February 24, 2026 • 47 mins
Chet Kimmell, CEO of Neighborhood Credit Union, joins us to share how he's spent thirty years building one of the most trusted financial institutions in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. From his early days as an auditor at Arthur Young and Deloitte to becoming only the fourth CEO in NCU's nearly 100-year history, Chet breaks down the philosophy, patience, and people-first leadership that have defined his tenure. We talk about what separates a credit union from a bank, why financial literacy is a community responsibility, and how NCU became a mobile-first institution without losing its personal touch. The conversation also covers generational member relationships, the risks of well-intentioned financial policy, and what it really means to invest in someone's financial journey, not just their bottom line.
Plus, Credit Crunch Roulette, a debate on the future of the penny, and the first concert that may have just taken the top spot on our all-time list.
CEOs You Should Know DFW features candid conversations with leaders shaping business in North Texas and beyond, hosted by Chris Long, Region President of iHeartMedia Dallas/Fort Worth. Follow, Rate, and Subscribe on the podcast platform you are listening on!
Plus, Credit Crunch Roulette, a debate on the future of the penny, and the first concert that may have just taken the top spot on our all-time list.
CEOs You Should Know DFW features candid conversations with leaders shaping business in North Texas and beyond, hosted by Chris Long, Region President of iHeartMedia Dallas/Fort Worth. Follow, Rate, and Subscribe on the podcast platform you are listening on!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to CEOs. You should know.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm Chris Long, Region president for iHeartMedia in Dallas, and
I am very fortunate today to have Chet Kimmel, CEO
of Neighborhood Credit Union, with me today.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Welcome Chet, Well, thank you, good to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
It's great to have you.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
So we've got a couple of things we were talking
about before we started recording, and I told you I
was not going to give you a lead into the
first question. So I'm going to give you the first question.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
You're going to go, ah on the edge of my seat.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Okay, ready to go.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
So understanding that iHeart Media is America's number one audio
entertainment company with eight hundred and sixty radio stations and
one hundred and sixty markets, podcasting and genres across the
whole spectrum, big audio company. Basically exactly, I have to
ask this question, what was your first concert?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
And what podcast are you listening to right now? Besides this?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Well this is the primary one, I for sure, perfect answer.
But you know, I'm a child grow up in the
seventy so to speak, so obviously rock and roll was
the thing back then, and my first concert was Boston, Boston,
Boston whoa okay, and it was an amazing It was
an amazing show. They did a fantastic okay, and I.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Have chills now I'm completely derailed.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
So so this question is we've started every podcast with it.
We've had Pink Floyd, m Johnny Cash really good ones,
absolutely and and and we had one last week that
was really good too. I can't remember, Amanda, do you remember.
We'll come back to it anyway. Mine never lives up,
does it? And I know you hate this part. Uh
(01:44):
Mine was men at work?
Speaker 3 (01:46):
So kids, that's a different one.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Didn't see that were coming? Wasn't the bigger part? Where
did you see Boston?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
My second was Bob Seger by the Way, which was
also an outstanding show.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Now you're just bright. Where did you see Boston?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Actually it was in New Mexico. You know, I lived
in al Paso at the time and they were performing
in Albuquerque, so made quite a trip to go see them. So, okay,
it's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I think that maybe you may have moved into first
place Pink Floyd Boston.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
At least it's a one A would B type of
a deal. Okay.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Podcast, Well, when it comes to podcasts, I've got to
confess I am not a big, tremendous podcast listener. I
find most of my information I'm usually going online and
you're a lot of reading. I'm a I'm a very
big reading, a big reader. So you know obviously the
big ones Joe Rgan, you know, have watched him or
(02:38):
seen him and you know those sorts of things. But
I do have to confess not a big podcast person.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
So this is interesting. I think this is our third guest.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Two of them this was their first podcast, like never,
and these are CEOs running large businesses. So I wonder
if we may be onto something here that I'll have
to I'll keep I'll keep you posted on that.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Well, I think there's a recognition, you know, that you
have to be in all spaces these days, correct, and
so you know this is not exactly my comfort zone,
if you will, but I think it's important to you know,
to engage in these kinds of things.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Absolutely. Well, you're off to a really great start. You're
number one on the first concert list so far.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
That's a positive. So but we're going to keep.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Soldiering on and we're going to see Tandumentum. So you
mentioned al Paso, Yes, undergrad.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
I did go to undergrad at UTL Paso.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
My father was in the military, and so we traveled
around quite a bit. We went through some amazing places,
and for some reason we decided to end up in
El Paso and live there. I'm not sure exactly why
he made that decision. No, al Paso. I came to
love Al Paso. It's a wonderful, wonderful community. But finishing
my high school there. My background in high school, I
(03:55):
was really focused on the sciences. I had big dreams
of becoming a doctor, serious exactly, and so when I
went to UT I was, you know, going to be
a chemistry major. Biology. That was my initial thoughts and dreams.
The next thing, you know, I was in a class
trying to do partial differential equations, and of course all
(04:18):
the time I couldn't get past to get to full equations.
And so it's like, no, I am not cut out
for this. My mind just does not work that way.
And so then it became a matter of Okay, you
need to have a career, you need to have a
career path, and so I looked at business. I looked
at a variety of you know, business majors, and at
(04:38):
that time, accounting was the most best path forward, if
you will, the most lucrative, the best opportunities, and so, okay,
I'm going to become an accounting major. And so you know,
I studied accounting. I came to enjoy some parts of it.
I have to confess I'm not the best accountant in
the world best bookkeeper.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Albert digging into the scandal c with numbers.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Well, I started my career in public accounting, and you're Deloitte, correct. Well,
I actually started with Arthur Young in company, which was
at the time was one of the big eight firms.
I was with Ay for about a year and that's
when I went back to grad school at Texas Tech.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Got it.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
So I started my career with Arthur Young. After Texas Tech,
went on to Deloitte and spent a number of years there.
And there's a big difference, I think between an accountant
and an auditor, And what I did for Deloitte was
was I was an auditor. You have to have the
accounted skills, but you also have to be able to
(05:43):
analyze problems, look at situations, try to figure out what
makes sense. And so to me that was just the
greatest learning ground, interesting and the thing about public accounting,
it is a learning ground. You are exposed to different clients.
One day I would be at a you know, manufacturer,
(06:05):
the next day I was out at BRANFF, you know
for your old time listeners, folks. I remember brand that
was one of my clients. But I did come to
specialize at Deloitte in banking, and so banking really became
a love and passion of mine. I just love that
aspect of service, if you will, that's great.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
So Neighborhood Credit Union was born in nineteen thirty during
the depression. Yes, and interesting time period. But you're only
what the fourth CEO in the history.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
That's true. The CEOs have been long tenured, with the
institution long tenured.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
With Why is that nation?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
I think it's because the ability to have an impact
on so many different people in a positive way. You're
developing your employees and giving them wonderful opportunities. You're doing
a great service in your communities by offering services that banks,
quite frankly, during that time period and later on weren't
(07:10):
weren't offering.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
So so I'm going to storry to cut you off.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
But that's that's really important question. I want to get
to first before little lays and groundwork explain for the
for the the lay person, difference between a bank and
a credit union.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Sure, and I think it goes back to I think
you have to go back, you know, to to the
start of why credit unions came into exist. Yes, and
I'll say right up front, I love banks. You know,
they're they're very vision good. They all have their their
their place. But when you look at why credit unions
were started, the banks at the time would not service people.
(07:44):
They would not make loans to individuals. They were looking
you know at corporate, which is.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Because of the depression and everything that was going on
at that time.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Well, this is even before the depression. This is even
before the depression. It was just not a focus of theirs.
And then the depression magnified it, you know, tenfold. And
so because a group of people weren't being serviced, they're
financial and needs weren't being met, people came together and said,
let's take care of ourselves. Let's form an institution where
(08:12):
we're going to be member owned, member focused, where we
take care of each other, where we can create the
ability to loan to somebody, create the ability to save
funds and dole with it the money out as need be.
And so the mission of a credit union really became
focused on service to each other, service to the members.
And our philosophy is we want to be of service.
(08:36):
But we're not a charity. We're not profit driven the
way a bank is. But we're also not a charity either,
and so I think that's a distinction interesting. Well, when
you look at the actual structure, you know, banks serve stockholders.
We serve our members. Our members own us. They have
the ability to elect the leadership of the institution, and
(08:57):
so that's a that's a wonderful distinction between It keeps
us honest. If we know our members have the ability
to vote us out of office, we're going to take
care of them absolutely.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Okay, So you may have read some of the questions
because this is leading perfectly into the next area I
want to discuss. So the mission of Neighborhood Credit Union
is building trusted relationships throughout your financial journey.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
So thinking about.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
That, the relationship the people, the members, all of that
is very, very high on.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
The list of the focus.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
But in a world of apps and algorithms and all
that we see in our world today, you know, how
do you keep that personal touch with what over seven
hundred or seventy thousand members, How do you maintain that
one to one personal relationship.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Well, we have our own set of apps and algorithms.
Well that really, you know, I think begs the question
of how do you keep engagement with people in a
world that is constantly changing? And when I look at
when I started with the institution and what we've become today,
(10:07):
we're totally different. And so one thing we have to
do is not loose sight of the mission, which our
mission is all about our people, but keep up with
the times and recognize that people want to be served
in different ways. So some of the best and most
engaged members of our credit union may never come in
and visit a branch. They may be able to do
(10:29):
everything that they want to using their phone, everything they
want to and so and they're wonderful members, but they
also recognize that if something goes wrong, because I have
this trusted relationship, I will be able to go into
a branch, I'll be able to get in on the
phone and talk to somebody who can help me with
(10:50):
the issue or the problem that I might have. So
we all have data, we all have data, and what
do you do with this data? From my perspective, from
our perspective as a credit union, we want to use
the data to be able to give the members what
they need when they needed and help them in their
(11:12):
financial journey. Now on the other side, you can look
at the data and say, you know what, this is
a product I'm going to push. This is a you know,
I can make money off of this relationship, all right,
can do that. Like you said, you're not a charity
and you would well, you would lose member trust if
you became a product pusher, yep. And so we want
(11:32):
to be there when they have their need. We want
to let them know that we have the things that
they need. But we're never going to push push things
on people.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
So okay, that's interesting understanding that if you were hiring
someone and maybe they came from a purely banking background,
they would probably look at how they go about that
relationship differently.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Correct it is is it is a different relationship you
know at some of the big banks. Obviously, these stories
have been in the paper over the last few years
about product I won't name any names, but you know,
product pushing, you know selling, you know credit cards that
you know, members did, our customers didn't even know existed.
And so when someone comes into our institution, you know
(12:14):
they're going to spend some training initially in what our
culture is, what we as an institution are all about.
How we have to deal with our members, you know,
how we want the members to deal with us in
a good way so we can build that trust, So
we can build that relationship, and at the appropriate time,
they need to be armed with what products and services
(12:34):
we have sure, you know, so if a if a
member comes in and says, well, my daughter's having a
King Senaria in a few weeks, and you know what
am I going to do? It's like, well, we can.
We can give you a loan, you know, to help
you with that to you know, make sure she's has
that wonderful dress that she needs. And a lot of
institutions won't do those type of things because there's not
(12:57):
a lot of profit in making a five hundred dollars loan,
you know, or a small dollar loan where for the relationship,
we'll do those kinds of things.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
So it's interesting, as you were saying that, it's almost
like you invest not only in someone's financial journey, but
they're truly their life moments.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
We want to be a part of them, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
So if someone came in and said, hey, I want
to do this, you know, big sixtieth birthday party for
my spouse. I need five thousand dollars loan, you guys
aren't going to think twice.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Well, I mean, let's get back to that. We're not
a charity. But yes, we would obviously look at those
kinds of things because those are the sorts of things
that as an institution, we love to tell stories. We
love to go out into the marketplace and say, look
at the things that we were able to do in
our members' lives, and hopefully with our community participation and
(13:55):
the things that we do, it will create a sense
of value in people when they're looking at an organization
for their financial needs.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Would let's talk it seems like with that kind of
investment you really have generational customers.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Absolutely absolutely, you know, it's.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
You know, my grandparents were you know whatever.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
The story is that it's very much a passed down
relationship that really your team is charged with, you know,
growing and nurturing and all of that in any which
ways and whatever forms that takes absolutely responsibility.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Absolutely. Well, we'll start off, you know, with a member
that has been with our institution for forty years, and
we want to get the children involved in the institution.
We would love to get the grandchildren involved in the
institution at some point and whatnot. So my children are customers,
well I say customers, my children are members of the
(14:51):
institution as well. So you bring up may have been
a little arm twisting there. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
You bring up an interesting topic, you know, teaching finance
literacy to the next generation.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
How do you all approach that?
Speaker 3 (15:04):
We have a number First of all, I hope there's
no argument that educating people on how best to deal
with their financial situation is critical, and so it really
is foundational and so we've recognized that for a while
and we've created a number of ways to use opportunities
(15:27):
to pass on training to the members. You know, it's like, hey, hey, member,
you happen to bounce a check? Okay, what can you
do you know to prevent that from happening. There's various
tools available that we can educate you on. We can
help you create a savings plan to where you'll have
funds available in times of need. Some of the products
(15:49):
and services out there are very sophisticated. For example, you know,
doing a mortgage loan, you know, that's something that folks
do two or three times in a lifetime, and so
every time they do it, it's like this is a
whole new thing. I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Well, especially in where we're bombarded with all these different
options and you know, oh, absolutely, interest rates and what
does that mean and all of that.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Absolutely, and so we are there to help guide our
members through this. You know, these are the things that
you need to look at when when you're thinking about
buying a house and getting a mortgage and taking on
that responsibility. Uh, obviously we have a vested interest in
wanting to do the mortgage ourselves, but it's more important
to us. I think that that a member has a
great experience, you know, and understanding what exactly they're getting into.
(16:33):
So we have we've done mortgage classes before. Will people
will actually come to our credit union will spend a
whole you know, morning just going over what the processes
and what the expectations can be, you know for them.
And and so that's to me one of the meaningful
things that we do as an institution. Uh, we have
(16:53):
car buying services. Uh. That's another thing I love. I
love car dealerships.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Whether that's a big part of your business.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
It's absolutely a big part of our business. But there
is some tension you know between you know, the desires
of the car dealerships and you know the desires of
us to give our members the best deal possible on
you know, not only the car they're they're buying, but
any related products and services that might be associated with
that vehicle. And and so you know it's once again
(17:24):
we have services, car buying services, education on the different
products and services. Do you really need this? Why would
you need it? And and so that's of value. Uh.
We have some YouTube videos that are out there that
also have some you know, detailed training on various financial topics. Uh.
We have a foundation uh that we've created that it's
(17:46):
focus is on education, you know, bringing knowledge out there
to h to the marketplace. And so you know, I
think that's Uh, you know, you'll have a bunker in
this seat and they'll say a lot of the same
things you know that they will say. You know, we
focus on education, and we focus on of course, and
and to me, they do there is that aspect of it,
(18:10):
but there also is the trusted advisor role that we
as a credit union want to take that we are
really out there to look after your best interests, and
you know, with with some other players, there might be
the suspicion, Okay, I appreciate this education, but was it
focused to get me to an answer? Absolutely, and so
(18:32):
that's something to concern I'm getting that. No, no, No, this
is great.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
I mean this is great because I think first when
you talk about a seminar about house buying mortgages or
buying a car, whatever it is. Of course, whether it's
a bank or NCU, of course you would both.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Want the outcome exactly be getting that loan. But I
feel like.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
From an NCU perspective, it's more about, yeah, like to
do business with you on this loan, but it's more
important to us, or just as important to us, that
you have a firm understanding of what you're doing when
you go through this process, whether it's with us or them,
because we have a longer term relationship potentially the next
generation of your family to think about. Absolutely, which for
(19:18):
some CEOs is kind of funny. But in your role,
I mean you've done. You've been there for thirty years.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
I have been there for thirty years.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
I mean, congratulations, that's quite a tenure.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
So with that thinking, okay was a nineteen ninety five,
think about like the two or three things that you
think about, like super changed in those thirty years from
the way you have to.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Do your job. That's a that's an interesting question. I try.
You know, the mission doesn't change as to what we
want to be, the type of organization we are as
it relates to our employees ease doesn't change. We've always
(20:02):
been focused on an employee centric culture where our employees
are the ones who have to deliver the goods. Of course,
so we need to invest in them. And so with
the mission being the same and our focus on the
employees being the same, then it's just getting ready for
the changes that are naturally going to occur. That are
(20:24):
naturally going to occur.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
An example, well.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
I can go back in history with the credit union.
You know, at one time we didn't offer checking accounts.
No credit union really was able to offer checking accounts
in Texas. We couldn't and this may be getting technical,
but we couldn't get a financial institution, a bank to
clear our checks. You know, they would refuse because at
that time we were rivals. So what credit unions did.
(20:50):
We said, this is a valuable product we needed, and
so we went out and bought a bank and then
the bank was able to process, you know, our checks
for us. But one of the most significant changes of
late has been the capacity to do everything in a
mobile way using your phone. And we as an institution
(21:14):
had to decide what were we going to do. And
so what we decided was we are going to be
a mobile first institution. We are going to give you
the ability to do practically everything that you need to
do with your financial relationship on your phone. So if
you have to pay a bill, you can use your phone.
(21:36):
If you want to apply for a loan or get
a loan funded, you can do it with your phone.
If you want to transfer funds to your children, which
I had to do that quite often, we've all been there,
you can use your phone. So I think the biggest
thing that's come along is tech, is high tech, and
(21:58):
you know, we don't as a small institution, have the
ability to just do these things on our own. We've
got to partner with these high tech companies in these
high tech groups, and that is a that's a fun
game to play. That is a fun game to play.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Of course, so not to keep coming back on it,
but it is extreme.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
That means I didn't answer the question very well.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
So the thirty years thing, because.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
I've spoken with founders, sure started from zero in their
living room. You know, you took over an institution, and
you know, every leadership role is a responsibility, but absolutely
in your industry a little bit different, a deeper responsibility
when you're talking about generational customers and all of that.
Taking that away for a second, As someone who's been
(22:47):
in a CEO role for thirty years, what's something you
would say if I came to you and said, hey,
jet I'm now going to be the CEO of this company,
what would be that piece of advice she would give a.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
New CEO I would? I would say, always be curious,
Always be curious, always be asking the next question about
a particular situation.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
When you look at yeah, and I was a rookie
when I first started off.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
I mean, how long had you been at NCU.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
I had I'd only been there about a year and
a half before I became this.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
You weren't even fully I mean you were immersed, but
you weren't even fully aged.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Yeah there were, and probably not for this podcast, but
maybe over some drinks we can discuss. Uh, we don't
discuss that done. But uh, it was a great opportunity.
But you know, I probably had too much of an ego,
you know, coming in that Okay, Uh, it's going to
be my way. I was more of a command and
(23:54):
control kind of person and and so which it worked
to a certain de because there's some things that had
to be dealt with. But as I've grown, you know,
and and our focus has always been on people, but
it's it's it's got to become a different sort of
thing besides command and control. And so the advice I
would give a new CEO is number one, be open.
(24:18):
Don't be afraid to say you don't know what's going
on now. Be curious as to what is going on
with your organization, Be curious as to what's going on
out in the marketplace. And uh, always be learning, always
be That's that's one thing that public accounting taught me
and some of my other experiences that you need to
(24:41):
be learning new things every day. You need to be
learning new things every day and so, uh, that's my advice. Uh,
it would be Also, you know, people aren't the same
today as they you know, we're thirty or forty years ago.
It's a it's a different culture, it's a different way
of doing things, and you've got to be flexible. You've
(25:01):
got to be flexible with how you deal with people
these days.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
I talked to some of my peers and you know,
we talk about when we started, you know, thirty plus
years ago, and you're in before your boss and you
don't leave till your boss leaves exactly.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
You know, if that means.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Sitting there in your cube staring at the screen, that's
kind of what you did. And it is interesting how
you have to approach it. And I think I'd be
curious your take. I've become a believer that there are
leaders and there are bosses, and you know, a leader
listens and a boss tells. Sure, and look in a
leadership in any role like that, there are times you
(25:42):
have to tell absolutely.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
But I feel like, you know, the the.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Asking and listening is so important, Like that's all you're
really going to get where you want to go.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
I think sure, And you know what I always felt
one of my colleings. I always wanted to be a
teacher to a certain dege and so whenever I can
see you, absolutely, so whenever I can see people developing
and you know, becoming better versions on themselves, there's a
lot of satisfaction there. And when you look at our institution,
(26:15):
you know, not everyone is going to stay forever. You know,
You've got some people that are going to college, they
want a part time job. You've got other people that
you know, there may be someone that's above them that's
going to be in that seat for a while and
they'll go to another institution. But what we've always tried
to do is make sure the time at our institution
is valuable, that you're learning things, that you're given great opportunities,
(26:36):
and that is what we're all about. We want to
be a learning organization. So yeah, I wish someone would
have given me some advice when I assume the role.
But it's funny, but mentors are important. Oh, absolutely, mentors
are important. And I've had some wonderful mentors in my time.
(26:57):
And who's the biggest one, Well, it was it would
probably be going back to public accounting. Uh, And you
know from my background, I you know, I didn't know
what was going on. I mean, you know, I just
it was a very naive person about.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
How aka you were in your twenties.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Exactly, very naive about how the world worked. But uh uh,
you know there was a gentleman. His name was Can
I say his name please? His name was Mike Kilmen.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
He was a wonderful c PA. He was the first
person I worked with at Arthur Young and you know,
he took me under his wing and and you know,
showed me how to dress. You know, I was like,
you know what, you know, the absolutely the polyester ain't
cutting it?
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Did he ask you if you were going to a
disco there?
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Yeah? So uh let's let's figure out, you know, because
first you only have one chance to make a first impression. Absolutely,
So that that always, you know, resonated with me. Uh
And just you know, how you approach things, how you
dealt with people. You know that, yes, you had a
role as an auditor, and you know, the initial thought
(28:08):
as most people don't like auditors, but we're here to
do do do job, and you know, we can be
friends with the people that we're working with and still
do the things that we needed to do. So he
taught me a lot. He taught me how to analyze,
how to, you know, look at issues and solve problems.
And he's a wonderful guy.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Isn't it funny thinking about those moments that, like, when
they happen, you're like.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
They're just these weren't a big deal necessarily. And I'll
get to that as we get down the road a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
I had one and he's a well known in the
industry as a gentleman named Don Belucas, and he was
a regional vice president. I was in Kansas City, right,
and he'd come and tell you, this is in the nineties,
and he would come in town and take us to
a steak dinner. And every time he did it, he
would get up and leave. He would excuse himself from
the table and be gone about ten or fifteen minutes,
and he come back. And finally, one time I got
(28:59):
the courage. I was twenty seven or twenty eight. I
was like, Don, where did you go? And he goes, oh,
I went to I went to call my kids, and
I was like, and I didn't have.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Kids yet, yeah, And I was like wow.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
So I was so fortunate.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Later years, in a previous roal his daughter worked for
the same company, and we were at a company event
and somebody introduced us and I said, I just want
you to know what I learned from your father.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
And I was scared to death of him when I
worked for him. And she started crying.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
She had me.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
She was thank you for telling me that. I said,
you need to understand. I mean that taught me when
I went on trips. I called my kids and you know,
it's one of those small things and I we'll just
go ahead into my belief. I have this belief and
you win, and the cracks and the gray spaces. You know,
we all like to think there's those big things, but
like this is one of those sayings. I don't know
(29:47):
why it's stuck with me, but obviously for good reason,
it stuck with me. And there are others, and I'm
sure you have others too, But those are the things
that really either in your career as it you know,
within your family part or your career in the overall career,
it's those little things.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
It's it's the and they're really big things, they are,
but they when you're small. Sure, when I started at
the Credit Union, I was traveling a lot, and I
had a you know, a small son at the time,
and so I was traveling a lot out of town,
you know, and I felt I was missing some things. Sure,
and so then the opportunity came along, you know with
at the time it was Dallas Postal Credit Union. Uh,
(30:27):
it's now neighborhood, and you know, so I jumped at
the chance, you know, to Okay, now I'm going to
be you know, able to come home at night, I'm
able to see my son. I'm able to you know,
coach the basketball games, there's football game, whatever is going on.
I'm going to be a significant part of her life.
And you know, my daughter, you know, exactly the same way.
(30:48):
And so that's something I've really preached at our institution.
And I haven't just preached it, but we've lived it. Yeah,
you know that we and it's maybe an overused work
life balance in the sever used term, but I think
people are better if they get out of the office
and they have something outside that they become engaged in
(31:10):
and you know, it brings something to the table back.
You know, that's that's meaningful to the institution. We have
all kinds of people at the Credit and we have
some workaholics, that you know what. You know, they're in
the office when I get there, they're there when I leave,
and you know that sort of thing. And that's wonderful too.
But you know, I do love it when people have
(31:32):
that balance. And and to me, I was, you know,
if I was going to air, it was always going
to be on the family side because that was important
to me. I probably, you know, gave up opportunities because
you know, when I was growing up, we were traveling
all over the place and so you know, never had
a friend for more than one or two years, and
that sort of thing. And so we made the decision,
(31:53):
my wife and I. It's like, we're going to stay
in this area and we are going to raise our family.
And you know, we've done that. Now I have two
grandchildren and oh that's great. So that's that's a good thing.
Uh But I had to and I'm gonna give it
to my son at at some point. But I've had
this laminated poeme that I've kept in my wallet, and
(32:14):
you know, basically it's about this guy who's just working
his butt off all the time and whatnot, you know,
and he'll go home and his wife said, oh, you missed,
you know, do this or do that, and he goes
in to kiss his son and you know, his son
kind of where's my daddy? And you know, it's like,
I don't want to never want it to be. You know,
do you.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Want this to be the podcasting for the first time.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
I appreciate that chat and no, but you know, so
to me, that's that's what's important. You know, absolutely is
the family. So I have not to say you don't
screw up, because we all screw up and have moments
we wish we could take back. But uh yeah, family
has been very, very important and.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
It is important.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
And it's funny, like I said, I remember don teaching me,
not in an indirect way. I'm going to shift gears
for a second because I have to make an admission
to you that I don't know if it's everywhere, but
it's a saying I use sometimes when I'm giving people
that are work with me, and I use the term
bankers hours when they want to leave early. Is that
(33:19):
a thing or should I wipe that from my vocabulary?
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Well, it probably is a thing.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Well out, I feel bad because maybe bankers hours exist
because everybody's going to coach and both.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
With their kids and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Well, I'll quote George Bush. You know I work twenty
four to seven, you know, twenty four hours a week,
seven months a year. So fair so, No, at certain
levels within the organization, even if you're not there, you're
still responsible for everything that's going on. And so you know,
(33:55):
having that responsibility, you know, causes you to think about
am I doing the things that are necessary to ensure
my institution remains relevant? And so you know, there's that
part of it. And I tell you know, my boss
is my board of directors. I tell my boss is
(34:17):
my board of directors. You know, I could be gone
for six months and hopefully the institution would still go on.
You know, I don't come in, I don't cash checks,
I don't do reconciliations, I don't make loans, you know,
but you know, two or three times a year, there's
going to be some big decisions that have to be
(34:37):
made that I'm going to be totally involved with. And
that's to me, what it's all about. Putting aside the
training and development of the folks. Well, you know that
sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
If you put the right people in the right places,
and you exactly power them and coach them and all
of that, you should be able to step away. Sure,
you know, you don't take your hands completely off the wheel.
And like we talked about, with all the changes over
the last thirty years, it's very easy to stay connected. Sure,
given where we are technologically, Okay, I want to ask
(35:07):
you a question, as a leader in the financial space,
what do you make of the economy right now?
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Well, it's a If you listen to one side of
the debate, you know, these are the best of times.
If you look into the other side, there's some serious
issues out there. You know. I think when you look
at Texas, and in particular when you look at the Metroplex,
there are some wonderful opportunities out here. We are growing,
(35:38):
we are thriving. The tech industry is doing some fantastic
things in our area, and so I think there's a
lot of opportunity. There's a lot of worry out there,
and AI is the biggest worry. Is it going to
replace correct so many different positions And the answer is yes,
And so how do we navigate that? Because it can
(36:02):
disrupt the economy if a lot of people are out
of jobs, But then it creates all these new opportunities
and so I look on the economy as it's doing
good right now, and you know, I've seen some terrible
things over my career. Well it's going to say so
right now it's going pretty darn good. I worry sometimes
(36:23):
that the politicians may be doing things that could backfire
on us. One of these things is this ten percent
interest rate cap on credit cards. Okay, everyone may think, oh,
who wouldn't be for that? Correct, you know ten percent
is wonderful. Well, if you impose that, then a lot
(36:43):
of institutions, neighborhood credit union included, are going to say,
you know what, person, we can't do this loan for
you because our risk is too high. I mean, I
can look at a group of one hundred people and
you know, based upon certain financial information, credit scores, what
have you. I can say, you know what, ten percent
(37:04):
are going to go bad? Okay, if I can only
charge ten percent, I can't do that type of lending.
And so what happens is you'd get this mandate imposed
on you. You cut off all these people, and then what
alternatives they do, Well, they're going to go down to
the pawnshob. They're going to go to a loan shark
(37:26):
and so part of the Neighborhood Credit Union mission is
we are trying to help people that are not banked yet,
that are unbanked that you are having to go to
the pawnshob or they conduct all their business in cash
or what have you. And so sometimes in misguided efforts
to do the right things, you can really end up hurting.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
People's interesting because on the surface, like you said, I
would love it.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Who wouldn't think that would be great?
Speaker 2 (37:51):
But so if I'm understanding that plus over ten percent
helps mitigate risk in a way that makes everything kind
of stay and balance in a strange way.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
Sure, I mean not you want to treat people fairly,
you don't want to treat them necessarily the same. And
so someone who is a fantastic financial record and whatnot,
you know, will get a lower interest rate on their automobile.
They've earned that, they've earned that. And someone who has
(38:24):
been challenged and has difficulties and that sort of thing,
you make a decision not going to do business with
us person, or I'm going to do it in such
a way that we mitigate a little bit of the risk.
Maybe it's a higher interest rate, maybe it's a larger
down payment, maybe it's something, but I don't want to
say no to anybody. I want to help somebody. I
(38:46):
want that person that's a high risk in a year
or two to be a low risk.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
It's funny.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
I know we did a little research on you and
you said it earlier. You're a big reader and Phil
Jackson's book he talks about you know, I'm fair to
everyone on the team, but I don't treat Michael Jordan
the way I exactly the thirteenth guy on the bench.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
And you earn that that that treatment, so to speak.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
So I want to go back to the cracks and
gray spaces thing real quick, because it's just something I
believe in. You know, it holds an organization together. And
you know, when we were talking to doctor Harrison from Dentistry,
he's like, you know, I agonize over every word in
the copy that we put out there in our advertisement
and things like that. How do you look at that,
(39:31):
you know, knowing that there aren't those there are, but
they don't come every day, those big moments, but you know,
managing those smaller wins, like.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
How do you talk to your team about that?
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Is it something that you know you may disagree, you
may think no, it's it's about the bigger things.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
I mean to me, I'm going to answer a question
for you a little bit. I think so much.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
You've mentioned mission and your your your customers in multiple
ways as we've talked today, and it's almost to me
it seems like you do it one conversation at a time.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
But I don't want to answer the question for you.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
You did quite well there by the way. There's a future,
that really is. But the small stories, you know are
the ones that you know are encouragers to our staff
to do even more to help help our members.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
You know, we've done some things where you know, someone
has been house bound and you know, we'll go deliver
some cash to them that they needed to just just
a real small thing. You know, we'll we'll do that.
We would, you know, recognize there's a need there and
help people help people out. But one of the things,
(40:39):
you know that we haven't talked about that has led
to some really wonderful stories at the Credit Union, you know,
is our prize savings account. Okay, and you know that's
basically an account where you know, if you have a
little bit of savings with the institution, you know, we're
giving away prizes for you because you know, if you
have one hundred dollars or two hundred dollars in savings
an interest rate, no matter h how high it is,
(41:02):
it's you're only going to get a couple of bucks.
But if you have some large prizes available, you might
get excited about it and put you know, even more
money into your savings, you know, create that you know,
growing balance account and then have a opportunity to win
one thousand dollars. We gave away a fifty thousand dollars
grand prize. I need to say forty nine thousand, nine
(41:23):
ninety nine because there's some lottery rules and you know,
some other things, so I don't want anyone coming after
the institution. But we had a number of years ago
a preacher and oak Cliffe won our grand prize and
we went and talked to him and it's like, what
are you going to be doing with this money? And
he goes, well, you know, my son is just getting
(41:45):
married and you know his bride is from Ireland and
they wanted to go to Ireland and they weren't going
to be able to afford it. And so now the
most meaningful day in his life I can make it
even better by helping with this with this honeymoon, and
it's oh, man, that's that's just wonderful. That's that's a
great use of that fund. And you know, then we
(42:07):
interviewed him a year or two, three years last year
after that, Hey, how are you doing? He goes, oh,
it was great. Uh, my son came back from the honeymoon.
His wife was pregnant. I knew I was going there,
so that was great.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
And you're thinking new member, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
Exactly, and he goes, you know, but my son, his
car was in terrible shape. I still had some money
left over from the savings, surprise savings, so I was
able to get him a nice, safe car that was
going to be I don't know if he cared about
his son or the grandson, that my grandson's going to
be in this new safe car and whatnot. And so
he was able to use the funds for that. So
(42:42):
it was it was really meaningful to them. And then
just because the appreciation for what the Credit Union was
able to do for him and the relationship that we had,
his son ended up getting a mortgage with us where
we were able to help him in that regard and
so it just some wonderful things that developed out it.
And there's some wonderful stories as well. We've had some
(43:02):
some amazing thing happens with that. Uh So it's it's
it's been a great, great product for us. It's really
encouraged people that starts that savings program.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
Well, it really feels like as you were telling the story,
it's it's it's a small seed exactly that begins to
grow and and a it could motivate another employee to
do something similar like you said, drive to someone's house
or whatever, and what does that create?
Speaker 1 (43:27):
And I think it also I would.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Imagine from a pride perspective, for the for the whole
company to feel like we this is what my company does.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
This is what NCU does. Sure, that's that's great. I
love that story.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
And it's exactly that's it's it seems like a small thing, yeah,
but it grows into this giant thing with really just
the thought of your customers in mind.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
That's great, outstanding.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
So chat we could go on, as Amanda knows, I
could go on for hours and.
Speaker 3 (43:57):
But you're gonna chop this down to five best.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
But we have we have something we do at the
end of every episode, and it gets renamed basically it's
question roulette. But because we did some research on you
on your favorite candies, I do see them.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
All Enjoy Butterfinger and Crunch.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Each candy bar has an envelope attached with a question
that we're going to ask you to answer. So choose
your candy bar, tell everyone what you chose, and then
open the envelope and.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Read your question.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
All right, Uh, allm enjoy Butterfinger, Crunch. These are some
amazing choices. But Nestle's Crunch has always been my first love.
All right, to go with that, all right, And the
question is, and I'm pulling the envelope here, cash, credit
or mobile payment? What's in your wallet right now? All three? Okay, okay,
(44:53):
all three. You never know when you're going to be
walking down the street and you know, a crap game,
you know, come up in the corner there and you
might need to roll some dice or whatever. No, I
always thought that cash was going to be king forever.
And when I would go to McDonald's to get my
morning coffee and I'd use the two dollars and this
sort of thing. Well, then I started using my phone
(45:16):
for me. Well, why did I ever use cash? You know,
what's what's the purpose of cash? And so so, now
truth be told, I do have credit cards, they do
have debit cards, but I use my phone. It's got
my payment mechanism on there, and it's it's been great.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
So I have to ask one more question and then
we'll wrap up on this episode.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
It's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
So my son, who's who's in his twenties now, but
when he was a teenager, as teenagers want to do,
they do some really ridiculous things. And one time I
was with him and he got change from we'd gone
through drive through something and I looked and I saw
him roll out the window and throw the pennies out
the window. I'm like, what are you doing? Oh, pennies
are worthless? Okay, the longer conversation glad to say he's
(46:04):
financially literate now. But this leads to my question, are
you pro penny or anti penny?
Speaker 1 (46:08):
Are they going to be around?
Speaker 3 (46:10):
Uh? You know what, I don't think they will be around.
I don't think they will be around much longer. Yeah,
endgame and and it takes decades to kill any financial product,
but I think endgame currency as we know it will
will eventually be a thing of the past. It'll eventually
be a thing.
Speaker 1 (46:27):
But don't throw it out the window.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
But don't throw it out the window. Keep keep keep it,
a hold of it, and you know, bring it into
your credit union.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
And do you guys roll for people or do we
give a machine.
Speaker 3 (46:38):
We have tried to get out of the coin business.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
I'm the guy with the big cup of change.
Speaker 3 (46:44):
We we've tried to get out of the coin business.
And so on an annual basis, we'll have coin drives
and you know, once a year we'll let you bring
in your coins and you know that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Got it, We'll chat. We've covered a lot of ground.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
Just thank you for this opportunity. I've enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
This has been a lot of fun. I will keep
you posted. I have gone through in my head.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
I think with Boston as your first concert, your number
one right now, we're gonna have to now, I mean
we're gonna have to keep a list. It's Boston number one,
Pink Floyd number two, and Johnny Cash number three, and
men at work will maintain last week all right, for
a long time, Jet, thank you, it was a lot
of fun, This was great.
Speaker 3 (47:23):
Thank you very very much.
Welcome to CEOs. You should know.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm Chris Long, Region president for iHeartMedia in Dallas, and
I am very fortunate today to have Chet Kimmel, CEO
of Neighborhood Credit Union, with me today.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
Welcome Chet, Well, thank you, good to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
It's great to have you.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
So we've got a couple of things we were talking
about before we started recording, and I told you I
was not going to give you a lead into the
first question. So I'm going to give you the first question.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
You're going to go, ah on the edge of my seat.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Okay, ready to go.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
So understanding that iHeart Media is America's number one audio
entertainment company with eight hundred and sixty radio stations and
one hundred and sixty markets, podcasting and genres across the
whole spectrum, big audio company. Basically exactly, I have to
ask this question, what was your first concert?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
And what podcast are you listening to right now? Besides this?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Well this is the primary one, I for sure, perfect answer.
But you know, I'm a child grow up in the
seventy so to speak, so obviously rock and roll was
the thing back then, and my first concert was Boston, Boston,
Boston whoa okay, and it was an amazing It was
an amazing show. They did a fantastic okay, and I.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Have chills now I'm completely derailed.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
So so this question is we've started every podcast with it.
We've had Pink Floyd, m Johnny Cash really good ones,
absolutely and and and we had one last week that
was really good too. I can't remember, Amanda, do you remember.
We'll come back to it anyway. Mine never lives up,
does it? And I know you hate this part. Uh
(01:44):
Mine was men at work?
Speaker 3 (01:46):
So kids, that's a different one.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Didn't see that were coming? Wasn't the bigger part? Where
did you see Boston?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
My second was Bob Seger by the Way, which was
also an outstanding show.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Now you're just bright. Where did you see Boston?
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Actually it was in New Mexico. You know, I lived
in al Paso at the time and they were performing
in Albuquerque, so made quite a trip to go see them. So, okay,
it's fantastic.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
I think that maybe you may have moved into first
place Pink Floyd Boston.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
At least it's a one A would B type of
a deal. Okay.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Podcast, Well, when it comes to podcasts, I've got to
confess I am not a big, tremendous podcast listener. I
find most of my information I'm usually going online and
you're a lot of reading. I'm a I'm a very
big reading, a big reader. So you know obviously the
big ones Joe Rgan, you know, have watched him or
(02:38):
seen him and you know those sorts of things. But
I do have to confess not a big podcast person.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
So this is interesting. I think this is our third guest.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Two of them this was their first podcast, like never,
and these are CEOs running large businesses. So I wonder
if we may be onto something here that I'll have
to I'll keep I'll keep you posted on that.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Well, I think there's a recognition, you know, that you
have to be in all spaces these days, correct, and
so you know this is not exactly my comfort zone,
if you will, but I think it's important to you know,
to engage in these kinds of things.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Absolutely. Well, you're off to a really great start. You're
number one on the first concert list so far.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
That's a positive. So but we're going to keep.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Soldiering on and we're going to see Tandumentum. So you
mentioned al Paso, Yes, undergrad.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
I did go to undergrad at UTL Paso.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
My father was in the military, and so we traveled
around quite a bit. We went through some amazing places,
and for some reason we decided to end up in
El Paso and live there. I'm not sure exactly why
he made that decision. No, al Paso. I came to
love Al Paso. It's a wonderful, wonderful community. But finishing
my high school there. My background in high school, I
(03:55):
was really focused on the sciences. I had big dreams
of becoming a doctor, serious exactly, and so when I
went to UT I was, you know, going to be
a chemistry major. Biology. That was my initial thoughts and dreams.
The next thing, you know, I was in a class
trying to do partial differential equations, and of course all
(04:18):
the time I couldn't get past to get to full equations.
And so it's like, no, I am not cut out
for this. My mind just does not work that way.
And so then it became a matter of Okay, you
need to have a career, you need to have a
career path, and so I looked at business. I looked
at a variety of you know, business majors, and at
(04:38):
that time, accounting was the most best path forward, if
you will, the most lucrative, the best opportunities, and so, okay,
I'm going to become an accounting major. And so you know,
I studied accounting. I came to enjoy some parts of it.
I have to confess I'm not the best accountant in
the world best bookkeeper.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Albert digging into the scandal c with numbers.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Well, I started my career in public accounting, and you're Deloitte, correct. Well,
I actually started with Arthur Young in company, which was
at the time was one of the big eight firms.
I was with Ay for about a year and that's
when I went back to grad school at Texas Tech.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Got it.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
So I started my career with Arthur Young. After Texas Tech,
went on to Deloitte and spent a number of years there.
And there's a big difference, I think between an accountant
and an auditor, And what I did for Deloitte was
was I was an auditor. You have to have the
accounted skills, but you also have to be able to
(05:43):
analyze problems, look at situations, try to figure out what
makes sense. And so to me that was just the
greatest learning ground, interesting and the thing about public accounting,
it is a learning ground. You are exposed to different clients.
One day I would be at a you know, manufacturer,
(06:05):
the next day I was out at BRANFF, you know
for your old time listeners, folks. I remember brand that
was one of my clients. But I did come to
specialize at Deloitte in banking, and so banking really became
a love and passion of mine. I just love that
aspect of service, if you will, that's great.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
So Neighborhood Credit Union was born in nineteen thirty during
the depression. Yes, and interesting time period. But you're only
what the fourth CEO in the history.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
That's true. The CEOs have been long tenured, with the
institution long tenured.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
With Why is that nation?
Speaker 3 (06:48):
I think it's because the ability to have an impact
on so many different people in a positive way. You're
developing your employees and giving them wonderful opportunities. You're doing
a great service in your communities by offering services that banks,
quite frankly, during that time period and later on weren't
(07:10):
weren't offering.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
So so I'm going to storry to cut you off.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
But that's that's really important question. I want to get
to first before little lays and groundwork explain for the
for the the lay person, difference between a bank and
a credit union.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Sure, and I think it goes back to I think
you have to go back, you know, to to the
start of why credit unions came into exist. Yes, and
I'll say right up front, I love banks. You know,
they're they're very vision good. They all have their their
their place. But when you look at why credit unions
were started, the banks at the time would not service people.
(07:44):
They would not make loans to individuals. They were looking
you know at corporate, which is.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Because of the depression and everything that was going on
at that time.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Well, this is even before the depression. This is even
before the depression. It was just not a focus of theirs.
And then the depression magnified it, you know, tenfold. And
so because a group of people weren't being serviced, they're
financial and needs weren't being met, people came together and said,
let's take care of ourselves. Let's form an institution where
(08:12):
we're going to be member owned, member focused, where we
take care of each other, where we can create the
ability to loan to somebody, create the ability to save
funds and dole with it the money out as need be.
And so the mission of a credit union really became
focused on service to each other, service to the members.
And our philosophy is we want to be of service.
(08:36):
But we're not a charity. We're not profit driven the
way a bank is. But we're also not a charity either,
and so I think that's a distinction interesting. Well, when
you look at the actual structure, you know, banks serve stockholders.
We serve our members. Our members own us. They have
the ability to elect the leadership of the institution, and
(08:57):
so that's a that's a wonderful distinction between It keeps
us honest. If we know our members have the ability
to vote us out of office, we're going to take
care of them absolutely.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Okay, So you may have read some of the questions
because this is leading perfectly into the next area I
want to discuss. So the mission of Neighborhood Credit Union
is building trusted relationships throughout your financial journey.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
So thinking about.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
That, the relationship the people, the members, all of that
is very, very high on.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
The list of the focus.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
But in a world of apps and algorithms and all
that we see in our world today, you know, how
do you keep that personal touch with what over seven
hundred or seventy thousand members, How do you maintain that
one to one personal relationship.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Well, we have our own set of apps and algorithms.
Well that really, you know, I think begs the question
of how do you keep engagement with people in a
world that is constantly changing? And when I look at
when I started with the institution and what we've become today,
(10:07):
we're totally different. And so one thing we have to
do is not loose sight of the mission, which our
mission is all about our people, but keep up with
the times and recognize that people want to be served
in different ways. So some of the best and most
engaged members of our credit union may never come in
and visit a branch. They may be able to do
(10:29):
everything that they want to using their phone, everything they
want to and so and they're wonderful members, but they
also recognize that if something goes wrong, because I have
this trusted relationship, I will be able to go into
a branch, I'll be able to get in on the
phone and talk to somebody who can help me with
(10:50):
the issue or the problem that I might have. So
we all have data, we all have data, and what
do you do with this data? From my perspective, from
our perspective as a credit union, we want to use
the data to be able to give the members what
they need when they needed and help them in their
(11:12):
financial journey. Now on the other side, you can look
at the data and say, you know what, this is
a product I'm going to push. This is a you know,
I can make money off of this relationship, all right,
can do that. Like you said, you're not a charity
and you would well, you would lose member trust if
you became a product pusher, yep. And so we want
(11:32):
to be there when they have their need. We want
to let them know that we have the things that
they need. But we're never going to push push things
on people.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
So okay, that's interesting understanding that if you were hiring
someone and maybe they came from a purely banking background,
they would probably look at how they go about that
relationship differently.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
Correct it is is it is a different relationship you
know at some of the big banks. Obviously, these stories
have been in the paper over the last few years
about product I won't name any names, but you know,
product pushing, you know selling, you know credit cards that
you know, members did, our customers didn't even know existed.
And so when someone comes into our institution, you know
(12:14):
they're going to spend some training initially in what our
culture is, what we as an institution are all about.
How we have to deal with our members, you know,
how we want the members to deal with us in
a good way so we can build that trust, So
we can build that relationship, and at the appropriate time,
they need to be armed with what products and services
(12:34):
we have sure, you know, so if a if a
member comes in and says, well, my daughter's having a
King Senaria in a few weeks, and you know what
am I going to do? It's like, well, we can.
We can give you a loan, you know, to help
you with that to you know, make sure she's has
that wonderful dress that she needs. And a lot of
institutions won't do those type of things because there's not
(12:57):
a lot of profit in making a five hundred dollars loan,
you know, or a small dollar loan where for the relationship,
we'll do those kinds of things.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
So it's interesting, as you were saying that, it's almost
like you invest not only in someone's financial journey, but
they're truly their life moments.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
We want to be a part of them, that's for sure.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
So if someone came in and said, hey, I want
to do this, you know, big sixtieth birthday party for
my spouse. I need five thousand dollars loan, you guys
aren't going to think twice.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Well, I mean, let's get back to that. We're not
a charity. But yes, we would obviously look at those
kinds of things because those are the sorts of things
that as an institution, we love to tell stories. We
love to go out into the marketplace and say, look
at the things that we were able to do in
our members' lives, and hopefully with our community participation and
(13:55):
the things that we do, it will create a sense
of value in people when they're looking at an organization
for their financial needs.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Would let's talk it seems like with that kind of
investment you really have generational customers.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Absolutely absolutely, you know, it's.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
You know, my grandparents were you know whatever.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
The story is that it's very much a passed down
relationship that really your team is charged with, you know,
growing and nurturing and all of that in any which
ways and whatever forms that takes absolutely responsibility.
Speaker 3 (14:30):
Absolutely. Well, we'll start off, you know, with a member
that has been with our institution for forty years, and
we want to get the children involved in the institution.
We would love to get the grandchildren involved in the
institution at some point and whatnot. So my children are customers,
well I say customers, my children are members of the
(14:51):
institution as well. So you bring up may have been
a little arm twisting there. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
You bring up an interesting topic, you know, teaching finance
literacy to the next generation.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
How do you all approach that?
Speaker 3 (15:04):
We have a number First of all, I hope there's
no argument that educating people on how best to deal
with their financial situation is critical, and so it really
is foundational and so we've recognized that for a while
and we've created a number of ways to use opportunities
(15:27):
to pass on training to the members. You know, it's like, hey, hey, member,
you happen to bounce a check? Okay, what can you
do you know to prevent that from happening. There's various
tools available that we can educate you on. We can
help you create a savings plan to where you'll have
funds available in times of need. Some of the products
(15:49):
and services out there are very sophisticated. For example, you know,
doing a mortgage loan, you know, that's something that folks
do two or three times in a lifetime, and so
every time they do it, it's like this is a
whole new thing. I don't know what's going on.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Well, especially in where we're bombarded with all these different
options and you know, oh, absolutely, interest rates and what
does that mean and all of that.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Absolutely, and so we are there to help guide our
members through this. You know, these are the things that
you need to look at when when you're thinking about
buying a house and getting a mortgage and taking on
that responsibility. Uh, obviously we have a vested interest in
wanting to do the mortgage ourselves, but it's more important
to us. I think that that a member has a
great experience, you know, and understanding what exactly they're getting into.
(16:33):
So we have we've done mortgage classes before. Will people
will actually come to our credit union will spend a
whole you know, morning just going over what the processes
and what the expectations can be, you know for them.
And and so that's to me one of the meaningful
things that we do as an institution. Uh, we have
(16:53):
car buying services. Uh. That's another thing I love. I
love car dealerships.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Whether that's a big part of your business.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
It's absolutely a big part of our business. But there
is some tension you know between you know, the desires
of the car dealerships and you know the desires of
us to give our members the best deal possible on
you know, not only the car they're they're buying, but
any related products and services that might be associated with
that vehicle. And and so you know it's once again
(17:24):
we have services, car buying services, education on the different
products and services. Do you really need this? Why would
you need it? And and so that's of value. Uh.
We have some YouTube videos that are out there that
also have some you know, detailed training on various financial topics. Uh.
We have a foundation uh that we've created that it's
(17:46):
focus is on education, you know, bringing knowledge out there
to h to the marketplace. And so you know, I
think that's Uh, you know, you'll have a bunker in
this seat and they'll say a lot of the same
things you know that they will say. You know, we
focus on education, and we focus on of course, and
and to me, they do there is that aspect of it,
(18:10):
but there also is the trusted advisor role that we
as a credit union want to take that we are
really out there to look after your best interests, and
you know, with with some other players, there might be
the suspicion, Okay, I appreciate this education, but was it
focused to get me to an answer? Absolutely, and so
(18:32):
that's something to concern I'm getting that. No, no, No, this
is great.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
I mean this is great because I think first when
you talk about a seminar about house buying mortgages or
buying a car, whatever it is. Of course, whether it's
a bank or NCU, of course you would both.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Want the outcome exactly be getting that loan. But I
feel like.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
From an NCU perspective, it's more about, yeah, like to
do business with you on this loan, but it's more
important to us, or just as important to us, that
you have a firm understanding of what you're doing when
you go through this process, whether it's with us or them,
because we have a longer term relationship potentially the next
generation of your family to think about. Absolutely, which for
(19:18):
some CEOs is kind of funny. But in your role,
I mean you've done. You've been there for thirty years.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
I have been there for thirty years.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
I mean, congratulations, that's quite a tenure.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
So with that thinking, okay was a nineteen ninety five,
think about like the two or three things that you
think about, like super changed in those thirty years from
the way you have to.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Do your job. That's a that's an interesting question. I try.
You know, the mission doesn't change as to what we
want to be, the type of organization we are as
it relates to our employees ease doesn't change. We've always
(20:02):
been focused on an employee centric culture where our employees
are the ones who have to deliver the goods. Of course,
so we need to invest in them. And so with
the mission being the same and our focus on the
employees being the same, then it's just getting ready for
the changes that are naturally going to occur. That are
(20:24):
naturally going to occur.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
An example, well.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
I can go back in history with the credit union.
You know, at one time we didn't offer checking accounts.
No credit union really was able to offer checking accounts
in Texas. We couldn't and this may be getting technical,
but we couldn't get a financial institution, a bank to
clear our checks. You know, they would refuse because at
that time we were rivals. So what credit unions did.
(20:50):
We said, this is a valuable product we needed, and
so we went out and bought a bank and then
the bank was able to process, you know, our checks
for us. But one of the most significant changes of
late has been the capacity to do everything in a
mobile way using your phone. And we as an institution
(21:14):
had to decide what were we going to do. And
so what we decided was we are going to be
a mobile first institution. We are going to give you
the ability to do practically everything that you need to
do with your financial relationship on your phone. So if
you have to pay a bill, you can use your phone.
(21:36):
If you want to apply for a loan or get
a loan funded, you can do it with your phone.
If you want to transfer funds to your children, which
I had to do that quite often, we've all been there,
you can use your phone. So I think the biggest
thing that's come along is tech, is high tech, and
(21:58):
you know, we don't as a small institution, have the
ability to just do these things on our own. We've
got to partner with these high tech companies in these
high tech groups, and that is a that's a fun
game to play. That is a fun game to play.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Of course, so not to keep coming back on it,
but it is extreme.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
That means I didn't answer the question very well.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
So the thirty years thing, because.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
I've spoken with founders, sure started from zero in their
living room. You know, you took over an institution, and
you know, every leadership role is a responsibility, but absolutely
in your industry a little bit different, a deeper responsibility
when you're talking about generational customers and all of that.
Taking that away for a second, As someone who's been
(22:47):
in a CEO role for thirty years, what's something you
would say if I came to you and said, hey,
jet I'm now going to be the CEO of this company,
what would be that piece of advice she would give a.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
New CEO I would? I would say, always be curious,
Always be curious, always be asking the next question about
a particular situation.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
When you look at yeah, and I was a rookie
when I first started off.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
I mean, how long had you been at NCU.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
I had I'd only been there about a year and
a half before I became this.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
You weren't even fully I mean you were immersed, but
you weren't even fully aged.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Yeah there were, and probably not for this podcast, but
maybe over some drinks we can discuss. Uh, we don't
discuss that done. But uh, it was a great opportunity.
But you know, I probably had too much of an ego,
you know, coming in that Okay, Uh, it's going to
be my way. I was more of a command and
(23:54):
control kind of person and and so which it worked
to a certain de because there's some things that had
to be dealt with. But as I've grown, you know,
and and our focus has always been on people, but
it's it's it's got to become a different sort of
thing besides command and control. And so the advice I
would give a new CEO is number one, be open.
(24:18):
Don't be afraid to say you don't know what's going
on now. Be curious as to what is going on
with your organization, Be curious as to what's going on
out in the marketplace. And uh, always be learning, always
be That's that's one thing that public accounting taught me
and some of my other experiences that you need to
(24:41):
be learning new things every day. You need to be
learning new things every day and so, uh, that's my advice. Uh,
it would be Also, you know, people aren't the same
today as they you know, we're thirty or forty years ago.
It's a it's a different culture, it's a different way
of doing things, and you've got to be flexible. You've
(25:01):
got to be flexible with how you deal with people
these days.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
I talked to some of my peers and you know,
we talk about when we started, you know, thirty plus
years ago, and you're in before your boss and you
don't leave till your boss leaves exactly.
Speaker 1 (25:19):
You know, if that means.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Sitting there in your cube staring at the screen, that's
kind of what you did. And it is interesting how
you have to approach it. And I think I'd be
curious your take. I've become a believer that there are
leaders and there are bosses, and you know, a leader
listens and a boss tells. Sure, and look in a
leadership in any role like that, there are times you
(25:42):
have to tell absolutely.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
But I feel like, you know, the the.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Asking and listening is so important, Like that's all you're
really going to get where you want to go.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
I think sure, And you know what I always felt
one of my colleings. I always wanted to be a
teacher to a certain dege and so whenever I can
see you, absolutely, so whenever I can see people developing
and you know, becoming better versions on themselves, there's a
lot of satisfaction there. And when you look at our institution,
(26:15):
you know, not everyone is going to stay forever. You know,
You've got some people that are going to college, they
want a part time job. You've got other people that
you know, there may be someone that's above them that's
going to be in that seat for a while and
they'll go to another institution. But what we've always tried
to do is make sure the time at our institution
is valuable, that you're learning things, that you're given great opportunities,
(26:36):
and that is what we're all about. We want to
be a learning organization. So yeah, I wish someone would
have given me some advice when I assume the role.
But it's funny, but mentors are important. Oh, absolutely, mentors
are important. And I've had some wonderful mentors in my time.
(26:57):
And who's the biggest one, Well, it was it would
probably be going back to public accounting. Uh, And you
know from my background, I you know, I didn't know
what was going on. I mean, you know, I just
it was a very naive person about.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
How aka you were in your twenties.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Exactly, very naive about how the world worked. But uh uh,
you know there was a gentleman. His name was Can
I say his name please? His name was Mike Kilmen.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
He was a wonderful c PA. He was the first
person I worked with at Arthur Young and you know,
he took me under his wing and and you know,
showed me how to dress. You know, I was like,
you know what, you know, the absolutely the polyester ain't
cutting it?
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Did he ask you if you were going to a
disco there?
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Yeah? So uh let's let's figure out, you know, because
first you only have one chance to make a first impression. Absolutely,
So that that always, you know, resonated with me. Uh
And just you know, how you approach things, how you
dealt with people. You know that, yes, you had a
role as an auditor, and you know, the initial thought
(28:08):
as most people don't like auditors, but we're here to
do do do job, and you know, we can be
friends with the people that we're working with and still
do the things that we needed to do. So he
taught me a lot. He taught me how to analyze,
how to, you know, look at issues and solve problems.
And he's a wonderful guy.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Isn't it funny thinking about those moments that, like, when
they happen, you're like.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
They're just these weren't a big deal necessarily. And I'll
get to that as we get down the road a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
I had one and he's a well known in the
industry as a gentleman named Don Belucas, and he was
a regional vice president. I was in Kansas City, right,
and he'd come and tell you, this is in the nineties,
and he would come in town and take us to
a steak dinner. And every time he did it, he
would get up and leave. He would excuse himself from
the table and be gone about ten or fifteen minutes,
and he come back. And finally, one time I got
(28:59):
the courage. I was twenty seven or twenty eight. I
was like, Don, where did you go? And he goes, oh,
I went to I went to call my kids, and
I was like, and I didn't have.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
Kids yet, yeah, And I was like wow.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
So I was so fortunate.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Later years, in a previous roal his daughter worked for
the same company, and we were at a company event
and somebody introduced us and I said, I just want
you to know what I learned from your father.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
And I was scared to death of him when I
worked for him. And she started crying.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
She had me.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
She was thank you for telling me that. I said,
you need to understand. I mean that taught me when
I went on trips. I called my kids and you know,
it's one of those small things and I we'll just
go ahead into my belief. I have this belief and
you win, and the cracks and the gray spaces. You know,
we all like to think there's those big things, but
like this is one of those sayings. I don't know
(29:47):
why it's stuck with me, but obviously for good reason,
it stuck with me. And there are others, and I'm
sure you have others too, But those are the things
that really either in your career as it you know,
within your family part or your career in the overall career,
it's those little things.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
It's it's the and they're really big things, they are,
but they when you're small. Sure, when I started at
the Credit Union, I was traveling a lot, and I
had a you know, a small son at the time,
and so I was traveling a lot out of town,
you know, and I felt I was missing some things. Sure,
and so then the opportunity came along, you know with
at the time it was Dallas Postal Credit Union. Uh,
(30:27):
it's now neighborhood, and you know, so I jumped at
the chance, you know, to Okay, now I'm going to
be you know, able to come home at night, I'm
able to see my son. I'm able to you know,
coach the basketball games, there's football game, whatever is going on.
I'm going to be a significant part of her life.
And you know, my daughter, you know, exactly the same way.
(30:48):
And so that's something I've really preached at our institution.
And I haven't just preached it, but we've lived it. Yeah,
you know that we and it's maybe an overused work
life balance in the sever used term, but I think
people are better if they get out of the office
and they have something outside that they become engaged in
(31:10):
and you know, it brings something to the table back.
You know, that's that's meaningful to the institution. We have
all kinds of people at the Credit and we have
some workaholics, that you know what. You know, they're in
the office when I get there, they're there when I leave,
and you know that sort of thing. And that's wonderful too.
But you know, I do love it when people have
(31:32):
that balance. And and to me, I was, you know,
if I was going to air, it was always going
to be on the family side because that was important
to me. I probably, you know, gave up opportunities because
you know, when I was growing up, we were traveling
all over the place and so you know, never had
a friend for more than one or two years, and
that sort of thing. And so we made the decision,
(31:53):
my wife and I. It's like, we're going to stay
in this area and we are going to raise our family.
And you know, we've done that. Now I have two
grandchildren and oh that's great. So that's that's a good thing.
Uh But I had to and I'm gonna give it
to my son at at some point. But I've had
this laminated poeme that I've kept in my wallet, and
(32:14):
you know, basically it's about this guy who's just working
his butt off all the time and whatnot, you know,
and he'll go home and his wife said, oh, you missed,
you know, do this or do that, and he goes
in to kiss his son and you know, his son
kind of where's my daddy? And you know, it's like,
I don't want to never want it to be. You know,
do you.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
Want this to be the podcasting for the first time.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
I appreciate that chat and no, but you know, so
to me, that's that's what's important. You know, absolutely is
the family. So I have not to say you don't
screw up, because we all screw up and have moments
we wish we could take back. But uh yeah, family
has been very, very important and.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
It is important.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
And it's funny, like I said, I remember don teaching me,
not in an indirect way. I'm going to shift gears
for a second because I have to make an admission
to you that I don't know if it's everywhere, but
it's a saying I use sometimes when I'm giving people
that are work with me, and I use the term
bankers hours when they want to leave early. Is that
(33:19):
a thing or should I wipe that from my vocabulary?
Speaker 3 (33:23):
Well, it probably is a thing.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
Well out, I feel bad because maybe bankers hours exist
because everybody's going to coach and both.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
With their kids and stuff like that.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Well, I'll quote George Bush. You know I work twenty
four to seven, you know, twenty four hours a week,
seven months a year. So fair so, No, at certain
levels within the organization, even if you're not there, you're
still responsible for everything that's going on. And so you know,
(33:55):
having that responsibility, you know, causes you to think about
am I doing the things that are necessary to ensure
my institution remains relevant? And so you know, there's that
part of it. And I tell you know, my boss
is my board of directors. I tell my boss is
(34:17):
my board of directors. You know, I could be gone
for six months and hopefully the institution would still go on.
You know, I don't come in, I don't cash checks,
I don't do reconciliations, I don't make loans, you know,
but you know, two or three times a year, there's
going to be some big decisions that have to be
(34:37):
made that I'm going to be totally involved with. And
that's to me, what it's all about. Putting aside the
training and development of the folks. Well, you know that
sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
If you put the right people in the right places,
and you exactly power them and coach them and all
of that, you should be able to step away. Sure,
you know, you don't take your hands completely off the wheel.
And like we talked about, with all the changes over
the last thirty years, it's very easy to stay connected. Sure,
given where we are technologically, Okay, I want to ask
(35:07):
you a question, as a leader in the financial space,
what do you make of the economy right now?
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Well, it's a If you listen to one side of
the debate, you know, these are the best of times.
If you look into the other side, there's some serious
issues out there. You know. I think when you look
at Texas, and in particular when you look at the Metroplex,
there are some wonderful opportunities out here. We are growing,
(35:38):
we are thriving. The tech industry is doing some fantastic
things in our area, and so I think there's a
lot of opportunity. There's a lot of worry out there,
and AI is the biggest worry. Is it going to
replace correct so many different positions And the answer is yes,
And so how do we navigate that? Because it can
(36:02):
disrupt the economy if a lot of people are out
of jobs, But then it creates all these new opportunities
and so I look on the economy as it's doing
good right now, and you know, I've seen some terrible
things over my career. Well it's going to say so
right now it's going pretty darn good. I worry sometimes
(36:23):
that the politicians may be doing things that could backfire
on us. One of these things is this ten percent
interest rate cap on credit cards. Okay, everyone may think, oh,
who wouldn't be for that? Correct, you know ten percent
is wonderful. Well, if you impose that, then a lot
(36:43):
of institutions, neighborhood credit union included, are going to say,
you know what, person, we can't do this loan for
you because our risk is too high. I mean, I
can look at a group of one hundred people and
you know, based upon certain financial information, credit scores, what
have you. I can say, you know what, ten percent
(37:04):
are going to go bad? Okay, if I can only
charge ten percent, I can't do that type of lending.
And so what happens is you'd get this mandate imposed
on you. You cut off all these people, and then what
alternatives they do, Well, they're going to go down to
the pawnshob. They're going to go to a loan shark
(37:26):
and so part of the Neighborhood Credit Union mission is
we are trying to help people that are not banked yet,
that are unbanked that you are having to go to
the pawnshob or they conduct all their business in cash
or what have you. And so sometimes in misguided efforts
to do the right things, you can really end up hurting.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
People's interesting because on the surface, like you said, I
would love it.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Who wouldn't think that would be great?
Speaker 2 (37:51):
But so if I'm understanding that plus over ten percent
helps mitigate risk in a way that makes everything kind
of stay and balance in a strange way.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
Sure, I mean not you want to treat people fairly,
you don't want to treat them necessarily the same. And
so someone who is a fantastic financial record and whatnot,
you know, will get a lower interest rate on their automobile.
They've earned that, they've earned that. And someone who has
(38:24):
been challenged and has difficulties and that sort of thing,
you make a decision not going to do business with
us person, or I'm going to do it in such
a way that we mitigate a little bit of the risk.
Maybe it's a higher interest rate, maybe it's a larger
down payment, maybe it's something, but I don't want to
say no to anybody. I want to help somebody. I
(38:46):
want that person that's a high risk in a year
or two to be a low risk.
Speaker 1 (38:50):
It's funny.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
I know we did a little research on you and
you said it earlier. You're a big reader and Phil
Jackson's book he talks about you know, I'm fair to
everyone on the team, but I don't treat Michael Jordan
the way I exactly the thirteenth guy on the bench.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
And you earn that that that treatment, so to speak.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
So I want to go back to the cracks and
gray spaces thing real quick, because it's just something I
believe in. You know, it holds an organization together. And
you know, when we were talking to doctor Harrison from Dentistry,
he's like, you know, I agonize over every word in
the copy that we put out there in our advertisement
and things like that. How do you look at that,
(39:31):
you know, knowing that there aren't those there are, but
they don't come every day, those big moments, but you know,
managing those smaller wins, like.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
How do you talk to your team about that?
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Is it something that you know you may disagree, you
may think no, it's it's about the bigger things.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
I mean to me, I'm going to answer a question
for you a little bit. I think so much.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
You've mentioned mission and your your your customers in multiple
ways as we've talked today, and it's almost to me
it seems like you do it one conversation at a time.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
But I don't want to answer the question for you.
Speaker 3 (40:01):
You did quite well there by the way. There's a future,
that really is. But the small stories, you know are
the ones that you know are encouragers to our staff
to do even more to help help our members.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (40:19):
You know, we've done some things where you know, someone
has been house bound and you know, we'll go deliver
some cash to them that they needed to just just
a real small thing. You know, we'll we'll do that.
We would, you know, recognize there's a need there and
help people help people out. But one of the things,
(40:39):
you know that we haven't talked about that has led
to some really wonderful stories at the Credit Union, you know,
is our prize savings account. Okay, and you know that's
basically an account where you know, if you have a
little bit of savings with the institution, you know, we're
giving away prizes for you because you know, if you
have one hundred dollars or two hundred dollars in savings
an interest rate, no matter h how high it is,
(41:02):
it's you're only going to get a couple of bucks.
But if you have some large prizes available, you might
get excited about it and put you know, even more
money into your savings, you know, create that you know,
growing balance account and then have a opportunity to win
one thousand dollars. We gave away a fifty thousand dollars
grand prize. I need to say forty nine thousand, nine
(41:23):
ninety nine because there's some lottery rules and you know,
some other things, so I don't want anyone coming after
the institution. But we had a number of years ago
a preacher and oak Cliffe won our grand prize and
we went and talked to him and it's like, what
are you going to be doing with this money? And
he goes, well, you know, my son is just getting
(41:45):
married and you know his bride is from Ireland and
they wanted to go to Ireland and they weren't going
to be able to afford it. And so now the
most meaningful day in his life I can make it
even better by helping with this with this honeymoon, and
it's oh, man, that's that's just wonderful. That's that's a
great use of that fund. And you know, then we
(42:07):
interviewed him a year or two, three years last year
after that, Hey, how are you doing? He goes, oh,
it was great. Uh, my son came back from the honeymoon.
His wife was pregnant. I knew I was going there,
so that was great.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
And you're thinking new member, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
Exactly, and he goes, you know, but my son, his
car was in terrible shape. I still had some money
left over from the savings, surprise savings, so I was
able to get him a nice, safe car that was
going to be I don't know if he cared about
his son or the grandson, that my grandson's going to
be in this new safe car and whatnot. And so
he was able to use the funds for that. So
(42:42):
it was it was really meaningful to them. And then
just because the appreciation for what the Credit Union was
able to do for him and the relationship that we had,
his son ended up getting a mortgage with us where
we were able to help him in that regard and
so it just some wonderful things that developed out it.
And there's some wonderful stories as well. We've had some
(43:02):
some amazing thing happens with that. Uh So it's it's
it's been a great, great product for us. It's really
encouraged people that starts that savings program.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
Well, it really feels like as you were telling the story,
it's it's it's a small seed exactly that begins to
grow and and a it could motivate another employee to
do something similar like you said, drive to someone's house
or whatever, and what does that create?
Speaker 1 (43:27):
And I think it also I would.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
Imagine from a pride perspective, for the for the whole
company to feel like we this is what my company does.
Speaker 1 (43:36):
This is what NCU does. Sure, that's that's great. I
love that story.
Speaker 2 (43:40):
And it's exactly that's it's it seems like a small thing, yeah,
but it grows into this giant thing with really just
the thought of your customers in mind.
Speaker 3 (43:49):
That's great, outstanding.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
So chat we could go on, as Amanda knows, I
could go on for hours and.
Speaker 3 (43:57):
But you're gonna chop this down to five best.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
But we have we have something we do at the
end of every episode, and it gets renamed basically it's
question roulette. But because we did some research on you
on your favorite candies, I do see them.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
All Enjoy Butterfinger and Crunch.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
Each candy bar has an envelope attached with a question
that we're going to ask you to answer. So choose
your candy bar, tell everyone what you chose, and then
open the envelope and.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Read your question.
Speaker 3 (44:26):
All right, Uh, allm enjoy Butterfinger, Crunch. These are some
amazing choices. But Nestle's Crunch has always been my first love.
All right, to go with that, all right, And the
question is, and I'm pulling the envelope here, cash, credit
or mobile payment? What's in your wallet right now? All three? Okay, okay,
(44:53):
all three. You never know when you're going to be
walking down the street and you know, a crap game,
you know, come up in the corner there and you
might need to roll some dice or whatever. No, I
always thought that cash was going to be king forever.
And when I would go to McDonald's to get my
morning coffee and I'd use the two dollars and this
sort of thing. Well, then I started using my phone
(45:16):
for me. Well, why did I ever use cash? You know,
what's what's the purpose of cash? And so so, now
truth be told, I do have credit cards, they do
have debit cards, but I use my phone. It's got
my payment mechanism on there, and it's it's been great.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
So I have to ask one more question and then
we'll wrap up on this episode.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
It's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
So my son, who's who's in his twenties now, but
when he was a teenager, as teenagers want to do,
they do some really ridiculous things. And one time I
was with him and he got change from we'd gone
through drive through something and I looked and I saw
him roll out the window and throw the pennies out
the window. I'm like, what are you doing? Oh, pennies
are worthless? Okay, the longer conversation glad to say he's
(46:04):
financially literate now. But this leads to my question, are
you pro penny or anti penny?
Speaker 1 (46:08):
Are they going to be around?
Speaker 3 (46:10):
Uh? You know what, I don't think they will be around.
I don't think they will be around much longer. Yeah,
endgame and and it takes decades to kill any financial product,
but I think endgame currency as we know it will
will eventually be a thing of the past. It'll eventually
be a thing.
Speaker 1 (46:27):
But don't throw it out the window.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
But don't throw it out the window. Keep keep keep it,
a hold of it, and you know, bring it into
your credit union.
Speaker 1 (46:34):
And do you guys roll for people or do we
give a machine.
Speaker 3 (46:38):
We have tried to get out of the coin business.
Speaker 1 (46:42):
I'm the guy with the big cup of change.
Speaker 3 (46:44):
We we've tried to get out of the coin business.
And so on an annual basis, we'll have coin drives
and you know, once a year we'll let you bring
in your coins and you know that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Got it, We'll chat. We've covered a lot of ground.
Speaker 3 (46:57):
Just thank you for this opportunity. I've enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
This has been a lot of fun. I will keep
you posted. I have gone through in my head.
Speaker 2 (47:03):
I think with Boston as your first concert, your number
one right now, we're gonna have to now, I mean
we're gonna have to keep a list. It's Boston number one,
Pink Floyd number two, and Johnny Cash number three, and
men at work will maintain last week all right, for
a long time, Jet, thank you, it was a lot
of fun, This was great.
Speaker 3 (47:23):
Thank you very very much.
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