Honoring Native American Heritage Month

Alicia Steere Welcome to the Side of the Desk podcast hosted by Fidelity Jobs and the Fidelity Women's Leadership Group. We are here to have deep discussions on the authentic experience of being a working professional in today's ever changing workforce. Alicia Steere Hi, everyone, and thanks for joining us for this episode of Side of the Desk. I'm your host, Alicia Steer. I'm here with today with Farr, Qureshi and our guest, Brandon Krohn. Alicia Steere Brandon, welcome to the episode. Absolutely. Alicia Steere This month in November, we are celebrating Native American Heritage Month. Brandon, can you tell us a little bit about your tribal affiliation? Brandon Krone Yeah, happy to. Brandon Krone So I'm in Upper East Side Manhattan now, but my tribal affiliations are to the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. It's Brandon Krone a couple of hours north or a few hours north of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Brandon Krone So Ojibwe. Otherwise known as Anishinaabe, which just means the original people. Alicia Steere That's very cool. I have never been to Minnesota, but my husband lived there for a while and he loves it out there, although I'm sure downtown Minneapolis is a little bit different from Alicia Steere your experiences growing up. Alicia Steere Can you share a little bit about your current role at Fidelity? Brandon Krone So my current role, I'm a planning consultant. I partner with two of our VP financial consultants out of the Upper East Side Brandon Krone primary goal of my role. Now, I suppose just to deepen client relationships, work with our clients, just to get a better understanding of what they're looking to accomplish in life, Brandon Krone and then just help them align their finances and their goals. Farrah Qureshi That's awesome. And Farrah Qureshi what brought you out of financial services and what brought you out of fidelity? Brandon Krone As far as my my entry to, you know, the financial services industry Brandon Krone had kind of a Brandon Krone unique entry to it, I suppose. I had a friend growing up. He wrestled at Brandon Krone Arizona State, and at that time I was wrestling at the University of Minnesota. His dad was the CEO of an institution headquartered out of Minneapolis. And it's one of those things where he knew who I was. Brandon Krone I thought I'd be a good fit and invited me to to an event. It's one of those things where he kind of just encouraged me to stay there for an hour or two. And, Brandon Krone you know, as a lot of people who are much more successful than myself and made me feel very welcomed and, Brandon Krone was a good environment of staying for the whole event that evening. Brandon Krone So it kind of got me hooked as far as my foot in the door in the financial services industry. And then beyond that, I, you know, joined Fidelity and 2021, you know, shortly after COVID. And Brandon Krone yeah, I've been with Fidelity since Farrah Qureshi That's awesome. And, you know, as you've been at Fidelity and as you've brought different parts of your identity to Fidelity, Farrah Qureshi have there been any people that you've been able to look at who have Farrah Qureshi giving you the motivation, the excitement to bring your full, authentic self into work every day? Brandon Krone yeah, absolutely. There's there's a couple of people, Brandon Krone but there's one that comes to mind the most His name is Chad and he was one of the first people that I think met that I met when it came to like onboarding with fidelity. Brandon Krone Chad Renfro And at that time, I think his role is something in regards to covered relations. Brandon Krone But he is very well-spoken, very smart guy, and it's also like tattooed all over the place and doesn't necessarily look like, you know, your your ideal financial services industry, Brandon Krone you know, individual. Brandon Krone And he made that very apparent when he first came on me is like, I know I got tattoos Brandon Krone and I don't look like you're your typical financial advisor and, Brandon Krone you know, he really talked about IQ and IQ and you know, what we look for and people that we we work with and want to be associated with and yeah, a very good entry and something I really appreciated as far as joining Fidelity and being comfortable and confident with with who I want to be and the way I want to carry myself. Alicia Steere Thanks, Brandon. I think that that's really important to be able to bring your authentic self to work and be able to express your individuality and whether it's your heritage or you want to do your hair blue or whatever you want to need at work to make yourself feel like you. I think that that's really important. Alicia Steere And I know that you said your Alicia Steere friend's dad had pulled you in to kind of your introduction to the financial services industry, and Alicia Steere certainly that is one way to get started in an Alicia Steere industry. Alicia Steere So how is that different than how you grew up and some of the access that you had within your community and kind of your perspective on financial services as a whole? Brandon Krone You know, as far as my upbringing, the financial literacy or financial education conversations, Brandon Krone there really weren't any. So very grateful for and and you know, the opportunity as far as getting my foot in the door in the financial services industry. Brandon Krone But as far as how it differs, you know, I think if that opportunity wasn't put in front of me, that I, I wouldn't be here. Brandon Krone You know, the education and this is kind of leftfield, but the education system doesn't necessarily put you in a position to, you know, learn financial literacy. And yes, you you have certain schools that are offering electives and things like that. And Brandon Krone As far as how it differs, you know, I, I didn't necessarily have a ton of access to it. My family was really young. My family was very much so, like the epitome of paycheck to paycheck and I suppose my my way of learning was learning what not to do. Brandon Krone So I actually was very smart with money from a very young age. Got my first car at 16 with cash, you know, got a credit card that was joint with my mom when I was 16 and only used it for death. So had a had a great credit score when I when I was on my own. Brandon Krone But outside of that, you know, I didn't really have any any understanding of, you know, how to invest, how to, you know, position myself to a better degree for a better future. Brandon Krone Whereas when you're in this industry, you know, fidelity does an amazing job of offering education and, you know, it's it's an open array of research that you have access to, which is awesome. But yeah, without being in the industry, I definitely wouldn't have delved anywhere near the depths. I'm at now. Farrah Qureshi And what other way is that either maybe right now or in the future that you Farrah Qureshi hope to give back to your community through financial literacy and some of the lessons that you may have learned? Brandon Krone biggest way, I suppose, would be to just give back as much education as possible. Brandon Krone I think it's so crazy. I was having this conversation with a friend the other day, but you know, we have all the access to education that we could possibly want and oftentimes it's used for the wrong reasons. And I think just being in a position where you have a voice and you can use that voice in a positive way to express like certain benefits or certain things you can do to really better yourself, even if they're really minuscule, you know, small habits can can bring great benefits Brandon Krone and just Brandon Krone trying to be a good resource on that front and being able to leverage the education and the resources that I have to, I suppose, Brandon Krone just educate other people. Alicia Steere that's great. I think that's really invaluable. Alicia Steere and obviously being in Minnesota is is drastically different than being in New York City. So can you tell us a little bit about how you've adapted to the change or maybe what you missed from home or a piece of your community that you brought with you that makes you proud of your heritage? Brandon Krone Yeah. As far as adapting to the change, it's definitely new. You know, riding the subway Brandon Krone and Brandon Krone public transit, very new and different Brandon Krone as far as, you know, what I carry with me or what I take with me, I move a lot and Brandon Krone very prideful of, you know, my heritage, my background. And, Brandon Krone you know, I have Brandon Krone certain things that I suppose move everywhere with me. Brandon Krone I have like little Brandon Krone native items. I have like a bow and arrow standing on the wall right next to me. And, you know, other I suppose just, just native pieces of arts. Brandon Krone aside from the physical items and some of the things I bring with me Brandon Krone that remind me of, you know, family and my heritage, the other thing I'd say I bring with me everywhere is just my spiritual beliefs. Brandon Krone You know, moving to New York, things can feel very different. But it was nice that fidelity is like very respectful and accommodating to my my spiritual beliefs. Farrah Qureshi what are ways, especially as you may be a little bit further away from your family and some of your friends that you've grown up with, that you're able to keep with some of your customs and traditions and honor your heritage Farrah Qureshi in a way where you're able to personally celebrate, even if you may be a little bit further away from family. Brandon Krone yeah great question. And I think it is hard when you're further away from family and, you know, you don't necessarily have some of the same same accessibility to appreciate or be a part of like some of those some of those, Brandon Krone celebrations, points of life, whatever it may be Brandon Krone for me. Brandon Krone And I suppose the advice I would give is just to stick to your guns and and be yourself. Brandon Krone I know for you and I had this conversation before to some degree, but, Brandon Krone I would always get nervous, for example, to, like, braid my hair and come into the office and, you know, after doing it once and just like understanding that, you know, this is part of who I am, this is very normal or accustomed to, to my heritage Brandon Krone and just being confident, sticking to it. Brandon Krone I think it's really nice when you can find an institution or, Brandon Krone you know, a company that's willing to stand behind you on that. So really just being who you are, sticking to your guns, not necessarily changing Brandon Krone to accommodate to anything. And obviously you have to be respectful of everything and there are certain restraints, but, Brandon Krone you know, being being who you are and sticking to who you are and finding somewhere that fits well with what that is. Alicia Steere and that's such a great answer. Alicia Steere Thank you so much for the time today, Brandon. Alicia Steere Thank you also to our listeners and our very talented creative solutions team for always making these episodes happen. Alicia Steere Please like subscribe comment. We want to hear how you are bringing your authentic self to work. If you have a certain heritage that you're proud of, chime in in the comments Alicia Steere and we will see you next time on the next episode of Side of the Desk. Alicia Steere Thank you for listening to this side of the desk episode and thank you to our recording studio and editors who make our episodes possible. For more information about working at Fidelity, check out Fidelity Careers dot com.