Episode 152: Winning at Business and Life with Renée Baker

This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are, and what you do.

Well, hi, Professor Pete Alexander. I am so happy to be here today. My name is Renee Baker, and I am the head of Advisor Inclusion Networks at Raymond James. In my role, I focus on the advisor experience and how we engage advisors and prospects through our Advisor Inclusion Network. We have 3: the Women's Financial Advisors Network, the Black Financial Advisors Network, and nationwide financial advisors network. And every day I provide leadership and centralized support for our advisors by delivering resources, strategies, and a forum for sharing ideas really designed to enhance their businesses and also focusing on recruitment of device— diverse financial advisors at the firm.

Renee, it's so great to have you on the show. Question number 2: What's the best thing about working in your industry?

Well, first I have to tell you, every single day I get to work with the most passionate, dynamic people who are committed to their clients, their communities, and their colleagues. And the best thing for me is the opportunity to work with my team and our advisor councils to continue to build engagement and draw more diversity to this wonderful industry of financial services. You know, it's— go ahead.

Oh, no, go ahead. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.

No, I was going to say, it really, to me, it's always been personal. And it continues to be so important now to increase diversity overall. We're developing the next generation of diverse advisors. And that's a significant focus for me, for my firm. And it's something that I see happening across the industry.

Well, and I love how you— the way you're talking about it and that passion that comes out in your voice. And I really can feel it all the way through the electronic medium. So I'm happy for you.

Yeah, I got to tell you, it's something that I really enjoy. And also recognizing, too, the more that we get the word out about this industry, where we're seeing people— the most successful people, indeed, that have come to our profession have come from other industries. Whether it's teaching, legal, engineering, or even returning to work. So we have a real opportunity to expose diverse professionals to the benefits of being a financial advisor and helping them to understand what it takes to transition to financial services. So we're continuing to strengthen our efforts there and make this a viable, uh, opportunity for people who are considering their, their career futures.

It's great. It's an impact in all these different ways. It's It's wonderful.

Absolutely.

Question number 3. I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?

Well, it's great to have that book. I would love to get the full version of that book. But if I were going to focus on one chapter and I think companies should really read, I'd say that chapter is about people. And that's what I love about what I do is about what I love about everything. Everything, and even our business in financial services, is about people, and people at the core of everything that we do. You know, when you think about organizations and that focus on people, should they read this chapter? It's about how to build trust, show empathy, how do you strengthen relationships and understanding the overall human dynamic. You know, there's plenty of research to support the idea that businesses that take an active interest in focusing on their people will see increased productivity, have happier people, and something about empowering those people. Ultimately, it'll lead to attracting better talent and most importantly, retaining them. You know, we all enjoy feeling valued, included, and welcome and appreciated, and great businesses who read this chapter will see that success too. Mm-hmm.

I couldn't agree more, and it's so well stated. Thank you so much. Question number 4. For, other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?

Well, diversity really comes to mind here. And when I— although I talk a lot in my role and at my organization around diversity of people, I'm also really thinking about how do you expand the table? How do you identify the talent? How are you leveraging unique perspectives? And looking at our evolving demographic, you know, generationally things are shifting and businesses need to reevaluate their audiences. And one thing I also talk about when it comes to diversity is recognizing the fact that everybody is not like you and we benefit from having unique perspectives, unique thoughts and ideas and bringing them to the table to really help us be better in everything that we do. So while we hear oftentimes that diversity is good for business, it's also really good for business outcomes. And this pandemic has just shown us why even diversity has brought even new innovative ideas. And as we've learned to change to our new normal, to adapt, to really evolve in what's been happening over the last few months, Diversity also comes to mind for innovation and how we are going to figure out how to exist in organizations and as people as we look forward.

Yeah. And it's interesting how you're talking about, you know, the fact that the diversity there, you know, I've heard it before that if you don't have diverse thoughts and people that come together, you just have this one generic product that isn't going to meet all the needs of the market. And so it's, it's It's so powerful what you're talking about.

Yeah, and if you take a step further in recognizing that, you know, I'm in finance, I will say I'm a finance professional with a marketing expertise and a D&I focus, but recognizing even as a marketer, I always think about who is our target audience, and are we being diverse in how we're reaching out as businesses to those diverse audiences, and looking at different ways to bring people together, whether, like I said earlier, whether it's your clients, your colleagues, or your communities. But that's something that I think business leaders really need to focus more on and look at diversity more broader and expand the reach and the table so to identify so many things and outcomes that are going to be important to overall business.

Thank you for that insight. It's wonderful. Question number 5, what other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?

Well, thank you for asking me. And most importantly, thank you, Debbie Peterson, for recommending me. So while I have the opportunity to interact with some amazing individuals on a day-to-day basis, virtually nonetheless in our current environment, there are two people that really stand out to me. The first one is Keerthi Nayak, and she is the Head of Marketing at BNY Wealth Management. She is dynamic marketer, energetic, great personality, and just a beautiful person. Inside and out. And I think that your listeners and the people that are watching this podcast would really appreciate hearing from her and her perspectives. The second one is Tricia Manning. She's been an executive. She's had such an amazing career in the C-suite over time. And she also wrote this amazing book called Lead with Heart and Leave a Legacy. And I just love the passion in which she talks about leading with your heart and people. And I think your listeners would also enjoy, and you, talking to both of these individuals. So hopefully you'll have them on this podcast.

Wonderful. I'll reach out to both of them. Thank you for those referrals.

Thank you.

And our final question, question number 6, please tell me about your first job.

So growing up, I was— maybe it's shocking to people who know me today, but I was actually really shy growing up. And one of my first jobs, I was a cashier. And that forced me— it was forcing at the time, not anymore— but at that time it really encouraged me, I'll say, to engage with people, have conversations. And I was really always appreciating the fact that I had that experience growing up because as a first job being a cashier, one, I'm in finance, so still a little bit with money, but the people aspect of it and having opportunity to meet different people every single day coming from different backgrounds, but all having a unique need— food.

They needed food.

So it was great to be a cashier, and a lot of what I learned, you know, in that first job really has helped me and shaped me into the person that I am today, along with my parents and other things.

Great story. Thank you so much for sharing, and thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?

Well, thanks for having me, Professor Pete. And you can find me in a couple places. Online, you can find me on LinkedIn. So LinkedIn is a great place. I enjoy always engaging on LinkedIn. So feel free to reach out to me there. And Twitter, I started really getting more involved on Twitter. And if you want to go to the website for my firm, it's womenadvisors.com. People can check that out and hear about all the wonderful things that we're doing at my firm.

Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.