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