Transcription:
The Importance of Finding Fulfilling Work Part Three

Bill Klaproth: When you've been searching for the right insight, advice and information on financial marketing, you know where to go. The Speakeasy, the exclusive source for financial marketing insights, with a shot of human. Starring Kelly Hellickson and Hilary Reed from Empowerfide, Strategy Infused Data Driven Marketing Solutions for Financial Institutions nationwide. I'm your host Bill Klaproth. Well, this is part three of the importance of finding fulfilling work. In other words, finding your why with our special, or should I say first and honorary guest Mia Perez of the Louisiana Federal Credit Union.

Mia Perez: Hello. Hello.

Kelly Hellickson: That was my little golf clap. Welcome Mia.

Mia Perez: Hello. Great to be back

Host: Mia, great to have you with us again. We appreciate it. As we start out with every episode of the Speakeasy, we have to understand what delicious beverage you have in front of you. Mia, start us off.

Mia Perez: All right. So I've switched things up a bit. it's still wine, but I am a huge California cabs. I'm loving Italian, Spanish blends as well. But today it is Charlie Atlas Peak Zinfandel 2016.

Host: Oh, that's nice. Very Nice.

Kelly Hellickson: I want to know what language you're speaking. Talk dirty to me. I don't even know. It sounds delicious.

Host: Hilary, how about you? What are you rocking over there?

Hilary Reed: Well, unfortunately I lost my bartender, so right now I'm drinking a little bit of water with a little lemon essential oil in it.

Host: Wow. Okay. That's kind of lame. That's lame. Come on Kelly.

Kelly Hellickson: I'm so sorry. I'm so lame too. I'm still drinking that little white peach sangria.

Mia Perez: You're just sipping at it. Jeez.

Kelly Hellickson: No, no, no, no. Hey. I mean, look at the photo I sent you. Okay. I brought two in and this is a half hour. So that's true. I'm from Wisconsin Y'all you don't want me to break out the whiskey.

Host: Oh, look out, look out. Well, this is part three. In part one, we talked about finding your why. Part two, we talked about how you put it to use and understanding your core values and the benefit of understanding your why. So part three, we just want to explore a couple more things here, how a credit union or a financial institution can put this into practice. And for anybody listening, that's struggling with finding your why, maybe feeling I'm not at the right place, what someone can do in that situation. So Mia, let's talk about marketing now for credit unions and putting the why to use. So you were saying earlier, we all focus most, there are many doesn't matter what business you're in. When they start to market and advertise, they focus on the, what you do. You know, we sell this and how you do it. Well, we offer the best service, selection and price, which everybody says, right? But the why can really be the differentiator between you and all of your competitors. Can you just briefly talk about that and maybe how we should look at this and put this to practice in our own credit union?

Mia Perez: No, you really hit the nail on the head. Are you like a marketer for a credit union somewhere that I don't know that? I'm just kidding, right?

Host: No, I just serve Hilary and Kelly liquor. So I hang around with them a lot. And I pick up on what they say.

Hilary Reed: The truth comes out, he's actually facilitating this podcast. That's why Hilary only has lemon infused water.

Host: It's okay for me to be strong throughout that's right. I don't want to get her to get to Schlossed. Right?

Mia Perez: You bring up, you bring up such a great point though, because so many, you know, when you ask, how credit union are? We're not even just credit unions. When you ask businesses or marketers, what do you do? They're always crimped in our world. It's financial institutions. They're always quick to say, you know, well, what differentiates us is our service. And they do that elbow thing like a snap now kind of thing. Like the two [inaudible 04:21] kiss, it's like, I'm okay. You would ever everybody else, right? It's like you and everyone else down the street differentiates between your boring checking accounts. Like, no, that's not, it's not, you sell that product. That's not why you do it. And so we can learn a lot from companies that do this impeccably. Well you know, there's everything written on Starbucks, how they're, what type of company they are. They just so happen to sell coffee. So what is it that we do? You lead with your why, when you, as an organization or as a person go through this exercise and you have clarity as to why you do what you do every day.

Why do you exist as an organization? You will have this phenomenal clarity that will bubble up, that will be used as a screen for everything you do in your organization. It will truly be your witness test for what you decide to do at your strategic planning session, what you decide to do when you stack rank priorities for your shop. You will do everything through viewing the why statement first and really in our organization that's exactly what we did. We lead with why, I mean, why should lead every conversation you have every stride plan, every, every strategy, every objective, every goal. And so instead of just rolling out your standard five financial you know, goals for the year, I mean, how boring is that, that doesn't tell anybody why you're doing what you're doing. And that doesn't motivate people number, that does motivate your employees who don't understand any of that crap. It's like you have to have clarity and inspire people to do what matters and align that with their own personal why and the results will come, believe it or not. I know, I never thought I'd say that, but that's really the importance of differentiating the why and not through the what.

Hilary Reed: Yeah. I love that. I love that. We always talk about, you know, what's your differential value as an organization, as a financial institution. What's what makes you different. And I can tell you with certainty that in 99% of the strategic planning sessions that we do in the marketing audits that we conduct, it's ladies drum roll. What is it?

Mia Perez: The people sitting around the picnic table with the dog?

Hilary Reed: Service is what differentiates us. And the first thing I ask them is if service is what differentiates you and what differentiates your neighboring credit union and the neighboring bank down the street. Cause everyone says it then somebody is lying. Is it you? And they're always like, Oh, you're right. And so determining your differential value is the same as determining your why, why are you here? And in sometimes you're going to look and you're going to look and it's going to be really hard to find something. And if you're looking to determine what makes you different, maybe nothing makes you different right now. And that's okay. But that just means there's a tremendous opportunity to differentiate yourself. So what do you want it to be that makes you different? Now start doing it.

Host: That's good.

Kelly Hellickson: That's amazing.

Mia Perez: Absolutely agree with that.

Host: Hilary is so clear. That's cause she's not drinking anything.

Hilary Reed: Right. There's such clarity that comes from me, said no one ever.

Host: Such clarity. That is such a good point though. So instead of, you know, we have the best service which everybody says, and nobody believes, you know, maybe a why could be, you know, everyone deserves respect no matter what their financial situation. So we treat everyone with respect or it's something that's different than we have the lowest fees, we have the best service.

Kelly Hellickson: To be super honest. And let's just be transparent. Not every credit union has leadership like Louisiana Federal has in Mia. And Mia said something on our last episode that I'd like to capitalize on. And the fact that you know, she was talking about gigging and yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, we're just going to Mia, we'll do half of this and we'll do it as a leadership team together. And then we'll release it to the staff. Okay. Don't call me. And you'd be amazed at the number of times Hilary and I have, you know, been talking to folks in leadership and going into strategic planning and facilitation. And Hey, you know, this is really a group effort sending surveys of which we've discussed. And some of the leadership are of that mentality that no, no, no. We'll keep this to ourselves and we'll do it as a leadership team. And then we'll release it to the staff. That my friends is the problem right there. You have to have leadership that is open to doing this as an organization, because there's no I in team, and there's not three leaders in the leadership team out of seven that can get this job done, it takes a village.

Mia Perez: Well, and I think too, the reason why you go through this extremely precise process in determining your why's in an organization as a team, as a group, as a fill in the blank, whatever it is, whatever you're working with is because the why comes from the stories, the why comes from the stories that you tell or the stories that you are a part of in your everyday life and your CEO, I'm sorry. Listen, they're probably fantastic, but they're not on the front line. Standing there trying to help in our industry watching the single mom of two children, trying to figure out how much money she has in her account. So she could either A, go buy milk or B, go buy medicine. And one of those things won't happen. Okay? They're not on the front line, hearing those stories, watching people be stressed out. So the stories are what you capture to determine and get back to understanding what the why actually is. That's why you need those people who are part of those teams. And for those organizations that think they're going to sit around that cherry wood table and have the martini come up with, you know, with that themselves, keep fooling yourself and keep being a sucky show.

Hilary Reed: There's no shortcuts. There's no shortcuts in this game. Right. You know, it's like, and it's, it's not, it's the game of life, right? Because at the end of the day, our consumers, our members. They're us, they're the Mia Perez’s' of the world. They're the Kelly and Brad Hellickson of the world. They're Hilary and Bill. And I mean, everybody, every human is human and they each have a different story and they each have a different why they each have a different need.

Host: Good point.

Mia Perez: Right. So you know what, at the end of the day the why, it's discovered it's not created. That's why it can't be a memo. That's why it can't be something you'd disseminate from the top. A why is discovered through those stories and it's not aspirational. It is what you're doing today. You know, it's not like those shops that say, well, service is our differentiator. And even with that, you're lying because the last time I checked, your service was crappy. Let's just be real, real, okay. To apply for a loan. You can't do it online. You got to come in, you got to bring in the blood sample and your firstborns hair sample, just to get the application in. When I've been [inaudible 11:52] get a mortgage, you know, from somebody online shops in 30 seconds, I'm like, seriously it's. So some people even lying about their service keep, keep fooling yourself. You know, that's not, that's not the folks we want to spend time with. We want to spend time with those people who really, really genuinely want to add clarity to their life, add clarity to their shops and their organizations, and see the successes come from that. Not from focusing on the financial numbers, because people are not inspired by that. They're inspired by the true stories that you tell. And at the end of the day, feeling like you really contributed to something that was meaningful with other people, that's the human touch, forget the numbers, the numbers will come.

Host: Yeah. The human touch. That is such a great point. And Kelly you're mentioning people, you know, not being open to new things and thinking of a podcast like this and our potential why to educate, inform, and entertain so that a financial service company can grow and be more successful in helping their customers. So even a podcast like this can help open someone's mind and usher in some new thinking and ideas.

Kelly Hellickson: Yeah. It's just, and Hilary can back me up. It's it goes back to our core values, you know, and authenticity, accountability solutions. I mean, individuality, you know, Hilary's why is very, very different from mine and that's okay. That's more than, okay. That's fantastic. Because as a group, our organization at empowerfide, man, we're all very, very unique, but we all have that same connection. We're all humans. Right. And I think that this podcast, my goal, my passion would be for us to just be, let's tell it how it is. So the CEO that's listening to this, that didn't like my comment that wants to keep it under the vest and keep his cards close to the vest. That's just not going to work. You're not going to be, you're not going to differentiate yourself, you know?

Mia Perez: Yeah. And Kelly, in that same vein, like I just happen to have it up. And I want to read the individuality core value that we have, because it really does speak to, you know, A why we're doing this podcast and that everybody's different, right? Mia's struggles are totally different from yours and from mine and our next guest and that CEO who wants to keep those cards close. You know, that doesn't mean he couldn't be a guest on this podcast and talk about his struggles, but our core value of individuality talks about, we honor the space in between us, knowing that space is what brings us closer. Our impact comes from the unique combination of traits, talent, skills, personalities, and gifts that could only be realized through the joining together of what makes us different. And I think that's so important when we're talking about just the human side of things, right? The human touch, that everybody has a different struggle. And if you embrace it and you look deeper into what, as an organization one of our other core values talks about how each, you know, each individual makes up, you know, the sum of the whole and without that, the different personality traits and the different talents, your organization, wouldn't be what it is. So involving your staff, in finding your why is so, so crucial because they're what make your organization to begin with and your members.

Host: Right. So they have to understand the why to ultimately for the organization to move forward.

Kelly Hellickson: Yeah. And as Mia said, after her exercise, you know, after her exercise Mia, after that exercise Mondays with Mia, is that what that, you know, spawned from, or had you always been doing Mondays with Mia?

Mia Perez: Yeah. I've always been doing Mondays with me or with my staff where it's an inspirational sort of sometimes kicking the ass or, you know, just whatever inspires me for that day. But I will say it definitely added some further direction. I probably speak more to our why in those episodes and those Mondays with Mia. It's had an impact on the message that I deliver. So I always try to speak to our own organizational Why in that message some sort of way, it's really just woven throughout everything we do.

Kelly Hellickson: Yeah. That's amazing. That's your compass

Host: Mia, if you could just give us some final thoughts on finding your why and the importance of that as we wrap up part three of our three part series on finding your why.

Mia Perez: Well, you guys have been a ton of fun. I just love to be able to let my hair, I mean, if you know me a little bit, your going to get the Mia isms and the [inaudible 16:30] based on some of the things I say, but this has been a lot of fun to have some real talk about how to differentiate yourself and why it's so important. But if anyone has not had an opportunity to go through that personal exercise, but you don't need to hire anybody to do that, pick up the book, go through it. And I mean, listen, time is short. Find out what you should be doing to align your strengths with the work that you do every single day, the work in your families, to work with your friends and your relationships, the work at your shop from eight to five, there is no sense on doing anything that doesn't bring you the majority of joy. And that's just, it's time that everyone really dig deep and be honest with themselves about what their own personal why is and how they can align and contribute in their own shops. Not just to make your own self better, but the organizations that you serve.

Kelly Hellickson: Amen.

Host: Amen. Thank you, Mia. Thank you for your time. I'm just a wealth of information. Thank you again.

Mia Perez: Thank you guys. My pleasure.

Host: Kelly, are you going to toast this out? Cheers us out. Do it! Take it.

Kelly Hellickson: With Hilary's water. I got a peach sangria. Mia's got Sauvignon blanc. So let's do one, two, three, cheers.

Host: And to connect with Kelly or Hilary, please visit Empowerfide.org. This is The Speakeasy Financial Marketing Podcast. Thanks for listening.