Lender's key account manager on faking it until you make it
She’s been working successfully in the financial services industry for over twenty years, and currently as a national key account manager for Santander UK, yet Aimie Jo Shutt (pictured) admits that imposter syndrome has been the biggest challenge of her career.
“Growing up and throughout life really, I've struggled with confidence and I've been quite shy,” Shutt told Mortgage Introducer. “A lot of people don't believe me when I say that, but I genuinely have. In fact, I write a little blog every month or so, which is well-being and mental health-related, and this month I'm writing about imposter syndrome.
“It's been quite enlightening to actually research it and realise that throughout my career, even to this point, I have really struggled with that. So, with presenting, for example, when I first took a job as a BDM, I was absolutely terrified about the prospect of standing up in front of people and them looking at me, and having to talk. The first time I did it, I didn't sleep for a week. But fast forward to where I am now, presenting is one of my favourite things to do - I genuinely love it.”
She continued: “In terms of challenging and overcoming my worries over presenting, I practiced and practiced and practiced. I even videoed myself presenting and it was the most cringeworthy thing I've ever had to go through. I realised that when I was presenting, I was standing on one leg! So, I'm really glad that I did that because I've managed to nip that in the bud.”
For Shutt, the key is to reframe her fears. “What I try to do is think about the people who have hired me for jobs. I absolutely respect my manager Graham Seller – head of intermediaries and the mortgages key account team at Santander UK. He's absolutely amazing. If I'm having a moment of self-doubt, I think ‘He hired me, he thinks I'm okay, he thinks I'm great. Therefore, if I value his opinion, I need to carry that within myself and have that confidence.’ You just have to reframe it, and that determination of what you want to achieve gets you through anything. In terms of a lack of confidence, I think if you feel as a person like you're faking it, you've probably already made it to some degree, for you to feel that way.”
Shutt’s candidness about her confidence is refreshing and striking, given her long and impressive career in the mortgage sector. Like many of her peers, she ended up in the business by accident, after leaving school with plans to go travelling. “The one thing my mum insisted on was that I do a one year secretarial course, and then I was free to go and see the world,” Shutt recalled, “So I did my dues, and on one of my return trips from travelling, I got a temporary job as a mortgage administrator. I progressed through it, put myself through CeMAP. I was in that job for seven years, as a mortgage broker eventually, and then went on to do another five years as a mortgage and protection adviser at another firm, and now 22 years later I'm still in finance.”
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Having walked in their shoes helps her to support brokers
Shutt switched to lending in 2014, as a mortgage and protection manager with HSBC, then as a business development there, before joining Santander three years ago. She believes that having worked as a broker gives her an important insight in her role now. “To understand someone you have to walk in their shoes,” she said. “I think being a broker is a very, very difficult job, but that knowledge helps me to help brokers more and look for ways, as a lender, that we can support them and make their lives easier. I understand the challenges, and the joys as well, that they have in their job. It means that you can add a greater value. As a key account manager, I look after the relationships with people who are important to Santander. For me personally, if our key accounts love us, and love me, then I feel like I'm doing a really good job.”
How, then, does Shutt view the current market? “Did you ever play whack-a-mole in your younger years?” she asked. “My view of the market and the industry, is that there's always something coming at us, isn't there? There's always some challenge that we've got to overcome, and we’re such a resilient industry. But then, from that challenge breeds the opportunity because brokers are needed more so than ever to help people through all of what's going on. At Santander, nearly 90% of our business comes from brokers, which is a testament to how important they really are.
“When the FCA announced their clarification on the stress test earlier this year, Santander took the opportunity. We were the first one out of the traps, lowering our stress rate so that we could help with affordability, to help more brokers help more clients. I think relationship is everything. As lenders we need to remember how much trust brokers put in us when they're recommending us to their clients and we need to be worthy of that trust and to back it up. We will continue to keep doing that. My grandma used to always say, ‘You've got two ears and one mouth for a reason.’ We're going to keep listening. I really hope that our brokers out there have seen and felt the difference, and felt how much we care about them.”
Shutt lives her life and her career by the saying ‘where there's a will, there's a way’. “We all need to know that we can do anything we want,” she said. “I was talking about this to a friend and he said, ‘Behind that will is the why, and why you're doing something.’ When you set your mind to doing something, and think, ‘Right, I've got to do this’, it's amazing what you can do.”
