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July 2, 2024 18 mins

Join host John Quick on the United States of Small Business podcast for an engaging conversation with Eric Ohlhausen, Chief Strategy Officer and President of Old Glory Pay. With a wealth of experience in financial services, including roles at Greenlight Financial and Brightwell Payments, Eric brings a deep understanding of operations and capital formation.

Discover how Old Glory Bank blends traditional values with cutting-edge technology to offer unparalleled mobile banking solutions while fiercely protecting customer privacy.

Learn about Eric’s journey, his strategic vision for Old Glory Bank, and how they stand against cancel culture in today's competitive banking landscape.

Tune in for an insightful discussion on the future of banking and community support.

Check out Old Glory Bank here: https://oldglorybank.com/


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Episode Transcript

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(00:00):
Welcome to the United States of Small Business, a podcast where
the essence of American entrepreneurship is celebrated
in every episode, with host JohnQuick at the helm.
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(00:20):
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(00:40):
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(01:01):
For deeper insights and to connect with the heart and soul
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smallbusiness.com. Subscribe to United States of
Small Business with host John Quick now and be inspired by the
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(01:22):
Begin your journey of inspiration with us today.
Welcome everybody to the United States Small Business Podcast.
I'm your host, John Quick. Today we have a very special
guest, the Co founder of All Glory Bank, Eric Olhausen.
Old Glory Bank blends traditional values with cutting
edge technology to provide top notch mobile banking solutions.
Unlike other banks that leak customer data or cancelled

(01:43):
accounts in 2020, Old Glory Bankis committed to protecting your
privacy and supporting your business.
Join us as we explore the bank'sunique story and its commitment
to community support. So without further ado, Eric,
welcome to the United States of Small Business Podcast.
So glad to be here. Thank you.
Well, this'll be fun to hear a little bit about your story and

(02:04):
I hear a little bit about Old Glory Banks story.
I think it's a very fascinating concept.
First take me back to how did this bank started?
Everybody's got their story. I'd love to hear yours.
Sure. We has has a a pretty
interesting background to it. I've worked in the financial
services industry probably 30 years now, had been a commercial

(02:27):
lender at a bank, had done a lotof M and A work.
But most relevantly, the past 15years or so I've worked in
financial technology. So a lot of the online and
electronic banking solutions being brought to the market and
through that process, I got familiar with a lot of the new
innovations occurring and what is sometimes described as the de

(02:50):
commoditization of banking. Because with online banking, the
expression goes that people usedto select the bank that was
closest to their home. But now with online banking,
people can choose the bank that's closest to their identity
or their values. And So what that is opened up
because of no longer being limited to just a geographic
footprint and, and the locality of, of where you're physically

(03:13):
located, it does allow for financial services to be more
tailored to a particular audience and deliver something
that speaks very strongly to that audience.
And in our case, it was back in the late 2020 or so, I had
observed just a lot of the, the,the summer of love and the, the

(03:36):
mayhem that was occurring and just kind of scratched my head
and saying, 'cause I, I had seena lot of other financial
services addressing the, the families with teens like Green
Light or the African American community like Greenwood or
Aspiration, which addressed the environmentally conscious

(03:57):
audience. But what I observed was there
surely is a large group, if not half the country we would
believe, that was just tired of being bitten, beaten down for
having traditional American values and and love of their
country, love of their flag, tired of watching police be
vilified for doing their job. You know, tired of the military

(04:20):
not getting all the do that theydeserve.
And coupled with that, we started to see a few months
later and some of the folks I spoke to, Mike Ring, who is our
CEO and is a long time friend and an associate of mine,
started throwing around some ideas.
And we recognized that in addition to there being a a lot

(04:40):
of attraction in the marketplaceto a bank that that supported
the country strongly, but also one that would push back against
the cancel culture and push backagainst data sharing, which are
are two main points that a lot of big banks sadly have been
engaging in with their customers.
And so which after circulating those ideas in early 2021, we

(05:05):
started to attract the attentionof some really prominent folks
who were very excited about whatwe're doing and joined us early
on as as Co founders. Doctor Ben Carson and Larry
Elder are are two of them who are Co founders and also joined
our board. Similarly, Bill Shine, who ran
Fox News and was deputy chief ofstaff in the Trump

(05:27):
administration, he's our chairman and and executive
chairman and he was an early Co founder.
And then also John Rich, the country singer and strong
patriot, who's a very outspoken and a very prolific speaker in
support of our country. And so with, with a lot of big
names like them involved and then a lot of hard workers like

(05:49):
me and, and my teammates who come out of banking, financial
services, technology and so forth.
We brought together an online bank that we've delivered clear
across the country. Now we're operating, we have
customers in every fifty, all 50states, both businesses and
individuals. And we are excited to have a

(06:11):
product that speaks to a lot of people, delivers extremely good
technology. And that's one thing we've been
able to do with the, with the broad market footprint and the,
and the targeted footprint and the scale to support a big
investment in technology. So we're, we're really excited
about what we're delivering and just in about a month, excuse

(06:34):
me, a year and a half of having introduced the online Bank of
All Glory Bank, we now have 10s and 10s of thousands of new
customers, individuals and businesses clear across the
country. That's pretty awesome.
So how has the reception been from folks?
I'm sure it's been amazing, but them knowing that, you know,
you're not going to cancel them,you're not going to just hand

(06:55):
over their data to the federal government, have been, have
people been excited that that's going to be kind of a the main
feature of your, of your bank? They have and, and it's
interesting that the data sharing is one there.
There are a lot of businesses that don't want their customers
data to be shared and individuals who don't want their

(07:17):
data to be shared. There was a lot that was not
just reported, but actually revealed in, in congressional
hearing testimony earlier this year.
Jim Jordan was leading hearings.Just an egregious level of data
sharing by the large banks in the top ten banks who who
control over half the deposits of of this country were and

(07:39):
maybe your listeners. So hopefully they have seen this
'cause it was, it's just incredible what was happening.
But no, no subpoenas involved, just voluntarily sharing
transaction data, private transaction data of their
customers and, you know, searching for things like who on
their Venmo transactions noted MAGA or Trump or who was

(08:02):
shopping at a Cabela's or a basspro shops and therefore might be
a firearms owner. Just some, some real breaches of
of civil liberties that the large banks were were quite
willingly cooperating among themselves to you know, on how
to select data, search for data and then report it to the feds
with completely voluntarily I'm doing so we've quite publicly

(08:25):
stated we will not do that. We would not comply with that.
We would reveal any requests like that and push back and only
honor a true law abiding or lawful subpoena, which as a law
abiding bank and and one who believes in the Constitution and
rule of law, we're certainly going to honor that.

(08:46):
But there's that is such a far difference, a big difference
from what actually was occurring.
So that's in traction to businesses and then also the
whole cancel culture. And and this is something, you
know, a lot of folks might have seen that a lot of prominent
individuals have been and kind of outspoken individuals have
been canceled. Mike Lindell, Don Trump Junior,

(09:11):
Michael Flynn, John Eastman, Trump's attorney and so forth.
But it's also just regular folks, the the masses by the 10s
of millions when you start to look at it where you know,
PayPal and Venmo when when they no longer process transactions,
legal transactions, but in the firearms industry or even just

(09:31):
selling ammunition, then people in on mass are being cancelled
by particular providers online and and the big banks are are
starting to do that more and more as well.
All Glory Bank exhibited recently just about a month and
a half ago in Dallas at the NRA annual meeting in January.

(09:51):
We are in in in Las Vegas for the SHOT Show because we've
identified and recognized that our value proposition really
speaks well to industries that are aggrieved, one of them being
the lawful operators within the firearms industry fully.
You know, it's just, it's, it's incredible.

(10:13):
You look at Paypal's terms of use, and I've looked it up
recently in the same paragraph that they prohibit the use of
PayPal for exchange of stolen property and exchange of illegal
drugs. Thirdly, they mentioned
transactions involving firearms or ammunition.
So in the same category as illegal activity, they're

(10:36):
throwing not just lawful activity, but constitutionally
protected lawful activity. And that's where our the
offering of All Glory Bank has really spoken to people
recognizing that there's no service delivery sacrifice in
coming to All Glory Bank. It is a fully operating,

(10:56):
functional, you know, comprehensive set of checking
and and savings accounts. We have online banking tools
that that I would put up againstChase B of A Wells Fargo and
really good customer service as well.
So we're we're excited to see that the All Glory Banks story
is has resonated so strongly with so many people and

(11:17):
businesses. That's awesome.
Well, if folks have have not yet, I would encourage folks to
go check out your guys's social media because it's really
awesome. You guys seem to be at all these
events, talking to conservatives, really connecting
with customers. Tell me what it's like, what
it's been like to get some of these high level kind of
conservative celebrities, you know, to, to endorse and join

(11:40):
your board of those kinds of things.
That's that's got to be a a feather in the cap, you know,
for all the hard work that you guys have put into to build
this. It, it has been rewarding and
we've, we've really got a great team, the, the whole
organization at all Glory Bank who are very passionate.
And I'll point out we're, we're,we, we crossed the, the spectrum

(12:02):
of people who just respect the Constitution.
You know, one of the goals with Old Glory Bank when, when I came
up with the idea was to take politics out of banking.
That was the whole point was to focus on liberties and, and
constitutional protection and free speech.
And if, if there's ever anythingthat used to be one of the most

(12:22):
unifying topics was the belief in free speech.
And yet the cancel culture has really put the, you know, come
down hard on that. But so we've, we've got people
and, and customers as well who, who, I mean, you look at how
many, how many veterans who, whoacross the political spectrum,
doesn't matter where they are politically, they take offense

(12:45):
when they see people kneeling for the flag or, or vilifying
the police for doing their job and so forth.
And so to see big names get excited about what we're doing
certainly pointed out to us thatwe had had really tapped into
something. And, and sometimes we'll, we'll
joke about a little bit just how, you know, we, we, we focus

(13:08):
on this niche that wasn't being served.
That's half the American people.And in a lot of ways we've we've
had that notion be reinforced when we are at conferences.
Just a couple weeks ago, I was in Detroit at the people's
convention that Turning Point had put on.
And it is incredible how many people just walking up to our
booth would say, you know, I'm with B of A and I hate them or

(13:32):
I'm with Citibank and I hate them.
And of course our, of course, our natural response is, well,
they hate you too, which is, which is sad.
And I, I come out of the, the large banking world in years
past and I think a lot of businesses.
And it's not just in banking. You, you see in the other
industries, whether it's beer companies or, you know, the

(13:54):
Disneys of the world, who, who in many ways have lost their,
their, their way and, and kind of turned away from, from a lot
of their customers. And, and there there's a large
group of people who are very passionate about the topics that
we give them a lot of comfort over, you know, not cancelling
them for their views and, and fully protecting their data, you

(14:18):
know, not voluntarily sharing itwith the feds and the prying
eyes, a big government. And I think when people
recognize that it's, it's, it's even industries like in the oil
and gas, you know, the fossil fuels industry that's getting
more and more cancelled by the large banks.
You know, if you're an oil rig operator in the Midwest and, and
you're, you know, working in Oklahoma or Kansas or maybe

(14:40):
you're in, in West Virginia, youknow, when the large banks are,
are out there publicly stating that they are dramatically
reducing their financing of the very industry that that provides
your livelihood or, or the livelihood of someone in your
household. You know, that's where I think a
lot of people are recognizing that they do have the
opportunity to vote with their feet and vote with their dollars

(15:02):
and they don't have to support organizations that that aren't
aligned on, on, on principles that matter to people.
So we've, we've really been excited about how things have
resonated and resonated and we encourage people.
It's very easy to go to oldglorybank.com.
Individual accounts take only 8 minutes to open up business

(15:24):
accounts. We, we can do in a matter of a
couple of days that there's obviously a little more paper
work for, for organizations, butnothing that we haven't gotten
the process for to do very, veryrapidly and with some great
support along the way. Nice.
So what's been the biggest lesson for you learned along the
way of starting a bank in a niche that has an it's an

(15:47):
enormous niche, right? That nobody's nobody's tapped
yet. What's been one of the biggest
lessons for you along the way? I would just say it, it's
probably not a surprise that banking is probably the most
regulated industry. It's, it's has a lot of
regulation and and certainly forgood reason, but we did, we

(16:08):
entered it with open eyes. There, there are simpler paths
we could have gone through there.
There's a notion or a concept of, of challenger banks, Oregon
neo banks that just some of the online providers people might be
familiar with, like, you know, the chimes of the world that
have 10s of millions of customers, but aren't actual

(16:29):
banks. They work with the third party
issuer of the accounts behind the scenes.
That was an option for us. But we did feel early on and
recognized and strongly believe that to fully honor, be able to
honor the commitment to our customers to not cancel them for
their views or the industry theyoperate in and not share their

(16:50):
data voluntarily with with the with the feds and prying eyes
just for mere requests. In order to stand by that kind
of a of a commitment, we had to have the autonomy of actually
being the bank. And so it's a lot more costly, a
lot more resources required in terms of people and technology
and so forth to be an actual FDIC insured bank as Old Glory

(17:13):
Bank is. But it's, I would certainly say
worth it. And our customers feel it was
worth it because they know they're with the bank that truly
is in the position to to stand by what they claim.
That's awesome. Well, Eric, 20 minutes here has
gone by in a flash. Any last minute thoughts here
before we head off? I would just say I, I first of

(17:34):
all, thank you for your interest.
It's, it's folks like you that, that help get the word out.
And the, the bigger and strongerwe get, the, the more of a force
we can be. And, and it's we've, we've
certainly embraced the, the freedom economy and people who
are passionate about believing in their country, believing in
the Constitution and just believing in their their right

(17:55):
to, to operate and run a business if they're a business
owner. And we welcome all individuals
and companies to Old glorybank.com.
We we really are excited to to share our story with with so
many people. Awesome.
Well, thank you so much for joining us here.
For folks listening in, if you just cut the tail end, I want to
encourage you to go back and listen to the whole thing.
Old Glory Bank is kind of forging its own path.

(18:17):
They protect your privacy and your data, and they have a
really great story. So I'll put all the links in the
podcast description for folks who go check it out.
We hope everybody has a phenomenal rest of their week.
And until next time, I'm John Quick from the United States, a
small business podcast. Thanks, Eric for joining us.
Thank you.
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