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Dave Wilde Discusses Expansion During a Pandemic
Dave Wilde discusses expansion during a pandemic.
Featured Speaker:
Approximately 2 years later, a CU I worked with approached me and asked if I would be their VP/Marketing & HR. I said “yes” and my CU management career began. As VP, the functional areas I have managed include: Marketing, Business Development, Human Resources and CUSO management. I have worked for CUs ranging in assets from $60MM – over $1 billion. My formal education includes a B.S. degree in Business Administration – concentrations in Finance, Insurance and Real Estate from California State University, Sacramento. I have held Series 6, & 63 licenses from the NASD and life, health and disability licenses in CA and NV. I am
a graduate of Western CUNA management school as well as the Moeb’s pricing institute.
I have been an active volunteer throughout my career. In addition to Little League and the Boy Scouts of America in support of family endeavors, I have served in a number of professionally-
oriented volunteer efforts. These include: Director of the Sacramento Valley Chapter of the CCUL, Chairperson of the Chapter’s RLC program and member of the Chapter’s Marketing and PAC. Additionally, I have served a 2-year term as Chairman of the Board for the Rancho Cordova CoC (a California chamber with > 750 members); Director of the Chamber; Chairman of
the Chamber’s PAC, member of the Chamber’s PR Committee.
Lastly, I served as Co-Chair of the Sacramento CoC’s Small Business Committee and was responsible for coordinating the
Chamber’s Small Business Initiatives for their annual “hike the hill” Washington D.C. visit. Previous endeavors also include multiple “hikes on the hill” in Sacramento, CA for the California
League as well as “hiking the hill” representing our CU at CUNA’s annual GAC. Lastly, while VP/Marketing for the CU, I was responsible for coordinating a number of fund raising
opportunities on behalf of the local Legislators that encompassed our community field of membership.
1. Currently I am VP/Marketing for Sun Federal Credit Union. In 2013, our Board of Directors has made the decision that the CU needs to become more actively involved in the political arena and, in conjunction with our CEO, I have been charged with leading these efforts.
2. Having recently relocated to the area, I am not currently involved in any other groups/organizations.
3. Having been actively involved in the CU industry for 15+ years, I am a firm believer in the CU philosophy and that we/I need to contribute however possible to protecting the CU difference. Knowing that the majority of what makes our industry unique ultimately lies in the hands of a group of elected officials and regulators, I am committed to taking an active role in trying to protect and further the efforts of our industry.
4. To provide direction and feedback to our membership regarding which candidates, pieces of proposed legislation, etc. will impact our industry (positively and/or negatively) and then encourage/provide support (including financial support) for those that support our industry.
5. I have a personal passion for the political arena and the CU industry. I will bring this level of energy and commitment to the Board and am willing to commit to doing more than my share of “heavy lifting” to accomplish the goals of the Board.
6. Having not yet been actively involved in the Ohio CU movement, I will reserve response until I have more personal experience. Overall, providing the League with the tools (including financial resources) necessary to become a formidable force at the State level is an area where I think most PACs can improve. PACs must not be afraid to come up with creative, “outside the box” ideas for raising funds.
7. A few challenges include: the recent “anti-Wall Street” sentiment that has permeated the American culture and is being furthered by the current administration’s rhetoric; the focus on increased government oversight to “protect the consumer,” i.e., the CFPB, increased regulatory burdens, and the lack of overall awareness of the CU difference are the major challenges I see. A significant opportunity I see is: increasing the amount of focus and education we provide to legislators, and the American public, relative to the CU difference and how this difference positively impacts the financial well-being of all members who choose to participate in the CU movement.
8. As previously mentioned, I am extremely passionate about politics and a firm believer in the CU philosophy. You can’t “train” someone to bring these features to the table. They either have them or they don’t. I assure you that I will bring these passions to the Board and will continually strive to give the requisite energy required to accomplish the goals of the League and PAC.
Dave Wilde
My CU career began in Sacramento, CA in 1992. In 2011, I migrated to Madison, WI where I worked for CUNA Mutual and in 2012; I moved slightly further East and South landing at Sun Federal Credit Union in Maumee, OH. I began my CU career as a licensed insurance representative for CUNA Mutual in 1992.Approximately 2 years later, a CU I worked with approached me and asked if I would be their VP/Marketing & HR. I said “yes” and my CU management career began. As VP, the functional areas I have managed include: Marketing, Business Development, Human Resources and CUSO management. I have worked for CUs ranging in assets from $60MM – over $1 billion. My formal education includes a B.S. degree in Business Administration – concentrations in Finance, Insurance and Real Estate from California State University, Sacramento. I have held Series 6, & 63 licenses from the NASD and life, health and disability licenses in CA and NV. I am
a graduate of Western CUNA management school as well as the Moeb’s pricing institute.
I have been an active volunteer throughout my career. In addition to Little League and the Boy Scouts of America in support of family endeavors, I have served in a number of professionally-
oriented volunteer efforts. These include: Director of the Sacramento Valley Chapter of the CCUL, Chairperson of the Chapter’s RLC program and member of the Chapter’s Marketing and PAC. Additionally, I have served a 2-year term as Chairman of the Board for the Rancho Cordova CoC (a California chamber with > 750 members); Director of the Chamber; Chairman of
the Chamber’s PAC, member of the Chamber’s PR Committee.
Lastly, I served as Co-Chair of the Sacramento CoC’s Small Business Committee and was responsible for coordinating the
Chamber’s Small Business Initiatives for their annual “hike the hill” Washington D.C. visit. Previous endeavors also include multiple “hikes on the hill” in Sacramento, CA for the California
League as well as “hiking the hill” representing our CU at CUNA’s annual GAC. Lastly, while VP/Marketing for the CU, I was responsible for coordinating a number of fund raising
opportunities on behalf of the local Legislators that encompassed our community field of membership.
1. Currently I am VP/Marketing for Sun Federal Credit Union. In 2013, our Board of Directors has made the decision that the CU needs to become more actively involved in the political arena and, in conjunction with our CEO, I have been charged with leading these efforts.
2. Having recently relocated to the area, I am not currently involved in any other groups/organizations.
3. Having been actively involved in the CU industry for 15+ years, I am a firm believer in the CU philosophy and that we/I need to contribute however possible to protecting the CU difference. Knowing that the majority of what makes our industry unique ultimately lies in the hands of a group of elected officials and regulators, I am committed to taking an active role in trying to protect and further the efforts of our industry.
4. To provide direction and feedback to our membership regarding which candidates, pieces of proposed legislation, etc. will impact our industry (positively and/or negatively) and then encourage/provide support (including financial support) for those that support our industry.
5. I have a personal passion for the political arena and the CU industry. I will bring this level of energy and commitment to the Board and am willing to commit to doing more than my share of “heavy lifting” to accomplish the goals of the Board.
6. Having not yet been actively involved in the Ohio CU movement, I will reserve response until I have more personal experience. Overall, providing the League with the tools (including financial resources) necessary to become a formidable force at the State level is an area where I think most PACs can improve. PACs must not be afraid to come up with creative, “outside the box” ideas for raising funds.
7. A few challenges include: the recent “anti-Wall Street” sentiment that has permeated the American culture and is being furthered by the current administration’s rhetoric; the focus on increased government oversight to “protect the consumer,” i.e., the CFPB, increased regulatory burdens, and the lack of overall awareness of the CU difference are the major challenges I see. A significant opportunity I see is: increasing the amount of focus and education we provide to legislators, and the American public, relative to the CU difference and how this difference positively impacts the financial well-being of all members who choose to participate in the CU movement.
8. As previously mentioned, I am extremely passionate about politics and a firm believer in the CU philosophy. You can’t “train” someone to bring these features to the table. They either have them or they don’t. I assure you that I will bring these passions to the Board and will continually strive to give the requisite energy required to accomplish the goals of the League and PAC.
Transcription:
Dave Wilde Discusses Expansion During a Pandemic
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.
And on this episode, Kelly Hellickson talks with David Wilde, VP of Marketing and Business Development at Sun Federal Credit Union about growth, rapid or otherwise, in today's market. Now, here's your host, Kelly Hellickson.
Kelly Hellickson: Hello, listeners. Today, I have a very special treat and a very special honorary guest. Today, with us, we have Dave Wilde from Sun Federal Credit Union. Dave, hello.
Dave Wilde: Hi, Kelly.
Kelly Hellickson: How are you?
Dave Wilde: Thanks for having me. Great. How are you?
Kelly Hellickson: Oh, absolutely. Thank you for joining. I'm good. Like I said, it was a sporty spice weekend for the Hellickson family, a little hot, but we survived.
Dave Wilde: I don't know about honorary. Honorary makes me sound old.
Kelly Hellickson: Well, let's assure our listeners that Dave Wilde is young and spunky. And on a serious note, he is very, very progressive as a marketer and as a leader in the credit union space, so that's why we have Dave with us today. Today, we're going to talk about expansion and through a pandemic, no less. I know everybody's sick of that topic of conversation, but I think that when we talk expansion and we talk expansion within the credit union or financial space, I think it's really important. And I think it's fantastic to see growth during such a tough time. So, Dave, if you're ready, let's have you answer a couple of questions and give us some insight to viewers. What do you say?
Dave Wilde: I'm ready. Let's do it.
Kelly Hellickson: Okay. So let's talk about expansion at Sun Federal Credit Union. So the past year, if I have this correctly, you went through two mergers and in a time span of approximately four months, then the pandemic hit, talk us through where you were at from an expansion standpoint, say January. And then what did that look like from January to April?
Dave Wilde: Where were we at in January? So Sun Federal is really the product of at the time would have been 16 different mergers. So that's something, you know, that was part of our DNA for quite a while. We had started talking with a few credit unions obviously well before the pandemic hit in March. As we were working through that process of dialogue and getting member approval on the partnerships, lo and behold, the pandemic hit. Yet we were so far along in the process, that we just had to keep moving forward with integrating these two credit unions. So there was a total, Kel, of about I want to say 4,000 members that we added between January and April, that time period, about another I want to say 20, 30 million in assets.
Kelly Hellickson: Okay. When we talk about navigating that, I'm sure that you had to pivot quite a bit. Talk us through how you had to kind of adapt your approach, if you had to, from a business standpoint and/or merger and acquisition standpoint.
Dave Wilde: The biggest challenge with a merger is even though the majority of members ultimately approved of mergers, so you move forward, right? There's a group of members that didn't approve the merger, so they're not too excited, right? We're about to rock their world.
Kelly Hellickson: Resistant to change, some of us. Yes, sir.
Dave Wilde: Yeah. I mean, we're about to change account numbers. We're going to change their plastic, right? Their day-to-day interactions with their financial institution are about to get changed pretty significantly. And we're going to do that knee-deep in the middle of a pandemic, right? Which when we did it, in a lot of cases when you do these, the members can come into the branch and they can work with us that way. And we can then help them through the process. All of that for the most part was shut down.
Kelly Hellickson: Yeah. Geez. So what did that look like? Lots of online and digital, I assume?
Dave Wilde: A ton, right? Like I said, we'd done about 16 of these before. So we had a pretty good process for communicating with members, helping them through all of the changes. But lo and behold, all of that had to pivot. And like you say, Kel, we had to go digital big time in outreach and embrace the wonderful world of virtual and Zoom and video and all that really quick to engage with these members.
Kelly Hellickson: But Dave, you, Sun Federal, already had online account establishment, correct? And I know that's aside from a merger because you have to bring those folks over, but did that play a role or did you have to implement new software?
Dave Wilde: Yeah, we had to implement some new software. We had parts of online account opening with us, but we didn't have like the full suite of products. So, if you were a new member, we didn't have a channel yet built out for that. We had a channel built out for existing members. So we had to pivot big time and some of the projects that we thought we were going to work on. We had to put those aside and really bring online account opening and online lending to the forefront real quick, because that was one of the key ways we could engage with members, right?
Kelly Hellickson: Yeah. So did you fire all of that up and get it up and running by that April merger kind of finished deadline there? Or did some of that spill over into second and third quarter?
Dave Wilde: Yeah. I would like to say that we had it all up by April, but no. Yeah, it really took us until about the third quarter to have all of it baked in and ready to go.
Kelly Hellickson: Well, I mean, that's still commendable, and I'm assuming that some of the other initiatives that maybe are more fun, like the marketing, because marketing at credit unions can be fun and sexy, guys. Everybody knows that. So I'm sure some of that had to kind of wait on the back burner, didn't it?
Dave Wilde: Yeah, it did. You know, we were fortunate in a way, Kel, that we use interactive teller machines in our lobbies. So whereas a lot of credit unions had to shut down completely, we didn't have to shut down completely. So we still had a little bit of a more personal touch venue or channel, if you will, for members and that they could come into a lobby, even though it was a pandemic environment and everything was shut down, they could come into a lobby and we had it set up in a way of one member at a time, et cetera. And they could, if it was such a big change for a member and they needed to talk to a person, that they can come into a lobby and engage with us through our interactive teller machines.
Kelly Hellickson: Yeah, that's right. I forgot those ITMs are really, again, setting you guys apart from others because you're right, very few of our clients have ITMs, but are striving towards that. So, do you obviously attribute that to a little bit more of success during the pandemic than others?
Dave Wilde: I honestly do. So when I talk about we had to pivot and do some things on the digital services side, we also had to literally blow out teller lines and put interactive teller machines because we were working through the process. We have, I want to say, 13 branches both in Ohio and Pennsylvania. And at the time of pandemic, not all 13 branches had ITM machines. So while we were ramping up our digital services, we were also demoing and renovating and installing ITMs in the branches that we didn't have them, so that we could ultimately continue to engage with members. So that by the time, I want to say, fall came around, our entire branch network was geared up with ITM machines as a way that we could engage with members.
So we had all that going on at the same time, right? So you've got members wanting to come in and then they're like a little like, "Hey, what's going on?" And they've got construction going on. And it was a lot for our members and a whole group of new members that are already a little skeptical.
Kelly Hellickson: Yeah, absolutely. Well, it sounds like you guys created an accelerated plan and you really just kind of navigated through it to the best of your capabilities and then some in terms of getting everything up and running by fall, so good job there. What do you think if you could pinpoint to, aside from maybe the new member resistance to change, aside from that, if you had to pinpoint two major challenges, what were those two major challenges?
Dave Wilde: Well, that's a good question. So you mean during the pandemic, right?
Kelly Hellickson: Yeah, I would say last year. Okay, so you guys are merging, the two mergers, right? And you're then hurrying up and trying to get everything else, all of your products and services portfolios, not only online, but able to be applied for online, then take into account your 13 branches, two different states and installing ITM. So through all that, what were the two largest challenges you feel?
Dave Wilde: So we'll put all those aside, because those are pretty big challenges anyway, right?
Kelly Hellickson: Oh, for sure.
Dave Wilde: Yeah. And I'm going to set aside financial side of the business, right? The huge influx of deposits, et cetera, and working through all of that. But I'm really going to say that the two biggest challenges that we face them and we're focused on was making sure that our employees felt safe and that they would continue serving our members. So that was a big challenge, especially from a marketing perspective, so consistent communication, and then helping our members feel safe at the same time as well.
Kelly Hellickson: Absolutely.
Dave Wilde: Yeah, I'm going to kind of go the human route and kind of get away a little bit from the technical stuff.
Well, I'm really glad you did, because that just speaks to who you are. And turning your wounds into wisdom is a quote that I always have lived by, it's by Oprah Winfrey. And I think that we are all human, you know, so attributing those major challenges to obviously the pandemic is where we're going to source those ones.
And like I said, if our employees didn't feel safe, there's no way that they would have been equipped to help our members through all of the changes that they went through, not just in their own personal lives, but this influx of new members and everything we were taking them through at the same time.
Kelly Hellickson: Well, those are good challenges and it sounds like that, you know, you guys overcame them, because let's talk about growth at Sun Federal during, I guess the last year or two years, 18 months. Have you guys seen substantial growth?
Dave Wilde: Yeah. The industry as a whole has seen substantial growth. We grew, well, I don't want to say doubled in size, but it took us 50 years to get to say point X. And we were able to get from X to Y in honestly less than two years. And a lot of that was an influx of all the deposits. If you want to talk just like financials, then absolutely.
Kelly Hellickson: Yeah. And I mean, membership numbers are going to go up obviously with the merger, right? But I think talk about like the balance sheet and how that was affected. Obviously, everyone's on an influx of deposits, right? Because everybody was scared, so they wanted to squirrel their money away. How did you do from a loan portfolio standpoint?
Dave Wilde: We saw a significant shift. Well, and when I say shift, we were really focused on consumer loans, probably just not unlike the majority of financial institutions. Sun Federal has always been a mortgage house, Kel. So we've been able to do those. It's kind of like that's our bread and butter, whereas a lot of credit unions, maybe theirs is --but we saw huge growth in our mortgage portfolio. That's where, again, not unlike the rest of the industry, that's where we saw the majority of our growth come from, that and from the commercial side, the PPP loans.
Kelly Hellickson: Makes sense. Well, now that we've got the financials out of the way,
Dave Wilde: Yeah. I mean, if you want to talk numbers, right? We saw low initial ratios dip, but not dip nearly as severely as they could have, right?
Kelly Hellickson: Oh, sure. Yeah, absolutely.
Dave Wilde: We were able to get a lot out there in mortgage loans and, like I said, PPP loans, so that helped quite a bit.
Kelly Hellickson: Thank you for bearing with me on that. I just wanted to kind of paint that landscape and picture so that when we segue into a couple of the questions that I have for you now, Dave, again, more on the human side of things, what have you noticed? As in terms of behavioral shifts within let's start with members and then we can segue into team members, employees.
Dave Wilde: We've noticed that, like you said, members are squirreling their money right now. They're a little pensive to jump back in whole hog. So, because with the Delta variant, who knows what's next? So there's a little bit of a sense of uneasiness right now. So we've noticed that in our members that they're kind of --
Kelly Hellickson: They're just a little bit more conservative.
Dave Wilde: Yeah. And just waiting to see what's going to come next, right? And not just going crazy maybe with their finances.
Kelly Hellickson: I think that rings true in all areas and walks of life for all of us right now, you know, especially school. All the little kiddos are going back to school and a lot of us parents, we're just anticipating, "Well, are they going to stay in school full time this first semester?" Or we know what's going to happen. So I think that uncertainty can just spider into all areas. So I think that's obvious and being conservative, I mean, that's not necessarily a bad thing either.
Dave Wilde: No. When we talk conservative, right? It's not only are they members saving their money or not doing as much of the summer spending and you're seeing that, because deposits aren't flowing back out of the organization as quick as they came in, but we're also seeing our members pay down debt.
Kelly Hellickson: That helps to strengthen the economy, right?
Dave Wilde: It certainly does. Yeah.
Kelly Hellickson: So, what do you think pie in the sky, crystal ball, if you had one, what do you think will be the long-term impact on our landscape on the financial sector due to the pandemic, Dave?
Dave Wilde: I think the obvious one is that there'll be fewer credit unions, unfortunately. It hurts my heart to say that, but, yeah, I think the movement's going to shrink a little bit, that some of the smaller credit unions may not be able to weather the storm. So that's one thing, a real macro level that you'll see happen. I mean, it was happening in our industry anyway. I just think this will accelerate the process a little bit.
Kelly Hellickson: Hilary and I wholeheartedly agree. We just had this conversation and it does hurt our hearts because by the people for the people, that's what we do, right? That's who we are.
Dave Wilde: I think on a positive note, I think we'll see even deeper heart share relationships, with members that we were able to be there for in their time of need. Does that make sense? You know what I mean?
Kelly Hellickson: Oh, my gosh. Yeah. It gave me goosebumps, because I think that's very true. And talk about differentiators, right? I mean, in marketing, that's what we're all about in terms of differentiating ourselves from ABC credit union down the street, right? And I think that is going to be key and that is a positive, right? I mean, another positive is that we all had to lean on each other and I think that's hard for some people to do. And so, to be able to lean on your credit union and for their support to come out during such a terrible time, I mean, that's just what solid relationships are built from.
Dave Wilde: You said it earlier, right? Caring about people, one of the why's why credit unions were started, right? Is to help members to absolutely help members on these times of need. So for those members that we were able to be there for, maybe not those ones that we merged with, but now we've been able to build relationships with them since that. But, absolutely. We were there for them and now they're just going to continue to be with us.
Kelly Hellickson: That's fantastic.
Dave Wilde: Yeah, I think internally it's interesting, right, Kel?
Kelly Hellickson: Let's talk about that for a minute. What did you see as the biggest long-term impact maybe internally speaking, Dave?
Dave Wilde: Yeah, it forced us to get agile real quick, because it was buzzword of the year, but parts of the organization that's maybe a little more, methodical or process-oriented or procedure-oriented, didn't have that option anymore. I mean, we ramped up things that we never thought we would ramp up that quickly.
Kelly Hellickson: See? And that's a positive too, right? Because it shows us what we can do when pressed. I think that for me is the most exciting and positive thing that I can take out both professionally and personally speaking, is the pandemic forced us to do things to get out of our comfort zone and do things that we didn't know we were capable of, but look what we did. You know what I mean? So I'm going to definitely hang my hat on that one as a mom, as a wife and as a professional.
Dave Wilde: Absolutely. One other thought is obviously we partnered with EmpowerFi for a lot of what we do here. And we also use the Faraday model, but that partnership allowed us to engage with our members. We harnessed all of that data, Kel. We started to get into the wonderful world of AI, right? So when at a time we weren't able to have face-to-face or one-to-one relationships with members, we were able to do the next best thing, which was harness all of this data through this relationship with you guys, so that we could be as relevant and we could be as personal with our members as we could in a very digital, electronic way. And that'll continue. For us, that's another long-term impact, that commitment to that type of engagement will continue.
Kelly Hellickson: That's fantastic. And so IntelliFi powered by Faraday is our artificial intelligence platform here at EmpowerFi. For our listeners, that's what Dave is speaking to. And I think that something, as of note case study that we did, Dave, do you remember the mortgage campaign that we produced back in October 2019?
Dave Wilde: That's right.
Kelly Hellickson: I'll never forget it because we got your email, Hilary and I, that you guys wanted to put out a mortgage campaign in October in Ohio. And remember when we jumped on the call and I said, "Dave, are you sure? Because I don't know how many people are going to want to move." But that campaign due to source to our tenacity and our creative minds, as well as the data, really performed for us and you saw an unprecedented -- I think it was almost 300 qualified leads in October folks in Ohio. So everybody knows what that means. And I think that's something that's commendable and it's exciting to be able to harness the data and to use it, to help people because ultimately it needs to work for the member.
Dave Wilde: Yeah. You know, and that mortgage campaign was a great way to dabble our toes. But when the pandemic hit, we had to get --
Kelly Hellickson: Serious.
Dave Wilde: Jump all in with the data, instead of just dip our toes in the water. We jumped all in. And, like I said, I'm a firm believer in that that was a way that helped us try and stay as connected in a very electronic way, right? A lot of the human connection went away for awhile, but if I can talk with Kelly and understand Kelly's likes because I have a lot of data about Kelly and then communicate that to her, she knows
Kelly Hellickson: Behavioral analytics and machine learning. Yes, sir.
Dave Wilde: So I think subtly Kelly knows that we're still connected to her.
Kelly Hellickson: And that's great. I love how you put that. A very personal connection based off or as a result of utilizing and harnessing that data in a non-personal digital communication. I think that you're absolutely right. The Kelly's of the world that are members at Sun Federal know that you guys care. So I think that is really great.
What other positives? Let's end our session on a positive note, maybe something positive personally speaking, that you saw come out of as a result of the pandemic, Dave.
Dave Wilde: Yeah, I saw our entire Sun Federal team step up and continue to engage even when they were dealing with all of the stress and scaredness, if that's a word.
Kelly Hellickson: It's a word now.
Dave Wilde: Yeah. I mean, holy cattle, Kel, right? I mean, we were all dealing with our own personal fears that came along with the pandemic. But to have a group of people that were so committed to the mission, that they would come in every day when needed or work from home when needed, when they're worried about, like you said, you know, "What's going on at school? What's my daycare situation? I don't have day." All of these things. "My family is dealing with the pandemic," yet we saw a group of people band together behind the mission and continue serving our members through all of this.
Kelly Hellickson: And I can attest for the amazing folks and team there at Sun too. I mean, you guys, even outside of the marketing, you guys have a really fantastic team. And the commercial that we produced is living proof of that. I mean, you're right, your team really did step up, so that's fantastic. And I'd have to say the same thing about my team at EmpowerFi and my team at home, you know. We just continuously had to pivot ahead to morph and navigate things that we were scared to navigate and step outside of our comfort zone. So I'll take that as a win all day long.
Dave Wilde: Yeah. I'm with you, a hundred percent.
Kelly Hellickson: Well, Dave, thanks so much for your time and hopefully we'll get you back on here again. And whether we talk expansion or not, it's always wonderful and we are appreciative of your time. So thanks for joining.
Dave Wilde: Oh, no. Thank you. Yeah, this was fun. I appreciate you having me.
Bill Klaproth: And thank you for joining us. And to simplify your credit union marketing needs with EmpowerFi's full service marketing and design support, please visit empowerfi org. You can also email Kelly direct at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. This is The Speakeasy Financial Marketing podcast. Thanks for listening.
Dave Wilde Discusses Expansion During a Pandemic
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.
And on this episode, Kelly Hellickson talks with David Wilde, VP of Marketing and Business Development at Sun Federal Credit Union about growth, rapid or otherwise, in today's market. Now, here's your host, Kelly Hellickson.
Kelly Hellickson: Hello, listeners. Today, I have a very special treat and a very special honorary guest. Today, with us, we have Dave Wilde from Sun Federal Credit Union. Dave, hello.
Dave Wilde: Hi, Kelly.
Kelly Hellickson: How are you?
Dave Wilde: Thanks for having me. Great. How are you?
Kelly Hellickson: Oh, absolutely. Thank you for joining. I'm good. Like I said, it was a sporty spice weekend for the Hellickson family, a little hot, but we survived.
Dave Wilde: I don't know about honorary. Honorary makes me sound old.
Kelly Hellickson: Well, let's assure our listeners that Dave Wilde is young and spunky. And on a serious note, he is very, very progressive as a marketer and as a leader in the credit union space, so that's why we have Dave with us today. Today, we're going to talk about expansion and through a pandemic, no less. I know everybody's sick of that topic of conversation, but I think that when we talk expansion and we talk expansion within the credit union or financial space, I think it's really important. And I think it's fantastic to see growth during such a tough time. So, Dave, if you're ready, let's have you answer a couple of questions and give us some insight to viewers. What do you say?
Dave Wilde: I'm ready. Let's do it.
Kelly Hellickson: Okay. So let's talk about expansion at Sun Federal Credit Union. So the past year, if I have this correctly, you went through two mergers and in a time span of approximately four months, then the pandemic hit, talk us through where you were at from an expansion standpoint, say January. And then what did that look like from January to April?
Dave Wilde: Where were we at in January? So Sun Federal is really the product of at the time would have been 16 different mergers. So that's something, you know, that was part of our DNA for quite a while. We had started talking with a few credit unions obviously well before the pandemic hit in March. As we were working through that process of dialogue and getting member approval on the partnerships, lo and behold, the pandemic hit. Yet we were so far along in the process, that we just had to keep moving forward with integrating these two credit unions. So there was a total, Kel, of about I want to say 4,000 members that we added between January and April, that time period, about another I want to say 20, 30 million in assets.
Kelly Hellickson: Okay. When we talk about navigating that, I'm sure that you had to pivot quite a bit. Talk us through how you had to kind of adapt your approach, if you had to, from a business standpoint and/or merger and acquisition standpoint.
Dave Wilde: The biggest challenge with a merger is even though the majority of members ultimately approved of mergers, so you move forward, right? There's a group of members that didn't approve the merger, so they're not too excited, right? We're about to rock their world.
Kelly Hellickson: Resistant to change, some of us. Yes, sir.
Dave Wilde: Yeah. I mean, we're about to change account numbers. We're going to change their plastic, right? Their day-to-day interactions with their financial institution are about to get changed pretty significantly. And we're going to do that knee-deep in the middle of a pandemic, right? Which when we did it, in a lot of cases when you do these, the members can come into the branch and they can work with us that way. And we can then help them through the process. All of that for the most part was shut down.
Kelly Hellickson: Yeah. Geez. So what did that look like? Lots of online and digital, I assume?
Dave Wilde: A ton, right? Like I said, we'd done about 16 of these before. So we had a pretty good process for communicating with members, helping them through all of the changes. But lo and behold, all of that had to pivot. And like you say, Kel, we had to go digital big time in outreach and embrace the wonderful world of virtual and Zoom and video and all that really quick to engage with these members.
Kelly Hellickson: But Dave, you, Sun Federal, already had online account establishment, correct? And I know that's aside from a merger because you have to bring those folks over, but did that play a role or did you have to implement new software?
Dave Wilde: Yeah, we had to implement some new software. We had parts of online account opening with us, but we didn't have like the full suite of products. So, if you were a new member, we didn't have a channel yet built out for that. We had a channel built out for existing members. So we had to pivot big time and some of the projects that we thought we were going to work on. We had to put those aside and really bring online account opening and online lending to the forefront real quick, because that was one of the key ways we could engage with members, right?
Kelly Hellickson: Yeah. So did you fire all of that up and get it up and running by that April merger kind of finished deadline there? Or did some of that spill over into second and third quarter?
Dave Wilde: Yeah. I would like to say that we had it all up by April, but no. Yeah, it really took us until about the third quarter to have all of it baked in and ready to go.
Kelly Hellickson: Well, I mean, that's still commendable, and I'm assuming that some of the other initiatives that maybe are more fun, like the marketing, because marketing at credit unions can be fun and sexy, guys. Everybody knows that. So I'm sure some of that had to kind of wait on the back burner, didn't it?
Dave Wilde: Yeah, it did. You know, we were fortunate in a way, Kel, that we use interactive teller machines in our lobbies. So whereas a lot of credit unions had to shut down completely, we didn't have to shut down completely. So we still had a little bit of a more personal touch venue or channel, if you will, for members and that they could come into a lobby, even though it was a pandemic environment and everything was shut down, they could come into a lobby and we had it set up in a way of one member at a time, et cetera. And they could, if it was such a big change for a member and they needed to talk to a person, that they can come into a lobby and engage with us through our interactive teller machines.
Kelly Hellickson: Yeah, that's right. I forgot those ITMs are really, again, setting you guys apart from others because you're right, very few of our clients have ITMs, but are striving towards that. So, do you obviously attribute that to a little bit more of success during the pandemic than others?
Dave Wilde: I honestly do. So when I talk about we had to pivot and do some things on the digital services side, we also had to literally blow out teller lines and put interactive teller machines because we were working through the process. We have, I want to say, 13 branches both in Ohio and Pennsylvania. And at the time of pandemic, not all 13 branches had ITM machines. So while we were ramping up our digital services, we were also demoing and renovating and installing ITMs in the branches that we didn't have them, so that we could ultimately continue to engage with members. So that by the time, I want to say, fall came around, our entire branch network was geared up with ITM machines as a way that we could engage with members.
So we had all that going on at the same time, right? So you've got members wanting to come in and then they're like a little like, "Hey, what's going on?" And they've got construction going on. And it was a lot for our members and a whole group of new members that are already a little skeptical.
Kelly Hellickson: Yeah, absolutely. Well, it sounds like you guys created an accelerated plan and you really just kind of navigated through it to the best of your capabilities and then some in terms of getting everything up and running by fall, so good job there. What do you think if you could pinpoint to, aside from maybe the new member resistance to change, aside from that, if you had to pinpoint two major challenges, what were those two major challenges?
Dave Wilde: Well, that's a good question. So you mean during the pandemic, right?
Kelly Hellickson: Yeah, I would say last year. Okay, so you guys are merging, the two mergers, right? And you're then hurrying up and trying to get everything else, all of your products and services portfolios, not only online, but able to be applied for online, then take into account your 13 branches, two different states and installing ITM. So through all that, what were the two largest challenges you feel?
Dave Wilde: So we'll put all those aside, because those are pretty big challenges anyway, right?
Kelly Hellickson: Oh, for sure.
Dave Wilde: Yeah. And I'm going to set aside financial side of the business, right? The huge influx of deposits, et cetera, and working through all of that. But I'm really going to say that the two biggest challenges that we face them and we're focused on was making sure that our employees felt safe and that they would continue serving our members. So that was a big challenge, especially from a marketing perspective, so consistent communication, and then helping our members feel safe at the same time as well.
Kelly Hellickson: Absolutely.
Dave Wilde: Yeah, I'm going to kind of go the human route and kind of get away a little bit from the technical stuff.
Well, I'm really glad you did, because that just speaks to who you are. And turning your wounds into wisdom is a quote that I always have lived by, it's by Oprah Winfrey. And I think that we are all human, you know, so attributing those major challenges to obviously the pandemic is where we're going to source those ones.
And like I said, if our employees didn't feel safe, there's no way that they would have been equipped to help our members through all of the changes that they went through, not just in their own personal lives, but this influx of new members and everything we were taking them through at the same time.
Kelly Hellickson: Well, those are good challenges and it sounds like that, you know, you guys overcame them, because let's talk about growth at Sun Federal during, I guess the last year or two years, 18 months. Have you guys seen substantial growth?
Dave Wilde: Yeah. The industry as a whole has seen substantial growth. We grew, well, I don't want to say doubled in size, but it took us 50 years to get to say point X. And we were able to get from X to Y in honestly less than two years. And a lot of that was an influx of all the deposits. If you want to talk just like financials, then absolutely.
Kelly Hellickson: Yeah. And I mean, membership numbers are going to go up obviously with the merger, right? But I think talk about like the balance sheet and how that was affected. Obviously, everyone's on an influx of deposits, right? Because everybody was scared, so they wanted to squirrel their money away. How did you do from a loan portfolio standpoint?
Dave Wilde: We saw a significant shift. Well, and when I say shift, we were really focused on consumer loans, probably just not unlike the majority of financial institutions. Sun Federal has always been a mortgage house, Kel. So we've been able to do those. It's kind of like that's our bread and butter, whereas a lot of credit unions, maybe theirs is --but we saw huge growth in our mortgage portfolio. That's where, again, not unlike the rest of the industry, that's where we saw the majority of our growth come from, that and from the commercial side, the PPP loans.
Kelly Hellickson: Makes sense. Well, now that we've got the financials out of the way,
Dave Wilde: Yeah. I mean, if you want to talk numbers, right? We saw low initial ratios dip, but not dip nearly as severely as they could have, right?
Kelly Hellickson: Oh, sure. Yeah, absolutely.
Dave Wilde: We were able to get a lot out there in mortgage loans and, like I said, PPP loans, so that helped quite a bit.
Kelly Hellickson: Thank you for bearing with me on that. I just wanted to kind of paint that landscape and picture so that when we segue into a couple of the questions that I have for you now, Dave, again, more on the human side of things, what have you noticed? As in terms of behavioral shifts within let's start with members and then we can segue into team members, employees.
Dave Wilde: We've noticed that, like you said, members are squirreling their money right now. They're a little pensive to jump back in whole hog. So, because with the Delta variant, who knows what's next? So there's a little bit of a sense of uneasiness right now. So we've noticed that in our members that they're kind of --
Kelly Hellickson: They're just a little bit more conservative.
Dave Wilde: Yeah. And just waiting to see what's going to come next, right? And not just going crazy maybe with their finances.
Kelly Hellickson: I think that rings true in all areas and walks of life for all of us right now, you know, especially school. All the little kiddos are going back to school and a lot of us parents, we're just anticipating, "Well, are they going to stay in school full time this first semester?" Or we know what's going to happen. So I think that uncertainty can just spider into all areas. So I think that's obvious and being conservative, I mean, that's not necessarily a bad thing either.
Dave Wilde: No. When we talk conservative, right? It's not only are they members saving their money or not doing as much of the summer spending and you're seeing that, because deposits aren't flowing back out of the organization as quick as they came in, but we're also seeing our members pay down debt.
Kelly Hellickson: That helps to strengthen the economy, right?
Dave Wilde: It certainly does. Yeah.
Kelly Hellickson: So, what do you think pie in the sky, crystal ball, if you had one, what do you think will be the long-term impact on our landscape on the financial sector due to the pandemic, Dave?
Dave Wilde: I think the obvious one is that there'll be fewer credit unions, unfortunately. It hurts my heart to say that, but, yeah, I think the movement's going to shrink a little bit, that some of the smaller credit unions may not be able to weather the storm. So that's one thing, a real macro level that you'll see happen. I mean, it was happening in our industry anyway. I just think this will accelerate the process a little bit.
Kelly Hellickson: Hilary and I wholeheartedly agree. We just had this conversation and it does hurt our hearts because by the people for the people, that's what we do, right? That's who we are.
Dave Wilde: I think on a positive note, I think we'll see even deeper heart share relationships, with members that we were able to be there for in their time of need. Does that make sense? You know what I mean?
Kelly Hellickson: Oh, my gosh. Yeah. It gave me goosebumps, because I think that's very true. And talk about differentiators, right? I mean, in marketing, that's what we're all about in terms of differentiating ourselves from ABC credit union down the street, right? And I think that is going to be key and that is a positive, right? I mean, another positive is that we all had to lean on each other and I think that's hard for some people to do. And so, to be able to lean on your credit union and for their support to come out during such a terrible time, I mean, that's just what solid relationships are built from.
Dave Wilde: You said it earlier, right? Caring about people, one of the why's why credit unions were started, right? Is to help members to absolutely help members on these times of need. So for those members that we were able to be there for, maybe not those ones that we merged with, but now we've been able to build relationships with them since that. But, absolutely. We were there for them and now they're just going to continue to be with us.
Kelly Hellickson: That's fantastic.
Dave Wilde: Yeah, I think internally it's interesting, right, Kel?
Kelly Hellickson: Let's talk about that for a minute. What did you see as the biggest long-term impact maybe internally speaking, Dave?
Dave Wilde: Yeah, it forced us to get agile real quick, because it was buzzword of the year, but parts of the organization that's maybe a little more, methodical or process-oriented or procedure-oriented, didn't have that option anymore. I mean, we ramped up things that we never thought we would ramp up that quickly.
Kelly Hellickson: See? And that's a positive too, right? Because it shows us what we can do when pressed. I think that for me is the most exciting and positive thing that I can take out both professionally and personally speaking, is the pandemic forced us to do things to get out of our comfort zone and do things that we didn't know we were capable of, but look what we did. You know what I mean? So I'm going to definitely hang my hat on that one as a mom, as a wife and as a professional.
Dave Wilde: Absolutely. One other thought is obviously we partnered with EmpowerFi for a lot of what we do here. And we also use the Faraday model, but that partnership allowed us to engage with our members. We harnessed all of that data, Kel. We started to get into the wonderful world of AI, right? So when at a time we weren't able to have face-to-face or one-to-one relationships with members, we were able to do the next best thing, which was harness all of this data through this relationship with you guys, so that we could be as relevant and we could be as personal with our members as we could in a very digital, electronic way. And that'll continue. For us, that's another long-term impact, that commitment to that type of engagement will continue.
Kelly Hellickson: That's fantastic. And so IntelliFi powered by Faraday is our artificial intelligence platform here at EmpowerFi. For our listeners, that's what Dave is speaking to. And I think that something, as of note case study that we did, Dave, do you remember the mortgage campaign that we produced back in October 2019?
Dave Wilde: That's right.
Kelly Hellickson: I'll never forget it because we got your email, Hilary and I, that you guys wanted to put out a mortgage campaign in October in Ohio. And remember when we jumped on the call and I said, "Dave, are you sure? Because I don't know how many people are going to want to move." But that campaign due to source to our tenacity and our creative minds, as well as the data, really performed for us and you saw an unprecedented -- I think it was almost 300 qualified leads in October folks in Ohio. So everybody knows what that means. And I think that's something that's commendable and it's exciting to be able to harness the data and to use it, to help people because ultimately it needs to work for the member.
Dave Wilde: Yeah. You know, and that mortgage campaign was a great way to dabble our toes. But when the pandemic hit, we had to get --
Kelly Hellickson: Serious.
Dave Wilde: Jump all in with the data, instead of just dip our toes in the water. We jumped all in. And, like I said, I'm a firm believer in that that was a way that helped us try and stay as connected in a very electronic way, right? A lot of the human connection went away for awhile, but if I can talk with Kelly and understand Kelly's likes because I have a lot of data about Kelly and then communicate that to her, she knows
Kelly Hellickson: Behavioral analytics and machine learning. Yes, sir.
Dave Wilde: So I think subtly Kelly knows that we're still connected to her.
Kelly Hellickson: And that's great. I love how you put that. A very personal connection based off or as a result of utilizing and harnessing that data in a non-personal digital communication. I think that you're absolutely right. The Kelly's of the world that are members at Sun Federal know that you guys care. So I think that is really great.
What other positives? Let's end our session on a positive note, maybe something positive personally speaking, that you saw come out of as a result of the pandemic, Dave.
Dave Wilde: Yeah, I saw our entire Sun Federal team step up and continue to engage even when they were dealing with all of the stress and scaredness, if that's a word.
Kelly Hellickson: It's a word now.
Dave Wilde: Yeah. I mean, holy cattle, Kel, right? I mean, we were all dealing with our own personal fears that came along with the pandemic. But to have a group of people that were so committed to the mission, that they would come in every day when needed or work from home when needed, when they're worried about, like you said, you know, "What's going on at school? What's my daycare situation? I don't have day." All of these things. "My family is dealing with the pandemic," yet we saw a group of people band together behind the mission and continue serving our members through all of this.
Kelly Hellickson: And I can attest for the amazing folks and team there at Sun too. I mean, you guys, even outside of the marketing, you guys have a really fantastic team. And the commercial that we produced is living proof of that. I mean, you're right, your team really did step up, so that's fantastic. And I'd have to say the same thing about my team at EmpowerFi and my team at home, you know. We just continuously had to pivot ahead to morph and navigate things that we were scared to navigate and step outside of our comfort zone. So I'll take that as a win all day long.
Dave Wilde: Yeah. I'm with you, a hundred percent.
Kelly Hellickson: Well, Dave, thanks so much for your time and hopefully we'll get you back on here again. And whether we talk expansion or not, it's always wonderful and we are appreciative of your time. So thanks for joining.
Dave Wilde: Oh, no. Thank you. Yeah, this was fun. I appreciate you having me.
Bill Klaproth: And thank you for joining us. And to simplify your credit union marketing needs with EmpowerFi's full service marketing and design support, please visit empowerfi org. You can also email Kelly direct at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. This is The Speakeasy Financial Marketing podcast. Thanks for listening.