Renata Martins

What I love the most and makes me very excited to go to work every day is being able to help people succeed, either customers or employees. I love when there are customers that are struggling, and you can teach them and impact their lives positively, or even customers that have a lot of money and they had no idea how they could earn more out of that. I also love promoting people, helping people get to the next step and the next position. So helping others is definitely my motivation. I've been very fortunate in so many ways, and giving back to the community is something that we all should be doing. I was very fortunate that when I came here, I met people that actually believed in me and made me see the beauty on being different, and I want to make sure that everyone that feels like that is empowered as well.

I would say it's very important for you to have an open heart to what your leadership has to say, meaning that people are in their roles for a reason. Agreeing or not, they have some sort of expertise. So I think it's more important for you to be open to what people need to tell you, what they have to tell you. If you don't walk in with an open mind and open heart, you're not going to really learn anything to benefit. Having a mentor is key. Throughout my career, I always have had them, and sometimes I tweaked them, and sometimes I had a couple of them. But having a mentor, I think it's key, someone that wants to invest in you.

Don't think that you can't do it because you're a woman. Nowadays, it works in your favor. The banking industry wants more women because we all have reports and all of that where it counts a lot if you have diversity at work. So they want brown, they want women, they want LGBTQ+, they want people that recognize them on being part of a special group. I come from Brazil, born and raised, where things are very challenging, and I was very fortunate that when I came here, even though I thought that maybe because I'm different, because of my accent or whatever that would be, I wouldn't be able to be successful in my position. But I'm just so thankful that I have met people that actually believed in me and made me see the beauty on being different. I want to make sure that everyone that feels like that is empowered as well.

I think the challenges are making sure that we have the opportunity to engage with clients to help them. A lot of customers, they want to do everything digitally, which is very convenient, but then they sometimes don't have the opportunity just to sit down with someone and help them succeed financially. So I think the biggest challenge is getting them at the branch so we can connect with them in person. On the opportunity side, I've been very strong when it comes to bringing back the volunteering at Wells Fargo in the San Diego area. A couple years ago, I did the biggest volunteering event that we ever did at Wells Fargo, since ever at Wells Fargo here in San Diego, where we had like 600 hours in one day. Because of my influence, I'm able to motivate others to want to go outside and give back to the community as well.

I believe integrity and commitment are most important to me. I've been very fortunate in so many ways, and giving back to the community is something that we all should be doing. What makes me very excited to go to work every day is being able to help people succeed, either customers or employees. I love when there are customers that are struggling and you can teach them and impact their lives positively. Helping others is definitely my motivation. I also believe it's very important to have an open heart to what your leadership has to say and to be open to what people have to tell you.