April 7, 2026 • 45 mins
Your banker can’t approve what they can’t understand and most business owners don’t realize how often the deal breaks down long before the loan committee meets. We’re joined by Ron Branscum, a University of Central Arkansas alum who has lived the full arc of finance in Northwest Arkansas: state bank examiner, commercial lender, market builder, business owner, and now a consultant helping companies tell a clearer financial story.
Ron shares what he learned on championship-level UCA basketball teams about attitude, roles, and leadership, then connects that mindset to community banking and relationship-based lending. We talk about why “community banker” is more than a title, how trust is built before the ask, and why you should never waste time chasing a loan that doesn’t fit your bank’s credit box. He also reflects on the region’s transformation, including the early days of Pinnacle Hills and the vision that turned dirt roads into an economic engine.
The conversation gets practical for entrepreneurs and operators. Ron explains what he looks for first in a set of financial statements, why the debt-to-equity ratio matters, and how cash flow pressure feels different when payroll is on you. He also breaks down the common mistakes that make small business loans harder than they should be and how a lender-ready financial packet changes the outcome. Finally, Ron connects business growth to education through his service as a Northwest Arkansas Community College trustee, including workforce development, construction trades, healthcare programs, and the funding challenge behind campus expansion.
If you care about small business finance, community banking, business consulting, and building a stronger Northwest Arkansas, hit play and take notes. Subscribe, share this with a business owner who needs it, and leave us a review with your biggest takeaway.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_02 (00:01):
This is Central to NWA, a UCA podcast.
I'm your host, Paul Gatling, andwe are bringing the University
of Central Arkansas to NorthwestArkansas.
Each episode, we will talk withleaders, alumni, and innovators
driving this region forward.
People who are shapingindustries and defining what is
next for our state.
(00:22):
Let's get started.
Welcome back to another episodeof Central to NWA.
I'm Paul Gatling with theUniversity of Central Arkansas,
and today's guest is RonBranscombe.
He's a longtime, former longtimeNorthwest Arkansas banker, now a
business owner and consultant,uh, somebody I've known for a
long time, UCA graduate, classof of 1993.
(00:44):
And he's he's really one ofthose guys who's uh you know
he's seen the business from justabout every side, the banking
side and now advising businessesside.
And um, so uh I think that'sgonna give uh give us a
perspective uh that people arereally going to enjoy.
Ron, good to see you.
Thanks for being here.
Thank you, Paul.
I appreciate you having me.
SPEAKER_01 (01:02):
Yeah.
Uh I'm excited to uh get achance to visit with you.
SPEAKER_02 (01:05):
Yeah, you as well.
I mean, like I said, we've we'vego back to the business journal
days when I was there, and youhad a couple of stints at Arvest
Bank and the Citizens Bank andand all of that.
And we'll we'll get into that,of course, a little bit later
on.
But first, you know, UCA classof 1993, right?
Yes, sir.
Yeah.
Great time to be a basketballplayer at UCA.
SPEAKER_01 (01:25):
It was.
Yeah.
Uh, you know, when uh Coach Dyerrecruited me down there to to
UCA, it was uh he said we we'regonna have a good team coming
back uh the in 1990, 91 season.
And uh, you know, I I'd been onsome good teams, but I hadn't
been on any teams that won anychampionships.
Yep.
And that was like, uh, you knowwhat, there's a chance to win
(01:46):
something here.
And uh and we did.
Yeah.
We we had some good successthere.
SPEAKER_02 (01:51):
Got really, really close to winning the whole
thing.
Back to back, NAIA nationalrunners up in 91 and 92, very
close.
I think one of those games inovertime.
Yeah, I mean, I'm sure you knowexactly which game.
SPEAKER_01 (02:03):
Both games we got beat by Oklahoma City.
That's right.
Same team.
And uh yeah, the second one theywe they got us in overtime.
And uh if Joe Sikowski wouldn'twould not have failed out in
overtime, uh, I think we'dprobably beat him.
SPEAKER_02 (02:16):
Yeah, yeah.
Great Northwest Arkansasconnection there.
Joe and George, um great fablehigh school players, great UCA
players.
Um we'll go back to thebasketball in a minute, but
first, you know, um, you were onsome teams.
Where did you grow up?
Where did you grow up here inArkansas and and how did you get
involved with UCA?
SPEAKER_01 (02:33):
Yeah, uh Jacksonville, Arkansas, right
there where the air base, my mydad was in the military and the
Air Force, and so used to spenda lot of time on the air base.
And so just being in thatcentral Arkansas area, I
obviously knew about UCA.
Yeah.
And uh when I when I graduatedfrom UCA, I went to North Ark
Community College, which we'llwe'll talk about the connection
(02:54):
with community college, but uhplayed basketball up there for
two years.
And then when it was time towhere am I gonna go next, yeah,
you know, had that opportunityat UCA.
I was very familiar with theschool.
Yeah.
Uh so had a lot of connectionsthere, a lot of friends there,
so it made sense.
SPEAKER_02 (03:11):
Did you move around a lot as a kid?
I mean, uh, here the militarywere you always in Central
Arkansas?
SPEAKER_01 (03:16):
We were we were a rare breed in that we stayed, my
dad was uh stationed in in uhJacksonville for the the length
of time that that he wasbasically about 10 years, which
is very rare.
And he retired at that point.
I remember we had orders to goto England at one time.
He had gone over Not England,Arkansas.
(03:37):
Not England, Arkansas, thecountry England.
He he had uh left, went overthere, found a house, uh, had us
a house to rent.
We put up our house back inJacksonville and sold it, and
then last minute they gotcanceled.
Wow.
And so we had uh I rememberscrambling the my parents to
find another house there inJacksonville, and they did.
And so yeah, we stayed there thewhole time, which is really
rare.
SPEAKER_02 (03:57):
Yeah.
Okay.
So yeah, UCA besides thebasketball, which we'll go back
to.
What did you study?
Did you have any idea about whatkind of uh work you wanted to
do, or what were you interestedin there as an undergraduate?
SPEAKER_01 (04:08):
Well, I I knew I wanted to do something in
business, and uh I'd gotten someadvice from a high school
teacher that accounting would bea good profession to go into.
So that was the direction Iwound up going, was was in and
getting my undergraduate inaccounting, which really gave me
some great fundamentals for fordown the road.
SPEAKER_02 (04:28):
Right.
So when I think of those UCAteams, and I'm I'm in high
school at this time, uh, I thinkof Clifton Bush.
Yes.
Um, besides Scottie Pippen, uh,probably one of you know he's on
a very short list of the bestUCA basketball players that ever
that ever played there.
What do you remember about thatrun, those two years?
(04:49):
A lot of wins.
SPEAKER_01 (04:50):
Yeah, a lot of wins.
Uh what I loved about Cliftonwas every day for practice, he
showed up.
Yep.
He didn't take a day off.
I could I remember one practicewhere he took a day off.
But outside of that, you youknow, you didn't want Clifton
guarding you, you didn't want toguard Clifton.
He was he was our leader.
He was the one that set thetone.
And you know, the expectationwas when we went to practice, we
(05:12):
had to match Clifton Bush's uhhis his his willingness to want
to put it all out there.
He was the first in line, he ranthe fastest, he beat everybody
in all the drills.
He could have easily takenthings off at times.
Yeah.
And so I always thought veryhighly of Clifton and the fact
of that's what made him so good.
SPEAKER_02 (05:30):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (05:30):
What kind of teammate were you?
I was I was probably the uh uhencourage your cheerleader best
that you could be, find my roleuh wherever I can find a role.
Right.
Um, you know, I wasn't the mosttalented player, uh, but I I
found a spot where I could helpthe team at moments and and I
(05:51):
did the best that I could.
SPEAKER_02 (05:52):
Well, and that attitude right there, I mean, is
a perfect example of things thatuh I would think stay with you
as you grow up and get and enterinto the business world and
become a uh a business leaderand uh and a husband and all of
those things.
What did being a teammate meanto you as you progress through
your life?
SPEAKER_01 (06:10):
That's it's a great question.
And my senior year, uh thecoaches awarded me uh best
attitude on the team, whichreally at that time I thought,
well, you know, you'd alwayswant to be like the best player
of the year or best player onthe team, but you know, that
wasn't going to be the case.
But having the best attitudereally set the tone for me, any
(06:31):
team that I've been involvedwith, if it's on a board, um,
within a company, uh, even justwithin within family of
understanding, like, hey, I'vegot a role to play, and I need
to play that role and and pullmy own in regard to what it
means to be a teammate.
SPEAKER_02 (06:48):
Yeah.
Okay.
So you leave you leave thatenvironment uh with an
accounting degree, a goodteammate, and now you're going
into uh an entirely new teamnow, starting a banking career,
finance career.
What was the first step in yourcareer after you're leaving uh
campus in Conway?
SPEAKER_01 (07:05):
You know, uh I I went and seeked counsel from
three different individualbankers.
I knew that I had the accountingdegree, but I wanted to get into
banking.
Uh growing up, I remember thebankers in Jacksonville.
They were always involved in thecommunity.
And so I just knew that wassomething that really kind of
intrigued me and that I wantedto be involved with.
So I knew banking was adirection I wanted to go.
(07:27):
So I asked three differentbankers, hey, what's the best
way to get in banking?
And each one, totally separate,they didn't know any of the
previous conversations.
Each one told me you need to gobe a bank examiner.
SPEAKER_00 (07:39):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (07:40):
And so I started applying with the FDIC, state of
Arkansas, the Federal Reserve.
Uh, I had an uncle who is adistinguished alumni, Herbie
Branscombe, with ECA.
He had a connection.
Uh, one of his partners, RobHill, was on the board of the
State Bank Department.
And so he was able to get me aninterview.
(08:02):
And uh, so I interviewed withthe state of Arkansas, got a job
as a bank examiner, and they hadit's it's kind of funny, Paul.
I they had they gave me twooptions.
We've got an opening inFayetteville and one in
Jonesboro.
I really didn't care much aboutthe, I think they were the
Indians at the time.
(08:22):
That's right.
Arkansas State.
Yeah.
I was I followed the Razorbacksmore.
Yeah.
I wished I could tell you that Idid all my homework, knew what
was going on in NorthwestArkansas, didn't have a clue,
and I made the decision basedon, hey, I'll I'll go up there
because I'm familiar with theRazorback.
Right.
That's what brought me toNorthwest Arkansas.
Yeah.
And what year was that?
That was in '94.
(08:42):
Summer of 94.
And so got up here and reallygot my doctorate in banking
through being a bank examiner.
Okay.
It was uh it was it was a goodfour year spent.
And if of anybody who's wantingto get into banking or is in
banking, but is really wantingto to develop and grow, seek out
(09:04):
a bank examiner job.
Because you get to see howbankers operate.
You think that they're allpretty much the same, but they
are a lot different.
Yeah.
And then you get to see thedifferent management styles.
SPEAKER_02 (09:15):
I I've always wondered, um, you know, you
mentioned that you didn't reallyknow what you were getting into
in Fayetteville, but in 1994,when you're coming to
Fayetteville, it's I mean,you're in a way you're still
coming to the hinterlands of uhNorthwest Arkansas.
You're certainly not coming toBenton County, right?
I mean, you didn't go pastFayetteville, you know, 30 some
odd years ago.
So State Banking Department, andthen, you know, a couple of
(09:38):
stints with Arvest Bank, and youled a bank market entry, uh, I
believe, Citizens Bank, yes,from Batesville.
Um, one of my favorite questionsat the Business Journal was
asking bankers, because we hearthe term and you sort of alluded
to it, community banking,community banker.
What does community banking meanto you?
What does a community banker dothat separates from other
(09:58):
bankers?
SPEAKER_01 (09:59):
Great question, Paul.
Uh Sam Walton, when he startedgetting into banks, when he
started buying banks, you know,his comment was the bank is
going to be only as good as thecommunity is.
And the community is made up ofthe individuals that are there,
obviously.
And so one of the roles of anybanker is to be involved in the
(10:23):
community, to be help provideleadership, uh uh guidance and
direction uh from an economystandpoint to be not only
holding the information, butbeing willing to share because
it helps all.
And so that's what really stuckout to me, and that was
something I strive to do inregard to giving back to the
(10:43):
community.
And that can look in a lot ofdifferent ways of serving on
boards, uh, which I've done myfair share and I really enjoy
it.
Uh, but also too, just beingbeing of the mindset of I'm
gonna share what I know to helpyou so that you will take it and
help somebody else.
SPEAKER_02 (11:02):
So if you were to share what you know about the
importance of relationshipbuilding to a young banker, to
someone who's just starting ormaybe just taking their first
job as a bank examiner, uh, whatwould you tell them?
SPEAKER_01 (11:15):
It's all about relationships.
It really is.
Uh, really in banking, you're arelationship manager.
Yeah, uh, one of the firstthings you really need to strive
to do, and I try to apply thisin my business now, is you got
to develop the relationshipfirst before you can even ask
for the business.
And I think a lot of people rushto let me help you business
wise, when really you should bejust trying to develop that
(11:37):
relationship so that theyunderstand where you're coming
from, you get a chance to knowthem.
Because sometimes you might notwant to really have that
relationship from a bankingstandpoint.
It might not be a good fit forthe bank.
Uh, you might spend a lot oftime and effort developing that,
and then you get to the to theloan committees and you realize
our bank's not looking for thistype of relationship.
(11:59):
Right.
And you waste a lot of time.
So, really, the relationships,though, are very key.
Uh you never really want to burna bridge, but you really want to
develop relationships.
SPEAKER_02 (12:09):
Yes.
Dun, uh I kind of glossed overyour timeline, but just give us
like the 30,000-foot view ofyour of your timeline here uh
from leaving the bank departmentto first joining your bank and
then just kind of the way youworked up the ladder here in
Northwest Arkansas.
SPEAKER_01 (12:22):
Yep.
Yep.
So when I was with the bankdepartment, I was a senior bank
examiner, and uh there was uh anad out with First National Bank
and Rogers, which was owned bythe Walton family.
And at that time you hadMcElroy, Bank of Bentonville,
separate charters.
They were all owned by R Vest,but nobody knew the name Rvest.
(12:43):
It was all the holding company.
And so I went to work for themas their senior credit analyst
and just got all types oflearning experience because I
had one side of the desk of as abank examiner what to look for.
Now I'm on this side and it'sreally starting to make a lot of
sense to me.
Yeah.
And um, and so with with FirstNational Bank, uh, just had a
(13:06):
lot of opportunities, grew intoa commercial lender.
And at that time, too, we thethe bank was merging into the
name of Rvest.
Uh there was many days ago wherethe the Rvest name, it might be
a First National Bank check, butthe Rvest name was a little bit
bigger each year.
Right.
(13:26):
And you and eventually we allfolded under the Rvest umbrella.
And so at that point, uh I notonly got the experience of being
a commercial lender, but I alsogot to be uh have the experience
of managing a commercial lendingteam.
So I had a group that reportedto me, and it was my job to help
the bank find all of thecommercial opportunities that
(13:49):
were out there.
And it was like the wild, wildwest at one time.
There were a lot of things goingon, a lot of opportunities.
And I look back and I think,man, what a blessing to
experience all of it.
SPEAKER_02 (14:00):
Yeah, it's it's been great.
I've lived here 25 years, you'velived here over 30 years, and uh
when you say those names likeMcElroy and uh the Bank of
Bentonville and First NationalBank Rogers and all of those
banks from from years gone by, Imean, it really does bring back
a lot of memories.
I imagine it probably still doesfor you too.
SPEAKER_01 (14:17):
It does.
And I think of you know, everytime I come up the Pinnacle
Hills Boulevard, uh I Idistinctly remember the day of
being in Gary Combs' truck withhim.
I don't know if you that's aproposition in itself.
It is truck with Gary Combs.
But Gary was married to to CarlaTyson, but he was developing uh
(14:38):
property there for a while.
So he developed the commercialPinnacle Hills Boulevard.
And I remember being in histruck where they just cut the
dirt, and so we're riding downthe dirt road talking about this
area being the epicenter of theepicenter, you know, and that
was like Gary, I hope you don'tdrive off the road here, but
(14:59):
also too, what vision he had.
Yeah, uh Collins Haynes, BillSchwehart, uh Carmen Lehman, uh
even then JB Hunt got involved.
It was just a lot of visionariesreally helped get this area off
the ground.
SPEAKER_02 (15:15):
You've got to have um an imagination that's
boundless to be sitting in thattruck where you were and
listening to these plans thatGary's talking about and where
you're looking around and whatyou're looking at.
And it's just um none of it washere.
SPEAKER_01 (15:28):
Yeah.
None of it was here.
It's hard to compute.
Yeah, it's hard for me to youknow drive by the mall over
there and the promenade mall.
And yeah, that would that mallwasn't there.
Right.
But I remember when those dealswere being made to get that mall
here.
Yeah.
And uh I remember when John Q.
Hammonds and bought the landfrom that very group I talked
(15:50):
about, Combs and Schweihhart andthem, bought the land to put the
uh embassy suites and conventioncenter in.
And he told that group, you'renot thinking big enough.
And that's when he put that uhconvention center and the hotel
in, and it was like he was avisionary too.
SPEAKER_02 (16:07):
Yeah, I'll share a story similar to that.
I remember I I just moved uphere in 2001 and uh I was doing
a freelance article for theState Golf Association magazine,
and it was connected with uh Mr.
Reeves, Charles Reeves, whodeveloped Shadow Valley.
He was just getting, they hadjust started moving dirt and
kind of cutting some fairways.
I mean, it was very, very earlyon, and um he put me in his
(16:30):
truck one morning uh to go, youknow, show me where we're gonna
go from one, and here's numbertwo, and here's number three,
and we were just it would feelyou can imagine.
And it was early in the morning,and I guess I'd had too much of
a breakfast, and um I got sick.
I said, Mr.
Reeves, I need you to stop thistruck.
And he can't he stopped andlooked in, so I opened the door
and he was just kind ofchuckling.
I said, Okay, I'm I'm okay now.
(16:52):
Yeah, but yeah, when you think,I mean, because Shadow Valley is
now what on you know, phase 15or whatever they're on of the
houses, hundreds of houses outthere, beautiful golf course.
And to um it's uh it's it's funto think back on those memories
of the way this place used tolook.
Yeah.
Um uh from the people who livedit like you.
You were right there in the verymiddle of it.
SPEAKER_01 (17:12):
Yeah, so Charles, so he you know, before Shadow
Valley, he had uh HighlandKnowles and Chris Meadows, he
had developed that, and uh hewas very instrumental in
Southwest Rogers Road.
Uh very instrumental.
And then he did the PleasantGrove, you know, that's where
the Walmart Super Center is now.
And you know, it wasinteresting.
There was a time when he thoughthe had the mall coming into that
(17:34):
particular area.
Yeah.
And this other group had themall coming here to promenade.
They were both seeking thatparticular mall as to as to how
important that was.
And uh, you know, Charles missedout.
And uh but uh Charles was hedidn't miss out too badly.
No, Charles did Charles was avery, he was he was on our bank
board, very smart man, verysmart man, uh, really had great
(17:57):
common sense to him.
SPEAKER_02 (17:58):
Yeah.
Okay.
That's wonderful memories.
All right.
So you step out of banking for alittle bit and you go to work,
not really go to work, you wentto lead a business that you own
uh with your wife, regionaltherapy services.
Tell us about that career andhow you uh evolved into that
that role.
SPEAKER_01 (18:14):
You bet.
I'd be remiss if I didn't uhbring up that the value of UCA
is where I met my wife.
Oh, okay.
UCA.
So we we dated down there, andthen when I moved up here for a
bank examiner's job, we we datedfor another year and got married
and got her up here to NorthwestArkansas and she finished at the
(18:34):
U of A, but you have to convinceher?
Oh no, not at all.
She was she was ready to go.
Yeah.
Um and I will say with her,she's she's very adventurous.
Um there's never been uh aquestion of well, why would we
do that?
She she loves the adventure ofit.
So moving to n moving to newterrain was very exciting.
It was an adventure.
It was it was uh but uh yeah,went to she used to always I you
(18:58):
know I had a gr greatopportunity in the banking
career.
Arvis was always good to me, butshe'd always uh always every
once in a while say, I wishyou'd take this company over.
I wish you'd jump in and and andhelp run it.
And I would always be, D, I'mI've got this banking career.
I'm going in this direction.
(19:19):
Um one of the things, Paul, whenI was in banking, I used to just
especially the older clients, Iwould always ask them, hey, what
would you do differently?
And every time I would ask thatquestion, the answer was always
I wished I'd spent more timewith my family.
Every answer.
(19:40):
Red Hudson, you know, um all thevarious people that I would ask
that to would give me thatanswer.
So I knew in the back of mymind, I thought, you know,
family is very important to meand I hear what they're saying.
And but here I am running thisdirection.
So when she when we would havethose conversations, well, it
just finally stuck with me oneday.
(20:01):
What would it look like?
And uh and so we as an adventuredecided we're gonna we're gonna
I'm gonna uh discard the bankingcareer and and head this
direction and we're gonnabasically do business together.
And wouldn't say there's notthere's not a better business
partner than my wife.
(20:22):
Uh not a better friendship, andthat just doing business
together helped bring us evencloser together.
And so it's not always easy, butit's very uh very valuable and
very enjoyable.
SPEAKER_02 (20:36):
And so regional therapy services is what does it
do and who does it do it for?
SPEAKER_01 (20:41):
So Deedra uh initially is a speech therapist,
that's what she got her master'sin and was originally just doing
speech, but uh speech uhregional therapy now does
speech, physical, andoccupational therapy, uh, works
with pediatric clients, birth tofive.
Um back when I stepped out ofbanking and into the shoes of of
(21:04):
helping her with regionaltherapy, there were three
employees.
Two of them were part-time.
And fast forward to today, uhnorth of 50 employees.
And so uh she's done anexcellent job with it.
Uh I'm on full-time consultingwith her, you know, in regard to
(21:26):
helping wherever needed.
Uh, but it's been fun reallyputting that business together.
SPEAKER_02 (21:32):
What did you learn about um, you know, you went
from financing businesses torunning a business?
I mean, what was what was thatmindset like getting into that
chair and not this chair?
SPEAKER_01 (21:43):
You know, never had to worry about a a paycheck when
you're working at the bank,especially working for the
Walton Finn.
You didn't have to worry aboutpay.
You really learned real quickpayday is very important.
And to uh, you know, when itgets to you're messing with
other people's paycheck, it'svery, very Very important.
So the responsibilities ofmanaging the cash flow, which
(22:06):
really came natural to me, butnow it's like it's in your
hands.
You know, if uh if if if youmake a poor decision, there
there are ramifications.
Uh back in banking, if you madea poor decision, you were able
to learn from it and move on toget to the next one.
Uh so that was uh that was onething.
I think the other thing that Ireally learned, this was working
(22:29):
with all the clients that I did,is how important culture in a
company is.
And uh that's one of the thingswe were able to put in place is
develop a culture with uh RTS.
And it's really key that youknow once you establish that,
you got to continue to uh tojust keep it in front of all the
(22:50):
employees, keep it active, andyou got to keep living it out.
SPEAKER_02 (22:55):
I would imagine that also changed um maybe the way
you felt uh about risk um beingyou know the banker.
Like you said, you didn'tnecessarily have to worry about
a paycheck, you didn't have toworry about a lot of things, but
as a business owner, you had toworry about several things and
risk being one of those.
SPEAKER_01 (23:12):
Yes.
Yeah, most definitely.
SPEAKER_02 (23:13):
Yeah.
So you go back to um you didthat for how many years?
SPEAKER_01 (23:18):
Did that for six years.
Okay, and then an opportunity toreturn to the banking.
I was I was approached by uh thethe the folks with Citizens Bank
out of Batesville about comingin and uh and taking on the
Rogers market.
And for some reason at thattime, it just felt like, you
know what, uh maybe I need thisnew risk of or maybe I just need
(23:45):
to be re-energized in in inregard to trying this particular
venture out.
And so yeah, I got back intobanking.
SPEAKER_02 (23:51):
Did you find that you'd been re-energized?
I mean, was it a different from1.0 to 2.0 in your banking
career?
SPEAKER_01 (23:57):
It was, you know, relationship keys were always
the same.
That was always the same, butthe banking industry had changed
night and day.
Yeah.
Just within that six-year timeperiod.
How so?
What's the most I just remember,but one of the very first loans
back at Citizens Bank had acustomer call and they were
wanting to do it was a simplerequest, wanting to do a home
(24:19):
equity line of credit, secondmortgage on their home, and they
were going to use it for for uhfor business or for I think they
were gonna do remodeling withit.
And I were sure we can do that,no problem.
Uh I'll I'll walked it over tomy loan assistant.
Hey, we need to get this put inplace.
And I I mistakenly told thecustomer, you know, we should be
(24:40):
able to get this done in abouttwo weeks.
Banking had changed a lot.
And uh so when I shared thatwith my assistant, she looked at
me like, what did you tell them?
Yeah.
Uh, you know, it's a it was a 30to 45 day process just for a
little home equity level.
And so the banking regulationsand and everything had really,
(25:05):
really just totally swung in ain a in another direction.
And so that was the that was thethe one of the things.
It was like, okay, this is a lotdifferent.
It's not as it's not as customerfriendly, even though the
regulations were supposed tohelp protect the customer and
help benefit the customer, itreally added no value to the
(25:25):
customer.
It just created moredocumentation.
SPEAKER_02 (25:28):
Do you feel like I mean that that's a byproduct of
a lot of things, regulatorythings, and we could go down
that path all day, but it was italso a byproduct of just um the
region's growth here?
I mean, community banking, Iwould think has changed meaning
today from what it meant 20years ago in this, in in that we
are not necessarily a communityanymore.
(25:50):
Not that that's good or bad ornegative, but we're just we're
getting bigger, we're larger,we're we've evolved into
something maybe past a communitywhere you don't necessarily know
your your banker and yourcustomer as well as you did.
Has that got some validity tothat?
SPEAKER_01 (26:03):
Yes and no.
I do think so there are certainniches within banking that I
think still need to be met andcan be met.
And so uh you can have the bignational banks uh you which are
going to provide a lot ofsecurity.
You can have the regional banksthat uh probably don't have as
(26:25):
much flexibility, but they canbe really, really sharp on their
loan rates and and have somereally aggressive products.
And then you still need thatcommunity bank that knows who am
I doing business with and knowsthat hey, uh I'm willing to to
take this risk on thisindividual because I know their
character, I know who they are.
(26:46):
Um, I know that they've beenthrough the fire on things and
they've they came through everytime.
So I still think there is aniche for community banking.
The regulations make it reallytough to be a community bank,
though.
They really do.
Yeah.
Because they start lumping youin with some of the regional
banks and trying to get you tothat point.
(27:06):
Now, I can understand back whenI go put my old bank examiner
hat on.
I remember those days of, youknow, hey, safety and soundness,
you're trying to trying toprotect the banking industry.
And so I understand that, but Ithink I think it's still there's
still a niche that can be met asa community banker.
SPEAKER_02 (27:24):
Okay.
So fast forward then, you you'veyou've seen business from from
multiple angles, regulator,banker, and business owner.
And so in terms of niches, you Iguess see a niche that you can
fill with a consulting firm,right?
And you decide to to launch yourown consulting business.
What led to that decision?
SPEAKER_01 (27:44):
Well, you hit you you hit it right on the head
there, Paul.
Um, as a banker, I no tellinghow many phone calls I got of,
hey Ron, I need to borrow somemoney.
Well, I'm like, hey, I that'swhat I'm here for.
Yeah.
I want to I want to loan it toyou.
But we need some financials.
We need some some information toback me back this decision up.
(28:05):
And so it was pretty much it.
Every banker, when I describethis to current bankers now,
they say, Yeah, I know exactlywhat you're talking about.
And so it's, hey, I need thesefinancials.
And then you're dragging to getthat information.
You do get it, and then it's notput together in the best format.
It's really up to the banker totry to make sense of it.
(28:28):
And usually when it gets to thatpoint, the answer usually is no.
Or it's a challenging yes.
And so I saw that play out allmy career, even to today, I see
it.
And so what I provide is let mehelp get you a packet or get
your financials in line in aposition to where you're
(28:53):
presenting and you're way aheadof the game.
Uh, if you're having to presentafter the fact your financials,
even when you're needing toborrow the money, it's not a
good feeling for the bank.
And so having that experience,bringing that to the business
owners is really where I try tobring value.
SPEAKER_02 (29:10):
What is a broad, a general picture of your client
at strategic businessconsulting?
SPEAKER_01 (29:16):
It's uh somebody who's been in business three
years or more, um, might have abookkeeper CFO uh prefer that
they do.
And so that I come in and helpkind of give an oversight where
I'm not necessarily doing thebooks, but I'm giving guidance
on the financials and thenhelping the business owner
(29:38):
understand here's how the bank'sgonna look at it.
Uh, here's how we need topresent this and help guide them
through that process.
SPEAKER_02 (29:45):
Let's say I'll bring you a potential uh client
tomorrow business.
What's the first thing you lookfor to determine um if that
business is healthy financiallyor how how healthy it is?
SPEAKER_01 (29:58):
How healthy it is?
The very first thing I I usuallylook at is what is the debt to
equity ratio?
How much debt compared to equitydo they have?
And that tells me how leveragedare they?
Or is there room for leverage,or is there room for growth?
A leverage company is reallygonna struggle.
(30:18):
It's it's the that's the biggestchallenge is understanding for a
business owner to understand,hey, I've got money in the bank,
but yeah, your balance sheet isway out of whack right now.
We gotta get, we gotta get somecapital into the company one way
or another.
Usually the best way is toretain it.
So when you're making money,it's always nice to, you always
(30:41):
want to take it out, but it'sbetter if you leave it in and
get yourself some some area togrow.
SPEAKER_02 (30:46):
Yeah.
If there's a small businessowner, medium-sized business
owner listening right now, uh,what's the first thing you would
tell them they should go checkin their business?
SPEAKER_01 (30:55):
To go check in their business, they want to make sure
they understand the numbers, thefinancials.
What are the financials tellingthem?
Uh one of the easiest questionsfor them to answer when I ask
how much money did you make lastmonth?
If they don't give me an answer,then I know they don't know
what's going on with theirbusiness.
(31:16):
They should be that in tune toknow each month how much they
made.
And how did that compare to whatthey thought they were going to
make, what they budgeted.
And a lot of times businessowners, they don't have the time
necessarily to do that.
And so that's where I try tohelp come in and teach them and
help instruct them on hey, thisis pretty much the fundamentals
(31:38):
you need to live out.
Once you learn that, you'llstart getting into a rhythm and
you'll find yourself having amuch better business.
SPEAKER_02 (31:46):
It sounds like, and I can tell that you this has
been a rewarding part of yourcareer.
That's been a very satisfying.
What's been the most challengingpart of this this part of your
career starting your ownbusiness?
SPEAKER_01 (31:56):
Well, you know, I started it in the middle of
COVID.
SPEAKER_02 (31:59):
Yeah.
Stop, full stop.
SPEAKER_01 (32:01):
Right there.
Actually, that was a blessing,though, because it was almost
like a restart for a lot ofthings.
And uh and so once you kind ofyou know take that mask off,
literally, uh, you get a chanceto kind of reconnect on things.
Um, it's always with anyconsulting, is just the ups and
downs of hey, you gotopportunities today, you don't
(32:24):
have opportunities the next day,just trying to keep that leveled
out.
So one of the things that I'mworking on right now is to get
my certification for businessvaluations.
So that way I can help uh bringsomething to the table of hey,
I've got a client.
One of the things a businessowner is eventually always going
(32:44):
to be dealing with is how do Iexit?
And so the ability to value acompany, which I feel like I can
value companies right now, but Ijust need the certification to
go along with it.
SPEAKER_02 (32:57):
Sure.
Yeah, just that extra layer ofuh the stamp you could put on
it.
SPEAKER_01 (33:01):
Yeah.
Okay.
And then the opportunity, too,of being expert witness
testimony within the courtsystem.
Uh I've had a chance toexperience uh being a receiver
from the court system.
That was a that was a greatexperience.
And so uh just looking for thoseopportunities.
SPEAKER_02 (33:20):
You mentioned earlier, um, and you have been,
you've been involved in a lot ofdifferent, you know, nonprofit
boards and board work and andcommunity uh related uh
functions, but one of the mosthigh profile is your is your
co-word.
Right now, you're a board oftrustees member for the
Northwest Arkansas CommunityCollege in Bentonville.
Just tell me why you decided torun for election and invest your
(33:41):
time at IDWAC.
SPEAKER_01 (33:43):
Great question.
Uh, kind of go back to when wekind of first started.
Uh, you know, I spent two yearsat North Ark Community College
playing basketball up there.
The just the fact of I don'tknow if I would have been as
successful if I'd went directlyto a four-year school.
Smaller campus, a little morepersonal instruction.
(34:05):
Uh, those first two years ofcollege are really key.
And uh and so I knew when youknow, when I got involved in
this community, uh always hadthe the draw and the and the
feel of I want to get involvedwith the community college here.
And so I have served on theboard for uh close to 10 years
(34:26):
now and and won re-election.
Yep.
Thank y'all so much for voting.
unknown (34:31):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (34:32):
Uh but it's uh it's been a great experience and just
just the value to or the the theability to give back to the
community in that essence is Iknow you're you're helping
students uh achieve their dreamof being successful.
And uh I just want to play arole within the college to help
(34:53):
with that.
SPEAKER_02 (34:54):
So playing off of that, what is particularly in 20
in the year 2025, NWAC has beenaround since what, 1990, I
think, 91, somewhere somewherein that part cap.
In the year 2025, which inNorthwest Arkansas, everything
is it's a different planet nowthan what it was in 1990.
What is what is the role ofNorthwest Arkansas Community
(35:15):
College in this region rightnow?
SPEAKER_01 (35:18):
I think uh helping with workforce development is a
big key.
Um there's still a lot ofstudents who don't necessarily
want to go the full collegeroute, but they are needing a
job uh coming out of highschool, uh looking for some type
of skill to cut their teeth on.
I think the college candefinitely play a bigger role in
(35:40):
that.
Our our construction uhdepartment uh has just gone
gangbuster.
And as you can imagine, you seea crane everywhere around here.
Right.
The construction companies havea hard time finding employees.
And so that those particularstudents that go into that
program are able to walk out andgo work for a crossling or an
(36:01):
abholz.
And they're walking into thosecompanies, bringing value right
away.
So that's one area.
Uh-huh.
The heat and heat and air area,uh, electrician, that's uh
that's another area that'sreally key.
SPEAKER_02 (36:13):
Right.
Where are some gaps?
I mean, I know health care is apopular workforce development
topic as it relates to communitycollege and four-year colleges,
you know, UCA, we've got um, Ithink the number is somewhere
close to we've got about 10,000students, and I think right at
about 20% of all of our studentsare on some sort of health care
related degree path, whetherthat's the the behavioral
(36:36):
therapy, occupational therapy,nursing, pre-dental hygiene.
Those jobs are in demand, right?
And so um where what where isNWAC's uh role there?
Are they filling that gap thereon campus?
SPEAKER_01 (36:49):
We do have a nursing program and a physical therapy
assistant program.
Um it would probably be uh wisefor the college.
Challenge is alwaysinstructor-wise, trying to find
the instructors to provide this,but from an occupational therapy
standpoint, providing anassistant program would be
helpful.
The nursing program's been verysuccessful.
(37:10):
It's been a great feeder and uhto the community.
Um it's you know, healthcare isso so evolving.
Yeah, the AI industry, thecollege, has been really
proactive with that.
And I do think there'll be someopportunities to help AI within
the healthcare community.
(37:31):
Yeah.
And uh I know Dr.
Riddle is really excited aboutthat opportunity.
SPEAKER_02 (37:35):
Yeah, that and there's also you uh you read
more about uh you know growth atNYG, just like everything else.
The enrollment's growing, andnow there's some discussions and
some plans to to grow the campusfoot uh quite considerably.
SPEAKER_01 (37:49):
Yeah.
It's always the biggestchallenge though, because you
got to have a dollar to buildsomething.
That's right.
That's exactly right.
So, you know, the the and thethe the college is there's so
much growth opportunities aroundhere.
Um you know, you gotta reallyfight, fight for that dollar to
find how are we gonna get thefunding to do these things.
And so that's the biggestchallenge, is we do have great
(38:12):
plans uh of expanding thecampus.
Um, it's just okay, how do weget the funding mechanism to
come along with it?
SPEAKER_02 (38:20):
Yeah, great plan, grant plans, really.
But yeah, you've got to you'vegot to pay for it.
So let's go back, let's talkabout your family.
You you uh rightfully somentioned your your wife of over
25 years, I think, and you andyour family.
How do you, and you've got a lotgoing on personally and
professionally, the boardservice and your job, how do you
stay grounded and with yourfamily with all that you have
(38:41):
going on?
SPEAKER_01 (38:42):
Well, first of all, it's gotta be led by faith.
You know, I'm very uh verydriven by my relationship with
Christ.
And so being faith-driven hashas really been the key because
if if Deedra and I are notseeking the Lord, then you know
it's a little bit lopsided atthat point.
(39:03):
But if we're on the same pagethere and we're seeking the
Lord, um, then I think we're onthe same page and we're ready to
lead a family.
And that's been the blessing ofit.
We got seven kids.
They range from 23 down to nine.
So I still got kids in thehousehold.
I still got a lot of kids in thehousehold.
Yeah.
Uh, but uh, you know, family isvery important to me.
Uh, but uh relationship withDeedra, uh that to me is a big
(39:29):
uh key to success.
And I'm not I'm not talkingsuccess business financially,
I'm just talking about enjoymentof life is uh you know, your
relationship with your spouse.
And so uh that's been a big keyfor for her and I.
Well, we're gonna be celebrating31 years.
Oh wow, this year.
(39:49):
Yep.
And uh, and so that's been a bigkey.
Family is very important to me,though.
And uh I never seem to uh um uhhave solved the where do you
where do you spend the timeother than you just you just you
do the best you can and let theLord fill in the gaps.
SPEAKER_02 (40:08):
Has your definition of success um changed over time?
I mean you you use that word.
I mean, what are the things thatare important to you 20 years
ago, are they important now?
SPEAKER_01 (40:17):
They're not, Paul.
Um and that's uh that's one ofthose things where how I viewed
success was hey, I want to be aI want to be a bank president.
You know, if I can obtain that,then I will have obtained
success.
But really at the end of the dayis to have a uh a family where
(40:40):
we're just all uh growing anddeveloping, and uh, you know,
Deidre and I are meeting ourkids' needs, and that to me is
for them to spring off into thefuture is the success.
Yeah, you know, whatever thatlooks like.
Uh if they are able to, youknow, take some of the very
(41:01):
things we've taught them and godevelop their own families, then
that'll be the that'll be thesuccess.
Sure.
SPEAKER_02 (41:08):
Yeah.
Wow, it's that say that agerange again for me, you know.
23 to nine.
23 to 9.
So that's it.
Every two years.
Every two years.
So unique dynamic.
All right.
All right, just a few rapid firequestions for you as we uh round
up.
Business wise, best businessadvice you've ever received.
SPEAKER_01 (41:28):
Um great question.
I I I would think uh sittingdown with Red Hudson, uh, he
said uh you need to manage tothe balance sheet.
Okay.
Now, some people might be like,what does that mean?
He understood, he knew it, he'dexperienced it.
(41:50):
And you know, we don't I don'thear the name Hudson family
around here as much, but youknow, the Hudson's were huge in
this community.
Yes.
And Red Hudson built a company,a big company, and was able to
sell it off to the Tysons.
But Red knew managing to thebalance sheet, you know, knowing
how your balance sheet isstructured, being able to, when
(42:11):
you make a decision within yourcompany, it is gonna have an
impact on the balance sheet.
And that balance sheet, when Italk debt to equity ratio,
that's those are the types ofthings where you gotta know how
your financials work.
SPEAKER_02 (42:24):
Yep.
Hardest or most challenging uhbusiness decision of your
career.
SPEAKER_01 (42:34):
Um got back in the oh nine, oh ten time period when
the market had tanked, we alsowe not only had the real estate,
but we had the yeah, the stockmarket that took it took a di uh
dive.
Our bank had a big client thatuh it was the village on the
(42:56):
creeks property, and so Iinherited that relationship, and
that was a very challenging timein like how do we gonna navigate
this?
Because it was a big loan, butit had dropped in value
considerably based on themarket, and so having to deal
with that was you know achallenge.
(43:17):
Now looking back over time uhand dealing with that particular
customer, she and I really had agreat relationship.
Uh after after all the water hadhad uh uh passed under the
bridge, she'd call me any day,ask if I needed any help, or I
(43:40):
could call her, ask her if sheneeded help.
Uh there was really a uniquefriend friendship there, which
is pretty rare.
That's a relationship.
That's a relationship.
Absolutely.
I always felt like even as abanker, there's gonna be tough
decisions of foreclosing onfolks.
Um, it's still a human, that'sstill a person that.
(44:00):
you can still have arelationship with.
Yeah.
And depending upon how youhandle it, we'll determine how
that relationship goes.
Sure.
SPEAKER_02 (44:07):
Uh aside from your 31st wedding anniversary, what
are you most excited about rightnow?
SPEAKER_01 (44:13):
Oh right now.
Uh getting down to the beach forspring break.
Top of mind.
No, I'm really I'm reallylooking forward to uh uh getting
this business valuationcertification to see like what
what can that do in regard to uhmy company for for uh consulting
(44:34):
because it will open some doorsthat I'm looking forward and I
think really fits my nichereally good.
So sure.
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (44:40):
Well listen Ron really appreciate you doing this
you've had a really unique umcareer path here in Northwest
Arkansas that started at UCA andso did Conway.
And so um I really think peopleare going to take a lot of this
so I appreciate you sitting downwith me.
Thank you, Paul.
I've really enjoyed it.
All right great conversation.
All right and that is it forthis episode of Central to NWA.
(45:01):
We appreciate you tuning in.
Until next time, go Bears.
That's it for this episode ofCentral to NWA a UCA podcast.
I'm Paul Gatling, SeniorDirector of Northwest Arkansas
Engagement for the University ofCentral Arkansas.
Be sure to subscribe to the showand follow UCA on all the
appropriate social media.
I'll see you next time onCentral to NWA
This is Central to NWA, a UCA podcast.
I'm your host, Paul Gatling, andwe are bringing the University
of Central Arkansas to NorthwestArkansas.
Each episode, we will talk withleaders, alumni, and innovators
driving this region forward.
People who are shapingindustries and defining what is
next for our state.
(00:22):
Let's get started.
Welcome back to another episodeof Central to NWA.
I'm Paul Gatling with theUniversity of Central Arkansas,
and today's guest is RonBranscombe.
He's a longtime, former longtimeNorthwest Arkansas banker, now a
business owner and consultant,uh, somebody I've known for a
long time, UCA graduate, classof of 1993.
(00:44):
And he's he's really one ofthose guys who's uh you know
he's seen the business from justabout every side, the banking
side and now advising businessesside.
And um, so uh I think that'sgonna give uh give us a
perspective uh that people arereally going to enjoy.
Ron, good to see you.
Thanks for being here.
Thank you, Paul.
I appreciate you having me.
SPEAKER_01 (01:02):
Yeah.
Uh I'm excited to uh get achance to visit with you.
SPEAKER_02 (01:05):
Yeah, you as well.
I mean, like I said, we've we'vego back to the business journal
days when I was there, and youhad a couple of stints at Arvest
Bank and the Citizens Bank andand all of that.
And we'll we'll get into that,of course, a little bit later
on.
But first, you know, UCA classof 1993, right?
Yes, sir.
Yeah.
Great time to be a basketballplayer at UCA.
SPEAKER_01 (01:25):
It was.
Yeah.
Uh, you know, when uh Coach Dyerrecruited me down there to to
UCA, it was uh he said we we'regonna have a good team coming
back uh the in 1990, 91 season.
And uh, you know, I I'd been onsome good teams, but I hadn't
been on any teams that won anychampionships.
Yep.
And that was like, uh, you knowwhat, there's a chance to win
(01:46):
something here.
And uh and we did.
Yeah.
We we had some good successthere.
SPEAKER_02 (01:51):
Got really, really close to winning the whole
thing.
Back to back, NAIA nationalrunners up in 91 and 92, very
close.
I think one of those games inovertime.
Yeah, I mean, I'm sure you knowexactly which game.
SPEAKER_01 (02:03):
Both games we got beat by Oklahoma City.
That's right.
Same team.
And uh yeah, the second one theywe they got us in overtime.
And uh if Joe Sikowski wouldn'twould not have failed out in
overtime, uh, I think we'dprobably beat him.
SPEAKER_02 (02:16):
Yeah, yeah.
Great Northwest Arkansasconnection there.
Joe and George, um great fablehigh school players, great UCA
players.
Um we'll go back to thebasketball in a minute, but
first, you know, um, you were onsome teams.
Where did you grow up?
Where did you grow up here inArkansas and and how did you get
involved with UCA?
SPEAKER_01 (02:33):
Yeah, uh Jacksonville, Arkansas, right
there where the air base, my mydad was in the military and the
Air Force, and so used to spenda lot of time on the air base.
And so just being in thatcentral Arkansas area, I
obviously knew about UCA.
Yeah.
And uh when I when I graduatedfrom UCA, I went to North Ark
Community College, which we'llwe'll talk about the connection
(02:54):
with community college, but uhplayed basketball up there for
two years.
And then when it was time towhere am I gonna go next, yeah,
you know, had that opportunityat UCA.
I was very familiar with theschool.
Yeah.
Uh so had a lot of connectionsthere, a lot of friends there,
so it made sense.
SPEAKER_02 (03:11):
Did you move around a lot as a kid?
I mean, uh, here the militarywere you always in Central
Arkansas?
SPEAKER_01 (03:16):
We were we were a rare breed in that we stayed, my
dad was uh stationed in in uhJacksonville for the the length
of time that that he wasbasically about 10 years, which
is very rare.
And he retired at that point.
I remember we had orders to goto England at one time.
He had gone over Not England,Arkansas.
(03:37):
Not England, Arkansas, thecountry England.
He he had uh left, went overthere, found a house, uh, had us
a house to rent.
We put up our house back inJacksonville and sold it, and
then last minute they gotcanceled.
Wow.
And so we had uh I rememberscrambling the my parents to
find another house there inJacksonville, and they did.
And so yeah, we stayed there thewhole time, which is really
rare.
SPEAKER_02 (03:57):
Yeah.
Okay.
So yeah, UCA besides thebasketball, which we'll go back
to.
What did you study?
Did you have any idea about whatkind of uh work you wanted to
do, or what were you interestedin there as an undergraduate?
SPEAKER_01 (04:08):
Well, I I knew I wanted to do something in
business, and uh I'd gotten someadvice from a high school
teacher that accounting would bea good profession to go into.
So that was the direction Iwound up going, was was in and
getting my undergraduate inaccounting, which really gave me
some great fundamentals for fordown the road.
SPEAKER_02 (04:28):
Right.
So when I think of those UCAteams, and I'm I'm in high
school at this time, uh, I thinkof Clifton Bush.
Yes.
Um, besides Scottie Pippen, uh,probably one of you know he's on
a very short list of the bestUCA basketball players that ever
that ever played there.
What do you remember about thatrun, those two years?
(04:49):
A lot of wins.
SPEAKER_01 (04:50):
Yeah, a lot of wins.
Uh what I loved about Cliftonwas every day for practice, he
showed up.
Yep.
He didn't take a day off.
I could I remember one practicewhere he took a day off.
But outside of that, you youknow, you didn't want Clifton
guarding you, you didn't want toguard Clifton.
He was he was our leader.
He was the one that set thetone.
And you know, the expectationwas when we went to practice, we
(05:12):
had to match Clifton Bush's uhhis his his willingness to want
to put it all out there.
He was the first in line, he ranthe fastest, he beat everybody
in all the drills.
He could have easily takenthings off at times.
Yeah.
And so I always thought veryhighly of Clifton and the fact
of that's what made him so good.
SPEAKER_02 (05:30):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (05:30):
What kind of teammate were you?
I was I was probably the uh uhencourage your cheerleader best
that you could be, find my roleuh wherever I can find a role.
Right.
Um, you know, I wasn't the mosttalented player, uh, but I I
found a spot where I could helpthe team at moments and and I
(05:51):
did the best that I could.
SPEAKER_02 (05:52):
Well, and that attitude right there, I mean, is
a perfect example of things thatuh I would think stay with you
as you grow up and get and enterinto the business world and
become a uh a business leaderand uh and a husband and all of
those things.
What did being a teammate meanto you as you progress through
your life?
SPEAKER_01 (06:10):
That's it's a great question.
And my senior year, uh thecoaches awarded me uh best
attitude on the team, whichreally at that time I thought,
well, you know, you'd alwayswant to be like the best player
of the year or best player onthe team, but you know, that
wasn't going to be the case.
But having the best attitudereally set the tone for me, any
(06:31):
team that I've been involvedwith, if it's on a board, um,
within a company, uh, even justwithin within family of
understanding, like, hey, I'vegot a role to play, and I need
to play that role and and pullmy own in regard to what it
means to be a teammate.
SPEAKER_02 (06:48):
Yeah.
Okay.
So you leave you leave thatenvironment uh with an
accounting degree, a goodteammate, and now you're going
into uh an entirely new teamnow, starting a banking career,
finance career.
What was the first step in yourcareer after you're leaving uh
campus in Conway?
SPEAKER_01 (07:05):
You know, uh I I went and seeked counsel from
three different individualbankers.
I knew that I had the accountingdegree, but I wanted to get into
banking.
Uh growing up, I remember thebankers in Jacksonville.
They were always involved in thecommunity.
And so I just knew that wassomething that really kind of
intrigued me and that I wantedto be involved with.
So I knew banking was adirection I wanted to go.
(07:27):
So I asked three differentbankers, hey, what's the best
way to get in banking?
And each one, totally separate,they didn't know any of the
previous conversations.
Each one told me you need to gobe a bank examiner.
SPEAKER_00 (07:39):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (07:40):
And so I started applying with the FDIC, state of
Arkansas, the Federal Reserve.
Uh, I had an uncle who is adistinguished alumni, Herbie
Branscombe, with ECA.
He had a connection.
Uh, one of his partners, RobHill, was on the board of the
State Bank Department.
And so he was able to get me aninterview.
(08:02):
And uh, so I interviewed withthe state of Arkansas, got a job
as a bank examiner, and they hadit's it's kind of funny, Paul.
I they had they gave me twooptions.
We've got an opening inFayetteville and one in
Jonesboro.
I really didn't care much aboutthe, I think they were the
Indians at the time.
(08:22):
That's right.
Arkansas State.
Yeah.
I was I followed the Razorbacksmore.
Yeah.
I wished I could tell you that Idid all my homework, knew what
was going on in NorthwestArkansas, didn't have a clue,
and I made the decision basedon, hey, I'll I'll go up there
because I'm familiar with theRazorback.
Right.
That's what brought me toNorthwest Arkansas.
Yeah.
And what year was that?
That was in '94.
(08:42):
Summer of 94.
And so got up here and reallygot my doctorate in banking
through being a bank examiner.
Okay.
It was uh it was it was a goodfour year spent.
And if of anybody who's wantingto get into banking or is in
banking, but is really wantingto to develop and grow, seek out
(09:04):
a bank examiner job.
Because you get to see howbankers operate.
You think that they're allpretty much the same, but they
are a lot different.
Yeah.
And then you get to see thedifferent management styles.
SPEAKER_02 (09:15):
I I've always wondered, um, you know, you
mentioned that you didn't reallyknow what you were getting into
in Fayetteville, but in 1994,when you're coming to
Fayetteville, it's I mean,you're in a way you're still
coming to the hinterlands of uhNorthwest Arkansas.
You're certainly not coming toBenton County, right?
I mean, you didn't go pastFayetteville, you know, 30 some
odd years ago.
So State Banking Department, andthen, you know, a couple of
(09:38):
stints with Arvest Bank, and youled a bank market entry, uh, I
believe, Citizens Bank, yes,from Batesville.
Um, one of my favorite questionsat the Business Journal was
asking bankers, because we hearthe term and you sort of alluded
to it, community banking,community banker.
What does community banking meanto you?
What does a community banker dothat separates from other
(09:58):
bankers?
SPEAKER_01 (09:59):
Great question, Paul.
Uh Sam Walton, when he startedgetting into banks, when he
started buying banks, you know,his comment was the bank is
going to be only as good as thecommunity is.
And the community is made up ofthe individuals that are there,
obviously.
And so one of the roles of anybanker is to be involved in the
(10:23):
community, to be help provideleadership, uh uh guidance and
direction uh from an economystandpoint to be not only
holding the information, butbeing willing to share because
it helps all.
And so that's what really stuckout to me, and that was
something I strive to do inregard to giving back to the
(10:43):
community.
And that can look in a lot ofdifferent ways of serving on
boards, uh, which I've done myfair share and I really enjoy
it.
Uh, but also too, just beingbeing of the mindset of I'm
gonna share what I know to helpyou so that you will take it and
help somebody else.
SPEAKER_02 (11:02):
So if you were to share what you know about the
importance of relationshipbuilding to a young banker, to
someone who's just starting ormaybe just taking their first
job as a bank examiner, uh, whatwould you tell them?
SPEAKER_01 (11:15):
It's all about relationships.
It really is.
Uh, really in banking, you're arelationship manager.
Yeah, uh, one of the firstthings you really need to strive
to do, and I try to apply thisin my business now, is you got
to develop the relationshipfirst before you can even ask
for the business.
And I think a lot of people rushto let me help you business
wise, when really you should bejust trying to develop that
(11:37):
relationship so that theyunderstand where you're coming
from, you get a chance to knowthem.
Because sometimes you might notwant to really have that
relationship from a bankingstandpoint.
It might not be a good fit forthe bank.
Uh, you might spend a lot oftime and effort developing that,
and then you get to the to theloan committees and you realize
our bank's not looking for thistype of relationship.
(11:59):
Right.
And you waste a lot of time.
So, really, the relationships,though, are very key.
Uh you never really want to burna bridge, but you really want to
develop relationships.
SPEAKER_02 (12:09):
Yes.
Dun, uh I kind of glossed overyour timeline, but just give us
like the 30,000-foot view ofyour of your timeline here uh
from leaving the bank departmentto first joining your bank and
then just kind of the way youworked up the ladder here in
Northwest Arkansas.
SPEAKER_01 (12:22):
Yep.
Yep.
So when I was with the bankdepartment, I was a senior bank
examiner, and uh there was uh anad out with First National Bank
and Rogers, which was owned bythe Walton family.
And at that time you hadMcElroy, Bank of Bentonville,
separate charters.
They were all owned by R Vest,but nobody knew the name Rvest.
(12:43):
It was all the holding company.
And so I went to work for themas their senior credit analyst
and just got all types oflearning experience because I
had one side of the desk of as abank examiner what to look for.
Now I'm on this side and it'sreally starting to make a lot of
sense to me.
Yeah.
And um, and so with with FirstNational Bank, uh, just had a
(13:06):
lot of opportunities, grew intoa commercial lender.
And at that time, too, we thethe bank was merging into the
name of Rvest.
Uh there was many days ago wherethe the Rvest name, it might be
a First National Bank check, butthe Rvest name was a little bit
bigger each year.
Right.
(13:26):
And you and eventually we allfolded under the Rvest umbrella.
And so at that point, uh I notonly got the experience of being
a commercial lender, but I alsogot to be uh have the experience
of managing a commercial lendingteam.
So I had a group that reportedto me, and it was my job to help
the bank find all of thecommercial opportunities that
(13:49):
were out there.
And it was like the wild, wildwest at one time.
There were a lot of things goingon, a lot of opportunities.
And I look back and I think,man, what a blessing to
experience all of it.
SPEAKER_02 (14:00):
Yeah, it's it's been great.
I've lived here 25 years, you'velived here over 30 years, and uh
when you say those names likeMcElroy and uh the Bank of
Bentonville and First NationalBank Rogers and all of those
banks from from years gone by, Imean, it really does bring back
a lot of memories.
I imagine it probably still doesfor you too.
SPEAKER_01 (14:17):
It does.
And I think of you know, everytime I come up the Pinnacle
Hills Boulevard, uh I Idistinctly remember the day of
being in Gary Combs' truck withhim.
I don't know if you that's aproposition in itself.
It is truck with Gary Combs.
But Gary was married to to CarlaTyson, but he was developing uh
(14:38):
property there for a while.
So he developed the commercialPinnacle Hills Boulevard.
And I remember being in histruck where they just cut the
dirt, and so we're riding downthe dirt road talking about this
area being the epicenter of theepicenter, you know, and that
was like Gary, I hope you don'tdrive off the road here, but
(14:59):
also too, what vision he had.
Yeah, uh Collins Haynes, BillSchwehart, uh Carmen Lehman, uh
even then JB Hunt got involved.
It was just a lot of visionariesreally helped get this area off
the ground.
SPEAKER_02 (15:15):
You've got to have um an imagination that's
boundless to be sitting in thattruck where you were and
listening to these plans thatGary's talking about and where
you're looking around and whatyou're looking at.
And it's just um none of it washere.
SPEAKER_01 (15:28):
Yeah.
None of it was here.
It's hard to compute.
Yeah, it's hard for me to youknow drive by the mall over
there and the promenade mall.
And yeah, that would that mallwasn't there.
Right.
But I remember when those dealswere being made to get that mall
here.
Yeah.
And uh I remember when John Q.
Hammonds and bought the landfrom that very group I talked
(15:50):
about, Combs and Schweihhart andthem, bought the land to put the
uh embassy suites and conventioncenter in.
And he told that group, you'renot thinking big enough.
And that's when he put that uhconvention center and the hotel
in, and it was like he was avisionary too.
SPEAKER_02 (16:07):
Yeah, I'll share a story similar to that.
I remember I I just moved uphere in 2001 and uh I was doing
a freelance article for theState Golf Association magazine,
and it was connected with uh Mr.
Reeves, Charles Reeves, whodeveloped Shadow Valley.
He was just getting, they hadjust started moving dirt and
kind of cutting some fairways.
I mean, it was very, very earlyon, and um he put me in his
(16:30):
truck one morning uh to go, youknow, show me where we're gonna
go from one, and here's numbertwo, and here's number three,
and we were just it would feelyou can imagine.
And it was early in the morning,and I guess I'd had too much of
a breakfast, and um I got sick.
I said, Mr.
Reeves, I need you to stop thistruck.
And he can't he stopped andlooked in, so I opened the door
and he was just kind ofchuckling.
I said, Okay, I'm I'm okay now.
(16:52):
Yeah, but yeah, when you think,I mean, because Shadow Valley is
now what on you know, phase 15or whatever they're on of the
houses, hundreds of houses outthere, beautiful golf course.
And to um it's uh it's it's funto think back on those memories
of the way this place used tolook.
Yeah.
Um uh from the people who livedit like you.
You were right there in the verymiddle of it.
SPEAKER_01 (17:12):
Yeah, so Charles, so he you know, before Shadow
Valley, he had uh HighlandKnowles and Chris Meadows, he
had developed that, and uh hewas very instrumental in
Southwest Rogers Road.
Uh very instrumental.
And then he did the PleasantGrove, you know, that's where
the Walmart Super Center is now.
And you know, it wasinteresting.
There was a time when he thoughthe had the mall coming into that
(17:34):
particular area.
Yeah.
And this other group had themall coming here to promenade.
They were both seeking thatparticular mall as to as to how
important that was.
And uh, you know, Charles missedout.
And uh but uh Charles was hedidn't miss out too badly.
No, Charles did Charles was avery, he was he was on our bank
board, very smart man, verysmart man, uh, really had great
(17:57):
common sense to him.
SPEAKER_02 (17:58):
Yeah.
Okay.
That's wonderful memories.
All right.
So you step out of banking for alittle bit and you go to work,
not really go to work, you wentto lead a business that you own
uh with your wife, regionaltherapy services.
Tell us about that career andhow you uh evolved into that
that role.
SPEAKER_01 (18:14):
You bet.
I'd be remiss if I didn't uhbring up that the value of UCA
is where I met my wife.
Oh, okay.
UCA.
So we we dated down there, andthen when I moved up here for a
bank examiner's job, we we datedfor another year and got married
and got her up here to NorthwestArkansas and she finished at the
(18:34):
U of A, but you have to convinceher?
Oh no, not at all.
She was she was ready to go.
Yeah.
Um and I will say with her,she's she's very adventurous.
Um there's never been uh aquestion of well, why would we
do that?
She she loves the adventure ofit.
So moving to n moving to newterrain was very exciting.
It was an adventure.
It was it was uh but uh yeah,went to she used to always I you
(18:58):
know I had a gr greatopportunity in the banking
career.
Arvis was always good to me, butshe'd always uh always every
once in a while say, I wishyou'd take this company over.
I wish you'd jump in and and andhelp run it.
And I would always be, D, I'mI've got this banking career.
I'm going in this direction.
(19:19):
Um one of the things, Paul, whenI was in banking, I used to just
especially the older clients, Iwould always ask them, hey, what
would you do differently?
And every time I would ask thatquestion, the answer was always
I wished I'd spent more timewith my family.
Every answer.
(19:40):
Red Hudson, you know, um all thevarious people that I would ask
that to would give me thatanswer.
So I knew in the back of mymind, I thought, you know,
family is very important to meand I hear what they're saying.
And but here I am running thisdirection.
So when she when we would havethose conversations, well, it
just finally stuck with me oneday.
(20:01):
What would it look like?
And uh and so we as an adventuredecided we're gonna we're gonna
I'm gonna uh discard the bankingcareer and and head this
direction and we're gonnabasically do business together.
And wouldn't say there's notthere's not a better business
partner than my wife.
(20:22):
Uh not a better friendship, andthat just doing business
together helped bring us evencloser together.
And so it's not always easy, butit's very uh very valuable and
very enjoyable.
SPEAKER_02 (20:36):
And so regional therapy services is what does it
do and who does it do it for?
SPEAKER_01 (20:41):
So Deedra uh initially is a speech therapist,
that's what she got her master'sin and was originally just doing
speech, but uh speech uhregional therapy now does
speech, physical, andoccupational therapy, uh, works
with pediatric clients, birth tofive.
Um back when I stepped out ofbanking and into the shoes of of
(21:04):
helping her with regionaltherapy, there were three
employees.
Two of them were part-time.
And fast forward to today, uhnorth of 50 employees.
And so uh she's done anexcellent job with it.
Uh I'm on full-time consultingwith her, you know, in regard to
(21:26):
helping wherever needed.
Uh, but it's been fun reallyputting that business together.
SPEAKER_02 (21:32):
What did you learn about um, you know, you went
from financing businesses torunning a business?
I mean, what was what was thatmindset like getting into that
chair and not this chair?
SPEAKER_01 (21:43):
You know, never had to worry about a a paycheck when
you're working at the bank,especially working for the
Walton Finn.
You didn't have to worry aboutpay.
You really learned real quickpayday is very important.
And to uh, you know, when itgets to you're messing with
other people's paycheck, it'svery, very Very important.
So the responsibilities ofmanaging the cash flow, which
(22:06):
really came natural to me, butnow it's like it's in your
hands.
You know, if uh if if if youmake a poor decision, there
there are ramifications.
Uh back in banking, if you madea poor decision, you were able
to learn from it and move on toget to the next one.
Uh so that was uh that was onething.
I think the other thing that Ireally learned, this was working
(22:29):
with all the clients that I did,is how important culture in a
company is.
And uh that's one of the thingswe were able to put in place is
develop a culture with uh RTS.
And it's really key that youknow once you establish that,
you got to continue to uh tojust keep it in front of all the
(22:50):
employees, keep it active, andyou got to keep living it out.
SPEAKER_02 (22:55):
I would imagine that also changed um maybe the way
you felt uh about risk um beingyou know the banker.
Like you said, you didn'tnecessarily have to worry about
a paycheck, you didn't have toworry about a lot of things, but
as a business owner, you had toworry about several things and
risk being one of those.
SPEAKER_01 (23:12):
Yes.
Yeah, most definitely.
SPEAKER_02 (23:13):
Yeah.
So you go back to um you didthat for how many years?
SPEAKER_01 (23:18):
Did that for six years.
Okay, and then an opportunity toreturn to the banking.
I was I was approached by uh thethe the folks with Citizens Bank
out of Batesville about comingin and uh and taking on the
Rogers market.
And for some reason at thattime, it just felt like, you
know what, uh maybe I need thisnew risk of or maybe I just need
(23:45):
to be re-energized in in inregard to trying this particular
venture out.
And so yeah, I got back intobanking.
SPEAKER_02 (23:51):
Did you find that you'd been re-energized?
I mean, was it a different from1.0 to 2.0 in your banking
career?
SPEAKER_01 (23:57):
It was, you know, relationship keys were always
the same.
That was always the same, butthe banking industry had changed
night and day.
Yeah.
Just within that six-year timeperiod.
How so?
What's the most I just remember,but one of the very first loans
back at Citizens Bank had acustomer call and they were
wanting to do it was a simplerequest, wanting to do a home
(24:19):
equity line of credit, secondmortgage on their home, and they
were going to use it for for uhfor business or for I think they
were gonna do remodeling withit.
And I were sure we can do that,no problem.
Uh I'll I'll walked it over tomy loan assistant.
Hey, we need to get this put inplace.
And I I mistakenly told thecustomer, you know, we should be
(24:40):
able to get this done in abouttwo weeks.
Banking had changed a lot.
And uh so when I shared thatwith my assistant, she looked at
me like, what did you tell them?
Yeah.
Uh, you know, it's a it was a 30to 45 day process just for a
little home equity level.
And so the banking regulationsand and everything had really,
(25:05):
really just totally swung in ain a in another direction.
And so that was the that was thethe one of the things.
It was like, okay, this is a lotdifferent.
It's not as it's not as customerfriendly, even though the
regulations were supposed tohelp protect the customer and
help benefit the customer, itreally added no value to the
(25:25):
customer.
It just created moredocumentation.
SPEAKER_02 (25:28):
Do you feel like I mean that that's a byproduct of
a lot of things, regulatorythings, and we could go down
that path all day, but it was italso a byproduct of just um the
region's growth here?
I mean, community banking, Iwould think has changed meaning
today from what it meant 20years ago in this, in in that we
are not necessarily a communityanymore.
(25:50):
Not that that's good or bad ornegative, but we're just we're
getting bigger, we're larger,we're we've evolved into
something maybe past a communitywhere you don't necessarily know
your your banker and yourcustomer as well as you did.
Has that got some validity tothat?
SPEAKER_01 (26:03):
Yes and no.
I do think so there are certainniches within banking that I
think still need to be met andcan be met.
And so uh you can have the bignational banks uh you which are
going to provide a lot ofsecurity.
You can have the regional banksthat uh probably don't have as
(26:25):
much flexibility, but they canbe really, really sharp on their
loan rates and and have somereally aggressive products.
And then you still need thatcommunity bank that knows who am
I doing business with and knowsthat hey, uh I'm willing to to
take this risk on thisindividual because I know their
character, I know who they are.
(26:46):
Um, I know that they've beenthrough the fire on things and
they've they came through everytime.
So I still think there is aniche for community banking.
The regulations make it reallytough to be a community bank,
though.
They really do.
Yeah.
Because they start lumping youin with some of the regional
banks and trying to get you tothat point.
(27:06):
Now, I can understand back whenI go put my old bank examiner
hat on.
I remember those days of, youknow, hey, safety and soundness,
you're trying to trying toprotect the banking industry.
And so I understand that, but Ithink I think it's still there's
still a niche that can be met asa community banker.
SPEAKER_02 (27:24):
Okay.
So fast forward then, you you'veyou've seen business from from
multiple angles, regulator,banker, and business owner.
And so in terms of niches, you Iguess see a niche that you can
fill with a consulting firm,right?
And you decide to to launch yourown consulting business.
What led to that decision?
SPEAKER_01 (27:44):
Well, you hit you you hit it right on the head
there, Paul.
Um, as a banker, I no tellinghow many phone calls I got of,
hey Ron, I need to borrow somemoney.
Well, I'm like, hey, I that'swhat I'm here for.
Yeah.
I want to I want to loan it toyou.
But we need some financials.
We need some some information toback me back this decision up.
(28:05):
And so it was pretty much it.
Every banker, when I describethis to current bankers now,
they say, Yeah, I know exactlywhat you're talking about.
And so it's, hey, I need thesefinancials.
And then you're dragging to getthat information.
You do get it, and then it's notput together in the best format.
It's really up to the banker totry to make sense of it.
(28:28):
And usually when it gets to thatpoint, the answer usually is no.
Or it's a challenging yes.
And so I saw that play out allmy career, even to today, I see
it.
And so what I provide is let mehelp get you a packet or get
your financials in line in aposition to where you're
(28:53):
presenting and you're way aheadof the game.
Uh, if you're having to presentafter the fact your financials,
even when you're needing toborrow the money, it's not a
good feeling for the bank.
And so having that experience,bringing that to the business
owners is really where I try tobring value.
SPEAKER_02 (29:10):
What is a broad, a general picture of your client
at strategic businessconsulting?
SPEAKER_01 (29:16):
It's uh somebody who's been in business three
years or more, um, might have abookkeeper CFO uh prefer that
they do.
And so that I come in and helpkind of give an oversight where
I'm not necessarily doing thebooks, but I'm giving guidance
on the financials and thenhelping the business owner
(29:38):
understand here's how the bank'sgonna look at it.
Uh, here's how we need topresent this and help guide them
through that process.
SPEAKER_02 (29:45):
Let's say I'll bring you a potential uh client
tomorrow business.
What's the first thing you lookfor to determine um if that
business is healthy financiallyor how how healthy it is?
SPEAKER_01 (29:58):
How healthy it is?
The very first thing I I usuallylook at is what is the debt to
equity ratio?
How much debt compared to equitydo they have?
And that tells me how leveragedare they?
Or is there room for leverage,or is there room for growth?
A leverage company is reallygonna struggle.
(30:18):
It's it's the that's the biggestchallenge is understanding for a
business owner to understand,hey, I've got money in the bank,
but yeah, your balance sheet isway out of whack right now.
We gotta get, we gotta get somecapital into the company one way
or another.
Usually the best way is toretain it.
So when you're making money,it's always nice to, you always
(30:41):
want to take it out, but it'sbetter if you leave it in and
get yourself some some area togrow.
SPEAKER_02 (30:46):
Yeah.
If there's a small businessowner, medium-sized business
owner listening right now, uh,what's the first thing you would
tell them they should go checkin their business?
SPEAKER_01 (30:55):
To go check in their business, they want to make sure
they understand the numbers, thefinancials.
What are the financials tellingthem?
Uh one of the easiest questionsfor them to answer when I ask
how much money did you make lastmonth?
If they don't give me an answer,then I know they don't know
what's going on with theirbusiness.
(31:16):
They should be that in tune toknow each month how much they
made.
And how did that compare to whatthey thought they were going to
make, what they budgeted.
And a lot of times businessowners, they don't have the time
necessarily to do that.
And so that's where I try tohelp come in and teach them and
help instruct them on hey, thisis pretty much the fundamentals
(31:38):
you need to live out.
Once you learn that, you'llstart getting into a rhythm and
you'll find yourself having amuch better business.
SPEAKER_02 (31:46):
It sounds like, and I can tell that you this has
been a rewarding part of yourcareer.
That's been a very satisfying.
What's been the most challengingpart of this this part of your
career starting your ownbusiness?
SPEAKER_01 (31:56):
Well, you know, I started it in the middle of
COVID.
SPEAKER_02 (31:59):
Yeah.
Stop, full stop.
SPEAKER_01 (32:01):
Right there.
Actually, that was a blessing,though, because it was almost
like a restart for a lot ofthings.
And uh and so once you kind ofyou know take that mask off,
literally, uh, you get a chanceto kind of reconnect on things.
Um, it's always with anyconsulting, is just the ups and
downs of hey, you gotopportunities today, you don't
(32:24):
have opportunities the next day,just trying to keep that leveled
out.
So one of the things that I'mworking on right now is to get
my certification for businessvaluations.
So that way I can help uh bringsomething to the table of hey,
I've got a client.
One of the things a businessowner is eventually always going
(32:44):
to be dealing with is how do Iexit?
And so the ability to value acompany, which I feel like I can
value companies right now, but Ijust need the certification to
go along with it.
SPEAKER_02 (32:57):
Sure.
Yeah, just that extra layer ofuh the stamp you could put on
it.
SPEAKER_01 (33:01):
Yeah.
Okay.
And then the opportunity, too,of being expert witness
testimony within the courtsystem.
Uh I've had a chance toexperience uh being a receiver
from the court system.
That was a that was a greatexperience.
And so uh just looking for thoseopportunities.
SPEAKER_02 (33:20):
You mentioned earlier, um, and you have been,
you've been involved in a lot ofdifferent, you know, nonprofit
boards and board work and andcommunity uh related uh
functions, but one of the mosthigh profile is your is your
co-word.
Right now, you're a board oftrustees member for the
Northwest Arkansas CommunityCollege in Bentonville.
Just tell me why you decided torun for election and invest your
(33:41):
time at IDWAC.
SPEAKER_01 (33:43):
Great question.
Uh, kind of go back to when wekind of first started.
Uh, you know, I spent two yearsat North Ark Community College
playing basketball up there.
The just the fact of I don'tknow if I would have been as
successful if I'd went directlyto a four-year school.
Smaller campus, a little morepersonal instruction.
(34:05):
Uh, those first two years ofcollege are really key.
And uh and so I knew when youknow, when I got involved in
this community, uh always hadthe the draw and the and the
feel of I want to get involvedwith the community college here.
And so I have served on theboard for uh close to 10 years
(34:26):
now and and won re-election.
Yep.
Thank y'all so much for voting.
unknown (34:31):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (34:32):
Uh but it's uh it's been a great experience and just
just the value to or the the theability to give back to the
community in that essence is Iknow you're you're helping
students uh achieve their dreamof being successful.
And uh I just want to play arole within the college to help
(34:53):
with that.
SPEAKER_02 (34:54):
So playing off of that, what is particularly in 20
in the year 2025, NWAC has beenaround since what, 1990, I
think, 91, somewhere somewherein that part cap.
In the year 2025, which inNorthwest Arkansas, everything
is it's a different planet nowthan what it was in 1990.
What is what is the role ofNorthwest Arkansas Community
(35:15):
College in this region rightnow?
SPEAKER_01 (35:18):
I think uh helping with workforce development is a
big key.
Um there's still a lot ofstudents who don't necessarily
want to go the full collegeroute, but they are needing a
job uh coming out of highschool, uh looking for some type
of skill to cut their teeth on.
I think the college candefinitely play a bigger role in
(35:40):
that.
Our our construction uhdepartment uh has just gone
gangbuster.
And as you can imagine, you seea crane everywhere around here.
Right.
The construction companies havea hard time finding employees.
And so that those particularstudents that go into that
program are able to walk out andgo work for a crossling or an
(36:01):
abholz.
And they're walking into thosecompanies, bringing value right
away.
So that's one area.
Uh-huh.
The heat and heat and air area,uh, electrician, that's uh
that's another area that'sreally key.
SPEAKER_02 (36:13):
Right.
Where are some gaps?
I mean, I know health care is apopular workforce development
topic as it relates to communitycollege and four-year colleges,
you know, UCA, we've got um, Ithink the number is somewhere
close to we've got about 10,000students, and I think right at
about 20% of all of our studentsare on some sort of health care
related degree path, whetherthat's the the behavioral
(36:36):
therapy, occupational therapy,nursing, pre-dental hygiene.
Those jobs are in demand, right?
And so um where what where isNWAC's uh role there?
Are they filling that gap thereon campus?
SPEAKER_01 (36:49):
We do have a nursing program and a physical therapy
assistant program.
Um it would probably be uh wisefor the college.
Challenge is alwaysinstructor-wise, trying to find
the instructors to provide this,but from an occupational therapy
standpoint, providing anassistant program would be
helpful.
The nursing program's been verysuccessful.
(37:10):
It's been a great feeder and uhto the community.
Um it's you know, healthcare isso so evolving.
Yeah, the AI industry, thecollege, has been really
proactive with that.
And I do think there'll be someopportunities to help AI within
the healthcare community.
(37:31):
Yeah.
And uh I know Dr.
Riddle is really excited aboutthat opportunity.
SPEAKER_02 (37:35):
Yeah, that and there's also you uh you read
more about uh you know growth atNYG, just like everything else.
The enrollment's growing, andnow there's some discussions and
some plans to to grow the campusfoot uh quite considerably.
SPEAKER_01 (37:49):
Yeah.
It's always the biggestchallenge though, because you
got to have a dollar to buildsomething.
That's right.
That's exactly right.
So, you know, the the and thethe the college is there's so
much growth opportunities aroundhere.
Um you know, you gotta reallyfight, fight for that dollar to
find how are we gonna get thefunding to do these things.
And so that's the biggestchallenge, is we do have great
(38:12):
plans uh of expanding thecampus.
Um, it's just okay, how do weget the funding mechanism to
come along with it?
SPEAKER_02 (38:20):
Yeah, great plan, grant plans, really.
But yeah, you've got to you'vegot to pay for it.
So let's go back, let's talkabout your family.
You you uh rightfully somentioned your your wife of over
25 years, I think, and you andyour family.
How do you, and you've got a lotgoing on personally and
professionally, the boardservice and your job, how do you
stay grounded and with yourfamily with all that you have
(38:41):
going on?
SPEAKER_01 (38:42):
Well, first of all, it's gotta be led by faith.
You know, I'm very uh verydriven by my relationship with
Christ.
And so being faith-driven hashas really been the key because
if if Deedra and I are notseeking the Lord, then you know
it's a little bit lopsided atthat point.
(39:03):
But if we're on the same pagethere and we're seeking the
Lord, um, then I think we're onthe same page and we're ready to
lead a family.
And that's been the blessing ofit.
We got seven kids.
They range from 23 down to nine.
So I still got kids in thehousehold.
I still got a lot of kids in thehousehold.
Yeah.
Uh, but uh, you know, family isvery important to me.
Uh, but uh relationship withDeedra, uh that to me is a big
(39:29):
uh key to success.
And I'm not I'm not talkingsuccess business financially,
I'm just talking about enjoymentof life is uh you know, your
relationship with your spouse.
And so uh that's been a big keyfor for her and I.
Well, we're gonna be celebrating31 years.
Oh wow, this year.
(39:49):
Yep.
And uh, and so that's been a bigkey.
Family is very important to me,though.
And uh I never seem to uh um uhhave solved the where do you
where do you spend the timeother than you just you just you
do the best you can and let theLord fill in the gaps.
SPEAKER_02 (40:08):
Has your definition of success um changed over time?
I mean you you use that word.
I mean, what are the things thatare important to you 20 years
ago, are they important now?
SPEAKER_01 (40:17):
They're not, Paul.
Um and that's uh that's one ofthose things where how I viewed
success was hey, I want to be aI want to be a bank president.
You know, if I can obtain that,then I will have obtained
success.
But really at the end of the dayis to have a uh a family where
(40:40):
we're just all uh growing anddeveloping, and uh, you know,
Deidre and I are meeting ourkids' needs, and that to me is
for them to spring off into thefuture is the success.
Yeah, you know, whatever thatlooks like.
Uh if they are able to, youknow, take some of the very
(41:01):
things we've taught them and godevelop their own families, then
that'll be the that'll be thesuccess.
Sure.
SPEAKER_02 (41:08):
Yeah.
Wow, it's that say that agerange again for me, you know.
23 to nine.
23 to 9.
So that's it.
Every two years.
Every two years.
So unique dynamic.
All right.
All right, just a few rapid firequestions for you as we uh round
up.
Business wise, best businessadvice you've ever received.
SPEAKER_01 (41:28):
Um great question.
I I I would think uh sittingdown with Red Hudson, uh, he
said uh you need to manage tothe balance sheet.
Okay.
Now, some people might be like,what does that mean?
He understood, he knew it, he'dexperienced it.
(41:50):
And you know, we don't I don'thear the name Hudson family
around here as much, but youknow, the Hudson's were huge in
this community.
Yes.
And Red Hudson built a company,a big company, and was able to
sell it off to the Tysons.
But Red knew managing to thebalance sheet, you know, knowing
how your balance sheet isstructured, being able to, when
(42:11):
you make a decision within yourcompany, it is gonna have an
impact on the balance sheet.
And that balance sheet, when Italk debt to equity ratio,
that's those are the types ofthings where you gotta know how
your financials work.
SPEAKER_02 (42:24):
Yep.
Hardest or most challenging uhbusiness decision of your
career.
SPEAKER_01 (42:34):
Um got back in the oh nine, oh ten time period when
the market had tanked, we alsowe not only had the real estate,
but we had the yeah, the stockmarket that took it took a di uh
dive.
Our bank had a big client thatuh it was the village on the
(42:56):
creeks property, and so Iinherited that relationship, and
that was a very challenging timein like how do we gonna navigate
this?
Because it was a big loan, butit had dropped in value
considerably based on themarket, and so having to deal
with that was you know achallenge.
(43:17):
Now looking back over time uhand dealing with that particular
customer, she and I really had agreat relationship.
Uh after after all the water hadhad uh uh passed under the
bridge, she'd call me any day,ask if I needed any help, or I
(43:40):
could call her, ask her if sheneeded help.
Uh there was really a uniquefriend friendship there, which
is pretty rare.
That's a relationship.
That's a relationship.
Absolutely.
I always felt like even as abanker, there's gonna be tough
decisions of foreclosing onfolks.
Um, it's still a human, that'sstill a person that.
(44:00):
you can still have arelationship with.
Yeah.
And depending upon how youhandle it, we'll determine how
that relationship goes.
Sure.
SPEAKER_02 (44:07):
Uh aside from your 31st wedding anniversary, what
are you most excited about rightnow?
SPEAKER_01 (44:13):
Oh right now.
Uh getting down to the beach forspring break.
Top of mind.
No, I'm really I'm reallylooking forward to uh uh getting
this business valuationcertification to see like what
what can that do in regard to uhmy company for for uh consulting
(44:34):
because it will open some doorsthat I'm looking forward and I
think really fits my nichereally good.
So sure.
Okay.
SPEAKER_02 (44:40):
Well listen Ron really appreciate you doing this
you've had a really unique umcareer path here in Northwest
Arkansas that started at UCA andso did Conway.
And so um I really think peopleare going to take a lot of this
so I appreciate you sitting downwith me.
Thank you, Paul.
I've really enjoyed it.
All right great conversation.
All right and that is it forthis episode of Central to NWA.
(45:01):
We appreciate you tuning in.
Until next time, go Bears.
That's it for this episode ofCentral to NWA a UCA podcast.
I'm Paul Gatling, SeniorDirector of Northwest Arkansas
Engagement for the University ofCentral Arkansas.
Be sure to subscribe to the showand follow UCA on all the
appropriate social media.
I'll see you next time onCentral to NWA
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