Latest / Leaders In Payments / Women Leaders in Payments: Nino Maisuradze, COO, at Ingenico NA | Episode 335

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Women Leaders in Payments: Nino Maisuradze, COO, at Ingenico NA | Episode 335 · Leaders In Payments

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us during this special series running throughout the month of July, focused exclusively on women leaders and payments.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: We've got great content this month, focused on mentorship, career advice, getting out of your comfort zone, having your voice heard and much, much more.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: A special thanks to our contributing sponsors, Stacks Payments, Nuve and MAP Advisors, and to our episode sponsors, NMI, DailyPay, G&D and Ingenico.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: To kick off our month dedicated to women leaders and payments today, I welcome Nino Maseradza, the Chief Operating Officer at Ingenico North America.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: We've got a great episode ahead, so let's get started.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Co North America We've got a great episode ahead, so let's get started.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Hi Nino, Thank you for being here and welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast and, more specifically, thank you for participating during Women Leaders in Payments Month.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Hi, thank you for having me.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Absolutely so.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Tell our audience a little bit about yourself, maybe where you grew up, where you went to school, where you currently live, a few things like that.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: Sure, I grew up in country of Georgia.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: It's a small country in Eastern Europe, and I live in Atlanta, georgia.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: So I'm from country of Georgia and live in state of Georgia, and you won't believe what level of confusions it creates in everyday life.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Believe what level of confusions it creates in everyday life?
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: I bet, oh yes, I went to school in Germany and I lived in Germany for 10 years, and 12 years ago I moved to the US.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: Okay, awesome.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Well, tell us about your role today and a little bit about Ingenico.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Ingenico is a global leader in seamless payment solutions.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Our worldwide headquarters is in Paris, france, but we are a global company with presence all over the world.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Our focus is innovative, secure and scalable payment solutions.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: We have customers in all sizes of the business, from small local retailers to big enterprises.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: What I love about Ingenico and working here is how hyper-focused we are on customer and customer success.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Technology is always shifting and changing, and it is our job as leaders to be future oriented and shift and change with it.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: My role specifically at this point is I'm the Chief Operations Officer for the North America region, which is US, canada, mexico and Central America and that means that all things operations from supply chain to servicing the terminals once they're deployed, with deployment and repair, maintenance, customer care, help, desk recycling All those things are done by somebody in my teams.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Prior to this, I was the CFO of the region.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: Prior to this, I was the CFO of the region, and it's really powerful to have both experiences.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: I have to say it's great to have finance insight when making strategic operations decisions, so I love it.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: I love having both experiences.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Awesome.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: So obviously you're on the operations side of the business.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: So what are some of the challenges and opportunities that you see or that you face today?
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: You know, I really believe that the biggest challenges and opportunities at the same time probably always is adapting to the changes and the world keeps changing right every day and the pandemic put a huge accelerator on it for both businesses and consumers to the changes.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: And world keeps changing right Every day and pandemic put a huge accelerator on it for both businesses and consumers.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: Even if you think about us as consumers from our own perspective, what we expect today a good service is is probably very different from what our expectations were in pre-pandemic era and it is our job to adapt to those changes.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: And it is a great opportunity too, because it really forces companies to innovate and create value.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: But also it is a challenge because you need to come up with the right service offering.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: You have to define the processes, these operations we need to put in the infrastructure in place to be able to deliver these services.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: So it really is a challenge and opportunity at the same time.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: And it's a great challenge to have because, at the end of the day, it creates value and it helps us grow.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: Great, great.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Well, before we get into the meat of the conversation, I want to do a little icebreaker exercise where I'm going to ask you a kind of this or that question, so something like do you prefer early morning or late night?
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: And you're just going to answer real quick with whichever one you prefer, and we're just going to go through that.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: There are 10 of them and it's kind of like a lightning round, but it's going to be a way for people to learn more about you and kind of get us flowing a little bit.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: So are you ready?
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Oh boy.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: Yes, I am, let's go.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Okay, do you prefer summer or winter?
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Can I say spring and fall, something in the middle, but I'd have to choose summer.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Okay, cats or dogs, cats Apple or Android, apple Coffee or tea Coffee.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: Coffee, coffee, a lot of coffee Books or movies.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Oh, I love them both.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: You can't do that to me, I love them both.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Okay, beach or mountains.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: Mountains.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Chocolate or vanilla.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Chocolate.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Texting or calling oh, I'm very old-fashioned calling.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Okay, city or country City, and the last one, pizza or pasta.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: That one got me there Pasta.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Okay, okay, great, all right.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: Right, that was fun.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: That was fun to learn a little bit more about you.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: I think people will enjoy that so I feel like I learned something about well it's.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: It's fun to do those kind of things where they're quick and you don't have a lot of time to think.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: It's kind of like, okay, which one real quick, which one is it?
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: So you don't get to overthink the answer.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: So that makes it kind of so.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: Tell me about your life growing up.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: What was your life like growing up?
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: So when I was very young, georgia the country where I'm from was part of the Soviet Union and then in mid to late 80s, Soviet Union collapsed and with that that, everything else that was part of it collapsed too.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: So when I was growing up in 80s and 90s, georgia was in a civil war and you know, growing up in a war is obviously not fun and rosy.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: But it taught me a lot of stuff.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: First of all, what it did is that it kept families and close friend groups extremely tight.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: So the relationships we built I built as a child and watched others build around me were very strong, and that taught me the value of support and having supportive people and systems around you and having supportive people and systems around you.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: My parents kept me focused on education and that is what got me where I am today.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: And probably most importantly, the most impactful memory and experience is that I witnessed the world change from one day to another.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: And I witnessed the world change from one day to another and I witnessed adults around me having to adapt to this new world seemingly overnight.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: You know, good, bad or different.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: The life was safe and it was predictable, and the next day everything they knew was gone and it was predictable, and the next day everything they knew was gone.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: So my parents were phenomenal role models for me, and so were very many adults around me, and I think having the ability to adapt and be resilient is one of the most important skills you can have, and that really taught me that.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: You know A the changes are unavoidable, but most challenges can be solved and most of them really are temporary.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: So that gives me like more of a calm and positive outlook when things come my way, because I know they can be managed most of them, and one day I probably won't have to worry about them anymore, and that is a big building block of my personality and value systems.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: And oh, by the way, greg, georgia is a very different country today than it was back then.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: It's a beautiful travel destination for hikers and food and wine lovers.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: The nature is gorgeous.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: It's in Caucasus mountains.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: The travel industry is blooming.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: It became very popular, especially amongst people who like going to more.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: You know unique places that are not too overcrowded yet and you know, just like we said, that's just another example that things keep changing and there is always room for positive transformation and everything is possible, really, okay great.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for sharing that.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: So, when you were young, what did you want to be when you grew up?
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: I wanted to be a doctor because I always loved the idea of being helpful and helping people.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, when I was a teenager, I realized that I really don't like chemistry, so that plan was no longer a plan.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: But hey, I kept the love for wanting to help and help people.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: So I feel like I do help my colleagues and customers and talented people around me.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: So in a small way I circled back to the initial plan.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: So what was your very first job?
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: I typically like to share mine because it's a unique story.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: My mother actually worked at a small college and during the summer they needed someone to wash the pots and pans in the cafeteria.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: So my very first paying job was washing pots and pans at a college.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: Nice.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: So what was your first job?
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Oh, I had the coolest first job ever, most likely so when I was very young I was only 13 or 14 years old.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: A book publishing company in Georgia was publishing a who is who book for younger listeners of your podcast.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: Before Wikipedia, you could look up who famous people were in a book with you know, small bios and quick description of who they are.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: And this was a book about famous people in Georgia, obviously, and as it was before email and internet were common.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Somebody had to deliver the questionnaires to these people and pick them up, and I was so lucky to get the job to do that.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: The population that I had to visit and deliver the surveys to were very famous actors and directors, and these were super famous people in Georgia, legends in their own right, people that my parents were admiring for decades.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: And here I was, this young teenager.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: I had phone numbers and home addresses of all these people.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: My parents couldn't believe my luck, and some of them I visited in their homes.
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: Some of them I visited in the theaters, backstage, you know, washing off the makeup after a show or getting ready for rehearsals.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: It was really a magical world I got to witness and they were super kind to me because I was just a kid.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: I was a kid doing a job, so most of them, or many of them, really wanted to talk to me and get to know me.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Like who is this child standing in front of me and spend more time on that than filling out the surveys.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: It was a phenomenal experience.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a cool first job for anybody.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: Right, I feel like I win the lottery there, yeah that's great.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: So let's continue on with your career.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: So maybe walk us through kind of from that moment obviously you said you went to school in Germany but maybe walk us through kind of your journey and how you got to today, some of your career moves that you made and things like that.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: You know I've learned about myself, reflecting back on things, that I'm a bit of a pioneer.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: I'm not afraid to challenge that score.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: I like going to uncharted territories.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: Not afraid to challenge that score, I like going to uncharted territories.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: I like learning new things and pushing the envelope on how much I can do, what else I can do.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: When I work on something, I want to do my best and I want to more than that.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: I want to make a difference and make things better.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: So one thing came to another to make a difference and make things better.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: So one thing came to another.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: Most things were never planned.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: I didn't plan to stay 10 years in Germany.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: I didn't plan to come to the US and be here for 12 years and counting no plans to move and counting no plans to move.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: I really think that it was the drive, the curiosity, wanting to do more, not be satisfied with the current state, that got me moving or kept me moving.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: And when I reflect back on my career journey, it really mirrors my personal journey, right From finance to operations, from CFO to CEO, from one country to another.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: That's the pioneer in me.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: I have fun forging into new territories and trying new things.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: That's energizing to me, and I think that's how I got where I am.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: So that brings us to today, and we've talked about your current role and obviously you've been successful throughout your career.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: So what are some of your guiding principles?
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: Very good question.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: I'm a business partner first, first and always, my priorities are to know as much as possible about the business and be the best partner I can be to my peers, to customers and to people who work with me and for me.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: I'm a truth teller.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: That's extremely important to me.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: I always try to stand by my word at work and outside, even with little children.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: I refuse to lie.
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: I think transparency and honesty elevates conversations and is contagious when you are able to bring the conversation to the next level.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: Others want to stay at this level too, and that's how you find solutions.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: That's how you bring things to the next level and it forges trust, which is extremely important to me.
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: And at the heart, I'm a people-centered person.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: I care that people do well and do better, and I truly believe that talent development and working on that is as big of a part of my work as any other.
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: Those are my principles.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: Okay, okay, thanks for sharing that.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about the story of your journey to becoming a leader.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: What were some of the pivotal moments or experiences that sort of shaped your path to where you are today?
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: I'll answer it in a way that might not be the direct answer to your question, but this is my belief.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: I believe that leadership is more a way of working or a way of living really than a title or an indicator of the seniority or hierarchy in the organization.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: I think you would agree that we've met people at the very early stages of their career who have incredible leadership skills and personalities, and, unfortunately, vice versa.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: So it's a journey right, it's a leadership is a journey is a journey.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: What is important to you things that I would say are important for me on my own journey is that one.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: I try very hard to be aware of my weaknesses and my blind spots, and what I do is that then, is that I find people who can help me learn and grow and point them out to me, and I think second is that it's the best way to become a better leader is to watch other great leaders lead, and luckily, I had a lot of opportunities to experience that.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: I've worked with a lot of great leaders.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Okay and, as this month indicates, we're really trying to highlight the women leaders in our industry.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: And, as a female leader, I'm sure there have been challenges we all face them.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: But what were some of the biggest challenges you faced and how did you overcome them?
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: This is such an important question and it's so important that we get the word out there and help female leaders emerging female leaders really normalize the challenges.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: Female leaders really normalize the challenges, because I think one of the things is that it's natural for a human being to feel alone if you don't share that.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: It's a common challenge to have.
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: But first of all, I have to give a huge credit and hats off to Ingenico in general and my CEO and leader, peter Stewart.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: Ingenico in general and my CEO and leader, peter Stewart, because I have to say that I'm very lucky and Ingenico and Peter are very open-minded.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: He's a very open-minded leader.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: Ingenico is a very diverse company.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: We have a very diverse team at the very top of North America's leadership team as well.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: So hats off and thank you.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: But while my leaders and colleagues at Ingenico have been nothing but supportive, let's be real.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: The challenges female leaders face they're very real, very tangible leaders face.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: They're very real, very tangible.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: And I think what's worth pointing out again to normalize things is that it goes beyond the workspace, right, it expands to the social circles as well, like with the questions, for example hey, what did your husband say?
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: Is he okay that you are a CFO now?
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Or yeah, a question that I guarantee you no male CFO had ever had to answer.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: Or hey, does your child not miss you when you travel?
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: The guilt trip questions.
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: We could speak about this for hours, but instead the message I would like to give to female leaders is that stand in your power.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Female leaders add immense value to all levels of organization because diversity is important, not just gender diversity, but diversity of experiences.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: That's just a hard fact.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: It's backed up by research.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: It's proven and quantifiable.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: If you read some of the researches that private equities have done on success of the companies with female leaders on the board, the numbers speak easy as that.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: So stand in your power.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: Your intelligence, your emotional intelligence, your education, point of view, experience they are uniquely yours and they're very valuable.
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: So, no matter where you go, who you work with, how odd the comments are, that you will be getting, believe in yourself, believe in your judgment, because they're real and they're valuable.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: And the good news is and I can say this from my own experience, and I can say this from my own experience with the time things get better.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: They really do.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: I can say today that I'm very well able to tune out all the noise that we get as female leaders and concentrate on let's be honest on more important stuff.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: So now my focus is to support other female leaders and pave the way for them.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: I feel like it is my responsibility or I have this sense of responsibility, greg that in every meeting room, in every situation, I'm an example, a supporter, an advocate for female leaders.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: I'm passionate about mentoring in general, and especially mentoring women, and it's an incredible honor to be able to help.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: It's an earned privilege to be able to help.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Okay, great.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about growth, and you know it's kind of a cliche, but I think it's very true that you have to step out of your comfort zone to grow, and that's probably true professionally and personally.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: But can you share an experience where you had to step out of your comfort zone, and what impact did that have on your professional development?
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: You're very right.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: The way I like to look at it.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: I like to look at it as stepping into a new comfort zone, because you step into this space and you fill it up and grow in it.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: I think any journey is a learning journey.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: Any journey is a learning journey, and to enter the C-suite would definitely qualify as stepping out of the comfort zone or stepping into a new one.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: You know, I was very young when I became the CFO.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: It was, of course it was intimidating.
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: It was a huge job, came with a lot of responsibility, a lot of people relied on me, a lot of things depended on a good judgment on my end.
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: So of course it was intimidating, but I did it.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: It was an incredible growth path, a learning experience, a learning journey, and when I was asked to take on the COO role, I can tell you the transition was very different.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: But I would also like to add that you know companies promote people and expect that they change from one day to another.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: You know, yesterday you had one title, tomorrow you have a different one and somehow you became a different person, a better leader.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: That's not realistic to expect.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: So every change, and especially when we go higher up in the hierarchy.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: I think having a coach and having a mentor is the key, and especially, I think, women and girls.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: They don't get to practice some of the skills that you need as a leader.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: In the best case, the best executed career development moves a subject matter expert, somebody who's really good at their job, to become a visionary leader.
• 25:04
  Speaker 2: But visionary leader needs to have the skills and the ability to one, communicate the vision and, two, get the people around them excited and motivated to follow the vision and work on it and execute it.
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: And that's, in the most cases, a learned skill.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: Sure, I'm sure some people are born with it, but most are not.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: So we need mentors and we need coaches to to get there, and you know once again, especially women and girls, because society tells the girls to be quiet and well behaved and, you know, god forbid, get their clothes dirty instead of telling little girls to go experiment and have fun while you're experimenting, right, so they don't get to practice these skills to be courageous and to be out there and to convince people.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: So, in my experience, mentoring and coaching is the life-changing, the game-changing experience when we're moving into the new comfort zones, like we said at the beginning.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, I love the way you put that.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: I haven't really heard someone say it that way.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: If you're stepping out of your comfort zone, obviously you're stepping into another one and that's where you grow and that becomes your new comfort zone.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: So that's a cool way to think about it.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: And you've mentioned mentors a few times, and so that's a cool way to think about it.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: And you've mentioned mentors a few times, and so that's a good segue into the next question, and I think I know the answer, but love for you to talk a little bit about it.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Did you have mentors who influenced your career and how important and I think you've talked about the answer to that but how important do you think mentorship is to emerging leaders?
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: I could not say enough about the importance of mentorship and I am incredibly lucky and I had great mentors along the way, from the very beginning of my career, when I was still a very young professional in Germany.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: People took time out of their own day to sit down and coach me and mentor me and teach me and I'm forever grateful for that my coach, jodi Sharrop, who changed my life.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: She helped me to get to the next level and to this day she helps me every day to be a better leader.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Great leaders at Ingenico were fantastic mentors to me.
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: If I had to point out one, especially Greg, I would say Jennifer Mutz.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: She was a fantastic leader and fantastic mentor.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: I'm sure many of your listeners knew her personally, or at least have heard about her, because she was a very influential person in payments industry.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: She was an incredible leader.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: Even if you had spent just five minutes with her, you probably would remember those five minutes for the rest of your life.
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: That's how big of a personality she was when I became the CFO she was the CEO of Ingenico at that point and she took me under her wing.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: She was incredibly brutally honest as a person, honest as a person, but her comments and her feedback were always on point.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: She helped.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: She is the reason that, from being a finance expert, I became a business partner with finance expertise, which is a very different level to be on.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: I was able to guide the organization with the finance expertise I was part of the team.
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: I know that, even though I only got to work with her for about two years, I wouldn't be the leader I am today without her.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: I would also like to say, though, that mentorship and coaching is not only for emerging leaders.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: It is important for all levels of career, at all points of the career, because I don't think the learning and growing journey ever ends, and neither should it ever end.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: Otherwise the life would be pretty boring, right.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: So I think everyone, at every level, should consider having a mentor, because we all have blind spots, we all have weaknesses, and we need somebody to point them out to us and to be the sounding board or share their experiences and help us grow and develop and be better by the day.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: So question about that, and I think there's a challenge and maybe it's with more on the younger side, you know, maybe in the first couple of years of your career, maybe first 10 years of a career, where you hear about mentorship but maybe you're not comfortable in figuring out how to do it.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: What are your thoughts on how someone should do it?
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: Don't be afraid to ask.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: And where do they find mentors if they're not in their company?
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: Where do they look?
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: And how do you know someone's a good mentor?
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Do you have any thoughts on sort of that how to get started finding a mentor?
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: Sure, that's such a good question and I'm so glad you're asking that so we have the opportunity to talk about it.
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: First of all, I think every organization hopefully, hopefully every company has at least one person who is a good leader.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: What I would like to really encourage the younger listeners is please do not hesitate to ask the leaders in your work environment or school environment to be your mentor.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: You will be surprised how many people are happy to help Because, remember, they probably went through what you are going through right now.
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: Everyone started at some point.
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: I can tell you from my experience every person I've ever asked as a younger person or this not so long ago, like with Jennifer only five, six years ago no one ever turned me down.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: And I can also tell you that every person who asked me to be a mentor, I've never turned anybody down either.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: People are happy to help, and this is really good news.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: How do you know if somebody is a good mentor?
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: I think there is more than one leadership style and management style.
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: At the more beginning times of your career, you need to find somebody that that style speaks to you.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: You cannot become somebody that you are not.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: You can only work and be a better version of yourself.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: So I would recommend that you choose somebody whose personality, whose leadership style energizes you and you want to follow them, learn from them, and it doesn't have to be something daunting like meeting once a week, meet once a month, meet for a coffee or for a lunch, or meet once a quarter, even if it's somebody who is super busy.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: It's life changing, it's a game changer and outside of work and school environments, there are organizations that offer mentorship, specifically in Atlanta.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: I'm not so familiar with other cities, but I'm confident something similar will be there in other bigger cities as well.
• 33:08
  Speaker 2: For example, in Atlanta there is a great organization, women's Collective, and besides other great things they do, they offer mentorships to female leaders, to women, younger women.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: I was part of that organization.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: I mentored a couple of people there.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: Look it up, women's Collective.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: They're on LinkedIn as well and in general, I would recommend try to find those organizations, sometimes even organizations that specifically try to help women, because that's where they have experience and they're passionate about.
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: It's like I'm very passionate about mentoring women.
• 33:49
  Speaker 2: There are organizations you can join besides the ones that are concentrated on mentorship, like there is Women in Payments organizations.
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: You will always meet people there and I promise you 95%.
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: If you walk up to somebody and say I liked what you said, it was inspiring, would you mind being my mentor?
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: You will be surprised that they will say yes.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: Not all of them probably, but the vast majority will yeah yeah, and, and you know, I think the key at least what I've learned or, you know, an assumption I had in my head early in my career was oh, they're the CEO, they're the this, they're whatever leadership position it is, they're untouchable, right, like I can't go up and ask them something.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: And I think what I've learned later in my career and obviously through doing a podcast where I talk to senior leaders of companies I've done 330 of these episodes is that even after the episodes, I've stayed in touch and could probably reach out to 90% of the people that I've talked to with a question and I would get an answer.
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: So they're not untouchable.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: You just have to have the courage to ask, and I think sometimes that's a challenge, whether it's a woman or a man is just having that mentality that they're not untouchable.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: They do really want to help to your point and I just need to have the courage to ask them.
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: I'm so glad you say that.
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: You are so right.
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: They're humans too, you know.
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: They're no different than the rest of us.
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: We all are just humans.
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: And isn't it beautiful, greg, that I think it's such a positive and touching experience that, no matter at what level somebody is, they are humans.
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: They just want to help.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: They just want to help too.
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: So don't glorify something.
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: Do we respect great leaders?
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: Of course we do, but they're still humans, and sure they have less time than most people, but they do want to help.
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: So be courageous and ask.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: So I know the Atlanta area has some FinTech and payments type courses at some of the local colleges.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: But what would your advice be?
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: Say someone's coming out of school and they're looking at going into the payments industry as a career, and it's a woman whose whatever degree it is, it doesn't really matter.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: But they look at payments and they say, hey, this industry is growing and it's really cool and I want to be a part of it.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: What kind of advice would you give them to be successful coming right out of school and going into payments?
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: You are very right.
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: It's an industry that is very dynamic, fast-growing and it changes quickly.
• 36:52
  Speaker 2: The technology keeps changing, so I think the right person to be in this industry is somebody who embraces that, embraces the pace and the complexity, so a true problem solver.
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: And it's a great industry to be if those are the things that bring energy to you and make you happy, because you've got to be happy when you work.
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: And other than that, I think it's probably just like in every industry, education is key.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: So keep educating yourself, especially that it's such a dynamic industry and the technology is involved, which is constantly changing.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: Be curious, ask questions, learn everything you can about the business, fall in love with the business.
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: When opportunities come your way, say yes and learn from them.
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: Gather as much experience as you can.
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: Be close to the business, have a partner mindset and get a mentor.
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: For sure, get a mentor.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: That would be my advice.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: That's great advice.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: I appreciate you sharing that.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: So let's wrap up with one final question who or what inspires you to keep pushing forward in your career?
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: Really self-motivated.
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: Learning and seeing results of my work is the biggest motivator for me.
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: You know that feeling you get when you see that you paved the path to a better place.
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: Better working environment, better processes or results.
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: That awesome feeling you get when you see the people around you prosper, your customers do better and grow.
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: Those are the things that really keep pushing me and motivate me.
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: Those are the rewarding moments for me.
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: All right, well, before we close out, is there anything else you'd like to add before we wrap up?
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: I don't think so.
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: I think this was a great interview and you had fantastic questions, so thank you so much, greg.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: I think your answers were better than the questions, so thank you so much for being on the show.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: I know it's very valuable, so thank you so much for being on the show today.
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: It was such a pleasure.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: And to all your listeners out there.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: I thank you for your time as well, and until the next story, a special thanks to our sponsors for helping make this month possible, especially our contributing sponsors, Stacks Payments, nuve and Map Advisors, and to our episode sponsors NMI, daily Pay, gnd and Ingenico.
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: To learn more, visit wwwleadersinpaymentscom.