September 12, 2024 • 56 mins
Today Shayla and I are doing something a little bit different on the show. We are going to answer some of your questions. So these are questions that we either have received or we've heard over the the span of the Mentorship Program. If you'd like to join the conversation or have a question answered or would like insight, feel free to email us at smp@gvsu.edu. And when we do another one of these, we may read your question on the air. You can also submit anonymous feedback if you'd like. We always enjoy having these conversations, reading these, so you can't see in the studio, but we don't have any producers. So, what Shayla and I have done, is taken all of the feedback that we've gotten and questions that we have, and we've created the "Bowl of Mystery".
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome
to the Seidman Mentorship Podcast. Thisis your captain speaking. On this show,
we navigate the voyage of lifethrough the lens of Lakers,
some who have just come aboard,and others who are well underway.
We will speak with experts who will showus the ropes, help us plot a course,
(00:22):
and recount exhilaratingtales of uncharted territory,
all while promoting lifelong learningagility, and a culture of mentorship.
Welcome to the Seidman Mentorshippodcast. I'm Dylan Jones-Wrisley,
the editor for season four. Today on theshow, Gerry welcomes Patrick Scheffers,
(00:44):
Commercial Relationship Manager atHuntington Bank in 2013 Seidman alumni.
Recently,
Patrick was honored as Pro Mentor of theYear by the Seidman Mentorship Program.
In today's episode, Patrick discusseshis secrets for a successful mentorship.
Additionally,
he shares practical financial insighthelpful for every college student.
(01:18):
Patrick Scheffers. Welcome to theSeidman the Mentorship podcast.
It's an honor to have you heretoday. Thanks for coming out.
Yeah, thanks for having me,Gerry. I'm really excited.
So, let's start it. It's, it wasfun this morning 'cause you came in,
we're here at the Career Center atGrand Valley. You come in, Troy Farley,
the director's here. You guys hit itoff. Obviously, you know each other.
You spent some time hereas a Laker. Tell me,
(01:40):
and this is a Andy Beachnaunow question that I stole,
when did you know you were a Laker?
Wow. Yeah, I mean, it was great to catchup with Troy. First of all, you know,
I haven't seen him in years, just beingout of the community for a little while.
But, you know, going back to yourquestion, when did I know I was a Laker?
I think when I first did my tour,so my official college visit tour,
(02:01):
I really realized that this was just theplace for me. I grew up in Kalamazoo.
I had a lot of friends thatwere committed to Grand Valley,
so I knew that I was gonnahave a network of people here,
but also I knew that therewas gonna be, you know,
a ton of folks like me that I'm gonnaget along really well with. And then the,
the programs, right, the classsizes, the prestigiousness of the,
(02:21):
the finance and the, the business school.
So it was really just a fit from thetour and then doing a little bit of
research. I, I knew right when Iwalked on campus. That this was it.
So tell us a little bit about yourjourney, through Grand Valley and,
and where you're at now.
Yeah. So I started out, you know,freshman year, lived in the dorms,
shout out...
Which dorm?
I was in Swanson. So,yeah, I was just gonna say,
(02:43):
give a shout out to all the Swansonfolks that, that went through there.
I had a ton of fun. You know, I met alot of great people there, my suite mate,
you know, we still stay in contact and,
I didn't know him beforegoing into Grand Valley,
so that's really cool just to makesome connections like that, you know,
there on,
I kind of moved on to the businessschool and spent a lot of time downtown.
(03:04):
I did a study abroad program as well,
which is something Iwould highly recommend.
Anytime I talk to students that areeither in college or preparing to go to
college, it's one of the topthings that I recommend to them is,
is doing a study abroad.
You went to Spain, right?
I did, yeah. So I studied atthe University of Bilbao there.
Yeah. And how long were you there?
I was there for a full fall semester,
so I did the August throughDecember session and traveled a lot,
(03:28):
met a lot of really cool people, andthe program at the University of Deusto
was absolutely fantastic.
And the partnership that they have withGrand Valley every credit transferred.
It was just an amazing experience.
Awesome. What happened after that?
After that, I came back and I reallyfocused on narrowing down my, my focus.
So,
I kind of jumped around and moved majorsa few times and ended up coming back
(03:52):
and said, finance and economics isreally where I wanna focus. And so I,
I defined that as my major.Economics was more of just a, "hey,
I only need a few more creditsto get the double major",
and it's something I enjoyed.
I always loved those intro classes ofmacro and microeconomics and just thought
that that would be a great addition. Andfinance was just kind of a passion. I
(04:13):
had an uncle that went that route,
and we'll talk a little bit moreabout that I think later. But,
that kind of helped me definemy path forward and, you know,
move forward with a financeand economics degree.
Any super impactful instructorsthat you had during that time?
You know, there was a lot of, ofprofessors that I really enjoyed.
Professor Hoogstra
(04:35):
just being involved with IPO isone that comes to mind. I mean,
he was fantastic in hissupport of that organization.
Some of his courses thathe taught and, you know,
just allowing us to be able to go toOmaha and go to like the Berkshire
Shareholder Meeting.
And I just remember him kind ofaccompanying us on that trip, so he was,
he was a great professor and reallyenjoyed kind of his commitment to not only
(04:56):
the classroom, but outside of thatas well with IPO and for those,
I guess those that don't know, IPO,
that's the investment portfolioorganization that's here on campus.
I know it's still going strong, and,
I was a member of thatwhen I was here as well.
So what happened after graduation?
Yeah, after graduation. Well, Iactually kind of started my junior year,
(05:16):
so I'll take a step back. You know, Iwent to the Grand Valley Career Fair,
just like I think most juniors do,
and I even heard that some freshmenand sophomores are going now,
which is awesome. You know, gettingexperience as soon as you can,
as early as you can and, andmaybe even line up an internship,
so junior year I went to the career fair.I was exploring different finance and,
you know, economic or financeand econ, path for an internship.
(05:40):
I chatted with a few banks.
I also chatted with a few healthcareorganizations trying to find a,
an internship for the junior year. And,
ended up landing a position withMacatawa Bank as an intern in the fall of
2012, or I guess this would'vebeen summer of 2012. And,
that's kind of how I ended upin banking. Is it, you know,
just the career fair throughGrand Valley in that internship.
(06:02):
And just found that I hada passion for, you know,
the commercial lending side of things.
Then you have this meteoric rise,right? So we're talking 2012,
and now you're a vice president,and that doesn't happen.
And there's not a lot of those peoplethat get that VP title up there.
So I remember being inleadership training during my,
years in corporate and lookingaround the room and going,
(06:23):
there's an awful lot of people inthis room who want to be leadership.
How do you make that thatrise? How do you do that?
Yeah. You know, I was,
very fortunate to have a lotof people around me that,
cared for me, mentored me,really advocated for me, and they were in my corner.
You know, on top of thattoo, I, I worked hard, right?
(06:46):
I was really focused on wanting to bea commercial relationship manager or a
lender, right? Is what wecall it, but to do that,
you have to go through the path of beinga credit analyst, a portfolio manager,
get your credit experience,
make sure you understand how to structurethese loans and these relationships
appropriately before you can gain thetrust of the institution to become a
(07:06):
relationship manager or lender,
and really kind of be thatpoint of contact for these large commercial clients,
right? They, they want you to have anunderstanding of the nuts and bolts.
So I did work hard and I,
I spent a lot of hours early on justkinda working through that process,
knowing that my long-term goalwas this. And like I said,
I had a lot of mentors and advocates inmy corner, and I just made sure that,
you know, I was vocal about wanting to,to be where I am, and I just told them,
(07:31):
you know, "hey, this is my goal. If youcan help me get there, you know, that,
that would be fantastic. Like, I wouldlove to learn from your experience.
I would love to shadow you on,
on these client calls or prospectingcalls and things like that." And,
and they were really open to that. AndI just, I'm grateful for those folks.
I'm gonna ask you aboutyour mentors specifically,
but you just said something there thatI think a lot of students feel is the
(07:52):
magic, and they, theysay, how do you do that?
So how do you ask somebody to mentor you?
How do you ask for that job shadow?How do you ask for that experience?
How do you find the conversation whereyou can communicate what your goals,
hopes, and dreams are? Becauseit seems very personal,
and you have to have some vulnerabilityto do that. How do you do it?
(08:13):
Yeah. You know,
all these people I haddeveloped relationships with via work or other networking
avenues prior to, and they weren'tlong relationships, but, you know,
we worked together. So, for example,one of my mentors at Huntington was a,
a senior vice president.
He had been in banking and bankingregulation for a long time,
and we worked together. AndI think he just valued my,
(08:36):
my drive and my effort and the workthat I put in. And so after, you know,
a few months of just kind of developingthat natural relationship, I,
I started to open up to him and,
I could tell that he was kind of enjoyingthe aspect of this younger guy kind of
coming along and working in themarket with him. And, I just told him,
I was like, "hey, you know, Ireally enjoy working with you."
(08:56):
I think you do a fantastic job and I'dlove to learn more and just kind of have
an open two-way conversation about, youknow, your history, your experience,
how you got here, and just advice thatyou have for me too as, as we go along,
and totally receptive to that, right?
So that was a fantastic partnershipand he advocated internally for me too.
So he would push my bossat the time to kind of,
(09:19):
for promotions even whenI wasn't asking for it,
because he was seeing how I wasworking. And I think that's, you know,
that mentor and that relationship thatI had was a huge reason for why I am
where I am today.
Before that, you learned somewherehow to have those conversations,
and I think you referenced your uncle,so you teed it up. So nice. Yeah.
Let's knock that one outta the park.How did, who was your first mentors and,
(09:43):
and how did you learn to havethose mentoring conversations?
Yeah, I think, you know, my, my firstmentor, if we go to that question was,
was definitely my father.
He ran a business for 25 years,
and eventually my sistercarried that legacy on,
and she's still running it today.
And I'm just amazed at all the thingsthat she does. But my dad, and I,
(10:06):
we were always really close. We playedgolf together. I would go to the,
the shop that they ran, and I wouldwork there all through middle school,
high school and college. And, you know,
he bought that business outtabankruptcy and turned it into,
to something that became alegacy that now my sister runs.
And so I really looked up to himand appreciated all his advice.
I would talk to him about, you know,
courses that I was picking whenI was going to Grand Valley,
(10:28):
and I would talk to him about, "hey, I'm,
I'm looking at this internshipin banking, what do you think?".
So he was definitely my first mentor.You know, my uncle, like I mentioned,
he was in banking and actually
started here in Grand Rapidsand then ended up in Chicago.
And I just looked up to him too,
as another individual whoI thought very highly of.
(10:49):
He was very well educated. Ended upgetting his master's from Notre Dame.
So when I was younger, I lookedat that and I just said, "man,
I would really aspire to get my master'ssomeday" and end up being in banking.
And, and, the more Ilearned about banking too,
I just knew that that was the right fit.
But those are two of my early mentors orpeople that I looked up to were both my
dad and my uncle.
(11:10):
So, fast forward to now, you joinedthe Seidman Mentorship Program.
I'm gonna ask you why andhow in a minute. And then we,
the administration on thisside, I say the Royal we,
but really there's only a few of usthat work in mentorship here at Grand
Valley, right? We solicitand I ask for these awards.
This is not me picking things becausethere's 750 people in the program.
(11:33):
We don't know what everybody's up to.
And your mentee thinks enough ofyou to nominate you for this award,
it's clear that you deserve theaward and you're now sitting here,
Pro-Mentor of The Year. Congratulations.
It's the highest honorwe have for pro mentors,
and it's an emblematic ofyou selflessly giving back,
(11:53):
and I think this is what makesGrand Valley unique. Yes,
there's a lot of other universitiesand yes, they have a lot of culture.
We can go to East Lansing, we can scream,you know, go green out the window,
but, you know,
everybody on game day is wearing a hatfrom university that they probably can't
name what town it's in.
They definitely can't name thedormitory that they stayed in.
They definitely cannot nametheir favorite professor.
(12:15):
And I keep saying GrandValley is the giant, quiet,
little university that just goes towork and gets it done in a very West
Michigan type way. A West Michiganculture cutaway just quietly goes to work.
Why did you join theSeidman Mentorship Program,
and what advice can you give to otherpro mentors because you had such a great
(12:36):
mentorship?
Yeah, so there, there's a lot to unpackin there, you know, why did I join the,
the Seidman Mentorship Program? Iactually went to an alumni event,
after I moved back to GrandRapids late last year.
So I had spent six years in Chicagoand moved back with my family late last
year. And I was looking for ways toget reconnected to the community.
And I thought, man, I,
(12:56):
I know of Grand Valley folks thatI still stay in contact with,
and I know that I run intothese additional people that went to Grand Valley all
the time, because like you said,
a lot of Lakers do stay here in WestMichigan and go on to do amazing things.
And I thought, let's goto this alumni, you know,
mixer be a great way toreconnect with familiar faces,
meet some other newfaces. And at that mixer,
(13:17):
they boasted the mentorship program.
And another one of my favorite thingsto do is just kind of be mentors to
younger individuals,especially at the college age,
that are going through this really toughtransition of, hey, I, I, you know,
I'm going from being a student, whichI've been for the last, you know,
16 years to all of a sudden havingto be independent and, and really,
(13:39):
you know, figure out my, mylife and my path forward.
So I really enjoyproviding guidance around,
that aspect and thatspecific stage of life,
because I remember thatbeing challenging myself.
So that's why I signed up. And, you know,
you mentioned being pro mentee ormentor of the year. All thanks goes to,
(13:59):
to my amazing mentee that I had.The partnership was fantastic.
Shout out to Kurtis Montsma. You know,we met and then we clicked right away.
And he was just motivated, driven,
very open to feedback andreceptive to any conversation.
It just felt natural from the beginning.
So I felt very lucky to be paired up withsomebody. And credit to you guys too,
(14:22):
right,
for doing your research and just kindof asking questions to make sure that
those, those pairings are a good fit.
So is it altruism that causesyou to give of your time?
Did it take a lot of time? Was itdifficult? Did you struggle? Was
there a, a tough part of this?
(14:44):
It sounds odd to say thatit wasn't, difficult, but I really don't think it was.
I mean, Kurtis and I, from thefirst meeting, right, we talked,
we kind of got a lot of the blocking andtackling outta the way we talked about
how do we best communicate?
Is there a a standard good day tomeet kind of going forward? You know,
what's your schedule like? AndI'm fortunate to have, you know,
flexibility in my schedule to be able toget out of the office during the week.
(15:07):
But we would meet up on the weekends too.I mean, Kurtis and I both enjoy golf,
we use that as a tool to kind ofconnect for four hours, right?
You're on the golf horsesharing a golf cart,
and we use that as a way to kind ofconnect as well and actually meet
and chat business and schooland all that kind of stuff.
That was one of the tools we had.But I felt fortunate again that,
(15:28):
that he was responsive and reallyinterested in this. And I think that's,
it's all about, both sideshave to put in effort, right?
The mentee is expecting the mentor tocome prepared and, and provide value.
And the same from the, thementor side. They're really,
really looking for the mentee to beengaged, be driven, be excited about this.
And I think we had that on both sides.
(15:49):
Can you peel back the, thesecretive layer a little bit and,
and kind of tell us,
'cause there's other pairs that arelistening right now that goes, "man,
so when did you meet, how did youestablish cadence?" 'Cause a lot of the,
initial issues that we see fromthe administrative side is,
man, we just can't connect. We just,we can't get our schedules to line up.
We don't know where to meet.
(16:09):
We don't know what to talk aboutin those first few meetings. Yep.
Down the road. It, it, once you get theball rolling, it's like a locomotive.
It works really well. But howdid you do those initial things?
Can you tell us a little bitabout the tactical pieces of it?
Yeah, so in initially, Ithink we met at one of the,
the mentorship program events, right?And we kind of talked about, "hey,
where do you live? Where are you goingto school? Where, where am I working?
(16:32):
What's a convenient spot?" And for us,
that ended up being theBitter End Coffee Shop,
which I know is a common GrandValley hub for everybody.
Famous.
Yeah, exactly. I spent many longevenings there back in college.
So I was excited to go back there.And we set a recurring date.
So that first meeting wegot together, we said, "hey,
let's pull up our calendars."He pulled up his class schedule,
(16:53):
and we met one Thursday. It was the lastThursday of every month at 10 o'clock.
And it was on my calendar. And everyonce in a while we'd have to move it,
but I would text 'em in advance and wewould find that sometime the next week.
So I think, again, you know,there can be challenges,
but if we're both dedicated to itand committed to getting together and
communicating, I think that's the key,right? 'Cause even when I had to move it,
(17:15):
we were both responsive inour text communications,
we would find another date the nextweek. And, and that's really the key.
'cause if you get off trackand you're meeting cadence,
or if you're not meeting thatoften, it can be really hard.
And sometimes you just losethat momentum, you know?
And we always met in-person.
I'm a big advocate even with my clientsand what I do for meeting in-person,
(17:36):
but, you know, Teams or Zoom orwhatever also has a, a great,
it's a great resource that we need touse, right? That came outta Covid. And,
and I do use that in work too.It's like, use that resource.
If you don't have the time,time still get together,
don't push it out another month, butjust say, Hey, let's do this one virtual,
and then let's get togetherin person next month.
So I think with how manyways and opportunities we have to meet and socialize
(17:59):
now,
you just need to make sure you're on aregular cadence and try to stick to that
and commit to it as much as possible.
So I think along with a cadence,you, you mentioned this,
you have to provide value.You gotta, you gotta be,
you gotta offer somethingto mentee. And there's a,
there's a secret sauce there.There's a magic, right?
Because I think a lot of mentors,and I'm famous for doing this.
(18:19):
Either I'm trying to be too entertainingand maybe we're not getting to the
point, or I'm trying to give alifetime's worth of information.
I remember the first timeI traveled abroad, right?
And my folks were taking me to theairport, and they're trying to give,
it is just rapid fire this,and don't worry about this.
And if you do this and then gohere. And this is, you know,
how did you do that balance and,
(18:40):
and how did you open and how didyou provide enough value so that
your mentee wanted to meet? And I'm gonnaask you the reverse of that question.
What did the mentee provide that was bestpractices from what you think of how,
he interacted with you?
Yeah, I think he, therewas a, I think my focus on,
on the mentorship program and how to bea good mentor.I've reflected back on the
(19:03):
mentors that I had and what did theydo, and why did I find it so valuable,
right? So I,
I flipped back 10 to 15 years to thoseexperiences and really tried to boil
that down to what is my focus herewith, with Kurtis and, and this program.
And those were really, you know,provide life experiences, make
introductions and, and openmy network to him or her,
(19:26):
whatever it is in the future, right?
And so I really focused on those twothings. We would talk about something,
you know, rental houses or investmentreal estate, and I would say, "hey,
you know, I have a, I have afriend that that runs some Airbnbs,
like I should connect you two." Andthat's really what I did, right?
Was try to be a connector for him,because at the end of the day,
I might have some experience here,
(19:47):
but I am not an expert in rental housesor investment real estate or anything
like that.
And so my focus was to really justprovide him with the ability to have a
conversation with somebody whois, and so I did that, you know,
it was really about making connections.
I have a friend who alsoworks at Mercantile Bank,
which is now where Kurtis works, and sowe talked about that. He was like, Hey,
(20:08):
you know, I'm looking for abanking opportunity. And I said,
you should talk to my friend who'sa lender over at Mercantile Bank.
I know they hire a ton of Grand Valleystudents. Kurtis is also in the IPO.
You know, he checked all the boxes forwhat Mercantile usually looks for and,
and make that connection. I think theother, the other piece too, right, is,
like I talked aboutexperiences. So, you know,
(20:30):
if I was going to a networkingbreakfast, I would say, "hey, Kurtis,
why don't you come along?" Andso he came to a leadership,
lessons breakfast from the Chamberof Commerce with me, a few other,
you know, opportunities that we hadcome up to. And I just said, let,
let's just go to this together.I'll show you how I network.
I know it's can be awkward when you'reshaking hands and trying to meet people
(20:50):
that you haven't met before,
but let's start to have these experiencesnow so that when you're having them as
a professional, you havea little bit of, you know,
experience under your belt and you're alittle more comfortable in these rooms.
And what did Kurtis provide backto you? What, what was the juice?
Is there a reward? I smilewhen I say that because.
Yeah, you know the answer.
I know the answer. Butwhat did you get out of it?
(21:14):
I, I learned a lot, right? I mean,
times as you transition out of the collegelifestyle and into working lifestyle
and all of a sudden start a familyand, you know, life moves on you,
you just kind of knock downday by day and you get in this,
this flow and this rhythm.And not that it's a bad thing,
but it's a different pace, and soKurtis, with the way that he thinks,
(21:35):
and some of the questions that hewould bring to the table, you know,
and the research that he was doingand the modeling, I mean, his,
the Excel models that we would looktogether or look through together that he
had built out, right?
It made me flash back to my originalcollege days and, and thereafter,
except for I wasn't quite as talented andand thorough as he is on the modeling.
(21:56):
But, you know, just resetting my mind to,
to that stage in my life helpeda lot as far as organizing my
thoughts. you know, he is, he wasplanning for what he wanted to do next.
And even though I'm in the midst ofmy career and maybe further along,
it really made me kind of say,
I need to go back and I need to reflecton what are my goals? What are my,
(22:19):
what are my values, and whatdo I wanna do for this next 20,
30 years of my career?
'Cause I still do have thelion's share of my career left.
And I think he reallyhelped me say, "hey, I,
I should spend some time revisitingwhat my path forward is and what goals I
have,
and make sure that I'm doing this on aconsistent basis." Because he was doing
that, right? And it's something I usedto do. Like I said, life happens and,
(22:42):
and you get caught in the daily routine.So I, I appreciated that the most.
I just thought that hisperspective and everything,
how structured and well thoughtout he was, that really helps me.
And that's how I was. And youknow, like I said, things happen.
Life happens.
Exactly.
Life happens while we'remaking other plans, right?
(23:03):
So let me ask you thisquestion, and this is,
if you've listened to the cast andyou have, I love to ask this question.
What do you wish students todaywould do that they don't do?
You know, it's so hard because,throughout this program,
I think one of the other things thatI realized is how impressive, students
(23:25):
are these days, at least the ones thatI came across. I was blown away by,
you know,
what freshmen are doingand what sophomores and juniors and seniors are doing
nowadays. 'Cause I think backto my time, and I was, I was a,
I was a pretty good student,I would say, but I was,
I was having my share offun as well, you know,
and I'm just blown away by allthat they're doing. You know,
(23:47):
I talked about this a little bit earlier,but I think studying abroad, again,
focus on life experiences, right?Learn outside the classroom.
Put yourself in uncomfortablespots, whether it's culturally,
whether it's cuisine, whether it's,you know, I was taking Spanish classes,
but I was far from fluent and I lived ina host family's house that didn't speak
(24:08):
any English.
And so there were uncomfortableconversations and just not being able to
understand each other at point in timeand having to pull out the dictionary.
But I learned so much from that,right? It was totally invaluable.
Beyond the credits that I took andbeyond some of the other classroom
experiences,
I learned more from being independentat 19 and traveling the world and,
(24:28):
and living in a,
a family's house that I had never metbefore that didn't speak my native
language of, of English, right?
So I can't advocate enoughfor study abroad programs. I think they're fantastic,
but I think maybe oneother point on top of that,
what what should students do is, isjust be forthcoming and, and ask right.
(24:48):
In a polite way. But ask, ask thequestion. Say, "hey, will you mentor me?
Or can I shadow you at workfor, for a half day?" Right?
Don't be afraid to aska lot of professionals, especially in West Michigan,
which is such a, a philanthropiccommunity that loves to give back,
especially to those that arein their education years,
ask that question and say,hey, can I just shadow you?
(25:09):
Or can I have a cup of coffee withyou? And ask you what your day,
your normal day is like.
I think that students would find mostprofessionals are more than willing to
give back that time or kind ofprovide some guidance to them.
I think that's the Bill Seidmanlegacy, right? So, Bill,
I talked about this when Idid the cast with Don Lubbers.
(25:29):
The university was really founded by Bill.
Yes, Bill's name's on the businessschool, but started with the,
the colleges here at GrandValley built because he
saw the need for a pipeline oftalent here in West Michigan.
And you don't get theVan Andel's, the Devos's,
(25:49):
the other names that are on the buildingshere that help build West Michigan
without the workers who do it. Anda different skilled tier of workers.
As a guy that did myfirst job at a dairy farm,
I've come a long way and through severaldegrees to do different kinds of work.
I still know how to milk a cow,there's no doubt about that.
(26:10):
I don't want to do that anymore. AndI'm appreciative the people that do it.
But, to get to that next tier.
And that's the kind of jobswe're now inventing here.
So as we talk about the explosive growthof Grand Rapids and our little piece of
it down here for Grand Valley downtown,whether it's the amphitheater,
the soccer stadium, whenthey put Vandel Arena in,
you could have knocked me over a feather.
(26:31):
We're gonna have hockey and concerts inGrand Rapids? I mean, I grew up here.
This was the town that shut downat 9:00 PM on, on weekends, right?
There was nothing when they builtthe first condos, they said,
nobody's gonna wanna live in in GrandRapids. You should have called me,
commercial lender. Yeah. Should've said,"hey, let's buy three, four of these.
You're gonna be happyabout it." Come 2024.
Looking back, looking back now,I wish we would've for sure.
(26:57):
Next, Patrick offers financial tipshelpful for every college student.
So I, I,
our research department watching over usvery carefully at the other end of the
table. Dylan is watching us.
She's waiting for me to ask some ofthese banking questions. So I'm, I'm,
I'm gonna shoot a couple ofthese at you in rapid fire.
Let's go.
From a personal finance standpoint,
(27:20):
what's a college student need to know?
Yeah, it's a tricky, trickybalance, right? You know, education,
being able to prioritize and focuson the learning side of your college
experience is key. I mean, it doestake time. It does take dedication,
but there's a cost to it too, right?So how do you balance, you know,
(27:42):
working to generate income to beable to pay that tuition bill?
I was very fortunate.
My grandparents have been in theeducation system their entire lives,
and they were very focused on making surethat I went to school and even to get
my master's, which I ended up doing downthe road. But I would work all summer.
I had various jobs, throughout the summer,
(28:03):
and I worked full time while some of myother friends were maybe going off and
swimming or playing sports or thingslike that. I worked for my parents.
I was a roofer, some storiesaround that, I definitely...
Tough gig.
Definitely fell, fallen offa few roofs. But you learn,
you learn from thoseexperiences, right? And,
and I think I learned a lot from thehard work of being up at six 30 in the
(28:25):
morning and working allday Monday through Friday,
and then helping out my parents at, attheir place right on, on the weekends.
So,
my summers were really spenttrying to earn income to be able to
help offset that tuitionbill. And then, like I said,
I was very fortunate to have grandparentsthat also invested in me and wanted to
see me succeed and graduateand move on that next level,
(28:45):
so I spent a lot of myschool time focused on,
you know,
studying and going to class and tryingto take as many credits as I could.
I actually, you know,
come senior year I was onlytaking 12 credits both semester.
'Cause that's all I needed to graduatewhile I was working 35 hours at Macatawa
Bank beause they had actually hiredme on after my internship before I
(29:05):
graduated, and said, hey,we want you to come on.
And so I was living downtown GrandRapids, going to class in the morning,
and then driving out to Holland to work,
then eight hours andthen coming back home,
so that was how I spentmy whole senior year,
was working pretty much full time andthen taking 12 credits at Grand Valley to
kind of help pay that bill and dig outof the hole that I'd created like most
(29:28):
students and kind of march forward.So, you know, it's a grind,
but you have to prioritize it, right? Imean, you're paying that tuition bill.
So invest time in studying,going to class. I,
I don't think I ever missed oneclass at Grand Valley. I think every,
I know for a fact if therewas, it was only one.
But I was in every class that we had.If unless it was canceled, I was there.
(29:54):
I tell, freshman students, especially,
you're creating your firstbusiness. The product is you,
and you're gonna invest at thisday and time. You're 20 grand.
So you just dropped 20 grand this yearin your investment yourself. Yeah.
And what did you do with it froma straight banking standpoint?
And I was listening to JillSchlesinger this morning,
banking guru gets to be the talkingon TV. Was talking about internships,
(30:18):
and it was interesting because the hostsaid, you know, internships, blah, blah,
blah, unpaid.
We just had a conversation about thatwith Uncle Troy doesn't believe in unpaid
internships.
I don't either.
I I, there's this place for them,but it's very, very, very, very,
very rare in my world, and JillSchlesinger said, well, should
open a, a Roth IRA. What'sthe first financial move,
(30:43):
sans maybe a savings or a checkingaccount, okay, we'll put that aside.
What's the first financial move a 18,
19-year-old college student shouldthink about making in your opinion?
Wow. Yeah, I mean, that,that's tough, you know,
creating that emergency fund. So, youknow, depending on who you listen to,
there's a lot of folks that advocate forsix months worth of living costs and,
(31:05):
and having that sort of saved up withina fund, that doesn't include beer money,
right? Outside of that,you're, that's what.
Your emergency is.
Yeah, exactly. But, you know,
so picture the scenario where if youwere laid off or not working right,
what would you need to be able to getby for six months? So shelter, food,
clothing, that kind of stuff.I think that's the key start.
(31:27):
But outside of the checkingaccount and savings, right?
Responsible use of, of a credit cardto be able to build up a credit score,
you know, a lot of collegestudents don't think about this,
but when you graduate and if youwant to go get a loan to buy a car
or get a loan to buy a house, youhave to have a credit score. And,
(31:49):
and that score is calculatedbased on your ability to repay
loans on time, your ability to haveborrowing capacity, but repay it.
So, like I said,
credit cards are a great way forthose trying to break into that and,
and create it or have a credit score.
But just make sure that you're responsibleand that you're paying it off in full
(32:10):
every month. Because I, you know,
if going into credit card debt is,
is maybe one of the biggest holes andhardest things to kind of come out of,
but if you use it appropriately,
it can set you up for the abilityto buy a house, buy a car,
those kind of things that you'llneed that credit score for.
So that would be myadvice, is responsible use,
(32:30):
of a credit card or some sortof tool to get a credit score.
Thank you. As the guy who wentstraight, graduated on Saturday.
I've told this story many times andwent to work in financial services on
Monday. I got a crash course really fast,
but I also sounds like similar to you.
I had the parents who onmy, I'll never forget this,
(32:51):
I think it was my eighthbirthday. On my eighth birthday,
my mother handed me $20. I wasvery excited. 20 bucks back then,
that was a lot of money.Put me in the car,
dragged me into the bank, tookthe $20 back outta my hand,
gave it to the teller who handedme my pass book, right? Yep.
(33:11):
And said, never withdraw this money.
It's the worst birthday of mylife, but it taught me a lesson.
And my account has nevergone below 20 bucks.
So I can say I need all that money out.
A lot of folks running into aren't gettingthat advice. So thank you for that.
And thank you for notsaying they're Roth IRA.
We're gonna go in a wholedifferent conversation because I don't know what Jill
(33:32):
Schlesinger was talkingabout, where too many 18,
19 year olds need to worry aboutRoth IRA. Okay. Yeah, exactly. Well,
let's jump into the future a littlebit in our hot button questions here.
So I'm a college student.I'm doing my time.
I've got my six months worth ofemergency fund. Where do I keep that?
Six months is the, is theplatinum-free super happy,
saves the whale checking account, theplace for my six months worth of of funds?
(33:55):
Yeah. You want to have in somethingthat's liquid, right? Easy access to it.
There's a time and a placefor investments, equities,
whatever you want to considerdown the road. But yeah, I,
I would say keep that in cash somewherewhere it's readily accessible.
That's not going to lose monetaryvalue. So just like anything, right?
The stock market or bonds or thingslike that do have the potential to
(34:17):
deteriorate in value. So, keeping thatsomewhere right now with interest rates,
the way that they are, I'veput my banker hat on, you know,
a money market account, right? If,
if you can stock away some funds into amoney market that's earning for four and
a half percent interest, that way itdoesn't feel like it's just sitting there,
just kind of losing value.So, in this environment today,
(34:38):
which is very abnormal from what we'veseen over the last 15 years, you know,
find something where you can put thatcash, where it's gonna run some interest,
treasuries, you know, there's severaldifferent options, but keep it liquid,
right? So that you have access tothat, that's your emergency fund.
It's a what if,
so don't stock it away in something thatcould potentially lose value or that
(34:59):
you may have to sell andhave a tax implication for.
As I'm building wealth now, we'll,we'll go out. So you go out,
you get your first gig, you'restarting to make real money.
You remember that day youget that free paycheck.
I'll never forget that I got a paycheck,you know, in, in corporate America,
which I would laugh at now, but I mean,
you've been a student for so long andyou're working 30 hours or whatever,
(35:19):
and nothing, nothing is hotterthan Michigan Summer on a roof.
I've been there too. My myold man had rental properties,
and every time that the rental propertyneeded plumbing or roofing or whatever,
guess what my Saturday was.You start making real money.
My emergency fund's paid for. I'mdiligently using a credit card.
How do I plan my future? What, youknow, what should I be thinking about?
(35:42):
Should I run out and start optioningGameStop to short that if you took a
Hoogstra class and you're like, I knowhow to do this, what's your next move?
Yeah. So I, I mean, I, I hesitant toprovide any financial advice, right?
But so, so, all right.
This is where I put the big disclaimer in.
I was just say all disclaimers, right?I, I think maximizing your 401k, if,
(36:04):
if your company offeris a matching program,
at least make sure that you'recontributing to your 401k,
to the point where the company'sgoing to match that amount, right?
So up to the match, it's pre-tax.It's the best way, in my opinion.
It's number one, as far as savingtactics that you should be using,
if you have that option. So ifyou're working for a company,
(36:25):
a lot of them will offer,you know, some sort of IRA,
a simple IRA or 401k with a match program.
Please make sure at leastreaching that match point.
And then you can put in up to, youknow, $18,000, $20,000 a year. And if,
if you have that capacity doing that at
21, 22, 23, man, that, thatjust compounds and grows.
(36:48):
And if you've looked at what themarket's done over the last five to seven
years, you know, thatthousand dollars a year,
whatever you want to put in there,
is gonna be exponentially greater downthe road, and it's all growing tax-free.
So I think that's my biggest piece ofadvice is when you're starting out,
dig through your benefits, figureout what your company is offering.
If they're offering a match,
put in at least that amount and maybedo an escalator in there, right?
(37:10):
Where every six months or a year,it's increasing the percentage.
A lot of these things have thatautomatically in there. So...
And you don't even notice it.
You don't, right? I mean,
because it comes out before the moneygoes into your account, it's all pre-tax.
So to your point, if you put thatescalator in there, it happens.
And often times you'renot even noticing it,
or it mirrors up with hopefully maybean annual bump in pay or something like
(37:32):
that. So I think that wouldbe my biggest piece of advice.
When I remember when I first got hiredat the bank and figured that out,
I was like, well, they're giving memoney. It would just, I put money. Yeah.
So that, that was a no brainer is,
is contribute that amount and then they'regonna give me more money without me
doing anything. That's,you gotta take advantage.
Or it's a loss if you don'ttake advantage of it. Right?
(37:53):
So you're losing that money if you don't,if they're gonna contribute 3%, if I,
if I put in three or whatever. IfI don't, I'm losing that. Right?
Absolutely.
So speaking of the loss and the mistake,
and I'll tee this up by tellingyou my informal survey. I,
I teach some freshmanclasses at Grand Valley.
I think tenured professors areafraid of freshmen. I love 'em.
(38:13):
I work with 'em all the time, andso I teach some freshman classes.
I will tell you,
my research has shown that the numberone desired car by Grand Valley students
now is this new Ford Bronco.Have you seen the new Bronco?
I have, yes.
I grew up in the eighties.
The Bronco was this thing you took toSilver Lake and you wrecked it on the
weekend, is what you did.
Or you cut the top off of it so youcould fit more stuff in it. Now it looks,
(38:36):
it looks kind of soft to me. It lookslike, you know, if I, I don't know,
it doesn't look like the Bronco of,of my time. That's okay. Patrick, I'm,
I'm now successful. I wanna flexsome of my success. I want a Bronco,
I want a motorcycle, I wanta boat, I want a cottage.
I want all this stuff that my family has,
(38:57):
and I'm teeing this up to that might notbe the best financial move for the 19
or 20 year olds. Not just saying thatI didn't do some of those things,
how do you balance that temptation forthe things that you want that you know,
aren't the greatest investment to, youknow what I don't know how long, I,
one of my mentors calls us TOP (time onplanet). I dunno what my TOP is, right?
(39:18):
Sure. Something could happento me. So what's the balance?
Because mom took away that 20 bucksand still scarred me and said,
save this for the future. Well,what is my, when do I pull that out?
Because I also had parents
that were very frugal and I don'tknow if they ever enjoyed that money.
You know? What's thebalance? How do you do it?
You know, it's a delicate balance. I,Kurtis and I actually talked about this,
(39:41):
throughout our mentorshipprogram as far as, you know,
he's now transitioning to the professionalworld as far as having a full-time
job and getting that real paycheck.And we talked about saving tactics.
So everything that we just ranthrough, you know, it's funny,
it was like a deja vu to a meetingthat we had at, at Bitter End,
talking about some best practices andthings. I'm like, you, unfortunately,
(40:02):
I had to learn that lesson the hardway. I think I graduated and bought a,
a used car, that was probablysomething I didn't need at that time.
I've learned my lesson since then.So, you know, cars are not my focus,
but I do enjoy travelingwith my family, right?
So that's something that we dosplurge on. But I am very disciplined.
(40:22):
I have goals that I write out everyyear that are financial, that are,
you know, more educational,that are more personal.
So I think spending that time andputting together an action plan,
you know, if you can,
if you can find a financialadvisor or somebody that you trust,
maybe if you're not a finance ora, you know, a business major,
(40:45):
talk to somebody you trust and maybeyou think has their life together.
Maybe it's somebody that's a littlemore experienced, has some gray hairs,
right? That's gone through these lifelessons like you and I have that can say,
Hey, I did that. I boughtthat car and I regretted it,
'cause at the end of the day,it just deppreciated in value.
And if I would've put that money intomy 401k or Roth IRA or some sort of
investment, right? That would'vebeen astronomical by now.
(41:09):
So I had, I had to learn those lessonsthe hard way too. But I think discipline,
writing your goals out and lookingat them throughout the year,
I do that frequently.Check in with myself,
make sure I'm not gettingoff track and saying, Hey,
how am I doing on these financial goalsthat I laid out for the year? And,
you know, before I make a big purchaselike that, check in and just say, Hey,
(41:30):
you know, it is another $10,000 fora car, really what I should be doing?
Or should I scale backto, you know, the college,
vehicle that I used to drive and makesure I'm contributing to those goals and
make sure I'm meeting those andstaying steadfast on reaching them.
I'll say one more thing about carsand then we're gonna switch gears.
But I remember I was a Copeland guy,
(41:53):
right? So I stayed in the prisondormitories. Called them that.
I was just wondering if thatwas gonna come out today.
By, by the way, not a, it's arumor. There was never an intention.
I think I asked Andy Beachnau. Now theHead of Facilities was on the show,
and it was never intended to be a prison,
but it is very small Spartanlike dormitories. Back
in my time when you walked through theparking lot, Copeland, DLOT, D one,
(42:16):
next to Mackinac,
I don't think any of my friends hada car that was fully functional.
In other words,
one of the doors didn't open or youcouldn't open this window 'cause it went
down. So we'd all pile in togo to Jenison Meijer, right?
And there was a lot of used carlot looking as I walk through
the parking lot now, and I see youshaking your head and sigh, just like I,
I'm like, there's not a junkycar in this parking lot.
(42:39):
So I know that there's a lot of, of,
of status debt and expectationaround these, this vehicle thing.
That's all I'm gonna say aboutthat. So, yeah. But I mean,
if your dream is to have the car man,and it makes you happy, and I was,
I enjoyed the car, I realized what thecost, it was the dollars per, you know,
whatever the value was. Paul Isley, myeconomics Professor, Paul's still here,
(43:01):
you know, taught meabout opportunity cost.
What could I have done with thatmoney if I hadn't had this? And,
and I think about that a lot, butchanging gears as we wrap up here,
sell the Seidman MentorshipProgram, sell it to the,
the professionals who are listening,go, I don't have time for that,
that Patrick's doing all thatstuff. I don't have time for that.
I don't have anything to offerto a student. I don't know.
(43:24):
My life's not together. I didn'thave all these great experiences.
I overcome some of those objectives,objections and sell this.
Yeah, I think it's easy, right? I mean,I, I felt that way. I, I said, what do,
do I really have a ton to offer here?
Is this something that this student orthe mentee will find worthwhile as far as
(43:45):
me sharing my experiences? But oncewe got going, it was a no brainer.
I, I, you know, I felt like bothsides, so as the mentor, right?
If I could sell it to them, I'm sayingit's not that big of a time commitment.
I mean,
we met once a month for an hour at thecoffee shop and maybe exchanged a few
texts or emails in between,
and then I would invite himto a networking event that I was already going to.
(44:07):
So, you know, a lot of these things,and like I said, making connections too.
I mean,
that was just a group text between mymentee and a friend of mine and saying,
Hey, you two should connect and havea phone conversation. And they did.
So that took me 30 seconds,right? So the time is just,
it's not a big commitment. The valuethat you get out of it, I mean,
Kurtis and I hit it off right away.
(44:29):
I really enjoyed everytime that we got together,
it was something that I lookedforward to on my calendar. He
challenged me and made mereframe the way that I think,
that I hadn't done in maybe 10 to 12years. So I enjoyed it, that aspect of it.
And then just, you know,
that feeling that you get from puttingyourself back in your shoes and kind of
going through this and seeing howwell he succeeded in landing a job in
(44:53):
Mercantile and now beingin the professional world and graduating from Grand
Valley and adding another Laker fora lifetime, right? I mean, that,
that feeling that you get fromseeing and being a small part of,
of his journey through senior yearand, and for some mentees and mentors,
maybe it's freshmen, sophomore,junior year, and even better, right?
(45:13):
Then you get to be a, a part of abigger piece of that puzzle. So I,
I think it's amazing.
I wasn't expecting the rewards thatI got both from just reframing my
thinking and just the feeling ofbeing a small piece of that puzzle.
But I think it's an awesome experience.
It does not take a ton of time and youcan really help shape people's lives
(45:36):
and help them, you know, getto the next step. And it, it,
whether you're West Michiganor worldwide, I mean,
I ran into a few mentees that wereworking with mentors that lived in Japan.
You know, and they were meetingvirtually and things like that.
So you don't have to behere in West Michigan.
I lived in Chicago for five years. Iwish I knew about the program then,
and I just think it's an amazing toolthat we're offering these students here at
(45:59):
Grand Valley.
I came in the career center all the timewhen I was here and used Troy and Lori
and the team, and I wish I would'vesigned up for this program,
but I'm glad I at least get tocontribute on the other end.
Well, we appreciate you and, andcongratulations, Pro Mentor of the Year.
Your success, it's, it's always an honor,
to talk to folks who are givingback this altruistic piece,
(46:22):
whether you got a degree or not. I, I,
we have several pro mentors whodon't have an advanced degree,
several that went to Grand Valley andleft and said, this wasn't for me.
Some of our, our, our bestmentors, mentors around the world,
and I've said this before,
when you get that card fromsomebody that says, "Hey,
you changed my life." Youcan't, you, you, you're gonna,
(46:45):
there's very few jobs that youget paid for where you're gonna
get that same kind of satisfaction.So, absolutely, thank you very much,
we are working harder to get more peopleto understand the program and be part
of the program with us, and,just appreciate what you do.
So thank you so much for comingin and talk to me today and,
and thanks for being part of the program,being a Laker for the lifetime, and,
(47:08):
just really appreciate,
you and the other alumni who havestepped up to really help change lives.
Absolutely. Thanks for havingme. This was a lot of fun.
Thank you for sailing along on thisepisode of The Seidman Mentorship Podcast.
(47:29):
For more information on the SeidmanCollege of Business Mentorship Program at
Grand Valley State University, lookus up on your favorite search engine.
If you have a story to tell,know someone we should interview,
have questions or comments,
please email at smp@gvsu.edu.
Until next time, keep a weather die onthe horizon, and we wish you fair winds.
(47:52):
So long.
Welcome
to the Seidman Mentorship Podcast. Thisis your captain speaking. On this show,
we navigate the voyage of lifethrough the lens of Lakers,
some who have just come aboard,and others who are well underway.
We will speak with experts who will showus the ropes, help us plot a course,
(00:22):
and recount exhilaratingtales of uncharted territory,
all while promoting lifelong learningagility, and a culture of mentorship.
Welcome to the Seidman Mentorshippodcast. I'm Dylan Jones-Wrisley,
the editor for season four. Today on theshow, Gerry welcomes Patrick Scheffers,
(00:44):
Commercial Relationship Manager atHuntington Bank in 2013 Seidman alumni.
Recently,
Patrick was honored as Pro Mentor of theYear by the Seidman Mentorship Program.
In today's episode, Patrick discusseshis secrets for a successful mentorship.
Additionally,
he shares practical financial insighthelpful for every college student.
(01:18):
Patrick Scheffers. Welcome to theSeidman the Mentorship podcast.
It's an honor to have you heretoday. Thanks for coming out.
Yeah, thanks for having me,Gerry. I'm really excited.
So, let's start it. It's, it wasfun this morning 'cause you came in,
we're here at the Career Center atGrand Valley. You come in, Troy Farley,
the director's here. You guys hit itoff. Obviously, you know each other.
You spent some time hereas a Laker. Tell me,
(01:40):
and this is a Andy Beachnaunow question that I stole,
when did you know you were a Laker?
Wow. Yeah, I mean, it was great to catchup with Troy. First of all, you know,
I haven't seen him in years, just beingout of the community for a little while.
But, you know, going back to yourquestion, when did I know I was a Laker?
I think when I first did my tour,so my official college visit tour,
(02:01):
I really realized that this was just theplace for me. I grew up in Kalamazoo.
I had a lot of friends thatwere committed to Grand Valley,
so I knew that I was gonnahave a network of people here,
but also I knew that therewas gonna be, you know,
a ton of folks like me that I'm gonnaget along really well with. And then the,
the programs, right, the classsizes, the prestigiousness of the,
(02:21):
the finance and the, the business school.
So it was really just a fit from thetour and then doing a little bit of
research. I, I knew right when Iwalked on campus. That this was it.
So tell us a little bit about yourjourney, through Grand Valley and,
and where you're at now.
Yeah. So I started out, you know,freshman year, lived in the dorms,
shout out...
Which dorm?
I was in Swanson. So,yeah, I was just gonna say,
(02:43):
give a shout out to all the Swansonfolks that, that went through there.
I had a ton of fun. You know, I met alot of great people there, my suite mate,
you know, we still stay in contact and,
I didn't know him beforegoing into Grand Valley,
so that's really cool just to makesome connections like that, you know,
there on,
I kind of moved on to the businessschool and spent a lot of time downtown.
(03:04):
I did a study abroad program as well,
which is something Iwould highly recommend.
Anytime I talk to students that areeither in college or preparing to go to
college, it's one of the topthings that I recommend to them is,
is doing a study abroad.
You went to Spain, right?
I did, yeah. So I studied atthe University of Bilbao there.
Yeah. And how long were you there?
I was there for a full fall semester,
so I did the August throughDecember session and traveled a lot,
(03:28):
met a lot of really cool people, andthe program at the University of Deusto
was absolutely fantastic.
And the partnership that they have withGrand Valley every credit transferred.
It was just an amazing experience.
Awesome. What happened after that?
After that, I came back and I reallyfocused on narrowing down my, my focus.
So,
I kind of jumped around and moved majorsa few times and ended up coming back
(03:52):
and said, finance and economics isreally where I wanna focus. And so I,
I defined that as my major.Economics was more of just a, "hey,
I only need a few more creditsto get the double major",
and it's something I enjoyed.
I always loved those intro classes ofmacro and microeconomics and just thought
that that would be a great addition. Andfinance was just kind of a passion. I
(04:13):
had an uncle that went that route,
and we'll talk a little bit moreabout that I think later. But,
that kind of helped me definemy path forward and, you know,
move forward with a financeand economics degree.
Any super impactful instructorsthat you had during that time?
You know, there was a lot of, ofprofessors that I really enjoyed.
Professor Hoogstra
(04:35):
just being involved with IPO isone that comes to mind. I mean,
he was fantastic in hissupport of that organization.
Some of his courses thathe taught and, you know,
just allowing us to be able to go toOmaha and go to like the Berkshire
Shareholder Meeting.
And I just remember him kind ofaccompanying us on that trip, so he was,
he was a great professor and reallyenjoyed kind of his commitment to not only
(04:56):
the classroom, but outside of thatas well with IPO and for those,
I guess those that don't know, IPO,
that's the investment portfolioorganization that's here on campus.
I know it's still going strong, and,
I was a member of thatwhen I was here as well.
So what happened after graduation?
Yeah, after graduation. Well, Iactually kind of started my junior year,
(05:16):
so I'll take a step back. You know, Iwent to the Grand Valley Career Fair,
just like I think most juniors do,
and I even heard that some freshmenand sophomores are going now,
which is awesome. You know, gettingexperience as soon as you can,
as early as you can and, andmaybe even line up an internship,
so junior year I went to the career fair.I was exploring different finance and,
you know, economic or financeand econ, path for an internship.
(05:40):
I chatted with a few banks.
I also chatted with a few healthcareorganizations trying to find a,
an internship for the junior year. And,
ended up landing a position withMacatawa Bank as an intern in the fall of
2012, or I guess this would'vebeen summer of 2012. And,
that's kind of how I ended upin banking. Is it, you know,
just the career fair throughGrand Valley in that internship.
(06:02):
And just found that I hada passion for, you know,
the commercial lending side of things.
Then you have this meteoric rise,right? So we're talking 2012,
and now you're a vice president,and that doesn't happen.
And there's not a lot of those peoplethat get that VP title up there.
So I remember being inleadership training during my,
years in corporate and lookingaround the room and going,
(06:23):
there's an awful lot of people inthis room who want to be leadership.
How do you make that thatrise? How do you do that?
Yeah. You know, I was,
very fortunate to have a lotof people around me that,
cared for me, mentored me,really advocated for me, and they were in my corner.
You know, on top of thattoo, I, I worked hard, right?
(06:46):
I was really focused on wanting to bea commercial relationship manager or a
lender, right? Is what wecall it, but to do that,
you have to go through the path of beinga credit analyst, a portfolio manager,
get your credit experience,
make sure you understand how to structurethese loans and these relationships
appropriately before you can gain thetrust of the institution to become a
(07:06):
relationship manager or lender,
and really kind of be thatpoint of contact for these large commercial clients,
right? They, they want you to have anunderstanding of the nuts and bolts.
So I did work hard and I,
I spent a lot of hours early on justkinda working through that process,
knowing that my long-term goalwas this. And like I said,
I had a lot of mentors and advocates inmy corner, and I just made sure that,
you know, I was vocal about wanting to,to be where I am, and I just told them,
(07:31):
you know, "hey, this is my goal. If youcan help me get there, you know, that,
that would be fantastic. Like, I wouldlove to learn from your experience.
I would love to shadow you on,
on these client calls or prospectingcalls and things like that." And,
and they were really open to that. AndI just, I'm grateful for those folks.
I'm gonna ask you aboutyour mentors specifically,
but you just said something there thatI think a lot of students feel is the
(07:52):
magic, and they, theysay, how do you do that?
So how do you ask somebody to mentor you?
How do you ask for that job shadow?How do you ask for that experience?
How do you find the conversation whereyou can communicate what your goals,
hopes, and dreams are? Becauseit seems very personal,
and you have to have some vulnerabilityto do that. How do you do it?
(08:13):
Yeah. You know,
all these people I haddeveloped relationships with via work or other networking
avenues prior to, and they weren'tlong relationships, but, you know,
we worked together. So, for example,one of my mentors at Huntington was a,
a senior vice president.
He had been in banking and bankingregulation for a long time,
and we worked together. AndI think he just valued my,
(08:36):
my drive and my effort and the workthat I put in. And so after, you know,
a few months of just kind of developingthat natural relationship, I,
I started to open up to him and,
I could tell that he was kind of enjoyingthe aspect of this younger guy kind of
coming along and working in themarket with him. And, I just told him,
I was like, "hey, you know, Ireally enjoy working with you."
(08:56):
I think you do a fantastic job and I'dlove to learn more and just kind of have
an open two-way conversation about, youknow, your history, your experience,
how you got here, and just advice thatyou have for me too as, as we go along,
and totally receptive to that, right?
So that was a fantastic partnershipand he advocated internally for me too.
So he would push my bossat the time to kind of,
(09:19):
for promotions even whenI wasn't asking for it,
because he was seeing how I wasworking. And I think that's, you know,
that mentor and that relationship thatI had was a huge reason for why I am
where I am today.
Before that, you learned somewherehow to have those conversations,
and I think you referenced your uncle,so you teed it up. So nice. Yeah.
Let's knock that one outta the park.How did, who was your first mentors and,
(09:43):
and how did you learn to havethose mentoring conversations?
Yeah, I think, you know, my, my firstmentor, if we go to that question was,
was definitely my father.
He ran a business for 25 years,
and eventually my sistercarried that legacy on,
and she's still running it today.
And I'm just amazed at all the thingsthat she does. But my dad, and I,
(10:06):
we were always really close. We playedgolf together. I would go to the,
the shop that they ran, and I wouldwork there all through middle school,
high school and college. And, you know,
he bought that business outtabankruptcy and turned it into,
to something that became alegacy that now my sister runs.
And so I really looked up to himand appreciated all his advice.
I would talk to him about, you know,
courses that I was picking whenI was going to Grand Valley,
(10:28):
and I would talk to him about, "hey, I'm,
I'm looking at this internshipin banking, what do you think?".
So he was definitely my first mentor.You know, my uncle, like I mentioned,
he was in banking and actually
started here in Grand Rapidsand then ended up in Chicago.
And I just looked up to him too,
as another individual whoI thought very highly of.
(10:49):
He was very well educated. Ended upgetting his master's from Notre Dame.
So when I was younger, I lookedat that and I just said, "man,
I would really aspire to get my master'ssomeday" and end up being in banking.
And, and, the more Ilearned about banking too,
I just knew that that was the right fit.
But those are two of my early mentors orpeople that I looked up to were both my
dad and my uncle.
(11:10):
So, fast forward to now, you joinedthe Seidman Mentorship Program.
I'm gonna ask you why andhow in a minute. And then we,
the administration on thisside, I say the Royal we,
but really there's only a few of usthat work in mentorship here at Grand
Valley, right? We solicitand I ask for these awards.
This is not me picking things becausethere's 750 people in the program.
(11:33):
We don't know what everybody's up to.
And your mentee thinks enough ofyou to nominate you for this award,
it's clear that you deserve theaward and you're now sitting here,
Pro-Mentor of The Year. Congratulations.
It's the highest honorwe have for pro mentors,
and it's an emblematic ofyou selflessly giving back,
(11:53):
and I think this is what makesGrand Valley unique. Yes,
there's a lot of other universitiesand yes, they have a lot of culture.
We can go to East Lansing, we can scream,you know, go green out the window,
but, you know,
everybody on game day is wearing a hatfrom university that they probably can't
name what town it's in.
They definitely can't name thedormitory that they stayed in.
They definitely cannot nametheir favorite professor.
(12:15):
And I keep saying GrandValley is the giant, quiet,
little university that just goes towork and gets it done in a very West
Michigan type way. A West Michiganculture cutaway just quietly goes to work.
Why did you join theSeidman Mentorship Program,
and what advice can you give to otherpro mentors because you had such a great
(12:36):
mentorship?
Yeah, so there, there's a lot to unpackin there, you know, why did I join the,
the Seidman Mentorship Program? Iactually went to an alumni event,
after I moved back to GrandRapids late last year.
So I had spent six years in Chicagoand moved back with my family late last
year. And I was looking for ways toget reconnected to the community.
And I thought, man, I,
(12:56):
I know of Grand Valley folks thatI still stay in contact with,
and I know that I run intothese additional people that went to Grand Valley all
the time, because like you said,
a lot of Lakers do stay here in WestMichigan and go on to do amazing things.
And I thought, let's goto this alumni, you know,
mixer be a great way toreconnect with familiar faces,
meet some other newfaces. And at that mixer,
(13:17):
they boasted the mentorship program.
And another one of my favorite thingsto do is just kind of be mentors to
younger individuals,especially at the college age,
that are going through this really toughtransition of, hey, I, I, you know,
I'm going from being a student, whichI've been for the last, you know,
16 years to all of a sudden havingto be independent and, and really,
(13:39):
you know, figure out my, mylife and my path forward.
So I really enjoyproviding guidance around,
that aspect and thatspecific stage of life,
because I remember thatbeing challenging myself.
So that's why I signed up. And, you know,
you mentioned being pro mentee ormentor of the year. All thanks goes to,
(13:59):
to my amazing mentee that I had.The partnership was fantastic.
Shout out to Kurtis Montsma. You know,we met and then we clicked right away.
And he was just motivated, driven,
very open to feedback andreceptive to any conversation.
It just felt natural from the beginning.
So I felt very lucky to be paired up withsomebody. And credit to you guys too,
(14:22):
right,
for doing your research and just kindof asking questions to make sure that
those, those pairings are a good fit.
So is it altruism that causesyou to give of your time?
Did it take a lot of time? Was itdifficult? Did you struggle? Was
there a, a tough part of this?
(14:44):
It sounds odd to say thatit wasn't, difficult, but I really don't think it was.
I mean, Kurtis and I, from thefirst meeting, right, we talked,
we kind of got a lot of the blocking andtackling outta the way we talked about
how do we best communicate?
Is there a a standard good day tomeet kind of going forward? You know,
what's your schedule like? AndI'm fortunate to have, you know,
flexibility in my schedule to be able toget out of the office during the week.
(15:07):
But we would meet up on the weekends too.I mean, Kurtis and I both enjoy golf,
we use that as a tool to kind ofconnect for four hours, right?
You're on the golf horsesharing a golf cart,
and we use that as a way to kind ofconnect as well and actually meet
and chat business and schooland all that kind of stuff.
That was one of the tools we had.But I felt fortunate again that,
(15:28):
that he was responsive and reallyinterested in this. And I think that's,
it's all about, both sideshave to put in effort, right?
The mentee is expecting the mentor tocome prepared and, and provide value.
And the same from the, thementor side. They're really,
really looking for the mentee to beengaged, be driven, be excited about this.
And I think we had that on both sides.
(15:49):
Can you peel back the, thesecretive layer a little bit and,
and kind of tell us,
'cause there's other pairs that arelistening right now that goes, "man,
so when did you meet, how did youestablish cadence?" 'Cause a lot of the,
initial issues that we see fromthe administrative side is,
man, we just can't connect. We just,we can't get our schedules to line up.
We don't know where to meet.
(16:09):
We don't know what to talk aboutin those first few meetings. Yep.
Down the road. It, it, once you get theball rolling, it's like a locomotive.
It works really well. But howdid you do those initial things?
Can you tell us a little bitabout the tactical pieces of it?
Yeah, so in initially, Ithink we met at one of the,
the mentorship program events, right?And we kind of talked about, "hey,
where do you live? Where are you goingto school? Where, where am I working?
(16:32):
What's a convenient spot?" And for us,
that ended up being theBitter End Coffee Shop,
which I know is a common GrandValley hub for everybody.
Famous.
Yeah, exactly. I spent many longevenings there back in college.
So I was excited to go back there.And we set a recurring date.
So that first meeting wegot together, we said, "hey,
let's pull up our calendars."He pulled up his class schedule,
(16:53):
and we met one Thursday. It was the lastThursday of every month at 10 o'clock.
And it was on my calendar. And everyonce in a while we'd have to move it,
but I would text 'em in advance and wewould find that sometime the next week.
So I think, again, you know,there can be challenges,
but if we're both dedicated to itand committed to getting together and
communicating, I think that's the key,right? 'Cause even when I had to move it,
(17:15):
we were both responsive inour text communications,
we would find another date the nextweek. And, and that's really the key.
'cause if you get off trackand you're meeting cadence,
or if you're not meeting thatoften, it can be really hard.
And sometimes you just losethat momentum, you know?
And we always met in-person.
I'm a big advocate even with my clientsand what I do for meeting in-person,
(17:36):
but, you know, Teams or Zoom orwhatever also has a, a great,
it's a great resource that we need touse, right? That came outta Covid. And,
and I do use that in work too.It's like, use that resource.
If you don't have the time,time still get together,
don't push it out another month, butjust say, Hey, let's do this one virtual,
and then let's get togetherin person next month.
So I think with how manyways and opportunities we have to meet and socialize
(17:59):
now,
you just need to make sure you're on aregular cadence and try to stick to that
and commit to it as much as possible.
So I think along with a cadence,you, you mentioned this,
you have to provide value.You gotta, you gotta be,
you gotta offer somethingto mentee. And there's a,
there's a secret sauce there.There's a magic, right?
Because I think a lot of mentors,and I'm famous for doing this.
(18:19):
Either I'm trying to be too entertainingand maybe we're not getting to the
point, or I'm trying to give alifetime's worth of information.
I remember the first timeI traveled abroad, right?
And my folks were taking me to theairport, and they're trying to give,
it is just rapid fire this,and don't worry about this.
And if you do this and then gohere. And this is, you know,
how did you do that balance and,
(18:40):
and how did you open and how didyou provide enough value so that
your mentee wanted to meet? And I'm gonnaask you the reverse of that question.
What did the mentee provide that was bestpractices from what you think of how,
he interacted with you?
Yeah, I think he, therewas a, I think my focus on,
on the mentorship program and how to bea good mentor.I've reflected back on the
(19:03):
mentors that I had and what did theydo, and why did I find it so valuable,
right? So I,
I flipped back 10 to 15 years to thoseexperiences and really tried to boil
that down to what is my focus herewith, with Kurtis and, and this program.
And those were really, you know,provide life experiences, make
introductions and, and openmy network to him or her,
(19:26):
whatever it is in the future, right?
And so I really focused on those twothings. We would talk about something,
you know, rental houses or investmentreal estate, and I would say, "hey,
you know, I have a, I have afriend that that runs some Airbnbs,
like I should connect you two." Andthat's really what I did, right?
Was try to be a connector for him,because at the end of the day,
I might have some experience here,
(19:47):
but I am not an expert in rental housesor investment real estate or anything
like that.
And so my focus was to really justprovide him with the ability to have a
conversation with somebody whois, and so I did that, you know,
it was really about making connections.
I have a friend who alsoworks at Mercantile Bank,
which is now where Kurtis works, and sowe talked about that. He was like, Hey,
(20:08):
you know, I'm looking for abanking opportunity. And I said,
you should talk to my friend who'sa lender over at Mercantile Bank.
I know they hire a ton of Grand Valleystudents. Kurtis is also in the IPO.
You know, he checked all the boxes forwhat Mercantile usually looks for and,
and make that connection. I think theother, the other piece too, right, is,
like I talked aboutexperiences. So, you know,
(20:30):
if I was going to a networkingbreakfast, I would say, "hey, Kurtis,
why don't you come along?" Andso he came to a leadership,
lessons breakfast from the Chamberof Commerce with me, a few other,
you know, opportunities that we hadcome up to. And I just said, let,
let's just go to this together.I'll show you how I network.
I know it's can be awkward when you'reshaking hands and trying to meet people
(20:50):
that you haven't met before,
but let's start to have these experiencesnow so that when you're having them as
a professional, you havea little bit of, you know,
experience under your belt and you're alittle more comfortable in these rooms.
And what did Kurtis provide backto you? What, what was the juice?
Is there a reward? I smilewhen I say that because.
Yeah, you know the answer.
I know the answer. Butwhat did you get out of it?
(21:14):
I, I learned a lot, right? I mean,
times as you transition out of the collegelifestyle and into working lifestyle
and all of a sudden start a familyand, you know, life moves on you,
you just kind of knock downday by day and you get in this,
this flow and this rhythm.And not that it's a bad thing,
but it's a different pace, and soKurtis, with the way that he thinks,
(21:35):
and some of the questions that hewould bring to the table, you know,
and the research that he was doingand the modeling, I mean, his,
the Excel models that we would looktogether or look through together that he
had built out, right?
It made me flash back to my originalcollege days and, and thereafter,
except for I wasn't quite as talented andand thorough as he is on the modeling.
(21:56):
But, you know, just resetting my mind to,
to that stage in my life helpeda lot as far as organizing my
thoughts. you know, he is, he wasplanning for what he wanted to do next.
And even though I'm in the midst ofmy career and maybe further along,
it really made me kind of say,
I need to go back and I need to reflecton what are my goals? What are my,
(22:19):
what are my values, and whatdo I wanna do for this next 20,
30 years of my career?
'Cause I still do have thelion's share of my career left.
And I think he reallyhelped me say, "hey, I,
I should spend some time revisitingwhat my path forward is and what goals I
have,
and make sure that I'm doing this on aconsistent basis." Because he was doing
that, right? And it's something I usedto do. Like I said, life happens and,
(22:42):
and you get caught in the daily routine.So I, I appreciated that the most.
I just thought that hisperspective and everything,
how structured and well thoughtout he was, that really helps me.
And that's how I was. And youknow, like I said, things happen.
Life happens.
Exactly.
Life happens while we'remaking other plans, right?
(23:03):
So let me ask you thisquestion, and this is,
if you've listened to the cast andyou have, I love to ask this question.
What do you wish students todaywould do that they don't do?
You know, it's so hard because,throughout this program,
I think one of the other things thatI realized is how impressive, students
(23:25):
are these days, at least the ones thatI came across. I was blown away by,
you know,
what freshmen are doingand what sophomores and juniors and seniors are doing
nowadays. 'Cause I think backto my time, and I was, I was a,
I was a pretty good student,I would say, but I was,
I was having my share offun as well, you know,
and I'm just blown away by allthat they're doing. You know,
(23:47):
I talked about this a little bit earlier,but I think studying abroad, again,
focus on life experiences, right?Learn outside the classroom.
Put yourself in uncomfortablespots, whether it's culturally,
whether it's cuisine, whether it's,you know, I was taking Spanish classes,
but I was far from fluent and I lived ina host family's house that didn't speak
(24:08):
any English.
And so there were uncomfortableconversations and just not being able to
understand each other at point in timeand having to pull out the dictionary.
But I learned so much from that,right? It was totally invaluable.
Beyond the credits that I took andbeyond some of the other classroom
experiences,
I learned more from being independentat 19 and traveling the world and,
(24:28):
and living in a,
a family's house that I had never metbefore that didn't speak my native
language of, of English, right?
So I can't advocate enoughfor study abroad programs. I think they're fantastic,
but I think maybe oneother point on top of that,
what what should students do is, isjust be forthcoming and, and ask right.
(24:48):
In a polite way. But ask, ask thequestion. Say, "hey, will you mentor me?
Or can I shadow you at workfor, for a half day?" Right?
Don't be afraid to aska lot of professionals, especially in West Michigan,
which is such a, a philanthropiccommunity that loves to give back,
especially to those that arein their education years,
ask that question and say,hey, can I just shadow you?
(25:09):
Or can I have a cup of coffee withyou? And ask you what your day,
your normal day is like.
I think that students would find mostprofessionals are more than willing to
give back that time or kind ofprovide some guidance to them.
I think that's the Bill Seidmanlegacy, right? So, Bill,
I talked about this when Idid the cast with Don Lubbers.
(25:29):
The university was really founded by Bill.
Yes, Bill's name's on the businessschool, but started with the,
the colleges here at GrandValley built because he
saw the need for a pipeline oftalent here in West Michigan.
And you don't get theVan Andel's, the Devos's,
(25:49):
the other names that are on the buildingshere that help build West Michigan
without the workers who do it. Anda different skilled tier of workers.
As a guy that did myfirst job at a dairy farm,
I've come a long way and through severaldegrees to do different kinds of work.
I still know how to milk a cow,there's no doubt about that.
(26:10):
I don't want to do that anymore. AndI'm appreciative the people that do it.
But, to get to that next tier.
And that's the kind of jobswe're now inventing here.
So as we talk about the explosive growthof Grand Rapids and our little piece of
it down here for Grand Valley downtown,whether it's the amphitheater,
the soccer stadium, whenthey put Vandel Arena in,
you could have knocked me over a feather.
(26:31):
We're gonna have hockey and concerts inGrand Rapids? I mean, I grew up here.
This was the town that shut downat 9:00 PM on, on weekends, right?
There was nothing when they builtthe first condos, they said,
nobody's gonna wanna live in in GrandRapids. You should have called me,
commercial lender. Yeah. Should've said,"hey, let's buy three, four of these.
You're gonna be happyabout it." Come 2024.
Looking back, looking back now,I wish we would've for sure.
(26:57):
Next, Patrick offers financial tipshelpful for every college student.
So I, I,
our research department watching over usvery carefully at the other end of the
table. Dylan is watching us.
She's waiting for me to ask some ofthese banking questions. So I'm, I'm,
I'm gonna shoot a couple ofthese at you in rapid fire.
Let's go.
From a personal finance standpoint,
(27:20):
what's a college student need to know?
Yeah, it's a tricky, trickybalance, right? You know, education,
being able to prioritize and focuson the learning side of your college
experience is key. I mean, it doestake time. It does take dedication,
but there's a cost to it too, right?So how do you balance, you know,
(27:42):
working to generate income to beable to pay that tuition bill?
I was very fortunate.
My grandparents have been in theeducation system their entire lives,
and they were very focused on making surethat I went to school and even to get
my master's, which I ended up doing downthe road. But I would work all summer.
I had various jobs, throughout the summer,
(28:03):
and I worked full time while some of myother friends were maybe going off and
swimming or playing sports or thingslike that. I worked for my parents.
I was a roofer, some storiesaround that, I definitely...
Tough gig.
Definitely fell, fallen offa few roofs. But you learn,
you learn from thoseexperiences, right? And,
and I think I learned a lot from thehard work of being up at six 30 in the
(28:25):
morning and working allday Monday through Friday,
and then helping out my parents at, attheir place right on, on the weekends.
So,
my summers were really spenttrying to earn income to be able to
help offset that tuitionbill. And then, like I said,
I was very fortunate to have grandparentsthat also invested in me and wanted to
see me succeed and graduateand move on that next level,
(28:45):
so I spent a lot of myschool time focused on,
you know,
studying and going to class and tryingto take as many credits as I could.
I actually, you know,
come senior year I was onlytaking 12 credits both semester.
'Cause that's all I needed to graduatewhile I was working 35 hours at Macatawa
Bank beause they had actually hiredme on after my internship before I
(29:05):
graduated, and said, hey,we want you to come on.
And so I was living downtown GrandRapids, going to class in the morning,
and then driving out to Holland to work,
then eight hours andthen coming back home,
so that was how I spentmy whole senior year,
was working pretty much full time andthen taking 12 credits at Grand Valley to
kind of help pay that bill and dig outof the hole that I'd created like most
(29:28):
students and kind of march forward.So, you know, it's a grind,
but you have to prioritize it, right? Imean, you're paying that tuition bill.
So invest time in studying,going to class. I,
I don't think I ever missed oneclass at Grand Valley. I think every,
I know for a fact if therewas, it was only one.
But I was in every class that we had.If unless it was canceled, I was there.
(29:54):
I tell, freshman students, especially,
you're creating your firstbusiness. The product is you,
and you're gonna invest at thisday and time. You're 20 grand.
So you just dropped 20 grand this yearin your investment yourself. Yeah.
And what did you do with it froma straight banking standpoint?
And I was listening to JillSchlesinger this morning,
banking guru gets to be the talkingon TV. Was talking about internships,
(30:18):
and it was interesting because the hostsaid, you know, internships, blah, blah,
blah, unpaid.
We just had a conversation about thatwith Uncle Troy doesn't believe in unpaid
internships.
I don't either.
I I, there's this place for them,but it's very, very, very, very,
very rare in my world, and JillSchlesinger said, well, should
open a, a Roth IRA. What'sthe first financial move,
(30:43):
sans maybe a savings or a checkingaccount, okay, we'll put that aside.
What's the first financial move a 18,
19-year-old college student shouldthink about making in your opinion?
Wow. Yeah, I mean, that,that's tough, you know,
creating that emergency fund. So, youknow, depending on who you listen to,
there's a lot of folks that advocate forsix months worth of living costs and,
(31:05):
and having that sort of saved up withina fund, that doesn't include beer money,
right? Outside of that,you're, that's what.
Your emergency is.
Yeah, exactly. But, you know,
so picture the scenario where if youwere laid off or not working right,
what would you need to be able to getby for six months? So shelter, food,
clothing, that kind of stuff.I think that's the key start.
(31:27):
But outside of the checkingaccount and savings, right?
Responsible use of, of a credit cardto be able to build up a credit score,
you know, a lot of collegestudents don't think about this,
but when you graduate and if youwant to go get a loan to buy a car
or get a loan to buy a house, youhave to have a credit score. And,
(31:49):
and that score is calculatedbased on your ability to repay
loans on time, your ability to haveborrowing capacity, but repay it.
So, like I said,
credit cards are a great way forthose trying to break into that and,
and create it or have a credit score.
But just make sure that you're responsibleand that you're paying it off in full
(32:10):
every month. Because I, you know,
if going into credit card debt is,
is maybe one of the biggest holes andhardest things to kind of come out of,
but if you use it appropriately,
it can set you up for the abilityto buy a house, buy a car,
those kind of things that you'llneed that credit score for.
So that would be myadvice, is responsible use,
(32:30):
of a credit card or some sortof tool to get a credit score.
Thank you. As the guy who wentstraight, graduated on Saturday.
I've told this story many times andwent to work in financial services on
Monday. I got a crash course really fast,
but I also sounds like similar to you.
I had the parents who onmy, I'll never forget this,
(32:51):
I think it was my eighthbirthday. On my eighth birthday,
my mother handed me $20. I wasvery excited. 20 bucks back then,
that was a lot of money.Put me in the car,
dragged me into the bank, tookthe $20 back outta my hand,
gave it to the teller who handedme my pass book, right? Yep.
(33:11):
And said, never withdraw this money.
It's the worst birthday of mylife, but it taught me a lesson.
And my account has nevergone below 20 bucks.
So I can say I need all that money out.
A lot of folks running into aren't gettingthat advice. So thank you for that.
And thank you for notsaying they're Roth IRA.
We're gonna go in a wholedifferent conversation because I don't know what Jill
(33:32):
Schlesinger was talkingabout, where too many 18,
19 year olds need to worry aboutRoth IRA. Okay. Yeah, exactly. Well,
let's jump into the future a littlebit in our hot button questions here.
So I'm a college student.I'm doing my time.
I've got my six months worth ofemergency fund. Where do I keep that?
Six months is the, is theplatinum-free super happy,
saves the whale checking account, theplace for my six months worth of of funds?
(33:55):
Yeah. You want to have in somethingthat's liquid, right? Easy access to it.
There's a time and a placefor investments, equities,
whatever you want to considerdown the road. But yeah, I,
I would say keep that in cash somewherewhere it's readily accessible.
That's not going to lose monetaryvalue. So just like anything, right?
The stock market or bonds or thingslike that do have the potential to
(34:17):
deteriorate in value. So, keeping thatsomewhere right now with interest rates,
the way that they are, I'veput my banker hat on, you know,
a money market account, right? If,
if you can stock away some funds into amoney market that's earning for four and
a half percent interest, that way itdoesn't feel like it's just sitting there,
just kind of losing value.So, in this environment today,
(34:38):
which is very abnormal from what we'veseen over the last 15 years, you know,
find something where you can put thatcash, where it's gonna run some interest,
treasuries, you know, there's severaldifferent options, but keep it liquid,
right? So that you have access tothat, that's your emergency fund.
It's a what if,
so don't stock it away in something thatcould potentially lose value or that
(34:59):
you may have to sell andhave a tax implication for.
As I'm building wealth now, we'll,we'll go out. So you go out,
you get your first gig, you'restarting to make real money.
You remember that day youget that free paycheck.
I'll never forget that I got a paycheck,you know, in, in corporate America,
which I would laugh at now, but I mean,
you've been a student for so long andyou're working 30 hours or whatever,
(35:19):
and nothing, nothing is hotterthan Michigan Summer on a roof.
I've been there too. My myold man had rental properties,
and every time that the rental propertyneeded plumbing or roofing or whatever,
guess what my Saturday was.You start making real money.
My emergency fund's paid for. I'mdiligently using a credit card.
How do I plan my future? What, youknow, what should I be thinking about?
(35:42):
Should I run out and start optioningGameStop to short that if you took a
Hoogstra class and you're like, I knowhow to do this, what's your next move?
Yeah. So I, I mean, I, I hesitant toprovide any financial advice, right?
But so, so, all right.
This is where I put the big disclaimer in.
I was just say all disclaimers, right?I, I think maximizing your 401k, if,
(36:04):
if your company offeris a matching program,
at least make sure that you'recontributing to your 401k,
to the point where the company'sgoing to match that amount, right?
So up to the match, it's pre-tax.It's the best way, in my opinion.
It's number one, as far as savingtactics that you should be using,
if you have that option. So ifyou're working for a company,
(36:25):
a lot of them will offer,you know, some sort of IRA,
a simple IRA or 401k with a match program.
Please make sure at leastreaching that match point.
And then you can put in up to, youknow, $18,000, $20,000 a year. And if,
if you have that capacity doing that at
21, 22, 23, man, that, thatjust compounds and grows.
(36:48):
And if you've looked at what themarket's done over the last five to seven
years, you know, thatthousand dollars a year,
whatever you want to put in there,
is gonna be exponentially greater downthe road, and it's all growing tax-free.
So I think that's my biggest piece ofadvice is when you're starting out,
dig through your benefits, figureout what your company is offering.
If they're offering a match,
put in at least that amount and maybedo an escalator in there, right?
(37:10):
Where every six months or a year,it's increasing the percentage.
A lot of these things have thatautomatically in there. So...
And you don't even notice it.
You don't, right? I mean,
because it comes out before the moneygoes into your account, it's all pre-tax.
So to your point, if you put thatescalator in there, it happens.
And often times you'renot even noticing it,
or it mirrors up with hopefully maybean annual bump in pay or something like
(37:32):
that. So I think that wouldbe my biggest piece of advice.
When I remember when I first got hiredat the bank and figured that out,
I was like, well, they're giving memoney. It would just, I put money. Yeah.
So that, that was a no brainer is,
is contribute that amount and then they'regonna give me more money without me
doing anything. That's,you gotta take advantage.
Or it's a loss if you don'ttake advantage of it. Right?
(37:53):
So you're losing that money if you don't,if they're gonna contribute 3%, if I,
if I put in three or whatever. IfI don't, I'm losing that. Right?
Absolutely.
So speaking of the loss and the mistake,
and I'll tee this up by tellingyou my informal survey. I,
I teach some freshmanclasses at Grand Valley.
I think tenured professors areafraid of freshmen. I love 'em.
(38:13):
I work with 'em all the time, andso I teach some freshman classes.
I will tell you,
my research has shown that the numberone desired car by Grand Valley students
now is this new Ford Bronco.Have you seen the new Bronco?
I have, yes.
I grew up in the eighties.
The Bronco was this thing you took toSilver Lake and you wrecked it on the
weekend, is what you did.
Or you cut the top off of it so youcould fit more stuff in it. Now it looks,
(38:36):
it looks kind of soft to me. It lookslike, you know, if I, I don't know,
it doesn't look like the Bronco of,of my time. That's okay. Patrick, I'm,
I'm now successful. I wanna flexsome of my success. I want a Bronco,
I want a motorcycle, I wanta boat, I want a cottage.
I want all this stuff that my family has,
(38:57):
and I'm teeing this up to that might notbe the best financial move for the 19
or 20 year olds. Not just saying thatI didn't do some of those things,
how do you balance that temptation forthe things that you want that you know,
aren't the greatest investment to, youknow what I don't know how long, I,
one of my mentors calls us TOP (time onplanet). I dunno what my TOP is, right?
(39:18):
Sure. Something could happento me. So what's the balance?
Because mom took away that 20 bucksand still scarred me and said,
save this for the future. Well,what is my, when do I pull that out?
Because I also had parents
that were very frugal and I don'tknow if they ever enjoyed that money.
You know? What's thebalance? How do you do it?
You know, it's a delicate balance. I,Kurtis and I actually talked about this,
(39:41):
throughout our mentorshipprogram as far as, you know,
he's now transitioning to the professionalworld as far as having a full-time
job and getting that real paycheck.And we talked about saving tactics.
So everything that we just ranthrough, you know, it's funny,
it was like a deja vu to a meetingthat we had at, at Bitter End,
talking about some best practices andthings. I'm like, you, unfortunately,
(40:02):
I had to learn that lesson the hardway. I think I graduated and bought a,
a used car, that was probablysomething I didn't need at that time.
I've learned my lesson since then.So, you know, cars are not my focus,
but I do enjoy travelingwith my family, right?
So that's something that we dosplurge on. But I am very disciplined.
(40:22):
I have goals that I write out everyyear that are financial, that are,
you know, more educational,that are more personal.
So I think spending that time andputting together an action plan,
you know, if you can,
if you can find a financialadvisor or somebody that you trust,
maybe if you're not a finance ora, you know, a business major,
(40:45):
talk to somebody you trust and maybeyou think has their life together.
Maybe it's somebody that's a littlemore experienced, has some gray hairs,
right? That's gone through these lifelessons like you and I have that can say,
Hey, I did that. I boughtthat car and I regretted it,
'cause at the end of the day,it just deppreciated in value.
And if I would've put that money intomy 401k or Roth IRA or some sort of
investment, right? That would'vebeen astronomical by now.
(41:09):
So I had, I had to learn those lessonsthe hard way too. But I think discipline,
writing your goals out and lookingat them throughout the year,
I do that frequently.Check in with myself,
make sure I'm not gettingoff track and saying, Hey,
how am I doing on these financial goalsthat I laid out for the year? And,
you know, before I make a big purchaselike that, check in and just say, Hey,
(41:30):
you know, it is another $10,000 fora car, really what I should be doing?
Or should I scale backto, you know, the college,
vehicle that I used to drive and makesure I'm contributing to those goals and
make sure I'm meeting those andstaying steadfast on reaching them.
I'll say one more thing about carsand then we're gonna switch gears.
But I remember I was a Copeland guy,
(41:53):
right? So I stayed in the prisondormitories. Called them that.
I was just wondering if thatwas gonna come out today.
By, by the way, not a, it's arumor. There was never an intention.
I think I asked Andy Beachnau. Now theHead of Facilities was on the show,
and it was never intended to be a prison,
but it is very small Spartanlike dormitories. Back
in my time when you walked through theparking lot, Copeland, DLOT, D one,
(42:16):
next to Mackinac,
I don't think any of my friends hada car that was fully functional.
In other words,
one of the doors didn't open or youcouldn't open this window 'cause it went
down. So we'd all pile in togo to Jenison Meijer, right?
And there was a lot of used carlot looking as I walk through
the parking lot now, and I see youshaking your head and sigh, just like I,
I'm like, there's not a junkycar in this parking lot.
(42:39):
So I know that there's a lot of, of,
of status debt and expectationaround these, this vehicle thing.
That's all I'm gonna say aboutthat. So, yeah. But I mean,
if your dream is to have the car man,and it makes you happy, and I was,
I enjoyed the car, I realized what thecost, it was the dollars per, you know,
whatever the value was. Paul Isley, myeconomics Professor, Paul's still here,
(43:01):
you know, taught meabout opportunity cost.
What could I have done with thatmoney if I hadn't had this? And,
and I think about that a lot, butchanging gears as we wrap up here,
sell the Seidman MentorshipProgram, sell it to the,
the professionals who are listening,go, I don't have time for that,
that Patrick's doing all thatstuff. I don't have time for that.
I don't have anything to offerto a student. I don't know.
(43:24):
My life's not together. I didn'thave all these great experiences.
I overcome some of those objectives,objections and sell this.
Yeah, I think it's easy, right? I mean,I, I felt that way. I, I said, what do,
do I really have a ton to offer here?
Is this something that this student orthe mentee will find worthwhile as far as
(43:45):
me sharing my experiences? But oncewe got going, it was a no brainer.
I, I, you know, I felt like bothsides, so as the mentor, right?
If I could sell it to them, I'm sayingit's not that big of a time commitment.
I mean,
we met once a month for an hour at thecoffee shop and maybe exchanged a few
texts or emails in between,
and then I would invite himto a networking event that I was already going to.
(44:07):
So, you know, a lot of these things,and like I said, making connections too.
I mean,
that was just a group text between mymentee and a friend of mine and saying,
Hey, you two should connect and havea phone conversation. And they did.
So that took me 30 seconds,right? So the time is just,
it's not a big commitment. The valuethat you get out of it, I mean,
Kurtis and I hit it off right away.
(44:29):
I really enjoyed everytime that we got together,
it was something that I lookedforward to on my calendar. He
challenged me and made mereframe the way that I think,
that I hadn't done in maybe 10 to 12years. So I enjoyed it, that aspect of it.
And then just, you know,
that feeling that you get from puttingyourself back in your shoes and kind of
going through this and seeing howwell he succeeded in landing a job in
(44:53):
Mercantile and now beingin the professional world and graduating from Grand
Valley and adding another Laker fora lifetime, right? I mean, that,
that feeling that you get fromseeing and being a small part of,
of his journey through senior yearand, and for some mentees and mentors,
maybe it's freshmen, sophomore,junior year, and even better, right?
(45:13):
Then you get to be a, a part of abigger piece of that puzzle. So I,
I think it's amazing.
I wasn't expecting the rewards thatI got both from just reframing my
thinking and just the feeling ofbeing a small piece of that puzzle.
But I think it's an awesome experience.
It does not take a ton of time and youcan really help shape people's lives
(45:36):
and help them, you know, getto the next step. And it, it,
whether you're West Michiganor worldwide, I mean,
I ran into a few mentees that wereworking with mentors that lived in Japan.
You know, and they were meetingvirtually and things like that.
So you don't have to behere in West Michigan.
I lived in Chicago for five years. Iwish I knew about the program then,
and I just think it's an amazing toolthat we're offering these students here at
(45:59):
Grand Valley.
I came in the career center all the timewhen I was here and used Troy and Lori
and the team, and I wish I would'vesigned up for this program,
but I'm glad I at least get tocontribute on the other end.
Well, we appreciate you and, andcongratulations, Pro Mentor of the Year.
Your success, it's, it's always an honor,
to talk to folks who are givingback this altruistic piece,
(46:22):
whether you got a degree or not. I, I,
we have several pro mentors whodon't have an advanced degree,
several that went to Grand Valley andleft and said, this wasn't for me.
Some of our, our, our bestmentors, mentors around the world,
and I've said this before,
when you get that card fromsomebody that says, "Hey,
you changed my life." Youcan't, you, you, you're gonna,
(46:45):
there's very few jobs that youget paid for where you're gonna
get that same kind of satisfaction.So, absolutely, thank you very much,
we are working harder to get more peopleto understand the program and be part
of the program with us, and,just appreciate what you do.
So thank you so much for comingin and talk to me today and,
and thanks for being part of the program,being a Laker for the lifetime, and,
(47:08):
just really appreciate,
you and the other alumni who havestepped up to really help change lives.
Absolutely. Thanks for havingme. This was a lot of fun.
Thank you for sailing along on thisepisode of The Seidman Mentorship Podcast.
(47:29):
For more information on the SeidmanCollege of Business Mentorship Program at
Grand Valley State University, lookus up on your favorite search engine.
If you have a story to tell,know someone we should interview,
have questions or comments,
please email at smp@gvsu.edu.
Until next time, keep a weather die onthe horizon, and we wish you fair winds.
(47:52):
So long.
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