Unlocking the Power of Diversity

In this episode…

Nic Cary interviews Amanda and they discuss the lessons learned during her career journey including:

• The importance of leveraging community support and mentorship to overcome challenges and grow a business.
• The value of sustainable practices and innovation in creating products that meet market demands and drive success.
• The necessity of resilience and strategic planning in navigating the entrepreneurial journey and achieving long-term goals.

Sponsor for this episode:

This episode is brought to you by Sky’s The Limit, one of the largest nonprofit programs for underrepresented young adult entrepreneurs in the US. Sky’s The Limit is a quick-growing digital platform that connects entrepreneurs with their peers, volunteer business mentors, training resources, and funding.

Our goal is to develop the social capital that founders need to chase their business dreams.

To learn more, please visit www.skysthelimit.org today.

Episode transcript

INTRO (00:04):

Welcome to The First Buck Podcast where we feature stories about entrepreneurs and the people who support them. Now let's get started with the show,

Nic Cary (00:24):

And welcome to The First Buck Podcast, brought to you by skysthelimit.org. We feature stories about entrepreneurs and the people who support them. Today we're joined by Amanda Jenkins, Chief Impact Officer and head of inclusivity at 10X Banking. In her role, she defines the 10X impact agenda focused on their people, the community, and our planet. Amanda has extensive commercial, educational and volunteer experience within and outside both the sector in the UK and internationally. After completing her degree in German, Amanda spent the next decade in the Lloyd's insurance market, followed by senior roles with two New York law firms. She also has taught English as a second language and worked at a cross-cultural trainer as a cross-cultural trainer for high ranking executives from around the world. Amanda also participates in donating, mentoring, advising, and supporting all kinds of small charities as established her own family foundation. Her passion is tackling inequality among the younger generation and women. So we're super lucky to have Amanda with us today. Amanda, we have a little tradition around here. We always like to ask, how did you earn your first pound bucker dollar? And I think in your case it'll be a pound.

Amanda Jenkins (01:33):

Hi Nic, and thanks for the introduction, please everybody. Excuse my croaky voice. So I earned my first pound at the age of 14. I grew up on a farm. My father was a farmer, and we lived in the middle of nowhere, so I was desperate to earn money to buy a watch. So I went along to a local farmer and he paid me to work in one of his fields, which was actually, he had a field of string beans and they had to grow up sort of strings, so hence the name string beans. And it was actually quite a long day. It was quite boring, and I did question myself, what am I doing here? But all of that pain, boredom and frustration went away as soon as I was handed the money and quite quickly I was able to be able to afford my own watch. And that gave me a real sense of achievement, thinking I'd earned that. That was the first time in my life that had happened.

Nic Cary (02:45):

I love that story. So a little bit of economic independence by being a farmer's assistant stringing up string beans. Thanks for sharing that. So talk to us a little bit about maybe what happened next as you grew up a little bit and your entry into the business world. Walk us through what happened next.

Amanda Jenkins (03:03):

Okay, so went to school. I did GCZ, did a levels, went after university, and in those days everybody came down to London. That's where all the graduates came for the simple reason. That's where all the jobs were. Literally, I was offered a job by somebody in a pub. He was just a friend of a friend. I didn't just start working for some random person, but started work there. And he was actually an accountant working solely in the Lloyd's insurance market. And I realized quite quickly that accountancy was not for me. I am not the most patient to people. I'm not the most detailed to people. However, it was a great start. He was a fantastic boss, and I'm very quickly, I was offered a job as an insurance broker, again in a pub again of a friend of a friend. And I was finding underwriters for livestock,

(04:12):

Fine art. And in those days we talk about gender diversity, but there was no diversity in Lloyd's of London. Everybody was male. I think in the room there were about, which were people who had a ticket to work as a Lloyd's broker. There were a couple of thousand and I think there were only about 20 girls.

Nic Cary (04:38):

Wow. So pioneer in a lot of ways,

Amanda Jenkins (04:42):

Well, not purposely, but that's how it worked out. But I learned a great deal. It was very much, I'm old, so it was several decades ago, but I learned very quickly the importance of relationships and actual fact in those days as much business IE building relationships was done outside of business as within trust, and it was all about a long-term relationship. Nobody ever nest with anybody to spoil that relationship because word would get round that you couldn't be trusted or you weren't good, your reputation was key. And the old expression, my word is my bond really did exist in those days.

Nic Cary (05:35):

Let's talk a little bit about those early days too. So you shared with us at the beginning you started off by putting the string and string beans and then worked in a pub and then had this opportunity to work for one of the largest insurances organizations in the world. What were some of the moments you think where you made personal investments in yourself that put you in a position to be able to take these opportunities on? You've identified the importance of these relationships and network. I see that very frequently with a lot of the young adults and successful leaders we've talked about. We've interviewed on the show. Tell us a little bit more about some of those personalities that were taking a chance on you and how important that was for you. Yeah,

Amanda Jenkins (06:15):

Well definitely in those days there was no social media, but it was all word of mouth. And I found very quickly, if you worked hard and you asked people for advice, people would always help you. So often I would say, please, can I pick your brains or what you think about this? I don't think in my entire life, and I still do it now. Nobody's ever said, no, I'm not going to help. So that was the lesson I learned very quickly. Ask for help. You'd never be scared to say, I'm not quite sure what I'm doing here. Honesty is definitely the best policy.

Nic Cary (06:54):

I like that. And I think having the courage to raise your hand and say, I don't know everything. And I'd like to learn a little bit more. Earlier this week you were kind enough to host a whole bunch of young adults, women in allies at your office in London for International Women's Day. I'd love to have you share a little bit about how you are using your role now at 10 x and as an impact officer to raise awareness about everything from gender and equity and inclusion to mentorship and the importance of celebrating role models in the workforce, and especially from when you started in your career to today. Talk to us a little bit about where things were are and where things are going.

Amanda Jenkins (07:41):

So I co-founded 10 x banking with my husband Anthony Jenkins, and it's now 10 x is now eight years old. Right from the beginning we had three values transformation. We strive to make everything at least 10 times better integrity, never forget to always work with integrity and impact, which is where my title comes in, chief Impact Officer, a lot of businesses called Impact CSR, but we like to make it a more broader meaning in the fact it's everything. It's how you do your work. We strive to make the world a better place through our work. And right when we were just a few people, our first office was up in Kings Cross and we had a relationship with a school up in Har Gay. And once every couple of months, sorry, twice a month rather, every couple of weeks we would go up to Haring gay and eight of us would mentor eight year tens just about choice of GCOC and just offer advice on homework life, what to do, which universities, whatever.

(08:57):

And I'm very proud. I've kept in touch with the person that I met as a year 10, and she is now 21 working for a famous firm of solicitors as a legal apprentice, and I'm credibly proud of her. So we've continued always to work with young people. We red or refined really our values into three pillars. So we have our people, which is very much our team. So for instance, during the pandemic we spent a lot of time on having socials, really keeping up the culture of 10 x while people working from home. Our community, which is perhaps our largest pillar, we do fundraising and working with all sorts of charities. For instance, every paid or every permanent member of the team receives a paid day, volunteering, add a charity or organization of their choice. And this is becoming very popular. And this year, excuse me, we're trying to have 85% of the team use their volunteering day.

(10:09):

And then finally we have our planet. So what we were doing on Tuesday, which you very kindly came to was our International Women's Day event. Every member of 10 x can create their own network. So International Women's Day was put on by 10 x women and friends. So the friends meaning anybody can join, but we are really trying to encourage young women to study subjects that will lead on to computer science after school, whether that be an apprenticeship and internship or maybe a degree, and then support them to get jobs in technology and then as they move up the career ladder. So what we did on Tuesday, we created an International Women's Day committee, which is our sort of format of doing things, asking anybody who had ideas and networks contacts, and that's how it started. So we spent three months, we'd have a meeting every other week, and then slowly we ended up on Tuesday with some amazing a female speakers. We had a fireside chat, we had a panel event. And then also we had an incredible young woman who's doing her a-levels this summer speaking and just we highlighted a charity which you can work with. And then of course we had networking. So we put on a number of events. That was definitely our biggest. And then we work with a number of charities always to support. And then also we have matching programs. Anybody can either run a marathon or raise money and then we'll match it up to a certain amount.

(12:15):

But we're always looking for new ideas. And we find this in a format of the committee where we open it out to everybody within the team and people who are interested come together. We have several networks. We have that professional group, 10 X Pride Wellbeing Group, 10 X women and friends, parents and carers, and our newest network, which has actually got some great energy, is the Neurodiversity network.

Nic Cary (12:50):

Impressive. I can see how important it's to cultivate and support these partnerships, these support systems and these networks, especially in an era where everyone seems to be doing everything on Instagram or these weird social networks, but actually putting it all to ground is so important. I wanted to ask you a question. One of the things that we've seen at Sky's limit when it comes to supporting early stage small businesses or entrepreneurs is just how important mentorship and advising is and to have people that are in your corner. I was wondering if you had any examples in your career where you were mentored or you had someone that was giving you some advice and just talk through how important it is to have those people in your bench.

Amanda Jenkins (13:39):

Now I have to confess, I'm quite unusual. I have never had a mentor, but I always ask people for advice. I have had several mentees and I've learned a great deal from them. So at the moment I have three mentees.

Nic Cary (13:59):

Tell us a little about that relationship and how do you work with them?

Amanda Jenkins (14:03):

Well, I actually leave it up to them. I say contact me sometimes. For instance, the person who's doing the apprenticeship, I probably hear from her once a month, somebody at work, we meet every week, another person occasionally. And I have also participated in organized mentoring, but I am very flexible. I'm very light touch. And I also, with my team, I often try and be more of a mentor for, I really try as a manager rather than telling people what to do. But occasionally I have to try and do more of creating an environment because in the area I work in, I really need people's ideas. At 10 x, we call it diversity of thought. You want lots of ideas, and that's why the committee idea works very well. Get everybody in a room virtual or not, and open it out and see where it takes you.

Nic Cary (15:17):

I like that light touch approach, and it's something we advocate to. The mentors in the sky's limit community because ultimately it helps people build trust with potential mentors and advisors. And the importance of diversity of thought, as you mentioned, requires people to have confidence in expressing their perspectives or ideas,

Amanda Jenkins (15:37):

And it helps people to gain confidence.

Nic Cary (15:40):

Yep, I get that. Okay, so from the time you were, I still have the vision of you on the farm picking beans. I love that. So that's such a powerful memory. Can you tell us maybe about the first time you remember ever donating money to a charitable cause or an organization, you have this sort of spirit of service in your entire career. I'm kind of wondering what inspired that and where did that come from?

Amanda Jenkins (16:06):

Well, I actually grew up with a brother who had down syndrome, and Paul taught me so much about what it means to be different in inverted commas. What is different. I think we're far more accepting of differences and we embrace and celebrate differences far more than when I was young. He was eight years older than me. And so I was very aware from a very early age that some people needed more help. So I would often help out. Paul would often go to social functions, he'd participate in the club. He also used to love to swim. He used to love to pay snooker. And also my mother did quite a lot of charity work as well. I can remember going with her to very young age to go and visit old people and just sit with them. And I realized very early on that old people just like to chat.

(17:15):

Everybody likes to feel welcome, to feel appreciated, to feel listened to. I would say the first time I really witnessed and experienced deprivation was in New York City where I lived, and there was a local, what the Americans called a public school, and it was what we would call the state school, and it was almost sort of last Chance Saloon. This school had about 500 students and these kids, these young people had been thrown out of every school they'd been to. And even though it was in what we would call quite a smart area, it was on the Upper East side of New York City team. These kids were bused in from the five boroughs in New York, and they had incredible stories and they had all sorts of learning difficulties and difficult situations at home, which so often the reason they were at this school had nothing to do with them personally.

(18:29):

It was their circumstances. And there were some kids, for instance, who had physical challenges and the way they sort of got on in life was sort of misbehaving, and it was quite a violent school. There were guards always walking around in the corridor because some kids just couldn't control themselves even though a lot were medicated anyway, a local neighbor had set up a mentoring group and a number of local residents. We all got together and the teachers could nominate a student and the basics in English and maths. And we'd go there once, twice a week. And also often the kids would have to go to summer school. So we'd work with them during the summer when we were there. And I worked with several, I'd say very high percentage boys, I'd say probably 80% were boys, weren't that many girls. And remember one young man, because in the states, as you know, you have to take tests every single year to get up to the next grade.

(19:47):

You don't pass your tests, then you don't go to the next grade. So often you'd get boys. And I remember one particularly, I could see him now, he was 13, but most of his classmates were 11. And so this guy was the size of almost the size of a man, and he was with boys. And the sad thing was he was very verbal and his English skills were very good, but he was very poor at maths and he had very low confidence. And I remember I was asked to work with him just about four weeks before his test, and the teacher said, this boy really can't do maths. So I got hold of past papers and very quickly learned that actually the questions start quite easy. And then as they progress, they get harder and harder. And I realized his confidence was so low, he wouldn't even try and work out any of the questions. He'd just guess he'd zoom through the paper, literally just guessing. So what I did, I sort of taught him to work very slowly and taught him, there were always four answers to every question and was always to find out which was the rubbish answer, which was always quite quick just to read them. And there was always one rubbish answer, one sort, semi rubbish. So then there'd be two answers, and just to look at those two answers. Anyway, long story short, he passed to the next grade.

(21:29):

So it was just a very, it didn't take me much time to figure that out, but I was able just to give him a bit of a leg up because nobody had bothered to find out what the real problem was.

Nic Cary (21:43):

Yeah, I think that what you described for young people is providing that environment of safety support and to basically provide opportunities for them. And I see that in all the work that you guys do in the charities that you support. So I thought I'd probably start to wrap up a little bit. I had a couple questions for you just at the end here. A lot of entrepreneurs and young adults that are entering the workforce find it really scary and intimidating. What kind of advice would you give young people and maybe potentially young entrepreneurs that are at the very beginning of starting their journeys, entering the workforce or pursuing a job? What should they do to get through that?

Amanda Jenkins (22:29):

Well, I think one thing I've really learned over the years, and it's something I really try and teach the young people I work with, is the importance of relationships. I know we spend so much time online and social media is incredibly important and we spend our life in front of a computer, but occasionally it is so good just to get in a room with somebody. And then secondly, I would say a difficult conversation if, well, actually, even if you're very good at language, a difficult conversation or a tricky conversation, phone up. It's so easy to think, oh, I'll just send a quick email and be done with it. But actually when you want something from somebody or you really want to pick their brains, just sort of say, always be accurate. If you need 15 minutes, say 15 minutes. But if you need 30 minutes, say 30 minutes, just say, do you have 30 minutes some time? Always give them the option of finding the time. I just like to ask you about A, B, or C. And I think I know funding is an incredibly difficult, particularly at the moment, but just start small and just experiment with your ideas until you find something that works and really talk to everybody, ask everybody's advice. Starts off with people you can really trust that is invariably family and friends. And then broaden your circle and all your connections always be working. That relationship side of things, it's so important,

Nic Cary (24:24):

And this is why I love asking the question, how did you earn your first buck, pound, or euro? Because everyone actually starts off small, just like you plant the seed and you water that and you nurture it. And it's about building up a network of support and interviewing and learning more about what you don't know about. And I think your advice of if you're going to have a difficult conversation, pick up the phone or maybe even meet in person if it's possible to do that, we forget that when we type messages out, it's very binary. You don't have any other atmospherics involved in that dialogue, and it doesn't necessarily convey the same emotion or the compassion that that conversation may necessitate. So thank you so much for taking time with us today. If I had to summarize some things that I really think came through was just this long spirit of service that you and your husband have implemented across your careers and through your lives and through your work. I love the values of 10 x, this transformation, integrity and having impact in everything that you guys focus on taking care of your team and your community and planet. And I think if I were to highlight, really one thing that came through really strongly is just how valuable relationships are and nurturing those and doing what you say you're going to do, and always leading with that integrity. It's a long life out there.

Amanda Jenkins (25:46):

And I would also add one more thing. Always play it forward. Always remember I certainly do the help and advice I've had and then help others.

Nic Cary (25:57):

Yeah, I like that. It really does come around and it's on all of us to use the resources we have to pay it forward. So thank you so much, Amanda. I really appreciate your time today. So at skysthelimit.org, we connect underrepresented entrepreneurs with business professionals for free, one mentoring. We also provide business guides to all our mentors, plus monthly funding opportunities. You can sign up for free today, and if you like what you heard, please subscribe and share this podcast. Thank you.

OUTRO (26:29):

Thanks for listening to the First Buck podcast. Don't forget to join the community of underrepresented entrepreneurs and their supporters by signing up at skysthelimit.org. Click subscribe and we'll see you next time.