Jodi Miller

I always say it's my parents. It comes from being from a blue-collar entrepreneurial family. My father came from immigrant roots and realized that he had to make something of himself, and my mother realized how important it was to support her husband and also raise 5 children and build a business that was going to be 50-plus years in the making. That sort of drive and dedication to never quit, and of course they had a work ethic that was probably 7 days a week - I'm not promoting that, but I think a lot of that is instilled in me to make sure that I get the job done, and when I get the job done, it has to be the right job.

The best career advice I've ever received was probably never saying no. Never saying no to a new challenge, even if the challenge makes you extremely uncomfortable, even if you think you don't have the right background, either from a technical perspective or a non-technical perspective. Give the challenge a chance, lean on the people that are around you to guide you in that way, and just keep your head down, and you'll at least learn something. I've always aspired to that - take anything on, or even ask for things. I've always been proactive about asking to be part of either a project team or a different challenge, even when it was nowhere in any of my purview, because I knew that any one of the elements of that experience would allow me to learn something more and put down in my own resume. So I never say no to that.

The imposter syndrome is real. I think for women, we do think that we can't do it. I think it's real, you recognize it, but you don't lean into it. You find ways to complement yourselves by being the first one at the table. I try to tell a lot of the interns that I have, whether they're female or male, when you get to that meeting and you don't think you belong, or you're concerned about what people are going to think of why you're involved in that meeting or that project, be prepared. Be prepared and show people that you're inquisitive about something, you're asking questions, you show interest, you're following through. I think all of those things then help you to build the confidence that you need, so that way, little by little, as you go through your career, that imposter syndrome starts to diminish a bit. I think that's really key for everyone.

I think a lot of opportunity is most definitely around AI, and AI can be either positive or negative, but I do feel like it's really teaching all of us how to be more efficient. If you think about AI from that perspective, you can really utilize it in a way that we've never had it before. It's almost like getting onto the internet for the first time. I think that's a tremendous opportunity, and I think we're really able to see just the cutting edge of what that means. As long as you embrace it, I think that'll be a good step. A lot of the more challenges that we face, especially within the financial industry right now, is geopolitical - the wars, the tariffs are impacting what consumers feel. I'm on the wholesale side, so that means our clients are not individuals, we're large corporations. But large corporations are selling to individuals, and so they may sort of pull back in terms of their spending or their acquisitions, and then maybe they don't need the kind of funding that they need. All of that uncertainty in the world is going to impact us. That just means that for us in the bank, we need to think a little bit differently. We have to get creative with our clients, and how can we support them during this time? Do they need something different? If they thought they were going to need this product in particular, maybe they need a different product because their challenge is different. It just means that flexibility of being able to support and go through the cycle, and I think that's probably the challenge that we face the most now.

I think I tend to be a quite loyal person. I value relationships with my colleagues, and obviously I value them at home. I really think that's key to really getting things completed, and to be able to call upon people when you need it. So I feel like collaboration and relationship building is at my core, and I don't think I'm the best at it, but I think I really lean into that a lot more, especially when I'm doing something new or something that I may need a lot of help. I try to really go to that relationship core and make sure that I can pull people in. I think that's important, and I also like to set that example for myself to give back. When I pull people in, I'm not just pulling the most senior people in, I could pull the most junior people in, and it's also a way for them to gain that experience and for them to learn. So I think collaboration and relationship building is important, and again, that's important in my own personal life as well. I couldn't do a lot of this without the support of both my husband, my children, and everybody around me. They have to be able to help me to get to where I'm going to be, because you take this home sometimes, after the workday, even if you try not to.