In this episode of Business Edge, special guest Hernan Mayol discusses his career path in banking and his transition to the US Small Business Administration. He discusses why networking is so important, and how it has helped him throughout his career. He also speaks to the challenges he faced in the banking world and how he overcame them.
Hernan Mayol [00:00:00] What I always tell people is value the network and we have such a great network. It's just tapping the network, call people and reach out to people and then you'll get a feel for what they're doing and be able to move up that way.
Finn Lambouris [00:00:14] You're listening to Business Edge, the podcast for professionals looking to excel in the workforce. In each episode, our guests take a deep dive into their personal and professional experiences to give you an edge in the marketplace. This podcast is brought to you by the Commonwealth Leadership Alliance.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:00:28] Good morning. Welcome back to the Business Edge podcast. My name is Chrissy and I'm here live from Miami at the 61st Alpha Kappa Psi Convention. With me today is Hernan. How are you doing today?
Hernan Mayol [00:00:36] How are you? Long time no see!
Chrissy Vasquez [00:00:38] I know! It's so good to see people in person again. how's Convention been for you so far?
Hernan Mayol [00:00:43] Oh, I love it. This is an amazing experience every time that I come. And this time, I share it with my daughter.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:00:49] Oh, that's so sweet. What's that been like?
Hernan Mayol [00:00:51] Been amazing. You know, it's been an out-of-body experience, really.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:00:56] That's very cool. And so she pledged at Wake Forest, correct?
Hernan Mayol [00:00:58] Yeah, she pledged last spring. So she became, recently, a brother!
Chrissy Vasquez [00:01:04] That's awesome! My dad's a brother, so I know that bond. And it's definitely--
Hernan Mayol [00:01:08] It's amazing. I bought this little frame here to put a picture of us.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:01:11] Oh, that's so sweet. I love that it's been one of the best things that has bonded my father and I for sure is participating in these type of national events and whatnot. So tell us a little bit overview to your career.
Hernan Mayol [00:01:22] Sure. So, you know, I graduated from the University of Miami, from finance and marketing, and I started as a teller in a credit union at the UCF credit union. And I didn't like that. I didn't want to be in retail banking. Although I deal with retail banking.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:01:39] So let me pause you for a second. What's a little bit different between the different banking types? Because I'm not very--I mean, I'm assuming retail is where I go to bank.
Hernan Mayol [00:01:47] Right. So the branch. The branch is the first line of information for anybody that wants financial products at a bank. But most of the activity at a bank happens behind the scenes, not at branches.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:01:59] Okay, perfect. Thank you for explaining that for me. So go ahead. You decided that's not where you wanted to be.
Hernan Mayol [00:02:03] That's not where I wanted to be. So one of my cousins worked at a bank, at a trade finance bank in Miami called Hamilton Bank, and I became an analyst at that bank. I learned how to analyze financial statements. I didn't like it much, but I had to stick with it because I knew that at the end of the program I would be a lending officer, and I wanted to focus on international. My little was from Brazil, so I always wanted to be an officer handling Brazil at some point. But when I got out of a program, the international division didn't want me, so the domestic division wanted me. And I started as a lender for exporters here in Florida. And then I still had the desire to do international. So one of the analysts at my bank went to Regions Bank, now, and I started in international covering basically the Andean region. So Peru, Venezuela, Colombia from here, Miami. And eventually I moved up to manage Brazil, which was nice. I made my dream at the time.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:03:06] That's awesome. So what was the biggest challenge navigating that and moving to where your dream was?
Hernan Mayol [00:03:14] So to be honest, one of the things that happens is as you're young, we forget about the power of networking. And the reason that I moved up in my career was the skills that I learned in AKPsi. I put them immediately to practice, which is not have fear meeting people, networking, right? And I always surrounded myself with-- so my parents took me to conventions like this one in Puerto Rico. And I had a good time meeting older people, right? So I had no fear in talking to older people in their forties and fifties and beyond. So I started getting to meet all of these people at the Banking Association and they all became my bosses, eventually, all these people,.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:03:55] I was gonna say, now we are older people that they talk to. I was in the elevator with a bunch of students and they're like, "Oh, it's our first Convention." I'm like, "Oh, it's my 13th. Which means that I am way older than I feel." So.
Hernan Mayol [00:04:08] Yeah, again, the challenges that most other people don't--when they study something, they don't know the people that are in that industry. So my first recommendation is always to if you're studying marketing, finance, or whatever it is that you're studying, and that's your chosen career to begin with, hang out with those people, participate in events where they are so you can get a feel for what the career path is.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:04:32] Yeah, so informational interviews is always something, you know, I want to get in to this industry, reach out to some brother, that's perfect connection. Reach out to brothers on LinkedIn saying can, you know, we just chat. What are some good questions if I'm, let's say I'm looking to get into banking and don't know anything about it. I reach out to you. What are some good questions in those informational interviews to ask, to be able to really get a good sense of things?
Hernan Mayol [00:04:55] Well, you said it. Banking is so broad and people don't understand the different areas. But think about it. Everybody needs a banker, right? Everybody needs a banker. Everybody deposits their money somewhere and mostly everybody gets a loan somehow. So, you know, you start talking with those people. And the first line of defense, like I told you at a branch. Talk to a branch officer about what their experienc is and their career path. And then after you get a loan, talk to a loan officer who's not at a branch typically. And what's their experience and what's their career path? So there's so many areas. Operation, supply chain, technology, fintech, right? So there's people that are running fintechs within banks that are liaising with other fintechs like Visa has partnerships, for example with Bank of America.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:05:41] That's a great point that you just don't have to be in finance to be in the banking industry.
Hernan Mayol [00:05:44] Yeah. What I always tell people is, yes, value the network and we have such a great network. It's just tapping the network. Call people and reach out to people and then you'll get a feel for what they're doing and be able to move up that way.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:06:00] You've been listening to Business Edge, brought to you by Alpha Kappa Psi professional business fraternity and sponsored by Synergos Association Management Company. Now let's get back to the conversation.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:06:13] So talk to us a little bit. You transitioned out of banking. Where are you now?
Hernan Mayol [00:06:17] So now I work for the U.S. Small Business Administration, so I run strategic alliances for the SBA and International. So 32 million small businesses in the U.S. have a market. 97% of the consumers for U.S. products are outside of the U.S.. So we help small businesses try to export and find new markets. And then obviously we help them with the borrowing. Getting money for those business.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:06:46] How big is the organization?
Hernan Mayol [00:06:47] Well, we have 3000, so we're an executive branch agency. So a direct agency under the president of the United States.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:06:57] Wow. Okay.
Hernan Mayol [00:06:57] So we are like the Department of Treasury. So we're an independent agency with around 3500 staff members. We have 60 offices in the field.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:07:08] Wow. Okay. How did you get involved with that?
Hernan Mayol [00:07:11] So I got involved. I was the chairman of the Trade Finance Committee for the Bankers Association here. And I invited one of the guys that was the head of international for a bank to an event. And I hosted a small business event. And then when he became the head of the division, he invited me to join the SBA. And, you know, I was in transition. You know, I told you the story about what happened to me. And I said, you know, it's a good time to give back to the community. And that's what I'm doing now.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:07:43] Awesome. And I do think that's a great point that you can transition at any point in your career and do something somewhat related or completely different. It's never too late to start something new.
Hernan Mayol [00:07:53] Well, I always think I had the funnest job at banking because you get to meet people from around the world. I was in international corporate banking and correspondent banking, which is banks around the world are your clients, so you get to meet people. So I think I had the funnest job in banking, but that abruptly came to an end a couple of years ago, not by choice.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:08:14] Yeah, I was going to say. So let's lead into our signature question because I think that relates. So here on the Business Edge, our signature question that we ask all guests is tell us about a time when your personal values were challenged, what happened and how did you handle it?
Hernan Mayol [00:08:26] Interestingly enough, so I worked at Bank of America and I wanted to get promoted and they were going to send me to Peru to run the office, and the financial package was not there. So when I negotiated, they said, you know, we can't get to where you want to be. Let's find something else for you internally. We're happy with you. But I wasn't happy. I was there, you know, almost ten years. And I didn't see mobility. And a friend of mine reached out to work at Wells Fargo, and I went because of the money. And sometimes, you know.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:08:58] That's what you do.
Hernan Mayol [00:08:59] Sometimes that's what you do. Big mistake. Because everybody warned me about a person that was there that was our regional executive. And I did not see his character well because he invited me and my wife with his wife to dinner. So I thought, Oh, okay, so this guy's a pretty nice guy. Everybody else, you know, is probably lying to me, or it's just something that happened to them. And then when I joined the institution, I saw that he was stealing clients from the corporate banking division. And I confronted him, you know, and after I confronted him, the bank was making cuts for, you know, the bank had some issues and he took that as an opportunity to displace me. So I was without a job for a year and a half. Actually, not true. I became an entrepreneur. I started my own business as a consultant, which, you know, considering that I was doing it for a year and a half and I made money as a consultant. Auditing banks, actually.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:10:01] Oh, how funny.
Hernan Mayol [00:10:02] I struggled a lot at that period. I knew how small businesses, particularly people that have been in the corporate America for a while, how difficult it is to find resources out there. So again, that always stuck to my mind. And I said, if I ever have a chance to serve, I'll do so. So here's where I am today.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:10:23] That's awesome. I think that's a great example of sticking to your values. Absolutely. And at the end of the day, being able I call it the pass the red face test, I can look at myself in the mirror. I don't have any angst or anxiety about my decision. So I think that's very admirable. And we always like to hear that on the Business Edge, that people are sticking to their values and their decisions. And it just shows that when one transition happens in your life, in the moment, it can feel catastrophic. It can feel very down. You know, what have you. But it actually can open things up to an amazing gap that changes where you're going. It's where you're meant to be.
Hernan Mayol [00:10:58] Yeah, my heart is filled and it's the right time, right when people need it. After the pandemic, everybody's trying to figure out how they grow in the future. So another one I'll share real quick. Something that happened to me is the challenge with being Hispanic in U.S. banks was real, right? And I tried to move up also into traditional roles, but I always got sidetracked into Latin America, Hispanic communities.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:11:26] Got it, Yup, because it's still a very Caucasian male dominated industry.
Hernan Mayol [00:11:31] At that time, yes, at that time things are much, much better. But I transitioned eventually to cover the Southeast. So imagine, not a lot of Puerto Ricans were covering Birmingham, Alabama.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:11:43] Right, right, right.
Hernan Mayol [00:11:44] But what I proved was that I could be successful in areas of nontradition. You just treat people with kindness, respect, diligence, and then the results will show for themselves.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:11:55] Yeah, absolutely. Well, Hernan, it's been wonderful to talk to you. Thank you so much. Enjoy the rest of Convention.
Hernan Mayol [00:12:00] I appreciate it.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:12:01] And we appreciate you sharing.
Hernan Mayol [00:12:02] Thank you.
Chrissy Vasquez [00:12:03] Take care.
Finn Lambouris [00:12:06] Thanks for listening to Business Edge. If you have questions, comments or topic suggestions for us. Email businessedge@akpsi.org.