Chrissey Breault is the director of marketing and member services at American Association of Private Lenders and the creator/editor-in-chief of Private Lender magazine. Before joining AAPL, Chrissey worked in county government as a communications expert. Her 15-plus years in communications and marketing started in the hospitality industry with Hilton and Marriot brands. She was the youngest female general manager in the company’s history, maintained the highest service scores at each property and significantly reduced employee turnover rates, all while maintaining enthusiastic professional courtesy. The results landed her Employee of the Year twice as well as several other customer service awards. She holds an associate’s degree in Hospitality & Travel from Bradford School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and certifications in Adobe Web Design, Project Management, and Volunteer Management. She has extensive emergency communication (disaster) training through FEMA, volunteered with C.E.R.T, started a freelance photography business and served on a board which organized a city-wide art festival that highlighted high school artists and supported the arts for those with developmental disabilities.
AAPL caught up with Breault and discussed her experiences and observations as a woman in business.
AAPL: What female leader do you try to emulate or look up to for strength and guidance?
Chrissey Breault: I read and follow a lot of strong professional women: Sheryl Sandberg, Elizabeth Warren, Gloria Steinem, Melinda Gates, Ellen DeGeneres, etc. Still, who I hope to emulate is my late grandmother. Not that those women I follow aren’t worth emulating! I just don’t personally know them. My mémère was a strong, hard-working woman. At a young age, she supported her family on her own. She worked tireless hours in two jobs, molded kids who worked with her in their first jobs plus taught old dogs new tricks, and was still loved and respected by everyone, despite being about five-foot-tall, direct and never being a “Yes, sir” personality in a time when it wasn’t always socially correct for women to assert themselves. She raised her children to always do what they thought was right and to do those things respectfully. She also had a wicked sense of humor!
AAPL: Do you have daily practices that lend to your strengths?
CB: I’m a list person. Sometimes I fall off the wagon, but I find that when I’m on it, I am even, focused, organized and get more accomplished, plus there is a certain level of stress that is alleviated. At the beginning of each week I look at what I couldn’t get to the previous, and carry it over. Then,
AAPL: What characteristics are necessary for women to be in such a male dominated industry?
CB: Patience. Just kidding, a little. Confidence, humor and integrity are my go-to characteristics. There are plenty of others but in our industry, those top the list.
AAPL: What motivates you to get out of bed and face your industry on a daily basis?
CB: As a single woman, I’m not looking at making an impression on my kids or worried about those sort of family or financial obligations as plenty of other women are at my age. I could tell you that not wanting to clean up after my dogs gets me out of bed every day! What motivates me now compared to even 10 years ago has changed. I get up to continually prove to myself that I’m independent, strong and capable of not anything, but everything. I want my nieces to see that they can be a professional, career-minded woman who always makes time for them and fights for them to have the best futures they could possibly have. I want my dad to look down on me and think “Damn, I did right with that one!”
AAPL: What do you think women, as a whole, bring to the finance industry?
CB: Next to diversity and a new view of the landscape? Ambition. It’s not about being selfish or self-serving. It’s really about wanting to create more and do better.
AAPL: What advice would you give other woman searching for their industry voice?
CB: Don’t waver. If you want something, then go get it.
AAPL: What characteristics are necessary for a woman to have to be a good leader?
CB: Same as what it takes to be in a male dominated industry, except add compassionate or even empathetic to the list.
AAPL: Do you define yourself as an industry disrupter? If so, how and why?
CB: No. But, I’m also not trying to be one in private lending. There are plenty of other women who are far more passionate, and I prefer to learn from and support them as much as I can.
AAPL: Do you think the gender gap still exists? Please explain.
CB: Sure do. It’s multi-faceted but it’s not a lie. We get closer to closing in on it, but it still exists. Skeptics and those who can’t understand the explanations tend to think that women ‘choose’ different and lower-paying industries or positions but that just implies that the wage gap measure is not a good measurement of economy-wide inequality. ‘Choice’ is an unverified assumption.
AAPL: What changes do you think should be made to create a balance between men and women in the finance industry?
CB: To grasp the true magnitude of the issue there has to be focus on historic morals and a modernized cultural shift. There has been evidence of barriers that don’t freely allow or support a woman’s occupational choice, from lack of unbiased information about jobs to actual harassment and discrimination in male-dominated jobs.
AAPL: Do you have any groundbreaking ideas on how the gender gap can be closed? If so, what are they, please explain.
CB: I wish!
AAPL: What do others need to be aware of when it comes to the gender gap in the finance industry?
CB: You always hear about the big issues out of Hollywood and Silicon Valley, but finance outweighs both of those when it comes to this issue. I find such an irony in that, since there is such a focus on building and managing wealth. Rebecca Fender from CFA Institute once said, “Visibility is validity.” I couldn’t agree with that more.
AAPL: Have you witnessed change since you started in the industry?
CB: Nothing huge. But I do see more women launching tech platforms, a small few have been promoted into more visible positions, and we are talking more about the lack of diversity.
AAPL: Is your company making waves in the industry through corporate responsibility?
CB: I don’t know about in the industry but there is a lot of focus on local initiatives such as working with seniors and support of a local women’s shelter.
AAPL: How can companies improve their own responsibility to their stakeholders and community?
CB: I think the first step is to recognize some unique activity that took place throughout 2017. They tested companies and changed the ways of addressing social and global challenges. Activism – or investing – in the issues that matter to most of a company’s employees, customers or even community, are things to be keeping an eye on. No matter how well intended one person’s passions, there needs to be buy-in as a company to make the biggest impact.
I’m passionate about a lot of things. Supporting animal rescues and veteran causes lead the list, but that may not be what others are passionate about. It’s hard to rally the troops when they don’t care. That can end up being a lot of wasted resources on something that makes no real impact in the end. Not the best move on a company’s behalf – also considering possible PR angles! Also, there needs to be a core culture shift in most workplaces. Too many look at corporate giving as another job task.
AAPL: Do you see or think there is a difference between male and female views of corporate responsibility?
CB: I do think so. Just because we may [go] to the same meetings, have the same colleagues or be chasing the same promotion, our perspectives and experiences are typically very different.
Linda is going to kill her for this post.
AAPL: Where do you see a company’s responsibility falling as far as the gender gap?
CB: On top of just not believing the data or being a skeptic that the gap exists, I don’t hear of very many companies making an attempt of salary normalization in the private sector anymore. Possibly because of some trendy workplace culture shifts like not having titles or defined organizational ladders (EveryoneisaVP.com!). I also think that most people don’t look at how promotions are given. Many times, men are put into higher leadership positions because some simply think they’ll get in the position and do a good job. Meanwhile, women need to continually prove themselves in order to even be considered for a promotion.
AAPL: Is the Equal Opportunity Act enough?
CB: Only to a middle-class privilege passed across generations.
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