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When you Google the word Moxie, the definition that comes up goes a little like this: force of character, determination and nerve. Those three terms pretty much sum up who Jessica Robinson is. When you meet Jessica, or get a chance to listen to her story on the second episode of Who Run the World, you quickly realize that she is a brave woman, who has chosen to live her life and career on her own terms.
Jessica is the founder and Managing Director of Moxie Future, a platform dedicated to engage and empower women to start thinking about their investment and financial decisions, while also having an impact on environmental and social issues. Through her company, Jessica strives to instill women with the same agency that inhabits her, and help them become active financial players.
From very early on in her career, Jessica was dissatisfied by the unbalanced nature of the workplace in regards to gender, whether it be because of the stereotypes ascribed to men versus women, or because of who is empowered to make financial and investment decisions.
In this article we look at how Jessica took that dissatisfaction and channeled it into creating a company that drives social change.
She Wasn’t Shown the Ropes, so She Made the Ropes
Jessica started out her career the UK, first working for a member of parliament and then as a consultant. During her time in both the public and private sectors, Jessica witnessed, and at certain instances experienced a lot of the injustices and prejudices that women faced. However, back in the 90s, things were very different from what they are now. Women were not as outspoken in regards to fighting for equality, or speaking out against unconscious bias. So Jessica had to comply with the status quo, having to act like one of the dudes, in order to be accepted into the boy’s club and advance her career.
During her conversation with Marilyn, Jessica mentioned that no one really taught her that she could say no, or how to be a career woman in a world where men and women were considered equals but not treated as such. That road was not paved yet, and Jessica is part of the generation who actually started to pave it for the rest of us. In fact, in one of our earlier conversations before the interview, she had mentioned to me that during her school days, girls were educated towards being wives and mothers. No one had ever told Jessica that it was okay to go down a different path.
This all came to a head when she found herself in Beijing, jobless, a wife and a mother of two young girls. Her identity had completely shifted into something she did not fully identify with. As I said at the beginning of the article, Jessica has chosen to live her life on her own terms, and I like to think that it all started in Beijing. Jessica simply took matters in her own hands, got a second masters online, and completely reset the course of her career and her own journey. She was finally able to bring together her financial acumen and her passion for social impact.
Empowering Women: Giving them Agency to Invest on their Terms
After a few years working in Beijing and Hong Kong, running a think tank amongst other things, Jessica found herself in another situation, where she was not satisfied. You see, things just did not move fast enough for Jessica. She wanted to make an impact quicker, she wanted to make more headway in terms of environmental initiatives, she wanted women to have more of a role to play. Simply put, she wanted to make more of an impact, but things were not changing the way she wanted them to and in the speed she would have liked.
At the same time, in recent years, she noticed that women were starting to become louder in claiming their rights and developing their agency. Jessica wanted to be a part of that movement. So Jessica packed her bags, moved to Dubai and started Moxie Future. Or as I like to say it: she got into the business of empowering women by giving them financial agency to invest in companies and industries that make a difference.
Moxie Future strives to put women in the driver seat, and help them make smart investments. More and more women are breaking through glass ceilings, reaching success and making more and more money. This means that women have an increasing amount of capital to invest. However, Jessica quickly noticed that women investors are very different from male investors. As a matter of fact, as it says on Moxie Future’s website: 90% of female investors care about creating an impact, but only 33% feel understood by advisors. Moxie Future strives to increase that number.
So today, you can find Jessica in Dubai, making a difference for women, and helping women make a bigger difference for the society at large. What I love about Jessica’s story is: not only is she living her journey on her terms, but she is helping others craft their journey on their terms.
To hear about Jessica’s story, check out her episode on our website, iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to your podcast. You can also learn about Moxie Future on their website.
If you have any questions, comments or just want to say hi, drop us a line on sayhi@whoruntheworldpodcast.com.