Leadership, Opportunity, and Lifting Others with Barbara Negron

You're listening to One Sharp Sword, cutting through to what matters most with Outfluencer, Dr. Wayne Pernell. Welcome to One Sharp Sword, cutting through to what matters most. Today's guest is Barbara Negron, a senior fintech executive with more than 15 years of experience in embedded finance, sponsor banking, and digital banking innovation. Embedded finance simply means financial services like payments, lending, or banking that are built right into the apps and platforms you already use instead of requiring you to go to a bank. Barbara has led commercialization and go-to-market efforts for embedded finance and banking as a service programs at FIS. Helping banks and finance and fintech platforms build scalable and compliant financial ecosystems. Beyond fintech strategy, Barbara is passionate about mentorship, representation in technology, and developing the next generation of leaders. Barbara, welcome to the show. And how many times can I trip over the word FinTech. That's—

Well, hi, Wayne, Dr. Wayne Pernell. Thank you for having me. You know, throughout my career, I've learned that innovation in FinTech and financial service doesn't just happen because of technology. It happens because of people. So this willingness to share knowledge across the industry, I think, is important as we move forward.

That's fabulous. It is about people. It's, you know, it doesn't matter what industry we're in. It seems like any vertical, there's platform, there's process, and there's people with that, right? AI is a thing. That's great. But without people, it doesn't connect to it. It doesn't do anything, right? It's so, so fintech. You've been in it for a long time. Mm-hmm. But you didn't wake up one day going, Well, I think I'll be a fintech exec. You started doing what?

Well, just the opposite. You know, I went to school for hotel management. I mean, I was a totally different career. Fintech was never in my brain path. Nothing I thought I would ever be doing in the space, financial technology. I never considered myself a, a techie. But I ended up being a techie. So it was, it was just an interesting path to get me where I was going. And I found my passion and I did pretty good for a while. So I stuck with it.

That's awesome.

Okay.

So did you go to school for, for hospitality?

I did. I did. I lived in the, in the beautiful island of Puerto Rico for a while and I worked in a, in a Hilton down in Puerto Rico and I went to college to study hospitality and learn a little bit more about the industry. In management. And as I was doing it, I realized management is management. And I think any, any education that you learn regardless of the path you take with you as you grow in your different industries. But what I found was hospitality wasn't my passion, but the tech, the industry, the leadership side of it was. So Hilton International has an excellent management program that I started to learn a lot about and their way of going to school to create their management leaders is, you know, you have to learn every aspect of the business to be able to manage something, right? So I kept this and I learned this as I was studying my— in school and going through my career. You know, the best leaders are the ones who have worked their way across the different industries to understand how the company and how the industry works. So I used that as a stepping stone for myself as I grew in the tech industry to learn different parts of the industry and just take that along with me.

That's amazing. That's really great. And it's nice to hear that about a large company. You know, you, you hear the opposite so much that it's like we're growing so fast or they're just, you know, they're like any corporation. And what you said about Hilton, it's like I'm not affiliated with them other than I— that's like Hilton, Marriott are my, you know, I— they're my go-to.

But, uh, and, you know, and I don't even know if it's really changed. And when I started, and, you know, back in the dark ages, you know, that was— that was one of the management programs that I found to be fascinating, right? Um, it was just because of their way of, of doing things. And I'm hoping that they still have that type of program in effect, or any other industry, you know, um, You learned every aspect of what it was to work in the hotel industry.

Yeah.

And then to get into the management program, which means laundry, um, front desk, you know, um, housekeeping, everything. I mean, and that made just, in my perspective, when I heard about it and then I saw it, I was like, oh, this is what, how it's so easy to manage somebody when you can actually say, well, you know, I, I can tell you how to do it because I did it myself. Right? And I can lead. I mean, many a times I feel like leaders are, are given the positions not only because they've, you know, grown up in the position and they've learned the positions, but having the ability to work different positions and learn different ways of how things work gives you this expertise that you wouldn't get any other way.

I think that's fabulous. You know, a lot of times the best doers, the ones who know how to do a particular role, are promoted into management and given no training about how to manage, how to lead. It's like, well, you're good at this thing. Just step up here. And it sounds like Hilton is very deliberate about, you know what, if you're going to be a leader, you need to be comfortable in every area.

Yeah, that was my understanding. And I will say as well, on the opposite side of the house, sometimes I've worked with leaders who were given that position because they've been doing the job for so long. That haven't gotten the leadership training that they need, which also becomes a hindrance because not everybody's meant to lead as well, like lead people in per se. So that also becomes a bit of an issue as well.

That's a huge statement too, you know, and, and to know that about yourself, like, I'm, I'm pausing here to make that a point for our audience that it's like leaders are great. I believe everybody is a leader because it's some level you're being watched. At the same time, what you said is absolutely true. Not everyone is really meant to lead, like, you know, and you'll know for yourself. Do you want to be a leader? And if so, get the skills that it takes. You did a transition from hospitality into finance and financial technology ultimately, which wasn't probably a thing when you first started out.

It wasn't, that's for sure.

Yeah. So, so what was the transition? Was it part of the— wow, I was with Spelton, I was exposed to finance, and then I—

not at all. It's so far from it. I studied something and then I had moved to Florida thinking that I was going to get into hospitality, being that I was in the Orlando area, which is, you know, Disney, hospitality central.

Sure.

And I started a job at a— believe it or not— a pediatrician while I was trying to get my real career launched. And during that time frame, I was in the billing department. I was still doing finance in a different aspect of it. And then I worked for an insurance company, one of the larger insurers in the country. And then I went from the insurance company to a bank and then from the bank to the financial tech industry that the bank was, that the bank used. So I had an unconventional path to where I was going. I, they're, they're all connected because it was always in the financial sector, whether it be within, with an insurance company or a bank, all regulated in the backend financial industry, but it was all financial. It was just not a traditional path to get to where I was going, but Yet here I am.

It's amazing. So this is one of the things, you know, Steve Jobs is famous, was famous for saying, you can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect the dots looking backwards. Right. And so every little piece brought you to that next place. And, you know, you, you, you went from hospitality to a pediatrician's office, you got into finance, sort of indirectly, and then finance built finance built finance. And now you're at FIS. Along the way, I mean, you— we opened this program talking about people along the way. It wasn't just about numbers, it was about how you navigated through the workforce, right? And you you had people ultimately reporting to you. Can you talk about that a little bit? What was that like the first time you actually had a team?

So it started pretty small. I naturally went into managing team. I think that was something that I felt— like we talked about before, I felt like I was a leader from the beginning. So I tend to take these leadership roles on pretty early on in every aspect of my career. So, um, I will start. I started in the, in the, the doctor's office, and I started leading there a small team of, of people doing billing. And then when I went into the insurance industry, it was just a natural progressing in the billing side, and I started managing a team of, uh, people who worked within, um, this insurance, large insurance company. And I was doing, um, billing for individual insurance carriers, and then I worked with COBRA and, um, how we were billing individuals, COBRA, and how the insurance processes work. Um, and then that just led me to an output. So things happened, I think— let me just take a step back here— when different things that happened in the world affected my, my growth pattern. So when I was in the insurance company, was, um, September 11th happened, and we, the, the it was this, this change in how the market was doing things and seeing business. And it was just the beginning of offshoring where every large organizations were offshoring big teams off, off to different areas in the outside of the US. And that forced me because the company that I was working with was going to start offshoring after September 11th, some of their billing practices overseas to the Philippines. And at that point, I had to make a decision for me and my team. Did I want to go to the Philippines and build out this global team, or did I want to stay? And there was a community bank that— there was a big news article about how teams were offshoring a lot of their business. And my company, being that they were a large insurance provider, was part of the news article about how they were moving out of Florida and going overseas. That led the bank to call me. To say, hey, we saw this article where we need someone with your type of expertise to come and manage this operations here at this bank and build out our operations team here in this bank. Do you want to come? And I was like, well, sounds like a perfect plan. I don't want to go to the Philippines right now.

And so you were invited to stay put?

To stay put. So, you know, it was a change of industry completely. It wasn't insurance, it was financial, was banking. And I was like, hey, This is my opportunity for me to stay. And I, and I will say that different changes in my life have happened because of these types of opportunities. I was in the banking sector for a long time. I was working in the lending space and then the mortgage debacle happened in this, in the country. And I was like, oh, I need to find a new line of business because the lending space, the mortgage industry is going south. And I had an opportunity to work with the tech company that the bank was working with in the mortgage industry, and I made a move to there. So I will say that a lot of the things that happened in the, in the world influenced a lot of the decisions I've made. But what I will say is that I looked at these different— that could be seen as negative as opportunities for growth and for leadership. And I just embraced them because I think change is the only constant in life. So you have to embrace some of these changes and go with it. And with that, I was able to bring my teams along with me a lot of the times. So some of the people that I work with in the insurance end that ended up working for me at the bank, and then I brought them along to the tech company as well. So as you build these relationships and these teams, you build these, um, response— you build this, um, I want to say, what's the word I'm looking for? You build these relationships that, um, early on that help you to grow as a leader, and you help them to grow in their, in the positions, and then those things come with you along the way.

Love that. Yeah, 3 keywords jump out and I just, I want to make sure that they are ringing for our audience. The first is relationships. Like, you've mentioned that a few times. That is so important. The banking industry doesn't work without really solid relationships, especially behind the scenes. Then customer-facing, that's, that's a different arena all the way around. Opportunities was the other, was the other thing you brought up, and growth was the third. Opportunities come from the way you look at challenges. I think that's amazing, right? So like, we're all given challenges at pretty much every day, every, every month, every week, every day we're given challenges. And you have a perspective that I don't know if it's trained or if you got it from your parents growing up, or, you know, where did that come from? Because a lot of people go, oh my gosh, not again, you know, here I am, I'm on this path, the rug is now pulled out from under me, look at what happened to this industry, look at what happened to the world, look at what happened, right? And so there's so much outward-looking, almost blame, and you're like, yeah, that stuff's happening and I can make the best of it. How do you do that?

So, you know, I, I, I want to say that, um, it was the way I was raised. Um, I was blessed with a, a family who were a family of, uh, achievers in every aspect of their life. They, um, I will say that my great-grandfather migrated from Puerto Rico to New York years in the early '30s and started our family. But nothing was an obstacle for anybody. I remember my dad even saying, and my grandfather, as I think back, you can do anything that you want to do as long as you work hard and everything is going to happen. You could have everything you want. You just need to work for it. So that was something that I always believed in and I kept in the forefront of my, of my thinking. And every time something happened, I was like, well, this is all I need to do is work hard and make it work. And it's, it's really worked for me. And I think it works. And I try to instill that in my children as they grow old. I mean, there is things that happen that we don't expect in life, but, you know, if you embrace it for what it is and look at the positive instead of the negative, I think that's another thing. I, I don't like negative things around me. I think I always try to look for, okay, there has to be a positive with everything that's happened, whether it be negative. And I mean, we all go through some, some, some difficult times, right? There are some difficult challenges that we face, whether personally or professionally, but there's always something that can be pulled out of that that, that could be viewed as positive. And if you just take that one little positive thing and build on it, I think there's opportunities for growth.

Oh, so great, Barbara. So well said, right? The— you take— it's kind of like planting a seed. You take one little thing and you nurture it and it grows, right? So if it's an opportunity, that's fabulous. If it's a person, I'm going to transition to talking about mentorship and sponsorship. If it's a person, then you are growing that person. And you talked about taking your team along the way. So what's the difference? Let's talk about that for a few minutes. What's the difference between mentorship and sponsorship?

I think there's a big difference, right? So I think we all, I at least in my professional life have met people who I consider mentors, who have given me some key points of growth and learning that I've taken with me, or different ways of seeing maybe opportunities in the way. But the person, the people that really have made a difference are those who not only mentor me but sponsor me. They are the ones who are going to be like what I try to do with some of the people that I work with, right? Not only teach me, okay, this is the way to do business, but like, let me help you get there. Let me make some introductions for you. On what's going to happen. And I have found that in my career and in my life, in my personal life, not just in my career, those people that I have sponsored along the way, it always comes back somehow. You relate. You build these relationships. I mean, we talked about it a bit ago, relationships that are forever, whether it be professionally. They turn— sometimes they grow into personal relationships beyond just the professional relationships. And if you do these types of sponsorships, not looking for anything in return, but just being able to help somebody achieve what they're trying to achieve. And if you have the capacity and the ability to do so, I will tell you, I feel like life has always given this back to me, um, twofold.

I love that. I love that. And relationship is about, uh, coming together again, right? That it's like these individuals that come together, re— uh, and I, I talk about this when I talk about couples work. It works in networking as well. Re is again, lation is to come together, and ship is the state of. And so a relationship is about coming together again. And when you're in a sponsor-sponsee relationship and then you as the sponsee grow to a position where you can pass that on, one of my other favorite sayings is lift as you lead. And you are an amazing example of that, that Right? You've been lifted, you're in leadership, and now you reach your hand back and say, come with me. And it's just, it's one of the reasons that I wanted you on this program was to kind of share that philosophy too, that it really is about you see the opportunity to help and you pause long enough to do it. And I was just thinking that, you know, a lot of times we think of people in the banking industry or fintech is, you know, so on the go and so greedy and so up for, you know, the buck. And it's like all of that stuff that, that our society says hovers around money, and you're like, no, it's like money's a thing, but it really is the people, right?

So I agree 100%. It's, you know, um, I think tech— well, tech gets a, gets a bad rap sometimes because tech moves really quick and there's, you know, there's a lot of— and I think people look at tech as, okay, this is where the money's at, this is where I'm going to make money and grow. But I will tell you, um, the relationships in the tech industry are so deep. There are— I mean, right now I'm part of a WhatsApp group that has of all these founders that have found each other, and they just, when they need something, they reach out to each other saying, hey, have you, do you know of a person who can help me with compliance? Or do you know of a company? And it's all about these relationships. And they may start in one arena and move on to the other arena. And you'd be surprised who you see along the way and who you'll see from 5 years from now in another industry that you never expected them to be in. But the relationships are built and they grow and It's to keep— I think it's really important just to not forget the people that helped you get to where you're going, because you never know where they're going to be in 5 years compared to where you are. And doing things unselfishly and doing things with, with the opportunities to help people to grow always comes back. And you will— and you may not see it when you, when you— but when you least expect it, that opportunity will be there.

So great. It's so great. It's, it's You know, lead with a big heart, lead because you can lift people along the way because you can, you know, it's, it's so, it's so important.

And, and those are the leaders that I remember, at least, right, that, you know, I can, I can go back and I can look at the people who I, who mentored me. In fact, I was speaking to one today. And he, you know, he did, he, to me was always such a good person, right? And so beyond being a good mentor and a good sponsor, he was a good person. And that's something that makes you want to work with somebody and make them do good because they're good people. So just beyond the industry standards, it's being a good person. Like you said, lead with your heart. I think it comes through in everything you do.

It's so true. I think we remember the polar extremes. You know, I have in my speaking, I have a couple of cases of, and I will never be this leader, like this leader was this way and I chose, like that was a great lesson. I will never be that kind of person. On the other hand, there's this person and they're the people you described, the ones that were really there even when you felt lost. They were the ones that sort of showed up when you didn't even know you needed them to show up. They're the ones that, that, um, you know, took you in and taught you just that one thing that tipped the scales and made everything shift for you, right?

Agreed. Yeah, but you're right, you don't forget the bad ones either. I mean, those bad ones stick there with you for a while too, and they are good examples never to forget, you know, because if nothing else, they reminded you— they remind you of how you felt at that moment when you were working with them, and how you don't want to make somebody feel that same way.

It's so true. So this is, this is you moving through your, like, your identity shift too. Like, as we're talking, this is your identity shift. It moves through your career. You've, um, you can kind of— how actually, I was going to say you kind of encapsulate your philosophy. If you were to encapsulate your philosophy philosophy, what would you say that was?

Well, I mean, I would say lead by example is one of the things, right? I think lead as you want to be led, right? So I think that's part of it. The other thing is, I mean, we talked a bit about mentorship and sponsorship. For me, it's very important in the mentorship side of the house to— because I think representation matters, right, in any aspect. Whether it be as a woman—

I was hoping we'd talk about this.

Yeah. As a woman in fintech or as a minority in the tech industry, or even, believe it or not, as a New Yorker moving to another side of the world and being viewed a certain way. I mean, it does make a difference. And I think for me, it's important to be proud of who I am, where I came from, and leading and making everybody feel like it's I didn't start off in tech. That wasn't where I came from, right? I wasn't building code from the beginning. But going the path that I— was the path that worked for me. It may not work for everybody else, right? There may be an easier path or a less volatile or a different solution. But I think for me, representation is key. And being able to tell somebody, it's okay if you don't know what you want to do. You don't want to know when you— you don't know what you want to be when you grow up, right? That's okay because every Everything that you do and every path that you take leads you to where you're ultimately going to end up.

Very true. It does help if you know where you want to go, right? So, you know, I know you're in this position and you're probably very happy in this position. Do you have a next in mind?

You know, I do. I always said I was— I've been in tech, I've been in banking. But, you know, these, this idea of helping, like, whether it be in an advisory role or working with board members to help tech companies start from the, from where they are and give them the tools to help them grow into what they want to be. I love the idea of advising startups, fintech startups, and whether it be getting into the payments or the financial space or working with bank startups and understanding how do they get into, how do they incorporate tech into their business. The world is changing. I mean, you started the conversation with AI, you know, and there's this fear of AI and embracing it, how it grows into your industry. But working with companies who want to help people grow into whether it be AI, payments facilitation, payment processing, or just becoming the next the next, I don't know, Apple Pay in the world, right? What does that look like? That's where I see my path going.

It's amazing. It's good. We'll talk after the show because I have some ideas for you and I'll take it. That's awesome. What do you think your legacy is going to be?

So this is going to sound a little bit corny, but my family is the most important thing in my life beyond everything else. And being an example for my children in my boys to be— to be what? Because I think success has different definitions, right? To be— me being successful is being able to be, um, provide for my family something that gives them a future. I don't want to say future-proof their, their future, you know, financially, but giving them the tools to be able to feel comfortable in their lives financially is important. So that to me is my legacy, being able to provide to my family a sense of stability, at least on the financial side, and to be able to be happy in the future.

That's so amazing. And, and being corny is very much welcome here. So that's, that's fabulous. You were really well connected to your dad.

I am. And I was. Yes.

Yeah. I know this from our previous conversation, and I just wondered if you could talk about the lessons you learned from him that you find yourself passing along and how significant a model he was for you.

So, you know, my father was for the family. He was the head of the family. He wasn't the oldest. He wasn't the— I will say the most successful. But everybody looked at him as the head of our family. Right. And anybody, whether it be his older siblings, his older parents, aunts and uncles, they always went to him when they had a question because he seemed to be the one who led with— he had this, just this air of leadership, um, and everybody just went to him for when they had problems or questions or, how should we do this, Tommy, how should we do this? And unfortunately, he passed away pretty young. He was 57. He had a massive heart attack, um, and he passed away. And somehow I just landed into that role. It was again, I am not the oldest in my family. I am not the most educated out of the family, but I find myself being the one that everybody kind of comes to when they have questions about things, whether it be my older uncle or my aunt or, you know, my cousin saying, hey, what do you think about this? It was just a role that was, I guess, made and I just kind of inherited, I will say, from my father. And I think it's because, to be completely honest, it was this positivity that he, that he eluded, right? It was this idea that anything you could do, anything, right? There was never anything that was not possible, right? If you put your mind to it and you worked hard enough and if you, you could do it. And that's the, the attitude that I think he always gave to everybody. And this— he was something else that I think we didn't discuss. And I think that's very important. My dad worked for PepsiCo at the time. He was a Teamster. He worked as a machinist mechanic. And his legacy was always, you know, I want to do something for somebody else. So he was Man of the Year in New York for cystic fibrosis. I mean, every year he would— he adopted this orphanage in New Jersey, and he was the one who got all the money collected from all the people at the plant to be able to buy gifts for something. It was this thing that he had that was just unselfish to want to help other people and to, to, to be able to just bring people together. And I mean, people would see him and they were like, oh, Tommy, please don't ask us for any more money. But they gave it to him and he would build out this thing. And it was not just in his personal family life and it was his professional life. And he was seen as a natural born leader. And I think I just I just inherited that. And it's a privilege and an honor for me to be able to, to say that I feel like I took on his legacy and I just ran with it.

I, I, there's so much there, Barbara. It's so, so powerful. It's so good. Do you see, uh, do you see any of that being taken on by your boys?

I do. I have, you know, it's funny, I have, I look at, I have my, I'm gonna say, um, as a, as a mom, my, both my boys are amazing boys, right? But there's one, one of my sons who has this— he just has it. It's like this it factor that people are just tend to be drawn to him. And no matter how much I argue with him to be like, listen, you have to put your— I was just talking to his godmother the other day and she's like, I want to get angry at him because he puts himself aside because if one of his friends says, hey, I need help, and he will drop what he's doing to go run for them. And it's a trait that you don't want to squash because it's this natural giving trait. And I'm like, you know, he learned this. I, this is, he saw this behavior and he's just, this is just natural for him. So I see the trait in him. Sometimes I'm like, hey, you got a little focus a little bit more. You can't save the world. But then he looks at me and said, but mom, I learned this from you. So it's, it's, it's a different, it's, it's funny to see how it just naturally keeps on going forward.

You told me a story earlier prior to, uh, this call. We had a previous call. You told me a story about about a homeless person.

Yeah, his Happy Meal.

Your son had a, yeah, had a Happy Meal that he wanted to give.

Yeah, so we were just driving. It's so funny. And, you know, at there, you know, you see sometimes it's not a common occurrence here where we're at, but you see a homeless person at a traffic light and my— I always say I feel like they come straight for me because they know that I can't just say no, right? I feel like— and, you know, I've had people tell me, oh, you know, they're just going to use it for drugs or they're just going to use it for alcohol. It's like, that's okay. But you know what? In my place, I feel the need to be able to give. So we were at a traffic light. We had just come from McDonald's and I got him his Happy Meal and he was sitting in his car seat and he asked me to open the window so he could give the hamburger to the homeless guy on the corner. And I was like, I don't even know if I can— I don't even know what to say. I think in that moment I felt like I'm doing the right thing.

Yeah. Yeah. A child in a car seat that's like, Mom, please, you know, allow me, allow me to give my—

give him my Happy Meal. Yeah, it's something. And it's funny because it stuck with me all these years. He is 19 years old now. If he heard me telling this story, he'd be like, really, Mom? But the reality is, it's something that I was like, even at that young age, He recognized that there's people out there who may not be as privileged as you, and giving is okay, even if it means sacrificing your meal for that one moment because you have another meal at home.

So it's amazing. You know, I think there's so many lessons just in this conversation. It's so great. You know, we— if we lived in this way of see where you can lift another, and whether that's at work and you might know something that they don't know and you can impart that information if you can give to someone less fortunate. And the trick to that is to do it without needing to be thanked. That's—

I agree.

A lot of, a lot of times there's a parade, you know, that people throw themselves, like, I gave X amount to this charity, or 'Look at me, I'm giving so much to this person, I'm bringing them in.' Like, there's influencers on social media that will film themselves doing their good deed, and it, it makes it, um, not such a good deed, you know? It's—

no, I agree. I think in everything, I think we talked a little bit about doing things without expecting anything in return, whether it be you know, the praise. And I know that there are people who need that sense of validation when they do something, right? Sometimes you just do things just because, right? And, and those are the most— to me, those are the times. I'll give another example. I have watched people, you know, and I travel a lot for work and in the airports and you see service members eating and then all of a sudden their bills are paid. That to me is something that is amazing. So every time, every chance I get, and I've heard, oh, pay it forward. When people do things unselfishly without any regard, but just because it comes from their heart and they feel empowered to do something or to do it, I think it's just so much more because somebody else sees that. Whether you may not be getting the praise in the moment, but believe me, there's somebody else who's seeing that and you're changing them to think about, 'Oh, maybe I should do something like that.' Exactly, right?

Someone else is seeing it, someone else is feeling it, and, and you've made a ripple whether you see it or not.

Agreed.

Yeah, yeah, so good. The, um, the idea of give from the heart. And, you know, I guess the one thing I would, I would say that slightly amplifies that is start paying attention to that heart. Like, a lot of times we're so busy with blinders on trying to do the thing that we set out to do. And if you set out to do that thing with intention, that's great. And keep your heart open. There are places and people that need that extra care. And, you know, but that's so hard sometimes, isn't it, Dr.

Wayne Pernell? I think when I think about it, you know, I think people who, who do, who are a little bit more afraid to do this because they're afraid of getting hurt. Right? And I think that, that could happen, you know, or being scammed or, or being taken advantage of. So I, I think there is a— there is— it's, it's hard to just do things unselfishly and not— and, and sometimes you could get— be taken advantage of. That happens unfortunately every day. But I, and I think that's where there's a little difficult for people to do sometimes.

Yeah, yeah. The fear of rejection, the fear of abandonment, the fear of being ostracized, all comes from, you know, being good enough. Or, or, and so the idea of doing good is sort of, um, look, I'm doing a good deed. But if you do it without the need to be acknowledged, that's something. And then it's like, that is that is so strong. And the, the fear of being found out for doing something that might be wrong, like, oh, this person just used it for alcohol. You had your heart in the right place when you did that thing, and what the other person did with your gift is up to them.

Agreed.

You know, and it's, it's like You didn't set out to do damage, so, you know, that's a different thing. Like, if you set out to do damage and then you were judged for your intention to do damage, okay, maybe you earned that judgment. You set out to do something good and it did or didn't go the way you thought it would go, continue to do that good, right? Continue to set out and do that good. What, you know, I'm looking at our time and I'm just wondering, what did we not talk about yet that maybe you were thinking we would talk about or that you definitely wanted to share?

I would love to talk a little bit more about what we're talking about, how representation matters in society, right, in the different areas. I think that's something that I'm very passionate about in my mentorship role, right? So I've had the opportunity to work and build out these— I'm going to call them inclusion networks— in some of the industries that I work for. And having not only being able to bring people together and move forward in my industry with STEM, you know, working in the technology sector, women are underrepresented, minorities are underrepresented, and being able to be able to drive that forward a bit and try to educate people on opportunities that are there There's this fabulous program that I did that was called— and I'm going to announce it because anybody who has an opportunity to do it should. It's called Girls Who Code. You go into these elementary schools and you work with kids and you teach them a little bit about coding and technology. And it's something that— it's so funny because, you know, it's this little bit of exposure to this new industry changes people's lives, right? So, you know, To me, coding and, and, and tech and development was something that was completely foreign. I mean, in, in, when I was in school, we weren't learning how to, to, to write code. But now it seems to be like in elementary schools, these kids are learning how to code. They're learning coding languages pretty early on because it's part of their career path and their career growth. But exposing different people who may not have an opportunity to learn about these different tech jobs or industry or even being able to understand what it means for you is, is important.

I love that. I love that, all of it. Um, Girls Who Code, how do, how do people find out more about that?

So that's funny. So I was exposed to it, um, at when I was working at one of my fintech companies. There were, there was this group called Girls Who Code. We went online and they were like, hey, do you want to volunteer and teach coding to elementary school kids? It's a website that you could just log on to. And I was like, I am not the person. I am not the tech person. I am not the developer. And they're like, no, it's okay. You don't have to be. You just go and you work with them. The program does it all. They just need someone who can sponsor them in the space and who will go in there and lead the program. And I was like, hey, I'm all for it. And you go to underprivileged school, underserved schools, and you'll be able to, to do this. It was a great program that, um, and I wish that I had a little bit more exposure to it as we grow. But there's different groups out there. I think working with underprivileged, underserved, or, um, what I, what I, uh, another group that I had the opportunity to work with was emerging youth. And I was like, what is this emerging youth term? And it's these, these groups of children who I guess one of them is like kids who are aging out of the foster care system who are needing to learn how to just learn financial wellness or learn different technology providers. There's different— and I, and I would love at some point to learn a little bit more or give more information about these different opportunities that are out there for people who you may not be a techie, but you may just have a desire to want to help people get into or learn about this space a little bit more and learn yourself. There's groups out there that help motivate you and get you up to speed on this.

So good. It's really good. What if people want to find more about you?

Well, I am on LinkedIn. I have my LinkedIn profile. I'd love to be able to talk and engage more with people through there. I have a website, barbajnegron.com, where it tells a little bit about some of the speaking engagements I've done and some of the papers I've written on FinTechs and embedded finance and growth and love to educate anybody in, in who wants to learn about what it is to become an embedded finance or a FinTech, or how do I get into the space. I'm open to help anybody who is interested. Just feel free to reach out and happy to connect.

That's amazing. So good. This was, uh, fast. I, I love it when conversations just kind of fly by. This was really great. Barbara, thanks for being here.

No, thank you for having me. You made this conversation very easy. I'd love to be able to talk a little about this and grow and help anybody who wants to get into this space. Again, unconventional path, but I'm here and, you know, helping people to be able to understand what their path is and move them forward to that and give them the tools or even maybe the connections so that they have the people they need to meet. I'm happy to do so.

Unconventional is the best way.

It always is.

All right, my guest today has been Barbara Negron, B-A-R-B-A-R-A-N-E-G-R-O-N. I'm spelling it for you so you can find her on LinkedIn, barbarajnegrone.com. Barbara, again, thanks for being here.

Yeah, thank you.

All righty, this is One Sharp Sword. I'm your host, Dr. P, Dr. Wayne Pernell. Your host, your guide, your coach on this journey. And we will see you again here next week. Thanks for tuning in. If you loved this, please leave a comment about what was the most inspiring piece of this for you and maybe what action you're taking as a result of it. I'd love to learn that. So thanks again, uh, share this, like it, and we'll see you here next week. Thanks for listening to One One Sharp Sword, cutting through to what matters most with Outfluencer, Dr. Wayne Pernell. For more information, please go to onesharpsword.com.