trying to find a community to at least have your back or ask those questions. And when you go to a company and you know that they support those different types of groups, like, hey, we're all starting. It makes a difference to know that you can find people that can, again, have your back. So thank you for sharing that. Let's go to Kshish. because she's interested in architecture has already decided where she's going to school next and also interested in computer science. Why don't you share a little bit with DeShawn what your next steps are. speaker-5: My next steps after high school is go to college. It's going to be in California, Northeastern University. was my original plan. ⁓ wasn't feeling architecture no more, so I'm doing computer science and design. I'm majoring in that. speaker-1: That's great. think computer science is a really important field. I did not do well in college, by the way, but I think it's a really important field. You gotta be really sharp to do that. When you said architecture, I was like, okay, she's gotta be really sharp. That's what she wants to do as well. So good luck to you. mean, all the computer science stuff, again, I think. I don't think AI will take it over, but I think you guys will be the ones programming it and working with the large language models and all that kind of stuff. So that's pretty incredible that you can get in on the ground floor. speaker-0: You know, with Kshish, because she shared that she had some interest, took a pivot, and is considering something else. Can you speak a little bit about that, DeShawn, of where they are in this season of life, being seniors in high school, having many interests in making these decisions now? Do you have any wisdom or encouragement to share our students that have different options? speaker-1: Yeah, this the time to do it. Change your mind, you know, do what you have. Essentially the next four years, if you guys are going into school, some people, guess in five years or so, if college is the route that you choose to go in, it is a large enough place for you to be able to explore what you think you want to do the next five, 10 years getting out of school. So ⁓ I would encourage you if you get into an area that you're just not comfortable in for whatever other reason. speaker-2: you need. speaker-1: Don't just quit because it's hard or don't just change because it's hard like that. That's not a reason to necessarily do something different. But if you're just not interested in what you're learning ⁓ you don't think that it's a career career that you really want to go in, you you're paying the money to the institution at the end of the day, right? So you should be the one that gets out of it, ⁓ you need and what you want. So ⁓ feel free to make those changes now and, and, you know, go after what you really want. speaker-0: That's awesome. That's so true. be confident in that when you make that decision. Kshish, what other questions do you have for DeShawn? speaker-5: Another question I have is how do you approach leading large teams across different departments? speaker-1: Yeah, so I think for me, I like to lead with humility first. I have always said I'm not the smartest person in the room that I walk into. One of my strengths and my superpowers that I'm able to engage and talk to everyone. I don't care where you're from. I don't care how old you are. I don't care what your background is, your gender is. Like I can relate to you in some way, form or fashion. So I can create these like super teams and really, really get people to mesh well together. I did it in college. I used to go out and pick the smartest people in the class and people that I will work well together, get them on a group project. I'd order pizza. I'd have people over my place. We do our projects together. I'd get an A because I had all the smartest people in the room, not because I was the smartest person. Right. So I do the same thing now. So I think leading these teams is one understanding, like what you do well and then what other people do well, giving them ⁓ a space to kind of flourish and drive. And then, ⁓ yeah, just, just treating everybody with a little bit of respect. mean, At the end of the day, everybody is getting paid to do a job. They don't necessarily need to be micromanaged in all ⁓ So have a plan ⁓ try to stick to it as much as possible and try to be ⁓ humble in the process. speaker-0: So DeShawn, what I'm hearing is be respectful of all kinds of people, build community and feed them, right? So that's the formula. We're coming to you Riley. Riley announced where she's going to be going to school next and she has an interest ⁓ in more of the healthcare route. Why don't you share with DeShawn what you have next. after high school, after graduation, ⁓ the summer, ⁓ speaker-1: I speaker-0: I want to go to Thomas Jefferson University. I'm majoring in health sciences, but the end goal is to be an ultrasound tech. basically it. speaker-1: That's great. think what state is Thomas Jefferson and is it the same school in New Jersey? Yeah, okay. Cool. Cool. think, sorry, I'm blanking now. I think we played at Thomas Jefferson when I was in school, that's phenomenal. My wife and I do a lot of doctors appointments and visits and stuff now we're with the Altshirt. speaker-4: I'm speaker-0: New Jersey. speaker-2: I think that is. speaker-1: ultrasound techs all the time. So God bless you and your job and your career choice. I think that that is amazing. I'm not a technology person. So dealing with all those systems and, ⁓ know, sonograms and all that kind of stuff is probably not, I'm probably not well suited for it, but it sounds like you are. What makes you interested in ⁓ tech? speaker-0: I happen to be a lot better in math than I am in writing and English ⁓ those other types of subjects. I just read about it one day and I was like, I want to do this. speaker-1: That's great, Riley. Go find one. Go find somebody that's an ultrasound tech. Have a conversation with them. Say, hey, can I come spend the day with you? I think that's a good advice for all of you that are unsure maybe about what you want to do next. Find five people that you're just interested in. Like, hey, they seem cool. They seem cool. They seem nice. They seem successful. See if you can spend the day with them. See if you can spend a couple hours with them. Go out to lunch with them. asking questions, you guys are asking phenomenal questions now, just kind of rinse and repeat for those five individuals that you find. speaker-0: That's awesome. Yep. that's what I encourage our students all the time. Just put it out there. People will say, I know this person or my auntie works at the hospital and she can get you in and all of these different things. So you just keep putting it out there. I have another question about client service, client relationships. What building long-term relationships with clients look like for you personally? speaker-1: It looks like more than just work. So long-term for me is like all about trust and usually the way you get to trust is you've established a solid relationship. You're someone that ⁓ can depend on. ⁓ someone that you can depend on. You've kind of gone through some challenging projects or scenarios or situations in the past and you've both kind of come out unscathed if you will. I think. long-term relationships also are, like I said in the beginning, not just business, not just work-related. They really kind of depend on who you are as a person, you your care, ⁓ humility at the end of the day, your willingness to go above and beyond what the job calls for. I think that's really how those long-term relationships are built. And then there's always the mix of family and understanding, you know, family dynamics and where people are from and what their background and being curious to learn something new. I think that's a great way to build those long-term relationships. speaker-0: And as I always say, there's some of these skills that are industry agnostic. You don't have to know all kinds of math or be really interested in medical to just be able to be good to people and maintain those and steward those relationships well. Great question, Riley. Let's go to Kahnae. And Kahnae is one of our other ones interested in architecture. Why don't you share with us, what you have planned after high school in just a few weeks? After high school, I planned to go to college to be an architect. speaker-4: College. speaker-1: Great, Kanae, you know what school you're going to? speaker-4: Right now I'm thinking about going to Delta speaker-1: That's cool. No, that's great. ⁓ I architecture is ⁓ a really, really, really cool field. have a lot of friends who are in the engineering architecture space. They're a lot smarter than I am. So I'm sure you're also a lot smarter than I am. I think that's great. And it just like I gave Riley before you like go, go out, try to find a couple of people that work in architecture in different areas. Some people may just be working on CAD drawings all day. Some people may be more relationship sales driven, out meeting with clients, talking about what their design needs are. Some folks focus on residential spaces and houses and things. Some are building banks and institutions and hospitals. So maybe find where you wanna play at and that may help you when you get into school, really what to focus on. speaker-0: And you spoke a little bit earlier to Sean about no matter what field you're going into, know a little bit about business. Can you share, know, if you had some golden ⁓ to share with Kahnae ⁓ her interest in architecture, what kind of advice would you give her? speaker-1: I mean, so I think particularly around there are business-like roles everywhere. Specifically at an architecture firm, it is a business. You're going to have accountants, you're going to have finance people, you're going to have people who do everything, marketing, social media, all that kind of stuff. You can work for an architecture firm and not necessarily be an architect. Now you want to pull the power mode move. You want to own your own architecture firm. You absolutely need to know business because at end of the day, it's your money that's going into the business and it's your money that's coming out. So you want to be able to manage that well. And great thing about business period industry agnostic, as you're talking about Ilyne, is that at the end of the day, you can balance your own budget, if you can balance your own checkbook, as they would say, you can have control over your own finances. You can probably do a decent job starting your own business as well. So there's a lot of same similarities from running a business to ⁓ your own home at the end of the day. speaker-0: Setting up for that power move. Keneya, do you have another question for Dishon? My question is, speaker-4: something people misunderstand about working in finance. speaker-0: finance. speaker-1: Yeah, think, think, I'm touch on this a little bit earlier. I don't think it's boring. again, think it's all, finance is very creative. So that's probably something I didn't mention. Accounting is very cut and paste, right? Two plus two equals four. This asset plus this liability, have to match on the balance sheet. Finance is a little bit different. It's... I'm here, I need to get to here. What do I need to do to these inputs in order to get to where I want to be? What levers can I pull? Okay, well, I can reduce my spending in these areas. I can increase my marketing revenue over here. I can hire new people. So these are all different things that I can do to affect like what my bottom line is. In finance, we're constantly analyzing and stress testing. Hey, do I have... the cost basis to support my growth model? Do I have the number of people that I need at my architecture firm to be able to grow it, to go across and open up a new shop and a new state line? Do I have the revenue to be able to go out and hire a new salesperson to join my team? That's what we're doing in finance all day long. So yes, you need to understand numbers, but you need to understand really what impacts those numbers at the end of the day. speaker-0: beautiful and I'm just imagining, Kahnae, if that is your desire to start your own firm, just be like DeShawn and bring all those smart people around you, feed them, treat them well, grow that business. ⁓ a great conversation. Hassan, what did you pick up today in our conversation with DeShawn? What you the most in this conversation? speaker-1: surprised me the most was that there's so much more to finance than just like, you know, the math side of it. And to basically just keep going your mind. If your mind isn't too sure, just keep going, keep thinking about it and change your mind if necessary because you'll figure something out eventually. speaker-0: That's awesome. Hassan, DeShawn share anything with you today that helped you feel like, a in finance maybe closer to me? ⁓ speaker-1: Yes, once he told me he could see me being a VP, I took that into very great consideration. speaker-0: that. that. Janiyah, we're coming to you. What resonated with you the most today in our conversation with DeShawn? in our conversation, what resonated with me the most is that this is a time for us to be open to different outputs and inputs of careers that we might be interested in. I feel like because we're 18 now or some of us are turning 18, a lot of people are like, you have to pick a plan, stick to the plan. And I think that it was very helpful for you to say, like, no, now is the time for you to think about all those other different options. That's good. That's some good encouragement. I wish somebody told me that when I was a senior in high school. Kshish, what about you? speaker-5: thing I learned is that just because you don't get like internship opportunities ⁓ like school or ⁓ organizations, you can look at like your friends, family or somebody ⁓ connections to be able to like you know get into the career choice and get experience from it. speaker-0: Excellent. Kahnae, How has these interviews helped you grow as a leader or as a communicator, even making decisions in your next steps? Definitely got more comfortable speaking to and making up questions on the spot, but it definitely helped. get me more experience that everything are not exactly that job. speaker-4: some different job opportunities. speaker-0: That's amazing. That's amazing. DeShawn, thank you so much for being a guest with us today. Do you have any final words of encouragement or wisdom to share with our students from Charter School in Wilmington? speaker-2: Nothing's gonna speaker-1: ⁓ be given to you guys, right? backgrounds, similar demographics, everything like that. So you're gonna have to go out and take it, right? So don't get discouraged. You're gonna have tough days. You're gonna have running into tough people, difficult people to deal with, but you guys can do it. I have every bit of confidence in you. I'm thinking about myself as I was your age in high school. I probably would have been like too nervous and too shy and too, you know. uninterested to even have this conversation. So you guys are already doing a lot better than me. So good luck to you. speaker-0: Well, thanks again DeShawn for being our guest today with our students, DeShawn is the Vice President of international strategy Raymond James and our co-hosts from Freire Charter School in Wilmington including Janiyah Hassan Riley Kashish ⁓ and Kahnae. Thank so much for joining us today at AccessCo Leaders career conversations. We'll see you next time.