tOSU and their Helmet Stickers

There’s a popular commercial running these days about why The Ohio State University has kept their helmets the same for decades. The commercial explains the logic (in short) behind how and why their student-athletes earn buckeye leaf stickers to be placed on their helmets.

If you were to look up symbolism in the dictionary or online you will learn that symbolism is defined as:

“the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities.”

Qualities. Ideas. Symbols.

Symbols can be very powerful. If you have any doubt about their importance, look no further than how popular emojis, avatars and bitmojis are. Symbols are incredibly persuasive because they take complex ideas and simplify them. In the world we live in, I believe we all are looking for more simplicity.

How can we apply this to our businesses? It’s easy. Stop trying to put your mission, vision, and values into words and think about its essence. If you cannot define what you aim to do and why you exist by creating a symbol, there is a very real possibility that your teammates and consumers of your products/services have no idea why you exist.

Let’s be honest with ourselves, can you recite your organization’s Mission Statement? Can you recall your vision without looking it up? When you make your organization’s purpose easy to understand, you create a common language. You create opportunities for your brand ambassadors to understand your purpose, but you also allow them to express your purpose in their own unique way.

People do not buy products. People buy relationships. People buy “stuff” that they can relate to. Even if everyone within your organization did memorize your Mission Statement, would it resonate with your target market? My guess is that it would for some, but it wouldn’t for most.

Simplify your messaging. Empower your teammates and watch the results. You will be amazed.  There IS some value in “doing things the way we have always done them” if what you are doing is truly meaningful and memorable.

Just my thoughts. What are yours?

Without wax,

Bryce

 

Redefining ROI

Return on investment (ROI).  Every business person is familiar with this term and if you are a marketer, like me, it’s kind of a big deal.  No matter the nature of your business, marketers spend money to make more money.  It’s a pretty simple concept to grasp, but I’m not convinced that all of us really understand everything that needs to be involved to deliver firm numbers and report results.  So, now that I’ve put my credit union hat on, let’s talk about some of the issues I’ve encountered personally and heard from other people over the years.

Planning

It’s astonishing to me how many times I hear that marketers do not have a strategy or plan for the year about what they will be advertising, why they will be doing so at a certain time and how much of their budget will be allocated to a specific campaign.  If tracking is a big problem, this one is even bigger.  If you don’t have a plan, it’s impossible to track.  If you don’t have a plan, you become reactionary instead of proactive.  If you don’t have a plan, your message has a greater chance of getting lost in all the other advertising that is going on around you and your members.  There is certainly no shortage of financial institutions in any market, so, if you don’t know how you are going to deliver your message and why you’ve chosen a certain way, good luck standing out.

Execution

If you have a plan in place it is much easier to execute (no brainer, right?), but planning doesn’t mean you have to stay rigid.  Rates change daily and financial marketers are constantly playing a balancing act of gaining deposits or lending money out.  When you have a plan, you know what an ideal year would look like, but you also know where you can reallocate funds should you need to focus more on deposits or loan growth.  I can’t stress enough how these things should be interrelated, but often they are not.

Tracking

A lot of people aren’t tracking their total marketing spend!  This blows me away, but it’s a bit more complicated than it sounds.  The biggest here is that a lot of credit union folks don’t spend the time to calculate their allocations to each delivery channel and they don’t work close enough with their accounting teams to crunch the numbers before going live to determine what a “win” looks like.  A win isn’t just making more money than you spend, but providing a real value to all of the people who take advantage of what you’re selling.  Great product + significant income = win.  I’m not saying that I am the world’s best “tracker”, but if we all don’t continue to try to improve, we are doing ourselves and our members a great disservice.

The above are only three key aspects of calculating ROI, but let’s get into the whole redefining idea.  You need to generate a return.  Regardless if you are not-for-profit, non-profit or for profit, we all need to make money.  In the case of cooperatives (credit unions are cooperatives, btw), we need to make money so we can re-invest in our members and our communities.  So, the standard ROI is a given.  What I believe cooperative marketers need to really focus on in addition is Return on Involvement (ROI2).  To me, ROI2 is a function of our obligation to practice the Cooperative Principles, manly Concern for Community (#7).

Consider this example:

A local high school submits a proposal for you to run an advertisement in their Fall Sports Program.  You get to place your logo and a sentence or two about your business.  The cost is $200.

Sure, supporting schools is a great thing to do, but when was the last time you (or anyone else) bought a sports program to peruse the advertisers?  probably never.  Where is the ROI2?  You’ve done your part, but what did your institution or your members get in return?  Could you not have been a little more creative and received better exposure for the same dollar amount and still supported the school(s)?  Furthermore, if you sponsor one school in your field of membership then you probably have to do the same for everyone else.  $200 can quickly turn into $1,000 or more.  No good.

Don’t get me wrong, sometimes “feel good marketing” is a necessary evil, but it doesn’t have to stay that way.  The key here is looking for opportunities to generate ROI and ROI2.  Most of the time, you will have to have a presence at things that your sponsor or endorse.  It’s as simple as having team members at the ready to thank current members for their loyalty or to tell your story in a compelling way that you could never do in a sentence or two in black and white ink.  Use the Cooperative Principles as the filter in which all decisions are made.  If a proposal for sponsorship doesn’t meet at least two requirements, you probably should pass.

The formula for calculating ROI is pretty straight froward and the same could be said for ROI2.  For starters, we can figure out how many people will our marketing spend (sponsorship) reach or directly impact?  Is it hundreds of people or thousands?  What does the business get in return for our spend (how does it help them maintain a program or provide more programming?)  How does this spend benefit the cooperative as a whole and not just our business needs (would our members be comfortable with us spending their money on this?)

So much more could or should be said, but you’ve spent enough of your time reading this far.  What are you thoughts?  Does ROI2 really exist?  Is the idea too much or a purist ideal?  What can we do to make sure we are creating ROI2 (assuming it exists)?

Without wax,

Bryce

The Energy Equation

This title makes me sound like I am a physicist or something.  I assure you that I am not.  However, I am quite in-tune with human emotions and behavior.  While I’m now in marketing, my first love has always been psychology and sociology.  What makes people do the things that they do?  Why do certain groups form?  How and why do people choose to interact the way that they do?

I think that we all should question ourselves occasionally.  Why are we putting in extra hours?  Why do we love (hopefully) what we call work?  What is the source of our motivation?  What are we trying to accomplish?  It’s cliché to say stop and smell the roses, but it’s human nature to get caught up in all of the projects and responsibilities that we have.  It’s not human nature (at least not mine) to actually take time to be a part of our everyday experiences.  I’m still working on this myself, so, please do not assume that I am speaking from an enlightened state.  Nope.  This is more of a philosophical blog.

I suppose what I’m getting at is that our lives are made up of a never-ending (well it does end at sometime) series of moments and like the saying, “You learn more from your loses than you do from your victories” speaks to, at every moment of our lives, we are either winning or losing the moment.  Since no one that I know of is “winning” at every moment (with the exception of Charlie Sheen), I think it makes sense to reflect on our experiences.  Here’s the kicker.  You can’t reflect on something if you haven’t truly experienced it.

Maybe we don’t want to question ourselves.  Maybe we’re afraid of the answers we might find.  I’m sure that I wouldn’t be completely satisfied with all of my responses, but if you don’t uncover areas you can improve on, you’ll never reach your full potential.  The lesson here is that in all aspects of your life (faith, family, social, work) we should all be striving to improve.  Personally, I’d like to be a better teammate at work.  I’m pretty sure most of us would agree that being liked is nice and being respected is even better, but how many times are we actively assessing our interactions with others?  How can we create a rapport with people if we aren’t honest with ourselves about how we are treating or leading others.

So, the question is this: How much energy are we putting into “doing” compared to the amount we put into the assessment of the things we do?  My guess is that for myself and many others, there is an imbalance in favor of the former compared to the latter.  What do you think?  Do you have any tips or tricks?  How can we better assess ourselves?  Let me know by leaving a comment.

Without wax,

Bryce

Storytelling: So Easy, Even a Caveman Can Do It.

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON CHATTERYAK.COM

 

Content marketing has been around for ages, and it has been a hot topic around the marketing and advertising world for the last several years.  Now, it appears that credit union marketers are taking note (as they should) and that makes us happy.  If you’re not sure what content marketing is, you’re in the right place.  In this blog, we’ll be sharing what we know and we’ll also include some helpful information from other thought-leaders on the subject.

So, let’s get the definition stuff out of the way first.  According to the leaders in the industry, The Content Marketing Institute, content marketing is defined as:

 “a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

Sounds a lot like social media, right?  Sort of.  Social media is a great delivery channel for your content, but content marketing is so much more than simple tweets and Facebook/Google+ posts.  When it comes to credit unions, content marketing is all about solving the problems of your members.  Now, this seems like a very simple concept to grasp, but solving your members problems is much more complex than the following line of thinking:

 “Members have a lot of credit card debt on high-interest credit cards and our credit card has a lower rate.  Therefore, we should scream our {low} rate from the rooftops.”

The above is what most credit unions have reduced their marketing and advertising messages to.  Your credit union is so much more than a purveyor of loan rate loans and minimal fees.  You see, content marketing is all about telling a story that people actually want to hear.  If we continue to compete only on rates and service, we will continue to lose out to other financial institutions and here’s why: Your members care less about you and more about what you can do for them.

From the beginning of time, people have been telling stories.  From cavemen (and cavewomen) to the Egyptians, the world is covered (literally) in stories.  Bringing things a bit closer to modern times, the first true form of content marketing was created by a little tractor company known as John Deere.  In 1895, the company produced and distributed “The Furrow” a magazine designed to help farmers find solutions to the problems they faced on a daily basis.  The magazine was not littered with ads for tractors and guess what, it’s still being produced today! (Joe Pullizi tells the story way better here.)

So what does this mean for credit unions?  We think it means our industry needs to start worrying more about what our members want and less about what we wish our members would do.  In the end, it boils down to basic psychology.  If you want someone to perform a specific behavior, you need to give them a reason or motivation.  Motivation can be internal or external.  Here is an example of each:

External: If you become a member at ABC credit union, we will give you $25.

Internal: A person is so compelled by your credit union’s story or branding that they want to become a member.

While building a strong and impactful brand is much more difficult than doling out $25 for each new person who walks through the door, an externally motivated member’s affinity toward your brand will be much weaker than someone who saw/heard what your credit union has been doing and sought out membership on their own.  Taking things a step further, if you build the foundation of your membership on externally motivated individuals, it will be much harder for your credit union to get those members to understand the cooperative mindset and you will likely remain in the rut of competing on price rather than value.

In 2014, choose to build value!  Rediscover your credit union’s story and tell it from a perspective that resonates with people (members or not).  Maybe even checkout 6th Story to see how they can help you with your credit union’s story.  Remember that people don’t want to hear from organizations that consistently talk about how great they are.  Get into the practice of demonstrating the value you offer and create compelling stories (content) that you can share via social channels, on your website or in your newsletter (if you still do one of those).  Think about what your credit union does every single day and repurpose that information.

What are your thoughts?

Without wax,

Bryce

The Leadership Responsibility Litmus Test

Tom Brands on Responsibility

This is yet another wrestling blog that I will attempt to relate to leadership development.  Please take a second to watch the video posted above (hyperlink under the picture of Tom Brands, the Iowa Hawkeye Head Wrestling Coach.)  If you’re still somewhat engaged after that, please continue reading.

My blogs are usually long and drawn out, so, I will try to keep this one “shorter”.  In college wrestling, there are 10 weight classes.  Most matches are won by a point or two and for a decision win ( a win by less that 8 points) your team earns 3 team points.  I won’t go further into scoring, but hopefully you can see that matches are close and the outcome is determined by 10 head to head matches.  Last night, Friday, January 4 2013, the Iowa Hawkeyes won 7 out of 10 matches and won their dual against a tough Ohio State wrestling team by a score of 22-9.  You can do the math.

So what am I driving at here?  In the video interview, you see a fired up coach after a dominate performance by his team.  They won, he should be satisfied and hopeful about the future, right?  Wrong.  Even minutes after defeating one of the tougher teams in the Nation, coach Brands goes on to talk about everything they could have done better.  He mentions missed opportunities by his student-athletes, but most importantly, Brands says that he is responsible for what he considers a poor performance.

How easy is it for all of us to gloat and relax after we complete a successful task?  We meet our goals and we think, “Mission accomplished.”  On the flip-side of that, how easy is it for us to search for excuses when we fall a bit short of our intended outcomes?  Pretty easy.  It’s human nature for the most part.

What I want to drive home here are a couple things.  Intensity about what you do for a living is important.  Too much intensity can be unhealthy, but if you are not intense about what you do, this implies a lack of dedication to being the best you that you can be.

Performance standards.  We all have performance standards, but when we don’t meet them, how likely are we to be critical of ourselves like Brands is in the video above?  He could have easily said, “I’m an Olympic medalist, decorated NCAA wrestler and I have taught these wrestlers everything I know.  They just didn’t put it into action.”  When you think about it, after the last day of practice, a wrestling match’s outcome is completely out of control of the coach.  It’s not like in football where bad play calling can determine the outcome of a game.  Brands is a leader and a good one at that.  Leadership is not about beng always being right.  It is about putting people in places where they can be successful and overseeing the process.  It’s about intervening to offer assistance when needed, but what is most important is the willingness to accept when you may have failed to do all of the things you needed to do to give your team an opportunity to succeed.

If you take the wrestling aspect out of the equation and just look at the thoughts, ideas and standards that Brands mentions, I think we all can learn a lot about the characteristics of effective leaders.  Sometimes, accepting responsibility for a poor performance is the best thing a leader can do because it shows your colleagues that you have just as much skin in the game as they do.

Be passionate about what you do.  If you’re in the credit union industry and you’re reading this, you have a lot to be passionate about.  Passion leads to a healthy level of intensity and intensity breeds a level of self responsibility.  All of these things are related to each other.

What are some other characteristics of effective leadership that you can think of?

Without wax,

Bryce

Why ask why?

Remember the “Why ask why, try Bud Dry.” commercials?  This blog isn’t about those.  What it is about is the importance of asking, “Why?”

Why is a pretty popular question asked in conversations between friends, it’s even more popular in conversations between adults and 3-year olds.  Where it’s not as popular is in the business world.  By now, you know I love to talk about credit unions, but I’m sure the absence of “why” in the workplace is fairly prevalent throughout the entire business world.  Why you ask? (If you asked why, even in your head, this blog has already served part of its purpose.)  Well, in my humble opinion, the absence of “why” is primarily due to fear.  More specifically, fear of possible repercussions.  Coming in at a close second, perceived lack of time is another culprit.

If you ask me, “why?” has got a bad rap.  This is probably due to those conversations between 3-year olds and their parents, but let’s set those incidents aside for a minute and look at why asking “why?” is essential to developing sound business strategy.

“Why?” is a portal to deeper understanding.

So, your CEO, President, VP (you name it) has asked you to complete some task.  You and I know that you’re asking yourself, “Why?”, but you wouldn’t even entertain the idea of letting those three letters cross your lips.  Right?  Why?  Because no one wants to questions the boss person (See, I am politically correct most of the time.)  This may be true with some “leaders”, but I guarantee that an effective leader is secretly waiting for you to ask.  For more on leadership, check out Matt Monge.  He’s got a lot of great stuff but this blog is especially relevant to this discussion.

Consider another situation.  Imagine you and your team are assembled around the table discussing a new marketing campaign or business initiative.  Have you ever questioned the motives, intentions or expected results?  Those are pretty important issues if you ask me.  Sure, your leadership team probably (keyword probably) has answers to those questions, but shouldn’t you be privy to those as well? (Sometimes you might not, I get that.)  But, what if a simple, “why” could pull those motives, intentions and expected results into question?  What if a simple “why” could help fine tune those expectations?  What if the expectations are unrealistic?  “Why?” is the only way to start conversations that NEED to happen, but most of the time they don’t.  We must to be flexible or cartilaginous as an industry.  We can start by being flexible with our employees.

If we can not get our entire team (I’m talking CEO to newest employee) to understand why they are being asked to do something, there’s no possible way that the proposed initiative will be as successful as it could be.  We are thinking creatures.  We are asking, “Why?” unconsciously all day long.  It’s time we make a conscious decision to grow in understanding about why we are doing the things we do.

 The best laid plans…

The best laid plans are NOT laid without someone asking, “Why?” (Several times in most cases.)  Bringing a product or service first to market is a great thing, but if you don’t have a clue as to what you’re going to do once it’s “out in the wild”, you’re bound to be spending a lot more time creating a plan of action that could have already been established if one brave person would have just asked a simple question or two.

Even if you launch a product, service or initiative and it’s wildly successful, we still need to ask “why?”  What did we do?  Was it just good timing or did we rock it out because we did all of our due diligence and had a solid plan in place?

If you didn’t quite accomplish what you set out to do, “why?” becomes even more important.  Why didn’t this work (Why is a gateway question)?  What could we have done differently?  What can we learn from this?

No one likes to play 20 Questions, but I’m confident that any sensible business person would choose 20 Questions over a failed business initiative.

In summation

Asking “why?” is essential!  Pick your spots, but seeking a deeper understanding is always a good thing.

Do you have any examples of when simply asking “why?” has helped you?  Any stories of when “why?” may have not been worth it?

I’d love to hear them!

 Without wax,

Bryce

50 Ways To Lose Your Members

First things first, Paul Simon is a musical genius.  Now that we have a common understanding, I will proceed.

Recently, 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover graced my ears.  I did not actively seek out this tune, but the precocity of iTunes shuffle prevailed once again.  Because I’m always thinking about credit unions (seriously, it’s an illness), I thought, “If Paul and Art think it’s easy to lose a lover, it’s probably even easier to lose a credit union member.”

I (think I) know what you’re thinking, and yes, it is a stretch.  Either way, member retention is something that a lot of credit unions don’t focus on.  It’s not to say that we are lazy as an industry, but let’s face it, we’ve all got a lot going on and many of us are lucky to keep our heads erect due to the sheer weight of the multiple “hats” we’re wearing.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of tuning in to a Google Hangout with Tom Glatt and a few others  and he echoed the importance of member growth.  Remember, you can’t have growth if you’re CU is hemorrhaging members.  So, here it is: 5 (not 50) Ways to Lose Your Members (not lover):

 

1. Don’t make a new plan, Stan

“We always run this loan special in the Spring…”  Times, they are a changing.  Your credit union needs to change with them.  So much is said about “thinking outside of the box”.  I say this, “There IS NO box!”  Let’s stop talking about cardboard and get down to brass tacks.  Be unconventional, question traditions and don’t just do what you’ve been doing for years “just because”.  Credit union members have a lot of choices.  Online banking is taking off and banks are working to become less, well, “bankish” every day.

Banks and credit unions sell the same widgets.  Package them differently.

 

2. DON’T keep doing what you’re doing

Your credit union is unique, no doubt.  Is your membership aware of your CU’s uniqueness?  It is totally necessary to be innovative with marketing and branding strategies, but other things are better left as is.  Member service (I will only address this topic once) is important.  If you’ve got a member-centric mindset and your credit union lives it every day (every day), please skip to #3.  If not, please proceed.

I’m sure many of you have experienced the member that only conducts their business with a certain Member Service Representative (insert your CU’s title).  Why do members do this?  They do this because at one point, that employee went above and beyond what was asked of them for that member.

In my opinion, if we all went above and beyond, this phenomenon would fade away.  Don’t get me wrong, this is not a bad thing, but one member’s preference to work with only a specific employee implies that they may have had a less than stellar experience while interacting with a different employee.  We need to strive to provide the best service, we don’t necessarily need to talk about how awesome we are at it, though.  Not sure if you’re employees are making the grade?  Why not employ a mystery shop program?  We need to stay honest with ourselves, outside parties are great at doing this.  No one likes holding their own feet to the fire (if that’s even physically possible.)

 

3. Hop on the bus, Gus

Get out of the office and get into the community!  Already doing three community activities?  Why not make it six?  If people don’t see you out in the communities that you serve, how will they get to know more about you?  Other than what you post on billboards and run on the radio or TV, how are your members and prospective members learning about you?  Community events, when done correctly are the best marketing your credit union can do.  Let your members see you living the credit union lifestyle.  Start conversations with them outside of the branch.  Ask how your credit union is meeting or falling short of meeting their needs.  Show them that you care (actually caring helps as well) and use their feedback to address issues that need to be dealt with.

Let me be clear here, I am NOT talking about throwing sponsorship dollars around.  I am NOT talking about hanging a banner somewhere with your logo on it and expecting people to see it, actually process it and then make a “buying decision”.  No one does this, no one.  We need to get our brands out there in traditional ways, but if you can get your brand out there and have employees there to talk about making people’s lives easier, your credit union’s success at retaining and attracting new members will skyrocket.  What I AM talking about (Willis?)

 

4. You don’t need to discuss much?

You may not need to discuss much about “leaving your lover”, but you do need to spend time talking strategy.  Ideally, the amount of time you spend should shake out like this (from least amount of time to most): 1. Talking (everyone loves meeting right?) 2. Planning (“Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.”) 3. Executing (Not that sort of executing.)

We’re busy, but no one is too busy to do their due diligence.  Plans should always come first!  You may want to be the first credit union on Pinterest (trivial right?), but once you get on the website, what the heck are you going to post?  How are you going to use it to provide value to your membership?  How are you going to avoid being a salesperson?  You can apply this to budgeting, loan growth, marketing, membership growth, you name it.  I’m not casting stones here, but it has become apparent to me that there is a lot of doing, but little thought behind the action.  Lay your plans first, carry them out and then assess what can be done better.

 

5. Don’t let your meaning be lost or misconstrued

Don’t embrace social (new) media.  There’s no ROI, right?  I’m calling BS on this argument.  You want statistics?  Well, go find them for yourself.  I am more concerned with results.  I’ve been a part of managing social media campaigns for credit unions for three years (impressive right? lol).  There is an ROI and it CANNOT be measured traditionally.  You don’t measure water and square footage the same way, how can you expect to measure two completely different tactics the same way?

I expect, no, I welcome disagreement.  Discourse is good.  Results are better.  What are the results of a properly run social media campaign?  At the credit union I worked at prior to my current venture, we decreased the average age of our membership by 3.5 years in twelve months time.  Furthermore, 86% of net new members were under the age of 46.  Need more?  Here, 60% of that same net new membership was under 31 years old.  Read this white paper for more.  Pick your metrics, work your plan and reap the rewards.

Social media is the easiest way to get your message out of your branches and in front of more people.  It is a relationship builder.  Stronger relationships generally lead to higher member retention.  If you’re lucky enough, you might get people talking about you.  When this happens, sit back and enjoy the show.  I’m not saying Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and whatever other platform you prefer should be your primary focus.  What I am saying is that they provide value to your members and when you have the right person running your campaign, it’s cost effective and high impact.

 

What are some other ways to lose your lover (err… members?)  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Without wax,

Bryce

What Can Credit Unions Learn From Rudy?

Rudy, Rudy, Rudy…

First thing’s first, among my unhealthy love of Star Wars, Apple and quite a few other geeky things, I am a hardcore Notre Dame fan.  Regardless of your personal proclivities in regard to college football, I think we all can enjoy an underdog story.  If you’re reading this, you are probably:

1. Really bored
2. Humoring me
3. Affiliated with a credit union

Either way, you might as well read this until the bitter end.  No one likes a quitter.  So, what can credit unions learn from Rudy?

 Being huge isn’t a prerequisite

“Size matters not.” – Yoda

How I managed to get a Star Wars reference in here amazes me…

Anyhow, the size of your membership, your asset size or the number of employees under your roof will NEVER be as important as the effort your team puts forth.  We must always be mindful that our members have chosen us as their financial institution.  We should be working everyday to show our members why they made the right choice.

Rudy Ruettiger was the smallest guy on the field.  He wasn’t an All-American, he wasn’t even a starter, but he is remembered.  Why?  Because his efforts and constant desire to  succeed left a lasting impression on those around him.  This leads into my next point…

Win your team over and your fans (members will follow suit.)

If you can’t win your own team over, how can you expect others to buy-in to what you’re doing?  A culture of success is a tough thing to build, but it is absolutely necessary.  If you want to know more about culture, I strongly suggest you follow Matt Monge on Twitter and read his blog posts regularly.

During Rudy’s time at Notre Dame, there was a culture of success.  Today, well, not so much.  Either way, Rudy bought-in to that culture.  He did the things that no one wanted to do and he took a beating while doing it.  Eventually people noticed.  In fact, Rudy had no right to even dress for a game.  The only reason he dressed for the final game of his Senior year and actually stepped on to the field is because his teammates saw what he was all about.  As credit union professionals, we have to work hard everyday with the resources that we have.  Hard work hardly ever goes unnoticed.  If you can get your teammates to do this you are on the right track.

The Practice field

In my humble opinion, too much emphasis is based on immediate results. People are always looking for a shortcut or an easy way to achieve what it has taken others many years to accomplish.  Don’t get me wrong, no one should be making decisions willy-nilly, but success takes time.  Your office is your practice field and chances are you’re on that field at least five days a week.  Are you doing the research?  Are you thinking: “How can I create a solution?”

Put the time in, make a plan and then execute.  A good friend and mentor of mine, Kevin Ralofsky would say this, “It’s all about blocking and tackling.”  I’m not sure how Kevin would feel about this reference, but here goes: If you find yourself struggling, ask for help.  In Rudy’s case, D-Bop (played by Jon Favreau) was that help.  Yes, Kevin, if you are reading this, I just called you D-Bop.

A good mentor is hard to find and admitting you need guidance is usually even more difficult.  Regardless, a healthy apprentice/padawan (again with the Star Wars references) relationship can go a very long way.  Credit Unions are in the business of collaboration and cooperation.  Have you started building a network of people who can help you achieve your goals?  They are out there and there’s no doubt in my mind that they are waiting to help.  Find your D-Bop, get on the field and do something memorable.

Persistence pays off

If you succeed at first, congratulations.  For many of us this won’t be the case.  If it is, again, congratulations, but ask yourself, “Am I setting my goals high enough?”  Setting easy goals and checking them off may feel good, but how much better does it feel to do something big?  Answer: It feels fantastic.

It won’t be easy, and it won’t come quick, but it shouldn’t.  The toughest part about being persistent is, well, being persistent.  When things get rough, our natural reaction is to seek some way to alleviate the “pain”.  I call this finding a solution.  What is important to note is this: There are no simple solutions for complex problems.

The first solution is not always the best.  It’s not like a multiple choice exam where you just go with your first thought (this got me through college.)  These sort of things need to be thought out.  If it is a problem that requires immediate attention, stop the bleeding and then go in search of the source.  Whatever you do, don’t quit!  If you’re reading this, you’ve put a lot of time into (reading this, and) what you do. I bet you’re proud of what you’ve done.  You should be (not talking about reading this blog post.)

I’ll leave you with this.  Rudy almost quit.  The underdog story of this young man almost never happened.  Some of you may wish it never did happen because then you wouldn’t have to read this.  Either way, sometimes, when we are the closest to accomplishing the things we’ve been working for, the opportunity to quit presents itself.  Don’t do it.  Don’t compromise either.  Seek the guidance of a good friend or mentor and find the right solution.

Without wax,

Bryce

(All spelling and grammar errors are my gift to you.  Free of charge.  You can thank me later.)

Credit Union Shark Week

Shark Week on Animal Planet is a pretty big deal to a lot of people.  Not so much for me.  I’m the guy that goes on vacation to Florida and sticks his foot into the ocean and calls it a day (I’ve “been in the ocean” three times. So, I’ve got that going for me…Which is nice.)  I know sharks don’t lurk in 2 inches of water, but jellyfish are another story.  Anyhow, I think there are some lessons that credit unions can learn from sharks.  I’m not talking about feasting on sea lions or instilling fear in people like myself.  Instead, I’m talking about the inherent characteristics that make sharks, well, sharks.

Here’s what I’m talking about:

 Sharks can’t stop swimming?

You’ve probably heard that sharks can’t stop swimming or they will die.  This is true of most species, but there are some exceptions.  Nonetheless, credit unions cannot afford to stop “swimming”.

As an industry we need to continue to make a concentrated effort to further what I will forever refer to as the “Credit Union Revolution.”  Every decision we make (I think about marketing and advertising mostly) should be about raising the bar, pushing the envelope and separating ourselves from our brothers and sisters in the banking industry.  I am not talking about bank bashing, but poking a little fun here and there has proven to be a tried and true method of getting people to understand that we are different by design.

Be cartilaginous!

Sharks are cartilaginous.  (Personally I just love this word.)  An animal that is cartilaginous is defined as one who’s skeleton is made up completely of cartilage.  This means that the animal is more flexible by nature.

We need to be flexible.  This rings true in the things that we already do.  A prime example of this is working with our members to understand their situation when they come to us for a loan that they can’t get anywhere else.  It goes much further than this though.  We should be flexible in the fact that we are one of the “best kept secrets” in the finance industry.  Being rigid and sticking to traditional ways of spreading the word about the value of credit union membership simply will not fly.  Our world has been rapidly changing for years and we need to be flexible and change with it.  Our marketing and advertising efforts need to be different, standout, maybe they need to be a bit outlandish (James Robert Lay has great insights on this. Here is just one of his most recent blogs for CUinsight.)  Generally speaking, the smaller size of our respective institutions are the perfect atmosphere for being flexible.  We need to enable our employees to tap into the resources we read and rely on for fresh new ideas.  Instead of only some of us hearing about the exciting things other credit union people are doing, we need our entire staff to understand that there are a lot of people doing awesome things in the name of “The Credit Union Revolution”.

I don’t know about you, but when I read an awesome blog post or hear about an exciting campaign someone in the industry is spearheading, I get amped.  Imagine if you could ignite your entire staff with that same amount of passion…

 Sharks are so misunderstood.

I’m a prime example of this.  I think sharks exist to hunt humans.  In reality, the number of shark attacks on an annual basis is relatively low.  Sharks are most definitely opportunistic.  I think the “we” the the torch bearers of “The Credit Union Revolution” could be much more opportunistic.  There is no better time than right now (Van Halen reference.)  While many of us are wearing many hats at our credit unions, we need to think outside of the branch (thought I was going to say box didn’t you?)  How can we carry on the conversations we have everyday in our branches to a wider audience?  How can we get the attention of others who have no knowledge or understanding of credit unions?  I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of countless community outreach events and each time, I’ve been able to spark conversations about credit unions.  To be honest, I don’t care if it is the credit union that I work at.  Don’t get me wrong, I’d love for everyone to join my credit union, but if the person doesn’t qualify, I’m Quick Draw McGraw with my iPhone to tell them about a credit union that can serve them.

We are a cooperative.  We are unique.  We are not sharks, but we should be fierce with passion about our industry.  People helping people sounds great, but we are much more than that.  We are people helping a population that is mostly unaware of what we can do for them.  To me this is the biggest tragedy.

Be cartilaginous, don’t stop swimming and make sure we are never misunderstood.

I look forward to your thoughts…

Without wax,

Bryce

You Call That The Vulcan Neck Pinch?

“What the h#ll are you doing?”

“The Vulcan Neck Pinch??”

“No, no stupid, you’re doing it all wrong..” -Spaceballs

There are plenty of social media advocates and probably as many or more naysayers in the finance industry.  I’ve witnessed all sorts of different viewpoints and honestly, I respect them all.  Some people have valid points about ROI being difficult (or imposible?) to measure, others claim it is just a waste of time and money.  I agree.  ROI is difficult to measure.  ROI may very well be nonexistent.  Credit unions may be wasting their time and money on social networks and new media.

The one thing that is constantly overlooked is the fact that the vast majority of financial institutions that are engaged in some sort of new media campaign are “doing it all wrong” like Lonestar in Spaceballs.  The fact remains that most of the chatter about these issues is taking place on the very communication channels that are being called into question.  I’m still trying to figure that one out…

So when is new media pointless and when is it priceless?  New media is priceless when it is social.  It is often called “social media” but most of the time it is anything but social.  The advent of Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Google+ (insert other platform here) occurred because people became sick of being talked at and wanted to have their fair share in the conversation.  This fact is too often overlooked.

When I see a credit union or any other business talking about how great they are all day and offering nothing of substance, I cringe (I cringe a lot.)  new “social” media isn’t about your business, it’s about the people who keep you in business.  It’s about people interacting with each other and sharing information, laughs and insights.

The next time someone says, “Social media has no utility in the finance industry” I encourage you to think, “Is this really the case?”  Are the communication platforms being used to facilitate dialogue or are they simply internet billboards?  New media isn’t for everybody and I will never say that it is, but when it is done correctly it is priceless.  With the proliferation of smartphones, businesses that can remain relevant and add value to their Fans and Followers have the ability to be with their members/consumers everywhere they go (who really leaves the house without their cellphone?)

 You WON’T build a following overnight, but if you continually do the right things, your following will grow.  Too often marketers are focused on getting a “Like” or follow and have no clue what to do after initial interest is expressed.  Getting someone to click a button is easy, keeping them coming back is not.

It would do us all well if we focused more on the engagement and conversations to come in the future rather than a persons sometimes random impulse to click a button.  Conversation is key.  If you are using new media to talk about yourself (business), you are wasting your time.  If you are interacting daily with your Fans and Followers, you will see the return.  New media is unconventional.  Traditional measurement techniques do not work.  You wouldn’t weigh a rock with a thermometer, so please do not try to gauge the importance of a social exchange with a spreadsheet.

What are your thoughts? Am I nuts? Am I genius?  Are you bored yet?  Let’s talk.

Without wax,

Bryce