Hustle Her
Hustle Her
Hustle Her - Kirsten
What happens when a woman, at the top of her game professionally, decides to ditch moisturizer even in the most humid climate on earth? Kirsten Beasley, head of office for WTW Bermuda, shares the intriguing answer to this, along with the story of her unusual skincare routine. Tune in and explore a candid conversation that meanders through Kirsten's love language, how she spent her first big paycheck, and even her celebrity crushes.
Join us as Kirsten provides an unflinching look at the struggles with diversity within the insurance and reinsurance space in Bermuda and how she is challenging the status quo. Juggling demanding careers and raising two sons with her partner, Ben, isn't easy, but Kirsten shares her strategies for achieving balance. She also talks about how her upbringing has shaped her parenting style, and the wisdom she received from her father that helped shape her own journey.
In a powerful finale, Kirsten speaks about We Speak, an organization she co-founded to empower women by helping them overcome their fear of public speaking. Over the past two years, We Speak has created lasting connections between participants and even assisted someone in securing a job in the insurance industry. Kirsten's passion for helping others and her commitment to fostering diversity are an inspiration. Tune in now and get ready to be enlightened, inspired, and perhaps, even moved.
It's time for hustle her podcast. I'm your host, deshae Keynes. Hustle her is all about inspiring women through real life experiences that have helped to mold and develop not only me but my guests into the entrepreneurs and leaders we are today. If you're an enterprising woman determined to succeed and looking for a bit of motivation, a bit of tough love and some actionable takeaways to be the best you girl, you are in the right place. Hey guys, and welcome back to the podcast.
Speaker 1:So happy you decided to spend some time with me today. As always, I genuinely appreciate it. So big thank you to our sponsors, brown and company and 59 front. Make sure you head over to 59 front where you can get this lovely candle from Joe Malone. I'll be doing some more videos shortly to show you some of the other amazing things and products that they have over there at 59 front, but in the meantime, make sure that you head down there to see everything that they have in store for you. Super excited about my guests today and, yes, I'm aware I said that about everybody, but I genuinely am super excited. My next guest is the head of office for WTW Bermuda, the amazing Kirsten Basley. How are you?
Speaker 2:Good morning.
Speaker 1:I'm good, how are you?
Speaker 2:I'm so excited you're here. We've been talking about it for a while.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah. So first time. My actual second time was like I'm almost there Third time. Yes, let's do it. So I'm excited, yeah, looking forward to it, all right. So let's jump right in. Just going to do some quick questions, first thing that comes to mind, and then we'll get into the real stuff. Okay, cool, all right, I'm happy as when with my family.
Speaker 2:I suppose that might be trite but definitely happy, as with my family, relaxing with my family, Okay, perfect.
Speaker 1:All right, what is? What do you like to do on the plane?
Speaker 2:Oh, I do a lot of listening audio books and or catching up a little bit occasionally on work, but audio books more often than not.
Speaker 1:Perfect, all right. When you got your first job out out of school, what was? What did you spend your first big paycheck on?
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, maybe a car or getting my own place. Yeah, because I started work pretty much right out of uni and then I took me eight months to save up enough to get my own place. Love that, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:All right, I mean rented right, yeah, yeah. Definitely Totally understand. That's a big move, though. Like in Bermuda, like we get very like. It's like oh yeah, you can stay at home. It's not as like frowned upon as it is in other places, but like here it's like ooh, your own place is big deal and it's expensive. Exactly that too. That doesn't help. All right, what do? What does love feel like?
Speaker 2:Oh, for me, cuddles it's, it's touch, it's physical. You know cuddles and being hugged.
Speaker 1:So that's the love language? Yep, yeah, that is my love language.
Speaker 2:Definitely Got it.
Speaker 1:Me quality time, but I like a little, you know, rub my leg just for a little while, then take it away. All right, what are you listening to, right?
Speaker 2:now I am listening to an audio. Oh, I'm listening. So boring. I'm so boring I'm listening to Steven Fry's mythos. It's, it's, it's his narration of the Greek myths and he you know Steven Fry always adds a little bit of flavor to it. So it's a really well executed rendition of boring material. Right and I always love the Greek myths, so Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, I love it. What's a hidden talent?
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't have a lot of hidden talents. I'm gonna have to think about that one. Okay, we can come back to that one.
Speaker 1:All right, so tell me about your skincare routine. You have beautiful skin. Tell me about it. It's such a big lie, but thank you, I will take it.
Speaker 2:So I didn't come to skincare routine until far later in life then I should have. But now I use some products from a proper dermatologist and I do a wash, a tone and a serum every morning and every night. Yeah, I don't get facials as much as I should have, but I'm so much more dedicated to my skincare routine now that I found something that suits me. I love that.
Speaker 1:I feel like years ago no one really talked about skincare routines. It was kind of like just put some lotion on it, you'll be fine. And now it's like all of the products like you know I've got and we spend a fortune on these products, but I feel like they work.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you. So here's something that I had a physician walk me through the skincare routine. I don't use a moisturizer at all Really. And his advice was why would you moisturize in one of the most humid climates in the world? So the only time I use a moisturizer is when I travel, and he sort of walked me through the science behind it. And so my skincare, my skin, started to improve as soon as I stopped moisturizing too much. And I don't know if that's Bermuda specific advice, but it made sense to me.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, if it's working, yeah, I mean, I feel like your skincare routine is like your fingerprint, like not. No, there's no one routine that works for everybody. Yeah, true, okay, celebrity crush. So this has been a thing, right. So I don't I name all of them, but tell me who it is Okay.
Speaker 2:So I love Idris Elba. You know Jason Mamoa kind of that kind of vibe. And then you know, there's several others, my husband's, gonna be like you're a liar.
Speaker 1:There's so many more. That's hilarious. Maybe Bradley Cooper too? Oh yeah, oh, they all fit the bill. Right, there you go, all right, and then finally your caught match team. Oh, st George's.
Speaker 2:Oh, come on, All right Interviews done. Everyone go home, david's. There's no other way. Mind you, many St David's Islanders support I was just gonna say a lot of St David's.
Speaker 1:Islanders are important. Oh man, I should have known with the blue dress. It's all right, we'll see you again next year, all right, okay. So tell me about little Kirsten. Like, what did you want to be growing up?
Speaker 2:So a lawyer? I watched way too much Matlock as a child, yes, and so my whole view was sort of shaped by that and being a lawyer was like something professionally to strive for, and I was a competitive person, so it felt like something that you couldn't just do, you had to work hard towards yeah, yeah, a lawyer, cool.
Speaker 1:And then did you play sports.
Speaker 2:Yeah, loads of. So. I was a total tomboy. I was always outside up a tree, every sport that you could play. You know how you always try to have a primary school sports. Every sport that you could play I went out for, even if I wasn't good at it. So yeah loads of sport and I was young when I found my defining sport. That was 10 when I started playing field hockey and really hockey was with me for the next 30 years. Yeah, really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I do so. There's actually a really robust field hockey community, especially female field hockey, in Bermuda, and I didn't know much about it growing up, but my friend Melanie, who's a lawyer ironically she she introduced me to it as well and a lot of people play hockey. Like, what is it about field hockey?
Speaker 2:So I know Mel. She's a good high player, so I grew up next door to it because my dad was a rugby player and back then.
Speaker 2:Summer's Field is where the rugby and then the hockey pitch was right next door to it, and so I'd be bored watching these women. I don't know what it is about field hockey. It's very much like football in its rules and its formation and how you play, so it's a part of our language growing up and it's team sports, I think, are great. There's a great sort of culture around it. It's a different sport, right? You know there's sort of this hand-eye coordination between the ball and the stick and you know, I don't know, it was just something that I found an affinity for and it was because it was small enough. You could make a space for yourself. Yeah, probably a little bit more easily than in football, which so many kids played. But for field hockey, you know, if you were maybe a mediocre athlete that worked hard, you could kind of make a space for yourself a little bit more. I love that.
Speaker 1:So with the team aspect of field hockey as well, like how would you kind of because you said you did it for 30 years, right, so you would have had to learn a lot in that time from playing a team sport and field hockey and now being the head of office of, you know, an broker here in Bermuda how do you marry the two in terms of like sports and now where?
Speaker 2:you are. I think it's in an inextricably linked to who I am as a person and as a leader. The whole sports thing, first and foremost, teamwork, teamwork on the field is just such a huge part of, obviously, of playing any team sport and I'm a big sort of professionally. I like to be a part of a team. I like to have a big voice on the field. I like to have a big voice on any team that I play on. But I honestly think the most defining thing for me with sport is I'm not afraid to fail, right. So in sport there's all sorts of you can view it that way, I don't view it that way All sorts of little mini failures along the way.
Speaker 2:Right, if you think about it, that past didn't go perfectly, you didn't score that goal, but I never viewed it as such. It was like that was an opportunity, okay, missed right. No, we're going to try again, and so that sort of it changed my mentality, I think, compared to maybe others who don't play sports or maybe we don't have that viewpoint around, what failure looks like To me? There are all these little mini opportunities and it's an opportunity to take a risk, a calculated risk that may or may not pay off, but you know, look, I played field hockey for Bermuda. We're playing against Brazil and Cuba and Argentina. We got a cut a cut on a regular basis and that's okay To me. That was okay.
Speaker 2:I was out there, I was playing, we were leaving everything out on the field, and I think I bring that mentality to my work and how I lead and what I expect of others as well. It's like if you try, if you go out there and you leave it all out there, then there's nothing else you can do. I think that's something that's really healthy, because it teaches you that risk is okay and failure is not devastating. It's actually an opportunity.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's part of life, right, like not everything is going to go perfect every single time that you do it, and it's how you, what you do after that failure. That, I think, is key, and sports does that. I totally agree with you. You're never gonna win every single game, you're never gonna get every single pass basket, whatever the sport is that you're playing the right way every single time, right, but you can't just give up and walk off the court, right, depending on what it is. So it's actually a. Really I've never thought of it that way, but now that you've mentioned it, I think playing sports kind of instills that drive in you to do more and go beyond just that initial failure, I guess.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I completely agree. It teaches a resilience right, you know, sort of a thickening of the skin, like I'm not going to crumble if I fail, I mean, if we lose the game, even if I reflect on that game. What you know, one of the biggest losses we ever had I sort of reflect on it is there was some big victories for me personally contained within that loss. And I bet you, every other woman on the team, if they think about it, there is that one spectacular pass that they're going to remember from some big failure. And that's kind of how I view it and that's sort of the ethos that I bring to work. When you play a sport that intensely for that long, you can't help but have it translate into your personal life right.
Speaker 2:Any passion that you have outside of work, I think impacts you at work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, and I think it's also important to do something outside of work as well, especially no matter what it is. Well, early in career, you know, whenever that is like, because we get so all consumed with work and in industry you can get very there's dinners, there's lunches, there's breakfasts, all these types of things. If you don't have an additional outlet of some sort, you can get, you know, two sucked in by work.
Speaker 2:Oh, 100%. I think it's critical and, to be honest, you know, hopefully, more than one interest. You know something that you know can be totally standalone and separate from work, or something that complements it, and that you can sort of bring your work to that passion and vice versa. I think those interests make us richer professionals and just as much as our professional work enriches our personal life. I think there's a symbiosis there. It's not as if we're sort of, yes, we can be different and manifest differently in different spaces, but we're not, they're not completely distinct and to pretend otherwise, particularly in Bermuda- Exactly, especially in the grocery store, seeing people right after work, right, that happened to me yesterday.
Speaker 2:I was walking through Harrington hundreds. It's one of the smallest grocery stores on the island. There were like five insurance professionals oh my gosh. It was like are we? It was just like a board meeting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was a little bit right.
Speaker 2:We're having a conference over the college hours.
Speaker 1:Great, that's hilarious. So you began your career Like did you ever think, or was it ever the goal, to end up in leadership?
Speaker 2:Probably yes, if I know myself as a super goal oriented person. So back then I very much viewed my career as a ladder right, it'll be this rung, then this rung, then this rung, and always moving upwards, right, that's how I sort of imagined it. So I think, yeah, I'm too outspoken for me not to have considered otherwise, and not that I correlate exclusively being outspoken with leadership, but it was always a part of who I was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, and I mean it's got to be pretty awesome of a feeling to kind of look back on your career and be like wow, I did that. Like, how does that feel?
Speaker 2:It does feel good actually, and I don't take a lot of time to reflect because I am always looking. You know, it's not a ladder for me anymore, but up the ladder or across the jungle gym, if you will. So I don't often take time to reflect, but it does, and I, you know as much as it's been a struggle. I have enjoyed my time in the Bermuda Insurance Industry and my career.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when you say it was a struggle, like what were some of the things that were difficult.
Speaker 2:For me. I've had a lot of support, a lot of mentorship and sort of sponsorship. It's the people. Dynamics have always been difficult for me. Navigating the people and the people's strategies and the tactics and dealing with challenging personalities and conflicts that's always been a challenge for me. And it's inherent not just in our. It's inherent in being an adult right A person.
Speaker 1:Theory right A person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so doing so on a professional level, you know, and navigating that professionally has always been a challenge.
Speaker 1:Would you say that it was a barrier navigating the people before you got into a leadership position? Do you think that that might have been a barrier, navigating people that may have stopped you from getting to the next level, or what that may have looked like?
Speaker 2:Such a good question. It could have been, but I had such strong sponsorship that you know, they were sort of a little bit coaching me on the side. So I, even if I sort of had a limited awareness, I started sort of shifting my behavior. I think just slightly enough to sort of dig around some of the barriers. But yeah, it absolutely has. So maybe the barriers were mitigated is what I would say Okay.
Speaker 1:No, I think that's okay, though, because you spoke about sponsorship, and you said that word a few times now like how does one gain these sponsors, how does one kind of go through their career, and these happen, you know, and I'm asking obviously we've had conversations like this before, but how would you explain that to others?
Speaker 2:So was it something? So my answer versus what I did then, versus now what I did then, was completely unintentional. I had no idea that it was even a critical thing it would be. I think it was just from hard work and a little bit of luck, right, and I'm not saying hard work is the way to get it, because I don't think that at all. Hard work, a little bit of luck and having someone yeah, luck more than anything was how I got sponsors. I'd say now it's really important to ask. I think you just have to raise your hand and say look, hey, I'm really interested in these things in my career. What can you suggest, something to help me? I do think some of it has to be organic, right? So even though you might ask 20 people, maybe only one ends up being a true sponsor for you in your career. So I think there's some element of organic because that person really has to believe in you and believe in what you do and sort of be able to see that work product and work ethic up front.
Speaker 1:And vouch for that work ethic.
Speaker 2:Yes, right.
Speaker 1:Daphne. It's one thing to be a sponsor of someone just because you think they're a good person, but having to actually have work with them and seeing the work output has got to be key as well.
Speaker 2:I think so, because when a sponsor we all know what sponsorship is speaking their name when they're not in the room but you are, it's a different level Sponsors become, their reputation becomes tied to yours as well, right? So I think-.
Speaker 1:That's risky.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it can be risky, and so I think there's that element of when you can show it in the work product. I think that's when you can develop sponsors. So I do think it has to be someone that's close to you, that's in proximity of your work, to be able to do that in a meaningful way and in a lasting way, as all my sponsors are always people that I work with very closely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good. So in the space right In the insurance and reinsurance space in Bermuda, we have a good gender balance in our lower to middle management right. When we start getting to senior management, we see a lot less women in those senior management levels. What do you think is the I don't want to say necessarily barrier, but what is stopping, Do you think, our middle management of heavy females right, A lot less men translating into that next step?
Speaker 2:I think there's a lot of. I think it's a lot of bias. If I kind of hone in on maybe one or two that I think are at the root of things, it's affinity bias at the forefront, in my view. So guys are more comfortable with guys. They're more comfortable with it. You know where they speak their language, you know there's all this fear around tripping over stuff.
Speaker 2:I think affinity bias is at the heart of it and, to be honest, I think there's a lot of racial bias that goes along as well. And you know, you and I talk about this. So when we look at Bermuda stats, it's white men at the top of the executive management and then white women and then, I think, black men and black females at the end. So you can't look at those two stark sort of polls and not call out those two big bias. There's a clear affinity bias, which maybe then mixed in with some confirmation bias. So well, we expect women to behave this way and emotional and all that stuff, and they do. And then of course, you have the racial dynamic that is particular to our not just our community, but I think, starkly highlighted in our community.
Speaker 1:I know definitely, but we could go down that road for a lot longer, so we won't go down there too, too heavy. But what do you do as you know the head of office here in Bermuda to kind of change that narrative now that you are a female leader in your organization, how do you change that narrative in your environment?
Speaker 2:So in my environment I call it out as much as I can. I put it on the table every single opportunity that I can. So when we're hiring, I'm very specific that we're going to hire with diversity and that we're going to make sure we're looking at diverse candidates. I make sure that we have a diverse panel where possible, not where possible. As much as possible, I'm putting it on the table for things that annoy me. Is office housekeeping right? Who's the signatory on the accounts? Who has to, you know, be the one that stands there when the checks come in to make sure everything's okay?
Speaker 2:I highlight the fact that, hey, we can't just have all the women do this, we just have all the people of color do this. Like we need to make sure that we're spreading that out, and I know it makes people uncomfortable when I'm that sort of blunt in how I talk about it, but I think putting it on the table as a factor and calling out the elephant in the room is one of the critical things that I can do. I'm a big advocate of all things DEI where I can and make sure that that's a part of people's performance appraisals, that they're attending them, that they're expecting their staff to attend them and that they're supporting them, and it's embedded in Willis as well, so Willis creates a lot of opportunities for that. Those are a couple of things that I do, and I think it's just in everyday. Language is how it just becomes a part of the everyday and the language matters, yeah.
Speaker 1:No, I think it's great. I love how you said that it's a part of their appraisals too. Right, like, that's true, like, embedded in your organization, there's a measurable outcome of your commitment to making sure that this does. The way that our environment looks doesn't look the same in five years.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:Because a lot of times very hard to measure DEI right. It's hard to measure and track other than statistically you know the actual change in your organization when you're trying to do better and put that best foot forward.
Speaker 2:And people object to the measurement of it. Yeah, and I'm sort of baffled by it because you know, we all know we'll say it about any sort of metric, whether it's revenue, top line, bottom line, expenses. What gets measured gets done, and I, you know, I literally had this conversation with someone last week. But then there's this objection to measuring the statistics around diversity, equity, inclusion, and I know some of it's intangible, because how do you measure how people think Dwarfing? Yeah, but you can measure the outcome of something, yeah, and I think if we don't start holding people accountable for the outcomes and for where we're going, I don't see how we're ever going to improve.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, anyway, we're not going to go down there, because we'll talk about this another day, in a different form when it comes to that. But no, I genuinely appreciate that, because we have to be committed to making a change of you know what we want organizations to look like, but we have to make sure that the people in charge yourself are wanting to do that too. So that's, that's definitely key. So you have these, this huge job right Even before the job you had now you know, chief um underwriting officer at your previous shop operating.
Speaker 2:I think I tried to take their job.
Speaker 1:Operating, you're correct. Um, all these big jobs, right, and I use this word very loosely, but how do you balance it? All? Right, and we've gotten a plethora of answers on this. But as women, we've all, we're always being held to this different standard of making sure work as well, and mom as well, and husband as well. And and then your last one, that totem pole right, like how do you very loosely do everything?
Speaker 2:It's funny because I've spoken on a couple of panels about balance. Right, it was like the, the hot word like a decade ago or something, and sort of still lingers with us. Um, I, to me it's. It's balance is not what I strive for, right? So in any one given week, work might have to be the priority. Um, the next week, you know, back then, I was playing sports, right, okay, I'm going away, we've got a hockey tournament, hockey is the priority, and I'm at the front and center and so on and so forth with kids.
Speaker 2:Um, so it's, it's never about perfection of my work, is a? You know, my life is a third work, a third family and a third me. Every single day of every single year is absolutely not the case, and even even attempting to do that is is crazy. So there's two things that I use to to create meaning and purpose in my life, which can shift depending on whether I'm finding meaning and purpose in, in family or work or whatever. Um, one is um, I use a tool, um that I take a step back every year and I do like a values assessment, right, you know how, um, corporately and professionally, you always have a mission, vision, values. I do that for myself. So what are my values and how am I spending my time? And do the two correlate? Do they map up? So if I say my values are I like writing, I like family time, I like physical activity, and yet I'm not spending my time doing any of those things, then of course that explains why I'm highly dissatisfied individual. So I do that. Um, I have like an actual workbook that I use to go through that and I come up with a vision and values wheel for myself every year. Um, so that's something I do and it helps me. It doesn't help me maintain balance, but if I go off off path, it helps me find my way back.
Speaker 2:Like hold on a second. At the start of the year you said that this was important to you and that's why you were going to spend your time doing these three things. Yeah, so it's kind of like a North Star a little bit, yeah. And then the other thing is my partner, right, ben, my spouse. He and I talk about sort of what creates balance for each other, right? He has a demanding job that's almost the polar opposite of mine in some ways, and so we have to coordinate between the two of us, and without that sort of teamwork? There's absolutely no way. So a lot of its partnership as well. For me, yeah. And you have kids? I do, yeah, two boys, 118, who's just gone off to university. We're on week three and a nine year old.
Speaker 1:Are you like calling the one who just went off to university?
Speaker 2:I'm trying not to, so I'm just letting him come to me a little bit, and so he's calling me like how does the oven work? The ovens are weird over here. Hey, I got to fill out this bank form, can you help me? So I'm letting him come to me right now and it feels good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, For now I'm needed, but you know as it starts to taper off.
Speaker 2:It'll be bittersweet, because you know that's what's supposed to happen right yeah, you know, find your own way. I don't need to tell you how to do it all yeah, Whereas where is what is he studying?
Speaker 1:in school, I should say.
Speaker 2:Studying sociology, which is a sign that he has no idea what he wants to do, and he admits it. So I said please just do something you're interested in. Do not take a business degree that you're going to be miserable in and not finish. You can do that for your second degree, right Specialized in your second one. So he's in Belfast at Queens University.
Speaker 1:It's so crazy that you say that, because my dad said to me for maybe up a year before I went off to university because I knew I wanted to be a lawyer, right.
Speaker 2:I knew it.
Speaker 1:And he was like to say I don't think you want to be a lawyer. Like you should go in undecided or you know, do something a bit more generic and then change right. I was like, nope, nope, going to be a lawyer, going to be a lawyer halfway through, did not want to be a lawyer anymore. That was not what I wanted to do. I started doing business courses and I was like I love this, this is what a human resources and all this type of stuff. This is my jam. Like operations, let's do it. And my mom's a teacher and she was like well, you're not wasting this first few years of law degree, so let's figure this out. It's why I ended up doubling up, because of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I ended up doing an extra year, which my parents weren't the happiest about. But yeah, so go to a new for letting him know that he could, you know, change.
Speaker 2:Well, it came from maybe a similar experience as yours. I went to school knowing I was going to be a lawyer and my university journey took a little bit longer than it should have, Right? And so I was like you know, sometimes you just got to admit that you don't know. The whole point is to go over there and figure it out, so I just didn't want to be that prescriptive parent that was going to be like no, you're going to be a doctor, you're going to. You got to figure it's not my life kid.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to be living it for you, so yeah. So I mean, don't tell Duane. But he was right, I think he's going to know. That's hilarious. So how would you say? Like how your parents raised you shapes the type of mom you are today.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, so much, so much I had. I had a great upbringing, great great family life, very centered around family, very centered around sort of they let us explore what we each wanted to do. There's three of us and you know we each have a little bit, you know something that's each our own, and so they allowed us to kind of be very individual. I think there was a great sort of family and sort of extended family support, and so, you know, christmases were spent together in Easter, and every single holiday was spent together, and that's very much at the center of how both Ben and I parent.
Speaker 2:You had a similar upbringing in that regard.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so when like and obviously feel free to tell me how you met your husband, but when you are like, you meet your spouse and you decide to have kids, like, how do you decide how you raise them? Or is it kind of like, let's just figure this out as we go, or is?
Speaker 2:it a little bit of both. So I have I have two marriages and two a child with each, and so I've parented with two and still parent, obviously, with two different folks. And it's funny I'm I'm a different parent with each child in some ways, and it's almost because we do it together and we're responsive to each other. So maybe with my eldest I'm the strict one and with my youngest I'm a little bit less so because the case.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, maybe it's a younger dynamic but it's. You know, with my eldest and he might not like me saying this, but his father's a little less strict than I am with my youngest. His father's quite strict, so I sort of a little bit adaptive, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good. I mean I'm the oldest, right. So I think my parents parented very differently. The three of us, and obviously my, my dad and my mom are different than my sister's dad and mom. We hope we have different moms, but my dad with me, oh, super strict like, and even my middle sister, deisha, same way. But that youngest, that little rug rat Dory, love her to pieces and I'm to blame as well, don't get me wrong. She is a spoiled little brat.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And so I feel like parents definitely parent. Laura's the youngest too, so she's over there snickering, but the youngest get parented differently, regardless of the family makeup. We're tired. We're tired by the end.
Speaker 2:Brats, that's what they are and I'm hyper conscious of it, right, like I'm hyper conscious that when I give them like, oh, you're making, you're making your own bed, girl, I am hyper conscious of it. But you know, the parenting I think of parenting comes organically. You can make whatever plan you want around how you're going to parent, and then those kids come in and they just yeah, okay, girl, I got another plan for you.
Speaker 1:That's hilarious. So are you the oldest middle.
Speaker 2:I'm the middle. I am a classic middle child, marcia Marcia.
Speaker 1:Marcia, that's, I never have gotten middle kid vibes from you in um no, never. But I think, like professionally well, maybe not, cause I feel like some people professionally don't necessarily fall into those categories. You don't give me middle child professionally, I'd love to see you in your environment with your siblings.
Speaker 2:now, though I'm very interested I would. I would hope that you know there's been some mitigation of that over time, as I've gotten older.
Speaker 1:It's crazy, cause, as you get older, though, what I find, even with my siblings, we're all older, we all have our own job spaces, everything like that, but then when we come together for like family things like Christmas, we all go back into those different solos.
Speaker 2:Play your role. Yes, there's. There's a puzzle picture of the family right and you make sure your own little piece of it yeah that's good.
Speaker 1:So how did your, how did your parents affect you? Or when they're parenting of you, Like what were some of? Were they strict with you? Or how would you say your upbringing was with your kid, with your parents?
Speaker 2:So my dad was a policeman.
Speaker 1:Okay, stay last Done. Finish conversation over.
Speaker 2:So, so, but. But I give them credit because I was very young when I graduated high school and very young when I went away to university. Right, Did you skip, or?
Speaker 1:I did, and so if you can imagine like you were that smart, no, girl.
Speaker 2:So I skipped P2. I knew my colors, my shapes, so so if you think about it having you know he let me. He knew he didn't let me, right, but he knew I was going out to bars in in my final year at school here. He knew I'd be doing that. So there was a measure of trust, right that, that they always said you have our trust until you break our trust. It wasn't like you know, I'd earned it, obviously, I'm sure to some degree as a sort of teenager, yeah, but they, they parented us with that sort of trust and like you've got the rope and you choose what you do with it, but there was a, there were boundaries, always all the way through, all the way through being raised, yeah, and my dad was he was the scary one, if you know what I mean like he only had to shout once and you did it, whereas you know I'm more like my mom, which is like there's a lot of shouting. I just want to love you mommy so yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, now I get that Same with me when it comes to my dad. My dad is very strict when it comes to that my mom well, honestly, look you have did, they say hindsight's 2020, right, my parents co-parented very well and so if my mom, looking back on it now, if she was upset or wanted something, she definitely knew how to weave my dad in to kind of get it done. So, looking back on that now, I kind of think that maybe she was a bit more strict than I thought.
Speaker 2:It's teamwork right For sure. Good cop back, cop on any one given day when you, as a parent, might be you know, I know that I'm a little bit on my wit's end today because there's something nothing to do with the kids Then you got to be on the front line, or someone's going to lose an arm or something, you know.
Speaker 1:It's true, everyone's patience are thin right, and everyone makes mistakes, and I think what I remember most, though, is my parents were very good at coming back and apologizing if they didn't get it right, you know, so I think that's always good too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think so too actually.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So if what is something you think people misunderstand about you, like when they see you and you hear things about yourself, you're like wow, that's not me at all.
Speaker 2:So someone said this to me the other day and it's clearly it's not the first time I've heard it, but that I'm intimidating and like it comes and so it's shock. I understand why people say it don't get me wrong, but it always comes as a shock to me because I am such a huge dork and that you know a lot of how I present probably comes from social anxiety, right, that fear of saying the wrong thing, of not being liked, all of this stuff that drives everyone else. It's reserve, it's not. It's just. I'd rather stay quiet until someone talks to me if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:I get that. Yeah, I've gotten that as well. And then I'm just like you know what they call it the resting. You know what face. I try to make a better effort towards that now.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, cause I'm like wow, so no one's ever accused me of RBF, but I may have it, and maybe that's where that intimidation factor comes from.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I mean you have a big job, right. So I guess, especially in work environments like people, kind of like you know, you don't wanna which is so foreign to me Again, like if people knew the truth.
Speaker 2:That's what I say to Ben at home all the time. If people actually knew the truth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely so. Like we spoke about, you know head of office with Willis, your mom, your wife, all those things, but you still take time to have co-founded. We speak Like what? Did you kind of sit down with your co-founder and kind of say, you know what, this is something that we wanna do? Like, where did that come from?
Speaker 2:So it was. You know it was a wonderfully organic things, as I find the best of these things are. I don't know, I think I had been featured in RG Magazine. You know, they do the women in Hamilton thing and they always ask you what's your biggest fear, or something like that, or your biggest weakness. And I highlighted public speaking. And so someone reached out to me and said I'm stunned that you don't like public speaking and went for coffee, and then we're just talking about it. It was like, you know, we can't be alone in this right. So we decided that we were gonna figure out how alone we were and do some study around it. So I was working on this survey which we put out to people women in industry to find out are you afraid of public speaking B, what does that look like? And collect all this data. So, at any rate, that's one side.
Speaker 2:I was on a panel for at AIG during dive in one I think one of my first dive in panels and I'm a terribly nervous speaker. Anyway, neither here nor there we were talking about diversity and I was being very vocal about it and sort of doing sort of banging the drum, and in the crowd was Kathleen Ferris, and so she came up to me and we'd never crossed paths, because she's in reinsurance, I'm in insurance and just our paths just hadn't crossed. She was like, you know, we really need to go out for lunch, and so we're talking about sort of diversity in DEI and how that manifests in Bermuda. And she was kind of saying, look, I'm getting increasingly frustrated with one of the more obvious issues in diversity and that's manals, right, all white, all male panels that are sort of industry experts, sort of presenting our industry as this very homogenous all white, all male industry. She was like it's just painly untrue and what she was struggling with was because she was C-suite level, right, she was constantly getting asked to do panels, her and a couple of other women in industry, which is like there are far more. You know, there's a larger number of adept women speakers than this represents. It can't just be the same two or three, you know C-suite level women and then all the rest of the white guys. And so we were talking about that.
Speaker 2:I was like, well, actually I think what you're missing is not you're missing, but I think the piece that's missing is that there are women are afraid to speak. We're not taught to speak. We're not given the skills to speak, we're not exposed to it until far later in our career, potentially than men, and by the time we are exposed to it we don't realize we've developed this massive, massive fear of it. And so we decided that we were attacking an issue right Women and speaking from two different angles. And what we did was we came together and she brought a large portion of the women who are now still on the board to the table, so literally went from lunch to a meeting of 15 women around the table. I brought a couple and we kind of said, okay, here's what we think the issue is. And we went from there, and that was in September of 2018. I wanna say by January 2019, we had our first coach the coaches session, and April 2019, we had our first bootcamp.
Speaker 2:It was that fast and that organic, because when you're motivated by something of passion and you all agree that here's the problem it, it impacts all women, women of all races, industries, ages when there's something that's so foundational and so gendered and I'm not saying men, don't have a fear of speaking right, but we were attacking a very female issue here I've never seen anything quite like it. I've never been a part of anything quite like it.
Speaker 1:No, and I mean we speak as a force at this point, like people look forward to the boot camps every year, the coaching of the coaches, and the part of we speak that I like the most is the women that you meet on the days of the boot camps. Right, those connections that you make, they're like lasting. I mean my first boot camp that I did as a coach, those five women that were in my group we still are on WhatsApp together.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love hearing that literally Such cool women, you know, and it's just amazing because that aspect of it you don't intend to go into it for that like you just want to help with the public speaking all this type of stuff, because we all have fears with it, but that piece of it unmatched.
Speaker 2:Well, and to me that's an example of organic sponsorship, right? So you know it's not scripted, it's not something forced, right? It's something that happened because it was forged in a time where you found some commonalities and you know, or it's a potential way that organic sponsorship can happen? Definitely so. No.
Speaker 1:I love that and I love that you guys started it and it's the same people in the board and we all, you all have kind of like branched out to do more with. We speak teen and you know those types of things. That's all really cool and I genuinely love that, and I wanted to make sure we spoke about it today because it is something that people know about but people don't as well, you know, and I think people also think it's specific to industry like the insurance and reinsurance, and it's not.
Speaker 2:We're deliberately not specific to industry because it was started in industry. Right, that's where we were able to gain momentum. But when we do boot camps we do whatever we can to diversify industry. So we only go based on the applicants, but we'll put out, you know, sponsorships and whatnot to get people from outside the industry.
Speaker 1:Definitely so. I mean, obviously we're wrapping up here because I can't believe that time is just flying by. But when you think of everything that you've done and you know this very rich and full career and I'm by no means I'm trying to retire you, but you know you have a lot, a lot more to do but with everything that you've done, like what would you say is kind of like your, why so far? Like why do you do it?
Speaker 2:I have a good story about my why. So I just I had a why moment on Thursday. So you know I'm a big believer in helping career changers. I think that it's really important that people in our community and Braumunians find a space in the insurance industry. And so at the career changer event that we did with Acre, there was a man at my table who you know we were doing and we were coaching and talking through sort of his challenges with penetrating into the insurance industry. And, long story short, we've kept in touch and at one of the sessions we kept in touch he was like you know, I'm really struggling to find one of those work shadows that we talked about and I know Willis isn't doing them right now because you're going into construction and you have an intern this summer, but you know I'm really struggling. He wasn't asking for one, but I walked away from it. I'm like we're going to do a work shadow. So we set up, I called him the next day. I said I'd like to do a work shadow with you in August. He did it During that period he was applying for jobs and he got.
Speaker 2:He was applying at one of the local reinsurance companies who we happened to happened to be in the same line of business, that he did a work shadow with Willis. In Long story short, I found out on Friday or Thursday that he got the job and I sat there and I had that moment. I think I was more excited than he was in some levels because I was like this is my why. This is, you know, being at the head of office role, whether you like it or not, it comes with it comes with the privilege of being able to lift as you climb Right and people take advantage or don't take advantage of that privilege. And I think it is core to my why that I have to be able to do what I can to make space, particularly for Braumunians and young Braumunians in our industry.
Speaker 1:That was a why moment. It was just fantastic. Yeah, I love when things come full circle right, like you're working on it, working on it, and finally you're like, oh, this is it, this is the moment.
Speaker 2:It was just you know, and you know for him the work starts now, right, and I said look, we're always here. Please keep in touch, right? No, don't let this be the last time we hear from you. Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:And so, in that same vein, right Like you know, you talked about climbing the ladder and knowing that, you know you wanted to be in leadership and at some point, how do you continue to stay motivated, to continue not necessarily climb, because you know you are at the top of it, apex of it but how do you continue to have that motivation to show up every day to you know, continue to be amazing and poor into other people? How do you stay motivated?
Speaker 2:So I work with a coach, to be honest, to help me make sure that how I'm spending my time is aligned with what I find value in, right, which is also aligned with that exercise that I do. But in the day to day it can be a struggle, right, you get bogged down in the little battles. So working with a coach helps me pop out of those silly battles that bogged me down to make sure that I'm spending time where I need to. Quite frankly, my position affords me the opportunity to be on a lot of boards and through those boards I find a lot of meaning and purpose, particularly the volunteer ones. You know, a lot of the healthcare work that I do is aligned to my professional work, so it's a great way for me to get back to the community. So those two things the board work and working with a coach to just help me navigate the little battles and sometimes see the bigger picture for what it is and keep aligned with my ethical and my moral compass.
Speaker 1:That's good? No, definitely. I completely understand that and I respect that a lot, because a lot of times leaders they get to certain places right and then that's it right, and then the next person after them is breaking another glass ceiling. And we find that and I said it before previously, I think, in a speech that you know when do we stop breaking those glass ceilings? And I love the way that you've kind of said that and motivating and you know being key with career changes and being that being your why and being passionate about it. That passion does not always resonate from other leaders that you have right there, so I love that about that.
Speaker 1:Great, all right. And then, finally, every question, every guest, at the end of every episode. What do you want to be remembered for? When someone says you know your name and they talk about you like, what do you want them to say about you, gosh?
Speaker 2:what they will say versus what.
Speaker 1:I want them to say are two very different things.
Speaker 2:I suppose. You know I have to keep it realistic that I dared to speak out right, that you know she fought. She fought for what she felt was right. It may not always have been the most tactical move for her or her, for her career, but she spoke up and she fought for what was right. If anything, that is probably the most realistic thing for me.
Speaker 1:All right, Well, thank you so much for spending some time with me today. I genuinely appreciate you, thank you.
Speaker 2:This has been fun. I'm far less nervous than I thought I would be too. It was so easy, guys, for anybody else. I appreciate you To. Shay makes it easy.
Speaker 1:Good, I'm glad you spent some time with me. This is my living room nothing fancy, there you go, yes.
Speaker 1:All right, guys. Thank you so much for spending some time with me today. We had the amazing Kirsten Beasley on, who is the head of office for WTW here in Bermuda. Make sure you head over to the website to read her bio, to find out a bit more information about her. I mean, I don't know what else you could want to know that we didn't talk about today, but just in case you want to know more about her or to figure out the best ways to get in contact with her, you can definitely do that on the website. Once again, big shout out to our sponsors, Brown and Co and 59 Front. Make sure you head over to the podcast website hustlehardpodcastcom to sign up to be a VIP listener. I heard that some people think that that's a bit intimidating. It literally means nothing other than giveaways, right? So all you have to do is sign up and I'll send you some information on some of the giveaways that we're doing with some of our sponsors. Thanks again for watching Hustle Harder Podcast.
