Latest / Leaders In Payments / Women Leaders in Payments: Outhay Lovan, Chief People Strategy Officer at VizyPay | Episode 415

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Women Leaders in Payments: Outhay Lovan, Chief People Strategy Officer at VizyPay | Episode 415 · Leaders In Payments

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast, where we talk to C-level leaders from across the payments landscape.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: 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 1: We will also hear stories from our guests about their journeys to the top.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Hello everyone and welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: I'm your host, greg Myers, and this episode is part of our Women Leaders in Payments month, something we do every year in the month of July, and it's one of my favorite times of the year.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: This year's theme is redefining leadership, influence, impact and innovation, so those are some of the things you're going to be hearing about during the month of July.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: So first, a special thank you to our sponsors.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Our title sponsor is WorldPay, our participating sponsors are VisiPay and PayRock, and our episode sponsors are the Clearinghouse and Genico and PaySafe.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: So special thanks to those companies.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Today, our special guest is Otay Levon, the Chief People Strategy Officer at VisiPay.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: So, otay, thank you so much for being here and welcome to the show.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Hey, thank you Thanks for having me.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Thanks everyone, you so much for being here and welcome to the show.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: Hey, thank you.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: Thanks for having me.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Thanks everyone.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Let's start off with a little icebreaker.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: So if you could have dinner with any female, whether past or present, who would that be and why, and what type of restaurant would you go to?
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: Oh, my goodness, any female Gosh.
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: That's a hard question.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: I would probably list a celebrity of some sort, because I'm a geek like that.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: So I've always been a big fan of JLo.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: Even growing up I've been a big fan, more so, on her work ethic.
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: I think she is someone that truly works very hard, whether she is an actress, getting ready for a movie or on a concert singing.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: She's not the greatest at what she does, but she is very consistent and I tend to think that she's there.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: Whenever there's something going on, she's involved.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: She's kind of trending all the time, so I would want to do a shout out to her for sure.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Okay, what kind of restaurant would you take her to?
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, this is hard because I'm not a fancy person, so I don't think of a fancy place.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: I'd probably want to just sit down, hold the wall.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: Mom and pop shop anything from Thai food to pasta I love any place.
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: I'll have her shoes.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Great.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: So let's talk a little bit about your background and your career.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: So maybe give us a snapshot of your background, maybe where you grew up, where you went to school, kind of what led you into payments, even.
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: Yes, raised in Des Moines, iowa, actually the east side of Des Moines, I actually was born in Laos.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: My father is from Laos, my mother's from Thailand.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: I studied human resources management and interesting, I didn't decide this in high school, it was actually after I had graduated from high school, I applied for a job at a bank and that recruiter really made an impression on me and how that experience was, as I was interviewing for the job.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: So I'm like, okay, this is what I want to do, this is where I want to get into.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: So I landed into human resource management and love it.
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: How I got into the world of payment is actually an interesting story and if you've ever had a conversation with Austin McNabb, our CEO, he can probably tell you that I stocked the company.
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: It's interesting because I'm not a big social media person, believe it or not, but I've been in the working world for quite some time and I've had LinkedIn for some time now and I noticed this new organization and at the time it wasn't new.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: But it was new to LinkedIn because I was seeing the feed over and over of the people there and how the culture was and what they were doing, and so I watched Vy Pay on social media, on LinkedIn, for about a good five months or so.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: And then there was a post about their opening a new location where we're at today, and they were inviting the public to their grand opening.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: And so there I went.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: I was like, okay, I'm going to do this outside of my comfort zone.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: I'm going to reach out to a couple of connections from LinkedIn I didn't know them, it was just a connection through LinkedIn that I was going to attend this open house.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: So I showed up with my husband and I thought of it, more so because my husband is a social butterfly unlike myself, more so because my husband is a social butterfly unlike myself, but in Austin's eyes my husband's actually a police officer.
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: So he was like, oh, here she shows up with her husband, who's a cop not exactly what I intended it to be like that, but he would share the story that I kind of stalked and harassed them into getting the job I wanted.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: But after that event happened, I followed up that following week and I said, hey, how about this coffee conversation?
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: And then here we are today.
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: So our conversation led to what was created in the role I have.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: Okay, that's a great story.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: I'm glad you shared that.
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: And just for those in the audience, visipay I know well.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: I know Austin well.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: It's a great culture.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: What you've built there is truly amazing.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: So kudos to you guys for building that Very unique to the payments industry culture that you have.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: I encourage people to reach out to VisiPay and learn more about that.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: So back to the question.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: So kind of another kind of fun question.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: So you're going to be called up on stage to speak at a conference and you have a hype song.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: What is that hype song?
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: Okay, so this is kind of like the geek in me.
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: So I'm a big Black Panther fan.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: It's actually my favorite superhero and the very first Black Panther movie.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: There's a song by the Weeknd and Kendrick Lamar called Pray For Me, which is sounds interesting because when you hear the title, but it has some good beats.
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: Sounds interesting because when you hear the title, but it has some good beats.
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: So I think of that song every time, like hey, I'm going to do something, I'm going to go after it, and that song just like it's in my head.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: Gotcha.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: That's awesome.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: So tell us about your role today and kind of what excites you about what you're doing there at VisiPay.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: I lead our people strategy team.
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: So if you think of the life cycle of your human resources, your people, everything under that umbrella from.
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: If you think about what people externally hear of the organization, your brand and what that looks like, that experience, so from that to talent acquisition and how they apply for a job and what that process is going applying for that job, and then the entire cycle of how they move around within the organization.
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: So my goal is working with people and connecting that talent with the right roles that align to the organization.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: I truly believe that you'll get then a high performing culture.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Let's talk a little bit about leadership and maybe some lessons learned there.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Obviously, just like the payments industry, leadership is evolving.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: So how do you define modern leadership and how do you embody that every day?
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: I think one of the things that I had mentioned this when I had interviewed for my job or my conversation with Austin.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: I am not a transactional leader, I am a strategic leader, and so if you're looking for someone that's very transactional, that's not me.
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: I'm just going to be honest, transparent here and that's okay.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: And as I was looking for that right role for myself, that home, I wanted to make sure that the person I would be working with and partnering with knew that.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: So I always told myself that I want to be a leader that I would want.
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: I've had many, many ineffective leaders.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: I think you probably may have agreed with that that there's times in your career where you've had ineffective leaders, and so for me, as I went through different organizations and different leadership, I always said I want to be a leader that I would want, which means a leader that has a good balance, and a good balance could mean anything from the flexibility and understanding someone's personal life whether they have something going on and caring for a family member or caring for their children that balance, that flexibility, but also be firm in where you come from as that leader and how you're being held accountable to doing that job and leading the people or leading that department, so accountability is huge.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: And I also like to say I tend to want to make sure I'm modeling the behavior.
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: So if I have the expectation of someone that needs to be at work on time, I need to make sure that I am there before that individual.
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: Obviously, that is not me, I'm not a clock watcher but again, it all depends on that individual and how they feel.
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: But I always feel like I want to make sure that I give people a good balance in the flexibility and understanding them and knowing who they are, to also holding them accountable for doing the job and what they were hired for, but also for myself modeling that behavior as well.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: So, when you kind of step back from your career and life and look at it, have you had those defining moments where something happened and it kind of defines who you are?
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: I call them like those aha moments, and some people have them in life and some people have them in careers, and sometimes it's a combination because our lives and careers are so intertwined these days.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: But just curious if you've had any of those kind of aha moments and what they were.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: I probably have had a lot of aha moments and what they were?
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: I probably have had a lot of aha moments Gosh, I can't pinpoint one specifically but I am a true believer that things happen for a reason and, as I mentioned before, I've had struggles, just like anybody else in their journey, in their career journey.
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: I've had ineffective leaders.
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: I've been in roles that just didn't align with who I was, but I was also young at the time and so I was doing whatever I needed to do.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: I felt like I know I mentioned this, but I felt like at every stage of my journey I fought to get to where I'm at, and so these lessons learned have helped and shaped me for who I am today and how I am today.
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: So I wouldn't take anything back, but I can't really recall what really was that one moment that was like my aha moment.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: Well, it may have been showing up with your husband at the event.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: With Austin, that may have been one of them.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: When you look at what females can bring to the table, what do you think they do bring to the table that really will affect the payments or can affect the payments industry?
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: You know, to be honest with you, I think what we bring, the empathy that we have, is a big factor in building relationships and connecting with people.
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: In building relationships and connecting with people and I think, with us being mothers and being mothers who are working full time, that empathy factor, we understand it, we can relate, we can build those relationships.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: Empathy to call out hot topics that are happening around the world or trending topics with the industry and take that big initiative and echo what's happening around the world or trending topics with the industry and take that big initiative and echo what's happening around I think that's definitely a skill and something that is not just necessarily given.
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: It's just something that you kind of grow as you start to understand and self-reflect.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: I think empathy is a huge skill to bring to the table and being able to have that as a core value is definitely going to go a long way.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: Let's talk a little bit now about innovation and influence.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: So the payment space, as you know, is changing very fast and we talk about that all the time.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: So how do you stay innovative as a leader?
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: I would probably say join industry networking groups.
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: I know what I know of the industry, of course, through my experience and interactions here at VisiPay, but to actually understand more and connect with people outside my organization to learn more, I definitely want to say those networking groups will help you.
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: Networking groups for me and this is for me PayTech Woman was a huge one, eta, transact and another networking group I think of that one of these days I would like to just be exposed to is like the FinTech meetups that are happening.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: What's one trend or change maybe going on in the industry and it doesn't necessarily have to be directly related to payments, but what's one trend or change going on that you are really watching closely right now?
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: I would probably say the buy now, pay later, because as a consumer I would be using that quite often.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: And then another thing is the digital wallets, the contactless payments.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: It's something that I'm not used to, obviously, but I'm getting used to it by adding it to my phone and all that stuff.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: But I know my children my oldest are 20 years old, and so that's definitely something that it's part of what their ecosystem is.
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: They don't know anything else, they've never seen a checkbook, and so to me it's like I need to be in tune with what's going on and be part of it so I can understand and be able to help and have that same language as my kids.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there's a lot to be learned.
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: My youngest is 21.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: She's a senior in college or will be coming up, and same thing as all of her interactions on her phone and, yes, some of it's payment related, but some of it's not.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: If there's any friction or anything, she'll just move on to the next thing, right?
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: So I think that's something that we all need to kind of learn and understand is how that younger generation, the 20 and 21 year olds of the world, kind of how they see things and how they do things, because it's a lot different and, like you said, she couldn't write a check if she had to because she's never had a checkbook or needed a checkbook, and it's just such a different experience.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: I don't think they've ever seen a checkbook or even know what that is.
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: The other day I just had to write a check in the mail, which is interesting, you know, and that's probably the only check I write twice a year To them.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: It's when something's glitchy.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: They're like oh mom, just move on.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: I'm like what do you mean?
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: Move on.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: I don't know if I trust my phone enough to just set up something else right away, right?
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: No, totally agree with you there.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: How do you think women can influence the future direction of payments?
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: We talk about this a lot and about the leadership and I think, women, giving them opportunities to lead in their own right, allowing them the autonomy, trusting the work that they do to drive growth and change, driving innovation and design.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: Having the seat at the table doesn't mean you have to be a leader.
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: You can lead without having a title, by bringing ideas, innovation, strategy to the discussion.
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: I also think having an exclusive work environment.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: I talked about flexible work arrangements without sacrificing their role, creating learning and development programs to foster different environments.
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think all these things that we can do to influence the future direction for sure.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: Well, let's talk a little bit about mentorship and impact.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: This is a very important part of the conversation.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: So, have you had mentors in the past and, if so, sort of who were they?
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: What kind of impact did they have on you?
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: I have had mentors and it actually was more focused within the HR scope as I've got into payments and fintech and here at BusyPay.
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: My influence has been the community networks that I've joined and grown connected with them.
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: They've supported kind of my initiatives.
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: They've influenced me and helped me grow in my thoughts.
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: I'm going to, for sure, miss a lot of people, but right off the bat I want to give a shout out to Amanda, esther Rincolas, amanda Beam, laura Gibson Lamont, genevieve Dozer, rebecca Walden, catherine she's going to kill me because I'm probably going to mispronounce her last name but Kamaya Tech, linda Say, wendy Holiday all these individuals have influenced me in their own certain way, where they're supported and help grow the podcast that I have as well, where they've seen the vision of what I am thinking and help foster it and move it along.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: So I just want to give mad respects to them.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: So when you talk about mentorship, I've worked at big companies, huge banks, that had very structured mentorship programs where you met once a month and you had an agenda and all of that I'm just kind of curious, what are your thoughts?
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: Visipay isn't a small company, but it's also not a huge company.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: So kind of, how does mentorship work there?
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: How do you encourage the people it doesn't have to be women just how do you encourage employees to build those mentorships and they don't have to all be, like you've said, within payments per se, but just curious kind of your thoughts on that part of mentorship.
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: I think mentorship is huge.
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: I think it depends on the individual and how they want the guidance and how they want the support.
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: For us, it's never something that should be forced, and so it has to be a two-way street, just like a relationship, right?
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: So if you're looking for opportunities to grow or opportunities to network, we're providing resources, we're providing tools, but it's up to you of how you take that and carry that on.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: So if you could give some upcoming women in payments maybe they're just starting their careers or maybe they're transitioning into payments, but if you could give them sort of one piece of advice, what would that be?
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: Most likely I'm going to say be bold, be curious, and I'm going to tell you this from my perspective like no one's going to fight harder for you to succeed than yourself, and that's why I've always say, like every role I've had, I keep fighting my own way.
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: It doesn't seem like I'm really fighting right Externally, but internally I feel like I have to keep going.
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: It doesn't end, and so even after I retire someday, I'm still going to fight, Like there's something I'm going to do to keep me busy, but I'm going to keep fighting to figure out what that is or whatever that next journey is.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's great advice period just across the board.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: One kind of final fun question If you look at your phone and take away any business type of apps, what is the app that you use the most and why?
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: I would probably say so.
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: My daughter is in competitive soccer and I'm always getting notifications within the app that we use for her, and so I'm probably the one that is on it every day, just because I don't want to be that parent of maybe a start time or a different field or something that's going on with her soccer, and so I think that my actions would reflect on her.
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: So that's where I always tell myself like I want to make sure I'm on top of it.
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: So I want to say, definitely that app that I use for my daughter's soccer, I'm probably on it daily.
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: Okay, great, weird, right?
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: No, it's great.
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: Everybody has kind of their own thing.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: I mean, it says a lot about you as a person, right?
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: You want to make sure you're on top of things and you're on time and obviously you're taking care of your child and making sure she's there and all that kind of stuff, so it's a great thing.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, I've had very unique answers that I'm not going to give away because I want you to listen to the other episodes, but it's kind of a fun question that, when you kind of peel it back a little bit, what does it say about you as a person?
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think it obviously says a lot, so appreciate you sharing that.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: Before we wrap up, I just want to give you a chance.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: Is there anything else you want to add that we maybe haven't touched on?
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: Well, thank you.
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: Nothing as far as any other questions or anything, but I just want to say thank you for allowing me to be part of this platform.
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: Thank you to BusyPay for sponsoring and helping me be involved with it.
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: I'm among a lot of great women leaders, and so that's pretty awesome.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: Well, Otay, thank you so much for being here today.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: I know your time is very valuable.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: So again, thank you so much for being on the show.
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: And to all your listeners out there.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: I thank you for your time as well, and until the next story.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us this week on the Leaders in Payments podcast.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Make sure you visit our website at leadersinpaymentscom, where you can subscribe to the show and where you'll find our show notes.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: If you enjoyed listening, please share on your social channels as well.