Talking All Things Podcasts at Fidelity

00:00:00:02 - 00:00:26:06 Mark Welcome to the Side of the Best podcast hosted by Fidelity Jobs and the Fidelity Women's Leadership Group. We are here today to celebrate National Podcast Month. I am your host, Mark Levins. Today I'm joined by Joe and Jim and Adam. I'm going to pass it off to the three of them just to quickly introduce themselves and to talk very briefly as we'll get more in-depth about the podcast that they hosted and the variety of things that are offered here at Fidelity. 00:00:26:08 - 00:00:28:20 Mark So happy Podcast month, everyone. 00:00:28:22 - 00:00:50:01 Jim Happy podcast. Mom, thanks for. Thanks for inviting us, Marc. I'm Jim Armstrong. And with whom was Fidelity for going on six years now and have consistently been working in the webinar slash webcast slash podcast slash livestream space. Maybe that's one of the things we can talk about today. The fact that we have multiple names for for what is essentially the same thing. 00:00:50:01 - 00:01:04:22 Jim But I spent several years creating content for our customers in the pre-retirement and life event space. But these days I am focused on cryptocurrency education, which we could definitely talk more about as well. 00:01:05:00 - 00:01:33:23 Joe Hey, so I'm Joe Shore pronouns he him and I'm actually in our Enterprise Diversity and Inclusion team. I'm the host of the podcast Out and Proud, which is started originally as a Fidelity Pride project in 2019 and then has grown exponentially since then, where it shares Fidelity employees stories about their coming out both outside of the workplace and in the workplace, and how they feel empowered to be out and proud and bring their full, authentic self to fidelity every single day. 00:01:34:01 - 00:01:55:05 Adam And I'm ademiluyi. I'm the chief Information Security officer for Fidelity, where I run all things cybersecurity related and get my toes into tech. On the podcast that I co-host with my co-host Maureen called Tech on Deck, where we talk about all things technology related to fidelity and the larger industry. 00:01:55:07 - 00:02:20:12 Mark Awesome. Thanks so much for the quick intros. Joe, I'm going to start with you. As one of the early members here, the oldest podcast. I think on today's episode, you know, that's something that is really fantastic that Fidelity offers. And, you know, just to really tell the stories, if you could kind of summarize how it started because I think that's really important to focus on. 00:02:20:14 - 00:02:28:12 Mark You know, not only does Fidelity have a wide variety of topics that we cover, but, you know, what's important to you can really shine through. 00:02:28:14 - 00:02:43:08 Joe Sure. So thank you for that, Mark. So back in 2019, I had the idea of telling Fidelity associate stories in a way that resonated for other members, other people at the company, both members of the Lgbtqia+ community and those that are not. 00:02:43:10 - 00:03:12:05 Joe And so we recorded a series of stories actually 15 and dropped them in Pride Month, June 2018 as a way to sort of celebrate, kick off and appreciate Pride Month. And the original intent was for it to be those 15 episodes only. However, the more and more that fellow Fidelity employees were able to hear stories of their coworkers and their friends and and also share their own story, they felt very inspired and empowered. 00:03:12:05 - 00:03:40:11 Joe And more and more people came to share their own stories and ask for this to be continued, a continued resource for others that are looking to learn more about both Fidelity and the Pride Employee Resource Group. And then in 2021 we took it external, so it shifted to an external facing podcast and we rereleased several of those episodes for the initial launch and we've continued to share a couple of episodes. 00:03:40:13 - 00:04:16:05 Joe We have one that talks about the history of pride and the history of diversity inclusion at Fidelity as well that have been released through this podcast mechanism. And what we found is not only are we able to connect fellow members of the LGBTQ plus community to people that they may not have heard their story before, but we're also educating people that are doing business with fidelity, that are thinking about coming to fidelity, about how fidelity is a welcoming, not just a welcoming environment, but an environment where you can show up day one as yourself and be not only accepted, but be feel inspired and empowered. 00:04:16:05 - 00:04:21:19 Joe So that sort of a little bit of the journey from for that podcast, 00:04:21:21 - 00:04:42:01 Mark that's just incredible. Joe I love hearing everything about it. I know I listened to your episodes. I just wanted to make sure that we start talking there about bringing your authentic self in and you know who's there. And I know even Side of the Desk has done a few episodes on bringing your authentic self to work, and that's huge. 00:04:42:02 - 00:05:13:00 Mark It doesn't matter who you are. And what fascinates me is how Fidelity is able to push that forward and help push the envelope on what are we talking about and being inclusive. And one of the big things that allows us to do that is actually a lot of vetting of things, which is a very lazy Sergei into Adam in cybersecurity with tech on deck because without, you know, you and your team's helps, we wouldn't be able to get out there and produce these and put them out there. 00:05:13:00 - 00:05:34:17 Mark So I know tech on deck is pretty new. Not crypto new, but it's pretty new. So just if you wanted to just talk a little bit about how you launch that and what started that, I know it's very, very conversational, but there's so much happening in technology today between AI and everything else that is just absolutely terrifying to anyone who's ever watched any sci fi movie. 00:05:34:19 - 00:05:38:21 Mark So if you wanted to talk about that for a minute, that would be fantastic. 00:05:38:23 - 00:06:13:21 Adam Yeah, absolutely. So we started Tech on deck with sort of the premise exactly what you talked about. There's so much going on in technology and it can be scary. But the initial thought process was do people within the company understand all the things that are going on in technology? What careers are out there, what interesting challenges and problems are out there and that sort of morphed into do people outside the company understand all of these technology opportunities and all this cutting edge tech that's being used in financial services and very specifically within fidelity? 00:06:13:23 - 00:06:38:16 Adam So our goal is bring in a technologist in each episode, break down, what do they do? What do they see, Where do they think the world is going in a way that everyone can understand that and hopefully that people can see themselves on that path to a tech career or on a journey to working with this scary, new cutting edge technology that may not be in their background. 00:06:38:18 - 00:06:42:10 Adam And we just hope that's the takeaway that people have from from our episodes. 00:06:42:11 - 00:07:17:12 Mark And that's that's fantastic. I think really it's it's insane how much technology goes into this. And that's the purpose of bringing us all together today, is to talk about the variety of podcast that exists because we're trying to let people know that Fidelity first and foremost, has a wide variety of opportunities right within it. And there's so much it's technology, it's security, it's finance, it's crypto, it's DNA opportunities. 00:07:17:12 - 00:07:45:12 Mark I know with Wendy John running everything so well today, you hear everything that she's doing to help push us forward in that space. And then, you know, the 401k space. But coming back to, you know, Jim, you with crypto, there's so much happening there and it's such a hot button topic. You are the kind of odd duck here where you're not a you're not a true what we would call podcast yet right. 00:07:45:12 - 00:08:06:19 Mark You're not on just Apple or Spotify or Google. You're, you know in a lot of different ways, which is again showing how much we're pushing the envelope. So can you talk a little about just where you guys are? How do we find you and then how you got started? Because I know crypto at Fidelity's relatively new. 00:08:06:21 - 00:08:27:12 Jim Yeah, absolutely. And give me a high sign if I start for talk to talking too long because I think there's three or four questions embedded in what you just said there. But at a high level right now, you can see all of our crypto live stream content on YouTube as well as on our our flagship, the Fidelity Ecom app, as well as online telecom online, I should say. 00:08:27:14 - 00:08:49:19 Jim So you can find us, you can find the crypto live stream content there. I think we are getting closer to launching a podcast in crypto. No date yet, but it's certainly on our roadmap primarily because people have told us they want to consume content that way and we're trying to be responsive to that in crypto, particularly because it's fast moving. 00:08:49:21 - 00:09:16:11 Jim But the answer to the second half of your question is how did I get into podcasting in general? We at Fidelity, we started a program that was also a live stream slash webcast slash webinar called Market Sense Back in the throes of the pandemic. So literally, we launched it March 18th of 2020, as everybody was appropriately freaking out and losing their minds about what was going to happen in the world and with their finances. 00:09:16:11 - 00:09:35:16 Jim Right? And so what was happening is people were calling us and the lines on the phone were frustratingly long and we needed a one too many solution to talk to customers. So we decided we would do a weekly webcast focus just on what was happening on the markets, what Fidelity was thinking about it, and then what you as a customer should do about it. 00:09:35:18 - 00:10:01:08 Jim And it's funny to hear Joe tell the story, too. We had a picture in our head of of that experience going to be six weeks long, eight weeks long, very time box. We'd get through the pandemic and then we'd be done. But the customer reaction to that content was awesome. And and so markets and still lives on today started as a livestream slash webcast, but evolved into a complementary podcast, I would say in late 2020, early 21. 00:10:01:08 - 00:10:07:04 Jim So that's got both of those offerings there. And I was fortunate to work on both of those before transitioning off to crypto. 00:10:07:06 - 00:10:29:23 Mark Incredible. I know we've got market sense, we've got fresh and that's that just launched. There's a lot of stuff that is online without necessarily being what we would consider a true podcast medium. Right? And it's incredible that Joe, yours kind of started as like the side of the desk, right? Which the side of the desk just did really start at the side of someone's desk. 00:10:29:23 - 00:10:52:02 Mark So it's it's really incredible. We didn't get named, you know, by happenstance. It was this is where we're recording. It's on the side of someone's desk. So it was a really, really neat way to segue into, you know, things happen at work. And as we've transitioned back into the office, things are happening in the office again. I know, Jim, I ran into you the other day in the office. 00:10:52:02 - 00:11:20:20 Mark Unfortunately, Joe Adam, I haven't had the opportunity to see you in person, but this is the beauty of what Fidelity offers here is the flexibility and freedom to really connect the way that we're connecting and to get our messages out there. So in regards to Adam, actually, I have a question for you. So with tech on deck, right, there's so many different things that are happening, how do you pick a topic? 00:11:20:22 - 00:11:45:21 Adam We survey you and we ask people within technology and outside technology, what are the interesting things you're hearing about that you may not know about? We also look at inbound requests on the recruiting side. What jobs are people responding to? What are the the hot tech careers out there? And we try to use both of those as signal to understand what people are curious about, what we can talk about. 00:11:46:02 - 00:12:10:04 Adam And again, giving those those insights, those hot things is up and coming things as things of of interest. So we've covered everything from data science and data analytics to crypto to we interviewed the firm CIO to understand his perspective on on technology and just about everything in between. And a quick plug. We have we have an interesting slate coming up for this next season, so I'm excited for season two. 00:12:10:06 - 00:12:30:16 Mark Oh, I love a quick flag for new podcast episodes dropping. It's it's always good. Freshest information found on the side of the Desk podcast. Joe, I've got a question here, and I've been thinking a lot about this, Just listening to all the episodes that you have, how do you as a host and someone who puts everything together. 00:12:30:18 - 00:12:32:03 Mark Walk through what. 00:12:32:03 - 00:12:43:18 Mark Is really a very personal story? And I know, you know, Jim and I don't we're talking about scientific things. We're talking about tech, we're talking about money. Money is very personal. But, Joe, you're really diving in even deeper. 00:12:44:00 - 00:12:44:12 Mark How do you. 00:12:44:12 - 00:12:55:01 Mark Prepare, you know, not just yourself, but, you know, the people that you're talking to, to really open up and share their story. It's you do it so well and I just want to know more. 00:12:55:03 - 00:13:22:19 Joe Thanks, Mark. I appreciate that. So I always start with my goal in mind. And the goal in mind is I want to make sure that whoever I'm speaking to feels that their story is represented in a way that is true to them, that they feel somewhat honored and excited that their story is being honored in a way, I should say, that is true to how they see it and how they want to represent it. 00:13:22:23 - 00:13:43:06 Joe And at the end of the day, I go where the individual leads. We do you know, from a tactical sense, I would say we do have some introductory conversations. I tell them every single person I meet with, I'm like, I don't want to know your story. I want to discover your story when I'm recording with you. I don't want to know your story ahead of time that's going to inform where I want to go. 00:13:43:11 - 00:14:16:08 Joe I let them know we're going to start generally talk about maybe the first time that you understood, Ed, that you're a member of the LGBTQ community. Maybe first couple of people that you told how that informed decisions you made later in life. And then we always end with some advice. You know, we want people who are listening who maybe have not come out or maybe they're a parent and they have a child that wants to come out or there's a variety of factors here or perhaps there, a friend wanting to support someone, or they're just someone that is trying to practice active allyship and be better in that space. 00:14:16:08 - 00:14:40:11 Joe And there's always a bit of both education and empowerment that goes into every episode. And and I'm just I'm naturally curious and excited to hear about people's stories and and I tell them, I said, you're the most interesting person in the world to me, not just for the time that we're recording, but in general. And I think that helps put people at ease and and they get excited, too, to share their story. 00:14:40:11 - 00:14:56:17 Joe And at the end of it, they're most excited to share it with their coworkers and their friends and family and really feel that they've put some good into the world. So that's that's a little bit longer winded than you probably wanted, but that's the full the full scope of it. I would say 00:14:56:19 - 00:15:05:05 Mark no, I want it all very impressed with everything that you've put out and of course the podcast voice that you just naturally have. 00:15:05:07 - 00:15:31:03 Mark There's something about that that just makes everything just come off even better. So, Jim, I know I've watched you host market sense for a long time and now you've transferred into the crypto space. You know, what was that transition like for you, knowing that crypto is so volatile? It's a very touchy subject. It's it's got to be just something a little bit different than what you were used to. 00:15:31:05 - 00:15:32:08 Mark Tell me more. 00:15:32:10 - 00:16:03:04 Jim I would say it's different and it's similar, but I think it's similarities are stronger than its differences and I want to build on what what Joe was just describing to answer that question. Right. Because what makes content good or listenable or watchable Watchable. In any event, it's are you compelled by the stories that you're hearing? When we were building market sense from the beginning, our inclination as corporate folk was to just create a slide show and then talks of asides. 00:16:03:09 - 00:16:29:17 Jim And certainly there's some value in that, right? Because you're trying to guide people through tumultuous times and you want to be able to show a graph of what's happened before and say, this could happen again. Everybody take a deep breath. Everybody exhale. What matters a ton more than that is on market sense and on the cover in crypto livestream, we're bringing in people's stories and bringing in their questions and what they're doing is sharing vulnerability about money, which is a big, big deal. 00:16:29:17 - 00:16:54:18 Jim Right? And in a way similar to what the story Joe is sharing, Joe are sharing about, it's people admitting that they're unsure or scared or unclear about something and then openly saying, can you help me understand this more? I think the world of finance in general is is filled with people who would like to know more, who are acting like they maybe no more than they do, but are hungry for information. 00:16:54:18 - 00:17:06:08 Jim Right. And so whether it's the market sensor, the covering crypto livestream, in both cases, that's what we're trying to do is get those people's stories and get their questions in and humanize the content. 00:17:06:09 - 00:17:09:04 Mark Incredible. Joe, I don't know if you have anything to add to that. 00:17:09:06 - 00:17:25:00 Joe No, I think I think there's a couple. So there's some really good universal truths that I think we can all probably agree on is that we care about our family, we care about our well-being, and we care about being taken care of. And so that manifests from the financial side, right? 00:17:25:00 - 00:17:43:21 Joe We want to make sure that we are secure and we want to make sure that we feel that our loved ones are secure. And we also want to make sure that we are able to maximize our life. And that manifests in very different ways and many different ways. You know, I think it's just I, I would agree with what Jim said. 00:17:43:21 - 00:17:45:07 Joe I like the way he put it. 00:17:45:08 - 00:18:10:12 Mark Yeah. I can't agree more. So, Adam, how do you bring the authenticity and the vulnerability that these two are just talking about into tech? Right. I know I said I'm scared of tech, right? Sometimes, and rightfully so. We don't know what's happening with half the things that we're looking into. And that's what makes Fidelity so special is we look into things like chat and AI and how do we do things. 00:18:10:18 - 00:18:23:04 Mark And there's so many opportunities from a career standpoint and also from what can Fidelity do for you standpoint. Is that something that you're leveraging? Is just that vulnerability and authenticity, or is there something else that you're leaning into. 00:18:23:09 - 00:18:49:03 Adam Following Jim and Joe on this topic is is a hard one. I don't know if I hold up to their efforts, but we try we try to bring the human side into the tech discussion. Many of the technologies that we profile and that we bring in and have conversations with don't have the traditional backgrounds that you would think of somebody who might be working in tech at a large company managing trillions of dollars. 00:18:49:05 - 00:19:08:05 Adam You know, we're a very serious and big place, but we support people that come from all kinds of different backgrounds and have switched careers and have moved into tech even later in their career. So we try to bring that human element for people to see, Hey, maybe this wasn't your background, but it's something you want to do. You can totally do it. 00:19:08:05 - 00:19:37:04 Adam And look, here's somebody who has done it, who came from the same background, switched careers, dropped out of college multiple times, left the workforce, came back to the workforce, didn't know what they wanted to do, and it took them a while to find their groove, took them a while to find the right company or the right location. We try to bring that human element in to say it's not all about the technology, but your background, your the things that you want to solve, you want to do in life. 00:19:37:04 - 00:20:00:13 Jim Your hopes and wishes is all part of a successful career, and the technology hopefully is the fun part. It's the it's the fun part that you can you can have some fun and it doesn't have to be scary. So even if you didn't come from that background, don't be scared. Look and find your place within technology and lean in to these these new things that we have to deal with every day. 00:20:00:15 - 00:20:22:10 Mark And I can't think of a better place to say check out Fidelity careers dot com. I really can't. It's exceptionally well said Adam. I think that really is a good point for us too. And today's episode is just wrapping everything up in a nice bow. It's been wonderful having you on. I know that we're going to continue to put out episodes side of the desk. 00:20:22:10 - 00:20:44:22 Mark Just want you all to know that we hear your voices in a variety of different ways and we love bringing everyone together so thank you all for joining us today. I go to Spotify, Apple, YouTube, Fidelity, Ecom, Anywhere you listen to podcasts or anywhere, you find fidelity and you'll probably see Jim. You'll hear Joe and you'll see Adam. 00:20:45:00 - 00:20:51:16 Mark So thank you all for joining. And until next episode, have a great day. 00:20:51:18 - 00:21:12:05 Mark (Alt Ending) I can't think of a better way to wrap this up. I know you're probably going to see Jim here, Adam see Joe out there on Fidelity E-Comm, Spotify, Apple, anywhere you can find your podcasts. For myself and the rest of the side of that team, I think it's time to call it before I fall off my desk. Thanks, but 00:21:12:07 - 00:21:18:21 Mark (Thank You) 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. 00:21:18:23 - 00:21:23:01 Mark For more information about working at Fidelity, check out Fidelity Careers dot com.