Credit unions across the country are searching for ways to offer their underserved members pathways to homeownership. But when it comes to affordable housing, it’s clear that bolder action is needed to meaningfully move the needle.

The affordable housing crisis is particularly acute in Seattle, Washington, where home prices increased by over 80% between 2010 and 2020. This month we’re excited to welcome Uche Okezie, Real Estate Development Director at HomeSight, a Seattle-based nonprofit, and Tina Narron, Chief Lending Officer at Verity Credit Union, also based in Seattle, to talk about how they are cross-pollinating, collaborating, and breaking convention to reimagine solutions to this thorny and seemingly intractable social issue.

We also address this month’s BIG question:

How can credit unions “dream more boldly” when it comes to community development and what kinds of innovative partnerships can they forge to drive this work forward?

We often associate "innovation" with paradigm-shifting breakthroughs that disrupt entire industries. But most of the time, innovation is incremental. Or as Ben Maxim, VP of Digital Strategy & Innovation at MSUFCU, puts it, innovation consists of changes made "day by day, making things just a little bit better."

Ben joins our Remarkable Credit Union podcast to talk about talk about MSUFCU's bold decision to build an innovation lab in 2020, their biggest victories and setbacks to date, and his five principles for success.

This month’s BIG question:

Why does innovation matter for credit unions, why is it so hard, and how can credit unions work to create a true culture of innovation?

Five years ago, Alabama ONE was not in a "fun place," to say the least. The credit union had been placed into conservatorship, which can sometimes signal the beginning of a slow demise. But this particular story has a happy ending.

Marketing Manager Dantrel Robinson joins The Remarkable Credit Union podcast to talk about how Alabama ONE was able to not only survive, but flourish, rebuilding its brand and regaining community trust. 

This month, we tackle the BIG question: What can we learn from a thriving credit union that was in conservatorship less than five years ago?

Amber Fielder, VP of Marketing at USE Credit Union and past Board Chair of the Marketing Association of Credit Unions (MAC), joins us to address this month's BIG question:

Where should credit union marketers be focusing their efforts in 2021?

Amber talks about how the events of the last year have driven more innovation in the loan product space; why product innovation should be everyone’s lane (and why we should all be driving in it); how to create meaningful, long-term results even amidst uncertainty; and why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is a critical core competency for credit unions.

It it time for us to open our eyes to a credit union? Turns out, our eyes may already be open, but we're not seeing the full picture. 

Teresa Freeborn, CEO and President of Xceed Financial Credit Union and a Board Member of the Credit Union National Association (CUNA), joins us to talk about CUNA's Open Your Eyes campaign, including what it hopes to accomplish and why the campaign can’t be a “hit and run” effort. Oh, and also how pizza has ruined college students' FICO scores.

While credit unions have undoubtedly been affected by the rise of fintech startups, the concept of a "credit union startup" in this day and age is almost unheard of. If anything, the industry is trending in the opposite direction -- toward the consolidation of existing credit unions rather than the creation of new ones.

But Civic FCU, a startup credit union that launched in 2019, is bucking the trend. Bijal Gami, VP of Operations; Lamar Heyward - SVP of Marketing at Civic FCU; and Michael Spink, SVP of R&D join us for an animated discussion of how they are executing on Civic FCU's core strategy, why they started a credit union instead of a fintech company, and what we can learn by marrying a startup culture with the cooperative principles.

Ashley Kohlrus, COO of Allegacy FCU, and Karen Sigmon-Smith, Managing Director of WellQ, join us to talk about their audacious plan to transform community health outcomes through an integrated membership model for health and financial wellness, along with the lessons learned along the way.

John Lanza, financial education expert and Chief Mammal at MoneyMammals.com, joins the podcast to talk about why financial education should start early, finding ways to make it fun and experiential, and in what sense money might actually be able to buy happiness. 

Cameron Madill interviews Ben Stangland and Charlotte Boutz-Connell of Weber Marketing about how credit unions can define their target markets to stay relevant, competitive, and differentiated after a century of mergers and growth. 

Kevin Wilhelm, renowned sustainability expert and author of 3 books on the topic, joins us to talk about why sustainability makes sense for the bottom line, how it relates to the 7 Cooperative Principles, how to begin your sustainability journey (hint: it’s not fire, ready, aim), and why you need to listen to your members to get the best results.

Katharine Nester, Chief Product & Technology Officer at Ruby Receptionists, one of the 10 most admired companies in Oregon, joins us to talk about how businesses can turn simple transactions — digital and in person — into moments of magic that delight their customers, build loyalty, and increase profitability.

Ben Morales, CEO of QCash, joins us to talk about what it means to offer an alternative to payday lending. On this podcast, he shares his unique perspective on why members need these sorts of loans, how a credit union can think about payday lending from a strategy, branding, and financial wellness standpoint, and why a 60-second approval process was the bar QCash had to meet to make their product effective.

Jenelle Isaacson, CEO of Living Room Realty, one of the fastest growing real estate companies on the West Coast, joins us to share what she learned about marketing from being a punk rocker, how she gave up control to her agents to find the stories that resonated in her community, and why it’s better to own a niche than nothing at all.

Laura Woods is such a fount of exciting ideas that we created two podcasts so we could capture everything. In part 2, she shares more about reaching people where they are by marketing with empathy and vulnerability. 

Laura shares her lessons from her innovative "Dreams" marketing campaign that gave the members who bank at 1st Financial a voice, how her credit union has become more profitable by avoiding A credit rated loans, and why empathy, vulnerability, and a distaste for the word "no" fuel her marketing philosophy.

Tansley Stearns, Chief Impact Officer at Filene, joins us to share what Filene has learned in over 25 years of researching credit unions. Tansley talks about how you can create a culture of innovation, why attracting younger members is hard (and what to do about it), why “customer effort score” may be the most important number in your credit union, and what the greatest gift of the digital age is to credit unions (hint: it’s not Twitter).

Jonathon Hensley, a well-known expert on the implications of accessibility for the handicapped in the digital world joins us to share best practices and opportunities from the coming legislation for the web. In this podcast you'll learn about why designing your online properties to be accessible is both the right thing do and smart business, what technology debt is and how you can avoid it, and what standards to follow to avoid risking a lawsuit against your credit union.

Shawn Gilfedder, the CEO of McGraw Hill FCU and a national expert on creating financial wellness programs, shares his experience changing his credit union's value proposition from products to financial wellness, how to create innovation in a credit union, and how Zappos inspired their transformation.

Randy Thompson, CEO of TCT Risk Solutions (and one of the nicest guys in the biz), talks about his passion for the core mission of credit unions—serving the underserved. He explains how proper management can reduce charge offs and help members improve their credit score, and how to effectively outsource compliance so you can focus on the good stuff.  

Melina Young, Director of Marketing and Brand at Verity Credit Union and one of CUES’ 15 Top Next Credit Union Execs, discusses their exciting new concept for engaging their members by being hyper local. She presents a positive way to view large competitors, and reminds us that we can avoid the day-to-day doldrums and make more authentic connections by focusing on the “why.”

Economist Mike Wilkerson joins us to talk about the economic forecast for 2016 and what it means for you, his exclusive research on the economic impact credit unions have in their communities, and how the shrinking middle class and sharing economy are reshaping the future of credit unions.

Eric Gregg, a leading expert on NPS, discusses his insights on how credit unions can succeed with a Net Promoter Score® program — and how they can fail. Eric explains how to implement a service recovery program to delight unhappy members, his firm’s 2-1-1 process for making NPS drive results in your credit union, and how to connect loyalty drivers to make your results more actionable.

Jeff Stephens, a leading expert on financial services branding, joins us to discuss his career in branding financial institutions. Jeff discusses how to market to your members using all 5 of the senses, how the long tail is changing financial institutions, and why differentiation is hard and necessary.

Kim Faucher, VP of Marketing at Trailhead Credit Union, shares her story of how a small, struggling, and unremarkable credit union transformed itself into the darling of the industry, reversed years of negative growth, and became a model of member engagement and financial performance. Kim shares her learnings from their complete rebrand around what you should and shouldn’t do if you are considering a similar path, and her marketing philosophy for copying great retail brands — not just credit unions.