Financial Changemakers

Welcome to the Financial Changemakers podcast with Gretchen Betts – Managing Director at Magenta Financial Planning and Olivia Parnell – Trainee Financial Planner, Ascot Lloyd. This podcast series is for you if you are interested in learning about diversity and inclusion and are keen to embrace and make positive change in your life, business, management style or company ethos. In this seventh episode, hosts Gretchen and Olivia, discuss the topic of Sexuality and Sexual Orientation in the Financial Services Profession with their guest, Joe Baldwin, Vice Principle from Bridgend College. The Mission Statement of Bridgend college is ‘Be All That You Can Be’. One of the values of the College is to be an Inclusive organisation. There is a shift happening about how people discuss sex and gender, and the profession will need to evolve as society is, to ensure that businesses move forward. In order to create an inclusive process for clients, we must try to re-frame our inbuilt ‘default’ of assuming that all couples are male and female. It will take time, but it is important to continue to break down the ‘norms’ that people have grown up with. To change the mindset and the language, so that everyone starts to feel/act less awkward. It’s important to feel that the experience is the same for all clients, but at the same time, tailor made and suitable for the individuals needs, whatever their circumstance. It is a skill to develop, and requires us to ‘unlearn’ the language which has been built in. This is a wider society issue, which need to be addressed both in and out of the workplace. Joe’s shares his personal experience with Financial Planning - and there is so much we can learn from this.  This podcast series is about creating a safe place for discussion and ultimately enabling you, our listener, to be a Changemaker. Let’s listen. Let’s Discuss. Let’s Learn. Let’s Implement Positive Change.