intro: You're listening to Talking Sense with Heritage. We're your hosts, Sierra and Sami.

Sami Etienne (Host): ​Hey guys, thanks for tuning back in. I am Sami Etienne, Director of Marketing here at Heritage, and we actually have a special co host who's sitting in for Sierra today, and I'll let her introduce herself.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): Hey, Taylor Humphrey here, Community Engagement Manager at Heritage, filling in for Sierra today.

Sami Etienne (Host): So I want you to explain what you do here at Heritage, because we know what I do now, we know what Sierra does, but what do you do?

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): So I help Heritage be connected in the community. So I do a lot of different community engagement and involvement activities, for myself, and then also plugging in our staff to various networking groups and working with our nonprofits and helping Heritage help them help people.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yeah, and you do a really good job at it. You're such a social butterfly that I feel like this job is the perfect fit for you and it comes so naturally to you. Myself, I feel like I'm an introvert, but I like, am a fake extrovert, but, inside, I'm totally introverted, but you're not.  

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): No, I love people. I can talk to a wall. I was talking with my family, trying to explain my new job. Cause I've been here since about April and I don't mean to say this badly, but I'm like, it's a really easy job. Like it comes very easily to me because I have grown up in Evansville. I do love this community and I want to get out there and help people. And I want to showcase Heritage products because our mission is very simple. So we do want to improve lives and help people.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yeah, I totally agree. I think that it's funny that you came from the non profit world and now you're here promoting a non profit checking account that we offer for these non profits. Like, you speak their language.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): Oh yeah, it's a blend of perfect worlds for me. Yeah, absolutely.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yeah. Well, thank you so much for stepping in for Sierra today. You're doing great, by the way. You sound like a natural.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): I've done a few. I usually do this live, so this is a little less intimidating.

Sami Etienne (Host): You usually do it live? What do you do mean?

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): Yeah, on radio.

Sami Etienne (Host): Oh yeah, she has done radio ads.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): I've done a few radio interviews, so yeah, this is a little different.

Sami Etienne (Host): I forgot you did that. You did a really good job at that too.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): Thanks.

Sami Etienne (Host): Okay. Maybe you're the replacement. You can replace me.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): No.

Sami Etienne (Host): So if you haven't listened to our last podcast, we reintroduced Talking Sense. So we've got a studio now, we've got in person hosts now, and we have our first guest in the studio. I'm going to introduce Leanne Cross. She is the Heritage HRIS Administrator. I'm going to let her explain what that stands for and what she does.

Leann Cross: Okay. Well, I'm Leann Cross. I am the HRIS Administrator here at Heritage, which stands for Human Resource Information Systems Administrator. So, I do all of our payroll and make sure all of our people are getting paid accurately and properly. I also dabble in our 401k benefits, our regular health benefits. I am over the security badges and software here at Heritage and then I am also over our training department.

Sami Etienne (Host): That's a big job.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): Yeah. That's a lot.

Sami Etienne (Host): You definitely wear many hats. Not only do you do all of that now. But you are also the Heritage Employee of the Year.

Leann Cross: Yes.

Sami Etienne (Host): So we had our Heritage Night of Celebration, which what that is, it's basically like we get all of our employees together, we have one big night, we go all out, we have dinner, dancing, and we do special awards.

So one of the special awards, I would say probably the biggest one of the evening, it's the one we do last, and it's the Employee of the Year. So Leann kicked butt all of 2024, she did a bunch of vendor changes, process improvements, all sorts of stuff. And so she was honored with the employee of the year.

Leann Cross: I was very, very shocked to receive that award. I was not seeing it coming. I got my 20 year service award and I was actually in the middle of opening that card when they were announcing employee of the year and my husband was actually tapping me because I wasn't paying attention at all when they started the speech of that.

And then Jenny's husband was recording me, receiving the award. So very honored to receive the award, I was very thankful for that, but very shocked in very many ways.

Sami Etienne (Host): It was very well deserved.

Leann Cross: Thank you.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): I was going to ask you, when did you know it was you? Because before they said Leann Cross, I was like, Oh, this is Leann, because they were talking about payroll and all the different things you do.

Leann Cross: So I was not paying attention at all when they said payroll, and that's when my husband, like, tapped me on the knee. And I heard process improvements with our payroll vendor. And that's when I like perked up and I'm like, oh, are they talking about me, ? And then it all was clicking together.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yes. I secretly knew it was you before the event. And I was literally up there at the front and I was like staring at you to see if like when it was gonna click with you. And then I just saw like, you had like tears in your eyes and it was such a sweet moment. Like it was so well deserved Leann.

Leann Cross: I was very, very emotional. But I am an emotional person, so as soon as

they said my name, all of my emotions ran through my body, and I was crying when I went up there to accept, but it was a happy cry.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yes, it was. So, not only did you get Employee of the Year at that event, you also celebrated 20 years. That is a long time here at Heritage. So, going into that, the reason why we wanted you to have you on here is not only do you know the ins and outs of Heritage today, you know the ins and outs of heritage through the past 20 years. And this year, in 2025, Heritage is celebrating our 60th year anniversary. So, Leann knows the history of Heritage. She knows how it was originated and how it started. And it's actually a really cool story.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): Oh, this is a great story. I love to tell it.

Sami Etienne (Host): So, I want you, Leann, to tell this story about how Heritage was founded.

Leann Cross: Okay, well, I learned a lot of the history of Heritage when I worked at our main office building, because I actually had the pleasure of meeting Marion. He came into my office at main office and he would sit and not only school me on the history of Heritage and how it came to be, but he also loved to school me in IRAs.

The man was a genius in IRAs, always stayed up on every single IRS code even after he retired. He was an extraordinary mind that would just come in and sit with me and share the history of heritage.

So, I feel honored just to have met him and shared stories with him. When I started here, it was back in 2005. Heritage was actually celebrating our 40th anniversary and we had these blue t-shirts that had these big bubbles on the back that said celebrating 40 years of history and I have my 40th t-shirt, my 50th t-shirt, and soon to be our 60th t-shirt so I'm excited for that.

But we only had seven branches at that time and a little over 60 employees. I started as a part time teller on the west side of Evansville and I worked my way back to Warrick County from where I originated. So I worked at a couple of our different branches and I was a teller for five of those years.

I really wanted to move up, but I didn't know what avenue I wanted to go to, but I was really intrigued with our loans and being able to help the members to the fullest extent. So, Sheila, she used to work at our Boomville office. She kind of took me under her wing and educated me on everything that a loan officer needed to know.

And it was several times I interviewed for the position. We did not have a lot of turnover at all. So it was hard to get those positions. So I was turned down several times for the position. Actually, six times and on my seventh time of interviewing for the loan officer position; I remember telling my boss at the time he said, "What makes you qualified for this job?" And I looked at him and I said, "what makes you think I'm not?"

I said, because I've really studied and I've tried to work hard for this position. So he was asking me a couple different questions regarding IRAs and HSAs and I knew every single answer and he said, I think we're done here. And then they offered me the job. The promotional change a couple of weeks later, which I was very, very thankful for. While I was a teller at main office, I helped out with a lot of different departments because since we were so much smaller, our servicing and everything was held within that one branch.

So, I got to dabble in a lot of different departments that normal tellers did not get to get experience in because we were all housed under that one roof. So I think that that helped. Plus, I volunteered some of my time into the call center to help out with maternity leaves and people out on different leaves.

So I was able to broaden my experience there as well. After I became a loan officer, I worked at our Boonville office for several years, and then I became a senior loan officer. And then eventually I became over main office. And when I was over main office, that is where I met Marion for the first time and he came in and he was just telling me everything about way back in, in 1963, him and a couple of the guys, Eugene and Henry they were all sitting around the break room and they're like, Hey, I just went and I just, you know, on a whim, asked my bank, where is all my money being invested? And that bank couldn't really tell him where their money was being invested and they didn't like that answer at all. So then that got all these other men interested. So they all went back to their institutions as well. And they're like, Hey, when you get my money, where are you guys investing it? And no one knew as employees, they knew that their banks invested it, but they didn't know where or how.

So, the guys started researching and these were really smart intelligent men. And, they were like credit unions are member owned. I think we can do this. So they found this old metal cooler, stuck it in the back of Marian's car, because Marian was really good with money and started putting their money into it.

It had three locks on the front of it. So anytime you wanted to make a deposit or a withdrawal, they had an old paper ledger and you had to sign it in or sign it out. It worked. They didn't know that this was going to take off at all. And then after several months, more and more of the Alcoa guys were coming to him and being like, Hey, I heard you guys have started this little credit union and I want in.

Well, after several months, a guy came to him and said, Hey, I'm really looking to buy this house trailer of mine. Could you guys loan me the money for it? Well, they had never done a loan, but they were like, well, we have enough on deposit that we could. So they asked the members that had money on deposit, is this okay? Like they had to have a consensus of yes. So they lent him the money. Well, the payments were a little high and they didn't really work out for him. And he came back and he's like, is there any way that I could give this house trailer back to you? And they were like, Oh, we didn't think this through.

What are you going to do with the house trailer? What are we going to do with this house trailer? And I don't know the whole story of that, but I guess one of the heads of Alcoa were like, well, nobody uses that back half of the parking lot. Stick it up over there. And that could be your guys first branch.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): That's the story I heard. Yeah. I don't know if it's been embellished.

Sami Etienne (Host): Right.

Leann Cross: So, the old cooler got upgraded to a refrigerator and then eventually they got enough money that they put in a nice vault. But, after that, Marian saw how this thing was just blossoming right in front of his eyes. And he's like, they really need me more on this side than Alcoa needs me in the plant.

So Marian took an early retirement from Alcoa and he became the first president and essentially the first CEO of Heritage. So he was branch manager, president and CEO. It kept growing and growing and Alcoa is like, hey, we have some land on the outer line of our property. Why don't you guys purchase that?

And that can be your first brick and mortar, which if you go out by Alcoa today, you still see our old administrative building, which is that taller building. And then that short, long flat building is our first main office, which was still to this day, still called main office. There's no one there at this time, but, that was our first brick and mortar, our first imprint of Alcoa Employees Credit Union.

After that, Eugene was from the west side of Evansville originally, so he saw that there was some, I believe that there was a building out on Claremont, and that became Branch 2. And it kept on booming. People were coming from everywhere and stating, hey, can we be members too?

And they're like, we have to make this official before we built main office and in 1965 that's when they applied for the charter through the NCUA and they came right back to him and they're like yeah approved. And you are approved because you are work employees credit union. With a credit union, it was chartered, so you had to live, work, worship, or have a direct family member that did within the charter, which was Alcoa at that time.

So, we did have Evansville members, but they had direct relations to Alcoa. Well, a lot of our Vandenberg County members were coming to us and they're like, Hey, my family wants to continue to grow within the credit union as well. And we're like, Oh, we need to expand our charter. So we looked at expanding it and they're like, well, you're already expanded into Vandenberg.

So you can still keep Vandenberg members and you can actually grow within that charter and just have Vandenberg and Warrick County versus just people that were related to Alcoa. So that was our very first charter expansion was into Vandenberg County completely. With that being said, we opened up more and more branches in Vandenberg County.

And fast forward to 2003, we were like, do we really want to be labeled as Warrick Federal Credit Union and servicing this many people in Vandenberg County? It sounds just weird. So we actually, we did not go through a merger. We weren't bought out. There was a lot of rumors flying back in 2003 around this.

But we actually opened up a contest to our membership and said, rename the credit union. We don't want to be known as Warrick Federal Credit Union or rename the credit union and one of our members here from Newburgh, Indiana, he won the contest and we did like a little TV segment and everything with him. But he won in renaming our credit union to Heritage Federal Credit Union in 2003.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): That's so cool. I just love that story.

Sami Etienne (Host): Isn't that neat? Our history is just fascinating.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): I don't think there's a better inception story than ours.

Sami Etienne (Host): I don't know one. So, I'm so curious. Did Marion tell you this story? Is that how you learned all of this?

Leann Cross: I learned all this story from Marion. Of course, there was always like a small hiccup version every single time he told me. But that is the complete, like, overview of the story that he told me and like I said, he was just a very exceptional person.

Sami Etienne (Host): So whenever you met him when you were at Main, right, he was not still CEO and president, was he?

Leann Cross: No.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): There's no way.

Leann Cross: He had been retired for years. When I first started here in 2005, a gentleman by the name of Ron was our CEO at that time.

Sami Etienne: Okay. So was he just a member that would come and he just wanted conversation with you?

Leann Cross: He used to go and have lunches with our CEOs all the time during those times and mainly just because he put his heart and soul into this Credit Union. So he wanted to make sure that we were still growing and thriving. And, IRAs were his passion. So he was always trying to come in and school us on IRAs just to make sure that we were still completely up to date in those manuals.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): I love that. And I feel like I see some of that heart and soul culture, like still in a lot of the employees today. So I want to go back to something you said at the very beginning when you said like you were started as a teller. You said you actually wanted to help our members. And I see that theme a lot through our employees. So I think it's, really cool that we've been around for 60 years and we've been able to keep that legacy of Marian.

Sami Etienne (Host): I do too. Even though we've done some transformations, right? We've, went a digital route a little bit, like to just keep up with like, to modernize and keep up with, competition. But our core is still to help those members. And just hearing you talk about that. And I also think it's so cool how Heritage has also like invested so much in you, because your growth throughout the your history here. You started as a teller, and now look at you. You know the ins and outs of like every department, I swear.

Leann Cross: Yeah, I have worked with a lot of our different departments. When I got out of the branches in 2017 and I had an opportunity of being a business analyst with our IT department. And, with being a business analyst, I was a liaison between the department and IT.

So I got to work with our departments even more and really get into the back part of their jobs and seeing how their functions work with our core system, which I was really, really excited about. And then in 2019, I was presented with potentially going for the corporate trainer position here at Heritage because of my knowledge of our core operating system, not only from my branch experience, but with my IT experience as well.

So in 2019, I made the career change, went into corporate training, and then, corporate training was overseen by our HR department. And of course, I was able to grow within the HR department from there. So, Heritage has always been my home. If you would have asked me 20 years ago, what I would have been doing for the rest of my life, I would have never told you that it was being an HR. HRS administrator. Yes, of course. Um, so, I would have never told you that, but I remember when our mission statement used to be over a paragraph long. It was several sentences.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): Oh my gosh, do you remember it? Can you recite it?

Leann Cross: I do not remember it. It got the point across, but it was a very lengthy point across. And when you look at when we rebranded, I was hesitant at first, I'm like, what is this going to mean for Heritage? Because we had been through so many changes. So I was like, what is this all going to mean to Heritage? And I have been very member centered my whole entire life here. So I was like, how is this going to affect us?

And then I thought about the express teller machines. And I'm like, how is that going to affect member service? And then I thought about myself in real life situations. When I go to the grocery store, a lot of times I go through the self checkout because I want my eggs and my bread bagged separately and I know exactly how I want things bagged.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yes.

Leann Cross: And I hate to say it, sometimes I'm a whole lot quicker then the cashier. But the cashier is always there if I have questions, if I need something. And that's how I actually compared our Express Teller machines, is it's going to be there for convenience, it's going to be there for faster service, and if you stumble, you can always talk to a teller and one of our real life tellers are going to pop up on the screen and they're going to be there to assist you even though they're not standing in that building.

There's always people standing in that building, but you can get the service from the individual immediately as you still need it. So that's where I wasn't hesitant on the change and then when I read the new mission statement, I'm like, that's it. We are improving lives while simplifying banking.

And that's exactly what needs to happen because that's what has happened for me the whole time I've been with Heritage is banking's gotten better. Banking's gotten a whole lot better. We've been able to do a whole lot more things that we've never been able to do in the past. And during that, it's nothing but improved my life. 

Sami Etienne (Host): I think you're exactly right. I love your analogy with the grocery store, because I'm the exact same way. I want to go through the self checkout, I want to do it myself. But speaking of, like, all that change and the mission statement and the rebrand, so when I started, that was like the first thing we did was undergo a rebrand.

And I remember there were certain employees that you had to really get on board with the rebrand. So like Leann being here for 20 years, she had her heels down deep, right? Like you were stuck in the Heritage. This is the way it is, but you totally came around. And so did a lot of other employees.

Like. We had to do that. That was something that we had to do. We had to invest in technology, not only for like convenience, but security and safety. So a lot of our upgrades and stuff is for that, is to make sure everything is secure, your accounts are secure. You don't just have a four digit passcode that any Bob or Sally can have and you know, get your banking information.

But our mission statement, that was one thing that I remember talking about and like brainstorming about we want a mission statement that every employee can remember. That was so important to us because you hear about, you know, mission statements all the time. That's like the core of your purpose.

And ours was so long. I couldn't even tell you one thing that was in it when I started. It was a paragraph. You're right. It was a paragraph. And we just did four words now.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): I don't think we've said it yet.

Sami Etienne (Host): Leann kind of did.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): Okay, did we say it yet?

Sami Etienne (Host): Should we say it together?

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): Yeah,

Leann Cross: Go ahead. Improve lives and simplify banking.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yeah. Semi colon in the middle. We got fancy with it. I love it. It's so simple. I've been to meetings before with, like, non profit organizations, and they're talking about, like, you know, do we need to update our mission statement and all this stuff? And I'm like, let me give you one piece of advice. I said, when we went through this, we made sure all of our employees could recite our mission statement. And they're like, that is such a good idea.

So I hope more people pick up on that, because I do think that's important. But, back to the history of Heritage, because that's what this episode's about.

Over the past 20 years, there's been some, let's say, changes in history with the financial world. So not just Heritage, but like, introductions to new things. So do you remember when you were working here and the debit card came out?

Leann Cross: I do. So when I was a teller, the only card that we had available was actually, the old school ATM card. It was a, uh, Silver, almost marbly black, it had little black marble lines going through it, and it said ATM card. There was not a Visa or MasterCard logo anywhere on it, it was just a regular credit card that well it had a swipe line on the back. And you could only use it at our ATMs.

Sami Etienne (Host): So, only Heritage ATMs.

Leann Cross: You could use it at other ATMs, but you got a fee if they were not in the Alliance One network.

Sami Etienne (Host): Okay, so how is this different from a debit card then? Because to me it sounds like a debit card.

Leann Cross: You could only make deposits and withdrawals through the actual ATM machine.

Sami Etienne (Host): You couldn't pay with a debit card.

Leann Cross: Yes. So you could not go to like Walmart and pay for your groceries or even swipe your card at the gas pump. You had to either do that with a credit card or you had to go into the register and pay before you pumped.

Yes. So, Our ATM's got a whole lot more usage than as far as cash, because people would then go to the ATM, get money out, so they could go to the gas station and pay for their gas, but nobody wanted that. If you think about the convenience of the tap cards and everything now, it's, mind blowing that we had ATM cards in the past.

Sami Etienne (Host): I know.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): I love the tap card. Like, I love it so much. Absolutely. And when, different times, different, fronds, games come, I just, like, bypass PIN, and I do the tap card. Like, it's just so easy, and it's quick.

Sami Etienne (Host): I know. I've seen way too many videos at like gas pumps where they have those like secret slider things, you know, where I love the tap. Yeah. Yes, those like scare me so much. So if anything ever looks suspicious, I'm always like looking around, but I do. I love the tap. I use it all the time.

Leann Cross: I tap versus put my card in the innie, especially at gas pumps if we go to a major city and I have to insert my card, you see me put my hand all the way around the part that you insert your card because skimming devices are still a big threat.

As far as stealing your information, so tap actually, some people think that it's just like fancy, but it's not. It's actually a fraud protector as well because you're not inserting your card into a device that's going to read all the information off of your card.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yes, exactly. And guys, I know we keep saying tap card, which don't know what the public calls them. I call them tap cards. They're technically contactless cards. So it's basically, you know, you take your card, it's got the little chip in it, and you just tap it on the card reader. We call them tap cards.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): The only place I go these days that doesn't have one in my area in Evansville Newburg is Walmart. So if Walmart ever hears this podcast episode and let us start using tap cards there.

Sami Etienne (Host): Home Depot doesn't have it either on the west side. Yes, it's such an inconvenience because I have like left my card like at home before and like, oh, just use my Apple Pay. No, can't do it. They don't have it. So Walmart, Home Depot. On the west side, I don't know about the other ones.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): Get with the times, get with the times, guys.

Sami Etienne (Host): Goodness. Back to the ATM cards, did other institutions have ATM cards too? We weren't like leading the market on that, were we?

Leann Cross: No, a lot of the other institutions had ATM cards as well, but the actual debit card was like a thing of the future, like, you were leading the pack once you got the actual debit card. And when Heritage introduced the debit card, it was swarms of people that came in and they were like, Oh, I need this because it, links to your checking account and you can just automatically pay for that. When it's cold outside, you can just pay at the pump and then get back in your car and wait. So there was a lot of demand for that once we first launched the debit card. 

Sami Etienne (Host): So businesses already had card readers.

Leann Cross: Yes.

Sami Etienne (Host): It wasn't like the debit card was created and then businesses had to catch up.

Leann Cross: No. They were able to utilize the same card readers, whether it was a debit card or a credit card. So it wasn't a huge change for the businesses except for the interchange. With more and more usage, businesses had to pay a whole lot more as those card usages went up. But they essentially didn't care and adopted all of those fees because out of convenience for their customers, they went ahead and said yes, I will take card because more and more people are going to card versus cash.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yes. No I agree I can't imagine businesses at that time when debit card was introduced and if I pulled up to a gas station and they said we only take cash, um, um. I'm gonna somewhere else that takes a debit card.

Leann Cross: I am horrible about that. I have pulled recently into a gas station, and it said like the card reader was down, and it,

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): Oh I'll leave. I'll get gas the next day.

Leann Cross: At the pump, it said just go inside and I'm bad. I drove off and I went to another gas station because it was freezing cold outside and I just wanted to sit in my car while it pumped.

Sami Etienne (Host): Oh my gosh, I know. If I have to go into a gas station, it must be the end of the world.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): I am just like reading all these like bank facts and like credit union facts and I am not over the fact that just less than 51 years ago was the Equal Opportunity Act. Just sticking out to my mind that it was, illegal for women who were not married to open up accounts or apply for credit.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yes, Shelby did. She pulled some facts for us, throughout these 60 years that Heritage was here. So, read that one again.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): Okay, so, according to the Smithsonian American Women's History Museum, it was not until October of 1974, the passing of the Equal Opportunity Act, which became illegal for banks, Credit unions as well, all financial institutions to discriminate based on sex or marital status.

So that meaning that it was illegal for women to open their own accounts or apply for credit cards with credit without being legally married because they needed their husband to vouch. Which like 51 years, like my mom was actually the same age as Heritage. So she's 60 this year. So I'm like, she was alive during this time.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yeah. I mean, grandparents, yeah, they definitely went through that.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): I just, that's wild.

Sami Etienne (Host): Grandma couldn't have a card on her unless she was married.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): Wow. And so, talking about the way Heritage has changed throughout the years just shows that, it was hard and probably scary for people whenever we did the rebrand in 2022 and even before that when debit cards came out, I'm sure people were skeptical, but you have to continue to grow and evolve or we would maybe not have had this great legacy.

Leann Cross: Speaking of debit cards, one of the most life changing things here at Heritage involving the debit card is when we went to Instant Issue. When we went to Instant Issue, it was, like I said, life changing.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): And how long ago was that?

Leann Cross: I was at our Boomville office at the time, so I want to say that this was probably around 2000 11 or 12 When we got the data card machines for instant issue. But I remember being on the teller line and we were so excited because this machine was just installed at our branch. We couldn't wait to like start issuing cards. And, we had a couple members walk in first thing that morning, and they were like, I had fraud on my account, I don't know what I'm gonna do.

They were actually getting ready to go out of town on vacation, he had lost his card before, and he's like, can we use her card, and we'll wait seven to ten days on our card, and then he's like, wait a minute. That's not going to work because way, way back when, before we had Instant Issue, if you had a joint owner on your card, you guys had the same exact card number

Sami Etienne (Host): Oh, all the numbers were the same.

Leann Cross: Yes, for the account. So, when we went to Instant Issue, we said, no, primary member gets this set of card number. And then the joint member, it goes to the same account, but it's going to be a different set of card numbers for the convenience that if one owner loses their cards or misplaces it, then that other joint owner it doesn't affect their card.

Sami Etienne (Host): Do all financial institutions do it that way now?

Leann Cross: That I'm not for sure. I bet they do because I would say that that's more of a convenience thing, but I can't speak on that behalf. But we were able to tell him because he's like, now my card's not going to work, her card's not going to work because it's the same number.

We're like, no, we just got this fancy new machine in and not only are we going to shut down your card that had fraud on it, but we're going to give you two new cards with both different numbers on them. So you'll have a card and your wife will have a card and he's like, and can I put a rush on that? And I'm like, we're going to put so much of a rush on it that you're going to get it and you're going to be able to walk out with a workable card today.

It was like mopping his brains up afterwards because it was like mind blown that we were able to offer that. And you were able to pick out, we had like 10 different designs that you could choose from that were different pictures, and you're like, do you want the winter scene? Do you want the fall scene? What scene do you want? And it was like. I not only get a new card, but I get to pick out what it looks like. And we're like, yes.

Sami Etienne (Host): Can we still have that? We do still have pretty cool

And

Leann Cross: that was before chip cards too.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yes. I remember the old images. It was a little cringy, but we've updated them since then. We were pretty proud of them. We think they're pretty cool now. The data card machine. Okay. So instant issue. So just so everybody knows that is you walk into a branch, and you can get your debit or credit card printed right there. It's literally a card printer. Like, we have a bunch of blank cards, and we print and, like, sync it to your account somehow, and you literally walk out the door with it.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): So before we had instant issue, how long would it take?

Leann Cross: Seven to ten days, snail mail. Yeah, so sometimes it might be two, two and a half weeks and if you've changed your address then it would take longer because then it would be returned back to the credit union to our e-services department at that time. That's what it was called and then they would have to then inter office it to your desired branch for you to come pick it up or remail it back out to you with the correct address So it was a big hassle in getting your card and I'm so thankful for the instant issue and it went from regular instant issue to instant issue with the chip cards and now we're instant issue with not only chip cards but with tap cards so it just keeps on getting better.

New images, everything, so I'm excited to see you where it just continues to grow.

Sami Etienne (Host): So what color is your card, Leann?

Leann Cross: I have a couple different accounts with Heritage. So, I have the tealish blue green card. Mm hmm.

Sami Etienne (Host): The like, mermaid y one.

Leann Cross: No, it's like um

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): The pastel one?

Leann Cross: Yes.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): That's why.

Sami Etienne (Host): Okay, yes, yes, yes.

Leann Cross: I have that one, and then I have the pastel purple card. Oh, that's Yeah. So those were my two favorites. But my husband has the military card, the veteran's card, and then my daughter, she works at one of the local hospitals, so she has the new card. She got

Sami Etienne (Host): the public safety card?

Leann Cross: She did get the public safety card. She was super excited when she applied for her very first credit card. She has the veterans for her debit card, but when she applied for her very first credit card on her own as being a little adult, she got the public safety card. And she's super excited about it because she just, not only does she work at the hospital, but she just started her EMT classes. So she's going to be an EMT soon.

Sami Etienne (Host): I love that. Me too. I love that. So I have the pink card and the purple card. What do you have, Taylor?

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): I have the purple pastel and the pink card.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yeah. Oh, me. We have the same cards. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, we do. But our special cards that we have, and we're brainstorming to add more. But right now we've got the veteran card, which that was highly requested by our veteran members, because we used to have, Leann we used to have an American flag card.

Leann Cross: Was that the veteran card? No, we used to have a blue, that was our default card, which was a blue, like, eagle with a flag going through it, and then we had a straight American flag card, which was a very big hit.

Everybody loved that card, but we also had a veteran card as well that had an American flag, and then it had the silhouettes of the veterans on it. Very similar to our new one. It's just the silhouettes were a little bit smaller.

So it was very similar, but those were in high demand, not only for our veterans, but of our family of veterans, that wanted that as well.

Sami Etienne (Host): That makes sense. So we did, we brought that one back with a little update. And then our public safety one, and that's for, to tie with our public safety professional program. So is your daughter going to enroll in that then when she, yay. I love that. Oh, lots of perks. Just to bank.

Leann Cross: She was also part of our student rewards program as well. She took part of that and she was actually one of our scholarship recipients too. That she was very thankful for when she graduated high school. We offer scholarships available to our members and some to our employees too.

So she entered the employee one for a family member of an employee. Yeah. And she won our scholarship and she was able to put those funds towards her nursing degree.  

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): She's just like a Heritage person. I mean, she grew up here. You grew up here. So she grew up here.

Leann Cross: She was 12 weeks old when I started here. So she has literally grown up with Heritage. And when we did the rebrand and I was explaining the grocery store similarities, I explained it to her that way because she was the same way. She grew up with Heritage and she's like, Mom, Members just come in sometimes just to chit chat and to tell you their life experiences and stories, and I'm like, we're still gonna be there for that, I said, and actually, with the ATMs, well, the Express Teller machines, the people that just want to get quick in and out, They can do that with these express teller machines, I said, and the people that still want to come in and actually, like, be with our employees, they can still share those stories, but they're going to have more time with those employees, because they're not going to just want to get that line down, because there's not going to be a line due to the express teller machines being quick and efficient with those transactions.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yeah, our heritage is still there. Yes, most of it. Definitely. It definitely is. So, Leann, over the past 20 years that you've been here does anything stand out that we haven't already talked about, about how Heritage has changed and evolved and enhanced?

Leann Cross: I would say going from a community chartered credit union to a rural chartered credit union in 2015, we opened and built our headquarters branch that we're sitting in, and we adopted two additional counties during that time, which was Posey and Henderson County.

And when we adopted that, we're like, what else can we do to service our members? Because that's why we're here is for our members. And we started looking into smaller institutions and seeing if we could help them. And that's when we started the merger with Elberfeld State Bank. And during the merger of Elberfeld State Bank, I believe that was in 2021 if I'm not mistaken; we got three additional locations, but we also got Gibson County at that time.

Sami Etienne (Host): I didn't realize that that merger got us an additional county.

Leann Cross: Yes. So that merger got us, Gibson County and we were already in the works with getting Davis County in Kentucky. So it was like, okay, we're getting two more counties. What else can we do? And that's when we really sat down and we had a committee that was devoted to what else can we do for our members? And we saw that with adopting Gibson County, they were like, wait a minute. That's not really considered community.

It's really considered in the rural area. So we're like, okay, while we apply for this expansion of our charter, what can we apply for? And that's when we applied for all of our existing outerlying counties, which essentially added 22 additional counties to our charter and made us from a community chartered credit union to a rural chartered credit union.

Sami Etienne (Host): So that's huge. So that puts us at 27.

Leann Cross: Yes, 27 counties across this whole region and, we're already doing some exciting things in some of our outerlying counties, and we're just waiting for, all of that to develop. So that's the most like life changing is just to see it go from when I started, which was two counties to now 27 counties. It's amazing.

Sami Etienne (Host): That actually is so crazy. Like, I know you've been here for 20 years and you know, you've been through a lot, but to hear it said like that from 2 to 27. That's crazy.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): And you've been a big part of that too.

Sami Etienne (Host): So that means that we've got 27 counties that, and Leann say it, they have to

Leann Cross: live, work, worship, or have a direct family member that does within our chartered counties.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yeah. So for our listeners that don't know, a rural charter means counties, right?

Leann Cross: Is all of our counties. So more of the community chartered is it's just a group of counties together. It's like a smaller, smaller group. When you go rural then, there's a whole lot more counties that are involved. I can't remember the threshold of that cutoff on the amount of counties, but I know when we went into Gibson, we had to apply for the rural charter, and I will say, and I listen to Tony, our CEO, say this to our new hires all the time, when we applied for that application, we knew going into it that it was probably going to be six to nine months before the NCUA would get us a yes or no back because that's just how it is, applying for a big expansion like that is, that's a lot of change and a lot of decision making going into that. They were back to us within 45 days with a yes.

Sami Etienne (Host): Didn't I hear you tell the story or somebody that it was a record breaking?

Leann Cross: Tony says it, I originally heard it from Tony, but he did say that that was record breaking, that they had never seen the NCUA come back with a yes that fast. So, I take that as an honor as well that we were obviously doing a lot of things right, and we continue to do all of those things right, that it wasn't even a second guess for the NCUA. They were like, yeah, they're going to do this, and they're going to make it right. So we're going to take our chances with them.

Sami Etienne (Host): Like they believed in us. That's great.

I love that. And I think we've got more to come. I think we just continue to grow.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): Wonder how many counties, let's take a guess, how many counties in the next 20 years?

Sami Etienne (Host): I bet we get a new charter.

Leann Cross: I would say definitely a new charter, and I would say double it, like 50 counties.

Sami Etienne (Host): Might as well.

Leann Cross: Yeah, might as well.

Sami Etienne (Host): Go big or go home.

Leann Cross: Shoot for the stars.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yeah. Well, Leann, thank you so much. You are such an outstanding employee, employee of the year.

Leann Cross: Thank you.

Sami Etienne (Host): You have done some great things here. I love coming down to your office and talking to you. I feel like I know you're busy. I know you're so busy. You do so many things, but you always will take five minutes to answer any question that I have or talk to me like you're not busy at all.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): For sure. You've never made me feel like, yeah, oh my gosh, I'm too busy. Like I can't answer this silly question.

Leann Cross: Absolutely, just like our frontline, we're here for our members. I feel like I'm the same way, and our HR team is the same way, is we're here for our employees because we wouldn't be here if our employees weren't.

Sami Etienne (Host): Well, I love that. And we love you.

Leann Cross: Thank you.

Taylor Humphrey (co-host): Congratulations.

Leann Cross: Thank you.

Sami Etienne (Host): Yes. And thank you for sharing and being on our podcast and being our first official guest.

And thank you, Taylor, for stepping in. I think we're going to have you, I think we're going to have you back. Okay. I think you did good. Thank you. All right, guys, that's a wrap.   

disclaimer 2: This podcast is for general informational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Heritage Federal Credit Union.