PA Conference for Women - Women Who Inspire: Carol Lee Mitchell Bank of America

To mark the 2023 PA Conference for Women we are highlighting inspiring women leaders. I speak to Carol Lee Mitchell the head of small business, specialty, and consumer vehicle lending strategy at Bank of America.
https://www.bankofamerica.com/smallbusiness/
https://www.paconferenceforwomen.org/

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
The twentieth Annual Pennsylvania Conference for Womenwill be held in person October nineteenth at
the Pennsylvania Convention Center. It's partof the nation's largest network of women's conferences
in the country, with events inCalifornia, Massachusetts, Texas, and of
course here in Pennsylvania. Right herein Philadelphia. In the coming weeks,
we'll be speaking with trailblazing women who'vebroken through glass ceilings, shattered stereotypes,

(00:22):
and paved the way for progress andequality. Joining us right now is Kara
Lee Mitchell, the head of SmallBusiness, Specialty and Consumer Vehicle Lending Strategy
at Bank of America. She ispassionate about the development of equitable opportunities for
women leaders. She's often called uponto share her perspectives on a variety of
business owner topics by national and localmedia outlets. Thank you so much for

(00:45):
joining us, Thank you for havingme. Lorraine, delighted to be here.
Tell us a little bit about whatyou do at Bank of America.
Sure so. At Bank of America, I head of strategy for Small Business
Specialty Lending and Consumer Vehicle Ending andwhat that means is on the day to
day basis, I am thinking aboutbuilding growth related initiatives, looking for investment

(01:08):
opportunities to help our business owners growtheir business. And that's really important to
us. You know. I alwayssay that sixty percent of our local economies
are driven by business owners. Sothe body of my work on a day
to day basis to really think abouthow to create that excellent client experience for
our business owners at large. Well, there is something very special at the

(01:32):
Conference for Women and Bank of Americasthe presenting sponsor of Women owned Business Marketplace,
which I love every year. Ido a lot of my gift shopping
during the Pennsylvania Conference for Women.And why is it so important for women
entrepreneurs to have a leg up Andwhat does Bank of America do to support
women entrepreneurs? First of all,Bank of America, we are absolutely delighted

(01:55):
to be the presenting sponsor for thePA Conference for Women Marketplace for two reasons.
One, you know, the backboneof our local economies, we believe
our business owners, but within thatnorth of forty percent are driven by women
business owners. And when we thinkabout the growth of entrepreneurship over the last
couple of years, women have actuallysurpassed our male counterparts in terms of starting

(02:17):
their own businesses. In fact,one point nine trillion dollars in revenue is
the opportunity for women business owners atlarge, so really really meaningful, meaningful
body of work. But also whenwe think about women business owners that marketplace
environment, right, it's inspiring andlike yourself, I do much of my
damage, you know, holiday shoppingspending in that sort of to our body

(02:42):
of time. But these women businessowners are learning networking and the thing that
they tell us is that a signof success is also to go back into
the community and help other women businessowners create a build and build plans.
And so many of our clients tellus these types of environments where we can
actually physically come together and we're ona digital platform and really exchange our ideas,

(03:07):
really exchange our knowledge, and reallykind of you that commerce of information
exchange is such an important part ofhow our clients tell us success is defined,
and so we're just happy to bepart of that, and we think
that it's an important part of supportingour community at large, and so we're
absolutely delighted speaking of entrepreneurs. Chefand humanitarian Jose Andres is one of this

(03:30):
year's conference keynote speakers. And what'sI'm sure very exciting for all of us
and certainly you as well, isthat you will be introducing him, and
I wonder if you can tell usthe message you'll be relaying in that introduction.
I am so excited to a fangirlover Jose Andrews. Two things I've
had, actually the privilege of workingfor CEOs, both Ajabond Dot MasterCard and

(03:54):
Brian moynihanna Bank of America that reallysort of say we can do well by
doing good, this principle of doingwell in corporate American and driving business growth
and revenue, and also giving backto our community. You know, we
are sort of this human community ofpeople that have needs. I think he
has done such an amazing job ofbringing together his work, his gift,

(04:17):
his talent, and combining it andcoupling it with his value and his character.
And I think that the ultimate bodyof inspiration for me personally anyway,
is to see somebody who, bythe way he built his endeavor, right,
It wasn't handed to him. Hehad this gift, you worked really
hard to build world renowned restaurants andthen taking that and really delivering that for

(04:42):
people at moments of time where theyabsolutely need it right, usually during times
of tragic devastation. This humanitarian aspectof the work that he does is so
inspiring and so the key message weindividually and companies and business owners and women
and men and all of us canreally sort of think about doing well by

(05:02):
doing good in the work that wedo, thinking about our gifts and really
being able to instill that in waysthat serve the community and bring our purpose
together. I love that. Now, outside of the Bank of America,
you also lecture at the Wharton Schoolat the University of Pennsylvania. What advice
do you give to future business leaders? I do lecture at the Wharton School

(05:25):
and the program. I have tojust give Andrew Adolph, who runs the
communication program, a shout out becauseshe's phenomenal. She not only works with
students, but she works with peoplelike us, bringing us from corporate American
executives to come in and work withstudents. The underpinning message that I like
to deliver is, at the endof the day, we have to learn
how to communicate and work with peoplein any sort of industry at large,

(05:47):
and especially in this day and agewhere technology is such you know, sort
of part of what we do.At the core, we've got chat,
GBT and the AI world kind ofcoming at us. Effective communication, caring
about people, really trying to understandthe audience, really trying to engage in
a way where it's a meaningful engagement, not transactional. Learning to do that

(06:10):
is a skill understanding that people runbusiness, that people run initiatives, and
that connection point is so important andrelationships that are built their lifelong relationships.
And I think that when these youngstudents are starting out in their career and
they're focusing on the what they know, coupling that with the how and bringing

(06:31):
the communication skills to the forefront,I think is such an important part of
being a leader, a leader inthe business world, in the community,
in sort of the work that theydo. As it relates to philanthropic initiatives.
It's a privilege for me to beable to spend a day in the
week engaging with my multigenerational network withstudents that are so smart, so bad,

(06:56):
so energetic, is so optimistic,and grounding them in the import of
human interaction, effective communication skills,being empathetic and really pushing themselves to kind
of reach that next level of leadershipskills that I personally think that we need.
And one bonus question which I alwayslike to ask our women leaders.
So often all of us are trailblazersin our own fields, whether we're the

(07:19):
first person of color or the firstwoman to be in a particular position,
And I always am so fascinated bypeople's particular journeys and what they consider to
be their secret sauce how they managedto move up through the ranks. Banking
is media is still very much amale oriented field, and navigating that.

(07:43):
What would you say were some ofthe skills and the natural talents that you
brought to your journey that helped younavigate all of that. The number one
thing when I'm talking to, especiallyin an audience of women, is the
skill of making a decision, beingafraid to make a decision. And this
is so important because, especially inthe business world, it's not to say

(08:05):
you have to make a decision whereyou're right one hundred percent of the time,
but learning how to take enough informationto say, you know, I
know enough and I think I haveenough information to get there, and trusting
yourself to do that. That's numberone. Number two, it is really
just being able to sustain sort ofthe ups and downs. I remember when

(08:26):
I was starting off my career,one of the executives that I worked for,
I asked her, you know what'sthe key ingredient and she said ten
year ship. To some extent,just staying in the game. Staying in
the games is one of the mostimportant things. And when you're in the
game, you will have high highs, you will have low loads. So
long as you can pick yourself upand sustain yourself through the high highs and

(08:48):
low lows. Use your network,use your personal inspiration points, do what
you need to do. But stayingin the game is so important and having
that sort of wherewithal to be ableto think about your career in terms of
tenureship. I am going to stayin the game so that I can play
the game to the best of myknowledge and the best of my skills.
That's a large part of it.I've had so many people give me advice

(09:13):
support. I often reach out.I have breakfast, coffees, you know,
lunch and whatever you need to doto get through and get by,
Been there, done that. It'san important thing. And for women,
especially staying in making sure that you'retransparent. That's wonderful advice, wonderful story
to tell and hopefully an inspiration toother women listening. If people would like

(09:35):
more information about Bank of America andparticularly the work that you do with small
businesses, how do they get intouch. Bank of America dot com slash
Small Business is where we house aplethora of information for women business owners,
especially access to capitals and number onechallenge. We have information as it relates
so that we have a directory thatconnects minority women business owners to lenders.

(10:01):
This is the Senate Capital directory thatwe launched. We have access to information
around networking opportunities. If you wantto hit Cornell University and get you a
degree at an ip league on expandingyour knowledge, we have it. So
again, Bank of America dot comslash Small Business is where I would direct
your listeners and if you ever everhad any questions, our bankers are in

(10:22):
the financial centers, are happy tohelp with anything that clients need, and
we're always there to serve. WonderfulThank you so much. Carroll Mitchell,
the head of Small Business Specialty andConsumer Vehicle Lending Strategy for Bank of America,
one of the sponsors of the twentiethAnnual Pennsylvania Conference for Women held in
person October nineteenth at the Pennsylvania ConventionCenter. If you'd like more information,

(10:43):
go to PA Conference for Women dotorg. Carroley, thank you so much,
Thank you so much. Lor