Bean Ninjas Team Member Spotlight: Fiona Fenton

Fiona Fenton already had an established career in finance before joining Bean Ninjas, but seeing how innovative and adaptable the Bean Ninjas team is immediately drew her in.

Early Career Days

Fiona Fenton started her career in a slightly different field to finance and accounting. Working as a solicitor in mid-size firms, she worked across a number of areas of law including family law, criminal law, and conveyancing.

After realizing she was more commercial than a legal environment provided, she began working for a major Australian bank, eventually moving into their Institutional finance division, doing cross-border transactions throughout Australia and Asia. Although her previous roles may seem a bit more conservative than her role with Bean Ninjas, she says it’s given her many skills and the opportunity to work globally.

“I’ve worked in corporate and traditional roles, but also had the opportunity to work in truly global businesses creating innovative finance solutions with my role in finance.”

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When Fiona first found out about Bean Ninjas, she was immediately attracted to the team’s entrepreneurial spirit and the way they created a brilliant business from nothing:

“I admired the Bean Ninjas philosophy.”

Bean Ninjas is founded on adapting itself to continually improve to provide the best service to clients.

“This is unique and something I consider myself lucky to be a part of.”

The opportunity to work for a startup and have a chance to make a real difference and implement changes has been very exciting for Fiona. She loves being able to nurture her ideas in order to improve things for her customers and the business.

“Working in a business at this phase of its growth means that I can truly make a difference. In larger organizations, things move slowly, change is difficult to implement, and the status quo is well established and often unquestioned, despite its utility.”

Asked whether she’ll become a long-term fixture of the Bean Ninjas team, there are no doubts for Fiona:

“I love to be surrounded by and be part of a high-performing team. I love to be inspired every day by the people I work with, by our clients, and by being able to contribute to Bean Ninjas’ success.”

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Career Lessons

One of Fiona Fenton’s biggest lessons when it comes to her career has been knowing when it’s time to move on.

“When it’s not fun anymore and you are no longer being challenged, move on. There are so many opportunities out there these days, take one!”

She also says it’s important to make sure that your boss is supportive and an advocate for you – no matter what stage you’re at in your career. The best thing you can do for your long-term career is to surround yourself with people you admire and can learn from, and to make sure that they believe in you, your worth, and your potential.

Her final lesson is about always doing what’s right for you:

“There are many paths to success – don’t feel that you need to follow one path, or do things ‘the right way.’ Follow your gut and instinct and what appeals to you. Success will follow.”

Fiona describes herself as fair, diligent, and enthusiastic – a great mixture of qualities for a Bean Ninja. She defines success through actions – by what you put out. She believes it’s important to ask yourself if what you’re doing is enhancing the lives of others. If so, you’ll be successful.

Leadership comes from the heart to Fiona’s way of thinking. A true leader is someone who is true to who they are and sticks to their guns even when it’s unpopular. They always stick up for the underdog and take risks when they need to. They’re also brave, admit when they’re wrong and have people’s faith, trust, and respect.

And, if she could go back and tell her 13-year-old self one thing? It would be that everything’s going to be okay.

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Fiona’s Personal Philosophy

As with her career, Fiona Fenton has some excellent wisdom to share when it comes to her personal philosophies too.

Fiona says that happiness is the most important thing for her in life – nothing else matters:

“Not how much money you have in the bank. Not how many followers you have on Instagram, or what car you drive. Being happy with yourself allows you to make other people happy; you attract positivity and create it.”

She is a strong believer in the power of now and taking hold of every moment as it happens. There’s no point in putting off until tomorrow what you can start doing right now:

“Don’t be kind, or more thoughtful, or more appreciative or try harder later or tomorrow. Do it now. While you are reading this. Send someone a text and tell them you appreciate them. Don’t start your eating well or achieving your goals “tomorrow.” Start right now. Do what you need to do to make it happen now. And then tomorrow, you’ll already be doing it!”

This is something that she embraces in practice for herself and promotes to others through her Positive Vibes Yoga practice. “Taking yoga out of the studio; leaving perfection behind; and, bringing your best self” is the yoga philosophy Fiona strives to bring not only to her mat but also to the rest of her life.

More About Fiona

The love of her family and friends is something Fiona Fenton couldn’t live without – oh, as well as good Wifi!

Fiona still has a few things to get through on her bucket list, including walking the Camino de Santiago and The Great Wall of China with her partner, and being a great mum – Fiona is currently expecting her first son.

Fiona subscribes to The Hustle, a great daily online newsletter for updates from the tech and business world. She says it always features some interesting, on point, and up-to-date information on what’s happening right on the frontier of digital business.

Fiona draws inspiration from many sources and is an advocate for yoga, meditation, and positive living. She enjoys following this type of social media for a daily dose of how to live a healthy and happy life every day. She’s also a music lover:

“Music is really important to me for inspiration and setting my attitude for the day.”

Whatever’s on your playlist, Fiona, you already inspire us to set the right attitude towards work and life.

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At Bean Ninjas, we’ve mastered how to build a high-performing team across multiple continents. This has helped us discover quality talent like Fiona Fenton.

Contact us to learn more about our incredible team and how we can help you.

Want to find out more about working at Bean Ninjas? Check out our Careers page and view current job openings.