Financial Changemakers, Series 2 - Allyship

Welcome to the Financial Changemakers podcast with Gretchen Betts – Managing Director at Magenta Financial Planning and Olivia Parnell – Coach, New Horizons, Voluntary Norfolk. This podcast series is for you if you are interested in learning about diversity and inclusion and are keen to embrace and make positive change in your life, business, management style or company ethos. In this third episode, hosts Gretchen and Olivia, discuss Allyship with their guests ·        David Villa Clarke - Founder and director of DVC Wealth Management Ltd ·        Adam Owen - Director and Head of Content at NextGen Planners Allyship is a subject which has been discussed within the Financial Services Profession increasingly over the past few years. Not everyone is able to put into words, what they know they should be saying, when they know something is not quite right. Empowering people to come forward and say things. Enabling people to have the strength of their words and their actions, and to gauge situations is critical. There is a need to create more allies, more safe spaces where understanding can be discussed openly. You can’t be what you can’t see. Within the Financial Services Profession we need to acknowledge that there is an issue with diversity. There is a lack of broad representation within the Profession. We need to educate young people that this is a profession which they are welcome in and capable of entering, whatever their background. We must act and start to inform and encourage. To be a profession for everybody, we need to be a profession of everybody. It is vital that we start to adapt and that we understand how best to serve everybody, whether it be through offering advice, or offering a career opportunity. People want to be represented by people like them. Recruitment is important. Creating structures which open leadership opportunities. Recognise your own privilege within the workplace, and take action to support people around you, to have the space to have their voice heard. It may mean letting someone take a step forward, or you taking a step back. It means making room for new people, new ideas, new concepts to take centre stage. Key Take Aways from this episode   ·        Educate yourself. ·        Be bold – put yourself out of your comfort zone. Ask your colleagues how you can help. ·        Be the voice in the room, for those who aren’t in the room. Represent everyone. ·        Challenge – faced with someone (any human being) looking for support, advice, guidance. What would you do for that person if they were a white male? Do the same. If we all did this, we would make huge steps forward.

Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Don’t be complicit. If you see something is wrong, say something.  

This podcast series is about creating a safe place for discussion and ultimately enabling you, our listener, to be a Changemaker. Let’s listen. Let’s Discuss. Let’s Learn. Let’s Implement Positive Change.