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From Big Bank to Community Leader · Leaders in Lending

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You are listening to leaders in lending from Upstart, a podcast dedicated to helping
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consumer lenders grow their programs and improve their product offerings. Each week, here
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decision makers in the finance industry offer insights into the future of the lending industry,
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best practices around digital transformation, and more. Let's get into the show.
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Deil, Welcome to the podcast. Thanks for making the time to join
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me today. Thank you. Jeb. Glad to be here, man,
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I think this will be exciting conversation too. My wife is saying two people
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who like to talk is a dangerous combination before I came in here, so
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I feel like we got said well matched. I think was actually what she
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said, and I said, you'd like to tell you us it'll be a
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good parent. I would like to start by asking my guests, how did
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you wind up in the banking industry. I give me a little bit of
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your career history and what brought you to where you're at today. Yeah,
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I'll give you a quick history. So I graduated from Marcia University and Making,
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Georgia back in nineteen eighty nine at an accounting degree and a communications degree.
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You know, I didn't think about banking honestly, I wanted to get
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in the hospital administration. I was a paramedic through college and loved that.
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And I knew I didn't want to do anything in the medical field per se,
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but I wanted to maybe do something in business within the medical field.
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And so back then, hospitals are struggling, very very difficult to find a
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job, and so had an opportunity. My brother, my older brother,
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by Mark Stevens's in banking, been in banking for years, and he encouraged
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me. He's much older, He's fifteen years older than me. He encouraged
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me to give banking a try. He said, you'll learn a lot about
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our different industries. And he said then you can kind of do what you
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want to do after a couple of years, and this would be a good
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starting point. And so thirty four years later, here I am still in
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the business. I fell in love with it. But I started with CNS
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National Bank back in the late eighties and early nineties and Citizens in Southern which
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is now part of the Bank of America. There's probably a lot of banks
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are but great great bank based in George. So that's where I got to
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start. Interesting talk to me a little bit about the I've heard a lot
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of interesting stories, but EMT is a new one. I gotta be honest,
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But tell me you said you fell in love with the NVY. What
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was it about the space that you fell in love with? Like? What
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was it that that drew you did that where you said this is the thing
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I gotta do. Yeah, well, you know that's a drastic shift from
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you know, the NT paramedic world to banking. For sure. My father
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was a firefighter and so I love license sirens. I grew up around the
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fire station. It was the adrenaline rush that drew me to the paramedic field.
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I had a great friend who owned an ambulance service and I got involved
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with that. But knew I wanted to do something in business. But what
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I fell in love with in banking. But once I started doing it was
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the opportunity to number one to help small businesses. I went on the lending
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side of the business. It's some retail banking for a little while, but
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then eventually got into credit school and got into commercial banking. And it was
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the ability to go in and be a consultant for small to medium sized companies
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by value there. But also it was just cool because one day you're in
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a machine shop, you know, with all the noise going on your goggles.
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On the next day you're in a even a law firm talking to a
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group of white collar attorneys about their business. So it's just such a wide
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array of industries that was never boring and just love people, love being around
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people, love helping people. And I think that's where I just said,
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Man, I like this as a career. Then management opportunities came along,
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right, so I got to use my leadership that do and so it's just
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it's been it's been a great platform to do that as well. That's fascinating.
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I felt the same way. I ended up in my first real job
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after school and sales at IBM, which may not sound much like banking,
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and it isn't other than you know, I had a geographical territory that I
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was responsible for selling to and one of the things I loved is I was
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walking into freenight shipping company one day, in a retailing company the next,
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and the bank the next, and you were learning about not only different industries,
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but like these parts of the economy that sometimes you don't see mean but
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I don't think about how the goods get from the manufacturer, they have the
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raw materials get to the manufacturer, the goods get made, the goods get
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shipped to a place and you buy it. But you know, you end
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up working with the companies all across that value life cycle. And it was
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just fascinating kind of peel back beyond you and understand a little bit about what
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was really going on in a way that can be you can be oblivious when
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you're one in history. I always thought that was a fascinating aspect of what
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I got to do in that role. It sounds like part of what you're
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new to the bank is just deple to like see and understand some of different
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parts of how the economy really functions. Oh yeah, no doubt, no
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doubt. Now talk to me, because I understand you guys been a bold
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decision in the six seven time. And you know they say in Silicon Valley
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that sometimes the counterintuitive reality is that the worst times to start a company,
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you are off with the best times, the scariest times, and things that
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are falling apart, the recessions or tend to be the moment to go and
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where a lot of really strong long term companies are built, but you guys
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decided to start a banking an interesting moment. Talk to me a little bit
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about that. It was also a saying that goes will lie cuts better be
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lucky than good. So you know, yeah, absolutely, So you know
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that's something that's been at patching in mind for a number of years before we
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did it. Is to do it ourselves. I was with a bank called
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First Citizens Bank Shriff, which actually bought to the Civil Valley Great Banking,
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the Bolding Family, phenomenal institution. But it's like, you know, I
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really want to be more entrepreneurial. I liked it do this myself. So
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a group of us left First Citizens back in two thousand and six and started
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a bank called Keyworth Bank, which is based in Johns Creek, Georgia,
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which is I lived that in that area at the time. But we had
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no idea what was coming. I mean, I wish I could say,
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man, we knew this was going to be a perfect time I started bank,
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because you know, we got in when all of the banks were going
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to go down the tubes and we were going to be the long survivor and
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all that. But no, it really wasn't that way. We raised thirty
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six million of capital in six weeks. I mean, this thing, it's
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flew in the poor. We got started, and I mean we start to
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the bank and early those seven and about Meadows seven ledo seven, we started
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realizing, oh my goodness, I mean that out looks horrible. And so
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we were able. We never got concentrated, so we were able to stop
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lending in the construction arena and things of that nature or early on. And
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we never planned for that to be a big part of our portfolio anyway,
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but it would have been a lot bigger. I think we were at the
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twelve percent concentration in the area, which was virtually nothing so and even those
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we took very little charge offs. And then we were One of our mantras
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back then that we toubted was we have money to lend because no one else
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could. Are very few could. Yeah, they're all pulling back. They
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were all, you know, in trouble, many of them were. And
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so we were very selective, and honestly, we picked up some really good
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customers that served us well throughout our tenure at Keyworth because their bank can no
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longer lend to them, and we help them when really nobody else could.
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So we were really blessed to start at a time when it wasn't I think
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if we started a year sooner, the story might not be so good.
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I like to think it would be, but you know, the truth is
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you never know. You never know. So yeah, but it was,
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it was Those were fun times. It was fun getting that that started.
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We were you know, you order the paper clips, you do everything when
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you start a bank, So that was a great morning experience. Yeah,
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that's not an experience mini bankers get to kind of like I remember we bought
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our an up sort of our first set of we're gonna get coffee MUDs.
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So you run to Ike and you buy some plates and some coffee MUDs,
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you know, the whole thing to hold the pen when I read a little
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office supplies and you're like carrying up the stairs and yeah, that's a different
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feel than most people who work at larger institutions. It was just established institutions
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of any size I ever get you in, there's just no infrastructure. You're
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just like, whenever you go, who's you ob was it to ask?
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Somebody goes to yours? Yeah? I left worse citizens where you know,
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got faint really well, had a twenty six branches at the time, you
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know, running all the commercial department, the mortgage department, had all the
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infrastructure in ruleingh Oath, Carolina, and I wanted marketing, you know everything
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going from that to it's just three out of us here and uh, you
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know, you go get the lunch today and I'll go get the you know
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whatever. And that was really what I enjoyed. It was the entrepreneurial spirit.
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Within a few years we helped build it up to about a four hundred
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million dollar bank and uh, you know, ended up selling that bank to
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Renaissance. But thankfully we were healthy the entire time and never got into any
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kind of lending trouble or anything like that in that time frame. That's pretty
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good. Most we'll got to some sort of ending trouble. So I understand
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you have a strong philosophy on how one builds and maintains culture in an organization.
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And I feel like this is one of these seeing areas where everybody,
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yeah, says culture is important and critical, and yet how do you actually
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develop and build It is often more art than science, or more magic hoping
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happens, but not a lot of real you know, thoughtfulness. Sometimes maybe
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is the wrong word, but prescribed approach as to how you do that,
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and it's a little more haphazard in my experience. So like companies just kind
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of like comes out accidentally from the things you do. Tell me about your
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approach and how you think about, you know, building culture, managing culture,
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maintaining culture. That I think it is critical and it's one of those
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things that I think is as yet not that well understood how it really happens.
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Yes, it is really fascinating. Human behavior in and of itself,
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to me is very fascinating how people respond to different things and environments and things
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of that nature. We try not to use the word culture in our organization
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much because I think it's a byproduct of what people smell and feel and taste.
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You know, when they're here, they know it's a great culture.
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They say, man, that's a you built a great culture. Well,
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you know, we're trying to talk about it internally, like you know,
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we're really working hard to build this great culture. I think it could be
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an overused word, but we are very intentional, extremely intentional about the process
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of the building a great culture. And you know, to me, that
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really hinges. It starts with the leadership of the organization. If you don't
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have great leaders top to bottom. I'm not just talking about the CEO.
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I'm talking about, you know, the supervisor over deposit operations or whatever it
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may be, the backroom function. If you don't have great leadership across the
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organization, it's really hard to be intentional about a process that will lead to
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a great culture. Because people work for people. People leave. They don't
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leave organizations. They leave people, they leave their manager. And there's an
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intentionality I think, and I see. My job is really to put the
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pieces in place that foster the environment for a great culture. I mean for
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plant to grow and a certain it hasn't have a certain temperature, a certain
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environment, a certain amount of sunlight, whatever it might be for that plant
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to grow. I say that that's my job, is to ensure that that
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environment is there. But a culture really is nothing more than the sum of
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the whole. It's it's the group of the individuals that are in that company.
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They make the culture, whether it's a good culture or bad culture.
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People say, well, we don't have a culture, Well, yeah you
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do. If you want one or you don't want one. There is a
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culture there. But we have intentional about the process and putting an environment in
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place. See it is my job for that to prosper and grow. And
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so there's things that we've done to do that we're still learning. We're not
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perfect. I mean, yes, we make mistakes every single day, and
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we strive every day to get better. You know. I think that expand
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on this just a little bit more too. I think there's a mission omber.
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Sometimes that culture means that it's squishy, it's touchy feely, eminem's in
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the break room being bag chairs, you know, fitness center adues being paid.
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I mean, all these things and all that is nice and great,
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and I think that can have to a good working environment. But the way
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we define culture is a culture that is a very high standard of winning.
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You know, we want to be the best at what we do. We
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want a standard of excellence. You know, we don't want to become complacent.
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We want to continue to grow, to expand, to learn, to
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build a better bank, and to demand a lot of our people and for
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our people to demand a lot of themselves. Right, But we want to
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also with that high challenge, put in a strong support system that's there to
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help affirm them that equips them, that develops them to become better. That
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it shows love and appreciation. And I think when you can combine the high
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standard of excellence along with a high support system, some magical things begin to
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happen. And that's really what a strong culture is all about. If you
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have all the squishy stuff and low standards, you know, you got mediocrity,
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right. If you have all these standards and expectations and no support,
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you on the brink up potentially a mutiny, so it can become very toxic.
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I think it's important the healthy culture has both of those elements. Well,
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it talks about how you maintain that because I think it's it's one of
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the challenges that you can have high standard you know, we see this in
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hiring what's the old phrase AA players. If you hire a B player,
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B players hire C players, and see players hire D players and so not
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just having high standards yourself, but instilling the culture of that, because it
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can often be in hiring. Why does that happen, It's because like you
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need somebody and you're desperate for somebody to do some work, and you just
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like this person can kind of sort of do it'll it'll help my day will
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get better if they're here and you drop the standard. And so I'm curious
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how you think about and we'll tackle both of them this way, but actually
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instilling that and supporting that kind of setting of high standards, holding up people
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to high standards across the organization, because is one thing to have it for
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you, and it's a whole other thing to hold other people to it,
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and then to help other people hold yet other people. That kind of second
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and third order away from you as a leader becomes I think that the place
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where it often breaks down. And I'm curious how you think about whether the
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structures or incentives or how you know, encourage those high standards and get that
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to be something that's accepted. And because again you right cultures like you can
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say we have high standards and then you keep promoting the players and like you
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don't. You can put it on the wall, on a poster or all
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you want, but ultimately, the culture is what's actually done. And if
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you don't enforce or expect high standards from people, then then that's going to
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be the culture, no matter what inspirational poster you put on. Lall.
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So I'm curious how you think about that actually maintaining those standards across the organization
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systematically. Yeah, well that's a great question. I think. Talk about
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a Stephen Covey content beginning with the end in mine, you know, it
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talks a lot about that. But to me, it's like, how do
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we know if we have a great culture? I mean, in other words,
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that you can feel and smell it and taste it. But are there
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ways to measure it? And I think for us we measure it a couple
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different ways. We measure it. By number one, we look very very
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closely and intently at our engagement scores within our organization, and you know we
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have the last week we measured this it was an eighty four percent engagement rate,
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which has not always been there. It's been I think our one before
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that was sixty something, the one before that was fifty something. The average
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company in America, depending on which survey you look at, and this is
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recent, is anywhere from twenty eight to thirty four percent. And so engagement.
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So you think about a football play that means only about three out of
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the eleven players of being engaged, and I don't know that that played with
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go very well. In fact, there are some of those that are actively
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disengaged, which means they're trying to sabotage the company or sabotage to play or
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whatever. So so we look at the engagement rate and scores, and then
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we look at our performance, right, because I think a company that it
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is not performing up to standards, that has poor performance for whatever reason,
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it's not meeting their budgets or not meeting their goals that they set, and
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they're a lower performer in their industry. I don't know that having a great
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culture, you might want to really rethink that what does that really mean?
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So I think beginning with the end of mind, we look at sort of
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both of those and from there we feel like and we've come to the conclusion
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that really what drives this high engagement and high performances connection, it's the team
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being connected. It's the entire organization truly being connected to each other, to
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the organization, to the outcome. And then looking at themselves is not the
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star of the show, but a player in the show that is adding value
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to the whole. And they know their part, they know their lane,
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and you know, well, how do you create this connection where there's a
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lot of things. I think internally that you can do to do that,
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and you have to be very intentional, which we're doing. But at the
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end of the day, I think it's leadership that really is relentless and making
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sure that we hire people who hold high standards for themselves. I think if
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you have to, if you have to motivate people all the time or talk
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to them about you got to have higher standards. That's a problem. I
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think you've got to pluck those organizations pretty quickly. I think it's does individuals
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who I mean, for instance, we're in a meeting just the other day,
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and again we don't do everything perfect, so don't get me wrong here,
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but we're in a meeting and somebody mentioned something about the inability to create
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sales and things like that, and we have three or four people step up.
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There were leaders in the organization, but it wasn't me, it wasn't
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our chief banking officer. It was people below them who stood up and said,
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well, here's how I did this, and you can do that.
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I mean, so, I think leadership within the organization of people who hold
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a high standard, it pulls everybody along, and therefore you're going to have
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those lower performers those folks with mediocrity mindsets or complacency, they're going to do
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self select or they're going to rise to the occasion or if someone's going to
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have to, as we say, unleash them to the competition. So that
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classic. So I think it's not static. It's this is a dynamic thing
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that you have to work at every single day and sometimes you screw up.
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But I think if you keep that mindset of But I honestly believe Jeff that
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creating connection within the organization is really what leads to that engagement. And if
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you've got the right people and they're connected, it's incredible what can happen.
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It really is interesting. How do you think about then the second element you're
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talking about high expectations, high standards culture, you know where that's kind of
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a common expectation, but then a high level of support. But it's also
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critical, right, you've got to and sometimes in order there's no support for
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people who have a failed initiative because like, hey, you did a good
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job but it didn't work out, WHICHOK a risk. Understanding how to separate
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good risk it doesn't work out from a bad set of decisions and supporting people
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through that how do you think about developing that and how you kind of make
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that a part of the culture too, because it does feel like it's kind
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of like it's a unityang you either one without the other kind of doesn't work
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very well. Yeah, I think it's for basic little principles, that's what
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you know, really creates that support system. And we're going through this material
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right now in our in our bank. But it's a little acronym called lead.
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It's loving others, equipping others, affirming others, and developing others.
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And I think if a leader, if I am your leader, and I
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take time to pour into you, and we call this the loving others aspect.
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And sometimes people get this confused, want to confuse you know, love
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with a feeling. It's not a feeling. It can be my wife,
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I have a feeling burb. But in the workplace, I mean it's an
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action. So it's things like intentional listening and communication. It's things like selfless
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recognition. It's giving those flexibility people under any flexibility to do their jobs in
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a flexible manner. It's growing and giving trust. It's paying them well,
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I mean compensation is part of this thing too, right, So extremes again
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intrinsic, but it's loving and showing care. And there's not a single one
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of us who don't want to feel appreciated and love and care for through everyday
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actions. And so that's one way. Second is to equip people to get
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their job done. I think that you know, you can't expect someone to
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just come in and perform at the level that you want them to and hold
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out how standard if they're ill equipped, and so I think it's important that
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we continue to give them the tools and resources that they need to win to
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equip them. Affirming of the I think sometimes we affirm only on people do
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things well, and we should be affirming them when they do things well,
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but when they don't do things well. They use an example from the Georgia
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Bulldogs that just recently South Carolina game, Kirby Spark gave a halftime talking This
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came from their sports psychologists who told Kirby he said, you know, you
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can't rail on these guys at halftime. You got to affirm them. And
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so what he did at have time he's talked about the things that they did
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right and the things that they could do, and the fact that he believed
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in them and we can get this job done. And if we do that
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with our people, they're going to respond a whole lot better than getting a
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stick and beating them over the ad with it, or telling them that you
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know this to strike too. One more strike you're out, or whatever.
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I mean. I could go through ten examples of how affirmation creates. They
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want to to raise your stamp. So love of the others, equipping others,
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affirming others, and then finally developing others. I just saw a recent
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by McKenzie and Company, you know, the big consulting firm, and it
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said the number one reason people choose to leave or join an organization has to
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do with their personal and professional development. Money is important, A lot of
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other things are important. People want to be developed, and so you talk
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about equipping, Well, how is that different than developing? I see,
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equipping is giving them skills that they need. Developing is really more about the
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people building. What does my future look like? What do I need to
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do become a bank CEO one day? How do I become a branch manager?
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And to have a plan for them. So, if you're going to
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have these expectations of a high standard and you want people to buy into that,
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and for that to come from within, the support piece has to be
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there. I think it's through loving, equipment, affirming, and developing.
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There's certainly other pieces of that, but I think if we do that well,
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they'll fill the low and support and they'll respond to it. I love
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a little mnemonics and acronyms because it can be nice little mental checklists or help
23:06
at least for my brain. It's mine too, no doubt, without something
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absolutely written, a book and sort of a podcast at the bank, and
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you guys have a lot of stuff on. So tell me a little bit
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about the book, what it's about the podcast that I want to jump into
23:19
the foundation, but I want to say that for a last Yeah, So
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I'll be starting with the podcast real quick first, and then then I'll talk
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about the book because that sort of leads into the foundation discussion. But the
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podcast, there's really nothing more than an opportunity to connect with leaders in the
23:38
communities that we serve in order to bring value and content to small business owners,
23:45
small and medium sized business owners. Because we feel like if we can
23:49
bring value to them through the podcast and then strategically share that podcast with them
23:56
and bring value to their business. You know, they will take a look
24:00
at us as a financial institution when they get ready to change, or when
24:03
an event occurs, or things of that nature. I mean, we're hoping
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they said, gosh, my bank didn't do that. You know, man,
24:08
they're bringing value and it gives us a chance to do that. So
24:12
we're in the test. Let me I say test. We've done too.
24:15
You know, we're in the second season of that right now. But it's
24:19
been going well. It's you know, the listenership. I can't tell you
24:22
the exact stats, but it's it's beginning to pick up. I've heard lots
24:26
of good things in the community about it. We built out a little studio
24:30
that's very nice. We didn't spend a whole lot of money on the biggest
24:33
cost of the air conditioning unit, but we took an upstairs attic of one
24:36
of our branches, and a technical guy who's very good at what he does
24:41
at the bank really created that. And it's been going well. It's called
24:45
make Your Remarkable. It's what it's called, Make You Remarkable, and you
24:48
can look it up and see it on our website and it's a video type
24:52
of deal and We've had coach Mark Rick on there. We've had a few
24:56
celebrities that you know their names, but to get it started, it's predominantly
25:00
small to medium sized business owners who have their subject matter experts that we want
25:06
to talk about a certain subject that hopefully will help small businesses in our communities.
25:11
I love the idea of starting with value. So often people start these
25:15
inities like what do I get out of it? I do feel like and
25:17
that's kind of how we got started with this podcast too, is like,
25:18
what can we provide that will be of service and value to the people we're
25:22
trying to connect with? And if we do that, you may not have
25:26
an exact plan for how that connects to value and business over time, but
25:29
I have faith that when you when you put value into the world for your
25:32
community, it comes back to you over time. Well, we always say
25:34
that we don't want to be the hero of the story here. We want
25:37
the participant person we're interviewing to be the hero of the story, and our
25:41
small businesses to be the hero of the story and not us. I mean
25:45
we're trying to not bring the light. That's essentially that. But yeah,
25:51
the book is about a two year project, but I've got a copy here
25:56
called Leading Life on Life. It really developed as a training annual for our
26:00
team. I have a heart to really have a consistence. I wanted to
26:06
have a consistent message for all of our leaders to follow, and so it
26:10
took about twenty four months to get the book written. The essence of the
26:15
book is is that as a leader, it's not about title, it's not
26:19
about being the boss. It's about investing in others in a way that you
26:26
create followership, that you're a leader worth following, and that people follow you
26:30
because they believe in you and they want to follow you versus Okay, Neil
26:37
said do this, he's the boss. If I don't do it, I
26:38
don't have a job. I mean that's the way, you, you know,
26:41
disenfranchise people if you're if you're not careful. So that's the thought process
26:45
behind it. And then the little acronym I talked about. Now we get
26:49
into those four principles that loving others, equipping others, affirming others, and
26:53
developing others. I mean that's the blueprint in this book, and we go
26:57
through each one of those and how to make that happened. And now we're
27:00
taking this out to small businesses and actually doing seminars and workshops to help small
27:07
companies implement these things. And it's not something that we forced that we've been
27:11
asked to come do that, and so I can't spend my time doing it
27:15
full time, obviously because of my job, but we've got some folks who
27:18
can and who have been willing to do it. Now. All the proceeds
27:22
of this the books on Amazon and you can get it from our website,
27:26
but it is a donation to our foundation. I'm not here to profit on
27:30
it. Couldn't profit on it if I wanted to, because this is in
27:33
the best seller or anything like that. But nonetheless not here to give financial
27:37
gain to us or the bank. We're not doing these roundtables to make money
27:41
for the bank or for individual It all goes back to the remarkable foundation that
27:45
you referenced earlier, which is a foundation we started to help the communities we
27:51
serve. And we really started the foundation, Jeff, really, I got
27:56
so many requests. Our banker's got so many requils. I mean, every
27:59
day, you know we're getting can you support this? Can you support that?
28:03
And we wanted to be strategic and how we allocated our fund. So
28:07
we started the foundation. We have sixty percent of our team today and that
28:11
number is growing that contributes to it through payroad deduction. The bank makes a
28:17
big contribution to it. Every year. We form an employee board of our
28:22
team that serves as the board that directs where the funds go. And there's
28:27
now about I don't know, there's fifty some model organizations I think that we
28:33
support in the communities we served through that foundation. And so, for instance,
28:40
we're having a big fall festival here in a week. We're going to
28:42
use our parking lot in downtown Watkinsville as a place for people to park.
28:47
We're going to charge five bucks from the park. That money is going to
28:49
go to the foundation to go back out into the community. So that's what
28:55
we're really working to do with that. And it takes the pressure off of
28:57
our team to have to make a decision on where money goes and we can
29:03
all now say hey, we'll take this to our foundation board. They can
29:07
make that decision. It's a very cool idea. And I'm curious how the
29:10
board you don't have control this, but how they've thought about the process of
29:12
allocating funds because it's challenged You've got lots of organizations that come and want something,
29:17
and trying to evaluate what are the causes that are important to us as
29:21
an institution, whereas the money we can give having the most impact or being
29:26
leveraged most effectively around the things we care about. It's not an easy question,
29:29
and I'm curious how the board thinks about that. I mean, it
29:32
is nice not to leave it on the sales manager whose customer goes, hey,
29:34
can you support the singing? Go yeah, I want too. But
29:37
like there's lots of other things that I am not the guide to stock ranks
29:40
and is really helpful for that. But I'm curious how they approach. It's
29:42
not easy. It's not easy, and I don't know that we get it
29:45
right. We have a set of values here that we you know, look
29:49
at everything through, and so I think one of the first things is is
29:52
this organization fit within the values of our company? You know, I think
29:56
that's one of things that we look at now. You know, many times
30:02
there's a decision made. If someone banks with us and they have a strong
30:07
relationship with us and we believe in what they do, they may get moved
30:11
to the top because of the relationship they have with us, and obviously the
30:15
dollars and all that makes sense, but we want to control that budget and
30:19
so there are times where maybe the first ask we may have to say,
30:23
you know, we try to soften it and say, look, let's look
30:26
at this maybe for next year, and you know it's not in the budget
30:30
for this year and we can't really direct it for this year. But that
30:33
takes the pressure off of a manager who gets a request like can you give
30:38
my little league for my son five hundred bucks? I mean it's like,
30:42
well, you know, we have a foundation board and they'll take a look
30:45
at it. But there's a ton of companies we held. But you're right,
30:48
it's not an easy task because I mean, I think banks are one
30:53
of the top places that nonprofits come and look. Because we're community bank,
31:00
always get back willingly to back to the communities they serve. But they have
31:04
a set of criteria that they go through. I can't tell you off the
31:07
top of my head. We try to keep our executive team that they may
31:11
come to us with advice, but we try to keep them out of the
31:14
employee meeting, just because it gives ownership with the team and man, they
31:19
young people it's amazing. They want to have a purpose. It's really amazing
31:25
to watch this board. And a lot of them are youngsters. I mean
31:26
they're twenty four to twenty five, twenty eight years old, you know,
31:30
and they're spending lots of time thinking through this carefully because one of the big
31:36
things in their life is they want to have purpose and giving back to the
31:40
community is big to them, so they take it very seriously. So they
31:44
all volunteer to be a part of it, which is really cool. That's
31:47
very cool. Sixty percent of people and the team donating and then a team
31:49
led individual led board to make the call. It's a very cool model.
31:53
Appreciate your shot. Now, I feel like we've run out of about the
31:56
time that I expect my audience to pay attention. Yeah hear, I know
32:01
quite our enjoyment of talking. But I do have three questions I like to
32:05
ask everybody before I end the podcast. So now it's your turn, and
32:08
here you go. My first is, what's the best piece of career advice
32:12
you've ever gotten? Oh man, the best piece of a career of advice?
32:15
I think the first thing that comes to my mind is to be patients.
32:19
I think so often young people, and it's even more amplified today.
32:23
They want to jump ahead so fast. I mean they wanted like immediate the
32:30
corner office in two years. I'm looking back, even on my career,
32:34
I wasted a whole lot of my time and energy worrying about things that never
32:38
transacted or never happened, or trying to get ahead and looking back and I'm
32:43
like, oh my gosh, you know, And I'm not saying to be
32:45
passive. I mean, certainly not that at all, but just to be
32:49
patient and enjoy the moment because that window closes, you know, and it
32:53
closes rapidly. And I'm blessed enough that I was able to spend time with
32:58
my family early on and I and sacrifice a career for that. But at
33:01
the same time, I did spend a lot of time, probably in needless
33:06
worry, thinking that if I don't do this, I'm not going to get
33:08
ahead, when in reality it's like that was kind of a shallow thinking on
33:13
my part. So I think, be diligent, but at the same time,
33:16
be patient. That's some of the best advice I've I've gotten. Yeah,
33:21
that's first for the advice. So you've broken new ground. Sometimes he's
33:24
a repetitive, but that's new. I like it be patient. So my
33:27
second question is typically, what's the best advice you've gotten or given about the
33:31
banking industry in general? Oh? Man, you know, I think as
33:37
it relates to banking, I think there's so many different avenues to explore in
33:45
banking. I mean today, I mean, you know, you've got the
33:47
trust side, the wealth management side, you've got the retail banking side,
33:52
you've got corporate banking high level, you've got community banking with smaller community banks
33:59
and things of that nature. I think it really is it relates to a
34:02
career in banking, if that's what you're referring to. To me, it's
34:07
a matter of understanding your distinct personality is your gifts, where you find your
34:14
energy. For example, if I did what our credit guy did next door,
34:17
I would jump out the window. I mean I couldn't sit there like
34:21
that. But if you know he couldn't do the job of our CFO,
34:24
it would crazy. And I know, you know he couldn't do the job
34:29
of our chief lanning office or our chief banking officer. Everybodce versa. So
34:32
I think a lot of people are wired more to the large corporate accounts or
34:37
maybe treasury services, or maybe they're greading credits. I think it's finding out
34:42
where your strings are. But there's so many different avenues. I encourage on
34:46
people they to explore, I mean, understand yourself, but also explore.
34:52
That's what I had a chance to do. I was in corporate banking,
34:54
I spent time in retail banking, I spent time with the branches. I
34:58
spent time, you know, working on the commercial side of things, and
35:01
I ended up loving leadership and loving community banking. And so that's a long
35:07
answer to that question, but that would be what I'd say. The last
35:10
question I like to ask everybody's what's one bold prediction for the future. Wherever
35:15
you want that one? Well, I think headwinds exclamation banking right now is.
35:22
I think it's the survival of the fittest. I think it's those banks
35:25
that think futuristically, that think differently. They're the thought leaders and not just
35:32
followers up the herd. I think being embracing new technologies, the digital solutions.
35:38
Hiring we talked about earlier, not compromising. I just say you're hiring
35:43
well, but really and truly high well, even if you have to wait
35:45
three years to get that right person. I mean, don't I think leadership
35:50
pouring into your leaders I mean, I think it's just going to be a
35:52
lot of headwinds. I mean, the funding costs, the impending recession,
35:58
continued consolidation in the industry, continued pressure to get shareholders and returns that they
36:02
want in order to remain independent. And that's how we're thinking, and we're
36:07
thinking the next ten years. We have a very bold strategy and a very
36:09
bold plan and now we've just got to execute upon that every single day and
36:15
get better. And that's why you can't become complacent. But I'd say it
36:19
just on't going to face a lot of headwinds. The the question becomes how
36:22
do we turn those into tailwinds? And I think the most strategic thinkers today
36:28
that those are the ones that will emerge the winners as time goes on.
36:30
But it seems like, well be a litle bit bit that headwinds the tailwinds
36:36
though I like the tailwinds. We'll leave it there. Neil, thanks for
36:38
making the time and joining me today. I really appreciate it. Yeah,
36:42
absolutely, Jeff, thank you do a great job. Up Start Partners with
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