We Are Power Podcast
The We Are PoWEr podcast spotlights voices and perspectives that need to be heard. Our weekly podcast, with listeners in over 60 countries, delivers PoWErful conversations that inspire, challenge, and empower... from personal life stories to business insights and leadership lessons.
We share diverse experiences, bold discussions, and real solutions. Whether you're looking for career advice, topical themes, or stories of resilience and success - this is where voices spark change.
We Are Power Podcast
Creating an Environment of Curiosity: Inside Bank of America’s Culture of Growth & Mentorship
What does it mean to work at a company that encourages growth, mentorship, and innovation? This episode, we chat with Richard and Amy from Bank of America, our Co-Headline Partners for the NPWAwards, about exactly that.
🌟 Richard (25 years at Bank of America) shares why he’s changed roles every 20 months and how curiosity has shaped his career.
🌟 Amy (celebrating 10 years) reflects on why she never wanted to leave the North—and how finding Bank of America in Chester was a perfect fit.
Plus, we talk about:
🔹 How mentorship has evolved to be more strategic and impactful.
🔹 Why job descriptions need a refresh to attract diverse talent.
🔹 How advocacy and inclusion are at the heart of Bank of America’s culture.
Find out more about We Are PoWEr here. 💫
Hello, hello and welcome to the we Are Power podcast. If this is your first time here, the we Are Power podcast is the podcast for you, your career and your life. We release an episode every single Monday with listeners in over 60 countries worldwide, where you'll hear personal life stories, top-notch industry advice and key leadership insight from amazing role models. As we Are Power is the umbrella brand to Northern Power Women Awards, which celebrates hundreds of female role models and advocates every year. This is where you can hear stories from all of our awards alumni and stay up to date with everything. Mpw Awards and we Are Power. Hello and welcome to the we Are Power podcast. Today I am joined in the studio by the Bank of America massive over from Chester onto the couch. Welcome Richard, welcome Amy.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Tell us about your roles because I think sometimes you think Bank of America, you'll assume, right there you go. You're a teller, you'll sort of mortgages out, because they only hear the word bank.
Speaker 2:I'm in cyber security and we run part of the CTOC for Bank of America globally, so we run a 24 by 7, 365 cyber security capability from Chester.
Speaker 1:Wow, powered by the.
Speaker 3:North Amy. Yeah, I think we have the same perception. When people ask what we're doing, it's either the commercial side of it, but we're in the investment banking side. So I work in a trade control support team which is in line with the front office in Trading Desk in London, but we work from Chester to support them, reconciling trades, thinking of efficiencies where we can make improvements and working as a team across global teams it's always exciting.
Speaker 1:I love getting you know. Bank of america are co-headline partners for the northern power women awards. We have a great partnership. We love working for you guys and it's it's always fascinating to hear about other roles. But how did you, how did you even get into this? How did you even know that because this is a big hq isn't in Chester and you have global operations as well as not just national operations there, don't you? How did you know that you wanted to be a Bank of America vice president?
Speaker 3:So that's the difference we speak about, wasn't it? So? Since I've well, I've got 10 year anniversary today and with Bank of America, and when I was at university in Chester, I actually didn't know Bank of America were on the Chester business park, we didn't have connections, we just didn't know they were there. Um, but I knew I wanted to stay in the north. Um, I had a child in my first year in uni and I just needed that family stability from the north. I just knew moving down south wasn't for me. Um, but actually then, knowing the opportunities were here and not just down in the south was actually fantastic. Once I got the job with Bank of America, the opportunities there are absolutely fantastic. It's not a career of one base and then you have to move and look at different locations. Your career can be done in Chester with so many job opportunities and the 10 years I've been there, the growth that they've made in Chester, the teams that have been built out in Chester, is absolutely fantastic opportunities.
Speaker 1:And I think that's always exciting, isn't it? There's no people think of one organisation and there's one like linear path. Have you had a linear path, richard?
Speaker 2:No, my path could not be less linear, have you been?
Speaker 1:wigglier than a wiggly thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the interesting thing is the last interview I had for a job position was in 1999, so it's actually in the last century, which does date me rather. But I've changed my job role every 12 to 18 months because opportunities arise and if you've got the right type of talent and you've got the right type of mobility mindset, then you can basically adapt and move on. So that's what makes it so exciting. I'm 25 years with Bank of America and when I joined I thought I wouldn't last a year. So, yeah, it's every opportunity to grow and succeed. And again, I did actually move. I moved to Portsmouth. I went to work for IBM in Portsmouth for a couple of years and then missed the north and wanted to get back. So then I actually consciously brought the family back to the north and wanted to be just back in there, based in the northwest.
Speaker 1:And there is that whole eco culture over on the business part. We've been over quite a number of times over to Bank of America HQ and I think one of the things that is very it always feels very visible about what the Bank of America are doing to support, specifically, gender equality. I know when we're over there we stand there watching the revolving signs, waiting for something to come up about Northern Power Women or a session that you're running. I always think it's very visible and very there. You must have seen change over the years to get to this point, like you say you've been there decades really.
Speaker 2:Thank you for reminding me of that. Yeah, I mean 25 ago it was. It was very overt. Now. My management team, um, right from the get-go was, was predominantly female. Um, now, it wasn't a conscious thing where I was saying, hey, I need more female on the team, it was just, um, the women were the strongest um candidates, so they're the ones that got the, got the jobs. But that was really unusual, especially in cyber security at the time. Um, and we had to be really overt about trying to identify female talent and trying to bring female talent in. I even had to almost convince people that they could do the job because there was this whole.
Speaker 2:You know why do you want me in cyber secure, cyber security? I'm not. I'm not a cyber security professional. I do. I do change management or I do, and I'm like you've got exact skill set that I need. Right, I need attention to detail, need people are driven, energetic. I can teach you the rest of it, right. So, um, I think that fear of being able to step into the unknown has changed a lot, and I think the organization has done a lot in. Being able to step into the unknown has changed a lot and I think the organisation has done a lot in being able to break down those barriers, to make things more accessible.
Speaker 1:That's your 10th anniversary, congratulations. What have you seen again in your 10 years, in your decade of change and approach? I think you've got, because I'm sort of Richard here being an advocate, because that's what you've been, isn't it?
Speaker 3:You know, being that advocacy, but to ensure that there are equal opportunities for leadership roles, yeah, I think there are just more people wanting to advocate, like Richard, and the opportunities there, with the networks that they've built out, are fantastic. So we have multiple networks that you can join and sign up to. One of them, being the main one, is Lead and Winner, which is focused on women, but it's more about leadership education. But the opportunity and the advice given now is just so wide and there's always something coming to your inbox that you can join and be a part of. Like you said, on the walls, on the advertising, there's always something that makes you want to get involved, because you see so many people doing just good things with it that you want to be part of that. You don't see it as an additional or it's just they want me to do it, so I'm going to do it.
Speaker 3:You, there's always something up there that you actually want to, and actually you probably run out of time to be involved in more than you want than less and they're just always plugging that. There's just always something you can join learning courses, job sharing, um, just even like a half an hour meet and greet side by side. You can always have the opportunity. No one ever says no, um, and I think once you start doing it once it just makes you thrive to want to get more involved in in anything that anyone offers. You just want to learn and see and do and then them transferable skills that you learn, you can see that you could be a part of any of them job roles if you've got the right skill set and mindset to do it and I think I want to come back to advocacy, because I think it's when I set Northern Power up 10 years ago my tenure as well, actually, for for setting the organization up, it was always right from day one.
Speaker 1:It was always all genders it was. It was always really key for me that this was for um, and I always wanted to collect the good guys. Um, how do we get, you know, grow more good guys, because sometimes it's a bit like well, it's not about a guy coming in with a superhero cape on and going like I'm gonna save and be the advocate, but there's some simple, simple steps around advocacy.
Speaker 2:I think um I think some of the the key um metrics and we touched a little bit on. You know how how much um the bank invests in this right. We've got nine different networks right of over 25 countries. There's 62 000 members associated to those groups and three are dedicated to advocacy for women, whether that's in tech and ops or lead. So there's actually a huge advocacy network out there already. It's just being able to bring those people together to be able to make sure that they understand. So a lot of advocacy, a lot of coaching in relation to how to develop female talent to be able to take on those roles, to be more fearless in pushing themselves forward.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I think it is having you know. You come up with some of those. When you talked earlier about working in cybersecurity, well, I can't do that. That's not my job kind of thing.
Speaker 2:We had a girl from Imperial College who's a quantum physicist and she came on a work placement with us um last year and first day was I don't think I can do this. I said you're quantum physicist, you can do anything. He said I don't know. I don't know anything about cyber security. So after her four weeks with her, she went you know what? I can do this job right, and so it was just how to break down those barriers and demystify it. But even someone who's the best of the best came in with a I can't do this.
Speaker 1:I know social mobility is a massive driver and something that the bank are really passionate about as well. What are the specific campaigns or programs that Bank of America are driving that are helping people from underrepresented communities?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so the main one that we both were involved in, weren't we last year is the future prospects um, which is a six-week base course and to bring people in, anyone can apply that a student um and they just have that six weeks full-on course of experiences, skills, sit side by side, they work together on a project, but they get to see actually what the job involves. They sit with a team for six weeks whilst doing the side-by-side see if it's for them. But anyone can apply. It's not just the accountancy or the one who's involved in investment banking, any career. We had someone on an art one last year who absolutely just loved what we were doing and more of the problem-based how to solve um, and they've all got the opportunity to apply for any open roles at the end of it. So the opportunity's there, but it's just giving them people the opportunity to come in whilst they're doing their uni and their studies. That I didn't see when I was at that stage.
Speaker 3:And Bank of America, based in Chester, are locally trying to do that for all as well, with apprentice schemes going into schools, going into colleges, continuously trying to advertise what is here, but just the opportunities and the breadth of the job role. So you just think of bank american. You might just think trading straight away. I need accountancy degree, I need to be good at maths, that's it. There's just so many roles there that, so many career paths that can lead into other career paths. Once you've got into the door and see what's there, I just think it's given an opportunity from day one when you're in school, and that's been lacking in the past and it definitely can be built on. Even more is by showing them what jobs are available and not just necessarily where you think they might be in the country.
Speaker 1:You can apply, you can see what's available and I think that's key is it's creating the opportunity. I think it's hard, isn't it to, to show on a leaflet or a careers fair what the opportunities are. You've got to be in it, haven't you, to see it.
Speaker 2:And that's what works so well about both the insight days that we do with the military and also things like the future prospects, where they get to actually experience it. So the things that they believe and perceive and have seen on television around what the job is and what they think the job is actually gets broken down because they get to experience it and because they then experience it, they can apply themselves in it and they can see them switching on and switching off to certain situations going. You know what I really like? This legal side of things. I like the lawyer in me side of things rather than the hacker type of mindset or the laws, rules and regulations. Right, and how to negotiate the complexities of operating in different global markets right, because that is a complex space.
Speaker 1:It's lifting the lid off, it isn't it that? You know, this isn't a job in finance. It's whatever you change role every year or so.
Speaker 2:Every 12 to 18 months yeah.
Speaker 1:Is that because they find you out?
Speaker 2:I like to think I stay ahead and stay contemporary.
Speaker 1:Oh, I like that.
Speaker 2:That needs to be on a t-shirt that does yeah, or I come in and out of fashion or maybe like a pair of denim jeans or a pair of baggy trousers or something we'll not get into fashion, shall we not know?
Speaker 1:but I think there is. That is that, was it appeal to you as well, having the, the flexibility to be able to not one to stay. You want to be in the north. The passion to be able to not one to stay. You want to be in the North. The passion to be North-based, but also to zigzag sometimes, I think squiggle.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it was just more learning. So I have been in the same area. I'm different where I've moved within the same area but still staying under the same management, and that's more because I'm constantly learning. I don't think there's been a same week or same month what I'm doing, and then, when I have built it out, we'll embed it into a different side of the job, but it just is never the same where I am, and that's what I really thrive and love is. Every day is different. There's an opportunity to improve time efficiencies, process improvements, technology improvements. You're involved with other teams. There's always and I think that's what people need to find is you find what you're good at, the skill set you're good at, and you can keep applying that to a different role or in the same role, you just thrive off what you're doing well.
Speaker 2:The other good thing about that sort of more contemporary approach is that you create an environment of curiosity where anything is possible, and you don't have this sort of environment of dead man's shoes, where the only way I can progress is if, because Woodward's been there for 25 years, it's like, yeah, but he hasn't actually been there for 25 years. He's been around, he's done all this mobility, he's developed his career, he's done all sorts of different things, and that, I think, inspires people then to be slightly more fearless in the way that they go about things and to take on more risk. Are there jobs you've taken on the way that you've gone?
Speaker 1:oh, what you learn, isn't it?
Speaker 2:it's what you learn from this situation.
Speaker 1:I definitely came out more resilient what has been your sort of biggest learn within your roles, both within 10 years and, you know, 200 years over here?
Speaker 3:Mine is teamwork. I think a lot of people have always assumed that you need to know it yourself. It's your own learning path and actually definitely the team I'm in, but it's across the bank. It's teamwork, it's collaboration, it's communication. It's discussing ideas together. I might have it's across the bank is. It's a teamwork, it's a collaboration, it's communication, it's discussing ideas together. I might have a vision at the end of it, but by speaking to the three or four people that also cover the same area, what else can you add? What else can we improve? So I think the biggest learning is it's not a weakness to ask for help or ask for an opinion. Um, it's actually going to produce a better outcome is by involving your team always culture, yeah, for me, just absolutely 100.
Speaker 2:Culture, um, whether it was, you know, coaching a rugby team, being chairman of something or running a around a rehabilitation of young defenders program, um, once, um, and it's all about the culture. Right, you win through culture. You can't sustain winning. If you haven't got the right building blocks, the right people, the right attitude, it just falls apart. It's built on false codes.
Speaker 1:And you can't fake culture either, can you? You can't just get it out of a box and go right. We're going to assemble this in here on this business park in Chester, and everything's going to be grand. It's going to be grand it's.
Speaker 2:It's got to be intentional, hasn't it? It's got to be intentional, otherwise you get too much um churn. Right, because people call you out and actually things that you want to build and sustain right. Look at the partnerships that we have through all of our employee networks. Whether that's diwali or whether that's chinese New Year, etc. They come back to us because they know that we're resilient, we're reliable, we're trustworthy and we're there to help them. It's not self-serving, it's not about us. It's about us helping and putting back, and that's really important to us. We're trying to represent the communities which we're all part of. They're the ones that bank with us.
Speaker 1:And everyone has got a part to play in it. It's not just from a leadership perspective. Everyone's got to be part of that culture. So, whether that's through the groups that you have, the many groups that you have, whether it's, you know, some of the communities that you're associated, everyone's got a part to play. Because I think sometimes people think, oh, I can't say that, I've got to put my finger on my lips because I'm not at a position that I can have a say. But you can, can't you? You can. It's important to have that voice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think their core values come down from the top. They've stayed the same. They come down and trust the team realizing the power of the people. And that can just be slogans, right, but then giving us the opportunities to build it out and they really do support any suggestions people want. But by having it follow a path, then people join.
Speaker 3:You can actually reflect back and see that it's not just a slogan written on, it's not just names and words they're using. You're actually a part of that and they actually do believe in that because in what they offer, the opportunities they have we've even got a lunch offered for people just to go in network next Wednesday and it's coming to the inbox today saying thank you, very much engagement and it's just always them opportunities of just offering up, keep offering, keep offering, and people are then always going to get involved and once you took part in one, you want to, you want to meet new people. You, you just get that enjoyment of not just the nine to five job. You're working with these people, you can breath out, you can build relationships and you're making a difference it was taking your whole self to work.
Speaker 1:I know that's a feels like an overused phrase at times, but I feel that's important if you, if the culture is there for you to go and do that and to go and drop in at this session or or come to this, you know, a learning session or a volunteering session, it's important that you know I think it's actually an underused term, right, because I think it's it's used so um widely that people don't really understand what it is right.
Speaker 2:I had a mentoring session with somebody once and he said that his next step on the management ladder was to was to manage people right, and he'd been an individual contributor for a while and I said, well, what is it that's driving that desire to manage?
Speaker 2:And he said I want to give back. I said, well, why is that vertical management hierarchy the way to give back? We're about employee networks. Why don't you use your power in other ways? Why don't you go and think more broadly about how you can influence? And you could see him almost consciously go. Can I do that? And I'm like you're empowered to go make a difference. And he literally took on one of the lead roles in one of the networks and is now driving all of that and he's getting that experience of seeing the world through other's eyes and elevating other people around him from that. So there's different ways to look at that. And if you've got advocacy and people that actually genuinely believe in developing the person, then they won't just look vertically at that opportunity. They'll look more broadly around how to grow the individual.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and it's chances of trying new skills, isn't it as well? And I think you talk about mentoring. I think you can never have enough mentors. In my view, whether it's in the business, outside the business, across departments, I feel there's always a learn. It's always been a two-way as well, that you can gain as much from your mentee as you can from your mentors. Have you benefited throughout with the organisation by mentoring or mentoring?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so there's always opportunities to get a mentor or mentee. They build out in Chester. So last year we had 42 partnerships um which they're looking to build on again and the aim now this year is to make it more sustainable so it not just fizzle out. You can build in exactly on what your criteria was, that you wanted and partner people up together. That will get the best from each side.
Speaker 3:Um, but I look at every day even if I haven't just got the scheme that's on for the year um, who around me can help me. Who have I seen come back on emails that I've? They've given a fantastic answer or give me support. What else do they know that I might now go and sit with them? Um, we've got leadership um women everywhere that I've just you see them from a distance working and you just see how well that works, even if if they're doing a stand-up meeting. You watch, you learn, you listen how they're presenting themselves. Even the one-to-ones we have. I'm very fortunate to have fantastic women leaders in my team and just the way they feed back in the one-to-ones is just fantastic with just the feedback I get. Just having that continuously offered to me is a support you don't really think about until you get to the end of the year and go. They were continuously improving me and supporting me at the same time, and it's kind of a silent expectation, but it's actually really grateful to have.
Speaker 1:It strikes me that you will have some interesting mentoring stories.
Speaker 2:Richard, the recent mentoring stories are much, much more value added than the early ones. In the early early days of my career, um people would give me a mentor if they thought, um, they couldn't manage me anymore.
Speaker 2:So, it'd be a case of we don't know what to do with this guy. Um, get yourself a mentor and hopefully that mentor will will will create some kind of new wisdom. Um, that's definitely changed now, and the mentors that I tend to get now are not necessarily again vertically aligned to the job that I tend to get now are not necessarily again vertically aligned to the job that I'm doing. It's how to broaden my perspective and my um my views of life. So I I tend to seek out um more temporary mentorships right, which are, um almost pointing time, serving to help me clarify a position or help me see something differently In respect of, obviously, developing talent.
Speaker 2:You can sometimes get a good feel for where somebody's at right just by asking the questions around what it is they're looking, just simply what it is they're looking to accomplish, and sometimes you can see that there isn't necessarily a full grounding around what it is that they think they're here to do right an organization like yours has got a part to play in that, because I think if the culture is set, you can try, and it's a bit like the person who came into your business as a quantum physicist I can't do it it's, it's all.
Speaker 1:Is that fear of failing? If have you ever had that fear of failing or?
Speaker 3:and I think sometimes, actually, if you've failed and you've had an issue, you've been involved in one then you live with the fear forever that it happened. But sometimes fear can be used well. It's knowing the risk In our job. Risk is high and you've got to mitigate that risk. You've got to be self-aware, you've got to be aware of the team. But sometimes it takes something to fail. First no one's going to come shouting at you, no one's going to blame you, but until you've done it and been through that, you don't realize it's safe to do so and we just need to be risk aware to improve it going forward. But the new people coming in because you're protecting them from having that horrible feeling of something go wrong, then they live exactly like that, an anxious feeling. So it's kind of what we do well.
Speaker 3:On our teams we've got two apprentices who are absolutely fantastic and outside of work they're having to do their studies as well, which is on top of everything else. So um, absolutely commendable. But it's bringing them into working groups, I think, really does work. So if you're working on a process improvement, let them come along. So they haven't got the maybe they haven't got the confidence to speak up yet they don't think their opinion's worthwhile, but it 100% is. They'll bring fresh eyes to something, absolutely what they're going to value add. But they might not want to do it on their own. So we kind of encourage that way and that can be seen as a little bit mentor mentee.
Speaker 3:When someone joins our team we give them a buddy and it's just a friendly check-in weekly how, how are you getting on? Is there anything that struggles? It's just more personable because you can blink and I've spent eight hours at my desk and it's not very approachable. But you have to just make a culture there. That is just approach. Just call me, just shout me across and I will come as soon as we can. But it's a teamwork effort. Don't be afraid to fail because it's not held on one person, um, but be involved.
Speaker 1:Don't be scared to give suggestions and make improvements absolutely, because it is about your voice counts, isn't it that's so important?
Speaker 2:and we've also taken another step with um, with our work with the pledge right, where we go into schools to actually start coaching at an earlier age as to what this is all about and to say look, failure is part of the process because we're in a high-pressured environment and that's okay. And one of the key things that we did in almost changing the narrative in the way that we deal with certainly school children and students is to send our junior talent in, and especially our female junior talent, because actually what they say resonates much more with those people that are coming through than anything that I could possibly say. It's relatability isn't it, it is.
Speaker 1:I'm a big fan of that. Way back in the day I was in the Royal Navy and I had, within a couple of years, unfortunately, I lost my father and they sent me to the careers office in Liverpool to work and during that time I got to go and visit the schools, still able to be in the mindset of being this young military person. But I never considered myself. I was only two years ahead of people, so I was that relatability. So I think there's always your apprentices, you, everyone is a role model to someone. Everyone is someone to go, Because sometimes you know you could be so far off, I can't. I don't know how I could ever be a Richard, you know, um, don't know whether it's a bad thing, but you know it's like I know, travel is one of your big drivers, isn't it?
Speaker 3:that's your side hustle, yeah um always on Skyscanner instead of being sat on TikTok. I think is where.
Speaker 1:I go with that. That's not bad. I I would definitely be there on.
Speaker 3:Skyskiller with you favorite? Places. I loved Milan last year. Um, I have a a love for Stockholm because my best friend lives there. Um, so we're going there again this year for her wedding. Um, I just love seeing new places and I think the one thing I give my daughter is just seeing new places, seeing her face like just that memory time together, off devices. I just don't think you can beat it, just seeing new places you've also passed on to your daughter.
Speaker 3:Bolt wanders right yeah now, that is just character building, that just comes with the blood and that's resilience. Right there, I'm an Evertonian.
Speaker 1:I could probably go straight in with you there, right there, you know, we could have our chat about that. How old is your?
Speaker 3:daughter and what's her name? She's turning 13 this year, annabelle, and she's absolutely fantastic and is a White fan. Yes, but there is no choice on that. There is non-negotiables in life and that is one of them. But we just go as a family. Everyone's got a season ticket. A lot of my family are from Bolton and above, so it's just a meeting place and we just love going.
Speaker 1:So travel and football, that's your side hustle.
Speaker 2:Authoring and I like sport. Obviously, I've got three kids, so they're 22, 24 and 28. So they occupy a lot of time. Like Formula One, that's an interest. And travel I do like to travel. I did 30 days on the road actually with the bank. We went across Europe from location to location to location. That's one of the things. My most visited city on the planet is Charlotte, and then after that it's New York, and I think I've been to New York 18 times. So again, join the bank, see the world.
Speaker 1:What is? We talked about relatable role models. What is the one piece of advice that you would give to your maybe 13-year-old self? Actually, what's the one bit of advice you'd give to your younger self?
Speaker 2:Curiosity is the thing that you've got to sustain, right? Don't think that you've got to the end. There's always something new to learn every single day and to give back. I have three things that I wish I'd known when I was younger, that I know now, or I think I know now I won't be too arrogant. One of them was that lineage is important. How you're going to be, how you're perceived and how you act today is how you're going to be remembered tomorrow, right? So just think about things before you actually go diving in and start to think about the impact that you're having on other people. I think consistency of being is important. Advocacy and elevation You've got to elevate others, right? That's the whole point of this, right. If you've got an opportunity to lift somebody else up, do it why wouldn't you?
Speaker 1:what about yourself, amy?
Speaker 3:I think it's just being open to opportunities. Um, I think I've not. Don't have the can't do, I have the can do attitude. So I went into bank around not haven't really. I was doing a short um stint I wasn't permanent role and I just thought, well, let's go for it. I've just come straight out of uni, I need to go straight into a job. I have to go for something that is a graduate scheme linked to my career, my degree. I just wanted to get on the ground running. That's what I felt like I had to do. Um, and since joining there, I just thought this is fantastic. Like, don't go for it, don't be afraid fail, try something new and find something you're passionate in. So it doesn't mean that you have to.
Speaker 3:They always say that thing isn't it? Do a job you love and you haven't got to work a day. So people say that with Bank of America you might not be able to. You think, nah, I can't find that. It's a massive corporate company, but it's actually the people you work with, the opportunities they allow you to get involved with outside of work.
Speaker 3:So I do a lot of volunteering in the local community. Um, for the cupboard, which is based in Southport and Ellesmere Port, which is um to reduce food waste while supporting people in need for it. Um and Bank of America completely support me and allowing me to do that. But I don't think I'd have gone for that without having the confidence behind me of where I work and what I do and what I love doing, and then having the time opportunities outside of work to keep going. Well, I do something nine to five that I actually really enjoy. How else can I help people? How can I give back, because I'm actually very fortunate in the lifestyle I have. So how can I encourage and help others in the local community and everyone can do something.
Speaker 1:Everyone can always do something. We talk about paying it forward. We talk about those one millimeters of difference that you you read about in sport, don't you in teams? But actually it is. You sometimes think, oh, it's not enough, I can't do that, I haven't got the skills, the expertise. But we've all got something we can pass on, haven't we for sure?
Speaker 2:yeah, absolutely, I think. Um regards volunteerism, the chester campus itself is is highly representative of the people, that over 50 of the people of volunteer right and and for about 1200 people, that's a lot 10 are actively involved in a mentorship um scheme, which is up from 45 from last year um, and the only reason it isn't higher is that some of the people that had established relationships last year have sustained and have carried them forward and that's the thing with mentoring, isn't it?
Speaker 1:it can, you can renegotiate and go. I'm not done with you yet and there's still work to be done and, as you said, right, actually it's not.
Speaker 2:it does then start to flip right, so that the mentor becomes the mentee, the mentee becomes the mentor right, so I can take somebody to a certain point, but then actually they start to give me back right, they start to share with me what it is that they're experiencing and I'm like, wow, right, because I had not considered that. So, yeah, it flips.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for joining me today on the couch. Keep doing the amazing stuff that you do over there at Chester and beyond. Amy Richard, thank you so much and thank you for joining us, Thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much and thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1:Thank you, Thank you. Subscribe on YouTube, Apple, Amazon Music, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review or follow us on socials. We are Power underscore net on Insta, TikTok and Twitter. We are Power on LinkedIn, Facebook and we are underscore Power on YouTube.
