Roadtrip Nation

announcer: How do I know which path is best for me?

Is it possible to take on these challenges and obstacles?

Where do I even start?

Where do I even start?

What should I do with my life?

Sometimes the only way to find out is to go see what's possible.

Since 2001, we've been sharing the stories of people who ventured out and explored different career paths and different possibilities for their futures.

This is one of those stories.

This is "Roadtrip Nation."

announcer: The world of finance is massive, and the narratives we hear about what working in finance looks like can seem one size fits all.

But there are countless paths to pursue in this vibrant, challenging, and multifaceted world, and there are routes where you can make a positive impact too, which is why we're following three young people, Michal, Madeline, and Grace, who want to explore where their unique skills and interests in finance can take them, from impact investing to private equity and beyond.

Along the way, they'll meet the people who can show them what's possible, because when it comes to their own lives, they're asking a bigger question, how do you invest in the future you want?

Michal: I think something that we all have in common is we're very passionate about helping others.

Like we don't have the most amount of knowledge, but I think through this trip it'll help us just learn a lot more about other people's backgrounds, really like what motivates them in their field of work and kind of how they got into it.

Madeline: I think that's the most interesting part to me, finding out how did you even know that this was something that you wanted to do, and was that even a part of your plan?

Grace Umoren-Udo: I'm really hoping that they can see it as an open conversation and let us get to know them and kind of what brought them here, but of course, as well their career and what they're working on now and what they plan to work on.

Michal: I think this is just a perfect opportunity to meet like-minded people and also meet people that are in the shoes that I hope to be in one day.

Madeline: So we're gonna start the road trip in California.

Michal: And then go back to our hometowns, do a few individual interviews.

Madeline: And then we're all gonna meet back in New York.

Michal: And interview some more people as a team.

[luggage wheel sounds] Madeline: My name is Madeline.

I'm currently 22 years old.

My family is from Mexico, and I'm from Portland, Oregon.

Right now in my life, I'm going through, like, a metamorphosis phase of figuring out what I wanna do.

My biggest challenge is figuring out going back to school and if financial aid will be able to cover that.

I don't have a financial safety net.

I have to figure out what scholarships are available, if they are available, how do I pursue this higher education when I'm the first in my family to figure this out?

My goal is to have, like, a financial literacy education company, so I'm not sure what my career would look like yet, but I know that there's all these options that I can do.

Michal: Hi.

Madeline: Hi.

Michal: Nice to meet you, Michal.

Madeline: Madeline.

Michal: Nice to meet you.

Madeline: Wow, you're so tall!

Michal: My name's Michal, I'm a senior at Pepperdine University.

I'm studying finance, and I'm originally from Illinois.

The stereotype that's within finance, in general, is people are very money hungry.

However, for me, I have noticed how big of an impact those positions really have on people and on companies.

Although maybe like a few extra dollars is nice, I feel like it's more important to just make sure that you are making a positive impact on others.

That's something that, if I was to be in that space, is something that I would like really want to do more of within the space because I think it could be a little bit lacking.

Grace: Hi!

Michal: Hi, nice to meet you.

Need help?

Grace: Yeah, low key.

Oh, okay.

Grace: I'm Grace.

I'm a senior real estate and finance major at Temple University.

I am originally from Delaware, but I'm now living in Philly.

Since coming to, like, college, I got involved with a lot of, like, professional organizations.

One thing that they spent a lot of time talking about is your behavior, your nature in professional spaces, but then also any public space because you never know who's gonna be there.

I spend a lot of time, maybe more time than I need to, trying to make sure that wherever I am, I'm the best version of myself.

And I definitely think that there's value in it, but at the same time, if I can't be who I wanna be 100%, then I don't wanna be in those spaces.

So I think it's definitely a struggle that's in, like, the corporate world or the professional world where you need to be a certain way.

Grace: Guys, so do you know how this turns into a bed, or like how does it work?

Madeline: I don't know actually.

Grace: Oh, okay, [screams], [laughs] okay, thank you.

Michal: Is that supposed to happen?

Grace: I don't know.

Okay, thank you.

Madeline: I mean, that's basically the-- Grace: Yeah, right.

Madeline: [laughs] Madeline: Okay, you have a nice little bed here.

announcer: Now that the team's together, we're headed to San Diego for our first interview with impact investor, Lauren Grattan, to hear about her unexpected route into finance and the qualities she looks for when she's hiring for her team.

Lauren Grattan: We're a private asset management firm, and we got started almost a decade ago lending to folks that were starting their business on credit cards but weren't all the way to where conventional bank financing was at.

Madeline: What did you study in school and, like, how did that, like, bring you where you are now?

Laure: I have a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Columbia University, and I graduated in 2008 when you did not really want to have a degree in philosophy.

I went a different direction and went into working in nonprofits first, so I worked in fundraising for regular education, leadership development types of programs.

And I thought that was really great, but also made it really clear that how much money gets given away is really, really small.

The amount that's given away to charity every year is about the same amount that the largest bank in the US has in two of their loan products.

So it's just one bank and, like, one segment of the bank is how much is given away, so think about, like, how else can we unlock money for social change?

I said, "What if we can use grant money or you can use donation money as a way to, like, take on more risk so that people who have different kinds of motivations are excited to invest?"

So I learned finance on the job, just being a sponge as much as I could, just exploring where I was interested.

Michal: A lot of your, like, employees, do they have business backgrounds or do they kind of spread across?

Lauren: Really spread across, Michal: Ok.

Lauren: a huge range.

Not everybody is an analyst.

I guess on our executive team we have a few more people who are MBAs or have other kinds of advanced degrees or credentials, but everybody else is really broad.

And I like that, I think that makes us better.

Michal: How do you kind of go about building a strong team around you?

Lauren: Very much that you love learning, curiosity is near the top for me.

And together with curiosity is humility, like, if you can't be curious if you think you know everything already, and I look for that in who we bring onto the team.

If you are looking for stability, you're not gonna find it at Mission Driven Finance, you will have just exploration instead.

We promise everybody that you will not be bored here, and we make good on that promise.

I don't really care about what your degrees are.

I care about, like, do you care about the right kinds of things?

'Cause you can learn the technical aspects, you can't learn how to care about the right things.

Michal: What's your favorite, like, fun project that you worked on?

Lauren: We have a couple of projects that I really, really love.

One is our Indigenous Futures Fund, and that is helping to grow the economic development of Indian Country in America, getting capital to native-owned businesses, projects, tribal enterprises, also creating opportunity on reservations.

As a native person, I would like to see more capital getting back into communities that have been extracted from.

Another is the space that we're in, Access Youth Academy.

They train first generation college-bound students on the team aspects of sports and also pair it with academics, and it's a way that first-gen college students can get access to scholarships that are otherwise sitting by the wayside.

So we'll meet Renato, their founder and executive director.

He has been terrific in helping make this as an idea.

Renato Paiva: So let me show you some squash courts.

We have a little bit of pickleball here too, and then I have some rackets lined up for you guys to pick your weapon and then play with us.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Renato Paiva: Ha ha ha, yeah.

Give more space, boom!

Let it bounce, yes, there we go!

Madeline: What advice would you, like, give to us or, like, people wanting to get into this career?

Lauren: I think when you find that joy, it's important to tap into it.

It makes people want to do work with you.

It's part of why we've grown is like I'm amped about you, you're amped about me, we're amped together.

Mariame Kaba says, "Hope is a discipline."

In a world that can be dark, having that brightness is really important.

announcer: Next we're talking to Yanely Espinal about building financial knowledge and making more paths possible.

Yanely Espinal: I used to be a classroom teacher.

I now work as a financial educator, so I kind of combined education with finance and financial literacy.

I'm a published author.

I work as a director at a nonprofit organization.

I'm a podcast host.

I do all the things.

I try to keep myself excited about projects that I'm working on more so than, like, to put myself in one career title or job or position.

I try to just, like, dabble in a lot of things that are related to my passion around financial literacy education.

Madeline: You're like my role model of, like, what I wanna, like, pursue, that's literally, like, what I wanna do.

Like, I wanna make financial literacy also, like, accessible and provide those tools to the Latino community and to other communities to make it easier for them.

Yanely: Everything that I never got to learn, I really want your generation to get it and so that you have opportunities that I really didn't have around avoiding debt or being strategic about debt and, like, making smarter choices.

I just felt like I was making decisions without knowing if it was the right thing or not, but I think your generation has an opportunity to make decisions that you feel like you're making it in an informed way.

It's a male-dominated space, so I just love to see, like, two out of the three of you are girls and, you know, really pursuing finance.

Not to hate on the boys, not to hate on the boys.

But for me, I knew right away that I didn't wanna go into like a traditional financial sector.

I think you have to code switch a lot more than I was willing to in order to thrive in those kind of environments and to grow.

I needed to be able to be me and be able to talk to my people and be able to, like, help people in my community see that this is not a foreign language.

Michal: What do you think the finance sector should be like now?

Yanely: Yeah, I mean, I think it's hard because the entire core goal of finance is to maximize profit.

And I don't know if that's ever gonna not be the singular goal, but I think that there are gonna be people like you who have the power to come in there and go, "Hey, this is interesting to me, but can we take a little bit less profit while doing way more in terms of impact and community service and reaching communities that maybe would be underserved otherwise?"

But you have to understand it's not gonna be 100% of the work you're doing being good, feel good, change-making work.

It's probably gonna be maybe 20 to 25% of the work, but at least being really passionate about finding that 25%, you can figure out what parts of the work where you are doing work can you kinda plug in and do more than just maximize profit.

Madeline: Oh, look at the view.

Grace: Woah.

Michal: We wrapped up our interviews in California.

Grace: Talking with Lauren was really fun 'cause I think a lot of times in the finance world, we're focused on driving profit and trying to make as much money for people who may already have money.

But I'm glad that there are people out here who are not just worried about making extra dollars but also want to do things for people and humans.

Michal: She kind of had an emphasis on the individual behind the nonprofit or the business, and she does what she can to make sure that those dreams do come true for those people and that it does help others and is there for a good cause.

Madeline: We also interviewed Yanely Espinal and it was really interesting talking to her.

Grace: She went from being a teacher into lobbying for personal finance education, and it's definitely something that I wish someone had lobbied for when I was in high school.

Michal: The leaders had great insight and it really just kind of added on to the conversation.

I'm just gonna keep the same mindset from the group interviews coming into the individual.

Grace: I'm really looking forward to the personal interviews 'cause I think that it'll allow us to deepen that, like, one-on-one connection, but I'm also gonna miss having these guys to, like, bounce off questions from.

Michal: Aww.

Sorry.

All: [laughing] Grace: I'll never be sappy again.

Michal: [laugh] Michal: Can we like put the cameras on the water real quick?

Like, I think it's beautiful.

Director: Michal is directing this All: [Laugh] Michal: I think- Can I take the camera?

Director: Yeah you can take- Michal: Can I actually take the camera?

Oh, oh, that's crazy, we're really in California right now.

There's Grace, there's--there she is, there's Madeline, and we're just vibing.

That's like a great way to just end the day, like end our trip.

announcer: That's it for the crew in California as they kick off their journey.

From here, Grace, Michal, and Madeline are headed out on their own to explore finance paths closer to home.

♪♪♪ Michal: When I first moved to California for school, it was a little bit of a challenge being away, especially from my nine-year-old sister.

I definitely missed her a lot, but we'll go on FaceTime and kinda check in.

I'll ask her about how school's going, what are maybe some new things that she's doing or learning.

That has really helped maintain our relationship and whenever I come home, it's really the same as when I was living at home all the time.

My aunt was the first person that moved from the Czech Republic to the United States, and then my grandparents later followed along with my mother.

Growing up, my grandpa was someone I definitely, like, looked up to a lot, just kinda seeing his work ethic and kind of just his motivation really encouraged me to strive and do the same in whatever it is.

Even now in college, a lot of what he has done when I was growing up is really kind of instilled in me and it just motivated me to just do a lot more and give back to others and help those in need as well.

I always loved numbers, and I remember in high school I took two accounting classes.

I was pretty good at it, but it wasn't until the second class where I was like, okay, it's getting a little bit redundant, so I was kind of looking into different paths.

I thought business was a little bit too broad for me.

Economics didn't really fully make sense or international business, so I just looked into finance and I thought that it was kind of the best of both worlds.

Coming into college, I thought that I wanted to go into financial advising because I get to help people and families with their finances.

I had an internship my sophomore year with a financial advising firm, and I hated it because I felt like I was just selling myself to people rather than actually being there to support them and help them financially.

So I was kind of just in a position where I wasn't sure what I wanted to do.

That same year I took a class called Financial Management, my professor was an alum from the university and he founded a hedge fund.

That's what really opened my eyes to alternative investments and made me really, really interested and really fascinated by it.

I really just kinda focused all my time into learning more about that type of work, what are some things that are kind of currently going on within the market, and how I could break into it.

Within finance in general, you don't really see a lot of people that look like me.

In a lot of my internships, I would be the only African American in the room.

I haven't been able to speak to many, if any, people of color that kind of do that field of work, so I think it would definitely be very motivating and encouraging for me and for others to see that there are people that look like you that are in these fields, and you don't have to be discouraged because you can and you do deserve to be in that person's shoes.

announcer: Some private equity firms are generalists, and some specialize in one specific sector, like technology, healthcare, and even sports.

That's where Kitan Irukera focuses, as an investor for a global sports investment firm.

But what led him here and what drives his success?

Michal: My name is Michal, from Illinois originally, but I'm a senior finance major at Pepperdine.

I grew up with my family not being the most financially literate, and that really opened my eyes into the alternative investment space.

But that's just a little bit about me, and I just wanna learn your pathway into the space and what got you interested in it.

Kitan Irukera: Proud Nigerian American.

I was born in the States and I lived in suburban Chicago from birth to when I was nine, and then my family moved--we moved back to Lagos, Nigeria.

It was sort of the first time where in an environment, like, the sort of titans of industry all kind of looked like me, like the president did and, like, the CEO of the banks did.

Seeing is believing, and I think that was sort of an empowering experience for me to kind of go home and like sort of see people like me in positions of prominence.

Not that I, you know, never saw that in Chicago, but it was sort of different back home.

We would still go back to Chicago every summer, and at the time, it was really hard to get, like, American snacks, so my first adventure when I was 11 and 12 would be to bring back like Doritos and Rice Krispie treats and all these kinds of things and sell them on the playground to, like, my friends in Lagos.

So I would say that was like kind of my first foray into business.

That sort of entrepreneurial passion matured into a specific interest in business, you know, took business studies classes and after high school I ended up enrolling at the undergraduate business school at Cornell, concentrating in sort of finance.

And I did a couple of internships and I ended up starting my career doing investment banking at JPMorgan, sort of covering technology, media, and telecom clients.

I ended up transitioning from the advisory side to the investing side.

I joined a large private equity firm in San Francisco.

While it was great for learning and credentializing myself, my long term interest was always to sort of be somewhere where I could have an impact.

And at the time I thought that meant, like, hedge fund, but then I got tapped on the shoulder to join the founding team of, like, a new private equity firm that was launching in New York focused on the sports ecosystem.

As an ecosystem of business in the United States, they've existed for decades, but they were always sort of seen as these, like, vanity projects and vanity assets.

But there became a stage where it was almost necessitated for institutional investment to come in, and I got a little bit of exposure to that at the first firm I was at, but then I wanted to sort of do it at a place that was solely dedicated to bringing in the wave of institutional investing into sports.

And I also wanted to be somewhere where I felt like I kinda mattered as opposed to kind of, you know, being a bit of a cog in a machine, and so I've been doing that for the last three and a half years.

Michal: Well, thank you for sharing that.

I mean, at least for me, most of my internships I've been the only African American.

Like 90% of my classes, I'm the only African American student.

So how do you kind of navigate going into those spaces and showing that you do belong and that you are just as qualified as the next person that enters the door?

Kitan: I think one superpower minorities in the United States have, especially underrepresented minorities like African Americans in this environment, is you develop self-awareness earlier than most.

Like, there's just like a level of consciousness of how you're being perceived that manifests professionally, Michal: Right.

Kitan: that manifests professionally, but even, like, just in life, whatever it is, you just always have to, from a young age, needed to be cognizant of how you're being received because, you know, I think the candid truth is that we live in a society in which, like, preconceived notions about people who look like us can be damaging to us, and so that just breeds a level of accountability and intentionality about sort of making sure you're presenting yourself properly.

And I actually think that ends up being, like, a really big superpower because self-awareness is, like, incredibly important and surprisingly short supply.

And so, I think a lot of it is sort of just kind of like continue to hone the skill that your life has already organically made you develop, which is just sort of emotional intelligence, how am I being received?

Like, how do I, you know, gel in this environment?

You know, being yourself but also sort of adapting, making sure that you're comfortable, that requires a level of intentionality from you that it may not for the majority of students, and that skill, that practice, that ability to do that compounds infinitely in these sort of professional environments.

And then I think the second part is checking the boxes you need to check, you know--like control what you can control, right?

And that's, you know, being prepared, being on time.

The truth is, like, there's a lot of unconscious bias and subjectivity in corporate America.

I'm not gonna say, "If you do everything you need to do, everything will be A-okay," but I think if you control what you can control and continue to hone the superpower that you've had to hone just to become who you are today, the rest will solve itself.

That makes sense?

Michal: Yeah, no, I definitely agree.

I mean, I've kind of noticed there has been a lot of, like, adversity, but I just feel like just kind of being aware of me kind of being the only-- kind of like the black sheep in the room, I have naturally had to work harder than others just to at least be somewhat acknowledged.

It's the way that you kind of talk, like it's definitely evident that you're very motivated.

And clearly, you are very accomplished just with how much you've been able to do and kind of the seat that you're in now.

What would you say is your biggest motivation?

Kitan: I think it's two things.

I think one, my parents sacrificed a lot for me to be in the position to pursue the opportunities I've had, and so there's just an element of, like, that can't be for nothing, right?

I don't know, some of it is conscious where I'm like, hey, I wanna do this in honor of my parents.

Some of it is subconscious in which I feel like I've been socialized to just sort of like put your best foot forward.

There's unlimited number of memes that make fun of how like aggressive and intense Nigerian parents are, and they're not that much of an exaggeration.

But I also think coming from where I come from, look, like, Nigeria has, like, rampant wealth inequality, and so you see people that are incredibly, like, gifted and talented and capable, but with just such a limited opportunity.

And I think when you see that, it breeds a sense of sort of like obligation, you know?

Like it's so easy with our privilege in our world, even just being American, to kind of take so many things for granted.

And I think a lack of motivation or a lack of happiness can come from a lot of things, but I think a common driver of those things is just lost perspective.

And so I think seeing people and being exposed to environments in which a lot of the things I take for granted are actually, like, you know, extreme luxuries, that breeds a sense of obligation to capitalize on what you do have because you start to realize how scarce and valuable it is.

Michal: My interview with Kitan resonated with me a lot.

He's very focused on his overall values because he knows that the position he is in can really help a lot of different people, which is something that I want to also do.

One key takeaway that I had was just being present in the moment.

As a young adult, you're constantly looking forward, thinking about where should I be next year?

Where should I be in the next 5, 10, 15 years?

But sometimes you have to just kind of put yourself in reality and just think about what you can do right now and what you can change.

I think I will aim to consistently be more in tune with my values and if ever an opportunity comes along, just see how that correlates with my values, if at all, and kinda go from there in terms of if that's the right fit for me, and also just constantly thinking about my key motivators and kinda make that drive me to what I want to achieve rather than just kind of monetary things.

announcer: Next time, we'll catch up with Madeline in Portland and swing through Philly with Grace before the crew reunites in New York City.

Grace: We've done a lot.

We've met a lot of people, connected with each other a lot as well.

Michal: I think something that we all have in common is we're very passionate about helping others.

Madison: I think I've always had, you know, a passion for giving back.

And I felt that this is sort of the best avenue for me to do that, use my position to align dollars in a way to have the most impact or align with client values is a really rewarding opportunity.

Madeline: I'm not sure what my career would look like, but I know that there's all these options that I can do.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪