Cues Podcast

In this show, Patrick Donohue tells the story about going to Home Depot to buy a power drill. He emphasizes that he didn’t really want a power drill. But rather he wanted to make a hole in his wall. And actually, his purpose wasn’t truly the hole. Instead it was to install his family’s new Ring doorbell. At bottom, it wasn’t that Donohue wanted to buy a power drill. It was his wife who wanted a better system for making sure delivered groceries got brought inside in a timely manner.Product manager, Data Solutions Group at CUES Supplier member FIS, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, and the sponsor of this show, Donohue tells this story to underscore the idea that behind every data point is an intention, an intrinsic desire of an individual member.  “The more we can use data to understand our customers’ stories—what’s going on in their life and what’s likely to happen next for them—the greater the chance we have to delight them and retain our members,” he explains.During the show, Donohue also talks about

For this milestone episode, CUES Podcast listeners submitted their questions for experts to answer. So instead of featuring one or two experts, this show features seven! Instead of being centered on just one idea, this show covers three areas of major interest to credit unions and their leaders: reopening physical branches in light of the pandemic, reaching and engaging young members, and the future of credit unions 25 years out.Our first question about when credit unions might reopen fully comes at the 5:12 mark from CUES member Ron Kraus, chair of the board of $2 billion Together Credit Union in the St. Louis area. Kraus’s question is first answered by Mike Carter, EVP of CUESolutions Bronze provider Strategic Resources Management, Memphis, Tennessee. A second response is given by Steve Reider, president of CUES Supplier member Bancography, Birmingham, Alabama. Neither expert expects 100% reopening across the country by Thanksgiving and each has ideas about the larger implications of the pandemic on the fin

In the best of times, it’s a big job for leaders to demonstrate the kind of empathy that builds trust with their followers. Showing the kind of empathy that builds trust is even harder in this era of remote work and social distancing brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, says episode 99 guest Sean Martin, Ph.D., associate professor of business administration at the Darden School of Business at the  University of Virginia, Charlottesville, which hosts CUES’ CEO Institute III: Strategic Leadership Development. “People will choose to trust you to the extent that they believe that a) you have the skills to do a job (they can trust your abilities you have the technical know-how to do things), b) that you have the integrity that they can trust that you’re not going to tell them a lie; you’re not going to misrepresent things; you’re not going to ignore the truth and then c) trust in your benevolence, really trust that you actually have a sense of caring and concern and empathy for them,” explains Martin, who is among

The pandemic has accelerated trends that have long been underway, including consumer adoption of mobile services. That means that credit union leaders need to shift their thinking, possibly shifting their strategy for meeting and supporting digital demand.“In order for them to manage and go forward with their physical and digital relationships, they’re going to need to change,” Kevin Blair says in this episode of the CUES Podcast. “Nothing will be quite the same as it was before the pandemic.”In this show, Blair, president/CEO of CUES Supplier member NewGround, says that before the pandemic, surveys showed that 60% to 70% of consumers preferred coming to the branch to do their financial business. Now, a similar proportion says they prefer to interact with their financial services provider digitally. “What the pandemic did was accelerated it—it pushed the industry to the tipping point,” Blair emphasizes. (Learn more in the company's new whitepaper.Interestingly though, this doesn’t mean credit union membe

“The cloud brings a lot to the table when it comes to what you can offer your members,” Steve Comer says in this show.That’s a key reason that credit unions are embracing the use of the cloud these days, explains Comer, director of financial services & insurance sales at Hyland Software Inc. Hyland OnBase is a CUESolutions provider for enterprise information systems and the sponsor of episode 97. Another key reason that credit unions are increasingly using the cloud is that the technology has matured and been proven over the years.To clarify what is meant by the buzzword “cloud,” Comer provides a very succinct definition: It’s “somebody else’s computer.”“You’re referring to servers, databases applications that are housed somewhere and accessed over the internet,” he explains, “so it’s just relieving an institution of the burden of carrying all that infrastructure in house.” Credit unions are adopting the cloud in many applications now, he says, because “they are very strategic in their thinking” and the c

The job of board liaisons today is multi-faceted and evolving—and it’s a good idea for organizations to foster their development, according to Julia Patrick and Michael G. Daignealt, CCD, in episode 96 of the CUES Podcast.“It really is proving to be a pivotal position, more so than I think a lot of people realize,” says Daigneault, CEO and co-founder of CUES strategic partner for governance, Quantum Governance, Vienna, Virginia. “The primary purpose of it is often thought of to support the board and support the committee. But I think it’s also to guide them … and make governance more effective.”That guidance may be a factor in a credit union board becoming high performing rather than mediocre.“Michael and I share a passion for how internal leadership can really help move an organization forward,” explains Patrick, CEO/co-founder of the American Nonprofit Academy, Phoenix. “That board liaison is oftentimes the centerpiece of an effective board versus maybe a not-so-effective board.”What are some key responsibi

In this episode, James Robert Lay tells the story of how the CEO of Tower Records once said that kids “would always” want to come into the stores and listen to music.But Tower Records went out of business in 2006.“Music was digitized,” explains Lay, the author of a new book, Banking on Digital Growth and an instructor for CUES School of Strategic Marketing, slated for September. “We went from the record to the eight-track to the cassette, to the CD, to mp3, but we’re not done yet. Because what is music now? Music is now streaming with Spotify and Pandora.”Financial institutions are seeing a parallel shift. “What we’re seeing is the explosion of fintech and what fintech is focused on is—like music—micro niche markets, or micro problems and, for credit unions, it’s like death by a thousand cuts,” Lay explains. In the show, Lay gives a formal definition for digital growth as “a systematic process centered around the modern consumer journey” and notes that digital growth is built on three goals:Increasing traffic

It’s OK for credit unions to be strategically planning for growth during these uncertain times, Sarah Szilagyi says during episode 94 of the CUES Podcast.“We as humans as maybe even … as women, we tend to think when we’re in a time of needing to help people, it’s not a time to think about growth or opportunity,” explains Szilagyi, SVP/experience and chief of staff for CUES Supplier member CO-OP Financial Services, Rancho Cucamonga, California. “Actually, that’s one of the beautiful things about credit unions. Credit unions are meant to help people, that’s why we are here. But it is also OK to say, ‘There’s opportunity right now—opportunity to help people, which would lead to growth.’”“It is a time of change, which means a time of opportunity,” she continues. “As consumer behavior shifts and needs change, what credit unions can offer members also shifts and opens up new doors. A lot of shoppers are buying online now. A good portion … are buying online in the last 10 weeks for the very first time. That alone is

Connie Miller recalls an episode of late-night TV when the house band didn’t have a drummer. The host appealed to the audience asking, “Hey, do we have any drummers in the audience?” One man raised his hand, came up on stage, played really well and so launched his career as a professional musician. “I often wonder how many other drummers were in the audience that talked themselves out of raising their hand rather than stepping into an amazing opportunity,” says Miller, president/CEO of $342 million Icon Credit Union, in the Boise, Idaho, area, and author of Don’t Sabotage Your Career: 11 Power-Filled Steps to Succeed.In this episode, Miller says her passion is helping people grow. She wrote her book at the encouragement of friends and people in her professional network who had come to her as a 22-year veteran of credit union leadership for advice on their own careers. Miller says some of the advice she gives has to do with helping people change their bad habits.“I have seen people grow from teller to executiv

The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act or “SECURE” Act that became law on Dec. 20, 2019, includes “many provisions to encourage employers to adopt new (retirement) plans or enhance their current plans and to provide more savings opportunities for employees,” according to Sharon Severson, CPC, consultant with CUESolutions Platinum provider CUNA Mutual Group, Madison, Wisconsin. The act is the largest package of retirement system changes in more than a decade.Severson says she’s most excited about some of the changes to individual retirement accounts that became effective Jan. 1, 2020, and open multiple-employer plans options that will become effective Jan. 1, 2021.“The rules governing IRAs impact most individuals at one time or another during their careers,” Severson explains. “Most of us have heard along the way about the age 70.5 or the required minimum distributions. Now those distributions must begin at age 72 instead of age 70.5 if the individual has not already turned 70.5 by 12/31

 When people think about marketing departments, they often think about a group of people that create ads and brochures. But, according to Amy Herbig, the marketing department is, at its core, the “key communicator” for a credit union. And that is a very central and very important role as credit unions respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.“Everything that is going on right now is being channeled through marketing,” says Herbig, CEO of The BA Group, Northfield, Minnesota, in the show. While every role at the credit union is especially busy right now, “marketing is the catalyst for all that information to be disseminated to the member and to the community at large.”What’s the key message marketers need to be promoting to the credit union’s stakeholders at present? “We are still a strong, solid financial institution.”Marketers are also becoming de facto public relations reps, Herbig says, as they manage all of a credit union’s communications channels—from email to social media to the website.Marketing is always impor

When Tim Green first heard—back in January—the news about the spread of COVID-19 overseas, he decided to lead his credit union to prepare for a scenario in which the disease would shut down the whole county where his credit union is located. He says he thought at the time that if the situation turned out to be less dire, his team would still benefit from the exercise. When Los Angeles County, California, did in fact close down, Tim and his team at $1.8 billion F&A Federal Credit Union in Monterey Park were more ready than most businesses.Having antennae out to market signals and being open to responding to them is a hallmark of great leadership. And yet Green is most humble in this show. CEO for just about 13 months, he is grateful to his board for their support of this initiative. He’s grateful to other financial institutions for the ideas he “stole” from them and adapted to best suit his credit union. Green explains in the show that one of the first things he started working on when he joined the credit

Early on in this show, Nick Coleman explains why he’s passionate about his work as the director of strategic relationships for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. He also describes the longtime support credit unions have offered CMNH. While those stories alone are compelling enough reasons to listen to this show, this episode of the CUES Podcast also goes on to talk very practically “cause marketing” and how charitable donation accounts can support it.Coleman defines “cause marketing” as the way an organization directs its marketing efforts both to ramp up and to highlight the good it’s doing in its community. As an example, he tells a story about a credit union in the Midwest that’s rallying youth hockey players in its community to do fundraising to support kids with disabilities and complex medical needs.Cause marketing “is a great strategy to build affinity with both members and employees,” Coleman says. “Plus, it showcases to non-members and your community the value that a credit union brings.” He cites

Being able to demonstrate a member-centric culture at your credit union during a crisis like the current coronavirus pandemic is evidence that you are customer-centric, Carrie Stapp says to lead off this episode.It’s “not just 'Are we friendly?' and 'Do we have the right technology?' but 'Are we really set up as an industry to help our members and to help our communities adapt in these times of uncertainty and to be able to do as much of their business as usual?'” says Stapp, SVP/product management for the marketing services division of CUES Supplier member Harland Clarke, San Antonio, Texas, the sponsor of this show.Stapp’s colleague, Jeff Hassemer, SVP/marketing, adds: “If we define being member-centric as 1) being always on, 2) staying at the top of your members’ minds and 3) delivering a positive personalized experience everywhere every time, in a sense, the thing that changes in a crisis like this is the message. It’s not necessarily about how you contact them or what you sa

$4.8 billion MSU Federal Credit Union, E. Lansing, Michigan, hires about 10 new staff members a month. The first question these employees tend to ask the organization’s president/CEO is, “When is everyone going to stop saying ‘hi’ to me?” or “When is it going to be real?”That president/CEO, CUES member April Clobes, explains in this episode of the CUES Podcast how she responds to such questions: “I tell them, ‘Nope, that’s the daily real. It continues if you continue it. How will you greet the next group of new employees?”Clobes says the credit union makes a concerted effort to have a stand-out culture—one that will both attract and retain employees. Something must be working because, in February, MSU FCU was named as one of the top 100 workplaces for women by Fortune magazine for the third consecutive year. It also has received numerous other awards for being a great place to work and its community involvement.“I get a lot of questions from employees about our culture and worrying that it’s going to change,”

CUES partnered with CUES Supplier member Currency to offer the annual CUES Next Top Credit Union Exec contest for almost a decade.But last year CUES and Currency took a year-long pause to make sure the program was keeping pace with CUES and how the organization is living out its mission to educate and develop credit union CEOs, executives, directors and future leaders.“We had a fantastic nine-year run,” says Tim McAlpine, president and creative director of Currency, Chilliwack, British Columbia of the Next Top Credit Union Exec contest. “But just like any good business…, it’s worthwhile to stop and say, ‘What could we improve?’ And rather than doing a minor tweak we, including CUES, Currency and especially John Pembroke your CEO, said … ‘We’ve changed so much at CUES this program should keep step with what we’re doing.’”McAlpine describes in this podcast how some participants in the Next Top Credit Union Exec contest would say they were looking forward to taking advantage of CUES professional development offe

Credit union boards are becoming more interested in whether their composition mirrors that of their memberships. And their memberships are becoming more diverse with time. So, it’s not surprising that more than half of the respondents to the survey for the new State of Credit Union Governance 2020 report said they’re looking for demographic diversity. This and many other governance topics are discussed in this most recent episode of the CUES Podcast.“This signals a bit of a shift,” says Michael Daigneault, CCD, founder and president of CUES strategic provider for governance Quantum Governance, Herndon, Virginia, and a co-author of the study. “Traditionally, we’d often hear financial literacy, ability to understand the financials …. Of course, some kind of specific operational expertise and financial expertise or professional services expertise can be quite handy. But this year we heard something that we think is very important ... the No. 1 response from folks all across the country was that they were looking

The National Credit Union Administration allows credit unions to make certain “otherwise impermissible,” potentially higher-yielding investments that carry additional risk when credit unions set up certain kinds of programs, including the following:total benefits pre-funding—which helps credit unions offset the rising cost of staff benefits;charitable donation accounts—which require that 51% of the earnings on an investment of up to 5% of the CU’s net worth go to 501(c)3 charities; and 457(f) plans—which are retirement programs than can help CUs recruit, incent and retain key employees. “When we build those plans, open those … accounts, we need funding vehicles,” says Bruce Bauer, executive benefits specialist with CUESolutions platinum provider CUNA Mutual Group, Madison, Wisconsin, in the early part of this show. “One of the funding vehicles we use is City National Rochdale and their managed portfolios.” The company has become “a very strong partner for us. I believe we have over $1.2 billion with them righ

Creativity is a skill that can be taught, asserts Beta Mannix, Ph.D., in the latest episode of the CUES Podcast.“There are techniques that we can use to teach people how to be more creative,” explains Mannix, Ann Whitney Olin professor of management at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, and a lead faculty member for CEO Institute II. For example, teaching team members how to do “structured brainstorming” can help foster creativity.Overall company culture also plays a role in team creativity, Mannix emphasizes. More specifically, to promote creativity, a company’s culture needs to embrace generating lots of possibilities rather than finding that one right answer.In addition, supporting innovation supports creativity. In the episode, Mannix defines both creativity and innovation and explains the link between them. The simplest way to define creativity is as generating the idea itself, she says. “As an example, [think of] the first person who came up with the drive-up window or the ATM. That person was creati

As new generations continue to mature into the financial services marketplace, the demand for a digital-first customer experience has risen to the forefront. But there is still room at the table for direct mail. One of our guests—Robert Dudacek, president/CEO of CUES Supplier member Franklin Madison based in Franklin, Tennessee—elaborates early on about the top reason credit unions should use direct mail.“When you think about physical mail, it creates a type of engagement that is uniquely different than what a member would experience through digital,” he says. “It’s something that’s tangible. It’s tactile. It’s something they can hold. … It’s just such a great way to reinforce that brand loyalty. They see the logo in a form that they can recognize. I think a high percentage of members actually read their mail every day compared to email.Dudacek says good direct mail has some key features: It’s personalized and relevant to the recipient. It’s got brand affinity and respects the recipient as a member of that br