From Big Bank to Community Leader

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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

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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

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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

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communities that we serve in order to
bring value and content to small business owners,

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small and medium sized business owners.
Because we feel like if we can

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bring value to them through the podcast
and then strategically share that podcast with them

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and bring value to their business.
You know, they will take a look

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at us as a financial institution when
they get ready to change, or when

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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,

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they're bringing value and it gives us
a chance to do that. So

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we're in the test. Let me
I say test. We've done too.

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You know, we're in the second
season of that right now. But it's

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been going well. It's you know, the listenership. I can't tell you

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the exact stats, but it's it's
beginning to pick up. I've heard lots

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of good things in the community about
it. We built out a little studio

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that's very nice. We didn't spend
a whole lot of money on the biggest

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cost of the air conditioning unit,
but we took an upstairs attic of one

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of our branches, and a technical
guy who's very good at what he does

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at the bank really created that.
And it's been going well. It's called

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make Your Remarkable. It's what it's
called, Make You Remarkable, and you

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can look it up and see it
on our website and it's a video type

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of deal and We've had coach Mark
Rick on there. We've had a few

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celebrities that you know their names,
but to get it started, it's predominantly

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small to medium sized business owners who
have their subject matter experts that we want

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to talk about a certain subject that
hopefully will help small businesses in our communities.

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I love the idea of starting with
value. So often people start these

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inities like what do I get out
of it? I do feel like and

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that's kind of how we got started
with this podcast too, is like,

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what can we provide that will be
of service and value to the people we're

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trying to connect with? And if
we do that, you may not have

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an exact plan for how that connects
to value and business over time, but

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I have faith that when you when
you put value into the world for your

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community, it comes back to you
over time. Well, we always say

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that we don't want to be the
hero of the story here. We want

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the participant person we're interviewing to be
the hero of the story, and our

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small businesses to be the hero of
the story and not us. I mean

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we're trying to not bring the light. That's essentially that. But yeah,

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the book is about a two year
project, but I've got a copy here

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called Leading Life on Life. It
really developed as a training annual for our

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team. I have a heart to
really have a consistence. I wanted to

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have a consistent message for all of
our leaders to follow, and so it

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took about twenty four months to get
the book written. The essence of the

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book is is that as a leader, it's not about title, it's not

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about being the boss. It's about
investing in others in a way that you

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create followership, that you're a leader
worth following, and that people follow you

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because they believe in you and they
want to follow you versus Okay, Neil

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said do this, he's the boss. If I don't do it, I

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don't have a job. I mean
that's the way, you, you know,

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disenfranchise people if you're if you're not
careful. So that's the thought process

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behind it. And then the little
acronym I talked about. Now we get

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into those four principles that loving others, equipping others, affirming others, and

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developing others. I mean that's the
blueprint in this book, and we go

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through each one of those and how
to make that happened. And now we're

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taking this out to small businesses and
actually doing seminars and workshops to help small

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companies implement these things. And it's
not something that we forced that we've been

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asked to come do that, and
so I can't spend my time doing it

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full time, obviously because of my
job, but we've got some folks who

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can and who have been willing to
do it. Now. All the proceeds

405
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of this the books on Amazon and
you can get it from our website,

406
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but it is a donation to our
foundation. I'm not here to profit on

407
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it. Couldn't profit on it if
I wanted to, because this is in

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the best seller or anything like that. But nonetheless not here to give financial

409
00:27:37.480 --> 00:27:41.559
gain to us or the bank.
We're not doing these roundtables to make money

410
00:27:41.599 --> 00:27:45.559
for the bank or for individual It
all goes back to the remarkable foundation that

411
00:27:45.680 --> 00:27:51.519
you referenced earlier, which is a
foundation we started to help the communities we

412
00:27:51.640 --> 00:27:56.720
serve. And we really started the
foundation, Jeff, really, I got

413
00:27:56.720 --> 00:27:59.759
so many requests. Our banker's got
so many requils. I mean, every

414
00:27:59.799 --> 00:28:02.680
day, you know we're getting can
you support this? Can you support that?

415
00:28:03.680 --> 00:28:07.599
And we wanted to be strategic and
how we allocated our fund. So

416
00:28:07.640 --> 00:28:11.480
we started the foundation. We have
sixty percent of our team today and that

417
00:28:11.559 --> 00:28:17.680
number is growing that contributes to it
through payroad deduction. The bank makes a

418
00:28:17.680 --> 00:28:22.359
big contribution to it. Every year. We form an employee board of our

419
00:28:22.480 --> 00:28:27.480
team that serves as the board that
directs where the funds go. And there's

420
00:28:27.519 --> 00:28:33.200
now about I don't know, there's
fifty some model organizations I think that we

421
00:28:33.279 --> 00:28:40.119
support in the communities we served through
that foundation. And so, for instance,

422
00:28:40.599 --> 00:28:42.400
we're having a big fall festival here
in a week. We're going to

423
00:28:42.480 --> 00:28:47.079
use our parking lot in downtown Watkinsville
as a place for people to park.

424
00:28:47.079 --> 00:28:49.519
We're going to charge five bucks from
the park. That money is going to

425
00:28:49.559 --> 00:28:53.880
go to the foundation to go back
out into the community. So that's what

426
00:28:55.039 --> 00:28:57.720
we're really working to do with that. And it takes the pressure off of

427
00:28:57.759 --> 00:29:03.000
our team to have to make a
decision on where money goes and we can

428
00:29:03.039 --> 00:29:07.039
all now say hey, we'll take
this to our foundation board. They can

429
00:29:07.079 --> 00:29:10.599
make that decision. It's a very
cool idea. And I'm curious how the

430
00:29:10.640 --> 00:29:12.839
board you don't have control this,
but how they've thought about the process of

431
00:29:12.880 --> 00:29:17.720
allocating funds because it's challenged You've got
lots of organizations that come and want something,

432
00:29:17.720 --> 00:29:21.079
and trying to evaluate what are the
causes that are important to us as

433
00:29:21.079 --> 00:29:25.920
an institution, whereas the money we
can give having the most impact or being

434
00:29:26.039 --> 00:29:29.359
leveraged most effectively around the things we
care about. It's not an easy question,

435
00:29:29.759 --> 00:29:32.519
and I'm curious how the board thinks
about that. I mean, it

436
00:29:32.559 --> 00:29:34.680
is nice not to leave it on
the sales manager whose customer goes, hey,

437
00:29:34.680 --> 00:29:37.920
can you support the singing? Go
yeah, I want too. But

438
00:29:37.039 --> 00:29:40.480
like there's lots of other things that
I am not the guide to stock ranks

439
00:29:40.519 --> 00:29:42.839
and is really helpful for that.
But I'm curious how they approach. It's

440
00:29:42.839 --> 00:29:45.839
not easy. It's not easy,
and I don't know that we get it

441
00:29:45.920 --> 00:29:49.599
right. We have a set of
values here that we you know, look

442
00:29:49.599 --> 00:29:52.599
at everything through, and so I
think one of the first things is is

443
00:29:52.640 --> 00:29:56.920
this organization fit within the values of
our company? You know, I think

444
00:29:56.960 --> 00:30:02.720
that's one of things that we look
at now. You know, many times

445
00:30:02.759 --> 00:30:07.880
there's a decision made. If someone
banks with us and they have a strong

446
00:30:07.960 --> 00:30:11.960
relationship with us and we believe in
what they do, they may get moved

447
00:30:11.000 --> 00:30:15.440
to the top because of the relationship
they have with us, and obviously the

448
00:30:15.480 --> 00:30:19.599
dollars and all that makes sense,
but we want to control that budget and

449
00:30:19.640 --> 00:30:23.759
so there are times where maybe the
first ask we may have to say,

450
00:30:23.799 --> 00:30:26.759
you know, we try to soften
it and say, look, let's look

451
00:30:26.799 --> 00:30:30.160
at this maybe for next year,
and you know it's not in the budget

452
00:30:30.200 --> 00:30:33.720
for this year and we can't really
direct it for this year. But that

453
00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:38.160
takes the pressure off of a manager
who gets a request like can you give

454
00:30:38.240 --> 00:30:42.279
my little league for my son five
hundred bucks? I mean it's like,

455
00:30:42.359 --> 00:30:45.519
well, you know, we have
a foundation board and they'll take a look

456
00:30:45.559 --> 00:30:48.839
at it. But there's a ton
of companies we held. But you're right,

457
00:30:48.960 --> 00:30:53.920
it's not an easy task because I
mean, I think banks are one

458
00:30:53.960 --> 00:31:00.119
of the top places that nonprofits come
and look. Because we're community bank,

459
00:31:00.240 --> 00:31:04.720
always get back willingly to back to
the communities they serve. But they have

460
00:31:04.759 --> 00:31:07.519
a set of criteria that they go
through. I can't tell you off the

461
00:31:07.519 --> 00:31:11.079
top of my head. We try
to keep our executive team that they may

462
00:31:11.119 --> 00:31:14.680
come to us with advice, but
we try to keep them out of the

463
00:31:14.720 --> 00:31:18.960
employee meeting, just because it gives
ownership with the team and man, they

464
00:31:19.079 --> 00:31:25.160
young people it's amazing. They want
to have a purpose. It's really amazing

465
00:31:25.200 --> 00:31:26.839
to watch this board. And a
lot of them are youngsters. I mean

466
00:31:26.839 --> 00:31:30.039
they're twenty four to twenty five,
twenty eight years old, you know,

467
00:31:30.640 --> 00:31:36.759
and they're spending lots of time thinking
through this carefully because one of the big

468
00:31:36.799 --> 00:31:40.400
things in their life is they want
to have purpose and giving back to the

469
00:31:40.400 --> 00:31:44.359
community is big to them, so
they take it very seriously. So they

470
00:31:44.440 --> 00:31:47.480
all volunteer to be a part of
it, which is really cool. That's

471
00:31:47.559 --> 00:31:49.680
very cool. Sixty percent of people
and the team donating and then a team

472
00:31:49.759 --> 00:31:52.839
led individual led board to make the
call. It's a very cool model.

473
00:31:53.279 --> 00:31:56.319
Appreciate your shot. Now, I
feel like we've run out of about the

474
00:31:56.319 --> 00:32:00.480
time that I expect my audience to
pay attention. Yeah hear, I know

475
00:32:01.160 --> 00:32:05.440
quite our enjoyment of talking. But
I do have three questions I like to

476
00:32:05.480 --> 00:32:08.519
ask everybody before I end the podcast. So now it's your turn, and

477
00:32:08.519 --> 00:32:12.559
here you go. My first is, what's the best piece of career advice

478
00:32:12.599 --> 00:32:15.400
you've ever gotten? Oh man,
the best piece of a career of advice?

479
00:32:15.519 --> 00:32:19.240
I think the first thing that comes
to my mind is to be patients.

480
00:32:19.480 --> 00:32:22.920
I think so often young people,
and it's even more amplified today.

481
00:32:23.640 --> 00:32:30.319
They want to jump ahead so fast. I mean they wanted like immediate the

482
00:32:30.359 --> 00:32:34.319
corner office in two years. I'm
looking back, even on my career,

483
00:32:34.640 --> 00:32:37.960
I wasted a whole lot of my
time and energy worrying about things that never

484
00:32:38.039 --> 00:32:43.279
transacted or never happened, or trying
to get ahead and looking back and I'm

485
00:32:43.319 --> 00:32:45.160
like, oh my gosh, you
know, And I'm not saying to be

486
00:32:45.240 --> 00:32:49.559
passive. I mean, certainly not
that at all, but just to be

487
00:32:49.720 --> 00:32:53.880
patient and enjoy the moment because that
window closes, you know, and it

488
00:32:53.920 --> 00:32:58.440
closes rapidly. And I'm blessed enough
that I was able to spend time with

489
00:32:58.480 --> 00:33:01.279
my family early on and I and
sacrifice a career for that. But at

490
00:33:01.279 --> 00:33:06.119
the same time, I did spend
a lot of time, probably in needless

491
00:33:06.519 --> 00:33:08.200
worry, thinking that if I don't
do this, I'm not going to get

492
00:33:08.200 --> 00:33:13.480
ahead, when in reality it's like
that was kind of a shallow thinking on

493
00:33:13.559 --> 00:33:15.359
my part. So I think,
be diligent, but at the same time,

494
00:33:16.359 --> 00:33:20.759
be patient. That's some of the
best advice I've I've gotten. Yeah,

495
00:33:21.960 --> 00:33:24.200
that's first for the advice. So
you've broken new ground. Sometimes he's

496
00:33:24.200 --> 00:33:27.559
a repetitive, but that's new.
I like it be patient. So my

497
00:33:27.640 --> 00:33:31.240
second question is typically, what's the
best advice you've gotten or given about the

498
00:33:31.279 --> 00:33:37.920
banking industry in general? Oh?
Man, you know, I think as

499
00:33:37.960 --> 00:33:45.920
it relates to banking, I think
there's so many different avenues to explore in

500
00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:47.880
banking. I mean today, I
mean, you know, you've got the

501
00:33:47.960 --> 00:33:52.519
trust side, the wealth management side, you've got the retail banking side,

502
00:33:52.519 --> 00:33:59.519
you've got corporate banking high level,
you've got community banking with smaller community banks

503
00:33:59.519 --> 00:34:02.319
and things of that nature. I
think it really is it relates to a

504
00:34:02.640 --> 00:34:07.559
career in banking, if that's what
you're referring to. To me, it's

505
00:34:07.559 --> 00:34:14.159
a matter of understanding your distinct personality
is your gifts, where you find your

506
00:34:14.320 --> 00:34:17.239
energy. For example, if I
did what our credit guy did next door,

507
00:34:17.280 --> 00:34:21.199
I would jump out the window.
I mean I couldn't sit there like

508
00:34:21.280 --> 00:34:23.679
that. But if you know he
couldn't do the job of our CFO,

509
00:34:24.039 --> 00:34:29.719
it would crazy. And I know, you know he couldn't do the job

510
00:34:29.800 --> 00:34:32.239
of our chief lanning office or our
chief banking officer. Everybodce versa. So

511
00:34:32.920 --> 00:34:37.480
I think a lot of people are
wired more to the large corporate accounts or

512
00:34:37.480 --> 00:34:42.840
maybe treasury services, or maybe they're
greading credits. I think it's finding out

513
00:34:42.880 --> 00:34:46.119
where your strings are. But there's
so many different avenues. I encourage on

514
00:34:46.239 --> 00:34:51.960
people they to explore, I mean, understand yourself, but also explore.

515
00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:53.639
That's what I had a chance to
do. I was in corporate banking,

516
00:34:54.079 --> 00:34:58.800
I spent time in retail banking,
I spent time with the branches. I

517
00:34:58.840 --> 00:35:01.599
spent time, you know, working
on the commercial side of things, and

518
00:35:01.639 --> 00:35:07.079
I ended up loving leadership and loving
community banking. And so that's a long

519
00:35:07.119 --> 00:35:10.519
answer to that question, but that
would be what I'd say. The last

520
00:35:10.599 --> 00:35:15.079
question I like to ask everybody's what's
one bold prediction for the future. Wherever

521
00:35:15.159 --> 00:35:22.440
you want that one? Well,
I think headwinds exclamation banking right now is.

522
00:35:22.760 --> 00:35:25.599
I think it's the survival of the
fittest. I think it's those banks

523
00:35:25.639 --> 00:35:31.280
that think futuristically, that think differently. They're the thought leaders and not just

524
00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:38.559
followers up the herd. I think
being embracing new technologies, the digital solutions.

525
00:35:38.760 --> 00:35:43.760
Hiring we talked about earlier, not
compromising. I just say you're hiring

526
00:35:43.800 --> 00:35:45.800
well, but really and truly high
well, even if you have to wait

527
00:35:45.840 --> 00:35:50.599
three years to get that right person. I mean, don't I think leadership

528
00:35:50.880 --> 00:35:52.760
pouring into your leaders I mean,
I think it's just going to be a

529
00:35:52.760 --> 00:35:57.679
lot of headwinds. I mean,
the funding costs, the impending recession,

530
00:35:58.559 --> 00:36:02.880
continued consolidation in the industry, continued
pressure to get shareholders and returns that they

531
00:36:02.920 --> 00:36:07.559
want in order to remain independent.
And that's how we're thinking, and we're

532
00:36:07.599 --> 00:36:09.920
thinking the next ten years. We
have a very bold strategy and a very

533
00:36:09.960 --> 00:36:15.199
bold plan and now we've just got
to execute upon that every single day and

534
00:36:15.239 --> 00:36:19.599
get better. And that's why you
can't become complacent. But I'd say it

535
00:36:19.760 --> 00:36:22.320
just on't going to face a lot
of headwinds. The the question becomes how

536
00:36:22.320 --> 00:36:28.159
do we turn those into tailwinds?
And I think the most strategic thinkers today

537
00:36:28.280 --> 00:36:30.639
that those are the ones that will
emerge the winners as time goes on.

538
00:36:30.760 --> 00:36:36.079
But it seems like, well be
a litle bit bit that headwinds the tailwinds

539
00:36:36.079 --> 00:36:38.039
though I like the tailwinds. We'll
leave it there. Neil, thanks for

540
00:36:38.079 --> 00:36:42.079
making the time and joining me today. I really appreciate it. Yeah,

541
00:36:42.199 --> 00:36:45.079
absolutely, Jeff, thank you do
a great job. Up Start Partners with

542
00:36:45.199 --> 00:36:50.840
banks and credit unions to help grow
their consumer loan portfolios and deliver a modern,

543
00:36:51.000 --> 00:36:55.079
all digital lending experience. As the
average consumer becomes more digitally savvy,

544
00:36:55.360 --> 00:37:00.119
it only makes sense that their bank
does too. Upstarts ail ending platform uses

545
00:37:00.199 --> 00:37:07.719
sophisticated machine learning models to more accurately
identify risk and approve more applicants than traditional

546
00:37:07.719 --> 00:37:13.679
credit models. With fraud rates near
zero, upstarts all digital experience reduces manual

547
00:37:13.760 --> 00:37:19.400
processing for banks and offers a simple
and convenient experience for consumers. Whether you're

548
00:37:19.400 --> 00:37:23.039
looking to grow and enhance your existing
personal and auto lending programs or you're just

549
00:37:23.039 --> 00:37:29.079
getting started, Upstart can help.
Upstart offers an end to end solution that

550
00:37:29.119 --> 00:37:32.320
can help you find more credit worthy
borrowers within your risk profile. With all

551
00:37:32.440 --> 00:37:37.679
digital underwriting, onboarding, loan closing, and servicing, It's all possible with

552
00:37:37.840 --> 00:37:43.599
Upstart in your corner. Learn more
about finding new borrowers, enhancing your credit

553
00:37:43.639 --> 00:37:49.039
decisioning process, and growing your business
by visiting upstart dot com Slash four dash

554
00:37:49.079 --> 00:37:53.559
banks. That's upstart dot com slash
four dash banks. You've been listening to

555
00:37:53.639 --> 00:37:59.000
leaders in lending from Upstart, make
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556
00:37:59.039 --> 00:38:02.079
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557
00:38:02.119 --> 00:38:06.559
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558
00:38:06.559 --> 00:38:07.239
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