Transcription:
Data Driven - Strategy Infused, Marketing for Credit Unions

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 EmpowerFi, strategy-infused data-driven marketing solutions for financial institutions nationwide.

I'm your host, Bill Klaproth. And on this episode, we talk with Trent Mason, Senior Strategist for EmpowerFi about strategic planning moving forward and we're going to learn about a secret project he's been working on that he says has made him a better strategist. Trent, welcome to the Speakeasy.

Trent Mason: Oh, thank you for having me. Excited.

Hilary A Reed: Ooh. Welcome, Trent.

Bill Klaproth: Absolutely. So Trent, if you could tell us about your role at EmpowerFi and the secret project you've been working on.

Trent Mason: I'm our senior strategist at EmpowerFi. It's a really rewarding job because we get to help credit unions with their marketing strategy, also with their business strategy and strategic planning and development. It's a great thing, but I did have a little bit of a secret project this summer. I came to EmpowerFi after having done a little bit of my own thing in my past life. And I have a friend who started a pet product, and he asked me for help and I got myself down a path. We ended up on the Discovery Channel and had a really interesting summer. I thought it made me a better strategist overall. So it was kind of fun thing. Happy to tell you about it.

Hilary A Reed: Yeah, it was really cool. It was a really neat thing to have one of our people on the Discovery Channel while we were like in the middle of strategizing and Trent's like, "Hold on. I got to go change my shirt, because the Dicovery Channel needs me put this shirt back on." And we're lik , "Okay, whatever you have to do," but yeah, tell us about it.

Trent Mason: Obviously, EmpowerFi encouraged me to do it. I remember telling them,"We might be on the Discovery Channel for this dog toy that I've been helping with." And they said, "Well, you should go for it. That's a once in a lifetime opportunity." And it was true. We sometimes would be doing strategic planning, maybe virtually or something with a credit union and I'd say, "I really need to just change my shirt back, because they're about to interview me about this other, I guess almost secret life I was living as a dog toy promoter." an interesting concept.

My friend started-- He owns a rubber company in Erie. It's called Lake Erie Rubber and Manufacturing. His name is John. He started a new product line of pet products, trying to take on the world of Kong almost, that's like the number one seller in rubber dog toys. And he saw it as an opportunity to diversify his business and so he called me and said, "Can you help?" Long story short is we actually are now in over a hundred stores and we've sold these products across country. And the Discovery Channel called us and they're filming a program. They were filming a program in Erie, Pennsylvania where I live and it's called Erie Rising: Undercover Billionaire.

Now, the secret is the billionaire, Glenn Stearns, he'd already been in Erie, once before, when it was totally secret. He was totally undercover. And this was him returning and they wanted to do some nice fun stories about businesses in Erie. And it was just very pro-business atmosphere, totally fun. And it was a way that we were able to showcase this dog toy to the world. It's exciting. I don't know if I'm excited to see myself on TV, but I'm excited to see if it helps his business.

Hilary A Reed: Yeah, that's really cool. And so it's marketing too, right?  You've been in marketing for how long now, Trent?

Trent Mason: Yes, I've done marketing two decades, 20 years. time really flies when you're having fun, especially working in the credit union movement. And that's where my expertise I feel is, is working with credit unions and banks. And he had me come in and help with this because he wanted a fresh perspective and also because we're friends. And so I ended up really learning the pet industry as a whole other thing. But the way it kind of ties back, I feel, even to this podcast is I learned some valuable lessons from working with a billionaire, from working with Glenn Stearns. He came in and he was so strategically minded that it was humbling. It made me have to do almost like a-- I don't know how to explain it. It made me have to think about what I was doing for credit unions and also for myself and for my friend and remember to be strategically minded in everything. That's what I learned most from man, was if you think you have a plan, you need to continually revisit it. And then you also have to be able to articulate it again and again and again. He was very deliberate with us. He came in and said, "Tell me about this pet product. Well, why are you focusing on that? Why aren't you focusing on the main website for the company?"

And we looked at each other and we're like, "I don't know. We kind of got enamored with the pet products." Then he'd say, "Yeah, but your main website is where people are going to go first." And we just looked at it like, " We kind of had become lost the gloss of this pet product."

And what happened was, Glenn and his team, they would sit us down and they would do strategic planning sessions. And so you can imagine how humbling that was for me, because I thought, "Oh, this is what I should have been doing for my friend as well." Him not being a credit union, it never kind of crossed my mind. I just thought we should just run, build pet product.

And it's a cool thing. It's called the groove ball. It's fun, but it's easy to get lost sometimes in fun piece of the business. And what I was really taken aback with was it's never a bad idea to stop and plan again and plan some more and be strategic in your planning. What ended up happening was we ended up with a totally revamped website. We changed the game of this entire rubber company, the way that they operate and we focused more on his core business. And then we were able to focus back out on the fun stuff, on the dog toy line and the pet products.

Kelly Hellickson: That's great.

Trent Mason: Yeah, it reminded me a lot of sometimes when we go into credit unions and they're excited about something new that they've got going, and then we're the ones are in that role to say, "Yeah. But what about the core of what you do? What about your members? "

Kelly Hellickson: What is the strategy and what's the procedure to back that up.

Hilary A Reed: So often credit unions get caught up in the promotions, right? And so year after year it's, " What does our promotional calendar look like?" And that's the same concept, kind of promoting that dog toy because that's the fun stuff. And what Trent does for the credit unions is he goes in and he's like, "These promotions are great, but how do we tie these promotions back to your strategic plan? And if you don't have a strategic plan, let's write one." But at EmpowerFi, one of our major, major goals is to make your strategy actionable. if we have a marketing team, who's just based on promotions all the time, how is that helping you meet your strategic goals as an organization and transmits a lot of time in that realm. So those two things definitely connect. Dog toys and credit unions, who knew?

Trent Mason: Well, so much so Hillary too, that it was I called it a humbling experience, because one time we working with quite a large credit union preparing for their strategic planning session. We ended up having their session at the same time. I had to tell the show runner or the producer, "Look, I'm not going to be here for the next week. I've got to go and work on this strategic planning session for a credit union." And he said, "Go do it."

And when I went to the session, they were interested in asking me about what I've been doing in this dog toy side. And I told them, "What I had learned was don't get caught up in what's shiny. Focus on the core of what you do." And I think we had a better planning session with the credit union and because of it. They're a very future-focused credit union anyway. But I realized we have to be really careful to not let one side of the business ever take up too much of our time, because it's easy to go mine for gold, but what about what you could polish right there at home. And that's what I learned from working with this undercover billionaire, who wasn't really undercover, but that's what I learned in my summer selling dog toys with billionaire Glenn Stearns.

Also, you guys might relate to this is having a fresh set of eyes, you know. Why do you bring someone in to do a strategic planning session? Well, for us, this man come in. And we thought we had it all down, the rubber side of the business was cool, the dog toys were going fine, like I said, over a hundred stores, but what he did is he walked around and truly saw with a fresh set of eyes new pieces about our business. And I thought, "There it is. That's what I do for a living for credit unions and banks, and it's being done to us." And it was so valuable. It was almost like I guess even a good doctor needs a great doctor once in a while, right? And that's what it felt like to me.

Kelly Hellickson: Absolutely.

Hilary A Reed: That's really cool. And Trent's been in the credit union movement for, gosh, nearly 20 years. Right, Ttrent?

Trent Mason: Yeah, 20 years in credit unions and most of the time in a vice-president or higher role. So it's very gratifying as I look back to think about all the people I've met and credit unions we've helped. And I love being the senior strategist at EmpowerFi. It's very fun.

Kelly Hellickson: Well, we love having you.

Hilary A Reed: We absolutely, absolutely value input and your expertise. And having been around for so long and then even having taken a step outside of credit unions for dog toys and whatnot for a little while, what would you say, kind of a wrap it up and last question here, what would you say are the top strategic concerns for growth for credit unions today that you've seen traveling around the country talking to credit unions? Or maybe something that they don't think of, that they should be thinking of top strategic concerns?

Trent Mason: I hope I can bring it home to both. So, obviously, two decades serving with and for credit unions, but this one summer of selling dog toys with a billionaire by my side, which is very random. I know, but it all ties together. And I think what I learned was, and what credit unions should be thinking about is the power of building a StoryBrand.

During the process, we drew on this book called Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller. And Mr. Miller wrote this book about branding, but really it's about strategic planning in my opinion, because in the end, if you're not building a brand that tells a story, and if you're not telling your story to consumers, you're losing.

And I find credit unions sometimes forget that they have a unique story that they could tell the world, and they don't always know how to package it. But one of the things that I saw during the filming of this TV show, the Discovery Channel said, " Remember, you guys are the heroes. You're the ones we're telling the story of. It's not about this man, Glenn Stearns," and it's easy to get enamored with the person who is the guide and you think the guide is the hero. And it's not true. Think about all the best stories you've ever heard or written or seen or read. The guide is there to help the  hero tell his story and find his way or her way.

And that's what made me think so much about credit unions, we're the guide. Maybe I'm the guide at EmpowerFi once in a while when we come in, even relating it back, if you're a credit union listening to this or a bank or any business, your member, it's your consumer. they're the hero. It's so important to put them in the driver's seat. Be the wise guide for them, and then stay out of their way. In that book he talks about, all lives, there are characters who have problems. They meet a guide who gives them a plan and calls them to action. And then in the end, the guide helps them avoid failure so they can find success.

And I think that's exactly what we do at EmpowerFi. We help people avoid failure so they can find success, but we're trying to tell their heroic story and likewise, so they can have the membership tell theirs.  The more in your marketing, the more in your branding and your strategic planning that you remember that the member or the consumer is the hero, you will win and we can help people arrive at that conclusion, just like this billionaire did for us. I can't wait for people to watch it. It's going to be on TV in January and you'll see, like having a guide who cares, who's authentic, can really go a long way. And I think that's what we do every day.

Kelly Hellickson: Excellent. Thank you so much, Trent.

Bill Klaproth: Yeah, that's really good.

Trent Mason: Yeah. Happy to be a part of it.

Hilary A Reed: Yeah. Thank you, Trent.

Bill Klaproth: Thank you, Trent.

Trent Mason: No problem.

Bill Klaproth: Good job on that secret project.

Trent Mason: Well, maybe I can come up with some other secret projects, but for right now we're knee-deep in strategic planning. It's fall after all. That's the other thing I would say is  don't forget, if you don't plan-- a lot of places are neglecting to plan right now because of the pandemic and other reasons. If you don't plan, you truly are planning to fail. It's an old adage. Now is the perfect time to plan and to be strategic.

Bill Klaproth: So true. Thanks, Trent.

Kelly Hellickson: Thanks, Trent. Take care.

Hilary A Reed: Good job.

Trent Mason: Thanks, everybody.

Bill Klaproth: And thanks for joining us. For more information on strategic planning, contact the team at EmpowerFi today at EmpowerFi.org. This is the Speakeasy Financial Marketing podcast. Thanks for listening.