In this pre-launch episode of Banking on You, our host Josh Rodriguez talks with our Executive Producers, President/CEO Jason Peach and VP of Marketing and Digital Engagement, Koren Greubel about the goals of podcasting and spreading the credit union difference.
Come learn about the heart and mission of our podcast, our member’s stories. Also, we take a quick peek into what’s coming in the rest of Season 1.
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Banking on You is powered by West Community and Tigers Community Credit Union.
Transcript
Josh (00:08.139)
Welcome to season one episode zero of the banking on you podcast powered by West Community and Tigers Community Credit Union. We have two very important guests on today’s inaugural episode. Episode one is coming very soon. This is our pre-launch episode. So I just wanted to get your take real quick. What do you both think is episode zero fine? Should we call it something different?
Koren
I love episode zero.
Jason
It feels like a good fit.
Josh
Alright. Episode zero will work. OK, I am thrilled to sit down and talk today with the two executive producers of the Banking on You podcast. Of course, both from West Community and Tigers Community Credit Union. First, we’ve got Jason Peach, our president and CEO. How’s it going, Jason?
Jason
It’s going great.
Josh
Awesome. And then we have Koren Greubel, who is our VP of Marketing and Digital Engagement. How are you doing, Koren?
Koren
I’m fantastic. Good.
Josh (01:01.486)
We are excited to be launching a podcast.
Koren
We are very excited to get this launched. It’s been a work in progress and we’re excited.
Josh
We are. It has been a work in progress way too long. We’re getting there though. This is episode zero and we will soon launch our first season, which will go from February of 2025 all the way through June. So Jason, are you excited about launching a podcast?
Jason
Yeah, we’re ready to go. Let’s tell our story and get the word out.
Josh
So let’s chat a little bit about the show itself. Banking. You podcast is a storytelling podcast. So today episode zero is more of an interview conversational format, but forthcoming episodes will be more narrative and storytelling in format. And I don’t think any other credit unions are doing this type of a podcast. think most of them are interview based. I have not heard any anyway. Not only will be telling member stories, there’ll be a few surprises along the way that will be educational in nature, but still engaging and entertaining. We’ll talk a little bit more about those episodes later. First, let’s jump in here and let’s talk about some backstory on story. Jason, why stories? Why do we value our members’ stories so much?
Jason (02:10.413)
So we integrated that into our mission statement and our kind of thought process about our culture and how we work with members and each other as a part of the workforce quite a while ago. And it was because we were really looking at what sets us apart. And one of those pieces was “care.” So it became a very personal thing, our care for our members, our care for each other. And in doing that, to really care for somebody, you have to understand them at a deeper level. And so…
You know, in banking, there’s a lot of push for efficiencies, the mega banks, they put you in a box, they group people together as broadly as they can. And then there are policies, procedures, service levels, sometimes it’s glued folks who don’t fit in that box. And we found that to make it relatable, that to provide this care, to serve all of our members and their diverse backgrounds and needs, that you had to understand their story.
and story resonated with our workforce. It made sense when you understand somebody’s story, you’ve gone to a level that you can really personalize that care.
Josh
What kind of methods have we taken to actively listen and to hear what people are saying? Because it’s difficult. Sometimes what you’re hearing from them is not what they’re actually asking for or not what they actually need. But what do we do to actually dig deep into what their story is?
Jason
It was a big effort, an ongoing effort. When you talk about the thought process and then putting that into practice, into procedures and policies and systems across different departments and touch points, then it gets a little more challenging. And so what we did is outside of really working with the culture side of it with our staff, we also adapted processes and really worked together to find where those processes needed to change.
So that we could make sure that we weren’t putting people into a box and not serving folks that were outside of it. And so it was a lot of collaboration across the workforce about, know, let’s talk about lending processes. So how do we work with our member on the front end? How do we train and have a procedure that allows us to get beyond the initial few pieces of information that everybody collects? And how do we know when we need more of that story to do a better job at personalizing what we do for them. So that means throughout the entire process, we need all folks involved to make sure that their practices and procedures don’t eliminate our ability to see people as individuals and to see their stories.
Josh
And this stretches from the front line, from the initial contact with the member, applying, even just asking about alone, all the way through underwriting and the closing process, right? Their story is very important the entire time.
Jason
Absolutely, have to be willing to have a little bit of inefficiency so that you can make sure you serve those members who need you and to fulfill that promise as a credit union. That has been our biggest effort is to continue to find that balance and so that we’re true to that mission.
Josh
Right. And so story, our member stories are literally embedded into our mission. So it makes sense that when we decide to launch a podcast, we’re going to include member stories in that as well, because it’s been our hearts, been our mission, our vision. And we’re just going to continue that and take that promise that we’ve made to our members to be their trusted financial partners and continue to listen to their story. And frankly, when anyone listens to these stories, there’s going to be a bit of encouragement. There’s going to be a bit of an uplift of learning how these members travel through some difficult times in their lives and how the credit union was kind of a guide alongside of them. So the podcast will be an extension of what we do and what we are and what we love doing.
Jason
Yeah, we get to really celebrate our story and helping members with their stories. And that really is rewarding. Our workforce really is here to help people. And so I think it also shines a light on the work they are doing.
Josh
Right, right. So Koren, as a marketer and or as an individual, you’ve been in credit unions for a long time. What does storytelling mean to you and how do you identify with people’s stories?
Koren
Of course, listening is key on every interaction that we have with our members, our employees, our community. We want to take those stories and gather what we’ve done to get members in a better financial situation and use that in our marketing. All of our marketing pieces, the imagery, the messaging, the products, they all tell a story of how we can get somebody in a better financial situation.
Financial wellness is part of everyday health as well. Everybody has unique financial situations, how people bank is unique, how people borrow is unique. And we want to get a better understanding of how we can take our members’ stories and turn them into helping other members in our community.
Josh (07:10.828)
Yeah, yeah, that’s great. We’re going to see a few of these stories as we as we move along through season one. Let’s just go ahead and take a sneak peek into a couple of those. We’re not going to give away much because we want obviously people to listen to the podcast. A few of the episodes will deal with with some of our members. One member’s devastating loss of her generational family home. That’s coming up in episode two.
Then how an employee was inspired to go the extra mile to help families of veterans during hospital stays. This episode is going to kind of go into some of the effort West Community and Tigers Community, community efforts. And so that’s going to kind of highlight what we do every year, actually throughout the year as well, some of our community efforts, actually some really cool transformational journeys that employees have gone through, through the volunteer process.
And we’ll hear from Jason and some others later on in that episode. Kind of a mysterious one that we’re working on is a daily visitor to our Florissant branch. Might wanna give away anything about that. That’s gonna be really interesting. And more on the educational side, since the pandemic, financial fraud is at an all time high. It’s just exploding. So we’re gonna have a few episodes about members that have experienced financial fraud.
And some really cool things we’re working on to get some information out to people and help educate them on the types of fraud that are out there. So those will be pretty cool. Those will be coming all in season one. We’ve got eight episodes that are slated to air twice a month starting in February through, I believe, the beginning of June. So keep an eye out for those episodes and for a few bonus surprises here and there. There’s some fun stuff that you don’t want to miss on the Banking on You podcast. So let’s talk a little bit about the title of the podcast, the name of the podcast, Banking on You. Koren, where did that come from?
Koren (09:08.546)
That initiated some member feedback, just getting a better understanding of what members viewed us as as their financial partner, and it really came down to trust and care. And we developed the banking on you because we truly bank on our members. We bank that we can provide them the financial services they need. We bank on them having a better financial journey. We bank on them that their future is going to be brighter and we can be a partner in that.
Josh
I love the way that it plays off of the bank word. Those of us that have been in the credit union industry for any length of time know that we try our best not to identify as a bank because we are not a bank, we’re a credit union and we have different principles. But at the end of the day, we still provide banking services. Credit unioning has never caught on. sounds kind of silly actually, but we are a financial institution and so we do provide those services. So we went ahead and landed on that for the name of the podcast because we are banking on our members, banking on our community, we’re banking on their success, and that’s what we’re here for.
Koren
We’re just excited to have listeners on our journey.
Josh
Yeah, we’d like them to join us for this journey because it’s going to be a lot of fun.
Jason (10:20.558)
I would say reaching the broader credit union community as well. There’s a lot of good work being done. And as they hear our story, we love to connect and just hear about them as well and find ways for us to do even a better job. So we all kind of collaborate and learn from each other. And so I think it builds momentum around these conversations so that we can keep being inspired and learning new ways to do it.
Josh
That’s one of the beauties of the credit union industry. We’re extremely collaborative and cooperative and it’s a wonderful thing. All right, Jason, Koren, thank you so much for joining us for the inaugural episode of the Banking On You podcast. We have some exciting shows coming up and you don’t want to miss them.
Make sure you follow us on all the socials at @BankingOnYoupod. Go ahead and please subscribe and leave us a review. We will be ever so grateful. Thanks again to our executive producers and fabulous guests, Jason Peach and Koren Greubel.
I’m your host, Josh Rodriguez. This podcast is powered by West Community and Taggers Community Credit Union, where we are always banking on you.
