Redefining leadership requires authenticity, cross-functional collaboration, and a willingness to embrace non-linear career paths. Kari Wilhelm, SVP of Data Strategy and Commercialization at Worldpay, embodies these principles as she navigates the complex intersection of payments technology and data innovation.
In this fascinating conversation, Kari reveals how her unconventional journey from economic research in Hong Kong to management consulting at McKinsey ultimately led her to the payments industry. Rather than viewing her diverse background as a limitation, she's leveraged these varied experiences as strategic assets that provide unique perspectives on complex business challenges. As she notes, "I've really experienced that kind of non-linearity as more of a strength rather than a setback."
Kari offers profound insights on modern leadership, emphasizing the importance of building inclusive team cultures, setting clear expectations, and providing the necessary tools for success. She highlights how the pandemic has transformed leadership dynamics, creating new challenges for maintaining collaborative environments across dispersed teams. Her practical solutions for adapting leadership approaches in virtual settings demonstrate her thoughtful, pragmatic approach to team management.
The conversation explores the unique strengths women bring to payments leadership, particularly their ability to work cross-functionally and build consensus across stakeholders. Kari observes that women often excel at listening deeply to understand underlying needs rather than just surface requests, allowing them to craft solutions that address fundamental issues and build alignment across diverse groups.
As leader of Worldpay's data strategy initiatives, Kari provides fascinating glimpses into how AI and data analytics are transforming the payments landscape. Her current focus on leveraging Worldpay's vast transaction data to provide merchant insights represents the cutting edge of payments innovation, with potential to reshape how consumers discover and purchase products.
Whether you're a payments veteran, an aspiring leader, or simply curious about the human elements that drive technological innovation, Kari's perspective offers valuable guidance on navigating today's complex business environment with authenticity and purpose.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast,
where we talk to C-level leadersfrom across the payments
landscape.
We'll be discussing theproducts and services that
impact the payment space today,as well as trends and
predictions for the future ofpayments.
We will also hear stories fromour guests about their journeys
to the top.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hello everyone and welcome to the Leaders in
Payments podcast.
I'm your host, greg Myers, andthis episode is part of our
Women Leaders in Payments month,something we do every year in
the month of July, and it's oneof my favorite times of the year
.
This year's theme is redefiningleadership, influence, impact
and innovation, so those aresome of the things you're going
to be hearing about during themonth of July.
So, first, a special thank youto our sponsors.
(00:41):
Our title sponsor is WorldPay,our participating sponsors are
VisiPay and Payrock, and ourepisode sponsors are the
Clearinghouse and Genico andPaySafe.
So special thanks to thosecompanies.
Today, I'm honored to have asour special guest Keri Wilhelm,
the SVP of Data Strategy andCommercialization at WorldPay.
So, keri, thank you so much forbeing here and welcome to the
(01:03):
show.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Thanks, Greg.
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Absolutely Well, let's start off with a little
icebreaker, if you don't mind.
If you could take any woman inhistory, past or present, to
dinner, who would that be, andwhy, and what type of restaurant
would you go to?
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I racked my brains trying to think of a really
intellectual answer to thisquestion, but if I'm being
honest with myself, the answerwould probably be Meryl Streep.
I think she's absolutely thetop of her field.
She's found a way to remainrelevant for decades in an
industry that rarely valuesaging women, and she's managed
(01:42):
to do it while avoiding all ofthe drama that can come when
you're in a highly public role.
And I'd be really interested topick her brain to understand
her approach to creating thoseboundaries and avoiding that
drama.
And how does she navigate theevolving landscape?
And I bet she has some reallygood stories that I would quite
like to hear.
And if she agreed to havedinner with me, I don't really
care where we go.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Okay, okay, great, great answer.
It's funny because we've youknow, obviously I've asked that
question many times.
I think we've had one or twothat had the same answer of who,
really yeah, but overall it'sbeen a lot of different answers,
which makes it a lot of fun,which you'll get to hear over
the course of the month.
So let's talk a little bitabout your background and your
career.
So maybe tell us a little bitabout where you grew up, where
(02:25):
you studied, what led you intopayments?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Sure, we moved around quite a bit when I was growing
up, but I spent the majority ofmy childhood in Albuquerque, new
Mexico, which most people knowonly from Breaking Bad, and then
I went to Los Angeles forcollege.
I went to USC, where I doublemajored in economics and
comparative literature.
My first role after college wasin Hong Kong, where I took a
(02:47):
job working for the AsiaBusiness Council as part of the
Princeton in Asia FellowshipProgram, and while I was there I
did economic research for agroup of CEOs and chairmen from
leading global corporations thathave a presence in the Asian
market, and through thatexperience I became really
familiar with managementconsulting, because one of the
managing directors at a topconsulting firm was on that
council that I was working for,and so I began applying and I
(03:10):
joined McKinsey Company in LosAngeles.
After finishing that fellowshipin Hong Kong, in New York I
went to business school atKellogg through Northwestern
University in Chicago and then,after business school, when I
(03:32):
rejoined McKinsey, I fell inwith the payments practitioners
there and they were my favoriteto work with.
The people at McKinsey thatwere working in payments were
really practical, really smart.
They were fun.
I really enjoyed my time onthose teams and I really enjoyed
our clients as well.
I felt like the clients that wewere working with were working
on really interesting problemsand they were all in these high
(03:53):
growth areas, really trying totackle cutting edge type of
questions, and so I found that Ireally liked working in that
space more than some of theother industries that I dabbled
in during my time there.
Then I ended up leaving McKinseyto follow a former McKinsey
colleague to WorldPay.
Right as the pandemic wasstarting.
I joined WorldPay in June of2020.
(04:14):
And I've had a number of rolesduring my time at WorldPay.
I came in to head up globalsales operations for, initially,
our e-commerce group and then,over time that expanded, I had
global sales operations for thewhole of WorldPay.
I spent time as the chief ofstaff to the president of
(04:35):
Merchant Solutions when we werestill part of FIS, and through
that experience I got to bequite involved in the separation
from FIS when we sold to GTCR.
And now I'm in a new roleleading our data strategy and
commercialization group.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
We'll dig into that in just a minute, but before we
do, one more kind of funquestion.
So if you're given a speech orinvited to a conference, you
have to come up on stage.
You have a hype song.
What would that hype song be?
Speaker 3 (05:02):
It would be Shut Up and Dance With Me from Walk the
Moon.
That one is first of all, it'sclean enough for a conference
right, which is always importantto strike that balance.
But it's also just so energetic.
It always kind of gets me going.
It always gets me hyped up.
I quite like that one.
I'm dancing at every weddingwhen they play that and because
it's pretty clean, they playthat at every wedding Right.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Right, and that's another question that we've had
very distinct answers to overthe course of the interviews for
the month.
So another kind of a fun one.
Well, let's dive into whatyou're currently doing.
So maybe tell us a little bitmore about what you do and what
excites you every day about yourjob.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Currently doing something very exciting and
quite different than the workthat I've done previously.
I'm building out a new line ofbusiness within WorldPay, and
it's responsible for generatingmore value to our merchants by
better leveraging our vast dataassets.
Worldpay is one of the largestmerchant acquirers in the world
and, as a result of that, wehave unbelievable visibility and
(06:02):
scale into everything frompayment optimization to consumer
behavior when it comes to thedata that we see on a day-to-day
basis, and right now my team isworking on different
opportunities to integrate dataanalytics and AI into new
products so that we can bringthose insights to improve the
outcomes for our merchants.
Okay, great.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
So let's move on and talk about some leadership and
lessons learned.
So obviously, over time, youknow, the industry has changed,
leadership has changed as well.
So how would you define modernleadership and how do you sort
of embody that on a daily basis?
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Probably different questions.
You know, what is it versus howdo you embody it, although the
goal is always to make those twothings converge over time.
When I think about outstandingleaders that I have worked for,
to me there are a few commonthemes about what makes for a
really great leader.
First, there's the importanceof building the right culture on
(07:04):
a team.
It's about listening more thanyou're speaking and picking up
on when something is goingunsaid, and you can kind of
bring together these differentopinions and kind of recognizing
or harnessing the power ofdiverse teams.
When I think about leaders thatI've had in the past that I've
really enjoyed working with orfor, it feels like a more
collaborative and more inclusivetype of space.
(07:26):
Secondly, it's quite importantto me to set clear expectations
for team members and then givethem the tools to meet those
expectations.
It's not enough to say you know, I expect you to write a clear
email to clients and it needs togo out 24 hours after they
email you.
You also have to make surethey've had the training in what
(07:48):
a clear email looks like andhow to communicate in a concise
manner, and this requiresspending quite a lot of time on
training or on an apprenticeshipmodel, which is how I was
trained, I think.
Thirdly, the importance ofsetting a clear goal, or set of
goals, and prioritizing acrossthem.
Teams work together so muchmore effectively when each
(08:09):
person knows what their role is,what they are responsible for,
and when everyone is workingtowards the same goal, kind of
in the same order of priorityreally sure who's supposed to be
(08:31):
doing what?
That's when balls tend to getdropped and that's also when
people are enjoying their workless right.
They don't feel that they havethe same sense of autonomy or
ownership over the outcomes thatthey're driving.
And I think that it's reallythe leader's job to set the team
up for success in the way thatthey scope the work, prioritize
the work and communicate thatwork out to the teams.
And then, lastly, I do thinkit's quite important maybe this
(08:52):
is this is to your point aboutembodiment I think it's really
important to lead by examplewhen something is important to
you.
So if you are preaching thatyou value work-life balance and
you don't want to see emailsfrom your team on Saturday
morning or something, then makesure you're not sending emails
on Saturday morning.
And if you're saying it'sreally important to pre-send
(09:15):
documents, make sure that you'repre-sending documents and I
think that these are a good teamwill take their cues from their
leader and they will stay inthe office as long as the leader
stays in the office and try tomirror some of those behaviors.
So I think it's quite importantto make sure that you're being
honest with yourself about whatexample you're setting and
(09:36):
making sure that that's in linewith what you want the team to
be doing.
When I think about howleadership has evolved over the
past five years, you know, Icame up in an
apprenticeship-based model whereyou were with your team all day
, every day, and having leadersthat embodied these behaviors
was a lot easier.
It was a lot more natural toget the training that you needed
(09:59):
, to have discussions aboutprioritization when conflicts
would come up, and now we're ina much more dispersed
environment.
I work with teams that are muchmore geographically dispersed.
I work with teams that are alot more functionally dependent,
right, where we have a lot morecross-functional dependencies
and we have a lot more peoplewho are trying to work virtually
(10:19):
and we're trying to createthese same cultures and these
same spaces virtually, and Ithink it's much harder to do,
and so what I try to do as aleader is, take these same
behaviors and kind of create theinfrastructure that will
support them.
So you know, how do you thinkabout having a beginning or end
(10:41):
of week check-in where everyonecan stack hands on what the
priorities are or stay in theloop on what major milestones
have been reached in that week?
How do you think about bringingthe team together in person when
you can?
How frequently do you want todo that?
How do you maximize that timeso that you're really dedicating
some mindshare to team building?
And then, how do you thinkabout assigning dedicated
(11:04):
mentors or trainers to newjoiners to the team to make sure
that they have a real plan andwe're not just handing someone a
laptop and telling them to goforth and conquer right?
How do you make sure they'reactually getting the training
that they need?
And those are the types ofthings that I try to do on a
regular basis but I think itcontinues to be a bit of a test
(11:24):
and learn where we see whatworks for certain teams, what
works for others and how youkind of build out these same
concepts of creating the rightinclusive structure, setting
clear goals and priorities andmaking sure that people have the
tools to execute on theexpectations that you give them.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Okay.
So when you step back and lookat your career or your life,
have you had any of those I callthem aha moments, but those
moments that really maybedefined your life or defined
your career?
Speaker 3 (11:55):
I mean there probably have been many just because my
career has been pretty decidedlynonlinear and I've taken a path
where, rather than goingextremely deep on one area of
expertise, I've gotten a lotmore exposure to different areas
through the roles that I'vetaken and I've tended to follow
(12:16):
people more than I've followedcontent.
I think what that has taught meis I've really experienced that
kind of non-linearity as moreof a strength rather than a
setback rather than a setback.
And the first and the mostdefining example of that for me
was when I joined traditionalmanagement consulting after my
(12:36):
year in Hong Kong working onthat economic council.
I was at the time a reallynon-traditional hire for these
types of firms.
I came from a non-core school.
I had spent a year out ofschool, so I would be
interviewing to join with recentgrads, even though I'd already
been out of school for one totwo years by the time I joined.
(12:57):
And I didn't have and I was aliberal arts major who hadn't
had a lot of exposure to thattype of interview process prior
to doing it, and I really gotthat job.
Out of sheer grit and force ofwill I forced myself to network.
I'm not actually a bornnetworker.
I did over 100 cold calls withpeople that I'd met in Hong Kong
(13:20):
, trying to figure out what thisindustry was, who the right
companies would be for what Iwas looking for, who they knew
that might be able to help meget a foot in the door.
I taught myself how to case forthose interviews.
I applied to a really wideselection of firms so that I had
some room to fail and kind oflearn through real interviews as
we went and then by the time Ifinally got that job offer at
(13:44):
McKinsey, I felt really preparedfor what was in front of me.
That job really introduced me tosome of the best leaders and
some of the best people thatI've gotten to work with in my
career.
I learned so so much, but Ithink through that experience I
really saw the results ofbetting on myself and working
really hard towards a specificgoal and it made everything feel
(14:05):
possible and I think for me italso made me a lot more
comfortable taking risks ortaking opportunities that
weren't necessarily a sure thing, because I knew that at the end
of it it was all going to beokay.
You can find your way back towhatever it is that you're
trying to get to, depending onhow you approach it.
(14:27):
So I think it gave me a lot ofconfidence that careers can be
non-linear and oftentimes thoseexperiences are going to be the
ones that are the mostformulative for you
professionally.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Okay, so what would you say is something that women
leaders bring to the table thatour industry needs more of?
Speaker 3 (14:45):
In my experience, women tend to be very successful
working cross-functionally andthey're quite successful at
building consensus acrossdifferent stakeholders.
I think oftentimes women arevery adept in their ability to
really listen to the otherperspectives and understand what
the underlying needs or asksare, rather than just listening
(15:06):
to what's at the surface level.
They're able to kind of piecetogether where is this coming
from?
What are we actually solvingfor, in a way that lends itself
to building alignment or lendsitself to kind of compromise
that works for everyone, andthere's always going to be a
balance, I think, betweenbuilding alignment and then
making swift decisions when youneed to.
But in all industries youreally need leaders who can walk
(15:29):
that line and understand whenit's a time for decisiveness and
when it's a time for consensus,and I think women leaders are
quite good at navigating thatline and are much more effective
as a result.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Well, let's switch gears a little bit and talk
about innovation and influence.
So, as we've talked about,payments is ever-changing and
fast-changing, very innovativeindustry.
So how do you, as a leader,stay innovative?
Speaker 3 (15:55):
You know there's no right answer.
I think it depends a little biton your approach to learning
and how you as an individual canfind yourself staying curious
about these different things.
I think for me, I'm reallycurious not only about payments
but about other industries, andI think payments is kind of a
fascinating corner of the worldwhere it touches nearly
(16:18):
everything.
Right, every industry needs tobe able to make and accept
payments and, as a result, ifyou can understand that, the
innovation that's happening inthese other industries, what
problems are coming up for thosecompanies?
What are they solving for?
That's usually quite a goodplace to start when you say how
can we be innovating within ourown space?
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Okay, so what is one trend or change going?
Speaker 3 (16:48):
on in the industry that you're keeping a really
close eye on.
Well, my current role isfocused on data and I think
that's quite a hot topic rightnow across this and other
industries data, ai, agenda,commerce, all of the different
developments that are happeningin that space.
So right now I'm highlyinterested in the emergence of
Gen AI, how it's impactingindustries and the potential
(17:08):
impact of agentic on traditionale-commerce transactions and
consumer purchasing behavior,because I think we're starting
to see, or folks are starting toplay with the different models
that we could see a lot more ofin the future.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Yeah, AI is a very common answer to that, because I
think it's touching our livespersonally, professionally.
And then, when you think aboutpayments to your point, you know
there's changes going on that'sgoing to affect how consumers
purchase, but there's alsothings going on within payments
companies, around fraud andfighting fraud.
You know all those kinds ofthings.
So it's a powerful topic andyou're right there in the thick
(17:46):
of it, so it's gotta be excitingwork.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Yeah, I mean, I think you're right and to some extent
it's a buzzword for everyoneright now, but I think that's
because the impact has, to yourpoint, felt really swift and
we've kind of gone from this isthe type of thing that's
happening more in sandboxes inSilicon Valley to the type of
thing that people are rollingout regularly and incorporating
into their daily lives, andthat's going to have a lot of
(18:10):
impacts within your company andhow you operate.
But it's also going to have alot of impacts on how people buy
, how they prefer to makepurchases, how they find what
they're looking for.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
And.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
I think that's all really interesting to try to
sort through.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Sure, absolutely.
Well, how do you think thatwomen can help influence the
future direction of thisindustry?
Speaker 3 (18:30):
I mean by being a part of it right, and I think
you don't necessarily have to bea senior leader in your
organization to make a bigimpact.
In fact, many of the peoplethat I most respect in the
payments industry are in areally specific part of the
business relatively, you know,relatively junior, but they know
their area so well and they'reworking so hard to build
(18:53):
expertise in that area andthey're bringing ideas about
small improvements to productsor to processes or to the
thinking in their space.
And they're bringing ideasabout small improvements to
products or to processes or tothe thinking in their space.
And they're being reallywilling to participate in
discussions at earlier stagesRight.
They're interested in gettingthose ideas out on the table and
doing a lot more kind ofbrainstorming around it, ways
(19:21):
that you can really begin toinfluence the direction of
payments more broadly and makeincremental changes that end up
really building us towardswhatever direction we're headed.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Well, let's talk a little bit now about mentorship
and impact.
So have you had female mentorsin your career and how have they
helped to shape your career?
Speaker 3 (19:37):
I have had female mentors in my career.
I've also had a lot of greatmale mentors in my career.
I think mentorship in generalis an incredibly important part
of navigating the differentaspects of your career, from
sort of day-to-day problems thatyou're solving to where you
want to go longer term.
When I think about theinfluence that some of the women
(19:59):
that I've been around have hadon me, I've had the privilege of
working with some incrediblystrong female leaders.
I had Stephanie Ferris as theCEO of FIS.
I worked really closely withMichaela Weber, who is over at
BigCommerce, and Anna Mendy,who's over at PayPal, and I
think what's struck me about allof these women is they're all
(20:22):
outstanding and they're allincredibly different and they've
got very big variations intheir style and in their
approach.
They've got differentpersonalities, they've got
different strengths, they've gotdifferent passion projects, and
I think what I have observed inworking with these different
individuals is that they arealways the most effective when
(20:45):
they are operating in a way thatis authentic to them as an
individual.
I think when I was earlier in mycareer, I was highly attuned to
the fact that, as a young woman, the way that I looked or spoke
or the way that I insertedmyself in a conversation or, you
know, more often, chose not toinsert myself in a conversation
impacted the way that I wasperceived, and that's true for
(21:08):
everyone, of course.
Right, the way that you engagewith people is how you're
perceived, but I thinkunderstanding the importance of
authenticity has really helpedme to grow much more comfortable
in the way that I interact withmy colleagues and my superiors
and make work feel much morecollaborative than when you're
(21:32):
constantly second guessing.
Right, you know what's the bestway to.
How should I be standing infront of these people?
Do I tell them something?
Do I not tell them something?
Right, I think?
I think my style is differentthan Michaela's or Anna's or
Stephanie's, but it can be justas effective, as long as it's
true to me.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
So you know, I like to ask some follow-on questions
about mentorship because I thinkit's incredibly important and
it's a big part of this seriesthat we're doing, and we've had
some people talk aboutmentorship versus sponsorship
and the difference there.
I mean, I think one of theimportant things I'd love to get
your feedback is, you know,having the I don't know what the
right word is, but the abilityto go out and find your own
(22:13):
course when it comes tomentorship.
Like a lot of big companieshave specific programs that you
can sign up for and you've gotthis structured.
You know, every month you'regoing to meet and there's an
agenda and all that.
But I think there's a lot moreto mentorship and I like you
know, if you don't mind, maybetalk a little bit about your
thoughts on that, how maybeyounger women coming up in our
(22:33):
industry, how they can kind ofdo that on their own without
relying on their company, andmaybe just you know kind of your
thoughts on that.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
I'll take two different lenses.
I think there's me as a youngwoman and then there's there's
me as a leader and kind of whatI've seen on both sides of it.
When I was earlier in my career, by default the best mentors
that I had ended up being mymanagers or my manager's
managers while I was workingwith them right.
(23:02):
They were the ones that knew mereally well.
They were able to see where Iwas strong and where I needed
development and they were ableto understand kind of the
circumstances that I would bringto them with questions and
those relationships evolvedreally naturally.
I think I needed to ask right.
I needed to ask for feedback, Ineeded to you often get the
(23:25):
guidance that you need to likereally formally ask will you be
my mentor?
Speaker 1 (23:29):
And I don't think I did that but I was.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
I was constantly asking for feedback after you
know work that I did orpresentations that I delivered,
and I think that that evolved.
That evolved really organicallyand in a way that felt really
genuine and kind of safe to meas a leader.
I've participated in mentorshipprograms, both kind of at the
of at the corporate level, andthen I've had people come to me
(23:55):
and say, hey, I was looking atyour background and it was
really interesting to me forreasons A, b and C.
Do you think that you know wecould do a conversation?
And that's kind of been howpeople have come to me for
mentorship, and that's kind ofbeen how people have come to me
for mentorship.
And so what I would say toyoung women who are looking for
(24:15):
mentors is like fit is quiteimportant, right.
So look across the company orlook outside the company and say
who do I want to emulate forcertain reasons, or whose
opinion do I value?
And then just ask them for alittle time, right, just ask
them for a little bit of coffeechat and when you go, have a
(24:36):
specific question that they canengage on, right, don't say,
like, what do I do with my lifewhich I've been like, quite
guilty of doing in the past andis never good right, not good
for the mentor, not good for thementee, not useful.
But when you go and you say I'mreally struggling with this
particular interpersonalrelationship, here are the
(24:58):
dynamics, here's what I need toachieve how would you think
about right navigating thissituation?
That type of thing is reallyhelpful for mentors to kind of
engage and sink their teeth into.
You often hear it said, but itreally can't be emphasized
enough.
The mentor tends to get as muchout of these relationships as
(25:21):
the mentee does.
Giving advice to youngercolleagues.
I'll hear myself spouting thesebest practices that I'd
forgotten, that I knew and thatI really need to bring back into
my day-to-day life, and it actsas this really positive
reminder about all right, youknow where do I need to be
(25:45):
tweaking my approach, and so Ireally like that and I get
really invested in these youngprofessionals and I certainly
have found as a mentee thatthat's quite true.
Both men and women are prettyinterested in helping you know.
Ambitious, hardworking, smartyoung women succeed, and so if
(26:05):
you make yourself available tothat, you let them know that
you're interested and you givethem something chewy that they
can really opine on.
I find that these relationshipsare much easier to maintain as
a result of that, rather thansome of the more formalized
programs which sometimes you getlucky and sometimes you find a
really good fit that way, butoftentimes it's going to be a
(26:28):
little bit more organic.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
So it's a good segue into the next question.
So if you had to give a femalemaybe up and coming, maybe
they're right out of school,maybe they're changing careers
or changing industries or cominginto payments If you could give
them just one piece of advice,what would that be?
Speaker 3 (26:45):
I think payments as an industry feels somewhat
foreign to many people.
It's not necessarily an areawhere recent college grads are
actively pursuing, and manypeople find their way into
payments through morecircumstantial routes, and I
think that's perfectly okay, andso what I would recommend to
(27:05):
somebody who's just entering theindustry is to try to build
your understanding and buildyour expertise.
Remember that there are alwayspeople that know more than you
do, and so be really open andproactive about asking for help,
asking for advice or even justasking for an intro, a 101, to a
(27:30):
part of the business that isnew to you.
I did that when I joinedWorldPay.
I asked a woman that I reallyrespect in the business for an
overview of our pricing.
I was like I haven't done thisbefore.
Right, give me the 101.
And I found people wereincredibly willing to do that,
and so I think, if you're cominginto it, don't be intimidated
(27:52):
by the fact that this is a kindof a niche industry, one that
requires a lot of expertise or alot of understanding of the
different complexities that arethere, but instead start with
where you are and then expandout by asking questions and
seeking out advice.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
So one final kind of fun question so when you look at
your phone, which app do youuse the most?
That's non-business related,and what does that say about you
?
Speaker 3 (28:19):
You should probably tell me what it says about me.
I've got two answers to it,because I've got my normal
answer.
And then this week, what is it?
It normally it's spotify.
I live in a very music forwardhouse.
We always have music going inthe background and I
historically, when I'm not oncalls, have worked with
(28:43):
classical music in thebackground something without
lyrics, because otherwise I'llget kind of distracted, but the
classical music works reallywell in the background.
And then I like podcasts forwhen I'm commuting or if I'm out
on walks in my neighborhood.
But lately my top app has beenthe app for my children's
preschool, because I just pottytrained my two and a half year
(29:06):
old twins and I am obsessivelychecking to see how that is
going.
Have we had any accidents atschool today?
Were they successful?
And I'm feeling extremelyinvested in that journey.
So for the past week that'soccupied my top spot.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah.
Yeah, there have been manyanswers related to kids, so so
so your answer is definitely inalignment, and Spotify has also
been a popular answer, so sothat's cool.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
It's shocking how many apps you need to raise a
kid.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Well, as they get older theybecome, You've got to go to
school you've got to groweverything.
And as they get older, itbecomes more financial, and I've
had many answers around.
All I do is send money to mykids, and that's either Zelle or
PayPal or whatever it might be.
So, yeah, that's a commonanswer as well.
Well, keri, we've covered a lotof ground.
(29:54):
I think we've covered all thetopics we wanted to, but I did
want to just open the floor, seeif there was anything else you
wanted to talk about before wewrap up the show.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
I don't think I have anything else to add, but thank
you so much, Greg, for having me.
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Yeah, Carrie, it's been great Again.
I know your time is veryvaluable, so I really appreciate
you being here.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
You too have a great day.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
You too, and to all you listeners out there.
I thank you for your time aswell, and until the next story.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Thank you for joining us this week on the Leaders in
Payments podcast.
Make sure you visit our websiteat leadersinpaymentscom, where
you can subscribe to the showand where you'll find our show
notes.
If you enjoyed listening,please share on your social
channels as well.
Welcome to the Leaders in Payments podcast,
where we talk to C-level leadersfrom across the payments
landscape.
We'll be discussing theproducts and services that
impact the payment space today,as well as trends and
predictions for the future ofpayments.
We will also hear stories fromour guests about their journeys
to the top.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hello everyone and welcome to the Leaders in
Payments podcast.
I'm your host, greg Myers, andthis episode is part of our
Women Leaders in Payments month,something we do every year in
the month of July, and it's oneof my favorite times of the year
.
This year's theme is redefiningleadership, influence, impact
and innovation, so those aresome of the things you're going
to be hearing about during themonth of July.
So, first, a special thank youto our sponsors.
(00:41):
Our title sponsor is WorldPay,our participating sponsors are
VisiPay and Payrock, and ourepisode sponsors are the
Clearinghouse and Genico andPaySafe.
So special thanks to thosecompanies.
Today, I'm honored to have asour special guest Keri Wilhelm,
the SVP of Data Strategy andCommercialization at WorldPay.
So, keri, thank you so much forbeing here and welcome to the
(01:03):
show.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Thanks, Greg.
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Absolutely Well, let's start off with a little
icebreaker, if you don't mind.
If you could take any woman inhistory, past or present, to
dinner, who would that be, andwhy, and what type of restaurant
would you go to?
Speaker 3 (01:18):
I racked my brains trying to think of a really
intellectual answer to thisquestion, but if I'm being
honest with myself, the answerwould probably be Meryl Streep.
I think she's absolutely thetop of her field.
She's found a way to remainrelevant for decades in an
industry that rarely valuesaging women, and she's managed
(01:42):
to do it while avoiding all ofthe drama that can come when
you're in a highly public role.
And I'd be really interested topick her brain to understand
her approach to creating thoseboundaries and avoiding that
drama.
And how does she navigate theevolving landscape?
And I bet she has some reallygood stories that I would quite
like to hear.
And if she agreed to havedinner with me, I don't really
care where we go.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Okay, okay, great, great answer.
It's funny because we've youknow, obviously I've asked that
question many times.
I think we've had one or twothat had the same answer of who,
really yeah, but overall it'sbeen a lot of different answers,
which makes it a lot of fun,which you'll get to hear over
the course of the month.
So let's talk a little bitabout your background and your
career.
So maybe tell us a little bitabout where you grew up, where
(02:25):
you studied, what led you intopayments?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Sure, we moved around quite a bit when I was growing
up, but I spent the majority ofmy childhood in Albuquerque, new
Mexico, which most people knowonly from Breaking Bad, and then
I went to Los Angeles forcollege.
I went to USC, where I doublemajored in economics and
comparative literature.
My first role after college wasin Hong Kong, where I took a
(02:47):
job working for the AsiaBusiness Council as part of the
Princeton in Asia FellowshipProgram, and while I was there I
did economic research for agroup of CEOs and chairmen from
leading global corporations thathave a presence in the Asian
market, and through thatexperience I became really
familiar with managementconsulting, because one of the
managing directors at a topconsulting firm was on that
council that I was working for,and so I began applying and I
(03:10):
joined McKinsey Company in LosAngeles.
After finishing that fellowshipin Hong Kong, in New York I
went to business school atKellogg through Northwestern
University in Chicago and then,after business school, when I
(03:32):
rejoined McKinsey, I fell inwith the payments practitioners
there and they were my favoriteto work with.
The people at McKinsey thatwere working in payments were
really practical, really smart.
They were fun.
I really enjoyed my time onthose teams and I really enjoyed
our clients as well.
I felt like the clients that wewere working with were working
on really interesting problemsand they were all in these high
(03:53):
growth areas, really trying totackle cutting edge type of
questions, and so I found that Ireally liked working in that
space more than some of theother industries that I dabbled
in during my time there.
Then I ended up leaving McKinseyto follow a former McKinsey
colleague to WorldPay.
Right as the pandemic wasstarting.
I joined WorldPay in June of2020.
(04:14):
And I've had a number of rolesduring my time at WorldPay.
I came in to head up globalsales operations for, initially,
our e-commerce group and then,over time that expanded, I had
global sales operations for thewhole of WorldPay.
I spent time as the chief ofstaff to the president of
(04:35):
Merchant Solutions when we werestill part of FIS, and through
that experience I got to bequite involved in the separation
from FIS when we sold to GTCR.
And now I'm in a new roleleading our data strategy and
commercialization group.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
We'll dig into that in just a minute, but before we
do, one more kind of funquestion.
So if you're given a speech orinvited to a conference, you
have to come up on stage.
You have a hype song.
What would that hype song be?
Speaker 3 (05:02):
It would be Shut Up and Dance With Me from Walk the
Moon.
That one is first of all, it'sclean enough for a conference
right, which is always importantto strike that balance.
But it's also just so energetic.
It always kind of gets me going.
It always gets me hyped up.
I quite like that one.
I'm dancing at every weddingwhen they play that and because
it's pretty clean, they playthat at every wedding Right.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Right, and that's another question that we've had
very distinct answers to overthe course of the interviews for
the month.
So another kind of a fun one.
Well, let's dive into whatyou're currently doing.
So maybe tell us a little bitmore about what you do and what
excites you every day about yourjob.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Currently doing something very exciting and
quite different than the workthat I've done previously.
I'm building out a new line ofbusiness within WorldPay, and
it's responsible for generatingmore value to our merchants by
better leveraging our vast dataassets.
Worldpay is one of the largestmerchant acquirers in the world
and, as a result of that, wehave unbelievable visibility and
(06:02):
scale into everything frompayment optimization to consumer
behavior when it comes to thedata that we see on a day-to-day
basis, and right now my team isworking on different
opportunities to integrate dataanalytics and AI into new
products so that we can bringthose insights to improve the
outcomes for our merchants.
Okay, great.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
So let's move on and talk about some leadership and
lessons learned.
So obviously, over time, youknow, the industry has changed,
leadership has changed as well.
So how would you define modernleadership and how do you sort
of embody that on a daily basis?
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Probably different questions.
You know, what is it versus howdo you embody it, although the
goal is always to make those twothings converge over time.
When I think about outstandingleaders that I have worked for,
to me there are a few commonthemes about what makes for a
really great leader.
First, there's the importanceof building the right culture on
(07:04):
a team.
It's about listening more thanyou're speaking and picking up
on when something is goingunsaid, and you can kind of
bring together these differentopinions and kind of recognizing
or harnessing the power ofdiverse teams.
When I think about leaders thatI've had in the past that I've
really enjoyed working with orfor, it feels like a more
collaborative and more inclusivetype of space.
(07:26):
Secondly, it's quite importantto me to set clear expectations
for team members and then givethem the tools to meet those
expectations.
It's not enough to say you know, I expect you to write a clear
email to clients and it needs togo out 24 hours after they
email you.
You also have to make surethey've had the training in what
(07:48):
a clear email looks like andhow to communicate in a concise
manner, and this requiresspending quite a lot of time on
training or on an apprenticeshipmodel, which is how I was
trained, I think.
Thirdly, the importance ofsetting a clear goal, or set of
goals, and prioritizing acrossthem.
Teams work together so muchmore effectively when each
(08:09):
person knows what their role is,what they are responsible for,
and when everyone is workingtowards the same goal, kind of
in the same order of priorityreally sure who's supposed to be
(08:31):
doing what?
That's when balls tend to getdropped and that's also when
people are enjoying their workless right.
They don't feel that they havethe same sense of autonomy or
ownership over the outcomes thatthey're driving.
And I think that it's reallythe leader's job to set the team
up for success in the way thatthey scope the work, prioritize
the work and communicate thatwork out to the teams.
And then, lastly, I do thinkit's quite important maybe this
(08:52):
is this is to your point aboutembodiment I think it's really
important to lead by examplewhen something is important to
you.
So if you are preaching thatyou value work-life balance and
you don't want to see emailsfrom your team on Saturday
morning or something, then makesure you're not sending emails
on Saturday morning.
And if you're saying it'sreally important to pre-send
(09:15):
documents, make sure that you'repre-sending documents and I
think that these are a good teamwill take their cues from their
leader and they will stay inthe office as long as the leader
stays in the office and try tomirror some of those behaviors.
So I think it's quite importantto make sure that you're being
honest with yourself about whatexample you're setting and
(09:36):
making sure that that's in linewith what you want the team to
be doing.
When I think about howleadership has evolved over the
past five years, you know, Icame up in an
apprenticeship-based model whereyou were with your team all day
, every day, and having leadersthat embodied these behaviors
was a lot easier.
It was a lot more natural toget the training that you needed
(09:59):
, to have discussions aboutprioritization when conflicts
would come up, and now we're ina much more dispersed
environment.
I work with teams that are muchmore geographically dispersed.
I work with teams that are alot more functionally dependent,
right, where we have a lot morecross-functional dependencies
and we have a lot more peoplewho are trying to work virtually
(10:19):
and we're trying to createthese same cultures and these
same spaces virtually, and Ithink it's much harder to do,
and so what I try to do as aleader is, take these same
behaviors and kind of create theinfrastructure that will
support them.
So you know, how do you thinkabout having a beginning or end
(10:41):
of week check-in where everyonecan stack hands on what the
priorities are or stay in theloop on what major milestones
have been reached in that week?
How do you think about bringingthe team together in person when
you can?
How frequently do you want todo that?
How do you maximize that timeso that you're really dedicating
some mindshare to team building?
And then, how do you thinkabout assigning dedicated
(11:04):
mentors or trainers to newjoiners to the team to make sure
that they have a real plan andwe're not just handing someone a
laptop and telling them to goforth and conquer right?
How do you make sure they'reactually getting the training
that they need?
And those are the types ofthings that I try to do on a
regular basis but I think itcontinues to be a bit of a test
(11:24):
and learn where we see whatworks for certain teams, what
works for others and how youkind of build out these same
concepts of creating the rightinclusive structure, setting
clear goals and priorities andmaking sure that people have the
tools to execute on theexpectations that you give them.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Okay.
So when you step back and lookat your career or your life,
have you had any of those I callthem aha moments, but those
moments that really maybedefined your life or defined
your career?
Speaker 3 (11:55):
I mean there probably have been many just because my
career has been pretty decidedlynonlinear and I've taken a path
where, rather than goingextremely deep on one area of
expertise, I've gotten a lotmore exposure to different areas
through the roles that I'vetaken and I've tended to follow
(12:16):
people more than I've followedcontent.
I think what that has taught meis I've really experienced that
kind of non-linearity as moreof a strength rather than a
setback rather than a setback.
And the first and the mostdefining example of that for me
was when I joined traditionalmanagement consulting after my
(12:36):
year in Hong Kong working onthat economic council.
I was at the time a reallynon-traditional hire for these
types of firms.
I came from a non-core school.
I had spent a year out ofschool, so I would be
interviewing to join with recentgrads, even though I'd already
been out of school for one totwo years by the time I joined.
(12:57):
And I didn't have and I was aliberal arts major who hadn't
had a lot of exposure to thattype of interview process prior
to doing it, and I really gotthat job.
Out of sheer grit and force ofwill I forced myself to network.
I'm not actually a bornnetworker.
I did over 100 cold calls withpeople that I'd met in Hong Kong
(13:20):
, trying to figure out what thisindustry was, who the right
companies would be for what Iwas looking for, who they knew
that might be able to help meget a foot in the door.
I taught myself how to case forthose interviews.
I applied to a really wideselection of firms so that I had
some room to fail and kind oflearn through real interviews as
we went and then by the time Ifinally got that job offer at
(13:44):
McKinsey, I felt really preparedfor what was in front of me.
That job really introduced me tosome of the best leaders and
some of the best people thatI've gotten to work with in my
career.
I learned so so much, but Ithink through that experience I
really saw the results ofbetting on myself and working
really hard towards a specificgoal and it made everything feel
(14:05):
possible and I think for me italso made me a lot more
comfortable taking risks ortaking opportunities that
weren't necessarily a sure thing, because I knew that at the end
of it it was all going to beokay.
You can find your way back towhatever it is that you're
trying to get to, depending onhow you approach it.
(14:27):
So I think it gave me a lot ofconfidence that careers can be
non-linear and oftentimes thoseexperiences are going to be the
ones that are the mostformulative for you
professionally.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Okay, so what would you say is something that women
leaders bring to the table thatour industry needs more of?
Speaker 3 (14:45):
In my experience, women tend to be very successful
working cross-functionally andthey're quite successful at
building consensus acrossdifferent stakeholders.
I think oftentimes women arevery adept in their ability to
really listen to the otherperspectives and understand what
the underlying needs or asksare, rather than just listening
(15:06):
to what's at the surface level.
They're able to kind of piecetogether where is this coming
from?
What are we actually solvingfor, in a way that lends itself
to building alignment or lendsitself to kind of compromise
that works for everyone, andthere's always going to be a
balance, I think, betweenbuilding alignment and then
making swift decisions when youneed to.
But in all industries youreally need leaders who can walk
(15:29):
that line and understand whenit's a time for decisiveness and
when it's a time for consensus,and I think women leaders are
quite good at navigating thatline and are much more effective
as a result.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Well, let's switch gears a little bit and talk
about innovation and influence.
So, as we've talked about,payments is ever-changing and
fast-changing, very innovativeindustry.
So how do you, as a leader,stay innovative?
Speaker 3 (15:55):
You know there's no right answer.
I think it depends a little biton your approach to learning
and how you as an individual canfind yourself staying curious
about these different things.
I think for me, I'm reallycurious not only about payments
but about other industries, andI think payments is kind of a
fascinating corner of the worldwhere it touches nearly
(16:18):
everything.
Right, every industry needs tobe able to make and accept
payments and, as a result, ifyou can understand that, the
innovation that's happening inthese other industries, what
problems are coming up for thosecompanies?
What are they solving for?
That's usually quite a goodplace to start when you say how
can we be innovating within ourown space?
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Okay, so what is one trend or change going?
Speaker 3 (16:48):
on in the industry that you're keeping a really
close eye on.
Well, my current role isfocused on data and I think
that's quite a hot topic rightnow across this and other
industries data, ai, agenda,commerce, all of the different
developments that are happeningin that space.
So right now I'm highlyinterested in the emergence of
Gen AI, how it's impactingindustries and the potential
(17:08):
impact of agentic on traditionale-commerce transactions and
consumer purchasing behavior,because I think we're starting
to see, or folks are starting toplay with the different models
that we could see a lot more ofin the future.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Yeah, AI is a very common answer to that, because I
think it's touching our livespersonally, professionally.
And then, when you think aboutpayments to your point, you know
there's changes going on that'sgoing to affect how consumers
purchase, but there's alsothings going on within payments
companies, around fraud andfighting fraud.
You know all those kinds ofthings.
So it's a powerful topic andyou're right there in the thick
(17:46):
of it, so it's gotta be excitingwork.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Yeah, I mean, I think you're right and to some extent
it's a buzzword for everyoneright now, but I think that's
because the impact has, to yourpoint, felt really swift and
we've kind of gone from this isthe type of thing that's
happening more in sandboxes inSilicon Valley to the type of
thing that people are rollingout regularly and incorporating
into their daily lives, andthat's going to have a lot of
(18:10):
impacts within your company andhow you operate.
But it's also going to have alot of impacts on how people buy
, how they prefer to makepurchases, how they find what
they're looking for.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
And.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
I think that's all really interesting to try to
sort through.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Sure, absolutely.
Well, how do you think thatwomen can help influence the
future direction of thisindustry?
Speaker 3 (18:30):
I mean by being a part of it right, and I think
you don't necessarily have to bea senior leader in your
organization to make a bigimpact.
In fact, many of the peoplethat I most respect in the
payments industry are in areally specific part of the
business relatively, you know,relatively junior, but they know
their area so well and they'reworking so hard to build
(18:53):
expertise in that area andthey're bringing ideas about
small improvements to productsor to processes or to the
thinking in their space.
And they're bringing ideasabout small improvements to
products or to processes or tothe thinking in their space.
And they're being reallywilling to participate in
discussions at earlier stagesRight.
They're interested in gettingthose ideas out on the table and
doing a lot more kind ofbrainstorming around it, ways
(19:21):
that you can really begin toinfluence the direction of
payments more broadly and makeincremental changes that end up
really building us towardswhatever direction we're headed.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Well, let's talk a little bit now about mentorship
and impact.
So have you had female mentorsin your career and how have they
helped to shape your career?
Speaker 3 (19:37):
I have had female mentors in my career.
I've also had a lot of greatmale mentors in my career.
I think mentorship in generalis an incredibly important part
of navigating the differentaspects of your career, from
sort of day-to-day problems thatyou're solving to where you
want to go longer term.
When I think about theinfluence that some of the women
(19:59):
that I've been around have hadon me, I've had the privilege of
working with some incrediblystrong female leaders.
I had Stephanie Ferris as theCEO of FIS.
I worked really closely withMichaela Weber, who is over at
BigCommerce, and Anna Mendy,who's over at PayPal, and I
think what's struck me about allof these women is they're all
(20:22):
outstanding and they're allincredibly different and they've
got very big variations intheir style and in their
approach.
They've got differentpersonalities, they've got
different strengths, they've gotdifferent passion projects, and
I think what I have observed inworking with these different
individuals is that they arealways the most effective when
(20:45):
they are operating in a way thatis authentic to them as an
individual.
I think when I was earlier in mycareer, I was highly attuned to
the fact that, as a young woman, the way that I looked or spoke
or the way that I insertedmyself in a conversation or, you
know, more often, chose not toinsert myself in a conversation
impacted the way that I wasperceived, and that's true for
(21:08):
everyone, of course.
Right, the way that you engagewith people is how you're
perceived, but I thinkunderstanding the importance of
authenticity has really helpedme to grow much more comfortable
in the way that I interact withmy colleagues and my superiors
and make work feel much morecollaborative than when you're
(21:32):
constantly second guessing.
Right, you know what's the bestway to.
How should I be standing infront of these people?
Do I tell them something?
Do I not tell them something?
Right, I think?
I think my style is differentthan Michaela's or Anna's or
Stephanie's, but it can be justas effective, as long as it's
true to me.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
So you know, I like to ask some follow-on questions
about mentorship because I thinkit's incredibly important and
it's a big part of this seriesthat we're doing, and we've had
some people talk aboutmentorship versus sponsorship
and the difference there.
I mean, I think one of theimportant things I'd love to get
your feedback is, you know,having the I don't know what the
right word is, but the abilityto go out and find your own
(22:13):
course when it comes tomentorship.
Like a lot of big companieshave specific programs that you
can sign up for and you've gotthis structured.
You know, every month you'regoing to meet and there's an
agenda and all that.
But I think there's a lot moreto mentorship and I like you
know, if you don't mind, maybetalk a little bit about your
thoughts on that, how maybeyounger women coming up in our
(22:33):
industry, how they can kind ofdo that on their own without
relying on their company, andmaybe just you know kind of your
thoughts on that.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
I'll take two different lenses.
I think there's me as a youngwoman and then there's there's
me as a leader and kind of whatI've seen on both sides of it.
When I was earlier in my career, by default the best mentors
that I had ended up being mymanagers or my manager's
managers while I was workingwith them right.
(23:02):
They were the ones that knew mereally well.
They were able to see where Iwas strong and where I needed
development and they were ableto understand kind of the
circumstances that I would bringto them with questions and
those relationships evolvedreally naturally.
I think I needed to ask right.
I needed to ask for feedback, Ineeded to you often get the
(23:25):
guidance that you need to likereally formally ask will you be
my mentor?
Speaker 1 (23:29):
And I don't think I did that but I was.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
I was constantly asking for feedback after you
know work that I did orpresentations that I delivered,
and I think that that evolved.
That evolved really organicallyand in a way that felt really
genuine and kind of safe to meas a leader.
I've participated in mentorshipprograms, both kind of at the
of at the corporate level, andthen I've had people come to me
(23:55):
and say, hey, I was looking atyour background and it was
really interesting to me forreasons A, b and C.
Do you think that you know wecould do a conversation?
And that's kind of been howpeople have come to me for
mentorship, and that's kind ofbeen how people have come to me
for mentorship.
And so what I would say toyoung women who are looking for
(24:15):
mentors is like fit is quiteimportant, right.
So look across the company orlook outside the company and say
who do I want to emulate forcertain reasons, or whose
opinion do I value?
And then just ask them for alittle time, right, just ask
them for a little bit of coffeechat and when you go, have a
(24:36):
specific question that they canengage on, right, don't say,
like, what do I do with my lifewhich I've been like, quite
guilty of doing in the past andis never good right, not good
for the mentor, not good for thementee, not useful.
But when you go and you say I'mreally struggling with this
particular interpersonalrelationship, here are the
(24:58):
dynamics, here's what I need toachieve how would you think
about right navigating thissituation?
That type of thing is reallyhelpful for mentors to kind of
engage and sink their teeth into.
You often hear it said, but itreally can't be emphasized
enough.
The mentor tends to get as muchout of these relationships as
(25:21):
the mentee does.
Giving advice to youngercolleagues.
I'll hear myself spouting thesebest practices that I'd
forgotten, that I knew and thatI really need to bring back into
my day-to-day life, and it actsas this really positive
reminder about all right, youknow where do I need to be
(25:45):
tweaking my approach, and so Ireally like that and I get
really invested in these youngprofessionals and I certainly
have found as a mentee thatthat's quite true.
Both men and women are prettyinterested in helping you know.
Ambitious, hardworking, smartyoung women succeed, and so if
(26:05):
you make yourself available tothat, you let them know that
you're interested and you givethem something chewy that they
can really opine on.
I find that these relationshipsare much easier to maintain as
a result of that, rather thansome of the more formalized
programs which sometimes you getlucky and sometimes you find a
really good fit that way, butoftentimes it's going to be a
(26:28):
little bit more organic.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
So it's a good segue into the next question.
So if you had to give a femalemaybe up and coming, maybe
they're right out of school,maybe they're changing careers
or changing industries or cominginto payments If you could give
them just one piece of advice,what would that be?
Speaker 3 (26:45):
I think payments as an industry feels somewhat
foreign to many people.
It's not necessarily an areawhere recent college grads are
actively pursuing, and manypeople find their way into
payments through morecircumstantial routes, and I
think that's perfectly okay, andso what I would recommend to
(27:05):
somebody who's just entering theindustry is to try to build
your understanding and buildyour expertise.
Remember that there are alwayspeople that know more than you
do, and so be really open andproactive about asking for help,
asking for advice or even justasking for an intro, a 101, to a
(27:30):
part of the business that isnew to you.
I did that when I joinedWorldPay.
I asked a woman that I reallyrespect in the business for an
overview of our pricing.
I was like I haven't done thisbefore.
Right, give me the 101.
And I found people wereincredibly willing to do that,
and so I think, if you're cominginto it, don't be intimidated
(27:52):
by the fact that this is a kindof a niche industry, one that
requires a lot of expertise or alot of understanding of the
different complexities that arethere, but instead start with
where you are and then expandout by asking questions and
seeking out advice.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
So one final kind of fun question so when you look at
your phone, which app do youuse the most?
That's non-business related,and what does that say about you
?
Speaker 3 (28:19):
You should probably tell me what it says about me.
I've got two answers to it,because I've got my normal
answer.
And then this week, what is it?
It normally it's spotify.
I live in a very music forwardhouse.
We always have music going inthe background and I
historically, when I'm not oncalls, have worked with
(28:43):
classical music in thebackground something without
lyrics, because otherwise I'llget kind of distracted, but the
classical music works reallywell in the background.
And then I like podcasts forwhen I'm commuting or if I'm out
on walks in my neighborhood.
But lately my top app has beenthe app for my children's
preschool, because I just pottytrained my two and a half year
(29:06):
old twins and I am obsessivelychecking to see how that is
going.
Have we had any accidents atschool today?
Were they successful?
And I'm feeling extremelyinvested in that journey.
So for the past week that'soccupied my top spot.
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yeah.
Yeah, there have been manyanswers related to kids, so so
so your answer is definitely inalignment, and Spotify has also
been a popular answer, so sothat's cool.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
It's shocking how many apps you need to raise a
kid.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Well, as they get older theybecome, You've got to go to
school you've got to groweverything.
And as they get older, itbecomes more financial, and I've
had many answers around.
All I do is send money to mykids, and that's either Zelle or
PayPal or whatever it might be.
So, yeah, that's a commonanswer as well.
Well, keri, we've covered a lotof ground.
(29:54):
I think we've covered all thetopics we wanted to, but I did
want to just open the floor, seeif there was anything else you
wanted to talk about before wewrap up the show.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
I don't think I have anything else to add, but thank
you so much, Greg, for having me.
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
Yeah, Carrie, it's been great Again.
I know your time is veryvaluable, so I really appreciate
you being here.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (30:12):
You too have a great day.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
You too, and to all you listeners out there.
I thank you for your time aswell, and until the next story.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Thank you for joining us this week on the Leaders in
Payments podcast.
Make sure you visit our websiteat leadersinpaymentscom, where
you can subscribe to the showand where you'll find our show
notes.
If you enjoyed listening,please share on your social
channels as well.
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